David sat still on the edge of his bed, his face and body frozen with awe. The city around him was filled with an eruption of sudden cheers as the citizens witnessed the sheer destruction and power Charles Eadwhin was capable of producing.

‘That was a level 54 beast, and Charles Eadwhin killed it in the blink of an eye…’ He had even heard the deep rumbles and echoing peels of thunder from the battle reaching his distant hotel room, which was surely several miles from the walls. The occupants of the room above him were stomping their feet, shouting and cheering in their excitement, but David paid it no mind.

He had thoughts only for the sheer level of power and competence displayed by the mighty warrior who led the country.

‘Can I really be like that man…?’

‘Can a whole city…no, a whole country, rely on me? Can I live up to that kind of expectation and responsibility?’

No.

The truth was, he was not that kind of man.

He knew that.

A deep shudder went through him, and he raised shaky hands covered in goosebumps in front of his face.

His hands were so small and weak compared to Charles Eadwhin's.

He felt his shoulders rise with his anxiety, his hands shook with repressed emotion.

‘No…’

‘I will change.’

He took a long, deep breath, Inhaling until his chest was full to bursting, then he held it. He waited a few moments before slowly, calmly, exhaling in one long huff of air. In front of him, his shaky hands closed into fists, gripped tight as he felt all his muscles contract.

He would be better.

He would be strong. Dependable.

He wasn’t going to die. He had already proved that.

He was going to reach and then surpass the lofty heights where powerhouses such as Charles Eadwhin resided.

He had the system, after all. The path was already paved for him.

He just had to put in the work.

David felt a surge of wild motivation rage through his body, and the excitement of it made him nearly leap up from his immobile position on the bed. David did just that, hopping up and pacing around the room as he felt his mind become clear once more, similar to the effects he felt when meditating.

It was a clear and inarguable fact. He had taken a step further out of the fog.

He knew that.

Yet, in his current state, the forward progress meant little to him. He paced around the room in a fury, his meticulous mind racing through all of his own plans and preparations. He had to be like that!

He craved that power and strength.

He wanted it like nothing he had ever wanted before.

Were his plans enough? Had he been working hard enough? Had he truly prepared to the best of his abilities?

He had thought himself to be working quite diligently, but in the face of such a clear and overwhelming level of strength, he had to reevaluate his own efforts.

Suddenly, they seemed quite lacking.

He was not doing enough.

If he kept going as he was, he would not reach the required level of strength to be of use during the trials to come.

The thought suffused him with an overwhelming desire to train, and he made the conscious decision right there and then to advance all of his plans and preparations. He was moving too slow, and that needed to change.

David stopped abruptly in his pacing, his fists relaxing from their clenched posture. The sudden decision to move faster brought its own complications, and he paused to consider how his plans would be affected.

He hurried over to the edge of his bed, where several stacks of paper were filled with notes. He threw most of these into his inventory before picking up a single sheet which detailed his plans for the next few days.

With a sudden fury of energy, David sat down and began to write.

—----

The sun was just beginning its descent into the horizon when David found himself out among the celebrating populace of Adventurers Corner. He paid the jubilant revelers no mind as they celebrated loudly, filling the square with the noisy hum of excitement.

The charged emotions of the people around him was like a wave that washed around him and left him whole, unaffected. He walked with purpose through the throng of people, His face set and carefully neutral. He understood why the people celebrated. They thought themselves safe and were understandably proud of the strength exhibited by the leader of the land of warriors.

It was all perfectly reasonable, he knew that.

Yet it was not for him.

He had no time for celebrations, the desire to increase his strength was all that mattered to him right now.

His marching footsteps soon found him in front of a slightly seedy storefront, its neon sign still damaged and reading ‘Mo’e ‘s Workshop.’ He didn’t hesitate to enter the store, pushing his way through the heavy glass door and calmly submitting to the quick scan that a camera attached to the ceiling above him performed. He waited for the scanners light to turn green before walking into the glassed-in section of the store, where he soon found himself interrupting a heated argument.

“You saw it too Rykov, you know as well as I that it will not be enough. We will have to-” The man who was speaking cut off abruptly as David entered the area, and several seedy men around him shifted nervously as they noticed they were not the only men in the room. Mo’el stood up from the huddle of men, his arms leaving the counter he was previously resting against while his face broke into a nervous smile.

David pretended to not notice the suspicious looking men, who wore dirtied clothing and carried weapons openly, pistols and knives strapped to their hips. He definitely recognized the one who had been called Rykov, as he had been marked by David before he even entered the game as a person of interest within the city's criminal elements.

David carefully and studiously kept his eyes on the racks of weapons lining the walls of the shop as he pretended not to see Mo’el approaching him with his nervous smile. “Welcome, welcome! Mr. Apollo, if I remember correctly, you are here to pick up a commission, yes?” Mo’el was characteristically 'washing' his hands in front of his chest as he spoke, his words carrying a hint of his desire to make David leave the shop, and quickly.

David pretended to startle, as if he had just noticed Mo’el and the other men in the room, and turned to Mo’el with a smile, hoping he had successfully acted the part of the oblivious customer. “Yes of course, Mr. Mo’el, is it ready for pickup?” He made sure to keep things cordial with the man, after all, it wouldn’t do for him to suspect that David knew more than he let on.

Mo’el clapped his hands together excitedly, rubbing them together as he turned towards his workshop door and spoke over his shoulder at David. “Of course it’s finished! It was a trickier project than I anticipated, and I made a few clever little modifications…” His voice faded away as he continued to speak with nervous excitement from within his workshop, his voice inaudible until he returned, carrying a small black carrying case. David noticed the dark looking men giving him numerous annoyed glares from the corner of his eye, which he studiously pretended not to notice.

“-Now I know you said it needed to be extremely durable, so I designed it to be both functional as a timepiece and as a weapon…” Mo’el opened the box in front of David, holding it up for his inspection. “Now if you look at this part, here-” Mo’el pointed at a new button raised above the surface of the silver chained pocket watch contained within the box. “-You’ll see that, in addition to vastly increasing its structural integrity, I have added a weaponizing function to the watch, allowing these hooks here along the chain to fold out and lock into position…” Mo’el explained and even demonstrated the new functions of the silver pocket watch, his pride in his work clashing with his desire to see David gone from the store while the criminals were trying to converse.

Finally, after signing a few papers signifying the completion of the sale, David left the store, his new pocket watch secretly stored within his inventory. He had come here only to advance his plans and to force himself not to procrastinate any longer on his retrieval of the project, but he had unexpectedly stumbled on something that would further his own goals.

Namely, the men in the room with Mo’el.

Though Mo’el had hurried him out of the shop, there was no denying that he had just interrupted a meeting between Mo’el and some rather notorious criminals within the city. This was something he could use.

His original plan had been to reveal his knowledge of Mo’el’s background, forcing the man to have no choice but to aid David for his own self preservation.

Now, however, he had a different method in mind.

All he would have to do is return to Mo’el when his preparations to leave the city were complete, mention to the man that he was looking to hire a thief, and then, when Mo’el stuttered and blustered about how he was just a simple store owner and had no relations with such people, David needed only to mention the men he had seen within the shop and then mention the hefty reward he would be paying from his spoils of war.

It was simple and would allow him to keep his remaining cards hidden. It was an enormous stroke of luck that he had entered the shop when he had, when the rest of the city was busy reveling in the success of their leader.

He returned to his hotel room before once again removing the pocket watch from his inventory and inspecting it.

Silver Pocket Watch - Modified - Tier I

This pocket watch has been modified to contain increased mass and rigidity within the time piece itself, making it more functional as a bludgeoning weapon. A button on the center of the timepiece activates the blades hidden within the chain connected to the watch, turning this flail-like weapon into a deadly whip that can eviscerate foes caught by the chain.

David was certain their was more info to be revealed by his Identify skill, but it was still only level one and wasn’t leveled enough to tell him any more about the watch. He shelved the thought for another time, as it was unimportant. The only thing that truly mattered was that the watch still accurately told the time, while working as a weapon. He spent some time adjusting the chain around his belt, looping it within his pocket so that it didn’t dangle around his legs and catch on things.

It took some work, but he soon had the watch positioned to look like a simple, if archaic, method of checking the time. There was nothing suspicious about its appearance, and few would guess its hidden purpose as a weapon. He wanted to keep it on his hip at all times so he could grow used to its weight and practice handling the watch quickly if necessary.

He practiced reaching into his pocket with one hand, activating the blades on the chain, and then rapidly deploying the weapon, his other hand holding onto the ‘safe’ non-bladed section at the end of the chain. With a little bit of repetition and some help from his Hand-to-Hand Combat skill, which wasn’t exactly suited to the use of weapons but was still useful as a benchmark, he soon reached competency with the weapon.

Without activating the blades, it was really just a heavy, blunt instrument on the end of a chain. Perfect for bludgeoning enemies, it could easily be used nonlethally. Once activated, however, the blades jutting out from either side of the chain in his hand would make the weapon incredibly deadly. All he had to do was swing it so that the heavy timepiece would wrap around a limb, before yanking on his end of the chain. The hooked blades would rip through anything in their path, easily slicing through any body part they touched.

He was satisfied. This weapon would meet the conditions required by his level 10 advancement challenge.

Once he was satisfied with his commission, he wasted no time in returning the watch to his pocket before sitting down once again on the edge of his bed, removing his notes from his inventory, and adding new notes to his plan.

Soon, he would be ready.