“Your stat allocation is horrendous,” Leonel told him bluntly. “Your recent jump in Tier will right some wrongs, but its no substitute for a solid build. Luckily most people make the same mistake. You wouldn’t really feel the difference until you hit B-Tier, but by then it is usually too late.”

“What mistake is that?” Erland asked, now lounging in Leonel’s study area.

“You pump all your points into the stats you think are most important,” he said. “It can make a difference if the margins of a fight are narrow enough in the first place, but it costs far more than it gains. A rounded build will reward you in ways you wouldn’t expect.”

“That can’t be true,” Erland countered. “I’ve won fights with many men simply because my build specialized in speed and strength. Now that I can also specialize in vitality and constitution, surely I should be virtually unstoppable at my level.”

“True enough,” Leonel admitted. “It could serve you very well until the first time you face an archer or spellcaster. Especially one that also specialized in agility. Then you’ll become a pincushion or a greasy spot.”

Erland frowned at this. Spellcasters and archers were uncommon in the north. Both classes required study and practice that few outside of the occasional noble house could afford. He hadn’t encountered any in the F-Tier trial either. He would have, if any of the other F-Tiers had been one.

He’d killed most of them at least once.

“Your unique achievements help a lot here as well,” Leonel said. “The bonuses they give you will continue to grow more powerful as you do, further mitigating your bad decisions. However, with proper stat application you could be a true monster within your Tier.”

“I still don’t understand why specializing is worse,” Erland said.

“Here is the first secret of the Player system. Stats don’t work the way you think they do,” Leonel said. “Strength doesn’t just apply to how physically strong you are. It exerts itself on any force that opposes you, in any way. This means that it overlaps with willpower when someone is trying to invade your mind. Or with constitution if you need to brush off a wound.”

“So all stats contribute to everything?” Erland asked, unconvinced that this could be the case. “If so, wouldn’t that just further encourage specialization?”

“There is a limit,” Leonel explained. “As everyone knows, stats cannot be raised above your current level and Tier limit. Additionally, they cannot contribute more than your current stat to a more directly involved way.

For example, your willpower is currently half your strength. Thus, it could only contribute half of its potency to resisting a mental effect. If they were instead equalized, they would produce a significantly greater result.”

“For the way I fight, my stats are perfect,” Erland argued stubbornly. “I can hold my own against opponents a Tier higher than me. I might need to use a different strategy against ranged enemies, but there’s nothing to say I couldn’t beat them.”

“I’m not saying you aren’t talented,” Leonel told him, waving his concerns aside. “You managed to kill a Player with zero stats after all. However, you could perform even greater feats with the correct build. The World Tree holds balance above all, and her Player system reflects that.

Apply what I told you in reverse. If strength can aid willpower, why wouldn’t willpower aid strength?”

Erland mulled the idea over, finally falling silent. Leonel noted that they could finally move on, so he did.

“The second secret is more important than that anyways,” he said. “You are not fully realizing your potential stats. You have your awarded stats, and your achievements give you bonus stats. There is a third type of stats that you haven’t even discovered yet.”

“A third type?” Erland asked. “My achievements really are giving me bonus stats? I always suspected, but never had anyone to ask.”

“They do. Now follow me,” Leonel confirmed and instructed Erland. He rose and left the room, heading back down the hall. “My weights would disintegrate your bones before you could lift them, so we’ll need to use yours.”

He gestured for Erland to open his door once they arrived. Once that was done, he swept into the room. His eyes focused on nothing except the training alcove. He slowly nodded and turned back to his impromptu student. He gestured to a set of barbells and instructed Erland to pick them up.

For the next thirty minutes, Leonel instructed him in various exercises. After walking him through a variety of routines, he told Erland to continue his most recent instruction while he drew up a schedule. Fifteen minutes into the exercise, Erland received his first prompt from the Player interface.

‘Congratulations! Your hard work has resulted in an increase in your END stat! Keep working towards advancement!’

Leonel noticed after a moment that Erland had stopped. A smirk pasted itself on his face.

“First stat point?” he asked. “Strength or endurance?”

“Endurance,” Erland replied, clearing the notification. “If I keep going, I’ll get strength too?”

“Here,” Leonel said, with a swiping motion. A message appeared in his interface containing the workout regimen that Leonel had written up for him. “Follow that after every trial for as long as you can. The major benefit of your vitality being capped is that you should be fully recovered by morning. Besides,” he said with a smirk. “We both know you don’t really care about points anyways.”

Erland smiled. He didn’t respond as he continued his workout. When his listed reps were finished, he moved to the next exercise. Leonel observed for a few more minutes, before interrupting him once more.

“Now, what options did you get for your new class?” he asked.

“Berserker and Mauler,” Erland said.

Leonel snorted. “Figures. You really think with your fists above everything. Let me guess, you were planning on choosing Berserker?” He shook his head before Erland could respond. “Don’t. You’ll do the same thing with your class that you were doing with your stats. Pick Mauler. I’ll add weapons training to your new regimen. I’ll need to get some weapons for you and we’ll start tomorrow.”

Before Erland could voice a complaint or interject with his opinion, Leonel was out of the room. Erland pondered the choice for a moment. He selected the class with a preoccupied grin as he continued to work out. A moment later he was rewarded.

‘Congratulations! Your hard work has resulted in an increase in your STR stat! Keep working towards advancement!’

Erland’s smile widened and he redoubled his efforts.

Living Area of Hodr's Chosen, Hildarleikrheim

“I don’t care if your eyes fall out of your heads!” Sergei shouted. “Keep studying the text until you can complete the test before you! Then move on to the next! Your combined intellect couldn’t fight its way out of an open doorway.”

Kifeda was bent over a book of language, trying to decipher the text in front of him. He frequently had to cross reference a dictionary to his right, and a phrasebook to his left. He was growing increasingly frustrated by Sergei’s distracting yells. He hadn’t made much progress.

Sergei had explained to them all the methods in which stats could be earned through hard work. Kifeda absolutely hated the idea. He’d tried to sneak away to his room. When he’d turned from the group to enter the hallway, Sergei was there in front of him.

“I have made commitments to Hodr about this Wild Hunt,” he had said. “If I have to hold your nose to the grindstone until it splits your skull, I’ll stitch it back together and press even harder afterwards.”

The absolute certainty of that promise had chilled Kifeda to the very bone.

He shook himself and smoothed down the goosebumps that ran over his arms. he thought.

The F-Tier boy next to him cried out in triumph.

“I did it!” he said. “I gained a point in my intellect!”

Kifeda gritted his teeth and concentrated harder on his own work, drowning out the boy’s shouts and Sergei’s praise. After a moment, a notification broke his tight hold on his attention.

‘Congratulations! Your hard work has resulted in an increase in your WIL stat! Keep working towards advancement!’

A grim smile found its way onto his face for a moment before he bent back to his translation.

Living Area of Frigga's Chosen, Hildarleikrheim

“Brace,” Gazini told Halina.

She tensed her stomach as hard as she could.

A skeletal right hook crashed into her side, almost knocking her off her feet.

She could feel the bruise forming already.

“Good,” Gazini said. “Call out once you’ve gained a point. I’ll adjust its strength when you do.”

He walked away and the skeleton he had summoned drew back its bony arm once again. It spent the next five minutes wailing on Halina’s ribs until she gained a point of constitution. After she called out, it hit slightly harder for a few more minutes.

A few points later, she finally got a vitality point. When she called this out to Gazini, he told her to take a break and recover.

“How is this not more well known?” Halina finally voiced the question that had been burning in her since Gazini had revealed the existence of earned stats. “Especially with the time gaps getting longer at the higher Tiers. Surely this would be known publicly just from people finding out accidentally, especially those who work manual labor professions.”

“No, they wouldn’t earn stats from their professions,” said a woman’s voice from directly behind Halina. Halina whirled in surprise. It was the same woman who had laughed at Gazini’s remark about raising their corpses earlier.

She had swapped her earlier dress for tight fitting black pants and a matching halter top. Her blonde hair was also drawn up into a braid now, revealing glowing blue eyes. They lacked the runes around them that the Aesir and Gazini had.

“Why not?” Halina asked when she didn’t continue. “Surely plowing a field would earn someone at least a few stats points.”

“For the same reason you’ve never earned points for endurance despite being wounded much worse in dungeons or adventuring,” the woman responded derisively, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “They’re already being rewarded in the form of experience. The Great Tree values dedication, and the Player system awards us to match.”

While her tone riled Halina up, it also rang of truth. The dungeon delve with her parents alone surely had resulted in her taking enough damage to earn more than a few stat points. She nodded slowly, and Gazini called for her to resume her training.

“Surely, someone would have revealed this method to the public anyways?” Halina said, still curious and now buying a few more seconds before the skeletons could resume wailing on her.

“Not if certain groups realized the kind of edge this gave them,” the woman said with a chilling smirk before turning away from Halina.

The casual implication sent a shiver down Halina’s spine.

“We’ll move on to other areas now,” Gazini told her as she reached the skeletons once more. “Prepare yourself mentally. If you cover up too many times, I’ll be forced to make one of the skeletons hold you open.”

Halina gritted her teeth and lowered her chin.

“Bring it on.”