Chapter 2: training, ability testing, immeasurable disappointment, hunting and cooking
"Training is so hard…" For speech
'What the dawg doin?' for thoughts
[ bozo ] for system
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As the sun begins rising, the birds begin chirping, and the dark skies starting to get brighter its a new morning for the world teyvat, workaholics begin to work, lazy people… well are being lazy, speaking of which, a teen is sleeping peacefully in a small cave which got ruined by…
[ Clock reached 6:00, initiating alarm ]
[ BEEP ]
[ BEEP ]
[ BEEP ]
[ BEEP ]
[ BEEP ]
[ BEEP ]
As the loud and annoying alarm kept playing, ryuma was awakened from his peaceful slumber by his system, which he had a face of annoyance and anger
"I get it i get it! Ill wake up! Jesus christ… i cant even wake up peacefully" said the annoyed teen, hr always loved waking up on his own as he claimed 'he will wake up when his body is satisfied', then he want to his system to do his daily training quest
[ QUESTS ]
[ daily training ]
[ 0/10 push-ups ]
[ 0/10 sit-ups ]
[ 0/10 jumping jacks ]
[ 0/10 squats ]
[ Run 0/1 km ]
[ rewards: 3 rolls, rare weapon, rare accessory ]
"Thank god It didn't increase nor gave me a penalty… i would have been screwed" he sighed with relief, he remembered reading multiple novels when he was bored, some systems would punish their host for not doing a quest, he was glad to have such an understanding system, though he would ask the system some questions, but he'll ask them later, as for bow he needs to stronger so he doesn't die
'Ill just do them in order, seeing no point in changing anything' thought the reincarnator then Getting down on all fours, placing his hands slightly wider than his shoulders, Straightening his arms and legs, Lower his body until your chest nearly touches the floor then pushing himself back up, and repeating that multiple times
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1 hour later
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Ryuma was running to his cave, when he finished all the training tasks of his quest, he decided to finish his last task by running half a kilometer to a random direction and back, but he didn't know the exact time he should run for a kilometer, so he just began with no plan, just as he was about to turn back, he finished his daily training test, which caused ryuma some problems as began getting more and more tired running back
"Finally! Sweet sweet grass!" As he flopped on the grass infront of his cave, he was extremely tired from all the running, he had to run 2 kilometers! He was extremely lazy person in his past life so he found it hard, but in the end he'll benefit from this so he ignored it
As he was about to nap, he suddenly remembered the rewards, to his disappointment, he quickly had to get up and sit opening his quest tab
[ QUESTS ]
[ daily training ]
[ 10/10 push-ups ]
[ 10/10 sit-ups ]
[ 10/10 jumping jacks ]
[ 10/10 squats ]
[ Run 2/1 km ]
[ rewards: 3 rolls, rare weapon, rare accessory ( CLAIM ) ]
He claimed his rewards expecting atleast a good artifact, what he got next is a total opposite
[ CLAIMED: 3 rolls ]
[ grandpa's dual chained blades ]
[ copper heart ring ]
"Copper rings!? Damn it… i really am unlucky huh?at least i got the dual blades, they seem pretty good, system, explain the dual blades please" ryuma said, his artifact rng never changed, he remembered that every time he does a artifact domain, he'd always get def or hp stat, and with bad sub-stats too so he cant build characters that rely on def and hp, which he found utterly stupid
[ grandpa's dual chained blades ]
[ requirements: STR: 2, AGI & MOB: 3 ]
[ "grandpa always comes prepared, break into his house, he'll break your skull!" ]
"Thats one way of saying it… i like it! I hope the sword mastery skill applies to this weapon!" Said a excited ryuma, although obvious, this weapon might save him if he masters it! Beside that. Every chained duel blade user he saw so far is incredibly cool, he wants to use it like kai from kung fu panda, so he better master it
"System, can you add sword training onto my daily training quest?" He asked his system nicely
[ certainly, 100 sword swings daily added onto daily training quest ]
Ryuma was delighted, hes not being a lazy person anymore! He gave himself a point for improving himself, not know why but a point is a point! But enough of that, he needs to test out his abilities he got yesterday
"Uhhh…. System? How do i use my realm ability" he sweatdropped, he swore that he read some novels that had a a mc using realm, but that was like 2 years ago!
[ instructions: one must think of heavy pressure on the back of his mind ]
"Ah, thanks!" He did what he was told, and he started to feel his body becoming light and pleasant
'Wow… it feels like im getting born for the second time… now to see where i am' he thought, he slowly began opening his eyes, only to see pitch black
"Well this is anti-climactic… wheres the world!? Wheres the light!? Altough im heavily relying on you, System can you help me for a bit?" He asked, he didn't want to annoy nor piss of the system, its the only thing helping him from dying to air
[ hint: imagination is your key ]
"So i have to imagine the world, should've tried that from the start! Alright let me just…" he imagine the ordinary things when you think of a pocket realm, short grass, nicely sized trees, a flowing river and some mountains, overall a very beautiful scenery. And what he imagined became true and it looked like the usual beauty of a scenery
"Alright! Now thats done, i should probably start to train here if i can, though ill choose to train in the real world for now, but i will definitely sleep here!" He declared with enthusiasm, he can imagine a comfy bed and boom! No breaking his back on hard rock!
"Come to think of it, i should test my hypothesis ability here, i wouldn't want any destruction nor people hunting me because ill be ruining every damn thing, ill just make sure ill be killing mobs secretly and carefully" ryuma said, if he was seen as a hypostatus beating the crap out of hilichurls, he'd get hunted down either by adventurers, fatui or probably even the qixing if he's unlucky enough
When he tried to turn into a hypostatus with every cliche way of turning into a beast in animes, thinking yourself as a beast, etc, but every way he tried, it didn't work. So it got him incredibly confused, why isn't it working? After some thought, he will see whats the problem is, he opened his system and went to see his abilities, what turned out was…
[ hypostatis transformation ( locked ) ]
( FULL TRANSFORMATION )
[ HP needed: 160 ]
[ STR needed: 148 ]
[ MOB/AGI needed: 180 ]
( HYBRID TRANSFORMATION )
[ HP needed: 80 ]
[ STR needed: 74 ]
[ MOB/AGI needed: 90 ]
To explain what expression ryuma has on his face is unclear, he need to train that much for just a hybrid transformation!?
"Fuck! i need to train that much!? What do you expect me to be!?" He sighed, "damn it… I suppose i can atleast get the stats in 2 months or more, i gotta be grateful having it, still doesn't mean im not disappointed…" he said, he really wanted to become a hypostatis, as it will be cool and hood way to travel, but not everything will be given to him like a spoiled rich kid, he needs to dream on to be strong right of the bat so easily, but he can roll for other abilities, so he'll try not let it go in his head too much
*growl*
Ryuma felt hungry, then he remembered he didn't eat anything ever since he reincarnated, so he needs to kill an animal for the first time, he didn't want to, but he can starve himself if he wants to and die, which he doesn't want
'Although i was a chef, i never actually killed. the restaurants i worked in gave me meat to work with but not actually kill, so it'll be an interesting experience' he recalled, he's confident he wont barf as he seen way worse then killing, so he should get out of the realm first to find some boars to hunt with his newfound weapon
He imagined himself getting out, which it responded with him being in the real word, he was surprised at that as he thought he would have to ask the system again, but he put that aside and held his weapon and walked around to scout out some tasty boars
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2 boars were eating some vegetation, they both enjoy its taste, being a boar is relaxing! Surely no hunter will disturb and kill them for food! Right?
That was two blades chained together coming out of the bushes were flying in the air towards them at a great speed, which then led to the two blades hitting both of their skulls, effectively killing the boars without them realizing it
"Wooh… that was anticlimactic, I thought they would run like they usually do in the game, but here they are being one shot… not like they weren't getting one shot in the game, of course" came out a teen, which was ryuma. He was searching for boars for 30 minutes straight until he found these two chilling, he walked towards them and stored them in his inventory, then he went on to his cave
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He entered his cave and went to look for a good spot to cut the boars, which then he found and went to it, taking out the boars from his inventory and opening the system
[ SELECTION ]
[ status ]
[ quests ]
[ ingredient shop ]
[ recipes ]
[ shop ]
[ inventory ]
[ rewards ]
He opened shop, he needs some a table, cutting board and grill, he wouldn't eat it raw, would he?
[ SELECTION ]
[ furniture & kitchen ]
[ abilities ]
[ clothes & accessories ]
Although he was surprised at the ability shop as he thought he would only get them from gacha, he ignored it as it wasn't of his concern and selected furniture and kitchen
Chef points: 1107
( Table: 50 chef points )
( Oven: 50 chef points )
( sofa: 25 chef points )
( cutting board: 10 )
( extremely high quality knife: 195 chef points )
( small Grill: 40 chef points )
( leaves in a pot: 5 )
( big grill: 100 )
( lighter: 5 )
He guessed that the system read his mind, but he didn't care, he bought the table, grill, lighter, and curiously bought the extremely high quality knife
They appeared in his inventory, so he unstored them and placed them in his cave, he put the cutting board on the table and got his knife, he grabbed a boar and placed it on the table, and began cutting of its limbs, cutting open its stomach and taking out the liver and heart, and cutting its belly to nicely sized portions, and same goes for the other boar
Although he can get the ingredients now and cook the boar meat the same as he remembered, he is curious on the system's recipes, so he opened his system, and right before he opened the recipe tab, the system decided to give him a recommendation
[ smothered pork ]
[ INGREDIENTS]
[ 3 tbsp olive oil
4 boneless pork shoulder steaks
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 onion - peeled and thinly sliced
6 mushrooms - sliced
3 cloves garlic - minced
2 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
360 ml (1 ½ cups) chicken stock
½ tbsp tomato puree
½ tbsp white wine vinegar
60 ml (¼ cup) double (heavy) cream ]
[ INSTRUCTIONS]
[ 1. Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. ]
[ 2. Sprinkle both sides of the pork steaks with ¼ tsp of the salt and ¼ tsp of the pepper. ]
[ 3. Place in the pan and fry for 6-7 minutes, turning once, until browned. ]
[ 4. Remove from the pan and place on a plate. ]
[ 5. Add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil to the pan. ]
[ 6. Add in the sliced onion, sliced mushrooms and the remaining ¼ tsp each of salt and pepper.
Fry for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the onions have softened. ]
[ 7. Add the 3 minced cloves of garlic. Fry for a further minute, whilst stirring. ]
[ 8. Sprinkle the 2 tbsp of flour over the onions and mushrooms and stir together to coat. ]
[ 9. Pour in the 360ml (1 ½ cups) of stock whilst stirring. ]
10. Add in the ½ tbsp of tomato puree, ½ tbsp of white wine vinegar and the 60ml (¼ cup) of cream and stir again.
[ 11. Add the pork steaks back to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken the sauce and heat the pork steaks through. ]
[ 12. Serve topped with a sprinkling of fresh parsley. ]
'Jesus christ, i'll starve to death while im cooking this… seems worth it, ill do it' he thought, if the system brought out this recipe for him to try, he'd definitely try it
He check the ingredient shop, and turns out he had 717 chef points, 'yeah, i can get the ingredients' he assured, he had a lot and the ingredients cost a little amount, so he doesn't have nothing to lose if he were to buy them
He smirked, "alright baby! Lets go on with the cooking!" He declared brightly, he always loved cooking in his time of being a chef, and cooking a new recipe doesn't make it any less, said cook began buying and eventually cooking
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After 30 minutes of cooking, there it is, the smothered pork itself, and he constantly has to overcome the temptation to just put it in his mouth while cooking it, but he managed to cook it first time without fail
"Alright! Lets dig in" ryuma said, and began eating the food with the spoon he just but, to say how the taste was, it was truly like it was blessed by god of the stove itself, they taste is incredibly good, the heat is just right, the texture is unexplainable! If he were to sell this, he'll get millions of mora!
"Holy shit! This is incredible! Its better then pizza! Although I haven't tried cooking it here yet, it is outclassing it as of right now!" He said with a ton of pride, he made something tastier to something that he thought he couldn't make better! He better start opening a restaurant…
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Night came, after ryuma finished his smothered pork, his belly was extremely satisfied, and a bit energetic, but he ignored that as he stared at the moon, it was as beautiful in teyvat as it was on earth, despite not liking the night that much, he still appreciated the moon's beauty and put as a side-hobby, it gave him memories of when he was young, enthusiastic and dumb, hanging out with his parents
"Just where did you go… mom and dad? You just… disappeared… eh, i cant do much about it as im in a comple- wait a minute if it serves me right… system. Do i have relatives in this world?" He asked, he night sulking coming to an end as he realized something crucial
[ yes, back in your memories, xie shen was tralling with his dad until they were hunted and kidnapped, but they had their family in liyue, so if the host wishes, he can go to liyue with low suspicion, but with major consequences ]
"Damn… looks like i would need to go to mondstadt Ey… i know dom toretto said never turn your back to family, in this case they're not my spiritual family… eh, dont care. Ill just go to mondstadt" he said, then going to his cave to sleep, he'll leave on these problems for his tomorrow self
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Although early, there will be a side story on xie shen's ( ryuma ) family in future chapters, planning to make it with a good amount of words, cya next chapter!