Chapter 3: 1.pt3 ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx
Ahead the two girls chattered. One a Human, one a Halfling. He listened warily.
"Did you hear?" said the Human, "Alfreda got her twenty third level a few daysa ago, if she keeps going at this rate she's going to overtake Brax."
"Tch, that woman has enough boys hanging off her arms, she'll be even more smug and insufferable if she becomes one of the top levelers in town."
"Oh like you can talk about hanging off of arms, you're like a leech on Brax's side, suck suck suck, and in more than one way."
"Hey shut up, it's paying off, isn't it? Who else can say they're getting personally power leveled by tall, handsome, and absurdly high levelled over there."
"Plenty of girls I'll tell you. You wouldn't be the first."
"I suppose you would know being queen leech."
"Oh I'm in it for more than just the levelling."
"Mrmhm. Next guy who comes along with a few more levels and chiselled abs and you'll jump off Brax like a rat off a sinking ship."
"...guilty."
Rain had heard the way levelers spoke for his entire life, but it still managed to set him on edge. He wondered if it was because he was in a lot of ways an outsider looking in.
They caught up as the others paused.
"Eliza, Lira, keep it down would you," grumbled Adlen, "You're going to attract goblins or worse."
Eliza, the Human, stuck her tongue out at him.
"We're going down, there's nothing up here on the first floor that will gain us levels, well apart from for the runt, but chasing down weak monsters for his sake isn't something I'm wasting my time with."
"That's okay, just let me stab whatever you normally fight and forget I'm here otherwise," murmured Rain.
"Shut it runt," spat Myra.
Brax snorted then gestured at a wide stairway. The group followed as he descended. The stairs went deeper and deeper, each stair coming down onto a new floor which Brax promptly ignored and moved to go further down.
Rain would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. All the power leveling from scratch he had heard about normally involved the first floor where the monsters were weaker. If he was to be hit by a monster this far down he would be nothing but a bloody smear on the ground.
He almost verbalised a question, to ask if this wasn't a bit much, but instead he carefully bit it back and kept it to himself. The last thing he wanted was to be seen second-guessing Brax.
At last, the stairs ended and they came out into a cavern dimly lit from above by massive grand crystal formations. A lake filled most of the cavern floor.
"Wow!" said Lira.
"Some of the best monsters this dungeon has to offer like to hang around here. It's prime real estate for leveling if you're smart about it, and more to the point, it's great for power leveling."
Rain simply stared in wonder as the lake reflected the light of the ethereal glowing crystal. The lake had to be at least a kilometer or so across, likely more.
What a wondrous place to finally begin his journey and join the leveled.
He startled seeing the group trundle away from him and raced to catch up, hope rising in his heart.
"You see, monsters have to drink at some point, guess where they come? This lake, obviously. The short of it is that instead of wandering around aimlessly we can simply wait for the monsters to turn up here one by one."
"Yeah yeah, very clever, this is a good spot we got it," said Adlen
"Well they don't know that, I'm saying it for their sake so shut your trap. Ah, here we go." Brax came to a stop by the shore.
A large boulder blocked his path.
"Looks like a boulder doesn't it? Watch."
He drew his sword, a brutal looking thing that had clearly seen a lot of use and he swiftly drove it into the side of the boulder.
The boulder let out a keening scream and its legs that had been tucked beneath its form sprung outward revealing it to be a gigantic toad monster with rough pebbled skin.
Brax yanked his sword free as the toad leapt away angrily hissing and screaming like a kettle.
Adlen charged it from the side and jabbed at it with the spear he had unslung from his back scoring hit after hit. The toad raged and awkwardly turned to face him.
"Myra, care!" shouted Adlen.
He sidestepped as the monster opened its mouth and a long oily black tongue lunged outward aiming straight at him. Myra took the opportunity and flung out her palm. A violet fireball flared and shot toward the toad like a screaming comet, it landed in its mouth where it promptly exploded. The toad's tongue snapped back as it cried out in pain, trying to spit out and extinguish the fire.
Adlen took the monster's distraction as an opportunity and scored a hit on its eye. Eye goop spurted as he successfully blinded it. The toad had lost all reason by this point and was charging around aimlessly. Brax stepped in and with a vicious arcing cut he chopped off one of its legs.
The toad slumped to the ground where Brax wasted no time in delimbing it.
"Lira, you're up."
Lira stepped forward nervously with a knife in her hand. She swallowed and then with a yell drove the knife down. The monster shuddered as she withdrew it.
"My turn!" said Eliza as she drew her sword and added a practised cut. "Easy!"
Now it was Rain's turn. His knife was a rusty table knife he had stolen and secreted away. He had obsessively sharpened it before he had left town but it remained a poor weapon. Still, he only needed a pointed bit of metal, enough to draw blood.
He gripped the handle with sweaty palms and raised it above his head ready to plunge it into the monster's side. His arms swung down!
Myra caught his arm mid swing, her arm as unbending as iron.
She tittered. "Oh you actually thought we would let you level, how cute."
She twisted his arm until it felt like his bones would break and he was forced to drop the knife with a gasp.
He watched with mounting horror as Brax leant down and swiftly punched his sword into the toad's head killing it instantly.
"Oh! I levelled up! I'm level 15!" exclaimed Lira jumping on the spot with glee.
Rain could only stare at the dead and unmoving toad.
"Why." he breathed.
"Because the town Ranker doesn't forgive or forget, but he does get sick of seeing you begging in the streets for scraps. You make us look bad when out of towners visit." Brax shrugged. "He gave you to us."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone