22. A: Stats

Sitting on the chair, with my feet on the table, I take a hold of the book and start to remember the part that I read before.

The last time, I only checked the introduction. It had some welcoming words, and information on the layout of the safe-room in case people didn’t care to read the rest.

And so, I didn’t read more pages. Though it’s not like there are that many, still ...

“I should just get done with it.”

Having decided, I start reading the manual.

Starting with some meaningless sentences of welcome, then it finally moves to something interesting.

“so there are four areas in LSO, with 25 players each. With each of the four having its own obelisk, and boundary....., and the starting point of players being random on the outer perimeter of their respective areas.”

Will, that will explain the situation of being alone here. Without meeting anyone else.

If we are only 25 in this giant place, then without prior communication, or great luck it will be hard to even meet someone else.

But leaving that behind, I kept reading, so that I can find more information about the four areas.

Which was next, And to speak of them, they are:

“the dark forest: a place infested with stealthy and fast monsters.

The lonely plain: a place full of oversized freaks.

The silent desert: a land of giant and deadly insects.

And lastly the blind snow: a zone of ferocious beasts.”

And hmmm, it seems there is another area after clearing them, but the information isn’t available here.

Oh, but at least the clearing condition is simple, just to reach the obelisk in your respective area, and you can move on to the next, though I am sure that it won’t be as easy as it seems if all of the events so far were to be taken into consideration.

“but seem that this is it about the areas, and the next part is about .....

Stats ?”

Reading it, I look back at what I know about them. From experiencing this game for a while, I knew some things, for example, that the stats are related to your level, with the higher your level is the higher your stats are, which is easy to understand, while the second thing I learned was that there are stats enhancing skills, like health and attack.

Though this information isn’t much, they are still important as they are possibly the only lead to getting higher stats.

On the other hand, the manual spoke of stats but with more information that I didn’t pay attention to, or that I simply didn’t know.

“to explain it, Stats, are a simplified measurement of an individual’s abilities, taking the form of numerical values, to showcase his improvement. With every stats being a group of complex parameters that are not visible in the status, as the defense stat for example can refer to the physical and magical defense, while also referring to the internal and external defense, and not forgetting resistance and resilience, with all of them integrated into one stat called defense. With same being applied to other stat, for the sake of simplicity and ease of use.”

Well, it is indeed easier to use, if you think of it like that. Knowing that the defense stats represent the word defense to the extreme and that there is more than what is visible can make one at ease. With no need for complex thinking when planning to fight.

You have high magic power? I have a strong defense stat.

You have a great sword movement? I also have a great defense stat.

As simple as that, and with no complex thinking, especially when knowing that all the other stat are the same.

“I mean it will be bad if the defense stat only covered the outside, with no effect on the inside of one’s body, or if the agility stat only increased your body’s speed without affecting your thinking speed, and reflexes.”

It will be a joke. A very painful and funny joke.

But moving on...

“with stats being a simplified measurement, some variables can happen, taking for example the defense from before. While a high defense can cover every aspect, it is not a constant value as appearing in the status, as when taking the eye and the forehead as an analogy, it is possible to prove that even though the two are close, there will naturally be a difference in the stat’s effect between the two, with the forehead having a higher defense.”

Well, somehow it’s kinda natural, no? I mean, you can’t expect the stat to be the same in every part of the body, so it’s logical actually.

“the same variable applies to individuals, with them having different power levels, even with the same stats and levels.”

Wait, does that mean that even with the same level and stat you can have a difference in power? I mean, it’s understandable that stats won’t be everything in a fight, but even so, shouldn’t people have the same power if they have the same stats? will, it’s just a game concept, so I don’t know really. It’s also possible that stat can have different values for each individual.

“taking, for example, a five-year-old kid, and an adult, with them both being at level one, and having no skills. In this case, it’s clear which of the two is the strongest, but what if the kid instead was at level three for example? with stat three times those of the adult, will he win? the answer is no. Even if the kid has three times the power of his normal self, by reaching level three, it will still be hard for him to beat an adult, as long as his level is low.”

Hmmm. It is actually true, when you think of it if you were to apply this thinking in reality, then yeah. You can’t expect a strong man to beat a strong bear, but a strong man to beat a weak bear.

Higher stat doesn’t equal higher power, except for old games, after all.

But as long as his level is low? does it mean that if the level is high, it will be different? so maybe this only applies for low levels? but I think some of it may change if you were to reach a higher level, but to which degree is still questionable.

“and that is mainly because Stats are an extension of a person’s level, that increase when the said person level up. Though it’s possible to increase stats by acquiring stat-enhancing skills, the fastest way is still to level up. As with each level up, the stats do increase by a specific amount, which is equal for every individual, though as mentioned, there can be variables of the effectiveness of stats for each individual.”

Will, if it’s about increasing stats, I already have experience, and I can also understand the part about stat having different values for each person too.

After all, when a strong person is doubling his power, it is clearly going to enlarge the gap between him, and a weak person doubling his power. It’s such simple logic. So I don’t have any problems understanding it.

“and that is mainly it for stats.

As for moving to skills..... “

Oh, finally, the part that I wanted.

And so, having finished the part about stats, I started to read about skills.