With Lilfira’s stat increase, she was able to kill Stoneskin Lizards easier now. She gained only one level, but three extra points to her Strength stat made a visible difference. She was getting better at fighting Stoneskin Lizards too, taking on two lizard monsters at a time and killing them without much trouble. Gaining actual fighting experience helps you become stronger even if your stats don’t increase. There’s a limit to how well you can fight without having your stats increased of course, but knowing your limits could help you make wiser decisions on whether to engage certain monsters or not in the first place.

We were progressing through the mine little by little. Stoneskin Lizards weren’t posing much threat to us, but we were still taking our time to look around as we went, mainly to see if we could find any Brown Iron Ore deposits and to make sure we wouldn’t miss any drops from the monsters. After a while, I got a pretty good idea what the drop rate for the Brown Iron Ore from Stoneskin Lizards was. We’d get a drop every sixth or seventh kill. It wasn’t that bad, all things considered. The only annoying thing was, there weren’t that many Stoneskin Lizards crawling around, unless we would reach another cave, where we would find three, four or sometimes even six of them.

To compensate for low number of monsters, we have found another Brown Iron Ore deposit too. Brown Iron Ore deposits were rare, apparently, but Lilfira managed to get two pieces of Brown Iron Ore from mining it again. Monsters could drop only one after being killed, so it made sense that you could get more from mining. In all fairness, we would’ve collected enough Brown Iron Ore as drops from the monsters even if Lilfira didn’t have Mining skill, but it helped.

- “Wow, how ruthless of you for dealing with it in such a fashion, but you looked so hot too, babe. Four experience points for you and eight for your party members.” – Lavita was keeping the mood up with her announcements.

- “Maximum experience points reached. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – Another announcement followed right after.

“Oh, must be Lilfira again,” I thought out loud.

- “Yes, just like that, handsome. You really know how to use your hands. You have gained four experience points and your party members have gained eight.” – Lavita announced again after Lilfira killed the second lizard monster.

Yes, it is Lilfira. Well, you need only two hundred experience points to reach level three after all. I spoke in my head after checking Ranalaiya’s and Sylfrin’s status windows and not finding a Level Up offer for either of them.

“Master Rockin, I have received another Level Up offer. Could you please help me level up?” Lilfira was quick to appear next to me after the monsters were killed.

“I am sure you know how to do it yourself, Lilfira,” I said, showing a mocking facial expression.

“Yes, but what if I tap on the wrong thing?” Lilfira argued, hitting an innocent girl’s pose.

“And what if I tap or touch the wrong thing myself?” I don’t know why but I decided to be a little playful with my words.

“You can touch me anywhere you want, Master Rockin,” Lilfira said, squinting her eyes in a seductive manner before lowering her head just lightly, a lock of her red hair dropping down the left side of her face and covering part of her eye, making her look stunningly sexy.

Wha… My jaw dropped. Did she practise doing that or what? I was staring at Lilfira for a moment before becoming aware someone else was staring at me from the side at the same time. Huh? Of course, Sylfrin. Seeing Sylfrin’s satisfied smile before she turned away when she noticed I was looking at her told me everything I needed to know. Still, Lilfira hitting that kind of seductive pose was too much to believe it was just an act. It honestly made my heart skip a beat.

“Ahem… Yes, ok,” I thought there was no point in trying to talk myself out of it.

Again, Lilfira wanted me to hold her by her hand and have me navigate her Status Window to have her level up. Of course, this time she came to stand in front of me without any additional dilly dally, leaning at me with her back before turning her head to the side to show me her cute smile.

- “Level up accepted. Increasing character’s level from level two to level three. Complete. Level up complete.” – The same mechanical voice announced once I tapped on the ‘Yes’ option to accept Lilfira’s Level Up offer.

“Ok,” I said, crinkling my nose in a disappointed manner.

“Is something wrong, Master Rockin?” Lilfira must’ve noticed it.

“Ah, no. Well, I thought you will receive a new skill, but it’s ok. You might gain a new skill on your next level up,” I said, showing a smile.

“Yes, I hope so too,” Lilfira said. She didn’t sound upset about not receiving a new skill, however.

“Oh, wow. You have received six stat points again. That’s good,” I said, my disappointment being replaced by a mild excitement. “So, how about we do the same thing like the last time we did? One point to your Stamina, three points to your Strength and two points to your Magic Energy?”

“I trust your judgement, Master Rockin,” Lilfira had no objections whatsoever.

“Ok, here we go. Done,” I said after distributing her stat points.

“Thank you, Master Rockin,” Lilfira said before shifting her body to face me in a more direct way, her face blushing adorably.

“You’re welcome,” I said, leaning forward just a little bit before tapping on her nose with my right hand’s index finger, showing a cheeky smile at the end and then walking away.

“Master… Rockin…” Lilfira became charmingly flustered. It clearly wasn’t something she expected I would do, Lilfira gasping unexpectedly and touching her cheek with one hand.

“Wow, that was amazing, Lilfira,” Ranalaiya spoke to her, Lilfira not noticing when Ranalaiya appeared next to her.

“Huh? Oh, sorry, I…” Lilfira was still trying to come back to her senses.

“That was very well done, Lilfira,” Sylfrin spoke next. “You made it look so natural when you dipped your head down.”

“Oh, that. I… I didn’t think about it at all, actually. It just... happened,” Lilfira confessed, not knowing what else to say.

“Really? No wonder it looked so natural,” Ranalaiya commented with a smile.

“But… Master Rockin still didn’t want to kiss me,” Lilfira said, dropping her eyes and looking sad.

“What are you saying, Lilfira? Master Rockin was completely swept away by you doing that. I believe he starts to really like you,” Sylfrin told her, making Lilfira lift her eyes up.

“What? Really?” Lilfira asked, feeling a little confused.

“Yes, Master Rockin was being playful with you and him touching your nose like that looked so cute,” Ranalaiya said, sparkling with excitement.

“Now that I think about it, Master Rockin has never tapped on my nose with his finger like that before,” Sylfrin said, speaking more to herself than to either Ranalaiya or Lilfira.

“Huh? Why yes, you’re right, Sylfrin. Now that you mentioned it, it makes me feel a little jealous,” Ranalaiya said, pouting her lips.

“Hmm…” Sylfrin touched her bottom lip with her right hand’s index finger, thinking about something before turning to look at Ranalaiya, Ranalaiya nodding in response as if understanding what Sylfrin had in mind. “What about your stats, Lilfira? Do you mind showing it to us?” Instead of sulking about it like Ranalaiya, Sylfrin changed the topic, curious to see how Lilfira’s stats looked now.

“Of course not. Here you go,” Lilfira said, quickly opening her Status Window to show her stats.

***

Lilfira Rageflame. Level 3.

Character stats:

Stamina – 10

Strength – 22

Agility – 3

Spell Power – 0

Magic Energy – 15

Luck – 11

***

“Oh, wow, your Strength stat is over twenty now,” Ranalaiya pointed it out.

“Yes, but…” Sylfrin commented, having curious expression on her face.

“What is, Sylfrin?” Lilfira wanted to know.

“Your Spell Power stat is zero, but Master Rockin keeps adding points to your Magic Energy stat. I’m not saying it’s bad, of course,” Sylfrin pointed out.

“Ah, yes, now that you’ve mentioned it. I find it strange too. I’ve read that you’d usually need higher Magic Energy stat to be able to cast spells, but your spell’s strength is depended on the Spell Power stat, isn’t it?” Lilfira wanted to confirm.

“Yes, it is. I’ve noticed my spells become stronger when my Spell Power goes up, and you are right about Magic Energy stat helping with casting more spells before becoming tired,” Sylfrin confirmed it.

“So then… why does Master Rockin keep assigning points to my Magic Energy but not to my Spell Power stat?” Lilfira asked, feeling confused.

“I honestly don’t know, but I believe you should trust Master Rockin on this. At first, I was confused why Master Rockin kept assigning all the stat points to my Spell Power stat with each of my level up until I reached level five. At the very beginning, I even thought I need to have higher Strength stat in order to become stronger, so I could be useful in a fight, but as it turned out, Master Rockin knew better. If I was left to my own devices to assign my stat points the way I wanted myself, I am convinced I would’ve messed it all up and wouldn’t have grown to become as strong as I am right now,” Sylfrin shared her thoughts on the matter.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Ok, I will trust Master Rockin and let him assign my stat points without any objection,” Lilfira agreed.

This doesn’t make sense. In the meantime, I was beating myself in my head. I was walking around looking for drops, but that was only a pretext. Ranalaiya and Sylfrin had already checked for the drops earlier, and I knew I won’t find anything right now. I was simply fuming about Lilfira’s stats. Damn it. I hate doing it that way, but there must be a reason why Lilfira’s Magic Energy stat is so high even if her Spell Power stat is zero. She hasn’t received any new skills, nor her Luck Bonus has triggered to give me any hints about her future build despite Lilfira gaining two levels already. The only good thing about her level ups was that she had received six stat points every time she gained a level. Baah, let’s hope she’ll receive something new on her next level up to help me figure what her build should be.

There was no point in breaking my head over it, all things considered. I had to trust my gut feeling and do what needed to be done, just like I did when I was assigning stat points for Ranalaiya and Sylfrin.

“Are you ready to move out?” I finally asked my three female companions.

“Ah, yes, Master Rockin, we’re ready,” Ranalaiya responded.

“Ok, let’s move out then,” I said, turning to go.

Fortunately, there was only one other exit out of the current cave, so we simply moved on. The next tunnel we were passing through turned out to be longer than the previous ones and we haven’t encountered any Stoneskin Lizards on the way until we’ve reached the next cave. The new cave struck me as being much bigger than the other caves we’ve been to could’ve been maybe half of the football field in size even, and I could see from our end there were three other exits out of it too. In addition, the current cave had many more support beams and other fortifications built inside of it, making it look like major mining works had been done here in the past.

“There are three Stoneskin Lizards inside this cave that I can see, Master Rockin. However, my Echo Sense skill covers less than half of the cave, so I don’t know if there are any more monsters further away,” Sylfrin informed me.

“Right,” I touched my chin to think about it. “Ranalaiya, how about you sneak around with your Shadow Blend ability to scout the whole cave for us, but don’t engage any monsters, ok?”

“Ok, Master Rockin. Shadow Blend,” Ranalaiya said before her visage vanished from our sights. We could all see where Ranalaiya was even when she was using her hiding ability thanks to all of us being in a party. We couldn’t see her per se, but we were able to see her transparent body shape as she moved around. We waited several minutes until Ranalaiya sneaked around the cave to check for the monsters, us quietly waiting for her to return.

“Welcome back,” I greeted Ranalaiya after she returned.

“Thank you, Master Rockin,” she smiled.

“Well, how many monsters have you seen?” I wanted to know.

“I saw six, but…” Ranalaiya said, making a pause.

“But what?” I asked, her pause making me curious.

“One of the monsters looked different than the others,” she told me.

“Different? How different?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up.

“It looked slightly bigger than the Stoneskin Lizards and had a round shell on its back which also had spikes on it,” Ranalaiya described the monster.

“Ok, anything else?” I wanted to know.

“One strange thing about the monster was, I couldn’t see it having a head,” Ranalaiya told me something I didn’t expect to hear.

“It didn’t have a head?” I asked, making a sour facial expression.

“I don’t know. The shell on its back was really big and wide, so maybe it was hiding its head underneath it?” Ranalaiya made an observation.

“Yeah, could be,” I said, pausing to think. “You know what, let’s not take any chances and just kill all the monsters as fast as we can. I’ll take on that new monster myself. Can you point to the spot where you saw it, Ranalaiya?”

“Yes, do you see that sharp rock sticking out of the ground on the far left, Master Rockin. That new monster was hiding right behind it,” Ranalaiya pointed out.

“Ok, good. Sylfrin, you and Lilfira take out the three Stoneskin Lizards that you saw with your Echo Sense skill. Ranalaiya, you take down the two Stoneskin Lizards that you saw further away and I’ll deal with that new monster myself. Understood?” I gave out instructions before the fight.

“Yes, Master Rockin,” the girls acknowledge it.

Ok, let’s see what kind of monster it is. I thought to myself, getting ready to fight.

“Let’s go,” I instructed before rushing into the cave.

I was the first one who the closest Stoneskin Lizards noticed, but I simply ignored them, running to the side and around them, so I wouldn’t block the view for Sylfrin to hit them with her spells.

“Frostbite. Frostbolt,” Sylfrin unleashed her spells, killing one Stoneskin Lizard on the spot. She was strong enough to kill Stoneskin Lizards with a single spell, but she probably didn’t want to take any chances this time.

- “What a nice kill, handsome. Well done. You have received four experience points and your party members have received eight.” – Lavita announced right after.

“Shadow Claw,” Ranalaiya didn’t hold back from the very start either, killing another Stoneskin Lizard with a single strike.

- “Now that was a fierce move on your part. I hope you’ll be as fierce with me as well, handsome. Four experience points for you and eight for your party members.” – Again, Lavita was cheeky with her message.

“Hah! Twinstab!” Lilfira did her part too, striking at the Stoneskin Lizard with her spear to make it flinch before finishing it with her skill.

- “Wow, what a nice kill. You’re really getting into it, aren’t you, babe? Four experience points for you and eight for your party members.” – Lavita couldn’t have been happier to be able to talk so much.

Ok, where are you? Huh? A turtle? I grimaced upon seeing how the new monster looked. Other than the spikes, its shell looked similar to a turtle’s shell from my original world. The size of the shell must’ve been almost three feet in diameter and was more or less round. It covered the monster fully and only the tips of its feet could be seen under it, and just like Ranalaiya said, I couldn’t see its head anywhere either, but I had a tiny hunch why.

“Come out, you spiky turtle. Shield!” I ran closer to the monster, shooting a magic shield at it by using my attack skill when I was close enough to reach it.

- ‘Bang!’ – My attack hit, but it didn’t kill the monster. Scratch that, my attack didn’t even graze its shell.

“Oh, wow,” I exclaimed in surprise. I was more impressed by how hard the monster’s shell was than becoming actually surprised. “Humph, so you think you’re tough, eh? Take this!” I swung at it with my Piercing Shield again. “Woah! Oops!” But to my biggest astonishment, the creature was quick to flee and slip away from my attack, the tip of my shield hitting the hard ground instead. “Hey! Aren’t you too fast for a turtle?!” I yelled at it.

The monster, which definitely wasn’t a turtle from my original world, ran away a short distance before stopping and turning around, a small head peeking out from under its shell to look at its surroundings and it didn’t resemble a turtle’s head at all. It was really flat and wide, about half a foot in length, and I couldn’t see the lines of its mouth either. Two small, black dots that were about ten inches apart from one another, which I assumed were its eyes, were the only things that stood out.

“Hah, decided to show your face, eh?” I spoke to it, leaning forward and readying to attack it again. I was about to rush forward towards it, but the creature quickly hid its head under its shell again, instantly spinning around in its spot and shooting several spikes at me from its back. “Woah, Shield!”

I stopped abruptly, raising my shields up and using my defense skill to help me block its attacks. Two or three of the spikes that were shot from the monster’s shell hit my magic shield, simply bouncing off of it. Two more spikes hit my normal shields one after another the next second. The spikes that hit my shields weren’t powerful enough to do any damage them, but I could tell they carried enough power to injure someone if the spikes hit them directly.

Ok, you are a dangerous monster, after all. I thought to myself, not letting my guard down.

After the monster shot its spikes at me, it stopped spinning and stuck its flat head out from under the shell to check on me again, seeing I was still standing where I was. I don’t know why, but I thought the monster would make some sort grimace at me, but it didn’t. Instead, it hid its head under its shell again and spun one more time, shooting more spikes at me.

“You bastard. Shield!” I used my defense skill again to block the majority of the spikes that the creature shot at me, jumping to the side to avoid being hit by the following spikes, then rushing forward to get closer to the spiked shell wearing turtle monster. I knew it wasn’t a turtle, but I didn’t know what it was called, so I made the name for it instead, using its shell as a reference. I kept my shields up in front of me just in case the monster was about to shoot more spikes from its shell at me while it spun. I waited for it to stop spinning, hoping it would show its flat head to me again, so I could smack it good. As I expected, the monster took a peek outside to see where I was or what I was doing and that’s all I needed.

“Shield!” I used my attack skill to hit its head, but was met with a surprise instead. “What?!” I exclaimed.

The monster was fast enough to retract its head and hide it under its shell again before my attack reached it, the magic shield hitting the ground an inch away from the creature.

“Why you! Haah!” I swung and hit the monster with my Piercing Shield on its shell instead, my shield hitting it and flattening the monster to the ground. “How’s that, you… huh?”

I was about to deliver a speech when the monster pulled itself up and quickly ran away from me again. Apparently, my attack hasn’t hurt it at all. As it turned out, the monster simply pulled in or bent its legs to hide them under its shell, the shell simply hitting the ground when my attack landed, the creature not getting injured at all. After that, the turtle monster acted the same way as before. After it made some distance from me, it peeked out from its shell to see where I was and spun around to shoot its spikes at me again.

“You freaking…” I lifted my shields up in order to block the spikes it shot at me, but I didn’t use my defense skill this time. “You are so… annoying!” I yelled at the monster before running to get closer to it.

- ‘Bang! Bang! Bam!’ – Then started smashing the monster with my shields from above.

How hard is its shell? Damn it. I couldn’t believe my attacks couldn’t penetrate it. The monster simply pulled in its legs again and let its shell fall on the ground, completely covering it from all sides. My attacks couldn’t penetrate the creature’s hard shell no matter how hard I was hitting it. In addition, the hits were taking tall on my shields and I definitely didn’t want them to break.

“Oh, yeah? How about this then? Humph!” A droplet of smarts finally squeezed itself into my brains, telling me there was a better way to fight the turtle monster. I pushed my Piercing Shield under the monster’s shell, lifting it up and throwing the creature upside down, it falling on the ground with its belly up. “Shield!” I instantly used my attack skill to hit the monster’s belly which was enough to kill it with that one hit.

“Hah, not so tough anymore, are you?!” I yelled at the small sparkling dust cloud.

- “Wow, you managed to kill it so easily, babe. Congratulations are in order. You have received eight experience points and your party members have received sixteen.” – Lavita announced after the spiky turtle monster turned into fairy dust.

“Huh? I got eight experience points?” I was surprised I have received twice as much as before.

“Master Rockin,” Ranalaiya appeared next to my side.

“Oh, are you ok? Hold on, are Sylfrin and Lilfira ok as well?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, they are fine, Master Rockin,” Ranalaiya reassured me.

“We’re ok, Master Rockin!” Sylfrin said loudly, Lilfira standing next to her, both of them coming over once they noticed my fight was over.

“Phew, that’s good,” I let out a sigh of relief.

“What was that monster, Master Rockin?” Ranalaiya asked.

“I don’t know, but it definitely was a stronger monster than those Stoneskin Lizards we were fighting all this time,” I said.

“Did Mister Alragus mention anything about that type of monster to you, Master Rockin?” Syfrin asked.

“No. He only spoke about the Stoneskin Lizards,” I said, touching my chin to think about it. “Maybe… maybe we have reached the area in the mine where stronger monsters live? That’s the only explanation for it.”

“But we haven’t gone through some sort of passage, like the one they have in the dungeon to go to the lower floors,” Ranalaiya reasoned.

“No, but Alragus said mine is not like a normal dungeon. Besides, we have gone through the last tunnel without encountering any monsters. That could’ve been the passage leading to the lower floor of the mine, even if they don’t call it floors here,” I speculated.

“Yes, that makes sense,” Sylfrin agreed to it.

“So, what will we do now, Master?” Ranalaiya asked next.

“Right. We came here to gather some Brown Iron Ore, which we have enough with us already and that means we could simply turn back and go back to Hirvant or…” I paused, turning around to look around the cave.

“Or we could explore this lower floor of the mine to try and find more ore,” Ranalaiya finished my sentence, knowing what I was about to say myself.

“Yes,” I smiled. However, I had a small concern regarding that. This current huge cave had three other available exits out of it, which meant I had to figure something out for us to not get lost if we were to stay and explore the mine some more.