I jump to the side to avoid the aqueous blade, but this leaves me open as my spine makes a new friend. Emma's boot.

The unwanted relationship sends me flying across the room and leaving me a collapsed pile. "Urgh," I groan and cough out some blood. How hard did she hit me, cause that isn't supposed to happen.

I use Earth Bone Enhancement on my whole skeleton. Thankfully, I can get more out of the spell since the cost of reinforcing my whole body is the same as reinforcing just my hand.

I stagger as I try to stand up again, but she swings her sword down at me, causing me to roll to the side to avoid having my arm sliced off. I would like to have all of my appendages after this. And not die. Not dying sounds good.

I use a little bit of stamina to jump up and face Emma. I wince a little as I land, my damn back hurts so much now, and try to swing at Emma. My punch clearly misses as she grabs my open arm and swings me around like a rag doll.

With each swing, I leave a noticeable impression in the ground. Why does everything look so fuzzy? Is that blood? My blood? It's so warm.

[ Through repeated actions you have unlocked the skill: Pain Resistance(Minimum, Passive) ]

[ Pain Resistance - Allows the user to ignore the effects of pain on the user's body. The user should note that pain is used to notify them of the body's limits and this skill should remain deactivated else the body can be pushed past its limit or injuries worsen. ]

A cooling sensation flows across my back with the arrival of a new skill. I think that's the floor. My mind clears up considerably as the burning along my back becomes more of a throb that you feel after bruising yourself. I should probably turn this skill off later, but I'll use it just for right now.

I stand up shakily as the bruising still hurts some. The others warily glance at me. They probably know that I should not be standing right now, and can probably guess what skill I now have. Great.

"I'm- I'm not out yet," I say. My words are slurred for some reason, maybe brain damage which would mean my legs are barely operating, and also shows that Pain Resistance doesn't magically, though magical, repair your body enough to function. Emma responds saying something, but I can't hear her. The only thing is some faint ringing in my ears.

Using Telepathy, I communicate thinking, 'Could you please repeat that in your mind? My hearing isn't doing well right now.' She visually sighs and thinks, 'Alright, listen. Your body isn't in great shape, and any more damage may become permanent, vhich nobody wants. So, sadly, I have to say that you failed this test. You can come back in a week, but I would recommend waiting until you gain some more skill before trying again.'

With the last sentence, I deactivate Pain Resistance and fall into the comforting darkness.

————————————————————————————————————

I wake up to the all-too familiar sounds of Thomas's med bay. Any attempt to move my body is violently retaliated with sharp pain from every bone in my body. Even my eyes hurt, which is kinda new.

The sound of the door sliding open with pneumatics sounds throughout the room; signaling the arrival of somebody, but due to my…condition I can't see who it is.

A voice breaks the silence from the side, "You really made mom and dad worried." I think it's Aria? Probably. Definitely isn't Nora which is for the best. She would sit on me again if she had the chance. "The fault does slightly land with us as we had you woefully unprepared, but…don't do that again. We all care for you." Her android body steps into my line of sight. Unlike Arthur, the supposedly less fleshed-out robot with the metal face, Aria has a human face even if she has robot parts underneath. "I'm going to administer some pain killers and sleep medication now." She injects some vials into a drip that leads into my arm as my vision fades.

I just woke up, but now I'm sleeping again. And why is Aria wearing a maid outfit?

————————————————————————————————————

Again, why is Aria wearing a maid outfit? And now, secondly, why is she staring at me? Wait, no her eyes kinda look dead inside. Like she's unfocused. I don't think she's actually inside her android body right now. Maybe it has something to do with her aversion to…what was it? Duplicating herself? I think that was it. I slowly sit up, with my body just sore now. Aria perks up at my movement and she checks over me.

"I thought you weren't here right now," I mumble. "I set a subroutine to notify me of any movement from you," she curtly replies as she holds her fingers of to my neck. "83. That's good," she mumbles to herself as she moves away. I lean back on my pillows as Aria glides over to some screens with graphs on them. I don't know what they mean, but Aria sure does with how intently she's glaring at them.

"Hey Aria," I call out weakly. "Hmm?" She responds. "Why are you wearing a maid outfit? Unless Thomas made you wear it." She gives me a small smile. "No, I just like wearing it. I think it fits with my job pretty well too. I make sure all of the machines run correctly and manage more data than you could think of. Yes, we do have the butler Arthurs and maid Marys, but I'm in charge of all of them. And any other robots dad made." She turns back to glaring at the screen.

"So, what now?" I ask. "First, food. You need nutrients. Second, after you're completely healed, mom and dad have a plan to put you through the old-fashioned way of gaining stats: training. After dad gets back from making sure his employees don't burn down the workshop and/or laboratory, he's going to construct a gym area down here."

With her explanation done, she sets a tray on my lap with a bowl of oatmeal in the center. She holds a spoon out in her hand and commands, "Eat."