Unsure of how the System kept track of his non-item rewards, Nick shrugged and said, “I would like to use the voucher I received in my reward chest.”
Although he was slowly getting used to the existence of magic and the entirely new laws of nature that governed his day-to-day reality, he still felt a jolt of awe as the display shifted in time with his thoughts. A computer that could read his mind simply blew him away. Although Nick wasn’t sure that the System was a computer per se, now that he thought about it, its prompts and responses did give him the impression of an unimaginably complex AI.
Hoping to one day make sense of his strange new reality, he turned his attention to the screen in front of him. Nick nodded in satisfaction when he saw what he had unlocked, because it was a question that he had already tried entering into the custom KP prompt but had been discouraged by the cost.
What is the difference between animals and beasts?
Beasts are animals that have evolved to be able to accumulate experience and collect essence. As a result, they possess the capacity to level and have powers comparable to the skills and abilities used by contestants. While some animals are innately incredibly powerful, their growth is capped by the genetic limits of their species, although in rare cases, individual animals can evolve and become beasts, passing this status on to their descendants.
Beasts range in intelligence from that of mere animals to a level of self-awareness comparable to various contestant species.
Note: This voucher will unlock a second, rarer piece of knowledge at the end of the tutorial.
Fascinating. Nick nodded to himself, realizing that the information was in line with his own observations.
With that interesting tidbit of knowledge acquired, it was time for him to decide how he would spend his KP. He returned his attention to the display in front of his face, eager to learn more about attributes. He was burning with curiosity regarding magic, both as an attribute and a law of nature, but that could wait until he had some spells at his disposal. With any luck, he would acquire some soon.
However, Nick definitely needed to know what Mind did so that he could plan out his free point expenditures now. He sent his intentions into the obelisk and selected Mind, then began to read.
Mind
Mind is the attribute governing cognitive abilities. Baseline Mind can be increased through rigorous study, completing difficult tasks and puzzles, and by learning to think in novel ways that expand your prior conceptions.
Mind includes:
Focus: The ability to concentrate on a train of thought in the presence of distractions.
Analysis: The ability to scrutinize and unpack complex concepts with numerous variables.
Perception: The ability to pay close attention to sensory details.
Put simply, the Mind attribute determines how intensely you can concentrate, how accurately you can analyze, and how well you can sift useful information from raw sensory input.
Wonderful. He had been hoping that non-physical attributes could be raised through training as well. Now he had confirmation of that possibility and an idea of where to begin. Nick would have to experiment to develop effective techniques to train his baseline Mind, as he hadn’t managed to increase it yet, despite hours spent planning every day. Then again, his Mind was naturally in the range where it was difficult to increase via conditioning.
It was interesting to learn that Mind didn’t seem to correlate directly to intelligence, although the analysis component came close. Regardless, all three aspects of Mind were incredibly useful, both in survival situations and for life in general. Nick was now certain that he would devote a portion of his free points into the attribute going forward. He would figure out the ideal ratio over time as he learned more about his new reality governed by the System.
As none of the other attributes on his profile were likely candidates for an upgrade in the short term, Nick decided to spend his final pair of knowledge points unlocking the primers on health and stamina. He had seen both terms mentioned before, but they did not appear anywhere on his profile and seemed important to understand. He was happy to discover that they needed only a single KP each to unlock, as it meant that he could afford both now.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Nick went ahead and confirmed the expenditures and then started to read, starting with the primer on health.
Health
Health is the vital force governing the body’s core functions and regenerative abilities. Raw health increases with every level. Health synergizes with Toughness to determine the maximum damage that can be sustained before death.
Most non-fatal wounds will regenerate rapidly while an individual has health to expend, but this process will stop after reaching a minimum threshold to prevent organ failure. Health also governs how much raw damage can be sustained before an organism dies, although certain wounds (severe organ damage, extreme blood loss, etc.) are inherently fatal regardless of the size of an individual’s health pool.
As the interactions between health and injury are complex, a brief example will be provided below:
If a Tier 1 being gets stabbed through the stomach, it generally results in a fatal wound without immediate medical attention. The shock to the body is immense, and the organ can’t regenerate tissue fast enough. At Tier 2, the situation becomes more complex. If the health pool is large enough, an entity can survive the initial shock to the system, and then endure the secondary injuries caused by blood loss and stomach acid flooding the abdominal cavity. With sufficient health, the body will begin to regenerate new tissue and even reattach severed nerves and veins.
An organism’s health pool regenerates faster when resting and after eating a nutritious meal.
Nick was intrigued by the System’s first mention of Tier 2 beings, but he decided to keep on going and read the second entry before reflecting on what he had learned.
Stamina
Stamina is the vital force governing physical expenditures. Raw stamina increases with every level. Stamina synergizes with Toughness and Strength to enable prolonged physical activity.
Stamina has two core uses. First, it can be spent to activate and maintain certain abilities. Additionally, stamina is consumed naturally during physical activity. Stamina allows the body to perform bursts of motion as well as sustain strenuous actions over time. Put another way, both sprints and marathons will deplete stamina at a rate corresponding to the level of energy expended.
Stamina recovers faster when resting and is depleted more slowly when a person is well-hydrated.
This was more information than Nick had been expecting, and it gave him a lot to think about. Both stamina and health were apparently forms of vital energy, and he wondered if there were others as well. Since magic existed here, mana was a likely candidate. The entries also confirmed Nick’s suspicion that raw levels were important beyond the associated attribute points that came with them.
Intending to ponder what he had learned throughout the rest of the day, he shelved his analysis for now. Because he was ready and eager to spend his free attribute points.
Although he wanted to raise his Dexterity another point or two soon, he decided that it wasn’t quite the right time just yet. He had barely survived his fight with the pack, and the plans he had laid beforehand had been pivotal in tipping the scales in his favor. Although he had nearly lost his life in the battle, without his various preparations, Nick would now be digesting in the alpha’s stomach instead of standing on the beach, enjoying the roar of the waves crashing into the forest’s rocky shore.
Toughness was another story, however, as Nick suspected that his high Toughness was the only reason he had walked away from the fight without severe internal damage. It seemed likely that, even if things went well, he would continue taking beatings regularly throughout the tutorial, and he needed to reduce the damage he suffered as a result.
Nodding along with his thoughts, he signaled his intention to spend one of his free points on Toughness. He quickly sat down to ride out the waves of electric worms writhing throughout his muscles, sculpting his tissue into a new, more resilient configuration.
Once he had recovered and his insides stopped squirming, Nick spent his final free point on Mind, enjoying the visceral clarity that descended on him and the feral vibrancy of his senses. I wish there was a way to bottle the sensation that comes with increasing Mind, he mused. It would be helpful when I’m stuck on a particularly tricky problem.
Ready to get on with the rest of his day, Nick pulled up his profile to check out his attributes before moving on. He caught himself frowning when he realized that it was getting harder to keep track of his baseline versus level-modified stats. It was an important distinction, as the baseline values of attributes represented the cut-off points for being able to raise them via conditioning.
Then it hit him. This display can probably be customized as needed. Sure enough, responding to his intentions, the numbers on his profile shifted, now showing both his baseline and level-modified attributes side by side.
Attributes
Strength: 5 Dexterity: 6 (7) Toughness: 6 (10) Mind: 7 (9) Creativity: 6 Charisma: 5 Magic: 2 ??? ???
That’s better. Now it was simple for Nick to track how easy it would be to condition his body further. He could theoretically raise each baseline attribute to 10. But at 5, this process became harder, and past 7, gains required either extensive effort over time or extraordinary circumstances.
Enjoying the invigorating sensations provided by his newly improved body and mind, Nick left the obelisk behind him and entered the forest, ready to explore the woodlands in earnest and reap the bounty of the forest.