She was starting to be a little more honest, I think. I can't ever tell with 100% certainty that she was ever truly herself with me, but she showed signs of irritation, glares, she argued with me a little. She felt more like an actual friend than someone that acted like one. But it felt like she went back to the girl I first met in that tavern.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask her as we both eat an overpriced meal from a just as overpriced inn.

"Ha? The money is no issue, don't worry! I'm sure you'll make it up to me eventually!" She says with an earnest smile, but her soul is the absolute opposite of her body language. Wary, nervous, scared, that's what I get from her soul. Not the warm and friendly self she tries to present herself as.

I'm not entirely sure if what I did back there was really that scary, it's not as if I left a crater in the middle of the tunnel, right? Actually...

USER STATS Strength : 250 837   (OVERFLOW)

Endurance : 723 271 (OVERFLOW)

Agility : 260 649   (OVERFLOW)

Dexterity : 643 834  (OVERFLOW)

Intelligence : 215 268 (OVERFLOW)

Wisdom : 215 268   (OVERFLOW)

Wow, my stats already finished loading, it usually takes way longer! I'm telling you, this system is very efficient compared to the ones I usually run into, or maybe it's just because it gave up early on calculating my massive stats and slapped "overflow" on it and called it a day. I can't blame them.

Unfortunately, this tells me nothing. All systems have their own funky ways of calculating stats, so I have no idea how much that actually is by this world's standard.

"Hey Trin, how much stat does the average person have?" I ask nonchalantly.

"Uh... It depends on what your line of work is or how old you are. Generally speaking, most people will go between ten to a hundred in their lifetime if they don't actively hunt monsters or search for alternative ways of strengthening themselves. Adventurers tend to go in the thousands, ten thousand is rare, but I've seen it happen. Why do you ask?"

"Is a hundred thousand impossible to reach, then?" I ask, hoping it's not too obvious I'm the one concerned. She's scared enough of me as is.

"For a human? It's....possible, if you were to farm the same powerful monster every day for your entire life without somehow wiping them into extinction, you could reach that number for ONE stat. For monsters? It depends on the beast. The Looming Shadow is theorized to be around five hundred thousands in most stats for example. So you can guess as to why nearly everyone has given up on killing it." she emphasizes the word 'nearly', implying some people are still trying to kill it, or maybe she's just talking about me.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

This does confirm my suspicion that my stats are a little... over the top for this world. At least there's no charisma stat on there, so I'm pretty sure everyone still sees me as "below average" in that regard, I'd rather not experience the incident again.

DIARY

DATE NOTES

Awaiting input

[N/A]

Forget

2732 AR

6th of Heralding

Make the Ultimate Menu automatically tune your stats to adapt to the world you are in, if applicable. (Not urgent)

[N/A] Take care, alright? [N/A] It's okay to remember. [N/A] Take out extra experience URGENT!!!

To be honest, making my stats adapt to the world they are in is something I should've done long ago, but it's really hard to properly gauge that stuff if the universe doesn't have a system. This is why systems are convenient, alright? They just make automating and calculating stuff a lot easier.

Also yes, I'm using the diary of this universe's menu. I don't really have a proper note system on my UM, and this one looks pretty convenient, so I'm probably going to port it later. Not now though, taking out a menu in a world that expects you to have one can be...messy.

"Speaking of," Trin interrupts my thoughts. "What are your stats like? I never got to see you fight or anything, so I can't really tell."

"Err..." I hesitate, she did see my throw back then, so I can't lie too much about it. "Above average?" I answer noncommittally. It's technically not a lie.

"Yeah I...gathered as much. My stats are around five thousand, not all of them of course, I mostly trained endurance, dexterity and agility. After all, having above five thousand in all stats would be weird for a normal human being." She emphasizes that last part. I don't answer, I feel like she's just going to trick me into saying something dumb if I keep this up.

Seeing I'm not about to answer, she decides to change the subject.

"Anyway, I was right to take you there, wasn't I? Sure, the food costs an arm, and it's not the most exciting adventure, but you got a cool frog out of it." She says playfully.

"Yeah, I...prefer this frog being here than it not being here." I mutter.

"What? You mean you like it?"

I nod. That's what liking something means, I'm pretty sure.

She gets up from her seat and lightly taps the frog plushie on the head before heading to our room upstairs. "We'll share the same room since this place is super expensive, don't forget to put that thing in your inventory, although I doubt anyone would bother stealing it."

It only takes me a couple of seconds after she left for me to get bored and join her in our room. I hate to admit it, but I got used to the company. I prefer having her near me than not, I prefer having anyone near me than not.

She's in the middle of undressing when I come back to our room, but she's just taking off her equipment, so she really is just in casual clothing. It's actually a coincidence this time. I ignore her and simply let myself fall on the wooden floor, but she catches me by the collar right before my face hits the ground. She then lifts me up and shoves me into a sleeping bag, I don't resist.

"We have a sleeping bag, we are using it," she states before quickly tucking herself into the one bed of the room.

Her soul shifts once more to something I do not recognize, not hunger, nor fear. But I think I've seen that emotion before.

"Hey, take better care of yourself, alright? I won't always be here for you." She says with a yawn.

Ho, I do recognize that feeling.

It's pity.