Chapter 204: Day 498 – The End Of A Grind
We had just finished turning in the points for our latest grind session at Neo Brasilia.
Body-550 (+50); Mind-300 (+125); Spirit-500 (+300); Perception-300 (+125); Aura-300 (+125); Regeneration-1,000; Endurance-100 (+50); Absorption-100 (+50) for a total of 3,150 upgrades.
Naran was doing quite well also.
Body-1,200 (+380); Mind-600 (+340); Spirit-100; Perception-100 (+30); Aura-100 (+30); Regeneration-100; Endurance-50 (+20); Absorption-50 (+20) for a total of 2,300 upgrades.
I had chosen to spread my stat upgrades out much more than Naran. He was choosing to go very heavily into Body. It was paying off. He was clearly out classing me in terms of movement and reactions. If we fought for real, I would have to be very careful not to exhaust my energy trying to counter him while he rushed in to close the distance.
We hadn’t poked the level 4 golems again. I was in no rush. Building up stats was far more important. I wanted to raise up my Body and Mind stat a bit more first. Mind was critical, to maximizing the use of Body. It hadn’t been obvious before, but with the testing Naran had done and what I experienced myself, a low Mind stat with a high Body stat would just a juggernaut.
A dumb brute who could only break through walls, without being able to react or adjust. While they would be very strong, they wouldn’t be making the most out of their Body stat. It was the same with Regeneration and Spirit, a synergy between the stats. Except for Body and Mind the connection wasn’t readily obvious.
The mental slow down effect only really kicked in when one was moving at high speeds. It wasn’t something that could be toggled on and off no matter what Naran and I tried. It was also exhausting as a moment stretched out longer and longer.
There was also an interesting development when Naran hit 1,000 in the Body stat. He got a mental download allowing him to better control the force generated. A heightened control over his Body. There was also no zone cap like there had been with Regeneration. Instead using the stat above 1,000 consumed energy.
The amount consumed was very small. At most Naran lost about 1 energy per second, for every 100 stat points that Body was over 1,000. And that was only when moving as fast as he possibly could during that time. Kicking off the ground and hopping through the air only used the Body stat for a fraction of a second.
In other words, while a high Body stat individual would need some Spirit and Regeneration, the requirements were quite minimal. But it would still take away points away from solely investing into those two stats.
It was interesting how the Almighty System was really forcing people to invest in all stats. Body to survive. Mind to think fast enough and resist mental attacks. Spirit to have energy to use. Perception to spot hidden monsters. Aura to resist environmental and magical effects. Regeneration to gain more energy. Absorption and Endurance, to reduce the need for food and sleep respectively to explore further from the city.
That was another reason why I was investing in all stats. With two stats hitting 1,000 and something new happening, there was probably something similar for the rest of the stats. Good or bad, it was all new information. I was more determined than ever to bring up all my stats to 1,000 before specializing.
In comparison I was still pulling out each facial hair one at a time. The hair on the top of my head, Naran spent a while hacking downwards with a sword very close to my head, to get the worst of it off. While it had been tempting to go right for a thousand stat points in Body, I had spread out my stat points.
I would need an acid enchanted knife, to melt through my hair. If it could. That would be a good way to test Aura and how much skill damage my body could resist. It would be a hassle, but well worth it to get a proper haircut.
“I will enjoy some good food, put my feet up just lay around all day,” I said. A massage wouldn’t work with my high Body stat. That got me thinking and I had an alternate idea. Something to enjoy while my eyes were closed while sipping a sweet drink.
“Well, don’t bother me until day 504, unless Purgatory is burning down,” Naran said.
“Trust me. Space is never a bad thing,” I added. While we got along, we had spent a long time together. We were best friends but having a break would be nice. There was only so much we could talk about or train. Eventually things became mentally boring.
I was kind of surprised Naran had lasted as long as he had. But that was what I liked about him. He understood the reality of the Systemic Lands. Stepping off the path of grinding for a long period of time was admitting defeat. Even this vacation felt like a minor retreat, but it was needed to recover our sanity and kill the smell that had attached to us.
I felt a bit bad for whomever was going to have to clean my armor. The worst part once I noticed the smell, it was impossible to unnoticed it. That was the weird thing about Perception. If I wasn’t paying attention, I could miss something, but if I focused, I got all the information. Some information was better left unknown.
The underclothes had been swapped out a couple of times, but it was still rough. It had been tempting to set up a house in Neo Brasilia for showers or to impose on Sam. However, I didn’t want to get tied down like that. While other people might waste points upgrading the city store, I wasn’t going to waste points, or spend them on something I had to learn to deal with.
Once we traveled further from the cities, I had to learn how to deal without showers. Also, I had to learn to handle bad smells. I didn’t want to pass out at the first monster with a body odor. The fact that Perception was based on focus and Body could be mentally adjusted at 1,000 stat points, gave me hope for the other stats.
The higher the stat, the greater the control or granularity, which made sense. When you could only go from 1 to 10 miles per hour in a vehicle, you didn’t need different gears. But when you could go from 1 to 200 miles per hour in a vehicle, you needed a lot of different gears.
The same principle applied with stats. Regeneration was a clear one to one ratio. There was no penalty from having too much either, just filling up the tank provided by Spirit more quickly. Spirit, Aura, and Mind were the stats I was interested in seeing what happened once they hit 1,000 stat points.
The base level for stats in my mind, then I would need to focus on specializing a lot more. Specifically in Regeneration and Spirit, with the goal being to spam an upgraded level 3 skill. Once I could do that, then I could grind level 4 monsters and possibly face a level 5 monster.
It was nice to have clear benchmarks in my mind for my future.
