Going into a rather small room behind the counters, we sat around a small round table as the man began:
“While you two have quite the talent as future mages, at the moment you two are too weak to take on any of the more advanced jobs that are posted. However, if you’d like an opportunity to develop your skills, I can offer you two some jobs that will help you do so while not putting you in any danger. Are you interested?”
Nodding my head in agreement, I told the man to go on as he explained.
“Then here are the jobs available for you. For the first job, you could help out at the library and use the time in which you’re not occupied with anything to read books and study magic. The second job is to help here in this guild branch with paperwork and in return, aside from the monetary payment you’d receive, we’d also have one of our mages teach you magic. The last job I can offer you is to help out healing the ill at the church. I can’t promise that you’d receive much in the way of payment as they operate through donations and have limited funds, but it’d provide Miss Alice over there an environment where she could develop the light based skills she has.”
Thinking about the three options, an interesting idea that we could use to level up quickly came to my mind. However, since I wasn’t sure if I’d be possible to pull off, I decided to ask:
“Do we have to take the same jobs together?”
“No, you could each take a different one.”
“Can we change our jobs if we don’t like them?”
“Sure, but I’d recommend you don’t do so if you decide to work for the library, I wouldn’t try to anger the head librarian by leaving after the first day if I were you.”
“G-got it. Then, when can we start?”
“Tomorrow for the position at the library, and today for the other two.”
“Then, I'd like for us to help out at the church today. And for me to work at the library starting tomorrow.”
“Alright then, I’ll contact the library to inform them that you’ll be joining them from tomorrow onwards. And I’ll write a letter of introduction for the church informing them that the two of you will be joining them for the day.”
With that, the two of us made our way out of the DMV/Guild branch with the letter of introduction in hand, as we made our way over to one of the larger churches were people who were ill were able to ask for assistance from the church for free.
As we made the rather long journey to the church, I looked over the stat sheet in my hand one more time as a certain thought came over my mind. Considering that I couldn’t previously see a person’s stats when I was using [Veritas], not even mine for that matter, I wondered if I would now be able to also see this information if I used [Veritas]. Deciding to test this hypothesis, I waited until the two of us were at an empty alley before using [Veritas] on AIlya. Seeing the result, a smile rose on my face as I saw:
Level |
14 |
Soul Tier |
10 |
Strength |
12 |
Agility |
13 |
Reactions |
15 |
Dexterity |
20 |
Endurance |
9 |
Physical Resistance |
6 |
Magic Resistance |
14 |
Speed |
14 |
Mana Control |
51 |
Mana Capacity |
78 |
Physical Skills |
[Fencing I] [Prayer I] [Conviction I] [Augury I] |
Magic Skills |
[Illumination I] [Flash I] [Heal I] |
Soul Skills |
[Doppelganger X] |
Abilities |
N/A |
Soul Abilities |
[Soul Devourer III] |
Seeing the stat sheet produced by [Veritas] which contained even soul information, I felt that the tribulation and scare I had gone through just earlier was worth it for having access to this information. Now that I could glean into the truth of stats, I was now aware of a few important things about the nature of stats and levels in this world.
It seemed that the average stats for a regular person was 15 across the board. And that a person's stats would cap out at 25. The only reason people were able to go over that limit in this world, was as a result of the presence of mana and it’s ability in enhancing the bodies of people past their natural limits. Although how far they would be able to exceed these natural limits was tied directly to their potential.
It seemed that the man was correct in saying that the maximum level one could reach would be their potential multiplied by 100, which put the maximum level someone could theoretically reach at 1000. As for him saying that the expected level would be half of that, I expected it to be a result of how it got progressively more difficult to level up as you went along.
That didn’t seem to be the only limits a person would face, as it appeared that after a stat reached 100, you would begin to see diminishing returns for each stat point you gained. Meaning, that for a stat like strength, your strength would increase by a uniform value of ‘1’ until you hit 100. However, from 101-200, your strength would only gain a value of ‘.9’ for every stat point. For 201-300, you would gain ‘.8’ for every point, and so on and so on until you finally hit the max value of 550 strength at 1000 stat points.
This meant that around 300 stat points, you would already be at basically halfway your maximum stat value, and that leveling a stat over 500 stat points was for the most part a waste of time.
The only exception to this rule, appeared to be a persons mana capacity and mana control, as they both would always increase by a value of ‘1’ and did not have cap limit. It was due to mana and the way it was used by the body that people were able to attain these incredibly high stats, and a persons mana value be at least the same as their level. This meant that it was without a question far more profitable to focus on increasing your mana stat than spending points on other stats that gave diminishing returns.
Another thing that I discovered was how levels were calculated, which was a rather simple thing. A person's level started at 1 and would also increase by 1 for every 10 stat points gained after 100, which explained how I was level 12 and Ailya 14. Looking at Ailya’s stats, she had a combined total of 232 stat points, which if we subtracted 100 and divided it by 10, we would get 13 extra levels that she has gained plus her initial 1st.
Satisfied with the new information I had gained, I cancelled [Veritas] and resumed our journey to the church. Along the way, I thought about the information I had just learned about stats and the manner in which I would proceed to increase them along with Ailya as we tried to increase our strength as efficiently as possible…
Eh? Loli's doppelganger skill was acquired by this chapter so it copied the contexts of the previous one?
@cyanwaw I don't know, if you realise this, but you don't need to decrease the "value" of a stat point for it to have diminishing returns. Just having additive stat accumulation is enough.
For example, if "1 Strength" is equivalent to being able to lift 1 small stone, gaining +1 strength, when you have 10 strength is a measurable increase in strength. On the other hand, gaining +1 strength, when you have 200 strength is basically undetectable. No one can tell, if they can lift 200 pebbles or 201 pebbles. And for sure nobody can tell, of they can lift 201 pebbles or 200.8 or 200.9
The whole stat explanation is really quite confusing, if you read into it. There is no point (pun intended) in trying to explain the conversion mechanics between "stat points" and "stat values", since we don't have an objective measure of what a stat point or a stat value meant to represent anyway.
Is the "stat value" scale linear? If it's linear, according to your explanation, the most powerful individual with 550 value in every stat would be *just* 40 times stronger than the average villager. 40 times is really not all that much.
For example, this would imply that in this world individuals can't go against armies. Even if you assume that 2 people with 20 strength together result in less than 40 total strength. Consider a small army of 1000 soldiers. That's around 15000 stat points across the board. (And that's assuming, soldiers will have "villager A" level stats). And yet, tactical missile level individuals (heroes/demon generals) are supposed to exist.
P.s. I just want to clarify, that I am not criticising the usage of stat points as a measure of personal strength. I just think, that trying to precisely quantify, how much a single stat point is worth and assigning these 0.9/0.8 modifiers is completely pointless, because the conversion of stat points/values to actual battle capabilities e.t.c. is completely arbitrary (and probably non-linear) anyways.
That's because I plan on using abilities as the main thing that differences people, not just plain stats. I also don't want to make people ridiculously overpowered for no reason because large armies ARE supposed to be effective, if not there's no reason for them to exist outside of being a glorified police force. I find stories were strength is limited but fights are instead decided by use of individual abilities to be more entertaining, so that's what you'll be seeing instead of individuals who can destroy mountains and just break a story completely.
@cyanwaw I am not suggesting, that you should make the character overpowered, or that you should make the stats grow exponentially.
I am saying that introducing the distinction between stat points and stat values and the conversion rules between the 2 is pointless. We as readers don't have any information at this point, how much strength is 1 stat point/stat value worth.
Consider an alternative "world", in which there was no distinction. People simply earn stat points 1 at a time, and they cap at 1000 instead of 550.
How would the narrative be different from the current world setup? We don't know, how much power is 100 Strength and we don't know how much of an improvement would gaining +100 more Strength bring. So what's the point of stat values vs stat points?
A similar thing happened to gaining levels. Up to this point it seemed like people are supposed to gain levels from getting experience (that is somehow related to their souls) and gaining a level resulted in getting a stat boost. But in this chapter, we are told that levels are instead a measure of the total stat points of the person.
But this doesn't quite make sense. For example, how do level ups work in this case? If you are slowly accumulating stat points, why would crossing a multiple of 10 result in getting new skills?
I'm sorry, if I come of as rude, it's just that this kind of thing is my personal pet peeve. I don't understand why would you change the mechanics so late into the story.
@RuRo That only happened to Ailya and Alex. And Ailya only after the change in her soul. Before that, even at level 8 she only had 3 skills. And from the beginning, I said that Alex could feel herself become stronger every time she killed something, regardless of whether she leveled up or not.
@cyanwaw if normal people don't gain skills upon leveling up, then it makes even less sense. Because in this case levels don't mean anything. Isn't the level just a number? Your stat points don't increase by leveling up, you don't gain any skills.
Why would the world systems "announce" the level up and why would people "feel stronger" after leveling up? Or is the "feeling stronger after a level up" thing also only true for Alex and Ailya?
@RuRo Level is completely arbitrary. The system that calculates level simply shows an increased level every time someone passes 10 stat points. No one necessarily feels stronger after a level up, since they've been increasing their stats slowly up to that point. Even Alex from her first kill felt herself become stronger, despite the fact she didn't level up. The people who made the system for calculating level basically built it based on people like Ailya and Alex. Same way as we made water freeze at 0C and boil at 100C. It's arbitrary but serves a purpose. Ailya wasn't even able to feel that she leveled up at first remember. Only thing level does is serve as a landmark for progress.
@cyanwaw wait wait wait.
The stat & level system is man made? This actually changes things quite a bit.
I was evaluating the system under the assumption, that Stats, Skills, "Experience", Soul Levels and Levels are a kind of universal law (possibly created by a higher power, but mostly universal). If it's man-made, then having arbitrary rounding, meaningless indicator values and multiple layers of indirection makes much more sense.
In that case I would like to retract my criticisms for now. At least until the true nature of the system is revealed. *evil grin*
P.S. I think, you might want to edit your last comment into a spoiler.
Unless I am blind and the man-made nature of the System was already revealed in the story and I somehow missed it.