Chapter 73: Learning Numbers

“You have incredibly high attributes for your level,” Aila declared as she looked over the sheet of paper she’d sketched out a copy of Jadis’ main menu on. “I’ve seen plenty higher, but those were for much higher level, more advanced individuals, usually people with their tertiary class unlocked at least.”

Aila was stretched out on the floor, her lithe body resting on the fresh blankets Jadis had retrieved from the innkeeper, the paper she was writing on laid on the stone floor before her. On Aila’s request, Jadis had listed her stats for her and Aila had made a faithful duplication of the mental display.

“Your physical stats are astonishing, honestly,” Aila said wonderingly, tapping her oddly modern-looking metal pen to the paper. “And while you don’t have much in magic stats other than eldritch, even just that one stat is amazing. Adding up all your attribute points, you’ve got four hundred and thirty-six total. That’s insane.”

“Is it?” Jay asked, lying next to Aila so that she was shoulder to shoulder with her, which necessitated she curl her knees up to keep from hitting her legs against the wall. “I’ve never done a direct comparison to anyone else before.”

“It is,” Aila confirmed. “Not including the boost you just gave me, my total attributes equal to one hundred and forty-four. And I can assure you that I’m only a little above average for most humans at my level.”

That did seem like a fairly hefty disparity between her raw numbers and what Aila claimed was normal. Clearly her powerful class skills that were increasing her stats by large percentages played the main role in the why of how high her numbers were, but what about the numbers she started with? She knew she had high stats from the beginning of her reborn life on Oros. Was the difference because of her god-granted origins, or was it because of her odd race? Aila had specified humans as the average she was being compared to.

“What if you were comparing me to an elf? Would I be that far ahead?”

“Definitely,” Aila nodded, writing down more of what Jadis presumed were numbers on a second sheet of paper. “Averages vary between individuals of each race in terms of what one starts with, and it’s true that elves typically start with around twenty more attribute points than humans, but I’m guessing you started with far and beyond more than what any human, elf, orc, or anything else I know of starts with. Do you remember your starting attributes when your class sheet unlocked for you?”

“Sort of,” Jadis nodded uncertainly. “I can tell you my eldritch stat was seventy from the start.”

Aila paused in her scribbling and gave Jay an incredulous look. “Seventy? From the beginning?”

“Yup,” Jay confirmed, running a hand through her hair. “Not entirely sure why, it’s just how I am.”

“Well, while that’s a whole extra mystery to ponder, it does explain why your primary class and secondary class are so powerful. Most people are lucky to get an attribute at level seventy by the time they are level forty at the earliest, and that’s if they hyper-focus on that one stat. You started out at that point. Basically, you’ve been working with a stat that would be necessary to unlock high-tier classes most wouldn’t have access to until they were getting their tertiary class, right from the very beginning.”

Sighing heavily, Aila gave Jay a flat look. “I am intensely envious.”

“Sorry?” Jay said, holding one hand up placatingly. “I’m just lucky, I guess?”

“No, don’t apologize,” Aila deflated a little. “I’m feeling pretty lucky myself, lately, what with having crossed paths with you. Please don’t think of me as ungrateful, because I’m not. In fact, I’m more grateful than I think you can imagine.”

Jadis brought Aila’s rambling apology to an abrupt halt with a soft kiss. “Don’t worry about it. Now, why don’t you show me how to read all these scribbles?”

With a sweet smile on her lips, Aila showed Jay what she was writing and what the symbols stood for. As she did so, Syd came back into the room, scrubbing her wet hair with a towel.

“I only had it for a night but I already miss that private bathroom back at Bernd’s Blades,” she said wistfully, tossing the wet towel down in the pile of other wet towels and blankets Jadis had balled up. The tunic she’d put on for decency’s sake while walking the short distance from their room to the shared bathroom also quickly joined the pile.

“That’s very distracting,” Aila murmured, keeping her eyes on the paper, studiously ignoring Syd’s casual nudity.

“May as well get used to it,” Syd grinned down at the faintly blushing redhead. “Because I don’t wear pajamas to bed. Don’t even own any.”

“Pajamas?” Aila looked up curiously, then quickly looked away from Syd’s enticing form.

“Night clothes,” Jay explained. “Nephilim word, sorry.”

As the three spoke, Dys also rejoined them, carrying a large tray of random food she’d bought from the inn. Jadis had no problem eating leftovers, not after her month roughing it in the wilderness.

“Dinner time,” she announced, putting the tray down on the small table and passing the food to her other selves and Aila.

After their long and tiring perverted ritual, Jadis and Aila had napped for an hour or two, not waking until it was past dinner time. They had never gotten the chance to go hunting for demons to gain experience, but that was hardly a disappointment for either of them. Besides the obvious delights both had enjoyed while spending pleasurable company with each other, They’d also both gained considerable stat improvements from the ritual. Time hadn’t been wasted in frivolous pursuits.

Once both had roused themselves from their post-coitus slumber, they’d cleaned themselves up, changed out the now extremely messy bed sheets and blankets for fresh ones, and settled in for an evening of study, discussion, and plan making.

It was moments such as these when Jadis really appreciated the convenience of having three bodies. She could take care of multiple different chores at once, greatly reducing the time she spent not cuddled up next to Aila. In fact, as soon as Aila had returned from her, sadly private, shower, Jadis had kept at least one of her selves in constant contact with her cute and sexy friend.

Also sadly, Aila had put her camisole and underwear back on after her shower, though there was something to be said for the way her most tantalizing bits were hidden from view. Those smallclothes Aila wore didn’t hide just how shapely her rear was…

She shook all three of her heads. Jadis was getting distracted by sexy thoughts when she needed to focus on learning. Aila was showing her what her status menu looked like.

“That arcane stat is looking pretty good,” Jay said, tapping her finger on the symbols Aila had explained stood for seventy-seven. “What were you at before the ritual? Thirty-four?”

“Yes,” Aila said around a mouthful of some kind of meat pie Dys had passed her. “And that’s because I put everything I possibly could into increasing just that one attribute.”

“What did it start at for you?” Syd asked, settling down on the blankets on the other side of Aila, food in hand.

“Ten,” she answered, writing a few notes under her status sheet. “Which is the only reason I didn’t give up on my hopes of getting a mage archetype for my secondary class when I unlocked my primary. If my arcane stat had been at zero like my eldritch and divine stats, I’d have been forced to give up completely.”

Jadis nodded along to Aila’s explanation, taking in the information with little interruption, only asking a few clarifying questions. The picture she painted of how attributes, stats, and classes worked was immensely enlightening for Jadis’ understanding of Oros’ leveling system.

Individuals unlocked access to their ‘status sheets’ as the natives called the invisible menu when they reached the age of majority for their race. Before that point, they had no idea what their attributes would look like, though many scholars were convinced that an individual’s base attributes were already present before the status sheet was revealed and was taken into account when the system offered them a choice from various classes to pick their primary class.

Most humans started with physical attributes somewhere between five and fifteen, with maybe one outlier going higher, though rarely more than twenty. Having any base stat points in the magic category of attributes was considered uncommon and anyone who started with points in those attributes was usually guaranteed some kind of mage class; hence one reason for Aila’s extreme disappointment at not receiving any option better than Cart Driver despite her best efforts.

Not that someone couldn’t start from zero and build up a magic attribute to adequate numbers as they leveled up their primary class; it just wasn’t efficient. Not having any points in a particular attribute was also generally seen by most as a sign from the gods that they weren’t cut out for focusing on that particular stat and would be better served focusing their efforts elsewhere.

“You reminded me of a question that’s always bothered me,” Dys said from the seat she’d taken leaning with her back against Syd’s side at a perpendicular angle. “And forgive me if this comes across as a stupid question, but it’s just not one I’ve ever gotten an answer to.”

“And you seem like the type who’d know,” Syd added.

“Go on,” Aila said, watching Syd and Dys curiously.

“How do attributes interact with things like your physical body? By that I mean, does putting lots of points in my strength make my muscles bigger? I don’t feel like they do because my strength has gone up by a lot but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten any bigger. Muscle-mass wise, anyways.”

Aila shook her head slowly before explaining. “No, they don’t affect your appearance. Attributes are separate from your physical form. You could have a hundred points in strength and it wouldn’t make your muscles any larger. Skills can change the way you look, though that’s rare, but raw attributes don’t have that affect. The body is distinct from the status sheet.”

“Distinct, huh?” Jay mused. “So that means, hypothetically, one man could be skinny as a rail and another big as a barn and they’d have the same strength if they both had fifty points in strength?”

“Strictly speaking, no. They would both have the same strength boost from the status sheet, but the skinny man would have less natural strength than the large, muscular man, thus he wouldn’t have as much total strength. Of course, once you reach high levels and your attributes increase to sufficiently high numbers, the natural strength your body contributes is far less noticeable, becoming negligible eventually.”

“Same for all physical stats, right?” Jay asked.

“Correct,” Aila nodded her head. “I once knew an old man, Dirk the Pillar, who was a retired mercenary. He was so old his body had gone as thin and feeble as a reed. Yet his fortitude attribute was so high you could draw a knife across his skin as hard as you wanted and you couldn’t draw a drop of blood. Well, maybe you could with your strength, but none of us children could.”

“He let children try to cut him?” Syd stared at Aila with eyebrows raised.

“Encouraged it, actually,” Aila confirmed. “Sort of a show he’d put on at festivals and parties. He’d let anyone who didn’t have their status sheet unlocked yet try for free, and anyone who did could bet some acorns to try. I think it was how he got his drinking coin.”

 “That’s messed up,” Dys said with a laugh.

Jadis’ imagination ran wild with the thought of small children standing around a wizened old man with kitchen knives, stabbing him ruthlessly while he shrugged the little attacks off, taunting them for not trying hard enough. Magic and levels made for weird situations.

Aila let out a short laugh, too. “It was. My mother wouldn’t let me try, said he was being an irresponsible old fool and didn’t want me to learn any bad lessons from his example. She was right, too, because when I was eight, he let a man take a knife to him who was far higher level than he let on. He was cut badly and almost died. The priest gave him quite an earful. I can still hear it today.”

Jadis and Aila shared another laugh at the thought before continuing their exploration of each other’s stats. Jadis had decided she would reveal her skills to Aila so she could offer advice, seeing potential problems that she herself might not be able to foresee, not being a native to Oros and its system of leveling. Aila also shared her skills with Jadis, though she had far fewer to show due to her level and taking Minor Attribute Improvement five times.

As the two started to dig into their respective class mechanics over their hodgepodge meal of tavern leftovers, they were interrupted by a knocking sound coming from one of the crates Aila had stacked in a corner of the room.

“The hell is that?” Jay asked, looking at the top crate of supplies she’d brought with her from the bone thief overrun village.

Getting up to check the box, Dys took the cover off to reveal an unsettling sight.

“Guess who decided now was the time to hatch?”

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