Shadow Blood and Fire

'Three hours later.

[Press-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)]

[Sit-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)]

[Squat, 100 times: Complete (100/100)]

[Running, 10 km: Incomplete (9/10)]

[Consume blood, 20Cl: complete (20/20)]

[Lift, 100 kg: complete (100/100)]

"Pant, pant, pant, pant…"

Eli lapped the outer perimeter of the hospital once and arrived back in front of his room. He was currently bent over and panting out heavily. His heart felt like it might explode at any second, but he couldn't give up yet.

'I worked so crazy hard until now, so no way I would….'

He somehow managed to open the door and took a step forward.

When he did that….

Tti-ring.

[Total distance ran: 10 km.]

[You've completed Running, 10 km.]

It was finally over.

"Pant…. Pant…"

Eli fell down to his knees. His breath reeked of something sweet and bitter. His face and back were soaked in sweat.

"Pant…. Pant…."

As Eli tried to regulate his heavy, rough breathing while thick sweat drops continuously dripped down, message popped up in front of his eyes.

Tti-ring.

[You've completed 'Daily Quest]

[Completion rewards have arrived.]

[Would you like to confirm?] (Y/N)

Eli glanced at the message that popped up on his screen. [Would you like to confirm?] (Y/N) He dismissed it with a swipe of his finger and scrolled back to the first message he had received from the system. It was when he had had stolen a blood pack from the laboratory and drained it . The system had not specified what kind of blood he needed to consume, so he had assumed any blood would do but was wrong as drinking the blood of rabbits and other animals was just like drinking garbage juice even worse than Synthetic blood. He was right about the weight lifting, The system had also not specified the weight he needed to lift, so he had just picked up whatever he could find until he reached 100 kg. [You have gained box[uncommon]] [Would you like to open box?]

"Yes," Eli said aloud. The brown box opened, revealing a steel card with strange spikes protruding from it in all directions. A wheel materialized in front of him, just like the last time. He inserted the card into the slot and the wheel started spinning. It stopped on a blood-red card. [You have gained a skill card (upgrade any skill or buy a new skill)]

 "Buy skill," Eli said.

[Insufficient skill card]

"So that's it?" Eli was a little disappointed, but he let it go. He deliberated which skill to upgrade. The Blood Claw was what he used to hunt rabbits and his most used skill. It was a long-range attack skill that could kill his enemies from afar. After some time, he chose the Blood Claw. [Blood Claw upgraded (lvl 2)]

Eli then checked the reward for completing the daily quest.

[Reward]

[Five additional stat points]

[Random box[common]

Eli thought about how to distribute his stat points and decided to put them all into strength.

[Host: Eli Dengaré]

[Race: Half-Demon]

[Strength: 15]

[Agility: 11]

[Stamina: 10]

[Precision: 10]

[Energy: 100]

[Level 1]

[0/100 Exp]

[HP 100/100]

[Affinity:Blood, Shadow, Hellfire]

[Skills: Hammer (Lv.1), Phantom Step (Lv.1)]

[Shadow Skill: Scout (Lv.1)]

[Blood Skill: Blood Claw (Lv.2)]

[Hellfire Skill: Demon Wing (Lv.1)Locked(Lvl 10)]

[Time Skill : Time Freeze (Lvl 1)]

His current level was 1. All of his stats were also at the bottom of the heap, too and killing rabbits doesn't give Exp. 

The only change he could tell was the Strength stat value floating in front of his eyes like hologram projection changing from 10 to 15. Unlike how it was in cartoons or movies, his body didn't feel like it was overflowing with uncontrollable power or anything like that.

"Did anything actually change or not?"

He decided to use his muscles to find out. Eli stood next to the bed and lifted it. He felt a bit of weight, but he was able to pick it up easier than he thought. However, he found it impossible to tell whether this was because of the bed being light, or his Strength having been improved.

'I should've lifted the bed first before spending the d*mn points….'

Since he had already spent all the points before confirming, it was hard to tell the difference between 'before' and 'after'.

When he took a look outside, the night had deepened quite considerably.

"When did the time get so late….?

Eli massaged his forehead and stood up from the chair to loosen his body with a bout of light stretching. He moved his body this way and that for a while. He bent his body 90 degrees and that's when he discovered a small box lying forgotten on the floor.

"….Ah."

The 'random box'.

A box wrapped in the monotone gift wrappers and topped off with a ribbon – exactly like the ones in video games.

'This must've fallen off from the bed when I was making a mess of the room earlier.'

He had completely forgotten about it after receiving it as his rewards for completing the daily Quest. Eli picked up the box and opened its lid.

"….A ring?!"

He dumbfoundedly stared at the 'thing' that looked exactly like the regular ring with no design for a while, only for the information about it to float up above in green letters.

[Item: Lilith ring(common)]

[Enhanced speed +2. Can be stored inside your Inventory.]

"It IS a Gimmick…."

Sure, he wasn't expecting a Gimmick, but he got to learn about the existence of the thing called the 'Inventory'.

"Inventory."

As soon as he called out for his Inventory, a graphical representation of a storage unit with dozens of slots appeared in the air.

As fitting the storage unit of a level 1 user, it was empty except for the Lilith ring in the first slot.

******

"Oh my goodness. Look at that guy's physique."

"Was that patient's body that good before?"

Two young female nurses walking in the corridor whispered to each other as soon as they spotted Eli.

He pretended to have not heard them and quietly returned to his room.

It had been a week since he started taking on the Daily Quests. Several changes took place during this time. One of them happened to be the transformation of his body.

Eli stood before the mirror mounted on the hospital room's wall by the corner.

"Hmm. Hmm."

He checked out his entire body in front of this full-length mirror.

He got a bit embarrassed by doing something that a female university student would more likely end up doing, and only after clearing his throat twice was he able to stare straight at the mirror.

The thing was, though…. He had definitely changed.

His body was in the middle of a transformation and he wasn't chubby anymore.

'I've got muscles now.'

The most eye-catching change was the drastic increase of his muscles. The normal-looking flabby flesh was gradually disappearing, only to be replaced by hard muscles. Thanks to that, his shoulders had widened more and his overall frame had grown bigger as well.

'Even then, doesn't seem heavy and slow.'

Only the necessary amount of muscles in the necessary places. If he were to describe the overall impression his body gave off, then would it be kinda like 'looking swift and athletic'?

He was a guy and even he found this rather appealing, so it wasn't such a strange thing for young nurses to whisper about him.

'And it's all due to this guy over here.'

Eli summoned his Stat Window.

Tti-ring.

[Name: Eli Dengaré]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 100]

[Energy: 10]

[Exp: 0/100]

[Stat]

[Strength: 31]

[Stamina: 10]

[Agility: 11(+2)]

[Precision: 10]

(Available points to distribute: 0)

[Affinity:Blood, Shadow, Hellfire]

[Skills: Hammer (Lv.1), Phantom Step (Lv.1)]

[Shadow Skill: Scout (Lv.1)]

[Blood Skill: Blood Claw (Lv.1)]

[Hellfire Skill: Demon Wing (Lv.1)Locked(Lvl 10)]

[Time Skill (Rare): Time Freeze]

[ Inventory: Lilith ring (Common) Rusty Dagger(White),Worn Boots(White), Brittle Bone(White), Faded Map(White), Empty Potion Bottle(Common), Dull Crystal(White), Leaky Water Skin(White)]

Eli sighed as he scrolled through his inventory, the items within reflecting his recent streak of misfortune.

His Strength stat had gone past 30 already.

Since he thought that it'd be hard to tell the kind of effects the increases in other Stats would bring, he ended up investing all the points he earned on the Strength Stat, which seemed to be the easiest way to feel the change taking place within.

'My body wouldn't have transformed by this much just because I exercised for a few days.'

In that case, there could be only one explanation.

With his Strength value continuously rising up, the muscles were changing their shapes in order to display the maximum amount of effect, too.

He couldn't think of any other reason besides that one.

He was inwardly worried about investing too many points to the Strength Stat, but after seeing his transformed body, he became rather happy and all the worries in his mind were forgotten for now.

'However, it is way too eye-catching, isn't it?'

The number of times he was mentioned by the nurses was constantly on the rise. It was quite likely that, since their job involved looking after human bodies, their levels of discernment could have been higher than most.

Eli possessed superhuman sense of hearing, so whenever his name was mentioned in the vicinity, he took note of it.

'I guess it's time for me to leave this hospital'

Ding! 

[ You strength has surpassed 30]

[ You have unlocked Basic Battle arts ( Crimson Paradise) ]

[ Daily Quests will no longer give stats points]

" Well that was unexpected"