Chương 368: Bringing Out The 'Un' In 'Undead'

So far, Nara and I had only seen people with the prefix 'Master' as the highest one around, and Nara had been confident that it would probably be the highest we would be seeing, even within the walls of a place literally dedicated to worshipping the Universal System itself. The reason was simple: The amount of time, effort, and experience required to 'rank up' a class was anything but linear. If anything, the best way to qualify it would be to say that it was completely messed up.

According to Nara, the trek up to 'Master' was somewhat as one would expect, but after that, the sheer amount of experience, effort, and time one needed to get any higher was simply immense, making it nearly impossible for anyone to reach a higher level than this, thus limiting the strength a system user could achieve through their class, leaving them only with the so-called 'stats', which weren't considered that useful in the grand scheme of things.

The 'Grand' prefix Sir Seventh possessed was three notches higher on the list than 'Master', which either showed that he knew something most didn't, or that he was a truly ancient undead and simply had had enough time to lift himself to this level. In any case, the mere sight of this man covered in robes and a mask told me instantly that he wasn't to be messed with. Unlike Ergonip, he wasn't bothering with restraining his suffocating presence much at all… Still, my attention remained focused on the painting.

It depicted a woman as its centerpiece. A woman on horseback in the middle of a battlefield. The ground wasn't visible, having been replaced with a carpet of armoured corpses. It was a bit of an odd painting. Most paintings showing such scenes usually made sure to show most of the corpses as unarmoured or poorly armoured footsoldiers. Artists liked to criticise things, and war scenes were often an occasion to show the armoured elites alive and well, overlooking a sea of dead commoners or whatever.

Here, however, the only one standing was that woman, and she wasn't armoured at all, nor was her horse. The strangest thing, though… Was that the woman looked an awful lot like me. The purple of the eyes was obviously not the right one, but the hair, the hairstyle, the shape of the head, and her frame… It looked way too close to me, almost as if I had been described to the painter in the making of it. That painting seems old…

"Ah, Miss Nebulo! I am pleased to meet you today!" Sir Seventh's threatening presence vanished entirely as he spread his arms wide, swinging them around as if he were trying to take flight.

"I have been waiting to meet you for so long! Would you be willing to touch this pillar right this way? It can determine whether someone possesses a special system, or if they have access to information beyond the scope of the norm… You see, we have ways to make everyone capable of viewing system panels, but only the average stuff. Some additional bits of information and such often remain hidden, and we are still making discoveries to this day!"

The moment he started speaking, he did so at length and being that he was a skeleton like Ergonip, he never would need to take a break to breathe. This man could potentially spout everything he knew about the Universal System and special systems without leaving me any room to interrupt him… Thankfully, he didn't launch himself into hours of monologuing–At least not yet. He was too curious about whether or not I would agree to touching that pillar thing. You can go ahead and do it.

It is indeed just a typical system pillar. Those are pretty common in worlds where the system is more prevalent as a way of power Alright then… I walked up to the pillar and pressed my palm against its surface while Sir Seventh was writing furiously in a notebook he had brought from his pocket. I did not have a clue what he was writing since nothing had happened yet, but this man was certainly quite the character.

He seemed even more bizarre than Ergonip, and that was a rather harsh competitor to have in this domain. A system panel unlike any other appeared above the pillar, a panel that anyone with sight could see… It was unlike the ones I was used to, as it was the 'typical' sort. At least typical as far as readable and somewhat well-organised interfaces could go. It showed mostly unimportant or useless information. I apparently have quite the high number of stats, but…

If I had to use a mechanist term, the numbers were glitched. They kept changing or turning into symbols that meant absolutely nothing. I suppose this is part of having Nara around. The experience I acquire is funnelled toward bringing me closer to evolution rather than increasing the 'level' in the Universal System. Speaking of which, the level displayed was also glitched. Actually, all information that was typical of the Universal System, but with which I didn't personally interact, was completely messed up.

The titles, the jobs, the class… All of the stuff I had no care for was simply not displaying anything that made sense. Though there was some stuff that gave me pause… Species: Awakened Machine, Human, Steel-Bound Curse, Living Curse, Vengeful Spirit, Onryo, Reborn Tumour Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. … What does this mean? Last I checked, the only things I was classified as were a Steel-Bound Curse and Vengeful Spirit…

I can get that I would still technically be considered human, but where did the rest of this come from? Awakened Machine makes sense, since I am indeed a machine at heart, and Living Curse is also correct, though I had always assumed that Steel-Bound Curse was just a variant of that, so I don't see why it would be necessary to also add Living Curse to the mix… I do not know what 'Onryo' means, and Reborn Tumour…

I can only guess that it references the fact that I grow flesh in my 'Base Form' and seems to have an odd affinity for flesh in general.

'Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box' is pretty big proof of my affinity, but calling me a tumour? That's a bit insulting, even if it is rather accurate considering the way flesh grows on my body in the 'Base Form'. Also, those pieces of flesh have indeed been coming with some other stuff lately… I found a genuine eye on one of them the other day… An Onryo is a kind of ghost, typically a kind that returns after death to take revenge based on perceived wrongs they were dealt in life.

It is similar to the typical Vengeful Spirit, but often a fair bit more powerful and… Focused on how it chooses targets I see, I see… Why wasn't all of this stuff present on my own status, though? The information on your status focused on the two 'natures' that you could enhance, while also sort of merging the equivalent stuff together Mmh… Does this mean that I can't improve my nature as a Reborn Tumour by consuming flesh? Yes, but that's because your nature as such a being is already as high as it can get That…

This sounds impressively insulting, you know? To be the ultimate tumour from get-go has to be some kind of slight against me, right? I don't even know what that even means, to be honest. I don't really know either… Whilst I was debating with myself about the various species of being I was listed as, Sir Seventh was running small circles in place, gesticulating with his arms as if he were a scarecrow caught in a storm, yet defiantly refusing to be uprooted.

Somehow, his attention wasn't on the abnormally long list of my species, but on the damned stats.

"Oh, that's very rare! Most people can not see so many of their stats like this, you know? Strength, Constitution, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Luck, Sense, Willpower, Resistance, Soul Power, Mind Power, Spirituality, Vitality, Endurance, Faith, Attunement… So many of them!" That is indeed a lot of stats, too many of them, I would say.

I have no idea what they all mean exactly, but if a poor soul who followed System Fundamentalism was trying to have the same number in all of them, they would suffer greatly, I am certain. The Universal System is just so bloated, but somehow, I can see how trying to learn about every nook and cranny of this thing could be attractive. There is certainly a lot to learn and uncover. It really isn't my cup of tea, though. I much prefer Nara and her special system stuff.

Things are much simpler, and I don't need to track a hundred different numbers and whatnot… I was never one to enjoy mathematics very much. I feel like it isn't brought up enough that mathematicians often get more spiritual and random with their stuff than freaking mages. Whenever I hear something about those guys, I shake my head in dismay on reflex. It can not be healthy to invent a new category of numbers every other week in a feeble attempt to make some random calculation work.

Sir Seventh was currently repeating the names of the stats over and over again, seemingly making sure that he had written all of them down. Only then did he collect himself, faking a cough with his lack of lungs.

"Aherm… Sorry for this. I had never seen some of these stats myself before. I had only read about them and didn't even know if they were real or fabrications… These stats are of tremendous importance to us here, especially since we have a way to make use of the 'unspent points' that most don't even know exist""Unspent points?" I didn't even ask any precise questions. I just repeated what he said to prompt him, which worked like a charm.

"Indeed! Whenever a creature levels up, they gain a certain number of points to a few of their core stats. For example, some beings gain ten points per level up, and all of these points might go into strength and constitution alone, because those are the core stats the creature calls upon regularly, you see?"

"This is why, despite some stats having interaction with one's inner energies, a knight who killed many might not sense much change to their mana at all, because they simply don't use the associated stats that much, or not enough compared to others""However! There are also the unspent points that accumulate with each level up. Without direct access or some form of connection to the Universal System, one simply cannot use these points–What a tragedy that is, am I right?

As such, we developed a way to allow anyone to use these points as they see fit, allowing for a musclehead to drastically increase their intelligence or wisdom, for example" He barely even made pauses in between sentences. He just kept going as if his momentum was unstoppable.

"Here comes the issue of stats visibility: Some people simply see fewer stats than others, and if you can't see the stat, you can't spend points to improve them! A drastic injustice that simply can not be changed outside of extreme and highly unlikely circumstances!"

"I see… So, are those all of the stats that exist?"

"I don't know. Those are certainly all of the stats that I know of, but there might be some even more obscure ones that no one has ever heard of""Right. Is there anything else we can speak of?"

"Oh, oh yes! Sorry, I got a bit lost inside of my own skull there. I can see that you possess a special system. Judging by the pillar reacting, would you be willing to tell me more about it?" Nara, should I tell him that you can speak and all? Go ahead. It is clear that the more he learns, the more inclined he'll be to be our ally Alright then…

"My special system is called Nara, and she is perfectly sapient. Although her stuff isn't the typical system things, she manages and oversees some of my abilities and traits. You could say that she is a super-helper and advisor, I suppose" …

"Sir Seventh, are you alright?" The damned skeleton seemed to have passed out while standing up…