Pran lay on his bed, mostly keeping his eyes shut, but from time to time, he'd open them to check the timer. He felt like the remaining time was passing at a snail's pace. All he wanted was for the timer to be over so he could move his body freely once again.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity to him, he heard the familiar voice of the system.
[Ding! The player is now able to move freely.]
[Ding! All the requirements have been met, and the 'Quest System' will now be enabled for the player.]
[Ding! Quest System enabled.]
[Ding! Please check the quest window for more information!"]
The sound of the system stopped as abruptly as it started, leaving Pran perplexed.
Quest System? Quest Window? What the heck is that? I've never heard of anything like this, even when I met a few very high-level players previously, he thought, racking his brain to recall as much as he could. But even after a long time, he wasn't able to recall anything.
Soon, he calmed his mind, took a deep breath, and looked around. He found his mother and his younger sister who were still by his bedside but had fallen asleep.
He badly wanted to check his new stats and what this "Quest System" was but decided not to for the time being. He didn't want to open his stats window or this quest window for fear that he might trigger something similar to what happened to him not so long ago. As it was already night, he decided he'd do that the next morning after making some preparations. If things got out of hand, he'd be ready to deal with the situation.
Next morning.
It was around 5 a.m. in the morning when Pran woke up. He tried to move his body and was happy to find that other than feeling slightly weak due to not eating anything for almost 2 days, he was fine. He tried to get up but seeing his mother and younger sister still sleeping he just lay there to let them sleep some more.
But after just 10 mins he started to get restless.
I should at least open my status window, and check what changes have occurred, but won’t touch anything. And as for the question system window, I’ll check that later.
With his mind made up, he murmured in a soft voice: “Status Window!”
【Name: Pran Sharma】
【Titles: First in the Multiverse】
【Race: Human】
【Level: 0】
【Job: None】
【HP: 600/600 | ST: 300/300 | MP: 540/540】
【Remaining Points: 20】
【Attributes: Strength: 19 ((4+10)+35%) | Endurance: 20 ((5+10)+35%) | Intelligence: 17 ((3+10)+35%) | Vitality: 20 ((5+10)+35%) | Agility: 23 ((7+10)+35%)】
【Active Skills: None】
【Passive Skills: None】
【Special Active Skills: Eye Spy (B)】
【Special Passive Skills: Mana Heart (D), Void Body (D)】
【Exclusive Skills: Unbreakable Spirit (D)】
It was fortunate that Pran was lying down at the moment because if he were standing, he would surely have collapsed after seeing his status window.
Holy fuck! What are these numbers? How can anyone have such insane stats at level 0? Or... am I hallucinating due to the high fever damaging my brain?
Pran opened and closed his status window several times, but the same unbelievable figures greeted him every time. Now he understood why the system had put him into a forced sleep state; his body and mind might not have been able to cope with such a sudden surge of power.
He shut the status window and tried to calm his racing heart, but the temptation to open the quest menu only grew stronger.
What is the quest system? Am I the only one to have it? If others do, why didn't anyone mention it in my past life? Or is it some kind of secret that can't be shared? I really want to open the quest window and check, but I don't want to trigger anything while my mom and Anya are still here with me. I'll wait until I'm alone and fully recovered before I take a look.
After about two hours, Pran's mother was the first to wake up. When she saw that Pran was already awake, she smiled and asked, "How are you feeling, my baby?"
Pran felt happy inside, but outwardly he grumbled, "I'm not a baby anymore. I'm already 22 years old."
"Of course, I know that," replied his mother. "But to me, you'll always be my baby, just like your sisters. Anyway, you must be feeling very hungry. Let me go and make something light for you to eat." Pran's mother gently ruffled his hair and went to the kitchen to cook for him.
"I'm really lucky to have gotten this second chance," Pran thought to himself, closing his eyes and smiling contentedly.
Soon he got out of bed without waking up his little sister and went to freshen up. Then he went to the dining table to find that his mother was still cooking in the kitchen. She saw him coming with a bit of an unsteady gait and felt both sad to see her son in this condition and happy that he was no longer sick. However, she didn't know that Pran was just doing his best to adjust to his new strength.
After Pran finished his breakfast, he slowly started walking around the house, feeling the cool breeze from the open windows. His mother came to him and said, "Pran, please take some rest. You just got your strength back, and your body still needs rest."
"I know, Mom," Pran replied with a smile. "But I feel like I've been lying in bed forever. I just want to move around and feel normal again."
His mother sighed but could not refuse her son's request. "Alright, but don't tire yourself out too much."
"Don't worry, I'll just walk for a bit then go back to rest," Pran assured her.
Soon his father and elder sister also woke up and after finding that Pran was all better now they were happy for him, when Anya woke up and knew this she jump around and hugged Pran.
Soon time passed by and two more days passed and Pran was now fully adjusted to his new strength. Throughout all this time he put the thoughts to check the quest window at the back of his mind, cause he didn’t want to take any chances.
On the second night, he finally made up his mind, after dinner, he went to his room and sat on his bed, and with tense nerves and a loudly beating heart he murmured: “Quest Window!”
[Ding! Quest Window opening for the first time successfully.]
[Ding! A quest has been issued!]
[Ding! You are among the rare beings that have successfully opened the quest system, but you still have a long way to go. Prove yourself by completing your first quest that you are worthy of becoming the Elite among the players.]
[Ding! Quest 1 First Test: Clear the dungeon that will open near your house with at least 70% compilation rate on “Elite” difficulty or higher.]
[Ding! Rewards will be calculated by the final compilation rate.]
[Warning! The quest system is a secret that should not be divulged to others. In case that happens you will be stripped from “Player” stats and punishment will be issued!]
Pran was once again taken aback, and at least one of his questions was answered: he now understood why he hadn't heard anything about the quest system in his previous life.
However, he couldn't understand why the system was kept a secret. It's not like anyone knowing about it would cause any harm. Still, he knew from experience that ignoring the warnings given by the system was a very bad idea. He had seen many people lose their status or even get obliterated because of it.
"Also, since when did dungeons have the option to select a difficulty level?" he thought out loud. "I've never heard of this before, so it must be related to the quest system. However, there was nothing stating that I cannot talk about it, or that it's related to the quest system, which is why there was no separate warning regarding it."
The more Pran thought about it, the more confused and lost he felt. He decided to focus on what he could do for now and do start his research when he entered the tower later. He was already planning to test himself in the upcoming dungeon, so it wasn't much of a hassle for him.
But the difficulty levels still troubled him. Before, he was just going to enter the dungeon without any gear so he could test his physical prowess, but now things had changed. Even though he was "overpowered" by normal standards and was close to an average level 15 player, he didn't want to take any chances. He decided to look for a decent set of armor and a good weapon.
But as he was going to start browsing for those he suddenly remembered that he had 3 Mythic Boxes in his inventory. Without any hesitation, he opened his inventory to check them.