Vex felt hungry all of the sudden, looking at his satiety bar, it hit below 50%. It was enough for a person to notice his hunger before it gets any worse, judging by his hunger drop, Vex needed to consume some food before his satiety will drop down even further. Getting out of the crowd surrounding the notice board, Vex walked to a nearby inn just next to the library, "Dead Man's Rest" it was called, the name is unusual but this weird feeling makes it think it was a suitable name for it. Vex walked in and sat on a nearby empty table, he opened his inventory and grabbed about three pieces of wheat bread and began consuming it. The feeling of eating something for a long time sure does give off a great feeling but something felt off.

Vex: "This bread is disgusting!"

Vex's satiety bar did fill up to max but the aftertaste of the bread was horrible, if one was to describe it, it was just basically worn-out bread. Luckily, food poisoning or other negative things weren't a thing, just imagine him vomiting all over the floor just because he ate about three pieces of bread. Vex overhearing the players on the neighbouring table, whispering about him, he became concerned about so pretending to check something, he concentrated on the player's voice.

Player #1: "What the hell is a noob doing here?"

Player #2: "From his appearances, he doesn't look like he has any money..."

Player #1: "Just look at him, acting like a weirdo, he's beyond a noob"

Player #2: "Oh shut up, will you!, its not like he didn't do anything wrong, besides you were like him when you first tried out this game"

Player #1: " *angrily shouts* What right do you have to shut me up!"

Player #2: "Why are you mad all of the sudden?, just because I said you were like him before?"

Player #1: "Oh keep quiet, will you!?"

When the players faced the other way sipping their drinks, Vex had a good inspection on them, judging by their equipment, their levels should be on a range from twenty to forty. 'Meh, they don't look that strong', it just some players who think all mighty against the beginners. Ignoring their unnecessary conversation, Vex decided to check his status and his skills, from the update Vex thinks there may be some changes to the skills or status window due to massive amounts of changes to the system's stat and skill engine. Thinking of the command to open his status window, he proceeded with hesitation, maybe something either miraculous or unforgiving has changed, Vex needed to see for himself.

Vex: 'Open status window!'

NameVexLevel1RaceHumanMoney50C 0S 0GGenderMaleProfessionGrinder Lv2 (9.87%)StatsHealth4152/4152HP/Reg14.6/sMana452/452MP/Reg2.3/sStamina588/588Stamina/Reg3.7/sSatiety100%/100%Consumption Rate-1%/5mThirst95%/100%Consumption Rate-1%/3.5mBattle StatsDMG Dealt73 - 110DMG.Def-22N/AMAG.Def-75Points Remaining: 0 / Total Points Distributed: 0Strength126+(20)Intelligence5+(20)Wisdom5+(20)Dexterity119+(20)Vitality126+(20)Luck5Defense10+(20)N/APopularityTitleFame500Active SkillsMeditation of Respite (Intermediate Level 6, 31.55%)

Fool's Gold (Novice Level 1, 0.00%)

[Ancient Art]

Ancient Art - Blacksmith (Novice Level 1, 0.00%)Passive SkillsSword Mastery (Advanced Level 8, 42.51%)

Lungs of Steel (Intermediate Level 9, 54.76%)

Speed Reading (Intermediate Level 2, 77.76%)

Photographic Memory (Intermediate Level 5, 88.88%)

Just Grind (Master Level 10, 100.00%)

Grind till Forever (Novice Level 4, 67.98%)

Vex: "That's way better, now I can see my HP/MP regeneration rate, and also the consumption rate for thirst/satiety, and also other implementations. But, why are my grinding skills highlighted yellow?. Everything else seems to be fine."

Looking at the skills, it look liked it may have some issues regarding the new update, If you thought about it satiety can have a huge impact on the player if anyone grinds a certain skill involving hugely amount of physical-like training. As you grind, your satiety drops, its the most basic thing everyone knows about, looking at Vex face did show stupidity because he forgot about it all that time. By thinking about, that "Grind till Forever" skill can be a risky thing, you could die the instant you take on a grinding action and then the system death-penalises you for twenty-four hours.

Vex carefully inspects his skills, it took him awhile to get himself prepared, its just that he feels worried about something. With hesitation, he proceeded into viewing his skills.

Vex: "Open Skills highlighted in yellow!"

! NOTICE !Due to your skills being imcompatitble with the newest update, additional effects have been added to your skills, now your skills will remain back to normal

Grind till ForeverHours of grinding, your actions becomes more stronger as your exhaustion lasts, but your brain denies processing your unnecessary knowledgeRaritySSEffectsIf grinding for more than 10mins:

-9% Time-flow reduction

18% Experience gained (from all sources)

Lose ability to create repetitve memories

Satiety/Thirst are temporarily disabled

If skill is used:

-3,750 HP

-475 StaminaExperienceNovice Level 4 (67.98%)

Just GrindIgnoring everything you own, your desires, people and life. You only focus what your actions are truly meant to showRarityAEffectsIf grinding for more than 10mins:

2.5x Stamina Regeneration rate (from all sources)ExperienceMaster Level 10 (100.00%)

Vex: "Yessssss!, I don't need to eat anything!, WOOHOO!", When Vex shouted it out, the neighnouring table did show some annoyed faces.

Player #1: "Hoy!, shut up you noob!"

Player #2: "Keep it down!, you noob!"

Now Vex was starting to get annoyed, judging by his facials, he sure gets angry when people use the word 'Noob' against him. Hearing the conversation before, it did make him a bit annoyed but it didn't made him angry. Storming towards the two players, they never knew what's coming.

Vex: "What makes you think you can call me a noob!?"

Player #1: "WOW, WOW!, just WOW!, everyone in here!, can I get your attention for a few seconds!."

By looking at this guy who was twice the height as me, with black hair and beard. A pretty fat build I should say, equipping metal-plated armor with a two-handed sword on his back. He sure did get everyone's attention in here, by looking at that player's face, he had a huge laugh.

Player #1: "Can anybody explain to this noob what a noob is!?"

Random player in the crowd: "When someone is low-leveled, equipping nothing but the novice set, knows nothing at all, always asks high-leveled players for their help. Always struggles in the easiest monster and always..., always..., always loses!!!"

Player #1: "See that person there!?, he exactly described your life in here..., in the end you are always going to be a total worthless loser."

Vex: "What did you say, you old-bearded face!"

Player #1: "Say that again, after I beat you up!"

With the player's fist readied, the player prepared himself onto a stance, then he came rushing towards Vex with a devastating punch. Vex prepared himself onto his defensive stance, then moments later, the crowd was shocked to began with. What they had saw with their own eyes is unbelievably true, Vex with his hands on the player's fists he blocked with was stopped instantly.

Vex: "I think you got it other way around, look at you!, you can't even land a punch on a beginner or this so-called noob!"

With Vex letting go of his hands, his facials were left with a quite bit of shock, noticing that he could block his punch. He thought he was tougher than him, by the looks on him, he actually doesn't look strong now. With his ferocious face he held, the player does not look happy at all, even worse!, he is two times furious than before.

Player #1: "YOU LITTLE BRAT!, HOW DARE YOU!"

Random people in crowd: "Woah!, did you see that guys!?", "He blocked his punch...", "That's unbelievable!", "Did he hack?", "Who is that guy?"

Player #2: "You f***** hacker!"

Luckily there was a system option that can censor any curse words.

Vex wasn't the kind of person who would swear over a little thing, but when he does, ho, ho, Ho!, no one wants to see that side of him.

Vex: "Well excuse me, watch your mouth!"

Then the player drawed out his two-handed weapon, any harm to players are disabled in safe spots such as the towns, kingdoms and other places. But, the only way was through PvP. Vex knew what was coming from him, it was expected of him, but moments later a unexpected thing happened.

Suddenly the innkeeper came in interrupting our conversation, it was a tall person with a very muscular build, brown hair with a beard. With a killing intent he gave to us three was indeed a guaranteed chill into our spines, with words coming out from his mouth, everyone stopped making sudden noises and movements because no one wants to test his patience with a bunch of background annoyances. He continued his sayings with red glowing sparkles emitting from his eyes.

Innkeeper: "You guys take your fight outside!, not inside here!, ARE WE CLEAR!"

Vex, Player #1, Player #2: "Y-YE-YESSS!"

Innkeeper: "I saw this whole fight thingy, whatever your name is who shouted out "he's a hack-"

Player #2: "Its Damian by the way!"

Innkeeper: "Well okay!, Damian!, you cannot hack inside this game because the system's security involves complicated biometric coding. Meaning in order to hack through, one will need a certain type of natural substance from the chosen living organism to access the desired system. Besides, this is the world's strongest security, not even the world's greatest hacker wouldn't even dared try hacking it. So are you still going to say he still hacked the game?"

Damian: "..."

With nothing to say, I guess you could say Damian just got told from a Innkeeper, with embarrassment he held, he remained silent and listened what the Innkeeper was going to finish with.

Innkeeper: "And also, glitches and exploits do not exist within this game, patches are released and auto-downloaded every second without even noticing it. With the world's best game developers solving every issues, glitches and exploits are impossible to be taken advantage from players"

Player #1: "How do you know this?"

Innkeeper: "I'm a NPC, all NPC's are connected to the main system but only have limited access to only info brokers. Only some special NPC's have other access to either population system or other things like the emperor himself.."

Damian: "Baron!, we are leaving now!"

With Damian walking towards the entrance, he hesitated for a bit, sighed, and began walked outside. It seems something was on about him but it didn't concern Vex one bit!.

Baron: "You kid!, what's you're name!?"

Vex: "The names Vex!"

Baron: "I'll remember you!, next time when I see you im gonna kill you!"

Then he walked out the door with a furious face, it looked like he really wanted to beat me up badly, 'Well, it wasn't my fault to start this off anyways...'. With the Innkeeper giving off a saying to the crowd, it looked like he was telling them about the incident that just happened.

Innkeeper: "You people!, I want you to forget everything that happened here. Tell anyone what happened here and I'll let you suffer with great fear!!!"

Crowd: "Y-Ye-Yes!"

With all the players rushed back to their seats, they continued like nothing happened but a few had still got frightening faces on them. When the Innkeeper walked towards Vex, he gave pat on his head and placed his hand on Vex's right shoulder.

Innkeeper: "You alright kid, come and take a seat."

We both walked to a empty and sat down, had a few drinks and such and we began talking. His name was "Druk", his name is quite strange for a human despite his terrifying face resembling a raged orc. As we got along, we talked more and more, Vex had a bit of laugh and nearly choked himself from the food he was given from Druk. As we finally rested ourselves, Druk asked Vex a question.

Druk: "So, how did you gain such power!"

Vex: "I guess you could say training non-stop for two whole days"

Druk: "You're lying, no one would want to-"

Vex: "I'm telling the truth Druk!"

Druk: "..."

Vex: "..."

They both remained silent for some reason, Vex thinks Druk doesn't believe him, to be honest himself, Vex doesn't look like the person who would train for that long. It's the appearances that put people off, it drastically changes their thinking whether they did something or not, or probably depends on the person. Druk's face showing confusion, still gazing at Vex, 'He still doesn't believe me, never should of said that' Vex thought about it. Sipping both of their drinks whilst still being silent, Vex completely forgot about his progression in the library, he is still on the first floor but he needs to pass through that forcefield to reach to the second floor. Finishing his last drop of drink, he slammed the cup onto the table and began saying his sayings to Druk.

Vex: "I have to go now..."

Druk: "Where are you heading off to?"

Vex: "To the library"

Druk: "Oh, you are doing that thing to get to the top of the tower?"

Vex: "Yes!, how did you know?"

Druk: "Well obviously that's why adventurers all around 'Avast' come here to reach to that top of that library"

So that's why high-leveled players are in this town, maybe because they were interested in taking the challenge to reach to the top, but Vex has a feeling that most of them would quit because it wasn't their kind of style to take on a challenge which involved mass amount of reading or puzzle-solving like trials. Only combat would've interested them but of course, no such thing would exist in the library, 'Not only people can solve through combat, but rather with an intelligent mind, anything is possible' Vex's thought came to mind about it, this saying was suited for this library.

Druk: "That is Archmage Galen's Library a.k.a the Layfall Library, the greatest magician of all!"

Vex: "So, would I meet this 'Galen' when I reach to the top of the library?"

Druk: "I guess..."

With no time to waste, Vex needed to say something to Druk before he packed his things.

Vex: "So Druk, I guess I will be going now..."

Druk: "See ya lad, you are always welcome here!"

Vex: "Thank you Druk!, It has been an honor..."

! NOTICE !You have developed a growing friendship towards 'Druk'

Fame increased by +50

With Vex walked towards the entrance, he hesitated for a bit and then began walking outside the door. It's still as ever, players panicking from that 'Satiety/Thirst' implementation, players running around with mass amounts of money on their hands to buy as much food as possible. Thinking about it, there was a fountain in center of town so that Vex can refill his magic canteen with water as much as possible. As Vex walked towards the center, the fountain was spotted in his sight, with his magic canteen he held, he opened the lid and scooped as much water as he can and he repeated it. After hours of scooping the water he closed the lid and began inspecting it to see how much water it contained.

*Vex clicks on the magic canteen

Magic CanteenRarity: E

Durability: ∞

Water: 1,000,000L / ∞

This canteen is enchanted with powerful magic, it seems this canteen can hold unlimited amount of water.

Vex: "O-ONE MILLION LITERS OF WATER!"

Vex then quickly looked to the top left-side of his view, his health is below the safe zone, and suddenly Vex realized he feels exhausted already, due to the fact that "Grind till Forever" skill was kicked in, meaning when his ability deactivated, that extra effect was kicked in as well, deducting his HP by 3,750 points whilst his stamina was depleted by 475 points.

After that a few notifications appeared.

*Ding

! NOTICE !New Skill Learnt!With nothing but bare hands and weak arms, people use to train their arms by repeating the same movement with swiftness and accuracy over days and weeks.Skill Learnt (Passive, Toggled)[Ancient Art] - Dominant Arm MasteryRarityAEffectsIf holding weapons on dominant arm:

Increase damage dealt by 10%

Increase attack speed by 5%

Decrease the durability's worn-out rate by -3.0x

If holding any tools on dominant arm:

Increase its effects from created weapon/armor by 0.2x

Increase smithing/tailoring speed by 5%

If holding anything on dominant arm:

Increase its durability by 3.0x

If active, apply the following effects until inactive:

-8HP/sExperienceNovice Level 1 (0.00%)

Vex: "When I can stop getting overpowered-like skills, I feel like I'm cheating"

When Vex remembered about how Druk explained no one could hack or anything, it did make Vex a little bit better but his facials still shows the guilt of how overpowered he has gone and he is still a level one. Despite his monstrous-like training back at the training hall which massively skyrocketed his stats whilst still being a beginner, he deserved it for wasting his precious two days in the real world just to boost his stats. Getting himself up from the mountain while his HP and Stamina were slowing recovering, it was about time to settle things in the library, soon Vex will need to find food to replenish his satiety. While walking back to the library, Vex wanted to check his status, just to see how much he has grown from being a beginner to godly-like beginner.

Vex: "Open status window!"

NameVexLevel1RaceHumanMoney50C 0S 0GGenderMaleProfessionGrinder Lv2 (78.96%)StatsHealth4152/4152HP/Reg14.6/sMana452/452MP/Reg2.3/sStamina588/588Stamina/Reg3.7/sSatiety100%/100%Consumption Rate-1%/5minThirst95%/100%Consumption Rate-1%/3.5minBattle StatsDMG Dealt73 - 110DMG.Def-22N/AMAG.Def-75Points Remaining: 0 / Total Points Distributed: 0Strength126+(20)Intelligence5+(20)Wisdom5+(20)Dexterity119+(20)Vitality126+(20)Luck5Defense10+(20)N/APopularityTitleFame550Active SkillsMeditation of Respite (Intermediate Level 6, 31.55%)

Fool's Gold (Novice Level 1, 0.00%)

[Ancient Art]

Ancient Art - Blacksmith (Novice Level 1, 0.00%)Passive SkillsSword Mastery (Advanced Level 8, 77.76%)

Lungs of Steel (Intermediate Level 9, 54.76%)

Speed Reading (Intermediate Level 2, 77.76%)

Photographic Memory (Intermediate 5, 91.92%)

[Class Art]

Just Grind (Master Level 10, 100.00%)

Grind till Forever (Novice Level 5, 0.00%)

[Ancient Art]

Ancient Art - Dominant Arm Mastery (Novice Level 1, 1.21%)

Vex: "Look how much I have grown, gosh its only been about three weeks or so?"

Then Vex continued walking towards the library, twas the day he will resume his progress into climbing up to the top!

Author Notes:

Calculations

Vex's HP = (VIT * 25) + (+500 HP (Gained from hidden class reward))

Vex's MP = (INT * 10) + (+200 MP (Gained from hidden class reward))

Vex's Stamina = (VIT * 3) + (+150 Stamina (Gained from hidden class reward))

HP/Reg = (VIT * 0.2)/2 (Corrected to one decimal point)

MP/Reg = (WIS * 0.09) (Corrected to one decimal point)

Stamina/Reg = (VIT * 0.05)/2 (Corrected to one decimal point)

Satiety = -1%/5min (Will change if either equipment effects/passives/active skills affects the satiety consumption rate)

Thirst = -%1/3.5min (Will change if either equipment effects/passives/active skills affects the thirst consumption rate)

DMG Dealt = (Lowest Damage Possible) - (Highest Damage Possible)

Note: H.D.P is not typically the highest damage you can do, you know what I mean. :)

L.D.P = (STR / 2) (Rounded off to nearest one)

H.D.P = (STR / 2) + STR / 2 (Rounded off to nearest one)

DMG.Def = (DEF * 0.5) + (STR * 0.05) (Rounded off to nearest one)

MAG.Def = (INT * 0.5) + (WIS * 0.09) (Rounded off to nearest one)

Author Notes #2:

So you guys like the chapter?

I know I have been writing down 'To the Top, You!" titles even though he's not in the library, mainly because of some reasons.

Notice anything unusual or unexplained? Please give a heads out!

This chapter is a bit of rush so if you notice any mistakes, I'll fix them shortly

Anyways thank you for reading this chapter! :)

PS: Will be making modifications to this chapter