Having put Glacia back to bed, Aoni found himself on the precipice of an important decision. In order to boost up two Stats, it had cost 3 Progress points, leaving him with only 4.35 remaining. With two of the four out of the way, he personally felt it was a safe assumption to say that he'd be able to increase both his Speed and Energia stats with the remaining points.
However, the question he found himself musing over was, 'Is it really worth it right now.'
Sure, as of this moment, it wasn't exactly that difficult to earn PP, but who is to say that would be the case later on down the line?
'Worse yet, what do I do in the event that the price of my upgrades becomes so heavy that I won't be able to continue moving forward?'
'That's not even including the fact that I have confirmation about my Attribute and Potential being more than 7 points to upgrade.'
Aoni felt a safe estimate would be to assume it would cost 10 points for each one; still, that would mean he would need to obtain 30 points, and if things progressed the way his stats were, that would mean Aoni could only increase it by a single step, instead of Stage.
(Step = the plus or minus attached to Ranks, Stage represents the actual Letter. Together they = Rank)
That would result in the lion's share of Aoni's Progress points being directed toward Increasing his Capacity instead of actually growing stronger, and that also excludes upgrading the Links, Summon amount, and the Grade of his Flume.
'It's too much to think about…' sighing for the millionth time in the last hour, Aoni leaned back on his hands and continued staring at the fire as it crackled away.
Even though he was complaining mentally, it still far outweighed the opposite end of the spectrum, wherein he was a total failure of a Traveler with bottom-of-the-barrel stats and a useless Attribute.
At least the hand he was dealt allowed room for growth.
'The fact still stands that I need to buff up my Defense; while it would be nice to increase my speed and Energia, one will only aid in my flexibility and movement, while the other is practically unusable in the G Rank.'
Making up his mind, Aoni went ahead and opened his TD again, only to realize his entire brainstorming session had netted another 0.37 Progress Points, bringing his total to 4.72 points.
While on the topic of Stats, Aoni's mind wandered back to what he'd experienced so far.
'From what I can tell, Attack targeted my muscles, while Defense targeted my bones, organs, and skin…by that margin, Speed should affect my Heart and Tendons. Increasing range of motion, flexibility, and stamina. Meanwhile, Energia would nourish everything.'
| 0.55 PP earned |
'I'll take that as a yes, but it also means I will be experiencing a lot more adversity while increasing my stats.' Glancing at the notification as it appeared and vanished, Aoni smirked before continuing his train of thought.
'Technically speaking, we learned multiple different ways to train our stats, all of which revolve around moving our body and repeating certain tasks; for example, lifting weights and working out can train not only your Attack but also your Speed.'
'Spending my Progress points and using my Attribute as a medium expedites that process and allows me to bypass the duration it takes to achieve the desired results.'
| 1.0 PP earned |
'6.27 points, that should be enough; hopefully, it doesn't cost 5 points or something to raise my Defense to G+…' With that thought in mind, Aoni finally got up from the ground and made his way over to the bed. He climbed in beside Glacia and tried to get some sleep.
Seeing as he didn't want a repeat of what happened earlier in the night, Aoni figured it would be better to wait until the morning when she had gotten plenty of sleep before trying to explain the situation to the best of his ability and her understanding so as to keep her from biting the hell out of his stomach again in order to wake Aoni up a second time.
Closing his eyes and focusing on the howling wind along with Glacia's snoring, it didn't take long for the lad to drift off as he found an odd comfort in the symphony they created together.
---
Several hours later, as the sun peaked into the cave, the small furry infant was wide awake and trying her best to get fed; after all, she was a growing Girl and needed lots of food if she ever wanted to grow up big and strong…right?
"Gaaaoooo"
Nudge, nudge…
"mmm, five more minutes, Glacia…I'm sleepy…ZzZz"
"Gaoo gaoo OooOooo"
SHOVE
Feeling his entire body shift slightly and his leg slide off the twin-sized bed, Aoni was startled enough to respond as the dream state wore off and reality kicked back in, waking him up.
"Okay, okay…I'm up, I'm up," sitting up with messy hair and tired eyes, Aoni looked down and noticed the small yeti looking up at him with sparkling eyes and a bit of drool dripping out the corner of her right cheek.
"You hungry?" Aoni asked while rubbing the sleep from his eyes and watching in amusement as Glacia's head bobbed up and down in understanding before darting off the bed like a furry white missile and climbing up the Bookshelves where he had left the MREs.
"I'm not really a big breakfast person, so that's all you. OKAY, OKAY, OKAY, jeeze, give me a second to pick the right one; HEY, GLACIA, DON'T JUST THROW ALL THE PACKAGES EVERYWHERE!" Jumping off the bed and rushing to the bookshelf, Aoni barely had enough time to catch several of the MREs from hitting the ground before scooping his summon up, tucking her under his right arm, and retrieving the one labeled B02 (Breakfast Day 2)
Just like they had not long after her Summoning, Glacia, and Aoni sat on the bed while he prepared the food; this time, instead of pancakes, there was sausage, much to her dismay.
Luckily, though, she wasn't that picky of an eater and soon devoured the Eggs, sausage, and hashbrowns before gulping down her juice, while Aoni just had some water since he was used to skipping the first meal of the day.