Chapter 21
They walked in silence for a while, and at last, Leon could breathe. He drew in a few deep breaths.
“You okay?” Ava asked.
“Yeah... yeah, I think so.” Truly, he wasn’t. But the best thing for now would be to just let it go. Think about something else.
“I understand. Or, I kinda don’t, but that doesn’t really matter.” She grabbed his arm. “But hey, now you’re level six, and I’m level five! Have you figured out what to do?”
Leon stopped and frowned. “What do you mean? I didn’t level up.”
“Yes, you did! I got a message. The party’s level also rose by two.”
Leon opened his status page. It was true; he was level six, and he’d been fully healed, had fifteen unplaced SP instead of ten, and when he opened his inventory, a small black box sat inside. Had he accepted it in a daze, or was it just accepted for him? That was kind of unfair, but at least he got the rewards for it. He hadn’t gotten the party level up notification either, even though it leveled up two times. He explained this to Ava, and she nodded, agreeing that he’d been so shaken up, that must be why he didn’t see the pop-up.
They approached Pura when dusk fell and jogged through the Slums. Even though the dark side of the Scabs hadn’t fully awakened, it was better to be on the safe side.
Leon took Ava’s arm as they passed the crafting fountain, and they stopped. “Hey, um... would you mind if we go easy for a while? I mean, stay away from hunting?”
Ava nodded. “Yeah. I can’t believe the forest had something like that in there. I mean, the man didn’t look that strong, even when he took down the wolf, but that he could crush Ai...” She bit her lip. “Do you think she died?”
“I wouldn’t bet on it.” Leon shook his head. “And now I’ll have to get another weapon. Hopefully two, but with the general assortment store’s prices, there won’t be much choice.”
“You might get lucky, you know,” Ava said.
Leon shook his head, and they continued walking.
As they entered the door, a red-faced Margaret stormed toward them.
“Ava! Where have you been? The dishes are stacking up!”
“I’m sorry, Marge,” Ava said, looking at her feet.
“It’s not her fault.” Leon stepped forward. “We encountered some trouble.”
“Oh?” Margaret said, crossing her arms.
Leon and Ava told her about what had happened, and the red in Margaret’s face paled into white as a corpse.
“Oh. Oh, no.” She stepped forward and pulled Ava into a hug. “Oh, sweetie, I’m glad you’re alright. But this isn’t good. Isn’t good at all.”
“What do you mean?” Leon asked.
Margaret looked up from Ava’s hair. “I can’t say. It’s against the rules. And I can’t give advice, not until you’ve unlocked more information.”
Leon frowned. “Margaret, are you a player?”
She shook her head. “I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”
“So what happens if you try to tell us something?”
Margaret shook her head. “It’s blocked.” She stepped back from the hug, held Ava’s shoulders, and looked into her face. “Why don’t you take the night off? Go get some sleep.”
“But—”
“No buts.” Margaret smiled.
Ava’s face reddened. “Okay. Thank you.”
Before Ava walked off, Leon asked what she wanted, and she chose one of the wolf claws.
Leon headed upstairs, washed himself off, and continued to his room, pondering Margaret’s words. They had come back alive, but done something horrible? Or was it something else? A consequence of opening the dungeon, or maybe gleaning Ai’s attention? It could be any and all, and if he’d fire out a guess, his first bet would be on the latter. Leon sat down by the chest and stroke Troublemaker’s fur. The rabbit’s eyes looked up at him and pushed its head against his palm. Soon enough, he’d find out about her worry. That stood clear after she said that they needed to unlock more information, but what was that exactly?
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Leon rose and made his way over to the bed. He was fully rested, but his mind had too many impressions for him to sort right now. Maybe it was better to sleep and see if he could come up with something new tomorrow.
He opened up his status page and looked at it. Fifteen unused points and a saved level up.
It was probably time to think about what to do about the points. If he’d thought about it while fighting the behemoth, he probably would have defeated it much quicker, and he’d need it now that the time approached going into the first level. But where to put them?
He thought he’d get a better idea or game plan as he continued on, but he wanted to invest in all of them, though that was never a wise choice. What he needed most was strength and vitality, but his agility would save him from danger as well. Something useful could come from raising his sense, but not enough to outweigh the other ones, at least for now, and from his understanding, the intelligence stat had more to do with mana-based abilities than actual intelligence, and since all his skills so far didn’t need MP, he didn’t need to increase it.
He increased his agility and vitality, and spent the remaining seven points in strength, wondering how he would feel the effects of the increases. As of yet, he couldn’t feel that anything had changed. He threw a last look at the status window before he closed it.
Name: Leon Level: 6, 1% Class: Warrior Coin: 527 Title: NooB Guild: None HP: 210 Fatigue: 0% MP: 12 Strength: 22 Agility: 15 Vitality: 15 Intelligence: 9 Sense: 10 Status Points available: 0
Skills:
Passive: Warrior’s Build
Passive: Lumberjack 1
Passive: Lumberjack 2
Insight (Rank F, Leader Skill Tree)
You have the following unclaimed rewards:
Level up: You have reached level 5!
Hopefully, any change would show itself.
Leon opened up the quests page and scanned through the quest tabs. He was level 6 now, and the quest to go into the tower was approaching fast. He’d like some more time to prepare, but somehow he felt like that would always be the case. He’d done what he could, and now he had to deal with the hand he’d dealt himself.
Leon’s eyes caught on one of the two personal quests. Since his first run through the Slums had ended in such a weird way, he hadn’t thought about it at all.
He sat up, removed his shirt and Troublemaker from the flat chest, and opened it up. A box with twenty slots showed up, five of which were full, four with Ava’s chosen items; all crafting material from wolves and a stack of tree sap; and one with the doll.
Leon placed Ava’s promised wolf claw into the chest and took out the doll. The girl who had asked for a toy hadn’t approached him again, and he felt bad about forgetting the promise.
Leon put the doll into his inventory and closed the lid, placing shirt and rabbit back on their proper places. He’d deliver the doll tomorrow when he went for his run and got his sword.
He opened up the party window, too. He hadn’t looked at it since they’d created the party, and he scanned through it.
Hert’s Party (level 4, 23%)
Current boon for each class:
Tank: (1) +6% defense
Cleric (1) +5% buff boost
Warrior (1) +2% strength, 4% vitality
Additional boon for all members of the group:
Skill cost: -2.6%
Experience gain: +0.7%
Luck: +0.8% (base: 18)
[Close]
It had risen quite a lot, which was a good thing. He wondered about the luck again, and where it came from. It wasn’t a stat, and from what he could tell, it didn’t get unlocked by any other skills or items. The rabbit’s foot that laid by the two remaining carrots by the chest gave nothing either, except some cute moments where Troublemaker snuggled up to it. Leon closed the window. He had to talk with Hert first thing tomorrow.
Just as he closed his eyes, shouting started downstairs. Someone was having a really bad day.
After minutes of continued rowing, Leon jumped out of bed to see what it was all about. He stopped in the middle of the stairs toward the ground floor.
Margaret stood with her hands on her waist, clutching a wooden spoon in one hand, and stared up at Hert, who towered over her.
“You have no right to know which room he’s in, or to talk to my kitchen help without them inviting you!” She smacked him on the arm. “Out! They have had too much for one day, both of them, for you to clamp in here, acting like you have the right to do so.”
“Margaret, it’s fine,” Leon said, even though the look on Hert’s face almost made him change his mind.
“Oh, fine, is it?” Hert asked, stomping toward him. “You almost kill me, and it’s fine? I’m 86% to level 6 for fuck’s sake! You forgot about me, didn’t you?”
“No,” Leon said. “Just that something unexpected happened.” He nodded up the stairs. “Margaret, is it okay if he comes up to my room? I have some explaining to do.”
Margaret clapped the spoon on her palm a few times, staring up at the burly blacksmith with narrowed eyes. Then she nodded to the side.
“You do any fighting, you have another thing coming!” she shouted after them.
Leon let Hert into the room, and they sat on the floor while Leon explained.