The floating virtual body showed no obvious reaction to his words as it bobbed in the air, but the words that came from it showed that his question had been registered.

"You must be referring to the collective registered statistics of all beings indicted into Essence. This is a simple question." Selie responded calmly.

"They are numbered five, and each has a special and specific function. The first is Power, which denotes the limit of your physical ability for attacking. How well you can swing a rod or how well you can lift a boulder depends on how much Power your have."

"The second is Mobility, which denotes your ability to move from one fixed location to another in a certain amount of time. This does not involve just the ground, but the air as well, or to put it simply, it's not just about your feet, but the movement of your whole body."

"The third is Fortitude, which denotes your ability to withstand attacks as well as your survivability in any hazardous situation. It also denotes your physical stamina and energy levels."

"The fourth is Mentality, which denotes your thinking capacity as well as your ability to use any extra skills and techniques. The higher your Mentality, the easier it is to use skills acquired from Essence and the more often you'll be able to use them before having to rest."

"The final one is Providence, which denotes your spiritual luck. Providence works a bit differently from the others since 'luck' is not really something quantifiable. Rather, Providence dictates the amount of 'investment' the Universe Will will put into your survival and benefit, though an important think to note is that it can even follow you to the Chaos Realm."

The virtual body went quiet as it had answered Damon's question, yet the young man felt unsatisfied. There was so much more he needed to know, and he needed a moment to sort his thoughts to decide where to begin.

"What do I need to do to raise those stats, Selie?" Damon eventually asked.

"The most reliable way to raise those stats is by using the Stat Points you will primarily acquire through Leveling Up. The world of Essence is styled similar to what you humans would call an RPG game. The concept had long been developed and expanded on by smarter and more technologically advanced species than your kind, so do not be surprised." Selie answered straightforwardly.

Damon raised his hands in defeat. "Not surprised, please continue. What else should I know?"

It would truly show foolishness and lack of critical thinking on his part if Damon thought that humanity had been the only species to discover video games out of so many sapient species in the galaxy, most of which had existed far longer than Earth.

"In Essence, you will explore maps styled similar to what you may find in the Chaos Realm. This is, after all, a training simulation, not a leisure one. On those maps, you will encounter the living beings that exist and propagate throughout the Chaos Realm, who will be your foes during an actual spelunk."

"Initially, there had been a Experience Point mechanic, but over time it got phased out in favor of using Worldly Essence, a diluted form of Chaos Essence."

"The Universe craves Chaos Essence since it allows it to power itself, and in the process it produces a great amount of Worldly Essence, a type of energy that is compatible with all organic species."

"This is a virtuous cycle for all living beings and for the Universe. Your task is therefore to acquire Worldly Essence through the AR world by killing these replicated species and once you've accumulate enough, you will automatically 'Level Up' and gain a stat point, which you're free to allocate in any field."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Selie paused then continued. "Since this is a special tutorial, I will add some important information. Namely, the value of stats is very important, but can be misleading."

"Like the current you, every member of every species starts off with 1 in all fields when first indicted into Essence. The base of what you have is calculated among the average of your species."

"It doesn't matter whether you were a bodybuilder who spent hundreds of hours honing your body before coming here, or someone whose only form of training consisted of going to the fridge, the two of you would both start out with 1 PWR."

"However, should you face a member of the Giant Dragon species, they would still be able to easily stomp you to death, despite both parties having the same stats."

"When you allocate points into a stat, it increases linearly on the beforementioned average. To put it in numbers, if 1 PWR allows you to lift up 75 kg, you'll be able to lift up 150 kg with 2 PWR, 225 kg with 3 PWR, 300 kg with 4 PWR and so on."

"Let me remind you that these stats will carry over into reality since Worldly Essence gets poured directly into your body and bonds with you through special means facilitated by the Universe Will."

Damon frowned. "Then how are we to compete against each other? If I were to fight a fellow human, and we both have the same stats, our punches, speed and everything apart from our ability will be the same, no?"

For the first time, Selie showed some change in attitude, namely amusement. "That is a foolish question for two reasons. Firstly, the number of stats do not denote combat effectives, merely your base ability. In a straight race between two people with 3 MOB, one can still outrun the other. This is due to various factors like aerodynamic build, conditions and most importantly, technique."

"Secondly, what gave you the idea that you're supposed to 'compete' against each other in the first place? You're here to train your power and acquire some level of combat effectiveness specifically against those beings from the Chaos Realm. This is a training simulation to do that, and the Universe Will does not tolerate its spelunkers killing each other in the cradle."

Damon's eyebrows flinched. He had seen various laws that had confused him, like the IUAS banishing criminals to the Chaos Realm for most major crimes, which had made no sense back then.

It had been as if the various authorities had not dared to give out a death penalty to even the most heinous criminals. Most punishments seemed to revolve around being made to serve in the Chaos Realm for a number of years.

Now Damon understood why. The Universe Will saw every living species in its domain as a possible adventurer. It was not even willing to waste one person if it could, so killing each other where it could see was prohibited.

Naturally, the Universe Will had no reason to care about crimes like rape, arson, theft and the like. It had nothing to do with such mortal troubles and the only one it cared about was murder.

As such, it had been left to the IUAS to define punishments that aligned with the Universe Will for heavy crimes. Looking back at what he had read through, Damon felt they had done a good job overall.

"Okay then, I was also told that one could enter with their real bodies or through Virtual Reality. What's the difference?" Damon asked.

Selie seemed unhappy at that. "Due to the contributions of the Intergalactic Union of All Species, the Universe Will had to concede a certain term to the union. Since not every living species is qualified to enter the Chaos Realm or might be useful there, rather than wasting precious lives, those who feel they cannot handle the danger can opt to enter Essence through the means of Virtual Reality."

"However, the Universe Will will not be taken advantage of. Only those who enter Essence with their real bodies and brave the life and death dangers will enjoy the things I mentioned above, which is having Worldly Essence bonded into them permanently to increase their body's power. Not only that, any items or skills they acquire in Essence can be brought to reality and sold, or used for their own gain."

"Entering through VR is just for fun or learning experience and many alternate worlds and maps have been created. Apart from the default Essence which is modeled after the Chaos Realm, there are many seed worlds that allow you to enter leisure worlds, economic/trading worlds, racing worlds, or even intergalactic worlds."

"These are necessary as you cannot do many things in the default Essence. For example, you entering with your real body can also enter these seed worlds and buy weapons or sell them to others, partake in some leisure or fantasy directly among others, but you cannot spend more than a certain amount of time there. How much time you can spend out of Essence when you enter with your real body is determined by how much time you've spent inside."

"The ratio is directly proportionate. Spend one year in Essence fighting nonstop and growing your power, and you'll be allowed one year of leisure and enjoyment."

Damon nodded. This made sense and would encourage those who wanted power to fight even longer so that they could enjoy the fun bits even more.

All work and no play made jack a dull boy after all.