After a good nights – or, more accurately, afternoons– rest, they were up and ready to go. Rowan was curious, though. They only slept for four hours, so why did he feel so rested?

“We stayed up for well over fifteen hours in the dungeon, did you never wonder why you didn’t get tired? Especially when you were running and fighting for most of it?”

“I did, but I admit, it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. Does it have to do with our stats?”

“Yeah. Do you have something similar in your world? I know you don’t have the System, but I don’t actually know what that would look like. How do you know how strong you are?”

“By observation and measurement, I suppose. If you can lift up a max of two hundred pounds, then congratulations, that's how strong you are. That’s about the only way to measure it. Just by seeing how much you can lift. Same with academics or anything else, it’s just observation. The closest thing I can think of are cybernetics, which have weight ratings, but that’s not really the same.”

“Huh. Sounds inconvenient, and we are for sure wrapping back around to whatever ‘cybernetics’ are, but you don’t have an analog for stats then? Something to compare our System to?”

“Well, I’ve heard that certain games had a similar System, but I could never afford them as a child. By the time I could, I wasn’t that interested either.”

“Okay, I can give you the basic run down.”

“I have a strong feeling there won’t be anything basic about it.”

“You know what? Just for that, you’re getting the whole spiel. First off, Constitution. It increases your Vital Energy, which in turn improves almost every aspect of your body. Your eyesight, your bone density, and even your teeth improve. It’s what's known as a ‘Foundational Attribute’ as it’s the foundation of the rest of your Physical stats.”

“That sounds like an important stat, then. Does every Class have an investment in it?”

“No, not every class, but most physically aligned ones do. What you have to remember as well is that for most Unique classes, and every rarity below Legendary, most people get Free Points to spend. They don’t have all of their points assigned, just most of them. So yeah, most people will invest a little into Constitution.”

“Oh yeah. I do remember a few of my Classes showing Free Points during the Class selection. What about the rest of the Stats?”

“Well, Dexterity, Strength, and Agility are known as ‘Conduit Attributes’ as they use Vitality to power themselves. Generally, you want a little of all of them but only want to focus on one, maybe two if your Class has a higher rarity. Considering you don’t have anything to compare them to, I’ll define them for you.”

“Strength is how powerful you are. It takes Vitality and converts it into pure force.”

“Agility is how fast you are. It converts Vitality into enhanced perception and movement.”

“Dexterity is a weird one. It’s a measure of how much finesse you have. It converts Vitality into superior timing and fine movements. It’s mostly used in crafting Classes, but Rangers usually have a fair amount of it as well. Some speculate that it also improves your muscle memory, but the only combat classes we can go off of are Rogues and Rangers, and those types are generally naturally nimble and quick to pick up their chosen weapon. Whether that’s a coincidence or not is unknown, but I don’t think it is.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to invest in all of them equally?”

“Most education around Attributes assumes that you’ll have a Common or Rare Class, but nothing above that considering they're so monumentally rare. To invest in all of them equally when you only get six stat points a level, maybe sixteen if you're lucky? It’s ludicrous. Especially when specializing is so effective.”

“Okay, that makes sense. I’m guessing that getting fifteen in all of those attributes is considered abnormal then?”

“Very fucking abnormal. In fact, you're the only case I’ve heard of that happening. I didn’t even know you could get fifteen in an Attribute per level! It must be a Unique rarity thing.”

“What about the rest of the stats? What does Luck do?”

“Luck is an Esoteric Attribute, as opposed to Physical. It shares that moniker with Wisdom and Charisma. Intelligence is the Foundational Attribute for the Esoteric Attributes. Intelligence produces Aspected Mana, as opposed to Vital Energy.”

“Aspected? How is that different from normal mana?”

“It’s just personalized to you. Your body absorbs it, then changes it to suit you more. The more Intelligence you have, the larger your reservoir, but just like Constitution – Or more accurately, Vital Energy, – changes your body to be more resilient and perceptive, Intelligence alters your brain's structure, making you better at processing information. It’s why mages and sorcerers tend to be researchers at heart.”

“Okay, what about the rest of them?”

“Luck, Wisdom, and Charisma are also Conduit Attributes, but instead of Vitality, they consume Aspected Mana.”

“Luck is a bit weird. It doesn’t directly make you more fortunate, but it does give you a supernatural sense as a guide. If you have high luck, you’ll begin to feel a pull towards certain actions that might make you some money or give you an important connection, or a force telling you to leave an area if a murderer might pass through. We don’t actually know how this works. Some speculate that the System itself takes the Mana funneled into luck and helps you as a reward, but we really don’t know for sure.”

“That stat seems significantly more complex than the rest.”

“It’s super weird like that. No one really knows why.” Vorn zoned out for a moment thinking about what could cause such a strange stat, before Rowan brought him back to the topic at hand.

“You there?”

“Sorry, sorry. I got distracted. Anyway, Wisdom. Wisdom is how fast you can process mana into Aspected Mana. It also affects how easily you can manipulate your Mana.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“That doesn't really sound like a ‘Conduit’. It makes Mana, or at least aids in its production.”

“Good catch! Yeah, it’s debated as to whether or not Wisdom should count as a Conduit Attribute, considering it actively helps fill the Foundational one. Some argue it should have its own category, but others say since Aspected Mana fuels its secondary effect of making your mana manipulation better, it still counts. I personally think that it deviates too far from the rest of the stats to be considered a conduit, but it would be inconvenient for a lot of people if we changed the classification. I still think we should, though. For the sake of accuracy.”

“Luck also seems like it’s only dubiously a conduit." Rowan pointed out.

“That it does. It being a conduit entirely hinges on whether the System Tax theory is true, but while I would love to discuss the intricacies of mortal classifications of a System we don’t understand," Vorn said completely unironically, he really would love to do that, "we do have other things to do today.”

“Fair enough.”

“Finally, there is Charisma. Surprisingly, it is one of the simplest Attributes to categorize. It converts mana into a field that we can and have magically observed, but have yet to replicate. In that field, you can intuitively understand those around you better. It makes you more charismatic by letting you read people better. It can also make you way better at being an asshole, in the case of the twins.”

“I’m beginning to see why these were called the Esoteric Attributes.”

“Yeah, they may be complex, but doesn’t that just make them that much more interesting to study? Plus, I’m like ninety percent sure we’re either missing or have straight up wrong information on all of them, so that means we can make some easy breakthroughs once we get to the academy.”

“I think I’ll leave that to you.”

— — —

They had not calculated only needing four hours of sleep and decided to clean up a little more before leaving. Vorn still didn’t see the big deal, but Rowan insisted, and he wanted to be a good soulmate. They had come to an agreement, however. Rowan wouldn’t touch any of Vorn’s personal spaces, like his desk. He could keep it as “chaotically organized” as he pleased. Even if Rowan had to suppress a shudder whenever he looked in the desk’s direction.

Rowan ended up getting in the back seat and allowed Vorn to drive. He had to get used to his body's increased stats, after all. It didn’t take long, just repressing your strength was way easier than utilizing it fully. It still wasn’t easy, but it only took a few hours to get the hang of it.

They did need to replace a few door knobs now, though.

To be safe, they decided to stay home another hour to be sure that Vorn wouldn’t have any accidents. Rowan, being Rowan, immediately got bored. He asked what his soulmate did normally, and Vorn just replied, “Read.”. And read he did.

Riveting.

A mind-numbingly boring hour later – for Rowan at least– they were reasonably confident that Vorn had gotten used to his body enough not to crush any public property.

Now that they were ready to leave, they could finally enact their plan to buy some actual supplies. The shopping was a boring affair, just camping and maintenance supplies plus the vials for blood. A few shopkeepers looked at them weirdly due to what they could only assume was their species, but they didn’t pay it any mind. It wasn’t every day you saw a Unique Being. They were unique for a reason. One of a kind and all that, it didn’t exactly equate to them being a common sight.

Before they left for the dungeon – they decided on Crystalwood Cavern – Rowan suggested they stop by the Guild again. He wanted to see if Ark was really up to joining them. In the theoretical worst-case scenario, it was just more experience for him. Well…?

“Do people give you experience?”

“I imagine they could give you plenty of experiences, but I have a feeling that’s not what you're talking about.”

“Oh, I was using a term I heard in my world. People would sometimes talk about games around me, and they always talked about needing ‘experience’ to level up. I initially thought it meant repetitive action to level, but it seemed like an interchangeable term. Sometimes it was ‘Runes’ or ‘Souls’. You got them for beating enemies. I think.”

“Uh, you're awfully casual about potentially murdering someone we just met.”

“I have literally killed thousands of people. I am a little desensitized.”

“Fair point, forgot about that. Anyway, those games and their systems sound interesting. I wish you knew more about them, I would love to question the virtual Systems your people made. Anyway, you don’t level up with ‘experience’. Though, I suppose you could say that it’s kinda similar. You level up your Class by following your Path.”

“On that note, I’ve heard the term Path and Class used interchangeably, but is there an actual difference?”

“Oh sure, though it doesn’t come up much in common conversation. A Class is just a Path that the System helps you with. It’s completely possible to follow your Path without the help of the System and in fact makes you much stronger if you can manage it. The first mages were those who basically said ‘Fuck the System’, and mastered magic without it. Being a Mage literally wasn’t an option before they pioneered it, though nowadays most mages just have a Class. Most don’t bother doing it Systemless because of how much harder it is to manipulate energies without help.”

“How does that work? I thought the System gave you magic.”

“Nah, that’s not how it works. We have magic because our Plane is dimensionally adjacent to a Mana Wellspring. Or, that's what Travelers have told us, we don't exactly have a way to verify that information. Not all areas with a System have magic, and not all places with magic have a System. Whenever we get the occasional dimensional traveler they always say that our System is especially pushy, so that for sure implies the existence of different ones, too. Sorry, I got a little off topic there.”

“Interesting, but I recall the System saying that my trance gave me extra experience? What was that about?”

“The System was just putting in terms you would understand. If it doesn’t have a good analog for you, it won’t bother trying to use a stand-in like that, but experience really does sound similar to how it works here. In this case, being a literal repetitive action. Just following your Path.”

“Very interesting. So could I level up just by moving?”

“Since that’s part of your Path, then yeah, totally. It would have to be especially exhilarating, though, since another part of your Path is Thrill. You level up at the fastest rate when following all Aspects of your Path. For you, that would be Movement, Thrill, and Battle. An amazing Path by the way. Practically guaranteed to level fast. Well, as fast as a Mythic Class can.”

“Is all this common information, or are you just knowledgeable? I mean with this and you knowing all the weird aspects of the Attributes, it seems like you’ve studied this in depth.”

“A lot of it is common enough information, but I did take System Studies in my private education before my mother passed. I thought it was fascinating. Just a reminder, though, a lot of what we espouse as truth is in reality just our best guess. The System is so beyond us that we couldn’t possibly understand its multitudes. We just like to pretend we do. Hell, we don’t even know if it’s called ‘the System’, we just call it that because it’s a generic name for this type of device. We don’t even know if it is a device! Some Systems are Gods, others are machines beyond our wildest imaginations, and even still others are Eldritch creatures. What is the difference between a God and an Eldritch creature? We don’t fucking know! Anyway-”

“We’re here.”

“Oh. Okay.” Vorn sounded disappointed to have his rant interrupted.

— — —

The bar area was mostly empty due to the early hour, but Ark was standing at the bounty board looking for a job presumably.

“Hello.” Rowan started.

“AH- Ah, hello to you too.” Ark played off her fright smoothly. Very smoothly.

“Yesterday you mentioned if I ever wanted to run a dungeon with you to just ask, well, I’m asking,” Rowan spoke dispassionately. He was so bored right now. He wanted to be in the dungeon murdering Orcs, but having another person there to watch his back would be nice. Plus, it was nice to share something you cared about. Rowan just cared about brutal monster murder.

“Oh, you took that seriously?” She said surprised.

“My bad, I didn’t realize it was a courtesy thing. I’ll-”

“No, no! I meant it! It’s just that normally no one actually bothers asking!” She quickly tried to salvage the awkward conversation with the monotone man.

“Cool. I’m planning on going to the Crystalwood Cavern, you wanna come with?” He asked, a little life returning to his tone.

“Yeah! I was just looking for the bounty. Someone took it off the board! I don’t think they read the rules and regulations, you aren’t supposed to actually take those!”

“Oh? I didn’t receive the rules and regulations. I think the Guildmaster rushed it too much. I’ll put it back now.” He said completely nonchalantly. Embarrassment was not in Rowan’s emotional repertoire. Vorn, on the other hand, was very nearly dead.

Ark, too, was dying inside. She had accidentally insulted the guy she was going to delve with! After causing a misunderstanding! This was the worst. At least he didn’t look mortified or anything. Ark didn’t think she had seen anything besides polite apathy and mild excitement on the man’s face.

He walked back and asked, “So, are you ready to go? I’ve got a few hundred vials, but if you need any we can go to the glassmakers first.”

“No, I’m good. I already bought the vials yesterday, I just came back to look at the prices again.” She said quickly. Ark was trying so hard not to blow this, no one had asked to delve with her before! Everyone thought she was too scary!

“Oh yeah, sorry about taking the bounty.” He said like it didn’t even phase him.

Ark was going to die. She had to leave before she put her foot in her mouth a fourth time.

“Let’s go! Onward! To adventure!” She spoke excitedly.

“Didn’t you want to look at the bounty?” Rowan asked.

“O-Oh, yeah.” Gods, this was not going well.

— — —

The road to the Crystalwood Cavern dungeon was substantially less awkward. Now that he was on the road, Rowan was significantly less static. He moved gracefully and constantly, hells, he made walking look like a dance routine.

Ark had seen him twirl around an oncoming carriage with his eyes closed. That had been quite a scare, but he didn’t seem bothered about it. The carriage driver was livid, his carriage had lost a wheel cause this moron was dancing in the street with his eyes closed! He quickly changed his tune when he witnessed Rowan lift his fully loaded carriage with one hand while putting the wheel back with the other.

After that little fiasco, Rowan did his dance routine to the right of the road. Ark thought he would at least trip once on a tree root or something, but he had a supernatural sense of any obstacle.

‘What kind of skill is that?’ Ark thought to herself.

She hadn’t seen a skill that covered supernatural senses, agility, and… dancing like this before. And it had to be one skill. He was not level ten yet. That meant it was most likely unique, but the Guildmaster had stated he had an Epic Rarity Class, and only Unique Classes got Unique skills. The Guildmaster didn’t lie about that type of thing, so maybe he just meant Epic equivalent? That would make sense, she decided.

She decided to just ask, what’s the worst that could happen?

“Hey, do you have a Unique Class?” She asked simply.

“How did you figure that out?” Rowan asked calmly, then continued, “I had figured that the whole ‘Never tell your Class to anyone else’ spiel that the Guildmaster had given us wouldn’t actually do much, but I didn’t think someone would find out this soon.”

“He what?” Ark squeaked.

“Oh? What did you mean? I thought you had figured out our actual Class?”

“Uh… no. I just figured that you had a Unique Agility skill.”

“Oh.” He didn’t say anything else.

Ark was freaking out. If the Guildmaster told him not to tell anyone… and he had a Unique Class! That meant it was probably really strong! Hell, the Guildmaster hadn’t given her that speech and she had…

Oh.

Oh fuck.

He had a Mythic Equivalent. Or higher.

Oh fuck.

“No wonder you could lift that carriage at your level.” she whispered.

“Oh so you did figure it out, Vorn was just yelling at me about telling you. I don’t know what he expected. I’m terrible with secrets. So much for this necklace” He pulled it out from under his shirt to examine it.

‘Wait, is that a level disguising enchantment!? Those are, like, mega illegal! And he’s talking like he’s multiple people! Oh Gods, is he crazy?’ Ark thought, panicked.

“Vorn said to tell you that we’re not crazy. And not to say it like that, cause it makes us sound crazy. Oh, my bad. Anyway, we’re a unique being. Though that part wasn’t a secret” He said as if he hadn’t dropped another bomb on her.

Gods, she was going to pass out.

“Sorry to drop all this on you.”

“No. I-It’s fine. I just didn’t expect it, is all. You know, when we left I was worried about you thinking my Class was weird, but now that feels silly.” She spoke candidly.

“Really? What’s your Class?”

“That’s a personal question!” Ark said, scandalized. You don’t just ask someone that! Only the Guildmaster could ask that, and only in his private office!

“Oh, was that a faux pas? I just reincarnated here not too long ago, so I don’t know all of them yet.” He said simply.

Ark passed out.