I blink my eyes groggily as I wake up from my night's (I think) sleep. Blearily blinking my eyes, I feel astounded at how different I feel throughout. I feel many times more energised than in the past, even after just waking, with a clear mind which feels as though it can work many times faster than in the past. My body almost pulses with power compared to the past, and all of my joints and muscles feel much smoother and easier to move, in any direction. I can almost feel how much my coordination has increaced, as I feel a greater harmony between my mind and body. There are also more... subtle changes that I can almost vaguely sense, but cannot describe or even... comprehend. Almost as though the way in which I am percieving these changes was practically unused in the past.

Despite all this though, I can still tell that I am... me. Despite feeling as though my computational ability, physical ability, dexterity, and more have all increaced, my mind, my core of being, still remains constant. Although it may change because of how I have changed, the change in my body had no change on my... self? It's almost as though I can sense what the core of my being is, and yet also not be able to; as though I can feel it's existence but feel no further.

The effect of stat points seems to be absolutely marvelous - greater than my imagined effects of 'I am now stronger' and 'I can now think a bit faster', my whole being has changed along with the stats. Although I am still me, I am now more than I once was.

Surprisingly, as I inspect my body, my physical form has not greatly changed. Although with some of my stats, namely flexibility, the addition has clearly changed my body to be able to be more flexible, the other stats seem to have not greatly affected my physical form. Taking strength as an example, although my physical form has changed slightly, as my muscles (or what I have that could be called muscles) feels slightly more refined, few other changes have occured, despite the change. My body also feels quite different in this regard, as my strength appears to have been evened out over my whole body, in stark contrast to in the past; my right arm, for instance, was much stronger than my left, due to the many more tasks I used it for in my life.

However, the lack of change in my physical body appears that it could show that although enhancing stats, at least in the realm of physical ability, is also dictated by natural talent - it appears that, for example, if I trained myself to be in peak physical form, my strength stat would not change, even if I did gain in strength. This would mean that certain people would have a higher aptitude towards strength, as some people can put on some more natural muscle than others. However, after a point, training would probably affect stats, as even for the strongest people on Earth, there was still a limit to how much strength they could gain. This could imply that other areas could also be influenced by aptitude, which would mean that some people are predisposed towards certain 'class' archtypes, or even mixes, than others; i.e that someone with a higher strength aptitude would be more suited to become a strength-based warrior, or something along those lines. However, besides some mostly circumstantial evidence, I have no proof for this.

Stats, though, would still allow people to grow in any direction they chose, if this is the case, as enhancing a stat would still enhance that stat, it would merely be that some people would find it easier to develop into a mage than others might, for example.

Deciding to take a break from trying to decifer the mechanics of this new world, I open up my status screen;

Status Name James Davidson Race Earth Human (Slime Variant) Age 15 Level 6 (8400/19200) Titles Explorer, David and Goliath, Dungeon Delver, Lone Adventurer, World Traveller, Tenacious Traits Strategist, Flexibility, Physical Resistance, Iron Stomach, Adaptability (Enhanced), Mana Affinity, Survivalist Stats Resistances Unspent Stat Points - 30 Temperature 50 Strength 17 Humidity 50 Vitality 12 Poison 50 Constitution 15 Death ??????? Agility 15 Life ??????? Dexterity 24 Fire ??????? Intelligence 30 Earth ??????? Wisdom 46 Water ??????? Perception 22 Air ??????? Luck 24 Nature ??????? Flexibility 17 Ice ??????? Balance 20 Electric ??????? Durability 13 Metal ??????? Willpower 17 Void ??????? Mana 43.5/43.5 Space ??????? Mana Regen 6.7/min (5.7) Mind ??????? Health 29.75/29.75 Light ??????? Health Regen 1.6/min (2.6) Dark ??????? Skills Inventory Settings Miscellaneous

'That... is one monstrosity of a status screen' I think as I state at the 'floating' window. Reading through the stats, I can see how much I have improved, even just in 24 hours. Following the standard template for tables, the base average appears to have been 10, although the stats actually seem to depend on my own physical body, form, and mind, and not just have a common base level, as if I took 10 as the base for all, I can immediately see. Also, seeing the titles and traits laid out makes them seem a lot more substantial than before - after all it seems quite extraordinary to be able to collect them all within 24-hours. There is also evidence which could show the stat calculations for Mana and Health depending on stats added, however I shelve that for later as it would take a while to work out.

Once more leaning away from the mechanics of this world, I walk over to the small stream in the corner of the room. Cupping my hands, I drink a few mouthfulls of water, sating my thirst, before washing my face in the clean, icy water. For breakfast, as I currently have nothing to cook with, I eat the remaining leftovers I grabbed from back home, leaving the few cans we had in storage, as I have no way to either heat cans or cook meat, such as what I have from the rabbit corpse from yesterday (presumably I slept through the night), and perhaps from it's loot, which, thinking of it, I decide to check while eating the meal. Instead of checking my inventory, I decide to check the battle logs of the fight, for the death notification;

Savage Bunny - Level 12 Has Died

+1300 XP

Drops;

Bunny Meat Steak x1

Savage Bunny Hide x1

Savage Bunny Ear x1 (Bounty Item)

As expected, I gained some meat, as well as a hide - despite the fact that the bunny corpse still has both. Perhaps, the one collected from the actual animal has a chance to be much higher quality or something, only one can be held onto, or it is a way to double your rewards. Looking over at where I left the corpse, I am shocked to see it fading into the air. As I watch, it turns transparent, before it's faded, transluscent remains sink into the ground. Apparently, accessing the loot from the monster is the time when it's actually collected, a process which removes the corpse of the monster. So, by that logic, you should collect what you want from a monster before taking it's loot, which would presumably no longer include any of the manually harvested items. In the case of a substance like meat, it ould be possible to obtain much more than otherwise, and it would presumably let you gain any item drops from the monster still, which is most definitely a neat feature!

Finishing the meal, I decide to start work on something more permanent for me to stay in - a shelter in the ourside world. After all, this pocket dimension is only here for a mimited time, so it would be smart for me to have somewhere to stay afterwards. Putting off allocating my stat points for now - after all I should get used to the stats I have now first, I change clothes into the second set I took from the shop, before heading over to the exit from the dimension. Sweeping a final gaze around the structure, I step into the black abyss-like exit, and leave in a flash of light.