Chapter 290 Level 15
Mako was in shock by the commander's words as there wasn't only wisdom behind them but genuine pain and guilt as well.
He could feel the commander's emotion through his emotional voice and trembling hand which showed him that he wasn't the only one going through this kind of thing and that all leaders since the very beginning of mankind had to deal with this exact same feeling.
"Son... always remember... In a battle, there will always come a time when a leader has to make a difficult decision, a decision that could ultimately result in the success or failure of everything. In those times, remember that you are only one person and there is only so much you can influence." The commander told Mako in a calming voice.
"There are moments that are fixed and bound to happen and no matter how much you or even the ten legendary warriors want it to have a different outcome... we are all bound by the one absolute law which is the law of time; none can escape it, none can outsmart it, and none can outlast it."
"Iris' death was written for that night, not you nor anybody else could do anything to change what was supposed to happen. The mark of a true leader is that they don't let their failures blind them and bring them down, but rather they walk forward with that pain in their hearts using it to become stronger than ever before."
Mako was on the verge of tears as he listened to the commander's speech. He never really had a mentor that could guide him on the path that he was walking. Sure he had some great people like Sir Derek, his grandmother, and even Big Bro Gary who taught him a lot and molded him into the person he is today.
However, Commander Sable had reached him from an angle that he had yet to experience, from the angle of a mentor passing down his teachings to his student.
As Mako composed himself, the commander pulled his coat up from the ground and proceeded to wear it before starting to leave the training hall.
Before he made his way completely out of the room, he turned back towards Mako who was still absorbing the commander's words.
"Don't let the loss of your friend consume you. Instead of being overwhelmed by the sadness and guilt, use those strong emotions to your advantage and let them evolve you so that you can become stronger than ever before and make sure this never happens again. It's what Iris would have wanted..." The commander said before finally making his way out of the training hall, allowing Mako to think over the things he had just said.
Mako was indeed moved by the commander's words, but right now something else had caught his attention, something that was definitely going to make him a lot stronger.
[Quest Completed]
[User has forced the commander to use 10% of his true power]
[Rewards: +100,000 EXP, +250 Bronze Tier Coins]
After the commander had challenged Mako to spar, Mako was a bit hesitant, not because he was afraid of fighting the commander, but rather of the quest that had popped up in front of his eyes at that moment.
[New Quest Received]
[Force the commander to use 10% of his true power]
[Rewards: ???]
[Penalty: ???]
After the mission had ended, Mako had to go through countless notifications that he had received during the whole night.
He had completed several quests that were issued whenever he faced a difficult scenario that he didn't even bother to read in the heat of the moment like when they fought Angela in the forest, he had received a quest to make Angela change her mid which he did and was given the rewards for doing so.
All of those rewards had been piling up as the rewards were only actualized once Mako had acknowledged them by reading the notifications.
The rewards were mostly a lot of EXP as well as Bronze and Silver coins. He did receive some attribute points but he obviously couldn't spend them as all his attributes were still capped.
He had also stopped receiving attribute points for completing daily tasks and instead was given additional EXP to help him level up past Level 15.
Any random attribute increase reward he had received was converted into EXP instead so that attributes remain capped. Other than that he did receive two new random skills, one for Poison and the other for Earth.
They were both E-tier skills that weren't that great but still had the potential to be useful so Mako gladly added them to his arsenal of skills.
Thanks to the great amounts of EXP he had received from doing various tasks and completing quests since the time of the month-long training that took place prior to the mission, Mako almost had enough EXP to finally level up to Level 15 as now he was only a 100,000 EXP short.
[User has leveled up!]
[Current Level: Lvl 15]
[Reward: +100 Attribute Points, Random Ability Level Up, +2 Gold Coins, System Upgrade]
[System Upgrade has been initiated]
Weird robotic and digital sounds started filling Mako's head as held his head with the sudden pain that shook him to his core. A constant ringing was heard as the system finished what it wanted to do.
[Reboot required for the system to finish upgrading]
[Rebooting in 3...]
[2...]
'Oh no! Not again!' Mako said in pain and confusion as he was reading the incoming stream of notifications.
He was happy to see such great rewards but before he could explore any of them or find out how they had affected him now that he had finally achieved Level 15, the system displayed that it was getting rebooted which was very painful for Mako just like before when he had reached Level 10.
[1...]
[System is now Rebooting]
As the countdown finished counting, everything in Mako's vision turned black just like last time as he couldn't see, hear, or feel anything around him. Within seconds, the darkness overwhelmed him and he finally collapsed onto the ground.
An unknown amount of time passed as the system did its thing, with Mako completely unaware of what was happening to his body.
[System Reboot Complete]
After the system was done rebooting, Mako slowly started to wake up only this time nobody had come to his aid as he was still lying on the ground of the training hall where he had collapsed earlier.
The glass ceiling in the training hall allowed Mako to learn that it had already turned night which meant that he was knocked out for more than 12 hours as it was 9 a.m. when the system had started rebooting.
Seeing as so much time had passed, Mako was worried about getting into trouble if any of the patrolling officers noticed his absence from his room for such a long period of time.
More notifications started flooding in front of his eyes, but Mako ignored them for now as he first had to make sure he made it back to his room before curfew time or he would get in a lot of trouble.
Since it was nighttime, Mako had no idea if the curfew had already begun or not. He could only hope that he woke up in time to get back to his room.
****************
The hallways were unusually quiet as Mako dashed through them as he moved toward his room.
He was now sure that he was past curfew time but just prayed that he made it to his room before any guards spotted him. He was also uncertain whether some had reported his absence or not, but considering how quiet it was, he assumed that it was not the case.
He made a couple of turns, avoiding any area that had some guards patrolling, and eventually made it to the final hallway where his room was located.
He slowly crept past the door and finally reached the door that led to his room. He silently entered the passcode on the little security lock on his door and quietly opened it revealing his small room.
He was just about to step inside when a loud noise from behind almost made him jump out of fear.
"Hey, you!" A guard shouted from the corner of the hallway.
The guard was coincidently walking past the hallway when he saw Mako enter the code on the keypad to his room.
Mako nervously turned around to face the guard whom he was a bit familiar with.
"What do you think you're doing?" The guard asked.
"I... uh..." Mako stumbled on his words, uncertain of what to say to the guard.
However, before he could say anything properly, the guard cut him off. "Look, I know you like to train and everything, but you have the respect the curfew times. There are still 10 minutes left until the curfew is over, so please go back inside your room, or else I'll get in trouble."
Mako was left surprised by what the guard was saying but didn't let this golden opportunity slip from his hands. He quickly apologized to the guard and quickly entered his room.
After closing the door behind him, Mako looked at the holographic clock inside his room and everything made sense. He hadn't woken up in the middle of the night, he had woken only a few minutes before sunrise.
The curfew was lifted at sunrise each day and Mako would often greet this guard in the mornings as he made his way towards the training hall.
Just now, the guard must have thought that Mako was locking the door behind him by entering the code in the keypad, preparing to leave and so he had to interfere as the curfew wasn't lifted yet.
Mako couldn't thank his lucky stars enough for saving him from receiving more punishment for being caught outside during curfew times, but right now he was more focused on the system that was constantly pinging him with urgent notifications.
He took a seat on his bed and opened the system interface, ready to learn all the great changes that had come with this new Level up.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m