Princess & Cyberserk

Dan and Tom Increase the Strength

The forty-first level phantom appeared next to the player and Dan felt an interesting change. Suddenly he felt ashamed and uncomfortable in his friend's company. He realized that he now remembered many important and necessary things and details of the game world. He felt an uncomfortable feeling like a dumbass who was incapable of behaving adequately. The knowledge that he had once accepted but didn't understand burst into the player's brain. It was not painful. It was strange and humiliating. A funny thought entered the player's mind that he was like a savage always climbing out of the window to leave the house. He didn't understand the purpose of the door!

Tom smiled and rubbed his hands together from his feelings.

"I'll tell you honestly. I don't like my prospects," the clone noticed his friend's distressed and anxious state. He didn't take offense to him and was honest about how he felt. "I've gained an understanding of the new way of life. Dan, I'm sorry but my needs are manifesting themselves. It's about stupid human desires! I want to take a bath. I want to kiss Algrin. I want to taste Master Grey Claw's drinks and food. All these things cost money. I have a developed sense of economy. Don't worry! I don't need you to start paying my salary. I can keep my desires under control. I don't insist, but I'm asking you to pay attention to my new needs."

"Are you kidding me? Of course, take the gold and spend as much as you need! You work as a plantation slave! Now I am even ashamed to feel like a savage who is incapable of understanding and appreciating your labor. By the way, I need to think hard and appreciate the new information. You blew my mind!" Dan frowned and couldn't calm down. This i***t had brought up the subject of money. Everything Dan Raven had been able to accomplish had been done with Tom's help. And this fool was worried about paying for his work. The strange clone was sometimes completely incomprehensible to the man.

"Don't worry. Don't engage in degrading your dignity. It's not your fault that the game system has limited your brain and ability to understand this world adequately. We could have followed the difficult and brutal path of your gradual development. You could have spent hundreds of hours in the Grossroads library yourself. But we don't need that! We left that elementary school behind. In time, you will be able to remember all the knowledge I acquired at Grossroads. I'm not capable of forgetting!" Tom decided to encourage his friend and suggested an exciting new activity. They needed to redistribute their forces! This was an important and serious matter. "Let's do an interesting and important thing. How shall we distribute the attributes? I insist on reducing all three attributes as much as possible. In terms of Speed and Body, it is enough to be equal to the normal players of this world."

Dan was happy to discuss this important moment. He liked this game a lot in that aspect. For each level, the player received only one point for free allocation. With equal development of all four attributes at level thirty-nine, each player had ten points in each attribute. But the artifact system allowed players to increase their powers with special items. A player could wear sixteen items. And each item could increase the attribute by twelve points. An additional 192 points could be allocated to achieve special goals. Orc Dhroll did not spend any gold at all on the purchase of artifacts with the enhancement of Intelligence. Koreima and Algrin never liked to talk about the theme. Each nation had its peculiarities of magic and organized the state of its body and mind in its way. On average, at the thirty-ninth level, each attribute was possible to increase to fifty-eight points. But Dan never bothered the girls. He wasn't interested in knowing how they developed their attributes. Tom and Dan did a lot of dueling. The clone conducted a great many diversions and killed many opponents. They knew very well that most competent citizens strive for an even and harmonious development of a persona.

Dan Raven had two rings which gave him a magical advantage over the rest of the inhabitants of this world. He was three times superior to the other players. The only question was how much they should increase the Strength.

"Let's make Speed and Intelligence and Body sixty points each. The rest we'll throw in Strength," Tom suggested.

"It's not hard to check. Let's try a new state. But I don't like the idea of reducing Intelligence. It doesn't address the advantage of using magic. Magic is not important in our dungeon wanderings. I don't want to feel dumb," Dan admitted. "I'm sure the number of points in Intelligence gives an advantage for purity and speed of thought."

He quickly put on two rings that increased the number of attributes. My Precious ring increases each attribute by 109 percent. The Sanctuary of the Lord of Fear ring gave exactly one hundred percent increase in each attribute. Then Dan quickly put on an item that increased Intelligence by twelve points.

"Mind became fifty-two points. That's less than the average level thirty-nine elf. These guys sure don't neglect developing Intelligence. Let's add another item," Dan quickly put on a second item with a twelve-point increase in intelligence power. The result delighted him. "Eighty-nine in Intelligence is needed! Tom, we can use just six things to develop Intelligence and Body, and Speed. And we'll have an overwhelming advantage over all the local monsters and players. Ten things will give us enough Strength to be sure killers of monsters and bosses."

"Don't talk but do. We have enough artifacts to experiment with. Change the outfit and renew me," Tom agreed. "I want to feel everything myself."

Dan quickly retrieved items from his trunk to increase his Strength. The friends accumulated a full set to increase any attribute by 192 points! Any surprises could be encountered in this game. They wanted to be prepared to meet unpleasant surprises. Even if they needed to increase their Speed by 192 points they would be prepared for such an unexpected demand.

The young man quickly outfitted a new set of gear and made summoning of a new clone. Then he opened his character panel. The clone was silent and waited for Dan's reaction.

"I feel like an orc," chuckled the young man.

"Disguising ourselves as orcs is a great idea. In vampire town, the appearance of two orcs won't arouse suspicion," Tom nodded his head.

"Hey, counselor, take your time strategizing your quest from the gnomes. Answer honestly! Don't you feel dumb? We've reduced our Intelligence considerably," the young man wanted to make that point clear. Dan was well aware that one could disregard Speed and Body. But you can't neglect Intelligence! 

"I feel fine. I don't think adding a couple more things with an increase in Intelligence is going to cause a huge increase in our capabilities. I'm sure we'll do just fine if we outperform the local smarts and other mages by a factor and a half," said the clone. "But I like the new Strength score. You can threaten potential trouble with it."

"I love the magic of numbers," smiled Dan Raven. "Those fours in the Strength score I like."

[Character: Dan (Human)

Affiliated Location: Earth 

Title: Baron

Profession: Swordsman. Blacksmith.

Level: 39. 64000/17270000

Attributes: Strength 444, Speed 86, Intelligence 89, Body 89. 

Free Attribute Points: 0

HP: 500/8900

MP: 30/890

Weapon Mastery & Skill: Weapon Mastery: 19. Magic skill: 19. Expand Skills.

Free Skill Points: 26

Profession Talent: Berserk.

Achievement: Boss Killer Rank 3. 26/100. Dungeon Explorer Rank 151.]

The clone quickly calculated the damage while the young man thought about his new condition. Tom didn't feel much of a diminution in his thinking abilities. The peculiarity of the game was one important feature. The clone always appeared with his summoner's stats. He was not allowed to interfere with his state and put on artifacts that had the property of changing the value of the attribute. The strangest thing for the friends was the discovery that the weapon did not prevent the clone from retaining Dan's stats. Dan had always used a sword, which gave a plus twelve increase to the Strength. But when a new clone started the game with a regular sword he didn't lose any of Raven's attributes. 

Tom was always at maximum amplification against bosses. In other cases, it was much worse. A new clone would appear without armor or stuff! He wore armor and stuff with a boost of attributes. But he didn't have two magic rings and in his normal state, Tom was always worse than Dan in an attribute value.

In any case, the clone wanted to clarify the most important moment. The Rage of Ars skill was their primary skill for dealing damage to opponents. Tom did a quick calculation and smiled.

"Now that's what I call playing superman. No! This is Legendary Swordsman level. Now you do 2,697 points of damage if you apply the Rage of Ars skill! That'll practically take half a life off of any opponent. Wait a second. I'll do the calculation for myself."

Dan grinned and thought that he could only apply this power-killing skill once a day.

"2563 points of damage. That's not bad. But stupid. I'm wasting my time with stupid calculations that don't matter," grinned Tom.

"I get that you're doing foolishness, my friend. Perhaps we've reduced my intelligence for nothing," Dan smiled. "We should look at the auction to see how much damage level 39 swords do. We need to think about how to increase the skill level of Rage of Ars. We're out of experience points. I even think it might be a good idea to challenge a couple of cheeky scum to a duel."

"No dueling! Not in this town. Not in this view. It's time to use the great magician's tricks. We have the skill of the Mask of Coward. And we have enough personas of young orcs that we defeated in Grossroads," the clone immediately dropped the dueling theme. He winked at his friend. "I have some excellent candidates to disguise as a vampire. These young bloodsuckers won't be out of Grossroads anytime soon. You and I can have some great fun at Night Hill!"