You’ve entered a [Secure Sector]

  In this area, you will be safe from monster attacks

  Attacking others in a [Secure Sector] will result in varying penalties in accordance with frequency of breach of conduct

  The door clicked behind the duo. They’d found a Secure Sector almost right away after ascending up the ramp, which was a boon that Arthur celebrated. He had some things he wanted to try that had been bothering him for a while.

  When they entered the room, Mira looked about suspiciously, as though scouting the area. The silver glow of the sphere in the middle was present just as in the other safe rooms, but the interior was different. In the middle of the room, there was a table and a collection of soft looking chairs, much like the last one they were in. The difference in this one was that on the far side of the room, there was a single bunk-bed. It looked militaristic and bland, yet looking upon it, Arthur realized just how tired he was for the first time. He, and no doubt Mira too, had been running on pure adrenaline since the System came. When he’d gone to the aquarium before it’d already been on the cusp of evening, and it’d been at least 5 hours since. He could hardly believe that everything that had happened had been within the relatively small time frame.

  As Mira walked over to the bed to inspect it, Arthur tilted his head. “What’re you doing?”

  “I’m making sure we’re safe,” Mira answered. She lifted the blankets, sheets and mattress to look under each. “If you hadn’t noticed, this ‘System’ isn’t exactly benevolent, and I don’t trust it. I’d rather take the time to be sure than not take the time and be dead.” She continued onto the other mattress. Arthur made his way to the chairs and crashed down into one before noticing something strange. Before entering the sector, most of his lower body had been covered in the viscous blood of the abominations. Their battle at the hanging walkway had drenched him in it, while mostly sparing Mira on account of her position behind him. When he sat down, however, he could no longer feel the liquid, and looking down at his legs, confirmed it.

  “Hey, I think these Secure Sectors clean blood off of you!” He said, putting a bit of force into his voice so she would hear him. “All but your own,” she answered, now checking the walls for cracks or other breaches. Being glad that he didn’t have to be covered in blood but not thinking much more of it, he got started on doing something he’d been wanting to take care of. He opened his Identity Screen.

  

  Identity Screen

  Name: Arthur Lindow

  Title: [Heart of Devotion]

  Class: [Audacity Knight]

  Level: 21

  

  Stats

  STR: 118 {Trade off available}

  VIT: 200 {Trade off available}

  DEF: 164 {Trade off available}

  DEX: 41

  INT: 22 {Trade off available}

  

  Accord: N/A

  Link Mates: N/A

  Feats: 6

  Arthur found it humorous that his vitality landed on exactly 200 by happenstance, but what he was there for was what was directly after the number. The trade-off mechanic of the stats was something he’d wanted to play with, and he had a feeling that now would be one of his last chances for a while. He also remembered that he currently had about 40-some free points, but had missed his window to invest them on account of him going past the tenth level just barely.

  Arthur focused on the trade-off available next to his strength stat, bringing up another screen that explained what properties the stat had and which ones could be moved.

  

  Trade-offs available

  STR: Heavy weapon damage, Force application, Weight tolerance

  VIT: Health Points, Stamina

  DEF: Physical defense, Magical defense

  DEX: Light weapon damage, Mobility speed, Accuracy, Critical damage

  INT: Magical damage, Mana Points, Mana recovery

  The screen not only showed which stats could be moved, but what stats held what properties overall. The text for the ones that couldn’t be moved were red, while the ones that could were white. Arthur did his best not to think about the Trade Offer meme from a few years back upon seeing the screen.

  Strength determined heavy weapon damage, force application, and weight tolerance, with only heavy weapon damage being unable to be moved. Both force application and weight tolerance were transferable to vitality, but only one of them could be transferred. The other would have to be left with heavy weapon damage to be scaled at an increased degree off of strength.

  Trade-offs were a mechanic of stats that allowed the moving of properties between stats, for a penalty. Moving a property of one stat to another would allow the property to scale off of the stat you moved it to, while the properties left behind would scale to a greater degree. This meant that if you moved a property from a low stat, the properties of the stat left behind would be even worse. Such a feature would facilitate personalized builds, be they generalized or specialized. Normally, however, this would also be a danger. A low stat made even worse due to a trade-off in the wrong situation was tantamount to a death sentence, with low vitality or defense being a prime example.

  While usually a detriment, in some cases, like Arthur’s strength stat, it could be a boon instead. The threshold of what decided a low stat vs a high one was decided by the users level. Stats will grow no matter what, even if some need free points where others don’t. A low stat from a high level will be higher than a low stat from a low level, so the System would take the user’s level into account. Trade-offs didn’t make the stat weaker as a rule, per se, but just made the stat scale to a greater degree. This meant that stats that were high for the user’s level and were subject to a trade-off moving a property out of said stat, would become more potent as a result rather than weaker. This would not always be viable, however, as such an approach required the user to have more than one stat that was high for his, her, or their level. Moving a property you don’t care about from a high stat into a low one to make the properties you do care about stronger was an option, but a limited one. Not only that, but was also simply worse than if both stats were high.

  Arthur’s strength stat was high for his level. Not only that, but his vitality was absolutely monstrous, with defense not being far behind. He understood that no matter which stat he moved to his vitality, both properties would get stronger as a result. The question was, which one should he move?

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  He leaned back and rubbed his face with his hands. He knew that if he moved force application, he’d be able to hit harder, push and pull things easier, and so on. Moving weight tolerance would grant him better ability to lift, use heavy weapons or armor, and most importantly, withstand attacks with a shield. Not only that, but if he were to be under stress from, say, a building or boulder falling onto him, he could take the weight easier, whereas low weight tolerance in such a situation could spell death. High weight tolerance also allowed the user to take falls easier.

  In the end, it wasn’t really a question. While he had a high strength stat, and the ability to turn himself into a brawler, Arthur was not a damage dealer; he was a tank. Weight tolerance was the optimal choice for what he wanted to do with his build, and doing so would still make his force application and heavy weapon damage stronger. If his strength was high for his level, that is. He wasn’t sure, but supposed he’d find out soon. With his deliberation over, Arthur chose to move weight tolerance to his vitality stat.

  

  Weight tolerance

  STR ? VIT

  Accept?

  YES – NO

  Arthur accepted the prompt. He felt a major buzz in his body, but nothing more. The previous screen changed, and weight tolerance was under vitality now. The text for the strength stats properties were red now as well, showing that he could no longer move any properties from it. Moving on, he moved the rest of the stats that he wanted to vitality, finishing with the screen being moderately different from the start.

  

  Trade-offs available

  STR: Heavy weapon damage, Force application

  VIT: Health Points, Stamina, Weight tolerance, Mana recovery

  DEF: Physical defense, Magical defense

  DEX: Light weapon damage, Mobility speed, Accuracy, Critical damage

  INT: Magical damage, Mana Points

  Arthur was satisfied with his changes. He’d moved mana recovery to his vitality stat rather than mana points for one reason; the interaction of a high mana recovery contradicted with a low overall mana count. If it worked how he assumed, a low mana count would boost how much mana recovery refilled. Since mana recovery was an independent entity, he hoped that it didn’t depend upon how much mana one had overall. If he was correct, that would mean that if an extreme amount of mana recovery glorified a low overall mana count, the mana points of the subject would refill so fast that overall low mana points were negligible. Not only that, but eventually, his mana recovery would become so vigorous that he would seem to have endless amounts of mana. If it worked as he hoped, he’d effectively turned his penalized mana count into a strength. All he would need to do would be to do what he wanted to anyway, pumping points into his vitality stat.

  Arthur closed his Identity Screen with a satisfied look. He’d wanted to do that for a long time, but hadn’t had the chance until now. With him finished with customizing his stats, he looked back to find Mira sitting on the bed with a far off look in her eyes. She sat slouched over and looking towards the floor, listless. He’d known that something was wrong with Mira, but was still surprised to see her so dejected. Arthur got up from his chair and sat next to her, with her either not noticing or not caring.

  They sat in silence for a long moment. There was no sound but for the soft, soothing hum of the sphere in the middle of the room. The distance between the two of them and the sphere was enough that its hum was hardly noticeable. Arthur was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, matching posture with Mira. They were sitting close together, the space between their shoulders only slight. Arthur spoke first, attempting to lighten her mood. “If you keep looking at the floor like that, it might think it owes you money.” Mira scoffed, but her countenance was lighter, though it was nearly indistinguishable.

  After a long while, Mira spoke next. “You don’t have to sit here with me, you know. I’ll be fine.” Her voice was as chilly as ever, but her imperfect posture remained the same. “I know, but just because you will be okay on your own doesn’t mean you should have to be alone.” Mira turned to look at him for the first time, her narrowed eyes an icy dagger. “Then let me be more clear; go away.” Mira’s tone was practiced and authoritarian, as though she’d been through this routine dozens of times with smitten men, women, and others. For most of her adult life, she’d been harassed. She’d only ever wanted to be left alone, but people would objectify her and then justify it as though the natural shape of her body was somehow her fault. As though she dressed for attention when fitted clothes were simply the optimal choice for exercise or physical activity. In approaching her, they’d never even been considerate of her as a person, and she’d had to be blunt more times than she cared to count.

  Arthur, on the other hand, was intimately familiar with sorrow. He knew what it looked like when someone was in turmoil internally and tried to put a face on over it. He didn’t know how best to help other people dealing with it, but knew that there was one thing he wouldn’t do; leave.

  “No.”

  Mira’s eyes narrowed even more, her sharp and glacial brown eyes piercing his calm, gentle yet unrelenting viridescent eyes. They didn’t stray from hers for even a single moment as it dragged on in silence, the slight hum of the sphere in the background. Finally, she sucked her teeth in an annoyed sneer. She returned her eyes to the floor, but didn’t move. A long time passed that way, neither of them moving or talking. After nearly an hour, Mira spoke again.

  “Do you… have anyone outside of here to get back to?” Her voice was small and hesitant, as though regretful about something. Arthur was taken aback to hear her in a state so antithetical to her stern nature, but he answered promptly in an also soft voice. “I have a family… my mother and father live a fair bit away and were excited to get me out of the house for college years ago. I started a bit late because I was held back a grade, but even then they were kind and understanding,” He smiled sadly. “I… don’t know if they’re still alive.” He turned to look at Mira again. “What about you?” She shifted uncomfortably, inadvertently touching shoulders with Arthur. “I have a group of friends… I don’t know where they are, but I’m going to find them after this is all over.” She sighed. “I also have an older brother, but… I don’t know. He wasn’t even in the country when this all started.” She pursed her lips. Arthur could tell that she wasn’t used to talking about herself to someone who’d been a stranger only half a day ago. He nodded, then bumped his shoulder against hers. “Hey, you’ll find him. I know you will.” She looked up at him with hesitant skepticism. “How would you know that? We might be stuck in here, but the world out there is almost certainly turned to shit. There’s probably not even any way to get to other countries anymore.”

  Arthur smiled warmly. “You don’t strike me as the type of person to let something like that stop you. Look at yourself, you’re here slaying horrifying monsters with a metal stick. And while I know we haven’t known each other long, you are without a doubt the strongest person I’ve ever met, both inside and out.” His soft green eyes met Mira’s, the moment of verdant radiance from earlier that day flashing before her eyes. “You can do it. I believe in you.” She knit her eyebrows together before looking down again. “I’ll… try. Thanks.”

  Arthur assumed that must’ve been the source of her sour mood. He hoped that he helped at least the slightest bit, as he truly meant everything he’d said. They sat in silence again, somehow the weight of the moment feeling lighter. The hum of the sphere in the middle of the room marched ever onward, as their shoulders seemed ever so slightly closer. After a long time sitting with each other, Mira spoke again.

  “We should get some rest. Who knows what horrors we’ll face tomorrow.” She stood, taking off her shoulder sling backpack. “I’ll let you have the top bunk.”

  “Let me? I’m calling it myself!” Arthur chuckled, getting up as well. He climbed up the ladder with childish glee, prompting a scoff from Mira. After reaching the top bunk, he poked his head over the side. “Sleep well. I’ll see about getting up in a few hours.” She nodded. “See you.” With that, Arthur’s head popped back behind the railing of the bed.

  After his head was back behind the railing, Mira couldn’t help but suppress a chuckle. She was sure that he thought she’d been cross because of what they’d just talked about, but that hadn’t been it. She was appreciative nonetheless for his supportiveness, as unnecessary as it was. As she got into bed and under the blankets fully clothed in her ragged work pants and uniform shirt, she thought of the battle they’d had before reaching the Secure Sector. The abominations they’d faced were plentiful, with fish of dozens of varieties serving as the main bodies of the monsters. What Arthur didn’t know, however, and what Mira had kept from him, was that they were not all fish.

  As Mira tucked in, she remembered the first human abominations she’d seen, who Arthur would have recognized as Logan and Brian. They’d hung limply from the same spindled bone legs as the fish had, their limbs flopping about as their chest areas opened up to mouths filled with the same jagged teeth. Mira assumed that she wouldn’t rest well no matter what after such a sight, even after destroying the horrors with a single blow. She thought of Mrs. Bennet, who’d come not long after. Her glasses had been broken, and she’d been full of stab wounds, and even a bite removing her entire shoulder. Mira felt sick and angry all over again, but was glad that Arthur didn’t know that some of the blood that had been covering him was that of his second family. Arthur had a precious heart and needed to be protected.

  Mira ejected the traitorous stray thought with the efficiency of a steel piston. While she was glad he didn’t know, that didn’t mean he was her responsibility. He could take care of himself, just as she had.

  She lied down, her mind continuing to race. As her head alighted on her pillow, and a stray few strands of hair slid down her face, they passed brown eyes filled with an ice-cold fury. As if a raging fire could be frigid and frozen, her eyes held in them the promise of retribution against the abominations that filled this place. After all, revenge was always best served cold.