26. Strange Attributes
The time had been set for another departure, and all the guides in the caravan had returned safely, having carved a path through the swampy area ahead that was full of all kinds of dangers that even the thunder rhinoceros could pass. By the time we received word of our departure, it was the seventh day after the icy rain, and the water had disappeared from the Star Lake grassland, which was becoming greener and greener, a sea of life everywhere. Master Payles was worried about the weather and wanted to cross the northern foothills of the Pai plateau as early as possible, the conditions were much more complicated than in the Star Lake meadow, where the weather conditions were said to be more extreme, often cloudless one minute and torrential rain the next, sunny and sweaty in the morning, snow flurries in the afternoon and cotton clothing.
I was sitting on a chair looking at the parchment scrolls about herbs. Since I last entered deep meditation, I found that my memory was much stronger than before, many of the raw and difficult symbols and characters, even if I couldn't understand them, I could memorise them by rote and throw them into the golden lake in my mind, of course this doesn't count as entering a state of deep meditation, but rather I have thus found a shortcut to learning, I could establish a connection with that golden lake in my head and have what I saw with my eyes stored in a video format and could categorise it as I saw fit. I secretly told old Kuru about this strange ability of mine, and he explained that it was probably because my last Deep Awakening had strengthened my mental power, and that in the orc tribes, orc sorcerers only had a chance of comprehending this ability, known as 'quick thinking', when their mental power exceeded twenty-five. I did not improve my reading comprehension of the ancient orcish language on the parchment scrolls, but often I memorised them, waited for Old Kuru's patient explanation, and then memorised them word for word, just like a human tape recorder.
Old Kulu mentioned the specific numerical value of mental power, but I couldn't understand exactly what the concept of mental power twenty-five was, so he gave me another lecture. This is a milestone in the history of human magic. A scholar of magic once put forward the idea that any human being (including orcs, elves, dwarves, demons, barbarians, etc.) has different attribute values, and they can be roughly divided into five categories: strength, agility, physique, magical power and mental power, and every ability of the human body is closely related to these five attributes, and Even an unarmed civilian or a child has these five attributes, and they change all the time, taking on a parabolic shape as the body grows, becomes ill and ages, while targeted training can improve various abilities. Using the average of the physical attributes of one hundred normal adult men as a reference, he sets a standard.
An adult male human with a normal awakened magic pool has the following physical attributes: Strength 10, Agility 10, Physique 10, Magic Power 10 and Mental Power 10.
These are the standard attributes of a male human who has not awakened his magical pool, which later became known as the Five Wonders. That magical scholar gave a cursory introduction: Strength is a combination of each person's attack power, body weight capacity, and wrist strength. Agility is a combination of running speed, dodging ability, balance, and attack speed. Physique is a combination of stamina, physical defence, and recovery. Magic Power is the combined ability of Magic Attack Power, Magic Power Value. Mental power is a combination of magical resistance, mana recovery speed, magical perception and intelligence. And a series of tests were standardised and used to this day.
This is a standard reference value, and it is not unusual for some people to have more or less of certain attributes. The physical attributes of adult women are also measured against the physical attributes of men, and their average attributes are: Strength 8, Agility 9, Physique 9, Magical Power 10 and Mental Power 11.
Without the awakening of the magic pool, the magic power attribute would be infinitely closer to 0.
Adult wolf orcs are far superior to the average human in terms of strength, agility and physique, with strength 14, agility 15, physique 13, (without self-healing abilities) magic power 6 and mental power 7.
Old Kru only listed a few typical examples, this kind of digitisation of individual abilities was a bit like the sports tests we had in those days, Kurtz and I were interested and started to gather around Old Kru to ask him to predict what our two attributes would be. I can only give you a general idea, and it's not very accurate either, so don't pester me after you've heard it."
Naturally we both agreed, like two pitiful deer waiting to be fed, and tilted our little faces up to wait for the old kuru to speak, which was much more interesting than telling a story.
"Neither of you have been awakened and have little magical power, and even though Ka's body is different from the others, the little magical power you have is still less than 0.1 and negligible. Aziz's strength has been growing fast lately, he's almost at 10, his agility is a bit more, let's say 11, his physique is much worse, 9, and his mental strength, hmph! It would be nice to have 5." Old Kulu was like chopping cabbage in a vegetable patch, miserable karate to Kuzi, ouch! Not bad, both Kuz and I thought it was still funny.
"Come on say ka's, say ka's." Kuz yelled, and I was full of anticipation.
Old Kulu looked at me for a long time before he said softly to both of us, "It doesn't matter what I say about Aziz, but what Ka has to say about Ka, you two should hear it and pretend you never heard it, don't say anything about it, it's a matter of life and death, remember that Kuz, although you are seven years older than Ka, you are not as mature as Ka, don't Remember what I said."
"Yes, Master!" Kuzi promised.
The old kuru went to take another cigarette out of his pocket, but when he found that there was only a short one left, he finally relented and put it back with a sigh. Licking his dry lips he finally lowered his voice and said, "Ka's grade is small and his attributes will grow quickly. Strength would be almost 2 by now, agility almost 4 I think, physique a little over 3, magic power 0.1, mental power this I can't say, but I don't think it would be less than 25, because this line is the 'quick thinking' basic line, I think there are three integral factors why Ka's mental power is so high, first, from two years ago From the beginning of the count, Jia's body was constantly damaged by fire-attribute magic, and her body developed resistance to fire-attribute magic, and the increased fire resistance extremely stimulated the growth of mental power. Secondly, he kept learning. Learning is the fastest way to grow his mental power. In the past two years, Jia has learnt orcish, imperial language, herbalism and pharmacy, which also contributed to the growth of mental power. The third point is that the meditation created by the Elves can restore magical power quickly, and at the same time, it can also grow magical power and grow mental power continuously and slowly. And it is very likely that Ka was strengthened in his spiritual power during deep meditation."
I wondered if this was another fucking manifestation of parochialism after listening to the old kuru.
In the few days we waited for the caravan to leave, Kurtz and I had slowly become familiar with the men in the caravan, who used to meet and get to know each other, but only as the grandsons and young apprentices of Old Kulu, who usually just ran around the hills and had fun, or else did odd jobs in the caravan, occasionally boiling and delivering medicine for Old Kulu. No one would have given us a second glance if it wasn't for old Kulu's sake. But recently someone started to find out that Kurtz and I had the recipe for the mysterious orc cuisine in our hands and were able to make it in style, which was just remarkable. Just think of the people in front of you who want to find us both to make a roast to satisfy their cravings. Those who think far enough ahead will turn the tables on us and ask if we want to see the human world, and if we do, they will take us on a free tour. What's this, some kind of weird uncle tricking a girl with a little goldfish? Even Kurtz didn't want to hear more about it. To avoid trouble, I didn't even go out of my tent, I just stayed inside and read the parchment scrolls that old Kulu had given me on herbalism. And since our tent was in a remote corner of the camp, no one would notice if we did the occasional spell in it. I've been a bit obsessed with spells lately, it's very cool to have your fingers gathering magic and drawing gorgeous symbols in the air, and it's good for my health after all, cleansing my body of fire poison! Then I discovered that the "warmth" spell was good too, it also restored my energy and I was less likely to get tired when I read a book after I had done it, it was only a tiny difference but it was better than nothing!
As I was reading, Kurtz came running in from outside, sweating, since I had locked myself in the tent to read, he had been grounded by the old kuru and was not allowed to leave the camp. All he could do was practise the basic harpoon manoeuvres outside the tent, getting all sweaty and smelling sour every time. He rushes over to the wooden box I use as a desk, pokes the harpoon aside, picks up the canteen and pours a big gulp of water into his mouth, then burps contentedly.
I gave Kurtz a dry glare and said, "How many times have I told you not to drink a lot of water after strenuous exercise, you'll blow up your lungs. Why don't you listen!"
"I'm a werewolf, I've been drinking water like this since I was a kid. It's okay!" Kurtz put the kettle down, pinched another piece of jerky from the plate on the table and dropped it into his mouth slurring, "I almost forgot, I came in to tell you that the woman from the dance group who took us in to cook the other day, oh, that's Fred's date came over, looks like she's here to see you."