- “Maximum experience points reached. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – The mechanical, dull voice finally announced, indicating that somebody has received a Level Up offer. We had left the Secret Area some time ago and were making our way through the third floor of the dungeon towards the fourth floor.

  - “What a move, cutie pie. I could watch you all day doing that. You have received three experience points and your party members have received six.” – Lavita announced next after Ranalaiya has killed one last Lesser Trent that was still alive.

  “Hmph… Nope,” I said after checking all three of my women’s Status Windows. I knew Lilfira wouldn’t reach her next level up anytime soon, because she had reached level fifteen right before we were leaving the dungeon when we were farming experience for her. Ranalaiya or Sylfrin on the other hand, should get another level up soon, but it wasn’t either of them this time.

  “Not me, unfortunately,” Krisel said, showing a slightly disappointing smile.

  “Not me either,” Virghel added, her hopeful facial expression turning neutral.

  “That’s me,” Alragus finally said. It was kinda funny and entertaining to see, and hear people check their Status Windows in order to find out who has actually received a Level Up offer. I even chuckled when I saw people rush to check their status, frowning or making a disappointed facial expression when they found out it wasn’t them who have received it.

  - “Level up accepted. Increasing character’s level from level twelve to level thirteen. Complete. Class specific skill: Savage Strike, acquired. Level up complete.” – The mechanical, lifeless voice announced after Alragus accepted his Level Up offer.

  “Yo’, a new skill,” I exclaimed, hearing the announcement, with the other party members perking up as well.

  “Humph,” Alragus snorted before tapping his finger in front of him. “Savage Strike: delivers a powerful strike to weaken the target, increasing physical damage taken by twenty five percent. Requires a weapon to use. Lasts: eight seconds. Cooldown: forty seconds.” Alragus read what the skill did out loud for all of us to hear, knowing we would ask him about it anyway.

  “Increases physical damage taken? Now that’s a hell of a skill,” Tarrion commented.

  “Sweet,” I said, sending out a whistle too.

  “Yes, well…” Alragus said, rubbing on his chin before tapping a few times in front of him, probably assigning his stat points.

  “Mind if I see your stats now, Alragus?” I asked, feeling curious.

  “Sure,” Alragus snorted before tapping in front of him one more time to show his stats to me.

  ***

  Alragus Brownmane. Level 13.

  Class: Berserker.

  Character Stats:

  Stamina – 39+22

  Strength – 51+49

  Agility – 3

  Spell Power – 0

  Magic Energy – 1

  Luck – 20

  ***

  “So… did you put all of your stat points into your Strength stat? I think it was forty something before that,” I said, trying to remember.

  “I have received six stat points and have put two points to my Stamina and four points to my Strength,” Alragus told me.

  “Humph, you need higher Stamina as Berserker too, I guess,” I said, thinking out loud for the most part here.

  “It’s mainly for my Blacksmithing and Weaponsmith skills. You see, for my crafting skills only my base stats are taken into account, so I need to increase my Stamina stat as well,” Alragus explained.

  “Really?” I asked before remembering that I had never seen Alragus wear any special armor while visiting him at his workshop. He’d always wear only normal working clothes every time I saw him. “Right, ok.”

  “Congrats on the new skill, Alragus,” Tarrion said right before we were ready to go.

  “Thanks,” Alragus said.

  “Ok, let’s keep going, I suppose,” I said, rubbing my neck.

  I was pretty much bored all this time up till now, with the women taking down all the monsters by themselves. I wasn’t against it. It was just… boring to do nothing. Of course, everyone wanted to see how Alragus’ new skill looked the moment we moved on. Fortunately, Alragus didn’t mind showing it to us. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see, other than seeing his two-handed mace glow reddish light right before hitting the Lesser Trent that Alragus has attacked, the rotten tree monster puffing into a fairy dust right after being hit. If there was some sort of effect that showed Alragus’ target was weakened, we’d have to wait until we reached lower floors where monsters wouldn’t die from a single attack.

  The fourth floor was similar in how our fights were fought as well, with Rhakis not posing that much threat to us. Besides, it was eight of us in the party, nine if we counted Sylfrin’s pet Voras, so Rhakis had no chances to even get close to us before dying. We were taking the most direct route towards the fifth floor, so we didn’t encounter too many Rhakis on the way anyway. We did encounter someone right before reaching the entrance to the fifth floor of the dungeon, however.

  “Master Rockin, there are people up ahead,” Ranalaiya informed me after returning from the front.

  “People? Ok,” I simply shrugged it off. It’s not like it was the first time we had encountered other adventurers inside the dungeon.

  “Hey, that’s Garret’s group,” Virghel said.

  “Garret’s group? Are they fighting Rhakis?” I asked, becoming slightly worried.

  “No, I don’t think so,” said Virghel.

  “Ok, let’s go say hello, I guess,” I said before resuming my walk.

  “Huh? Oh, it’s you guys. Hello,” Garret extended a greeting upon seeing us.

  “Hi guys… and girls,” I raised my hand to greet everyone, my other party members sharing greetings as well.

  “Hello, Rockin, and everyone else as well,” Emmy said. Her group was there with Garret’s group too.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “So, you decided to form a party after all,” I said.

  “Yes. It was a good suggestion and we are doing quite well against Rhakis. We were just on our way to go to the fifth floor,” Garret explained.

  “Right. That’s why we weren’t encountering many Rhakis on the way,” I said.

  “Sorry,” Garret smiled sheepishly.

  “Hey, Rockin, you said you can craft Healing Potions, don’t you?” Do you mind crafting some for us right now?” Sorren asked me.

  “Sorren,” Garret said, furrowing his eyebrows.

  “Sorry, but I couldn’t miss an opportunity to ask him. We are planning to go to the sixth floor of the dungeon, so having extra Healing Potions would be extremely useful,” Sorren argued.

  “It’s ok, I don’t mind,” I said before turning to Tarrion. “We could take a break now anyways?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Tarrion grunted.

  “Great, so why don’t we find a dry enough spot to sit down first?” I suggested. The fourth floor of the dungeon was rather wet for the most part, but there were areas where it was pretty dry. After we found one, we sat down to have a short rest, with the women going to sit some distance away from us men, hitting it off with some girly talk right away. “So, how many Medicinal Herbs do you have?” I then asked Sorren.

  “I have eight Green Medicinal Herbs,” he said.

  “Ok, and do you have any empty vials with you?” I asked. I didn’t want to use all of my available vials, really. I had spare ones but since we’ll be going to the eighth floor of the dungeon, we might find some Red Medicinal Herbs and I’d want to make normal Healing Potions for us.

  “Yes, I do. I got some before leaving Hirvant just in case,” Sorren said before opening his Item Storage Box. “Here you go. And here are the herbs.”

  “Ok, great. With the Green Medicinal Herbs you gave me I can make eight Weak Healing Potions for you,” I said.

  “Wonderful. How much would it cost?” Sorren asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t charge you for it,” I said.

  “Really? Thank you, Rockin,” Sorren said.

  While I was making the Weak Healing Potions, people were talking among themselves, discussing a few things of interest or asking for advice. Garret and Anry were talking to Tarrion, mainly about tanking. Obviously, women had a lot to talk about too, not that I or any other guy tried to eavesdrop, even Jarrl. He was a funny guy, very energetic too. Although this time, he didn’t try to tease Virghel the way he usually did in the past, maybe because he thought that Virghel and I were together now.

  “I’m putting almost all of my stat points to my Stamina to be able to tank stronger monsters, but do you think I should add a few points to my Agility as well? You know, to be faster?” Arny asked Tarrion.

  “I don’t put any points into my Agility stat, but you can do it if you want. Also, high Stamina is good, but you’d have to compensate your lack of base Strength with equipment instead. You need to be able to dish out some damage to get aggro from monsters as well,” Tarrion said.

  “So, what percentage of your stat points do you allocate to your Stamina and Strength stats? Or any other stats for that matter? If you don’t mind telling us, of course?” Garret asked Tarrion next.

  “Ghm…” Tarrion grunted. He never was big talker. “I’d say two to one, with Stamina being the priority stat. In all honesty, I probably should focus more on Stamina stat going forward.”

  “Really? That’s interesting,” Garret said, touching his chin to think about something.

  “Wow, you got the Berserker Class, Alragus? I would’ve never thought,” Jarrl exclaimed, being as loud as ever.

  “Humph, why not?” Alragus asked, mainly just to be polite and keep the conversation going.

  “I mean, I’ve heard people with the Berserker class can be really rough, if you know what I mean? But I had never seen you lose your temper,” Jarrl explained his reasoning.

  “That’s on the people. You can have any class and still lose your temper,” Alragus told him.

  “Yes, of course,” Jarrl laughed before clapping his hands excitedly, as if remembering something. “Say, do you have any purely Berserker Class’ skills you could show me? Like, really cool ones?”

  “Humph. I’ve acquired the Savage Strike upon reaching level thirteen not long ago,” Alragus said.

  “Savage Strike? Wow, that sounds… savage. Haha,” Jarrl laughed again. “What does the skill do? I bet it says it cuts your target in half or something?” Jarrl was very excited, almost like a child. Good thing Alragus had the Berserker Class, but wasn’t a berserker himself.

  “It increases physical damage taken by twenty five percent for eight seconds,” Alragus shared what the skill actually did.

  “Woah, that’s a killer move right there,” Jarrl exclaimed.

  “What? You’ve been at the Secret Area on the third floor before coming here?” Emmy asked, all the women were talking among themselves in the meantime.

  “Yes. We went to explore the Secret Area and have found a treasure chest there,” Ranalaiya said.

  “A treasure chest, but…” Emmy gasped, exchanging looks with Sali and Luise.

  “That was quite a surprise indeed,” Krisel said.

  “It must’ve been very well hidden,” Sali commented.

  “Yes, I would’ve never thought of looking for it at the spot where we had found it,” said Virghel before adding. “Well, it was Sylfrin who had found it, actually.”

  “Sylfrin?” Emmy asked, turning to look at Sylfrin.

  “Yes, it was me. I was able to find it with the help of my Echo Sense skill,” Sylfrin said.

  “Echo Sense skill?” Emmy asked, exchanging puzzled looks with Sali and Luise.

  “It lets me check my surroundings. It’s like… a detection skill. I can find hidden monsters with it too. Oh, except when the monster’s level is too high,” Sylfrin said, adding that one detail.

  “Wow, it must be an extremely great skill,” said Sali.

  “By the way, do you mind if I ask where have you found that treasure chest and what was inside of it?” Emmy asked, feeling curious, with Sali and Luise clearly wanting to know that as well.

  “I think it’s ok to tell them,” Krisel said.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Virghel said before turning to face Emmy again. “You know there’s a spiderweb dome on the west side of the Secret Area?”

  “Yes, we’ve been there before. We tried checking on the outside, as well as, from the inside, but couldn’t find anything,” Emmy said.

  “Well, the treasure chest was hidden inside the cocoon which was at the very top of the spiderwebs going up to the ceiling inside the lair,” Virghel explained.

  “Oh, wow. That’s such an unexpected place to put a treasure chest. I would’ve never thought about climbing the spiderwebs to check if something was at the very top,” Emmy said.

  “Indeed,” added Sali.

  “As for what we had found…” Krisel said, turning to look at Sylfrin.

  “Yes, we had found these Webbed Slippers which Master Rockin gave to me,” Sylfrin said before standing up to pull her dress up to show her new shoes.

  “Wow, so pretty,” Luise gasped. Interesting thing was, Sylfrin’s Webbed Slippers weren’t that dirty at all despite the fact the fourth floor of the dungeon could be pretty wet at times.

  “I suppose some treasure chest could be hidden in completely unexpected places. Will have to remember it,” Emmy said.

  “Yes. That was definitely an eye opener,” Virghel said, pressing her lips together tighter, remembering the Spider Queen incident.

  “Say, Virghel, can I ask you a personal question?” Emmy asked her suddenly.

  “A personal question?” Virghel asked her back, perking up.

  “Yes. Could you…” Emmy paused, a blush jumping on her cheeks. “Could you tell me more about Jarrl?”

  “Eh? Jarrl?” Virghel gasped, clearly not expecting that kind of question, or maybe she was expecting a question about someone else.

  “Yes. What does he… like? I mean… in general,” Emmy wanted to know, even if she was stuttering.

  “Hmph. That would be…” Virghel clicked her tongue, probably because it would’ve been difficult for her to find something nice to say about Jarrl. If anything, Virghel was finding Jarrl extremely annoying. But since Emmy asked her about him, Virghel had to think of something. “Jarrl… He would probably like if you cooked food for him.”

  “If I cooked food for him?” Emmy wondered.

  “Yes. I remember him asking me to cook food for him a few times while we were exploring the dungeon,” Virghel said and she wasn’t lying about it.

  “Yes, I can attest to that. I’m sorry Emmy, but I have completely forgotten about it,” said Sali.

  “Ok, I’ll remember that. Thank you,” Emmy said.

  Ok, that’s the last one. I spoke to myself in my head, finishing to pour the last healing liquid inside the empty vial. Right, all done.

  “Right, all done. Here you go, Sorren,” I said, passing the last Weak Healing Potion to him.

  “Thank you, Rockin. That was very kind of you,” said Sorren.

  “No problem. I’ll go have a short chat with Garret and the others before we move out,” I said, standing up.

  After I finished crafting potions, I spoke to Garret about how they were doing in general. He said their group was doing well. With Emmy, Arny, Luise and Ronnie joining their party, they were killing monsters without much trouble. Emmy’s whole group was slightly lower in level, but their teamwork was good, so they decided to go to the fifth floor of the dungeon for faster experience farming. Garret has admitted that they didn’t expect to meet us in the dungeon, especially us catching up to them since we were the ones who left for the dungeon first. I explained that we had stopped at the Secret Area on the third floor I had shown them when we first met, spending the night there. After some more small talk, we decided to go to the fifth floor together, going separate ways once we reached it afterwards. The entrance to the fifth floor wasn’t too far from where we were anyway.

  “We’ll be going straight to the sixth floor now,” I said once we have reached the fifth floor of the dungeon. “Be careful, ok?”

  “Yes, of course. Take care, Rockin, and everyone else,” Garret said.

  We said our goodbyes, both parties wishing one another luck before we parted ways. Garret’s group turned left to hunt Rhakis and Lesser Trents while we turned towards where the entrance to the sixth floor was, with Tarrion leading our group.

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