Sense or Strength. I was seriously wondering which to speak. Both were good choices but I needed to consider which would currently be the best choice for me. Strength would help me in terms of offense and I wouldn't need Boost to pack more of a punch. However, Sense would give me a higher chance of surviving ambushes, and traps, and increase my ability to fight groups. In the end, I decided to head to the library, and do some research on both.
I paid my fine, and it took a bit to find a book related to each, but eventually, I find a book that went over the benefits of sense and another that spoke about not just strength but all physical attributes.
The book about sense made it clear the author thought of it as one of the best attributes due to its danger sense and was a must-have for those venturing into dungeons alone. Not only that but its spatial awareness allowed one to know their surroundings and those around them in a way that perception couldn't match until higher levels. Perception was the five senses. Smell, hearing, sight, touch, and taste. I imagined at a high enough level you feel the air moving, and hear everything from the intake of air to the beating of an insect's wings if you focused.
The book also went into depth with the fact that the attribute also allowed a person to pick up on emotions better, and was actually an attribute raised high by merchants, traders, nobles, and others. Knowing your enemy and allies was a great benefit and was paired with wisdom and intelligence.
Strength was far more simple, but still a good choice. Its effects were obvious. As it increased the physical force a person could exert, however just like all the physical attributes you would hit a limit if you didn't increase the others. Strength was a must-have for any fighter type or warrior. Anyone who used a melee weapon or even a ranged weapon needed strength, however with the increase in strength you needed a weapon capable of allowing you to fully exert all of that strength. A normal bowstring would snap if someone with high-end strength tried to pull it with all their force, but a high-end bow made of greater materials would allow that arrow to fly with more speed, and some abilities allowed you to imbue strength into an item.
There were also throwing knives, and axes alongside slings. In general, strength was a must and at some point, I'd have to take it.
"Sense or strength…"
"I'd go with sense," a voice said nearby. An older bunny beastkin was in the process of shelving some books. "Sense is far more useful for beginners. Strength isn't constitution, and the benefits of constitution between one and twenty aren't so high that you'd be able to just shrug off anything past the second floor."
I stared at her with a questioning look. She paused. "You can train sense, constitution, and strength easily enough for lower levels. Just use the guilds training hall." With that, she shelved the last book and was gone.
I guess I was picking sense then. I didn't plan on venturing past the first floor yet, so my current strength and blade were enough, although how did one train sense? Meditation? Closing your eyes and trying to align with some hidden force? I continued on with the sense book, and the training for sense was varied. Some were very dangers such as standing in an area and having people attack or objects thrown at you and trying to dodge and focus on the idea of sensing them, of knowing. Meditation was also good, and mental image practice was key. All in all, I had the means for both sorts of training.
With my chosen choice, I headed out of the library and decided to spend what was left of the day in the dungeon, collecting more gold. I was planning on facing the boss of the first floor when I had sense improved. The boss was a mud hobgoblin with armor, a sword, and a shield. He was at the novice level in both weapons and had an ability to coat his sword in mud and fling it at his opponents. Not to mention, his sword had a toxic effect. Nothing too dangerous, but it would cause pain and get infected if untreated. It was also rare, but sometimes there were mud goblins in there with him.
As I was leaving the guild, I ran into Rashid and stopped to greet him.
"Hey Jeri, you mind if I call you Jerry?"
I shrugged. I didn't particularly like it, but he was a friend so it was fine. "I don't mind so long as I can call you Rash?"
"Sure, you heading to the dungeon?"
I shook my head. "Was just doing some research in the library. Trying to decide what attribute to train. I'm thinking sense and strength, what do you think."
His face split into a grin. "I don't know about sense and all the meditation crap, but strength? I can help you with that. I'm heading to the training hall, tag along?"
"I'm not part of the guild, though."
"Don't need to be," he replied. "Pay a fee and you can get in. Come on." I had nothing else planned. I followed him but was stopped before we left and had to pay fifty copper to get in. The training hall looked like a gym crossed with a gymnasium. There were dummies, weight lifting areas, sparing rings, and target practice along with an area with tables atop which were glowing orbs and tablets. Rashid followed my gaze.
"Puzzles," he said. "Wisdom and intelligence training. Sense is through there." He pointed to a door. "You have to be quiet when you enter, but this is where I train." He held his arms out. "First, we warm up. You know stretches?"
"Not really."
"No worries, I can teach you."
He took me through a number of different stretches for all parts of my body, and if not for my high constitution, it would have hurt a lot more, but I was able to get past, and then we were off. Rashid grinned as we walked up to an area for weightlifting. He picked up a large weight but struggled with it. It didn't look like weight any more than 20kg.
"Are those runes?"
There were runes on it, and I guessed what their purpose was.
He nodded and pressed a hand to one of the runes. "You can increase their weight. Some crazy nutjob put it on the max at 100kg." I blinked as despite his struggling, he was holding it with one hand. "Here use this smaller one. I'll turn it down for you. How does 4kg sound?"
"How bout we start at two," I said.
"Three."
I nodded, and he handed it over while he picked up another larger weight. "All right, look at how I do it and don't sit down while you lift." He positioned it to his side, one side of the weight facing forward, the other facing back.
"Now, when you bring it up you turn it," he instructed, demonstrating as he did. "And you only use your arm. Keep your back straight, don't lean back, and don't use too much momentum. Don't rush to get it up or get it down."
He made it look easy, but for me it was hard. I kept using other parts of my body and going to quickly. My high constitution allowed me to get it down rather quickly, and the pain wasn't too bad. I started with sets of ten for both arms, then a break, then repeat. He used two, and both were at 70kg. His strength must have been near twenty or above as he didn't look like he was struggling at all. It was clearly hard, but he did curl after curl.
I ended up going up to 5kg which I was only able to do because of my high constitution. After dumbbells was the barbell and I watched in awe as he pressed 400kg. He struggled, but he did it better than any normal person on earth could have.
"God damn," I muttered. Was sense really the best option to pick?
After that I gave it a try, but not at bloody 400kg. I started off small at 30kg which once again I was only able to really do because of my constitution. After that, he showed me a few other things that were very similar to things on earth. There was one of those rope machines and something for pull-ups. There were also practice weapons whose weapons could be increased.
By the end, my arms were aching, but my constitution was paying off. It didn't hurt too bad, and I felt it fading even as I left the hall. Rashid wanted to continue, but I begged off. Sense or strength. I had chosen sense, but watching him press 400kg had really made me have doubts, but it came back to reasons. I didn't need that level of strength yet. I wanted it, and I'd get it, but for now, I was gonna go with sense.