Chapter 3 - Encounter

Chapter 3: Encounter

"Oh yeah, I haven't distributed my stat points yet." Ai almost forgot about his stats that were all in zero. From the knowledge that he had gained when the System was injected to him, in the beginning, the game itself gave the freedom to freely allocate their beginning stats and every player has the same number of points to show fairness for everyone somehow.

——————

Name: Ai Zhen

HP: 100 / 100

MP: 100 / 100

SP: 100 / 100

Level: 0

EXP: 0 / 900

CULTIVATION:

Art: NONE

Realm: NA

Breakthrough: 0 / 0 EXP

Stat Points: 33

* Strength: 0+

(Boost your attack and defense power)

* Intelligence: 0+

(Boost your comprehension power)

* Dexterity: 0+

(Boost your attack, skill and movement speed)

* Vitality: 0+

(Boost your HP and MP)

* Stamina: 0+

(Boost your SP)

——————

"Oh by the way, Yun, what does SP stands for?" Ai Zhen noticed that there's another indicator for something. He had an idea about it but he's not that if what he was thinking was the same for this game.

Half of Ai Zhen's thought about SP was right, and even though Yun's explanation about it was not that very specific, he was able to tell that this may be the most important stats in this game.

Moving on, based from the gaming experiences of the late Ai's, a player must always not neglect to allocate some points for the Strength and Agility even if the player is a mage class. The former Zhen's thinking also approved of this especially for the Agility stats. In the cultivation world, there's a saying that strength is not what makes a cultivator invincible but speed.

However, thinking back again, this game was almost completely different from the games that the late Ai have played, and also, there was a novel that he read where someone allocated all of his stat points in a single attribute which gave that character a special bonus.

"Here goes nothing." Ai Zhen smiled deviously as he was about to add all of his points to a certain stats.

——————

Name: Ai Zhen

HP: 100 / 100

MP: 100 / 100

SP: 330 / 330

Level: 0

EXP: 0 / 900

CULTIVATION:

Art: NONE

Realm: NA

EXP: 0 / 0

Stat Points: 0

* Strength: 0+

(Boost your attack and defense power)

* Intelligence: 0+

(Boost your comprehension power)

* Dexterity: 0+

(Boost your attack, skill and movement speed)

* Vitality: 0+

(Boost your HP and MP)

* Stamina: 33+

(Boost your SP)

——————

Seconds and then minutes passed by, nothing happened. Ai Zhen was expecting for something grand to happen like being rewarded for being the first player to allocate all the starting stat point on a certain Attributes? I guess there is no reward for being a fool on believing too much on fantasy novels then.

Ai Zhen can only bitterly smile about it and moved on. And with that, he started to stroll around to find a NPC to have a conversation with.

++++++++++

The six sector of the Hidden Leaf Town was divided into three areas, the first two sector where the entry and exit point of the town is located was called the outer area, this is where the NPC shops and merchants are located.

The inner area is where the two middle sectors are located, this is where the town's residences resides. Some NPC nobles are also in here.

In the core area, where the remaining two sectors. There are only two places that are located in this area. One, is the town hall where the town lord resides. The other one is the, town's academy where the town's library is also located.

Ai Zhen thought that if he's going to do the quests, he will do it big. So in order to do it big, the only NPC that he can think of is the town's lord. With a goal set in his mind, he walked straight to the core area where the town hall is.

When he was about to enter the core area, his eyes were staring down on the bricked road minding his own business as he was contemplating on how to approach the town's lord. He passed by to an old man who was sitting down outside of a certain shop, having a tea. The old man called out to him, "Hey, young man!" A serene smile crept into his mouth as he was sipping his cup of tea.

Ai Zhen was still looking down on the road as he was still focused on how to approach the town lord. He was only able to stop when a voice sounded beside his ears, "It's rare to find someone who has great potential nowadays."

Ai Zhen looked at the old man surprised who was raising his cup of coffee, "Would you like to have a cup of tea?"

Ai Zhen thought that this old man is no ordinary that's why he accepted his offer. He opened the gate of the tea shop that was called Autumn Leaf Cafe and sat in front of the old man. The old man took an empty cup on his side and poured a tea for him.

"Would you like to be my disciple?" The old man got straight to the point.

The old man's straightforwardness surprised Ai Zhen as he doesn't know what to reply.

"Why would you do that?" He looked at the old man with slightly raised eyebrow showing his skepticism. In his mind, no one can be his master in this lifetime. As the greatest cultivator in his past life, the arrogance and confidence in him surfaced. But even though he thought of this, he still patiently asked what the old man's motive.

"Well, just a simple fact that you are very talented. Who wouldn't want a disciple with such capabilities like you?" The old man simply stated with a playful smile.

"Heh..how would you know that I'm that talented?" Ai Zhen also playfully smiled back to the old man. "What if it turns out that I'm really just a trash?"

"Nonsense, young man! How on Earth would someone like you..a great figure..would be a trash?" The old man intentionally made his voice sounded like a whisper in Ai's ears just to display his capabilities, and was trying to make his bullshit mysterious. Ai also noticed this however, he didn't mind it and just played along.

"Well old man, if I'm that of a genius, then I'm now even more confident that I don't need a teacher or a master." Ai Zhen laughed wittily with a hint of arrogance on his antics.

The old man could only shake his head from this retort because he knows that the young man, Ai Zhen, was not buying it.

"Young man, if you are able to learn these books within this day. I'll admit that I'm not worthy to be your master." The old man took out six books that magically appeared in front of the table. Five of this six books have the same style of book cover with just different shades of color while the the other one has an orange red book cover and golden platings on its edges designed as blazing sun rays.

'I wonder what would that question mark means.' Ai Zhen was not fazed with what the old man did. He stared at him for a short while and inhaled. "Would you mind if I take a look at these first?" The Quest didn't offer any rewards because the reward itself was learning the books itself.

"Go ahead." The old man still playfully smiled even more as he gestured to the young man to not hold back.

Ai Zhen first looked at the one of the skill books that has a shade of grey on it.

Requirements: 30 SP>

Ai Zhen was astonished on how high tiered the skill that was shown to him. At this point of game, finding a skill like this is like gambling in a game that has one out of one hundred chances.

He also looked at the other four, anticipating if whether these are also in the same class and level or more.

Requirements: 90 SP>

Note: Skill can be level up when used to identify 10 Rare Plants or obtained a higher level of the same skill book.

Requirements: 30 SP>

Requirements: 90 SP>

Requirements: 90 SP>

These five books are really useful to Ai Zhen as of this moment. Having overpowered skills at this early point of the game makes his life really easy. He couldn't help but be fond on how generous this old man to him.

When the old man saw the face of the young man who was licking his lips in excitement, he thought that he have already caught him in his trap since these skills are very hard to learn from the get go and it takes weeks to learn the basics. With this mindset, he was pretty sure that the young man will be lured and there's nothing that he can't do from getting away with it, but what he doesn't know was the fact that the young man was licking his lips because he was already in the process of completely learning the five skills.

With the +100 EXP per rank, silver skill books is equivalent to 200 EXP while gold skill books is equivalent to 300 EXP. The old man would be crying if he was hearing what the monotone voice of a young boy was notifying.

Ai Zhen was feeling light-headed for a moment as his SP was depleted. However, as he leveled up multiple times, his SP was filled up again.

After learning the five skills, without further a do, he grabbed the last book and read it.

+6 Vitality & +3 Dexterity every minor breakthrough and +60 Vitality & +30 Dexterity every major breakthrough. Regeneration: +6 per second each minor breakthrough and +18 per second each major breakthrough.

Requirements: 110 Intelligence and 330 SP>

As Ai Zhen read through this cultivation, he couldn't help but faltered and his mouth twitching.

The fact that this cultivation art is also overpowered makes him feel elated. Imagine burning an opponent's Vitality into zero, how many HP and MP will be left? But when setting ablaze the opponent's vitality you will be setting ablaze your vitality as well permanently. When he looked at the old man, he somehow felt a vague feeling that the aura of this cultivation art and the aura of the old man was exuding despite how hard he try to conceal are the same. He could not help but think if this old man, was really old.

'No wonder this cultivation art is just in an Epic Tier despite the overwhelming power that can be attained, because this art is Epic..Fail.' Ai Zhen couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment. And when the old man saw this, he could not also help but be intrigued of what's in the young man's mind. "What's wrong, young man?"

"Old man, do you have a pen and a stack of paper?" Ai Zhen asked. The old man have no idea why did the young man ask for these things but nonetheless, he still complied from the simple request.

When the old man took out the things that he asked, Ai Zhen began to write something on the papers. As he wrote on the stack of papers, sometimes, he would stop and looked at the old man as he tapped the pen on his chin from time to time. The look of the young man was giving to the old was like a doctor diagnosing at his patient, trying to probe and come up some prescription for him, this bewildered him.

Almost half an hour passed by, Ai Zhen was finally done with his writing. He almost used all of the stack of papers. "As thanks for the skill books, this is my gift to you. I apologize if I can't accept you as my master as I would really like it more to be your friend."