Golakar took a deep sip of the tea as he prepared to ask the question. Tub. He put down the cup like an anime protagonist and looked towards Shyam, whose eyes were still closed, still trying to circulate even a small amount of mana through his mana pool.
"Uhm," Golakar made a small cough noise. Dark night, a flickering light that tried to light the fireplace, and Raitha's figure roaming around the table. Shyam's eyes opened just a little bit. He looked towards Golakar as he stood up to finally give up for the day.
A lot of things had already happened today, and the poop event was one of the highlights. Even more than the death scene. He thought it was finally time to rest above the wooden chair and sip a cup of chai to rest and take a long sleep before waking up to a forgotten dream and start practice again.
Forgotten because, let's be honest, how many of you remember your daily dreams? You guys are geniuses so you might. I personally forget most of them.
"What's your tier right now?" Golakar asked as he took another sip of the chai and slightly stared from above the cup, which had covered most of his eyesight right now.
Shyam's eyes softened just a little bit by the question Golakar asked. He knew about tiers for beasts, ranging from tier one to tier seven, with each maxing up to two hundred levels. But could humans too tier up?
Now that he thought about it, people of this world can't level up like Shyam does, so they do need a power-up system too, right? Solo strength cannot possibly allow them to defeat bosses like the ones Shyam fought. And he was sure there were a load more beasts and monsters that awaited in this far wide world. Monsters which were a hundred times stronger than the ogre he fought.
So, how did the people of this world fight them? All this time he thought they used magic. But was it only that? Because if so, why did swords and other weapons exist?
Golakar could tell Shyam didn't understand him by the look in his eyes and the expression on his pale face. Also, the confused look—that was actually how he knew Shyam didn't understand him. I added the other feels for the emotions! How will people call me an author if I don't do so?
"A bit surprising, gotta say. Most people should know about tiers. At least by the time they reach your age. Are you by chance...?" Golakar said as he furrowed his eyebrows. Shyam felt an uneasy feeling, as if his next line would somehow expose him. He could already feel his body being torn apart by the scientists for experiments!
"Living in a cave?" Some of the stupidest lines ever! Shyam thought to himself as his heart slowly beat at normal speed. A deep exhale and then some words. "No, I just come from a place where these things aren't so common." He made an excuse. Not sure if it was going to work though. But why not give it a try?
"I guess places like that do exist, huh?" said Golakar as he looked up like he was remembering his past or the times he had been to such places. "Anyways, what were we talking about?" he said as he touched his beard inappropriately (I couldn't find any word to describe this, okay?!)
"Tiers, maybe?" Shyam corrected. "Yeah, about tiers, yeah so..." he murmured as another book floated in front of him as pages turned. AUTHOR, WE UNDERSTAND THE PAGES ARE TURNING, SKIP THAT PART!
"Tiers—the tiers for beasts and humans aren't that different. The only difference is our tier-up process is faster because of our body structure. Although a beast's size and raw strength fill the gap sometimes," Golakar said as he tossed another book at Shyam.
"It's the technique I have created for grinding from no tier to tier one sub-stage four."
Shyam touched the book, and a system window instantly popped up, indicating this was indeed a technique and was written by lol'D Golakar. This name still haunts me!
[Knowledge Acquired - Path to Tier 1 Sub-stage 4 / by lol'D Golakar]
"Well, you should sleep now and read it tomorrow. Take this blanket. And don't worry about bugs or insects. My home has a formation! Hahaha," Golakar said as he entered his bedroom while tossing a thick blanket made with cotton and probably fillings inside for the thickness.
It was warm and heavy. The design was very colorful; it was the first time Shyam would get to wear a real blanket instead of those thin ones that looked more like a bed layer.
After Golakar went inside, Shyam lay on the ground, wore the blanket, and gently closed his eyes. After which, he opened his system and started reading the book he just got. But it was already too late, so he had to close the book and go to sleep. Just after reading the first chapter—The Path to Tier One Sub-stage One—before his brain went into repair mode.
After a few hours, which felt like just a few minutes to Shyam, Shyam's eyes slowly opened to the smell of fresh soup. The smell of the meat flew right through his nose to the stomach land. He jumped like a little kid excited to eat his morning milk. Directly from his mother!
"Awake, I see?" Golakar said as he put down three plates and a bowl on the table. The hot steam floated above the plates like it screamed, 'I am hot, hotter than your girlfriend!'
"Thanks to your cooking," Shyam replied and stood up, holding the wooden chair for support. "Eh, why do I feel a little bit tired?" he said as he tried to walk but couldn't.
"Did you practice the book I gave you overnight?" Golakar said as he sat on the wooden chair. DAMN THAT WOODEN CHAIR GETTING ALL THE ATTENTION!
"I don't think I did," he replied as he looked at the book he had been lent. He only read through the first chapter but didn't have the energy to read the rest, let alone practice.
"Then how did you become a Novice Path tier person?" he said as he sipped the soup. "What's that?" he asked as he too sat down on the chair. "That's just the name of the first tier, Novice Path. And then there are four sub-stages."
"Hmm," Shyam whispered as he picked up the spoon and dug it in the soup as well. "By the way, whom is this bowl for?" he asked as he stared at the bowl that had a different kind of food in it, as if for someone special.
Golakar looked at it and smiled just a little, like he made a joke and laughed to it. Alone!
"It's for the thing that follows you around," he said as he pointed the fingers towards the edge of the table. As if pointing at something that only he could see. Or maybe he couldn't.
"I don't think she'll lik—" Shyam tried to say but Raitha suddenly flew from above the blanket to the bowl and started drinking it like a cow when they drink water. Shyam was left stunned.
But oh well, even angels feel hungry, alright. And a person can eat anything when they are hungry, so... makes sense in a way.
"This soup should fill up your mana pool," Golakar said as he brought out a stone that looked like an ES stone Shyam could never gather at his current strength. And… consumed it? Through his hand?!
"Wait, what did you just do?" Shyam said as he stopped drinking and looked at Golakar like he had just seen a miracle. Golakar was a bit surprised by Shyam's reaction. But he remembered Shyam didn't know about some basic stuff, so it was supposed to be no surprise that he didn't know about ES stones and their use.
"As you know, energy stones can be gathered through defeating monsters and beasts or from ruins and dungeons. They can be used to refill your mana pool faster or tier up,"
Golakar said as he brought out a few more ES stones and placed them on the table. "At my current tier, these stones will not affect my growth. But each of these can refill my mana pool by half at a time!" he said as he put them back inside his—TIER TWO STORAGE RING? Damn, this old man wasn't poor, huh?
"So that's what they use ESs for, huh?" Shyam whispered as he drank the last drop of the soup and stood up. Surprisingly, now he didn't feel as tired or powerless. In fact, he felt like he had a major power jump. As if he could kill a level ten goblin with only his fist without using any weapon.
"So this is the power of tiering up, huh?" he murmured as he tried jumping, but the tree house began shaking, so he stopped. Golakar said nothing, he was zoned out to the moment when he first put steps on the first tier's first sub-stage. He too felt like Shyam felt when he started his path to become stronger.
But old age didn't let him live so long. And now he was at the edge of death, still somehow surviving.
"Anyway, I should be able to try mana control now, right?" he asked as he looked at his hand, like a five-year-old who just got a Ben 10 watch. With lights! But let's be real, we men are just children. It's just our height and age that increase. And sometimes the expectations from the toys.
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Ch-27