There was a trick every martial arts fan probably learned. From lying on the ground, the girl jumped on her feet flawlessly, in one fluid movement, and grinned foolishly. Then she coughed, embarrassed as if caught by her parents and adopted a base stance for kata. Inhale, exhale. Breath in, breath out. Again. And again.

Jitte started slowly. Alice's hands closed in formal greeting before flowing circularly before her chest as she transited into Tachi for striking. New circle, new stance full of eager readiness. Suddenly, the girl turned and lunged with her palm as a dagger, and lunged once more, followed smoothly with steps filled with force...

When the practiced pattern of movements ended, Alice became more or less aware of her body. She had to control every movement now, as the skill threatened, but without strain.

Indeed, Alice became stronger. Faster. Long ago, when the girl only started to learn martial arts, her karateka with sheer honesty told her: "you will never be a fighter. Karate will grant you great health, but you will never win a tournament, nor you would be able to use it for self-defense without crippling your opponent for life." Something like this. The little girl didn't believe him back then. She thought it was a smart lie to make her strive harder, and how could she be tricked by such a ploy?

Unfortunately, Alice ended up shorter than most people. At sixteen, she was barely a meter and fifty-two centimeters high, mostly thanks to growth hormones pills, and she was still taking them. Thin legs, thin hands forever refusing to muscle up even for a bit. An ectomorph who didn't lengthen up because of a childhood disease! So no reach for her punches, no weight behind her kicks. Sparring after sparring convinced her. 

Between aiming at throat and eyes, Alice finally chose to use a pepper spray, a shocker or maybe a gun after getting a carrying license. Practicing karate transformed from studying deadly art into fitness exercises. Nothing more.

Now, the status upgrade didn't quite add to her physical proportions of any kind, but other limits...

"Observation, Level Up. Spear, Level Up."

Alice decided so. Underground, there was no distance to demonstrate the archery skill or wind to obstruct them. The stealth skill she could probably manage with proper body control. The butchering? Ha! The girl ignored it like an unfunny joke. She deemed preventing creatures from sneaking up on herself as most important. And the spear skill looked more promising than the vague 'hunt', which could even be ignoring 'monsters' at its core.

"I have 730 BP left." She opened the shop again and soon found the important items.

[Lesser Life potion: 80] [Heals light injuries: scratches, small cuts, and burns, bruises, cracks in bones, etc.]
[Lesser Concentration potion: 60] [Easies mental burden caused by stress, exhaustion, overuse of manipulation type skills, etc.]
[Lesser Antitoxin potion: 75] [Neutralizes all kind of poisoning: chemical, biological, drug or potion abuse, etc.]

Being a gamer girl, Alice knew better than to ignore such things. She bought two hp potions and two anti-poison potions and looked into the weapon category next. Two minutes later the short girl was standing before a narrow passage with a very short, dark spear, the shaft barely a meter and twenty centimeters in length. The variation she ordered for 300 BP. Heavy enough for her arms, sturdy to survive claw bites, with a bay leaf spearhead form and a cross behind it. Not magic or anything, the shop didn't have such an option (yet?), just a bunch of cold weapons.

She also got a canvas bag, two more bottles of water and two oil lamps from the 'misc' category. Twelve arrows filled her quiver to the limit. In her status window, meager points' were left in two-digits.

Alice's left foot in a leading position, the spear in two hands looking straight and downward, she accepted a primal stance naturally. Then, the girl lunged forward and the spearhead whistled through the air nicely at an imaginary centipede. Kind of the same strike worked on the big one; as the girl studied the marks and discovered that her slashes hadn’t gone through well she got disappointed in the way of the sword even further.

With a spear, she felt confident enough to place a deadly hit or two on a low-level monster. She felt not only stronger after her own level up, but comfortable, refreshed. Adept with a spear as if having had a few months of practice.

I want to go outside now, but am I really such a risk-taker? The girl asked herself, not putting off chances of being influenced by the system, or her questionable race, or both. The answer she arrived at... yes, she always was a girl of action.

Besides, Alice was really scared of the unknown, and this fear was growing steadily moment by moment. Her cave had only one exit and the quest mentioned ‘the closest monster nest’. She had to check it even if doing the job now would prove to be impossible. If not an passage to the surface, she might at least discover a water source.

Or an easy exp source. The girl could dream, right.

One thing Alice had missed. The true reason for her all-acceptance. A part of her, a deeply hidden part still hadn't admitted the demolition of the old world. It struggled hard to keep the safe bubble within her subconsciousness. And maybe – just maybe! – this part of her was considering everything to be just a nightmarere. A reality show. A drug trip. Anything really, and the worse of all – a true game with some RPG elements.

“It’s like hunting wolves instead of deer or elks. Easy. Only at night. And instead of a rifle, I have a bow and arrows. Perfect.”

Alice shivered, lifted one of the two oil lamps she had bought from the system and slowly entered the passage.

The passage was fortunately straight but nature hardly intended it to be passed by man. The wide cleft was trying to rip Alice’s clothes with sharp rock juts on the narrow walls and more than once strived to make her trip over stones and cracks. On a plus side, the ceiling was low, which the paranoid over spiders and other jumper predators from the dark girl wholeheartedly approved.

Dungeon. Great. And you are messaging again. Great-great. Alice walked up to a dead end. Well, not exactly: the wall ahead had a small hole just enough to maybe – maybe! – let her crawl through.

Five minutes she had spent on a slow exploration of the passage. Maybe a hundred meters? Yes, she was a little too careful. One better would be if expecting a monster screamer after every corner. Smelling the air for strange odors, Alice inspected the hole closely. There was a lot of space on the other side, seemingly another cave. With too much light for the underground.

“Emerald, Dungeon…” A thought regarding the ongoing absurdness flashed, or even a trace of thought, before being shooed away. First thing first, Alice stuck her spear through the hole mumbling a couple of curses and baiting an aggressive ambusher, only to gain menacing silence instead. No knocking from multiple legs, no roaring or panting of a hungry beast; no matter how earnestly the girl was straining her ears.

I want to go back. Alice caught herself on a traitorous note and hurriedly shook her head, then took off most of her items and placed it around the hole. The short girl drew a sword next, pointed it forward together with her spear and bravely crawled in the cave.