Chapter 2: An Old Man Gives Several Answers but Causes Even More Questions Part 2

Thoren started to refill his cup once again before he seemed to think to himself for a moment and turned back towards Joshua. "In the end I'll have to explain exactly what soul beast are before you can understand why I have such a heavy interest in your future, but for now let me explain stats first." Thoren said getting a simple nod in reply from Joshua. "Stats are basically the measurement of your capabilities in a certain area to an extent. Each stat has its own particular meaning and based off of how high they are they might decide whether your able to do a certain technique or use a certain ability. Looking through your world's most recent history I can see several things called games that have similar ideals to the system in this regard. Though before I explain them to you I shall warn you beforehand that stats do not matter nearly as much in the long run as other things."

"I thought stats were the basis to judge ourselves by via the system. What's the point in having stats if they aren't important in the end?" Joshua asked with a look of confusion. In most games your stats meant just about everything when it came to your ability for combat. There are some games where your equipment can mean more, but even then those equipment pieces usually have stats of their own.

"You can see for yourself if you look back on some of the fights you went through during the first phase. Although you may have high stats for a level one your stats in comparison to that female zombie you fought in town weren't even comparable. While your highest stats hover around fifty hers were closer to triple that amount in the physical department thanks to her ability. She was able to use her super strength to move at high speeds and send you flying through buildings yet in the end you won. Why do you think that is?" Thoren asked back.

Joshua thought about it for a moment and came up with several reasons why he was able to kill her in the end. "Although she was smarter than most of the other zombies she was still way to easy to predict and mess with. Also all her attacks were to direct and easy to maneuver around."

"Exactly. Even with stats far higher than your own she still lost simply because of the fact that you know how to fight and have a far higher intellect. One of the things that trumps stats on their own is experience. It doesn't matter if its combat experience or tactical experience either can be used to deal with a physically stronger opponent. If you don't know how too properly use the power you have then it's not nearly as effective." Thoren explained and glanced towards Joshua to make sure he was following along. "The other reason is balance. If your stats are to unbalanced in the end then you can have severe problems in the future. It's not wrong to focus on your strengths for the most part, but if someone had a strength in the thousands while there dexterity was still crap then they would be slow and completely inflexible. Their body could even break down from being so unbalanced if they put it through too much stress."

"I'm guessing the system must prevent this to a certain extent in some ways?" Joshua asked as he agreed with the idea behind being balanced in the long run. If he relied too much on his size and didn't train his reflexes and flexibility then smaller fighters could just hover around him all day until he tired out. It was something his dad had hammered into his head ever since he started growing much bigger than his opponents when he was younger.

"Yes this is where levels come into play. With each level you always gain one stat point in every stat. This can be considered the base growth of a person for the system and is used to keep people from becoming to unbalance after a certain amount of time. The system will also prevent people from putting to many points into one stat via training if relating stats aren't at a high enough base level for their body to handle it." Thoren explained.

"So you've been saying that the stats work with each other, how exactly does that work?"

"Well first let me explain what each stat represents. Some are more obvious such as strength being how strong your muscles in your body are or how vitality depicts how tough your body is and how many blows it can take. Dexterity is how flexible your body is and how quick it can react to outside stimuli. Intelligence is a combination of how well you're able to process information and how strong your reserves of energy are, it's a stat that has connection to both the mind and the soul. Wisdom is for the most part a judge of your experience and ability to understand certain situations. It also has a soul component in the way it determines how fast you recover your energy for most people. Will is probably the most important stat, but I'll explain that more later while luck… is simply luck. It won't matter too much, but it might be the difference in finding a rare species of beast or a material you've been searching for. It mostly has to do with how well your planet thinks of you in the end. Being the one who ended the first phase I'm not surprised your luck stat is so high now." Thoren explained one by one before picking his cup up once again and taking a drink.

"Now that you've got the basics out of the way you can think of combinations of these stats deciding other important things. A good example of this would be a combination of your strength and dexterity along with your weight being a judge of how fast you can move. Another would be a combination of intelligence and wisdom deciding how easy it is for you to learn new abilities or in some cases how powerful certain spells are. In the end they are all important in their own way." Thoren finished explaining.

"If that's the case then where does level suppression come into play? There were several times when we were fighting the bosses that my friends froze up in the face of those beast." Joshua asked getting a knowing nod in reply.

"Level suppression isn't the only time that kind of effect can happen, but if we're just talking about that then it occurs because of the leap in level or level gaps. From nine to ten the biggest difference is the fact that both humans and monsters alike gain their job or class. When you gain a job your stats drastically increase and a large amount of potential within you becomes unlocked. That's why creatures that have gained a class at level ten are able to exert such pressure on those of a lower level. This continues to grow each time your job becomes more predominant, but it drastically increases when your soul beast becomes more powerful. Thus causing more suppression to occur when those sorts of things happen at level fifty and level one hundred and so on and so forth. The only reason the boss had higher suppression than the sub-boss for you guys was the fact that it was so much more powerful and in an entire different class." Thoren explained.

Joshua was about to ask something else, but Thoren began to explain something different before he could. "That is also why will is so important. By having a high level of will you were able to brush off those monsters level suppression and killing intent. Will is extremely useful against opponents that are stronger than you or opponents that have abilities that try to overpower you. Abilities that mess with your mind and soul can be overcome based on your level of will. It can also be used to pressure others as well." Thoren said with a smirk before a surprising amount of pressure filled the air and caused Joshua to hasten his breathing. It didn't last for very long but Joshua got the point.

"I see… that's rather interesting." Joshua simply responded bringing a small smile to the dwarves face.

"Now let's hurry this long a bit because I have other things to do." Thoren said before taking another swig of his drink. "There are only two more things for me to explain before I'll tell you why I have an interest in you in the first place. First off are Jobs, they come in all different types but I would like to congratulate you on not going with berserker. It's not a bad job by any means but would have wasted your intelligence and wisdom stats along with your dexterity for the most part. Anyways most jobs focus on certain traits and provide a stat boost into the stats that best suit their use. For example a mage would have high boost in intelligence and wisdom, but the other stats wouldn't get boosted much at all except for a small boost to will. The job you end up picking will greatly affect your early experience with the system and each job grants you certain skills going forward. It is the second most important thing a person can have. They will also change in the future depending on your level and how much experience you have with the job. Some are one way paths while others can branch off into all sorts of things."

"Will I be delayed in gaining a job because I didn't except the one the system was giving out earlier?" Joshua asked a bit nervous at the thought.

"No, everyone gains a job at level ten. The system basically just tried to assign yours at an earlier date. Even if you had accepted berserker you wouldn't have started gaining the abilities from that job until level ten. Now the job you will gain will be based off your accumulated experiences going forward until that point." Thoren responded.

"If that's the case then why even offer the job right now?"

"Because there are already several people closing in on level ten after the first phase has ended. Of course they're all women, but the system still decided to offer everyone a job based on their performance and which soul beast they possessed."

"You keep talking about soul beast. Is that what I met in the room before I came here?" Joshua asked as curiosity had finally taken over at the term.

"Yes it was. The soul beast is the most important thing for your future. Soul beast aren't always actual beast, but they usually take the form of beast in the end. A good example would be like with Thor, or I guess the person you people consider the god of thunder." Joshua eyes widened at the fact that the dwarf in front of him was speaking as if Thor was real. "His soul beast was the power of storms themselves. A part of nature which after thousands of years of training he was finally able to use to its full effect. Soul beast come in all sorts of forms and they grant their host special abilities that cannot be gained from jobs, although some of these abilities merge well with specific jobs but for the most part your soul beast is more important. The gains from a soul beast are far greater than that of a job."

"So the reason you're so interested in me is because of my soul beast?" Joshua asked as he unconsciously placed his hand near the spot in his chest where the orb of light entered.

"In simple terms yes. Your soul beast is one of a kind and one of the most powerful ones that I've ever known in my long life. There has only been one other person with the same soul beast as you in the past and he passed on a long time ago. I highly doubt anyone else in the entire universe has the same soul beast as you and I lucked out having your planet be a part of the territory were responsible for helping bring into the system." Thoren said with a serious expression.

"What exactly is my soul beast? It looked like a wolf to me, but it had four front feet instead of two like normal wolves." Joshua said.

"It's a Fenrir. One of the most powerful beings to have ever lived. So powerful that only it and one other creature were known to be strong enough to command respect from all other beast. Although you on your own have a lot of potential that soul beast of yours changes things drastically not only for you but for the entire universe. There are things you will have to deal with in the future, but I'm not allowed to speak on that with you at the moment. For now all you need to know is that the little Fenrir pup that's currently mixing with your soul will be your greatest ally going forward." Joshua nodded at the man's words before he continued. "Overtime you will start take on traits of your soul beast, but that will take a long time. Early on the changes will be simple like hair color and eye color but more drastic changes will take a while. Hundreds going on thousands of years in fact…"

"Wait how exactly am I supposed to live long enough for that to happen?" Joshua asked in shock.

"Oh come on now, you don't think with all this energy and power that's going to be pumping through your body and soul in the future that your life span won't increase? I've already lived for hundreds of thousands of years and I'm not even one of the oldest entities in the known universe. You will be living for a lot longer going into the future now kid." Thoren said with a snort. "Anyways we're running out of time and I'm sure you want to go check on your family and friends so I only have one question for you. Will you let me and a few others train you?"

"You're willing to train me? What exactly do you get out of it?" Joshua asked looking a bit skeptical.

"Having someone with your potential to fight alongside in the future could only be a good thing kid, besides I know exactly what made the last Fenrir host so powerful in the first place and I'm willing to train you so that you can surpass even him. Besides that little pup in your chest won't be waking up for another few years so for now all you can really do is train until then and learn more about the new world around you. Having someone like me guide you can only be a good thing in the end." Thoren explained.

Joshua thought for a moment before taking a quick breath and looking back into the eyes of the old dwarf. "Do you mind giving me some time to think about it?"

"Sure, you've got two weeks before your world finishes its evolution anyways. The system will pretty much leave you guys on vacation until that's completed so I can wait till then. Go spend some time with your family and think about it." Thoren said before tossing him a card. "You can use that to give me call after the system finishes setting up everything. Give me your answer then."

Joshua nodded before standing up and heading towards the door at the other side of the room of where he came in from. He gave the old man one final waive before heading out and smiling at the thought of seeing his family once again. Meanwhile Thoren simply smiled before finishing off his drink. He stood up waived his hand in front of him causing a gateway to appear and stepped through. All of the furniture in the room soon disappeared after they had both left.