NOVEL WEB 25. Luck Me
As she had been relegated to guarding a spot on the floor, Circe decided she had nothing better to do than to check numbers. It would give her some insight into the how the system worked, as she had far more questions than answers. And calm had been enforced upon the cave, a calm she didn't trust.
Circe Oratia Sheffield
Divergent Bookworm
[Skills]
Alteration Novice 05: Can change coloration of another subject’s hair, skin, eyes, or nails once daily. Must make physical contact with target for thirty-five seconds to take effect. The change will register over the period of fifty minutes or longer depending on mana consumed and the severity of the change.
[Curses]
Stat locked: Can not gain experience. Can not gain stat points beyond initial levels in the following categories: Strength, Toughness, Speed, Agility, Stamina, Magic, Spirit, and Luck
Significantly Injured: Right Leg: You are significantly injured. Stat reductions proportional to severity of injury. Hit box points reduced proportional to severity and location of injuries. Attacks to injured areas always result in critical hits.
Injured: Chest: You are injured. Stat reductions proportional to severity of injury. Hit box points reduced proportional to severity and location of injuries. Attacks to injured areas always result in critical hits.
[Statistics]
Perception: 43
Sight: 28 Hearing: 99 Touch: 88 Awareness: 73 Spiritual: 301
Strength: 01*
Arms: 01 Legs: 01* Torso: 01* Back: 01 Grip: 01
Overall Toughness: 01
Blunt: 01* Slice: 01 Pressure: 01*
Stamina: 40*
Heart: 52 Lungs: 17 Arms: 04 Legs: 01*
Speed: 04*
Swim: 01* Swing: 05 Run: 01* Think: 75
Agility: 13*
Arms: 84 Legs: 11* Torso: 31* Back: 73 Fingers: 92
Fortitude: 32
Magic Defense: 04 Mental Defense: 55 Mental Stability: 55
Intelligence: 99
Emotional: 12 Scientific: 99 Spiritual: 173 Interpersonal: 33 Bestial: 68 Creative: 99
Magic: 01
Fire: 01 Ice: 01 Water: 01 Wind: 01 Earth: 01
Spirit: --
Restoration: 01 Illusion: 01 Life: 01 Dark: 01 Light: 01 Resistance: --
Luck: 01
Money: 01 Combat: 01 Magic: 01 Relational: 01
Her injuries affected her physical stats. Even the location had been noted. What in the world happened to her chest? They had saved her life, according the them. But there was no reason not to trust them. Get out of your own head Circe. Alone you are dead. Take a chance with people who aren't your parents for once in your life. It had to be CPR then, which meant. Had she been really dead, for really real dead? Alfredo hadn't said much about it. But so much was going on and there were too many other pressing needs. As much as it hurt, Circe understood why they wanted to keep her out of the way.
Her little finger pressed in her mouth as the tip of the nail scratched her right canine tooth. Hair, skin, eyes, or nails? Had her thinking been to limited? Subject didn’t necessarily mean human, that much had been proven. But last time she checked, roaches didn’t have skin or hair. Could skin be another way of saying flesh? That seemed too lenient for this system. How was it defined?
In this situation, observation and practical experiment reigned supreme. The roaches didn’t have skin, so how was she able to even change their color? Nails?! Okay, she had read something about insect exoskeletons being chitin, highly similar to what nails were made of. That explained it, kind of, though they weren’t really the same. What were nails made of? She forgot so she grabbed her phone to check Spyygle. Oh right, the phone had limited battery, and the screen had cracked really badly, and the wi-fi here didn't work properly. She put the phone back in her pocket, perhaps it could be useful later, somehow.
Anyway, whatever roaches were made of, the outside was close enough to skin or nail that she could change their color. A roach became energized with new colors whenever her mana recovered enough to keep it from becoming exhausted. Reading her mana bar made her squint. It kept moving erratically. At least she could see her stats without glasses.
Level Up: Alteration Novice 06
Whatever, the key was that the definition wasn’t limited to human skin. Maybe it was a loophole, but wasn’t the peel of a banana a skin, the outside of a potato, chitin could be considered a type of skin that way. But hadn't she been thinking a type of nail before?
Her attention ripped back to the screen and she lost the entire line of thought as her body tensed and she took controlled deep breaths. Luck!
What even was luck?! What did it do? Did her permanent one in all luck related stats mean a Diaboli Ex Machina awaited around every corner? Her luck in the real world hadn’t been that terrible though.
Loosely based on your abilities in life in your previous life... right. Somebody with no luck would be dead! They wouldn't survive a minute against a stream of Diaboli Ex Machina! It took a great deal of luck just to be born, just to survive and not have something crazy happen. This entire system was stupid because she deserved at least average luck. It didn’t matter how smart she was, a person without luck could never survive on her own!
Then a possible reasonable interpretation of her luck statistic was that without someone who wanted her alive, someone with a great deal of luck, she would die. Circe gulped. The world wanted her dead.
Alfredo became more important than ever. Should she tell him that? Was his luck stat balancing hers? She had been lucky enough to not die several times when she otherwise could have, should have. How had she even met someone like him when her relational luck was also minimal?
Her head felt light. She still felt weak. Whatever had happened to her recently had been bad enough that every breath she took cost in pain.
And now her mind wandered with the grinding gears creating a constant dull pressure. Even the goal of taking a quick look at her stats could turn into a distraction. This was not how to think in a ‘do or die’ situation. What would it be next, would she start pondering the philosophical implications of haste? Speaking of haste- No!
Circe put her hands to her heads. It looked like she cowered but instead she lamented the way her brain functioned. If her mind wasn’t wandering it lingered too long and powerfully on something trivial! Better to let the doctor do the thinking, she seemed smart. What good did any of this thinking do her?
The voice of Fedor arguing with the officer pulled her out of her own head. She squinted really hard. It proved easier to make out the shape of the big man. The others were all equally sized blurs of colors and light in this brightly lit cave.
Okay, breathe. Calm down. Look at numbers. Everything went back to the luck stat. That one worried her the most. It obsessed her. There was no compensating for bad luck. No matter how paranoid she became, or how much skill she accumulated, an unlucky event could take her out instantly before she ever saw it coming. Maybe that advice from her parents to only worry about what she could control applied here. She died before, it hadn't been so bad, it had been really fast like BLAP! But back to luck, she had to hope it only affected certain outcomes like those in the subcategories or was some kind of a dump stat. Thinking back, her luck took a bad turn whenever she tried to do something on her own. Luck. Luck. DUMB LUCK! She’d need items of some sort to counter this and it would be her top priority.
Why were some of the numbers red with an asterisk? Injuries, right, so she circled back to injuries. Legs, stamina, speed, running. Circe looked down at her leg. It had turned purple around the break. Adonis had not only broken her bone; he damaged the soft tissue around it. So that possibly explained the red numbers, long term injury. Oh wait, there were new curses!? Never mind, for some reason the system put injuries with curses. That was stupid. Injuries were injuries and curses were curses, who was the idiot who designed this and decided to batch them?
"They are not the same!"
Having no magic was not a problem. She didn’t need it. Oddly enough her magic luck was the lowest number as well. Hate, just pure hate. This world hated her.
Strength, toughness, stamina, and speed all frozen. Worst she had the lowest possible stats in strength and toughness. A broken doll didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. Something could flick her and she’d break. Stamina and speed were low too, not in the single digits but she would remain quite substandard even by human measures.
“You mean to tell me I can’t even train to get stronger,’ she grumbled to herself, “So if I do push-ups every day, it’s going to do nothing for me? How is that fair?”
A little voice giggled in her head, “Curses aren’t designed to be fair sweety.”
“Nggghhhhhh, get out of my head. I don’t like you.”
Might as well pick up another roach and pump some of her power into it. It was the only thing she could do besides reading stats. While playing with the roaches, she wondered what could mitigate her defenselessness.
I need to find some incredibly overpowered armor, she thought, but it’ll have to be light because my base stamina isn’t going to improve. My gear kit needs maximum efficiency if I want to survive here. It’s a good thing I played a few roleplay games, I guess.
Her eyes widened. The perception stats had skyrocketed. She hadn’t noticed any numbers like she had seen when Alfredo was hit by the police officer, Mark, perhaps they were situational or notifications could be toggled. Maybe Alfredo had wanted to display his growth in the moment, while others wanted to conceal theirs?
But wow! What in the world was her spirit perception stat! 302! That seemed huge. It wasn’t nearly that high the first time she checked. What had driven it so high so quickly? Could she use this to help her survive? Could perception and intellect negate some of her bad luck? Could this toxic combination of stats be made into something at least edible?
Circe groaned. Her intellect hadn’t gone up much at all. What was with that? She’d been thinking like crazy since she got here. Except for when she had been out cold. Maybe she needed to come up with more and better ideas. Then suddenly she noticed her scientific intelligence stat tick upwards by one, to 100! Circe clapped thoughtlessly. It ticked back down to 99. Booo!
Intellect and perception would be her keys to victory. In a strange way, the curse made her pathing decisions easier. She had no choice but to min-max, and she already knew what was going to be min and what would be max. Perception and intellect would take her caution to new heights. Her gear should focus on improving speed and agility to levels fit for escape-based combat. Her mind birthed an aggressively passive survival strategy.
Her scientific intellect stat ticked back up to 100.
Wait a minute... the numbers could go down?
Her base intellect stat changed to 100. Her base spirit stat and her spirit resistance were broken. Were they in the negative or something? The number box showed nothing but glitchy static. All the other spirit-based stats were stuck at 01 anyway. So, she had no spirit but her spirit perception was that good? Circe bit her tongue as she went further into deep concentration mode. The world around her might as well have not existed, yet her improved perception still sensed, ready to attempt snapping her into awareness if it could by itself. She whispered.
"None of this makes any sense. I don't understand. I can't understand it."
No matter how much she scrolled there was no explanation on what spirit contributed to a person’s capacity. Light and dark magic she remembered as a concept from video games, seems she had none of it. No restoration or illusion spells for her either, dumb luck. She was glitched, a broken doll with a curse.
Time to check someone else’s stats. How about the doctor that had saved her life... what was her name? Eyes narrowed. Circe realized she’d never even bothered to introduce herself or thank the doctor for saving her life. She forced herself out of her own head and looked around. But only Alfredo stood nearby.
“Where did the doctor go?” Circe asked.
“What’s up? She went over there tuh beg some grub. Yuh hurtin’ somewhere?”
“No, I just wanted to thank her and introduce myself. I usually forget things like that. Do you know her name?”
Alfredo took a deep breath and realized he’d never introduced himself or properly thanked her either.
“Ahhh, yeah. It’s sorta been one thing after tuh other so... yuh know like, I kinda forget about that.”
“How anti-social of you.”
Alfredo frowned; he was close enough that she could see his face fairly clearly.
“It’s okay,” Circe said, “I understand. I just always wanted to call someone else that. Sorry it had to be you.”
Alfredo smirked, “Right, we’ll ask her when she gets back. And thank her all nice an proper like.”
Circe nodded as she scrolled to Alfredo's name and opened his stat file.
Alfredo Grandioso Delgado
Hell's Dreamer
[Skills]
Oni Form Novice 03: Boost strength and stamina by 11 percent for thirty-two minutes a day. Can utilize oni form for five minutes a day.
[Vital Statistics]
Perception: 39
Sight: 39 Hearing: 73 Touch: 44 Awareness: 19 Spiritual: 04
Strength: 70
Arms: 80 Legs: 83 Torso: 57 Back: 65 Grip: 51
Toughness: 79
Blunt: 80 Slice: 64 Pressure: 88
Stamina: 40
Heart: 13 Lungs: 41 Arms: 50 Legs: 74
Speed: 47
Swim: 25 Swing: 67 Run: 41 Think: 23
Agility: 11
Arms: 29 Legs: 11 Torso: 03 Back: 03 Fingers: 07
Fortitude: 101
Magic Defense: 101 Mental Defense: 95 Mental Stability: 95
Intelligence: 13
Emotional: 09 Scientific: 07 Spiritual: 13 Interpersonal: 31 Bestial: 11 Creative: 01
Magic: 01
Fire: 02 Ice: 02 Water: 01 Wind: 01 Earth: 01
Spirit: 03
Restoration: 01 Illusion: 01 Life: 01 Dark: 05 Light: 01 Resistance: 50
Luck: 99
Money: 99 Combat: 99 Magic: 99 Interpersonal: 99
Eyes poured over Alfredo’s stats. They were as good as the last time she checked, especially luck. Was he really that lucky in real life? Well, maybe this was real life now. His previous life? Concentrate on what is important! Ironic that she was lucky enough to have him protecting her. Circe suddenly shuddered hard. Examining the stats caused her brow to furrow deeply. No, this feeling was just an excuse for her to become paranoid and distant. Dismissed.
A huff of air escaped tensed nostrils as she stared down the stat screen even more intently.
What did the cop's stats look like now? What was his name?
She forgot.