Jason, having saved himself from falling over, recenters himself and begins his moving meditation again. But now there is a difference. If before it felt like moving with a loose set of clothes on, now it feels like wearing a skin tight leotard. Not quite literally, mind you, but that is the closest he can come when he tries to explain it. And then the System dinged.

{Energetic Body Reinforcement modified

+14 [Base] Strength

+21 [Base] Toughness

+20 [Base] Agility

[Energy] Defense bonus set to total Energy times 2

[Energy] Stamina bonus set to total Energy times 2

[Energy] Health bonus set to total Energy times 2

Stat bonuses from Equipment negated up to total Energy times 2}

These changes, of course, raised an eyebrow as he called up his stats. It didn’t really show things how he wanted, though there was one little important addition to Toughness that he plans to deal with later. For now, without an easy fix, he went with the old fashion method of pen and paper to scribble down the values before and after.

The normal stats were easy enough to figure out. His current equipment gave him 14 to each including the set bonus. That means that Strength stayed the same while the other two went up by a few points. Laying it out like he did also revealed all the boost did was increase each stat by 50% of the base rounded up.

And of course, the auxiliary stats just came out and said what they added. Though he isn’t going to complain as the only one that didn’t increase was HP, but at least he didn’t lose anything as it had already been getting a 60 point bonus from Energy. Defense was the middle child with an eight point boost.

Though Jason is quite alright with that when he remembers that the loss of his equipment bonus there had taken 42 points. But what really skyrocketed was Stamina. From a decent 54, it went all the way to 94 points. Though the best bonus from it all was two unmentioned changes.

First was in the Tripartite Conceptual Energy. Across the board they increased by a tenth of a percent. Quite the hefty boost for what was in the end just reforming his NeoRealm core to match the structure of his cultivation irl. The boost to ascendance gave another point to the three basic stats while the other two added their own specialties.

The bonus from Civilization was easy enough to find as it was literally under bonuses, the knowledge bonuses to be specific. And it was a doozy. Sure, the 1% it was giving wasn’t too powerful right now. But when you have a growing bonus that can go up to %1000 you’ve hit gold. And this particular bonus was a percentage swing to every production based skill.

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Jason hadn’t even heard of swing bonuses and had to look it up. It was a simple enough concept. Instead of a simple plus or minus, a swing bonus can provide a bonus ranging from negative the amount to positive the amount as appropriate. A power type of bonus that means if a master smith wanted to make some normal grade nails the bonus would adjust so that is exactly what he would make. Whether that meant adding a little because he was being sloppy while crafting or taking away some because of how skilled he is.

Substance was almost boring after that. Still, it provided a welcome bonus to Defense, Stamina, and HP in similar amounts as Ascendance provided to Strength, Toughness, and Agility. A small bonus for the moment, but the other unmentioned change made the bonus from them all the more important.

He had starred toughness. A nice big ol’ ★ was plopped right down in front of the stat as apparently his body’s current max was 60. Of course, there is a slight problem with that. His base toughness was already above that. Luckily, he didn’t lose the three excess points but rather it just wasn’t able to improve his stat total anymore. But that Ascendance bonus? Well, here is what his stat panel is showing him.

{Normal Stats

Strength 44 ( 42[Base] + 2[Ascendance] )

★Toughness 60+2 ( 63[Base] + 2[Ascendance] )

Agility 61 ( 59[Base] + 2[Ascendance] )

Control 138 ( 138[Base] )

Auxiliary Stats

Defense 61 ( 60[Energy] + 1[Substance] )

Stamina 55 ( 34[Base] + 60[Energy] + 1[Substance] )

HP 167 ( 106[Base] + 60[Energy] + 1[Substance] )

Energy 30

Tripartite Conceptual Energy

Civilization 0.161%

Ascendance 0.213%

Substance 0.19%}

Yep, the bonuses from his Conceptuals could break the limits. Though it also looks like his body is naturally more agile than it is tough as Agility hadn’t starred yet. It could be that the Conceptuals didn’t go towards it at all, but Jason had a feeling this wasn’t the case. From his point of view, it wouldn’t make sense for the System to include the conceptual points in with the total to begin with. Even now, the total for Strength and Agility was just a straight 44 and 61.

That aside, having starred toughness means that he had already completed the optional goal on the quest Gregor had given him. Jason hadn’t even left the city before completing something that had likely been expected to take the entire trip. This might not be a good thing.

While the optional goal only said he had to cap one stat before completing the dungeon, the main goal was to reach the town around the dungeon after following the path laid out by Gregor. And after capping but the first after was the important one. Depending on how the System interpreted it, and he wasn’t willing to bet on the System being kind, the quest might not officially start until he started following that path.

So while he had a capped stat, Jason couldn’t assume that fulfilled the optional goal since he hadn’t done so during the quest. This was just another thing to add onto his worries though and wouldn’t affect him too much. After all, Jason planned to star all three of the main stats.