Chapter 5: “The Stranger”
10:00AM
Marcus woke up with a smile on his face, ready to begin his training.
He began to get dressed and left the house before thinking about what to train first. Martial arts weren't something he could practice without a proper master. Likewise, he didn't understand his Healing skill so he couldn't train that.
Eventually, he decided to train his Running skill, and do some basic exercises. He began to jog, and realized that he was faster than an average person's running speed.
He began to sprint as fast as he could and was able to outrun the cars in the street, but he couldn't maintain this speed for very long. He kept running and would only stop once his body had exhausted its energy reserves.
He ran across town throughout the day, and was quite surprised with his pace, but understood that it was due to the Running Lv.8. He was not only able to run faster, but was able to perfectly maintain his breathing and tempo to reduce fatigue while running.
Once he had completely run out of energy, he stopped to rest on a bench, and began to eat his lunch. What Marcus didn't know was that someone had been watching him do all of this running, and was impressed with his superhuman ability to travel the town on foot as if he was walking to the store across the street.
Marcus decided to head home and found that he had gained 2000XP from the running he did today. Satisfied with his progress, Marcus fell asleep.
[3 Weeks Later]
10:00AM
Marcus got up and left his house to run once again. He had gained a considerable amount of xp over the 3 weeks where all he did was run. He continued to do so even today.
As he exhausted himself, he sat down at the bench downtown like he always did, but was quickly alarmed to hear someone shout something from behind him.
"This is a robbery, give me everything you have!" a young man, maybe 26 years old, demanded from Marcus.
Marcus' first instinct was to run away, but he knew that he didn't have the energy to do so, and instead opted to try to use Charm to escape.
"Hey, we don't need to fight like this, let's just talk," he pleaded with the man.
"Shut up and give me all the cash or I'll take it from your unconscious body." the man threatened as he got closer to Marcus. Realizing Charm wasn't gonna work here Marcus could only rely on his other skills.
He sprinted towards the man hoping to tackle him, but was thrown to the side despite his speed. Marcus quickly recovered and began to fight with the man.
Blow by blow, the stranger was better than Marcus in each clash, but Marcus' Endurance of 10 was nothing to look down upon. They continued to share blows, and the man threw Marcus on the floor.
Marcus tried to resist, but was pinned down by the man who looked him in the eyes and said "You're not bad kid."
The man got off of Marcus and sat at the bench beckoning Marcus to join him. He looked extremely happy despite having a bloody nose.
"I've been watching you run since the beginning." the man explained to Marcus.
"Okay, but why would you try to rob me?" Marcus asked him clearly confused and upset.
"I wanted to see if you had any fight in you, and it turns out you do. You were even able to give me a nosebleed after all."
At this point Marcus wanted nothing more than to go home, crawl into bed, and sleep for a week. He couldn't believe this guy had made him fight to protect himself all because of some sick test.
"Calm down kid, it wasn't that serious." the man assured Marcus. "My name is Cross, and I've been looking for someone with your passion. I wanted to find someone who could really do anything they set their mind to, and I've seen that you can." Cross said, unphased by the blood streaming from his nose.
"You're insane dude!" Marcus shouted at him, getting up to go home.
"Look, I understand you're upset, but come back tomorrow at 4pm and I'll teach you how to fight." the man told Marcus, who began to walk away. "Don't arrive exhausted like you normally do!" he shouted as Marcus disappeared from his vision.
Marcus was on his way home full of mixed feelings. He had to stop and rest against a building since he had almost passed out.
"What the hell was up with that guy?! What kind of training could he even give me, he barely beat me!" Marcus thought to himself. He was extremely upset and had to take a few minutes to relax.
After about 3 minutes of relaxing, Marcus was rested and ready to run again. His mind was also less clouded with anger, and he realized something.
"My Unarmed Combat is already Lv.2 but that guy beat me?" He said, shocked by this revelation.
"Maybe I'll go back tomorrow and see if he can teach me anything. He has to have some type of training to beat me so easily."
Marcus began running home once again, with a conviction to go back to the bench tomorrow.
He was prepared to see if this man named Cross could actually teach, and if so, how effective would it be.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
J0ker
J0ker Hey guys, hope you’re enjoying the stories!
I’ve been thinking, and I’ve decided to ask if anyone would like to create a novel cover for me?
If so, contact me with Discord at J0ker#3965
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