“What is all this?” Cloud said as he approached the amount of gold, fruits, and an armory’s worth of materials in front of him. “This is what you got from the tower?”
“We collected as much as our packs could carry,” Zeke said, pointing over at the weapons and armor. “Those are from the knights that tried to attack us. Those barrels are what we got from raiding the pantry, and the coins are from clearing the dungeon–well, from escaping the dungeon.”
Zeke said as an afterthought but both Cloud and Val immediately went over to their spoils of war, granted permission by the two as they watched. As minutes rolled by, Cloud was studying profusely at the coins gained from the dungeon while Val nodded appreciatively at the weapons, giving them a careful eye and a studious feel with her hands.
“These weapons are incredibly well-crafted,” Val said, her voice stunned in amazement. “The weight and feel of it alone is astounding, but the effects it gives even while it isn’t enchanted is incredible. And there are quite a lot of these…”
“There are effects?” Mikella said, and Zeke noticed that her favored sword is not among the pile. Zeke just stayed quiet as he instead listened to the new term Val said.
“Effects, such as granting Strength and Dexterity… oh, right, you’re still level 9,” Val realized, her eyes fluttering as she turned to the two. “You can’t see the status without getting a class.”
“A class…?” Zeke immediately got interested in that, but Cloud immediately spoke up.
“It doesn’t look like the coins are fake in any way. These are definitely granted by the system after clearing a dungeon. I believe you should keep them, and use them sparingly as anyone else would.”
“You’re not gonna take them?” Zeke asked, relieved but puzzled at the same time.
“Hah, no,” Cloud snorted. “I’m not so desperate to make strangers pay me all of their worth to live in my house. No, just the hides and meat is good enough. As for the weapons, if you’re planning on leaving them to us, I can definitely find some people who would be glad to purchase these off of you.”
“But don’t worry, we don’t plan on taking everything,” Val offered, noticing the worried look on Mikella’s face. “Just the few extras you don’t mind giving away. Just breaking one of them down is enough to give our favorite blacksmith enough materials to make incredible, but not equally as good as these ones for all the other fighters.”
Mikella returned her reply with a grateful nod. Zeke was glad that they didn’t have to give up all their weapons thanks to their value, but when he saw Cloud go over to the fruits in the barrel next, his face seemed to pale.
“No… these can’t be…” Cloud said, picking up the blue-colored apple to observe. “Are these… Attribute Fruits?!”
“What?!”
Val immediately shouted, shocking everyone as she ran over to the barrel to find them herself.
Her hands seemed to shake as she hesitantly picked up the red-colored orange, a word Zeke never thought he would say. Her eyes seem to look upon them like treasure given to her by the gods.
“No way… I’ve been looking everywhere for these! And there’s so many…!”
Val turned her head to the two, immediately frightening them as a sort of manic look showed in her once gorgeous eyes.
“You two! Are you okay with letting me purchase these?!”
“Uhh-uuh…” Zeke mumbled as he turned to Mikella, finding that she was also looking to him for an answer. Eventually, she answered back to her.
“Y-Yeah, sure. Take it all if you want. We’ve mostly just been eating them to survive.”
“No way,” Cloud shook his head in disbelief. “This is what you guys have been eating all this time? So that means there were more of them?”
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Zeke and Mikella winced. They knew how valuable they were since it did offer them some some increase in stat limit when they ate them. But after seeing it so many times while surviving, they just put it off as a regular thing.
If they were this valuable, then that means that they have been eating valuable treasures for sustenance all this time.
That alone was bad enough as it is, but Zeke grew more and more curious as to what they could do.
“You can buy them, but what exactly are these Attribute Fruits? How are they valuable? When we ate them, all it said was that all the attributes have been increased by 50. It didn’t really power us up or anything…”
For a moment, Cloud looked back at Zeke as though he was crazy to consider asking such a question. Then, he made a face of realization as he closed his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts.
“These fruits are incredibly rare to find, even out in the wilds. Normally found in dungeons or hidden realms–even as rewards granted by the system for clearing its quests and trials. These fruits allow anyone who eats them to break the limits of their stats as you mentioned. That way, you can increase your stat further than your natural cap.”
“Wait, there are caps to an attribute?” Mikella widened her eyes. “You mean like–for example–if you reached 100 in Strength, does that mean you can’t go any further?”
“Precisely,” Cloud continued, shocking the two otherworlders. “Normally, one’s cap is increased for every level milestone, but even that might not be enough as you pile on skill levels and titles on top of that. That’s why these Attribute Fruits are so valuable. They allow the people who eat them to increase their caps further. But just finding one was rare enough…”
Cloud looked back at the barrels filled with fruits, which compared to before were now half-way filled. They ate quite a bit, even if they were trying to conserve food for the future.
“But this is just too much…” Cloud said, almost in disbelief.
“Do you have any idea how long it took me to find even one Attribute Fruit?” Val said, her voice almost cracking at the memory. “It took me over a decade just to try to find as many of these as possible to avoid capping my high Strength and Dexterity. I was scared at the idea of losing those valuable points every time I level up. Now, I don’t have to worry about anything!”
Val had such a look of splendor in her eyes, almost crying at the chance of having the very same fruits that the trio have been taking just for sustenance and regenerating their pools.
“So… does this mean that our caps are basically non-existent now?” Zeke said, almost in marvel now after realizing what they did.
If that was the case, that would explain why they didn’t even notice any stat caps so far. They just keep increasing their stats whenever they feel like it.
Now that he thought about it, wasn’t it a perfect chance to learn more about his status? And more importantly, why can't they reach level 10?
Turning back to Mikella, he saw that she had the same idea flashing in her eyes, getting the two to nod. Turning back to Cloud who was trying his hardest to keep the salivating Val from making a mess as she ate one fruit after another in delight, Zeke asked.
“Hey… I don’t mind giving you these fruits. But would you mind telling us more about the status? Or better yet, how the system works and how we can get stronger?”
Cloud turned back to Zeke, not at all surprised at the question. Creasing his brows, he hesitated before answering back.
“I don’t mind. These fruits are valuable enough as it is, so I would be glad to share my knowledge. Still… it’s surprising you don’t know much about the system at all. But I’ll try to explain as much as I can.”
Zeke gave gratitude with a nod, understanding Cloud’s point of view. It was like trying to explain how breathing air works, or how one drinks water. You just naturally know about it. Taking a seat, the three went ahead to ask their questions while Val kept eating. Apparently her attributes were very close to reaching the cap and it had been gnawing at the back of her mind for years.
As Zeke and Mikella finally had the chance to ask about the mysterious system that had aided them for this long, the two decided to make a small huddle to ask the important questions first. Cloud let them be, waiting patiently as he smiled at the two’s antics to ensure their priorities were straightened out.
Eventually, Zeke was the first to ask.
“Back at the dungeon, when we gained our skill books, there were supposed to be some stat requirements, but our status ignored it and let us learn them. How is that possible?”
Clearly, Zeke didn’t expect to see Cloud look like he just hurled him a curve ball straight to his face. His eyes widened, and even the usually busy Val looked back in surprise, her ears clearly working while her mouth kept eating.
“That’s… what did you say?” Cloud asked, shaking his head. “What do you mean you were able to ignore the stat requirements?”
“Is that not a thing?” Zeke asked, tilting his head.
The two knew instantly that this should be the first thing to mind. Everything else made sense, and they planned on getting some small bits of information about how each system feature worked. However, they figured they needed to find out what made them able to ignore the stat requirements. And since the two hosts were clearly powerful, perhaps they might know about it.
Apparently, they didn’t, and that made Zeke pause. That’s because he noticed Cloud’s stare intensifying on them, his curiosity now becoming a demand for knowledge.
“Can you show me your status?” Cloud asked. “For intellectual reasons, of course.”