“That creates a new problem for the theoretical climber. If your mana affinity is significantly higher than any of your other stats, you can develop hostile mana disease, sometimes referred to as HMS. Essentially, it’s the tower’s system of monitoring that you don’t focus on one stat above all else. To use an extreme example, someone who has a mana affinity of 100 but only a 10 stat in endurance, strength, and agility would die from HMS.”

“But I thought mana affinity represented one’s ability to withstand and control mana?” asked Max.

“That is true, but only to a point,” said the merchant. “Mana affinity also represents one’s internal mana, which increases at the same time as the stat does. A young kid with E-rank stats in everything else, but S-rank level mana affinity is simply untenable. The kid would die from his own internal mana burning through his own body.”

“And because there’s tower-zone rules about who can climb to what floor of the tower that feasibly puts a cap on wealthy families’ ability to strengthen their offspring to get ahead of the curve,” said Max, finishing the old man’s thoughts for him.

“Precisely,” said the merchant. “But you’ll see those rules are harder to enforce once a climber gets to E-rank or D-rank. As more floors open up to them and they can train their stats higher, they then begin to gain an edge over everyone else, but it’s a less oppressive edge than it would be otherwise.”

“But at that point,” said Max. “Couldn’t they buy gold monster cores and other higher-ranked monster cores?”

The man smiled. “True, except there’s one problem there. Gold monster cores are much rarer than copper or silver monster cores. Even more rare are ruby and diamond monster cores. Climbers who get their hands on such cores, rarely sell them to merchants like me. So, theoretically, I see your point, but in practice: only those actually powerful enough to slay gold-ranked monster cores HAVE gold-ranked monster cores.”

Max nodded.

“Alright, that’s enough questions,” said the merchant. “Scram.”

Max thanked the man once more and turned back to the throng of the market.

Everything the merchant had explained was fascinating to Max. It just hammered home just how powerful his trait was. All the rules in the tower-zone were set-up to make sure young climbers didn’t get too powerful too quickly. Perhaps, this was a safety precaution, he wasn’t sure. But his ability allowed him to sidestep so many of the buffers that were holding him back. He could wield abilities far more powerful than his, so he could slay more powerful monsters, or in the case of the last two weeks, weaker monsters but in far greater numbers than the average student climber could ever hope to achieve.