Matt read through the parkour book which was a bit shorter than the last. It took him around 40 minutes to finish it completely.
After he finished it he headed back out into the grass and realized there was a bit of an issue. He couldn't practice parkour in an empty field. It was a skill of maneuverability through a highly dense environment like a city or a jungle.
'I'll just make some props then.'
He imagined random poles, fences, and other obstacles appearing in front of him. Since he was in his mental space, they started to materialize in front of him. Strangely though, everything was made of wood.
'I guess I can't make anything too complex like concrete or metal.'
He looked at the mess of constructs in front of him and smiled. This would be perfect for his training. He recalled everything he had read in the book and started.
Matt jumped over a fence and then grabbed a pole to swing off of and gather momentum. Then he slid under a wooden barricade and finally landed on a wooden platform. He looked across the gap toward the next platform and focused, before running and catching the ledge of the other wooden platform.
'I think I'm using the book's advice decent enough.'
He also attempted a technique to disperse momentum on a landing. Once he landed on another platform, he tucked into a roll. When the roll finished, he used the momentum to jump up a bit and land on his feet.
'They mentioned in the book that you don't want to end up on the ground after a roll. It'll just waste time and momentum because you have to stand up after. So it's much better to roll in a way where you end it standing up.'
He noticed how they mentioned it was hard to get the hang of, but he got it down pretty quickly. It was probably due to his high agility which helped his coordination.
After a few more minutes of parkour, another notification appeared.
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[New Skill]
Freerunning [LV.1]
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"Freerunning? Oh, yeah I guess that's another word for it."
He attempted a few of the moves again and noticed that he performed them much more efficiently now. It felt very natural.
'Oh, I almost forgot! I want to read the details of that quest I got earlier.'
He opened the quest with his mind to view it.
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[In-Progress]
Survive
[Reward: +1 Unassigned Skill Point, +5 Unassigned Stat Points, +100xp]
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'Most of it looks normal, but I noticed that there are two types of points. I thought they both said stat at first, but the other is a skill point?'
He wondered what the difference was, but they did seem similar.
'Oh well, I'll find out soon. The only way I can fail this quest is if I die. And I'm not planning on that.'
Matt thought about what he should do next and decided it would be best to level up some of his skills. Any help would be best if he was going to run or fight. So he started grinding. One skill after the next.
First, he decided to focus on his self-defense skill. He repeated what he had remembered from the video and his new experience level and after a few hours, it leveled up to level 2. When a skill was at level 2, it seemed to give him equivalent experience as someone who had trained in it for around 6 months. He now felt very familiar with self-defense.
'Since this self-defense was intended for normal people, I feel like it won't be too helpful. Sure if he pulled a knife on me, it would help. But he's probably going to be throwing fireballs or something.'
With that thought, he decided he would level his most recent skills. Running and Freerunning. After a few more hours, he heard the level up for running, so he switched to parkour again, i.e. freerunning.
At this point, he had been just training for the past few hours. He guessed it had probably been over 15 hours since he had entered his mind palace. Normally he would've gotten bored and stopped by now, but since he was in a bad situation, he didn't mind staying here that long.
'I think with all of this, I'll at least be able to outrun them. I think it would be way too risky to take them head-on.'
After a couple more hours, he finished training his freerunning skill and felt confident that he could navigate faster through a city now. Next, he decided to get his normal running skill to level 3, but something strange happened when he started running.
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[Error]
Running [LV. 2] cannot be leveled further without further teaching.
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'Huh?'
He saw the message but didn't really understand it at first. But then it clicked and he realized that he should've known that a skill limit like this existed.
'So, I need to read more about running?'
When he thought about it, he realized that usually, someone at his level of skill in running would probably find a coach or mentor. So he assumed this message meant that he needed to digest higher-level running techniques to advance it further.
'Is this the case for all of my skills at level 2?'
He tried boxing again and got the same message but for his boxing skill instead.
'I see... Well, that makes sense.'
He decided it would be good then to level his level 1 skills to level 2 instead. But just as he was about to start. A loud alarm sound blared through his mental space.
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[Alert]
Mind Palace [LV. 1] is nearing the continuous usage limit for its level.
[Time Left]: 4:00:00
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-
-
-
-
-
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||Stats||
Name: Matt Peterson
Age: 18
LVL: 3 [XP 108/144]
HP | 25/30
MP | 0/0
Status Effects: +10% Speed, +10% Defense
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||Attributes||
[Str] - 24
[Con] - 14
[Agi] - 23
[Dex] - 13
[Int] - 18
[Luk] - 12
[Cha] - 9
[Stat Points]: 0
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||Skills||
Inspect [Lv.2], Map [Lv.2], Help [Lv.1], Storage [Lv.1], Mind Palace [Lv.1] (Time Left: 4:00:00), Self Defense [+1 LV.2], Boxing [LV.2], Karate [LV.2], Kung Fu (Unspecialized) [LV.1], Wrestling [LV.1], Judo [LV.1], Kickboxing [LV.1], Interpersonal Communication [LV.1], Basic Survival [LV.1], Running [+1 LV.2], [NEW] Freerunning [+1 LV.2]
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||Quests||
-General-
Reach LVL 5 [3/5] [Reward: +10 Unassigned Stat Points, +1 Artifact]
Compete in an event and win [Reward: +1 All Stats, +75xp]
Survive [Reward: +1 Unassigned Skill Point, +5 Unassigned Stat Points, +100xp]
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-Daily-
*Daily quests not available in beta*
||Equipped||
Feet: Sports Shoes of Bursting Speed (Ability: Speed Burst)
||Storage||
-Items [3/25]-
Used Bullet [1], Gun [1], Knife [1]
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