888 rolled his eyes at He Yuan and turned his attention to the decorations once more. He Yuan just remained smiling as he decided to go over to the new room and meditate.
Even if his mental fortitude was higher than before, he was still below the lower limit and the events of his last realm kept flashing through his mind.
After settling himself on the rug, he took out his remaining stash of incense sticks and began his meditation. Breathe in, breathe out... Breathe in, breathe out... Breathe in, brea-
He Yuan opened his eyes and rubbed his forehead. It wasn't working. Instead the events of his last realm and the realm before that began flashing through his mind at an even faster rate and he had a pretty painful migraine.
After a while, he tried again bit the result was the same. Mixed images were flashing through his mind at the speed of light. He was stood up and began shaking his head. He was beginning to become anxious for no reason and his pounding headache and the images in his head was making him unnecessarily angry.
888 furrowed his brows and stared at the room He Yuan had left in. He was getting strange signals from his host's energy. He walked over to the room but hesitated to enter. His eyes suddenly widened and he rushed in.
pαпdα-ňᴏνêι·сóМ "STOP!" He Yuan was squatting with his hands holding his head and heaving angrily. Now the images from all the realms were flashing through his head. It was so many. Why won't it stop?!
"He Yuan!" 888 shouted as he rushed over to his host. Why was his energy so chaotic? He placed both of his hands at the sides of He Yuan's forehead and tilted his host's head upwards.
He Yuan kept shaking his head sideways so 888 added more pressure and held it in place. "Look at me," He said softly as he trickled his energy into He Yuan's mind. He needed to get He Yuan out of his head.
He Yuan remained silent. Until a cool feeling washed over his head and the images began to recede. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at his system.
888 swayed a bit but quickly caught himself and stood up. "What happened?"
He Yuan massaged the sides of his head as he also straightened. "The meditation didn't work." He took in the drained look in 888's soul body. "Are you okay?"
888 waved with a focused frown on his face. "The meditation was only a temporary solution. Your mental fortitude needs to be properly tended to. Mental fortitude is useful for a whole lot of reasons, especially with you becoming an intermediate tasker."
Both men sighed. Mental fortitude manuals were so expensive on the System Marketplace. The lowest quality ones cost either 3.5M exp points or 5K merit points.
888 was even more worried because he knew that if this continued then he wouldn't be able to keep He Yuan sane like he did now because his energy would no longer be enough. All systems received upgrades once their taskers became Advanced taskers.
This was also the reason why they were so few Advanced taskers and even fewer Ultra taskers. A lot of their minds deteriorated between the Intermediate and Advanced level and then they were taken away.
No one knew where the relapsed taskers were taken to or what happened to their systems after but 888 wasn't planning to find out. What could he do? This was another worry of all contracted systems.
"888?" He Yuan called when he took in the distressed look on the system's eyes.
888 turned his attention to He Yuan. "Hm?" And then he noticed his host was worried, he sighed and waved again. "It's fine." He couldn't tell He Yuan about this just yet because the subconscious whether in a human or a human soul could be dangerous.
If He Yuan knew about the condition of a lot of taskers, worry was going to set in. Even if He Yuan claimed to be free of worry, that detail would be deeply etched somewhere in his subconscious and as time moved on, that worry would slowly bloom into paranoia.
Which wouldn't be helpful to his state.
"Next time, the first thing you should do -no matter what- after a task is meditate." 888 said sternly. He need his host to take this seriously.
He Yuan slowly nodded and lowered his head. He had been told this in the early stages but he felt fine after this last task so he thought it was okay to hold off on his meditation. That was stupid of him.
888 sighed. He wanted to reassure He Yuan but then he paused. He needed his host to understand the gravity of the situation without explicitly telling him so this would do. "Now meditate." He said and walked out.
He Yuan settled on the rug once more. Even if 888 had helped, he still diligently carried out his process of meditation and mentally absolved himself from the experience from his last realm. The wisps of smoke from the soul incense helped calm him even further.
The next time He Yuan opened his eyes, he was back to normal and he felt lighthearted. He stood up with a smile and walked to his outer room. 888 was seated on the office chair with his head lowered and arms crossed. The system's hair was let down so a part of it had fallen in front of his glasses. "Are you okay?"
888 looked up and frowned. "Sure. Why wouldn't I be?" He narrowed his eyes at his host and knew He Yuan was also referring to his punishment. The man would never let it go, would he? He sighed. "Hm."
He Yuan nodded and decided to properly check out the new section of the System Marketplace. They were even higher grades of martial arts manuals, mental fortitude manuals, pills, and so many more items. The problem was, 98% of the items listed cost merit points. He sighed.
"Why don't we go out and get drinks to fill the bar, hm?" He Yuan said to 888.
888 nodded. A good stretch would be nice. He was never fond of staying at one spot for too long.
The both of them went to the counter first and had He Yuan's I.D upgraded before going to a section of the Community that was available to intermediate taskers.
He Yuan had wanted to say hi to the others but 888 had gotten messages from them that Kaede had been called for her next task and the other two were deposed. He refused to think about what that meant.
They soon returned to the system space and filled the bar with different soul wines. He Yuan even got a teapot set and soul tea. After both men took a break to partake of a bottle of wine, He Yuan bought some more soul incense, reinvigorating pills and topped up on his hunger reliving pills and water.
Everything had cost. 15,000 exp points. Soul wine was expensive and he bought some high quality incense this time.
888 was about to leave the space once more but He Yuan stopped him. "By the way, how much exp points do I need before I become an Advanced tasker?"
"Oh." 888 looked at He Yuan dead in the eyes and smirked. "Just I Million." Seeing his host choke on air, 888 laughed and left the system space.
He Yuan's heart rate picked up. One million exp points and he'd been so lavish earlier! He shakily clicked on his stats panel.
Refresh
[Name: He Yuan]
[Age: 28]
[Level: Intermediate]
[Experience Points: 135,000]
[Soul Energy: 690]
[Intelligence: 205]
[Strength: 315]
[Luck: 45]
[Charisma: 115]
[Mental Fortitude: 265]
[Merit Points: 600]
[Belief: 300]
[Acquired Skills: Entry Level Medical Practitioner, Amateur At The [Strongest Martial Arts].]
[Halos: Halo Of The Undead, Halo Of The Sword Ancestor.]
1M... 135K. The disparity was large. He Yuan patted his forehead with a sigh. The deed has already been done, no need to cry over spilt milk. The past was in the past what mattered is the future. One can be stingy to others but cannot be stingy to oneself.
After his one round of self motivation and assurance, He Yuan lit up some incense sticks and got to work with his medicine books. He soon noticed something different though.
His comprehension skills seemed to have increased exponentially. The increase in his mental fortitude was at least beneficial for something.
He was able to finish the second book and go through the remaining 98 books in one sitting. The remaining medicinal books were not as large as his first two and he encountered some familiar terminologies so going through the books became easier.
His knowledge in medicine at this point did not become broader, but deeper. It turned out the first two books were more like foundation for the rest.
He Yuan finally stretched his limbs with a groan. He wondered how much time had passed. As an intermediate tasker, he had more break time and even with the warped sense of time between his system space and the Soul realm, he knew that he'd spent a really long time with the books.
888 materialized then. The system had been coming in and out since He Yuan set out to finish his study. Seeing He Yuan was finally done, he nodded. "Good. Your first client as an intermediate tasker is here."
He Yuan put the books away and sat up straighter. Then he remembered something and his eyes widened. "I don't have a contract prepared!"
888 waved with a neutral look. "It's fine. I already handled it." And then he handed He Yuan a long strip of brown paper with a slightly rough texture. It had a slight resemblance to the talisman paper.
He Yuan went over the terms. The space for the soul energy price was empty meaning both parties would have to come to an agreement first but the punishment for a leaser skimping out on the agreement ranged from loss of good fortune for several lifetimes to total obliteration -all depending on the difficulty of the leaser's demands.
"Thank you." He Yuan was very satisfied. Next, he adjusted himself on the leather chair and waved. "Let the leaser in."
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