Learning The Ropes

One week. One week was all it took for the [Pain Resistance] passive to finally arrive at MAX level. Thankfully, Magnus was still in the middle of summer holiday; not that he would bother showing up to school regularly, considering academic achievement would be useless in a year. He knew the Prolog was going to happen before graduation, anyway.

Meanwhile, the stats transfer was still running in the background. Magnus didn't have to open his Status Window to know, since there were still constant changes happening within his body. He could feel some pressures here and there, which were supposed to be painful without the passive skill. Moreover, he at least wasn't as pale anymore, nor was he sweating buckets. His parents noticed this and were relieved of their worry.

Magnus was still spending most of his time in his room, though, developing a hobby of reading the Script and chatting with his copy about the past.

However, since his [Pain Resistance] had just completed its transfer, today he would start learning a thing or two regarding the system.

"Status Window," he called out to the system.

Since he only asked for the Status Window and not the Protagonist screen, he was shown the expanded view of the window, complete with all his skills. However, he could tell from just a glance that the stat and skill level numbers didn't match what he'd seen the last time he opened his Status Window. They were all considerably lower, which was expected, seeing as how the stats transfer wasn't finished yet. Those numbers were still going to keep rising over the next few days, probably weeks.

"Ah, I can see the modifications you've made," Magnus said, referring to the tweaking Magnus 2.0 had done within the system a week ago.

'Yeah? Can you guess what they mean?' replied Magnus 2.0.

Under his name and race, Magnus noticed the [Author: Magnus 2.0] line had been removed. His age now had obviously been changed to seventeen—following the age of his current body—and he knew this was done automatically and not by Magnus 2.0. Other than that, the most noticeable changes were on his Level and XP. Or rather, they were not called Level and XP anymore.

[Name: Magnus Helvig

Race: Human

Age: 17

Title(s): Big Dreamer, Unwavering Heart, The Righteous Shield, The Bringer of The Sea's Wrath, Master Waverider

Divinity Level: 7

DP: 250/7000

AP: 700

HP: 1030

Mana:….]

"The heck is DP? And AP?", asked Magnus.

'Those two I actually adopted from my Status Window,' answered Magnus 2.0. 'Divinity Points and Authority Points. Originally intended for an Author, while Protagonists have the good ol' Level and Experience Points. But since we both basically work as one, I figured why not combine both our Status Windows, as well as the leveling functions.'

"Right. You did mention you combined the two," said Magnus.

'That, I did. Now, when I said I also combined the leveling functions, I meant that I had replaced XP with DP, also adding AP since I will need it as an Author. The way both of us are going to level up is by gaining DP just like how we gained XP, except that we're going to increase those numbers faster than a single Protagonist or Author could hope for.'

"Since we're both an Author and a Protagonist," Magnus assumed.

'Precisely. Any achievement we make, whether as an Author or a Protagonist, would gain us Divinity Points regardless, enough to level up. Plus, the perks you'd normally have as a Protagonist will still apply to us. I'm talking about the [+1 to all stats] and one bonus stat that you receive every time you level up. Cool, huh?'

"Yeah, pretty cool," said Magnus, nodding in approval. "So, what is this AP, then?"

'Hmm…how do I explain this…' Magnus 2.0 pondered for a moment. 'Let's just say that Authority Points to an Author is like Mana Points to a Protagonist. The difference, though, is that AP increases according to Divinity Level, while Mana can be raised using several methods.'

Magnus tilted his head with his eyes fixed to the ceiling, thinking. "So what does AP do, exactly?"

'While a Protagonist uses Mana to execute their skills, an Author uses AP to do manual narrations. The amount of points deducted will depend on the level and effectiveness of the skills in the case for a Protagonist, and the level of impact occurring to a Protagonist in the case for an Author. For example, manually narrating a Protagonist to give them one permanent stat boost would cost me fifty AP. Authority Points can also be recovered over time just like Mana.'

Magnus narrowed his eyes, almost grasping the concept behind the two. "Meaning, when you wanna manually narrate my story, you're gonna have to use these Authority Points, the same way I use Mana when executing skills."

'That's right. AP increases by 100 points every time we level up, by the way.'

"For such a small increase, 7000 sure is a big number to fulfill," complained Magnus, feeling like the leveling road ahead was going to be a bit bumpy.

'I thought that, too, at first. But like I said, we'll be leveling up as both an Author and Protagonist, simultaneously. Which, in theory, should give us double the speed compared to that as one or the other.'

Magnus shrugged. "That's true, I guess."

'Now, you might not need to worry much about AP, as I'm the only one who will be using it to narrate. But I'd like it so that you're at least informed enough about it. So let me tell you how we can recover AP.'

Magnus stretched his body and yawned before saying, "Go on, then." He then dragged a chair from the desk in his room and put it by the window. He sat down and rested his chin on his palm while looking over the view outside.

'The way an Author recovers their AP is by making things happen. And by that, I mean just generally causing changes in the world, no matter how small or big they are. This includes something as simple as interacting with someone on the street to cooking up an intricate scheme that will influence the state of the whole country. The speed at which AP can be recovered depends on how big the changes that are made. This is how it's divided:

'1 AP per hour when you're staying by yourself and not doing anything at all.

10 AP per hour when doing something simple, such as taking a stroll outside or having a casual chat with other people.

10 AP per minute when you're producing something, anything. Like making a tool, cooking a meal, earning money, or even writing a song. You can also teach a skill to others or give someone an idea to start doing something.

10 AP per second when someone else is in the process of accomplishing a big achievement under your influence. This will also give us DP when they're finished with it. If you haven't yet realized, this exact method is basically how the gods recovered their AP. They gave Protagonists a list of Objectives, and in the process of accomplishing one, the gods gained 10 AP per second, while receiving a huge amount of DP upon completion.'

Magnus was silent for a few long minutes, trying to comprehend all the things his copy had just explained to him. His eyes were staring at the roads far below, while his mind was busy digesting all that information. In the end, he nodded and leaned back while crossing his arms. "I get it now. Thanks for the explanation," he finally spoke up.

'Sure thing, dude,' replied Magnus 2.0 nonchalantly.