It had taken Akira a little over a week to fully recover from wounds that, without using any potions, would have bedridden others for months.

His fast recovery astounded Asher who had checked up on him every day.

Akira sat in his bed as Asher was inspecting his wounds one last time.

“Well, your wounds seem to be fully healed. You're quite the enigma, with that amazing healing ability you have. You are now fit enough to move around without any major problems. If you would like to exercise, the courtyard has a corner where you can train. If you go there you won't be getting in anyone's way,” said Asher as he washed his hands.

After giving Akira a clean bill of health, Asher left the room to carry out his other duties.

Ding!

Quest complete!

You have learned a new skill:

Rest (Beginner Lvl 1 | 0.00% ):

When you sit down and take a short rest, your Stamina and MP will regenerate at a faster pace.

After a long rest (sleep) your HP will be restored to its max.

Unable to add bonus points to this skill.

“Hmm, so this is the reward it was talking about. I have no clue if it will actually work, I guess I can test it out later,” muttered Akira.

Akira moved his legs so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed. With a bit of effort, he slowly put on a new pair of pants and a shirt, before standing up and waiting for the lightheaded dizziness to lessen.

His steps were wobbly as he slowly walked towards the door, and exited his room. Using the wall as support, he continued walking down the hallway, exiting the building and stepping out into the courtyard.

Whenever he passed monks who were busily walking to and fro between buildings, he greeted them. They acknowledged him with a smile and a slight bow and continued on their way.

'Maybe a bit of exercise will help loosen up my stiff body,' thought Akira as he reached the training corner that Asher had mentioned.

He spent a large amount of time stretching all of his muscles and doing other exercises. After the workout, he felt much better. It had been torture for him, having to stay in bed for over a week.

'It will probably take some time to get back my full mobility.' Akira thought to himself as he sat down to rest.

It was only a short while later that he felt he had fully recovered his stamina and started exercising again.

He kept repeating this routine for the rest of the afternoon and continued doing it for another two days before he felt he had fully adapted and regained control of his body's movements.

Before going to sleep, he looked at the blinking “!” icon that he had been ignoring for the past few days and saw that his stats had risen slightly from the workout.

'Odd. I did feel somewhat stronger after the workout over the last three days, but I thought that was due to getting back my full mobility. It seems I can get stronger by training.'

***

Yuki and Grand had waited for Akira for over a week, Grand was agitated since he had not shown up.

“Do you think he was unable to escape?” asked Grand with a worried frown on his face.

“He should have been able to fight them off with the strength he showed in the last fight,” said Yuki.

“We've waited long enough here. We need to get moving. As much as I hate to leave, we can't stay here forever. We can check the area where we last saw him and see if there is any sign of whether or not he survived or died,” said Grand.

They had not left earlier due to fear of the enemy setting a trap.

They both carefully took their time traveling from the dwarf town in the mountain to a spot overlooking the area they had last seen him.

There were no bodies out in the open, the ground around the area looked to have been dug up many times, probably graves for the deceased.

Grand sniffed the air but he could not catch any traces of Akira. The only thing he could smell was a mixture of multiple people’s old dry blood. When the wind started to blow, it brought other smells of bodies that did not belong to Akira.

“There was definitely four or five people who died here. I am unable to tell who they were, only that Akira's body is not buried here. We have to get back to the clan chief and give our report. If he is alive and reaches the city, then the message we left behind with our little friend should reach him. That's all we can do for now,” said Grand before leaving the area with Yuki.

***

Akira stood in the room he had been staying at for the past few weeks, looking at the items in the wooden chest at the end of his bed. Inside where his tarted leather chest armor, his worn-out sword, and a well-used shield.

He had been lost in thought while staring at them for some time thinking of what to do with them.

Ding!

You have learned a new skill:

Inspection (Beginner Lvl 1 | 0.00% ):

You are able to see basic stats of items and living beings.

Unable to add bonus points to this skill.

Rusty sword(Trash):

Durability: 3/10 | Damage: 2-3

Tarted leather chest armor(Trash):

Durability: 4/11 | Defense: 5

Broken shield(Trash):

Durability: 2/15 | Defense: 7

“That's a bit harsh, calling my sword and shield trash. They’re just a bit old and have been well worn. Nothing a little sharpening and polish can't take care of,” said Akira with determination.

Akira pulled out the sword and sat down on his bed and began to work on sharpening his sword. When he was sure it was as good as he could make it with his skill, he used a bit of special oil to polish it. Placing it back into its scabbard, he set it down on the bed right next to him.

Reaching into the chest, he pulled out the shield and started to sand down the rough edges, splinters, and cuts it had received in his previous battles. When it was as smooth as he could get it, he added a coating of paint. The paint had been given to him by one of the monks who controlled such supplies in the monastery.

He set it aside to let the paint dry quickly, and reached back into the chest to pull out the tattered leather chest armor.

After examining the armor, he began stitching up some of the smaller cuts and patched the larger cuts with leather scraps he had been able to get for free. He cursed a few times as he poked his fingers with the needle.

All of this had taken him a few hours to fully repair his equipment. With a sigh of relief, he inspected his equipment again to see if anything had changed.

Slightly rusty sword(Trash):

Durability: 9/9 | Damage: 5-6

Patched leather chest armor(Trash):

Durability: 10/10 | Defense: 7

Weak shield(Trash):

Durability: 14/14 | Defense: 10

“It's still calling them trash. Well, at least the stats seem to have risen slightly. But the durability seems to have gone down. At least now I can get back to training,” said Akira as he equipped himself with the leather chest armor, sword, and shield.

Ding!

An Icon of a human body started to flash and opened. It showed the equipment he had just equipped and their stats.

Save as Equipment slot 1?

Yes | No

“Yes!” said Akira, who had no clue what he was agreeing to. The message and equipment window closed immediately after he answered.

“Time to get started, I can't waste any more time,” said Akira.

He walked back to the usual training spot he had been at for the last few days. He cleared his mind of all thoughts and began his training to familiarize himself with the sword, using his new body and its strength.

He trained by swinging the sword at full power towards a straw target and stopping before the sword could hit the target. He lost count of the number of swings he had done as time passed.

Ding!

Strength rises by 1 point. (+1 STR)

Agility rises by 1 point. (+1 AGI)

This was not the first time he had seen the message throughout the days he had been training. His vitality, strength, and agility had been painstakingly slow at rising.

New Skill learned:

Sword mastery (Beginner lvl 1| 0.00%):

You know how to hold a sword and swing it properly.

Good for you!

+1% to Attack while using swords.

+3% Attack speed.

Unable to add bonus points to this skill.

“This is amazing! Just by training, my body really has been getting stronger, and now my attacks will even grow stronger!” Akira shouted out loud. Luckily no one was around him or they might think he had gone mad from the wounds he had received.

He continued to train with his sword for the rest of the day, only taking breaks when his stamina was spent, and almost ready to fall down from exhaustion.

The breaks were short as his [Rest] skill helped him to fully charge up, allowing him to swing his sword again while bursting with energy.

He continued to do this for a week until the stats he was gaining from training and his skills leveling up slowed down. He had not seen a message announcing an improvement since two days before.

The monks that passed him every day over the past week praised him for his diligent hard-working attitude when they saw him doing the same training every day from dusk till dawn.

As he sat down for what felt like the millionth time to rest, a new window popped open.

Ding!

New Stat has been created:

Endurance:

Lowers stamina usage of everything including melee attacks and skills.

“Nice! This should help me out a lot,” said Akira with a big grin.

Akira now felt that he had fully gained control of his body. He was able to use his sword good enough, if not even better than before. Since the stat gains he had been receiving from training was next to nonexistent now, he began to think about what he should do next.

'Now that everything's back to normal, I guess the least I can do is see if the monks need any help doing things around the monastery. Ah! That's right, Asher said that Freid would probably have some things for me to do so that I can do to repay their kindness.'

Akira stood up after regaining his stamina and walked off to find Freid.

After a few minutes of searching, he finally found him.

Fried was sitting behind a desk in his office with the door wide open to let in fresh air.

Akira knocked on the open door, alerting Freid of his presence. Freid, who was deep in thought while writing on some papers on top of his desk, looked up to see Akira standing in the doorway.

“Ah, Akira, a pleasure to meet you this fine day. Come in, come in, you may sit in either chair,” said Freid with a bright smile while pointing to the chairs in front of his desk.

Akira entered the room and sat down on one of the nice leather chairs.

“What brings you to this dreary office? Is there anything I can help you with?” asked Freid after Akira was seated.

“Well, it's the opposite. I have stayed here for nearly a month now, eating and sleeping without paying you. I am very thankful you have helped support me during this time. Now that I feel as though I have regained my past strength, I would like to pay you back. Is there anything that you need to be done, that I can do as payment?” asked Akira.

“Oh my, such a noble attitude paired with your hard-working attitude you showed the last few weeks leads me to think of you as a fine young man. Let me think … ah yes, as a matter of fact, we do have several things that need fixing. We just haven't had the time to take care of it all and there are a few other problems we could use your help with. It would be a blessing if you could take care of them for us,” said Freid.

Akira was slightly distracted as he noticed the words [Freid Lvl: 30] floating above Freid's head. He hadn't noticed it before on any of the other monks he had interacted with before since he received the inspection skill, mainly due to his thoughts only revolving around training and regaining his strength. He guessed they would have something similar above their heads if he looked hard enough and paid close attention.

“Certainly, if it is within my power, I will try to complete it to the best of my ability,” said Akira after a few seconds of silence.

“Well, let's start you with something easy. You may have noticed the main wall around the monastery has some cracks, and in some areas, the bricks have fallen or been knocked off. There is also the problem with some of the roofs that have been leaking. I am unsure whether the cause is a rotting roof or the shingles need to be replaced. If you could fix the walls and the leaking roofs it would take a load off my mind,” said Freid.

Ding!

Quest: Fix the walls and Roofs.

Brother Freid has asked you to help the monastery by fixing the outer walls and the roofs, as payment for eating their food and sleeping in a room for over a month for free.

Difficulty: F

Reward:

Unknown

Will you accept?:

Yes | No

“I accept,” Akira agreed.

“Wonderful! The materials you will need to complete your tasks can be found in the supply warehouse. I have a few other minor tasks we could use your help with when you are finished,” said Freid.

Akira left the office and walked to the warehouse, where he informed the monk on duty of his mission and what he needed to begin his work.

Thirty minutes later, he had all the supplies ready and began to work on fixing the wall. He quickly and efficiently filled the holes and cracks. He then began replacing the old and broken bricks over the course of three days.

While he was doing this, the stats that had almost all but stopped had again started to appear as he labored over the wall carrying the heavy bricks.

Ding!

Strength rises by 1 point. (+1 STR)

'I wonder what is the reason behind it stopping and starting again.' thought Akira, as he moved on to his next task and began working on replacing the parts of a rotten roof, and replacing the old shingles with new ones.

'Maybe there is a diminishing return. Something like when you do something over and over again it gets harder and takes longer to get more out of it. So it might be that doing new things keeps it fresh.'

After a week of working on the projects, he went back to Freid's office to report that the task he had been given was finally complete.

“Excellent! Truly you have helped us out with this. I have a small reward for you. You seem to be an adventurer of some sort, but I was told by Brother Asher that you did not have a bag to carry your items in. So I found a spare one that was not being used in the warehouse the other day. I hope you can put it to good use,” said Freid as he handed Akira a small leather bag.

Ding!

Quest Complete: Fix the monastery walls and Roofs.

Reward:

Small leather bag.

“Thank you, I'll make sure it gets used a lot,” said Akira.

“Since it's late today, please come back to my office tomorrow morning. Be sure that you are well rested when you come. I have a few more minor things that need to be taken care of,” said Freid with a warm smile.

“Certainly. If you will excuse me, I will take my leave,” said Akira.

Freid nodded and went back to working on his never-ending paperwork piled up all around his office.

Akira returned to his room, and after washing and eating a light dinner, he got into his bed and fell asleep quickly, due to the hard work he had done during the day.