Chapter 4 – A Whole New World

“Check Status”

Name:

Alex

Surname:

Cooper

Occupation

None

Title

None

Stats

Strength

4

Intelligence

7

Dexterity

5

Constitution

6

Charisma

4

Magic

0

Traits: Asperger’s(Genetic), Bibliophile

Holy crap it was real! Not only that but I had seemed to have gotten a few points in constitution. That had to have been from the torture session I put myself through with the spikes. I didn’t really do anything else worthwhile in the dungeon.

Strangely I have no stats in magic. And I have no idea how to go about acquiring it. Sadly, I had no choice but to hope that the dungeon would somehow give me points in it.

Speaking of which the pop-ups said something about being able to see what each stat means. What was the phrase to do that again? Oh right.

“Status Description.”

Suddenly multiple pop-ups appeared in front of me. Strange how I seemed to be getting more use to that.

[Strength: This stat shows how strong your body is. It covers many aspects such as muscle density, physical strength, and physical speed.]

[Dexterity: This stat shows how nimble and flexible your body is. The lower this stat goes the more rigid your body becomes. The higher this stat becomes the more flexible and nimble your body becomes. ]

[Charisma: This stat shows how charismatic the individual is to other people. Through physical looks, elegance in speech, or just an attractive aura radiating from them.]

[Intelligence: This stat indicates how well a person’s mind works. An increase in this stat increases the individuals cognitive function and memory making absorbing new information easier and harder to forget. It also helps the user think of multiple solutions to problems some of which they may not have considered before.]

[Constitution: The stat that indicates the overall constitution of the body. This includes cell regeneration, disease resistance, and how much punishment the body can handle before beginning to shut down.]

[Magic: This stat shows how in tune the individual is with the underlying energy that controls the multiverse, mana. Higher levels of Magic decrease the knowledge needed to perform certain phenomena as well as allows the user to manipulate reality in larger ways. By becoming more in tune with mana you can instinctively grasp more cost-efficient ways of preforming spells.]

Huh well that’s unusual. It seems like many of the stats that a person normally gets in games have been combined in these. And looking at this it looks like the reason I don’t have any kind of bars on my screen is because all the status screen does is show my overall strength. I’m going to oversee figuring out my limits myself. Damn that is going to be incredibly tedious.

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Looking at the bottom of the screen I see something called traits. Which is odd. I have no idea what those are. I remember the pop-ups saying that I got a unique one from finishing the first floor.

Looking back, I remember only having Asperger’s on there. I thought that was just referring to the fact that I actually had Asperger’s I didn’t think it would actually impact anything. But with this newest trait maybe it really will. I wonder….

Taking a gamble I decided to try a new phrase.

“Trait Description.”

[Asperger’s(Genetic): Your body has undergone a mutation from birth.  This mutation increases your intellect but greatly impairs your ability to socialize. Increasing intelligence is 1.5X easier while increasing Charisma is twice as hard. As it is a birth mutation this trait cannot be modified or removed.]

[Bibliophile: You love books. Any kind of books, text books, story books, old scrolls, comics, any kind of writing on paper. If it is on a written page you become absorbed into whatever it may contain. Knowledge from books is easier to understand and remember. Greatly increases learning capability with the written word.]

Well. That has some useful information. First there are commands that the pop-ups haven’t told me about that I can find on my own. And second looking at my Asperger’s trait it seems like traits can be modified or removed. They also seem to be able to negatively affect me.

Suddenly I hear barking coming from outside my door. It looks like the dogs are up. Which means so are my parents.

After a quick “Close status” I grabbed some fresh clothes and headed to the shower. Even though going down the stairs cleaned me of everything that happened I still felt dirty. So, I figured a nice warm shower is exactly what the doctor ordered.

After a nice toasty shower and getting into some clean clothes I put away my old clothes I slept in and went to the living room.

In it was the families two dogs Lilly and Rusty along with my mom and dad sitting in their chairs drinking their morning coffee and watching the news. My dad pauses the tv and looks over to me.

“Morning son. Why are you up so early? You usually sleep in a lot later on the weekends.”

“Oh well I crashed pretty hard last night so I guess I got more sleep than I normally do.”

“That’s good you’ve been running yourself ragged lately. Maybe take a break today.”

Quickly I made an excuse, knowing if I said I would take a break from studying I would be roped into doing chores around the house. “Sorry dad I cant. I have to finish this program for professor Demetri and I have a test in circuit analysis later on this week.”

“Alright then. Well good luck son, I’m proud of you. Keep it up.”

Leaning over I gave him our customary fist bump before going over to my mom and giving her a hug.

After grabbing some breakfast, I returned to my room. One of my newest traits, Bibliophile, said I learned more from books and remembered them better. Which was perfect since my head had been crammed so full of everything I’ve had to learn in college that I was starting to forget bits and pieces.

It was time for a refresher.

Quickly I ran around my room and pulled together all my old schoolbooks and started reading. After only an hour I was amazed at the changes I could feel. Not only did I remember everything I read word for word. Somehow, I even understood it better than when I read it before!

That proved it to me. Whatever risks there were in the dungeon the benefits more than made up for it. Just the Bibliophile trait would change my life. I could learn anything. I could become one of those super geniuses that get hired by governments and billion dollar think tanks to just theorize and design futuristic technology like hovercars and laser guns.

Feeling more alive than I have in years I spent the entire day rereading my old textbooks. By the end, I could remember every single page of over 10 books. Physics, chemistry, advanced mathematics…. My head was swimming in knowledge.

And I loved every second of it.

 Just yesterday I had trouble remembering everything I had to learn this semester and after one night it was fixed just like that.

Relishing the sudden influx of knowledge into my brain I sat back and just started playing with it.

I started theorizing and making blue-prints of various electrical parts in my mind. Just for fun. I always was an eccentric nerd at heart.

It was while I was doing mental reductions of various kinds of circuits that I got an interesting surprise.

[Mental mapping LV2 -> LV3.]

[Due to gaining a large amount of knowledge and then integrating it into various components, solidifying your understanding your intelligence has increased by 1]

…Apparently, I could increase my skills and stats out in the real world as well as in the other world. I don’t know why but that thought never even occurred to me. I only ever thought they would increase in the dungeon.

This opened so many new possibilities.

Suddenly I felt my head start to throb and then suddenly it was like a curtain had been lifted off my mind. I could feel my brain working faster, storing information more efficiently. Hell, even my kinetic vision got slightly better. My mind could now register each individual blade on my fan as it spun where just before all of them were blurred.

I stumbled over to my bed and had to lie down. If you have had a head rush I can guarantee it was nothing like the one I just got.

After lying down for a bit just relishing in the feeling of my mind becoming clear, I looked at the clock on the wall. I had spent over 10 hours just reading. Something I haven’t been able to do since I started college.

I went out to make some dinner and hang with my family. I helped my dad make American Chop Suey and sat around with my mom and listened to her gossip about her day. My brother coming in at some point and being the overblown goofball he is messing with the dogs on the rug. My sister came home and just rushed right into her room, probably to gossip about something or other on the phone with one of her girlfriends.

All the while just slowly dying inside. Desperately wanting to get back to my room and go to sleep to return to the trial.

Now that I knew the benefits it could give I became even more willing to return, despite the dangers.

Finally, at around nine I said goodnight to everyone and took a few shots of vodka to help me get over my excitement and get to sleep.

And finally, after an hour I fell asleep.

[Alex Cooper is now entering the world of Avalon.]

[Opening the dungeon’s 2nd floor.]