Your Procrastination Skill has got to level 3!

  Your Procrastination Skill has got to level 4!

  Matheus tried to be productive in other ways. He had also increased his Hiding skill to level 4, climbing to 3 and had leveled up once. He ended up increasing his Constitution and his core, giving him an extra space on his Inventory.

  But he knew what he was doing. He was trying to find other things to focus on, new excuses, just so he wouldn’t have to deal with other people again.

  He had been so long just hunting, killing monsters and general grinding, that he’d started to believe his days of dealing with humans were over.

  Thinking about it now, he had been living in peace, in a way. He still had to struggle to survive every day, but monsters…they weren’t mean. There’s more animal instinct than true malice. Now, humans could be cruel. Humans could be sadistic, bloodthirsty and truly evil.

  Was he really ready to deal with humans again? Damnit, wasn’t this supposed to be a Contest with beings from other worlds? Would some of those humans also be Champions? He didn’t know. There was a lot he didn’t know.

  The only thing Matheus knew for sure was that he was fucked. He couldn’t avoid the city forever, it was obvious the place he needed to go, as confirmed by the new levels in procrastination.

  Still, for almost two whole days he came near enough to survey the city and imagined himself going towards it, but never did. He spent hours practicing hundreds of different interactions in his mind, and even though some started very promising, they all ended the same.

  He was always bullied at the end.

  Matheus shook his head, trying to make the sound of laughter go away. It didn’t. He knew it wouldn’t. It was always there.

  For two long days, he couldn’t make himself do it.

  But there was one thought more terrifying than being the butt of the joke again.

  “If I stop now, I’ll never be something else. This life will be my only life. That will be my whole story.” he said silently to himself, gathering his strength.

  “If I don’t go, I’ll have given up on hope”.

  Before Matheus could change his mind, he walked towards the city.

  “Halt!” Screamed one of the guards, seeing him approach. He let his spear pointed in his direction. “Name and business”.

  Of course, Matheus was prepared for it.

  He had observed the same interaction a few times, and had a script ready. He had analyzed the guards from afar, and saw they were only level 7. Which didn’t seem particularly strong, but way out of his league. He doubted he would have a chance even if it was only an unarmed one.

  He needed to make sure they would have no reason to fight him.

  He was also careful to unequip his Title, not ready for the nickname to spread again.

  “Matheus, I’m in need of shelter. I have been travelling for many days now, coming from the north.” He said, believing it to be his safest option. “Please, I’m very hungry and tired”. All partially true, and simple enough it wouldn’t raise complicated questions. Still, Matheus trembled slightly.

  The guard looked him up and down, wrinkling his nose, and didn’t look very impressed.

  “We have no room for beggars and thieves, but if you are willing to work for it, there’s food and a roof for you. And a bath” He finally said, apparently concluding Matheus wasn’t much of a threat. “Find and speak with the City Master, near the Temple of Dijah.

  “Thank you. I won’t cause any trouble, I promise” Matheus bowed clumsy.

  Matheus didn’t know why he had done that, no one else coming to the city had done it and he certainly wasn’t planning to do it, it had just happened.

  The guard stared at him, not knowing how to react. Awkwardness filled the air.

  “I…thank you.” Matheus said with embarrassment. Feeling self-conscious, he hurried to the city.

  That wasn’t a great start.

  Mathes had worried about his clothes being too different from other people, but they had been so worn out during those past few days, with dirt and holes everywhere, they were barely recognizable.

  He also had no shoes, nor any item that could identify him as a traveller from another world. Just a regular peasant, wearing old rags.

  People didn’t really pay attention to him. Matheus received some suspicious glances, but that was it.

  On his way, Matheus saw that most people wore very simple clothes and ranged from level 1 to level 10.

  There were some exceptions, like the level 12 redheaded knight with two swords, buying apricots from a merchant, or the level 11 blonde girl with a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back, sitting on the roof of one of the houses, but it was clear this city wasn’t filled with strong people.

  Everything indicated it was for beginners. And his next encounter confirmed his suspicions.

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  “Warriors needed! The capital is always hiring brave people to help with the growth of the city. Great career plans, for those willing to invest in their future! Warriors needed!

  A well dressed man, in a small stand near the stables, was holding some pamphlets and repeating the same discourse. When he was near enough, Matheus analyzed him.

  Larry - Human

  Town Recruiter

  Level: 10

  His job is to gather strong people and offer a safe path to the next big area.

  Warning! A level of 15 is recommended before going to the next city.

  That was interesting. It gave Matheus a goal to work with and something to look forward to. Was this the “threshold" his curse had mentioned? If so, that still gave him enough options to work with. And this was only the first city. Maybe the curses wouldn’t be that bad in the end.

  For some reason, he doubted that.

  Looking at Larry there under the sun, shouting similar things over and over, he couldn’t help to question the stupidity of the task. Would this guy just stay here on the same spot, waiting for Champions to get ready to move on?

  That made no sense. And yet, the guy looked and acted real enough.

  As he walked, Matheus paid more attention to the people, trying to find out who or even what they were. There was no way everyone in this city was a champion. There were kids playing on the street, running one after the other. He saw carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors and butchers.

  No one seemed to be in a rush to level up. Instead, people were just living their lives.

  Then where did everyone come from? Were those people even real, or just some type of NPCs, designed to make his training look more real? He didn’t know. It all seemed off, but he couldn’t explain why.

  No point in worrying things he had no way of knowing. There was still a long way to go.

  It didn’t take much for Matheus to find the City Master.

  “Matheus, uh? And from the North, you say?” The tall man said, after Matheus finished with his introduction.

  Matheus nodded, but was interrupted before he could speak more.

  “Listen, we don’t have enough food or space to share it with anyone that comes begging. You’ll have to work for it. Tartaros may not be a big city, but there are many things that need to be done and more hands are always welcome. However, we don’t need slackers or idlers. Do you understand?”.

  “I understand. Sir.”

  The man gave him a skeptical stare, and Matheus realized he had made another bad impression. He was getting more and more nervous by the minute. The fear of making someone angry was eating him from the inside.

  “Right now, there have been a surge of different tasks, from monsters needing to be dealt with to materials needing to be collected. Go take a look, and tell me in what you’ll be working on for now.” The City Master said dismissively, going back to his documents.

  Matheus looked around, and found a big wooden board on the back of the room.

  There were many different notes pinned to it. As he approached, a new notification popped up.

  You’ve unlocked the Quests Tab.

  You’ve currently 0 Quests in progress. Your limit is 1 ongoing Quest.

  A Quests Tab? The System kept expanding, getting more and more complicated.

  The notes didn’t seem particularly helpful, though. They each had a different task written on and nothing more. They contained frustratingly very little information. But Matheus had a hunch.

  He started SoulAnalyzing it. Instantly, a list of options flooded his vision.

  Find the lost child

  Reward: +1 Basic Spell

  Stop the Stuffed Koala growth in the region.

  Reward: +1 Basic Skill

  Hunt the Gold Deer

  Reward: +3 Stat Points +1 Soul Points

  Kill the Trolls

  Reward: Enchanted Item

  Save the dying oak

  Reward: A rare recipe

  There were so many options. Dozens of different quests, giving all kinds of rewards. What’s more, when Matheus focused on a singular one, the System gave him a better description and more details.

  Matheus cursed himself. He had been a fool.

  This had been here this whole time. A way to greatly improve his progress and unlock powerful abilities.

  How far behind was he? At this rate, he would never catch up to the other Champions.

  He couldn’t keep playing it safe. He needed to take more risks, find some shortcut to power or trick the System somehow.

  If he didn’t manage a big victory now, how could he hope to win in the future?

  He needed to go all in.