“This is a good opportunity to teach you about the different stats,” said Sakura. “I figured I could explain them all to you while you ran. Sort of killing two birds with one stone, you know?”

If anyone is being killed, thought Max. It was him on this grueling training regimen.

“So, let’s begin,” said Sakura.

She ran ahead of Max and then went into his lane and started running backwards so she could face him.

She ran like this with ease and grace. It was such a simple gesture, but it was the power of higher stats and mana affinity that allowed her to do this. Just like how during his preliminary trial, both Sakura and Samuel were able to jump down from the balcony of the battle chamber with ease.

Max wanted such power himself.

“As you already know on your profile, you have four stats: strength, agility, endurance, and mana affinity,” explained Sakura. “Strength measures physical power. In simplest terms: strength gives you a measurement for how powerful your punches are. Agility, on the other hand, measures speed and balance and dexterity. In simplest terms: agility gives you a measurement for how fast your punches are. Finally, endurance measures your body’s constitution and defenses. In simplest terms, endurance is a measurement for how well you can take a punch. You following, grasshopper?”

Max nodded along, keeping his breathing steady as they started another lap around the track.

“What about mana affinity?” asked Max.

Sakura nodded. “And then we come to mana affinity. This is the single most important stat in your profile. Some people like to think it’s the profile and the traits that separate climbers from the rest of humanity, but that isn’t it. It’s mana.

“Mana is magical energy that permeates through all the floors of the tower. When someone unlocks their trait and profile—what’s essentially happening is the body is resuscitating long dormant mana pathways and channels through their whole body from their head down to their toes.”

“How many channels are there in a human body?” asked Max.

“Internal mana in humans flows through a complicated network of meridians and channels that exist within the body in parallel to one’s network of blood vessels. There are over four hundred channel points in the human body.”

“Whoah,” said Max.

It was crazy to think his whole body had a network of veins and channels that he’d never known about.

“Mana vessels and channels exist in all creatures who live in the tower, but different creatures and species will have more or less mana channels and be organized differently depending on their physiology.”

“Okay,” said Max, keeping up his jogging pace. “So, I think I get the basics. What does the actual stat entail?”