Chapter 3 — No Trickery

Chapter 3 — No Trickery

He continued training until he was completely exhausted. Worn out, he lowered himself to the floor of the room and lay down to rest.

He had completed the second and third levels, earning 20,000 and 30,000 experience points. Now, he had a total of 60,000 experience points.

“This is harder than I thought at first,” he muttered.
“I really want some water...”

Of course, there was no water in the room.
“I was by the river,” he remembered. And the moment he thought of it, the room vanished.

He reappeared in the exact place where he had been before — near the river, just before entering that strange room. Landing softly on the grass, he slowly stood up and, still tired, made his way toward the water.

He dropped to his knees at the riverbank and began drinking eagerly. The water went down the wrong pipe, and he started coughing.
“Damn!” he cursed.

Finally calming down, he drank more slowly, savoring the coolness of the water and quenching his thirst. Once satisfied, he sat down on the ground and opened the status window.

He had 60,000 experience points.

He decided to level up. As soon as he thought about it, a translucent system message appeared before his eyes:

> Do you want to spend 1,000 experience points to level up to Level 1?

“Yes,” he replied.

Immediately, he felt something shift inside his body — he became slightly stronger. The fatigue eased a little. He now had 59,000 experience points remaining.

Another message popped up:

> Do you want to spend 2,000 experience points to level up to Level 2?

“Yes,” he said again.

Another warm wave of energy passed through him.

And so it continued:

> Spend 3,000 points to reach Level 3?
4,000 — to reach Level 4?
5,000 — Level 5?
6,000 — Level 6?
7,000 — Level 7?
8,000 — Level 8?
9,000 — Level 9?
10,000 — Level 10?

“Yes, of course,” he responded to the last one.

This time, the surge of energy was much more noticeable. His body grew firmer, his muscles denser and heavier. The exhaustion almost completely vanished.

He had exactly 5,000 experience points left. He looked at the status window and nodded with satisfaction. He had become stronger.

---

Name: Alisar
Level: 10
Rank: 0

HP: 1090 + 300
MP: 1000 + 300

Strength: 47 + 10
Defense: 30 + 10
Speed: 32 + 10
Intellect: 41 + 10
Magic Attack: 24 + 10
Magic Defense: 35 + 10

Unassigned Stat Points: 10

Skills: —
Special Skills:
• Training Room – Level 4

XP Points Remaining: 5,000

---

He decided to try to level up once more, although he understood that he probably did not have enough experience points. A system message appeared before his eyes again:

— You do not have enough experience points. To level up to level 11, you need 19,000 experience points.

He frowned and thought to himself,
“Damn, why was it only 10,000 to reach level 10, but now suddenly it is 19,000? Until now, the requirements were increasing almost exactly by thousands...”

He pondered further:
“Well, alright, maybe something really changes after level 10. Maybe I just have not understood everything yet, or the system becomes more difficult so that the progression is more meaningful. After all, it would be strange if it were easy and fast to level up without effort.”

“If I want to continue training, it would be wiser to first use my free stat points to increase my strength. Then it will be easier to lift heavy dumbbells and barbells, and training will go faster.”

He took a deep breath and decided to invest all his free stat points into strength first.

---

Name: Alisar
Level: 10
Rank: 0

HP: 1390 + 100
MP: 1300

Strength: 57 + 10
Defense: 40
Speed: 42
Intellect: 51
Magic Attack: 34
Magic Defense: 45

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Skills: —
Special Skills:
• Training Room — Level 4

XP Points Remaining: 5,000

---

He felt stronger. “Alright, now training will be much easier,” he thought.
“Well then, it is time to go to the training room,” he decided, and instantly appeared there.

He carefully looked at the dumbbells and decided to test how easy it would be to lift them now. He tried to lift one of them. He lifted it, but they felt just as heavy as before — almost the same.
“Damn, I have become stronger,” he muttered.

Then he noticed the inscription on the side of the dumbbell: “14 kilograms.”
“What? It seems the dumbbells have become heavier. That cannot be...” he wondered.

He went to the barbell and looked carefully at the label. Instead of the usual 50 kilograms, it said 70 kilograms.
“Damn, that means if I have become stronger by leveling up, then the dumbbells have also become heavier — to match my level.”

“Damn, my plan, it seems, did not work,” he sighed.
“Well, no questions then,” he told himself, “let us continue training.”

And he continued to train.