[NR] Doubling Stamina's Applied Concepts - Chapter 594

While Jenny was worried about that, Jason was relaxing as he turned something over in his mind. Maybe if he had focused on it, he would have figured it out quicker. Though some things are best allowed to tumble around for a bit.

As for what he was thinking over? His three concepts and what connection they might have to body, mind, and soul. The suggestion he had made to his mom was off the cuff. A spontaneous thought that went from creation to the tongue without filtering and sometimes that sort of thing reveals more than all the careful mediation you could manage.

Not that this was exactly a new thought. Jason had certainly thought about the three aspects in relation to his three concepts. It only makes sense to do so. Also, if he limited the concepts to only working with a paired aspect, it would inevitably cause an imbalance.

However, just by looking at what each concept does in NeoRealm reveals certain connections. [Ascendance] improved his basic stats while [Substance] worked on the auxiliary. Which admittedly made connecting one to any specific aspect would be hard. However, [Civilization] provided a knowledge bonus.

Which, yeah, kind of pointed straight to the mind. Though just the fact it was about civilization was enough to do that. Civilization is an outgrowth of the mind. Not just in humans, but even in animals. Whether it is the birds that make their own specialized tools or how dogs and cats have connected to humanity. Even the lack of “civilization” is an aspect of the mind and not even in some sort of mindless or barbaric way. Just consider all the stories about the wise man on top of a mountain.

And back to the other two? While at first Jason was confused, after taking time to consider civilization, coming back to it revealed the obvious. Substance was connected to the soul. After all, it boosts his Energy stat in NeoRealm.

Though to be fair, the base stats are in a way even more obvious. The three foundations of the body? How could ascendance be connected to anything but?! The only question having been raised because substance also adds to defense and stamina.

This, in turn, made Jason consider those two stats further. Obviously, when dealing with something like a metal chest plate or even tough skin, the bonus is a physical matter. However, it isn’t like his inherent defense comes from naturally tough skin.

Rather, it is a direct result of his Energy cultivation. Hell, he has a body as tough as wood even outside of the defense stat and yet his skin still feels like skin. That left stamina, though as he started to think on that, Jason gets a bunch and decides to cut his relaxation short, re-entering NeoRealm.

Once back in, Jason continues his thought process. That stamina was multifaceted. While his body’s defense wasn’t about how tough it inherently was, that’s what the toughness stat is for. Stamina benefited both from a base value as well as his Energy and comprehension of substance.

Stamina was a combination of the physical and the spiritual. So why was it only getting a boost from substance? This doesn’t make sense to Jason and so after some meditation on what stamina was, he declared, “My stamina is both my body’s ability to support me and my soul’s ability to go beyond my limits.”

And with that, something shifted within him. Jason’s understanding of the soul had expanded and with it, his concept of substance deepened in a new direction. Where instead of substance just being physical matter, it also dealt with things of substantial metaphysical presence. Along with that, ascendance became broader. Not by as much, it didn’t feel like his understanding had necessarily increased, but there was a chance.

It took a while for this all to settle, but once it did Jason checked how his status changed.

{[Substance] 0.2% to 0.24%

Stamina 143 ( 71[Base] + 70[Energy] + 2[Substance] ) to 144 ( 71[Base] + 70[Energy] + 1[Ascendance] + 2[Substance] )}

It was kind of impressive to see [Substance] improve so much. When he was having trouble eking out even 0.01% improvement, one moment of insight did four times as much. Though Jason wasn’t blind and knew that this was only possible because of the foundation he had laid beforehand. Without all of that pondering and meditation, the gains this time would have been much smaller.

Though more interesting to Jason was the change to Stamina. While an increase of one point is far from earth shattering, the fact he could broaden what his concepts boosted was shocking. While he doubted there would come a time when all the bonuses applied to everything. This pointed towards a future where some things could double or even triple dip.

Not only that, but in expanding what his concepts covered, it deepened the concept. Which admittedly, might make it harder to increase his understanding of the concept. It is like the difference between studying the history of one country and studying the history of the world.

Now that ascendance covered stamina, Jason would have to also comprehend ascendance in relation to stamina. That sounds pretty straightforward on the face of it, but the end result is that the percentage hadn’t dropped much to his surprise. After all, he now knew less of the whole picture than before.

Jason’s only explanation being that ascendance already covered some of this behind the scenes and in comprehending that this was the case, any gains were lost to what the concept did extend to. Not that these ideas were new to him. The idea of how the Dao could split infinitely from greater paths to lesser ones wasn’t secret knowledge.

He just hadn’t applied it to his present situation. After all, Jason had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. So far, the knowledge from his past life had kept proving close enough to use, but there had to be a limit. This was an entirely new dimension. And yet? It kept working, even if the specific details might have changed.