There were days when Lark would look out into his grandmother’s garden and wonder what he was doing with his one shot at life, but not today.

With Gushi back to its mini size, Lark hid his pet under his arm like a stuffed toy and made sure none of the neighbors looked too closely at his estate before exiting the penthouse. Instead of going to the front door, which was closer, he made his way to the back porch. Unlike the front door, the back door didn’t require a key so to speak when a rock sufficed.

Lark’s backyard was not as grand as the front yard and filled with less of his grandmother’s color. The trimmed, green grass stretched from the bottom of the deck to the fence that separated the property line. In this neighborhood, everyone respected privacy and a row of palm trees enforced this unspoken rule on the other side of the fence.

Sensible patio furniture decorated the oak deck including an umbrella shading a few chairs and a table. Next to the furniture was the back door. And guarding the back door was a mechanical gnome holding a golf club in front of one of his grandfather’s inventions.

Lifting a stone from the walkway, Lark placed it atop a crude scale made of zen stones. On one side of the see-saw contraption, a stack of three stones weighed down on the wooden plank. The ribbed, sediment appearance of the rocks set side by side with the smooth carved cherry wood gave off a feeling of imbalance. As soon as his heavy clay rock sat on the opposite end of the wood, the stacked rocks raised as if controlled by an invisible string.

Once in perfect, straight alignment, the back door swung open. Lark rushed inside when the back door swung closed behind him. A moment after the door closed, the gnome moved. It swung down the golf club in its chubby, little hands against the rock, and shot it back to where it came. With the rock back in its place on the walkway, the back porch returned to its seemingly untouched state.

Upon entering the kitchen, Lark shouted, “Scan!”

Feeling his voice vibrate like waves attacking the walls, he ignored the passing black boxes and tagged them as he went through, absorbing each piece of information. They told him where his kitchen knives were bought, how much damage they did, and from which part of the world Black Rose tea leaves were grown and what was the optimal amount of time to soak them. Other pieces of data he gathered weren’t necessarily helpful, nor useful at the moment, but it didn’t hurt to know.

Gushi jumped out of his arms and hurried over to the dining table, while he picked up an eight-inch kitchen knife with Asian characters inscribed on the silver steel. Besides being one of Wangshi’s favorite knives to debone meats with, according to Lark’s data, it dealt the most critical damage with the best bleeding effect out of all knives in the knife block including the big, fat butcher knife. It also came with a sleek wooden box with a velvet in-line, which Lark tossed together inside his spatial ring. Aside from the knife, Lark also grabbed a funnel, a pan lid, an apple timer, and raided the fridge for honey.

While eating the rest of the food on the dining table with Gushi, Lark checked the calendar on his Trinity Watch, which read: Saturday, 02:32 PM, September 26, 2099; it’s been three days since the attack on the world. Meanwhile, Wangshi had successfully booked them to go Soko’s by Sunday at 3:00 PM. That would give them three hours to tour the wares before the auction began at 6:00 PM. And if he was successful in his endeavor, then Wangshi could drive them to the black-tie event.

“Your legacy…” a whisper from Sphinx curled around his ears as the bookcase twirled him and Gushi into the secret room.

Lark scanned all the items inside the laboratory and tossed Gushi a few of his grandfather’s inventions he believed might be promising. As Sphinx calculated, Gushi would have a 56% chance in learning new skills from absorbing his grandfather’s second-hand inventions. If not, he could always buy more.

When Gushi absorbed the fox-ear hearing aids and underground-ostrich binoculars, a black notification list of Gushi’s skills appeared.

1) Engulf: Innate Skill - Rank E - User can swallow and hold any material with an upper limit of 120 lbs. Effects: Absorption or storage.

2) Flexible Body: Innate Skill - Rank E - User can maneuver without restriction from bone structures.

3) Boiling Body: Innate Skill - Rank E - User’s body burns hot! Effects: Burn damage around the user for two seconds. Body expansion up to three times the original size. Skill in effect until cancellation. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

4) Transform: Magic Skill - Rank F - User can modify up to one structure of their body. Effects: Lasts up to 10 minutes unless skill canceled. Cooldown: 1 minute.

5) Patching: Magic Skill - rank F - A quick fix. User can ‘patch’ up physical damage. Effect: Pain-blocker and speeds up natural healing.

6) *Perception: Life Skill - Rank F- User can sense an object’s nature within a 100-feet radius. User can track movement within a 100-feet radius.
Effects: Gushi's color changing antenna. silver - neutral, red - danger, green - magic treasure, and blue - spirit treasure.
*Changes: Perception changed from Magic Skill to Life Skill due to its hunting qualities. 50 feet to 100 feet increase in radius.

+1 INT went to Gushi’s status screen, totaling Gushi’s intelligence to 21 points.

Lark nodded at Gushi for doing a good job, but at the same time felt dismayed by the missing Propel skill. Any changes he incurred in the white expanse with Sphinx did not carry over into reality like teaching Gushi Propel. However…he picked up the dictionary on the desk and remembered every single word from every single page.

He scanned the dictionary. Not learning anything new, he gave it to Gushi and reconstructed the scene, enabling Gushi to learn Propel. Gushi then engulfed and absorbed the damaged dictionary.

Meanwhile, Lark scooped up the flash drive given to him by Mr. Federov and a dossier of all the lesson pages appeared in his mind as if it was there the entire time. Lark couldn’t be sure, but perhaps the swirling black boxes Sphinx produced before he left the white expanse transmitted all experiments and investigations on all his personal possessions inside the Cyan Cottage. It spared him some time. Sure. But the unease in his heart caused by the fast changes in his life made his hands shake.

Cracking his knuckles, as if to wring out the worries under his skin, he focused on several objectives. One, he needed to find and rescue Sky as his long term goal. Two, get stronger in any sense of the word. And the immediate priority, to fix Wangshi and recuperate any helpful memories.

He tossed the flash drive into Sky’s backpack and poured out the contents from his spatial ring. He scanned the items from the kitchen and the loot he hadn’t yet examined from the ring.

First, the pan-lid from the kitchen. It was a sixteen-inch, lightweight, aluminum lid he randomly took off a skillet. In addition to the universal use of protecting cooks from splattering oil, the acquired knowledge from scanning gave it another purpose. With a durability at 10/10, the pan-lid could be used as a trash shield. Gripping the black plastic knob, he beckoned the slime to bounce against the make-shift shield.

“Go on, I’ll be fine,” Lark said, crouching, as he held the lid three feet off the ground. Noticing the slime’s reluctance to attack him, he added with a toothy grin. “Unless you don’t think you’re strong enough to push me back?”

Gushi jiggled his body rising up to the challenge. The slime rolled at a distance of five feet away before pouncing! Acting in a similar motion to the Propel skill, Gushi catapulted himself into the lid. Slime against aluminum met and a small squish could be heard.

That’s it? Lark thought as he noticed the small drop in durability from 10 to 8. He joggled the dented shield, noticing Gushi still stuck on the inside of the lid.

When Lark didn’t move back and shook the pan-lid, Gushi slid down the steel-colored plate and deflated like a flat tire.

“It’s alright. Everyone needs some practice. You did very well for your first try!” Lark carried Gushi in his arms, comforting his shocked pet.

“Hey, let’s do it again. Only this time, try hardening your body like how you did with Boiled Body and use your Patching skill to lessen the impact on yourself. Also, don’t stick to the target after you hit it.” He coached, lifting up the pan-lid against his body again.

Preparing its second attempt, the reinvigorated slime wiggled its translucent coat as steam shed off its body.

Less than a second later, Gushi collided against the aluminum lid and Lark yelped, feeling his fingers burn on the hot metal. Fortunately, Gushi listened to Lark’s directions and already bounced off the lid before it clattered to the ground.

Lark winced and sank his singed fingertips against his T-shirt as if pressing them could smolder out the burn effect. But his one opened eye twinkled at the three notification boxes in front of him. One showed the pan-lid’s decrease in durability from 8 to 0. Clearly not usable, he thought, as he saw the warped surface of his fry ware.

The second showed a screen of Gushi’s updated Propel skill and a reward of +1 STR to his slime’s stats.

“Updated! Propel - Attack Skill - Rank F- User can catapult objects and itself! Effects: Distance of thrown object(or itself) is dependent on the weight and strength of the user. As STR increases so will the range and damage the user will impose.

The last box posed one sentence and an odd question: “You’ve acquired a new title, [Beginner Monster Tamer]! Would you like to equip this title?”

He told the sparkling slime to use its Transform ability and imitate the shape of the pan-lid in order to learn a defensive skill, while he dealt with the title-wearing situation.

After relocating to the cordoned area in front of the birdie-feeder to practice, Gushi blocked Lark from leaving. He bounced onto Lark’s chest, who then had no choice but to catch the jumpy slime with his hands. Without being ordered to Gushi engulfed his lobster-red fingers.

Lark’s hands now submerged in ice-cold slime fluid, felt cool relief wash over the small burns. Gushi’s current form was like a very malleable water-pillow and his glowing silver body flickered intermittently between white and green hues, exhibiting the healing skill Patching. Through his slime’s transparent coat, Lark could see patchy spots of red on his fingers slowly disappear. He whispered a quiet thank-you to the slime when the light brown cut on his thumb began to fade.

Ignoring the vacuum sounds behind him, Lark sat behind the U-shaped desk, examining his status screen from the app on his Trinity Watch called SIM. The SIM app icon had a likeness to the silver pyramid’s shape and an unhelpful interface, a likeness Lark attributed to Sphinx.

So far the new application on his watch displayed a black screen with all his stats and non-existent skill-set. There was no ‘help’ or ‘settings’ menu or even a creator’s note. Then again, what should have he expected from pure-alien technology otherwise known as a magic object free of earthly influence?

Lark looked quizzically at the floating black screen with his stats he pulled up from SIM. Thinking the screen worked similarly to his holographic keyboard, he tapped on [Survivor]. As expected, a box of information dropped down underneath his title.

[Survivor]
Gained title after battlling the Wishes of the People.
Passive: Grants the ability to cope with unfamiliar surroundings and the ability to plan in the face of unknown dangers.
Active effects: +5 STR, +5 DEX, +5 INT, +5 MG, +5 SPT, +5 LUK.

[Trickster]
Gained after a wonderful display of stratagem and last-ditch efforts.
Passive: Improves your ability to swindle.
Active effects: +5 DEX, +5 INT, +10 MG, +10 LUK

[Beginner Beast Tamer]
Fulfilled requirements: capture monster without help, creature listens to commands, and tamer teaches pet new skills.
Passive: Increases the ability to communicate with non-humanoid creatures and their fondness.
Active effects: +10 STR, +10 DEX, +15 SPT

The Beginner Beast Tamer title granted the most overall points with a sum of thirty-five, while the other two titles gave out thirty points. This information wasn’t wholly helpful until he figured what these stats determined and how the numbers factored into them.

Exiting out of the title screen, he tapped on his strength tab, which revealed the descriptions he was looking for.

[STR: 18] - Strength: Represents physical power. Influences carrying capacity, defensive ability, health, physical damage, and martial arts skills.

[DEX: 20] - Dexterity: Represents physical nimbleness. Influences agility, reaction time, aim, and stealth skills.

[INT: 18] - Intelligence: Represents capacity for thought. Influences insight into the five senses, mind attacks and defensive capabilities, memory recall, and spell casting skills.

[MG: 0] - Magic: Represents capacity for magic power. Influences magic attacks and defense capabilities, affinity for elements, mana accumulation, and use of objects with magical properties.

[SPT: 0] Spirit: Represents capacity for spirit power. Influences psionic energy, soul energy interlinked with meridians, use of objects with spiritual properties, and communication with beings of large spiritual power.

[LUK: 5] Luck - Represents an individual’s luck line. Influences contact with rare objects, success rate, fate line, and how much the world wishes success upon you.

Around this time, Sphinx’s voice suddenly interrupted Lark’s studying. “You want to aim past 200 stat points in total, which is the build of a typical adventurer, who wants to get anything done at least.”

“Where have you been?” Lark thought.

“Observing you, of course, and experimenting with the alchemy set the cultist brought from another world. Also, don’t touch the contents of the dust inside the purple pouch. It’s a cursed item. Hence, why you haven’t heard from me in the last thirty minutes because my fingers were busy recovering for the last two and a half days earth-time.”

“Recovering from what exactly?”

“Well, I spent too much time playing with the contents of the bag, and my hands shriveled up to the bone due to the curse. So, it took some time to reorganize me.”

Lark swept his gaze across the table for the terrifying bag. For a deadly object, Lark was horrified by its unassuming appearance as the pouch sat nestled against one of the green potion bottles. One might’ve mistaken it for a balloon weight anyone could find at a party store. He scooped the purple pouch into the mortar and gently tossed it inside his activated spatial ring.

“The material inside the bag was Vampire Dust. A very rare item, but I wouldn’t handle it until you achieve significant progress in alchemy. In fact, why haven’t you started making the recipe I shared with you to cure Wangshi?”

“I was training Gushi when the black box—”

“Alright, no need for the back story, kiddo. Once you practice alchemy, I assure you, you’ll know more about SIM’s capabilities, which go far beyond a mere printer.”

Lark, as patient as he was, fumed at the unhelpful voice in his head. Turning his head to the materials in front of him, he picked up an apparatus part of the alchemy set. The toolkit before him reminded him of Mr. Zayne’s science class mixed in with apothecaries from ghost-towns. Every Spring, since the start of freshmen year, Professor Zayne would take the students in his class on a field trip. In his freshmen year, they went to the Science Academy of Arts in San Francisco. Sophomore year, they ventured into the hot springs of Lake Tahoe. During Junior year, they hiked along old trails where nineteen-forty-niner miners panned for gold. His favorite superstition was how the miners would hide their riches in all sorts of places - under fence posts, big trees, rock outcrops - anywhere that they could bury under the noses of bandits. Not that he’d need the gold, but it did gnaw at his ego if he’d be the one to find treasure.

Frowning, his fingernail scratched the glass as he placed it down and picked up the small leather bounded notebook.

“Why aren’t you scanning anything?” piped in Sphinx.

“I want to see what I can learn by myself first,” Lark responded, furrowing his brows as he turned over a page in the notebook. Shoddy drawings of craft items and potions lined the pages with short descriptions. Lark couldn’t make out the slanted characters in the margins, but the centered titles on the top of the pages were neatly written in comparison. In total, there were about fifty used pages of text and drawings, while the rest were left blank. Whoever wrote in this notebook hadn’t used it in quite some time, Lark noted, feeling the age on the parchment.

“For future purposes, I hope you know it’s not wise to look through a sorcerer’s belongings. There could be all sorts of hidden enchantments or dangerous objects like the Vampire Dust,” Sphinx warned airily. “Luckily you have SIM, so you won’t die easily.”

Lark scoffed, but stopped leafing through the notebook and settled it down next to the alchemy kit. Inevitably, black boxes showed up in front of him.

“Item: Portable Celestian Alchemy Kit (common)
Tools in this set: Simple mortar and pestle, Simple pathfinder, Simple spirit lamp, Simple cauldron, 3x glass flasks, 3x purifying crystals, quartz knife, quartz rod, and one sachet.

An oversimplified alchemist laboratory set sold in Northern Celestia for 100 credits. Only able to process simple tonics, potions, and salves.”

“So then the potion we’re making is actually a very simple one?” Lark inquired.

“Don’t simplify everything,” Sphinx said and Lark imagined Sphinx’s colorless eyes rolling in their sockets as he spoke, whilst drinking tea.

Lark sighed and moved onto the next piece of text.

“Item: Stolen Notebook (unique)

Original owner: Cornelius Goodwing.

A collection of findings from the author, Cornelius Goodwing, an apprentice of the Alchemy Association of Celestia.”

In another separate box like when he attained the [Beginner Beast Tamer] title, two messages for him appeared with an attached suggestion:

<Unlocked the Celestian language!>
<Unlocked the Celestian language of runes!>
<To unlock more knowledge of Celestia, go scan a Celestian Wordbook!>

At this, Lark rolled his eyes and he took another look at the notebook. This time, he understood the hazardous writing and Cornelius Goodwing was definitely a person of narcissistic taste as the carefully written title of each page was of his own name instead of the subject matter. Lark never had a huge interest in literature or linguistics, but his interests didn’t matter anymore in the wake of SIM’s abilities to translate and pull up significant pieces of text. A super printer indeed. He acknowledged every note and description written by Cornelius, or Corn for short, and could probably pour a couple of hours into reading Corn’s observations on the movement of the two moons in Celestia, random sketches of plants and ramblings of his aspirations to find legendary alchemy ingredients. Some ingredients like monster teeth and blood Lark heavily squinted at, but others like Dragon’s Claw or Faerie’s Tears set his treasure-seeking heart on fire.

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” Sphinx spoke again in the same nonchalant manner. Lark grounded the back of his teeth as he approached the supplies. It was unnerving to have someone always peering over his shoulder, watching his every move.

“As for your titles, I would go with ‘Trickster.’ Having more LUK might help you out, childish owner,” Sphinx lamented. Sphinx didn’t speak up for a period after that. Maybe he bit into some Vampire Dust, Lark wondered or even hoped. But after some careful consideration, he followed Sphinx’s advice and tapped on the [Trickster] title.

A black screen pulled up from his watch asking in white letters, “Would you like to equip [Trickster] as your main title?” with a small ‘Yes or No’ panel shortly following.

After equipping the [Trickster] title, Lark didn’t feel abundantly different about himself - and he had to admit, he had some expectations - but it was a good start to his once null MG stat.

“Lark Rune [Trickster]

[Survivor][Beginner Beast Tamer]

Happiness Level: 75%

STR: 18

DEX: 20 (+5)

INT: 18 (+5)

MG: 0 (+10) ,

SPT: 0

LUK: 15 (+10)

Larked picked up the item known as a Simple Pathfinder, which was one of the more common tools Mr. Federov wrote about to begin the alchemic process. Referencing the lesson plan on alchemy in his head, he placed the hooped instrument over the Simple Cauldron. According to the notes, a pathfinder was used to attract Ley Lines, which gathered forces to power up the cauldron. Dependent on the shape, size, and material of the Pathfinder, the nature of the Ley Lines would change.

The lustrous forged steel ring surrounded the cauldron for a couple of seconds when a certain buzz fluttered in the air that was not quite there before and Lark could feel it - on, under, over, all around him - like a wind current. Then he saw it. The pot began to smoke.

“Old magic Alchemy focused on potions, salves, and tonics while alchemy with new magic focused on pill-concoctions. Like any medication from this civilization, this art could produce a panacea to cure the sick. And in different doses and combinations, medicine can kill.”

This passage, written by Mr. Federov, was unlike any other lesson plan Lark read about. A forewarning, he surmised, and the message ran its course at the first sign of invisible fire.

He picked up a blue spiral carapace as thick as an eggshell and threw it inside. Taking a step back when the pot immediately produced a poof, he steadied himself and read the contents on the black box.

“Item: Deep Sea Chitin (herb) (spirit) (uncommon)

A blue fibrous substance found naturally in the deep waters of Celestia. Often houses small water sprites or sea creatures. A rank D spirit material, often used for warding against fire sprites.

This Deep Sea Chitin was harvested approximately 1000 Celestian days ago and then dried for storage. Harvested by the Alchemy Association in Celestia using the cloud fishing method with help from the Ulu clan.

Found in the southern waters of Celestia.
Bought by the cultist named Joffrey Gullivan for 1 Celestial Coin.
Known uses: warding, alchemy, food.

Joffrey Gullivan? The previous ring owner, Lark guessed, his eyes narrowing as he grabbed another ingredient from the pile on the desk.

“Item: Yellow Grass (herb) (common)

A yellow plant fiber often used for making tea, which helps replenish stamina.

Found in the northern wilderness of Celestia.
Picked by Joffrey Gullivan.
Known uses: alchemy, cooking.”

Taking a quick peek at the pot, he nearly dropped the bundle of grass in his hand. The hard blue shell turned into a mesmerizing, aquamarine liquid at the bottom of the cauldron and a puff of smoke sprouted from the cauldron, hitting him squarely in the face before dancing back into the pot. Licking his lips, he pictured a large, blue ocean as his tongue rolled in briny salt. His cheeks suddenly hurt as if they were sunburned and wind-chapped. Maybe his imagination was in overdrive, but that breeze flying up his nose felt so real, he could hear seagulls in the same wind chirp by. He scratched his butt, itchy from the sand grains rubbing against his bare legs and he looked up, holding his tiny arms out, asking to be carried. Two arms swooped down and wrapped around him, while another pair of hands, wrinkled but warm, patted his face. Their twinkling smiles alight around the bonfire. If he could reach through—Oma, Mom—it’d be like they’re still here.

“Two minutes and thirty seconds,” Sphinx’s voice snapped him to attention; the potion was still brewing, but somehow that smoke made him relive a short memory. It didn’t matter though, they weren’t coming back.

Jerking his head, Lark raced to his apple timer to set the countdown. He placed the three purifying crystals in a triangular position inside the perimeter of the pathfinder and used Wangshi’s knife to chop the yellow grass into one-inch sized stems. Putting aside the cupful of herbs, he reached out for another ingredient and switched cutting blades. With the quartz knife, he pressed down on the sides of a thick root. Grimacing, he finally pushed hard enough for the celery-like material to leak teal-colored juice.

“Item: Elf Stem (herb) (magic) (rare)

A blue-green stem used to hang on doors to ward against dark magic. A rank D magic material. Once part of the Elf Tree, this stem retains some of the magical properties of elven magic.

Found in the northern fields of Celestia.
Grown by the Aapa Clan.
Stolen by Joffrey Gullivan.

Known uses: warding, alchemy, cooking.

He liked this person named Joffrey less and less. His lips quivered, wondering how much this Elf Stem was worth to be stolen. A part of him may have felt bad for the Aapa Clan, but Wangshi’s life took priority. If in the future he ran into a member of the clan, he would try to pay them back. But that was a concern for future Lark.

The apple timer jingled. After scooping the grass into the cauldron, he squeezed the bruised stem over the pot until three drops fell in.

“Lick your fingers,” Sphinx ordered.

“What?” Lark asked as he put away the Elf Stem into storage and teal juice stained his fore-fingers and thumb.

“Don’t question me, just do it!” Sphinx said sharply. Apparently, he learned something new in the last five minutes. No longer bothering to ask, Lark did as he was told albeit with hesitation.

His tongue traced over the blue-green residue, picking up the leftover juice like a thirsty dog. Somehow, he was glad Wangshi was inside Gushi’s magical time chamber for this part. The Elf Stem juice tasted neither bad nor good. Strange didn’t describe what his tongue was feeling either, but an odd sensation sat on the tip of his tongue and he wanted it off rather than in.

“Sphinx, what did you make me do?” Lark stuck his tongue as far out as he could and looked down the bridge of his nose. As he suspected his tongue was doing something weird…normal tongues didn’t change colors this quickly even with food coloring. Instead of a turquoise color, his tongue was dyed in a rich orange palette, and then switched to dark green, and switched again to a bright blue hue.

“Let it work its magic.” There was a musical amusement in Sphinx’s tart reply.

“Whaaa—” Lark sounded with his jaw squared and jutted out. Squirming at the sudden fiery-and-cold sensation over his tongue, he closed his mouth and swallowed air. The lumpy feeling traveled down his throat and boiled under his collar bone. Slapping a hand over his T-shirt, he pulled down and saw the newly formed tattoo on his chest. He almost passed out at the mark branding his thievery until Sphinx called him back to the cauldron.

“Honestly, the flower of life pattern looks good on you, but worry about the Aapa clan later. If they protected their possessions more carefully, then this wouldn’t have to happen. Better you than Joffrey.”

“I’m working with someone that doesn’t have a conscious,” Lark muttered, spooning a handful of honey into the mix.

“But I’m your conscious,” Sphinx pointed out.

Not bothering to give a response, Lark stirred the pot with the quartz rod, watching the colors bond together. No longer puffing, the bubbling liquid inside was almost ready according to Sphinx and he readied the funnel over the glass flask. With a few more flicks of the rod, the potion inside completely stilled.

Grabbing the sides of the cauldron, he poured the contents into three bottles. One for Wangshi, another for Gushi, and one for a rainy day. A waft of sweetness tickled his nostrils, no doubt the honey did the trick.

“Item: Elven Spirit Recovery Potion (rare)

A minor variation in the traditional alchemic spirit potion. This solution will heal all conditions(paralysis, sleep, burn, poison, freeze, curse, infatuation, memory loss, fear) caused by an accumulation of spiritual damage.

Has the taste of the Celestian seas; sweet fragrance of honey and elven trees; and healing ability equivalent to a rank B healing spell.

*May have unintended benefits due to the minor variations.

Ingredients: Deep sea chitin, yellow grass, elf stem, and honey.
12 fl oz.
Created by Lark Rune.”

Two beeps from his watch disturbed him from his first successful potion-making session. It wasn’t the kind of ringtone that notified him of incoming messages - not that he had anyone available to message him except maybe his therapist, and god forbid Daisy - but a system update.

The first notification box informed him that he achieved another title, [Beginner Alchemist]. Unlike the time, he got the [Beginner Beast Tamer] title, this box was in blue.

“[Beginner Alchemist]
Passive: Improves your ability to craft potions and salves.
Active effects: +5 DEX, +5 INT, +10 MG, +10 SPT +20 LUK.

Wow! A total of fifty points in exchange for three potions!

After switching out titles, he moved onto the cog wheel with a red circled number above it and another blue screen pulled out to his forearm.

“You’ve achieved over a hundred item scans! The settings menu is now available and you’ve been given (1) [Location Scan!] Click ‘OK’ to proceed with the update!”