The question mark was there, golden and glowing. It spun in place with a slow, deliberate rotation, so slow to the point of irritation. Blorbo just wanted for it to stop moving altogether.
He willed himself to interact with the question mark. Sure enough, a quest popped up.
[Quest: Find the Wand]
Objective: Help Lena find the tiny missing wand
Reward: 3 EXP, 1 CP
Prerequisite: 12 PER (You can accept this quest [PER: 13])
Unlock Temporary Stat Distribution
Accept: Yes/No
What is CP? It wasn’t on his stats table. But neither was Aura before it was added.
Surely it can’t be something terrible. And Temporary Stat Distribution seems like a huge deal. I’d be a fool to not accept.
He hit Yes.
Lena sighed, rubbing her temple. “I’m soooo tired and hungry, and I haven’t even closed up shop.” She glanced around the marketplace with all the enthusiasm of a child asked to fetch firewood in the dead of winter. “Alright, fine. Let’s see… where did it go?”
She turned in a slow, lazy circle. “Nope. Don’t see it. Guess it’s lost forever. Time to go home.”
Blorbo internally screamed. What kind of pathetic effort was that?!
Meanwhile, his finely tuned table senses had already pinpointed the wand’s location. It was right there. The tiny thing was nestled right next to one of his legs, partially hidden by a stray cabbage leaf.
If he could just move—just nudge it ever so slightly—it would roll out into the open. But if Lena saw him move, she’d realize something was off. A moving table would not be a normal sight.
Then, salvation arrived.
“Oi, sweetie!” Rob rolled into view, pushing the cart that would take them home for the night. “Have you had a good day?”
Lena waved at him with a sudden enthusiasm that didn’t exist a second ago. “Hey hey! Business was slow, but the weirdest thing happened today? You wanna hear? Yes, yes you do!”
“I want to tell you about what Tabby did today too. But you first.”
“Okay, so you remember the creepy man running the orb shop? So today—”
As Rob walked past him and blocked Lena’s vision, Blorbo activated Adjustable Angle. His leg leaned forward—just the tiniest bit.
It bumped the wand just enough to send it rolling out from under him, right as Rob’s foot swung forward. The wand tumbled across the ground… bounced once… and landed directly in Lena’s path.
Lena blinked. “Oh. There it is.” She bent down and picked it up.
“Why’s that stick so tiny?” Rob raised a brow. “Do you collect sticks too now?”
“That’s part of the story! I can’t wait to tell you.” She grinned as she wrapped her arms around his. “Now my handsome strongman, would you please kindly do all the work while this exhausted lady stands here looking pretty?”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I mean, I have to do work too,” he said, but did as told anyway.
Perfect execution. Nobody suspected a thing.
[Quest Completed: Find the Wand]
Reward: +3 EXP, +1 CP
Temporary Stat Distribution Unlocked
I can’t wait to open my status table and see what’s changed.
As Rob placed him on the cart, Blorbo willed the status screen open, and sure enough, a new row was added for CP.
What the hell is CP anyway? Choice Point? Checkpoint? Or even worse... Chicken Point?
He looked around but couldn’t see any stats that could potentially be ‘temporary’. All the stats seem pretty fixed to him.
Then CP is probably the temp stat. That would mean I can use it to buff some attribute for some time.
Blorbo needed to test this theory, and he had plenty of time to spare now that he was loaded into the cart and was on the way home. He willed himself to drag his newly-earned CP onto the STR row. A confirmation notification popped up:
Exchange 1 CP for 1 STR—Duration: 1 Hour
Accept: Yes/No
He chose No, then dragged the CP onto the HP row instead.
Exchange 1 CP for 1 HP—HP: 16/15
Accept: Yes/No
Wait. I can go over the HP cap? What if I try to add another CP?
[Error: Not enough CP. Please consume another cabbage.]
I don’t have a mouth!
Wait… Consume what?! So CP is Cabbage Point?! The magic power boost in this world is… cabbage?
Guess he was never going to get another power-up in his life.
Okay, so if I understand this correctly, Cabbage Point is more like an accumulated reserve that can be used to exchange for temporary boosts. Unless it’s HP. Then it’s permanent until deducted, I guess?
Then what does this have to do with cabbages?
Blorbo decided he didn’t need any stat buff right now. He remembered that when accepting the quest from Lena earlier, there was a prerequisite of 12 PER. He barely had enough PER to accept that quest, so there would be lots of situations in the future where he would need to cheat the system and buff up some of his attributes to not miss out on golden opportunities.
I should drag the CP back to its place.
Dragging. Dragging. Dragging. Oh yeah! I love it! It feels good to finally be able to interact with the status screen; to finally be able to have SOME agency in my life for once!
He kept lugging and yanking the CP around with utmost pleasure. Never could he imagine he would feel so much joy from something so simple.
The cart hit a bump on the road. His concentration broke for a beat, and when he realized it, his CP was stuck on the MP row.
No! I don’t need an extra MP! I don’t even know how to use MP yet! I need to cancel it quick!
Right as he was about to will the CP away from the CP row, the system notification showed up.
Exchange 1 CP for 1 MP—Duration: 1 Hour
Accept: Yes/No
The letter Yes was right there. Right in his line of sight.
Blorbo had no time to react before his instincts betrayed him.
[EXCHANGE CONFIRMED: 1 CP → 1 MP]
NO! WHY, WHY, WHY! I NEED THAT CP BACK! I WAS GOING TO SAVE IT FOR LATER!
Another status reminder popped up.
[Remember to use up your MP before the hour ends!]
Curse you, System! You harlot-buttock clown! I pray you have a ‘1 Unread Notification’ displayed on your screen forever!
