- “Maximum experience points reached. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – The mechanical, dull, lifeless voice announced.

It wasn’t the first that kind of announcement now and it wasn’t very surprising to hear it once again either. After we woke up the next morning, we made our way to the fifth floor of the dungeon and that’s where we were right now. The first one to get a Level Up offer was Krisel. Then it was Lilfira, then Virghel and now after checking it again, it was Sylfrin. I didn’t waste the time while helping Lilfira assign her stat points. Since she had received six stat points once again, I suggested her to put two points to her Stamina, Strength and Magic Energy each. Unfortunately, Lilfira hasn’t received any new skills with her seventh level up, nor her greyed out, hidden behind the question marks skill became available either.

As for Sylfrin, she was lucky to receive six stat points with her level up as well. Although, neither new skills, nor the skills or spells she already had were improved after I accepted her level up. Still, each level up made her stronger, so after assigning Sylfrin’s stat points, without any lovely dovely stuff at this point, we moved on. On a side note, Sylfrin’s pet Voras has received one level up as well, helping it last a little longer during the fights.

- “Oh my, I’ve been waiting for this for far too long. You have received enough experience points to level up and you know what that means, don’t you, my love? Let’s get naked right here and now. I can’t wait for us to have the time of our lives.” – And then the inevitable happened as well, Lavita letting me and everyone in the party know it was time for us to have some fun. Well, it was fun for Lavita for the most part here, because I wanted to hide somewhere after hearing Lavita’s ever so loving words.

“Sooo… I’ll leave the party for a short while and then we can move on. I mean, it’s about time to have a short break anyway,” I came up with another reason to excuse myself.

“Yeah, ok,” Tarrion grunted, half-rolling his eyes.

“But Master Rockin…” Lilfira wanted to say something.

“No buts. We’ll reach floor six soon. That’s where Tarkees live. Tarkees are much stronger and tougher than Rhakis or Lesser Trents, so take some rest now because it will become much more difficult and dangerous once we get there,” I instructed in a serious tone of my voice.

“No, I wanted to ask why do you want to leave the party, Master Rockin?” Lilfira asked.

“No reason. I mean… to accept my Level Up offer. That is, to decline it. Doesn’t matter. I’ll be right back,” I said before leaving the party and walking to stand behind some tree, away from everyone else.

“So, in order for Rockin to accept the Level Up offer he needs to leave the party?” Krisel asked Tarrion, feeling curious.

“Not exactly,” Tarrion mumbled, looking a bit flustered for some reason.

“What do you mean?” Krisel asked again.

“Ghumph… It’s because of that woman, Lavita,” Tarrion said, not providing any concrete details again.

“I’m sorry. It sounds like it is not something you are comfortable talking about,” Krisel apologized to him.

“It’s ok,” Tarrion said, feeling out of place.

“Huh? Oh, wow. Lavita has never done it this way before,” Ranalaiya commented suddenly, covering her mouth with one hand, her cheeks becoming very, very red, her cat-like tail starting to curl and dance uncontrollably.

“Indeed. Maybe we could do that to Master Rockin once we’re back at Hirvant?” Sylfrin suggested, not looking to be as flustered as Ranalaiya was.

“You think… Master Rockin would like it? Huh?” Ranalaiya asked her, her tail jumping up and becoming straight the next second. “Lavita… really wants Master Rockin’s attention today.”

“That’s not fair. I wanted to hear Lavita’s performance too,” Lilfira complained out loud, pouting her lips.

“Performance? What do you mean by that, Lilfira?” Krisel asked after overhearing her.

“Apparently, when Master Rockin declines his Level Up offer, Lavita gets upset and then has sex with herself,” Lilfira told her.

“Oh my. Is that… true?” Krisel asked, turning to look at Tarrion.

“Aghem…” Tarrion simply grunted to himself before averting his face away.

“Yes. I… heard it once… after we had killed the Spider Queen boss some time ago. Lavita is… very expressive,” Virghel answered Krisel’s question instead.

“Really? Wow… But wait, if I understand it correctly, Ranalaiya and Sylfrin can still hear Lavita while the rest of us can’t? How can this be?” Krisel asked, catching that one detail and becoming curious.

“Oh, ah… Yes, Sylfrin and I can still hear Lavita. That’s because… huh? S… sorry,” Ranalaiya suddenly gasped, her eyes widening, Ranalaiya hugging herself the next second with her arms and her tail.

“Rockin must be having a really hard time right now,” Krisel commented with a chuckle.

- “That was… incredible my love. Still, I am really sad I couldn’t do it together with you. But don’t fret, your stats have been increased at random as a bonus. Until next time. Mhua.” – Lavita blew me a kiss at the end before quieting down.

Sigh… She must be evolving with each of my level up declines too. I shook my head before taking some water out to have a drink to cool off.

I checked my stats quickly right after, finding out that my Stamina, Strength and Agility stats were increased by one each before closing my Status Window and returning to my group. I tried to pretend nothing has happened, but the stares I have received from my party members told me I wasn’t exactly out of the woods so to say. On top of that, Sylfrin whispered to me she could offer that kind of service once we were back at Hirvant, my blood rushing to all kinds of places down my body as a result of it. Obviously, I remained silent instead of answering her question, because it wouldn’t have made any difference no matter what I had said anyway.

“Ok, shall we move out now?” I said after rejoining the party.

The Lesser Trent and Rhaki hunt resumed. Lilfira was a fast learner and was able to fight and kill monsters without getting hurt in a very short amount of time. She was a dragonkin after all, even if not a pure one. Each race had their strengths and traits that were specific to them. Night Sky Panther people were fast and nimble in general. Frost Bat folks had the aptitude to learn more powerful skills that involved spellcasting. Dragonkins were known for their strength and power. Obviously, since you could gain levels in this world and had to assign points to your stats, your strength depended on how well you would assign your stat points. Still, if you had at least a half-decent sense of what you were doing, you could grow to become quite strong in your own right.

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Once we have reached the sixth floor of the dungeon however, it was evident that Lilfira was still too weak to fight Tarkees on her own. After all, level seven adventurers rarely dared to go down to the sixth floor of the dungeon even if they formed parties. Tarkees were fast and nimble, and they were rather strong too. It was much more difficult to fight Tarkees simply because they had the bodies of a snake and wings to help them move around more swiftly. Lilfira had to give her all just to try to not get seriously hurt.

“Shield. Shield,” I used my defense skill to block Tarkee’s advance to protect Lilfira before using my attack skill to kill it.

- “What a brilliant kill, darling. You took it down so easily. Ten experience points for you and twenty for your party members.” – Lavita let us know after the Tarkee disappeared into a cloud of sparkling dust.

“Sorry, Master Rockin. I wasn’t fast enough,” Lilfira apologized.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s your first time coming here and you’re still only level seven. I think we need to revise our tactics on how we fight Tarkees from this point onwards. At least until you gain more levels and can fight Tarkees on your own. Sylfrin, how about your pet Voras assists Lilfira, with Krisel providing boosts to her Stamina and Strength. Tarrion could stay on guard to protect Krisel and Sylfrin while Ranalaiya, Virghel and I simply hunt down as many Tarkees as we can find. This way, Lilfira will be able to gain some fighting experience while we farm experience as well,” I shared my thoughts on it.

“Sounds good,” Tarrion didn’t mind.

“Yes, I agree,” Virghel was happy with it. She was probably happy with it for a different reason too.

“I’ll make sure to support Lilfira as much as I can, Rockin,” Krisel agreed.

“I’ll do my best,” Lilfira added last.

“Ok, let’s go,” I said, moving my head left and right in order to remove stiffness from my neck before gripping my shields tighter.

And so, the Tarkee hunt had begun. With Ranalaiya, Virghel and myself focusing on killing Tarkees as fast as possible, leaving one for Lilfira to fight now and then, we were collecting experience faster than ever. The three of us were killing Tarkees quite fast, but we still had to slow down and wait until Lilfira kills the Tarkee she was left to fight on her own. She was struggling, simply because Tarkees were stronger than her stat wise at this point. Lilfira would get hurt now and then too which was a bit painful to watch her being in pain, but she needed to persist and we had to be patient as well. Tarkees were stronger than Rhakis that we have fought earlier, but they were nowhere near as strong as Lilfira’s future opponent would be during the Rites of Strength.

“Master Rockin, I think there are people up ahead,” Ranalaiya informed me.

“People you say?” I commented, not worrying about it too much.

It wouldn’t be the first time we would encounter other adventurers in the dungeon. We had met two other adventuring parties while being here already. One was on the third floor of the dungeon and the other one on the fifth. We had met the second adventuring party early in the morning while making our way towards the sixth floor of the dungeon. They were coming back from the sixth floor themselves and were going back to Hirvant. After a quick chat with both of those adventuring groups we had met, we parted ways in a friendly manner.

“They must be hunting Tarkees as well, so there’s no point in going that way. Let’s go back to Tarrion and the others, and then find a different area where we can hunt Tarkees at,” I suggested, not wanting to bother or be bothered by the other group.

“Crescent Slash!” Lilfira used her skill to swipe at the Tarkee she was fighting.

“Strength Boost,” Krisel cast a spell to strengthen Lilfira’s next swing.

“Twin Stab!” Lilfira quickly followed up with another attack after she knocked the Tarkee away, stabbing it on the wing twice. “Hah! Ya!” She then thrusted her spear two more times again, hitting Tarkee on the head and finishing it off.

- “Congratulations on taking it down, darling. Ten experience points for you and twenty for your party members.” – Lavita was quick to announce it.

“Well done, Lilfira. You are getting much better at fighting Tarkees,” Sylfrin congratulated her.

“I agree with Sylfrin. You’re doing very well, Lilfira. Knocking it down with your Crescent Slash and then wounding its wing so it wouldn’t be able to move as fast was very smart,” added Krisel.

“Thank you, Sylfrin and Krisel,” Lilfira smiled.

“Hey!” I shouted from a distance, waving my hand.

“Furball?” Tarrion gave me a puzzled look after.

“Ranalaiya noticed another party not far from here, so we decided to come back. There wouldn’t be any Tarkees if we were to continue in that direction. We might as well take a short break before moving on,” I told him, explaining the reason why we came back.

“Right,” was all Tarrion said.

“How are you doing, Lilfira?” Ranalaiya spoke to Lilfira in the meantime.

“I’m good. I managed to kill the last Tarkee without anyone’s help and I didn’t get hurt either,” Lilfira was happy to tell her about it.

“Wow, nice. You must be getting really good at fighting Tarkees now,” Ranalaiya said happily, clapping her hands too.

“Yes, Lilfira is doing a great job now,” Krisel added.

“Yes, but… it takes me all I have to fight Tarkees and I must admit, I get tired quite fast while fighting Tarkees so intensely and then need to take a short break to catch my breath before engaging another Tarkee again,” Lilfira admitted.

“That’s normal, but don’t worry, Lilfira, as your level increases, you’ll get stronger and will be able to kill Tarkees faster,” Ranalaiya said in a supportive manner.

“I see…” I mumbled under my nose after Tarrion told me about how Lilfira was doing.

He wasn’t simply protecting the women, he was also watching Lilfira fight, taking mental notes of how she was doing. For her level, Lilfira was doing very well and she had strength to spare thanks to her Strength stat being a total of forty two right now. Her base Strength stat was thirty three and she was receiving a bonus of nine extra points in Strength thanks to her equipment. However, compared to her Strength stat, her Stamina stat was quite low: only twenty three and that was with the seven extra Stamina bonus points from her equipment. Being strong was good, but if Lilfira gets tired too fast during the fight, she’d eventually lose.

“Ok, I’ll take that in consideration when suggesting how to assign her stat points going forward,” I said before looking around and then adding. “We still have some time before it gets dark. Let’s go hunt more Tarkees.”

“Yes,” Tarrion said.

We moved on through the jungle resembling forest, looking to find some Tarkees to kill. We walked around for a while without encountering any, unfortunately. Since I didn’t want to go towards the direction where Ranalaiya noticed another adventuring party, we had to turn back where we’ve passed through already. We had a nice, peaceful stroll so to say, with the women being as chatty as ever in the meantime. I wasn’t trying to listen, but my ears caught that the topic they were discussing was about Lilfira’s question mark skill that she neither knew what it was nor how to use it. I let out a sigh of relief it wasn’t the other topic they were talking about.

“There are three Tarkees up ahead, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin informed after using her Echo Sense.

“Finally. Ok, lure one of them to the side and let Lilfira fight it. We’ll kill the other two and then split up again, just like the last time,” I instructed.

“Yes, Master Rockin. Voras, go,” Sylfrin acknowledged it before sending her pet to attract the attention of one of the Tarkees.

Ranalaiya, Virghel and I, with the help of Sylfrin this time, took down two of the three Tarkees before we went off to find more of them, leaving Tarrion, Krisel, Sylfrin and Lilfira on their own. We went a little further away from them simply because the four of them were strong enough to fight a group of two or three Tarkees on their own. With all of us being in the party, we knew where each one of us were. Us splitting into two groups allowed us to kill more Tarkees, resulting in getting more experience points in the same amount of time.

“Voras, webshot,” Sylfrin ordered her pet, Voras shooting a string of webbing at the Tarkee, hitting its wing and making it stick to its body. With the Tarkee not being able to use one of its wings, it was moving much slower. “Lilfira, now!”

“Strength Boost,” Krisel cast her spell on Lilfira.

“Twin Stab!” Lilfira attacked the Tarkee the moment Krisel’s spell landed on her. “Crescent Slash! Armor Pierce! Haah!” Lilfira gave her all to take down the creature.

- “What a nice kill. You truly deserve a reward, sweetheart. You have gained ten experience points and your party members have gained twenty.” – Lavita let them know after the Tarkee puffed into a cloud of fairy dust.

“Good. Let’s find another one,” Tarrion said.

“One moment, I’ll check. Echo Sense,” Sylfrin used her skill to check if there were any Tarkees hiding nearby. “Huh?”

“Did you find one, Sylfrin?” Lilfira asked.

“It’s not Tarkee. There’s a group of people coming our way and… their body shapes look like dragonkins,” Sylfrin informed.

“What?” Lilfira exclaimed.

Before anyone could say anything else the bodily figures became visible in not too far distance. The forest was rather overgrown and due to Lilfira fighting Tarkee just now, they couldn’t hear anyone approaching them. The shocking truth was, the people who showed up in the distance were actually red dragonkins, just like Sylfrin said.

“Shit, we need to rejoin Furball now,” Tarrion ordered immediately.

“Huh? What?” The women gasped.

“I said, run!” He repeated himself, raising his voice.