It had taken a lot of convincing, but Marem’s dad had finally agreed to help train Leo. Leo hoped that her dad would have some valuable advice, not as a legendary hero but as an otherworlder. If he had access to the same system that Leo had, then he would be bound to have useful information on how it worked.

The most important information he could learn, however, was if there was any better way to deal with his strength. He’d been managing it pretty well, and he only occasionally caused massive property damage. But despite the benefits of being so powerful, it came with flaws that ranged from how he fought to his daily life.

When he fought against John, he had to waste time scanning the crowd. The rocks that Leo threw were effective, but they easily broke through the barrier around the arena. If one of them hit a spectator, it could’ve killed them before anybody could react.

Leo was deep in thought, sitting in the middle of one of the many courtyards, when he heard footsteps crunching into the gravel below. John had told him to meet here in the morning, so Leo decided to wait instead of going to Marem’s room for the night. She was not the biggest fan of Leo spending more time with her father, but she understood his reasoning.

“You know it’s like one am, right?” asked John as he walked up to Leo.

“Yeah, I don’t sleep anymore. One of my class abilities,” replied Leo.

“I really hate when you look at me in the dark. Most people just blindly follow whatever sound they hear, but you always stare right at me. Creeps me out.”

“Got darkvision too, not my fault,” Leo shrugged.

John sat down next to him. “So, you kept going on about wanting my help. I don’t know if you remember, but you won our fight.”

“Do you have a System?” asked Leo.

“Yeah, I call it Bluebo. Bluebo does not shut up about how much it hates you.”

“Wait, yours can speak?”

“Bluebo doesn’t speak to you? And Bluebo isn’t mine, we’re technically sharing right now.”

“The System’s sentient? Man, this is weird.”

“Yeah, it is. From what I’m told, anyone who is summoned gets access to Bluebo. But you seem to have some weird backdoor access or something. Bluebo described it like you’re a parasite rooting through their brain for scraps.”

“Oh. Well, tell Bluebo I’m sorry. I didn’t even know it was sentient, or how I ended up getting access to it.”

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“We’re not sitting here before sunrise to talk about what is basically a sidekick. Why are you asking about the System?”

“Something broke with my system. I don’t know much about code, but when a number goes negative it can flip over. Or when it’s too large then it goes back to one. It’s something like that, I don’t know.”

“Okay?”

“Well, that happened to me. Some potion I drank put me at negative strength, so it’s now in the billions. I’ve been struggling to manage it, and I wanted to know if you had some System knowledge that could help.”

“Holy shit, what? My strength is in the tens of thousands and that’s overkill for fighting. No wonder you kicked my ass, that’s basically cheating. Hell, how did you not level the country in our fight?”

“I was holding back. I try my best to hold back my strength, but it can be a struggle. Even when I finally get comfortable, it suddenly becomes harder the next day.”

Marem’s dad stopped for a minute, his eyes unfocused on the world around him. “Okay, so I don’t really have any way to help with your strength. But I can help you understand why you’re struggling.”

“Why I’m struggling seems pretty obvious, it’s because of my strength.”

“No, listen to me. What does the system show you?”

“It shows me my stats?”

“Close, but not exactly. ”

“What do you mean?”

“The System isn’t perfect, there’s a delay between it and you. It’s small, but there is a difference between your actual abilities and the System. The delay is near miniscule, your strength going up by one will be shown in a time much smaller than a second.”

Leo wasn’t certain what he was talking about, but he decided to just let the conversation go on. “Alright.”

“I learned about this from a different otherworlder, but it didn’t matter to me back then. The delay goes both ways. An ability that increases a stat takes time to affect the physical body. More importantly, it takes longer the larger the number.”

Leo was about to speak, but John spoke over him. “The ratio isn’t consistent, and I barely remember the conversation. But I’m going to guess you didn’t become stronger instantly, it took some time. That’s still happening. You keep struggling because your actual strength keeps growing, and the system isn’t representing what you’re actually capable of.”

“What?” Leo couldn’t think of anything else to ask.

“You might already have reached the maximum, or you could only be a couple million in. I doubt there’s anyone near a fraction of your strength, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. The only thing I can say is that you’ve not finished growing.”

Leo didn’t respond, and the two of them sat in silence. Leo didn’t want to accept this. If his strength continued to grow, then he’d always have to struggle with holding himself back. He didn’t want to live a life where he could never be at ease, with the threat of destroying everything he touches looming over him.

“Honestly, thank you for the insight. I’m going to go,” sighed Leo.

“No worries, just giving advice from one otherworlder to another.”

Leo started to walk away, but he stopped at the door that would lead him inside. He turned around to stare into John’s eyes. “One more thing. If you ever insult Marem in front of me again, I’ll beat you until someone can pull me off of your body. We’re going to be leaving tomorrow.”

He left the courtyard before John could give a response.