"Arch, my head hurts. The light, so bright! Did we died and are we in heaven?"
"It sure does resemble one with the surroundings. Wait, I see Cliff. We must be in hell then, he couldn't possibly have went to heaven with that personality of his."
Chris woke up with a headache, followed shortly by Aston.
"Oh? This is hell? That's fine. I'll make sure you're experiencing hell then."
I spoke menacingly while feeling annoyed at Aston. He quickly corrected himself when he saw me walking towards him while cracking my knuckles.
"N-no! I meant that even hell is like heaven with you there!"
"Then please enjoy the treatment from heaven~."
I proceeded to punch him to oblivion while he screamed for help from no one in particular. There were no one to hear him other than Chris whom believed that he deserved it. Chris cared more about the situation instead and opted to ask some questions.
"Why are we out here? What happened? Did you defeated that hobgoblin?"
"I half drag and half carried both of you out of the cave. I managed to injured his eyes and in his fury, he destroyed a wall which collapsed on himself. I got us out as I wasn't sure if the cave would collapse. Ah, it just did."
I left out the details as it wasn't necessary. The dungeon also caved in with a huge rumble and a minor earthquake during my explanation. Thank god that we escaped before it did so, else we might not be able to get out from there even if we weren't crushed by the initial collapse.
"So once again we were saved by you huh? Thank you. And you should probably stop punching him or he will really die."
"Eh? Its fine. I can clearly see that my punches deal insignificant damage to his health, it will probably take a couple more hundred punches for him to actually die. I'll leave him a punch away from death."
"Stop! Seriously stop! I'll do anything you say as long as you stop punching me! Please!"
"Eh? Really? Then let me kick you to death then."
"No!"
Of course I didn't do that. If I wanted to do so, I would have left him in the cave and not waste my energy getting him out. He also managed to helped out in the previous fight. Even though it wasn't a determining factor, it still gave me enough time to plan for what I had done somewhat.
I turned my attention away from the cowering dwarf to the elf that was seemingly focus on thoughts. He spoke when he noticed that I was looking at him.
"Sorry. We were unable to do anything against the hobgoblin even though we were the one who suggested to explore the dungeon."
"Don't apologise. I was unable to do much against him too. Furthermore, the request never mentioned anything on the hobgoblin. He was level 27 too, more than double of our average level. It could be considered a miracle that the fight ended with something similar to a draw."
"Wow, that's high. So erm, what's our level?"
I facepalmed before confirming our status. I then answered.
"I'm level 13 while both of you are level 12. You two were level 7 when we first met by the way."
"What!? Our almost three years of training only got us so far compared to what we did in a week!?"
Aston recovered and screamed out the facts. I suppressed my growing urge to attack him again.
"Yes. So stop screaming. Please. Your face will meet my fist otherwise."
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He held my threat in mind as he continued, softer this time.
"Okay, so how did we advance so fast as compared to before? Although it's true that having you in our party helped our hunting speed, it wasn't to that extend."
"That's something that I don't have the answer to. Maybe it had something to do with your past?"
Chris chipped in his own theory to Aston's questions. He continued with another question after what seemed like a revelation.
"Maybe we could find out from Mavic Schooler! I heard that he will come over to Flussufera to oversee the development of the city and where it could be improved!"
"Why would that help?"
Both Aston and I didn't recognise the name and could only wonder how a man can solve the puzzle to the mystery surrounding the experience spike.
"Because Mavic Schooler is a well respected scholar who had dabbled into many fields and caused breakthrough in each of them! He is also one of the rare few who has the ability to view statues!"
"Okay, I understand the knowledgeable part, but why does he having the ability to view statues have anything to do with this? I am already able to view my own statues."
"That's the point! What you see from your statues are some basic informations and battle stats and skills right?"
"Yes?"
"From what I know, what he can see isn't things related to battle. There's a chance that he could see into your past or provide a clue to your existences!"
"That... Might help. But from the way you said it, he does sound like some influential person. How do we meet him in that case?"
Aston butted in for the first time since the conversation between Chris and I switched topic. Chris looked sad as he understood Aston's point and I believed that he knew it beforehand, which was why he hadn't mentioned the idea earlier.
"I think that I know a method."
My proclamation stunned them both. Chris could only stutter as he thinks about my method out loud.
"You can kidnap him, no! That's disrespectful! But you're special too. I also want to meet him. Argh! Maybe..."
I interrupted him before he could go further.
"Okay stop. I can resort to kidnapping as something like a last resort. But my method has nothing illegal to do with it. I have contacts that I can try to use to get the chance to meet him."
Chris's eyes were opened so big that they seemed like they would popped out from their sockets anytime. He screamed "Really!?" so loudly that the anyone near to the mountain could have heard his voice. He seemed like a child that was excited and restless to go on his first trip.
"I can’t really promise that, but I will try. They are in the city so we have to go back first either way."
"What are we waiting for!? Let's go then!"
Then it hit him while he turned to walk away, while intending to be the one leading the way back. He was so excited that he forgot about his own injuries. Like how they say that idiots don't catch cold, the dwarf didn't seemed to be in pain, unlike the elf. Wait, they are both idiots.
I moved over to lend a shoulder to the struggling elf and hype him out even more.
"We can go straight to the contact straight. They have a healer there too."
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