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  [Name: Alice - Css: None - Race: Human Soul - Body: Iron Bleeding Uchigatana - R2]

  [Level: 10/20 EXP: 13085/14892]

  [HP: 101/101 MP: 106/106]

  [STR: 47]

  [DEX: 50]

  [INT: 35]

  [WIS: 15]

  [CHA: 2]

  [LCK: -2]

  My stats were looking quite good! Except with Charisma and Luck.

  While in my house, which everyone kept calling a burrow, I was looking at Erika’s System to check on how much I had grown. Although we had been killing those drakelings, progress surely had been slowing down. Most likely because they became so easy to kill.

  My house, by the way, was close to Luna’s. It was nice to have a pce for my own privacy, although I had nothing to decorate the interior with, and the thing was a dipidated building, but better than nothing.

  Aspen insisted on staying with me, and made herself a bed in a corner. She was, at that time, sleeping on it.

  At that point we had been preparing for a couple of things: possible attacks and to begin scouting up the caves, towards the exit.

  [Progress has been made, considering the current situations. Normally, under other circumstances, some of the enemies that you have fought should have killed you, and the amount of Ether on some of the enemies has given you quite the boost of XP]

  Ugh, Forehead could have made a mess of me then.

  [Growth is dependent on your actions. However, stats like Wisdom, Charisma and Luck do not increase the same way like the other Strenght, Dexterity and Intelligence]

  I had figured that out. Every time I leveled up, only those 3 stats went up, while the rest stood there in pce. Charisma went up 1 point, though.

  [That is because you still managed to get the wolves wanting to help you, but you still fumble quite a lot in your speeches]

  Ugh… I didn’t need a reminder.

  }------------------------------------------o~o------------------------------------------{

  A few days back, I tried to give a new speech to have them choose their names.

  “Now, I know you all want me to give you a name, but I want all of you to choose one!”

  They all gathered in the pza in front of the main building ruins. Only like 20% of them had accepted to take a name, the rest started to ask for one, piling up pressure for me to do so.

  “You gave one to Aspen and Fir! Why not us too?” One asked.

  I couldn’t find any reason for why them or the others not. That was a choice I made in the spur of the moment, and was overwhelmed with what was happening.

  “I… Uhhh…”

  “And aren’t wolves and other beast kin meant to be named by the humans? Doesn’t that make more sense?”

  “N-no! I mean, you can all choose your own name!”

  Yet, even with that argument, I could hear many agreeing with the wolf that made who wanted to be named by me.

  Did I really had to choose a name for everyone? There were so many, I was not good at that, and I didn’t want to give them stupid names because I ran out of ideas.

  [Sigh…]

  Did Erika just “sigh” at me?

  [Tell them this]

  Erika gave me something to tell them.

  “Ah! Well, I have to be honest. When I got here, I had little time to get names for everyone, and then we were attacked, so I had to get selective. Although I was willing to name my Cn, I was not expecting to get these many wolves.”

  “Besides!” Ade walked forward, “As you all know, Luna chose her own name, and was more than accepted by Alice, and I am sure even El would be smiling at her choice!”

  “And, any name you all choose, will have my blessing.” I nodded by moving my handle up and down, “You can come tell me, and if you are not sure which name to pick, I am willing to listen and to help you choose! I believe something like this should be your choice, not mine!”

  “Miss Alice!” a wolf asked, “Then, you chose your own name?”

  “Ah, no… that was my mother and father.”

  And saying that was a mistake, as the wolves quickly took it that even I got my name from someone else.

  “I am gd they are willing to question me…” I said while almost starting to cry..

  “Okay, everyone!” Luna yelled, making everyone go silent, “since you all don’t understand, this is final. We made that choice, and it is good that you all have your reservations! When I was the leader, you all questioned me about my choice to give myself a name, and demanded evidence that it would not bring the wrath of El, yet here you have, a human soul giving you the right to make your own choice! Isn’t that what we all wanted, making the choice to stay away from the King’s fangs?”

  Everyone, slowly, fell silent. Luna’s words came in much more powerful than mine ever could, and demanded even more attention. She was much more cut for this than me. Why did I have to be the leader? She and Fir were much more experienced than I was, and knew how to do that.

  “I agree with Master Alice and Luna!” Fir answered, “When you all followed Alice here, even when we all heard your doubts about joining the cns, you all still followed her, right? Why, I ask? Because we all believe she is the one that will make sure we are safe from the King, and that will lead us to the promised nd! Who is with us?! Who wants that right that the King so much fears we have?!”

  And somehow, that made everyone howl in unison, ciming for the speech givers. They said my name, yelling Alice, but I did not feel like I did anything good.

  Moments ter, I went inside the ruins and threw myself in the ground. My metallic body resounded hard once it fell on the ground, echoing through the stone structure.

  “I thought having no body meant no anxiety attack…”

  [Correction… I never said you wouldn’t feel it, I just said it was easier to get over it]

  Yet I felt simir as if I was going to drown on my fears and my heart was hammering like it was hitting a rge nail that did not want to go in.

  “Then why I feel like shit?”

  [Well… Imagine if you had a body]

  No, thanks. I was guessing it was not going to be as good.

  I was stubborn, but only when I felt that I had a way to achieve my goal. But speeches, talking with people? Going in front of a crowd of people that expect everything from me and to make sure they are safe and feed? Yeah, every time I only had evidence of my ck of talent.

  “Hey…” Aspen came in, “are you okay?”

  She slowly approached me and id besides me, looking at me with her curious expression.

  “You ran in fast when the gathering finished.”

  “I am fine…”

  “I can tell you are not,” she retorted, “I don’t know how, but I can feel you are feeling bad after that speech.”

  How? I had no human body that she could read to infer I was getting through an anxiety attack.

  “Yeah… I am a mess,” I decided to be sincere, “I needed Luna and Fir to step forward to save me from the crowd. I don’t even know why any of you wanted to stay loyal to me. I am not cut to lead anyone.”

  She lowered her head and her ears. Maybe she was thinking. The silence grew in that moment. I wanted to say something, but I was not sure what.

  “Well… I don’t think you are bad at taking care of others,” she answered, “you didn’t even know me or the others, and yet you saved my life, and ran in to kill monsters none of us could. I think that is what people… all of us are seeing.”

  “Huh?”

  “I don’t know… I am not good at this either and…” she looked to the side, and then her ears perked up, like she just realized something, “well, El teached us that we are not meant to be good at everything. You are good at fighting and making choices, but not as good with speaking to groups of wolves… I guess.”

  [Huh…]

  “Heh…” All I could do was chuckle.

  What was I even good at that point? Yeah, I knew a fighting style, and was capable of killing stuff they could not. Hell, I even had to make a few choices that ended being correct in the long run so far. But I knew already I was bad at going in front of people to deliver speeches or presentations. It was my biggest weakness.

  Even Erika was impressed. To be honest, Aspen was one of the few I would expect to have told me something like that. I should stop underestimating her.

  “What? Okay, if I said something weird, forget it!” she went back to her usual self.

  Before I said anything else, I floated towards closer and id myself against her, pcing my metallic body on her fur. She was confused, looking at me as if I was doing something weird.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Just… happy I met you, Aspen.” I answered.

  “Shut up! You are being weird again!”

  Yet, her tail kept wagging behind her.

  In that case, either I trained to become better or I began to rely more on the others for such things. Next time I was going to give a speech, I had to talk with them about what and how I should say things, and maybe I would get better with time.

  After all, we had times of problems in the future.

  Thanks to their intervention, the wolves began to accept the new directive about their name. If I was alone, it would have been a disaster.

  They three obviously scolded me and called on every mistake I made, but I knew it was because they wanted me to improve and be a good leader.

  I wanted to be a good leader.

  }------------------------------------------o~o------------------------------------------{

  Back to the present.

  [You should take a good look at your titles and skills]

  Right… house keeping. Normally I would take my sweet time before I did that in game, specially when things were getting easier, but I should not count on that.

  [Titles]

  -Kenjutsu Expert

  -Soul Analysis

  -Sword Maiden

  Those were titles I already know about. Increased damage with swords, specially katanas. And the chance to steal and obtain extra ether from monsters and other enemies I defeat.

  -TPK

  When fighting alone against a group, increase your senses and gain +10% more dodge speed.

  -Boss Monster

  When fighting alone, when you are in a desperate situation or at a disadvantage, increase damage resistance by 20%, damage by 15%.

  Those I got when I met Aspen. They must have come in handy when I fought Forehead.

  There was one that I didn’t notice I got.

  [You got this one when you fainted during the fight against Forehead]

  -Magic Resiliance

  When your MP gets low (30%) you obtain reduced magic cost for every spell and skill you use.

  That was going to come in handy.

  [That title should reduce your risk of getting into a critical situation, but you should still be careful]

  “Yeah, I guessed. How did you manage to get these things working?”

  [Is a long expnation. Ether molds your soul and body, and thanks to not being enclosed in a body in a traditional way, your soul is both more susceptible to the world around it and to have changes. These titles I give you are mostly traits I notice that make your soul apart from the rest]

  “Yeah, I guessed. What I wanted to ask is how did you get those names? Boss monster? TPK? Those are terms from games and video games. Did you get them from me?”

  [TPK yes. Boss Monster no. Some of those terms, that collide with your notion of videogame elements, were given to me by my creator]

  “Your creator?”

  [Yes. Marbos III, the Creationist Arch Mage. he created me]

  So he knew about videogames?

  Then, a wolf came in, yelling and desperate.

  “Master Alice! Master Alice!” he screamed.

  Aspen woke up, jumping to her 4 paws.

  “W-what is it? Is there a problem?” I asked.

  “Y-yes! Wolves from the King! We spotted them near our territory! There is a rge group and they are approaching fast!”

  Aspen looked at me, and I nodded.

  We had to go.