because the next couple chapters will deal heavily with Asher's stats and skills I will give some rapid fire explanations here on the basics of skills and stats.
There are 10 stats.
Strength: how strong are you? this stats impact which things you can punch a hole through and how far you can throw stuff.
Agility: how fast you can physically move, this does not impact your reflexes or thought processes, only how fast a part of your body gets from point a to point b, leveling agility too far without strength can actually make you lighter because to move faster with the same force you need reduced mass.
Intelligence: how well do you think? this skill governs logic and the speed of your neural pathways, allowing you to slow your perception of time at high levels, leveling this skill too far can cause social awkwardness and phenomenon related to your mind outpacing your body unless you have wisdom and agility leveled respectively. this skill also increases the damage of most "spell" type skills.
Wisdom: this skill impacts your emotional and spiritual awareness and causes mana to regenerate faster in those who use spells, if overleveled without enough int this skill can cause your empathic and emotional responses to overwhelm your logic.
Dexterity: how fast are your reflexes? this skill defines your bodies automatic reflexive responses, at high levels it can react to threats the user isn't even aware of. if leveled too far above agility the Stat becomes less effective so it is suggested they be leveled together.
Perception:how good are you at spotting things? this skill governs what you percieve with all 5 senses, at high level can grant forms of extrasensory perception(ESP), if leveled too high over int it can cause information overload.
Deception: the counterpart to perception, governs deciet, also governs stealth and subterfuge, as well as anything else that counteracts perception. less effective with lower agility (stealth) perception (lies and deceit) and wisdom/intelligence (manipulation of others).
charisma: how convincing and likable are you? charisma governs how you interact with others, if they are inclined to listen to you, like you, and follow you. having underleveled stats with charisma typically causes more problems for those around you then for yourself.
Adaptation: How do you react to change? difficult to level and generally thought of as useless at high levels, adaptation governs how well you respond to change in all forms, different then other stats in that a well adjusted person starts with 20-30 instead of 10-20, impacts all other stats in small ways, is annoying if it is lower then 20 and highly problematic if it is lower then 15.
Luck: the only Stat gated behind a skill that is currently known, our main character is well acquainted with this stat so I suggest you read the rest of the book.
Skills and classes.
Classes are assigned to those who reach the qualifications for them on or after their 18th birthday, the reason why some people do not acquire certain classes is not known though the prerequisites for most common classes are known, usually having to do with acquiring certain skills or owning certain possessions. It is common for parents to try to force their children into classes like "public figure" or "businessman" by encouraging certain activities in the hopes that their children will gain the abilities required to gain these classes.
It is known that classes can evolve under certain conditions, the most common being "businessman" evolving to "executive" and then "director" as the businessman raises within the business, or "public figure" becoming "politician" when the user first gains a position at the state level, other evolutions are less well known but it is theorized that every starting class has at least one evolution.
each class and each evolution has a "signature ability" as well as a small list of "class abilities" the signature ability of each class is unique and after your class is selected you will only gain levels in the classes signature ability until it is maxed. class abilities are abilities that are stronger versions of standard abilities that your class gives you access to, each class has around 10, they tend to be either highly specific and immensely powerful or general all around skills that confer bonuses to everything the class does.
for reference, our Mc can get class skills but not signature abilities.
the "grand" skills are the name for class skills that give a large overarching bonus to the things their class does and are able to be used in many different ways, for example "grand persuader" and "verbal combat" are both used to persuade but "verbal combat" only applies to arguing with someone verbally while "grand persuader" can use verbal arguments as well as body language, text, seduction, or any number of other techniques. these skills stack linearly, so a level in both is equal to two levels in "verbal combat" when arguing with someone.
the numbers after skills are (current level/max level) so "dancing (1/10)" is level 1 out of a max of 10.
you get one chance to roll on a skill for each time you can level it up, a skill that has a max level of 10 and has not been leveled has 10 chances to roll, which makes it 10 times more likely to roll then a skill with a max level of 1, but a skill at level 9/10 has only one chance to roll also, making maxed skills quite rare.
the natural reaction is to distrust those with overly powerful skills or stats that are too min/max, the reaction is similar to a person who carries a rifle everywhere they go.