Sern snored, drooling over Axel’s shoulder.
“This is insane,” Rose hissed. She glanced down the street, then over her shoulder. “Somebody's going to stop us.”
“I’d like to see them try,” Junior cackled. “The moment they poke their noses around Grind, he’ll blow their face off.”
“I’m not blowing anyone’s face off,” I grumbled, counting out rings for the merchant. “And nobody’s going to stop us. I’m just buying exp to make you stronger.”
“There’s gotta be a law against this,” the merchant grumbled back. Fortunately, the lure of gold was stronger than that of personal morals, and he didn’t cause us any trouble.
“You know exp orbs don’t work on monsters, right?” Junior asked. Rose jabbed him in the back, hard.
“Don’t question his planning,” Rose snapped.
I cleared my throat. “Hang on. You get stronger with Exp, don’t you?”
Rose blushed. “Uh…sort of? Only player and monster exp makes us stronger. That requires killing a monster…or a player. Not that we’ve ever done anything like that, sir.”
As she spoke, I nodded along. “I expected something like that. And, of course, monster and player exp isn’t something you can buy from the everyday area-one merchant.” I glanced at the merchant. “No offense.”
Junior frowned. “Then why buy a ton of Exp?”
“Oh, I’ve got a theory. Exp changes when it comes out of a player or a monster. And, for what I’ve figured, there should be a way to extract Exp without getting yourself killed. I’ve seen a monster do it, actually.”
Rose looked to the ground. “This is an awful lot of trouble to go through just for us.”
I pulled up her screen.
{Rose}
[Level 0]
[15 Hp 25 Str]
“Where we’re going, you’re going to need all the help you can get,” I stated.
I whipped around to the merchant, startling him so bad he nearly passed out.
What was with these people? I couldn’t possibly be that intimidating.
The merchant swallowed hard, cradling the orb in his hands and putting on a smile that wouldn’t last an hour. “Your, ah, orb, sir. Sirs. And ma’ams.”
I turned it over in my hand. “Is…that it?”
When I looked up, the merchant was gone.
I let out a sigh. “This’ll do.”
“Grind, buddy,” Junior chuckled in an ominous tone, rubbing his grubby little hands together. “This’ll be plenty.”
We walked a little ways away from the city, to a large flat grassy area, where I set the orb down. If I stared intentionally, an interface appeared.
~Legendary~
{Orb of Holding : Exp}
[Contains : 10000 Exp]
[Exp type : plain]
“Hey,” Junior started. “Even if this doesn’t work, you’re gonna have insane reflexes.”
I hesitated. “Reflexes?”
Rose nodded. “Possibly. Or strength or intelligence or perception—” her eyes went wide. “Do you—you know how exp works, don’t you?”
She bowed low. “Apologies—”
“No, please. Go on,” I said. “I always figured exp was borderline useless.”
“N-not at all,” Rose began, mumbling a little. “Exp is a concentrated experience. Different kinds help you learn different things. Plain exp can do anything, and it’s usually too subtle to make a difference, but at high enough densities you should feel something.”
“---but,” Junior started, butting in. “They’re not like stats. You can’t change them, and you won’t know exactly how much of anything you have. They run on vibes, basically.”
“That’s annoying,” I sighed. “But not the end of the world.”
“We just know how it works since we were born with the information,” Rose admitted. “Beyond that…I have no clue what you can or can’t do with it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “And I assume different areas have different types of exp?”
Junior shrugged.
“Anyway,” I said. “Let's get this started.”
I took the orb and broke it, allowing the energy wash over my veins, sinking into my skin. As it moved, I closed my eyes and concentrated, memorizing the feel of cold, flowing energy.
{LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!} {LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
~
[Assorted additional effects given]
The change was both instant, obvious, and overwhelming. My skin became more sensitive, along with my hearing, and I heard a wider spectrum. If I’d had my eyes open, I would’ve seen new colors and at debilitating intensities.
I held on, funneling the full force of my will through my body, pushing the energy back out again, into the palm of my hand.
I heard gasps from the people around me, but I couldn’t focus on them. The process started choking up, like buildup within pipes. Beyond a certain point, it was like fitting a mountain through a straw, and my will faltered.
A half complete orb shattered on the ground, spilling Exp in a puddle. After a moment, it slipped back into my wrist, re-triggering the notifications as my Bonuses and Levels were restored.
I frowned, poking my arm. “That should have worked.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Aaaaxxxxeeelllll,” Axel grumbled.
Junior nodded. “Clever. He says ‘think smaller.’ You’re not strong enough to funnel all ten thousand exp, but just a hundred shouldn’t be too bad.”
I tried again, this time draining the energy from a single finger and squeezing it down into drops.
A tiny little ball of Exp clacked against the ground, shining a pale blue light over the grass.
I tried again, and another orb fell.
Then another.
After creating five orbs in total—about five hundred exp—the veins in my arms started cramping, so I stopped myself. Unfortunately, this process had limitations.
“There,” I said, breathing hard. “Did it work?”
Rose’s eyes widened. “I think so. The type changed.”
~common~
{Orb of Holding}
[Contains (102) Exp]
[Exp type : player-forged]
“But it’s not the same as just, player exp,” Rose sighed. “Will that still work?”
“One way to find out,” I said. “Break it.”
She smashed the orb against a rock, and the power washed over her hands, winking blue before it vanished.
{Rose}
{LEVEL UP!}
~
[100/100 Exp]
[7/200 Exp]
~
[(+5) 20 Hp (+2) 27 Str]
~
[Levels till next race ability : 4]
“Well?” I asked. “How do you feel?”
“A little better, I guess,” Rose said. “But I don’t know if it made much difference.”
Junior stepped forward, grabbing the other four orbs. “My turn!”
{Better Grind (Junior)}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
~
[100/100 Exp]
[200/200 Exp]
[145/300 Exp]
~
[(+10) 20 Hp (+5) 18 Str]
~
[Levels till next race ability : 3]
“Are we done?” Junior asked.
“Not quite,” I said. “I won’t go into the second area until the two of you are properly prepared. And that means getting the both of you to at least level five. After that, we’ll work on increasing your rank. The two of you should be pretty safe as coppers.”
“I wouldn’t push yourself…sir,” Rose said, fidgeting with her hands. “I don’t understand what you’re doing, and it could be dangerous, and if you push yourself too hard, you’ll hurt yourself.” she hesitated, before adding, “---Not that I think you can't do it of course Sir but I couldn’t bring myself to let you risk hurting yourself without at least mentioning possible risk.”
I gave her a smile. “You’re probably right. There’s another way for you to get Exp. How do the four of you feel about dungeon raids?”
“Killing monsters?” Rose shivered. “As long as they don’t talk back…it should be…fine. Those are just animals.”
“You don't have to go if you don’t want to,” I said, looking at Rose, then to Axel, Junior, and Sern. “But it's the only way I know it gets you strong enough to survive in the second area.”
Junior grinned from ear to ear. “So, where are we going?”
{Gauntlet of the Silverhide : (-1) 0 Hp)}
At once, the metal form stopped, frozen in time.
Then it began to blacken, then flake, then its bits and pieces tore from one another, crumpling under its own weight. Colored orbs, exp, and near sixty stolen weapons streamed out, crashing into one another with a tremendous roar.
Junior collapsed onto the floor with a groan. His face was covered in dust, and he’d gotten a couple cuts along one side.
“That was hard.”
“Axxell.”
Bruce laughed, squatting down next to them. “That was quite impressive!”
Junior raised a fist into the air. “Yeah it was.”
He fell asleep shortly afterwards.
Irion let out a breath of relief, slumping down beside me.
“Thanks stranger,” He said with a nod. “I don’t know what we would have done without your help.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I stated. “Rose and Junior did all the work.”
Between all the dungeons, the Silverhide didn’t have living monsters. Irion and his party were more than happy to let Rose and Junior tag along.
As much fun as it’d been to see my old friends again, the dungeon itself was…underwhelming.
The Core, in his final form, dealt five damage per attack.
And he almost killed an entire raid party.
I let out a breath, walking to collect the rest of the loot. Since we couldn’t really use the Core’s core, Irion took it. The two of us split the rings and I took the rest of the orb.
Rose let out a cheer, stumbling away from the pile of weapons. Energy crackled around her, taking several seconds before it even began to dissipate.
{Rose}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
~
[200/200 Exp]
[300/300 Exp]
[400/400 Exp]
[7/500 Exp]
~
[(+45) 65 Hp (+7) 34 Str]
~
[Levels till next race ability : 1]
Junior had also leveled up quite a bit, absorbing just a little under eight hundred exp. Best of all, taking an hour or two to clear the dungeon was all the time I needed from my veins to relax, allowing me to try forming another orb.
There was a wash of energy, and a faint crackle, before something large dropped onto the ground.
Irion staggered back. “What was that?”
“Just a technique,” I stated, opening my eyes to find an orb bigger than my fist. After creating just that one, I already felt a bit of uncomfortable pressure on my veins, but nothing I couldn’t manage.
Rose glanced down at the orb, then back at me. “Could…I have it?”
I nodded.
She grabbed the orb and crushed it under her foot, creating a bright sparkle of energy.
~Uncommon~
{Orb of Holding}
[536 Exp]
~
{Rose}
{CLASS UP!}
~
[500/500 Exp]
[43/600 Exp]
~
[(+20) 85 Hp (+6) 40 Str]
~
{Five-fingered Discount}
[Goblin-type ability]
[Spend mana to take one random item out of a player’s inventory. Larger or heavier items make more mana. Magically rich items take less mana, if mana type is compatible. If not, they take exponentially more mana to steal. A failed stealing is easy to sense. A successful stealing is harder to sense.]
Rose stared at her arms in disbelief. “I feel…stronger.”
“Wha?----” Junior hissed, rubbing his eyes as he noticed his sister. “HEY! I was supposed to Class-up first!”
She smirked, flashing serrated goblin teeth. “Too slow”
“I fought way harder than you did, freeloader!”
“No you didn’t! You just failed about and complained, until you got the exp!”
“I was tired because I was doing so much, sister!”
The two bickered louder, until the dungeon halls trembled in the wake of their screaming matches, scattering mice and small insects.
“Siblings?” Irion asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
Beyond a certain point, they collapsed onto the floor, too exhausted to snap at each other.
I grabbed them each by the wrist and wandered off. “Stay safe, Irion!”
“So long, stranger!” Irion chuckled.
Quin huffed. “What a weirdo. You know, he probably could’ve killed the core himself, couldn’t he? I’d say he’s got at least a hundred stats. Shame he’s a nutjob. Who in their right mind makes monsters stronger—”
Irion shook his head. “You idiot, be polite. With power like his I’ll bet he’s listening to us right now.”
Quin scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Once I crossed the portal, their voices had disappeared entirely.
I found myself smirking.
“See you next loop,” I whispered.
// {Notice} //
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Race Day — Thirty
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