132 What is the mind stat good for?
“Okay, we are here,” Nadia commented when their entire group climbed up to the top of the wall that surrounded the compound.
It wasn’t a structure designed to withstand a siege. Its entire purpose was to keep strangers away, only allowing inside those who got through a proper verification at the main gate.
As such, rather than comfortably strolling or standing on the catwalks atop the walls as it would be the case if they were defending a proper, medieval castle, Mathew and company ended up fighting for a stable footing on top of the wall-like fence.
“What are we going to do now?” the girl then asked, somehow easily managing to stay atop the wall without any hint of struggling to keep herself stable.
‘Maybe it’s her build that makes it easier for her?’ Mathew thought, puzzled by the difference. Yet, just a single glance at Nadia’s and then his own statistics turned the mystery into a matter of fact. ‘She has sixty-four points in agility while I only have forty-two,’ Mathew checked the system only to shake his head. ‘I guess that was only to be expected,’ he thought before turning his eye back towards the army of the zombies.
Ever since Mathew and company arrived at the top of the wall… The zombies did absolutely nothing.
Mathew could feel the stares of the evolved zombies hiding somewhere deep within the ranks of their underlings. He could also vaguely sense the stare of a being powerful enough to send shivers down Mathew’s spine.
Yet, not a single zombie moved.
“This is almost certainly a trap,” Mathew muttered under his nose as he tried one last time to figure out a crafty way to save themselves both the effort and the dangers of an open battle.
“Why don’t we just go and kill them all, then?” Daniel suggested.
At first, Mathew turned happy when he heard the older of the policemen speak. Whether he was scheming something or not, he was still a valuable ally in a confrontation like this.
And yet, Daniel betrayed Mathew’s expectations, clearly too eager to go and fight to offer any valuable tactical insight.
‘If only I could remember the counter strategy to this setting,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth in a silent fury directed at his own self.
‘
He could recognize the formations the zombies stood in. He could even tell what game they came from. And it was a game that he spent a considerable amount of time playing… back when he graduated from grade school and joined the ranks of his country’s middle-schoolers.
In other words, it’s been several years since Mathew last immersed himself in the intricacies of the battlefield tactics. He was completely out of touch with the genre, left with nothing but some distant memories of how he used to play this game.
‘It’s no use,’ Mathew thought as he tightened his fists. ‘I can’t remember at all,’ he admitted to himself as he continued the contest of stares with some of the zombies that bothered to look up and still had their eyes.
“Hey, Mathew, can you see it?” Daria suddenly asked.
“See what?” Mathew asked for clarification without even bothering to look at the girl. In the end, he was too busy stressing out about the lack of memories that could prove to be a game-changer right now.
“So you can’t,” the girl smiled, her cheeky words forcing Mathew to actually look at her. “I’m not going to point them out not to alert them, but I think I can sense the general area where those evolved ones are,” she reported dutifully.
“That’s great!” Nadia nearly jumped in joy, only to wobble on the edge of the wall. She managed to somehow salvage her stability before sending a curious glance at Daria’s face. “I know I should’ve noticed it long ago, but isn’t she seeing a lot of the stuff that the two of us can’t?” Nadia asked, turning her eyes towards Mathew.
“I don’t have any proof…” Mathew started, throwing in an excuse just in case, “but I believe it has everything to do with how high one’s arcane stat is,” Mathew revealed his belief. “I mean, I thought that it could have something to do with the mind statistic…” the young man hesitated only to avert his eyes and mutter silently, “I mean, our company severely lacks anyone with a focus on that statistic.”
“So we can stop being left out as soon as we raise our arcane statistic?” Nadia asked, her eyes lighting up. “Is there something that we need to do to get it up?”
“Raising everyone’s stats to the point where they can at the very least touch grass is my current objective,” Mathew admitted without any hesitation. “The first idea is to get enough cores to unlock a new method of leveling up,” Mathew decided not to hold back at revealing his plans.
‘After all, if I die, it’s better if the girls will have some sort of directions to follow,’ Mathew thought as he sent a glance towards the danger right by the wall. He then shook his head before turning his focus back to the topic at hand.
“If leveling you guys up won’t work, then I plan to buy enough skill seeds to fill up our slots,” he then added.
“Skill seeds? Skill slots?” Leila asked, those words somehow serving as a key to grab her attention.
“For every five levels, you can get a skill,” Mathew shared some of the facts that he learned from purchasing the knowledge about the skills from the merchant. “Normally one can develop a skill on their own. It usually happens when you are in a pinch and are desperate enough,” Mathew explained only for a vicious smile to appear on his lips. “The other way to do it is by simply using the skill seeds,” he added b turning around and jumping off the wall.
“And how much do those costs?” Daria asked, clearly interested in something that could improve her fighting ability.
In the end, her insanely high arcane stat came at the cost of her other statistics falling behind the growth of others! And even with Mathew heavily missing out on the levels, his physical statistics were better than Daria’s, making her the physically weakest in the entire group!
“Fifty cores per piece,” Mathew answered calmly as he looked over his equipment to make sure it was in peak shape.
“And what does that have to do with leveling up our arcane stat?” Nadia asked, unable to put the two and two together.
“When you strike the zombies down, you level up your brawn. When you take the hits like a man…” Mathew looked at the girls, “or a strong woman, then you raise your vitality. Move around a lot and you can improve your agility.”
The young man didn’t need to extend the explanation for the girls to catch on.
“And using our skills allows us to level up our arcane statistics?” Nadia asked while raising her eyes to Mathew’s face, looking for confirmation.
“That seems to be correct,” Mathew smiled as he approached the gate before placing his hand on the huge lock that kept it closed.
“Wait a second!” Nadia shouted right as Mathew was about to open the gates and start the mayhem. “If that’s what arcane does, then how do you level up the mind?” she asked. Yet, before Mathew could even have a shot at answering, Nadia shook her head and then raised her face. “No. What is that mind stat usable for in the first place?”