64 Chapter 10: First Time Leveling Up

Throughout the past two weeks of conditioning training Joshua had been put through the ringer. Every day he would struggle to make his way back to the hut and was glad the day was over. Luckily for him he didn't have to cook his own food sense Marlow had left quite a bit their ready to eat before leaving. With all the training he had been doing he had to eat a lot to fuel his body. At the rate he was working out he had to eat over three times the amount that he usually did to give himself enough energy for the next day.

Over the days his body continued to adjust to the training and he greatly improved with each exercise. By now the weight bands he had on his body were already sitting at five hundred twenty pounds at all times. This fact had shocked Joshua and made him realize how easily the leveling system increases their strengths. All he had done up to this point was train and he was already far stronger than he had ever been. He wasn't quite sure how fast he was yet because he hadn't been allowed to remove the weights to this point, but he would have to adjust to it when he eventually removed them.

A few days into the exercise during a time when Joshua was laid out on the ground trying to suck in as much air as possible he had summoned the strength to ask Marlow an important question. Joshua asked him what exactly the exercises were meant to train specifically. Marlow set down next to him and pointed out everything the training was supposed to help him out with. The jogging with the added weight was supposed to help build up his stamina which according to Marlow was a way to build up on all three physical stats. Stamina was like speed being a combination of multiple stats. In its case it was a combination of your strength vitality and dexterity. So training your stamina would in fact train all three stats, but at a slower pace than if you trained one specifically.

The waterfall exercise on the other hand was a way to train vitality. The constant pressure placed on the body increases its natural defense and sturdiness. It hardened the muscles and toughened the skin while helping your bones get use to the constant added pressure. According to Marlow it was the best way to train Joshua in Vitality without using a gravity chamber which would cause drastic problems at Joshua's current strength.

Balancing on the wooden poles was clearly a way to strengthen both Joshua's dexterity and balance. Although balance wasn't a specific stat it was something that Marlow believed was highly important in combat against large creatures that could easily knock someone off balance with just a stomp of their foot. Finding ways to achieve balance while fighting in tough scenarios could lead to openings against stronger and bigger opponents. Of course being able to make quick movements while flexibly avoiding all of Marlow's attacks without falling off the wooden poles was helping train his dexterity to a new level.

Lastly the sword swings with the stone sword that was growing heavier and heavier by each day was used to train his strength specifically. After two weeks he was swinging around a two hundred pound sword instead of the original hundred pound one. With this set of exercises Joshua was able to train all of his physical stats each day until he would drop from exhaustion. It was on the day after two weeks of constant grinding through exercise after exercise that Joshua fell over once again to his now comfortable spot on the ground after dropping the heavy sword. Over the past couple of days he had felt as though he had hit a wall with most of his exercises as his body didn't seem to be growing in strength anymore. Today he could even feel that his dexterity wasn't getting any better as he couldn't keep up with Marlow anymore after he picked up the pace on the wooden poles once again. Joshua wanted to check his stats, but Marlow had told him not to until he said otherwise.

"Looks like it's finally time huh." Marlow said as he walked over to the tired out Joshua.

"Time for…for what?" Joshua asked while trying to control his breathing.

"You should be feeling as though you can't get any stronger right?" Marlow asked getting a simple nod in return. "Good. Go ahead and check out your stats then."

Joshua swiped his hand in the air like he had seen Marlow, Thoren and the others do so many times up to this point and a screen popped up in front of him. There were several different things on it such as His name, party, inventory, and system help. He clicked on his name and info screen appeared in front of him with his stats underneath his name and other info. Joshua skimmed past the rest and immediately looked for his stats.

Level 1

Job – N/A

Soul Beast – Fenrir

Stats (parenthesis number is the bonus stats from levels and Job)

Strength: 60 (0)

Vitality: 60 (0)

Dexterity: 60 (0)

Intelligence: 43 (0)

Wisdom: 32 (0)

Will: 60 (0)

Luck 100 (0)

Joshua was shocked as he looked at the changes from just two weeks of training with Marlow. All of his physical stats seemed to be capped at sixty while his wisdom and intelligence seemed to increase as he learned more about the system and how things worked. He also thought his will must have risen along with his physical stats because it would either take a person with strong will or just a straight up masochist to go through the training he was doing.

"Are all your physical stats stuck at sixty now?" Marlow asked sense he couldn't see the screen in front of Joshua.

"Yeah, my will is stuck there as well." Joshua replied.

"Perfect then it is time to move on to the next step, but I guess I should explain to you how the system is currently working with your stats right now." Marlow said getting a simple nod to continue from Joshua. "There was a reason why Thoren doesn't particularly care much for levels as he does for job class and soul beast. I think you could probably throw training and technique in their as more important than levels and stats. Don't get me wrong stats are a decent judge of an opponent's strengths and weaknesses but their abilities are far more important." Marlow started to go on a little bit of tangent.

"Alright I get that, but let's stick with stats and levels for now so I can understand what's going on here." Joshua said trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Right, sorry about that. Anyways levels are even less important than stats as a judge of how strong someone is. This is simply because a level only signifies the potential strength of a person and not their actual strength. For each level every stat goes up by one until you gain a job and that slightly modifies things. The thing that the system doesn't show is that with each level the potential of the person's body goes up by ten stat points instead of just the one point that is automatically given." Marlow explained gaining a look of shock from Joshua in return.

"Wait if that's the case then all of this training has forced me to reach the current max point of all of my physical stats based on my level then?"

"Correct. You humans were evaluated to have a peak stat level of fifty n all stats which is rather unusually balanced if you ask me. Then once you join the system and are put at level one your first portion of potential is gained and all of your stats can reach a new maximum of sixty." Marlow explained.

"Can you train up to your potential at any point? For example if I reach level ten and my intelligence and wisdom are still around fifty can I train them all the way up to one hundred and fifty in the future?" Joshua asked as he started to put together how everything works.

"Yep, in fact that's the plan with your training going forward. My regimen will get all your physical stats up to their full potential while Mrs. Thevaris will be getting all of your more mental and spiritual stats up to their potential when you start to work with her in the future." Marlow said with a smile. "Anyways now that you understand how levels and stats work you should understand how misleading someone's level can be. I've seen level ten newbies be able take down level hundred people that gained all their levels from sharing experience with others. So never fully trust someone's level alone."

Joshua nodded at the advice before getting up off the ground after his body felt well enough to move around again. "If that's the case then how exactly are we going to get my level up without going to fight a zombie or something? From what I remember all it takes is one kill for people to level up." Marlow simply grinned at Joshua before swiping in front of him and pressing a few points on whatever screen he had brought up in front of him. In the next moment a notice popped up on Joshua's system page. He swiped his hand in the air after hearing the ding sound and saw an invitation for a spar lit up front and center on his screen. Joshua smiled before clicking accept and then a sixty second count down started before the system sanctioned spar would begin.

"Within the system people can join system sanctioned fights that will give both participates a certain amount of experience no matter whether they win or lose. Of course this only works up to level ten. The moment you reach that point duels and spars will no longer give experience, but items and money can be put up as bets if agreed upon ahead of time." Marlow explained as he started to take a simple fighting stance. "Don't worry I'm not going to be fighting you at my current level, but instead I will be restrained to the same level and max stats as you. This will be a good chance to see what you're capable of in hand to hand."

Joshua smiled before taking a simple fighting stance himself and waited for the last few seconds to tick down. Just before the fight started the weight from the bands on his body was lifted and Joshua felt lighter than ever and bounced up and down for a moment getting a good feel for his new strength. The moment the countdown finished Marlow charged towards him at a speed he wasn't use to putting Joshua on the defense right away. He was able to react and direct all of Marlow's blows away from his body with surprising speed. His reactions were far greater than ever and his strength was able to easily match Marlow's who simply smiled at him.

The two of them continued to exchange blows back and forth for a while with Joshua using his slightly larger reach to keep Marlow from getting inside his bigger frame and dealing to many blows up close. At first Joshua was doing well, but soon Marlow was able to take over the flow of the spar and pressure Joshua into having to react to all of his attacks. Although their stats were the same physically Joshua was clearly not use to fighting at such heighted speeds. It would take him a while to adjust to his new strengths and by the end of the spar timer the amount of points Marlow had gained from landing hits on Joshua nearly doubled his.

Joshua took a seat on the ground to catch his breath after the intense fight. The now familiar weight on the bands on his body was back causing him to stumble slightly before regaining his balance. Though in the next instant he was filled with a surge of strength that cleared away all of his fatigue and lifted his spirits. Joshua stood up and looked at his body in awe of how it seemed to heal up from all of the aches and pains in an instant. When he pulled up his stats they had changed once again.

Level 2

Job – N/A

Soul Beast – Fenrir

Stats (parenthesis number is the bonus stats from levels and Job)

Strength: 60 (1) = 61

Vitality: 60 (1) = 61

Dexterity: 60 (1) = 61

Intelligence: 43 (1) = 44

Wisdom: 32 (1) = 33

Will: 60 (1) = 61

Luck 100 (0) = 100

The new stats were only slightly different, but if what Marlow had said was true then from now until level three he could continue to train until all of his physical base stats reached seventy points. Joshua smiled knowing that he still had a lot of training left to accomplish.