When he got to the door, as usual, Michael made sure to confirm who was outside first.
Seeing that it was someone who came to deliver his breakfast from the restaurant, he opened the door, received the food before getting back inside.
After eating, he quickly went ahead and began reading. The language that he was reading was Troprazanese, which was a national language of Troprazan, where Drenn city was one of the cities in the Eastern province.
The PDFs that he downloaded were all in this language, and so, Michael was determined to understand this language to the extent that some things would not be difficult for him to understand.
He of course understood that some terminologies were not related to the language, but in a particular field of study, but still, by learning the language itself, at least it made it easy for him to be able to learn other things.
The moment that he began reading, there was a notification from the system, which relieved him.
[Beginner level of Language Mastery. Progress: 58%.]
Michael was not sure about how the system judged the information, to the level that it was able to convert it into a percentage.
Regardless, it seemed that the information that he currently had on languages at the beginning level was only limited to 58%.
But even then, Michael was happy about it. In any case, at least half of the work was already done, with less than half of it remaining.
Since that was the case, he only needed to go through a few PDFs and he would be done.
Currently, he had 2 SP, but had nothing that he could buy. After all, 2 SP was only equivalent to $200,000. And at the moment, while there were a lot of things that he could buy, none of them seemed necessary, or could help in the current situation that he was in.
As he focused on reading, as usual, he forgot about the passage of time, simply focusing on finishing the PDFs that he had downloaded.
To say the truth, it was not that Michael really loved reading. It was just that, he was quite motivated at the thought of having so many SP, which could purchase some interesting items from the store.
Time elapsed, and as noon was approaching, Michael finally managed to push the progress to 100%.
[Experience full. You have acquired beginner level Language Mastery Skill. +1 SP.]
Feeling the information that was being dumped into his mind, a smile subconsciously appeared on Michael's face.
This kind of feeling, where the effort that he had put on in doing something was rewarded was really amazing. It almost gave him an impulse of downloading a few more PDFs related to other subjects for him to continue studying.
But in the end, he managed to suppress the impulse, understanding that he had to go out and buy groceries first.
Going out occasionally would risk him being exposed to the Shadow Assembly gang. And, if they were actively looking for him, then things would be even worse than them just finding him by coincidence.
Having worked with the Shadow Assembly gang for 2 years, he understood them quite well, especially the leader, Dante.
That guy was extremely ruthless. If someone betrayed them, he would kill them without showing mercy.
As for an incident like his own, where he left the gang, Michael had only heard some of the gangsters talking about it.
According to what he heard, it seemed that the last person who had escaped after joining the gang, having gained a good position within the gang during the time that he was there, ended up with a very gruesome fate.
All of his limbs were broken, then, he was tortured by having his skin being continuously cut by small blades. Later on, he was forced to watch as his entire family was killed, before he was left to die.
Michael was not sure about the authenticity of this rumor that he had heard, but even then, it was pretty clear to him, Dante was someone that he currently could not afford to mess with.
It was also at this moment that Michael suddenly thought of something else. It seemed, in order to be able to deal with those gangsters, apart from wealth, he needed to have both influence and combat power.
If he was strong enough, if they sent several gangsters after him, he would be able to take them out.
As for influence, that was simply to counter the influence that the Shadow Assembly gang had within the city.
If somehow, the gang managed to use the authorities to look for him, things would get more complicated. Though, Michael did not believe that they would go to that extent in order to look for him.
At the end of the day, apart from accounting, he really did nothing else within the gang. Additionally, it was not as if he had betrayed them or anything like that.
Simply put, he did not believe that Dante had any grudge against him, which implied that there was no need for him to go all out in order to look for him.
After washing up and changing into another pair of clothes, Michael stepped out of the apartment.
He headed downstairs, to look for a grocery store. Good thing, this neighborhood seemed to be quite self-sustained, as there were quite a few grocery stores present within the area.
Michael randomly entered into one of them, purchased what he needed, planning for a long term solution like rice, flour and other items with long shelf life.
As for those that needed to be fresh like vegetables and fruits, he only bought a few. After all, vegetables could not last long, even within a refrigerator.
Due to him buying a large amount of items, Michael could not carry them all back to his apartment. He had no other choice but to hire a porter to help him with carrying the things back to the apartment.
After everything was transported back to the apartment, he went to the restaurant to eat, before finally returning to his apartment.
It was only after he had locked the doors that finally, Michael felt relieved. Being out there was extremely risky with his current state.
If possible, Michael really wanted to go to another city. No matter what, there was no possible way that Shadow Assembly had its influence spread to other cities as well.
Shadow Assembly gang was not a very big gang. It shared a district with several other gangs, which implied that it would be almost impossible for them to be able to spread their wings to other cities.
It was just that, it was kind of risky for him to do something like this. If they were looking for him, they would obviously block all the methods that he could use in order to leave the city.
In this city, there was no airport. While there was an airstrip, it was a private property.
On the other hand, the train stations were quite risky, considering that the number of gangsters that could be found within those areas was quite high.
As for using water vessels, that was an impossibility, considering that there was no any water routes available due to the lack of large water bodies around Drenn city.
So, as he said on the chair in the study, Michael began contemplating about the next step to take.
After reaching beginner level of Language Mastery, Michael understood basic vocabulary and grammar, and could fluently converse using Troprazanese language.
While it was true that he had not reached the level where those masters of this language had, as compared to some of the university students, he was way better.
Initially, Michael only intended to study the high school subjects in order to boost his foundation. This way, it would be easy for him to be able to read on other topics and gain skills from there.
It was just that, he changed his mind, especially considering that he could not read science and gain a skill called science. Science was broad, implying that he would have to focus on a certain area.
But considering that most of the skills related to science required capital or being employed, Michael would not bother with those skills for the time being.
Instead, Michael thought about being practical. At the moment, it was better to have a method of protecting himself.
And for that reason, he went online once again, before he began downloading PDFs on combat techniques and so on.
As usual, since he was a beginner, without any fighting experience, he began by searching for basic self-defense skills, which was obviously theory.
And after that, he also downloaded the videos that could be found online, from different types of combat.
Starting from the basics, it involved the stance that a person had to be in during a fight. Additionally, they also involved how to throw a punch and other forms of attacks.
There were also other methods of self-defense on how to block different attacks, or how to deal with different situations, for example if someone was choking him from behind.
Since he was beginning with the theoretical information, it was quite easy for him to be able to go through it, considering that it was just based on reading.
And as he was reading, there was a prompt from the system, which made him smile slightly. At least, he was on the right track, and what he had thought of was actually possible.
[Beginner level of Unarmed Combat. Progress: 1%.]