Dark Souls: Stats
The Firekeeper was silent as Drake thrust the coiled sword into the firelink shrines fire pit. He was not the first unkindled to come at the toll of bells. Neither would he be the last. But then she noticed something different in the flames, smaller yet brighter, less yet purer. This fire did not seal away the dark, but it was also not tainted by it, indeed how the flames should be. The Firekeeper realized that this was no unkindled like before.
"Forgive me if this soundeth strange, for I have no eyes to see you with, but are you not an unkindled of the graves?" In a gentle, calm voice, the Firekeeper spoke.
"Mrs. Firekeeper, I am neither unkindled nor undead, I have been sent by goddess Quella to restore order, to cleanse this cursed world," Drake replied.
The Firekeeper looked on blankly for a second before giving a kind smile.
"Then I welcome you to the bonfire, Unblemished one, as you know I am the Firekeeper, I tend to the flames, and I shall tend to thee. If it is your quest to complete this divine order, you must defeat the lords, and deliver them to there thrones, cleansing them with thy divine power. To this end, I am at your side."
Although not precisely the same, Drake noticed the words that the Firekeeper spoke were remarkably similar to those spoken in the game, it seemed the actions he must take to save this world were the same as what was done to repeat the cursed cycle in the game. Although this time around, he would cleanse the soul of each lost Lord freeing them of the cursed flame and then using their souls, he would travel to the kiln of the first flame to restore natural law, cleansing this world.
"Can I ask, that is to say... would you mind aiding me with this... er... quest?"
Drake asked, wondering what help the Firekeeper could offer. His souls had already been used to strengthen him by the Dark sign ring. Which was the purpose of the Firekeeper in the game, so what was her purpose now?
"Of course, I serve thee and will do as thou bid'st. Stay thy path, find the lords to cleanse the fire, and I will, in return, help you focus your soul, allowing you to choose your own path." she replied in a calming voice.
"This focusing, what exactly will it do?" Drake asked, "I have peered into thou soul... if thee wishest it, then thee can touch the darkness within me. Use it to refocus the power of thou soul." she answered.
Drake realized what she was saying, right now the ring bolstered him as a whole, but he had no particular strengths, he was not exceptionally fast or strong. He couldn't use magic or tap into his own divine powers, the dark sign ring allowed him to accumulate power, but it was split and balanced between his basic attributes such as strength, speed, dexterity, and endurance. The enemies he had to face no doubt would take more than pure strength to defeat, Drake felt like magic or his divine powers would be of more use in fighting against the gods.
"It's too early to be worrying about that now, forget about all that god bollocks, my current opponent is the Swordmaster." Drake thought to himself.
It was too early to be focusing his strength into unfamiliar avenues, right now, what he needed most were speed and dexterity. He was no match for a natural-born monster such as Iudex in strength, it was his speed and planning that had won him that fight. Not to mention his next fight would be against the swordmaster, and if he didn't want to get sliced in half, he would need the speed and reflexes to dodge his Iaido, his quick draw.
"Then that's what I will do miss. Firekeeper, I wish to refocus my soul." Drake said, kneeling before the keeper. She reached forth and gently placed her palm against his forehead before saying,
"Very well, then touch the darkness within me and may thee find strength in thou chosen path."
Drake's vision blurred as dark clouds overtook his mind when it returned, he found himself standing in a world of grey fog filled with shining white souls that danced about above him. He heard the Firekeeper calling out to him, her voice echoed around this new realm.
"Let these souls, withdrawn from their vessels, manifestations of disparity, be repurposed by there new master, inhabit a new life and cast themself in a new form."
The nearby souls gathered into one and formed from a single golden soul, the world's grey fog-swirled around Drake and was sucked into the golden soul dyeing it grey. The now grey soul floated towards him, and instinctually he reached out to touch it.
Information flooded into Drake's mind, and he rationalized it as best he could. It was a representation of his strengths, and the world changed to reflect his perception of it. Out of the grey fog formed a board depicting his current status.
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"I have stats!" Drake said, overjoyed.
Drake played around with his stats, testing out the rules for re-focusing his soul.
He could directly turn a stat value into souls, filling up his free soul stat and like the game, a lot of the stats were interconnected. Vigor directly raised his HP, Attunement his FP which was essentially his mana, and so on. There were also new stats that were not found in the game such as Toughness, Charm, and Preception. These new stats were also related to core stats, for every two units of souls in a core stat, its respective sub stat would increase by one.
Taking a few points out if luck for example:
Would result in
Although it seemed these new stats were not entirely dependant on their base stats, with Charm, Wisdom, and Toughness not exactly correlating to twice the affecting stat.
"If I had to hazard a guess, my stats can be raised by methods other than souls, I'm guessing my high charm is because I've got a pretty decent new mug, not that I wasn't a looker before and you can't just go through a life like mine without accumulating a little wisdom here and there, so that explains that."
There was also a stat called divine power, most likely it was the strength of the divinity he had received from Morpheus and his faith his connection to that power.