The Games We Play

Chapter 2

The Games We Play

Tutorial Level

I woke up at six and started working on my homework the moment I rolled out of bed. I'd thought about it last night and had decided for sure—school was going to cut into my time a lot. Not only did I need to spend seven hours a day there when I could be training instead, but there was also stuff like homework I had to do out of class. So, to avoid wasting more time than necessary, I should get this done with as quickly as possible. Hence, waking up early and spending an hour on this week's homework.

Diligent studying caused your INT to increase by 1!

I turned to stare flatly at the notification, wondering why I was even surprised.

I could increase my stats like that, too?

That changed things. If it wasn't just by leveling up—that is, if I could get more than five points per level—then my plans needed to be adjusted accordingly. I'd need to test exactly how it worked, experiment to see if and how it applied to my other stats and how I could improve each, though I imaged that working out would improve the physical ones. In which case...

From eight to three I was in school. Taking into account breakfast and the time it would take to reach class, I would have an hour of free time in the morning that I couldn't use effectively in any other way, so I could study and work out then. At school, I could study and get ahead and nobody should be able to complain. After school, I could stay out until supper, if I told mom I was going to the library—which I was, so it wasn't even really a lie. I could practice a number of my skills then and after supper I could go into the woods to practice the ones I couldn't use in town. Mom would want me back by dark, though, at which point I could study and work out some more in my room.

No matter how exhausted my body got, I would recover after thirty minutes of rest. My hp and mp returned more slowly, but even they would be fully restored simply by sleeping in my bed for six hours. As such, no matter how hard I pushed myself at night, it was fine. If I could gain additional stat points at a reasonable rate, it was more than worth it—if I could gain even just one INT per level then even assuming I couldn't think of any way to get additional Wisdom, I could focus on it and get it to level fifty by level nine and still have an INT of eighteen or higher. If I switched my focus to it afterwards, I could raise INT to fifty as well by the time I was level fifteen.

I resisted the urge to pump my fist in the air before realizing there was no one around to look at me strangely and doing it anyway.

Then I went downstairs to make breakfast before Mom woke up.

The Breakfast of Champions.

XxXXxX

School was boring, as a rule, and it wasn't made particularly less so by the fact that I spent the whole time studying. My Int didn't go up again while I was there, which didn't particularly surprise me since even a week of school and homework hadn't raised it until this morning. After it let out for the day, I headed towards the library like I'd told mom, Observing everyone and everything that caught my eye on the way there. Most of them were just normal people, but practice was practice, right?

The library, however, turned out to be a treasure trove. Not just because it turned out that, yes, Icould Observe every single book and not just because there were plenty of books there that I could use to study after I finished with my textbooks. Those were nice, but they paled in comparison to the true power of the library. I'm not remotely ashamed to admit that I made a beeline for the section about Hunters and such the moment I entered. I started from the top and went through it alphabetically, taking a book out, Observing it, and putting it back. Each use gave me what amounted to a summary of the book, which got more detailed as I leveled it up again. But as I was approaching the end of 'A'...