Universal Power System

[Rewards: +50,000 EXP, 100 Bronze Tier Coins, Random, One Random Ability Level up]

[User has leveled up!]

[Reward: +50 Attribute points, Random Attribute Increase]

[Current Level: Lvl 12]

[Strength has been elevated to 35]

[Choosing Random Ability]

[Fire has been upgraded to Level 4]

Several notifications were coming through as Mako received the rewards for saving Bill's life. He was quite pleased with them as they were equivalent to the rewards he received. Starting from the massive gain in EXP which nudged him into finally reaching level 12.

The amount of EXP required to level up was getting quite big which was portrayed by the fact that Mako had to gain 2 million EXP in order to level up again. At this rate, it would become impossible for Mako to level up as the requirements would just get too big.

However, Mako didn't worry about it too much. If the system was increasing the requirement for leveling up so fast, then it will also compensate for it by giving more EXP for quests or giving better rewards for the daily quests. Mako didn't know what the system had in store for him but he trusted it to figure it out on its own and not stress about it himself.

He also received 100 Bronze coins which was a nice bonus as now he could be on the lookout for things in the shop that he potentially wanted to purchase.

But the last reward for the quest was the most important one for Mako. Since the beginning of his journey, he had his level 3 Fire Ability and now it was finally getting upgraded as well. Mako quickly checked out the upgrade before proceeding further.

[Fire] ?

[Fire is an offensive ability, your offensive stats will be increased when using fire-based moves]

[Strength +25]

[Agility +15]

[Stamina +5]

[To activate these boosts, you have to keep your ability active which will passively drain energy as well as release the aura of a level 4 Fire ability user]

[Current rate of energy consumption: 4 Energy per minute]

The boosts had been increased similar to the Lightning Ability upgrade and Mako wanted to check out his profile next to see how much his stats had improved.

[Profile] ?

[User: Mako Grey]

[Health: 325/500] ?

[Energy: 1865/2000] ?

[EXP: 41800/204800] ?

[Account: 120 Bronze Tier Coins] ?

[Level 12] ?

[Strength: 35 (+45) ] ?

[Agility: 30 (+35) ] ?

[Perception: 30] ?

[Intelligence: 30] ?

[Mentality: 50] ?

[Stamina: 30 (+15) ] ?

[Charisma: Locked] ?

[Fortitude: 30] ?

[Attribute Points: 98] ?

Mako was quite pleased with the upgrade and now he held two level 4 abilities. The combination of the boost from abilities and his own base stats was enough to propel his Strength into the seventies and Agility in the sixties. Strength was by far his strongest attribute with all the boosts it was getting as Mako's entire skillset was based on the offense.

Thanks to the system, he also gained a boost in mentality which was now exactly fifty. However, the rest of Mako's attributes were quite behind as even though the base stats were similar, they weren't receiving any boosts from either of his abilities. Not to mention that the system didn't display the additional boost that Mako would receive from his armor and weapons.

The number saved of Attribute points had also skyrocketed as Mako almost had a hundred Attribute points saved up. Some of these were earned through completing the daily quests while the rest was given as a reward for leveling up.

Mako had never missed a daily quest. The system was quite intelligent as it gave him quests that were doable given his circumstances and environment. The daily quests were also paused whenever Mako was knocked out and so he didn't really have to worry about waking up and finding that he failed to do a daily quest that day.

Another thing that Mako had learned was that Daily quests would become disabled while Mako had an Emergency quest active as he didn't receive a daily quest for today or yesterday. It was quite a nice feature that Mako appreciated. It was nice to see that the system had been cleverly designed to cover all types of different situations.

With so many attribute points, Mako decided that he had more than enough saved up that he could spend some to increase his weaker stats a bit.

'Add 20 Attribute points to Perception,' Mako commanded the system.

*DING!*

[User had reached base stat of 30 on Perception. From this point forward, Each increase in a stat will cost 2 Attribute points.]

[Does the user still wish to continue?]

[YES/NO]

"What? Why is it charging more now?" Mako said as he was confused by the system's message.

The system had made it so that instead of using one Attribute point for increasing his stat by one, it would now cost two. Suddenly, the large number of Attribute points didn't look so large anymore. This meant that in order to get his Perception equal to his Mentality, Mako had to spend 40 Attribute points instead of 20.

This meant that going forward, the price for each stat upgrade would continue to increase as it was the same deal as the EXP requirement. Mako was a bit frustrated at first, but all he could do was accept the new price. Mako once again left it up to the system to figure out. It was increasing the cost to increase one stat then it would also give him opportunities to earn larger amounts of Attribute points.

Seeing that there was some sort of barrier for when his stats reached 30, Mako wanted to see how much would it cost for him to increase his greatest base stat, that being Mentality.

'Add 10 Attribute points to Mentality.' Mako commanded the system once again and sure enough, another notification popped up in front of his eyes. This one was even more ridiculous than the first one.

[ERROR!]

[User has reached the cap for his Mentality. In order to upgrade Mentality any further, the user has to reach level 15.]

It looked like 50 was the highest he could get in any base stat and it would remain that way until he reached level 15. It was the exact same thing as when Mako wanted to increase his health points but the system told him that he had reached the cap for health points.

'If that's the case, then it's no use stockpiling these points anyway,' Mako thought to himself as he thought of how he was going to progress further.

'Add 40 Attribute points to Perception,' Mako commanded the system.

'Add 40 Attribute points to Fortitude,' Mako commanded the system.

[40 attribute Points have been added to Perception]

[Perception has been elevated to 50]

[40 attribute Points have been added to Fortitude]

[Fortitude has been elevated to 50]

[Attribute Points Remaining: 18 Attribute Points]

The cool refreshing feeling of stats being upgraded by Attribute points was stronger than ever, and Mako was slightly afraid that he might get addicted to this feeling considering how much he enjoyed it.

Mako had increased his two out of three weakest stats to the maximum base unit so that he could be nearer to all his other stats. He decided that he would still stockpile Attribute points so that he could still use them in case he ever needs them; otherwise, he would just spend it to get all his stats' base value up to 50.

The healing pill had started to do its magic as Mako's broken nose was almost completely healed. The process got even faster, once Mako used Recover.

With his body almost back in tip-top shape, Mako decided to gather some more supplies and get more food, especially since there was another person with them. Bill was still knocked out and didn't look like he would come to anytime soon, and the same held true for Leon.

Both of them had suffered quite a bit and it would take some time for both of them to wake up and recover. Mako grabbed his own backpack as he prepared to leave the cave. He reactivated the laser trap before exiting the cave and going back toward the stream.

************

[At the Military headquarters]

Live footage of Mako walking out of the cave and heading toward the stream was displayed and all the officials around the round table were so impressed with Mako's actions that they were currently all applauding.

They had been watching him live, ever since Leon had entered the cave because all of them were interested in how the two of them would interact. They were quite surprised to learn that the two of them had some history and Mako was the one that Leon was searching for.

Nobody was able to predict the events that took place in that cave and were genuinely impressed by Mako's performance and personality.

************

Mako had no idea that he was being watched at all, and he didn't even care. Since the test had begun, he had been an emotional wreck. He was finally relieved of all the stress as he could finally take a breather.

He strolled up to the stream with a big smile on his face, ready to catch some fish that could last all three of them the entire day.

He first cleaned himself using the water from the stream and then began hunting several different species of fish. It hadn't even been 20 minutes yet, and he suddenly sensed something to his left.

"Damn, this level of perception is no joke," Mako said to himself and continued to fish.

A couple of seconds later, three cadets jumped out of a bush to his left and quickly surrounded him. The cadets consisted of 2 boys and one girl and each of them had a Power weapon in their hands.

"Alright, listen up! We want all the fish that you have caught. Give them to us quietly and we won't hurt you!" One of the boy cadets ordered Mako.

Mako paid no attention to them and continued to stare down at the stream to catch any passing fish.

The cadets were confused as to what to do next as their target wasn't even acknowledging their presence. The boy tried to repeat himself but even before he could open his mouth, Mako replied to them in a low cold tone.

"I am only going to say this once. Get lost and leave me alone." Mako said.