“Hmm” said Sui “Does that really matter?”

Trina took a deep breath “Ok, Sui, I’m going to explain what we know about stats right now. Do you think, you can pay attention for 10 minutes?”

Sui shrugged. Probably not. I’m trying to work out whose cupboard I should raid first, and at the moment Trina, I’m thinking it has to be yours in prep for your birthday… but maybe I should… wait pretend to focus.

“Ok, that’s probably the best I’m going to get. So, so far, we know that you start with something between one and five. Maybe, neither of us actually have a one in anything, and maybe it can go as low as zero, but five is probably the highest”

Sui nodded. Ok, so how long would it take me to redo all of Trina’s clothes? Hmm, is it possible to get enough practice that I could simply do the whole thing in one night? Maybe working on two or more dresses at a time…

“Aife, has the best stats out of the three of us, and you have the second” said Trina, before mumbling under her breath “and I’m not annoyed you have a higher base int”

“So, following on from that, two stats are a bit weird. Dexterity, and Charm. For some reason we can’t put points into either of them, and it’s not super clear what they do. The system thing was willing to tell us a bit about the others and we could figure out a lot ourselves.

“Focusing on Dexterity first, it seems to be how good you are at fine control, or that’s what we think anyway. Neither of us actually have high Dexterity, only you seemed to. The problem is, that Aife put some points into her already high Agility and it seems to have made her faster AND more controlled.

“So, honestly it’s just a bit of a wash. For Charm, we have no real way of testing it. We both have 3 Charm, or 4 now I suppose. Aife had 5 but we can’t really find any difference it could have made so we aren’t sure what it does”

Would Aife help me? Maybe if I had her sneak into Trina’s closet and steal a few before the day ends, I could work on them at night and return them in the morning. I’m still not allowed in her closet but Aife is… I think.

“Now, focusing on the physical stats. We have, Strength, Agility, and Constitution. Strength doesn’t just make you stronger, it also seems to make you faster, but we’re a little unsure of that because someone” Trina glared at Aife as she said this “Couldn’t control her new strength properly. That is one thing we know it doesn’t do, which is actually help you control your newfound strength.

“The other issue is that it has to make you stronger. Aife got rather injured during a few of our fights but was able to hop back up and keep going, without putting a point in constitution mind you” said Trina

“Well, it wasn’t like it hit me that hard” said Aife

But, if I am getting Aife to help me… then I won’t be able to surprise her with fixing her outfits. Hmm… I guess I could break my promise to Trina not to take stuff from people’s closets because I won’t actually be leaving the house with them. And really, if they don’t leave the premises is it even stealing.

“Hmm, actually it might mean the difference in Strength increases or decreases the damage taken. Anyway, not the time. Agility. Agility seems to make your reaction time faster and increase your running speed somehow.

“Not that Strength doesn’t, but Agility seems to increase it in a more controlled way. This might just be because Aife has been putting more into Strength though, and maybe a balance is what you need. Just that muscle head decided strength is more important” said Trina

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Aife nodded with a smile “That’s because it is, but only so much. A bit of balance is necessary”

Trina grimaced “And that leads us on to Constitution. We haven’t really tested it. Aife and I haven’t put any points into it and the system description just says ‘makes the body more resilient to all kinds of physical damage, while improving recovery time’ so maybe it has a small regeneration effect, but the after combat healing makes it really hard to tell” said Trina

Though, that raises another question. It seems like Aife might be our main combatant. If that is the case should I be making some of my sturdier clothes for her asap? As important as Trina’s birthday might be, Aife surviving takes precedent…

“Now, the magic stats” said Trina, as Aife took a long look at Sui and realised she wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention, but chose not to comment. “First is Charm. It says that it makes the person ‘More charismatic and enticing, while helping guard from enemy Charm’ but I haven’t noticed a difference” said Trina

“I’m betting it’s because we don’t see each other as enemies Trina I’ve told you that” said Aife

“But the first part doesn’t mention anything at all about enemies. It should effect everyone and I can’t exactly expect Sui to give me a good answer” said Trina

Aife held up her hands in defeat and gestured for her to continue. “Right so the rest of the mental stats are just as hard to understand, but the descriptions have been a big help. I myself have but a few, but I kept some reserve for Agility, so I’m not getting caught out”

“Now, the description for Intelligence, is that it increases the speed of your thoughts. So, it should be a measure of how fast you can think. I’m really not sure how to test it though. I tried doing a bunch of random math before and after increasing it and I really didn’t notice much of a difference. It also increases the strength of magic effects, but we don’t really have any of those yet, unless your thread control counts”

“The same with Wisdom. It supposedly makes it so you can more easily hold multiple ideas in your mind, but I haven’t actually been able to replicate that despite putting a few points into it. Apparently, it also increases mental recovery rate”

Oh, I actually know that one I bet… eh, it’s not worth interrupting her. Pretty sure that I can more easily control my thread from multiple points now, and the intellect might be what lets me actually lift it now… Ooh so the idea of working on multiple outfits at once might not be too far fetchedfar-fetched. Perhaps I should just set up in their closet instead and do as many as I can… yes that idea has merit.

“Finally, is Willpower. Which actually is another you can’t seem to put points in. Or at least not as much. Aife has the option to, but I don’t for some reason. I’m not sure why that might be… and because you spent all your points, I can’t exactly test any theories about it.

“Apparently it helps resist the effects of charm, as well as any purely mental magical effects. Which I think means, that if you took a fireball to the face, that’s a constitution check but if someone cast say… ‘hold person’ it might be a Willpower one. I’m not… Sui are you paying attention?” snapped Trina

Sui recentred her head that had been drifting “Not really”

“Good, we can- wait what did you say?” asked Trina glaring at Sui

“Not really…” said Sui realising this was about to get her in trouble.

Trina walked over and slapped Sui in the back of the head. Sui felt she could have dodged, but chose not to. Ito however had other ideas. Popping up from Sui’s neck, Ito climbed onto Trina’s hand when it made contact.

Trina didn’t notice, and Ito used this as a chance to climb onto the outside of her sleeve and make her own way up to Trina’s neck. “Now. Do I need to repeat myself?” asked Trina.

Sui looked at Ito now positioned directly next to Trina’s face. She looked at Aife for help, but Aife gave her a ‘not my problem’ look. Dammit Ito. I suppose she was being a bit rude. “Trina… what do you plan to do about the spider though” said Sui

“What spider” asked Trina “Wait, you can’t distract me that easily”

Sui smiled. Ito smiled. Ito used thread creation to create a bunch of silk and then carefully wrapped it around Trina’s neck. Keeping it loose for a moment, Ito then proceeded to inject whatever it was that let her make her under-skin strings. Trina felt a tickle on her neck, and reached up to brush it away. Ito ducked into Trina’s skin to avoid the pass… but Trina’s eyes went wide as her hands brushed the silk around her neck “Ito. MY SPIDER” said Sui with an evil grin.