Next day Jason continues further along the wastelands border. As he travels there are a few fights with lone emus but anytime a group comes into view, they stare at him then leave. Weird but not being able to do anything about this he shrugs. In fact, this continues for several days. After over a week Jason sits down in camp and thinks about the situation.

“I am not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, this is horrible for leveling. That situation has stagnated so hard. On the other hand, my few skills are shooting up. I even gained two levels in my cultivation plus enough experience to almost get another. The only thing I am not progressing in is poison resistance. I would almost call this week a waste if I hadn’t figured out the scaling of Strength for unarmed damage. The stat seems to provide about 1 damage to 10 points in it. At least that is what I can figure out from only gaining a single point in Strength. I know that with weapons like a sword it has a diminishing return though the extra helps with penetrating Toughness. Blunt attacks however tend towards Strength staying effective longer and I would put unarmed more under that category.

Though now I think about it, I need to confirm Toughness for myself. Because human skin isn’t exactly the best at defense, it has a bad ratio for us. A normal human character tends toward only having Toughness prevent 1 damage for every 40 to 50 points. With that I am right on the edge of either having a point of damage reduction from it. However other races get different conversion rates. Elves unless playing specific sub races might as well not bother with about 100 needed. Dwarves, Goblins, and the Yet are better off with 30 for the first two and the last one being quite the tank race weighing in at 10 Toughness to a point of DR. This also has diminishing returns but less so because of how many skills and attacks pierce it. Hell, my Blast Punch can and I am not even level 10 yet.

However, those are all just the racial standards. Skills both passive and active can change how much damage reduction that Toughness gives. From what I have experienced so far I will bet my skeletal magic item provides a last line of defense boost to mine. Otherwise those assassins or that panther would have gone right through the bone. Also, for all intents and purposes I am a body cultivator here. With my skill so low at the moment it isn’t doing much, but I can see my cultivation boosting damage reduction later on. Not that I can test my Toughness right now. The only thing keeping me alive is the newb armor. Defense is too OP at low levels. Not that I can blame the game. If it wasn’t for everyone basically cheating the System having over 10 Defense would be a dream. Without my armor I am too much of a glass cannon. Worse yet, a melee range glass cannon.

Now I don’t want to start on another skill. Even though it should be relatively easy to get something like a metal skin skill, I did not finalize Blast Punch in the System yet. Trying to split my attention between two skills will just result in one of them being horrible or both mediocre. With Penny basically being my Master in this world I don’t want to sully her name by having a sub par metal skin. She has reached Oricalcum with her shell after all. That isn’t a bad path for me to go down either. Copper is flexible enough compared to other metals so basing a skill on it shouldn’t limit my mobility too much. Gold would normally be a great choice but oddly enough the more magical the metal gets the less flexible it is. Whatever, I can look into this more at the next library I find. There are probably materials I can’t even imagine available in the game.

Back to stats so I can finish this introspection I seem to be stuck on. Though the only one left to go over is Agility. If I were one to use the System assists, then it would correct my aim and such. As I don’t then at most it is more forgiving with what counts as a critical hit. That combined with my accuracy means I am probably getting a lot of crits. Luckily the System doesn’t display it by default or the message spam would have become annoying. Anyway, the other thing Agility does is to allow one to move their body easier. Another waste as not only do I not use the System assists for that either but my cultivation lets me ignore the restrictions somewhat. Now the System is fair so it should be doing something else for me. To find out though I probably have to get the stat appraised by some professional in a big city. It might surprise me. After all it was only just a few decades ago that a person gave it a whirl and found out what Toughness did for his fire elemental friend. Surprised everyone involved that while it didn’t provide damage reduction, it gave them a boost to their resistance against water. Though it is still odd to see a fire elemental playing in the rain.

Meh, not much I can do except maybe more weight training. My Strength is still low. Though it is catching up to Agility now that I think about. In fact, let me check how I have progressed.” [System Show Character and Changes Since Last Displayed]

Basic Info

Name: Jason

Level: 7 - 34.5% [+1lv 16.9%]

Legal Status: New Player

Title: Willful Survivor

Normal Stats

Strength

34 (20[Base] +10[Eq] +4[Set]) [+1]

Toughness

44 (30[Base] +10[Eq] +4[Set]) [+5]

Agility

38 (24[Base] +10[Eq] +4[Set]) [+1]

Auxiliary Stats

Defense

42 (30[Eq] +12[Set])

HP

40 [+10]

Energy

4 [+1]

Bonuses

Knowledge Bonus:

+2% success rate when using an Energy Herb as an ingredient or growing one.

Ability to identify the maturity of a Herb with relevant Identify skills

Discovery Bonus:

+2% success rate when using an Energy Herb or growing one

Able to get a feeling for maturity of a Herb without a skill

Control of Experience intake

Titles:

Willful Survivor - Increased ability to affect the System through your Will

Living Amber Skeletal System

Description:

This masterpiece of magical items is the opposite of the undead. While undead are the living that are killed and turned into magical items, this is a magical item turned into a living piece of a creature. An intricately carved full skeleton made entirely of Magical Amber. It was then hollowed out leaving just the barest of a lattice work. When magically implanted into the host the bone marrow was grafted into these cavities. Because of difficulties and dangers that appear when trying to enchant a living creature they have instead been imbued with magic.

Effects:

Sap like Blood - The blood produced by the marrow is more viscous and sticky when it leaves the body. Slower bleed rate and more likely to stop bleeding

Crafted Bones - Because of the material and structure, the bones are tougher and can take an impact easier

One and the Same - Despite being a magical item they will not show up as a separate item and only appear under the possessors character screen. Any attempt at removal will face the same difficulties as removing a person's actual bones.

Soulbound - Not even death will part you from this item

Bonuses:

+5 [base] toughness

+5 [base] hp

Organizations

Adventurers Guild

Basic Member

Rank F

Odd Ones Out

Team Member

Leader

Skills

Energetic Body Reinforcement

Accepting only purity of body and mind you have given up past concepts of self for the uncertainty of truth.

Initiate Level 4 - 91.2% [+2lv 90%]

Rarity: Truth

Type: Passive, Cultivation

Effects:

Filtering Cycle - Gain only 10% of absorbed energies but they are extremely pure

Purity of energy - Because of the purity of your energy higher levels have a lower scaling on what is needed to level it and it does more

Body/Mind Unification - Despite any stat limitations your ability to fully control your body strengthens

Energized Flesh - Can hit incorporeal things for 12% [+6%] of normal damage with body

Material Body (Leather) - With time your body can become like living metal or hard like a diamond

Untainted Core - No longer does your body attempt to mimic internals so status effects like broken bones heal twice as fast because you don’t have any

Desolate Traversal Technique

A combination of traditional parkour and energy use. While considered a basic skill it is highly ranked among them. Generally learned rogues it is however open for anyone to learn.

Initiate Level 6 - 14.02% [+2lv 14.02%]

Rarity: Normal Beginner

Type: Passive, Movement

Effects:

Traction Assist - Based on predicted goal the System will slightly modify the friction between user and any surfaces they are in contact with

Powered Grip - Through the use of energy a user is able to temporarily stick to surfaces

Poison Resistance

Does what it says on the tin. A skill based resistance. As there are many types of poison the System has decided it is best like this rather than a stat as this allows more variety without littering the stat line with entries like ‘elven paralysis poison resistance’. Uses the best percentage for a poison.

Initiate Level 1 - 5.1%

Rarity: Exquisite Beginner

Type: Passive, Adaptive

Effects:

Immunity to Trash rank pain poisons

Trash rank non-damaging poison resistance - 52%

Trash rank poison resistance - 34%

Low Normal rank poison resistance - 10%

Normal rank poison resistance - 1%

Blast Punch (Variant)

The normal Blast Punch is a ranged mana based skill similar to burning hands. A magic user would concentrate pure Mana around his fist then punch the air sending out a glowing ball of pure magic. Someone developed this skill to help fire mages counter low level fire based enemies. Preferred over the mana missile skill as the user does not have to focus on guiding it and thus allow dodging directly after use. However, that is not this skill. Not only has it been changed to use Energy instead of Mana it is no longer ranged. This Blast Punch is like the classic one inch punch, trying to get the most out of a short distance. However, instead of focusing the body’s explosive strength into a small burst of motion this skill focuses the users Energy. While someone can use it with a regular punch as long as the fist is punching the skill will work. This change causes the skill to no longer be ranged but as a tradeoff the Energy will only be used on a hit and some Energy will be pushed directly into the enemy providing armor piercing.

Novice Level 8 - 2.33% [+3lv 2.33%]

Rarity: Variant Beginner

Type: Energy Attack

Effects:

Frugal - This attack only uses energy on a successful hit

Pure Force - Not affected by most types of resistance

Armor Piercing - As the attack partially forms inside the enemy some damage will ignore armor. At the current level this distance is short and so will not pierce equipment or exceptionally thick natural armor.