The true importance of stats
'Oh, right, he's keeping me here for questioning. But man, that was a great nap.' Sky stretched his arms and even cracked his back.
After putting on his armor Sky left the hotel. He was able to walk around the island but not leave it.
The island was so spacious that if anyone wanted to explore everything it would take four days. Sky had one place in mind he wanted to see, the library.
"Excuse me. Yikes." Sky walked up to another Caribbean officer, but it was the same lady with the multiple scars on her face and missing eye.
"Oh, it's you again. What do you want now?" She asked grumpily.
'Is she always in a bad mood?'
"I just want to know where the library is."
Sky wanted to see if there were any new skills he could learn from books.
"It's east of this island. It's the biggest library in the world so you can't miss it. Where's the little girl that was with you?"
"She's asleep."
"Hm." She left without saying anything else.
Sky walked while visiting some stores on the way. There were a large variety of items for sale: slaves, high quality potions, weapons dropped from portals, red scrolls, clothes, paintings, ships, and so on.
With only 1.8m shells left to his name Sky had to be frugal with his spending. At the rate he was going, Sky wasn't worried at all about his money, he could earn it all very easily thanks to his system and Jericho.
'Money, money, money, money, I need money, and I'm stuck here for two days. Aaaaggggggg.'
Meanwhile…
Georgia was sleeping soundly in her pajamas while resting her head on her desk.
"Georgia!"
"AH!" Georgia was spooked by the sudden noise that she fell from her chair.
"What are you still doing here? Go to bed." Xero said.
"Hey, sir. Was just… sleeping."
"Yeah, I already know that. But why?"
"I just got too tired and lazy to go to my room so I just… I took a little eeny-meeny nap here."
"So does that mean you went to your room, put on your pajamas, and went back to your desk to sleep?"
"What? No, sir… I always keep an extra pair of fresh pajamas in your closet office."
"My office?" Xero raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"Haah… if only you weren't my niece. Did you at least get the work done I assigned to you?"
"Yes, sir. The Haydie girl and the other person are still on the island, I think."
"You think?"
"Yes, sir. The only high ranking officer I could find I employed him to find anything about the Haydie girl and the guy she's with. I tried to employ some high ranking Caribbean officers to follow them but they're all busy dealing with the Abyss family. Boris is busy looking for the mermaid. One guy here is apparently on vacation. I could employ Luciel but she's not a high ranking officer and given her condition..."
"Luciel? The one with the pink-eyepatch and the scars?"
"That's the one."
"Send her if we have no other choice."
"Gladly, sir. Also, sir, I am kinda curious, what is the name of the kid who paid off the Haydie family debt?"
"His name? Um… I forgot to ask. But I think I heard the Haydie girl mention his name once, I think it was… Sky?"
Georgia looked at Xero as if she had seen a ghost.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, sir, I just… am hungry."
"Hm, you're always hungry after a nap. Take care." Xero placed his hand on her shoulder before entering his office.
Georgia immediately got her phone and called Boris.
"Boris, do you hear me?"
"What is it, Georgia? It's fucking four in the morning. I was having a good dream where I quit this job and retired."
"Uh-huh. First: always call me H.Q. you know that! Secondly: remember that Sky kid?"
"Yeah, I remember. I haven't started looking for him. I mean found soooooo much illegal shit in Edgar's island it's unbelievable. I did find a merman but I don't know if I told you that already, I'm tired as hell."
"You already said that. So what I wanted to say is that Sky is here, in God's Paradise."
"Oh, that saves a lot of work. You can send another officer in my place to look for the mermaid since I'm a bit far."
"Yes, that's a good point. But I wanted to say that he managed to pay the Haydie family's massive debt."
There was an eerie silence in the room.
"I'm a bit tired but did you just say he paid the entire debt?"
"Yes, he did."
"He just paid off the 500,000,000 debt?"
"Yyyyyyyyup."
"Are you fucking with me?"
"Nnnnnnnnnnope." Georgia said playfully.
"How is that possible? I was planning on giving the Haydie family a few million to help them out."
"Xero and the rest of the board members counted the money themselves, so yeah it's true. Now we have to look if he did anything illegal to get that money."
"Xero and the board? I understand Xero but why would the board want to… actually, that makes so much sense." Boris came upon an important realization.
"I'll check if this Sky person has the mermaid but it's highly unlikely. But according to the report there's only him, the Haydie girl, and another crewmember, a man."
"Thanks, Georgia. I'll treat you to dinner."
"Ew, you're twice my age, grandpa." Georgia disconnected the phone.
On the other side of the phone Boris chuckled to himself. He was also in his pajamas, wearing a pajama cap, while holding a white teddy bear in his arm.
"Grandpa, eh?"
Meanwhile…
"Woah…"
Sky was amazed to see the library. It was such a grand building no one would think it was a library, but a school.
'Wait a minute…' Sky had an ominous feeling.
The entrance leading to the building was still locked. There were no signs to indicate when it would open.
"Excuse me." Sky called out to a random old lady passing by.
"Sorry, I don't pay for prostitutes anymore, but thanks for the offer." The lady waved at him leaving Sky stunned.
'What?' Sky was confused. He called out another woman who was younger.
"Excuse me, what is th-"
"I have a boyfriend." The girl ignored Sky and continued walking.
"..." Sky.
Sky called out to a man this time.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes?" The man stopped and listened to Sky.
"Is this a library?"
The man looked at Sky for a few solid seconds. Before erupting into laughter.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The man laughed as if that was the funniest thing he had ever heard, and walked away still laughing.
"..." Sky.
'What is wrong with these people? Now that I think about it he smelled a lot like rum.'
"It's you again."
Sky turned around to see the same woman with the scars and pink eyepatch.
"Oh, morning officer."
"I forgot to mention the library doesn't open till later."
"Okay, I understand that, but is it just a library?"
"No, it's also a school."
"Ugh." Sky hated that word to his core.
"I'm guessing you don't like school?"
"No, I hate it."
"Hm, don't blame you. Where do you think I got these scars? And how do you think I'm missing an eye?"
Sky looked at her stunned.
"You got all those from school?"
"What? No. I got it from a purple portal." She chuckled.
"Oh, hehe. I have rejuvenation so I can probably regenerate those if you want?"
"You're welcome to try." She smiled coyly while extending her hand towards Sky. Sky grabbed her hand and muttered, "rejuvenation."
{Target is at full health}
{Unable to regenerate: Target is cursed}
'Hm?'
She retracted her hand already expecting this outcome.
"That purple portal I mentioned happened 40 years ago, the boss was a powerful cursemancer. It hit me with a powerful curse that no one has been able to dispel. My body cannot be regenerated by any means necessary until the curse is removed. In fact it took my body 2 long years to finally stop bleeding. I'm only alive because I used up a lot of vigor scrolls to save myself, it was the only way to bypass the curse."
'Identify.' Sky was curious and wanted to know about her condition a bit more.
{Luciel McGrass}
{HP: 10,100/10,100}
{Mana: 1,000/1,000}
{Str: 720 Dex: 400 Spd: 90 Int: 200 Mind: 321 Vig: 1,000}
{Cursed: Curse of irrecoverable: lvl 4: Target gets 65% less healing. The body cannot regenerate. Unable to use any healing spells or aid others in any way}
{Curse of irrecoverable is the evolved curse of: Curse of healing}
Sky was shocked. This was another overpowered curse he could learn with a bit of effort. To think it would be so amazing.
The curse of healing spell disables any outside healing to the one who is cursed and that is it.
"I thought all curses are dispelled if the one who placed the curse dies?"
"I thought so, too, but this one was special."
"If I could dispel the curse, what would you give me?" Sky said. He said it because he believes this would trigger a quest.
Luciel looked at him dumbfounded.
"If you can get rid of this damned curse… what would you want?"
"Money, perhaps?"
"If you can get rid of it I'll give you all the shells I own."
{New quest!}
{Luciel McGrass desperately wants to get rid of the powerful curse that has been ruining her life for the past 40 years. She is willing to pay a handsome prize to anyone who can get rid of it}
{Reward: 99,000,000 shells}
{No punishment}
{No time}
'She only has 99,000,000 shells? I mean it's still a lot of money.'
"I'll find a way."
"Yeah, yeah. Good luck, kid." Luciel waved him goodbye.
Sky looked at the building. To think his gut was right, it was indeed a school.
'Beggars can't be choosers.' Sky would find a place to eat first before entering the library/school building.
Meanwhile…
A few hours later, In the middle of the ocean, Jules was floating on the water looking at the blue sky. She seemed bored but she was worried for her brother.
'I can't go far away if I wanted to because of him. I can't go back home without Free'd. I broke my great-whatever grandfather's promise and now I reap what I sow. Still, to think I would end up a slave.'
She looked at her hand. There was nothing there, but she could feel two different types of restrictions on her body, one was keeping her as a slave and another one was slowing her down immensely.
'I hate humans so much. First they kidnap me, beat me up, and use me to fight in a tournament for their own amusement. Now I have to listen to this weak kid, he makes me clean up their disgusting, filthy ship, and makes me make potions for them… I guess it could be worse, none of them have attempted to kill me, grope me, rape me, or gouge out my eyeballs. I know I am very beautiful and because of that I just knew my captors would do that, but they didn't, which is good for me.'
Jules reached out to the sun and clenched her hand as if she was entrapping it in her palm.
'How can I break a slave contract again? I either kill the one who I am bound to, which would be easy for me but I can't harm him or his little friends. Or I could find someone who is adept at writing the language of the dead? But I don't know anybody skilled enough to do that. Or he could release me from this but he won't because I keep making him potions. Why does he make me make him potions? I hate it and I don't think I'm even making good quality potions.'
Jules was in her own little world thinking about how to escape and about her brother.
Meanwhile…
Sky had long finished eating in this restaurant. All he was doing was ordering soft drinks, and writing out his next plans.
'Let's see… I need to get stronger along with my crew but by how much? At minimum my stats should reach 10,000 each, which is nothing compared to Xero but still I should reach it after half a year of working hard, probably less. While my stats grow I need to evolve all the curse skills without a doubt, those eight curses will be the next skills I evolve and the dispel spell so I can get rid of Jules' curse and complete Luciel's quest. And also I need to find more talented people, but recruiting them is a different thing entirely.'
"Hey, kid, the library is open." A waiter nudged Sky's shoulder.
Sky had told the waiter he was going to wait in the restaurant until the library opened. The owner nor the staff seemed to mind because the restaurant was empty at this hour.
"Oh, thanks for letting me know." Sky stood up and left.
The building was beginning to be filled with kids from the ages 6-18. It was a school that taught children from first grade to twelfth grade.
Sky entered the building with no problem. No one thought he was a stranger as Sky is seventeen years old and blended well with the crowd.
Sky ignored everyone and managed to find the library. It was a grand library inside an even bigger building. The entire library was filled with books with countless shelves that would require one to fly to reach the top shelves.
'Woah.' Sky was amazed by the amount of books.
"Can I see your student I.D. cardplease?"
A brunette with large glasses, big boobs, and large glasses(as is the norm) walked up to Sky and whispered.
"I… think it was here, hold on." Sky looked through his pocket knowing he wasn't going to find anything.
With his mind he pushed a couple of books off their shelves making a loud noise that attracted everyone's attention.
The brunette quickly ran to investigate the noise while Sky ran. He did not know if non-students were allowed in the library, but it was more fun this way for him to sneak around.
'Damn, it's gonna take at least an entire year to read all these books.'
Sky touched the row of books as he was passing through hoping to get a notification. But even if he were to touch all the books in the library it would take days.
Any interesting books that caught his eye were placed inside his inventory.
'Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing… it's only been a few seconds yet I'm already bored!'
Meanwhile…
A few hours later Jericho and Jay met up at a restaurant to eat.
"Where do you think Sky is right now?" Jericho asked while eating pancakes.
"I don't know either, all I know is that we're here for the next two days."
"Hopefully he's alright."
After they finished eating they would explore the island, rarely buying anything. Through their venture they found themselves inside the same school Sky was in, but instead of a library they entered a lecture room.
"Really? A lecture class?" Jericho looked at Jay. There is nothing more boring or infuriating than a lecture.
"Aw, come on, it's a lecture about portals, scrolls, and the dead language, we can learn something from this." Jay urged her, even pulling her gently towards the classroom.
"Fine, only because we have nothing better to do."
They entered the classroom that had barely started. To their surprise the entire classroom was nearly full except for the empty seats at the very back of the classroom. And it wasn't a small classroom either; it could easily fit a thousand people at once.
The lecturer was a tall man wearing a white coat and ripped jeans. He had small glasses, dark, short, curly hair, and a thick beard.
"First I want to talk about scrolls. So I take it everyone here knows what this is?" The man pulled out a green scroll. Everyone nodded.
"Good, this scroll gives me 3+ in intelligence. What does intelligence do?"
Several people raised their hands at once.
"Yes, George?"
"It increases your mana, along with your memory."
"Correct, but you're missing one more thing, do you know what it is?"
"Um… no." George shook his head, confused.
"Anyone else know?" The lecturer looked at the entire classroom, no one responded.
"Huh, what are they teaching you these days? So, obviously we all know what these scrolls do, we already know the abilities and what the stats do: strength increases your strength, speed increases your speed, dexterity improves your aim and handling of tools/items/weapons, intelligence increase both mana and memory, mind increases your mana recovery and your ability to think faster, and lastly vigor increases your stamina and your ability to take a hit. But did you all know that every stat has a third hidden effect almost no one knows?"
Everyone stared in silence.
"So, at first you won't notice but the more your stats increase the more the hidden ability will show. For example, if you increase your strength you can also change your body shape?"
Everyone looked at him, skeptical.
"I knew you all won't believe me so I brought a friend." The man gestured to his side and a skinny, bald man appeared before him.
"This my friend, Skull. We used to be in the same exterminator crew way back. Show 'em." The lecturer took a few steps back.
Skull, in a second, grew twice in height and his body went from a skinny frail body, to a monstrous bodybuilder.
Everyone gasped out of shock. None of them had heard of such an ability.
"It's an ability one is able to achieve if their strength stat is high enough. Thanks, Skull."
Skull turned back into his skinny self and left the building.
One of the kids in the room raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"What is the point of that?"
"Glad you asked. The point of that is that once you transform like that your strength is multiplied by several times. Not only that but your skin can harden to the point it can protect you like a suit of armor."
Another student raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Wouldn't something like that fit more for the vigor stat?"
"That's also what I thought when I began studying the scrolls, but no, vigor has something entirely different. Now, onto the second, speed is more simple really, with enough speed you can generate lightning."
"Ooh." everyone said, then quietened down expecting another guest to appear.
No one appeared.
"Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone who can generate electricity but you'll have to take my word for it."
"Can't you just use a lightning bolt to generate lightning? I mean I know some of us know that spell by now." A kid said.
"The difference between lightning bolt and generating lightning from your body is that you can also use the lightning from your body to not only hurt others by standing near them, but also increase your speed by twice."
Everyone whispered and nodded to each other thinking how great that sounded.
"Now, moving on to dexterity, with enough of it not only are you able to better control your spells and hand movement, but your entire body."
"Meaning what?" A student said.
"Meaning that you can dodge attacks, you will have perfect coordination, you will never trip or be clumsy again. You could dodge a hail of bullets, you can even grab arrows."
Someone else raised their hand.
"Yes?"
"But isn't that the same as having a lot of speed?"
"No, it improves your reaction time and reflexes. Let's say you're facing an opponent who is faster than you, even if he is faster he cannot hurt you because you will be able to dodge all of his attacks with ease. In fact you could even hit a really fast person easily if you have high dexterity. You can also shoot ten arrows at once with perfect accuracy, I don't why you would shoot arrows instead of bullets but it's true. You can also shoot ten fireballs at once, or ten lightning bolts at once with perfect accuracy."
Everyone nodded and were getting more amazed by the minute.
Jericho and Jay were also listening attentively.
"Now, intelligence: this is my favorite by far and in fact I can show you. Look at the green scroll in my hand."
The green scroll in his hand started to float and move erratically. Everyone was equally amazed, except two in the room, Jay and Jericho who have already seen that skill countless times.
"This is telekinesis. You can move objects with your mind, and if you're powerful enough you can even move entire ships. But that's not all."
Suddenly the green scroll that was floating was frozen solid leaving everyone stunned once again.
"The intelligence stat unlocks a new set of never before seen abilities that are hard to grasp, so far there is telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and cryokinesis, I don't know if there are more abilities beyond these three honestly. Now, moving onto mind: mind can affect other people's minds, for example, you." The lecturer pointed to a girl.
After a while the girl gasped while grabbing her head.
"I can… hear you inside my head!"
"Exactly. You can also use the mind stat to communicate with others and even other species. I also heard of people being able to naturally absorb the mana of other people's spells, I've never seen it but it can be possible."
"But isn't that mana pilfer? That's a red grade ability." Someone spoke out.
"Mana pilfer only allows you to steal the mana from others by touching their bodies. This ability I'm talking about is able to absorb the mana from the spells of others. Now, lastly onto vigor, and this stat is arguably the most important of all: you see the average human lifespan is eighty years, which is impressive. But as your body ages so does your mind, and so do your skills. Vigor slows down the aging process by a significant amount. It's actually my highest stat, can anyone here guess my age?" The man extended his arms.
Everyone started calling out random numbers. From 1-1,000,000,000.
The most common numbers shouted were 22-24.
The lecturer raised his hands which made everyone quiet down.
"So, I hear a lot of 20's and I am flattered. I'm actually ninety-seven years old. I turn ninety-eight next month."
Everyone gasped.
A few students who were listening to the lecture were all amazed at the majority of the people who are amazed by these well known facts. They already knew about these facts long ago, it was as if the rest of the rest of the class came from another universe, but in reality they were ignorant living in their own bubble.
In fact the lecturer already knew this which is why he is giving this lecture. All they had to do was open a book every once in a while.
"With enough vigor you will look twenty when you reach your hundreds. Also, if your vigor is high enough some say you can achieve immortality."
Everyone once again began talking amongst themselves.
"Now, onto the skills. Did you know that some skills can be evolved?"