"Okay..." the rat says, letting out an exasperated sigh, "Let's go over this one more time. How many fingers am I holding up?"

I sit on the ground before her, looking down at the tiny creature, shivering all over. "Um... four?" I guess.

Vile casts Electrical Arc!

Squire suffers 14 point(s) of damage!

Squire's HP is now 75!

I yelp in pain as tendrils of electricity dance across my fur, for far from the first time today. As eager as I am to insist that this impromptu math lesson is unnecessary, I can't work up the will to talk back to the clearly still furious rodent.

"Wrong! It's five! How could you have possibly survived so long in this world without knowing that?" Vile growls. Throughout all of this, Slave has been watching from a distance, her expression alternating between pity and apparent jealousy over the pain I've been enduring.

"I'm sorry." I say, bowing my head.

The magic using rodent sighs. "Listen up, because I'm only going to explain this once: Survival in this world isn't about power or knowledge or politics. All of those things are secondary. In the end, the most important thing is numbers. Knowing how much damage you need to inflict to defeat a foe. Knowing how much you can endure without dying yourself. Knowing how your charisma stacks up against others while negotiating. Knowing the percentage for success and resistance of status effects, and being able to calculate exactly how many tasks you need to accomplish in order to reach your next experience level. Do you understand?"

"Um. No, not really." I say. I am more than a little bit tempted to just nod my head and claim to agree, but I can't bring myself to lie. "It all works out the same in the end, doesn't it?"

Slave visibly winces.

"Maybe it's worked for you up until now, but it won't forever. That's why you kept losing against the alpha wolf. He knew how strong you were, but you had no idea how strong he was. He only underestimated us as a group because we worked well together, but numerically, he still had the advantage. Maybe you believe in things like fate and divine wills and even physical laws, and yeah, those things definitely matter, but at the heart of it, at the heart of everything? It's all numbers." Vile nods her head, pauses and raises both forelimbs. "Now, how many fingers?"

"Um... five?" I say, meekly. The coming electric shock doesn't surprise me in the least.

A few hellish hours pass, as basic numbers, addition and subtraction (which is super hard!) are drilled into my head. I feel as though I'm making excellent progress, but it would seem that my teacher very much disagrees. That's when something strange happens.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Base intelligence has increased by 1!

I jump as I receive the unexpected message, which catches Vile off guard as well. "What happened? It said that my intelligence went up!" I ask. Sure, that doesn't sound like such a bad thing, but after being electrocuted for so long, I've learned to panic at anything unexpected.

"You just reached a new attribute threshold. I'm surprised. I honestly didn't think that you were learning." Vile says. I simply stare at her blankly. "Seriously? You don't even know that much? I swear, you're completely hopeless." the rat sighs.

"Sorry..." I say, ears and tail lowered, head bowed.

"I guess you're less experienced than I thought. You can gain stat points through two methods: One is gaining experience levels, and the other is through strict training. Constantly working your muscles can build up strength, your mind intelligence, and, as Slave can tell you, constantly taking damage will build up your endurance and hit points."

"Wait, I thought Slave was just tough because she was super a high level?" I say, looking to the black cat who smiles smugly.

"No. She and I don't fight a great deal, plus we didn't gain the experience bonus which comes from having an advanced class. We were both at a lower level than you." the rat replies. "We still are, in fact. Her endurance is a product of rigorous training. Such gains are much, much more significant than individual levels, as rather than giving a set value, they instead increase how much you earn for every experience level. Even better? It works retroactively. Levels are still required for future growth, but by training your body and mind, you can dramatically increase your rate of such growth per level."

"So... does that mean that I've gotten a lot smarter?" I ask, tail wagging, excited by the prospect.

"Relatively speaking? Yes. But only because it was already such a low bar. Let's find out." she raises two paws. "How many fingers?"

"Seven!" I happily bark, tail wagging.

"Good! Now, add five and what do you get?"

"Twelve!'

"Excellent! Now, reduce three."

I blink, pausing, my earlier enthusiasm fading. "Um... eight?"

Vile casts Electrical Arc!

Squire suffers 11 point(s) of damage!

Squire's HP is now 52!

Base endurance has increased by 1!

---

Squire: "Oh, so that explains the bdsm subplot! It felt like a strange addition to an otherwise straight-forward and fairly family-friendly story."

Vile: "Yup! It's an often ignored fact in RPG-type worlds, but in any sort of universe where you could actually obtain attributes from enduring damage, bdsm would be way, way more common. Look at Final Fantasy 2, for instance. It's all about hurting your team-mates to increase their HP!"

Slave: "Huh, I don't remember Cecil and Rosa doing anything like that..."

Vile: ...

Slave: "Although Rydia did fight with a whip, didn't she? I guess I can sort of see the undertones there..."

Vile: "Please, stop. Every word is like a knife through my heart."

Squire: "I have no idea what you two are talking about."