Kim felt the early sunlight before she opened her eyes. She found herself with Elin in her arms, though she couldn't be sure what happened. She felt like much of the night was in a fog. Or at least after things started going south at the party.
She could feel Elin breathing as her she held Elin against her, letting her know that both of them were alright, regardless of what else might have happened in the night.
However, as she tried to move just a small amount, her entire body made it known that it was sore, and her right thigh complained the most. The pain brought back part of what had happened in the night. In addition to some of what thoughts she'd had about the men who'd helped her. Which she could only write off as allowances made from just being so tired after fighting so many armed soldiers for who knows how long.
At the very least, she was confident that it was behind her, which meant that as soon as Elin was awake, and the found Jonas and Elmo, they could head out from this place onto whatever was next.
Looking out the window, she could see that the sun was just starting to rise, which meant that others would likely be getting up as well. Which meant that she'd need to get up herself, as well as Elin, so they could head out before they got caught in whatever might come their way.
Still, she didn't want to let Elin out of her arms just yet. So, she thought she'd pass away the time looking at her stats. Besides, it wasn't like she had anything better to do. They weren't exactly in a private room, so it was limited what they could do here in the morning light without worrying about what others might see.
"Status," Kim said quietly, stroking Elin's hair.
HP 39/263
Stamina 22/123
Level 18
EXP 45897/171000
Str 35
Dex 20
Vit 35
Con 30
Int 15
Wis 10
Agi 30
Endurance 35
Physical Resistance 15%
Magical Resistance 5%
Skills:
Weapon Proficiency
Bastard Sword IX 240/950
Short Sword III 231/250
Weapon Specialization
Bastard Sword
Shield Proficiency
Large Shield II 25/150
Armor Proficiency
Plate Armor IV 185/450
Leather Armor V 443/500
Metal/stone/wood Expertise
Unarmed Combat III 145/300
Iron Skin
Stamina Armor
Leadership
Inspire
Abilities:
Shield Bash – 4 stamina 0/100
Charge III – 3 stamina/10 feet 152/200
Reversal Cut IV – 7 stamina 0/250
Iai Cut V - 10 stamina 15/300
Combat Dance VI – 8 stamina 221/325
Dodging Strike – 2 stamina/dodge
Energy Slash – 2 stamina/slash
Magic Cut I – 7 stamina 0/75
Weapon Throw – 0/100
You have 5 attribute points to left to allocate. Where would you like to place them?
Kim blinked at what she saw. All the previous times she'd looked at her stats after a large battle like that one, it had shown her advance a number of levels. Aside from the first time she'd leveled up, but that was clearly because she hadn't gotten much fighting before it occurred. Yet, here she'd clearly fought a good amount, but hadn't earned more than a single new level.
Sighing, she looked at her stats, trying to figure out where the best place to allocate her attribute points. She felt like she was mostly good at the moment, but it would be a waste to not put them somewhere, so she slapped two on her Vit and Endurance, just so she'd have more stamina, and one on her Str. Which changed her HP maximum to 270 and her Stamina max to 137.
Then as she was about to close it, she noticed the usual new message at the end: You can learn a new skill. Would you like to choose or see the options?
At the mention of skills, she suddenly realized there were two new ones she hadn't seen before, or even chosen herself. "Tutorial," she murmured offhandedly.
"What are Leadership and Inspire?" Kim asked, reading the skill from her stats.
Kim sighed. The retreat wasn't really her idea. It was more that she liked living still She couldn't help but laugh quietly at the irony of the situation. "Did the doppelgangers I fought last night have these skills?" Kim asked absently as the memory of fighting the doppelgangers popped back in her mind as she felt herself grow more and more alert, shaking off her drowsiness like a bad dream. Kim didn't really follow, but she wasn't going to argue with her tutorial. It wasn't like it was doing this on purpose. She could only move on and ignore all aspects of the inconsistencies involved. "Alright, moving on. So, what skills are available to me now? Any new ones?" Kim asked. Glancing at Elin, she said. "Just tell me what skills are new for me," she answered. "I'm sure I can remember what the descriptions are for the skills I haven't selected." Kim wished she could do something to the voice to vent her aggravation. Why would it offer to list new skill options if there weren't any in the first place? However, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. At the moment, it wouldn't help her to let the aggravations she was getting from her tutorial to disrupt her cool. It seemed like any AI program she'd encountered. It didn't seem like it could think ahead, so it merely was expecting potential requests from her, even though it knew full well that some of those would be pointless and a complete waste of time. When she was sure she was calm, she thought at her tutorial, [Alright, fine. Just select the Unarmed Disarm for me. I'll take that skill.] I need a way out of this competition, Kim thought grumpily to herself, making sure not to think of the tutorial as she let the thought float through her mind, just so she wouldn't have to worry about getting a response from the voice. She wasn't sure what the voice would say, only that she wasn't in the mood for it. As she finished that, she looked around her and didn't really see anything specifically different. Just that the light of a new day had started revealing her surroundings, letting her know that all the events from the night before were indeed over. She doubted that Jonas ran into any trouble, otherwise he'd have come to let her know and either woken her up or kept her form falling asleep in the first place. So, she carefully removed Elin from off of her lap, and gently set her on the floor so she could get up and assess their surroundings more easily. Even though it was a new day, if the chamberlain, or whoever was above him, hadn't been either eliminated or captured, then they could still be in danger. Which meant that she needed to either figure out what level of danger they were in right then or to learn that everything had been resolved. She hoped it had all been resolved, but she couldn't say for sure that it had been. She just knew that she'd need to look around herself and see what there was to see. She first stated by walking over towards the rear gate. If nothing else, she hoped to find Jonas and Elmo there, so if there was still danger around, then she'd be able to increase any chance of dealing with it without any real trouble. She hoped it would work out like that, but she wasn't all that optimistic about it at the moment. She'd had to deal with too much to allow herself that luxury. It didn't take her long to make it over to the rear gate, but as she did, she could see that things were better than she had expected, allowing more of the memories of the previous night to return to her. The fact that she could see Patricia, Patrick, Owen, and Bart made her feel that things would be over quickly now, if they weren't already. Even though all of them were sleeping, she knew that when they woke up, they'd probably be able to bring the force of a juggernaut to any threat that appeared. However, she couldn't let them just sleep while she was ready to go herself. That just wasn't fair. Which meant it was time to be a human alarm clock.