Chapter 11 - Values

Slowly, the Imp extended his hand toward Avalin laying on the bed, and immediately pushed his fingers into the skin that he found there. It felt so nice, soft, and smooth to the Imp that he couldn't resist it at all. He had to look at it over and over again numerous times so far, and now he had enough from just looking and wanted to actually do what he wanted with it.But it seemed like Avalin wasn't so happy about that. "Ah! What are you doing?" She yelled out and immediately sat up on the bed when she noticed that something was off, staring at the Imp in front of her.The Imp, however, simply tilted his head to the side, confused. "Book?" He said in that weird tone that Avalin always used when asking questions as he showed Avalin what he was holding."Ah… Yeah, sure, we can take a look. But be careful, you're scratching it up… Although… your claws aren't as sharp as other Imps', huh..?" Avalin asked surprised as she took a closer look, and the Imp just once more tilted his head to the side, not really understanding what Avalin was asking."Well, anyway, I guess we should continue practicing the letters, huh?" The Red thing asked with a smile before the Imp just looked at her with a blank expression."Then come on, the rest of them shouldn't be that tough. You did a great job toward the end of yesterday's practice as well." With a smile on her face, Avalin took the book that the Imp grabbed before from him again and then flipped it open to the page that they were at last night, taking out the pencil that they were using as well.And from that point on, Avalin and the Imp continued having the young monster learn about the rest of the letters, as planned, which he managed to do far quicker than Avalin expected, and when all of them were finished, the Imp really just noticed how often more of the same notification appeared in front of him.[Beginner Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]And while the Imp was trying to reach them to make them disappear, the red thing placed her hand on the top of the Imp's head, although it was really confused at what was going on."Erguh?" It exclaimed askingly and held his hands on top of his head as well, or rather on top of Avalin's hand that was still on top of his head before she began to laugh quietly."Just saying, you did a great job. And now… Hmm, if I want to see what your status is, then I should maybe…" She muttered to herself and then wrote even more letters onto the page, although they seemed different than the other ones.And the Imp actually recognized them as well! They were the letters that were alternating on that notification that just didn't seem to want to disappear!"You see, these are called Numbers." Avalin explained as she tapped the page, so the Imp nodded his head excitedly."Numbahs!" He exclaimed, but Avalin shook her head with a smile, trying to properly teach him pronunciation as well. After another try, the Imp seemed to already get it, though.And one after another, the Imp was taught how these different numbers worked, and in what order they worked. It was pretty simple, actually! But something seemed weird to the Imp, so to make sure, he looked back and forth from the page with the order of the numbers and the notification floating next to him, before tilting his head to the side confused."Gehu?" He muttered, and Avalin chuckled in response to hearing these weird sounds from the Imp before she looked at him with a smile."Now, I think we should be able to try this, huh..? You can see notifications, right?" Avalin asked the Imp while she took a blue pen and drew a blue square onto the paper, with the word 'Notification' written inside of it, and the Imp pointed at the page and then at the notification floating next to it before nodding quickly."Good! Can you think really, really hard of it?" The red thing asked, but the Imp just tilted his head to the side confused, so she figured she should do something else, turning the Imp's head to look directly to where he was pointing before, where a notification seemed to be, making sure that he was really thinking of notifications.And then, while the Imp was looking at the notification and its ticking numbers, "Now, try to say the word… 'Status'!" Avalin told the Imp, who did as told and simply repeated that word in a mutter."Status…" He said, before a really, really big, the biggest one so far, notification appeared in front of the Imp! Of course, he immediately jumped back, confused and startled, but Avalin touched his back to reassure him."Don't worry, that was supposed to happen. Just take a look at it." The red thing told the Imp with a calm voice, so he slowly turned his head toward it to see what the notification was.---[Name – None][Race – Lesser Imp][Level – 10][Health – 220][Mana – 380][Strength – 6][Constitution - 12][Resistance – 13][Agility - 6][Evasion – 5][Dexterity - 5][Intelligence - 20][Wisdom – 14][Perception – 9][Willpower – 20][Skills]-[Beginner Common Language Comprehension][Level – 73]-[Beginner Dagger Mastery][Level – 4]-[Beginner Concentration][Level – 18]-[Beginner Overeating][Level – 13]-[Beginner Exhaustion Resistance][Level – 21]---This was so different from what the Imp usually saw when looking at notifications! There were lines everywhere, and not the letters, but straight lines splitting the words up into sections! It seemed like there were a lot of different numbers as well, but overall, the Imp really had no idea what all of this even was!"Now…" Avalin muttered to herself while looking back down onto the page in front of her, drawing another notification, but this time a large one that looked like the large notification that appeared in front of the Imp, and then placed the book down in front of the Imp."Compare." She told him and then pointed from the page to the place where the notification seemed to be, doing so over and over again, before the Imp nodded and realized that they were supposed to be the same. But there were some parts missing! And once the Imp was given the pencil again, before the pencil was pressed against the paper through Avalin, the Imp understood what he had to do, at least somewhat.To the best of the ability, the Imp then continued to fill the different fields on the paper out, and even though there were some empty ones, it seemed to look a lot like the notification that the Imp could see now!Although, he was freaking out when he finished one of the fields, and a notification appeared that distracted him for a moment, and when he looked back, the number changed! What pesky little bitches these notifications were, working together to trick him like that!But soon enough, all of the fields were filled out completely, and the Imp grabbed the book, showing it to Avalin proudly."Good job!" Avalin exclaimed and grabbed the small bag in her pocket, grabbing one of the meat-cubes from it to give it to the Imp. For some reason, while this meat was a lot tougher, it was a lot tastier as well, so the Imp enjoyed getting such a treat!"Wait, what..?" Avalin muttered to herself as she looked at the page, confused, frowning as she did so. The Imp already started thinking that he did something wrong, but after a while, the red thing simply raised her head and looked at the Imp excitedly, and then flipped the page of the book to the next one before writing down something else, muttering to herself."Hmm, you're pretty healthy, so your levels should have full worth for Health and Mana… What was it again? Stat times the stat value, plus level times ten?" Avalin asked herself and then began to smile brightly."Holy shit… Holy shit!" The red thing exclaimed, and then stared at the Imp with wide-open eyes and immediately jumped off of her feet, stepping over toward the big bag that she always had with her, pulling out a small booklet from inside it."Please, please… Be in here!" Avalin whispered, seemingly nervously, and the Imp just looked at her confused while trying to listen to Avalin some more. "Here it is! Lesser Imp, Demon Type… Stat values… Usually, it's 0.2 for Consitution and other physical stats, and for Wisdom and other mental stats, it's…" She muttered to herself before shaking her head, confused and looking at the Imp again while standing up, flipping the book in front of the Imp back to the page before, pointing at it and into the air where the status still seemed to be again. "Compare!" She told him commandingly to activate the Ownership collar for extra insurance, and the Imp immediately once more went over the sketch of the status to make sure everything was correct but didn't seem to want to change anything.So, Avalin opened her eyes wide and stared at the Imp happily, "You're an Anomaly! That's why!" She yelled out, but once more, the Imp didn't understand what was going on while he was being dragged along the room by his hand, back toward the door, although Avalin stopped just before opening it up."Should… Should I tell them about it? I mean, that should just be proof that he's valuable, right? Maybe they'll treat him better if they know that we can… sell him better..?" She whispered to herself and then looked down at the Imp with a slightly bitter smile, and then nodded her head with dedication and opened the door, although she wasn't nearly as excited as before.Slowly, the Imp was dragged through the hallways of the building until they stood in front of another door, which Avalin slowly tapped her fist on a few times, causing the door to open a few moments later and a voice came from the inside of the room."Yes, can I- Oh… it's you." Thomas said with a slight frown as he stared down at the Imp, who ended up just feeling a slight shudder before Avalin scratched the back of her neck. "Can I come in? I have something to tell you two about. Maybe it's going to be a good way to show you two not to treat him that badly, at least not… physically." Avalin said with a frown as she glared into the room at James, who was standing behind Thomas, and the blue and silver thing sighed and stepped to the side."Fine. But I hope it's worth it." He replied, so the red thing quickly dragged the Imp into the room before showing the two of them the page with the status information."That's it's status? Sure, it's pretty high for a level 10 Lesser Imp, but that's what you were working toward, right?" James asked with a frown, not understanding the issue here, and Avalin immediately shook her head. "Don't you notice anything off? At all?" She asked with a smirk, and slowly, Thomas rubbed his chin."Isn't the Imp's Mana value way too high? It's nearly double the Health Value… Is it sick or something?" The blue thing asked and frowned again, but Avalin shook her head. "Nope, he's pretty healthy. A bit tired, but being tired doesn't pull down your Per-Level Value for Health.""Then, can you just tell us what's up and stop being so cryptic?" James asked with annoyedly, and Avalin simply handed them the small booklet she looked through before and told them to flip to the next side in the large book they were already looking at before Thomas opened his eyes wide in confusion."Wait, are you trying to say…" He asked, and Avalin nodded with a smirk. "Regular Imps have a rough physical stat value of 0.2. His seems to be 0.1. That makes him about half as strong as other Lesser Imps. But when it comes to mental stats… Lesser Imps have a rough 0.05 stat value. But at the very least, his Wisdom stat has a value of 0.2… If it's the same for his other mental stats…" Avalin started, and both Thomas and James looked at each other and then at the Imp, who was currently stuffing its finger into his nose to go on a mining-trip, while Avalin continued, "Then he's about four times as smart as a regular Lesser Imp."