Dungeon Salvation

No fewer than seventeen other groups fled to the glade, attempting to escape or fight off their own hordes of monsters, all within the span of an hour. Each time, they crashed into the glade, yelled something at the group, and jumped into the water.

By now, the battle strategy they had developed had proven itself to be a reliable method of dealing with the situation. The reduced mobility of the monsters in the water made them much easier to handle.

The group in the clearing was growing rapidly with every new addition, now numbering at over fifty people. People didn’t even try to leave anymore, as another group would soon arrive screaming for their lives.

The leveling rate had slowed down tremendously now that there were so many people sharing the experience points. Still, Elias had gained enough to level up his Strength once during the fights, bringing all of his physical attributes to nine.

Congratulations! Your Strength has risen to level 9.

Eventually, people stopped arriving at the glade, signaling the end of the event. Thankfully, no one got seriously hurt, bringing immense relief to Elias. Still, he was sure that the mob of people would start looking for someone to blame now that the action was dying down. He needed to run damage control or find a scapegoat to ensure they wouldn’t blame him.

Even the second group that had tried to help him showed up. They were composed of two sisters and were the third group to arrive overall. Both were blonde with athletic physiques, wielding short swords and small shields. They were one of the few groups that didn’t immediately begin to point fingers when they arrived. They didn’t even blame him, acting casually about the whole situation and earning some of his admiration. Coincidentally, they were well acquainted with the group of three cousins, with the younger sister even being in a relationship with one of them.

“So, um, what are the chances that I can convince you all to keep quiet about me having started this whole mess?” Elias moved quickly to prevent any fires from spreading before it was too late. If he was lucky, they might be willing to negotiate a deal.

“It was you?!” asked Leandra, one of the sisters, rather loudly. Everyone in the glade turned to look at him at once, making him freeze like a deer caught in the headlights.

What the hell?!

Every single person in the clearing began to scold him. Weirdly enough, other than a single group, none of them seemed actually mad. It confused Elias greatly, as he had half-expected to be condemned by the mob right then and there. He noticed that the members of the two groups he was talking to were actually grinning. The eldest of the cousins explained the situation to him after noticing his confusion.

“Relax, kid. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. In fact, this is my third time. This kind of thing pulls so many people that it’s hard to know who started it, so thanks for letting us know!” The man laughed boisterously at Elias’ clear embarrassment. The clearing exploded in laughter, catcalls, and good-natured shouts of “Nice going, idiot!” The angrier groups even mellowed out after better understanding the situation.

Elias still apologized to everyone present for being the cause of their plight. It seemed like this was treated as some kind of rite of passage among the local adventurers. Everyone exploded into a frenzy once more when someone questioned what to do with the enormous amount of energy crystals lying around inside the pool. Everyone immediately dove into the water, energy cards outstretched, trying to collect as much as they could.

The mood turned far more jovial after that, as many people stayed in the pools to relax and chat, taking a break from all the hunting. Eventually, people started to stream out of the glade into the jungle, to continue their hunting or to begin the trek to leave the dungeon. Rebecca approached him while her group was getting ready to leave as well.

“Hi Elias, can we talk in private?” She motioned to a spot where there were no people around to overhear them. She had a very bashful look on her face, which made his heart begin to hammer in his chest.

“Hi Rebecca. Sure, lead the way,” said Elias. They walked to a spot where there were few people around. She seemed unsure of how to proceed for a while, but visibly gathered herself with a deep breath and spoke.

“I have a proposal for you. Will you hear me out?” She looked at him in askance, and he nodded in assent after a moment’s hesitation.

“I’m trying to improve my foundation as much as possible before obtaining my Skills. I’m directing every bit of money that I saved up for years to that effect. Unfortunately, this means that I can’t afford any good trainers to help me with my fighting abilities. I have seen you train with your friend a few times in the clearing and, frankly, you’re both incredible. I wanted to ask if there’s a way for you to help me improve,” said Rebecca. She looked incredibly embarrassed to be talking about her private matters with him, but the determination in her eyes overshadowed it.

“I want you to teach me. I can’t pay you much, but I can give you a free meal at the food stand I work at any day we train, and my discount any other day. I know this is a lopsided request, but I’ll owe you a favor if you help me.” Elias didn’t answer immediately, seriously considering her offer.

Like she said, the offer was incredibly lopsided and more akin to a favor. Although he wasn’t as good a trainer as his parents, his time was still worth more than a meal. They did put him in charge of teaching the children’s classes until recently, after all. If Rebecca became a powerful adventurer in time, a favor from her really would be far more valuable than some of his time now. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that she would become powerful or that she would even honor their deal.

He had observed the way she fought at moments during the past hour and while she wasn’t very skilled by his standards, she just might be exceptionally talented if she really was self taught. If that was the case, she would eventually become a valuable asset to any party she joined. To Elias, however, the real allure of Rebecca’s proposal lay elsewhere.

It provided him with an excuse to spend time with the girl he had a crush on.

“I won’t commit to anything now, but I’ll agree to a single training session as an audition of sorts. Is that acceptable?” She gave him a bright smile at his response that made his stomach flutter. The pair agreed to meet up the next day at the clearing an hour before lunchtime and said their goodbyes for now.

Elias continued to gather experience points for the rest of the day and well into the night, making another 30,000 exp easily. With the amount he had made from fighting in the glade and fleeing from his very own inexhaustible horde, he had made over 80,000 exp in one day, almost double his initial goal. It was enough to increase his Charisma by two points in preparation for his training with Rebecca the next day.

Congratulations! Your Charisma has risen to level 7.

Congratulations! Your Charisma has risen to level 8.

*******

“See how you’re overextending your reach like that? Don’t compromise your posture to score a hit. It will leave you vulnerable to reprisal. It’s not something you can afford as a rogue,” said Elias.

When they began training, he quickly confirmed that Rebecca was indeed a fully self-taught fighter. She had no real technique and made several basic mistakes that no real instructor would leave uncorrected. It was also very clear that her fighting experience came predominantly from fighting monsters, resulting in many bad habits.

Many people believed that learning how to fight properly was unnecessary, that technique and skill weren’t truly needed to fight monsters. That is true to some extent, but only for weak monsters below the Journeyman rank. Even at the Novice rank, the monsters were already smart enough that fighting them without combat skills would put one at a disadvantage.

Rebecca proved herself to be a quick learner throughout the lesson. She listened to his instructions to the letter and put clear effort into improving. She seemed shy and hesitated to ask any questions at first but soon opened up as the training went on. The idea of training her properly and recruiting her into his party was becoming more attractive by the moment. She had real potential, and they were all still young, so she would catch up to his skills in time.

“All right, that’s enough, Rebecca. Just keep practicing maintaining your posture, it’s a lot more important than it may seem at first. I recommend you mind it at all times, even out of combat, so it becomes second nature,” said Elias. She looked at him with gratitude in her eyes.

“Thank you, Elias. I can already see that this session alone will help me improve my fighting immensely. So, what have you decided? Will you continue to train me?” She looked at him expectantly and intently, her head held high. That earned her a nod of approval from him.

“I’ll help you, but on one condition. I want you to join my party. Honestly, I think you’re very talented from what I’ve seen today, and with some training, you have a good shot at becoming a truly powerful adventurer. Let's think of this as a provisional membership, to see if we really get along.” She tilted her head backward in surprise at his words.

Inviting someone into an adventuring party wasn’t something casually done. Party members often tended to be old friends or family members, people of trust. They would spend a lot of time together in the dungeon, often weeks or months at a time when delving deep into the dungeon.

Rebecca thought seriously about his proposal for several long moments but agreed to join enthusiastically. Elias was elated by both gaining a new party member and by the eagerness she showed to join. He couldn’t say that he was that surprised, as joining his party was becoming an increasingly attractive prospect, with himself and Marco being such capable fighters.

If her addition to the party became more definite, he might even be able to convince his parents to help train her as well. He would be more than enough until she mastered the basics, however, and they barely knew each other yet. Helping her improve her foundation would be a harder issue to solve, as the methods to improve it quickly were all usually expensive.

That was a worry for another day, though. For now, he had a free burrito to redeem. Just because she would be his party member didn’t mean he would work for free.

They parted ways after eating and Elias returned to grinding monsters for experience points in the jungle. His gains weren’t as unbelievable as the day before, with the reckless strategy he had employed, but he still made a little over forty thousand exp. It was enough to raise both his Strength and Agility to level ten.

Congratulations! Your Strength has risen to level 10.

Congratulations! Your Agility has risen to level 10.

Over the course of the next week, he continued leveling within the dungeon every day, raising all of his attributes to level 10. His parents revealed to him that they would be going on a trip to work on his foundation, but that he would have to wait a few days for them to set everything up. They weren’t forthcoming with any more information.

He and Rebecca continued to spend time together during the past week, training and having lunch together. Since he got to eat for free, he was even accumulating a nice reserve of energy in his card. Most importantly for him, though, he got to have lunch with the beautiful woman every day.

Elias was growing increasingly infatuated with Rebecca with every moment they spent together. She was ambitious and with similar aspirations to himself and Marco, dreams of adventure and wonder. She didn’t let her ambitions and desires compromise her morals and was fiercely proud and independent. More than that, he really enjoyed the time they spent together and kept looking forward to when they would meet again. He also suspected that she had noticed his crush on her too, but hadn’t said anything until now.

It turns out that Rebecca was many months older than him and has had all of her attributes at level 10 for a while now. She held back from obtaining her Skills in order to improve her foundation further, working as a power leveler and in the burrito stall to save up money to accomplish that. Elias decided to talk to his parents about seeing if there was a way to help her with that issue.

She was improving at an incredible rate with every training session, like a water-starved plant finally experiencing rain. Elias had expected her to have difficulty in fixing the bad habits she’d developed most of all, but she obviously policed herself constantly to fix them. If she persevered with this rate of improvement, she truly would become a valuable member of his party. Elias and Marco were also very talented fighters and they wouldn’t stop improving just because they were ahead of Rebecca, but at this rate she would catch up to them without much issue.

She later admitted to being very embarrassed about even asking for help with becoming a better fighter. She didn’t like asking others for favors, especially from someone who was essentially a stranger, but she had a good feeling about him. She said that last part with a wink, which left him dazed for quite a few moments, stars in his eyes.

He decided to ask her out after they obtained their Skills. They were still getting to know each other and he didn’t want to risk anything by being impatient. That was his excuse, at least.

In truth, there were two reasons he had decided to wait before talking to her. The most relevant of which was that his body was still in constant change. Not to brag, but he was becoming pretty attractive due to his increased attributes. His skin and hair were much healthier now than they’d ever been. His muscles were growing quickly, granting him an athletic physique. Even his facial features were becoming more expressive as his body changed. If he waited a bit longer, he believed his chances with Rebecca would be much better.

The second reason was that he was very nervous about the prospect of asking her out. He wasn’t a nervous person by any means, but the only other time he had attempted to begin a relationship with a girl he really liked did not turn out well. He needed some time to process what he’d been through with Melinda now that his Charisma was higher. He now realized that he was slightly traumatized by Melinda’s rejection of him. She had been his only friend at the time and he was very young. With the rejection, he lost the only friend he had, leaving him alone. With the benefit of perspective, he also realized that she had rejected him far more violently than he’d previously realized, even back then.

Well, good riddance.

*******

Rebecca made her way towards the clearing with a spring in her steps, humming lightly. She’d been in an excellent mood all week, since she started training with Elias.

Initially, she had approached the boy to meet that cute friend of his, Marco. She had been disappointed to find out that the friend was off on a trip somewhere. Really, the need for a trainer had just been an excuse, but now she was stuck training with him all week. However, her opinion on the matter soon changed when they actually began training.

Elias was an incredible trainer and she could feel herself improve even on the first day, much more than she’d thought possible in such a short amount of time. She had actually thought she was a great fighter, her job was to power level people in the dungeon after all. Her new teacher soon disproved her of that notion. It would have even wounded her pride if she hadn’t been improving so much.

They got along much better than she had expected they would as well and she began to enjoy their time together. He was attentive, quick-witted, and pretty funny. She had fun talking to him and even more fun teasing him. It was obvious to anyone that Elias had a huge crush on her, despite his poor efforts in trying to hide it.

Melinda had painted a very poor image of Elias when she’d met him, claiming him to be a wastrel and a fool. It was evident that her words had been untrue even before they started training together, but it took a while to understand by how much. It was obvious now that he’d been born with poor physical attributes. Every day she saw him was like meeting a different person, with how much stronger and healthier he looked.

At first she thought that she was going crazy, but looking back to the first time they met, he was already unrecognizable. He wasn’t nearly as cute as that friend of his yet, but he kept improving by the day. It got her interested, at the very least, so she started flirting with him a bit to see what happened.

Elias’ reactions to her flirting and teasing were adorable. He obviously had very little experience in talking with girls and it showed. He would gape at her when she smiled, blushing from a wink. She thought he was going to pass out when she brushed her hips against him once.

Rebecca felt bad about teasing Elias so much, but she just couldn’t help herself. The way the man reacted to the teasings was just too cute. She consoled herself with the thought that she was helping him train to better interact with women in the future. He would never get a girlfriend the way he is now.

If he kept getting any cuter, who knows? She might just keep him for herself.