(Gavin)

"Where," I gasp as I collapse on the rock beside Luca. "Have you been?"

"Observing," Zack answers as he fusses with Luca's hair. "Luca, how did your hair get messed up like that? Is this slime goo in your hair?"

I look at our little healer and find that he does, indeed, have slime good in his hair. A pinkish goo, too. How did that happen?

Luca just giggles at Zack as I read his Level. He's Level 24 now, just by lunchtime. Has he really done enough in just six and a half hours to have gained… six Levels? Or however many it was he needed?

If so, that is impressive and I am jealous.

"Wait!" Zack exclaims, staring at the goo. "Luca! I've been keeping an eye on you! When did you get this goo in your hair?"

Luca giggles again.

Yeah, getting goo in his hair with Zack watching him constantly yet not catching it is definitely a feat. Though it does make me wonder how he did that.

"Alright!" Zack claps his hands, deciding to stop fussing over Luca for now. "Let's eat lunch, then you six are back to training!"

Zack lays out a blanket on the ground, then sits on it and begins removing food from his Inventory, a meal of sandwiches, fruit, cheese, crackers, and sausages. We eat as I think over what I'm going to learn next. I need to learn a Tier 2 sword Skill for advancing Mystic Knight to Tier 2, once I hit Level 10 of Mystic Squire. I'm close to that, and as long as I work hard, I'll manage it in maybe an hour.

I'm jealous of the rest of my team. Luca's been working hard to heal and buff five people, burning through the Mana Potions Zack gave him. Max, once he got serious in the way he does, shot up in Levels, and Gold has, too. Braden's managed to gain a fair few Levels as well, and even Aurum's gone up a bit.

And then there's me. I'm the only one of us yet to hit an every-five during today's training session. I mean, I know I'm still Leveling faster than the norm, but still. It's disheartening to end up behind the rest of my team. Yeah, Luca might be a lower Level, but he still acquired them faster than me.

I suppose I'm sulking a bit, so I start praying to the Crystals for guidance. After we finish lunch, Zack packs the empty dishes and the blanket into his Inventory, then restocks Luca's supply of Mana and Health potions. Most of that healing has been on me, because I've been taking a lot of damage, but I know he's also been doing a lot of healing for the three beastborn. It seems they've taken to rounding up groups of monsters and attacking them that way for Experience.

As if I'd ever succeed in that. For now, all I can do is focus on one at a time and work my way up slowly.

"Gavin," Zack says as the others split off to return to their training, and I wait for him to finish approaching me. "You seem rather down due to your Experience gains."

"I'm not," I lie.

"You do remember I can read minds, right?" Zack asks. "And the Crystals were, ah, talking to me about your prayers."

I feel my face heat up. I forgot that he could do that, and that the Crystals talk to him.

"Part of the reason you are Leveling slower than the others, despite being just as serious," he tells me. "Is because you aren't fighting more than one monster at a time if you can help it. The more foes you're facing, the bigger the 'struggle' it is, in theory. That bolsters Experience gains. That's why I can gain a ton of Experience just from hitting an Experience farm – because there's a fuckton of monsters in them. This is even more true when I actually have to fight against them, when it's not just a one-sided slaughter."

"But I struggle against more than one at a time."

"That's why you have to use your head," he taps his head. "And go after ones that are Level 1, try to gather them together. Try with pairs at first. Adapt. Adjust. That's another issue you face: you're too rigid in how you fight. You get into the same mindset, and you don't leave it."

"There isn't much room for adapting," I point out. "I'm either blocking or evading a hit, or delivering it. There isn't much room for adjusting with my Skills, either."

"There is plenty which can be done," Zack thinks for a few moments. "However… it really isnt' good for a warrior to face something like these. It's either easy or impossible. They have an extremely limited attack set, after all. All you end up doing is either fleeing or just striking them over and over until they die while avoiding delicious shots. Stay here."

Zack walks off, and I watch as he suddenly disappears a few hundred yards away. That… what just happened?

"There's an Illusion wall there," a quite voice says beside me, and I jump, startled by Braden's sudden appearance beside me. "It's a spell which prevents anything abnormal from being seen. Like people. It's how they hid them doing their thing they were out here for."

"Them?" I ask.

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"Zack didn't come to deal with the situation alone," Braden says. "He was just here as the primary distraction. He said they already finished."

They must have had a telepathic conversation about it.

"I'm going back to training," Braden tells me, then hurries off.

Okay.

Now I'm alone.

And still alone.

As I look around, I notice that all of the others training here are over a hundred yards away, other than Luca, who is sitting on some tall rocks nearby, his legs dangling over the edge, his staff resting on his lap as he kicks his legs forward, watching me.

Why would the others have gone so far away from Luca? Unless they're planning on being extra careful-

Oh, no.

I sweep my gaze over the fields, and realize that a lot of Level 1 and Level 2 Candy Bunnies and Candy Slimes are within a hundred yards of me, and I do mean a lot of them. More than a hundred. And they are all looking at me. It feels as if some great force is keeping them from attacking, too.

No!

Zack! This is not a good training method!

As I draw my sword, I hear Luca giggling from atop the rocks.

Luca Normar has granted you the Blessing of Strength! Strength: +30% Duration: 30 seconds

The first wave of monsters attack. I side-step several shots of candy pieces, only to be struck in the back. Not cool, Zack! Back attacks? Seriously?

I struggle to defend against all of the attacks, to evade all of the attacks, and to still hit the monsters. As I struggle, I try to learn Stun Blade, as that should help me a little against this, and will also allow me to reach Tier 2 as soon as I reach Level 10 of Tier 1.

Through all of this, Luca continues to heal me, refreshing his buff on me whenever it runs out, though he sometimes gives me a Blessing of Endurance, since the candy attacks are counted as physical rather than magical.

Finally, a notice appears in my vision as a faint yellow light glows along the edges of my blade.

New Skill! Stun Blade Active Enchant your sword with the power to stun your foes, so long as their Willpower is lower than your Intellect. Stun Duration: 30 seconds per Level of this Skill Duration: 20 seconds per Level of this Skill Cost: 100 Mana

I continue my fight, only to realize that most of my opponents have more Willpower than I do Intellect. Some are affected by it, though. Curse only having 49 Willpower.

I suppose that means I only learned it so I can advance when I'm there.

Well, regardless of that, I still need to fight, so I continue the battle, taking hit after hit and delivering hit after hit. Being healed, buffed, healed, and healed some more is the only way I'm even surviving this. Just when I've killed one monster, another joins the fight. My body is getting exhausted and sore, and I swear that Zack is doing this just to amuse himself. The notifications are getting in my way of seeing, so I mute them for now.

A piece of candy hits my head, making my vision swim, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up on the rocks.

"That was fun!" Zack grins at me as I glare at him.

"What if I'd died?" I ask. "That was dangerous!"

"Not really," he says. "And even if you'd died, I'd just bring you back."

I stare at him.

"What?" I ask.

"I have the Resurrection Skill," he says. "I can bring the dead back to life, as long as they'd died in the last seventy-two hours and their body isn't too badly destroyed. But even ignoring that, Nathan's out here. He can heal someone just as they're about to die, preventing them from actually dying. You were fine the entire time. That was needed to push you hard enough for the System to acknowledge the struggle in the fight. I take it you muted your notifs?"

"How did you know?" I ask.

"Because you're mad despite having gained 5 Levels in an hour."

"…I did what?" I ask.

I reactivate my notifications and let the System tally up the Levels into a single notification as I check my Level.

I'm Level 49 now, which means I really did gain 5 Levels during that. 1 General Level and 4 Mystic Knight Levels. There was the one to reach Level 10 of Mystic Squire, then the automatic one from reaching Mystic Warrior, then an additional two after that. I was close to reaching Mystic Warrior, though, so I suppose I should only count it as about two and a half Levels from that, then. But still, that is… impressive.

"Sorry," I apologize to Zack. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. I forgot that you won't ever do something that actually puts us in danger, and you were just trying to help me gain more Levels. I just wish it wasn't as… frustrating."

Then I catch Luca's Level.

"Did he gain three Levels just from healing and buffing me during that?" I ask.

"No," Zack answers. "He gained about one and two-thirds. The other Level came from him reaching Level 25 and taking on a new Class."

"He qualifies for that?" I look at Luca. "What did you qualify for? I guess the martial arts one?"

"That's not what he took on," Zack says. "Are you going to share with them, Luca? Or train it up in secret?"

Luca shakes his head.

"Looks like he wants to keep it secret a little longer," Zack ruffles Luca's hair. "I'll take you out for some secret training in it, okay?"

Luca nods.

"Braden and Max want to train a bit more," Zack informs me. "You can rest up for a bit before going back to training. Or not. Max wants me to do to him what I did to you."

Zack sighs, and I realize he's talking with Max right now, even though they're more than two hundred yards away. I look at our mage, who suddenly starts doing a little dance, which much mean Zack gave in and is going to do whatever he did to send so many monsters at me.

"I'm not the only one who can do that," Zack gives me an amused look. "I can just do it with more monsters than other Dark Knights and Blood Priests can, since I can communicate with any, not just the ones who have some semblance of a spoken language like ours. Anyway, Luca has some water for you to rehydrate with. I'm going back to what I was doing."

Zack disappears, and I frown for a moment before realizing he must have run off. I look at Max once more, and find him attacking the wave of monsters that started rushing towards him. We're really cleaning out this area today with our training, aren't we?