"Well okay, let's get to know each other's stats before we hit the road," I said, hoping for understanding.

"Why?" asked Kyle.

"We will be battle partners for the next half a month, it would be very good to know each other's strengths and weaknesses," I said soothingly.

"It makes sense. Do you want to know only about the indicators? Or do skills count too?" Kyle continued.

"Skills count too," I confirmed.

It would be nice to also learn about their traits, but I wouldn't use Insight for such personal details, especially in secret from them. Moral boundaries still hold me back.

"Anyway, I'll start first," I said. "Strength 5, Dexterity 7, Endurance 10, Health 7, mana 0, Intelligence 12. I have the active abilities Provocateur, Insightful and Murderous feast, with the passive ability Cockroach."

Next, I briefly explained the principle of operation of each ability. I did not talk about some indicators and abilities, so as not to create a bad impression.

Even if I had told them, it wouldn't have led to anything good.

"You have pretty weak stats," Kyle remarked. "But Murderous feast is a very good ability. How did you get it?"

"I've killed enough anthropomorphic animals," I replied.

"Furry? How much?"

"Five of them."

"What?!" Kyle was perplexed. "I've only killed one in all this time, and that's the thug who wanted to rob me!"

Oh, so it's not normal to kill everyone indiscriminately? Well, I'm sorry, it just happened by itself. I looked at the others, but there was surprise and bewilderment in their eyes too.

"I killed one," Adele said.

"Two," Uncle Jack added.

"Well, anyway, I'd better continue the previous topic," Adele said. "Strength 7, dexterity 10, endurance 6, health 6, mana 5, intelligence 20. I have spells Ice bolt, Healing, Small wind storm. There is one active ability, Brainstorming, and one passive, Reader."

F*ck, why does she have more strength than me? Do I really have such weak stats?

"I think the spells are clear enough," I said. "Explain about the abilities."

"Brainstorming increases my intelligence by one and a half times, and since the effectiveness of spells depends on intelligence, this ability can be considered a combat buff."

"Of course, it can also be used for something non-combat. Cooldown time is 24 hours. The Reader passively increases my intelligence by +3 units and allows me to find books and textbooks that are useful to me."

"I found that spell book in the library with its help, but I only managed to learn Healing and a Small wind storm," she said sadly.

I looked at Kyle.

"Strength 12, dexterity 9, endurance 7, health 10, mana 0, intelligence 9," he said, "active abilities Combat onslaught, Power punch, passive ability Glass swordsman."

"The Combat onslaught temporarily increases my strength and dexterity stats by +5. Cooldown time is 24 hours."

"A Power punch increases the damage of my next basic attack by 2 percent for each unit of strength. Since I have 12 units, the damage increases by 24%. Cooldown for 15 seconds."

"The Glass swordsman reduces my endurance and health by -1, but gives me +2 strength. Increases the likelihood of injury in combat or training. Not the most pleasant ability."

I nodded and looked in Uncle Jack's direction.

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"Strength 11, dexterity 7, endurance 16, health 13, mana 0, intelligence 10, charisma 5, intimidation 7, luck 5," Uncle Jack said.

I stared at him with an open jaw. Metaphorically speaking. There are so many indicators.

It also made me think that luck is not a basic indicator, like strength and intelligence for example. But it also seems that my passive is not displayed as a debuff for others.

Because, as for me, 5 luck is not so bad and is very different from the EXTREME unluckiness that was promised to everyone around me.

"Active abilities: Fearful provocation, Drunken debauch. Passive abilities: Resilient organism, Strong body, Alcohol addiction."

"Drunken debauch requires me to be intoxicated. The ability increases my strength, endurance and health stats by +6, but reduces my intelligence to 4 units."

"Resilient organism increases my endurance by +3 and gives me resistance to all kinds of poison by 20% and alcohol by 30%."

"Strong body increases strength, endurance and health by +1 unit, the effectiveness of physical damage against me is reduced by 8%."

"Alcohol addiction reduces my health and intelligence by -3 units and makes me addicted. If I don't drink often enough, I'll get an unpleasant debuff."

Well, not to say that I didn't expect such abilities and indicators from Uncle Jack, but still it's a little sad. Alcohol is clearly ruining his life. But come on, it's none of my business.

"Great, Adele, lead the way," I said, addressing the girl, since she was the one who knew the most about this forest.

The girl just nodded and led us deeper into the forest.

The strangest thing here was that we were walking along the very road that led to Baba Yaga.

"Can we change the path? I would not like to go straight into the mouth of a monster..." I said.

"If we get out of the way, the forest monsters will kill us or do something worse," Adele replied. "Besides, all roads in the forest lead to the Guardian of the Forest."

"And what happens when we get to her?" I asked.

"Then it will be possible to think about a detour," Adele said, continuing her move.

I wasted no time and immediately turned to Uncle Jack.

"Uncle, hey, uncle, why do you have indicators that we don't have?"

"Everyone has them," Uncle Jack replied, pulling a small flask of anything but definitely not water from the depths of his leather armor, "it's just that when the indicator reaches 4 units, it hides."

"What? But why?" I continued, but Uncle Jack just shrugged his shoulders.

"4 is the normal, indicating the baseline value of the indicators," Adele replied instead. "4 in the system is perceived as a reference number that indicates the absolute ordinariness of things."

"Explain it more simply," I replied irritably, not understanding what she was getting at.

"If your score is 4, it means that you are absolutely ordinary in this. We are all born with the same basic indicators. All newborns have attributes equal to 4, which is why we don't see their stats."

"Magicians and scientists still have not fully understood this principle of the system, but what is clear is that the indicators become visible only if they are not equal to 4. So, let's say all people have charisma from birth and it is equal to 4, but if a person has not developed it in any way, then it will remain invisible in stats."

"When the parameter exceeds 4, it means that you have gone beyond the ordinary in this characteristic, but if the parameter is lower, then everything is bad."

"To be more precise, when it comes to basic characteristics, everything is completely bad. There are also additional characteristics, such as, say, cooking and medicine. If you got a point in this indicator, then you are still bad, when you reached 4 and the parameter disappeared, then you became a little better at this, and when you exceed 4, you begin to fully enjoy the bonuses of the parameter, albeit small at first."

I see, so my social indicators such as charisma are still there, just hidden. Should I be offended?

And besides, why do babies start at 4 and not lower values? I asked Adele that and got an answer.

"Because that's the way the system is designed. But 4 in an infant and 4 in an adult are completely different values. Largely because of the efficiency of the parameters due to age. In newborns, it's under 10%."

"Thanks for the clarification," I thanked Uncle Jack and Adele. "But I have one more question. Is luck a basic indicator?"

"Yes, in this case, the number 4 indicates a small influence of luck on a person's fate. Everything here depends on his own skills, not on luck."

"If this indicator is equal to 5, then absolutely in everything a person will still have to rely on his own skills, but he can count on a little help from fate."

"If the indicator is 3, then absolutely everything in a person's life begins to work on the principle of '50-50', where his skills play a lesser role than with a value of 4."

"At the value of 2 principle changes and becomes '70-30' in favor of bad luck. Personal skills can affect this principle only if a person receives a blessing or reaches the status of demigod."

"Neither option is simple and the person is likely to fail even before he begins to take any action to achieve this goal."

"A value of 1 turns the principle into '90-10', 0 leads to instant death, in which person can die in absolutely any way, even the most ridiculous."

Yup, I had a difficult destiny.

"Look," Kyle said suddenly. "The environment is changing."

Some of the plants looked more like marmalade, and the ground began to crackle like waffles under our feet. The surroundings began to take on diabetic shades, and the air was filled with sweet and sour notes.

"It's a gingerbread forest," Adele whispered softly.

I was already beginning to worry about what threats might lie in wait for us here, but my thoughts were interrupted by the girl's glee.

"How long have I wanted to be here! This is the dream of every child of Surrik, follow me!" she said and headed deep into the gingerbread forest on a hop.