[Congratulations on survival!]
[Recalibrating status]
[Title: Dragon Slayer Obtained!]
[Special Attribute Tab unlocked]
[Special Attributes Dexeterity and Maximum Output awakened.]
[Never Give Up]
|Status|*
We first looked at the changes in the status window, Ren eyes glowed smiling at the sight,
"Our levels went up by 10! Another 15 and we'll be at rank 1."
I stared at the Attributes without expression, as indicated by the arrows Ren's [Stamina] had gone up with while my [Mana Generation] and [Mind] went up
'My mana also doubled.'
"F+ and E+..."
"Do you know what they mean?", Ren asked hearing my mumbling,
He had a curious expression it seemed he truly didn't know what the letters really meant,
"Did your game not have them?"
Ren's eyes fell into thought soon shaking his head,
"No, it was just straight numbers instead of letters though I can assume the higher grade the better I just don't know the exact details."
"Is that so? Well for the letters they start from 'F' to 'SSS' I'm sure you understand which one is the highest."
I show him my hands pulling 1 finger down,
"These letters are grades that show how strong a person's attributes are and they are further split into '-' and '+' to show the upper and lower bounds of that grade."
"Both our games have levels, I don't know how your levels scale but levels aren't directly connected to grades since it is a mixture of talent and hard work for a level 1 who was just born the highest they could have is an attribute grade of A+ while C is the average."
"A hard working person without talent can reach A+ as well though not any higher without external means. "
"A person with even a single A+ is a monstrous talent who can take on people much higher level than them in that attribute"
I thought back to Solaris and a boy who would later be called the Spear God. In the game he had both A+ in [Strength] and [Mana Generation], but even he had a hard time keeping up with me.
"As important as talent is once a person reaches the upper ranks at rank 7 it becomes less important"
In fact it nearly became useless as once a person turned into a transcendent obtaining godhood they received an incredibly strong body that put most if not all stats at 'SSS+', As I finished explaining putting my hands down I stared at Ren who was in deep thought.
"You also had Ranks? Is it because we have games made by the same company? Also check this out, do you know about equipment stats?"
Ren pulled out his water pouch pointing at it and opened the Atlas for me to see.
'Equipment stats? Equipment was usually just ranked like people were in Witch's Wandering, it seems he is talking about other details'
"No, it only had a rank from 1-9."
Ren started to explain the equipment system, showing me the water pouch and pointing at our clothing.
"Higher Qualities mean stronger enchants…"
"That's right!", Ren smiled giving me a thumbs up
"The Atlas took aspects of both our games. Since it activated when we made contact, it feels as if the Atlas is made for us specifically."
Ren nodded in agreement pointing at the Atlas,
"Yea Especially because of this"
[Synergy: 1%]
|Synergy|*
"We get stronger the more our bond or I guess our trust increases."
Ren continued pulling up his left hand before wincing in pain quickly putting it down, opting to use his right hand.
"Why us specifically? We have no former relationship. I think it has to do with the company that made both the games, Mystosoft."
"But they released more than two games, why were only two of us sent here?"
"How could we possibly know? There could be others and we just haven't found them yet?" Ren shrugged before continuing,
"What we do know is that something or someone gave us the Atlas to do something, and if our last lives are comparable…"
"It must be something awfully difficult" I finished his sentence with a frown before standing up and starting to pack our stuff.
'My happiness and peace will never come at this rate…', Aria lamented in her mind.
"Aria don't you have a fever? We can stay longer, you know."
Having gained some semblance of trust between us Ren dropped the honorifics.
"No we should continue, although we have food it isn't enough and we don't know anything about the plants here to eat them, and don't you remember what we saw during our fall?"
Ren's eyes shimmered, nodding, he messaged his foot which was dislocated during the fight and moved back through closed reduction after the fight with the restorative water it seemed much less swollen though still painful looking.
As I was packing Ren looking at the Atlas asked,
"Aria", Ren asked looking at the Status window
"What is it?", I turned with a questioning look
"Since our |Attributes| are F and E, doesn't that make us talentless!?"
"..."
I stared at the window of the Atlas he pointed at before nodding without expression.
"Yes, in a way we are talentless trash."
It seemed this life would be rougher than the last…
…
Walking outside they first approached the corpse of the dragon by the river, Aria looked in at the creature her eyes glowing. Looking in the bag she carried she found some scales that Ren had gathered when she was asleep.
"Dark Element, this is useful against light elements."
"I thought the same, if we fashion it into armor it would be quite durable while still being light.", Ren said finding the dagger that he had stabbed in Dragon's head it seemed to have fallen off after hitting the eye.
Aria shook her head at his idea,
"We don't have the tools to make armor and in the first place we would need a skilled Armourer to make it"
"I was a blacksmith in my past life, as long as I can shape it. A set of armor shouldn't be a problem, what sucks is we can't carry all of the scales with us." Ren said with slight excitement
'A blacksmith with thin arms like that?'
Aria looked surprised before nodding quietly with curiosity of how he looked in his past while looking around she felt some mana emanating from the Dragon corpse.
'Is it still pouring out mana? No.. It's quite dense similar to something still living'
Walking around Aria pinpointed the location,
"Ren come over and lift me up"
"?"
Confused, Ren walked over and after hearing what she had discovered he bent down lifting her up.
'H-heavy!', the thought came to him but unable to voice it he said,
"You're as light as a feather Aria!"
Aria frowned, not understanding why he said that and instead focused on the corpse looking through a large tear made by Wrenia. She saw a white shell-like substance.
'The egg?'
It was the egg that the Dragon hatchling swallowed before they got chased nearly to death.
'It's smaller than before but it's alive or at the very least not cracked'
The egg was about 3 meters in diameter, nearly half of its original size but it still almost filled up the entire dragon's stomach, reaching out her hand Aria touched the surface.
'It's very hard no wonder the dragon didn't crack it open and decided to swallow it instead.'
But as she was touching the egg it suddenly started to glow, quickly letting go she watched in surprise,
'What was tha-'
The egg rapidly shrunk in size and in an instant flew toward Aria landing in her embrace, this caused her to tilt back,
"A-aria?"
Ren barely able to support her weight was caught off guard by the sudden movement, They both fell into the water,
"Damn… it."
His back soaked he muttered a curse, Aria sitting on his chest looked at egg in her embrace, it was about two fists in size it shimmered with grey mana,
Aria stood up helping Ren get up he started wringing his cloak asking,
"What is that?"
"A egg, the one that the Dragon had been eating before chasing us"
"You mean the one bigger than the Dragon?", Ren stared incredulously at the small egg in Aria's embrace
The Atlas appeared as the two looked at it curiously,
|Inspect|*
"Hmmm.. Adaptive and Transformation? That's quite the combination isn't it."
"It's also why it got smaller.."
Ren stared at the description with interest,
"It comes from another world just like us, and this name… Taerith? Could that be where we are right now? Or at least the continent?"
"It's a possibility", Aria stared at the egg, putting it into her pack as they resumed their journey.
…
Walking across the forest we looked at our other gains that being the |Special Attribute| tab.
|Special Attribute|*
Synergy was considered a |Special Attribute|, we skimmed past it as we already knew what it did and because we didn't seem to have a high enough percentage to use it.
|Dexterity|*
Ren smiled in joy
"How is this a Rank 1 attribute?"
It could be easily seen that this was a great attribute, being dexterous was the root of survival in general and having a skill that boosted such traits was an incredible boon, Ren felt a connection to the attribute as if he could activate it,
[Dexterity has been activated]
[Selection: Technical, Physical, and Mental dexterity]
'Let's go physical dexterity'
[Physical dexterity enhanced! Cooldown 23:59:59]
In an instant Ren felt that he understood his body more than before like he had been living in the body for several years.
'This is incredible, I even feel like I can move faster than when I first got here and that's with my injuries'
Although in the Abyss Ren could move his body perfectly at his absolute peak, switching bodies and brains distractively changed those senses making movement feel sluggish and ineffective.
Ren believed he wasn't using the body to the fullest and if he did he wouldn't injure his body so easily such as his leg nearly breaking when catching Aria at the stream during their first meeting.
'And the second effect'
[-Increase grade of one attribute]
Aria and Ren both stared at the window
'Could this be!?', Excited Ren shouted out loud
"Increase Mana Generation."
[Mana Generation N/A has turned into Mana Generation N/A, Cooldown: 23:59:59]
[Mana Generation saw no improvement, cool down canceled]
[Title Gained: System's Pity]
'A title as well?! Damn it…'
A stifled chuckle came from his side, turning Ren saw Aria covering her mouth,
"Hey don't laugh."
"Y-you're mistaken"
Aria merely looked away with a smile causing Ren to frown looking back at the Atlas,
'Increase Stamina'
[Stamina (F)--->Stamina(D)]
Ren's eyes grew surprised as he felt much more energetic and lighter than before
'6 levels? That a massive improvement'
It might have been even better than dexterity, since once Ren got to an average grade of C he could instantly jump to grade A which Aria said was the realm of a genius.
"Well let's see yours Aria"
Aria returning to her usual expression face nods, pulling up the Atlas.
|Maximum Output|*
'Mana capacity is halved.. No wonder my mana capacity has been so low.'
When she first awoke Aria was disappointed by her capacity which was half the usual amount barely allowing her to form a spell,
'This also explains why my spell was so strong before'
Back on the cliff they were against a level 120, the reason Aria could stun it for so long was not only the lightning in the sky but also the attribute, but these thoughts caused her to frown.
"But I got this attribute after the fight then how….?"
'No it could have activated during the battle '
"What's wrong Aria?", Ren asked
Sharing her thoughts Ren nodded in agreement
"That probably is the case. I feel like these attributes are mine even if the Atlas shows the messages, the point of an Atlas is to be a guide. Didn't it also say something at the end…"
Aria's eyes glowed at his words
"It said [Recalibrating], it could be that the Atlas periodically checks our condition to help us understand the abilities we obtain."
In anycase it was a good thing she was glad her mana hadn't decreased in half once more or else she would have been in trouble,
"That was quite eventful, we got a lot out of it as well. Are you ready to go?"
"Yes", Aria smiled slightly nodding
They both looked to the far distance at the sight they had seen when they fell down the cliff, it was a tree.
A Colossal Tree
Towering hundreds of meters into the sky its leaves that blocked out the sun acting as lower clouds shimmered with bright magic the colors varying sky blues, deep oranges, and cool whites but mostly a light green.
The leaves flew around with green hued magic creating a display of awe inducing immensity.
The two walked towards the tree knowing full well what it was
""A Divine Tree""
A Transcendent Tree of the 8th Rank.