POV - Tad

There was something special, I had realised, about opening rewards. I had done better than I had any right to expect. And Nige was totally right. These awards could be game changers. At least this time I had some idea on why I had been rewarded with these ‘achievement’ awards. The first looked like it was making reference to the extremely bad luck I had had in encountering extremely high level opponents in the Starter Level. They were completely out of scale with the rest of the Level and I had come exceedingly close to death with pretty much no recourse or hope of defending myself. And the second seemed to be referring to the way I had left the Starter Level and was now exploring this dump. Not that it was of my own volition, but never mind that now.

After ensuring I had [Observe] running at 100% I decided to open this second award first. Audacious. Ha, like I actually had had much choice in deciding to fall through that portal. I opened the notification.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott>

> >

Well, that was a concerning and ominous quote. ‘To do or die’. That was pretty blunt. I rocked back and hit my head on the side of the chasm. I stared up at the sliver of open air stretching out above me. There were my options. Just two. And really just one that was acceptable. It was a binary situation. One or the other. There was no both or neither. This reminded me of Jedi Master Yoda’s famous quote ‘Do, or do not. There is no try.’ But this was more gritty, more confronting. This was the challenge. This is where I would discover what I was made of.

I expanded the description.

Well! This reward certainly encouraged audacity. The bonuses for exploring above your level were considerable. I read the first effect again. It seemed that the additional Stat point affected your Base Stats and that the effect was doubled if the Stat was already at its Level cap. However. It didn’t indicate what would happen if you were already at your overall Level cap. This could go two ways. The level cap could cancel out the additional +1 permanent Stat point. Or the reward could break the System and overwrite the limitation. Oh I suppose a third option would be to convert them to Bonus Stats even though the Base Stat wasn’t at the cap. Hopefully then they would also get the additional Bonus Stat as well. That would be fantastic.

Now, did I accept the award now? Or did I allocate my free points first and get STA, INT and IMA to the individual Stat cap so I would definitely get the +2 Bonus Stats as well?

Ho ho. A conundrum indeed. I needed to think on this. I wanted to activate [Advanced Meditation] and ponder this before I made the decision. But I also knew that [Observe] was not strong enough to break me out should someone or something discover my crevice. I gritted my teeth. Do I just take the plunge? Fools rush in. I did not want to be a fool. But on the other hand I did not want to dither about.

The big difference was three additional Bonus Stat points if I allocated my free points first. I needed to weigh up whether I could unlock another Stat category. I looked at [Body]. If I delayed allocating the free points then STR and AGI would have four Base points after accepting the Award. That meant I needed a further five in each to unlock [Body]. I only had six. Six into ten did not compute. [Body] was out of reach. I quickly analysed [Mind]. MEM would be five and IMA would be six. I would need three and four. Arrgghhh. Just one point off being to unlock [Mind]. This was a disaster.

Hangon! I pulled myself up. I had gotten so excited about unlocking [Mind] even when my knowledge and understanding of magic was zero. I needed to prioritise based on the situation, not on my totally logical and rational obsession with learning magic.

I was leaning towards allocating the free points first. That would guarantee the Bonus points on the off chance the System disallowed my Base stats to grow at all while at the Level cap.

Perhaps I should check out the other Award first. Yes, that was a wise, unrushy plan. I would show this System what ‘Natural Selection’ was alright. Perhaps it might influence this decision as well.

<“A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences..”>

> >

Ahhhh. It was good to see that the System acknowledged the traumatic encounter in the Library as something out of the ordinary. I still couldn’t understand why those two big meanies had specifically sought Dom and I out. There had been remarkably little communication. A slap and a flick and it was all over rover. And the consequences had certainly been severe. It had totally knocked me off my course and now I was stuck out here, well and truly lost and out levelled.

I pulled up the description.

What? Obvious in hindsight. That is totally wrong. There was no way that that random encounter was obvious. What a croc.

I turned my attention to the effects. Oh boy. This was legendary all right. I could unlock [Mind] or, I stopped. Yes, I could unlock [Body]. With +2 to each Base stat in [Body] I would be at 5 STR, 9 STA with +1 bonus Stat and 5 AGI. Then with the Audacious Award it would increase to 6 STR, + two Bonus Stats to STA and 6 AGI. Then that was just my six free points away from unlocking my [Body].

But I really wanted [Mind]. This would be great. I could then go learn some magic Skills. Somehow. I stopped to consider. Maybe it wasn’t the wise thing to do while I was unable to get any training or buy [Skill] books. I rubbed the back of my head. I didn’t even have the first clue on how I could unlock a magic [Skill] myself. As much as I wanted magic I wanted to survive even more. I needed to be stronger first. I reluctantly crossed off [Mind].

So. Decisions. Unlock [Body] gaining six Stats or take nine Stats of which three were guaranteed Bonus Stats. This was another gamble. If I choose to allocate all six to Body and the System cancelled the endowment, like it had for the other Stat rewards I had received since hitting the Level cap, I was effectively getting nothing.

Six or nine? Nine or six? Nine could be three and six could be zero. Whelp. I was tying myself in knots. If it hadn’t been my life on the line I think I really would have enjoyed nutting out this dilemma. This was super important. I needed to get this right.

I was putting myself under immense pressure.

Stuff it. I needed to meditate on it.

I pulled up my expanded breakdown of each Stat, triggered my Gallifreudian Perk compressing and speeding up my subjective time and activated [Advanced Meditation].

There were lots of numbers to crunch and scenarios to run. I dived right in.

[Body] Stats:

CON: 336.17HP

>STR:

4.83

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

3

Bonus Stats

0

Cumulative Stats

3

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

1.83

Exempt Stats

1.83

>STA:

52.2

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

8

Bonus Stats

12

Cumulative Stats

20

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

32.2

Exempt Stats

44.2

>AGI:

8.05

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

3

Bonus Stats

0

Cumulative Stats

5

Gear Stats

2

Applied Modifiers

3.05

Exempt Stats

5.05

[Mind] Stats:

WIS: 36.96MP

>MEM:

4.44

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

4

Bonus Stats

0

Cumulative Stats

4

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

0.44

Exempt Stats

0.44

>IMA:

5.55

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

5

Bonus Stats

0

Cumulative Stats

5

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

0.55

Exempt Stats

0.55

>INT:

8.88

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

8

Bonus Stats

0

Cumulative Stats

8

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

0.88

Exempt Stats

0.88

[Soul] Stats:

KAR: 332.11HP

[Karma Unlocked]

>CHA:

11.1

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

9*

Bonus Stats

1

Cumulative Stats

10

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

1.1

Exempt Stats

2.1

>SPI:

29.92

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

9*

Bonus Stats

13

Cumulative Stats

22

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

7.92

Exempt Stats

20.92

>HON:

11.1

Level Stat Cap

9

Base Stats

9*

Bonus Stats

1

Cumulative Stats

10

Gear Stats

0

Applied Modifiers

1.1

Exempt Stats

2.1