After getting the passive skill, Peter reflected on his stats:
Level 10, 03% (972/24,297)
Empower Body. Strength Variant. Lower Leg Focus.
Passive(s): Adaptation
Vitality - 0
Endurance - 40
Strength - 0
Dexterity - 0
Intelligence - 10
Peter needed to test his new passive, everything he was building towards was based on his calculations - on the thing that the rest of the world ignored because Strength variants were below them. The problem was that with his Vitality being so low, he couldn’t just get in a random fight - he had to schedule a Sanctioned duel with its built in protections.
After speaking with Paxton, the trainer finally said he’d set it up for the coming weekend, after Peter committed to cleaning the gym for another month without pay. Sanctioned spots were apparently in high demand leading up to the district tournament.
In the days leading up to the duel, Peter reflected on his plan. Most true combatants reached level 50 with little issue, and were able to get towards 60 by their peak. Peter based his whole life on the key observation he had from watching his father. It was said that Jared Miller was able to lug around chunks of granite for three days before needing a rest. He was the most reliable and requested Leg in the village. His Endurance was legendary, and Peter knew the attribute had been at 86 for all of his dad’s adult life. Apparently his father had put any points he gained directly into Endurance, Strength, and some into Dexterity - the things that would help him do what his father, and his father’s father, and their ancestors before them had done - build.
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But what if, and this is the most important if of his life, that same Endurance was pointed at something different? If you combined a near-endless amount of stamina with maniacal focus on training, leveling past 50 should be more than reasonable - eventually.
And then, when your lasting power was unmatched, there was a passive that was ignored by all but Mental Combatants - the rare variant who specialized in battle intuition. That passive was Adaptation, which read “Achieve permanent - but miniscule - understanding of unique battle techniques when used against you. Scales with Intelligence.”
So that was Peter’s plan. Stamina to train forever, slight Intelligence to learn… everything. If Peter kept his Strength and Dexterity low - the relative struggles of weight training and obstacle courses should let him level up near-infinitely on available materials. He’d begin exchanging one point in Stamina for one in Vitality now that he hit level 10. After all, it was important not to die while he slowly scaled.
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Peter walked into the coliseum, approaching the information desk at the lobby.
“Hello, I’m here for a Sanctioned duel. Could you let me know where to go?” he asked the gruff looking man, the one attendant without a line in front of them.
“Name, level, Element, Elemental variant?”
“Uh, actually I’m not -”
“Don’t care, it’s not a secret, Element.”
“No,” said Peter “I mean I’m not an Elementalist.”
Suddenly the man seemed interested. “Oh, fascinating. My name’s James - it’s been a month or so since we’ve had a Mind in here. Small or Large?”
“Actually I’m a Strength variant, Leg specifically. And to the beginning questions - Peter Miller, level 10.”
It seemed like the man had a hard time shifting emotions so quickly, as now there was a pained, almost angry look on his face. “What is this, some shitty prank? Where’s Jake, did he put you up to this? How’d you even know there’s a Peter Miller supposed to duel today? That’s protected information.”
It looked like Peter’s forethought of being thirty minutes early would come in handy.
Five minutes later, James gave up.
“Fine - this is obviously a shitty prank but I’m not losing my job over it. Tell Peter that he’s in bay 4 down the hall on the left. And tell SUSAN or whoever’s behind this that I’m still recording Peter Miller as a Leg, and she’ll have to explain it if anyone asks what happened here.”