BXBX NOVEL Chapter 7 Upgrades!
[Raven\'s POV]
=====
[STATUS]
Name:Alec Osmond
Rank:D-
Mana Control:D+
Strength:D
Agility:D
Stamina:D
Intelligence:D
Luck:D-
Charm:D+
[SKILLS]
<Calm Mind Lvl.2>
-Makes you calmer.
-Boost your thinking capabilities while activated.
<Teleportation Lvl.2>
-Travel in any direction immediately.
-20 meters range.
[TRAITS]
<Reincarnator>
-Obtain memories from your pastlife.
<Mana System>
-Obtained from pastlife.
-Makes your body compatible with mana so you can use magic better.
<Heroic Past>
-Increase your strength against anything \'evil\'.
=====
[STATUS]
Name:Curtis Hawkins
Rank:E+
Mana Control:E+
Strength:E+
Agility:D-
Stamina:E+
Intelligence:D-
Luck:E+
Charm:D+
[SKILLS]
<Bleed Lvl.2>
-Wounds inflected to opponent will continuously bleed for 30 seconds.
-Passive skill.
<Swift Movements Lvl.1>
-Increase your speed by 80% for 1 minute.
-Cooldown 30 seconds.
[TRAITS]
<Genius Swordsman>
-Makes anything about swords easy for you to grasp.
<Proud Noble>
-Makes you let out an aura and presence of a noble.
-As long as you remain unwavering and proud, increase your strength by 10%.
=====
\'Alec and Curtis.\'
They\'re rank 1 and 2 respectively of all freshmen in the Lunar.
I\'m looking at Alec\'s and Curtis\'s stats that the system recorded earlier. It\'s the same as what I remember in my novel.
"They\'re strong."
I muttered while lying on the bed in my dorm. I\'m still nothing to them.
The classes of the first day finished smoothly after the bullying event.
"Their damn charm is way higher than mine."
I grumbled still looking at the status windows projected in the air.
Anyway, first day, we pretty much did nothing as today was just for us freshmen to be familiar with the academy. After explaining some things to us, Sir Kendy gave us our dorm number and dismissed us.
There\'s 3000 freshmen and there\'s a student ranking to determine our dorms.
Our rank was based on our grade from the qualification test we took before enrolling.
My rank is 2619, which is bad, so my dorm is pretty small.
All the main characters are within rank 10 so they have a hundred times better dorm than mine.
The academy do this for the students to work hard.
\'Well, now I kinda want a better room to be honest.\'
Anyway, I already checked the main characters\' stats.
Alec is <D-> rank.
Curtis and Eve are <E+> rank.
Adelle and Aoi are <E> rank.
It\'s all higher than mine but I\'m not the weakest in the class. Well I\'m supposed to be the weakest, but I ranked up twice.
As you can see, Alec is a reincarnator, he regained his memories of his pastlife along with the <Mana System> when he was 14 years old.
In his pastlife he was a 7th tier magician. The demons also invaded their world, and he died fighting one of the strongest demon.
Using a sword until he regained his memories of his pastlife, he chose to maintain it as he have talent for it too, so Alec became a magic swordsman.
He became top 1 to earn a scholarship here in Lunar.
He just need to be on top 10 to get a scholarship but decided to do his best to make his parents proud.
"Now what?"
I asked myself after recalling some of the novel\'s information.
\'My actions are all a mess.\'
I darted here and there without any clear goal.
"Should I involve myself to the story or just let the story proceed as intended?"
I\'ve been wondering about that since I came here last month. I have a lot of time to think about it, but coming out with an answer is difficult.
[The latter is impossible as you already alternated some happenings and the Transcend Beings will likely interfere with the story.]
The system said to me. I nodded as I agree with what it said.
"I plan to help in some scenarios, but what should I do till then?"
I asked the system.
[Why don\'t you train seriously? Your fighting style is a mess, your body is weak, in this case you\'ll be a dead weight to them rather than help.]
It answered.
"Right."
Its words hurts, but it\'s true.
So I took out something from my spatial storage.
=====
<Item Upgrade Scroll> x3
-Upgrade an item.
=====
These scrolls are one of the rewards I got from killing the King wolf. Their description is simple and vague but these scrolls are rare and their effect is enormous enough to make a simple knife as sharp as a sword, or even better.
"I wonder if I should just sell these?"
I contemplated while looking at the 3 scrolls.
I remember a single scroll being worth 5 million Zeals or more. And it\'s hard to find these because you can only get them naturally as a reward from dungeons.
[But you can buy it in the System shop.]
The system read my thoughts and said.
It\'s words made my eyes widened as my head quickly snapped at its direction.
"Really?"
I asked with twinkling eyes.
I was excited because I can earn a lot of money out of it.
[Yeah, it cost 1000 CP each.]
At the system\'s words, my joy turned into a frown real quick.
I gained a lot of attention as an author and since this morning, but when I checked my CP balance, I only have about 350 CP. The 300 of that is even from the 2500 CP I got as a reward.
I ignored the system and looked back at the scrolls, dejected.
"Anyway, where should I use this."
I have 3 scrolls. Using it to the gun I got from the academy will be stupid as I plan to get a more powerful weapons soon.
Using it in a bullet will be the most stupidest thing I can think of.
Removing the stupid choices, I\'m now down with 2 items.
[Ring of Gluttony] and [Cat\'s earring].
But I got 3 scrolls, so I decided.
"I\'m gonna upgrade both and save the last one for the weapon I\'ll have in the future."
Also, I can just buy another one from the System Shop. I just need to save up enough CP.
With that thought, I unrolled the 2 scrolls and tore them. The scrolls are connected to the thoughts of its user, so it knows what items I want to upgrade.
Lights covered the [Ring of Gluttony] and [Cat\'s earring].
It\'s blinding, but it doesn\'t harm my eyes.
After a while, the lights then disappeared.
[Upgrade was successful]
[Upgrade was successful]
Then the system announced the success of the upgrade. It made me frown.
Why?
"Can upgrading items fail?"
I asked. I didn\'t write that in the novel, it was supposed to be always a success.
[Yes, things like upgrading or ranking up using items can be unsuccessful sometimes.]
The system replied, making my fear come true.
"Why?"
I asked again.
[The Higher Being said it\'s to maintain a certain balance.]
I\'m still confused, but I didn\'t pry about it any longer, I wouldn\'t get a straight answer anyway.
\'So there\'s a chance I will lose millions of Zeals or a thousand CP for nothing.\'
That\'s gonna be frustrating.
As I was in that thought.
[Your Luck stat is pretty high so you always have a high success rate.]
The system said, and it made me feel better.
"That\'s good."
Luck stat is naturally for training, for example, if you do a training enough to increase your stamina by 1, but you have high luck, there\'s a high chance of gaining 2 stamina or more instead of just 1.
"So now the luck stat have a new function."
That Higher Being sure is changing many things.
"Anyway system, show me the new functions of the items I upgraded."
I\'m curious as the [Ring of Gluttony] didn\'t get upgraded in my novel, and the [Cat\'s earring] doesn\'t even exist in my novel.
[Just the new features?]
"Yeah."
It will be just the same anyway except the new features added.
[Okay]
Then 2 windows appeared.
=====
[Cat\'s earring]
-New unique skill <Partial Transformation>.
<Partial Transformation>
-Partially transform any part of your body into a cat\'s body part.
-Consumes mana continuously while activated.
=====
My eyes widened seeing the new effect of the [Cat\'s Earring], then after thinking for a bit, a smile appeared on my face.
Cats are good at detecting movement in low light, have an acute sense of hearing and smell and can see well in the dark.
This skill is more useful that it seems.
I tried using the skill. My fingernails grew 1 inch long and looked like a cat\'s claws.
I tried channelling mana in it.
"Woah..."
I let out a voice of admiration.
\'This can be useful in a close combat.\'
I thought.
I still don\'t know how to imbue mana to weapons but this can be an alternative.
Then I transformed my eyes into cat\'s eyes. I thought I\'ll be nearsighted as cats are nearsighted but my vision remained the same. It\'s even better, I can see well in the dark and motions seems to slowed down a bit.
Looking at a mirror, the white or sclera of my eyes turned gray and the centres turned vertical.
It\'s said that cat\'s eyes are suitable for hunting.
"This is fun."
After playing with the skill for a bit, I checked the new effect of the [Ring of Gluttony].
=====
[Ring of Gluttony]
<Familiar from the ring>
-Summon an animal familiar.
-The summoner will be the master of familiar even if the ring wearer changes.
-Can share senses with your familiar.
-Appearance of the familiar will be based on the wearer\'s favorite animal.
=====
"What?"
I read the description again.
"A familiar."
My heart then started beating faster. I always wanted a pet but don\'t know what to get.
I thought of taming beasts but I can\'t do that at the moment, not just because of money problem but many more else.
"It will be my favorite animal?"
That option caught my attention too. I don\'t even know what my favorite animal is anymore.
I\'m getting swept by a dog person\'s and cat person\'s words that even me got confused what I really want.
I\'ve been lonely this past month. My parents always messages me but I\'m still pretty awkward towards them and I still didn\'t meet them in person yet.
"And this system doesn\'t talk if not being asked. It even read my thoughts so talking with it is pointless, it doesn\'t even have a physical body."
I said.
[I don\'t want to talk to you too that much.]
It\'s rude too.
So, without waiting any longer I tried summoning a familiar.
\'<Familiar from the ring>.\'
And when I thought of that, my mouth unconsciously opened on it\'s own.
"<Come, present yourself to me, familiar from the ring>!"
My voice came out on its own. It\'s like I need to call something out from the ring.
It\'s embarrassing. I still feel myself cringing, luckily no one\'s with me.
[Ew, cringe.]
Except for the system.
\'Shut up!\'
Then after that, white smoke erupted from the ring.
"White?"
I got confused as the ring always produces black things.
Then the smoke started to materialize.
"Why is it so small?"
The smoke formed a ball-like shape as big as my fist.
And when it was done. I looked at what appeared from the ring.
It wasn\'t a cat or a dog.
-Kyu?
It\'s a pure white cotton-like bird that tweeted while tilting its head. It\'s tweeting sounds weird but I ignored it, I mean, I got transmigrated in my novel.
Anyway, I recognize what\'s the bird is, it\'s a Shima Enaga. It\'s a bird species I like and I can\'t forget because it\'s cute.
-Kyu! Kyu!
The bird then flew toward me and I watched it do it.
\'Cute.\'
I unconsciously thought.
***
Sitting on my bed while leaning on the wall. And the white cotton-like bird thing is standing on my right shoulder, like a parrot standing on the shoulder of the pirate captain in some common pirate fictions.
"Why is it white? And do I like cute things?"
I mumbled looking at the cotton on my shoulder.
I was convince myself that I like cool things than cute things.
At least I thought it\'s gonna be a wolf.
-Kyu?
The cotton tweeted looking at me.
Looking at it.
\'It\'s really cute though.\'
"Argh! Whatever!"
I didn\'t dislike the outcome. In fact, I like it, it says in the description earlier that I can share its senses.
\'In a sense, I can literally have a bird view.\'
Observing things from a high place is a huge advantage for me in many ways. I even can use it to scout.
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
I asked the cotton, but it just tilted its head as if asking what am I talking about.
[It\'s a girl.]
The system said.
"Are you sure?"
I asked.
[I appraised it. Here have a look.]
After that, informations about the cotton appeared in a status window form.
=====
[STATUS]
Name:<None>(Female)
Rank:F-
Intelligence:F
[SKILLS]
<Stealth Lvl.1>
[TRAITS]
<Growth Type>
-Ranking up is possible.
<From the Ring of Gluttony>
-Can use the skills of the ring like the wearer.
=====
The cotton have its own rank and intelligence. It\'s the lowest rank but with its trait <Growth Type>, ranking up is possible.
It can also use the [Ring of Gluttony]\'s skills, I don\'t know where should I use that but maybe from the future it can be useful.
\'It even have a stealth skill!\'
That skill is common as you can buy it for about 10,000 Zeals. But having it from the start is like having free 10,000 Zeals, right?
"Ah! The name."
I exclaimed as I noticed its name. She have no name.
"What should I name her?"
I don\'t like flashy and long names. I just want a simple one, but I still need to think about it.
With my traits, I found a perfect name that I\'m looking for.
"Shima Enaga is originated from Hokkaido, Japan. Its white fur reminds me of snow, it\'s also a girl."
I listed what I took in consideration and used my taste to came up with a name.
"I\'ll name you Yuki!"
It may sound very human for an animal but based from the system earlier. She can gain an intelligence on par with humans.
Naming her with an animal name feels wrong.
I also thought of just naming her \'Cotton\', but she might hate me in the future for it.
-Kyu! Kyu!
It also looks like she likes her new name. With me connecting with Yuki\'s senses I can feel her emotions as well.
The corner of my lips rose as I can feel her being confortable with me.
I looked at the time.
<10:03 P.M>
Having these events, and also training a lot earlier. I\'m starting to get tired.
"Haaa..."
I yawned. I placed Yuki beside me and laid down on the bed. Not long I fell asleep.
And with that, my first day in the academy, came to an end.
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*The Shima Enaga is a subspecies of the long-tailed bushtit. They are also known as the silver-throated tit or silver-throated dasher. They are a tiny bird (at 12-16 cm in length, including their tail at 7-9 cm.)