After noticing that the vortex has stopped moving, I whispered into the air, "Space" and the vortex vanished with a whoosh. Sitting down and resting my back on the wall, I called out to my status window.
[
HOST INFO:
Name: Alex (Deniel)
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Level: 1
Fate Points (FP): 00/100
STATS:
Health Points (HP): 70/70
Mind Power (MP): 0/0 [Locked]
Strength: 0(11)
Defense: 0(9)
Senses: 0(9)
Health: 0(7)
Mind: 0(0) [Locked]
Free Stat Points: 5
SKILLS:
(Unnamed category):
[Mining] Level 3:
You have grown proficient in handling mining tools. Your proper form and long practice makes you able to mine various minerals with ease. As the skill level grows, the ease of mining increases.
[Starlight Harvesting] Level 1:
You have trained under a master for how to extract Starlight Fruit seeds, plant and harvest them. Your methods are still crude but as the skill grows, you can effortlessly grow all the varieties of the Starlight Fruit.
INVENTORY: LEVEL 1
Space 1: (1 meter cube)
Space 2: (0.24m³ left out of 0.25 m³)
• Slot 1 - □(0.01m³)
]
'So, everything is pretty much the same, although the low stat point of health does scare me sometimes!'
As I moved my eyes downward towards the inventory section, I noticed some small changes. The remaining capacity is shown in the braces and below the space I used, a blue colored box containing water is shown which is named 'item 1'. Without wasting any time, I closed the status window and said, "Space two, slot one, display."
The black vortex reappeared, slowly turning blue, the same color as the water. I looked at it, got up, went back towards the water tank and moving the vortex over the tank with my eyes I commanded, "Eject slowly." I didn't know if I could control the speed of the water it ejects but I still had to try.
Phish!
The vortex started spinning counter clockwise and as it was facing in my direction, the water moved out of the vortex in a normal speed towards me. The speed was sufficient enough for me to fill a container easily or store it in my hand to drink it.
Suddenly, an idea popped into my head, I commanded, "Stop" and the vortex stopped the flow of water immediately. With an expectant voice, I whispered, "Flip around!" Staring intently at the vortex, I waited for it to move the opening towards the other side but nothing happened. I then tried commands like, "move", "turn", "reverse", etcetera but it didn't even budge. I moved my hand to touch it and move it around my self but my hand just phased through like it was just air.
'I knew it! Lady Luck just hates me! If only I could just control the direction of the opening, I would have made it face my enemies and with simple commands and enough ammo, I could have made my inventory into an invincible machine gun!'
Disappointed, I filled back some more water into the inventory and after resting for a while, I went out to have dinner.
***
'I need to escape slavery before I even think of going back home.' I started to contemplate on my way to the dining area. 'I can't continue to be a slave here forever! I can think of only two methods of escaping. The first is to become the one who leads and controls the resources in this village and get stronger. The second would be to go into the forest outside and face the elements of nature.'
'I don't know if this village is the only place that hosts humans or if there are some other species that stood above them and ruled them. I lack too much information. I now realize why in those novels information was exchanged for money!'
Putting my monologue aside, I looked at the food and stored a half of komita in my storage space one. I would keep it there for a week and that would help me guess the time flow in the inventory.
Making small talk with Mr. 'fan', to get any information out of him, we went towards the stable. As we entered the stable, I noticed that James was calming the Lakéquses while milking them.
Hoof! Hoof!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
There was a fixed quota for the milk to be given to the masters and only the remaining milk can be distributed among the named slaves. Unnamed slaves had no right to drink milk. Since James was already very old, he couldn't digest milk, so all the remaining milk was only for me. Although I can drink the remaining milk, it was very rare for the milk to exceed the quota anyways. So usually, there was no milk for me and today was no different.
I looked around the stable and finding the clean spot where I was sitting earlier, I went to the spot and slept for the night. Due to how uncomfortable it was and how I had to be on my guard as I was around strangers, my sleep quality was significantly reduced. Sadly, I had no other choice but grit my way through it.
***
Clink! Clink! Clink!
The next day was going just like another ordinary day. The only difference would be that I was mining slowly today. I have checked all I could check about the system therefore there wasn't much for me to do later. I was also very tired from the extensive laboring I did the past two days so I decided that I would take things slow today.
'I haven't called out to Delta since yesterday, afraid of the headache. I'll take a few days to relax and sort out my thoughts before calling out to him. Meanwhile, I'll keep my eyes and ears open and talk to a lot of villagers to gain any information I could. It would be best if someone could just leak out a way for me to unlock my mind stat!'
I heard a murmuring beside me as I was mining and picturing about the magic system of this world. Without any delay, I perked up my ears to listen to what they were talking about.
A hoarse but excited voice whispered, "Aye, tomorro's the final day of the week!" Listening to the voice, I guessed that he was probably in his late twenties and had an accent.
A heavy but clear voice replied, showing a bit of excitement, "So, tomorrow Guide Anufa will bestow her vermillion ligh again on Bulios?" His voice sounded like someone in their forties as it was slightly mature.
"Aye man! I'll finish my quota early tomorro 'n bask in the warm light for a bit."
"I wish I had a name and then I would take a half-day and roam around in the village!" I could feel a couple of stairs at me after the heavy voiced slave said that.
Suddenly the hoarse voiced slave lowered his voice further and in a malicious tone, he said, "Tomorro, the two princesses'll also come outh of the castle to bask in the ligh. T'ey migh even roam around the village and if you're luckhy enough, you migh jus' get a glimpse of 'em, hehe!"
The heavy voiced guy quickly shut the other guy saying in a fearful tone, "Shut it dude! If someone catches us talking about the princesses like this, we would have to face a punishment even worse than death!"
The other guy realizing the serious of the situation quieted down for a bit before saying, "Chill man! Imma jus' jokhin!" Saying this, I could hear him walk away as his voice faded.
I didn't look at them fearing if I did, they would either stop talking or move away. I needed them to talk as much as they could so that I could extract more information! Sadly, the other guy moved away and the remaining one just continued mining.
'Guide Anufa? Bulios? I have even more questions now! I'll just take a half-day tomorrow after asking James and roam around the village to get as much information as I could! And, what was it about the princesses?'
I was going to delve deeper into my thoughts but as I thought about the princesses, my head felt a jolt of electricity and just like when I was first dragged here, a memory started playing in front of me!
***