Ch 90

  "Cooking breakfast," mused Matt, as he had been chosen to begin the story. "Let's see. Upon waking up in the morning, the first thought that crosses my mind as I stretch is what I am going to eat to start the day. Removing the covers, I stand up and make my way to the pantry, only to find—"

  "It's almost empty," added Greg, who was next in line. "For the fourth day in a row, I've forgotten to buy groceries, and I only have a few random packs of ramen left. So, I head over to the fridge. Opening it up, I find some butter, a single egg, and leftover Chinese food—orange chicken and fried rice, to be specific."

  "Thankfully, I am used to such situations, as it's often only after these moments that I remember to go shopping," stated Zara with a smile. "So, I immediately grab all the ingredients, including a pack of ramen, while I put some water on to boil. With everything set in motion, I survey my spice rack and select turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and pepper. After mixing these spices together, I discard the flavor packet from the ramen, adding the noodles and half of the spice mixture to the pot of boiling water. Meanwhile, I toss my leftovers into a pan with a generous pat of butter, gently sautéing them until they're heated through, just as the ramen finishes cooking. After draining the water from the noodles, I add the remaining spices along with an egg, stirring everything together-"

  "You're not supposed to finish the story," Emily interjected.

  "Fine," Zara replied, gesturing for Emily to take her turn.

  "Watching the yolk sizzle and meld into the noodles, I can't help but smile as the rich aroma of my meal fills the kitchen. Yet, just as I'm about to plate it, my phone rings. It's work, and I have to answer it," Emily narrated with a hint of irritation.

  With a nod, Emily signaled for Eleanor to continue the story.

  "Apparently, one of our clients is dissatisfied with the quality of our product and insists on meeting with me immediately. So, with a weary sigh, I turn off the heat and set my nearly finished breakfast aside. I quickly open my laptop and take a few moments to make myself presentable. What follows is a grueling half-hour spent trying to resolve the issue without caving to any unreasonable demands. Unfortunately, by the end of the call, my breakfast has gone cold, sitting forgotten on the counter."

  "Part of me thinks I should just microwave everything," Apricity mused as her turn arrived. "But that seems like such a waste, so instead, I toss the noodles in with my leftover Chinese food and add a bit more butter before turning the heat back on."

  "The aroma from the mingling spices of the two dishes reminds me how hungry I am, and my meal has already been delayed," Rose stated. "So, when my phone rings again, I choose to ignore it while grabbing a plate to serve my meal. However, it seems that shopping wasn't the only thing I forgot about, as I glance over and spot a sink full of dirty dishes."

  "Sighing, I set the plate aside and make sure my food isn't burning," Yumiko added. "Deciding that I might as well eat straight from the pan because I'm too hungry to wait, I place a hot pad on the table and grab a glass of water to accompany it."

  "Bob says he happily devours every last bite before washing it down with the water," Matt concluded. "Is that really how this game is supposed to go?"

  "Yes," answered Eleanor. "I picked a simple and safe topic, but really, we could add any twists we wanted."

  "So, I could have said the moment I opened the pantry, three hot women—"

  "Greg, can you please shut up?" asked Zara, with exasperation evident in her tone. "Yes, you could do that, but ask yourself what that would turn into the moment you handed it off to any one of us."

  "I think we should just keep doing one of these each day, with each of us taking turns picking the topic," suggested Matt, speaking up before Greg could respond. "I'll pick the next one right before we set out, and hopefully, that will let us think about it more. We can switch up the order so everyone has a chance to start and finish a story."

  "I'm good with that," stated Emily, nodding in agreement. "I think that as we keep doing this, we will get better at it. Given what we have to work with, I can't think of any better ideas. Though, I want room to try new things if we come up with ideas that the group likes."

  "Agreed," voiced Rose. "If nothing else, it will get our minds off the dreary tunnels that we are trapped in right now."

  After most of the group agreed, they decided to incorporate doing one story a day into their routine for the time being. With that settled, everyone shifted towards some personal time, and Matt found himself sitting alone, reflecting on the day's encounters. Even though all the fights had been relatively easy, he felt that each one offered valuable lessons. He sat there, contemplating, until the gentle pull of sleep began to take hold, prompting him to get as comfortable as possible. One thing he knew he could never voice was how much he already missed Apricity's comforting presence. Although their time together had been far from perfect, it had provided a warmth and comfort that he now yearned for.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  When everyone was awake again, it didn’t take long for them to prepare to leave the safe room behind. Matt announced that the hunting trip would be that night’s focus. The day unfolded almost as a repeat of the previous one, with the exception that Apricity reached level 9 before they utilized her skill. Once again, they discovered another safe zone before settling down for the night. The most significant development, however, was that Apricity had chosen the path of a Scouting Dungeon Guide. This decision granted her four new skills: silent movement, escape path, dead-end detection, and dungeon danger sense.

  All of these abilities seemed useful, and Apricity was certain that a few had been triggered on their journey to the safe room they had discovered. Specifically, the dead-end detection and dungeon danger sense were activated; it seemed that the dead-end detection was triggered by the safe room they had entered. Regarding the dangers, more than one path they had encountered had set her alarms off, and Matt thought he knew the reason. It was likely because she was under-leveled for those areas. He hoped this meant they could encounter higher-level monsters starting the next day, which would be advantageous for him. After all, he was only 235 experience points away from reaching level 10, which would hopefully unlock more features in his menu.

  With that thought still lingering in his mind, the daily story game commenced and unfolded in much the same manner as the previous night. The twist came from Greg, who cleverly inserted an encounter with a majestic phoenix into the narrative. This addition led to the inclusion of more fantastical elements, but once the storytelling concluded, more than one of the women expressed their regret over this turn of events. It seemed they had enjoyed discussing the mundane aspects of life, things they had once taken for granted, which sparked a deeper conversation about such everyday topics. Meanwhile, Matt remained mostly silent, as he had long since abandoned many of the subjects being discussed, particularly the charming coffee shops and their favorite drinks they used to order.

  The following day unfolded much like the previous one, except they realized they had ventured into the level 10 area. Matt grinned at the progress this brought. However, it wasn't until the day after that Matt himself reached level 10. He beamed as he surveyed the path options before him, and without hesitation, he chose Lucky Death Defier. Despite a few other intriguing options, Matt believed that Tempormr had advised him to choose something involving luck for a purpose. With that decision, Matt smiled with satisfaction at his updated status screen, feeling a sense of accomplishment and anticipation for the adventures ahead.

  Matthew Pierce.

  Level 10

  Strength: 98

  Dexterity:112

  Durability: 150

  Stamina: 242

  Spirit: 274

  Mind: 98

  HP: 41

  MP: 24

  Luck: 61

  Species Human (E)

  Bloodline: (Undocumented, higher level needed to fully analyze)

  Path: Lucky Death Defier (Increase Spirit by 90% Stamina by 45% Durability by 30% Dexterity by 15%)

  Titles: Integrated, Front runner of species (5% boost to all stats), Lord of the Tomb of the Restless Defenders (Control the accessibility of fort associated with dungeon such that those within can enter and leave with or without challenging the dungeon. Can also relocate/repair the fort and dungeon associated with dungeon if needed resources are gathered.), King slayer (Increase in distrust from those who serve a monarch not allied with you. Deal double damage to any monarch and those in the line of succession), Lucky (Unlocks and doubles hidden luck stat).

  Skills: Auto translate, Regeneration, Injury transfer, Give of yourself, Stand tall, Hand up, Attack negation, Give back to your enemy. Lucky, Critical regeneration, Critical recovery, Lucky charity, Lucky stand, Lucky aid, Lucky dodge, Lucky reflection.

  Before Matt could dissect the changes, the message vanished as a new one appeared.

  System menu enhanced.

  Hit point and Mana point stats applied to individual.

  Smiling, Matt pulled the menu back up and examined it in detail, noticing his new title "Lucky" and his increased luck stat. He wondered what the scale for this stat was. Still, if he assumed that 10 was the starting point for most regular people, then a 61 had to be impressive, especially if his title doubled it. However, his thoughts were interrupted as he pondered the meanings of hit points and mana points. It only took a quick question to Greg to clarify that these represented his health and magic capacity. However, the fact that he had a magic capacity seemed odd since he didn't possess the mana pool skill like Greg. Ultimately, they dropped the topic and refocused on the task of fighting. Matt lamented that his experience gain had slowed significantly with the new level, feeling a bit frustrated by it.

  It wasn't until they had made it to the safe room and were about to begin the day's story that Matt received more answers as Tempormr reached out to him. Although it was a brief message, it came with a warning that Tempormr didn't have much leeway for communication. The main point Tempormr wanted to emphasize was that hit points were indeed a representation of Matt's health. If his hit points reached zero, he would die. By unlocking them, Matt had inadvertently weakened himself temporarily, as his regeneration had been more powerful when there were no such numbers to measure. While Tempormr hadn't fully explained everything, Matt began to grasp that the reason the goblin king had survived a knife to the throat was because he had hit points to absorb the damage.

  The one piece of good news that came from unlocking his hit points was that it had also been the catalyst for his minor regeneration to evolve into full regeneration. According to Tempormr, this new ability would enable him to recover health three times faster. However, based on Matt's understanding of recovery speed, this still meant he would need to wait ten minutes to return to full health. To test this, Matt had inflicted a small cut on himself, resulting in the loss of a single health point. Although it only took a moment for the wound to close, it required about 16 seconds to restore the health point. This created a new perplexity for Matt, as he suddenly felt capable of being physically healed yet could still die from losing all his hit points. He found it confusing how this paradox was possible. The only positive aspect he perceived was that the improved speed of his healing would make enduring painful injuries less troublesome. In addition, he had now realized that skills could evolve, sparking his curiosity about how best to induce such evolutions in the future.