In a mostly empty room, a barefooted small girl in grey fitting karategi¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_gi was walking on her fingers.

For now, she was using four fingers of her left hand and didn't seem to balance herself with the other three limbs at all. The girl looked as if she was standing straight and simply touching the ceiling.

Alice hummed a popular tune, smiling, and made a few push-ups with her left hand, then with the right. Her head was clear, light, despite having spent in inverted position quite some time. My weight is what, 35-40 kilos right now? Alice might have restored some strength, but it's not like her visible malnutrition would just go away after a single ample meal.

Somersaulting back on her feet, the girl waved her arm like a whip with a speed that normal human eye would hardly follow. A real whip produced sonic booms easily, the secret lying in the length and corresponding speed of this tool. It was said the tip of a sword – mostly common katana, which else, – might exceed the speed of sound in the hands of a master swordsman. Was it true or not, Alice had no idea.

Yet Alice felt air resistance taking shape of a barrier on her fingertips when striking out.

Agility 9.999...

Goosebumps marched on her skin. The girl closed her eyes and looked inside.

Half of her heart was filled with blood energy. Vibrant, boiling-hot and full of secrets. Blood energy represented primal life energy, and what else a cosmological creature had in abundance? Traces of it were circulating in veins through the girl's body at every moment, little by little dissolving in her every cell. If it's not blood integration then I don't even know. The thing was that blood energy she felt like her own, not alien, implanted or mere temporal gift.

Burn, Alice willed silently.

Invisible flames surged, filling her to the brim. The girl charged forward, crossed the room in a blink, run up the wall, and jumped right before the ceiling. The air compressed in an attempt to beat her speed back. Alice flew through the room in an instant, landed on the opposite wall and flipped back on the ground.

The girl felt tired, hungry again. Her whole body was hurting right now, but she was pleased. She was in control of her status.

System Log.

[Absolute Body Control] [Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. Neutralizes neural lag. Perception reaction bypasses instincts.]

Alice believed that was literally the only ability and not just aptitude she acquired from the Leviathan thus far. Astronomical being had literally outgrown nerves in particular and the biology suitable for humans like her in general. The blood in the girl's dream was the blood energy, she was sure. Oceans and nebulas of it. Dead and therefore hardly emitting anything beyond the light, but not any material substance still.

I was a fool. The answer lied in the 'perception' part. Instincts are instincts, nothing erases them here. My brain was acting normally because I feared this ability. As soon as my perception broke the human limit, making full use of the status is not a problem.

For now, Alice picked up the notebook and wrote,

Scarlet: What weapon goes nicely with spear mastery?
Knight: not fair...
Sage: I'm willing to share this feeling.
PR3DAT0R_696: wha-a-at, you are jealous of a little girl taking a head start? what about not grinding levels of appraisal then Sage and focus on killing shit? ﾝ
Sage: I don't want to hear it from someone who used a mnemonic technique to memorize every ALT code in existance²Alt + numeral code to print a symbol. Random example . I don't 'grind' experience because I have a strategy.
Knight: My body can take only one level up every two days, and that is the record here. Was. The system postpones level ups until it's safe. Damn, what is your secret, Scarlet? I have 21 floors
PR3DAT0R_696: five days here, at the minimum.
MagentaFey: Three. Plus the time to adjust oneself. I am impressed.
PR3DAT0R_696: meant with adjusting. (＃￣ω￣)
Scarlet: Sorry. Not telling and it's useless for you.
Knight: Twenty. One. To clear. Fuck I want to bash my head. I do it now, don't dare to stop me.
MagentaFey: Language. Oh well.

The chat was still a mess since the moment Alice had revealed her current status and dungeon progression. No one seemed to have an assist from a fantastical creature to level up forcefully nonstop. The girl rolled her eyes and returned to self-contemplation.

Supernatural control had broken her dexterity limit from level 2, she theorized.

The blood energy was strengthening her body passively, especially during level-ups, and Alice learned to burn it for a boost to her stats. The first time was out of anger towards centipedes, doing so was wasting some of her stamina though.

Right now, the girl's limit was five seconds of superpower and superspeed. What little fuel she had spent on her tests was recovering little by little. Alice focused, feeling the changes.

A day from zero to full?

The big question was how to expand her energy source and what other mysteries lay in it.

Seeing the chat calm down a bit, Alice typed,

Scarlet: I am telling you about the attribute limit and you tell me your appraisal, ok?
Sage: Sounds good.

***Nomad17 enters the chatroom***

Oh my God, Alice sighed.

Nomad17: Hey-hey-hey! Whats up? Guess what, I just cleared the tenth floor! I am ahead of you now, Knight!
Knight: Damn.
MagentaFey: Congratulations!
PR3DAT0R_696: Scar is back ＼(≧▽≦)／
Sage: Good for you.
Nomad17: Wait, what? Scarlet is back?
Scarlet: Hello there. Yes. Congratulations.

As the chat was sharing the news updates with Nomad, Alice kept silent, feeling awkward and only glancing at the turmoil with one eye.

Nomad17: Three attributes breaking 10? Templates? Sage, what do you think?
Sage: Alternative leveling systems are not surprising. Even one was impossible a month ago, what groundbreaking a second brings to the table?
Nomad17: Yeah, but still...
Scarlet: Let me talk, okay?
Scarlet: Agility above 10 should allow a human to break the sound barrier with a body movement sooner or later. I use all joints in a circular whip-like motion and feel air resistance rising sharply.

Then a necessary break for all boys to admire the perspectives... not like she didn't understand them.

Sage: It's all good, but air resistance starts to grow long before the sound barrier.

O-o-oh... thought a number of people, including Alice who had forgotten this point entirely.

Sage: But 'sooner or later' is true. Agility 20 or 30, who knows?

O-o-oh!

Scarlet: Perception above 10 doesn't seem to rise my senses anymore.
Sage: That's true. You are still within your body mechanics. Your bones won't bent with Dexterity 10, right?
Scarlet: Right.
Sage: Same principle. Perception first maximazes human natural senses and after the limit expands the dynamic. Well, in game terms with a higher perception you can see more FPS, but not more colours than an eye is capable of. I am afraid 24-frame movies are a bunch of static pictures for you now.
Scarlet: btw, don't you get attributes point? I almost forgot.
Knight: Three per level so far. May change with advanced classes. But no distribution before the limit break. Can see, can't touch.
PR3DAT0R_696: and what about your skill, Sage? you leveled up your appraisal on your own, right? youd told just before Scar logged.

That is how Alice knew she can indeed upgrade skills on her own. Depending on a skill though, Mike or Sage was yet the only one among them who went through harsh experience. He also liked to be remembered as such, the girl could almost see him typing faster.

Sage: In system terms, Perception N is just about enough for you to control Agility N. Dexterity M is just enough to control both Strength and Agility. Highlighting 'just enough'. Any lower means clumsy.
Scarlet: And Endurance is about enduring your own high stats?
Sage: Bingo. Basically, without high endurance, you would break your own bones when punching and tear your own muscles when running.
Knight: it must be extreme examples, right? Right?
MagentaFey: It's more than that. Imagine being poisoned or electrocuted, or simply being stricken with Strength 8 by a champion boxer in heavyweight. Endurance 3, now? A child, 80 years grandma...

Alice tiredly massaged her eyes and ordered a portion of dry food from the system while watching the discussion. Her stash was waning, for she had had the second meal just before her little test drive, and this was the third, her stomach happily proving to be bottomless. The taste was lacking, but Alice had long tampered down her expectations.

> Battle Points: 2,033->1,813

By now, the girl knew she was only one with a quest on a timer. Knight and Nomad had a 30-stores tower to climb with a number of thematic arenas. Sage was inside a giant forest with no food or water or weapons in the shop. Jean and the professor didn't share.

Their reactions?

"My condolenses", "Insects, giant, pweh pwu pthruu"... Fey aka professor Lauster considered the timer was there for a reason. For example, the system considered Alice capable enough.

No questioning the dangerous of the assumption, Alice tended to agree... something she would have never done before her last nap. The problem was, she only had about two days left.

Scarlet: Weapon, please. Spear-like.