Minutes later, Alice left the medical room again, almost healed to completion. After Lucy had worked some magic on the wound caused by the stone-spike, Alice hadn't wanted them to use any more of their Mana on her. If someone else got injured today or overnight, she didn't want to be the person at fault if they couldn't get the healing they needed.

As such, she only had the healers set the bones she had broken and used the remaining five Soul energy she had left to heal herself. With Jenny's help, it even served to test how good her own healing actually was. It turned out that every point of Soul energy allowed her to heal the equivalent of six days, or three days per Skill level, of natural healing in a mere instant. It also didn't do any automatic corrections, so using it recklessly wasn't something advisable.

She could perfectly heal from flesh wounds, but anything that needed outside intervention to heal properly wouldn't heal correctly.

Under different circumstances, she wouldn't have used up her Soul energy completely like this. But she had heard from the healers that another attack was predicted the next day, so she could simply refresh her storage then, and even finish up the remaining healing she still had to do.

"Weren't they supposed to heal you? Why do you look worse now?" Ava, who had been waiting outside the room, asked her.

"Did you forget the stalactite that isn't stuck in my stomach anymore?"

"Besides that, of course."

"Then, the answer to that question, my dear..." Alice halted. She had been about to say 'friend', but that wasn't correct anymore, was it? "is that I'm now alive again, and being alive tends to be painful."

"At least you are alive," the girl mumbled into Alice's breasts, giving her a crushing hug.

"First, ouch, I'm still tender and not fully healed. Secondly, get your face out of there."

"Girlfriend privilege" were the only words Alice could make out.

"I see." She began petting the smaller girl's head.

"Oi, stop that."

"Girlfriend privilege," was Alice's only answer.

It was astounding how much that single word had changed about their relationship without actually changing anything. Alice wasn’t quite sure whether that meant they were too good at being friends, or too bad at being a couple.

Ava was finally the first to push away, now able to speak clearly again, "Why aren't you fully healed?"

"Don't want the healers to waste their Mana on me. Who knows when one of the old guys is going to get a heart attack, and they won't be able to heal them because little old me sucked them dry."

"I see. Right, Michael wanted a report on what happened, but he said it can wait until tomorrow if you want, since I already told him everything from my perspective."

"Hmmm... Let's get it over with now. Besides, I'm a bit worried about those Gorillas," Alice answered.

"Why?"

"Besides the obvious? It's because of how it noticed me. It shouldn't have been able to see me, and I was pretty silent. Despite that, it somehow managed to almost hit me with its first attack. It didn't, but it still cut me off."

"What if it intended to cut you off?"

"That would mean it wanted to capture me alive. And I don’t want to know what it would have done to me. One more reason to talk with Michael about it, before someone else runs into one of those things. Or they run into us."

Sure, those things weren’t an enemy that guns didn’t work on. But depending on how exactly their magical abilities worked, they might be able to cause heavy damage to their walls and buildings.

Twenty minutes, a report to the captain, and a discussion with Albert, who had started a monster compendium later, and the two girls finally found themselves in their room again.

Apparently, some earth mage had gotten around to making holes in the stone-slab covering their window, creating a few round spots of light on the floor. The light was dim but enough to find your way around.

At first, they had wanted to be outside, but the little piece of garden that was safe was entirely occupied by different fields full of plants and the people working on them. And while there were plans of building a longer and taller wall that would encompass not just the main building but even some side-buildings as well as the name-giving glades, that was still nothing but a plan. It was already impressive what had been done in just about a day and a half.

"You know, we should still both have level-ups to use," Ava commented while they were sitting on the bed in companionable silence.

"You are right. That's what we picked that fight for in the first place, isn't it? You want to go first?"

"If you don't mind?" Ava was radiating excitement. "I got three entire levels out of that! First of all, I need more Mana. Ten is not enough for comfort. Secondly... One Skill, please!"

Ava didn't say anything.

"What did you get?" Alice asked curiously.

Ava picked up one of the folding knives lying on their bedside table and put it on the bed in front of her. Taking her hand away, the knife was gone.

"Sleight of hands?" Alice asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Nope! Much better!" She demonstratively stretched out her thumb and pointer finger, lowering her hand down to the blanket. For a moment, they made contact with the fabric before sliding right into it. When she brought her hand back up, she was pinching the knife between them.

"Did you pull that out of the shadow?"

"Indeed I did. It's called Shadow storage. It's a bit small for now, but if I understand this right, the size should increase multiplicatively with my Magic power."

"So, you're going to put another level into it? Or focus on your Magic power?"

"Neither. I'm going with another secondary Stat. The Skill is gonna be useful, but for now, it would cost too many levels before we can take full advantage of it. I am going to work on it though, for when we go to New York. Nope, for now, I want something else I can train. Listening in on old people gossip is only going to stay fun for so long."

A moment later, a manic grin spread over Ava's face.

"What is it now?"

Ava pointed at one of the round spots of light on their floor. It was wobbling a little. No, Alice realized. The shadow around it was what was moving.

"Didn't you take a Stat?" Alice wondered. It looked more like a Skill.

"Yup! Doesn't take any Ma... Ohhhh! I think... YES! This one also multiplies the size of the Shadow storage! And it makes my teleport easier to use. Probably. Once the stat has gone up a bit more."

"Doesn't look very impressive," Alice said teasingly.

"I need to train it first, of course," the girl answered, completely distracted with the shadows wobbling at her will.

"Not interested in what I'm gonna get?"

"Probably something ridiculous..." she mumbled distractedly.

"Well, I was thinking about a secondary Stat too, for starters."

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Reward: secondary Stat

Bodyreformation (T) 1/100

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Immediately, she tried getting more information about the Stat, similar to how she could with her Skills.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Bodyreformation (T) 1/100

Returns your body to its optimal form.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Returns your body to its optimal form..." Alice read the description out loud.

"Duh, told you it would be something ridiculous. You are getting more unkillable with every goddamn Level up. Not that I have a problem with that."

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

(T)

This Stat can be trained.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"It's the 'use it a lot and it gets better' kind of training, right?"

"Ah, that sucks... Ehhmmm. You don't feel any pain when you are undead, right?"

"Yeah, but I think I get to feel everything I missed out on all at once when I come back to life."

There was a moment of silence.

"I guess it's up to you if you want to train the Skill or not?"

"Yeah, no. I'm not desperate enough to maim myself for training. Not without a lot of painkillers and healers that can save my sorry ass should I fuck it up. Also, I'm gonna need a very good reason."

"You know, that's the thing with training. You do it for the future. Once you have a reason for training that Stat, it's probably also the same moment that you need the Stat already trained," Ava commented, too late realizing what she was suggesting.

"Okay, no. Ignore what I said," she continued with worry in her voice. "I don't want to talk you into it. Believe me if I say, seeing you injured is not something I like. Seeing you maim yourself just to learn how to un-maim yourself is not something I want to see either. Maybe, just think of it as a dud? Not every Skill is going to be super useful, I imagine."

"Yeah, I'm probably gonna do that."

A scenario appeared in her mind. Alice lying on the ground, arms, legs, and organs missing. Her body in a state that Soul absorption couldn't heal, and even as a zombie, she wouldn't be able to move. A situation where only the ability to reform her own body quickly would save her life.

She shook her head, driving out the image of horror.

"Okay, second try!"

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Reward: secondary Stat

Mana regeneration (T) 10/100

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Mana regeneration (T) 10/100

Increases the natural Mana regeneration speed.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"Oh! This is a nice one! Lucy is so gonna hate me for getting this!"

"Lucy? It's the first day, and you already talk about other girls in front of me?"

Alice ignored the comment and explained, "She is one of the healers. Constantly complains about having to meditate to regenerate her Mana quicker. And I just got a Stat that increases my Mana regeneration. I think it's gonna be ten Mana an hour at the highest point? That's like, two-hundred-and-forty Mana per day?"

"Hoh, that is a lot better than that last one! Hmm... Do you have any Skills to use all that Mana with, though?"

Alice thought for a moment. She had two Skills that used Mana. Soul collection was basically powering itself through Soul absorption. On the other hand... Maybe she could mess around with Flesh grafting and use it to train both of her Stats? No, turning into a zombie to deform her own flesh and then heal from it was messed up on so many layers that she didn't even dare to start counting them...

I'm a moron. I can just ask the kitchen for a piece of steak and use the Skill on that. All I need to do is burn through my Mana and allow it to regenerate naturally to train the Skill.

"Not for now, but at least I can dump my Mana with the Flesh grafting Skill to train the Stat."

"Now that I think about it, maybe you should ask... Lucy, was it? Maybe you should ask her how it feels when she is using her meditation."

"What do you mean, ask her how it feels?"

"Well, think about it. This whole system, with all its levels and Skills. Isn't it just far too convenient? If you ask me, it's definitely not something natural. It's a bit of a mainstay in many of these stories that the system was created by some kind of higher entity.

My point is, there is a good chance that it is possible to learn Skills the 'ordinary' way. For example, to get the same effect as the meditation Skill, by meditating without actually having the Skill. The idea is, by getting stronger outside the bonds of the system, you can gain strength beyond your level, allowing you to defeat even stronger monsters and thus level up faster. At least, if that is how levels work."

"Okay, let's assume you are right in that this system was created by someone for some reason. Then let me ask you a question, what happens with cheaters in online games?"

"They get banned. Why?"

Alice looked at her girlfriend meaningfully.

"Oh. Ohhh! I see what you mean. Yeah, that would be bad."

"Yeah, we should keep it in mind for the future. But until we know more, we should keep with the rules. Best case, it would result in losing access to the system. Worst case? I don't want to find out what such a powerful being could do to us.

We should probably talk with the leaders about this possibility. It might turn out that the system is just some very weird magical phenomenon, but we shouldn't take any risks.

Though, I guess we could try and at least learn our own Skills. If it works as you suggest, we would at least be able to continue using our own abilities should we ever lose access to the system."

"You know what?" Ava asked as she jumped up from the bed, "As fun as talking about this is, I need to DO something. I just heard the people outside our door talking about playing some games in the cafeteria. Let's ask if we can join in."

"Sure, sounds fun," Alice smiled. Her girlfriend had never been someone who could sit still for long.

There were children, young children. Most of them were blurry. Only the few that were often with her appeared in more detail. As well as the teacher, who was quite the beautiful woman.

The memories were happy ones, memories of friends, of learning, of reading books. Quickly, the children around her grew up. The teacher changed, becoming blurry too.

There was a conflict. One of her friends got injured. Since then, they stayed away from her, joining a different group.

The images turned clearer.

The children grew up even more. They changed. And then, the school changed. Most of her friends disappeared. Some faster, others she continued to meet up with, every now and then.

The people from her old school all went somewhere else. Now she was surrounded by strangers. She tried to find new friends, but it wasn't easy. However, she still had her books. Before she knew it, she was alone.

The memories turned darker, a lot less happy. She was hugging her backpack, fearful of her things going missing, books mysteriously getting damaged.

A new student joined in the middle of the year. Her image was the clearest yet. She was small, with big round glasses and long brown braids.

Sometimes, she got home with injuries. People tripped her up, hit her where no one would see it.

A memory,almost as clear as the girl. She went to her teacher, tried to tell them what was going on. They asked her for proof and ignored her when she couldn't show any.

More and more, her eyes were drawn to the new girl, without her even realizing. Everyone else was blurry. Only the girl's image was clear.

A school trip. She ended up in the same group as the new girl. They were in a group of four, supposed to tour a city she didn't know.

She was alone with the girl, the other two having gone off to meet up with their friends. It didn't matter to her. At first, there was an awkward silence, but that soon changed when the girl mentioned books. They hit it off instantly.

The bullying got worse. It continued to escalate. Still, the teacher didn't do anything.

But it didn't matter. No matter how dark the time at school was, she instantly brightened up afterward. At first, rarely, but more and more often, she would meet up with the girl after school. They would talk about books, discuss them, sometimes fight over them, or just sit together and read.

Time passed slowly and yet fast.

Her time at school ended, and she went to university, the same one as the girl. Both of them still met up, but more and more, other friends entered their lives. They began to drift apart.

The memories became almost clear now.

The girl became friends with a guy. She watched nervously as the two continued to get closer.

Finally, she had enough. She took the one step she had always feared. She confessed. The girl accepted. Like before, they met up more often. Sometimes to talk, sometimes for dinner or movies.

They moved together. Their apartment was small, but it was enough.

They became older. Finished university and found jobs. Again, they began to drift apart, their jobs making it more difficult to spend time together. This time, it was the girl who proposed. She accepted. They married.

It was a beautiful affair, but everything was blurry. Only the woman in front of her was clear. Everything else wasn't important.

Another girl entered her life. A baby. Her baby.

Her wife had to stay home to take care of the child. They couldn't both work anymore. They had to be frugal, and she had to work more and harder. But it was worth it. No matter how hard the day was, it always lightened up as soon as she came home.

The baby grew up, and they moved into a new house. The city was a smaller one, but the house was bigger.

Her job led her to a home for the elderly. It was uncomfortable, she was making it hard for the owner, but she had no choice. It was her job.

The memories were clear, not a single detail missing.

Again, she was there, when things turned... strange. Monsters suddenly appeared, people got supernatural abilities. She didn't know where her wife and child were, but she had the ability, the magic, to find them. She was determined to go out, no matter the danger.

At the first chance, she joined a group that went out. They had a clear objective and goal. But even if the chance was low, there was a chance she would meet the two. Rescue them and bring them to safety.

They went to two places, and nothing dangerous happened. The third place... felt off. Something was strange about it. But it would be her job to figure out what.

The memories cut off, and Alice's eyes flew open. Just barely, she could feel the vestiges of a familiar soul disappear.