Leon suddenly broke into a cold sweat upon hearing Luna’s suggestion. “Um, Luna, I think Titania is much better suited as the leader.” He said nervously.

Luna shook her head. “Tempest, I know she’s stronger than you, but you don’t need to push yourself to the side.” She thought Leon was being shy or insecure.

“It’s… well…” Leon tried to explain himself, but his anxiety was quickly mounting.

His heart, beat up a swarm.

His mind, turned into storm.

Ants crawling, over his skin.

The sensations, made his vision spin.

Rose frowned upon seeing Leon stammer like this and intervened. “Can’t you see he doesn’t want to? Stop pressuring him.” She said as she walked up to Luna.

Luna got annoyed at Rose’s intervening. “All I see is someone not confident in their abilities. You’ve seen he’s capable! As his sister, why don’t you support him?” She thought Rose was enabling Leon’s self-doubt issues.

Now it was Rose’s turn to get angry. “Me not support him? Excuse me? Do you have any clue what we’ve been through!? You know of his condition, right!?” Her tone was getting more heated with every sentence.

Luna didn’t back off. “His autism isn’t a shield to hide behind! You’ve seen he can do this, and I know he’s smart. He can lead!” Her tone also getting more heated.

Rose shook her head. “You have absolutely no clue, do you? He’s not using it as a shield! He’s trying to keep it in check, but you pressuring him isn’t helping!” She yelled back.

Leon meanwhile tried to stop them, “P-Please… d-don’t… a-argue.” His voice was meek and small as he tried to keep it together. His breathing was hard and laboured, he didn’t want his sister and his friend fighting about him.

A sudden sharp sound injected into his mind, making him cover his ears. Every sound and smell got amplified. The distant pickaxes that the kobolds swung against the walls felt like needles in his head. The smell of minerals felt nauseating, and the argument sounded like a loud static.

Beans quickly realised Leon got distressed and tried to rub his face on Leon’s cheek for comfort but it hardly put a dent in the incoming meltdown. Leon crouched down with tears in his eyes as he kept muttering for them to stop.

Luckily, there was one more person in the room who noticed Leon’s abnormality. “T-Tempest!? Are you okay?” She tried to help Leon, but he didn’t respond to her.

“Miss Titania! Luna! It’s Tempest! He’s… not well!” She didn’t know what to call but things didn’t look good for him, so she yelled out to Rose and Luna.

They heard StarRuby and quickly noticed the state that Leon was in. “Oh no, Leon!” Rose turned pale and quickly rushed over and gave him a warm embrace. “It’s okay Leon, I’m here.” She didn’t care that she used his real name instead of his game alias.

“P-Please don’t fight…” Leon kept muttering, which broke Rose’s heart.

“Leon, look. We’ve stopped, it’s okay. Take a deep breath.” She said as she was trying to calm him down. Beans was still trying to help, which made Rose smile at the gesture. She turned her head to look at Luna with a look of ‘you see now? This is what he deals with.’

Luna didn’t notice the look Rose gave her, as her focus was fully on Leon and condition. Initially, she thought he was just being timid. Luna thought his autism only made him somewhat insecure about himself. She had dealt with that in the past and wanted to help him as well.

But now I realise I really didn’t have a clue. Luna bit her lip in regret. She wanted to help, but only ended up hurting him. Now she could see the gravity of his autism. It wasn’t insecurities, but something deeper. If he couldn’t handle a minor situation like this with two people arguing, then he couldn’t be a leader. It wasn’t possible for him to lead, as he would break down at every argument.

Her gaze turned to the ground in shame. She couldn’t look at Leon anymore, for it would remind her of the pain she had just caused. Rose noticed her shame and could only shake her head. Ignorance can hurt others. I hope you do better next time.

StarRuby slowly got closer, “Um, Miss Titania? Is he okay?” She asked with concern in her voice.

Rose looked back at her and nodded. “Yes, he’ll be fine. Just give him a few minutes.” She said as she still held him.

StarRuby nodded slowly and hesitated but still asked, “Does- does this happen… often?” Her tone was unsure, as she hoped she wasn’t treading on a sensitive topic. Luna silently paid attention to the conversation.

Rose gave a small sigh. “Tempest, or Leon, as you both now know, has autism. He needs a routine and has massive social anxiety, not to mention sensory issues and some other problems. His anxiety spiked because Luna tried to force an enormous responsibility like leadership onto him. It’s not that he’s not open to change, but it needs to go his pace and not someone else’s.”

StarRuby and Luna were speechless at Rose’s explanation. “It sounds… difficult to deal with.” StarRuby eventually said after a moment of processing it.

Rose nodded. “Yes, it can be difficult. But ignore that part and you’ll see he’s incredibly smart. He’s able to see patterns and solve puzzles like crazy. He’s got his strong points as well, and if you boil it down, he’s the same as us. Human, and not some freak.” Her tone was showing warmth and kindness.

StarRuby and Luna both understood that Leon was just like them, but he needs to go his own pace. They waited in silence for a few minutes as Leon slowly more composed.

He took a deep breath and his rationality came back. “T-Thanks sis, I’m fine now.” Leon said as he tried to stand up. Rose nodded and let go of Leon as she also stood up.

Feeling the fresh air in his lungs again, he looked at StarRuby and Luna, the latter of whom look away when their gazes met. Leon had mixed feelings, as she couldn’t have known, but she also could’ve been more careful.

“Let’s continue, shall we?” Rose said as everything was back to ‘normal’. They ignored the awkward atmosphere and continued the trek through the dungeon.

They encountered more groups but Leon didn’t get another level but he was close at 87%. Luna got to level 18 and StarRuby got to level 19, but Rose didn’t level up yet. Regarding Luna, she has been silent since the accident, and despite StarRuby’s attempts to communicate with her, she has not responded.

Rose and Leon didn’t comment on it, and soon they reached the hut that Leon had got to during Easy difficulty. This time, one enforcer did not guard it. There was a group of 5 kobolds, four enforcers, and another new one standing outside the hut.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

There was one kobold towering over the elites. It wearing a metal breastplate and was holding a sharp halberd. One look was enough to see it had received training and was commanding the enforcers.

[Kobold Halberdier] (Super Elite)

Level 24

HP 1,750/1,750

It was a massive difficulty spike. Everyone, including Rose, had to take this seriously now. “Let me handle the Super Elite. Can three handle the elites?” She asked.

StarRuby looked at Leon and Luna, as their communication was still nonexistent. Leon took a deep breath to get some courage and looked at Luna. “Luna, we have to put our differences aside for now. Let’s talk this out later, okay?” He said to her.

Luna looked down in thought for a moment and looked back to the kobolds. “Okay.” Was all she said. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. Seeing Leon be the mature one put a small smile on Rose’s face.

“Leon, start off with Beans using his big stun. I’ll charge the Halberdier and do some damage to the Enforcers. Luna, do you have any CC skills?” Rose laid out the plan and asked Luna.

Luna shook her head. “No, I don’t. I only have offensive skills.” She said with a regretful tone that she only focused on offense.

Rose shook her head. “It’s fine. Best to take down the enforcers as fast as possible, but save any very long cooldown skills.” She advised, making Luna a little confused, as this should be the last fight. She didn’t voice her concerns, and only nodded.

“Ready everyone?” Rose asked as she glanced at the group with a serious look. Everyone nodded and Beans dug into the ground. A little while later, he sprung from the ground near the kobolds and used his Seismic Shock to stun them all.

Rose charged in and grabbed her rapier. Suddenly, she stopped and thrust the rapier five times in rapid succession. Five Thrust! Rose mentally exclaimed. It was a skill in which she would attack five different opponents consecutively. The downside was that Rose could only use this attack on five opponents, not one.

-249

-345

-338

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Rose couldn’t aim for the weak points as she poked a hole in each of them. Luna quickly charged in and had her fingers straight as a soft glow covered them. She got to the closest Enforcer and thrust her hand into the chest of the Enforcer, Nukite! Luna’s hand pierced the Enforcer’s chest and its heart.

-411 Weak point!

She had long seen that Rose and Leon were targeting their vitals, so of course she would also start doing that. Leon didn’t sit still as a Thunderbolt cracked past Luna and struck an Enforcer in the head.

-376 Weak point! Electric-elemental bonus! Stunned for 1 second.

It wasn’t enough to finish the kill, but Beans quickly took action and bit the Enforcer in the throat to kill it off.

-43

The battle had just started and half of the Enforcers were already dead by the time Rose got to the Halberdier. Rose squared off with the Halberdier and used her regular thrust skill to penetrate its head. Suddenly, the Halberdier gained a small glow as it dodged the thrust.

Caught off guard, Rose became left wide open for the incoming swipe of the halberd. Rose quickly slid a few steps back as she activated the skill on her boots.

[Boots of Retreat] (Blue)

Equipment Level: 15

Requirement: Agility 24, Strength 15

Agility + 4

Strength + 2

Physical Defence: +7%

Magical Defence: +2%

Durability: 25/25

Additional Skill: Back slide - Slide back a few paces to create some distance. Cooldown 2 minutes.

‘If you can’t strike, then slide back! If you want to run, then slide back! Guaranteed to work! - Schmingel.’

Rose stopped and re-evaluated the Halberdier. Was that immunity? No, he used a skill. A self cleansing skill. Rose narrowed her eyes a little. A self cleansing skill also meant it likely got an offensive skill as well.

The Halberdier looked at Rose and suddenly looked at the others. Rose quickly charged back in, as she feared the worst. “Careful! The Halberdier can ignore aggro!” Her voice rang out. Very intelligent monsters could completely ignore aggro as aggro was only their instincts. The Halberdier focused back on Rose as she continued her assault.

Meanwhile, Leon and Luna quickly cleaned up the Enforcers. They turned to Rose, who was battling the Halberdier. “Need help, sis?” Leon asked.

Rose smiled at the gesture and said, “No thanks! It’ll be good practice!” As she was continuing to place pressure on the Halberdier. Leon and StarRuby nodded while Luna only watched closely to her movements.

Rose kept clashing with the Halberdier, with neither of them taking damage. Slowly Rose was getting the upper hand as she quickly found flaws in the Halberdiers’ movements.

-230

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More damage numbers started adding up as Rose kept slipping past its defences. Luna thought for a moment that Rose trained in swordsmanship when she remembered Leon wasn’t trained and even admitted to being in hard times. How is she this skilled? Luna couldn’t understand it and attributed it to Rose being a one-in-a-million talent.

I’m a little disappointed. Rose mentally sighed as she had the Halberdier on the ropes. She had hoped that the Halberdier was skilled because of its higher than normal intelligence, but this was all it had. Fortunately, Rose still held onto her hopes.

A change suddenly happened as the Halberdier got to 10% of its health. Its muscles suddenly bulged with power and its speed ramped up. Rose narrowed her eyes. As I suspected, a berserk skill. Leon had also faced one during his battle with the Mossback Serpent.

Berserk skills allowed the user to get a massive boost in power, but it always came with a forced debuff later on. With its new power boost came new challenges for Rose, as she was now the one being pressured and she would get a few scratch wounds here and there.

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Rose grinned as she felt the pressure again. Now this is much better! Leon could only shake his head as he saw the look on her face. In the novel, Rose got into countless challenges and loved every second because it was the quickest and best way to improve her skills.

Leon had to agree with her there. He had fought tough fights and every time he became stronger. The key difference was that Leon didn’t enjoy it as fervently as Rose did. StarRuby got ready with a heal when Leon stopped her. “Hold on, not yet. Wait until the last second.” He said to her.

StarRuby frowned a little in confusion. “Why? She’s hurt! It’s my duty to heal her!” She said back.

Leon was about to explain when Luna spoke up. “Titania is using the Halberdier to get better at fighting. Look.” She pointed to the damage numbers.

-42

-48

They were slowly getting less and less because Rose was quickly adapting to the pressure and parrying more and more strikes. She only needed one more strike to finish the Halberdier off, so she bided her time until it was right.

Now! She mentally exclaimed as the Halberdier got impatient and thrust the halberd a little too much to the side. She shifted her waist slightly out of the way, but the halberd still made a big cut.

-85

Rose grit her teeth from the pain and thrust her rapier right at the head of the Halberdier. The rapier struck home and pierced its head, making it drop the halberd with a clang.

-444 Weak point!

[Kobold Halberdier killed. Obtained increased experience for killing a higher levelled enemy. Obtained 322 EXP.] With that message came another level for Leon as he shot to level 18. Nobody else got a level which confused him a little.

She took a deep breath and had a small smile on her face, as she knew she had taken another step in bettering her skills. Leon had some mixed emotions. He was happy for her but also more determined to close the gap even more.

StarRuby quickly healed Rose after the battle was over, and after a short intermission, they entered the hut. Inside the hut was a little different from Leon’s first time there. The note was still on the table, but now multiple books and bookshelves were added.

Not only that, the floor was littered with tons of other papers and notes. “Well, It’s certainly more than before.” Leon noted as he also noted many more chairs along with pens and other trinkets.

Luna got to the door at the end and received the message asking to leave. “Here’s the exit. Shall we head out?” She asked. StarRuby was about to accept when Leon shook his head.

“No, the dungeon isn’t over yet.”

Leon’s words confused StarRuby. “What do you mean Tempest? The exit is right there.” She said as she pointed to where Luna was at.

Rose piped up this time as she looked at the note on the table. “It’s likely this note has some hint about the dungeon. Leon, can you figure it out?” She asked as she looked at Leon.

“Let’s check the books, see if there’s any translation books here.” Leon said as he picked up one book and quickly leafed through it for a translation for the note. Rose nodded and also grabbed a book and leafed through it. Seeing Rose and Leon go through books made StarRuby and Luna also go through books.