I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I could be further away from actually understanding. A kind of energy that carries all knowledge and manifests parts of it to us was something I could hardly wrap my head around.
“Okay, next up in your Character Stats is DEX,” Leo continued. “Dexterity affects quite a lot of things. As a fighter, you especially should pay attention to it. It's directly linked to your Attack Speed, meaning how fast you can attack physically, your Critical Rate, that’s your chance of landing a hit on a vulnerable spot, and your running speed. What’s more, your Accuracy when attacking and your Evasion skill at avoiding damage are also related to DEX. And so is your rate of blocking with your shield, if you choose to use one.”
“Wait, you said shield?” I asked, puzzled. “You mean like a sword and shield? What about guns? A sword-bearer wouldn’t stand a chance against someone with a gun.”
“Ah, but that’s another way in which the Apocosmos is different from this world. When magic is involved, other things have smaller effects. Firearms, for example, are not nearly as efficient as a good bow and arrow would be. They just can’t dish out enough damage. Don’t ask me to explain it to you, because I don’t understand the specifics either. It’s just one of these things affected by Dark Energy so that the balance and separation between the two worlds are kept intact.”
“So the Apocosmos kind of resembles a fantasy…” I started and quickly changed my wording. “I mean, the most comparable equivalent video game setting to the Apocosmos would be a fantasy MMORPG?”
“Pretty much,” Leo agreed. “There is technology but even the firearms equivalents revolve around magic and materials native to that world. But you don’t need to worry about that for the time being. What you need to worry about is CON, or Constitution, since it’s directly related to your Maximum HP and your HP Regeneration Rate. It’s also responsible for things like resistance to certain bodily conditions and how long you can hold your breath underwater.”
“That’s my highest stat at the moment,” I said, already having my suspicions as to why that was.
“Well, it’s no wonder with your daily cardio and weights at the gym,” he said, confirming what I’d thought.
“INT, or Intelligence, is a stat mostly relevant to spellcasters and their Magic Attack, so you don’t really need to think much about it. Wisdom is also mostly for mystics and mages since it affects their Casting Speed and their chances of landing a critical hit with a magical attack. What might be of interest to you is the fact that Wisdom raises your resistance to mind-related conditions.”
“Are mind attacks by other people something I have to look out for?” I asked, not looking forward to his answer.
“Not just other people, but monsters as well,” he replied, adding a whole new level to my concerns. “Though I’d say you’re pretty safe in New York. Not many rogue elements around here anymore.”
“You mean there are some monsters just roaming around out there? How is this still a secret?”
“There are a few left here and there,” he replied casually, “but most of them were purged thousands of years ago. The most intelligent left for other realms. Any encounters with what’s left are now usually just dismissed as conspiracy theories.”
“And what about fights like the one I was part of? How are attacks like that covered up?”
“There are clean ways to convince people they didn’t see anything. You won’t become a meme, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“That’s not why I—” I protested, but was interrupted by a laughing Leo.
“Kidding, man! Anyway, on to the last stat. Mentality is correlated to your ability to defend against magical attacks. It also raises your Max MP and your MP Regeneration Rate. It’s good for me as a mystic, since it helps me stay concentrated on the spell I’m casting without getting interrupted… And I think that’s all for the base stats.”
“That was a long tutorial, man,” I said honestly, as we stood up and resumed walking. “What about the formulas though?”
“What do you mean by formulas?” he asked.
“The mathematical formulas correlating, for example, my STR score to my Physical Attack value,” I replied. “Can I see them somewhere?”
“Ah, if only it was so simple,” he said with a smile. “I’m glad you’re thinking forward, but unfortunately what you’re looking for doesn’t exist. Your Physical Attack will be determined by your equipment, the effects of any magic boons, and a dozen other things. The formulas you’re referring to aren’t available for any levels or races. Perhaps a handful of gods know them, but they’re certainly not sharing.”
Gods and monsters. A leveling system and a world where power is the absolute currency. And all of this supported by the world’s life force, or whatever this Dark Energy was. I had a bad feeling about this. Not because it was dangerous or difficult to believe, but because I couldn’t hold back my excitement.
Am I enjoying this? The possibility of adventure and having fun?
No, I shouldn’t be having fun. It’s not right for me to have fun.
If only I had contained my rage. If I had just kept my mouth shut, those guys would have walked on by and they never would have brought me into this mess. And yet, something about it was enjoyable in a way that made my stomach ache with guilt.
“Oh, and one last thing,” Leo said as we were nearing the street my apartment was on. “If you ever have trouble understanding something that took place, you can always look at your logs. They hold all the information you’ll need.”
I opened them up and, sure enough, with one glance I immediately absorbed a great deal of information about what had transpired since I was pulled into the Apocosmos, since that Gale Blast landed on me.
You have suffered 63 HP damage.
You have suffered 2 HP damage.
You
