Elias slipped out of the house while Isabela wasn’t looking, heading for the clearing to meet up with Marco and Rebecca.
She’d been nagging him nonstop to bring her along again, and he was tired of saying no. For some reason, she seemed convinced he’d change his mind if she just asked one more time.
Arriving at the clearing, Elias met up with his friends near Rebecca’s father’s burrito stall before they found a quiet spot along the edge of the field to begin their training.
Since renting a training ring was expensive, they’d agreed to simply use an out-of-the-way area and hold back on the strength behind their blows instead.
“See how you’re overextending when you do that? It makes breaking your guard a lot easier,” Elias explained to Rebecca.
Her brows furrowed in concentration as she slowly repeated the movement, testing his words for herself.
Elias could tell she was putting in real effort to improve, even if it sometimes took her a moment to fully grasp or trust the relevance of his advice. Still, there was both talent and determination there—and that, he could work with. Under his guidance, she’d improve quickly. He was sure of it.
The most significant issue he’d noticed so far was that she put too much power into every strike, making her attacks easy to dodge or counter. It wasn’t a fatal flaw, but it was the most glaring—and far from the only one.
She’d never had the opportunity to learn proper technique until now—and it showed. More than that, she was simply too used to fighting monsters.
They didn’t think tactically or fight with discipline the way people did, which had allowed several flaws in her form to go unnoticed. She’d never been forced to correct them because monsters, at least in the early levels of the dungeon, simply weren’t capable of exploiting them.
The sparring between Elias and Marco was much friendlier this time around. Having already tested each other in earnest, they now focused more on refining technique and maintaining a combat trance as they exchanged blows. In many ways, their spar had become more of a dance than a fight, with neither of them pushing to gain the upper hand.
They took turns sparring with Rebecca as well, though those bouts were far less harmonious. She was still working on her form and technique and hadn’t yet reached the point where she could enter a combat trance.
Even as the session came to an end, she hadn’t managed to land a single hit on either of them. Not even once.
“Let’s go eat something already,” Rebecca said as their sparring session came to an end. “I can give my friends a twenty-five percent discount on the burritos!”Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“You can? Why didn’t we get that discount last time?” Elias asked, sounding indignant.
“We weren’t friends yet,” she replied with a shrug.
“No way. We’re going to the meat skewer stall this time,” Marco declared, narrowing his eyes at Elias. “And you’re trying that chicken heart skewer I told you about. This is happening, Elias. Deal with it.”
“Alright, I’ll go,” Elias sighed.
He’d honestly hoped Marco had forgotten about that damn skewer.
When they arrived at the meat skewer stall, Elias immediately noticed that each individual skewer was a lot smaller than he’d expected. If he wanted to actually satisfy his hunger, he’d need more than just one. Thankfully, the stall offered a combo option featuring some of their most popular skewers, including the infamous chicken heart one, so all three of them ordered that.
As it turned out, Marco had a good reason for insisting Elias try it: the chicken heart skewer was really good.
It wasn’t anything like Elias had imagined. If Marco hadn’t pointed it out among the others, he wouldn’t have guessed what it was. It tasted more like a particularly fatty cut of beef than chicken.
Eventually, after they’d all finished eating and taken a moment to rest, Elias said his goodbyes and headed off toward the jungle, ready to begin leveling.
As he’d expected, his experience-gathering rate reached new and unprecedented heights thanks to his increased Agility. After consolidating the attribute boost during yesterday’s training, he now moved through the jungle foliage with far greater ease than before.
As a result, it felt like no time at all before he’d gathered the remaining 6,000 or so experience he needed to level Agility again.
 
Congratulations! Your Agility is now level 8.
 
Having reached his goal of leveling up, Elias took it easy for the rest of the day, strolling through the jungle and hunting monsters at a leisurely pace.
He still wanted to catch up to his friends in levels, but he didn’t feel the need to rush. He was confident they wouldn’t leave him behind just because he reached the Beginner rank a few days later. Besides, leveling all his attributes to ten was usually the quickest and easiest step in reaching that rank properly.
Perfecting one’s foundation was by far the hardest part.
Just because Elias was taking his time didn’t mean his experience gains had slowed to a crawl. Even at a relatively relaxed pace, he still managed to gather a little over 2,000 experience per hour—the same rate he’d achieved when going all out before leveling his Agility.
In fact, the biggest difference between grinding methodically and pushing for maximum speed turned out to be a positive one. Taking his time let him choose his opponents more carefully and stay more aware of his surroundings.
Elias felt like this was how dungeon delving was truly meant to be. The road to becoming a powerful adventurer was long, and he’d much rather walk it at a steady pace, taking in the views and enjoying the journey, than rush blindly ahead. Besides, impatience and recklessness would be fatal flaws once he began exploring the deeper levels of the dungeon.
By the end of the day, Elias had gained another 10,450 exp.
What’s more, by avoiding the larger monsters, he hadn’t banged up his fists nearly as much as he had the other day, and he wasn’t even particularly tired. Having moved at a relaxed pace for most of the day, he still felt alert and full of energy.
It was, by far, a much more pleasant experience.