Dreadnaught

“I’m glad everything is up to your standard Captain. None of us had ever owned a ship before, so we were uncertain if it was sufficient,” Ford had an apologetic look on his face as he spoke.

“How did you work if you didn’t own a ship?” I asked.

“We would wait for a big slow ship to pass through our territory, and then we would swim after it, and climb aboard. The older among us would fight off the guards while the youngers would stuff the bags with any loot that the water wouldn’t spoil. Then we would just jump back into the sea. No aquatic species would ever ride ships as slow as the ones we hit, and a non-aquatic species challenging an aquatic species underwater, regardless if it’s the wrong habitat for the aquatic species, is generally considered suicide if the non-aquatic isn’t at least 25 levels above. 50 if the water is similar to the aquatic species’ normal habitat. Even higher if it’s the correct habitat.”

“Is the difference that great?”

“I’m surprised you even need to ask that. Did no land dwellers ever challenge aquatic species where you're from?”

I thought back to the marine animals on Earth and how they trounced us in every way under water. Many fish even had 360 degree vision. I understand why Ford would ask me that. I wasn’t sure if I should mention that my world only had humans, so I decided to leave it somewhat ambiguous.

“No, it was the same. I just thought the system might even the odds.”

“Maybe if the aquatic fighter only had crafting classes, but even most of those classes have something that would tip the balance in underwater combat. Generally, the system only increases the disparity. Only reason sea dwellers even use ships is because our shipwrights make the fastest ships around and the convenience of having a lot of mobile storage space. Not to mention that we can keep moving in our sleep with a ship. Going as slow as human ships though, even if it’s better in the numbers, is just too slow. It’s like being forced to crawl when you’re made to run”

That makes… a lot of sense. Even if they had a ship barely half their speed, with the cargo space and non-stop progress, it would be worth it, but people would choose speed over function when buying cars all the time on Earth. I guess fast is just fun.

“Hey, have you guys been below deck yet?”

“Yes, Captain. Would you like me to show you around?”

“Yes.”

The first thing on the tour was the first cargo space in the back of the ship. It was massive for only being one of two cargo spaces on this ship, and the second one at the front of the ship was just as large. If you were willing to take the hit to your speed, I bet you could fit a semi-trailer worth of stuff in each. In between them was the kitchen, the brig, and the crew’s quarters. The kitchen was rather small. It consisted of a cabinet for spices, not that we had any, a cabinet fortunately stocked with cooking utensils, a drawer with steel silverware, a box filled with wooden plates, and a stove that uses what Ford told me was a heating rune. 

Ford was surprised that there was even that much, since deep-elves, along with most other aquatic species, don’t actually need to cook their food. A combination of mostly living in places where it would be difficult to cook food, and having food plentiful enough that food storage is usually redundant meant that they evolved to be able to eat raw foods just fine. Although, I guess it would be more apt to say that they were always using that trait, so it never got phased out like it did for many land dwelling species, like humans. Still, it will be useful if we ever have hostig… er, guests.

The brig was just two cells across from each other. They were separated from the wall and had steel flooring, so that a particularly zealous prisoner couldn’t choose to take the whole ship down, regardless if they live. None of the crew would die, but it would suck to lose such a nice ship, so I was glad they were built that way. I doubt they would hold anyone too high leveled, but I would personally handle people that strong. If the messages were to be believed, I had at least a 41 level head start ahead of anyone without the [Legendary Prodigy] [Title] sitting as free stat points, on top of the double free points for every level. I also suspect legendary foundation classes receive more pre-allocated stats as well.

The crew’s quarters were rather simple. There were eight hammocks, with four of them being double-wide. They were secured to dividers which came out from the wall. A small wall came down from the ceiling, ending just below the hammocks, turning each set up into a cubby, to provide a little privacy. The cubbies were arranged symmetrically along the port and starboard sides, with the four single-wide hammock cubbies in the middle. Upon closer inspection, each cubby had a small lockbox secured to the floor for personal effects. Judging by the lack of keys for most of the boxes, rooms had already been chosen, and at least two people decided to share a double-wide hammock. 

“Thus concludes the tour, Captain” Ford gave an exaggerated bow as though he had just starred in a play.

“Thank you, Ford. I’ll have to check my quarters on my own, but something takes more importance.”

“What would that be, Captain?”

“My Status page”

I had been thinking about what to do with my free stats during the tour. I can get an idea of what my classes do based on their main stats and my skills, but I wasn’t sure yet. I also didn’t know what kind of effects they would have. Back in VoV, they were just numbers. They affected damage, speed, and resources. That’s it. Now though they could have additional effects. What if too much strength causes my muscles to be so unproportionally strong that my bones break. I know there was lore around the stats, but I never went into the lore unless it was nautical or otherwise related. I could tell you the ship of every obscure pirate captain in the lore, but I would be screwed if someone asked me the name of the emperor of the game’s largest power.

“As you know, I came from a systemless world. I have free points from when I gained the System, but I’m unsure what to do with them. I have a faint clue what each stat does, and I don’t want to accidentally crush my bones by over investing in strength.”

Ford gave a hearty chuckle at my worry. “You need not fear such a thing. I would explain why, but Helena, my son’s wife, would do a much better job. System lore, theology, and history are intrinsic to one another, and she happens to be an expert in all three. She already has experience teaching the children, so she should be able to teach you too.”

We went above deck and Ford pointed toward a woman studying the rope knots for the sails. I walked up to the one she was inspecting and started to untie it. I had experience from a few vr games that aimed for realism. At first she panicked, after all, none of the elves had ever operated on a ship, so none of them would know how to retie the knot. Then she saw it was me, and watched with a determination that reminded me of when I first played those vr games. I never sank, the Dread Captain Riggz never sank after all, but I did have a few close calls in those vr games. If I had studied medicine as fervently as I studied knots at the time, I would have been an M.D. in three years.

As I re-tied the knot with careful precision, I turned to Helena.

“If you ever want to know anything about the ship, just ask me.”

“Definitely Captain, but do you need something from me? It doesn’t feel like you just wanted to show me how to tie the knot.” She wasn’t wrong, but I would have done the same regardless if I needed something else.

“Yes, I was wondering if you could help me with my Status page. I have free points from gaining the system, and hoped you could teach me some System lore so I can make an informed decision.”

“Of course! I would never miss a chance to talk about the god’s greatest gift to Aesirvale. I’m glad you came to me. To start, don’t invest your free points for a while.” That caught me off guard, but I gestured for her to continue. “We’ll discuss what each stat does later, but I must explain something else first. Stats aren’t an increase to your abilities, but a representation of what’s already there. Of course, gaining stats does appear to increase your abilities, but that is only really true for free stats. Stats from other sources are just representations of new power. In that vein, you can increase your stats by exercising them. This gets harder the higher your stats get, until you hit the ‘wall’.”

“The ‘wall’ is a metaphor for the peak stat you can get without levels, [Titles], or other extraordinary sources. After the wall, the only way you’ll ever raise that stat outside of aforementioned extraordinary sources, is by achieving nigh impossible feats that exemplify whatever stat was raised. For most stats in most individuals, the ‘wall’ is at 10 in a stat. Individuals will have stats they’re more or less gifted in, but that’s a single point difference in all but the most extreme cases. Different races and even species in each race also are pre-dispositioned for different stats. Minotaurs,for example, have higher Endurance, Strength, and Constitution ‘walls’, but their mental stats, Dexterity, and Agility take a hit in exchange. We deep-elves have higher ‘walls’ in both our physical and mental stats, especially Endurance, Agility, and Wisdom, but our Qi Stats are abysmal. Most elves species only spec in Agility and two other stats, one of which is usually Dexterity or Intelligence, and take a hit to their Strength and two other stats, commonly Endurance and Vitality.” Helena spoke with such a serious tone that I could only be dragged into her explanation. It made a lot of sense too. Different Races are going to have evolved to be better at different things. Obviously a minotaur was going to be able to achieve a greater natural strength than a human. The fact that stats aren’t artificially increasing my abilities, but just representing them is strangely satisfying as well. It’s my own power rather than less. 

“So I should train my stats to their ‘walls’ before using points or leveling because it’s almost like wasting the point otherwise?”

“Exactly. The ‘wall’ is a very good example of how the System incentivises not using shortcuts. There is one small detail though. It’s good news I promise.” I raised my eyebrow questioningly. 

“You’re a world-traveler. World-travelers are rare, like once in a hundred millenia rare, but the world has been around long enough that there are a few records of them on arrival. These records are the first thing every historian memorizes, on the off chance they ever encounter a new world-traveler. You see, world-travelers are unique in many ways. One of which is that they aren’t born with the System. This means when they first arrive in Aiservale, their very being has to adapt with the System. During this time, their ‘walls’ are malleable. They practically don’t exist. That means that as long as you have something heavy enough, you can grow your Strength indefinitely in this period. Or never ending Endurance growth by constantly running. It still gets more difficult to grow higher stats, but it isn’t as exponential as with the ‘wall’ looming. This period is around 3 weeks.”

“That doesn’t seem that long, shouldn’t we have started already?” I was concerned at her nonchalance at an advantage I might be losing out on. I already felt my stomach squeeze at the idea of a deadline.

“We have started. One method of increasing Intelligence early on is by taking in vast amounts of information in a short period of time.” As Helena said that I got a notification.

“See, it looks like you just got notified about an increase.” Apparently it’s pretty obvious when someone looks at System windows.

“I hope you're ready, because for these next three weeks, I’m going to run you into the ground, Captain.” Those sadistic words shouldn’t be spoken with such an innocent smile!