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Hell Bound
43. Shadow Stats

43. Shadow Stats

Yav and I were walking westward. The forest was very dense, and we found ourselves getting deeper and deeper into it. We had walked all day.

Looking around, I felt something that I hadn't felt for a while: the fear of being attacked by roots.

"Hey, Yav. I've always wondered something. What's the deal with roots? Like, why do they attack sometimes and not others?" I asked him.

He had that look he got when I asked him a question, the air of someone important. His smile was lopsided and he forced himself to look at the landscape, as if I was bothering him by asking something. "Roots… Yes…" he said. He liked to build up the suspense unnecessarily. Quite the actor.

"It depends on the time and your level. They only attack when the sunlight is weak. And only up to a certain level, depending on the area where they grow." he said.

"So, am I at risk here at my level?" I asked. "12? Pff. No, not at all. I've never seen a root attack a player above level 10."

That was reassuring. The more time passed, the more I realized the value of this ghost. Sure, I was paying 1EP per hour, and it might have been too expensive for the service provided, but it was nice not to be alone anymore.

I opened my profile to check how many EP I had left: 19/40. Not that much left.

Strangely, my EP had not increased since I had spawned. However, my HP was now at 60, instead of the initial 40.

I looked at Yav - who was two yards away from me - out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to ask him another question, but I knew he was going to act like a diva again.

"Well, never mind..." I mumbled before asking my question.

"Yav, I have another question." I began.

He turned his head, his usual smile on his face, he was eagerly awaiting my question.

"Before I died, my EP had increased on its own, but now they're not increasing, I'm still at a maximum of 40EP." I explained.

He started looking elsewhere, as if he had forgotten to pretend to be busy.

"Yes... Yes... I see." he said. He was taking his time. "Every level, you earn points that allow you to increase your EP bar or your HP bar. Even your magic bar, if you have one. So if you don't place these points, your EP bar won't move. You didn't know that?" he asked, with a smug air.

"No. But why did my EP bar increase on its own before?" I asked again.

"It can happen that the system responds to your desires without waiting for a verbal command. Like when your screen appears without you asking it to. You just had to make a strong physical effort, and points were unconsciously added to your EP bar." He explained.

That made sense, I even wondered how far these automatic processes could go. Could the system unconsciously level me up? Or make me send PP to someone without me asking for it? Everything seemed possible. But I had a more urgent question to ask.

"How do I see where these points are?" I asked Yav.

He shrugged. "These points have no name. You can just ask the screen to increase your EP to their maximum capacity." he said.

"Why don't they have a name?" I asked this question while being puzzled.

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This time, he looked annoyed. "You're like a child who keeps asking pointless questions. Like 'What's the point of this world?' Or 'Why isn't it always ugly in Hell.', that kind of stuff." he said.

I thought those were good questions he was raising, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I needed answers, not an angry ghost. "Okay, I understand. But I really need to know…" I replied, looking him in the eyes.

"Well… I don't know why it doesn't have a name. But it's not the only thing that doesn't." he said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"We all arrive in Hell with differences. There are super strong guys, but dumb as nails. And others who have a natural mastery of magic, even before they know what a Mage is. Similar with personality, there are guys who kill on the first day. And others like you who don't seem to want to get their hands dirty." This last sentence sounded strangely like a criticism.

Yav continued his explanation: "If you exercise, your muscles will grow, you will become stronger but your strength stat will not change. All these things that are not quantified by Hell, we can call them 'Shadow stats'." concluded the ghost.

"So if I understand correctly, this is another trick from Hell?" I asked.

"Hell ONLY does tricks, don't be naive." replied Yav. I looked ahead as I walked, these words resonated in me. There were clear differences between each player, was it something inherited from our life on Earth? If so, it was perhaps out of Hell's control. It was reassuring to think so. Everything was not predetermined.

I opened my screen and concentrated as hard as I could on the idea of enlarging my EP bar. Then I saw my orange bar expand. I now had 43/64 EP.

"It worked!" I said to Yav. He looked with a bored expression, then clapped with his hands that produced no sound.

"It's like witnessing a child's first words." he let out.

I didn't say anything, I was just happy with myself and this discovery.

We then walked another hour before reaching a tree that had fallen to the ground, it was being eaten by some kind of weird grey bugs.

"That was the tree that hid our base, it will soon hide nothing." Yav said, pointing at the huge beige piece of wood.

"Is it underneath?" I asked.

"If there hasn't been a landslide, yes." Yav replied.

I approached the trunk and dug where the ghost indicated. After pushing the soil with my hands, I saw a small metal circle appear. I pulled on it with all my strength and the hatch opened.

The hole that appeared let out a rotten smell that made me turn my head. I waited to get used to the smell as much as I could before going down.

I placed my hands on the rusty bars of the ladder that disappeared into the shadow covering Yav's old base. There were only a few yards of ladder before touching the ground again.

"On the side, there should be a torch," the ghost told me.

I groped the shadows to my right, my hand coming into contact with a piece of wood. It was a torch.

"How do I light it?" I asked.

"Ahhh…mmm…" the ghost seemed annoyed.

He seemed to be looking around, while maintaining a maximum distance of three yards around me.

"Don't you have a way to light your chains, or something?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"And isn't your perception enough to penetrate the darkness?" he asked next.

I didn't respond, he had seen my profile, he knew my stats.

"Fine, move on. We need to find a small metal box. One of my team members was a mage who hid a slightly luminescent orb in it," he said.

So, I did as he suggested, groping in the dark and searching everywhere. I was aided by the light seeping from the hatch I'd left open.

After ten long minutes, the tip of my index finger touched something metallic.

"Yav… I found something," I whispered to him.

"Why are you whispering?" he asked me.

I had no answer, after being in the dark for so long I had the impression that Drifters could burst out of the darkness at any moment.

I extended my fingers and felt that the object was a box.

I gently opened it and a bright object blinded me.

There indeed was an orb in the box, much brighter than I had expected.

I grabbed it and began to illuminate the surroundings.

There were boxes here and there, beds made of animal skins, doors carved into the walls.

This base was comprised of several rooms.

"We didn't dig this place out. It was already here," Yav explained.

"What is this place, then?" I asked.

"One of the entrances to a gigantic tunnel. These things cover hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles. They were dug a very long time ago, nobody knows for what or by whom... And it's our ticket out," the ghost told me, a certain excitement in his voice.