Finally He Fucking Distributes His Stat Points
Having grown more accustomed to his new weapon, Riley had been awarded with an extra point of Dexterity. He looked at the cans that he had been using as target practice: four of them were laying on their side, top half blown off. Having expended eight bullets, this meant that he had an accuracy rating of 50%. Riley knew that in a real fight, he wouldn't have much time to take aim; on the other hand, targets would be much bigger. However, he was using up 20 mana per bullet, which could become very costly very quickly if he didn't hit his shots.
'Well, guess I'll hit the bookstore tomorrow to find ways to increase my accuracy. Or, maybe it's finally time to spend my stat points. Yeah, it's definitely time, considering that the enemies are getting progressively stronger.'
Riley took aim with the final bullet at an apple that he had placed down. Having already shot several times, Riley had somewhat gotten used to the gun's recoil. Confidently, he lifted the gun up to eye level and took aim. Previously, his hands shook with nervousness whenever he had tried to shoot a target. This new-found confidence of his greatly reduced the amount of shaking, and he pulled the trigger with ease.
The bullet pierced through the apple, and a window appeared.
"Due to diligent training, your Dexterity has increased by 1 point."
"Your passive stat gains are now at 5/5. The cap has been reached. Reset will happen at level 21."
Upon closing the window, another popped up.
"Due to the repetition of a certain action, the skill <Bullet Time> has been gained!'
"<Bullet Time> Toggle skill.
"Mana cost: 10 per second."
"Cooldown: No Cooldown."
"Pre-requisites: Aiming down sights with one eye closed."
"Description: Upon casting this spell, the user's senses and reaction time are heightened, granting the user the ability to perceive his environment and the world in slow-motion. In this state, the world moves at 30% reduced speed. This ability only affects the perception of time, as such the user is not able to move faster."
'Wait, that actually sounds very overpowered. This means that I'll have more time to think about who or what I want to shoot. Obviously I won't be able to move faster — that's what <Extreme Agility> is for, anyway. Guess I'll test it out now.'
Walking over to his targets, Riley picked up the remaining apple that he hadn't shot. Holding his gun in his right hand and the apple in the other, Riley threw it up in the air. As soon as the apple had left his hand, Riley brought the gun up to eye level. Closing one eye, he cast <Bullet Time>.
Riley immediately noticed the apple's descent slowing down. This gave him enough time to align his sights with the apple, and he proceeded to pull the trigger.
*Click.*
*Thud.*
Confused by excitement over his new skill, Riley had forgotten that he had already expended all of his bullets. The maneuver made him feel like he was in the Matrix universe: time slowing down, allowing him enough time to accurately take aim at the apple. If not for the fact that he had no ammo, Riley would've bet his life savings that the shot would have hit.
Collecting all the broken targets and throwing them in the trash, Riley decided to fill up the gun's magazine completely before heading to bed. After all, there was school tomorrow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey Riley!"
"Oh hey, Kyle. How're you doing?"
"I'm fine, but how are YOU doing? My mom told me about the robbery last night! Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"Oh yeah, about that. Well, I've just been so busy, with all the police questioning and stuff, that I actually completely forgot. Sorry about that."
"So, you mean gaming?"
"Haha, believe it or not, I haven't played games for almost three days."
'Well, not video games at least.'
Kyle's eyes widened.
"What? You haven't played games for three days?"
Kyle reached out his arm and placed the back of his hand on Riley's forehead.
"That's weird, your temperature is fine. Something's not right here, you're definitely sick. Come, we'll go to the nurse's office together."
Riley laughed and brushed away Kyle's hand, as a huge grin spread across his face.
"Oh screw you."
"Well, if you haven't been gaming, what have you been up to?"
"I've been studying for finals. You know, my mom's been nagging me a ton recently."
"Hah, damn. Never thought I'd see the day where Riley would actually be studying. Then again, if you didn't work hard, she'd probably never leave you alone for summer break right? I remember that time when you flunked real bad — your mom confiscated your computer for a month."
"Oh shit, that was the worst!"
*Rrrrrringgg*
"Oh, class is starting. Lunch later?"
"Of course."
"Aight. See ya."
Reaching the classroom where he had first period, Riley flopped down at the only table that was available at the back of the class and pulled out his textbooks. Whilst doing so, he summoned his "Status" menu. He had leveled up 15 times within a few days of gaining his powers, which he felt was good progress.
'Holy crap.'
Upon seeing the menu, Riley's jaws dropped. Sure, he knew he was level 16, but seeing a total of 45 stat points waiting to be allocated was still a shock.
'Why did I wait so long to distribute them? I guess I've just been so busy that I keep forgetting. It's been a very long week…'
Looking at his current stats, they were: 27 Strength, 25 Dexterity, 25 Vitality, 32 Intelligence, 22 Wisdom, 26 Charisma, and 20 Luck. Riley pondered if it was worth dumping all of his points into a single stat.
Putting all 45 points into Dexterity, he would possibly be able to run three times faster. However, that seemed much too easy. Compared to what you received in games, 45 points was way too much. Usually, you would receive one stat point per level, which was a third of what Riley was receiving. Thus, he suspected that the benefits from a specific stat would decrease with each point — or specific number of points — that he allocated to that stat; that is to say, it suffered from diminishing returns.
'Alright, I need to think this through properly. I definitely wasn't strong enough for my last encounter. Individually, maybe. But if Mr. X didn't bail me out, I would've died there, one hundred percent. I might have been pretty strong in the beginning, but it makes sense that with each mission I complete, the stronger my enemies get.'
"Riley, can you please come up and answer this question?"
The teacher's request pulled Riley back into reality, and he jumped up in surprise. Answering affirmatively, he made his way up towards the whiteboard. As he was approaching the board, he took in the problem. It was a very complex geometry question. Scratching his head, he wrote out a list of formulas that he remembered, but none of them applied.
"Here's a tip. Write out all the variables, then use algebra to rearrange them in such a way that can be easily solved."
After following the teacher's advice, Riley was able to solve the problem with relative ease.
"Good job! You may return to your seat. Now class, I hope that you're all able to learn from Riley's working. As you can see, he tried to apply some formulas in the beginning but it didn't work out. However, after writing out all the variables in a clear manner then properly using algebra to arrange them into a solvable equation, he was able to quickly get the answer. That's the magic of mathematics — solving not by rote learning or memorization, but through understanding how the different branches of maths complement each other, then using logic to decode it.
As Riley was returning to his seat, he had an epiphany. Although his abilities made life similar to a game, he certainly shouldn't treat it exactly like one. In games, notably MMORPGs, it was encouraged to specialize in specific things instead of being an all-rounder, as you had other party members to supplement your weaknesses. However, right now, that did not apply to Riley's Gift of the Roleplayer. It was entirely up to him to attack, defend, or even heal himself. Riley started thinking about all of his encounters.
'Strength is definitely important; that's what most of my attacks have relied on. Dexterity too, since [Dodge Step] and <Extreme Agility> have been extremely clutch abilities that have saved my life and won me the fight on multiple occasions. Plus, Dex will be important for my new gun as well, as it increases my accuracy.
With that decided, Riley listed down his stats in his notebook, and drew a star next to Strength and Dexterity.
'So far, Vitality hasn't really been that important. In battle, I'm either doing the beating or getting beaten up. If I can't outclass my opponents with my Dex and Str, then I just get pummelled. At this stage, I'm not sure if I can justify putting points into Vitality.'
Next were Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Although they would definitely be helpful for school, Riley realized that his Intelligence was somehow significantly higher than the rest of his stats, and it hadn't really proved useful in any of his missions thus far.
'Missions are the fastest way for me to get experience for now, which directly translates to more stat points. None of these three stats are going to give me an edge like combative stats will.'
Riley crossed out the three stats and moved on.
The final stat was Luck. Riley hated the idea of Luck as a stat. It was just an over glorified coin flip. However, no matter how arbitrary, the fact of the matter was that increasing his Luck meant that his critical hit chance increased. And that was definitely important in combat.
With his brief analysis, Riley had shortlisted a total of 3 stats: Dexterity, Strength, and Luck, in descending order of importance. Riley took a moment to think, before nodding and allocating his stats.
Strength: 27 (+15)
Dexterity: 25 (+20)
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 20 (+10)
"Are you sure you'd like to make these changes?"
"Confirm"
Strength: 42
Dexterity: 45
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 30
"Congratulations! Due to betting a huge chunk of points into Luck, your Strength, Dexterity, and Luck has increased by 1"
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Patch 25.0
- Regular biweekly update
Name: Riley Petesgeralt
Age: 16
Job: The Roleplayer
Class: Vigilante
Level: 16
HP: 250
MP: 220
EXP: 138/400
Strength: 43 (+16)
Dexterity: 46 (+23)
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 31 (+11)
Skills:
Roleplayer's Mind
Virtual Body
Analyze (Level 5)
Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)
Physical Endurance (Level 3)
The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)
Dodge Step (Level 2)
Counter Flip (Level 1)
Leg Sweep (Level 2)
Power Punch (Level 2)
Extreme Agility (Level 2)
Sense Danger (Level 2)
Trash Talk (Level 1)
Power Swing (Level 4)
Quick Draw (Level 1)
Minimap (Level 2)
Incognito (Level 4)
Bullet Party (Level 1)
Bullet Time (Level 1)
Equipment:
Vigilante's Mask (Level 3/5)
Vigilante's Cloak (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Pants (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Gloves (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Shoes (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Gun (Level 1/5)
Full set bonus unlocked: Shadow World