Persephonia was already waiting for us when we opened the door to the large indoor space, an otherwise empty room with lacquered wood floors and walls that were absolutely cluttered with symbols and markings. She nodded to both of us before turning back to Harvester and Scalovera, who were both disarmed and disarmored while they stood at their bizarre attention on the opposite side of the gym.

“Good. Keratily, disarm yourself and take your place next to me. I want to show these recruits what it means to increase your individual stats, even when unarmored.” Persephonia commanded without taking her eyes off the two recruits.

Scalovera just stood there with a worried look in her eyes, glancing from Jun to Persephonia and back again. Harvester wasn’t as adept at standing still, nervously rocking from toe to heel as his hands visibly shook. He was terrified of us, whereas Scalovera was just reticent about everything; almost as if she wasn’t sure why she was here in the first place.

Jun’s armor disappeared from her as she took her place next to Persephonia, then settled into the same stance as Scalovera and Harvester. “I’m ready, Matria.”

“Understood, recruit. This is something I normally don’t teach until you recruits manage to reach a core mastery near double digits, but recruits Keratily and Blue have demonstrated that innate understanding can far outpace the norms.” Persephonia explained, tapping Jun on the shoulder to inform her that she could drop her stance. Her own armor melted away, leaving me as the only one that was properly protected. “You two will be the baseline. Keratily will demonstrate what the next step is like, and I will show what decades of experience and progress do for a person. Stand clear of the glowing markings.”

The glowing markings appeared on the floor the moment Persephonia finished talking, then burst into brilliant light less than a second later. Definitely not enough time to stand clear. And when the spots stopped hindering my vision, I found myself staring at an arm-sized tube of blackened metal that was suspended from the ceiling by a thick, silver chain.

“Harvester.” Persephonia stated. The recruit jumped at the mention of his name, then nodded and scurried over to the metal while trying to make himself as small as possible. “Keep it from touching the floor as it grows heavier and heavier. Use only your dominant arm, and do not touch it with any other part of your body.”

“Yes, Matria.” Harvester squeaked, then stuck his arm into the metal tube. He tensed and braced himself as well as he could, then yelped in surprise as his arm was gradually pushed down to the ground. It took all of five seconds. I couldn’t tell if he’d actually tried, or if he’d failed just to get it over with, but from the way he mumbled to himself and winced as he backed out from the tube I was leaning towards the prior.

The chain rattled above the tube and began pulling itself back up, a holographic number above it counting up as it did. It clicked into place and the number stopped ticking up, but I couldn’t read it. Which brought into question how I’d been able to read the notes on Harvester and Scalovera that Persephonia had left for me, but that worry left my mind before it could take hold as Persephonia announced Harvester’s results.

“One-hundred and nineteen pounds.” Persephonia emotionlessly decreed. “Scalovera. Your instructions are the same as Harvester’s.”

Scalovera nodded and stepped up to the readied arm weight, then struggled almost exactly as much as Harvester had. She walked away wincing as Persephonia announced her score of one-hundred and fifteen pounds, then ordered Jun to step up for her own turn.

“I would prefer to have someone else here instead of recruit Keratily, seeing as her core increases what she gains from her stat nodes, but I have promised Blue that he needs not remove his armor while working with us.” Persephonia stated as Jun got into place, then nodded for her to get started.

Jun held her arm against the pressure of the weight for as long as she could, but even that proved barely longer than Harvester or Scalovera had. I counted seven seconds, and as Jun stepped away, Persephonia announced her score before it popped up.

“One-hundred and thirty pounds. A good score, but hopefully some of you are beginning to understand the point I’m trying to make here.” Persephonia said, walking up to the arm weight and yanking it up into place. “And if you still haven’t after you witness my attempt, I don’t hold hope that you’d ever understand without outside aid.”

Persephonia placed her arm in the weight and strained as it began inexorably pressing down, but even the Matria couldn’t keep it from touching the ground for more than thirteen seconds. She blew out a long breath and stepped back, shaking her aching arm as she watched the weight return to its rest position and the numbers ticked upwards.

It stopped far before what I’d expected. “Only a hundred and eighty-four pounds?” I blurted out in disbelief. “That’s… possible without any stat points helping out. It’d almost be a record, but still possible.”

“Yeah.” Jun agreed as she clutched and unclutched her fist. “I could do a hundred and ten without any stats helping me, but now that I have some, I don’t feel that much stronger.”

Persephonia waited for Harvester or Scalovera to add anything to the conversation, then sighed when it became obvious the only thing they were going to add was silence.

“That is exactly what I intended this demonstration to showcase.” She said, turning and beckoning me over to the weight. “Stat points do not instantly transform someone into a mass of hulking muscle, nor does it improve their mental faculties by leaps and bounds. They are small, incremental upgrades that grant similar benefits to naturally training your body.”

I went to stick my arm into the weight, looking to Persephonia to see if I was doing anything wrong, but she nodded me onward. The metal ground against my armor until I curled my fingers around a horizontal bar, feeling something inside of it connect to my armor for the briefest of moments. But before I could say anything, I felt the weight double. And then triple. I reached out with my other hand to try and stabilize my right, but caught myself at the last moment when Jun coughed to get my attention. So I set my other arm behind my back and tried to counter the awkward position my descent was taking, bending my knees and muttering to myself as I was pulled to the floor.

“Twenty-eight seconds and three-hundred and sixty-eight pounds.” Persephonia announced, my score nearly doubling her own. “My stat nodes are making my totals nineteen strength and twenty-five resilience. What are yours, recruit Blue?”

“Twelve power and thirteen resilience.” I answered. “So the armor does most of the heavy lifting, regardless of if your core’s filled with stats or not?”

“Exactly.” Persephonia confirmed, patting me on the shoulder to direct me back to my spot. “No matter how high your stats from your core become, they won’t push you beyond the limits of possibility. Unless you’re wearing your armor, of course; in which case, everything is amplified. Everyone is aware of their health stat, correct?”

The three recruits sounded off in agreement, and Persephonia didn’t bother waiting for me to agree before continuing.

“The health stat is the lone stat that cannot be increased through the system. Nodes cannot grant it, equipment does not influence it, and no blessing–liquid or otherwise–has an effect on it.” Persephonia thumped a fist against her chest, then pointed at Scalovera. “No matter how strong you become, if your health stat is low, you will struggle to equal your peers. Which is why I forced the two of you to ally with Keratily and Blue; the two of you have the lowest health stat among the new recruits, whereas Keratily has the highest.”

Persephonia shot me a glance, and I shrugged. I knew I had the lowest health stat here by a large amount, but I’d been a couch potato before this. I’d raised my health to 100% in my last life, even if it had been incredibly difficult, so I knew I could do it again.

“Your health stat is by far the most important single stat you have.” Persephonia continued. “The difference between the maximum of 100 and your current stat determines how much effort your armor needs to put in to compensate. The calculations are something of a rough science, but it roughly translates to two percent total output for ninety-one to one hundred percent, one percent for seventy-one to ninety percent, and half of a percent for every percent under that.”

I nodded in agreement; that was about equal with my own findings, but I’d never put it to percentages. Dee was always slightly weaker than the rest of us thanks to his arthritis, and Poe was substantially weaker because she was wheelchair bound. The armor made everyone walk, so even though Poe was perfectly healthy otherwise, her health had never risen above fifty. The armor had to put in that much work to compensate. Which, by Persephonia’s numbers, meant her stats’ efficiency was reduced by fifty percent. She was exactly half as strong as someone who didn’t need as much help from her armor.

“Recruit Keratily suffers a twenty-four percent loss when she enters her armor. Scalovera a thirty-nine percent loss, and Harvester a forty-one percent loss. For someone who had, say, a health stat of fifty, they would suffer a fifty percent loss.” Persephonia stated, not even turning to me as she used a number very close to my own to shame me.

“So the last ten points of health are the most important?” Scalovera asked, her eyes locked on Jun as she spoke. “Juniper is getting close to that number, but how much harder would it be for her to get those last ten points?”

“A good question that has an unfortunate answer. The truth is; most people cannot get over ninety health. Only those that have bodies forged at least partially by the gods can bridge the gap to gain those last few points.” Persephonia said seriously, this time shooting me an apologetic glance as she did.

I shrugged; I knew I could do it, so it didn’t matter for shit if anyone else thought I could.

“That's why everyone who comes over has to have godblood in them!” Jun excitedly said, as if she’d just solved a puzzle she’d been working on for weeks. “I knew the ‘you won’t get sick’ excuse was just an excuse for the real reason!”

Persephonia chuckled and patted Jun on the shoulder. “Not so quick, recruit; you are both right and wrong. Right in that bridging the ninety-one to one-hundred gap is a reason we require godblood, but wrong in that it is the lone reason. This world is filled with sicknesses that a normal person’s immune system wouldn’t be able to fight off, so it would be completely irresponsible for us to send people here only for them to get intensely sick a month or so in.”

“But doesn’t the armor cure any non-genetic sickness?” I interrupted, drawing everyone’s disbelieving attention to me with a few misplaced words. Apparently that wasn’t common knowledge here. “Did none of you know that? It’ll heal a severed spine for God’s sake; you think it can’t cure a bad cold?”

“I was… not aware of that function.” Persephonia carefully admitted, her expression telling me I was dangerously close to revealing my secret. “I will have to confirm that with one of the other species that does not have an immunity to disease as our god-blooded people do. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.”

Fucking hell; dangerously close might have been an understatement.