Putting her brief brush with death aside, Mia calmed herself and looked inside the chest, finding inside a clear orb. “Skill orb!” her excitement quickly returned, reaching inside she pulled out the orb and sat down next to the chest, her back leaning against it.

The orb in one hand while she yanked the remaining spikes out her body, she inspected it “Which is it…” she frowned, she had no way to find out what skill it held without using it. “Well…” She glanced at the wooden archway that was still shut tight, then saved just in case. She brought the orb to her chest, wishing for it to be apart of her.

The next moment it vanished, and she inspected her status.

Name: Mia

Status: None

Age: 8

Race: Fox Beastman

LVL: 3

Points: 51

HP: 5/100 MP: 100/100

Str: 25

Con: 10

Dex: 25

Int: 50

Mnd: 10

Lck: 1

Skills: [Ice Magic: 1] [Early Riser: MAX] [Willful: 3] [Packer: 2] [Dagger Arts: 1] [Common Language: 1] [Blacksmithing: 1]

Titles: [Unlucky Child] [Shrine Maiden]

Hidden skills: [time: 2]

Leaving the fact she almost killed herself removing the twigs aside “Blacksmithing…” The orb contained the skill [Blacksmithing], while she felt slight disappointment at what could be considered a useless skill, at least it was something new. She decided to get a closer look at it, focusing on the skill.

[ Skill: Blacksmithing. LVL 1. The art of creating weapons and armor using different materials. Any weapons or armor made will have their performance increased. At level 1 the effects of this skill make your works automatically better than that of a one armed amateur. Feel grateful.]

“Eh?”

“Eh eh eh eh?!”

What do you mean feel grateful?! I- What the heck?

Granted, she got the skill for free with an orb but what was with this skill? The other skills didn’t have this kind of description? Well, thinking back on it she had only looked at a few of them. To be sure she decided to check another skill.

[Skill: Packer. LVL 2. You are used to carrying things on your back. The effects of this skill reduced the weight of items placed on your back, the higher the level the higher the reduction, this effect is limited to only things on your back. Level 1: You can lift things half your weight with no problem. Level 2: You can lift things equal to your weight with no problems.]

“Hrm.” That explained how she could haul around that heavy axe with no issues, but when she held it as a weapon it slowed her down. Realizing she was getting distracted, she decided to check another skill, just to make sure.

[Skill: Willful, LVL3. Strengthens your will, effecting your mental threshold. Abilities effecting your mind is reduced, mental threshold is increased reducing the chance and duration of [Mental Break] due to mental stress. Level 1: Mental stress accumulated is reduced by 25%, Abilities effecting your state of mind is also reduced by 25%. Level 2: Mental Break duration is reduced by half. Level 3: Abilities are further reduced by an additional 25%.]

While reading she had unbundled her dried meat and began eating a single slice “Hrm…Only blacksmithing…” blacksmithing was the only one that sassed her, deciding to leave [Ice Magic] aside for when she could figure out how to use it, besides this skill concerned her more than just a description giving her sass.

“Mental break and abilities…” Like [Early Riser] this was a high-level skill, and with skills remaining after a load, she must have had this for a while, but that wasn’t what was concerning her… It was the fact she even had a skill like this. Thinking logically and in the best-case scenario, she got it from rebelling against the slave collar which affected her mental state.

Taking a bite from her dried meat she considered the worst case, she had suffered from a mental break enough to warrant a skill, the question was how many times that would take. The only skill she remembered gaining naturally was [Dagger Arts] after 1 afternoon of training, technically. Looking at her higher-level skills, she figured she could gain experience towards skills in between saves and not lose them when she loaded, the proof of this was [Packer], [Willful] and [Early Riser], while including how easily she got [Dagger Arts].

She glanced at the axe laying besides her, taking another bite from her meat. Judging by her lack of an axe skill after using it in battle, she could gather it takes some time to learn a skill and isn’t something you frequently get after a few hours, unless all that experience is saved. Add onto that her lack of trap detection, trap disarming, or presence detection…

She gulped down a piece of meat, staring off into the distance at the now open archway. “Last cycle was different…” Last cycle she had gained her dagger skill, which after also gaining Rowan’s respect for some reason, lead him to continue the training past using a dagger… which led to her getting further into the dungeon and gaining the all-important language skill before the church arrived, though, this was all speculation on her part…how did she get here?

Oh right, [Willful] and [Blacksmithing].

Finishing her single slice of meat, she bundled the rest of the meat and reattached it to her waist. As far as she was concerned, [Willful] helped her resist the slave collar as it leveled up throughout the numerous cycles, she was forced to wear it, thinking it was more than that was just pointlessly scaring and confusing her, but it was important to know skill experience carried over from her loads. For the other one… she decided to treat it like [Unlucky Child] and like that one, maybe a god was involved and was upset she got it easily.

She shrugged and focused on her new problem; it was dark. While eating and pondering her skills nighttime had officially started, and with this dungeon only source of light gone she was left in complete darkness without a light source. More importantly, with the archway open, that doll could wonder in any moment, not wanting to risk exploring in darkness her eyes fell on the empty treasure chest.

“…best bet.” She nodded, saving, she climbed inside the chest and shut the top, laying there in complete silence. Figuring now was a good time, she focused on her unspent points while recalling the fight. 100 hp was a good number for now, but with her only weapon being an axe she had to consider dumping everything into strength to help her wield it.

“…” She frowned, recalling the last fight she didn’t like the axe, or combat like that in general. Comparing the two she much preferred fighting with daggers or more ‘precise’ weapons, daggers allowed her to strike at an opponent’s weak point, dealing massive amounts of damage were something heavier like the axe prevented that unless she was strong enough, even then the former appealed to her more.

A swift stab in the right place ending the fight then and there, compared to crushing the opponent’s defenses with raw stats…there was also her own experience with it towards herself, finding enemies attacks that targeted a specific place to kill her instantly a lot more annoying and deadly rather than the attacks that just shaved off HP and let her retaliate.

Most importantly, she still wanted to avoid getting hurt as much as possible, the fights of from last cycle still fresh in her mind, and more enjoyable… alas, she lacked anything dagger like to use and she couldn’t afford to be picky, so with her points available she decided.

Name: Mia

LVL: 3

Points: 1

Str: 50

Con: 10

Dex: 50

Int: 50

Mnd: 10

Lck: 1

She split it evenly between strength and dexterity, despite not wanting to be picky, deep down she did not want to commit too much to the axe. With this, if she found a dagger would use that instead.

With nothing else to do, she promptly went to bed, hoping the doll wouldn’t find her as she slept.