ALL NOVEL 9. A Quest
Suzi detailed to Vale the general concept of 'stats,' and most of the specifics too. When she was done, Vale mused over the idea.
How strange. A person's physical and magical characteristics quantified. There were six stats in total, three physical and three magical.
Power, Endurance, and Constitution represented their obvious domains across the physical spectrum of a person's combat abilities. Potency, Reservoir, and Resistance were magical analogs: with potency being the strength of a spellcaster's sorcery, reservoir representing their 'stamina', or how much raw energy they had at their disposal—but not necessarily how quickly and powerfully they could channel it—and resistance meaning specifically magical defense.
In Vale's world, there wasn't such a clear split between 'physical' and 'magical', with everything simply being manifestations of vital energy, or mana as Suzi called it. Vital energy was used to reinforce one's skin or to refresh one's stamina reserves. But apparently, the System did that naturally? Through stats?
Did that mean these people didn't cultivate vital energies at all? Vale assumed so. They interfaced with the System through levels and killing monsters, and earning stats and titles or whatever else. Vale herself had only received a skill that allowed direct manipulation of vital energy because she already knew how. It had been fundamental to her previous life.
Stats could be trained, Vale discovered.
"It gets easier the higher level you are, but there's technically no cap,” she said. “I actually have a freakishly high Reservoir and Potency myself, for my level.” She coughed. “Because I don't hunt as much as I should, and I practice and study a lot by comparison. I don't like monsters.”
“How do I see my own? Do I just—?”
Simply thinking about it was enough to trigger that monotone voice.
***
Stats
Power - 1F (88%) (Enhanced)
Endurance - 1F (65%) (Enhanced)
Constitution - 1F (12%) (Normal)
Potency - 1F (0%) (Reduced)
Reservoir - 1F (0%) (Reduced)
Resistance - 1F (8%) (Normal)
Available Free Points: (2)
***
“Oh,” Vale said. “I did it.”
“That's the cool part about stats, though,” Suzi said. “When you allocate your level up points, it not only gives you an immediate boost, it raises your adaptability score.”
“The last part of each stat,” Vale guessed.
“Yep. And the higher your adaptability in a stat, the quicker you can train it. So there's a definite trend between level and how much of a stat a person might have, but there's also a decent amount of variance, depending on how much they've trained and how talented they are—oh, because it's not just about how much you train, but the quality. Like moving rocks around will help gain Power, but practicing a specific deadly sword slash,” she mimed the motion with comically atrocious form, “will get you it much faster.”
“Fascinating,” Vale said. She wondered whether her vital energy mastery skill somehow tied into stats, or whether the cultivation it had unlocked was for leveling only. She still hadn't experimented with it much. “How do you spend points?”
“You just spend them." She shrugged. "Intend to, and you will."
"I see. And how do the rankings go, for acceleration?"
"There's seven in total. Crippled, sluggish, reduced, normal, enhanced, fast, rapid." She counted them on her fingers as she went. "And don't forget, they change naturally based on level up. If you have really low stats for your level, you'll start earning them easier and easier as your level gets higher, since the acceleration increases. Likewise the better a stat is for your level, the lower your acceleration goes. I'm at Sluggish for both Potency and Reservoir, because I really ought to be higher than level four by now."
"I see," Vale said. "And the reason some of my stats are accelerated more than others is because of my class?"
"Yep. If you've got a [Witch] class, you'll pick up magic stats easier," Suzi said. "Would be kinda weird if not, you'd have sorcerers running around and throwing boulders. Though a mage could put their free points into Power or something, to get strong. It would just be a little weird."
Vale nodded, thinking as much as she was listening.
Which stats was she supposed to invest in, then?
Power and Endurance seemed most obvious, being the ones highlighted with 'enhanced' training acceleration. She was a swordswoman. While she had utilized plenty of Techniques in her past life—the perhaps-equivalent of 'spells' in this new system—the core of her combat had undoubtedly been swordplay. And thus her strength and endurance were her key statistics.
However, Power and Endurance were already at an 'Enhanced' growth pace. Would it be smarter to put her free points into Constitution and Resistance, then, to boost their growth? Or was maximizing her two key stats most important?
Vale relayed her questions to Suzi.
"Oh, it's completely up to you," Suzi replied. "It's not some sort of solved science, you can ask ten people, ten respectable adventurers even, and get ten answers. Go with your gut, I say."
Vale nodded thoughtfully. Power and Endurance it was.
***
Stats
Power - 2F (62%) (Fast)
Endurance - 2F (43%) (Fast)
Constitution - 1F (12%) (Normal)
Potency - 1F (0%) (Reduced)
Reservoir - 1F (0%) (Reduced)
Resistance - 1F (8%) (Normal)
Available Free Points: (0)
***
The stats had incremented from '1F' to '2F' as well as increased in their 'growth' rating from 'Enhanced' to 'Fast'. Vale flexed her hands in front of her, looking down at them, trying to tell if she could feel the increase.
"You spent your points, I take it?"
"I did," Vale agreed.
"It's a noticeable little boost, but not huge," Suzi said. "The big benefit is the growth change."
"How do the ratings work? For the stats themselves? It starts at '1F', I see, and moved to '2F'."
"One through five, F through S," Suzi said. "And the jumps into new letter grades are much more noticeable than moving through the number grades. If you're close to a new letter, you really want to grind that stat until you get it."
"And that just happens through training?" Vale asked.
"Yep. Focused training. And I think real fighting helps most." She shrugged. "Or at least, people with the highest level and stats tend to be those scrapping with actual monsters, or at least other people, often. Not someone who sits in a training yard and hits dummies all day."
"Reasonable," Vale said.
She was getting the continued impression that while the System introduced artificial constraints and frameworks, they were modeled closely on how reality worked. A person learned more fighting an actual opponent than a dummy, and thus the System rewarded them more for a realistic fight. Perhaps even it simply read a person's soul and reflected their stats as an analysis of their current state, rather than the other way around.
"Are there other hidden aspects of the System?" Vale asked.
"Sorry?"
"I didn't know about stats. Even when I leveled up they weren't mentioned. I had to be told. Is there anything else like that?"
"Well," Suzi said, thinking. "There's Titles."
"What are those?" She had at least seen a mention of them when inspecting herself.
"There's a chance of getting a Title when you do something special. It's up to the System, there's not a guaranteed way to get one. But they come with really nice bonuses. Can only have one equipped at a time though, but you can also swap them out as needed."
"Something special?"
"You know, like, impressive," Suzi said. "It depends on the person. I think the more incredible your skills, the more incredible your feat has to be for the System to take notice." She shrugged. "Or maybe just level, stats, and previous Titles makes it harder to get new ones."
"I see."
Sending out an inward request, she discovered, expectedly, that she had no titles—she hadn't earned any yet. Her accomplishments before being frozen didn't count, and neither had her strange encounter with Lust. Which was fair. She wouldn't consider being given a blessing a 'feat' worthy of notice. If anything, the power given to her should make it harder to earn Titles.
She considered what Suzi had said, working through the firewood. She had rolled her sleeves up and was cutting them efficiently. Master Northstar had assigned her plenty of mundane chores, as was standard for master to disciple. So she knew her way around basic tasks like this.
"Could I inspect you if I wanted to?" Vale asked suddenly.
Suzi blinked, the question coming out of nowhere.
"Do you mean can you, or can you?"
"Is it possible?" she clarified.
"Yes," Suzi said. "Though it's kind of rude. You can just ask a person their name, level, and class with your mouth. As I understand it, the only people who inspect others rather than giving a real introduction are adventurers out in the field, and that's because of practical considerations—to know who you're bumping into at a distance, and since you might not want to go shouting your hellos across a field when you're standing in a black zone." She chuckled at the idea.
Vale hummed, already lapsing back into silence as she thought about everything she'd learned.
Suzi watched her work, which Vale was somewhat self-conscious about, though she wasn't sure why. She still didn't understand the joke about wanting to watch her, but Vale was clueless about a lot of things and so didn't worry herself over it too much. Especially when she had so many other important things to be thinking about.
The wood split easily. Vale wasn't as strong as she used to be, but she still knew how to handle a blade—any blade, really, swords best of all, but an axe fine enough—and she slammed the weapon down with easy, harsh motions, splitting the logs in one blow each.
She was glad she could do something for Suzi. The smaller girl was probably not that strong, and that was why she'd put off this chore: the logs seemed to have been sitting for a while.
"I dropped the mushroom off with Mirabelle," Suzi said. "Hopefully she can make something good out of it, but the odds don't seem high."
It was obviously a segue into a new topic, one she wanted Vale's input on. She considered, then said, "If it's a monster that's the root cause of the sickness, it might have to be slain to save them, or at least to be identified afterward. Perhaps a resource can be harvested from its corpse to create a cure."
"Issue is we have no clue where to find it," Suzi said. "It's probably out in the Caelvarn Forest—where we came from—and nobody from Silverdale is strong enough to go crawling through green zones except for me. And even I'm not very qualified. 'Specially not for the deeper portions of the forest."
Vale thought about this conundrum for a few more cuts.
"I will find it, then," she said, "and kill it for you."
Something unexpected happened when she spoke the words.
***
New Quest!
The Lurker in the Caelvarn Forest
Something hides in the heart of the Caelvarn Forest, and it has grown fat on the essence of a sleepy village. It might be wise to kill it before it grows too fat, and reaps its harvest.
Task: Slay the Lurker in the Caelvarn Forest (0/1)
***
Suzi stirred. "What? You? No, that wasn't what I was implying. I couldn't ask you to do that, it's dangerous."
Distracted, Vale ran through the words in her head again.
"Suzi," she said. "What is a quest?"
The girl was taken aback. "Uh, quests? They're like, objectives given by the System. Like titles, nobody knows what triggers them, they just happen sometimes." She put two and two together, eyes widening in surprise. "Wait, you didn't—did you?"
"I'm supposed to 'slay the Lurker in the Caelvarn Forest', apparently," Vale said.
Suzi was astounded. "You actually got a quest for that? But, it's not even your problem! I wasn't asking you to help, I just wanted your opinion."
"I will help," she said simply. "Even without the quest, I would have."
"I'm coming with, then," Suzi said instantly.
Vale tilted her head. After a moment, she said, "Alright."
"Oh. You're… you're fine with that?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"I thought you'd insist that I don't put myself in danger," Suzi said, "and then I would've gotten angry about that, and told you it's not up to you what I choose to do." She blushed. "I don't know, just seemed like something you would've said, I shouldn't make assumptions. Sorry."
"You're your own person, and capable of making your own decisions." But Suzi was at least half right in her perception of her: Vale very much didn't want Suzi to accompany her, in case she was hurt. She was clearly no trained warrior. But Vale also wouldn't dictate what the woman could or couldn't do, especially when the wellbeing of her friends was at stake. "Besides, having a witch along gives versatility." Vale didn't have any of her old Techniques: she simply had her body, right now. And not even a blade to go along with it.
She stirred at the reminder. "Also," she said, "is there a blacksmith in town? I'll need a weapon, if we're going hunting."