A tab opened in his Menu, titled Stats. Ryan selected it and was redirected to the overview, which informed him that Stats were a simplified summary of the individuals bodily and mental characteristics. Each Stat had three Sub-stats whose average determined the Stats value. Points earned could only be assigned to Sub-stats and the Interface would either guide the Player in doing the necessary adjustments or Players could let the Interface automatically complete the process. The Interface also suggested that Players let it complete initial adjustments automatically to optimise the process and allow the Player to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism.
Stats could and should also be trained naturally, and once the Player had surpassed the natural threshold the increased value would reflect in the Player’s Character Sheet.
This also explained the excessive number of points Ryan had available for distribution. If he had been able to assign ten points per level he roughly calculated, he would have been able to double his initial total strength by Level 9, which was absolutely scary in its implications, considering he would need Level 25 to move to the Exodus worlds. Ryan opened his Character Sheet, focusing only on the Stat summary:
Ryan Alexander Hunter
Statistics
Strength
11
Intellect
11
Agility
12
Will
10
Dexterity
10
Energy
8
Constitution
14
Perception
11
Points available
20
Selecting Strength he mentally accepted the tooltip provided;
Strength (11)
Reflects a Player’s physical strength, starting value determined on initiation, adjusted to a decimal scale where 10 reflects the average human’s strength, strength is calculated as the average of:
Muscular Strength (9):
Reflects contractive force muscles can achieve.
Tensile Strength of Tendons (11):
Reflects how much muscular force tendons can sustain before tearing.
Structural Strength of Bones and Cartilage (13):
Reflects how much shearing and compressive force bones and cartilage can withstand before bending, tearing or breaking.
From the description it became quickly clear that unbalanced stat allocation even within the stat alone would possibly harm or even kill him. He could pump his muscles and tendons to such a degree that he could rip apart his bones, a scary thought. There would probably be idiots who would do just that, he snickered. Continuing to Agility gave him:
Agility (12)
Reflects Player’s ability to make macro movements, determines the speed and degree at which a Player can move his body and limbs, agility is calculated as the average of:
Fast Twitch Muscle Speed (13)
Reflects how fast a Player’s muscles can contract and release.
Nerve Impulse Speed (15)
Reflects how fast a Player’s nerves transmit impulses, this affects how fast senses transmit impulses to the brain and how fast the brain transmits impulses to the various muscle groups.
Cartilage Friction Coefficient (8)
Reflects how little friction is generated by joint movement, the higher the coefficient the less resistance joints offer to movement, improving movement speed.
It was clear that Ryan had very fast reflexes, and could move fast, although he did already know that. He found the Interface’s Sub-stat allocations and definitions endlessly fascinating, never before being quantified to such a degree and with the ability to remedy or adjust his weaknesses and strengths.
Dexterity (10)
Reflects fine motor control and precision of movement, dexterity is calculated as the average of:
Muscle Control (11)
Reflects to what degree a Player can control the precision of movements.
Accuracy of Proprioception (11)
Reflects Player’s awareness of body position in relation to surroundings.
Flexibility (8)
Reflects how flexible a Player’s joints, muscles and tendons are, determines to what degree a Player can bend body and limbs.
Ryan was aware that he wasn’t flexible, but not to this degree, about 20 percent less flexible than the average person. Being stronger in other areas was satisfying, but being weaker was annoying and ignited his competitive spirit. He was now determined to first shore up his weaknesses and at least hit average in every area before deciding on his priorities going forward.
Constitution (14)
Reflects Player’s physical constitution, endurance and health, how resistant a Player’s body is to receiving damage and to what degree he can operate while damaged, also affects the strength of a Player’s generated shield, Constitution is calculated as the average of:
Physical Resilience (16)
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Reflects how resistant a Player’s body is to receiving damage and to what degree it can operate while damaged.
Inherent Healing (12)
Reflects how quickly a Player recovers from injury, very high levels will allow a Player to regrow limbs over a period of time.
Shield (14)
Reflects how strong a shield the Player’s skin generates, by utilising Quantum Fluctuation Energy the Interface allows the Player’s skin to generate a barrier that can block or mitigate attacks of a physical or energetic nature.
Constitution was his strongest Stat, Ryan always knew that he had a high pain threshold and considered himself a tough guy, but having it confirmed to such a degree was immensely satisfying. He now had a solid understanding of his physical Stats, it was time to go mental, chuckled Ryan. He was aware that his mental Stats were significantly weaker in comparison to his physical Stats, something he did not necessary agree with as he considered himself somewhat smarter than the average hoi polloi.
Intellect (11)
Reflects speed at which user can understand system assisted learning, provides clearer memory, indirectly affects reaction speed, Intellect is calculated as the average of:
Processing Speed (9)
Reflects the speed at which information received is processed by the brain and at which a Player thinks, at extremely high levels affects Player’s perception of time.
Cognitive Understanding (16)
Reflects Player’s ability to understand complex ideas and follow logical chains of deduction, cannot be improved by earned stat points, only trained.
Memory Retention (8)
Reflects Player’s memory capacity and clarity and detail of memories, influences rate at which the quality of memories degrades over time.
Interesting, first of all that the system could not improve a Stat directly and secondly that it was a Stat that could be considered fundamental insofar as it related to how a Player understood the world. Whether it was impossible to improve or whether the Interface was restricted point allocation was beside the point, the fact that it couldn’t be done was interesting in itself. Ryan inferred that the designers of the Interface had no intention to let Players become too smart. Although these, so far, were Ryan’s most imbalanced Sub-stats, he was ecstatic that Cognitive Understanding was his highest Stat, also feeling validated by his perception of his own smarts. Apparently he was smart, just a bit slow and forgetful.
Will (10)
Reflects Player’s ability to influence the world and system and other individuals through applied force of thought, determines mental resistances and assists in the mitigation of pain, Will is calculated as the average of:
Resolve (11)
Reflects Player’s ability to keep on a path to achieve his goals, notwithstanding adversity, a Player’s willingness and ability to follow through, cannot be improved by earned stat points, only trained.
Force (10)
Reflects a Player’s force of personality, his ability to dominate his surroundings.
Focus (9)
Reflects a Player’s ability to focus on one goal and withstanding distractions.
Average, not worth considering further at this stage, was Ryan’s opinion. Only interesting because it contained another Stat that could only be raised by training.
Energy (8)
Reflects a Player’s energy levels, his ability to tap into environmental Quantum Fluctuation Potential and store, convert and utilise it. Energy is calculated as the average of:
Capacity (6)
Reflects how much free energy a Player can store within himself.
Efficiency (9)
Reflects how much energy a Player will use to achieve specific effects, the higher the coefficient, the less energy a Player will use.
Regeneration (9)
Reflects how quickly a Player regenerates his energy pool by tapping into the environment, metabolising nutrients and possibly photovoltaic conversion.
Fascinating, thought Ryan. As far as he could determine, he used Energy for every activity: walking, breathing, eating and probably casting magic as well if his judgement was correct. He had determined that walking consumed a miniscule portion of his energy pool while returning to the homestead. What was of further interest that regeneration of the pool also depended on metabolising nutrients, so no food meant lower, possibly significantly lower, Energy regeneration.
Perception (11)
Reflects acuity and sensitivity of a Player’s senses, including his sixth sense, or psychic awareness, Perception is calculated as the average of:
Sensory Acuity/Sensitivity (13)
Reflects how acute and detail oriented a Player’s senses are, sharpness of vision, hearing, smell and sensitivity to psychic emanations.
Psychic Range (8)
Reflects how far away a Player is able to detect psychic patterns, not dependent on sensitivity. This stat cannot be improved by earned points, only trained.
Processing Capacity (12)
Reflects how much sensory input a Player can process simultaneously, filtering out noise and only consciously perceiving relevant data. The Interface is required to advise that Sensory Acuity and Processing Capacity should always be near equal so to protect the Player’s sanity.
Another Stat that could not be improved by the Interface. Why this one? It’s inherent nature or were there other reasons? Also, the warning was pretty funny, some really messed up things must have happened that they thought to include a warning here but not that excessively strengthening your muscles could literally rip apart your body.
Perusing the Stats in detail confirmed Ryan’s initial inclination to first shore up his weaknesses before moving in a specific direction, he probably would go so far as to keep his Stats balanced until he could select his classes. The second Ryan confirmed his stat allocation his world changed forever more.
He comprehended that the Interface was scanning his body, following along the tide, he could see his bones being strengthened by an infusion of energy, his bone marrow was refined, his blood, tendons, muscles. Particular attention was drawn to his joints, were the energy swirled in the cartilage, rebuilding, reinforcing, replacing. Ryan was drawn along the myriad ways of his nervous system, the routes being reformed, integrated and modified. He could feel the proliferation of additional changed cells, his eyes, ears, hair follicles of his body amended and improved, new plastic pathways in his brain created, incomprehensible changes being made.
New clusters of cells dotted on his skin, fed by tiny arteries, connected to his nervous system, he understood that they created the reactive energy shield that would negate or mitigate attacks, though for now they were weak, immature, he assumed that they had not existed before initiation. The System was mutating the Players as much as any flora and fauna, although these mutations were directed by the Player to a limited extent.
It became clear that the Player’s direction, at least for now, was mostly insignificant, only determining the general thrust of mutation. Ryan realised then that he barely understood his body, that the various Sub-stats were still a gross simplification of his bodily characteristics. The systems were all interlinked, you couldn’t improve one without improving others to some extent, understanding what changes to apply to achieve specific results would take a lifetime. The tiny ember of understanding that the cardiovascular and nervous systems were the fundament of any power the first step along that long, long path.
Humbled by the power the Interface commanded and directed, utilised and applied, his outlook on the System changed. For the immediate, and probably mid-term future, he would just assign his stats, riding along with the changes, trying to understand.
Ryan intuitively understood that, at a later stage and should he have gained the required understanding, the accumulated quantum fluctuation energy potential, experience, could be applied differently, directed by him to achieve the desired changes, though that day was far off.
Rising out of the trance, that seemed like hours but probably had been only moments, Ryan modified his Character Sheet to reflect his modified Sub-stats in shorthand, because they were more significant than the summarised Stats, notwithstanding the fact that they barely provided any information in the greater picture.
Ryan Alexander Hunter
Level 2
Experience
220
Next Level
330
Statistics
Strength
Muscle Strength
12
Intellect
Speed
10
12,3
Tendons
12
12,0
Cognitive
16
Bones
13
Memory
10
Agility
Muscle Speed
13
Will
Resolve
11
12,7
Nerve Speed
15
10,3
Force
10
Cartilage Friction
10
Focus
10
Dexterity
Muscle Control
11
Energy
Capacity
10
11,0
Proprioception
11
10,0
Efficiency
10
Flexibility
11
Regen
10
Constitution
Resilience
16
Perception
Acuity
13
14,0
Healing
12
11,3
Psy Range
8
Shield
14
Processing
13
Available Points
0