It's the next day, and we're sitting on the couch. Master Liina said she wants to take another look at my Status. She calls it up and shows it to me, and I gulp, trepidation setting in at the thought of what these last few days have done to me. I'm still trying not to think too much about last night...

Yumi Slave Rank: 2 Race: Human Age: 22 Job: Offensive Magic Class: Synergist Style Finesse Focus: ? Health: 86/86 Stamina: 85/86 Mana: 319/319 Status Strength: 41 Vitality: 59 Stamina: 69 Agility: 35 Mind: 393 Magic: 56 Remaining Potential: 120 Skills Speech: 80 Reading: 68 Math: 57 Logic: 66 Serving: 15 Cleaning: 11 Magic Casting: 8 Magic Weaving: 9 Mana Regen: 4 Mana Absorption: 5 Rapid Casting: 3 Multi Casting: 1 Magic Control: 2 Mana Cleansing: 1 Mana Channeling: 1 Cooking: 1 Massage: 2 Sex: 1 Traits Work Ethic: 70 Self-Esteem: 26 Loyalty: 35 Devotion: 32 Adaptability: 37 Integrity: 20 Obedience: 60 Restraint: 66 Sincerity: 39 Respect: 44 Charm: 18 Pride: 14 Trust: 21 Anxiety: 44 Hope: 18 Fear: 31 Dependency: 19 Servitude: 14 Misc Slave Rating: S Warning: Panic Disorder

I want to die. Why is there a skill for that? And how does that even count? All I did was lie there and get pleasured!

“Hmm...” While I'm screaming inside, Master Liina takes some time, considering things, before she says, “Your Status is weird.”

“W-weird?” I squeak. What's weird about it? She already told me I was suited to slavery which just keeps looking more and more true no matter how much I hate it, but she didn't say it was weird before...

“It's so unbalanced. Here, look. Show Status.” With wide eyes, I stare at the window that appears before me.

Liina Adventurer Expertise: 34 Race: Altraska - Red Fox Age: 6 Type: Warrior Focus: Sword Health: 394/394 Stamina: 418/421 Mana: 306/306 Status Strength: 225 Vigor: 250 Endurance: 310 Dexterity: 315 Intelligence: 112 Magic: 59 Skills Logic: 34 Grooming: 55 Reading: 32 Math: 22 Footwork: 56 Acrobatics: 33 Cleaning: 14 Speech: 35 Cooking: 24 Maintenance: 53 Sword Handling: 88 Shield Handling: 47 Physical Resist: 44 Magic Resist: 55 Poison Resist: 21 Spirit Resist: 12 Sex: 14 Rearing: 18 Leadership: 8 Training: 4

The more I look, the more surprising things pop out. I mean, right off the bat, Master Liina is six years old? I... I knew altraska lived shorter lives, but how much shorter?!

And... then there's Rearing. I've already figured out that new skills get added to the end of the list, so it being right after Sex, means... child rearing? She's a mother?!

It's all so shocking I hardly even have the presence of mind to balk at those stats!

“Hello...?” I catch her voice as she calls out to me, snapping me out of my daze.

I jolt in my seat. “Y-yes, Master?”

“I was trying to show you how unbalanced your status is. Look, you have almost four hundred Mind, but everything else is only about fifty. I know our lifespans are different, but I had thirty five dexterity by the time I was one year old.”

Woah. But...

This time I manage to ask. “How long do altraska live?”

“Mm? About ten years.”

“T-ten?!”

“You didn't know?”

I shake my head. “I... I never really got into those details while learning about this world.” That makes her the equivalent of what, like forty, fifty years old?!

“We're different from the sun-races like you,” Master Liina explains, “Altraska reach adulthood at three years old, and die around age eleven. We're strong and healthy right until the end, unlike humans and elves who can't do much after they hit forty and... I think it's about one hundred fifty for elves.”

I wave my hands. “Wait, did you say forty? Humans get old at forty here?”

Finally looking surprised herself, Master Liina says, “Yes, they start losing their abilities at forty, are effectively crippled by forty five, and die around fifty years old. It's a lot longer than we live, but they have a whole part of their lives living through a slow decline. It sounds awful and I have no idea why they think it makes them so superior to us...” She finishes with a low growl, but I'm so shocked by so many parts of that, I don't even react.

After a glance at my face, she asks, “What? Are lifespans that different in your world?”

“Y-yes. On Earth, there were only humans, no other races.” That draws a raised eyebrow, but I keep talking. “We... well, we lived anywhere between like fifty and one hundred. A few people even made it to one hundred ten years old.”

“That's... a huge range,” Master Liina comments, and I nod.

“I-I mean, most of the younger ones were due to health complications and stuff, I think, but average lifespan was about seventy years old and plenty of people lived into their nineties. Why does everyone die right around a set age here?” Then the obvious conclusion presents itself. “It doesn't have to do with the celestial magic, does it?” I'm not going to die at fifty, am I?! My status already says I'm twenty two because the years here are shorter...

“Hmm, that's hard to say, but I doubt it. Otherworlders are an exception to most rules, so you'll likely live to somewhere around your normal lifespan.” That's relieving for a moment, but then she puts up a hand. “I won't sugar coat things. In all likelihood, you'll never find out because you'll die on a quest.”

The blood drains from my face.

“Remember, this world is a lot more dangerous than where you came from. We'll keep adventuring to make our living. It's a job where you could die on any quest. Just look at your old master. When she reminds me of that, I flinch. It's still hard to believe he's gone...

“Anyway, we're getting off-topic.” She redirects us. “I was trying to say that my Status looked like yours before I even reached adulthood. It's probably thanks to racial differences, but...” she shrugs slightly. “Even if you used your free potential to boost all of your abilities, it wouldn't make that much of a difference.”

“I... could push all of them up by twenty,” I note. That's really not much...

“Let's see... what do you know about how you level up?” she asks.

“Well...” I look over my Status window and do a little math. It's kind of fuzzy based on what I remember from before, but... “I think I gain three points on every stat, plus thirty free points each level.”

Master Liina looks a bit puzzled by the English game terms I mix in, but picks up on my meaning quickly enough, and responds, “That is... not bad. My abilities grow at different rates, based on my Type.” I squint a little, glancing at her status window to remember that her class is called Type. Or... maybe Job, not Class. It seems like not all of the celestials' concepts are entirely interchangeable.

“Umm, if you don't mind me asking...” I hesitate since I don't know how personal stuff like this is. “How much do they grow each level?”

“Five Strength, five Vigor, six Endurance, seven Dexterity, two Intelligence, and one Magic,” she reports. She doesn't sound defensive at all, so that's relieving.

“Umm...” I can't do the math in my head, so I go and grab a notebook and pen from my bag to work it out.

Master Liina looks on with clear interest as I open up to a new page after all of my magical experiment notes, and start writing.

I don't know for sure whether she got her level bonus at Affinity level zero, but assuming she didn't... I pick up the notebook when I'm done.

“So your natural scores are... Fifty five strength, eighty vigor, one hundred fifty six endurance, seventy seven dexterity, forty four intelligence, and twenty five magic.” That's way off from my old assumption of average stats... “Hmm...” I take some time to put down mine too, to compare the two columns, remembering to remove the free points I put into Vitality and Magic.

When Master Liina gives me a look, I realize I wrote it all in English and rewrite it in Panir for her. I can speak and read now, but I'm still not used to writing...

Then I hold the book up to show the two groups side by side.

Stats Liina Yumi 55 35 80 29 156 63 77 29 44 387 25 37 Total 437 580

“My mind makes up more than half of my total stats...” I mutter. “If we ignore the outlier, our totals are three ninety three and one ninety three.”

This feels somewhat nostalgic. Like when I did stat distribution comparisons and theorycrafting with my friends, but... I gulp.

Her natural stats are way higher than mine. Two hundred points higher, when my total is below two hundred total. And that's when you consider that I spent the last two months busting my ass to grow my magic power by almost forty points, plus my stamina, meaning I came here at like one forty, one fifty.

“I... see what you mean now. I'm... really weak, aren't I?” I ask, heart sinking.

“Mm...” Master Liina stares at my notes for a little longer. “So that's why you have such a high Math and Mind.” Huh?

“W-what do you mean?”

“Well, I suppose it's a difference between our people, we don't add everything up the same way to compare like this. Is it a human thing, or because you're an otherworlder?”

“O-oh... Well, probably because I'm an otherworlder. Remember when... when I told you about my past?” I shudder a little at the thought, but push on. “I spent almost all my time playing video games with my friends. I uhh, guess you don't have video games here, but...”

It takes a little time to explain the concept, which seems to greatly amuse Master Liina. “So in your world, because you didn't have magic, you played games where you could pretend to have magic.” She keeps chuckling and it's just making me more and more embarrassed...

“Alright, so you spent all of your time doing that, so you and your friends at the time tried to figure out the best methods to maximize your potential...”

With one more laugh, she shows a big grin. “Now that is why your Mind is so out of balance. You've spent your entire life doing almost nothing but thinking. Everything else suffered for it, but your mental capacity is incredible. If I had to guess, that's why your magic is as strong as it is, despite your low Magic.”

It takes a moment to realize she's using magic differently the two times she's saying it, then, “W-wait, fifty six Magic is still low?”

Master Liina gives me a sad smile that makes me lower my head. “I'm a warrior and my Magic is higher than yours.” Then she ruffles my hair. “Come on, cheer up, like I said, even if your abilities look weak on paper, your actual effect in combat isn't that bad. You went really overboard at the time, but you took out an entire cavern full of goblins in one attack.”

I show a wan smile in return. “Well... I'm glad I chose Synergist. Because, uhh, I guess you're right. It takes a ton of thinking to make the spells work like they do. What I did against the goblin was more like fifty separate spells that all combined together.”

Her eyes go wide. “Wait, what? Tell me more.”

So I tell her, going into more detail on how my spells work by folding together the basic elements into ever more complex forms with exponentially increasing effectiveness the more I'm able to stack on at once. And how I can get those effects to stack on the fly if I get the spells to combine correctly after casting.

I don't know how much of it she understands, and try to stick to the overall ideas without going too hard on the minutia. In the first place, she's a melee class, not a magic class. To put it another way, a wizard doesn't need to explain the difference between spell slots and prepared spells to a fighter.

But all this talk of magic makes me finally realize something. “Show Spell List,” I try, but nothing happens. I frown. Altraska all do things by voice, but that doesn't work for me...

So I try to direct my attention to my spell list, like I did the other time I brought it up. I get it without too much trouble, but how do I show it to someone else? “Hmm...” Brow furrowing with effort, I try a few things before looking at Master Liina and sort of doing the opposite of Scanning. Like I'm pushing my information over to her instead of pulling information from her.

Then I feel when it works.

“Ahh, looks like you figured it, good job,” she praises me. I exhale a little, glad I got it. Then I look at the window.

Spells Mana Control Water Fire Earth Air Pull

“Huh, one new spell,” I note. So I don't get one at every new Rank? And it doesn't sound anything like an element... Looking at the coffee table, I summon a single pull element. It looks kind of floaty like air before it gets synergized, but almost completely transparent. Pointing at the table, I cast. The spell flies the short foot over, causing the table to twitch toward us a little.

“Looks like I can add a pull effect to my magic now. I wonder if it always pulls toward me though...” That could be... an issue, to put it lightly.

“Depending on your casting speed, it could be good for pulling others out of a sticky situation. I've seen more than one adventurer go to pitfalls and other traps like that.”

“Oh, I'll try that,” I say with a strong nod. I have pretty good confidence in my casting speed after all my practice, so I could probably fire off a pull strong enough to snatch a party member out of danger pretty quickly. Looks like I'll have at least some support abilities despite my Offensive Magic Job.

“So let's see... We've basically figured out why your Status is so out of balance. The question is, what do we do about it?” Master Liina asks. “You have one hundred twenty gifted potential left. You could spread it throughout your abilities to get them all a little stronger, or you could use them to specialize more into Magic.”

She folds her hands together, staring off into space. Her eyes aren't moving like she's reading though. Does she not actually see windows? Malic did say that Pannatir's magic was very visual. They all speak for their celestial magic, so do they like, hear statuses... somehow?

I shake my head. Not what I'm supposed to be thinking about right now. Then I check my Status again, just the stats.

Status Strength: 41 Vitality: 59 Stamina: 69 Agility: 35 Mind: 393 Magic: 56 Remaining Potential: 120

I close my eyes. It's the age-old question for building any character. Generalize, or specialize? Trying to make that decision for my actual self is kind of terrifying though. It also reminds me that I still haven't chosen a Focus.

I pull that window up and look it over briefly. Now that I know my magic better, maybe I can make a choice on it...

My choices are... all the useless elemental focus options, instantaneous magic, long duration magic, area control, debilitation, close range, long range, or no focus.

My first question is about area control and debilitation. What do those entail exactly? Focusing on them brings up more information, letting me know that area control strengthens effects that occur over larger areas, strengthens their effects the larger the area covered, and causes areas affected to be harder to move through.

So, it would power up my area of effect magic and add a crowd control effect to it, that's pretty tempting since it fits how my magic naturally works, while also adding an extra slow effect that's always attractive to a mage...

Next is debilitation, which looks like a more cc focused option. It adds longer duration effects like burning to my fire magic, stunning to earth and lightning magic, knockback to wind, and so on, and causes any other utility effects to be strengthened. So, maybe that would have an effect on Pull, making it stronger...

It's... tempting, but I wouldn't choose it over Area Control. It might be even more tempting if I knew more about what spells I'll gain at higher levels. Usually some of the utility stuff can be used to devastating effect if you think outside the box...

But for now, I don't want to make a choice assuming something like that. I'm supposed to be an Offensive Magic user, so hoping I get enough utility spells later to use them creatively is... not a good plan.

The others seem pretty self-explanatory, but I pull up more information on them too, to be thorough. Instantaneous magic is as I thought, making spells stronger the shorter their duration is. Not good for me when I can increase spell durations by continuously synergizing them.

That could mean that duration would be my best bet. As I thought, it similarly increases the effectiveness of my magic the longer the duration. So if I could keep some magic going for a long time, it could just get better and better.

Basically, it would make me a sustained damage over time mage. At that thought, I frown a little.

How long do damage over time effects generally work here? What actual percentage boost does magic get over time exactly? Ten percent per second? Per ten seconds? This is the kind of important information that me and my friends would always dig into during our theorycrafting sessions. It's what determines whether something that sounds good on paper is remotely useful in practice.

I try to think back to the magic I saw other mages using, but it was only that bunny-altra mage during my first quest and that snake-altra mage on the second. I was our only one in the mine shaft. The bunny woman had an assortment of spells, but she only tended to use a few quick bursts of magic from time to time. She probably didn't use any of her stronger spells since it would be a waste of mana on goblins.

The the snake mage had poison and paralysis magic, and was only using single target damage over time attacks. His paralysis could last a while depending on how many times he hit the boars, and the poison definitely went on for a while. I don't think I ever saw it wear off before we took the boars down, which makes the duration at least a few minutes at the bare minimum.

I don't know enough about how magic usually works to guess if mine has durations and areas of effect that would be considered large or small. Hell, for all I know, the scaling is specific to my class, which would render all of this moot.

But I need more information to make an informed decision. I could try asking Master Liina, but she isn't a mage, so I'm not sure how useful her knowledge would be. The guild seems more likely, but I feel like it would be best if I could see other people use magic to determine for myself what's normal. The guild would be second choice, Master Liina third choice.

“Umm, Master? Is there anywhere we could, uhh watch people fight? Like an 'arena-' Uh, I mean... umm...” I stumble when I accidentally slip back into English. I have to think about it, getting the weird language-completing thing fill in the word for me, and ask again in Panir.

When she raises an eyebrow, I realize that I've been in my head so much that she must have no idea why I'm asking. “I was thinking I should see how other mages do their magic to figure out how mine works. Like, if the duration and area of effect are larger or smaller than average.”

She laughs a little. “I can tell you right off that the area of effect is pretty large compared to most other mages I've seen. Duration, yeah, I'm not sure.” She shrugs. “There's an arena over in Rialetra. It's kind of a hike, but it might be interesting to go there. Could probably pick up some new gear...” She rubs her chin as she considers the idea.

Rialetra, that's... a nearby city-state, larger than Karshis, I recall. “Hey, you've never been to any other towns, have you?”

I shake my head. “No, not unless you count Emriset. But that was a human town on another plane, so... probably not?”

That one gets a big eyebrow raise, which reminds me I never actually told her about my slightly unusual appearance in this world. After I explain, she just keeps laughing and ruffles my hair a little.

“Alright, let's go to Rialetra. We can pick up some gear, and you can check out the arena. I think they even hold magic competitions sometimes, so you might get to see some really cool stuff.”

“O-oh.” I'm surprised that they even have magic competitions. And that Master Liina is so willing to just go on a whim.

With that in mind, we pack our stuff and head to the guild.

Approaching the guild counter, I flash a smile at Malic near the far end, while Master Liina approaches a different receptionist. I'm a bit surprised when I recognize her. It's the purple drake-altra. Her name was... Phena I think? I didn't know she worked as a receptionist.

She glances at my collar, but doesn't say anything, only addressing Master Liina. It's a pretty quick discussion, Master Liina basically just offering our services to protect a merchant caravan heading to Rialetra. After shuffling through some papers, Phena tells gives us the address of a business sending a caravan soon.

I didn't realize this would be so smooth, or that we'd basically be doing adventurer work on the way there. But yeah, I guess when fantasy worlds have regular merchant caravans between cities, they need adventurers to protect them, and what better way to get your guards than to put in a request at the adventurer guild?

As far as I can tell, it's not an actual guild-sponsored quest, so they probably just act as a go-between to let adventurers know about the need for guards.

Whatever the case, we head through town, suns still high up overhead in the first light part of the day. It's not long to reach a shop, and we head inside. The receptionist there takes one look at us and points us over to another counter.

The bird-altra behind the second counter asks if we're here from the guild, and after just a few short exchanges, we're signed up to escort their next caravan. He tells us which gate to go to, says we have two hours before the caravan leaves, and sets the pay at ten gold coins, delivered on arrival at Rialetra.

Ten gold? Why is it so much more than any of the quests we've been on? While I'm wondering about that, we head toward the gathering spot. Hmm... Does the money really matter to me now? I'm not allowed to have money anyway...

No no, even if Master Liina gets all the money, she's still the one who has to pay for things. Anything I need comes out of her pocket...

For a moment, I feel bad about that, until I remind myself that it's only like that because she forcibly claimed me as her property. As much as it feels like she's doing things for me now, it's only because she selfishly took away my freedom, for her own pleasure. Even if she acts like she cares for me, she's still using me.

I have to remember that.