Alice frowned, bit her lips and slowly typed,

"Ergo, I cannot use magic."

Nomad17: yes. I cannot even begin to explain the process
Scarlet: What if you show me?
Nomad17: maybe. Kindof. Mana manipulation skill is essential.From attributes, perception is how good you detect mana among other things  Psyche is how much you draw it from outside and how fast and Mind is in charge of application.
Scarlet: Only have Perception.
Nomad17: SO you canot use magic by design and on my side no a clue how to teach you. Ask Sage when he shows up also use 'Sage' when talking with guy, it will help. Or teach, for my class magic is all about communication, you know? I talk with spirits. You get me? no, yes?

"Thx", the short girl sent an answer and after getting 'be in touch', she sighed and lay directly on the floor. Digesting a fruitful conversation that had lasted for hours was a must.

Eight people were connected through the nameless chatroom. Five guys, three girls including the professor. Of the eight, three had creation-type classes: blacksmith, enhancer and Jean aka PR3DAT0R-696 was an 'Inscriber'. Mike the Sage was an 'Appraiser'. Professor Lauster owned the 'Witch' class. Recently joined Nomad17 wanted to be called just Nomad and he was a 'Shaman' with very specific magic he had to idea how exactly worked. Robert, Rob or Knight was a 'Warrior'. Finally, Alice revealed herself as a 'Hunter', too.

Now she tried, but couldn't connect names to faces. Alice always had a hard time remembering such things. The only one who had some impression in her mind was professor Lauster, or as everyone called her in the chat, teach, but it was because the professor was her type, first and foremost.

The girl who feared spiders should be Jean, right? By elimination. She had some style. Not as striking as Liv...

What they didn't say about themselves? Or they tried? The system might even prevent me from speaking out loud 'blood integration' or the fuck that was.

Yes, after a day and one timely reminder Alice reread the system log, found this inconspicuous string and cursed the system. Again. And herself, because she could.

I am either very special... bullshit. Everyone must have their own quirks, too. Since the system had scanned me first, the blood integration may be a rare option though, which explains the delay of me joining the crew. Also, I don't have a class. I have a template, whatever that means. Since this Sage guy can appraise system messages, I will just directly ask him.

"Status."

"My perception and dexterity are already around the limit a human can posses." The girl commented and then frowned. "The limit... we, humans, are not able to sense mana. I can't yet; the dungeon must be an exception. Level 5's so my goal."

The limit Alice mentioned was something the chat-buddies has explained to her. Zero meant paralyzed or dead. Less than one was an infant. Then children, cripples and elderly until four, 'untrained'. Five was an average, six – trained, seven represented a professional athlete and an Olympic champion was eight. A champion on steroids had nine in his status and ten was all theoretical. The limit.

After summing up, Alice smiled awkwardly and said to herself,

"Good thing they laid the explanation based on male examples, and not just 'persons'. Okay, dexterity is control. Absolute Body Control skill must be dexterity-based. Hum-hum-hum. It's unreasonable to think that my perception gets the biggest growth for no reason. My next blood integration skill most likely will be perception-based." That she would get another shady skill Alice had no doubts.

Oh, level 5... she remembered suddenly and exclaimed, "Skill shop!" The girl sat back before the notebook and her fingers spurred into motion,

Scarlet: Nomad, what about the skill shop? Does it have Mana manipulation or any magic on sale?

...she didn't ask in chat because the system swallowed the message.

"Oh, come on. This is a spoiler too? Fuck you!"

Someone might judge Alice for being so turned on magic, and she did so from time to time, but the girl had no power over herself. It was magic! Even if one left behind breakers all positive impact on her survivability, it would remain the freaking magic! Alice wasn't otaku. Between school, occasional family trips during breaks, advanced lessons to skip school and karate training she had no time to even ogle the true gamer title.

Alice jumped on her legs, stretched muscles and cleared the place. There was lots of unspent energy and some steam to lose in her.

"I train for two hours, eat, rest a bit and go hunting. Yes." Nodding repeatedly, the girl persuaded herself. While she was sleeping, monsters were spawning. While she was chatting, monsters were building up their levels.

After taking a stance, Alice began with a set of thrusts. The giant insects were either flying or crawling targets, vastly different from humans. No amount of safe dojo lessons could have prepared her for that, and Alice naturally concentrated on the system skills. Her spear mastery was 3, equaling to years of training, therefore every imaginary ant and snakefly was slain nicely.

Thrusts changed to slashes, then the girl added footwork to the repertoire. Minutes later she started piercing the air again. Any martial arts training was just like that: dull and full of repetition, yet Alice could always clear her head and not get bored. If anything, she only welcomed a little empty mindedness now and then.

The spear seemed not heavy but not too light either. Alice was leveling so fast, she had no time to acclimatize to changes, the high stats had no adequate transition into a proper mental image of herself. She was yet a small girl who would use a stun gun, or a pistol to defend herself. The system didn't give her a training hall, or any tools and charged a fortune just to keep herself fed, forcing her into a fight after a fight.

When Alice put the spear down, she felt nothing. No usual nice soreness in limbs nor getting faster or stronger.

"The shop..."

Alice glanced at the notebook and walked over. The shop was expanded, it now had more categories for weapons and armors and every item had several show-casing pictures, or even an occasional 3D model.

"Weapons... oh, it has voice control, too. Show me some bows... amazing."

The girl enthusiastically scrolled the list down.

My first bow is not that strong... It worked while my strength was 4-5. "If I think about it, those fuckrodents were just squishy. There might be evolved versions later. Can I sell my old... wait-wait-wait? I can?! Wow! For half a price, I see. Plus 75 BP... show me bows for strength 7. With a half."

After a bit of wavering, Alice chose one and spent 450 BP in a breath. Her old bow dissipated in the air, and a new one appeared. It was coloured in grey, had a curved form on the ends with dim steel insertions from up to down that allowed it both to keep a small size and have high string tension. It got to her with a brand new sheath, which was a nice addition. When the girl pulled the string slightly and released, it hummed a low note.

"Now I... huh..."

She tried and couldn't pull the bowstring more than halfway. Alice smiled wryly. Yes, it didn't make any sense, but reality again showed a contrast between her system status and her brain status.

Do it. Harder. The girl panted as her fingers slowly but surely moved back. With every millimeter, she heard her muscles and brain screaming "this is the limit!.." yet it was pushed back again and again.

"Ah!" Alice screamed and dropped the bow as the string broke free and whipped her left hand, leaving a bright red line on it.

"Hah. I have no sense of these attributes. Or maybe my bow mastery is not high enough... well, might as well. Bow mastery, level up. Level up. Skill list."

Alice felt an injection of knowledge even clearer than the last time. Indistinctly she saw herself shooting from a bow, running with a bow, pulling arrows from a quiver, dozens of different scenes at once. Her hands tensed, trying to squeeze the handle, caress feathers. The next moment, the feeling disappeared.

Having lifted the bow, Alice moved into a stance naturally, her hand snatched an arrow from a quiver, placed it. Her shoulder and back muscles worked in unison, pulling the bow and the string apart until the girl simply let it go. The arrow whistled, carved sparks exactly from the spot on the wall the girl meant it to and broke apart.

"Ah! Damn it!"

...the girl screamed a second time when the bowstring left a second red line on her thumb.