NOVEL WEB Ch 13. Broken System
So I have a broken system working heavily in my favor. Unable to contain my grin for any longer, I burst into laughter at what I had just heard.
Double the points, double the classes. I could even look forward to choosing a subclass at general level ten, meaning two-subclasses, in my case. My lips curling in the mirror as I thought of how out of control things would get. It was like the start of an ever-growing avalanche. The surface barely moving while an unstoppable current grew underneath. After it took off, there was no bottom to stop it. All of this, and the system was none the wiser. He told me the energy to power the system came from the killing of monsters, but clearly that wasn't the entire truth. I was living proof, getting twice the intended benefits the energy had to be coming from somewhere.
Looking back at my left-hand, a badly bruised and bleeding sight greeted me, torn up from blocking those rocks meant for my head. It stung, but wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined thanks to my fifteen points in constitution, which I now had more appreciation for after hearing a more detailed explanation of how each point of attribute worked.
Ten points represented the average capabilities of sentient lifeforms, including humans, beastkin, and others races that I did not recognize the names of. From hearing the description of who we were being thrown in with, it seems ten was probably above the attribute values an average human would possess. Not to mention that the attribute system didn't function based on a simple linear increase in power as I had assumed but was rather exponential in nature. Each ten point increment in an attribute represented a doubling of the effectiveness. In other words, twenty points in strength was twice as powerful as ten, but one-hundred points was over five-hundreds times as powerful.
I could become as monstrous as a behemoth by level ten if I invested only in strength, but the attribute that attracted my attention the most was constitution. Fifty points would make me as tough and unkillable as a troll, stopping blades with my skin and regenerating wounds within a day. I decided this would be my main attribute, but still I couldn't neglect other stats completely. Becoming as tough as a troll was useless if I found myself helpless as the enemy immobilizes and kills me at their leisure.
Distributing half of my points into constitution and another half into dexterity, I moved onto the next decisions I needed to make: skills points. I had gained four points from leveling adventurer and swordsman twice, and opted to use these to bring [physical boost] up to level five to optimize synergy with my main attributes.
| Keaton Pel | |
| Level 3 | |
| STR | 10 |
| DEX | 17 |
| CON | 20 |
| INT | 10 |
| WIS | 9 |
| CHA | 13 |
| Status Points: | 0 |
| Class: |
Adventurer lvl 4 | Swordsman lvl 3
|
| Skills: |
Physical Boost Lvl 5, Sword Mastery Lvl 3
|
| Available Classes | Skills |
| Adventurer lvl 4 | Physical Boost lvl 5 |
| Alchemist lvl 1 | Identification lvl 1 |
| Commoner lvl 1 | Lesser Stamina lvl 1 |
| Fighter lvl 2 | Fighting Sense lvl 1 |
| Swordsman lvl 3 | Sword Mastery lvl 3 |
| Spearman lvl 1 | Spear Mastery lvl 1 |
Once I had finished my business with the status menu I put away my mirror into my belt.
Art, Sebast, Orion, and Kalm were all picking through the rat bodies, getting ready to skin them. Sebast was nursing his arm, and I could make out a large nasty looking bruise growing on his wrist. It didn't look nearly as bad as my hand, but I now had quite an advantage when it came to recovery. If all things went well I could probably expect to be healed up by next week.
When it came time to skin the beasts, I helped out with my knife, learning much from the two archers who were experienced in such matters. Finding it easy enough thanks to my now even more nimble hands. The others seemed to wince as I handled the blade with my still smashed hand, the fingers raw. Thanks in part to my attribute choice, my fingers were only dimly painful, hurting more from the damp cold, than the the actual wounds. This only served to make me look even crazier in their eyes, not that my habit of mirror-gazing in the field and enthusiasm for front-line work were doing anything to help in that department.
It turns out we had fourteen muck-rats, now all skinned. I needed their gall-bladders for Cal and I knew the others had no interest given the rest of the body held little monetary value. I was not about to disclose my secret arrangements about supplying alchemical goods, but I felt bad about one-sidely taking advantage of their ignorance given they were my comrades. Ultimately deciding to forgo one pelt so I could 'purchase' sole rights to the corpses they had left for done.
I finished securing the extracted gall-bladders in a pouch, blanching at the grizzly task I had just committed, while the others wrapped the furs into bundles. We had quite a haul today, even though it was barely past noon, we were now encumbered with goods and the others insisted on returning from the field after seeing the state of my hand.
The goods were exchanged and counted by Tammy, who seemed shocked and apologetic despite being in no way responsible and her concerns waved away. She insisted on helping bandage it, before letting me off with the money earned from our bounties. The pile of mud-men 'eyes' and muck rat pelts got us a bit more than two gold in total, splitting five ways to leave us with four silvers each and a few spare copper split between the other four. The others sitting with a few extra copper extra thanks to my 'purchase' of the gall-bladders, and thanks to which I was going to come out with another two silver from Cal for the transaction.
We split ways after deciding a time for future adventures. The four unanimously agreed to a weeks rest after some discussion. I would have preferred to set out sooner, but the others were insistent on rest... and the weight of their pockets quenched any thoughts of further bravery for the time being. Ultimately I didn't contest their wishes, thinking it best that Sebast looked after his injured wrist, as I would look after my own.
Thinking of how I would spend my time... the system had given me some pretty good ideas. I needed as many classes unlocked as possible to power my skill points.
