The next several days were a surprise, and not in a bad way. I expected Syrril, the Battlemaster of the Sylvan Guard, to be a total hardass. The type of drill sergeant who just beat the shit out of you hour after hour, day after day, with no remorse.

  Which, to be honest, he did.

  But the guy was surprisingly reasonable about it. Every fight always came with a detailed breakdown of what we did right, what we did wrong, and how we could improve. It wasn’t just our stats that improved, either. While it was hard to quantify, our martial skills had soared as well. I genuinely felt like I was becoming a better fighter and teammate, synergizing with Aerion’s fighting style, while she did the same for me.

  Those duels were generally followed by hours of meditation. Sitting cross-legged in the canopy of Sylphara a thousand feet off the ground, listening to the birds, the insects, the sound of the breeze as we cleared our minds of thought, meditating on the meaning of the self and our place in the grand cosmic design.

  “Is it just me, or is this somewhat relaxing?” Aerion asked as we walked to the arena. “Even with the, what do you call them? Beatdowns.”

  We’d just wrapped a meditation session and had the evening to ourselves. Syrril was strangely good about ensuring we had enough downtime despite our packed training schedule. When asked about it, he’d just stared wistfully into the distance and said that evenings were sacred. As if that explained everything.

  “I dunno,” I replied with a wry smile. “Those beatdowns hurt a lot.”

  Syrril had stopped going easy on us after that first bout. And he had gone easy on us, as we later found out. He didn’t hesitate to dish out damage, even if that broke bones and drew blood.

  It was hard to argue with that approach when healer Boonworthy were always on hand to heal us right after.

  “Well, sure, but it’s clear to all that you’ve changed,” Aerion replied, squeezing my hand. “You seem more at peace now. I like it.”

  Right back at you, Aerion, I thought. I felt like she’d laughed and smiled more in these past few days than she had in the past month.

  “Is it that obvious?” I asked, trying to scratch my neck, only for my fingers to hit my helmet.

  “You’d think you’d learn not to do that after all this time,” Aerion said, giggling.

  “I never asked for this,” I said in my best Adam Jensen voice.

  Aerion didn’t get it. Oh, well.

  “But, you’re right. It is strangely relaxing. Fulfilling, even. I feel more content than I’ve been in ages. Which is weird, considering there’s a literal apocalypse assaulting the world.”

  Most of it was thanks to the actual meditation, but it didn’t hurt that I’d made some significant gains to both Wisdom and Order—two stats I’d sorely neglected.

  My silken undershirt had brought my Order and Wisdom caps to 29 and 63 respectively, giving me quite a bit of headroom to expand, and both stats had soared. Order in particular, had reached its maximum a few days back, while Wisdom had jumped from 28 to 44.

  The other stats hadn’t been left behind. Hell, even Passion had increased from 24 to 33, though I suspected that had more to do with my er, private interactions with Aerion. Dominion was now 72, up from 62, Vigor gained 15 points and now sat at 66, while Cunning gained 7, bringing that to 29. Unsurprisingly, Grace had gained the most—23 points, hitting my current ceiling of 100.

  It was honestly astonishing. Sure, we had proper tutelage, which helped I’m sure, but I had to wonder if some of this was the tree’s doing as well. My stats had never increased at this rate, and especially not recently. It made me wonder why I hadn’t leveled up yet—I had to be close.

  Neither had Aerion, for that matter. In fact, she’d plateaued.

  No matter how many fights she fought, she hadn’t improved. In fact, she was barely any stronger than on the first day we sparred, her gains mostly a result of the combat experience she’d earned.

  And while the tree boosted her, it seemed there was a limit—a ceiling that we discovered was constrained by her stats. On a hunch, I asked her to dump another eight into Order, doubling that stat. She had 30 to spend, so the cost was negligible, even if my idea didn’t pay off.

  The potential benefits, on the other hand, were huge. At this point, I had a pretty solid understanding of what each stat did. All, that was, except Order.

  Dominion determined one’s physical strength. Vigor governed constitution and health. Cunning was tied to perception and awareness. Wisdom affected magic—your ability to augment and manipulate the spells you knew, and Passion was about how others responded to you. Charisma, in other words, though as Aerion had proven, natural skill could make up for a low number, which was likely true for all stats to some degree.

  Order, though? I’d had hunches in the past, but I’d never been sure. Not until Aerion doubled her Order and earned it through intense meditation.

  While I wouldn’t call the difference night and day, it was palpable. She was both stronger and faster, as though the tree’s boost had been held back by her stats. Except, she hadn’t raised her other stats at all. Order shouldn’t have done a thing for her speed and strength. Those were governed by Grace and Dominion.

  Yet now that she'd raised Order, the tree could help her more than before.

  Which sealed it. Order was a meta stat. No wonder I hadn’t been able to determine what it did. Without dumping stats into it or the boost from the elven tree, I wonder how long I’d have gone without knowing. Kind of like Luck in games, its effects were hidden and subtle.

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  Because Order was tied to the soul.

  Unfortunately, that now meant Aerion had one more stat to pay attention to. This complicated her Dominion-maximized build, which had already been getting diluted thanks to the points she had in Vigor. Becoming an all-rounder just didn’t suit Aerion’s powerset at all. We’d have to have a chat about that soon.

  I just couldn’t understand why, despite gaining several points in the stat, I hadn’t felt a difference. My speed was the same. My strength was the same. I wasn’t any more charismatic or aware.

  Considering I was the Champion of Order, you'd think I’d be attuned to it more than anything else, but nope.

  Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I did feel something. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Like my existence had more weight to it. Like I was just a bit more solid. More grounded in reality.

  It didn’t make much sense to me, and it didn’t seem to have much of an effect on anything. It helped with that peaceful mindset Aerion had mentioned, so there was that.

  Syrril had said the power of the soul manifested differently in everyone. Most gained an aura. Some gained raw power. Some developed spiritual presence—becoming sages, saints. Others, like Aerion, gained physical benefits.

  I maybe felt the beginnings of an aura, but it was faint, and I wasn’t sure it would help in combat at all. I needed more points in Order, and that meant one thing.

  “Might as well go for it,” I muttered, looking at my stat sheet.

  My silken undershirt had provided most of my gains to Order, but I still had a silken scarf, trousers, and underwear—rare-quality gear that hadn’t been initialized yet, just sitting in my inventory. All of them were of [Rare] quality, which meant I could expect similar stat gains.

  More importantly, if I wasn’t mistaken about how my class worked—and I had a lot of experience in that department, so I doubted I was—I’d likely get the option to combine them into a suit once I leveled up to D - 5. I could create an Order-maximized Armor Set.

  The issue was that, given how Order was a meta stat, I’d be better served by keeping it on all the time, even when I swapped sets. Even if all I got out of it was that strange metaphysical aura, it felt like something I ought to have active all the time—not just when I was in that particular armor.

  Besides, I wasn’t convinced that was the only thing Order did. In games, meta stats tended to be the secret hidden stat that subtly affected everything. The sort of thing that led to absurdly broken builds with game-breaking synergy if maximized.

  And if I was wrong?

  I sat down in a corner of the arena and brought out my silk underwear and trousers.

  If I was wrong, they were easily replaceable. I was sure the elves had something comparable—or better. If this didn’t pan out, I could always Uninitialize and toss them.

  “And why exactly are you Initializing your underwear in the arena?” Aerion asked, raising an eyebrow—half amused, half exasperated.

  “Call it a hunch,” I said. “And my hunches are rarely wrong.”

  Silken Underwear [Rare]

  So soft. So smoooth. So sexy!

  Essence Cost: 40

  Condition: 350/350

  Stats:

  — Vigor: 38

  — Order: 87

  — Wisdom: 19

  — Passion: 27

  — Grace: 24

  — Cunning: 17

  — Dominion: 41

  Abilities: None

  I blinked, just staring at the status screen. What was up with that 87 points to Order? My silk undershirt didn’t give a single stat above 44. What was more, the sum of all the stats was higher, despite the Essence Cost being a bit lower and the underwear being a smaller garment. That usually meant it gave fewer stats overall.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Aerion asked, seeing my frown.

  “It’s… no, nothing. Must be a coincidence,” I said, reaching out to Initialize my silk trousers.

  Silken Trousers [Rare]

  So soft. So smoooth. So sexy!

  Essence Cost: 51

  Condition: 550/550

  Stats:

  — Vigor: 13

  — Order: 99

  — Grace: 11

  — Cunning: 47

  — Dominion: 55

  Abilities: None

  That sealed the deal. Once might’ve been a coincidence, but twice in a row?

  “Care to explain?” Aerion asked.

  “Well, look for yourself,” I said, urging her to pull up her own copy of my stats. “Not only are the stats better than they ought to be, but the stat I wanted got by far and away the majority of them.”

  “That’s a good thing, yes?” Aerion asked.

  “It’s incredible!” I said. “It’s never happened before. Until now, stat distribution was totally random. Sure, there’s still a bunch of stats I don’t really want, but don’t you realize what this means?”

  “Since the tree augments your soul,” Aerion said slowly, connecting the dots, “and since Order is the stat that deals with the soul, it stands to reason that you’ll be able to direct your Initializations better?”

  “Exactly!” I replied, beaming. “And who knows what other benefits I’ll gain? Between this and reallocating powers and stats via my armor sets, I can create much more targeted builds than before.”

  I thumbed over to my Status Screen, and my excitement dimmed a bit.

  Stats:

  — Vigor: 66 (Max: 144)

  — Order: 29 (Max: 215)

  — Wisdom: 44 (Max: 82)

  — Passion: 33 (Max: 51)

  — Grace: 100 (Max: 135)

  — Cunning: 29 (Max: 133)

  — Dominion: 72: (Max: 183)

  Total Earned: 373 / 943.

  “Wow. This is such a mess,” I groaned.

  “Aren’t you pleased?” Aerion asked. “Order is now your highest stat. To be honest, I’m a little envious. Do you have any idea how long it takes me to gain that sort of overhead?”

  “Which is exactly why I chose this Blessing,” I replied. “Problem is, I’m not utilizing it. At all. My earned maximums should be at or higher than my ceilings, not the other way around! Ignoring Passion, this build is almost balanced.”

  It made me sick.

  “I see. And your plan was to maximize a single stat at a time, depending on what Armor Set you wore?” Aerion completed.

  “Yep. My Grace stat soars with my Grace-build armor equipped. The more rounded I am, the slower I’m improving at any individual stat, which ultimately means fewer overall stats in the long-run.”

  It definitely seemed like the more I relied on a single stat for anything, the more likely it was to improve. My Grace went up faster because I had a suit that prioritized that above all else, and I was sure the same was true for the others.

  I couldn’t be sure if it was a hidden property of [Armor Sets] or just the fact that having one stat far higher than the rest caused a virtuous stat growth cycle. Either way, it was clear that specialization was the way to go.

  “What I really need now are more suits, so I can redistribute stats more effectively,” I said. “But at least I’ve got plenty of overhead in all the stats I care about.”

  It was time to get serious. It was time to kick our training into overdrive.