P-System Log

And we're off! The first part of the dungeon is just the entrance passageway. It's really narrow, not gonna lie, barely broad enough for Jerome to make it through sideways. With the air feeling a lot more charged than it did outside--mana? is that what I'm sensing?--I get the impression that these walls could slam together at any moment, reducing the adventurer I'm attached to into Jerome paste.

I used to be kind of claustrophobic. I'm sure that if I were Jerome right now, that fear would come rushing right back into me. But thankfully, I have no corporeal body to feel the tightness of it with! Ha! Get fucked, childhood fears!

Going on that line of thought is bringing up another potential issue, though. What happens if Jerome dies?

I'm attached to him, I know that much. Where he goes, I go. When he casts, I cast. When he dies... do I die?

Shit, probably better to prevent that then. Guess I better start investing that W Inertia.

...not immediately, though. I do still kind of value my autonomy, y'know? From Jerome's newest Personal Log, it appears that he is a fan of the numbers-go-up kind of mentality. I can exploit that.

Well, "exploit" is a nasty word, but it's what I'm going to be doing, in essence. Jerome controls literally everything I do. Well, not what I do, but how I can affect the world, which is basically the same thing. I don't want him to be the end-all be-all decider of what happens. I want to be more than a spectator. By encouraging him to take certain actions through the use of this [Objective] feature, combined with communication through the System Message interface, I think I might be able to guide what he does. That means I can still play a role.

I can still be myself.

[Assess] activating! System Prompt Activate [Assess]. Mana invested: 10 P-System Log

Shit, I got so wrapped up in my thoughts that I stopped paying nearly as much attention to Jerome. The fact that I had to be called back by the System Prompt rather than just reacting to the perceptible mana effect caused by the activation of the skill says a lot. I've almost managed to avoid the prompt at all times now, given that I can activate a spell before it appears. Looks like being distracted still applies in this form. Sucks.

We're in a bit of a clearing right now, similar to the one that made up the entrance. It's bigger, though, and there's a bit more detail here. Some of the torches are on raised daises, and those are glowing a bright blue instead of the normal flame. A quick not-touch of them tells me that they burn cold instead of hot, and not-looking at them real hard tells me that they're the result of a [Freezeflame] type spell. Surprising, that a [Common] Dungeon Core can manage that. Well, maybe not surprising if I had a little more context--I'm still thinking in Earth terms. Need to remind myself that this is another world.

Anyway, aside from that, the room is pretty similar. Same dirt floor, similar lighting setup... the main difference lies in the spots of blue flame and the things that are populating this place.

There are four of them. Wolves, looks like. Stronger than the one that was attacking Jerome when the two of us had just spawned in earlier, I can tell that much from a glance. They're gathered around the other end of the room, almost like they're guarding it.

Actually, given that the Dungeon Core has a stat sheet, I think there's a decent shot that they actually were placed there as guards. I can perceive a door at the other end, similar in design and size to the one covering the front entrance. I guess they're protecting that.

Alright, I'm gonna finish the spell. Mana (?) manipulation go!

Integrated identified: Wolf [Dire Wolf lv. 2] Nameless P-System Log

Jerome: Hey, Aster, I have a question for you.

Aster: I may have an answer for you in return.

Jerome: How much data do you get when you use your [Assess] skill?

Hey, Jerome, one of the wolves is advancing...

Aster: Would you like to see? My [Greater Assess]--indeed, all [Assess] type skills--can display its results to others. Would you like to examine it?

Jerome: Yes.

That wolf is getting awfully close, Jerome...

I might have to do something about this before he takes a hit. I don't know how HP is regenerated yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion it'll have something to do with W Inertia. I don't want to waste any of it, even if I do have a lot of W Inertia and Jerome has a lot of HP.

P-System Message Warning: enemy [Dire Wolf] has approached close quarters. P-System Log

He got the memo!

Jerome: Ah, shit. One second.

[Blazing Spear] activating! [Blazing Spear] dealt 29 damage! [Magic Missile] activating! [Magic Missile] dealt 22 damage! Enemy defeated! Experience rewarded! P-System Log

Hell fucking yeah. That's a lot more gain than I thought it would be. Several times greater than the sum I got from the slime, at least. Probably something to do with complexity?

That feeling is back, and even though I'm getting used to it by now I can't deny how great overflow feels. It's probably not safe to keep doing this, I know, but hot damn is it nice.

I wonder how much I got exactly.

Current W Inertia: 38395 [+36] P-System Log

WOW. That's waaaaay more than expected. 57, if my calculations are right. In comparison to the huge amount of W Inertia I apparently possess, it's not much, but it's literally over ten times the overflow W Inertia I had from the slimes. The [Dire Wolf] Jerome just killed was even a lower level than the slime. That means that there's some order to how W Inertia works. Differences between species, maybe? I know that in some games, similarly leveled mobs would return different amounts of XP. That would make sense here.

Alright, time to burn some of it off. Here we go.

P-System Log [deciding how to distribute W]

Alright, Parker, lay out the numbers.

Earlier, I spent my six overflow W Inertia on [Blazing Spear] and it increased in XP by 61. That either means that each point of W Inertia is worth exactly 10 and 1/6 XP or it's a rough number with some variance.

Experiment time!

Two points of W Inertia to [Blazing Spear].

Skill leveled up! [Blazing Spear] lv. 1 -> lv. 2 Damage increased by 1R6 + 1R5. Mana cost increased by 18%. P-System Log Alright, let's see how much that did... increasing focus onto the skill like I did earlier. If all goes well, this should burn a little W Inertia and allow me to see the detailed parts of the skill. [Blazing Spear lv. 2] Stat Value XP 4/160 Damage 7R5+1R6+4 Mana Cost 26 Overcharge Multiplier (max) 1.5 Cost Multiplier 18% Range 17.5 meters P-System Log

Yeah, okay, it's a random value. At the very least, it's not 100% consistent. That was a gain of... 23 from 2. Definitely not the same exact values as before. Also, XP cost of the skill doubled. I wonder if it'll double again at level 3 or increase by 80 again. Damage value increased by the same as before... range increased by 2.5 meters, which I guess is nice but in practice won't actually help that much for this dungeon because Jerome is getting up close and personal with them.

Sick! Next experiment, here we go!

One point to [Magic Missile].

Nothing.

Two?

Nope.

Wait, I can make this easier. Focus on the [Magic Missile] spell slot, then focus exclusively on how much the W Inertia I've fed it has progressed...

[Magic Missile lv. 2] (abbreviated) Stat Value XP 26/80 P-System Log

Welp. Time to burn another six. Here we go!

Skill leveled up! [Magic Missile] lv. 2 -> 3 Damage increased by 2R4. Mana cost increased by 20% P-System Log

Looks like this skill is slightly less efficient than [Blazing Spear] in terms of mana economy. Interesting.

Ah, fuck, I've still got, uh... 33. 33 more W Inertia overflow, if I counted right. It's not doing anything bad yet, but [W%M;G,P] is screaming at me to do something about it.

Fuck it, time to try putting them into the guy himself.

Just need to focus on Jerome and pour in the overflowed W Inertia. I can do that.

Agggghhh. I don't know how much XP he needs to level up. I don't actually know if he can level up without me handling that. Actually, he should be able to. My [Unique] skill is still handling like, half the backend for me. I really do need to learn how to interface with this stuff more directly eventually.

Actually, I don't even know if XP levels people up. I mean, I assume it does, but that's me as an RPG gamer from Earth. The Origin System hasn't actually told me shit about what it indicates.

Oh well. All the waffling in the world isn't going to change what I'm going to do here. Just because I want to maintain some level of control over my actions doesn't mean I want to actively inhibit Jerome's growth, especially if I need to burn this spare W Inertia.

Here goes nothing. 33 W Inertia worth of XP for ya, Jerome. Hope you enjoy it.

Level up! [Godkiller] Jerome Smith lv. 1 -> 2