Chapter 8: Unknown Detected

[Skill Level Up!]
[Name: Sprint Lvl 3 → 4 | +40 Exp]
[Description: You’ve heard of hysterical strength. This gives you access to hysterical speed.]
[Active Cost: Level 2 - 10 Stamina per Second | Level 3 - 30 Stamina per Second | Level 4 - 100 Stamina per Second]

It was the second day of my expedition and almost time for me to camp out again when my Sprint Skill Leveled Up. Besides that, the only noteworthy event I could recall for the day was Cartography advancing to Level 2 shortly after I stopped to complete my Daily Quest. I had to keep reminding myself that the Full Recovery Reward from those expired every day, both to make sure I did them on a daily basis, and not forget they were a resource like I’d neglected during the Timberwolf fiasco on the previous day.

With the sun barely creeping over the horizon as I made my way down yet another mountain, I had been planning on looking for a cave to camp out at when I spotted something very interesting.

I probably wouldn’t have noticed it without my currently augmented Perception courtesy of another Coffee Granola Bar — I’d made three batches that each gave me 10 servings and had other types of snacks I could quickly scarf down while on the run to save myself time from settling down to eat entire full meals while on the run.

It was over on the next mountain. A grey shape I probably wouldn’t have been able to pick out from the background with my ordinary vision. With my enhanced eyesight, though, I could make out that the grey shape was vaguely humanoid, if a bit short. It was also making gestures that I was growing increasingly certain were of it smoking a cigarette. I could tell because it got increasingly easier to make out the cherry of the cigarette as it got darker.

Intrigued, yet more than a little hesitant, I decided to take note of where the shape was located before finding a camp spot to load up on more food buffs before making contact.

When I found a suitable camping spot I brought out five dishes to prop my Status to its limits given my current resources; with the exclusion of using up any of the Stat Points I currently had available, of course.

A Medium Rare Skirt Steak to double my effective Strength, with an extra five points, and Health Regeneration to an underwhelming two points per minute. A serving of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy for similar effects to my Constitution and Stamina Regeneration. A Honey Dressed Caesar Salad to refresh my Agility and Perception Buffs and increase their effectiveness from +3 to +5. My dessert for the evening would be a Vanilla Bread Pudding which would raise my Max Health by 1,500 and my Max Stamina by 800. And I’d wash everything I ate down with an Iced Match Latte to boost my Luck and Charisma.

I had plenty of other dishes in stock in my Inventory that I’d personally cooked for the bonuses, but had yet to find a way to increase my Vitality, Intelligence, or Wisdom. The latter two, I could not care less about, but the lack of improved Vitality was a shame I would carry with me until I figured something out.

In any case, I decided now would be a good time to check on my overhauled Status before diving into the deep end, so to speak. I wasn’t anxious or worried and trying to cope with the slightly improved numbers.

Shut up…

[Name: John Doe]
[Level: 5 (482/500)]
[Status Effects: Fortify Strength (+5), Fortify Consitution (+5), Fortify Agility (+5), Fortify Perception (+5), Fortify Luck (+5), Fortify Charisma (+5), Well Fed (+10% All Stats)]
[Health: 1,320/1,320 (3,058/3,058)]
[Stamina: 1,320/1,320 (4,140/4,140)]
[Strength: 12 (18.7)]
[Constitution: 12 (18.7)]
[Vitality: 12 (13.2)]
[Agility: 14 (20.9)]
[Perception: 10 (16.5)]
[Intelligence: 10 (11)]
[Wisdom: 10 (11)]
[Luck: 10 (16.5)]
[Charisma: 10 (16.5)]

“What the hell? That’s not… No, that is the right effective Health and Stamina!” I could barely believe it even after working out the math. Vitality determined Max Health and its Regeneration, while Constitution determined Max Stamina and its Regeneration — and physical defense too, but that was currently irrelevant.

It was one thing to conceptualize the power of my Stats doubling every five points and another thing entirely to see it expressed mathematically. Sure, it wasn’t like my current effective Max Health and Stamina weren’t being significantly improved by Buffs unrelated to Vitality or Consitution, but I had the paperwork to show that purely off Stats, my Max Health had increased by about 60% with just 3.2 extra points while my Max Stamina had more than tripled with 8.7 points compared to where I had started.

This kind of growth seemed ridiculous until I remembered I literally couldn’t increase my Stats unless I Leveled Up or completed certain Quests. It made me wonder exactly how I compared to the rest of the world. Was I overpowered or underpowered?

The only way to find out was to stop stalling and investigate the grey blob for more information about the world. I couldn’t pull anything concretely from my tumble with the Timberwolfs because, one, they might not even be a thing in this world — for all I knew they were created by the Instance Dungeon through my Gamer powers — and two, even if they were of this world, there was nothing else to compare them against. For example that pack of Timberwolfs might have been a mid to high-level threat to a prehistoric human tribe, an extreme threat to an unprepared amateur hiker of Modern Earth, or a nonexistent threat to the full might of the United States Armed Forces.

Reciting to myself that my Status did not take into account the effects of my Skills, I took a deep breath and set out towards the unknown target. ‘20.9 Agility is before any Level of Sprint or Foundational Sword is active. The same goes for Strength. The same goes for Consitution and Vitality with regards to Iron Body.’

Despite being capable of superhuman feats that I could bolster at will, I took the utmost caution as I approached the cliffside where I’d previously spotted the grey blob. I was so cautious that the sun fully set before I was within 500 meters of my target. The darkness didn’t bother me much with my enhanced perception and the fact that there was a barely noticeable light coming from the cave beyond the cliff face only made it easier for me to hone in on the target.

The closer I got, though, the slower I moved as I did everything in my power to make as little noise as possible. I didn’t want to step on any loose branches or ruffle any bushes.

[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Name: Sneak Lvl 1 | +10 Exp]
[Description: For when you want to snoop around.]
[Active Cost: 10 Stamina per Second]

I quickly bought the Tutorial Text for the Skill and confirmed it had the same mechanism as Sprint only instead of increasing my speed by 5% at Level 1, it would “decrease [my] presence” as its effect.

I immediately cast the Skill and kept it active. My effective Stamina Regeneration rate was about 6.6 per second, so I could keep it active for a pretty long time. If it progressed anything like Sprint did, I would hopefully level it up pretty quickly. That would let me keep its first level active for even longer and give me a bigger boost if I needed it in a pinch.

I was almost tempted to use one or more of my Skill Points on Sneak right then and there. Taking the stealthy approach appealed to me, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to a Rogue or Ninja build over the traditional Warrior or Swordsman. I could feel myself getting distracted once again and pulled myself out of my thoughts.

‘Investigate the grey blob and mysterious lights coming from the cave first, debate Class builds and optimization strategies later...’

I had been doing just fine without the Sneak Skill until now. There was no need to dump my Skill Points into it for now.

I continued my approach and eventually made it to the same cliff where I found the grey blob smoking by. Towards the cave, even as close to it as I was now, I doubted I would have been able to spot the lackluster amount of light leaking out of it unless I had previously caught sight of the grey blob and focused my efforts on being aware of everything in its general vicinity.

The secrecy involved in keeping the place hidden worried me, but there were any number of reasons as to why people might be camping out in such a fashion. I couldn’t just assume the worst, though I would certainly prepare for it.

Author's Note

Here's the math I obsessed over; this is as deep as I go for now, anyway. It would have gone in the story after the first paragraph after the Full Status was shown, but this is probably better.

Math Work for Effective Max Health - 13.2 (Effective Vitality) - 10 (Original Vitality) = 3.2 (Calculated Exponent) | If every 5 Points doubles the effects of a Stat, every point increases it by a ⁵√2^(Calculated Exponent), this can by proved by raising the ⁵√2 by 5 and seeing that every multiple of five doubles the effect; i.e. ⁵√2^5 = 2, ⁵√2^10 = 4, ⁵√2^15 = 8, etc | With a Calculated Exponent of 3.2 the effective bonus is approximately ⁵√2^(3.2) or 1.558 from the base of 1,000, yielding ~1,558/1,558 before the other bonus of +1,500 Max Health.

Math Work for Max Stamina - 18.7 (Effective Constitution) - 10 (Original Constitution) = 8.7 (Calculated Exponent) | With a Calculated Exponent of 8.7 the effective bonus is approximately ⁵√2^(8.7) or 3.340 from the base of 1,000, yielding ~3,340 before the other bonus of +800 Max Stamina.