Chapter 65 Nothing Is What It Seems
Unfortunately, this was not manga or anime. Unlike those worlds where you could get stronger or hit harder by shouting, in this world you need to use logic and think.
Hiro even while strengthened anew by his reformed mindset, the man still needed to find a way to survive. Luckily the monsters seem to also adopt a look-and-see strategy.
The smarter an organism is, the less it is governed by its basic impulses. With over 100 points in INT, these monsters could be considered Einsteins. As they saw Hiro easily bisecting their comrade in one strike, no one wanted to be the unlucky reptile to prove he could do it again.
The reptiles accurately measured Hiro's sphere of influence. Together with his weapon's ability to extend, the transmigrator's actual reach takes into account his body as well. His arm's length, the range of a single stride plus the weapon's size combined would translate to the distance he had control over.
This sphere of influence would be where he could block, attack and counter. In any battle knowing the distance of your opponent's weapon was foundational to countering it. Hiro became amazed when the monsters stopped exactly around 240 cm or 8 feet from him.
The transmigrator also calculated this distance as his maximum reach. Any further and he would need to leave the wall and charge forward. Once he began his assault it would be a one-way ticket to death or survival.
'Ahh, why couldn't you lizards be dumb as shit like in manga? Monsters twelve times smarter than a human? The asshole who created these fuckers is insane!
'If that is not enough they have the skills [Cooperative fighting] and [Aura Suit]. If the latter is anything like [Mana Armor] I am so screwed. They each have like what? 200 AP and rising? These dnd rejects have shields for crying out loud!'
Waiting for Hiro, the reptiles seem to have reached the limit of their patience. A dozen of them pointed their spears at Hiro and slowly walked forward.
'Crap! Here it comes, I leveled up twice right? Status! Stat page only.'
________________________
Hiroyuki Mitsurugi
HP 739/739| MP 427/427| SP 276/276 |AP 167/167
STR 63 +597 (20)| AGI 55 +598 (20)| INT 57 +592 (20) Unassigned Points: 4 ______________________________
'Shit 730 HP? I'm basically a glass cannon, one hit and I am dead. Luckily I have mana Armor, I have 400 additional HP if I don't use anything else. I think the fastest way to fight outnumbered is to limit the area like the Spartans.'
The transmigrator looked around and checked the battlefield with his high AGI senses. Unfortunately for him, the battle area was shaped like a volcano, narrow open top, and a wide sealed bottom.
'Yeah, there is nothing there, in that case, the only option is to risk level-ups. So long as I continue to level, my HP and Calibers would refill allowing me to go further. The problem is what happens when I don't'
The first twelve dragsaurians silently approached, their reptilian eyes focused on the intruder of their home. The others took one step forward for every ten of the vanguard.
Hiro had the area he could move in shrink rapidly. Which caused his heart to start beating loudly again.
- Alert: Iron Will [D] Lvl 1 has suppressed the panic response of the host's autonomic nervous system -
- Alert: Tactics [D] Lvl 1 has activated, all options actions will result in death. No actions available. -
'Ah, shut up already! System! Turn off all notifications for [Tactics] if it has no suggestions!'
- Alert: Tactics [D] Lvl 1 notifications will now be muted if no actions are available. -
The system functioned extremely similar to a game interface, with the added perk that it understood a system user's intentions regardless of language. It could be ordered to do simple computations and tasks like an AI assistant.
Hiro even used the thing to set an alarm and wake him up! While the system didn't intentionally help him, it didn't purposely make his life worse either.
'System! What level would I need to hit before I get 200 AP?'
[Overdrive] would be the only thing that could turn the situation around. But it came at an expensive cost, the skill consumed 100 of all three calibers for each second. Thus even if he had MP for 4 seconds, and SP for 2 Seconds Hiro still could only use a single second due to having only 167 AP.
AP became the hardest Of the three calibers to grow. Being Asian, Hiro computed his growths and found out that each Caliber had a ratio. Each point in INT raised MP by 7 points. AGI increased SP by 4.5 each. Lastly STR gave a paltry 2.2 AP for every stat.
Right now, the only benefit of leveling up would be to increase his calibers. Stat wise he leapfrogged to who knows what level by using [Strength Derived from Pride]. Unfortunately for him, the stats from [Strength Derived from Pride] were treated like his legacies, they did not factor into his calibers only his base constitution.
According to some adventurers, the reason for the difference in the ratios lay in the nature of the powers. As MP used Psionic potential making the brain smarter naturally had the biggest impact. Similarly, because SP relied on calling ghosts in general, increasing sensitivity to the world had a direct correlation.
Aura, on the other hand, relied on nothing but one's own life force, thus people accepted why it turned out to be the hardest to increase. People eventually started using AP-increasing buffs or Items to compensate for its pitiful growth.
- Alert: Host has a base STR of 63, at Level 30 the Stat Clutch for Calibers will be engaged. With the Stat Clutch enabled the Aura modifier would increase from 1 to 3. Even not allocating all free stats at level 30 Host would have 233 AP, 347 SP, and 503 MP -
'Stat Clutch? Why wasn't it enabled before? Isn't it stupid to lock it at Lvl 30? A lot of people died due to a lack of calibers. Who made the decision?'
- Alert: Information about system creator classified. -