It has been half a year since Luna first gained the system. She knows that she has spent the time as well as she could have expected. Just today she finished the last of her more short term goals. Everything else will take more time. She should feel a rush like she had before. Instead she was left with an odd feeling of restlessness.

  She was run so ragged for the last few months that she felt she would lose her head by the end of the year.

  The last semester of school in particular was a bit of a trainwreck. Luna did indeed qualify for the honor roll, and was able to get into all Honors classes pretty easily. However, there were 3 main issues.

  The first was that she took as many classes as she could. Luna wanted as many rewards as she could have from her now completed [ On A Roll I ] quest. 6 honors level courses were not something she could sustain. Within the first 3 weeks, she dropped out of 2 of the classes, leaving her with just 4 classes.

  The second was her Honors US History professor. He was a jackass and will fill Luna’s nightmares for months or even years to come. Mr. Bronson would speak so fast that you wouldn’t be able to fully write down your notes on the slide. Oh, you could take your phone out and take a picture of it, but that would make him take a few points off your grade for being distracted. It wasn’t enough for most people to care, but for Luna who needed every point so that she could get an A, it wasn’t something she could accept.

  The final issue was her Honors Composition final. Luna needed to write a nearly 20 page essay about a true crime that happened, as if she were a detective on a case. She may love writing, but the strictness of the assignment constrained her, alongside the topic with which she had no care for. She got a B, and it very nearly tanked her grade to that level too. She was able to, thankfully, scrape by with an A due to not missing on any other assignment.

  Still, she was able to complete her quest. She accepted it a long while ago, but she still pulls up the pair of quest completions she had just 4 days prior.

  Luna got 5 character packages in total, as well as another 20,000 credits. The biggest surprise was the Loot Box. From that, she got what she assumed to be a Bag Of Holding. It took the form of a rucksack. When she put items inside, they took up certain ‘Slots’, just like a video game. Each slot had a limited amount of space, but didn’t actually restrict the kinds of items that could fit within it. Just 10 slots of around 5 cubic feet worth of volume, which was extremely useful in of itself. The only downside was that the items in the bag weren’t weightless. They instead had their weight reduced to around 10% of what it was. Still, it became Luna’s new all around use bag.

  Now, whenever she opened any loot boxes like from her [ Daily Conditioning ] quest, the item instantly appeared in her bag. She figured it out just now when a new Ability Card Shard appeared inside the bag rather than in the box.

  Even better, today was when she finally raised all of her stats to 100. Her ‘Incomplete SuperHuman’ title had been upgraded.

  The rush that came with raising her stats that little bit to reach 100 in every stat was euphoric. It wasn’t just an emotional high either. Luna had been literally changed. The ‘effect’ of her stats was boosted, sidestepping her temporary stat limiter. Only now did she feel how raising her stats should feel. She was stronger, more confident, she even thought faster. It was a change strong enough for her to clearly notice when she first got it, but weak enough to fade into the background of her thoughts.

  Her stat sheet didn’t show the increase from her Superhuman title. It was also unlike her Skilled title.

  Luna got this skill once her Creative Writing skill reached level 20. Now she has 4 skills at that level.

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  The boost to intelligence was from her reading skill. The one to Wisdom her Cooking skill. Charisma was from Creative Writing. Constitution from Calisthenics.

  Whenever Luna got a skill over level 10 she started to get better supernaturally fast. She would feel bursts of inspiration when she was doing them that helped with her efficiency. When she got them over level 20 the bursts of inspiration got more frequent and came in higher quality. Her Calisthenics is the clearest example of that, fixing her form every time she was doing her [ Daily Conditioning ] quest, which allowed her to complete the [ Push It To The Limit ] optional objective every other day.

  Luna was actually starting to feel quite good about how she looked, at least in terms of her build. She didn’t have abs or anything, but all of the excess fat on her body was slowly turning into muscle. The weird imbalances in her body evening out. All in all, she was just feeling better in every way physically. She marveled at how a small bit of motivation in the form of a threat on the lives of everyone on the planet was all that was needed to get her working out consistently.

  For her Creative Writing skill, it felt more like she knew if an idea would ‘land’ correctly if written a specific way. To her it felt like having her own personal editor that could look at what she wrote as she wrote it. It wasn’t the same as having an actual editor, but it was enough to make her satisfied with everything she wrote.

  All in all, even if there was no apocalypse and she just had the parts of her abilities now, she would have felt motivated to continue her life with a new fervor.

  There was an apocalypse though, and Luna felt that there was almost nothing she could do about it. She can see the writing on the wall. She won’t be able to do as much as she feels she needs to if something doesn’t change.

  Thankfully, she had a pair of quests that could do just that. Sadly, one would take too much time to be useful in the immediate future, and the other feels like a trap.

  The second stage of [ On A Roll ] mirrors the first stage in a lot of ways. It’s more strict, but Luna felt she could handle 3 Honors courses easily now that she has a good idea of the sorts of things it requires of her, especially since this next semester is her last one before the apocalypse.

  It was [ The Path Of Gods I ] that worried her. It’s clear that her [ On A Roll ] won’t have a third quest in the chain unless it appears during this semester. Maybe she could have taken honors classes at the start, but it just wasn’t feasable. Luna will need to complete [ The Path Of Gods I ] to complete her system integration quests in any reasonable amount of time.

  Luna needs time to think. More than anything else though, she needed time to relax. For the last few months she has been pushing forward without any substantial breaks. She has been thinking of this for a while, but she has well over 100k in her bank account now. It’s literally free money. She can do whatever she wants with it. Most of it will go into supplies for the apocalypse, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t spend a little bit frivolously.

  “How in the world did you get here Luna?”

  “I won the lottery,” she said, lying as easily as she breathed, “I have nearly 100k and thought I’d spend a few days with you under much less stressful circumstances.”

  Hector blankly stared at Luna from the porch of his Yurt. Hector was just as Luna remembered. He was a tall farmboy in physique and looks, but with long wavy blond hair that would fit a rockerboy better. His home, the Yurt, was a large tent, enough to house 1, maybe 2 people comfortably. It was about as big as 2 trailers put together, which was an easy estimate as there were in fact 2 trailers pitched to the side of the Yurt. Luna remembers when she took one of those trailers for the time. The cold winter nights there were so comforting for her.

  “Do you have your own place to stay? My mom would not like me bringing you back here randomly without telling her again.”

  “Yeah, I’m staying at a Four Seasons of all places. It was the only hotel I could find close enough to here that I could visit each day without an hour drive.”

  “Well then come in, I’m sure there is a reason you are here, otherwise you would have just texted me first.”

  Hector moves out of the way of the door, allowing Luna to walk in and take in the changes. When she was last here, the Yurt had just been built. The insulation hadn’t yet been put in place, but the house was liveable. Now though, it felt properly lived in. The walls were fully set up and some actual furniture was put up. It’s still a mess as it’s the home of two barely 21 year olds, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the trailer was when Luna first went to sleep in there.

  “I like what you have done with the place, Is that a wood fire stove?”

  “Yeah, it’s to keep this place heated, the insulation is only so thick, Now, will you keep dodging the question until I eventually pry it out of you, or will you smack me in the face with the questions?”

  Luna looks aghast and places a hand over her heart. Hector laughs, seeing her mock shock.

  “Look Luna, Amy will be here in a few hours, if you need to say something really serious say it now, I’d rather be the one to break something serious to her.”

  “It’s nothing like that Hector, I’m mostly just here to wind down. You know how hard I have been focusing on school and working out, back at home it’s still kinda tense, Ma is much better, but there is still this awkwardness that doesn’t let me fully relax.”

  Sure Luna was falsely attributing her unease to her familial situation, but she can’t exactly tell Hector the actual reason.

  “Yeah, of course I know, you look a lot better than the first time you came here.”

  “Yeah,” Luna raises an arm and flexes her bicep, showing muscle she didn’t have a year ago, “My workout regimen has been hard, but also has had results.”

  “Are you taking a few days off, or is this more just a mental reset?”

  “Mental,” Luna was not going to miss out on any character points, “But my workouts aren’t all that bad by now, I’ve gotten used to them and can typically double my previous reps every few days.”

  Hector looks at her incredulously. Hector wasn’t the fittest person, but that was purely due to him preferring to eat good than eat perfectly. He worked out and knew that Luna’s progress was way too rapid to be healthy unless she is purposely holding back.

  “Want some coffee,” he asks, changing the subject, “we got that espresso machine working and Amy has become obsessed with it.”

  “I was actually thinking that I could treat you for a change, I got money now, so why not call the others and see when they would be able to head over to Mandy’s?”

  “I don’t know how open they would be on such short notice, but I’ll check, either way, you’d need something for now, let me make some for the both of us.”

  “Damnit Luna, how did you get so strong so quickly,” asked Juiles, as she dropped off the pullup bar.

  “I’ve been training,” she says, continuously doing her pullups. In the background, Hector was counting Luna’s pullups, and was already in the 50s.

  Luna has grown quite proud of her calisthenics. It’s one of her best skills mostly because she did it every day. If she went back to the Navy today, she could take every single beating without a sweat.

  “Do you want to continue counting, cuz I can do another 100 or so of these if I want to just do these.”

  “Bullshit,” says Amy, “You can’t do over 150 pull ups in one sitting after just half a year of training.”

  Amy was right. Luna can do around 230 or so. Her growth was really supernatural, which Luna suspected was actually the case. Since she gained her [ Almost Superhuman ] title, she has suspected that her ‘limited’ skills are being slowly loosened, even if her character sheet didn’t fully show it.

  If Luna tried to explain that though, they would all just blank out and forget their suspicions ever existed thanks to The System’s interjections. Even without Luna directly interfering, their suspicions would fade into the background. It’s why none of Luna’s family were confused by Luna’s superhuman growth. As long as Luna didn’t draw attention, no skepticism would last.

  “I kinda wanna see him do- sorry- see her do it,” says Bryan.

  “You already had a workout today, don’t hurt yourself to show off,” said Hector.

  Luna smiles as she does two more pullups, followed by a muscle up. She pushes off the bar into a spin, landing right on her feet. Her skill in Calisthenics suddenly told her that doing that was a horrid idea as it could really hurt her ankles and knees. Luna makes sure to not make a habit out of showing off like that.

  “So, now that we are done showing off, what’s the plan from here,” asks Luna, as she takes another quick glance across the whole group.

  Luna, Hector, and Amy all met with Juiles and Bryan earlier and had dinner at Mandy’s to celebrate Luna’s ‘Lottery Win’. Amy was Hector’s girlfriend, while Bryan was Amy’s brother. Amy was a tall woman who practically towered over Luna’s 5’7 frame. Still, she was an inch shorter than Hector. Her brother on the other hand was eye to eye with Luna. If it wasn't for the fact that they had the same exact black hair and greenish brown eyes someone wouldn’t be able to guess they were related.

  Juiles was a mutual friend of rest. She was a short blasian woman, but incredibly muscular. Luna always thought that she was incredibly beautiful, and thought of asking her out before learning she was asexual and aromantic. Right now though, Juiles was glaring at Luna. Luna knew the look. It wasn’t anger, but a fire. Luna saw it in the eyes of the fresh out of highschool kids who had dreams of going to BUDS after boot camp. Luna very well may have just gotten a workout partner.

  Luna became friends with them all and a few others during the months she was up in Washington with them. They aren’t that close, but they all knew Luna’s story and were accepting of her. She bounced between couches and homeless shelters, with her only real way to repay them being cooking. Still, even with her skills, she can’t stand up to Mandy’s. It’s a small diner/restaurant, but it had some of the best food any of them have had.

  “Depends on you,” says Hector, “I don’t know just how much you want to spend, 100 grand is a lot of money, but not an infinite amount, You don’t want to spend too much of it before you could save it all, not even to mention that it could cover your student loans for a better school than the one you are at.”

  Luna waves off Hector’s worries. The money won’t mean a thing in 6 months. While Luna already has some ideas of what to spend the majority of the money on, she doesn’t intend to be frugal while among friends.

  “I’m willing to spend upwards of 5k over the next 3 days, so if there are any fancy restaurants you want to try, or maybe some activities you have always wanted to do, I am open to bankroll it all as long as we keep under that limit, Think of it as a repayment for the time I spent on your couches plus interest.”

  “That ain’t fair,” says Juiles, “But I won’t exactly look a gift egg in the yolk…”

  “That sounded better in your head didn’t it,” asked Amy.

  “Yes it did,” said Juiles with all of the confidence of a used car salesman, “Now, let’s figure out what we are gonna do, I for one know of this rage room with some pretty lenient rules-”