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15. Pointless Searches

  Sneaking

  Makes it easier to avoid trouble by getting through someone unnoticed.

  Skill Level: 1

  Effects: Gives a 5% less chance of others looking at your direction when you are trying to hide, plus a 15% higher chance of them deciding nothing is wrong when they look at you.

  Matheus ate his bread, considering his new skill. Part of him wondered if he’d make the right choice. Nonetheless, he was satisfied with what he got.

  He chewed on his food, while the cat happily ate his portion right next to him.

  Matheus had started some kind of routine with it.

  Every morning after waking up, and every evening after his grinding of the day was done, he would get his food and seat on the far corner of the hall, while the cat waited. It always gave a happy meow when Matheus approached.

  Then, they would eat together, and the cat would come and sit on his lap, purring.

  It was nice.

  Matheus never had a pet before. He had always liked animals, but never had an opportunity to adopt one, since his mother was terribly allergic.

  He petted the cat’s little head with gentle rubs. It looked at him with its one eye, radiating happiness.

  Was this really all it needed?

  Maybe the little creature wasn’t used to getting attention. Some people had weird prejudices.

  Matheus wondered how the cat ended up like this. Was it an unfortunate accident, or the consequence of a twisted joke from some malicious people? He knew well how people could get mean for no reason whatsoever.

  He remembers when he almost lost an eye when they tied him to a tree to use as an aiming target.

  From the bottom of his heart, Matheus hoped nothing similar had happened to the poor cat.

  It finally closed its eye and got comfy on his lap. Its purring slowly changed to a rhythmical snoring, and Matheus was careful to not make any sudden movements and disturb the tiny animal.

  Matheus knew this was just a temporary situation. There was no way he could keep the cat and work towards his goal.

  But it was nice. Having a true friend, for the first time.

  Even if it was just for a short period.

  Matheus finished his breakfast and started the walk to the lake.

  When he got his food this morning, he’d been warned that if he didn’t complete another quest soon, they would stop feeding him and he would be kicked out of the Inn. Apparently, the city would only use its resources on him if he made steady progress.

  Matheus still had no idea where the boy was. More and more, he was feeling choosing this quest was the wrong move.

  He was no detective! And the boy had disappeared days ago. Even if Matheus managed to find him, there wouldn’t be anything more than a corpse. In the meantime, Matheus was wasting precious time instead of focusing on his development.

  Didn’t he promise himself he would do everything it took, no more fucking around?

  But every time he thought about going back to the Quest Master, Dina’s blank stare would come to his mind. Her completely disconnect with the world, her utterly lack of hope.

  And every time, Matheus would see his mother in her place. And his heart would break a little bit.

  It was still too soon to give up.

  Yesterday, he went back to his cave, stored the heads safely on a far corner and cooked as many Simple Herbs Mix as he could. Now that he had a backpack, he could have some meals ready to go, allowing him to recover his HP whenever he wanted. He also filled it with some branches and small rocks, careful to not put too much weight.

  He kept the One-Legged Coconut body, his knife and some Human sized boulders on his Inventory. Enough to give him confidence to go hunting.

  Again he was at the blue lake, trying to find something different. He had no real hope of finding a new clue, but he kept looking through everything. Under the leaves, on the top of trees. Everywhere. But there was nothing.

  Strangely, he didn’t get any new levels in his procrastination skill. He figured by now, the System would be telling him to stop wasting time.

  Was this a sign that he was on the right track? Or was he just grasping at straws?

  Mostly likely the latter.

  Well, since he was here, he might as well work on some of his skills.

  By now, it was obvious it was incredibly worth it to get his skills and his Soul Stats to level 5.

  His natural next step was to work on his Climbing.

  Matheus chose a tall tree, with enough branches he could easily pull himself up, and started the process to get into the top of it.

  Once there, he let himself hang only by his legs, swung a little bit, and waited for something to happen.

  When nothing changed, he got down and repeated everything on the next tree. After doing it a few times, he decided the branches were close enough he could try jumping from one tree to another. He was getting tired of going all the way up every time.

  He aimed and let himself fly, grabbing the branch the moment he passed by it.

  It broke, and Matheus screamed as the ground got closer and closer.

  He managed to grab a vine in his desperation and found himself holding onto the tree with only one hand, the floor just a few meters away.

  Climbing has reached level 5!

  Skill Advancement has been reached!

  Matheus grinned as he pulled himself up and laid down on the thick branch. He’d almost fucked up, but it was worth it. He got as comfortable as he could get and read the full notification.

  You have three options!

  Grappler

  Start climbing into your enemies!

  Parkour

  Don’t just get from point A to point B, look cool while doing it!

  Hang in there!

  Even if it’s just by a finger, you refuse to give up!

  Again, the System was giving him crazy options. The grappler sounded like an attack skill, not at all related to climbing. Not that he was complaining. It just seemed a little random.

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  Should he choose it? But then, what would help with all his skill climbing trees? Would he get worse, losing the extra stats? He didn’t want to hurt his movement capacities.

  Parkour sounded dope. Matheus had tried it in the past, only to be recorded falling on his ass. But a high level of parkour would let him do amazing stuff.

  Hang in there also didn’t sound bad. Matheus couldn’t be sure if it was about having a strong grip, or something more. Some kind of motivational power

  He pondered for a while, but in the end, he could have chosen nothing else.

  “Parkour!” He said excitedly.

  Parkour

  Don’t just get from point A to point B, look cool while doing it!

  Skill Level: 1

  Effects: Increases 15% of precision when going for jumps, 25% less likely to injure itself when falling, 30% more chance to look impressive even if you do!

  Alright, that sounded amazing. And the skill was only level 1! It had a lot of potential.

  Of course, Matheus decided to test it immediately. He was already some three meters high on a tree, he might just as well get down with style.

  Matheus ran and threw himself to the ground, aiming on a part with more grass.

  Just when he was about to hit it, he let himself rotate forward, going along with the fall.

  He rolled, not stopping until he found himself lying on the grass, facing the sky.

  He laughed. He didn’t remember the last time he’d had fun doing something so silly.

  And by chance, he got something very useful out of it. When he was there on the air, he catched a glimpse of something coming from the lake.

  He got up and walked around the lake, looking for it again.

  There was…something, shining deep under the water. The water was blurring it a little, but Matheus could still see it.

  He squinted, trying to get a better view. It was hidden among rocks, almost invisible. Pure luck made him look in the exact right direction at the right time.

  He got as close as he could, without getting into the water. It was very small, the size of one of his fingers.

  It was a small rock, colorful and shiny.

  Matheus suddenly understood.

  All this time, he had been searching for a corpse.

  The kid had found the same rock, and drowned trying to reach it. There was no elaborated scheme, no terrible monster. Just a stupid accident.

  But then, where was the body? It couldn’t have floated, otherwise it’d been discovered by now. Maybe it got stuck on some roots underwater, but the lake didn’t look deep enough to hide a whole kid.

  Matheus didn’t receive any notification from his Quests Tab. Was he wrong on his assumptions? Or maybe it would only be over after he found the kids' remains?

  He shuddered. He wasn’t looking forward to going back to Dina’s house.

  But after all those days, he couldn’t just leave it without getting a reward. He needed his first spell, and he would do what was needed to get it.

  Matheus started undressing.

  He didn’t get completely naked, but he took off his shirt and shorts. He had only one pair of clothes, and he didn’t want to walk around completely wet afterwards.

  He put everything inside his backpack, then into his Inventory.

  Wearing only his boxers, Matheus entered the lake.

  He didn’t dive in, he had been afraid of doing that since he read a book about a guy being paralyzed from his neck down after hitting a rock. He let his body slowly get used to the cold water until he was fully submerged.

  He started swimming to the direction of the rock.

  The lake wasn’t crystal clear, but Matheus could see enough. He couldn’t see a body anywhere.

  He finally approached the shiny thing and decided to submerge to grab it.

  At this point, the lake was a few meters deep. He’d known how to swim since he was a little kid, though, and got to it in no time. He reached for the object, stretching his hand.

  Something stopped him.

  A hand came out of nowhere and grabbed Matheus arm before he could touch it. Dozens of eyes opened on the ground, all staring at him.

  Matheus was so stunned he gasped, water filling his lungs.

  What the fuck was happening?

  The ground trembled, and dozens of legs emerged and started moving, dragging him deeper into the lake.

  He pushed, but the arm was strong and he was slow.

  He needed to get away.

  Summoning his knife, he managed to cut the hand holding him.

  It released its grip. But the surface, where was it? He couldn’t see it. He needed to breathe now, the pressure on his head was almost unbearable. He… what was that?

  Matheus started swimming with all he had, forward instead of upward.

  He started receiving notifications, his HP rapidly decreasing.

  He entered the underwater cave just as he could no longer hold it.

  Matheus threw himself on the ground, panting heavily. A little longer, and he’d have drowned.

  He stayed there for a while, just recovering his breath. When he felt ok, he checked his surroundings.

  And that was when he finally noticed.

  There was a little kid, sitting on the far left. He hugged himself, and looked extremely weak. He had been staring at him, almost no light on his eyes.

  “Hi” He said, voice barely a whisper.

  Quest Updated! You’ve found the lost child.

  New objective: Don’t die in this cave!

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