For the rest of the day, Elias hunted monsters in the jungle with gusto, a stupid grin plastered across his face. Whenever it started to slip, he’d remind himself how much his social life had changed since he started dungeon delving—and the grin would come right back.
He’d made two friends—real, actual friends. And they’d already talked about forming a party.
He was ecstatic.
By now, the initial excitement he’d felt about gaining experience had faded significantly. Hunting the jungle’s weaker monsters had become little more than a monotonous chore.
After perfecting his hunting strategies, it felt like he was just beating on an endless line of training dummies. Even his improved Vitality and Strength didn’t change much—whenever the monsters got too easy, he simply pushed deeper into the jungle.
Thankfully, venturing deeper into the jungle made it easier to find monsters as they were more densely packed the closer he got to the center. The difference wasn’t dramatic, since he was still far from the core region, but it was noticeable. As a result, his experience-gathering rate improved.
While it only took Elias seconds to dispatch the monsters he encountered, it took several minutes just to track them down. The time spent locating targets had become the real bottleneck in his leveling speed. And that, in turn, was limited by how fast he could move through the thick jungle underbrush.
So, as the day neared its end, Elias made a decision: it was time to invest his experience into Agility.
 
Congratulations! Your Agility is now level 7.
 Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As it was his first time leveling Agility, the difference was immediate—even if most of the real benefits would come with training.
Elias felt lighter on his feet, and his breathing came easier. The air in his lungs seemed more… more. His muscles, which had always carried a subtle tension, now felt like they’d finally loosened—like he’d just received the best massage of his life.
He threw a few punches in front of him, pleased to find his movements smoother and his balance more stable. Grunting in satisfaction, Elias prepared for the real test: he walked forward at a relaxed pace, weaving through the dense jungle.
Sure enough, he slipped between branches and undergrowth with a bit more ease. The improvement wasn’t dramatic, but it was enough to help him move faster and tire less as he navigated the terrain.
Done testing the effects of his Agility upgrade, Elias began making his way back to the clearing for dinner. There, he bought the cheapest meal he could find, a chicken noodle soup that still cost him over ten thousand energy. Then, as soon as he finished eating, he headed straight back into the jungle to continue leveling.
As he walked deeper into the jungle, Elias once again felt a strong sense of satisfaction with his choice of profession. He was still a newbie, and fighting the same weak monsters could get repetitive, but he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Even now, the variety of creatures he encountered kept him on his toes. They made for good training. The smaller monsters sometimes caught him off guard with special attacks that forced him to adapt on the fly, while the larger ones often required creative tactics to bring down efficiently.
Every moment he spent in the dungeon, even just grinding for experience, only strengthened his resolve to become a powerful adventurer and one day explore the deeper zones of the dungeon.
By the time he should’ve been heading back, Elias had already accumulated a total of 8,740 experience, bringing him more than halfway to leveling his Agility to level 8. The boost to his mobility had made such a difference in navigating the jungle that he’d already decided to level it again next.
For a moment, he even considered grinding late into the night to reach that goal before heading home. But after thinking it through, he let the idea go. If he stayed out too long, he’d be exhausted for his mother’s hellish training tomorrow.
He wasn’t about to make that mistake again.