Jason shakes his head, while starring his own stats is important, Lily also needs a good bit of work. Though he suspects it will be much easier. After all, it seems the System somewhat means for people to star the stats of their pets and companions. Otherwise, why would it be a known thing among the locals? The question is why that is the case, especially when you include companions in on it.

With just pets, it would make some sense. Pets by the System definition are not sapient. Once they become so, they have to shift into some other category. Not always as companions though or else it would be more clear cut. Jason sighs, it really comes down to why some sapients gain recognition from the System, while others do not. It could easily just come down to the whims of the System or some nonsense rule set by the original programmers.

Jason reaches the gate back into the city but takes one last look back. It isn’t really important in the wider scale of things and he didn’t spend much time there, but the training ground was now an important place to him. Not many places would have allowed him to advance his understanding as much as such a simple area of flattened dirt. And he might never see it again.

Jason sighs as the feeling of impending change settles on him. He doesn’t need a steady life like some, but once he gets into a rut the path he wears walking it goes deep. There isn’t anything left here for him as any further training would be wasted from lack of inspiration but a small part of him does wish he could just keep staying with Gregor and Peter, keep coming out here and practicing his moving meditation.

Jason turns his back to the training field and after showing his pass, enters the city. Then the noise hits him. He was definitely not made for city life as the noise and the bustle was not going to be missed. Now, with no hesitation, he makes it back to the house and looks for Gregor.

Once found, Gregor is suitably impressed by the fact Jason managed to star a stat already. Gregor can only shake his head, “That was meant to tide you over on your travels. I’m not going to be able to give you a new quest just because you completed the optional bit before starting the quest itself.”

Jason shrugs, “So this does count as completing the optional bit? I figured the System wouldn’t count it as I suspect it might have it slightly out for me now.”

Gregor sighs while rubbing the bridge of his nose. “What else did you do? You weren’t even gone for the full day.”

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Jason laughs, “So a part of what allowed me to star my toughness was I took the control of my stats away from the System. It changed a few things including making it so my cultivation technique changed and now I don’t get stat bonuses from equipment until they are greater than my Energy doubled.”

Gregor lowers his hand and looks up at Jason, “So did it say that it negated the bonuses or that it nullified them? And what changes happened to your technique? That doesn’t sound like something the System should be able to do willy nilly. Also, what is up with taking control of your stats and how did it help you star toughness? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Jason frowns, “Huh, I hadn’t actually gotten around to checking my technique yet. I sort of lost track of it while dealing with everything else. Anyway, the bonuses are negated and by taking control of my stats they got a set bonus equal to half the stat rounded up.”

Gregor throws his hands up, “That doesn’t make any sense! How does the System even control the stats in the first place? Isn’t it just our bodies’ toughness and what not?”

Jason shrugs, “I’m sure the System doesn’t control all of a person’s stats. I didn’t really look into the exact details of it, but thinking back, the representations of my stats didn’t add up to equal my actual total. If I had to guess, even when training the base stat, the System is partly responsible for increasing the stat. Those bits that it adds are still under the System’s control, of course. But yeah, what is up with negated versus nullified? You sort of left me hanging.”

Gregor rolls his eyes, “Just that the difference is how equipment will affect you from now on. Oh, and you got the worse end of the deal. Nullified is simple enough and shows up regularly on abilities that scale from one stat or another. The way it works is you add up all the specified bits of a stat, equipment bonuses in your case though it could just be the stat as a whole, and subtracts the amount nullified.

“So say you had a skill that nullified ten strength from equipment bonuses when using it. For equipment, you had a sword that gave five, a shield that gave three, and boots that gave four. Those together equal 12 points to strength and then you nullify ten from it and the skill thus can use the leftover two points of bonus. If this is what you had, I’m sure at least defense would still be getting a few points from your equipment.

“Negated, on the other hand is a lot easier to explain. You just take the amount negated away from every source it applies to. Using the above example you would get no bonus to strength as ten would be subtracted from each piece of gear. So yeah, at least you don’t have to worry about balancing how much of a bonus any gear you find gives to stats anymore.”

Jason laughs, “I wasn’t going to worry about that, anyway. My cultivation already allows me to somewhat ignore stats in the first place.”

Gregor coughs, “Speaking of which, you might want to check that technique. After all, if it already was giving you a bonus related to stats this new thing might override it or something. And don’t leave me hanging.”