Chương 11

The week passed for Sobelle stressfully. Her snares proved to be useful, and they caught an excess of forest rodents for her to eat. Sobelle selfishly consumed all of them and didn't share with anyone from her family. She hated it, but if the gods said she needed to do this, then it meant she had permission to abandon her family just this once. She was close to finishing her sprint for the day, and once that was done, she'd get 10 points in [Strength] and finally get access to another skill.

The gods would bless her with something good; Sobelle could feel it. Her last steps were close; Sobelle hastened her run and closed the remaining distance in just a few seconds. Then she stopped and waited for the blue boxes to appear and tell her that she'd earned more stats for her efforts. [+3 Strength!] [+2 Endurance!] [+2 Dexterity!] Now the change actually caused Sobelle to be shocked. She tried to wrap her head around the concept; her getting so many stats all at once was completely foreign until now.

She didn't even think it was possible for her to get more than 2 points! Yet the gods changed her expectations and worldview. Of course it was possible to get more than 2 points; why hadn't she thought of that? That was possible. Of course it was. Why wouldn't it be? As Sobelle's mind desperately tried to change its ideas on how the system worked, the gods went ahead and rewarded her with a new skill. [Skill [Limit Break] Added!] Everything came to a stop when her eyes read the name.

Again, she understood nothing about the skill just from reading that alone. Well, she had some idea, but what did breaking her limits even mean? And didn't she already do that every time she forced herself to work despite exhaustion, stress, and a bunch of other stuff? [Limit Break - Bodies are limited by their own mind; in order to protect themselves, bodies do not use all of their strength. You are no longer subjected to this; the limit imposed by the body will not affect you. You can kick a wall with your toes up and you would not hesitate and break your bones.] This is... Sobelle read that last part over and over again. She did remember hesitating when she kicked walls in the past, and her body would always hesitate just before it landed a hit. So she didn't get affected by that anymore? Why? What's the use of something like this?

'Wait, it says that my body doesn't use all of its strength, and now it does? So I am actually much stronger now.' The skill achieved what it set out to do, except it also hindered Sobelle in some way. Maybe the gods thought she'd be far too strong if she were to just get increased strength for no apparent reason? But even then, Sobelle didn't think she'd use it for anything other than good, so an increase in strength without caveats would be ideal regardless. Sobelle shook her head.

No, she shouldn't judge the gods' decisions; if they wanted to limit her, then they would. She had no say in what they gave; the only thing she could do was be thankful for the blessings they gave her. Sobelle straightened her posture and felt a rush of air from how fast she moved. The wind blew on her ear so hard that she temporarily went deaf because of it. This made her doubt the gods' decisions again, but her mind quickly rationalized it as another test. And wasn't this test particularly distasteful?

Sobelle hated every second she spent trying to learn how to control the strength in her limbs, because every movement she made was simply too much. Walking had more force than necessary; moving her arm almost snapped it, and even turning her head caused her to get whiplash. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. She stood in that field, testing her new limits. It had taken her time, but Sobelle eventually learned how to control her new strength.

Walking now felt like she needed to constantly watch where she stepped, and although she took it slowly at first, Sobelle eventually learned how to move her muscles just enough that she walked normally again. She noticed that she had lost her sense of touch as well. She held a piece of wood, and it cracked under her grip. Her hand hurt afterward too. Every time Sobelle took a step, she felt more confident in her bodily control, and she was taking big strides by the time she was halfway to the village.

It wasn't bad now that she got used to it, really; the only problem came when she first got the skill.

'Then again, I feel like I'm constantly pushing myself physically right now.' Was that weird? Sobelle didn't think that was a normal thing. Would she get easily tired because of this? And how did this new skill interact with her previous one? [Inexhaustible Vessel] didn't leave her system after she got a new skill, so it meant the two of them worked in tandem. Sobelle wasn't sure of it yet, but her first skill definitely helped prevent the worst effects of her new one.

If that was the case, then she was glad to have gotten her hands on [Inexhaustible Vessel] before [Limit Break]. None of these skills helped her with her tests, unfortunately, and Sobelle had to manually learn the rest of the so-called "multiplication table," and to do that, she decided to not do any sort of work in the afternoon and just went straight to her alcove. Sobelle repeated the numbers in her head as she went inside the forest and checked her traps.

She got several rats today; a few of them were plump and round, the perfect meal. She sat down in front of her fire pit and gutted her fresh prey. Sobelle removed any parasites stuck on the skin or the organs of the critters; the ticks came off with the hide, so she didn't need to do much when it came to them. However, worms, tumors, and infected wounds were not so easily removed, so Sobelle had to manually slice those off the carcasses. Then she cleaned them, chopped them up, and roasted them over a fire.

She intended to make another stew, but with how many parasites the rats had, Sobelle thought that she'd get those too if she were to cook the rats any other way. Sobelle ate her meal once the rats were properly roasted, and she finished all of them in one sitting. Maybe this was the reason why she earned so many points earlier? She ate "protein," and the gods said it encouraged growth so the dots could be connected. Then again, how did Thetras grow so big?

No one said he ate a lot of meat when he was young, and he also explained that he mostly had vegetables as a child. Was it because Sobelle was a woman that things were different? Did women eat meat to grow strong and men vegetables? Probably. The gods didn't answer her, so it would remain a mystery until they did. Sobelle was satisfied even then; she didn't care about the reason behind her growth as long as it kept happening. She had no reason to complain.

After her meal, Sobelle went back to the forest and rearmed her traps. She used the bones and other leftovers as bait. Then she studied. It wasn't long before the gods tested her, so she needed to spend as much time as she could memorizing the remaining numbers. She'd managed to do it four days ago, and since then, she did nothing but repeat them until they were second nature. Once the test appeared, Sobelle went to work and filled out all the questions it presented.

The tens were incredibly easy, so she did that one first; she just added 0s next to the normal numbers. Done. When it came to difficulty, Sobelle found the numbers 9 and 7 to be unbearably hard. She took her time when she dealt with those and hoped that what she filled in ended up correct. She then moved on to the remaining numbers; these were easy, and she answered all of them quickly. Finally, she submitted her answers and waited for the gods' judgment. To her surprise, she was correct! In all of them.

The tension in Sobelle's shoulders disappeared, and she allowed herself to relax. Her rigid body went forward, and the breath she'd been holding in left her mouth. Her lips curved into a smile, glad that it was finally over. Then came the rewards, and she got an extra two points of intelligence that got added to her stats. [+2 Intelligence!] If she were to get this stat to reach 10 points, would another skill appear? That was the pattern so far, so maybe? Why were the gods so obsessed with that number anyway?

Sobelle checked and opened her system and felt proud of her achievements so far.... [Stats] [Strength: 11] [Endurance: 13] [Dexterity: 9] [Intelligence: 8] [Wisdom: 7] [Level: 5] [Stat Points: 15] Skills: [Inexhaustible Vessel - You are far tougher than most. Where others give up when under heavy duress, you bear the pain and wear your effort with pride. However, this does not heal you.] [Limit Break - Bodies are limited by their own mind; in order to protect themselves, bodies do not use all of their strength. You are no longer subjected to this; the limit imposed by the body will not affect you. You can kick a wall with your toes up, and you would not hesitate and break your bones.]