Ascension: Online

- Several Minutes Earlier -

Upon returning back to the inn, I ended up running into Ming Hong once more.

"Brother Kaze…"

"What's up?" I asked, exhausted but not showing it on the surface.

"Sorry about this… Ming An and Ming Kang insisted on playing with Aisa…"

"Aisa… about that, she's sick today," I lied. "Hina-nee and I just returned from buying her medicine."

"Leaving her alone in the room…?" Ming Hong questioned, a little skeptical. "Back when my mother was still alive, she would kill me if I ever let Ming An and Ming Kang on their own."

"Well, Aisa's sleeping, and she's… pretty mature for her age. I don't think there will be any danger in leaving her alone, but…"

"Still, she is just a child. Accidents can happen."

I nodded. "I'll take your advice. Thanks."

"Ming Kang, Ming An, you hear that? Aisa is sick, so she can't play with you," Ming Hong said to his younger siblings.

"Aw… hope she gets better," Ming An said tearfully.

"Mm, I want to play with her again," Ming Kang added.

I smiled faintly to the two younger children. "Yeah… she'll be better soon, I promise."

"Oh yes, by the way…" Ming Hong suddenly interjected. "About the deal we made last time, when we first met…"

"Oh right, I already told Guildmaster Feng to give you all the money."

"I know - I received it. It just took me a while to compile all the hidden arts that I know into a book."

My eyes widened. "You… wrote down all the hidden arts you knew inside a book? That must've been a lot of work… you didn't have to do that."

He shook his head. "No, it was quite tedious, but nothing too difficult. Having a book on hand will make it easier to study the art rather than hearing someone explain or demonstrate it, contrary to common belief."

Saying this, he took off the backpack he was wearing and opened it up, then took out a thin book of some kind. The paper was clearly low-quality, bond together by string, but it was the thought that count.

I took the book he handed to me, as he bowed deeply.

"I… apologize for the poor quality… my writing skills are not very good, and neither is my craftsmanship. From a young age, all I have been taught to do was how to speak formally and politely. Even fighting was self-taught. I do not know that many hidden arts either, but everything I know, I put into that book. I hope that this will be of use to Brother Kaze someday."

I shook my head as I flipped through the pages, impressed with the amount of work and detail put into this.

"This is already far better than what I had expected. Thank you."

"Well then, Brother Kaze, we shall take our leave. Send my sincerest wishes to Aisa."

I nodded in response and shut the book tight. "I'll be sure to relay your message."

With that, the tree of them left, leaving only us three once more.

"Hey… I just realized this, but why am I always the one doing all the talking whenever we interact with other people?" I asked the two girls.

"You seem to be doing fine, so why do you need us to talk too?" Furuwa scoffed.

"Mm, yeah. This is a good opportunity for you to practice socializing with others, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee smiled warmly. "You never got to really talk with anyone your own age except for me, before entering this game. This is a good change of pace for you."

I sighed. "I guess…"

The three of us entered the inn and went up into our room after I extended our booking once again.

After closing the door behind us, I sat down on a chair and relaxed as the others did the same.

"Ah… finally, I can rest…"

"Don't get too comfortable," Furuwa warned. "There's still one last rift to take care of, tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah… why do you have to ruin my peace like that? Whatever…" I felt my eyelids getting heavy, and subconsciously pulled up my System to just run a quick stat check before my nap.

"This…!"

My eyes shot back open as I sat up straight in the chair, now fully awake.

"What happened?" Hina-nee asked, confused.

"… Check your stats. Both of you."

Furuwa and Hina-nee did as told, but then looked at me in puzzlement.

"What is it, Kaze-kun?" Hina-nee asked. "I don't see anything wrong."

I frowned. "Huh? Then… is it just me…?"

"What's just you?" Furuwa narrowed her eyes as she stood up and walked towards me, looking over my shoulder to see my stats displayed on the hologram.

Her eyes widened. "What the hell… a 50 point increase to all stats?!"

Indeed, she was right. These were my current stats:

[STR: 280]

[AGI: 290]

[INT: 140]

[DEX: 160]

[MAG: 200]

[LUC: 55]

The last time I checked my stats was right before the tournament began, nearly a week ago. My passive stat increases plus this 50 point increase to all six aspects brought my overall power up quite a lot.

As for my LUC stat… apparently, it had first went down by 10, for some reason, then increased by 50, since I was fairly certain it was at 15 a week ago. Since I was on this screen anyway, I used the SP I got from reaching Level 32 to bring AGI up to 300, then the rest of the INT to bring it up to 150.

Still… 50 points times six stats… that's a 300 point increase in total - the equivalent of about 30 levels. I was only Level 32 right now, but my stat total was now 1095, the just above that of a Level 110 player - excluding the stat bonuses given through the various cultivation ranks.

Of course, fights didn't go one way or another based on stats alone, but they certainly helped. With these new stats, I was confident I could beat almost any other player below Level 75, if it were a fight to the death.

I gulped. "Yeah… I'm not sure how exactly this happened, but my guess is on that strange black energy I consumed."

"Wha- but Sakura-senpai and I both did that as well, didn't we? Why did our stats not go up at all?"

"I think… maybe it has something to do with Kaze-kun's physical body being in this reality plane as well," Hina-nee conjectured. "Chiaki-san, the two of us here are mere projections of our real bodies, which are still on Earth. However, Kaze-kun is different."

"Yeah, you told me, his body disappeared or whatever on Earth, right? So this essentially makes him equivalent to a native of Ascentia, just… also with the benefits of a player."

"Indeed. Therefore, while he can fully absorb that dark power and have it enter his real body, we can't. Maybe that's why the power boost we gained from the energy was only temporary - our projections are unable to hold such a power for long, while Kaze-kun with his real body can store and use it forever."

"Huh… yeah, that makes sense. God, I'm jealous, though… I'm stuck in here too, but Kaze has cheats I don't…" Furuwa growled in frustration.

Then, she sighed. "At the same time, though… I wouldn't want my parents to be any more concerned than they already are, after seeing how I'm not logging out of AR. Hopefully, they've seen the news, and don't accidentally unplug my helmet."

"Haha, just pray that no power outages or anything happen," Hina-nee giggled.

"Power outages? We haven't had one of those in Tokyo for ages," I snorted. "But anyway… back to the matter at hand… perhaps this was also why I felt that hollowness in my heart while you two didn't."

"That seems like a reasonable explanation," Furuwa noted. "But with this… you should be a lot stronger now, right?"

I nodded. "Definitely. I am 99% certain I can defeat Nadeshiko now, either tomorrow or Sunday."

"Only 99%? You do realize your stat total is about nearly four times what they should be given your level, right?" Furuwa raised an eyebrow.

"It's always good to leave a little bit of room of uncertainty. This way, you won't accidentally subconsciously underestimate your opponent," Hina-nee smiled.

"Right… I think I'm going to go take a shower first today," I said, sighing deeply and closing out of my System. "I'm really feeling tired now, after seeing that."

I still had leftover AP to spend, but right now, I just wanted to crash and sleep. It was one of those times.

"Go ahead, Kaze-kun. I'll go after."

"Then, I guess I'll go back to my room," Furuwa said, heading for the door. "I'll see you two tomorrow morning."

I nodded. "Don't oversleep."

"I'll be fine…"

Saying that, she closed the door behind her as she left.

"So, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee spoke before I could enter the bathroom.

"Hm?"

"Now that she's gone… mind telling me why you were faking your pain when touching the tetrahedrons?"