William blinked to get the blurriness out of his eyes before staring silently at the gently waving branches of the tree he slept under. His whole body had settled into a general 'everything is hurting' state, but he was somehow able to get a few hours of sleep.

[SAFE MODE has been disabled]

William sat up quickly in excitement. He could finally go through the tutorial and figure out how the system works.

[Tutorial unavailable after Level 5]

He should have expected that, but it wasn't too bad. It would be more fun to learn without any help, or so he told himself to avoid bringing his mood down. Still, there were plenty of other features that are common in all RPGs.

The most obvious would be an inventory, a staple for the genre.

[ERROR | Inventory requires insight into Space Dao]

William frowned before nodding, finding that requirement reasonable. However, he clearly remembered that the system gave him a message that only user-generated side quests were available in safe mode. That would imply he could now use the system to discover quests that would otherwise be hard to activate.

[ERROR | Discovery of system-generated Side Quests requires insight into Divination Dao]

William clenched his teeth and wondered how this was any different from safe mode. Instead of the system limiting him, it was now his ignorance of the various Daos.

… He supposed that was fair. It was becoming obvious that other than the strange effect on injuries and the rather convenient feature of saving his stat points, the system couldn't do much of anything if he didn't already have the knowledge of it.

Since the last two had failed, William knew this would too, but he wanted to see if pulling up a map was possible in the future.

[ERROR | Mini-map requires insight into Perception Dao]

William chuckled happily and pushed himself to stand up. In a way, this would be excellent motivation to start studying those three Daos. Space, Divination, and Perception Daos would be unbelievably valuable for more than just activating system features.

He ignored his screaming body and rubbed his grumbling stomach. Eating more fruit was an option, but he'd rather not risk his newly gained trait upgrading to something worse. That meant it was time to head to the camp that the men from the Garden had set up and take the offer for food.

Even in his currently damaged state, William knew there was no possible way they could threaten him. Even if they had somehow gorged themselves successfully on the spirit plants they had found, their low levels would make their durability equal to the low-level Sky Hares. In other words, those men would be glass cannons at best.

William hoisted the pouch over his shoulder and glanced at the discarded clothes thrown to the side. He had no intention of putting those back on, and his underwear would have to do until he could borrow some spares at the camp. And if they didn't have that, wait till Lan Yin returned to pick him up.

His stomach grumbled again, telling him to stop wasting time, and William listened. He settled into a steady run that would get him to the camp in a few minutes. Of course, the 'steady run' was equal to a sprint away from death for an average mortal since his Agility was maxed out.

In the meantime, William pulled up his status screen to see if getting out of safe mode changed anything there.

Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)

Age: 13

Level: 10

Experience: 1116/1250

Cultivation: Mortal

Health: 367/870

Strength: 20 (16)

Stamina: 10 (8)

Agility: 20 (16)

Luck: 1 (1)

Points: 21

Traits (2):

. Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction

. Impurity Poisoning (Stage 1) - XP Gain Decreased (10%)

Main Quests (2):

. Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state)

. Learn a Cultivation Technique

Side Quests (3):

Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable)

The Cultivation stat was the only thing that changed at first glance. However, it was almost useless if all it told was that he was a mortal.

Cultivation: Mortal

Max Level: 10

Max Attribute: 20

Upgrade Requirements (2):

. Learn a Cultivation Technique

. Reach Level 11

William dodged a few trees as he stared at the new screen in surprise. He didn't think there would be a submenu for anything. He went through the rest of the stats, accomplishing nothing until he got to the second main quest.

[ERROR | Revealing unknown rewards requires insight into Divination Dao]

William rolled his eyes and put his focus back on the Cultivation stats. He was more than a little surprised to learn that he was already at the max level for a mortal.

That also raised a question of what would happen when he acquired enough experience points to get to level eleven.

If the requirements for an upgrade needed a cultivation technique, a mortal could only be level ten. What would happen to the extra points? Perhaps this meant he needed to find a technique to learn before bothering to gain more experience points so it wouldn't go to waste.

If that demonic Sky Hare hadn't almost killed him with one attack, William would be more than willing to go back and test it out. Still, he supposed that waiting until he was back in Xuanjing City would be much safer.

For the rest of his time here, he didn't intend to do anything other than relax and wait for Lan Yin to pick him up. That was already in his plans before he saw the upgrade requirements, but seeing it only made that a no-brainer.

William slowed to a walk when he reached the clearing where the camp was set up and casually strolled in to see most men preparing for another day of foraging. A ridiculous amount of spirit plants were neatly separated into piles and ready to be bagged up in the middle.

"What happened to you!"

William turned away from the pile of fruits to see Cao Rui looking at him in horror.

"I knew I forgot to tell you something! Did you eat more than one of those fruits in a day? Brother Liu, get me some clothes for the kid!"

William hadn't even realized that if he was a typical thirteen-year-old boy, the trade Cao Rui had made would have likely killed him due to ignorance. William would have been paranoid about it being done on purpose if he could be bothered to care.

A quick glance at the men staring curiously at him let him know their levels were between four and six. Nothing that could pose a threat to him if he wasn't being completely careless.

"Thanks," William muttered as he slipped on clothes meant for a larger body. Still, it was better than nothing.

"Uh, you said to come back if I wanted food."

"Right," Cao Rui said with a chuckle, "A couple men brought extra steamed buns this morning. I'll get you some."

William eyed Cao Rui's back as he ignored the others whispering while trying, and failing, to be discreet. For someone breaking the rules, Cao Rui was quite amenable to a stranger he met randomly in a place where it's supposedly hard to reach.

Perhaps it had something to do with his age.

[Name: Cao Rui | Level: 6]

William stared at the blue text above the man and wondered if there was something like an 'Observe' skill to see the attributes.

[ERROR | The skill Observe has a minimum requirement of Level 11]

"Here you go," Cao Rui handed William a couple steamed buns, "If you want more, let me know."

William gave him a distracted smile as he started to eat food that wasn't a spirit plant for the first time in weeks. It certainly didn't taste as good, but that was a necessary sacrifice due to not wanting to worsen the debuff he had received.

And more importantly, he was thrilled that Observe would be something he could use soon. While the overall level helped know how much health someone, or something, had, it didn't say much about the individual attributes other than what the max could be.

If Observe allowed William to view that, it would make assessing the threat levels more accurate.

"Brother Cao, let's get started. I have a good feeling about today."

William returned a wave that Cao Rui gave him and watched most of the men file out, leaving a lone man that settled near the collected fruits and stared at him suspiciously.

He munched on the buns and decided that he would be happy to make this camp home for the next few weeks. He'd ask Lan Yin to reduce their punishment to pay them back when they were eventually found out.