"[Cull The Pack] Mission has been completed. Mission rewards will now be automatically chosen by me."
"Straight to the point," I remark, poking fun at the system's tendency to ignore small talk, "but that's what I admire about you."
Just seconds after my reply, the small box in the corner of my sight expands out to the center of my field of vision, making itself strikingly obvious so as to ensure I don't miss anything vital.
[Mutilation: Level 1] has been granted.
[30 Stat Points] has been granted.
"Woah, thirty stat points just like that?" I yell out, flabbergasted at such a straightforward reward.
I've killed for half this many stat points, and thirty just falls into my lap?
In the past week or so of wandering around in this glass cavern of tapestries and crystal wonders, never before had a mission given me additional stat points, something I value far more than any individual skill.
In this system, stat points are the end all be all; while skills helped aid you in combat and out, they very rarely could tip the scales in your favor against an opponent clearly stronger than you in pure physicals alone.
With this thought in mind, I've sought out to undertake any methods that would help me acquire high stats as quickly as possible.
This was in clear contrast to the typical Legacy Systems found outside this labyrinth which, while being the main framework of which allows humans to wield mana in the first place, did not offer means for the user to grow outside of repetition and practice.
It is this ability to interact with your physical attributes that, by far, makes this new system far superior to my old one.
Spontaneously, a familiar green flash whisked through and over me as a vibrant hue illuminated my skin, feeling the same emboldening of strength in this energy as when I employ mana to vitalize my cells.
Accepting the green's influence over me, the already healing cuts spanning across my chest begin to close, the opposing sides of skin reaching for each other like the clasping of hands.
Eventually, the flowing green aura begins to dissipate, its effects evidenced in my body's aches being removed and my depleted mana stores brought to full restoration.
[Health and Mana restored to maximum capacity]
"Ahhhh~, I can never get used to that sensation."
As I decompress and bid farewell to a tension that I hadn't known my body had before getting healed, I get up from my seated mountain of corpses, swatting away blood that stuck to my lower appendages.
"You know, of all things you guys are, a good seat is one of them," I slyly remark, looking back down towards the beasts whom I'd mutilated just minutes prior.
Remembering how close I'd been to succumbing to the beast's efforts due to my careless usage of mana, a cold shudder overcomes me as I imagine the many vicious ways in which I could've been degloved, bitten into, and killed in the same way the alligators dealt with me.
From this point onward, I should be more meticulous with my method of attack.
Looking back on the now deceased creatures, I relish in my spoils of war, feeling a warmth envelop my chest.
My cheeks just barely creasing to try—but fail—to conceal a sardonic smirk in my expression, I reach out, attempting to look on at my status window.
"Hey, system, what would you say I could best improve on for combat?"
"I believe that the way you fought is among the best possible way you could've dealt with the situation."
"I'm deeply flattered by the compliment, but please do elaborate."
Simultaneously, I look on at my mana, revealing 675/675, a glowing radiance popping out and bursting through my stomach—a feeling of happiness, not only at my victory, but also at my growth.
"While you certainly exhausted your mana through the tornado you'd summoned, there weren't any better options to efficiently deal with the enemies without drastically lowering your chances of victory."
Thinking on the system's words and its logic, I consider how I could've kept on swiping away at the beasts with my infused blades, let them approach me and deal with them one-by-one, or a great number of other tactics to preserve my energy.
"How do you know?" I inquire, remembrances of the system's mentioning of having the same knowledge of me ringing through my brain.
...
Again, a pause.
It's been a while since the system had to stop to think so hard about one of my questions.
"While it is true that the scope of my knowledge is restricted just to what you know, I still retain the functionalities of a computer, meaning I look at things the same way a machine does. It is for this reason that I can simulate battles, even though my technical knowledge is still generally limited."
"Hm, I suppose that makes sense. But in that case, what factors made my decision to expend all my mana at that moment the right one?"
"For one, you were right in your previous ascertainment that the creatures' behaviors involving their single-minded onslaught of attacks did, with 97.43% certainty, substantiate the existence of some foreign elements that would have tipped the scales in their favors."
Pumping my fist, I utter a little 'yes' as I think back to when I'd first infused my daggers with mana to deal with the waves of monsters.
So I was right in making the choice to deal with the beasts with caution, that much is at least soothing to my ego.
"With this in mind, a drawn out battle would've increased your chances of getting hit with one of their attacks drastically, more than likely leading to an inevitable death. Had you not used all of your mana, your chances of victory would've been 63%."
A cold sweat runs along my arms and chest as I fully decompress the meaning of the phrase, 63%.
63% is damn near a coin flip, and loss would've meant death.
"Then what is the best course of action to raise my chances of victory against an assortment of enemies?"
"You should increase your immunity to poison."