Chương 3

Sobelle made herself comfortable. She opened her system without much thought, she already knew that no one else but her could see the light that appeared from the blue boxes. So while she could see past the darkness, everyone else could not. To them, the room was as dark as it was when the light of the candle was killed. Sobelle checked her quests and found that her morning routine had reset once more.... [Prepare for War!] Push Ups: 0 / 75 Sit Ups: 0 / 200 Pull Ups: 0 / 50 Weight Lift: 0 / 75 Jogging: 0 / 10km Sprint: 0 / 2km... She would repeat these things just like always, and finish around lunch. Where she'd eat, then do her chores after that. Her routine was perfectly simple during the day, and the Gods even rewarded her for it. But also, it made Sobelle wonder when she would see her grand purpose because this so-called "war" had never appeared in the one year she possessed her system.

With a press of her finger, the box's contents changed into another quest. This time it was a lesson meant to encourage her to study the multiplication of the number after three.... [The next step in your education is the multiplication of the number (4) — an even number, and very easy to multiply. Learning how to multiply this number will make it easier for you to count coming forward.]... And that was all it did.

Unlike in the past, when Sobelle learned how to read, how the boxes explained things felt rather simplistic, as though it wasn't trying to teach her at all. She didn't hate it—she was glad that the gods even gave her the smallest hint of what she needed to do— but a part of her wished the boxes were as thorough as they were in the past. Did the gods hate her suddenly? Was it because she couldn't solve the questions fast enough?

'I'll do better than that. I promise.' Sobelle pressed her palms together and started to pray to the Gods. She promised them of harder work in the future, of more effort put into the trials, she whispered things that she wanted to do when she finally realized her true potential and told the Gods her opinion of everything she had gone through so far.

'I am but your humble servant. Please continue guiding me.' Once she finished praying, Sobelle closed her eyes and went to sleep. Morning wouldn't wait for her and with how long it took for her to finish, Sobelle needed to start her physical routine as early as possible. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw green light. She looked down from her top-side bed and saw her brother with his new shell, which illuminated the room dimly.

Even though Sobelle couldn't see it properly because her eyes were blurred from sleep, she knew that the shell was shaped like a cone based on the color alone. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

'Cones are green, circles are yellow, spiral circles are red, the elusive horn snail is blue and...' Sobelle yawned as she counted all the different colors created by different snail shells. Darkness took her again moments later. It was morning when Sobelle opened her again. She looked outside her window to see the time and saw that the sun hadn't even gone up yet, which made it perfect.

She left her bed without even changing her clothes, locked eyes with her younger brother who pissed in a bucket, then left the room. Under the breaking dawn, Sobelle jogged to the outskirts of the village and went through her routine. She found flat, dry ground and started with push ups, then moved to do her sit ups. She took a small break to loosen her limbs after those two, and once she felt that she could move again, she started her jog.

She finished it just as the village went alive and then moved to the forest where she searched for a low hanging branch. Sobelle jumped, latched onto the branch, and started pulling her body weight with nothing but her arms. Breaks were necessary, otherwise her arms would break and be unusable for a long time. This was a lesson she learned the hard way in the past.

For lifting weights, Sobelle went to where she usually did it: a small clearing close to the edge of the forest where she had a coil of vine tied around a freshly fallen log. She grabbed the vine and whined when the log's weight made her stumble. She had already chipped most of the wood and yet it was still heavy. Sobelle worked with arms that burned from overexertion and refused to stop, she clenched her jaw so much that her tongue hurt.

The number 75 felt so beyond her that for a moment, she believed it wasn't possible, yet she finished it all. Just like all the days before this one, Sobelle completed the trials and proved to the Gods she was worthy of their attention and guidance. The branch crashed to the ground. Sobelle followed shortly after. Sweat ran down the side of her face as she stared at the brightening sky. The sun would slowly reach the middle of the sky, but it was only a quarter of the way there.

She finished much quicker than normal... Or so she'd say. Sobelle sat up and rolled her shoulders, she lifted herself off the ground and began punching the air to loosen the aching muscles in her arms. She didn't waste any more time and started her daily sprint. The edge of the village was perfect for doing this, as all she needed to do was circle it 10 times before she finished.

The luxury of stopping for even a second didn't exist for this particular trial so Sobelle forced herself to run even as her lungs desperately asked her to breathe. She collapsed for the second time after she finished but it was worth it. Her lips grinned on their own as the boxes appeared and rewarded her with the same increase in stats she got every other morning: [+1 Strength!] [+2 Endurance!] [+1 Dexterity!] Sobelle was more than happy to take the increased stats but the gods felt generous that day and rewarded her with something she had never seen before. All this time, she believed that the system was nothing more than a measure of her physical self but she was wrong. [10 Endurance Reached! Granting Reward...] The box stayed in her vision while she recovered. Sobelle's thoughts stopped, the word "reward" occupied every inch of her mind. What were the gods planning?

Did they finally acknowledge her as someone worthy? Of course they did! She worked hard in order to please them, it was only natural that they'd finally see it fit to give her something. [Skill [Inexhaustible Vessel] Added!] Sobelle's lips moved downward. What did this mean? What was an inexhaustible vessel? She had an idea of what a skill did, the word was familiar to her; it was something that someone is good at. A skill. Problem is, there is no skill called [Inexhaustible Vessel].

Or at least it didn't exist in the village, everyone here was skillful in things like farming, herding, archery, or swordsmanship. As far as Sobelle knew, there wasn't a single person who was skilled in being an inexhaustible vessel in the village. [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.] Sobelle still had no clue what the skill did after reading the box that popped up.

She was far tougher than most? She had to be, she didn't want to disappoint the gods. Or maybe this was their way of acknowledging her efforts? It wasn't a skill, but maybe it wasn't meant to be? The Gods simply wanted to praise her for being so tenacious.

'So the Gods truly are watching me, then?' Sobelle forced herself up to thank them for the acknowledgement and found it much easier to move. She straightened her legs, jumped up and down, and even ran for a minute or so. No matter what she did, the feeling of tiredness that had filled her body moments ago never came back. Sobelle looked at her hands.

'So I was truly blessed? With great stamina?' She didn't know what to say, what she felt right now was so overwhelming that no words could possibly describe it. She was grateful, happy, relieved, excited, zealous, and so many more. And she felt this all at the exact same time. Her eyes burned, they blurred, her cheeks felt wet. Sobelle wiped her face but it didn't stop anything. Her chest hurt and a constant thrum beat at her head, everything felt so hazy, and her body felt like it floated in the sky.

She inhaled, was she drowning? Worry filled Sobelle's veins and disappeared just as quickly, her mind calmed and clarity came back to her senses. She inhaled and looked at the sky.

"Thank you."