Chapter Sixteen: Killer Chickens (Patreon)

Holding down the power button, I find myself unconsciously holding my breath. The screen stays black for what seems to be far longer than normal, but just as I’m on the verge of giving up in disappointment, it turns on. I let out my breath with sigh of relief. Letting it load just to check everything’s fine – it is – I turn it off after looking at the clock. Apparently it’s past four pm, which means that either the days here are significantly shorter, a bit longer, or in the transition between worlds, I lost a lot of hours or gained a few. Again, I shrug, though consider briefly turning the phone on again around this time tomorrow just to see.

So, my phone’s still working, I say to myself thoughtfully. Is that because it was in the backpack, or is electrical energy not affected by the Inventory space in the same way Energy is? Or is it because the energy is in a battery? Just another unanswerable question to join the list. I’m certainly not going to test whether it was protected by being in my backpack by putting it directly into my Inventory! That said, I suppose that later I could test whether an organ loses less Energy by being in a backpack… Something to think about later, I guess.

One question I can answer now, though, is why I want to collect Energy – and why my store went down by 15% for each point I accepted that increased a stat yesterday. It turns out that just as Energy can be converted into mana, it can also be converted into any other form of energy. Sounds simple, right? Not so – having an overabundance of energy, regardless of the type, is not necessarily helpful, and can in fact be detrimental.

Turns out that even before the Class system was discovered, humans in Nicholas’ world had discovered various ways of storing Energy and then using it to enhance their bodies – it seems they were trying to copy animals which appear to have a natural ability to use Energy to develop themselves. Unfortunately for them, the average result looked more like a victim of serious radiation poisoning – or worse. Cue the discovery of the Class system.

Though the stone’s information didn’t go into detail about who made the discovery or how, it was clear that this was a game-changer. Now, instead of people essentially dumping Energy into their bodies, and hoping that it would improve their bodies, the Class structure transforms the Energy into more appropriate forms and then directs it to improve the specific stats which the Class-user, aka ‘Classer’, has chosen.

Obviously, the way that each of these stats is improved depends on the stat. The three physical stats – Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity – are improved by changes made to the physical structure of the body. Dexterity is about the capacity of fine motor skills, but also the flexibility of the body and, to a certain extent, its fast-twitch muscles. Constitution is about the body’s toughness – hence this stat being the basis of the body’s health pool – and is characterised by density of bones, thickness of skin, durability of organs, etc.

Strength can go either towards high weight or long duration, in other words Power versus Endurance, or a balance between the two. I have the answer for why my Strength is 6 but my stamina is 30: the work I did at the gym tended to be lifting as heavy weights as I could, encouraging the build of muscles towards Power, rather than Endurance, meaning that when I arrived on this world, my ratio was skewed a bit more towards the former. Thanks to receiving the point yesterday – probably from all the walking I’ve been doing – I now have a balance between the two.

Contrary to what I thought, there are not three mental stats, but two: Willpower is apparently a ‘soul’ stat, and the information on how this is improved is missing – I just have to accept that the Class system somehow uses Energy to improve my Willpower. Intelligence is easier to understand – Energy improves the physical structures of the brain, rendering the user more capable of forming and maintaining neural connections. In short, the higher my Intelligence level, the more information I can absorb and access, as I’d already theorised. My thought process should become quicker and more streamlined and my memory improved. Little wonder that this stat determines when I should absorb a knowledge stone.

Wisdom is another stat which is a little hard for me to conceptualise. It’s something about the connection between me and my surroundings...something to do with my aura? It makes me think of those New Age tree-huggers when I think of ‘aura’, though I have to admit that ‘magic’ wasn’t exactly something I ever thought could exist so… I figure I’ll see how things develop.

Now, improving stats happens in two ways: on level-up and after effort, the latter of which I’ve experienced. On level-up is pretty obvious: every Class comes with a certain number of stat points per level depending on the rarity of the Class. The most common Classes award one or two points per level; the most rare can offer up to ten. The stone doesn’t seem to include a list of Classes and their rarity and I can’t find it anywhere in my status screen, so I guess I’ll have to find out upon level-up how many stat points I’ll have available. It seems like it should go without saying that the more points awarded on level-up, the better, right? Yes...but that’s not the whole story.

Improvements don’t come for free. Take the other method of improving the body – actually putting some effort into it. For example, when I was offered the opportunity to improve my Dexterity and then it used some of my stored Energy? In essence, I had worked my body hard and had already made some improvements to my agility when learning the hard way how to dodge and keep ahead of a group of hungry predators.

The Class System in my body recognised that, and also recognised that I had sufficient Energy stored to support a stat improvement. Upon agreeing to the improvement, the System took the Energy and directed it to finishing off the improvement I’d already started. Had I refused the improvement, nothing would have happened, but after more time, perhaps another few days of work, I would have reached the same stage by myself and my Dexterity stat would have grown to reflect that. In short, it’s a shortcut – exchanging Energy for time and effort.

The same is true on level-up: the whole reason I have to gather Energy at all to level up is because I need to accumulate enough in order to support however many stat points I will use. Thus, the downside to rare classes – someone who has access to ten stat points on level up will have to accumulate a lot more Energy than someone with a very common Class. Why not just get a common Class and then work out to increase stat points independent of level-ups, then?

Apart from the other benefits to a rare Class such as more powerful Skills, there’s one good reason: it costs more. Increasing stats on level-up is more efficient than individually, and the more stats increased at one time, the more efficient the process is. It’s like the body is already awash with Energy, so only a little more is needed to effectuate change.

No statistics are given, but I guess it’s something like if 15u is needed for a single stat to improve, then for ten stats done at once, it’s probably only 10u each. Or less. It’s a little difficult to calculate as the amount of Energy required to change each stat depends on a number of factors.

These include, but are not limited to, how much potential my body has to improve, how much I have already improved the stat – and whether this was done ‘naturally’ or with Energy – and how much effort I’ve already put towards improving that stat without Energy. All I know is that the System lore stone says that levelling up is a more efficient means of increasing stats than working out and then using stored Energy to make up the difference.

Anyway, there’s also a limit to how much someone can raise their stats by working out, whether that’s physically or mentally. At a certain point, the human body is incapable of improving further, and Energy is needed to go into ‘superhuman’ realms. So, in some ways, it actually makes more sense to do as many ‘natural’ improvements as possible, although it may delay levelling-up: that way, when I use my levelling-up stat point/s, I will be improving my body past where it could function naturally.

Realising that I’m walking through a dangerous forest without really paying sufficient attention to my surroundings, I get my head in the game and back on a swivel. Digesting the new information I have access to can wait: I’ve got a shelter to find.

*****

My steady progress along the river is interrupted when, having stopped to eat lunch, I suddenly hear a sound that doesn’t fit my environment. The sound of birdsong and the crunch of woodland creatures minding their own business has long faded into the background for me. This sound draws my attention because it’s nothing like the normal backdrop of the forest. No, this noise is more like a...snicker. A giggle. And not a merry, innocent one either.

I look up and freeze. Not more than a few paces away something is staring at me with its head cocked to one side. It looks like...a chicken, if chickens stood two feet off the ground, had camouflage-style plumage, and the regard of a predator. Wait, scratch that, chickens do have the regard of a predator when they see a bug or seed they want to eat. This bird’s beak looks like it will do significantly more damage than a chicken’s, though, being far more hooked and serrated. The worst thing, though, that I notice as I slowly and carefully look around myself, is that it’s not alone. Apparently these killer-chickens hunt in packs.

Turning back to the one at the front of the pack, I don’t take my eyes off it as I reach for my knife. This...is going to suck, I know it. Ah well, at least I’ll have more meat to add to my stores. If I survive, that is. Being surrounded by probably about fifteen of the things is not a good start.

The chicken opens its beak and makes that weird snicker-giggle again. The next moment, it springs towards me, running with its head down and its tail out. I absentmindedly note that its tail is almost twice the length of its body. Its function comes into play almost immediately as I swing the knife at the chicken...and miss. Its tail whips it off course and suddenly it’s biting my arm. I swear as its beak sinks in far deeper than it has any right to go. Its beak hooked in, it flaps its wings, giving itself enough lift to rake at me with its clawed legs. Oh, that’s how this creature hunts, then, I think, my mind racing to try and work out how to take advantage of that. It uses its serrated beak to hold on and then rips its prey to pieces.

Of course, that’s the least of my worries because I’m also trying to fend off the next three which are attacking me from behind with the same strategy. Clearly, another part of its hunting method is to overwhelm with numbers. I need to get to my feet – I should have a height advantage which is currently completely wasted since they surprised me while I was sitting down. Unfortunately, the number of chickens currently grabbing onto me is severely hampering my ability to push myself upright.

Also unfortunately, my knife is proving pretty ineffectual – I just can’t get the right angle to hit the things somewhere vital, especially not the ones behind me, which is a good half of my hangers-on. My spear would come in useful here, but it’s lying who-knows-where back in raptorcat territory. I regret not taking the time this morning to replace it now.

It’s a catch-22 situation: I need to get to my feet to get the right sort of height to deal with the creatures, but they’re hampering me so much that I can’t get up. My mind races for an answer, but I’m going to have to find a solution fast, because currently this is a battle of attrition which I’m doomed to lose.