I wake up the next morning long before Regina and get out of bed gently so as not to wake her. Unlike in anime and video games where characters never have to take a piss unless it's used for comedic effect the urge to take a piss hit me before I even open my eyes so I walk out and fortunately the latrine is not far. As I look around I have to question how early it actually was the sun was already rising slightly over the walls of the camp however all the soldiers were milling about performing their morning duties and exercises. The latrine was about what I expected it to be, just a couple of outhouses and after a quick piss I walked back to my tent. The next thing to hit me was the feeling of hunger as not only did I not eat the night before but I didn't even eat since breakfast before coming to this world. Before I have time to think about anything I see Caesar and Lanius walking down the hill toward me I assume they were coming to wake me up but I guess my bladder beat them to the punch.
"Good morning Derek I'm glad to see you are an early riser." said Caesar.
"Yeah good morning to both of you." I say.
"Did you sleep well I hope the bed was to your liking."
"It was pretty comfy although I had a hard time actually getting situated considering I couldn't even put the weapon on the table next to me."
"Wait you couldn't even put the weapon down to sleep." Caesar said looking at the spear on my back, "Well at least you know it won't be stolen."
"Yeah there's that." I said looking back inside the tent to see Regina still curled up In fact she had turned over and had grabbed a hold of the pillow I'd set between us and was cradling it, and it was actually kind of adorable.
Perhaps sensing that someone was staring at her or just timing she got up and rubbed her eyes and quickly grew embarrassed due to the serious case of bed head and the drool running down the left side of her mouth. She got up and grabbed her vector-K10 and walked outside to see that it was already morning.
"Master Derek you should have gotten me up." she said.
"It's fine I only got up myself besides you looked comfy." I said causing her to look more embarrassed.
With that Caesar led all of us over to the area we were in yesterday with the makeshift kitchen and the series of tables. Caesar and Lanius coming down to eat with everyone else garnered more than a few looks of astonishment from the others in the camp and for lack of a better expression everyone kept their distance and ate like their food was going to explode if they moved too fast. Regina excused herself and began helping in the kitchen lifting the heaviest two handled cooking pots for the others who clearly weren't as strong as her. I sat with Caesar and Lanius at a table big enough for three people and laid with a nice cloth clearly he had this setup beforehand intending us to eat together although I didn't know if it was a show to everyone else or if it was a formality to me.
"Before I get started towards the dragon hourglass I actually want to get some training in preferably against actual wildlife given that I need to power up my weapon anyway." I said as Regina brought a platter of food with everything from sausage and eggs to some kind of roast pheasant and what looked to be a cross between fish and pork and two loaves of bread.
Regina bowd respectfully and walked back to the kitchen to continue assisting the other slave girls.
"You did pick a fine girl." Lanius said much to the surprise of those who overheard and even Caesar looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "she's diligent, hardworking, and she seems to be loyal above all else."
"Yeah and I don't know if you noticed she's also very kind-hearted given that she felt a little bad for that quartermaster that tried to abuse her." I say looking over at her hoisting another pot that another girl couldn't even lift.
"Speaking of, he won't be a problem in case you're worried about some kind of vengeance against you or Regina." Caesar said with the only way I can describe it is a sadistic smile, "After doing a review we found that he has not only damaged a woman's ability to reproduce but also caused another woman to have a miscarriage which also ended her life as well and that is a serious crime."
Caesar explained that shortly after the vision two weeks ago one woman was brought into the medical tent with a severe laceration on her abdomen which had cut deep enough to damage her womb and although they managed to staunch the bleeding it is unknown if she will ever carry a child to term. The woman who miscarried had a similar situation happen the whip came and hit her hard enough to damage her internal organs and of course the baby she was carrying, although in this case he likely didn't know she was pregnant because she was only 3 months into it.
"What I don't understand is how a simple leather whip meant to only inflict some pain was able to lacerate deep enough to damage internal organs and even kill someone." Lanius said taking a bite of the pheasant's leg, "The only thing I can assume is that it had something to do with stats however the quartermaster was weak I mean he couldn't even harm Regina with that whip."
"I was actually hoping to ask you about that Derek is there something we need to know about stats and how they affect day-to-day things?" Caesar said taking a piece of sausage from the tray.
"Well this is just a theory until I actually test it but in every other game where stats are a factor It's usually one person's stats versus another person's stats when it comes to physical and mental battles." I say buttering a piece of bread with the butter from a bowl that was carefully placed in between the loaves of bread.
"So what you're saying is that his stats were just that much better than these women's." Lanius said with obvious astonishment I guess he expected it to be a more complicated answer or something.
"If you looked at it between physical and mental stats strength, endurance, and agility are obviously physical stats and self-explanatory what they do." Caesar said buttering his own piece of bread, "However the one thing I'm confused about is the intelligence, charisma, and perception stats."
"Well those are important mostly in social situations however in the game I played the intelligence stat determined how fast you could grow." I said which made them look at me curiously.
"How does that work?" Lanius asked.
"The way I always interpreted it is that let's say you're fighting a deathclaw and when you fight you become more accustomed to battling an enemy like a deathclaw that's why enemies that are weaker and slower than yourself don't give you much experience when compared to something that is notably more powerful." I couldn't really give a better example given that each game has its own sort of logic involving experience points but that seemed to satisfy the two of them.
"Then that makes sense considering the smarter you are the better you'll be at figuring out an enemy." Caesar said, "and perception and charisma are to be honest the most important things when it comes to identifying the intentions of another person and exerting your own opinion over them."
"That's right and if you weren't sick right now I'd be willing to bet your charisma could win most debates and conflicts without violence." I said taking a bite of the fish like meat and realized that it was turtle meat.
"Yes but it's worse than that recently since the vision came I've noticed that many of my troops that haven't met me have begun treating me more like a secondary figure." Caesar said looking troubled, "In truth if it hadn't been for Lanius's loyalty keeping people in line I likely would have ended up like the original Caesar."
"Yes my loyalty to Lord Caesar has never wavered and should anyone attempt an assassination I would torture them publicly to set an example." Lanius practically growled which caused the people sitting around although at a distance to grimace and stop eating for a moment.
The only way I could explain to both of them my theory on the subject was that individual personality also played a factor for example I noted that Caesar had united several tribes using his charisma and intelligence to show he was a competent leader meanwhile Lanius tends to use his physical appearance and strength in battle to get his point across. To sum it up all I can tell them was that every social situation is subjective depending on who the individual is and their own individual personality the only thing the stat might affect is how effective they are getting themselves across to others. I also told them that the stats may have also been there from the beginning because otherwise people like Regina and Lanius wouldn't be as powerful as they were considering Regina has eight endurance and she likely would have been hurt by the whip before the vision, but now that the system is in place for lack of a better word she's basically impervious to someone as weak as the former quartermaster.
"I suppose that makes sense however the one I'm confused about the most is luck." Caesar said which I couldn't really argue with given that luck was the most subjective out of every stat no matter what game you're playing.
"I'll be honest that one I'm the most confused about given that it could mean any number of things like the amount of damage you do when attacking a vulnerable spot on an enemy or it could also affect other factors considering it's one of those things that you don't really understand until you say I just got lucky." I said giving the best answer I could.
"How did you get stronger when playing the game." Caesar asked.
"As you level up you don't only increase your stats but you have what's called perks that boost your special stats or offer different options to your playstyle." I say continuing to eat that turtle meat, "there's a few different perks that give you bonuses to let's say wearing different types of armor like specializing in light, medium, or heavy armor or specific types of weapons."
"That can be overcome with time and training." Lanius said gesturing to his own heavy armor that he seemed to wear everywhere.
"Yes however let's say there's a perk that allows you to use it more effectively like moving faster and traveling longer distances along with your training for combat scenarios." I said making him have a realization of how useful a perk really could be.
I still had many questions about how the system worked for example Regina has 12 points available whatever that meant The only thing I could think of was some kind of boost to her stats or maybe acquiring perks. As if on cue Regina came over with a kettle and several mugs and sugar and cream on a serving tray. she poured a black liquid which I instantly recognized as coffee into three coffee mugs which caused me to stare wide-eyed at Caesar and Lanius who stared wide-eyed my reaction.
"You people have coffee where did you get the beans for it?!"
"Oh we actually found a fully automated hydroponics facility located beneath the Great salt lake." Caesar said clearly happy with my reaction, "In fact we recently began cultivating several of the plants that we found there from coffee beans to what I believe is called marijuana."
"Well I guess when you look at it one way those are natural and don't really break your laws do they."
"No, In fact I've recently taken to smoking marijuana and drinking coffee in the mornings to help me feel a little better and it works to an extent." Caesar said somewhat happily as he poured some sugar and cream into his coffee before happily taking a sip, "so they have coffee in your world then."
"Yep In fact most people these days can't start their day without a cup of coffee." I said putting some cream and sugar in my own cup, "That's one of my grandpa's few weaknesses was his coffee was the one thing he spent more money on than even his property was exotic types of coffee you could only find In other parts of the world."
As we ate our food and drank our coffee I told him a little about my world and it wasn't really a surprise to me but to them it was crazy to think how advanced my world actually was compared to theirs. When I showed off my cell phone and told them all the things it could do their expression was priceless especially when I explained how evolved the internet was compared to the simple version they had here which did store some useful information but was mostly used for long range communications which in my world is called emails. I look over at Regina who is just staring wide-eyed as Caesar and Lanius I guess I found it interesting too when I consider what little they have actually had in the way of technology. We were getting severely off topic but I couldn't help but feel strange talking about my home considering I really don't have much to go back to with the events right before I came here. I can't really stomach looking at Maria and Joel and between catching them in the act and my mother literally stabbing me in the gut I can't really think of a reason for me to go back at all.
"I think I actually need to go out and start leveling up." I said finishing my coffee and food which I was surprised was so good given its simplicity and lack of seasoning.
"There is a few locations in the area that you can gather good material at." Lanius said pulling out a map and putting it on the table.