...

Alexander's room

"You can't be serious?" Anastasia looked at him, bewildered.

"Why not? Not like you have much to do and..." Alexander's tail waggled wildly, "...I am pretty much chained to the bed and booooored."

After Ocilia's visit, weeks passed. Alexander was now in a situation where he was bored out of his mind. Even with Patricia, family, and servants still visiting him, their stays increasingly shortened, except for Patricia, who became his permanent night visitor.

Even Green shortened her stays as she became slowly poisoned by all the elixirs she took, and none of their subordinates were better. So, he would simply kick them out after a few hours of treatment. He also did it because he knew that his Grandmother's personal healer, who was also apparently a notch above Green when it came to healing, would soon arrive.

However, Alexander wasn't sad about them decreasing their stay since they had their own life. Furthermore, his injuries weren't critical anymore and only temporary; thus, he would be healthy again sooner or later, with only some scars left behind.

Yet, the talismans were not gone. When Green tried to lower their effect, Alexander's pain increased significantly. There was an apparent reason for this: His levels were too high and rising, even without him doing much, which resulted in overwhelming pain, while his senses went into overdrive, making him continuously feel as if he was on a roller coaster after eating a full meal.

He concluded together with Green that he was royally fucked the moment he recovered. The talismans and the injury, which also dulled his senses, were the only reasons he could cope with his current predicament. Thus, she used the time he gave her to set up a room with training equipment to increase his body strength and talismans surrounding him, which would be his prison till his legacy.

Little to say, it fucking sucked. However, for this problem, he already had an adequate solution in mind and only needed to wait for his sister, Sarah, to bring it to him so he could confirm if he was truly fucked or not for the following years. Now, though, the boredom killed him.

Anastasia sighed, bringing him out of his thoughts, "Are you sure? You look... not really well."

Alexander nodded with his tail, "I am fine and will even learn those cringy poems if you want."

She chuckled slightly and waved her hand in dismissal, "Don't worry. I don't like them either..." She walked to the side to grab a chair and brought it to the bed, "...however, even though I don't like seeing such a gruesome scene, let's have a lesson."

Alexander waddled his stick tail for a moment and was confused, expecting some great topics, "What? Culture, history, politics, law..."

Anastasia sat down, crossing her legs, "All right, calm down..." She started to speak Jumble (djinn language), "...I would say..." She thought momentarily, tapping her cheek, "...how about the system? We stopped because of the special lessons, but now we can resume. Are you fine with it?"

Alexander tilted his tail, confused, "Aren't we done? What is there to talk about? Body modifications?"

For some reason, Anastasia didn't answer immediately but started to clench her hands repeatedly as her eyes became increasingly sluggish. Alexander saw this and smirked, "What's wrong? Not fresh? Was there a party yesterday? Hehe."

She stared at Alexander and asked, "How strong are the talismans? I only get the residue of them and feel like I get drugged. Should I get someone to lower the effects?"

Alexander looked at her and then laughed, "Haha, lowering? Are you kidding me? My [Intermediate Pain Resistance] skill is already over level 50 and climbing happily! If you lower them, I will immediately feel the results of my high-level skills without a break..." He grinned at her, "...or should I say Nature's Break, hehe."

Anastasia rolled her eyes and almost fell from the chair, "Damn it!..." However, after straightening up, she looked at him in confusion, "...this high of a level?... Wait, you had a Tier test?"

Alexander looked at her, confused, "Yeah, why?"

She sighed, "Well, you don't need an explanation then..." Afterward, she mumbled something barely audible while looking a little sad. However, she quickly changed the topic, ignoring his Tier test, "Right now, do you have the ability to do magic?"

He shook his tail, "Nope. I can't even sense mana."

She suddenly burst out in laughter, "Haha! Of course, you don't sense anything!..." She gestured toward his bed, "...this whole area is like someone being..." She almost fell again from the chair, "...damn!"

Alexander was confused by her weird behavior and asked, "Patricia isn't really affected by it or others, though?..." Yet, he also remembered how groggy Janina had been when she stayed overnight, which was funny.

Anastasia stood angrily up and moved, while wobbling, to the couch, further away, "Alex, I am fragile and didn't train once in my life, while Patricia is groomed to be a knight. Figure it out yourself."

He suddenly remembered something, "Wait?! What about Green, then? She..." Anastasia immediately interrupted him while plopping on the couch and sighing in relief, "...much better and no. Fairies have a weird natural resistance to drugs, potions, etc. Alchemists and Pharmacists research them quite heavily because of their weird traits."

Alexander wanted to ask further, but she interjected before he could say anything, probably seeing his tail wildly swinging, "Please don't ask me about it as I have no idea about it besides this fact and that they use special elixirs instead of potions, which are made by themselves, and don't ask how they are made. I obviously don't know this, too."

Alexander didn't dig further, as this wasn't Anastasia's wheelhouse. Her specializations were clearly other subjects. However, he returned to the previous topic, "Why ask me then about mana after I told you about my Tier test? Is there some correlation?"

Anastasia nodded, "Yes and no. The evidence is somewhat inconclusive, but through experimentation, we could conclude that many couldn't do their tests, be it skill or Tier tests, if their mana organs were fully removed."

Alexander looked at her askingly, "What about damaging them but not removing them? Like it is with me."

She motioned a so-so gesture with her hand, "Removing them meant that 30% couldn't do any tests anymore. For injuries, it was around 5%. It is a mystery why it is like this, but it also comes with many asterisks. For some reason, you can keep leveling up your skills until you reach level 100 while skipping all the skill tests, but Tier tests would become impossible."

Alexander raised an eyebrow as he heard something akin to a cheat code, "So..."

Anastasia waved her hand in dismissal and continued for him, "Why does not everyone who is stuck at a skill test just break their mana organs to skip it? Easy, it is incredibly dangerous, which could lead to death if you don't have a great healer and..." She looked at him more closely, "...you should know how much it hurts. It's the same as asking why not everyone has an incredibly high [Pain Resistance] level; all you need to do is to get injured, right?"

Alexander nodded with his tail in understanding, "Yeah, and it is not guaranteed to work."

She nodded, "Exactly. Some madmen do this, but almost everyone else would instead simply try the skill tests a week later than risk their lives on such a dumb endeavor..." She smirked, "...also if they don't reach level 100 but, let's say, 90 from 25, they would need to go through their tests. Only by getting to level 100 would they skip the skill tests."

He quickly threw the idea away as it was unnecessary. He had barely any problems with skill tests anyway and would, at most, retake them a couple of times if they were really hard. So, his initial enthusiasm was quickly dampened since one could only truly skip them if one reached outright level 100.

Also, there were much better solutions if one had problems with skill tests, like exchanging probable solutions by writing down his experiences, how he got through them, and putting them into the library for everyone to read. He heard it was a great help for many, especially regarding mana skills.

He also heavily encouraged others to do the same, which they did, but mostly only for basic skills. There was still some mistrust for rarer skills, though this didn't matter to him as they slowly became more open in sharing their experiences, which led to discussions and arguments on a better way to complete skill tests successfully.

One came especially to his mind: Level 50 [Cleaning]. Many of his servants fought each other on how to get through it since half of them got stuck, but in the end, they all did complete it and saw how beneficial it was to work together instead of doing it in isolation. Thus, he wouldn't need to even care about trying to cheat through skill tests with such a dangerous method as removing mana organs.

He suddenly remembered something and changed the topic, "By the way, is this the reason why everyone has mana even though almost nobody needs it?"

Anastasia raised an eyebrow, sounding surprised, "I can't believe that you can deduce so well even while under the influence of so many talismans, but yes. Every sapient being has mana and is accepted as such by the system. Without any intelligence, there is no mana and thus no system."

Alexander became confused, "I know that there are monsters who have mana, so they should have intelligence, right?"

Anastasia nodded with a tiring smile, "Tell me about it. This is one of those things we didn't find out. Why do some monsters have mana but aren't accepted by the system while we are."

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She started to stretch as the effects of the mana items had made her a little sleepy, "There are a lot of hypotheses. This whole field is all over the place. So, it makes no sense for us to even talk about it. However, you can study it later should you visit a more research-friendly place."

Every time he talked with Anastasia about fundamental questions, he needed to suck it up. Like on Earth, Orbis had barely scratched the surface of the universe. Yet, what frustrated him the most was that he couldn't use his knowledge as mana was a new variable that changed everything. Fortunately, the world was similar enough for his ideas to be applied in a more practical sense, even though they needed some tweaks.

Anastasia looked at Alexander, who was in thought, and clapped her hands, bringing him back, "Okay, enough! Let's start the lesson, and this will also be the last one about the system basics. We will rush it a bit since the Lady asked me after you called to be taught that I concentrate on the law lessons so you are ready to be a judge."

Alexander looked at her, frowning, "Fine, but I would rather keep discussing mana theory."

She shrugged, "Trust me, you will like it, hm..." She tapped her chin, thinking, "...tell me, how do you think the increase of, for example, [Strength] would work? Let's start with a hypothetical scenario. We have..." She showed two fingers, "...two people. Both ox-kin have ten points in [Strength], but one is much smaller and less muscular. Can both lift the same amount? Of course, we ignore skills and such...." She suddenly stopped and qualified her statement more, "...we also, of course, ignore here that [Attributes] are somewhat vague in their uses, too."

This was a question Alexander always asked himself, too. Now, they weren't talking about the qualitative aspects of [Attributes] but their quantitative nature. However, since they were vague in their uses, he predicted that how they strengthened one was similarly opaque.

Her question now was apparently to show him something, "I would say not."

She nodded, "Absolutely right. Let's now say that the bigger ones can lift 20kg and the smaller ones can lift 10kg, as an example. However, now we increase their [Strength] by ten points, how much can they lift?"

Alexander frowned, "I would say not double, right?"

Anastasia shook her finger, "Wrong and right. If we take the ideal scenario with the ox-kins and say that they are basically the same except for those mentioned things, their increase should be proportional, meaning they would double their lift strength."

Alexander raised an eyebrow, confused, "Why did you then say wrong and right, though?"

Anastasia smirked slightly, "This is an ideal scenario, and reality is much more messy. In our case, there is a possibility that the smaller ox-kin would be able to lift much more than the bigger ox-kin. Can you guess where we can find a pretty good indication for the increase?"

Alexander thought momentarily and remembered one of his previous lessons, "Maybe natural attributes?"

Anastasia winked at him, "Absolutely right! The natural attributes are an indicator of how well the increase works. The higher they are, the more substantial the increase. For our Ox-kins, it could be that the bigger and more muscular one already had put points into [Strength], while for the smaller one, all of his [Strength] was natural."

For Alexander, this topic was like a godsend. He now had a great indicator on what to increase and asked immediately the obvious, "Wait? What if I, let's say, have 10 [Strength] as natural attributes and put another 10 into, but increase over time my natural ones? Does it mean..."

She continued for him with a smirk, "Yep. You increase everything. In your example, if your natural attribute [Strength] was 10, with which you could lift 10kg, and every subsequent point you put into through [Experience] gave you 1kg extra lifting power. When you increase your natural attribute to 11, every point will give you 1.1kg, even those which you already put in."

Alexander was baffled, as this meant that a min-max built was the answer while really honing in on one attribute, which also made him frown, "Damn..."

Anastasia tilted her head, confused, "What's wrong?"

"I just... you know. I am a mage and somewhat like to combat melee style, so I always thought that I could put my points in a rather balanced way into my attributes and train more diversely, but it seems like I need to really focus on only one attribute."

He already had a plan, but it was more of a balanced one he wanted. However, going by what Anastasia said, he should train only, for example, [Intelligence] or [Strength] to be as effective as possible and chose maybe another [Attribute] which was close to them like [Dexterity] or [Spirit].

She waved her hand in dismissal, "Not true, and you can see for yourself as..." She smiled proudly and straightened up, "...there are certain patterns I found out..." She used the skill he saw her using with Patricia. A radiant ball of light floated toward him, entering his mind.

[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/main/Chapter_98_to_102/Chapter_98/Lesson_Diagram_4.svg]

Before he could even say anything, she was already continuing, not letting Alexander ask anything, "Today we will, as I said, rush a bit, so excuse me for using such skills to dampen your development and not working the topic through in a more comprehensive way..."

She sighed, clearly annoyed as she was forced to finish her topic rather quickly, "As you can see, the increase depends heavily on your [General Level] or [Free Stat Points]. It doesn't matter what you choose as a parameter. However, the increase is limited, and it happens when your natural attribute reaches ~30% of your [General Level]. At that point, it doesn't matter anymore if, let's say, are level 100 with 30 [Strength] or 50 [Strength], as every subsequent increase with [Experience] will practically be the same. In that sense, you don't need to hyperfocus and can actually choose, especially with your talent, three to four attributes you really want to focus on."

Alexander looked at it more closely and was delighted to see it. Through the Tier multiplier of 20% with every subsequent Tier, he could actually have a very balanced distribution to use all his strengths. The last thing he wanted was to be some wizard who could be killed by a child with a stick if he ran out of mana or a Knight, purely focused on strength since he was pretty good when it came to magic.

He frowned inwardly, trying to make sense of the calculations and wishing for something much more straightforward. However, he put it on the back burner to plan everything out for fun later. Now, though, he remembered what Anastasia had said before and was interested in that, "Wait, you found it out?"

He could smell her pride, "Of course. I did research in the Free Cities and found this out."

Alexander, though, guessed how the research was done and smirked at her, "So, how many, and what was your position in the team?"

Anastasia smiled back, "Bragging in front of you is really hard, but I need to disappoint you..." Her smile widened while she looked arrogantly at Alexander, "...I led the research with more than one hundred people under me."

Alexander opened his eyes wider, sounding surprised, "Wow, so young, and you led a team?"

She stopped being proud and waved her hand in dismissal, "I am far from being young and wasn't at that time too, Alex."

This new phenomenon was always weird in his eyes. His Grandmother looked no older than in the mid-thirties while being around 150 or so, and for Anastasia, who looked like a fresh graduate from College, he kind of got an idea about her age, which should be more than 100, 'I can't get used to this damn age differences.'

He ignored his thoughts and complimented his teacher, as such research was fantastic and essential, "Well, I think what you find out is really great! I understood it well."

Anastasia nodded, looking much more joyful, "Great, now we can start with the law lessons..." Alexander interrupted her, "Wait! What about the implications? Any homework or philosophical questions, etc?" While he wasn't a big fan of such a thing, it would be great to think about it for the following weeks while he couldn't do anything else.

Anastasia looked at him with a frown, putting one leg over the other and sounding annoyed, "Listen, Alex, if you just said that you wanted to ask me something, we could've calmly done all this, but because you couldn't think a couple of steps ahead, your Mother, pressured me to begin the law lessons as fast as possible."

'Oh, right. There was something.' He asked a couple of people, among them his Mother, to get Anastasia's fat ass to him so she could start to teach again. It looked like his Mother decided for him, leaving no room to argue, and while he found it overly annoying, he could understand why she did it. She wanted him to avoid the Noblesse Oblige at all costs and wasn't willing to wait any longer than needed with the law lessons.

Alexander sighed, "Fuck it. Let's start our law lessons then."

Anastasia chuckled, "Good boy. No need to go against someone while you could be mistaken for a sack of potatoes, hehe."

Alexander wanted to use his aura, showing that a sack of potatoes couldn't do such a thing, but decided against it, noticing that he got too sensitive if someone tried to control him, especially at such a time when he was at the mercy of others.

She continued, bringing him out of his thoughts, "However, I would like also to rush the law lessons a bit."

He became confused, "Why so? I already have a high enough skill level, and I assume we would only learn for a week or so and go back to the usual stuff, right?"

She looked at him with a gaze that challenged him, "Do you truly want to judge only small fish thieves?"

He raised an eyebrow, his tail becoming still, "What do you mean?"

She held her palm upward, pointing at him, "You see, if you can reach the intermediate level, you would be able to judge murders, tax evaders, etc. Do you want to try or..." Alexander interrupted her, his tail going wild, "Is there any need to ask? I would rather have the next two to three years some fun instead of boring myself out!"

Anastasia's smile widened, "Well, if it isn't my golden pup? So..." However, Alexander interrupted her, "While it's all fun, why do you want to cut into your teaching plan and make me increase my level to such a point?"

She shrugged, "I have no reason, really, but I am quite interested in how you will decide on certain cases with your particular ideology..." Her smile became much darker, "...something like this will surely be a fun observation."

Alexander wanted to shiver as he saw her smile like this, remembering that he basically knew nothing about her and decided to use her advice, not saying anything that came immediately to his mind, "I see..." It held for a cool second, "...I don't like your smile, but if you tell me the truth, I will surely be willing to achieve the intermediate level in record time."

She raised an eyebrow, "Bargaining? I see, but sadly..." She sighed, "...I can't tell you anything. You need to talk with your Mother or Grandmother if you want to know more. I am silenced through a contract, you see."

Alexander tried to deduce all his information about her quickly but had nothing. The only thing was that she apparently switched professions from being a researcher to a teacher. However, such a thing was nothing unusual even on Earth. If one wanted to have a more stable job with more free time, this was usually the case, while the earnings stayed more or less the same.

In the case of Orbis, teaching was probably more prestigious for her since all her students were somewhat related to the Crown through loyalty pledges or blood while making an ungodly amount of gold.

His tail became unruly since he wanted to bypass the contract, "All right, but should I ask my Mother?"

She shook her head, "I would recommend against it."

"Let's ask differently. When did you decide to rush me through the law lessons?"

She smirked, "Clever boy. Let's say that there are quite a lot of people who think greatly, but the moment they get some sense of power, they quickly forget what their ideals are. So, seeing how much gold you push into a ridiculous charity just to come close to the ideas you told me about, even though I advised strongly against them, piqued my interest."

Alexander opened his eyes wide, not believing what he heard. While her ideals could be somewhat deduced from what she said, it didn't mean much. She could be a full-blown revolutionary or someone who just wanted to change the system while holding to the aristocracy, which was already somewhat radical for this world, 'I should just shut up and get Aurum to investigate what the fuck she did in the past.'

He smiled back after getting over the shock and, for once, shut up, waiting for more information, "Fine, let's start, I would say."

She chuckled, glaring at him strangely, making him inwardly shiver, "Good boy, let's start."

Alexander didn't like it as his Grandmother, and now Anastasia had some agenda, with him feeling more like a puppet hanging on strings. However, this was also probably the reason why he got so much support from them.

For example, Anastasia could be much lazier and continue her lessons leisurely, bringing him over the first skill test in [Law] and be done with it. Still, she decided to support him more while observing what he would do over time, probably trying to ascertain his mindset more thoroughly and see if his actions aligned with it.

Alexander felt somewhat uncomfortable since it felt manipulative, but on the other hand, he wouldn't decline as such opportunities didn't come often, and there was also an inkling of hope in him that she was more like him, which brought him to another idea, which realization was still far in the future.