“Well, this one at least is a true ultimate ability,” Rakna commented. “Alexa, define what ‘Crippled State’ means here.”

[It implies a period of time where you’ll be unable to regenerate mana, will have slower healing from all aspects, and your stamina will deplete considerably faster. You will also be unable to use most of your skills.]

“I see… truly a last resort. Unfortunately, it was mutated from the Gigantism skill so I can’t use the latter as I expected to but it’s not a bad trade. I can always try to buy another pill later,” he said and turned back into a therian before once again transforming into a wolf.

This time, he had seven tails. He growled and spent the next ten minutes repeating the process until a few of his proficiencies increased in level. After that, the number of tails he had was finally equal to how many he had unlocked. He had also tried and couldn’t get that number below two.

A short moment after that, the interface of the training room spoke up, || Gray Whisles requested permission to enter. Do I let him in? ||

“Gray, huh? Yes,” Rakna replied and the door opened instantly. The cyber clown went through with a whirl of his cane and spotted him right away.

“So, you were here. You’re a bit early,” he remarked as the door closed behind him. When he saw Rakna’s form and the number of tails he had, he tilted his head. “What happened? Didn’t you have all nine tails in that form?”

“Only two of them were actually ‘mine’ per se. I wanted to change that number so I would be able to transform without risking too much,” Rakna answered and shifted back at the same time. “From what I understood, people with several tails can change into an animal version, right? So, I should not be suspected as long as I don’t change into a werewolf in front of people.”

“Hm, that is true,” Gray nodded. “Though, what brought this idea up all of a… sudden… oh god,” he facepalmed as he realized something. “How come I didn’t make the connection faster? Obsidian. You’re the one who’s all over the news, aren’t you?”

“…maybe.”

“Don’t be droll with me. It truly is a miracle that there isn’t an image of the scene in a city like Black Steel. You’re even luckier that the Nine-Tailed Clan’s nobility makes it almost politically dangerous for common folk to take pictures of you.”

Rakna blinked in surprise. “That’s an odd detail. Is the Nine-Tailed Clan that big of a deal?”

“A lot more than you probably are thinking right now. You see, nine-tailed creatures are noble pureblood beings with tremendous power and their Clan is as influential as the Pavilion. They are born with nine tails and the power of Mystic Magic. It is simply not possible for someone to be a nine-tailed creature if not by birth. Truly, they are the very definition of nobility; borderline royalty for all faunas.”

“But can’t other beast men or even animals grow tails?”

“Yes, they can. But they need to be pureblood, in other words, born from a lineage of sentient tailed beasts without mixed blood, and they also cannot grow more than eight tails. It’s simply their limit that was engineered at birth. You are born as a nine-tailed or you are not one. That’s it,” Gray stated then pointed at Rakna.

“Then, there’s you. You have the blood of a nine-tailed wolf but you seem to still be growing your tails. I still haven’t had the chance to ask you so; what are you?”

Rakna tilted his head. “Haven’t you seen what I did to Aquila?”

“The old bird?” Gray frowned. “Didn’t you just talk with him? I wasn’t there since I had to welcome the Hosts on the First Plateau. My job didn’t revolve around you only, you know?”

“I see,” Rakna uttered and fell silent afterward.

Gray stared at him for a minute straight before he was forced to speak, “Okay. I get it. You won’t be telling me shit. Just be sure to not reveal yourself in the future, and let’s get on with this training already,” he said and walked over to stand right in front of Rakna. “We have a lot of things to go through, honestly.”

“Let’s see, where should I start…” The clown squinted and put his hand on his chin. “Let’s start with attributes and statistics, shall we? You must have experienced it to some extent already, right? How do you feel about it?”

“About what exactly?” Rakna asked back.

“Well, how do you feel when your attributes increase? Same question with your statistics.”

Rakna thought about it for a few seconds before opening his mouth, “I’d say… when my attributes increase, I feel as if my entire body is invigorated somehow. When the initial pain goes away, it settles into an odd sense of satisfaction.”

“As for my stats, when they are either affected by my attributes, my items, or my skills, it’s as if I am getting something on top of everything. My highest stat are my senses and the higher it goes, the more I feel like it’s becoming something that cannot be explained by anything present on my status.”

Gray nodded satisfyingly. “You have a good grasp of it. Now, let me expound on a few points. The most important thing you have to know is the specific difference between attributes and statistics. You must have at some point wondered why it was like that. Why not just have attributes?”

Rakna nodded. He had indeed had that thought at first.

“To understand it, let’s take your attack as an example. I have the perfect scenario for that too. Imagine you have a car in front of you and let’s say you had a hundred attack, could you destroy that car?”

“Yes,” Rakna answered without hesitation. He had gotten a pretty good idea of what that number could do and a normal car would probably not hold out for long under it.

“Correct. But, in that same scenario, would you be able to lift that car instead?”

“…that would depend on the person’s lifting strength,” Rakna said and understood what Gray meant at the same time.

“Correct again. You can see the attack stat as someone’s explosive power. Something that is put on top of your base strength and can also be increased with weapons and techniques. You also need to know that to lift something heavy, not only do you need sufficient strength but also enough endurance to sustain the weight,” Gray said as he slammed his cane on the ground.

“This is true for all statistics and attributes. They all work together in a certain way and knowing that fact can be tremendously beneficial in a battle. Should you try to use your superior attack to block an enemy’s blow, you have to remember that if your opponent has lower attack but higher strength, the deadlock will be lost by you. Do you understand until now?”

Rakna nodded while processing the information.

“Good. Now let’s move on to one of the most important mechanics of all; Ascent. Hosts also call it capping or scaling,” Gray said while waving his hand. “A question for you, Rakna; how high do you think my strongest attribute is? Me, a ranker from the 900s.”

Rakna raised an eyebrow. “A thousand?”

“Nope.”

“Five thousand?”

“Nope.”

“...ten thousand?”

“Nope,” Gray grinned wider.

“…fifty thousand?”

“Nope.”

“Just tell me already,” Rakna muttered and the clown laughed.

“It’s…” He paused for dramatic effect and showed nine fingers in total. “Nine hundred.”

“…”

Gray continued to smile as Rakna closed his mouth.

“…you could have given it to me when I said a thousand.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Gray cackled. “But, let’s be serious here, the System actually gives a lot more attribute points than just through leveling. Hunting, Dungeons, Ruins, Quests, Promotions… a lot of things can give you free points. In fact, your guess of fifty thousand would be the most accurate one if that was all there was to it.”

“Then why is yours so low in comparison?”

“Ascent; a mechanic put in place by the System where when an attribute reaches a new hundred, it becomes capped and ascends. In other words, once you reach 100 on any attribute, you become what we call a First Ascent and then have to use two free points to increase that number by one. That is why skills with attribute multiplicators are very sought after, especially later on.”

“I see…” Rakna mumbled.

“But that’s not the only thing about it,” Gray added. “When you Ascend, no matter which of the attributes reached 100, every other will also be required two free points to be increased.”

“That sounds incredibly infuriating.”

“You don’t tell me,” Gray groaned with an annoyed voice. “That’s why there exist things like Dual or Triple Ascents. It means raising several attributes equally and make them ascend at the same time. It is a slightly slower process but it is efficient. Personally, I’m a Dual Ascent.”

“That means you have two attributes in the 900s?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, that also means my other attributes are down by a few hundred.”

Rakna mused. “Has there ever been Hosts who chose to ascend all of their attributes?”

Gray snorted. “Of course. There are always people like that. But, it’s a self-destructing move in the long run. It takes too much time and you become a weakling for people with specializations. There is also the fact that with each ascent, the value of an attribute point changes dramatically. Someone with 500 Strength would lose 90% of the time at wrestling against someone with 501.”

Rakna immediately thought of The Scavenger when he heard that. Would his Nirvana Skill allow him to efficiently become a Quinary Ascent? If he did it right, it probably wouldn’t be too hard but he also wasn’t sure if his skill would behave the same way when absorbing ascended attributes.

“In any case, that’s all I have to say about this subject,” Gray announced and Rakna abruptly sensed a short-lived spike of mana coming from him. He became coated in a very thin layer of transparent energy and if Rakna hadn’t had Mana Sense, he probably wouldn’t even have been able to notice it.

“All right,” the clown said slowly as he grabbed his cane with both hands and unsheathed a hidden blade. His cybernetic features turned red and a wide grin appeared on his face. “For the next topic, let’s take a more practical approach, shall we?”