Chapter Seven. Numismatics and Numbers.

Chapter Seven. Numismatics and Numbers.

"Well fuck," said Bob. "This is fucking weird." He had learned Spanish reasonably quickly, having grown up in Watts, but the feeling of mentally changing gears to speak Spanish was nothing like the feeling of thinking in Thaylan.

"I'm told the sensation normalizes fairly quickly," said Kelli.

"Yes," said Thidwell, "and in the meantime, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

Bob raised his hands and tried to smile at Thidwell. He'd been reasonable and even generous so far. "Ask away, I appreciate the help you've given me."

Thidwell gave him a grim smile, and asked: "How exactly did you manage to travel between your world and Thayland?"

Bob lowered his hands, and pursed his lips, considering his answer. 'Fuck it,' he decided, 'might as well just lay it out.'

"In my world, I worked as a researcher. I had compiled a protocol to test a hypothesis, when someone else at the research lab took my work, altered it without understanding what they were doing, and passed it off as their own before running the protocol," he said.

He paused, wondering if these people had the necessary scientific background to understand what he had just said. He was thinking in English and speaking in Thaylan, and some of the words didn't quite match up.

Bob continued, "The changes they made, without getting into too much detail, resulted in an explosion that somehow hurled me into this reality."

Thidwell nodded, and asked, "And what are the chances of more people coming from your world to ours?"

Bob gave a short, sharp, bark of a laugh and replied, "Effectively none. While the people of my world have long hypothesized the existence of other, parallel dimensions, no verifiable evidence has ever been presented. My disappearance and the lack of my physical remains will be waved away as a result of my proximity to the explosion."

He went on, "Even if they did suspect what happened, duplicating the experiment would require them to sacrifice a particle accelerator worth billions of dollars, all in the effort to send someone to a hypothetical alternate reality, with no way to verify the success or failure of the experiment."

He shook his head. "While I will be the first to admit that I've seen ridiculous experiments funded, the truth is that with no potentially beneficial result, there is no way a project like that would ever find backing."

Thidwell nodded slowly, and then said "Well, it sounds like a cross-dimensional invasion is unlikely."

Bob just gave him a nod.

"Moving on, based on the report from Elli and Harv, I believe that despite being an adult, you are currently under A Child's Protection?" Thidwell asked.

Bob nodded again.

"Good," Thidwell said, "it's probably for the best, at least for now. While I could remove it with your consent, I suggest we leave it in place for now and reconvene in three days to consider removing it then."

Thidwell opened another desk drawer and pulled out another pouch. He slid it across the desk towards Bob.

"When you arrived here, through no fault of your own, a dungeon was created around you. Based again around Harv and Elli's report, you spent two days killing the mana spawned rats in that place," Thidwell said, and then gave the pouch a nod.

Bob took the hint, and opened the pouch, revealing tiny sparkling shards.

Thidwell gave him a nod and said, "I counted three hundred and forty-seven level one shards," he gave Bob a stern look and went on, "Kelli will explain to you exactly what an amazing opportunity this provides for you as you decide your path."

Bob gave a slow nod.

Thidwell sat back a bit in his chair and took on a more relaxed tone. "Which brings us to what should be the most important question. What do you want to do, beyond the immediate needs of food and shelter, which I'll arrange to have taken care of here at the guild for the next few days."

Bob replied instantly, "I need to go home. Monroe is locked in my apartment and he will eventually run out of food."

Thidwell gave him a concerned look and asked, "Monroe?"

Bob said "Yes, Monroe. My cat."

Thidwell shot a look at Kelli, then turned his gaze back to Bob. "Cat? Small, furred animal, graceful, good at catching rodents?"

Bob shrugged helplessly, and looked at Kelli as he said "Kelli could probably confirm it better than I could."

Kelli eagerly interjected, "Yes, Bob is referring to a cat, a species that seems to be nearly identical between our worlds, however, based on the interactions I saw between Bob and Monroe, I suspect a familiar bond."

Thidwell thought for a moment, then nodded. "I've known quite a few druids, rangers, hunters, tamers, and keepers over the years, and I've seen the bonds they develop with their animal companions. I'm not sure how that would work without mana on your world, but I can accept it."

Thidwell seemed to mull over his thoughts for a moment, then he gave Bob a nod. "For now Kelli will answer your questions and provide you the information you need in order to function in our world. Ideally, I'd like to meet again in three days to remove A Child's Blessing and have you start your path."

Thidwell made a dismissive gesture and said "Go grab dinner, I'll have a room arranged for you. Kelli, before you go off on a tangent, explain our currency to him."

Kelli jumped up, nodded sharply, and headed towards the door.

Taking the hint, Bob nodded as well and followed Kelli out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As he followed Kelli down the stairs, he glanced at the pouch full of apparently very valuable crystals, and thought 'Inventory, Store!'.

His wealth secure, he followed Kelli out the door at the bottom of the stairs, and to a corner table in the tavern.

He sat down across from Kelli who pulled out a pouch, peered into it, and retrieved four coins from its depths.

Kelli excitedly pointed at the smallest coin, which was slightly smaller than a penny, and said "This is a copper bit. It'll buy you a couple of slices of bread, a fresh apple, or a cup of truly awful beer pretty much anywhere."

Bob nodded.

Kelli gestured to the next coin, which was just about the size of a penny, and went on, "This is a bronze round. It's called that because historically only bronze coins were cast as round, with other coins being square, oblong, and triangular. It is worth ten copper bits, and will get you three good hot and filling meals, or a warm and dry room for the night."

Bob gave another nod and a smile. He could work with Kelli. He seemed eager to please.

"Now this," Kelli pointed to the next coin, which was only slightly larger than the penny, and silver in color, "is a silver flour, so named because it has always been valued as the worth of a ten-pound bag of flour, and it is worth ten rounds."

Bob held up both hands in an effort to stall Kelli long enough to ask a question.

"I know what a pound means in my language, but what does a pound mean in Thaylan?" He asked.

Kelli looked momentarily stumped. "Uh, a pound is a pound," he floundered.

Bob gave a sigh and thought for a moment.

Then he asked, "How much do I weigh in Thaylan pounds?"

Kelli's gave him a brilliant smile and said, "Ah, I'd need a scale, but I'd guess around one hundred and ninety pounds?"

Bob nodded and replied, "That sounds about right. How do the weights break down from there?"

'Woah. So base ten becomes one stamina regenerated per second of you aren't moving or regaining mana, and either .5 or .3333333 per second if you are doing either one or both,' Bob thought.

'How much stamina does it cost to move?'

'Help Movement'

System Help, Attribute Movement Movement is determined by the Coordination Attribute, in conjunction with the Size Modifier and locomotion type. Moving requires an expenditure of one stamina per second. Movement is impacted by the encumbrance category of the subject.

'Fuck, no wonder I kept falling behind and having to stop for breaks!' Bob thought.

'So, moving is one stamina.'

'Help Coordination'

System Help, Attribute Coordination The Coordination Attribute works in Conjunction with the Strength Attribute to determine the amount of damage dealt by a melee strike. The Coordination Attribute works in Conjunction with the Size Category and locomotion type to determine movement speed. The Coordination Attribute determines the ability of a subject to Dodge an attack.

Bob sighed. Every help query just generated more questions.

He looked at Kelli and asked, "Can you give me a concise break down of each attribute?"

Kelli nodded, and went into what was clearly a practiced spiel, "Strength is half your ability to do damage, and half your stamina and stamina regen, as well as how much you can carry."

"Coordination is the other half of your ability to do damage, a good portion of your movement speed, and pretty much the entirety of your ability to Dodge," Kelli continued

"Endurance is the other half your stamina and stamina regeneration, as well as your body's ability to resist physical damage, and your health, modified by your size and tier," Kelli went on, warming to his subject.

He grinned at Bob and said, "Wisdom is half of your spell casting damage or effect, half your mana regeneration, as well as your ability to resist damage to your soul, and your mana, modified by your tier."

"Now Intelligence," Kelli rapped a knuckle against his temple, "is the other half your spell casting damage or effect, the other half of your mana regeneration, as well as your ability to resist damage to your mind."

"And finally," Kelli said, "Beauty is simply that. Just how beautiful you are. And it situationally affects everything. If you are beautiful, people are more favorably inclined towards you, they will listen more closely, give you a better bargain, trust you implicitly."

Kelli sighed. "I've been told by reliable sources that a high enough Beauty even works to enthrall mana spawned creatures in a dungeon."

"Now, there are some other things to keep in mind," Kelli went on. "A high strength means you can lift a lot. And if you put a lot of points into it, I mean a lot."

He took a drink and went on, "Base strength of ten, multiplied by our size modifier of five means we can carry fifty pounds before we slow down. We can haul one hundred pounds at half our movement. And we can drag two hundred pounds at one-tenth our movement."

He leaned forward, gesturing "Now if you had fifty strength, for example, which can happen at level five and occasionally does, you can now carry two hundred and fifty pounds without slowing down, five hundred pounds at half speed, and you can drag a block at one-tenth."

He tapped his fingers on the table and said, "Now think about coordination. Base speed for us is coordination divided by ten, then five for our size bonus, then four for being bipeds, for a total of ten feet per second at a dead run, unencumbered of course."

Kelli grinned and continued, "Now if you had fifty coordination, your base speed is now fourteen. Almost half again what it was."

"And of course, there is endurance," Kelli sighed. "Here is a real smack in the face. Your life span is determined by your tier, multiplied by your tier, then added to your endurance multiplied by your tier."

Bob blinked at that. '(Tier)+(End*Tier)'

"So base seventy-five years?" Bob said.

"Exactly," said Kelli, with a grimace. "And that math right there is why there are so many Labourers, not that I should complain."

Bob frowned and asked, "What exactly is a Labourer?"

Kelli sighed and leaned forward a bit, lowering his voice as he said, "There are a lot of paths, and the guild has documented most of them, but some of them are just incredibly well known."

"The path of the Labourer is opened by allocating all of your points into endurance, then selecting endurance as your path bonus. If you have purchased the skills Might, and Enduring, which together unlock the skill Tireless, and you purchase that, you qualify for the Labourer path," said Kelli.

"Now consider this - you allocated twenty-five points in endurance, then you gained another twenty-five points from your path bonus, putting you at sixty endurance. You seem to be quite skilled at math..." Kelli trailed off.

Bob did the math in his head. (Tier)+(End*Tier), so (5)+(60*5), or 325.

"Three hundred and twenty-five years?" he whispered incredulously.

Kelli nodded, then went on, "Another thing to think about. Might allows you to spend one stamina to effectively double your strength. Enduring does the same thing for your endurance. Tireless takes both boosted abilities and doubles your stamina regeneration when both Enduring and Might are used."

Kelli waited.

Bob did the math. Ten strength and sixty endurance. So normally seventy total, divided by two giving a total stamina pool of thirty five and stamina regeneration of seven per second when concentrating. Double the values for a total of one hundred and forty, giving a seventy point pool, and a regeneration of fourteen. Tireless made that number twenty eight. Divided by two for moving and regenerating, that was fourteen. Minus the cost of moving, Might, Enduring, Tireless and acting, that left you with a net of nine extra stamina generated per second.

"I'm getting the ability to move, and act with a net gain of nine stamina per second," said Bob.

"Two stamina per second actually," said Kelli with a grin, "Not your fault, I haven't mentioned that instanteous effects that only last one second only last exactly that, one second. So Tireless actually only doubles the base, taking it to fourteen, which then divides into seven for regen and moving, and loses five for moving, acting, might, enduring and tireless," Kelli finished.

"What that means, is that a Labourer can work from sunup to sundown, and never get tired," Kelli said.

"Now sure, they aren't going to earn a lot of money for basic labour, but they've also only taken three out of five skills, which means they can take something profitable as well, such as smithing, or carpentry, or animal husbandry, or gardening," Kelli finished.

Kelli leaned back and sighed. "Spend seventy-five years at a craft, and if you aren't foolish, you'll have enough money to own your home and business. Spend another twenty or thirty years after that, and you'll have the funds to have attribute enhancing items for every attribute and some quality armor and weapons as well. Then you can delve the Dungeon at your leisure."

"You might be one hundred years old by the time you reach level ten, but so what?" Kelli said.

"You're less than a third of the way through your life, as you've picked up another five points to every attribute by reaching level ten, and you've another twenty-five points to allocate," he finished.

Bob was trying to digest the idea of a three hundred year lifespan. He asked, "So, a lot of people take that path?"

Kelli nodded and took a drink before replying, "They do. It became common knowledge several generations ago, and a lot of people see it as the safest path."

"But!" Kelli stated firmly, pointing at Bob, "Don't think that it is the best path. All you have to do is take a look at Thidwell."

Bob squinted, calling an image of the giant to his mind. "Ok, beyond being huge, and apparently powerful, what about Thidwell?"

Kelli grinned at Bob and said, "This is all common knowledge, so don't worry that I'm spreading secrets. Thidwell has increased his tier to six," Kelli raised his hand to forestall the question Bob was starting to ask, and went on, "In order to increase your tier, you have to reach the level cap, which is your tier times your tier, so in our case twenty-five. Once you've done that, you can increase your tier, which increases your level cap, in Thidwells case to thirty-six. Now I don't believe he is at the cap, rumor puts him about halfway, so let's say level thirty. Now, take into consideration that your base stats are equal to your tier plus your level, which means that Thidwells base endurance is thirty-six. If he hasn't allocated any points to his endurance, that means that his lifespan is..." Kelli trailed off.

Bob did the math. "Two hundred and fifty-two."

Kelli nodded. "I did the math, although I used paper, and at level cap for tier six, with base endurance plus level increases, his lifespan is two hundred and eighty-eight. And let's not forget that instead of having five attribute points per level to allocate, he has six, and they are awarded retroactively when you increase your tier."

Bob let out a low whistle. Kelli nodded.

"The real kicker? Thidwell is forty-eight years old," Kelli said with a smile.