Emilio woke up in the white space of the Monolith again. He was lying in the mattress that Tuor had left after he got drunk.

  “I think I should just leave the mattress here permanently,” Tuor proposed when he saw that Emilio was awake.

  “It might not be a bad idea. In one week I passed out three times, all of them here.”

  “Technically, this is the second week, but I will have it ready for your next Trial for sure. Either way, how did it go? Given the time you spent inside and that you were unconscious again it should not be too bad.”

  “How much time was I in there?” Emilio asked while checking the System messages he got after passing out.

  “Going by your calendar it should be Monday morning,” Tuor explained.

  “Given my results and that I slept a night when I got drunk, I expected a few days to pass. I upgraded my Mind 6 times and earned 64 Trial Coins” Emilio exposed, making the shopkeeper smile.

  “Congratulations. You have the best result I have seen so far. You will be getting some nice things with your Coins, but please do not tip me anymore. If we are going to have a real business partnership I can’t be taking advantage of you.”

  Emilio thought about it and he couldn’t really reject it. Every single thing in the shop was beyond valuable and the reason behind his tips was to get the shopkeeper to help him out, something he had already achieved.

  “As you wish, you can think of the beer as a tip then. It is sad to know Ami didn’t do even better than me.”

  “As a matter of fact, I don’t know. She is still in the Trial,” Tuor revealed.

  “That is something good, isn’t it?” Emilio asked.

  “It is. To earn more Stats you have to stay longer,” Tuor explained. “At the same time, all we know is that she is doing fine, but the end result will depend on her talent. Even if two people stay the same amount of time inside, the results could be really different.

  “Leaving her aside, you are now considered a real talent. On any other planet, you would have been the best of the best. Even with the amount of people on your planet, you should be in the top thousand.”

  “Are you taking into account how many we are on Earth?” Emilio asked.

  “I considered the 8 billion people you said,” Tuor confirmed, he wanted to make sure that Emilio understood where he stood in the world. “Actually, these results make it much easier for me to share your words with my clan. You are now considered a powerhouse in your planet.”

  “If it helps, then it is good. Talking about that subject, I still have some questions to ask you. I was going to do it last time, but you knocked me out with alcohol.”

  “Don’t you want to upgrade your Stats first?” Tuor asked.

  “Oh, right. I still have the free points. I’ll do it, but first tell me, why did I not have a hangover?”

  “Any good spirit will be like that. Hungover or lost of memories comes from a bad quality spirit or by being made on purpose to have that effect. I am not saying that your beer is of low quality, it is an unranked beverage so it was not actively controlled to eliminate those effects,” Tuor explained.

  “I am really happy you can have drinks like that. I wouldn’t have wanted to do the Trial with a hangover.”

  “I wouldn’t have been allowed to give it to you in that case. I can’t do anything that would influence your performance in the Starter Trials beyond advising you about the items you purchased.”

  “That’s why you said I needed to have 10 Vitality to drink it. It did nothing to my Stat,” Emilio understood, “I will move to assigning the Stats. I have 6 free points. If I bring Mind to 10, I would still have 5 left. In this case, I would have to raise another Stat and make the Trial harder. I think it is better to put the points in Body. Not only is it higher, but I also don’t think I would perform that good on the Trial. Do you have anything to add?”

  Emilio exposed all of his thought process because he remembered that even if Tuor could not directly advise him, he could indicate that something in his explanation was wrong. The last time he had done it with coughs and he expected him to do the same this time.

  Tuor didn’t react at all to the plan and definitely didn’t cough. “You know I can't advise you.”

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  That should mean that I am fine doing it like this.

  “Thank you, I will focus on feeling how the upgrade works given that I have only one chance for the Mind one.”

  Emilio sat on the mattress that was still on the floor, and assigned a point to his Mind Stat. This time, the feeling was different than in the Trial, his mind was strained as if he was focusing on something, but there was no outside pressure.

  It felt like when he was trying to find a bug in his code, but more intense. The feeling kept going on for a while, until he felt like something broke in his mind and a new and refreshed feeling came out.

  This time, he felt a sharper difference than the previous times. Any line of thought he had was easily resolved in an instant. He even tried to do some big numbers multiplications and divisions in his head and could do them without any problem, something no human should be able to do.

  Emilio realized that if he could keep upgrading the Stat, his mind might be becoming as powerful as a computer, something he was not against.

  Now that he knew how it felt to upgrade his Mind, it made sense why the rest of the Realm didn’t develop something like a computer. The early computers would make no sense with this kind of mental power and he was only at the peak of Rank one. Maybe the computers that he had in the present made sense, but the progress of development had to be gradual and without the early ones it was impossible to advance.

  If that was the case, then Earth might have a chance to compete in a new market sector within the Realm, having a history of development as a differential. Either way, that was for the future, after they could assure the freedom of their planet.

  For the moment, he had more important things to think about like how his Mind felt weirdly full, showing he couldn’t increase it anymore without breaking through to the next rank, or his new Trait that he definitely wanted to check out.

  “Are all equal between the Stats?” Emilio asked the shopkeeper.

  “The ones you acquire when upgrading your Stats are usually the same in all of them. Also, congratulations on reaching the peak of your Rank once again.”

  Emilio smiled when he heard the congratulations, but he was not satisfied. “I do thank you, but with all of what we’ve talked about last night I understand that Rank 1 is really low in the Realm scale, even if I am at the peak with two Stats.”

  “It might be, but you are not too shabby with your development,” Tuor praised him while trying not to break the System restrictions he had.

  “Isn’t it better if I buy the Realm Information details to let you talk freely?” Emilio asked.

  “It’s just a waste of Coins. You can spend them on something more important. Given that we are reaching an agreement, when we meet again after the Trials you will get the same information for free and you will not need it before that.

  “It is better for you to spend your coins on something you can’t get anywhere else or that might really help you with your development. Now that you have enough Coins, if you want to spend them on something I would say you should buy the Language Understanding Trait. That reward is a really valuable one, especially if we want to keep a business relationship.”

  “Ohh, I forgot about that one. Can I get it?” Emilio asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want a tip?” Emilio asked.

  “Don’t waste the Coins for now. If you still want to tip me, do it after the fourth Trial and you decide what you really want to buy,” Tuor answered.

  ‘Confirm the purchase.’

  As soon as he accepted the prompt, Emilio felt some kind of change in his mind and body, especially in his throat, mouth and ears. He remembered Tuor mentioning that the Traits were like mutations and that they would change the body itself. At that moment, he was experiencing himself and he felt his body changing as he acquired the Trait.

  ‘I want to check it out.’

  “That is useful,” Emilio pointed out.

  “Yes, it is the way I was talking with you. Although mine is limited for the Starter Shop,” Tuor explained, “Do you want to try it out?”

  The last part, Tuor said it in another language. One completely unknown for Emilio, but he could understand it either way. He focused on talking in that unknown language and answered.

  “Sure, why not? Testing the language,” Emilio said, but he realized that the words came out in another language.

  “It works fine, to buy this trait for 10 Trials coins is a steal!” Tuor said with envy in his face.

  “Well my whole planet might get invaded, we have to have some advantages, don’t we?”

  “I can’t disagree with that. Now go and upgrade your completely average Body.”

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