CHAPTER 9
STATS
It's been a few days since I became the benefactor of the academy. Some of the projects I proposed have already started. Although before the new projects, I took care of putting everything in order.
First of all, the academy is now my residence. Also for many of the academics who still lived outside it. I took care of reforming some of the empty holes and several compartments inside the mountain to turn them into rooms. My chambers of course are luxurious compared to the rest, but it's not as if I had made big changes, it's just about the quality of the furniture and decorations that I installed.
Because I now live in the inner academy, the restricted library has practically become my personal library, since I take the books I want to my room to read them privately. The information I obtained is incredible, as I assumed.
Not only did I take care of the rooms, I also had a restaurant built with a kitchen and bar inside the mountain, for the use of new tenants, including myself. To tell you the truth since the construction was finished I have not left the academy.
The work was fast and professional, using professions the construction was very efficient, of course without them it would also be if you say that the price does not matter, but its speed and quality is similar to those of my world, despite not having certain Modern tools, skills are something amazing.
Do not believe that I did all this just for my comfort (although I would lie if I said it had nothing to do with my actions). My intentions are simple. All academics now remain in the academy, eat in the academy and drink in the academy, so they do not go drunk in a bar out there leaving confidential information to escape. If the bartender knew about the equinox day experiment and even about the plant they were going to carry, it is because the information was leaking, this is a precaution.
But right now, what is really interesting is what I discovered about stats in this world. Thanks to the AS monocle that allowed me to acquire the ability to Analyze, I have managed to understand a little more about this world. Also with it I can even analyze others, giving me a strategic advantage, although leaving that for later, it allowed me to draw conclusions based on comparison.
What I have been able to discover is that most people in Galia have a first rank profession (PAIS), and even so, their stats average what an adventurer in TLO, which is very low, even if it looks like a lot compared to me . Only children have stats like mine... Going back to the point, I found it somewhat curious, and even more when I realized that I could analyze objects.
Although I have some good equipment with high defense, in my stats I still have a miserable defense of 1. Then, observing the description of the stats, I understood. The number is an average of the whole body, but the value varies according to the parts.
First I thought that something was wrong, since although only one part received an increase, for example my left hand if in it I carried a shield, the average should increase. But what if I was attacked in the stomach, or in the head and could not cover myself with the shield?
Obviously I would take full damage.
If for example I have a shield that has 50 in defense, but I could not block the attack with it, then would simply apply my defense of 1. While if the shield receives the blow, my defense would be 51.
This is something that didn't happen in TLO, where the stats of the equipment added to those of the character. However, it is logical, even if you have an unbreakable shield with a very high defense, if an enemy don't hit it and you receive the attack with the stomach, it's obvious that the damage will not diminish, this is the logic of the real world, which apparently applies in this place.
That led me to another conclusion. In the game the stats of the character were its basic points plus those of its equipment. Seeing it this way, if you don't count the points of the equipment, it's natural for the stats of the people in this world to be lower, since the points of their equipment are not counted.
This is important because it means that I am not as vulnerable as I thought, if my stats do not show the bonuses I receive from the equipment, it means that I actually have more defense than the numbers shown, after all my equipment is of high quality. Suddenly I no longer feel like a worm... Although my basic stats remain unfortunate.
This is the most practical thing I discovered, however I also discovered something that can have much greater implications and it's about the true meaning of numbers in the stats.
I realized it more than anything due to the description of the VP. According to Analyze, the number represents the health status of the individual. If I observe my VP, never since I came to this world have they been 100%. In a game like TLO, that makes no sense, if I consider that the number at the beginning was lower and it was increasing, it means that I have a certain ability to recover my health naturally, but then why it hasn't reached 25/25 in all this time?
The answer is simple. In the real world, there is no such thing as perfect health. Our body is always fighting germs, diseases or recovering from minor injuries. The number does not reach 100% because my health is not 100% perfect.
Given this and the rest of the description, which says that if the person dies, the number shown will be zero for 15 seconds. I reached a truly significant conclusion.
The stats numbers represent the values and not vice versa.
Do you not understand what I say? It's simple, the description doesn't say 'If the number reaches zero, the subject dies' on the contrary, it says that if the subject dies, the number shown will be zero. That is to say, that the life of the person does not depend on the number, the number simply shows the status of the person.
Between this and the fact that I never reach 100% I can be sure that my conclusion is correct. Stats do not determine my strength or my agility. My strength and agility is represented in the stats, so I don't need the number to rise to be stronger. If my strength increases, the number will increase.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Proof of this is my 'Knowledge'. I am sure that the number before was two digits, but currently it's greater than 100, however I did not level up, I did not even defeat any enemy to gain experience, what I did was read, listen and reason to understand. My knowledge certainly increased from my first day in this world, so it is normal for my "Knowledge" to be greater.
There are two other stats that caught my attention powerfully: Intellect and Talent.
From the description of talent, I deduce that it is a key stat to be able to use magic in this world. The people that I have seen have a single-digit number, so they are not fit to use magic, which is why none in Galia is a magician. The interesting thing is that even so, nobody here has a number as low as mine: 1.
If I think about it, magic doesn't exist where I come from, so the 1, the minimum, is likely to be the default number for all the inhabitants of the earth. I cannot verify it without having another person like me to compare, but at least it is not about my talent as a person or trader. My self-esteem only goes up and up since I have Analyze.
Speaking of my self-esteem, I have not seen a single person with an Intellect as high as mine, and I mean it, not even close. The director of the academy is the person with more intellect after me and has only 144 Intellect points, not even half as my amazing 295 points. Even so it is greater than the rest.
Academics average between 85-95, some exceptional cases have more than 100, such as Johan or Zera, who occupy the fourth and third place in Galia. I must admit that I was not expecting Zera to be third place, although I did see he has potential, no more than as a servant or assistant.
The interesting thing about these stats is that they seem to be completely parallel to the rest. I have seen children with 70 points of intellect, while the rest remain a single digit. Adults with profession and stats of even 50, and still their talent as I said before, is less than 10.
Reading among the restricted books, there was a fairly old one that mentioned people born with a certain amount of special talents. If I think about it, it makes sense, it's a stat determined from the beginning and that hardly changes over a lifetime. I suspect that Intellect works the same way.
All this is very useful, but Analyze is even more amazing, since it can give me a brief description of the skills I possess. Apparently it does not work on others, it may have to do with "The effect of the ability is reduced by not being used in the user." In other words, I can't get the full effect on others. Still, what I got from observing my abilities was really interesting.
Trade (G): All the necessary capabilities for a merchant are covered.
Borderless Trade: Barriers that may prevent trade, including language, culture and currency, are overcome.
Elite Dealer: The charisma increases 10% -30%. When negotiating user is 10% -30% more convincing. The amount varies depending on the other party. This ability does not affect the will.
What's mine is mine: You get 100% of the profits. Immunity to theft at all levels. The effect applies to everything but equipment. The probability of success in stealing equipment is reduced by 80%. The probability of stealing inferior equipment is twice as normal.
Peerless Provider: All commercial exchanges are possible. If items are sold or purchased, they are transferred immediately. It is possible to set payments automatically.
Miracle Seed: When certain conditions are met the ability is consumed to cause a miracle. Applying the ASH system the world system has been overcome.
Going by parts. Trade (G) is what I always knew, but there is something interesting about this. The term GERON is now abbreviated. If it is something normal to Analyze, I guess everything that happened when I put the monocle, that of 'State (P)' and 'State (G)' was the same skill, marked with the letter of its level.
What I could appreciate is that 'State (P)' was the default ability of the monocle, so I have to assume that I already possessed 'State (G)'. In other words, it was a skill that I didn't even know I had, not only that, currently my status doesn't show 'Analyze' even though I know I have the ability.
Do I have more skills that I know nothing about?
In the game it was normal to be able to see your own state, even if you couldn't see that of others.
What is certain is that the letters are the abbreviated version of the skill level. The plate I used a few days ago and the gloves of the guards have the ability 'Status (P)'. Is that why they show so little information?
The skill is of the lowest grade, so it only shows the basic information; The name, the race, the level... It doesn't even name the profession, although it shows the icon. With that it's not possible to distinguish the rank of the class, it could be anything from PAIS to GERON...
Well, I think that plays in my favor. From what I have been able to verify, the people of this world don't know about the stats, which puts me in an unexpectedly advantageous position.
Although "Miracle Seed" sounds promising, the reality is that it's of no use, at least for now. On the other hand "Borderless Trade" is even more practical than I thought at the beginning (And I already considered it my most useful skill). Apparently not only is the reason why I have no problems with spoken or written communication.
If my reasoning is correct, it's the reason that I can use Ja in any denomination. It says it can overcome barriers like currency, if so, it may be that without this ability even my infinite money would be of no use to me. What is the use of having an infinity of G if it does not work as payment in this world.
What's more, if it's something that works with the TLO system like status, maybe I couldn't even use it physically, it would be just numbers on a screen. Maybe my ability to materialize my money in the form of currencies is through Borderless Trade. No matter how I look at it, it is my best skill by far. I don't even want to think what I would do if I wasn't able to speak or read anything in this world.
Getting Analyze is a blessing. I knew that I would get great benefits from the academy, but everything so far exceeds my expectations, and I just start scraping the surface.
"Mr. Argent, I need to talk to you".
"What's going on?"
While I am immersed in my thoughts, the director speaks to me from the other side of my door. In all the time I have been here, it is the first time he comes to tell me something in person, naturally he gains my attention immediately.
"There is an issue that... Would be good for you to know as soon as possible".
"I'm all ears".
"Apparently yesterday a small group of men arrived in the valley of Galia, this morning they were brought to the city, everything indicates that they are people from Galatea who came here just before Iren's attack..."
"And? Is that a problem? You can get information about what happened in Galatea".
"Well ... among them there is a young man wearing unusual clothes and ... he is a nobleman".
Now that is something interesting, but it's not my problem if a nobleman arrives in the city, my position is already secured, and I explicitly asked to remain anonymous, the director already knows all this, what means...
"There's more, isn't it?"
"That's right. The young man seems to speak an unknown language. A few days before the attack on Galatea, I received a message from his mayor asking for my help in interpreting the young man's language, but the truth is that I had not heard anything similar before. While meditating on the matter, Zera reminded me that you have traveled from academy to academy, and that on your travels you could have known the language of the young man. I do not expect you to understand it, but if you could identify the language... "
"I understand. In the case of a noble companion, I cannot allow him to face such a bad situation without even being able to communicate. I will do what I can, take me to him".
This is a good opportunity to establish relationships with other nobles, and they to owe you a favor never hurts, I will further consolidate my image as a noble scholar. With the great power of Borderless Trade, I should not have problems regardless of the language spoken by the young man. There are no risks. I don't lose anything with doing it.