After a bit slave merchants finally left and I was alone once again. Floating windows disappeared when I looked at them. They said I leveled up, learned some skills and most of them just repeated that my Mind Power increased...

What does this mean? Am I in a game? Hmm, maybe I am in a coma and my real body is connected to some simulation machine or VR game? ... No, wrong.

As of today, no simulation can recreate all senses with such detail. And if it was, I would still be able to feel my real body 'outside', coma or not, my body and mind aren't like those of the others. And if my brain was injured to the point I can't do that anymore, I would be unable to repeat the process of taking full control of this body as well.

Hmm, so what is this then? Uhh. I can't think of anything logical... my best guess is that some God created the world with laws similar to a game system... Or maybe games in our world were created by the influence of someone getting a glimpse of the world like this. No, that's even more ridiculous.

I could fully accept crossing the worlds and possessing a dead body, but this ... Uhh. Enough! Like it or not this is a reality. Need to accept, adapt and move on like always.

That leaves me with another problem, I am not too good with games. Played them mostly for my experiments and didn't bother with most stuff I should know as a game player. When I started, it was because of a brilliant idea to test my martial arts in VRMMO.

Even with way slower movements than opponent, my father and I could beat anyone. With a similar principle, we even dodge bullets. But my father often has to travel so I couldn't spar with him very often.

My idea was to challenge maximum level players as level one. In the case where I level up, I would just delete and create a new character. This way I would be restricted by my low stats and enemy would be faster and stronger.

The plan was a complete failure.

After some time I just couldn't force myself to fight against those idiots anymore. Who uses a sword as a club? With reaction and reflexes of a turtle, all that speed advantage granted by stats was totally wasted... but then again, it's not like the speed in game could increase the reaction speed of their real body.

Oh, and worst of all - no brain. I mean come on, who tries to change the course of battle with a loud shout of skill that is three times slower than previous attacks? Maye some AI ignores the opening, but there is a limit to how dumb one can get. In the end, combat just lasted long, because of their high health, but that was basically all.

There were a few professional players that gave me a challenge (probably martial arts masters in real life as well), but it was hard to find them among the masses and they kind of avoided me. For one, they must have been offended that someone at level one can beat them even with a high-level character. And even if they did managed to win against me... it wasn't something they could brag about.

In the end, I dropped the idea.

Still, as this world is similar to a game, I probably should try some of the commands I learned from back then. For starters will just try them in my mind.

Menu!... Open menu! Hmm... Interface!... Status!? Oh, there it is.

> Name: Melissa Health: 45/45 Level: 2 Mana: 325/325 Race: Cat Beastkin Stamina: 47/47 Gender: Female Strength: 12 Age: 14 Agility: 14 Class: None Endurance: 11 Subclass: None Mind Power: 65 State: Healthy, Enslaved(Bunrak, Ammir) Unallocated attribute points 3 > ACTIVE Body Manipulation (Unique) LVL 4 PASSIVE Eternal LVL MAX Nightvision LVL 1 Corrosion resistance LVL 1 Enhanced Smell LVL 2 Regeneration LVL 2 Enhanced Hearing LVL 2 Acrobatics LVL 2 Enhanced Sight LVL 2 Enhanced Mind (Special) LVL 3 > Slave Tunic Slave Collar

Hmm, I leveled up once during meditation so I guess it's possible to do that outside a combat. Still, it's only one level for all skills acquired and improved. Probably have to kill if want to do that faster.

When I played VRMMO killing just one annoying pest got me from level 1 to 42. But I guess meeting maximum level boss in the real world can be harder than in a game. I didn't even want to fight that thing. I accidentally meet him when tracked my prey... err, I mean, when I followed tracks off the player with decent skills. I wanted to challenge him, but instead got a fight with AI, the bastard was faster so running away was pointless.

The fight lasted for an eternity and was terrible. Painfully predictable moves and millions of Health Points, way more than any player could have. But I refused to die to some weak AI, even if I knew that winning will make me raise in level and will have to delete my character to start new.

Enslaved... so Bunrak and Ammir are names of those slave merchants. They never introduced themselves in my memory and from a conversation I overheard, I know only the name of that old dwarf. That blonde human must be Ammir then.

Well, Health is obvious... Oh, I have decent mana, does it mean I can learn magic? Though if I have to do some stupid chanting, not sure I want it. Mmm maybe can use mana as a replacement for Chi? When I concentrated on the word mana, description showed up.

Mana - special energy used in casting spells.

Then I concentrated on the word Stamina to see if a description shows up as well.

Stamina - available energy used to move and perform actions with the body.

Later will experiment if can move and perform actions at the cost of mana. To have the stamina you need to eat, now mana should regenerate on its own.

Strength - A measure of your raw physical or muscular power.

I think with enough food I could get nearly 20 of strength. More than that and muscles will start affecting my speed.

Agility - A measure of your overall speed, finesse, and reflexes.

Hmm.

Endurance - A measure of ability to withstand hardship or adversity.

Is this where the numbers of health and stamina come from?

Mind Power - A measure of your overall ability to store and manipulate mana.

I got a lot of this when finished healing the body. Most of the windows were of me getting Mind Power. Should have a connection with me unlocking dormant parts of the mind.

Unallocated attribute points... when I concentrated, strength, agility, endurance and mind power started blinking. Hmm, I think they allow to increase any of these attributes with those points. But I probably should wait till I reach the limits of what I can improve on my own. If I watch how the system adds more juice where I could not, I could learn a thing or two. With the new method, I could even replicate the same process to improve further on my own with my body control.

I don't see any defense or armor stats. Maybe it's hidden? Everyone knows that muscles could be treated as a natural armor so I was a bit curious how the strength affects that. Could plan my fights better if I knew. Oh, well, this is real world now, if severed arteries make you bleed to death, high level won't save ya. I doubt I would need colossal strength if aimed just for that. Will have even easier time than in VRMMO if it works.

Body Manipulation (Unique) - The power to manipulate any aspect of your own body.

So the name for full body control is body manipulation? Sounds good. Yep, from now will call it like that.

Eternal - You are one step closer to immortality. Your body is no longer bound by shackles of time and is young for eternity.

Yep, not aging doesn't mean immortal. I am the best example of that. Stupid meteors and defective explosives. Had all the time in the world, yet died at 22. *Sigh*

Corrosion resistance - Ability to withstand acid, decay from death magic and other corrosive effects.

So if I max this can swim in the acid? How I got this anyway... ah yes... that illness had corrosion effects. Seems got it when fixed my body.

Regeneration - Ability to restore lost body parts and Health.

Oh, now this is nice. Had to concentrate and aid regeneration with mind if wanted to see results today. Now body will do that without even asking? Cool. Hmm but probably will be noticeable only at a higher level. Now all I need is an adamantium skeleton and I will be invincible. He he.

Acrobatics - Ability to make full use of your agility on ground, walls and in the air.

Another skill for being a cat I guess. Well, with claws on legs and arms I could climb a tree at the speed of running, even without this.

Nightvision - Ability to see in a low light and dark environment.

And enhanced senses of smell, hearing, and sight were kind of self-explanatory. Just like a cat, I had them way better than humans. Before I made some changes Melissa had them all only at level one. Oh, that reminds me, cats have a terrible sense of taste. It's the only sense humans have better than cats. And sadly more than ten times. Is this why that food tasted so bad? Well, at least fish will be tasty in this world too. I just hope I won't like it raw.

Enhanced Mind (Special) - You unlocked the full potential of your mind and many limits are just a history.

So this is my full control over mind? Well, it was necessary to unlock body manipulation after all, though I am surprised it's only at level 3. Next, I looked at the equipment tab and concentrated on the slave collar.

Slave collar

Symbolizes the slave status of a wearer, a tool to make slaves obedient to their masters.

Mark of Law - Enchantment proving the status of a slave. History of enslavement can be checked and link with the Master can be used to track the location of a slave if needed.

Mark of Doom - Enchantment allowing the collar to self-destruct if an attempt at forcibly removing it was detected.

Mark of Obedience - Punishes the slave if commands are not obeyed, also prevents a hostility against the Master.

Dammit! This is really bad. Exploding collar is just what I needed. I can still escape if I don't touch it right? Will need all info I can get on how they are removed normally.

Mark of Obedience... Oh, let's see if I can acquire one more skill. I thought and started to strongly desire kill the Masters and escape. Collar activated, but with enhanced mind, it had no chance to influence me like before.

Skill "Mental Resistance" acquired. Mental Resistance reached level 2. Mental Resistance reached level 3.

Mental resistance stopped rise only at the level 7. At this point, I could no longer feel the influence of a collar. And from all this, I even leveled up. First I checked the description of mental resistance.

Mental Resistance - Ability to defend against foreign influence on your mind.

If we combine this with my ecnhanced mind, I am sure there is nothing in this world that can influence my mind. If the effect of a collar on mind was stronger, probably could get the resistance even to the maximum level. Next, I looked what changed in the stats with a level up.

> Name: Melissa Health: 52/52 Level: 3 Mana: 325/325 Race: Cat Beastkin Stamina: 56/56 Gender: Female Strength: 13 Age: 14 Agility: 17 Class: None Endurance: 13 Subclass: None Mind Power: 65 State: Healthy, Enslaved(Bunrak, Ammir) Unallocated attribute points 6

Changes weren't too big and muscles didn't change differently from what I planned to do myself. I still needed more strength and agility to get new method for body manipulation.

After that, I spent a half hour trying different commands to get an inventory skill, but it seems there was no such thing. There goes my plan to solve the problem of a collar by putting it into my inventory.