Chương 6: Low Level Noobs

I stabbed out with a spear Jessica gave me, killing a wood sprite. It let out a shriek as it died, but I had long since learned to ignore the screams and cries of the monsters. It had been only a week since we had entered the dungeon, but it felt far longer than that. One got caught up in killing and lost track of time. Nothing too serious if one didn't completely lose their mind. There were pieces of equipment that could track the time and other helpful information.

She told me to focus on my skills and let her worry about our route and the equipment. I didn't press her on the issue, since she clearly knew what she was doing. I felt dirty, tired, and miserable. At the end of every day, she would use a cleaning spell, but that was it.

"Spending Mana can attract stronger monsters in the lower levels of the dungeon. Additionally, it is a valuable resource that should be kept in reserve. If you are in a fight for your life, you don't want to spend it wishing you hadn't kept cleaning yourself. Once a day is more than enough, even extravagant by some standards." The stone tunnels transitioned to other material types, with occasional caverns and tunnels branching out in all directions.

I had lost track of keeping any sense of direction after the first day.

"I am leading us to monsters you can handle. You aren't ready to face over five monsters at a time. While I can hold off the rest if there is a larger group, there is no point in putting you under such pressure so early on when you can't handle it." Five monsters really were my limit. I got hit, stabbed, and sustained other minor wounds. All of which healed from my healing points that I had in reserve. Each fight felt a little easier, but I didn't stop pushing myself.

I had grown up hearing stories about my mother and the other legends of the world. I wanted to be one. It was probably something I had picked up from the adults, the tone of reverence and awe in their voices when speaking of such people. That was why I asked why it was so hard to get more levels later.

"Kid, the experience requirement goes up and up. That means you must fight monsters at a much higher level than yourself if you are going to keep gaining levels. As the difference increases, so does the difficulty. Anyone can reach level 20 with a bit of effort. Crafting does not provide sufficient experience to reach level 40, even for those who have enough resources to focus solely on crafting.

"Most jobs for people like me are escorting people who have coin to level them up with safety in the dungeon. Like your father, he leveled up his power to around level 60. After level 60, the cost and time just aren't worth it, which is where most nobles and rich people stop."

"Then you have the elites around level 80, like me. Then legends at 100 and supreme legends above 150. This matches up with whatever class you might choose as well."

"How did my mother get to such a high level?"

"Fighting by herself in the dungeon day after day, month after month, year after year. She was a relentless one-woman killing machine. That is why she holds the title of supreme legend. Fewer than five people have been recognized as reaching such a level at the Last Bastion on the 20th layer of the dungeon since the place was set up."

"But she can't go deeper?"

"The monsters get smarter. It is also impossible to form a top-level team. There needs to be a high level of trust, which just isn't possible. That is why most legends are solos. Trusting someone can mean death. Even if it is an accident, the stigma of letting a teammate die is large. You either come back together or die together if you ever want to work with another legend." It made sense. People didn't want others to betray or abandon them if a fight got tough.

I had a long way to go to reach that level, but it was good to have a clear goal in mind. As we proceeded down another tunnel with green crystals growing out of the dirt walls, I heard noises up ahead. I looked back at Jessica. It was getting easier to see the longer we were down here in the dungeon. My skill was probably improving, but I didn't look at it. I resolved to keep my word and not look until the three months had passed and my mother came to evaluate my progress.

"Other people, it is fine. It will be a good experience for you to see how other adventurers struggle even on the first layer of the dungeon," she said. She stayed in front of me as we made our way through the tunnel to a larger caravan. There were five teens fighting off eight goblins. Their equipment was shoddy. The leather straps were loose. The armor was heavily frayed and damaged. Their swords and spears had nicks in them.

Jessica forced me to care for my equipment every evening before working on mental skills. Even before she would use her cleaning skills. Blood also covered them; some of it was recent, while most of it was much older. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"You should politely wait on the side and watch the other team until they finish fighting. You should only step in if they are overwhelmed or ask for help, and if they ask for help, you are entitled to split the monster cores with them."

"Their stances and swings are all off," I whispered, and she nodded.

"They don't have someone like me correcting them after each fight. They are tired, desperate, and struggling on the first layer. If they leave the dungeon, they will spend most of their money patching up what they have to head down here again, gambling with their lives. If they live long enough, they will go down another layer, with probably one dying to a champion the first time they fight one."

"When will they make enough to stabilize their descent?"

"When they reach the 5 th layer of the dungeon, which means getting to around level 30 for each of them. That is when people have either died off or stabilized to a certain degree. Some keep going, pushing themselves to become stronger and delve deeper. Others retire and take up other jobs."

"Everyone descends?"

"Most people try, since it is a quick route to having a more stable and prosperous life. Skills and stats make everything easier. The real challenge is that people will get fighting skills going into the dungeon, which is why rich people pay for power levelers like me to disable monsters so they can get the kill and the experience," Jessica explained, opening my mind to how the world truly worked. It was one thing to read about this, another to see things in practice.

The group of five triumphed over the remaining goblins. That was when one of them noticed us.

"This is our kill!" the teen shouted, pointing his sword at Jessica. The rest of the teens' team turned to face us.

"Just passing through. You can keep your kills. We didn't want to interrupt you mid-fight," she replied. A larger teen stepped forward. He had the best-looking sword in the group.

"I appreciate that, fellow adventurer. We plan to stop for the day and rest. You are welcome to join us." Jessica nodded.

"We will rest as well. Peace for peace, fist for fist."

"Peace for peace, fist for fist," the man declared back. Jessica turned her head towards me.

"It is the vow of adventurers to camp together in peace and not start trouble with each other. In the dungeon, they settle disagreements with fists, not weapons or magic." We found an open spot and sat down on some rocks while the team processed the goblins.

"Thank you for your help," I whispered, seeing them tear apart the corpses to find the monster cores.

"No problem. It gets better once your skills improve, but it is essential that you recognize and understand this. You will meet adventurers who aren't as fortunate as you." The other team finished up and got their packs over by one of the tunnel entrances. They didn't have a spatial storage item like Jessica did. After they got their packs and whispered to each other for a minute, they came over to sit down on nearby rocks, facing us.

"I am Kurn. These are my teammates — Finn, Zane, Liam, and Jace," the leader said.

"I am Jessica. This is Justin." I noted she didn't use titles, just our first names. Another thing to remember.

"Do you wish for me to use cleaning magic on all of us?"

"Um, yes, it won't hurt?" Kurn asked, and Jessica shook her head.

"No. However, the smell will be significantly reduced. Some glowing white light will appear, and they will remove the dried blood and other monster remains." There were no objections. She raised one hand." Clean." She repeated the spell once for each of us, leaving us all much cleaner. I got this treatment every day, but the team of low-level adventurers had been suffering since they all relaxed quite a bit after that bit of magic.

"Thank you," Kurn said, and the others echoed him in thanking Jessica.

"Surprising to see someone so young in the dungeon."

"It is my duty to tutor Justin here. Have you been adventuring for long?" she asked.

"Second time down, but we are managing," Kurn replied. His teammates seemed reluctant to speak. They had probably decided beforehand to let Kurn talk, or it was another bit of dungeon etiquette where only the leaders of each group would speak. I would have to ask Jessica later.

"You are doing decently for a newly formed group. We have dried meat and hardtack."

"The same standard adventurer fare, regardless," Kurn said with a smile, and Jessica nodded. We had much more than that, including a cook set and prepared food that she had made me cook with. Squire Jessica was trying to be polite as a much higher-level adventurer could be. Everyone got out their food, and I noticed them looking at the spatial storage.

"How high level-""Shut up, Zane. Don't make trouble," Kurn interrupted his teammate from asking a rude question.

"We are all adventurers down in the dungeon," Jessica replied, and I noted some nods from the other team. She would later explain that since we weren't teaming up, it was incredibly rude to ask such a question. The same applies to creating a scene with better equipment. Since she was power leveling me, even if it was only skill levels, she was far too powerful for this layer of the dungeon. Because of the frequent occurrences, delvers basically developed informal rules.

Higher-level individuals don't stomp on or embarrass those of lower levels. Lower-level personnel don't create problems or cause headaches for higher-level adventurers. It was basically like two travelers staying at an inn. We might have shared the common room during dinner, but we were not connected. This didn't always hold true. There were people who targeted others in the dungeon, especially in the higher layers where individuals were weak, which was why most people had a team to protect themselves.

Higher-level people were more focused on monsters, since killing other humans wasn't conducive to leveling. There were just not enough high-level humans compared to the number of monsters in the dungeon. Troublemakers and dangerous people lingered on the higher levels. But there was the risk of running into someone like Jessica, who could kill them with ease. It was clear she was power-leveling me, which explained her presence.

However, if there was a high-level person without a low-level person, it was clear they were power leveling, and most of the time, they were only there to cause trouble. With Depth Sense, finding the route down wasn't that difficult. So, if a high-level person was wandering around alone, then they were most likely up to no good.