“Hah, that was some smooth bargaining.” Jeffrey said. “Almost as good as my great uncle Thalon. That man could cut the costs of interplanetary tariffs by half. Anyway, I see a certain food stand that is calling my name. Why don’t you go and absorb those information crystals?” Before Sam could answer, Jeffrey was already gone, speed walking towards an unmarked building. With a swish, he opened the door and was inside. It did not look like a food stall to Sam.
He had more important things to do though and he walked over to a bench to sit at and use the crystals. Rax followed him over and the herpetopede sat down by the seat on the ground. The creature had gotten a few looks on the way, but he was far from the most exotic beast either. A lot of the aliens had their own pets of wildly varying types and a couple of the humans had their own monsters as well. Rax was a lot bigger than most of them though, except for a pig-like monster with six legs that followed an orc around. It was about the size of a minivan and it looked as if it could break through an iron wall with its massive tusks. Strangely, none of the creatures seemed to be aggressive and they all placidly trotted along. Sam realized that Rax hadn't spoken to him since they entered the town and he checked on him.
“Rax? You alright?”
“Sam? Wha-where am I? Everything is so blurry.”
“What? Is there something in the air?” Sam asked, but Rax did not respond. The monster didn't look like he was in pain or anything, merely tired. He left Rax be and picked up his crystals. The first one that he wanted to use was the System Guide. Remembering how he had used the health crystal, he crushed the thing in his hand and a burst of information entered his brain. It displayed itself like a rolling wall of text and he took it in.
System Guide, Basic Edition
Section 1:Stats
Section 2:Classes
Section 3:Leveling up
Section 4:Parties
Section 5:Ranks
Sam selected the first entry and more information came up.
The Stats are one of the most important things in the life of a System user. They are quantified notations of the user’s physical and mental parameters. Strength influences lifting capacity, physical output and stamina. Dexterity influences physical speed and reaction time as well as agility. Constitution influences the amount of damage that the user can take before death as well as health. Resilience influences the physical durability of the user and how much power is required to damage them. Intelligence influences mental processing power, memory and the ability to multitask, as well as mana capacity. Wisdom increases one’s ability to detect traps, anomalies and to succeed in their pursuit of higher ideals such as the Dao.
All of that was exactly as Sam had expected except for the last one. Wisdom had seemed like a useless stat to Sam but now he saw that if he pumped it, then he could potentially develop his Dao more quickly. It was a balance though, as doing so wouldn't give him any tangible benefits in the meantime. He opened the next entry, the one on classes.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
A Class is a tool that a System user can use in order to gain power more quickly as well as to gain more powerful skills. Upon level 25, the accumulated potential of the user grants them the ability to dedicate their journey to a specific path. Upon reaching the Rank, there are three choices given. Two of them are based on one’s personal accomplishments and ideals whereas the last one is a noble path that only the bravest of souls take. One who takes the System Battery class is among the more pure and selfless of the inhabitants of the Multiverse and in return they gain limitless mana.
Sam could see what Jeffrey had meant. If not for his advice, Sam might well have been tricked into picking the System Battery class. It seemed as if the System had written this guide because of the way that it described it. Likely, it also prevented information about the class from being spread freely. Laughing at how dishonest the description was, he continued to read.
Upon defeating an opponent or in certain cases breaking through in your knowledge of crafting, a System user can direct this energy to leveling up. Leveling up grants the user an amount of power to direct towards improving their stats. Every Rank you have the opportunity to upgrade your class. The amount of stats that you gain per level is based on your Rank and your class.
So that was why he was only getting 2 points per level. It had seemed pretty low to him, but it would probably become exponentially higher in the future. The next informational segment was on parties.
You can form a party with up to four other members. Be sure that they are trustworthy for nothing can be hidden within a party. The minds of the members are connected, making it trivial for a telepath to intrude upon one's innermost thoughts. To combat this, entering a party overrides any sort of identity concealment device that one might possess. So do not create a party lightly. The members share essence from monsters on a ration based on their contribution. There is a minimum amount that one can receive, so be careful about those who would seek to profit off of your hard work.
Finally, and the one that he was looking forward to the most, there were Ranks. He had wanted to know what exactly G Rank had meant.
Every set interval of levels, one must complete a trial to reach the next Rank. Ranks are divided into four tiers. Firstly, there is the Mortal Tier. Those within this are of the G and F Ranks. A level one System user is the same in power as a non initialized being. Next, there is the Enlightened Tier. Beings within the E and D Ranks are in this tier. Thirdly, there is the Ascendant Tier. This is made up of C and B Rank. Finally, there is the Divine Tier. This is solely reserved for A Ranks. Each jump in Rank grants a large increase in power and each jump in tier increases it even more.
The information on the Ranks was pretty sparse, and Sam had already surmised as much from seeing that the Ranks were organized by letter and from listening to Jeffrey. All in all, the information had been quite useful and he was glad that he had picked it up. Before he could break into the package about the multiversal factions, a loud noise came from the building that Jeffrey had come out of.
“That was my wife, you goddamn chicken!” A burly human screamed as he threw Jeffrey bodily out of the window in a spray of glass shards. He scurried over to Sam and the man followed him with his angry gaze.
“If you ever come back here, I’ll gut you,” the angry man said with a raised fist. Sam stared at Jeffrey.
“What was all that about?”
Jeffrey squirmed.
“Eh, it was dark, you humans all look alike, how was I supposed to know that she wasn't one of the workers?”
Sam facepalmed.
“Please don't tell me that was a brothel,” he said in exasperation.
“I’m afraid it was.”
Sam grimaced, if this caused problems for him later, he was going to have some serious words with Jeffrey. They found a room for the night and Sam found himself thinking about the massive bounty on his head. Eventually he was able to fall asleep, but it took a lot of effort.