The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

Chapter 26: I Didn't Know

(Thursday, March 11th Game Day / Sunday, January 24rd Real Day)

It occurred to me a few days ago that I had no clue what level Selene and Katherine were and had never looked at their stats in depth, so while we enjoyed our breakfast by the water I decided to inspect them.

First up was Katherine, a Priest with 9.7/10 Potential in Holy Arts and 7.6/10 Potential in the other Arts. My guess was that it was a good thing but I honestly had no clue what the Potential ratings meant or where the averages fell.

As I browsed through her Attribute Statistics I was a bit flabbergasted at what I was seeing. Katherine was level 67… and she was fated to die to two wolves?

What the hell.

That made no sense. Selene was level 82 too… and I was level 14 just a few days ago… hah. Opening Katherine's character window first was a huge surprise:

Katherine (of Sigurd)

Level: 67 (109)

Health: 2130

Mana: 2255

Strength: 18

Intelligence: 136

Vitality: 12

Wisdom: 125

Endurance: 38

Willpower: 141

Agility: 22

Luck: 0

Dexterity: 54

I was stunned. Katherine had enough attribute points to be level 93 if you excluded the +10 Attribute points per stat they started with.

Looking at Selene second, she was a Hunter archetype with a 9.2/10 Potential in Archery, and was sitting quite highly with enough Attribute Points to be level 135:

Selene (of Sigurd)

Level: 82 (135)

Health: 2700

Mana: 1550

Strength: 70

Intelligence: 46

Vitality: 24

Wisdom: 32

Endurance: 53

Willpower: 72

Agility: 168

Luck: 0

Dexterity: 212

They were similar to me… my stats at level 0 were exceptional thanks to the UR-Exams:

Roth Sigurd

Level: 0 (129)

Health: 1000

Mana: 1000

Strength: 100

Intelligence: 98

Vitality: 100

Wisdom: 100

Endurance: 100

Willpower: 100

Agility: 0

Luck: 0

Dexterity: 50

I had gained +42 to Endurance, +28 to Strength, +38 to Agility, and +12 to Dexterity from the nearly two-hundred hours I spent digging, chopping down trees, moving logs, and climbing the mountain.

I also received a bonus +20 to Vitality from the general Wood Working proficiency and actually received a +5 bonus to Willpower for scaling the mountain.

Of the 130 Attribute Points I had gained from leveling up, I distributed 60 into Agility, 30 into Dexterity, and 40 into Endurance. Now my stats were considerably better:

Roth Sigurd

Level: 26 (184)

Health: 1980

Mana: 1390

Strength: 128

Intelligence: 98

Vitality: 120

Wisdom: 100

Endurance: 182

Willpower: 105

Agility: 98

Luck: 0

Dexterity: 92

It might seem strange that an Axe-wielding warrior would split his points into Agility, Dexterity, and of all things Endurance but there was a method to my madness.

Every level granted +5 Attribute Points to distribute and I was clearly ahead of the curve already, but the limiting factor in this game isn't how hard you can swing or how much damage you can take.

Some people believe in building their characters with one or two primary stats while ignoring the others, which enables one to specialize in a role. It often works out nicely, but not here.

The game is a virtual representation and the characters are affected by attributes greatly. Agility corresponds to run speed as well as general athletic agility such as quickly changing directions, stopping and starting, jumping, and maximum sprint speed.

If a warrior only put his points into Vitality and Strength, sure he could hit hard and take a hit well, but he would be a sitting duck in Player versus Player situations.

Dexterity affects accuracy with all weapons, especially so for Bows which are a necessity for anyone not relying purely on magic for ranged combat. And Endurance, well… are you going to die tired or be the one at the end of the fight who still has energy in the tank to block or swing a few more times?

Endurance is effectively Vitality or Health so long as you don't get hit, and if you aren't getting hit you now have more stamina or energy left to attack, run, dodge, or whatever you want to do.

Curiously the way shields work in this game, if an attack is successfully blocked the force from the blow deals a proportional amount of damage to your stamina bar. In short, block a few heavy blows and find yourself out of stamina and every blocked hit after that will start dealing damage to your health pool; even if it was blocked. You can't block forever.

I found myself in a few situations already where long drawn out fights were nearly decided not by a lack of health but by a lack of stamina… I was too physically exhausted to do anything.

Lying on your back out of breath as the enemy stands over you is a horrible way to go.

Yeah, when you train for war you train for a marathon, not a sprint.

At the end of the day my Effective level was 184 based on total allotted Attribute Points. Of course that was misleading though, as the level 100 champion I fought the other day most likely had all of his Attributes in Strength and Vitality and was definitely stronger than me in one-on-one melee combat.

I couldn't see his stats directly during the fight but after he died I was able to see that he had over 300 Strength and over 200 Vitality, which was easily double my Strength and almost triple my Health.

Yeah, in the end it's sort of hard to measure attributes alone.

In reality, the levels weren't weighted as heavily as proficiency and skill. A level two-hundred player could still be beat by a level one-hundred player if he or she was outplayed.

I had started shaking my head from side to side without noticing and Katherine caught on, "What's wrong my liege?"

Ah she was still referring to me in that odd way.

"Kate, you can call me Roth or Sigurd and that goes for you too Selene. None of this 'my liege' or 'master' stuff."

Kate answered first, "Mm. Okay, Sir Sigurd."

Well it was an improvement so I couldn't complain.

And then Selene chimed in, "Why would I ever call you master? You and your fantasies."

"Selene!"

"Kate, you can't trust him. He'll peak on you when you're bathing."

Katherine gazed at the floor and then opened her mouth without a sound,"…."

Yeah, thanks Selene.

Katherine quickly looked at me and then hurriedly looked away while Selene laughed in the background. My stellar reputation with Kate was shattered right before my eyes.

Placing my hand on my face I couldn't help but laugh as well. Pointing at them while muttering, "I should throw you both into the river…."

Well, going back and reading the description of the Attributes once more to refresh my memory, every point put into Vitality would add an additional 10 to your Health while Wisdom would add 10 to your Mana. Strength and Intelligence modified your damage done by some percentage I didn't fully comprehend, but Strength also bolstered your physical body as well.

Dexterity was the main attribute for any class that required high degrees of accuracy for pin-point attacks, and Agility mainly affected the player's ability to move. Endurance was your Stamina, or the gas in the tank that allowed you to use abilities and move for extended durations.

Willpower was a combination of how fast you could regenerate Mana and also your resistance to crowd control effects such as Blind, Stun, or Paralyze.

I still had no idea what the Luck stat was used for but I wasn't too worried about it. When I selected it there was no description or anything, sort of like it was locked for now.

There were a lot of other questions too but I figured it would all be explained in due time. All I did know was that there were two girls in front of me and one was an exceptional archer and the other an exceptional healer.

As the girls chatted and laughed at my expense, no thanks to Selene, I started thinking about the future.

I had a territory but it was rather small.

I had a cabin but it could easily feel cramped with three people living in a 900 square feet single room. I also had the lodge I was prepping for with the five-hundred or so logs stacked behind my cabin.

Yeah, that's what I would do first.

I stood up, turned around and looked at the area before me.

Surveying the land in front of me, I decided on what felt like a good central location and opened the measurement tools provided in the menu, allowing for an overlay of schematics that you had drawn up or previously learned. It was a bit odd seeing the overlay in what I would consider my normal visual range but it was extremely handy.

Selene and Katherine had both crept up behind me and stood at either shoulder, staying silent as they could tell I was busily lost in thought.

My village would start here after all. I had a lot of work to do. I also had two lovely ladies at my side to help speed things along. I'll have to apologize to them later, but for now they're going to be working very hard.

Oh so very hard.