Chapter 13: Statistically Better

One of the main irritations that Jen had with the System, besides being dumped in a cave with no escape, was the lack of information given. There was no information on what specific stats did, or how much of an increase in ability skills actually gave. And even where numbers were given, the lack of context made them less than helpful. Was a health pool of fifteen good? What about a mana pool of thirty? How much damage would various injuries do?

Her new ability seemed powerful, but until she had tested it and done some calculations on what the actual values were, it was impossible to tell for sure. It could give a one-to-one ratio between wasted regen and increased pools, or the ratio could be one to a thousand. One would be worth strategizing around, the other would be an occasional increase every few days.

There didn’t seem to be anything she could do to make it work faster or anything either. No surge of understanding of just how to manipulate the system to increase her pools on her own either. Just the notification that the skill was working away in the background. Only time would tell just how powerful the ability was.

Jen pulled up her status screen. Not only did she want to make note of her current health, mana, and stamina totals for later reference, but the Path of Patience had also given her 21 free stat points to spend. She was grateful to see that the resources the path had granted were already present. Her current mana had jumped from 18/31 to 39/52, giving her plenty of magic to experiment with in the near future.

She noted that a new section had appeared to the left of her name and title, giving her a count of how many stat points she had available. Assuming that it would work in a similar manner to the path screen, Jen moved her finger over to the endurance stat, willing it to increase. She tried to split her concentration, trying to pay as much attention to her body as possible to try and register any changes that might occur.

Despite her best efforts to notice any differences, her body felt much the same afterwards as it did before. It didn’t surprise Jen, as she was running under the assumption that a single stat point wasn’t a large increase in ability. Beyond that, she didn’t see herself as being in a situation where her endurance was coming into play. A quick check of her status screen did reveal that her Health pool had increased by 5, her Health regeneration by 0.1, and her Stamina by 2.

Encouraged, Jen moved on to the rest of the stats. Constitution increased Health by 2, HP regeneration by 0.2, Stamina by 5, and her Stamina regen by 0.1

Increasing strength gave her 1HP. It also gave her a tangible feeling of being lighter, so Jen figured that most of the benefits of strength were more active in nature.

Reaction failed to increase any of her pools, but Jen had been expecting that. Her reaction times didn’t seem any faster, but a proper baseline hadn’t been established to tell with any degree of accuracy.

Jen had a smile on her face after increasing her resilience. Beyond any intangible benefits, it also increased all of her regeneration rates by 0.1, something that would synergize well with her Self Improvement skill.

Dexterity was similar to reaction, but Jen thought she felt more dexterous. Tapping out arbitrarily complex finger patterns wasn’t the best test, but Jen was still pleased at the apparent ease she managed.

Finally Jen arrived at the mental stats, all of which were presumably tied to her magical ability in one way or another. Willpower was straightforward, giving a simple increase of 5MP. Jen was hopeful that the increase in willpower would be useful with any unpleasant tasks that might be ahead of her. Composure gave 2MP and 0.2 MP Regeneration, and Intelligence gave 1MP and 0.1MP Regen. Increasing her intelligence also had the most noticeable effect on her present state. Jen was able to actually feel her mind begin to work faster. She thought it felt similar to being shocked out of a drowsy state, or gaining the effects of caffeine; nothing unnatural but still a noticeable increase in mental faculty.

Having finished with increasing all her stats, Jen was slightly surprised that there wasn’t as much symmetry between the mental and physical stats, having assumed that they would be equal but opposite. If she assumed that a single point in any stat was supposed to have equal worth, then it made sense that with the addition of non-numerical increases and the different values of health, mana, and stamina the equal numbers she had been expecting weren’t present.

With nine points spent and twelve left, Jen considered her options. With magic being essential to both providing light and the eventual basis of her means of escape, increasing magic related stats was a good plan. While the more physical stats could be useful in exploring, Jen had managed fine as she was, while doing anything other than releasing her magic was beyond her.

Coming to a conclusion, she took her twelve points and divided them up equally between resilience, composure, and intelligence, before taking in her updated status screen.

Jen Byrnes

Bringer of the Apocalypse Physical Status: Healthy Mental Status: Calm Endurance: 3 Constitution: 3 Strength: 2 Health: 44/44 (+4 / Hour) Reaction: 5 Resilience: 10 Dexterity: 4 Stamina: 42/42 (+3.4 / Minute) Willpower: 5 Composure: 8 Intelligence: 10 Mana: 59/72 (+5.7 / Hour)

Her health and stamina had doubled, with her mana pool growing even more. Her regeneration had also skyrocketed compared to its previous values. While previously it had taken her a full day to recover her magic, now it would only take six hours to regain an equivalent amount.

A quick glance at her shrinking globe of magic showed that she still had a few minutes of light left. With her System related tasks complete for the moment, Jen decided to take advantage of the light to run some experiments with her magic.

She began by poking the glowing orb with her finger. Previously she had been content to let it simply rest in her hand, but now she had the time and the curiosity to learn more about the properties of her manifested magic. It seemed physical enough to react to the poking, jiggling around on her palm. It was warm to the touch, but not uncomfortably so. Trying to compress it between her hands resulted in a surprising display of elasticity as the orb flattened before returning back to its original spherical shape once the pressure was removed.

Trying to smell it proved useless, and Jen wasn’t quite ready to either lick it or stick it in her mouth to tell if it tasted like anything. Instead, she began to look around for other things to test interactions with.

A rock was the first thing to come to hand. Jenn was surprised when instead of colliding with the magic’s surface, the rock slid forward without any resistance. The shock caused her to lose her grip, and the small stone tumbled to the ground. It was glowing slightly, and a quick check showed that her ball of mana had shrunk more than it ought to. The glowing rock soon faded back to normal, whatever magical effect it had received was apparently non-permanent.

Making a note to test that interaction in further depth later, Jen’s gaze fell upon one of the anti-magic mushrooms she had gathered the previous day. Picking one up, she lowered it down slowly towards her other hand.