Gabriel fought against the urge to immediately open his eyes as the previous silence suddenly gave way to the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Gently, he let loose the breath he had been holding, and on the exhale, slowly slid open his eyes.

As his vibrant green eyes took in the market scene before him, he felt a small smile grow across lips that hadn't smiled in over thirty years.

Looking down, he watched as hands that were free of wrinkles clenched and unclenched without the once familiar pain of aging joints.

Taking in a deep breath, he carefully gathered up all his real life cares and worries – everything that had once defined the man he had become, and as he exhaled, he let them all go, and finally, where once stood the avatar of an aged man now stood Gabriel…nothing more and nothing less.

Turning, Gabriel cast his piercing gaze across the square which was filled with citizens and adventurers trading and generally living their lives in the moment.

Finding what he wanted, he meandered in the direction of one of those old men which every marketplace seemed to have.

Inclining his head respectfully, Gabriel asked,

"Excuse me, sir, but might I trouble you for a moment?"

Waiting until he got the acknowledgement of the geriatric man, he continued,

"Could you kindly point me towards the library?"

Smiling amiably at the serene young man who was markedly different from other people his own age who always seemed to be in a hurry, the old man known commonly as Old Man Yama said,

"Of course young'un, you just head over there towards that dome there."

Bowing in thanks to the man, Gabriel set out immediately for his destination, all the while mentally tallying all the things he intended to achieve in the four weeks that he would be locked inside the city.

Seeing the library up ahead, he increased his pace, feeling in his heart the faint stirrings of excitement.

It had been too damned long.

Having gotten the details of the rules concerning the use of the library, Gabriel was free to commence his self-appointed task.

The first thing he did was mute all system messages except ones to do with his satiety levels, then he began to search for the first of the books he wanted to get.

By his estimation, he had about twelve hours before he would need to begin the next phase of his plan, which was plenty enough time for him.

So, loaded down with books about herbs, spices, cooking techniques, and recipes, Gabriel made his way towards a table shoved into one of the darkened corners of the library.

Settling in, he cranked open the first book and dove in.

Ten hours and two pieces of bread later, he finally emerged from his steady reading.

His brain was buzzing with all the new knowledge he had just gained, and while he felt a little overwhelmed by it all, he drew on his decades' worth of experience in preparing meals to make sense of all the cooking methods, and raw materials he had just read about.

He made note of any similarities he could and differences that seemed important were also carefully noted.

Finally satisfied with his progress, and still leaving the system messages muted, he made his way out of the library and traced his path back towards the square, until he got to the restaurant he remembered seeing.

In the window, the board offering employment was still visible.

Pleased that the position hadn't already been filled, he went in to find the owner to ask about the job opening.

Noticing a stern looking matronly woman scolding one of the workers, he walked towards her until she noticed him and fixed her penetrating stare on him.

Seeing that he had her attention, he said,

"I noticed you had an opening here…"

Trailing off as a thunderous scowl grew upon her face, Gabriel patiently waited for her to speak, which she did promptly.

"Tch…another adventurer. Do you have the cooking skill?"

Tilting his head at her, Gabriel casually asked,

"Are you asking me if I have the cooking skill or if I can cook?"

Seeing the slightly surprised look on her face, he felt the edge of his lips curl a little in muted amusement.

Hastily regaining her composure, the woman now fixed him with a look which was noticeably lacking in much of the contempt that had once colored her gaze.

Motioning towards the kitchen in the back, she said simply,

"Show me"

Nodding to her, he immediately moved to one of the work stations, while his sharp eyes darted about, making note of all the ingredients in immediate reach.

Settling on simple pasta dish, he got busy.

Now, here was the gamble.

On one end of the spectrum, from what he understood, skills worked as a sort of system assistance. So, take a sword skill for instance. Activating the skill would cause the system to position the user's body into the appropriate stance, then launch the attack. The speed, accuracy, power, and sheer technique involved in the attack would then be subject to the level of the skill's progress. So, for high level skills, they would be fast, precise, devastating, and look like the work of a pro.

But like in most things, there was the easy way and then the right way, and it didn't take a genius to know which way was which.

For cooking – like most crafting skills – the user would simply have to put in the ingredients and the cooking skill would take over, thus eliminating the need for user input. The level of the cooking skill would then determine how palatable the final dish was, thus giving you situations where high level cooking skills could produce gourmet dishes from the cheapest materials.

However, on the other end of the spectrum you had situations where the user would actually go through the motions from start to finish. In that case, the cooking skill would simply work to augment their actions such as helping them chop this evenly, and season that precisely. The differences in the two approaches to the skill could be very subtle, but they were there. For instance, using the cooking skill the harder way, someone with a beginner's level of skill could still produce gourmet dishes from scratch provided they actually knew what they were doing and were very very careful about it.

It was with all that in mind that Gabriel got to work.

At that point, he didn't actually know whether he had the cooking skill or not, but he believed it wouldn't matter.

The owner, as well as a few other curious workers, watched as Gabriel set up his station. They were fully expecting him to toss in the ingredients as all the adventurers they had met had done, and thus they were all promptly surprised when he began to prepare each ingredient carefully while setting the pasta to boil away.

Over the next half hour, he prepared the meal, using his recently acquired knowledge about the indigenous spices to make required substitutions in the recipe.

Finally done, he placed the plate of food before the narrow eyed glare of the restaurant owner and stepped back to let her judge his skills.

There was a perceptible hush as everyone watched her take a bite and freeze.

With absolutely no change in expression, she regarded Gabriel stonily before finally saying,

"They call me Madam Rosmerta. I expect you to work the evening shift five days a week. You'll get paid a base wage of one silver coin every week. You'll also help with clean up three times a week. Lastly, if you're dishes become popular then we can negotiate a commission for each dish sold."

Nodding to show that he had gotten all that, Gabriel bowed his head in gratitude to her and said,

"Thank you ma'am, I look forward to working here."

Rosmerta merely harrumphed, but the other workers present noticed the light of reluctant amusement in her eyes.

Once she left to attend to other business, Gabriel was swamped by welcomes from all his new coworkers as he was introduced to everyone there.

Gabriel sighed as he closed the last book on his reading list.

He sat back in his seat and let his head hang over the back of his chair as he just stared at the great arching library ceiling.

His four weeks were up.

After getting the job at the restaurant, Gabriel had thrown himself fully into his tasks, reading books nonstop from 6am till his shift started at 4pm. Then he would spend six hours cooking for a steady stream of people, until he finally got off at 10pm, at which point he would make his own meal, clean up, and then go to sleep at the inn next to the restaurant.

By the second week, he had noticed that he only needed to eat one of his prepared meals each day to keep his satiety levels up. Furthermore, experimentation with substituting some spices with herbs used in potion making had let him craft meals that gave status bonuses like: Increased health regeneration, stamina regeneration, and increased speed of experience gain.

Once he had discovered the recipe for the meal which boosted his rate of gaining skills, he had stopped eating anything else.

Now, four weeks later, he finally unmuted the system messages and promptly flinched backwards as his entire field of vision was overtaken with blue status message boxes.

His gaze flicked rapidly from box to box, reading things like

Intelligence increased by 1

Wisdom increased by 1

Cooking Skill learned

Alchemy Skill learned

Reading Skill learned

Vitality increased by 1

Cooking skill has reached intermediate level

Observe Skill learned

And so on and so forth.

With a fortifying breath, he dismissed all the windows, and then brought up his own status window.

He spent a few seconds just staring at his stats, before he gave up and broke out into low and fairly quiet laughter.

After getting a hold of himself, he put all the books back where he had gotten them from and left the library.

Having already memorized a map of his starting city, he wasted no time in locating the training hall to commence the next task on his list.

Walking through the large doors of the training hall was like walking into a wall of noise.

Everywhere he looked, Gabriel found adventurers whaling away at various practice dummies littered around the hall.

Movement from the corner of his eye drew his attention to a mountain of a man silently stalking towards him.

In any other situation, Gabriel would have displayed some element of caution, but now, he merely locked gazes with the training instructor and said,

"I'm here to participate in Basic Training."

The instructor merely raised an eyebrow and drawled out,

"Yea, you and every other wannabe adventurer."

Choosing not to take offence to what was an attempt to goad him, Gabriel replied in an even tone,

"I'll take a longsword and a long dagger please."

Casting a contemplative glance at the dark haired man before him, the instructor nodded and went to fetch the requested weapons.

Now armed with the sword in his right hand and the dagger in his left, Gabriel immediately began to attack the dummy before him.

He went at it with an explosive start and fought to maintain his earlier vigor after two hours of spirited hacking, stabbing, and dicing.

Since his system messages had been disabled, he paid close attention to his body's reactions, using them to tell him how he was doing.

When he felt the first sign of a burn in his muscles, he ignored it and continued swinging his weapons.

Once the ache descended into his very bones, then he took a break and took out one of his pre-prepared meals

After a ten minute break, and with the restorative bonus of his meal, he was back up and hacking away, only this time, he had the sword in his left hand and the dagger in his right.

He continued like that, alternating which hand held which weapon, on and on and only taking breaks when he felt that he couldn't continue, until it was time for his job to begin.

He set the weapons back in place and left to work.

That day set the tone for the next four weeks of his time.

Even though the restriction keeping him in the city had been lifted, he never once considered leaving the city until he had finished the Basic Training Program.

Four weeks of mind numbing work later, he found himself slashing at the dummy with his sword and then fluidly shifting the dagger into the perfect position to execute three lightning fast piercing jabs.

Pausing at the noticeable change, he unmuted his system messages and, ignoring the sudden ballooning of blue boxes, he focused on the one staring him right in the face.

[You have completed the Basic Training Program]

Dismissing all the message boxes, he called up his stat screen and glanced through it.

Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he turned to leave only to pull up short as he came face to chest with the instructor.

Stepping back and looking up into the giant's eyes, he found himself taken aback at the shine in the man's eyes.

Gabriel watched silently as the towering man threw his head back and erupted into booming laughter.

Once his mirth had died down, the instructor spoke up, explaining the reason for his reaction,

"When you first turned up and asked for two weapons, I thought you'd wash out like the others before you, but to think that you'd actually finish the Basic Training Program with both weapons…not bad kid."

Suppressing a snort at being called a kid, Gabriel, nodded his head in silent thanks.

The instructor, not taking offence from his reticence, held his hands out, drawing Gabriel's emerald gaze to the weapons clutched in the man's hand.

The weapons were steel replicas of the wooden weapons he was holding.

Smiling at the man, and actually bowing a little in gratitude, Gabriel exchanged his practice weapons for the real thing and left the training hall.

The first thing he did was head towards the restaurant to hand in his resignation, and it was a measure of how much the owner had come to like him over the duration of the two months he had worked for her that she readily told him to drop by whenever he was in the city and she would have a cooking station waiting for him.

Then, after she handed him his total earnings – from his wages and bonuses – of ten gold coins, he headed towards the blacksmith to learn the repair skill and purchase some beginner armor, but only five leggings and nothing else.

After that, he bought spices and other cooking ingredients, and finally, four gold coins lighter, he meandered towards one of the main buildings in the city.

He recalled that until a player had a class, the number of skills they could learn were limited to 10. That would simply not do.

Even though he was going about things in a very different way, he would still like the ability to learn as many skills as he wanted. With that in mind, he located the Warriors Guild and promptly obtained the regular warrior class.

Finally, after eight weeks of hard work, he took his first step outside the walls of the city and then paused to just breathe in the wilderness air.

Startled squealing interrupted his peace and rapidly drew his gaze to the fields just past the gate where he watched new players run about the place, ruthlessly slaughtering rabbits and foxes.

The squealing was from a short petite girl currently being chased by three foxes.

Gabriel was standing just beside the west gate, so he was easily able to hear the laughter emanating from the guards standing at the city's entrance.

He watched from his position as one of the young men near the screaming girl took note of her.

Gabriel could almost see the moment the man registered the girl's appearance because the player promptly proved why beautiful women would almost always be the downfall of young men.

The male player had been battling two foxes at the time, but he wasted no time in turning his back on them and racing off to aid the terrified pretty little thing.

Unfortunately, while he ignored the foxes, they didn't ignore him.

So, without knowing what he was getting himself into, he lunged forward and struck at one of the foxes chasing the girl, causing the other two to turn their focus to him.

The girl, seeing a chance at salvation, hid behind the young man who felt even more fired up at her action.

However, just as he was about to really get into attacking the foxes, he felt a sharp pain at his lower back, which was coupled with a piercing shriek from the girl hiding behind him.

Face paling in horrified realization, he spun to face the foxes he had ignored, but instead of finding two, he found four.

Being only a level two player, he easily realized the situation he was in, and frantically looked around for help.

His eyes met Gabriel's indifferent green eyes and just as he opened his mouth to call for help, the three foxes which had been chasing the girl took offence to being ignored, and dogpiled him, forcefully dragging him – and the girl clinging to his arm – to the ground.

With both prey brought down, the seven foxes bared fangs and struck without mercy.

Moments before their health ran out, the male player looked up to see Gabriel still staring placidly at him.

With their quarry dead, the foxes turned their attention to the next target; Gabriel himself.

Uncrossing his arms, Gabriel strode forward with unhesitant steps and just as he got within striking range of the lead fox, his foot blurred out.

A cut off yelp heralded the canine's rapid change from land bound to airborne.

The other six foxes gazed at the distant figure of their companion, before looking at Gabriel.

Unanimously, they all came to one conclusion and turned tail to run.

A minute smirk curled upon Gabriel's slips before he exploded into motion.

Finding himself easily able to keep up with the sprinting foxes, he ignored the baffled gazes from other players watching him as he kept at the heels of the fleeing foxes until their odd little group was under the cover of the trees.

The moment Gabriel was assured of his privacy, he rapidly accelerated full speed.

The foxes only felt the swish of fabric cutting through the air before they all found themselves getting more intimate with the trees than they ever wanted to be.

Slumping down, and stunned from their collision, they were all easy pickings for Gabriel and could do nothing to stop him as grabbed one of them and raised it to eye level.

Gabriel peered curiously at the still stunned fox, and after a moment to wonder if he really was going to do what he was about to, he shrugged, opened his inventory bag and casually forced the fox into it.

The other five stared at him with mouths gaping and canine brains overheating as they tried to comprehend what their owners' eyes had just reported.

Still ignoring the other five foxes which were too cowed to even consider running, Gabriel reached back inside and withdrew the fox from his bag.

Seeing its limp form, he frowned before suddenly shaking it.

With a yelp, it stopped playing dead and turned terrified eyes on him.

Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he summarily dropped the fox, established eye contact with the other six and slowly pointed deeper into the forest.

Showing that primal fear really could do amazing things, their canine brains managed to interpret his human gesture, and in a flash, all foxes were off, scurrying in random directions, hoping that the green eyed demon would let them be.

Once he knew that they had all vanished, Gabriel slowly turned and gazed at a rabbit grazing near the boundary of the forest he was currently standing in.

Like a great and terrible thing stirring from a century long slumber, a small smile slowly grew on his lips.

Okay, here's the thing; this story was basically completed months ago, it only needed some brief editing. Since I'm having problems finding time to sit down and write my main stories, I figured I'd post this just to dissuade rumors of my demise. Some of you might recognize the premise of this story...kudos to you. It is one that I actually look forward to fleshing out once the bleach fic is done (and the naruto fic too...I think...probably...well, possibly...maybe(?))

As for the reason why I'm having issues with writing. My job is draining me...it's a purely mental job and so when I get off work, my brain is just about oozing out of my ears. I think things will stabilize in a few weeks, and then I'll take a vacation, and bust out at least one chapter each of my bleach story and my naruto story as well.