Did I ever talk about intelligence? I don't think I did. It's a hilarious stat, and by that I mean that I'd rather touch it as little as possible, even if it is one of the most important stats.

Intelligence is quite simple, it's your soul giving extra processing power to handle the information you have available, it increases critical thinking and even simpler stuff like mental calculations. The issue is that intelligence is tied to your soul, not your brain. Want to know why it's a problem?

Because you see, your brain has a bunch of stuff in it that makes the whole "thinking" part harder, it makes you more emotional, you might make a mistake or generally let silly things like "morals" and "empathy" get in the way of you finding what would be the objectively correct solution.

Souls have no such qualms, people often associate the soul with emotions and who you truly are, but it's actually quite the opposite. Souls are more like wild beasts that only get some semblance of personality once they get attached to a body. This also means that giving the ability for a soul to "think" is, uh...

It's like giving a child a knife, it doesn't actually know what to do with all this thinking and often ends up hurting itself with it. This is why you give the soul a simple problem to solve, in this case : "Beat this thing and take out the batteries". The issue is when it runs out of things to solve, the soul starts making its own goal and tries to solve its own problems, with very little regard to how you as a person might actually feel about it.

Souls are as much a part of you as the body you inhabit, arguably you're more your body than your soul, as your brain tends to influence the way you act way more than your soul usually does.

So why did I decide to raise my intelligence? Well, I kind of needed to. I was fighting against a machine, and no matter how hard I think, my brain can't process information faster than it, it's just not physically possible. Higher perception floods your brain with data that often needs intelligence to be processed, higher speed does make your brain think faster, but usually not fast enough to make a decision in time.

Every stat apart from charisma usually needs a few other stats to function properly. So no matter how much I wish I could, I sometimes need to bite the bullet and raise something I don't like. Would you believe me if I told you superhuman intelligence isn't even that much? I actually have a decent grip on my actions at that level. Anything higher and...

Well, let's just not think about that, shall we?

I walk back to the metal sphere, coughing a little bit of blood on the way back. I severely underestimated how much damage I took, that level of endurance should make me feel nearly nothing in terms of pain, and yet it still hurts. Once I'm next to my friend, I try to take out the batteri-

I can feel broken glass inside my pockets, and sure enough, nearly every battery I take out is now nothing but a mangled mess of glass shards, copper and a strange blue liquid.

There's only 6 batteries that are really usable in there, maybe I should've used my inventory? I totally should have used my inventory. So much for the "intelligence" stat. Then again, I didn't have much time to use it. Summoning the inventory in a hurry can be dangerous, so maybe it really was the right call.

"I'm surprised you made it out alive, let alone managed to take out its batteries relatively intact." The sphere states as a part of its body opens to reveal multiple batteries of its own. "Only one of those batteries still has energy, rip out everything except the one on the left and replace them."

I do as it says, it doesn't seem that mad I actually ruined most of the batteries in the fight, but I guess it didn't expect me to even survive in the first place. Unfortunately the 6 batteries aren't enough to replace every empty one it has, but it should be enough, although I'm not sure how long a single battery lasts.

After a little while, it shakes and two treadmills sprout under itself as it closes its energy panel.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Being able to move again is pleasing." It states, "I'll find a way to turn myself off before I run out of energy this time."

"Aww, you still want to die? But look there's so much-" I gesture towards the ruined buildings, destroyed machines and broken dreams "...to see."

I'm starting to see what it's getting at.

"Do not misunderstand me." It says, "I do wish to live, it is just that running out of power means slowly turning off each individual component to save energy as I approach termination. Slowly losing my sense of self is not pleasing to say the least. If I start running out again, I will not hesitate to do whatever I can to avoid this fate."

It's actually...nicer than I thought? I guess being on the verge of death can make people grumpy. Running out of energy is apparently like losing your mind as you grow older, and your brain gets all wrinkly. Although a machine can be recharged-

Right, energy isn't being produced anymore, so they literally have to kill each other just to live a little longer.

"Hey, do you have anywhere you want to go, little guy? I don't have any destination in mind myself." I ask

"There is, in fact, a place I always wanted to visit. I am not a combat machine like you, so I was unable to reach it safely before then. Your help would be greatly appreciated" it answers, "The tower, I wish to reach the top."

I didn't see it at first, how could I? This thing is so massive that it looks like a wall separating this city from the outside world. But it's a tower, a metal tower so wide that I suspect it would take days to go around it. And its height, somehow, reaches even higher into the sky and into the clouds, it goes to a place I cannot see from here.

"What else is there to do but keep going, uh?" I mutter under my breath as I take my first step toward the massive building.