Nothing helps me fall asleep like voices in my head speaking in a tongue that I refuse to comprehend. I'm forced to retreat to the manor and get Duchess. I could sleep in the mansion, but that'll bring up questions I'm uncomfortable answering if Master Wang doesn't find me in the morning.

Since Duchess doesn't fit in the guest room, I have to sleep in the courtyard. Her [Mind] magic or the mansion is the only thing that lets me sleep soundlessly.

[Resistance: Mental 91 > 92]

That's not concerning.

~

I was ready to learn another skill since this seemed easy, but what Master Wang said about needing a balance stuck with me. Instead, I go back to his classroom and start learning theories.

Real martial artists train from a young age and are constantly honing their craft, but here I am, a tamer class with a child's level of boxing, trying to learn in two weeks. Master Wang has said something about not needing martial training to use his arts, but that's coming from a martial artist.

Brutality has an art form of its own, and in a battle with similar strength, technique and wits will be the deciding factor.

Today's focus of Master Wang's crash course was the topic of stats. "Normal" humans, the type of humans from before they are introduced to mana, have average stats of five. A "normal" human around my age can benchpress their weight in weight. Master Wang weighed me, and with my missing arm and new muscle density, I'm around 200 pounds. With this weight, I should look more like a bodybuilder, but I don't.

"Stat points are bullshit."

"Pardon?"

"Disciple, remember what I will say next. Life isn't fair. Don't you feel that it's convenient for the entirety of the human race to average out five before being introduced to mana?"

"Convenient, yes. Especially when other races start at the same value but are drastically different in strength."

"Have you met a nonhuman that told you their starting stats?"

"No."

"Then don't listen to the propaganda the government spews about the other races."

I only nod. It's good advice.

"What did the schools tell you about the system?"

"It's a gift given to the humans because a god pitied or respected us. It's an informational tool for mana management and personal growth. Then once the system was created, humans weren't the only ones to be given this system for the sake of 'fairness.'"

"Correct, but there is one aspect that many fail to realize. It's a tool, not a personal god of information, spoon-feeding you information. I did some testing and found inconsistencies in numerical values.

I get two people with the same stats and make them lift the same amount of weight, incrementally getting heavier until they can't anymore. Repeat this process under different circumstances and on many subjects, and my findings were surprising.

I wanted to publish my findings for some extra cash, but I got warned not to pursue this any further since what I am doing is considered treason. something about 'undermining security and prosperity by destroying hope for future generations.' I was confused, so I spoke to a buddy of mine that has a cushy R&D job in the government, and apparently, the idea of the system not being some omnipotent tool that could make anybody as strong as a dragon would be crippling to those with dreams."

"..."

"Don't look at me like that. You think I got this far by just using my fists?"

"So, what were your findings?"

"Are you sure you want to know? You don't have plans on becoming a ranker with some big guild in the future, do you?"

"I don't know a single ranker besides the originals. Master Wang, you already spoiled that the system is not omnipotent, so even without the research, you have already sowed seeds of distrust in my mind.

"Oops. The findings are peculiar. I'll take the might stat, for example. There isn't a one-to-one ratio of might points per pound lifted. If you put one stat into might, it's not like you now can deadlift ten more pounds. It's not exact.

And if it's not exact, then it must vary. I couldn't continue my study for the lack of students. I noticed the students with the same stats would have different maximum lifts. When I did the test with the students separated, I found that the maximum weights were slightly lower, and the differences between the two grew larger.

This means that mentality plays a part in strength, just like it would be without any system.

If someone has the same might as you, they may not be as strong, or they could destroy you in an arm wrestle."

"What if someone trained their body. Would that person be way stronger without the system showing it?"

"I can tell you haven't tried muscle building after gaining your system."

"Indeed, I haven't."

"You can only gain so many stats with training before you reach your body's limit and need to rely on mana just like everyone else. There might have been a misunderstanding. Someone with higher stats will reliably do better than someone with lower stats. Overcoming stronger foes is possible, but if you both only use one stat and nothing else, you will lose.

A bodybuilder with shitty stats will never be as powerful as a random man with high stats."

"Then what's the point in training your body if you could pump points into it to become stronger?"

"That's the question, and why revealing this research is dangerous. People don't want to put in real effort to gain strength. Why do you think there are so many people stuck at class advancements?

But typically, the people willing to put in the effort to gain those few stat points are going far. Not because of those points, but because they have the dedication to get them."

"Sorry if It seems like I am ignorant, but why couldn't humans just train all day and get stronger?"

"Eh. That's hard to answer, and I don't know much about it. It probably has to do with the that humans are still in their infancy with mana, and we don't take mana from the world, but mana just trickles into us. We have no control over if we get more or less mana into our system. I don't mean the system system. I just mean our bodies."

"Interesting."

"And let me tell you how inaccurate health bars are. What constitutes one point of damage, and why does it change as our health gets bigger. If health is supposed to be an indicator of how close we are to death, then why, when I beat someone half to death, they are actually on the brink of death! Do we also have more blood or something when we have more health? The amount of blood that's shed isn't normal!"

Master Wang started ranting, and I tuned him out and started thinking again. The topic of the system window is fascinating, and I will probably have to look into this again.

I recorded all this information mentally into my [Lexicon?] and started thinking of my biological father. I wonder what he delved into when he was too busy to care about me. [Adaptibility] might be his magnum opus, and I might be the carrier of his life's work, but I wonder what steps he took to get there. I wonder what the tattoos on my body mean.

They appeared at the same time the train unlocked, so there must be a connection. I didn't realize until I lost all my hair that my scalp is covered in blue tattoos that look like little dots in a pattern I don't recognize. My hair is growing back a little, but not really.

I need little goals before reaching big ones to properly motivate myself, so I decided that I want to achieve a goal of rounding my resistance to the next hundredth in every type except mental and the weird one.

Slashing

80

Ice

100

Piercing

147

Acid

70

Blunt

220

Poison

378

Fire

165

Lightning

92

Mental

91

Radiant

150

[email protected]#%

1

Force

153

Necrotic

10

~

~

I have a long way to go.

~

[...]

"...What?"

[Thisss one wants to learn magic.]

"Duchess, don't you already know magic?"

[Thisss one is entirely self-taught, and not having others to confabulate with limits my growth.]

"Hmm, the only other magic caster I know is Anabel. Would a necromancer be fitting? I'll have to meet up with her if I want to train necrotic resistance anyways."

[It will do.]

"I wonder if my arm is almost ready?"

It's been a week since Rain told me it would take a week to finish. I wanted to learn from Master Wang, but I didn't expect to actually learn from him.

This week, we had daily classes as I would be training. Either by being slightly on fire or having one of my beasts attack me while I studied.

Slashing

100

Ice

100

Piercing

200

Acid

100

Blunt

300

Poison

399

Fire

200

Lightning

100

Mental

91

Radiant

200

[email protected]#%

1

Force

200

Necrotic

10

~

~

It was surprisingly simple to get my resistance this far. The most difficult one to raise had to be force damage because I needed to damage my internals without triggering my blunt resistance. I used the first trick I learned by detonating my mana inside my body to painstakingly raise it.

I couldn’t get poison resistance any higher, unfortunately.

I get out of the bathtub filled with acid. My resistance reached my goal, so there is no point in dilly-dallying. I make my way to Rain's workshop after getting dressed. My skin has never felt so soft.

*Knock Knock*

I get no answer, so I enter.

-22

A screwdriver pierces my shoulder after traveling across the workshop. I pull it out with a feeling of disappointment. My new resistance sure did lower the damage significantly, but it still managed to get stuck.

"It's me."

"Oh, don't do that again."

"I won't need to if you have my arm ready."

"Ah. Yeah, I finished that three days ago."

"Great! I can't wait!"

Through the clutter, I managed to spot Rain, and it looked like she was asleep when I entered her workshop. I guess that explains the hostile greeting.

"Here."

She presents a porcelain arm with pink flowers. It looks like a teapot turned into a person, then someone chopped its arm off. It's clunky and looks fragile. Like any knocking around would damage the limb. It's also the wrong limb. I need a left arm, and this is a right arm.

"..."

"Hehe, just kidding. I had this thing lying around, so I might as well put it to use."

She takes the abomination away from me and grabs a professional-looking briefcase from a locked drawer.

"Come here."

? I stepped forward, confused.

"Aren't you going to open it?"

"Nope, only you can. You get to keep the case."

The sleek design of this black briefcase hides a handprint scanner that reads my right palm. I was going to bring up that if I lost my right arm, I couldn't open the case. But at that point, I'd have more pressing issues.

The case hisses as the latches unlock. The case swings open and reveals a beautiful ebony arm thicker than my other arm but looks wonderfully balanced. The color and design hide most of the mechanical aspects of the arm, making it look like there are no seams even though it's obviously metal and a little jagged.

But something about the arm doesn't look right. I turned to Rain, and she seemed to pick up on my questioning look.

"I will surgically attach a baseplate to your shoulder for the arm to attach to. It should be fine, but you won't be able to remove the base unless you do it surgically."

"Does that mean I can detach the arm?"

"If you couldn't, what's the point of the case?"

Fair point. I take off my gui and wait for Rain to do the honors. I don't have a stump, but I have my shoulder, so I was wondering how she would exactly connect the baseplate to my body.

She added metal that covers my shoulder bone and connects internally to my body. There is metal plating that roots itself onto my flesh, but Rain said that my flesh should grow over it, and I wouldn't notice it.

With my new metal attachment, I ask a question.

"What kind of metal is this anyway?"

She lifted the arm, and I noticed tiny tendrils coming out of the limb where it should connect to me.

"Biomechanical."