Chapter 21: Into The Labyrinth 2

"That's a Steel Carapace Beetle," Ayame identifies. "Be careful. Their exoskeleton is tough, but they have weak points near the joints."

She takes a defensive stance, and I ready my iron spear, gripping it tightly. The Steel Carapace Beetle lunges at us, but Ayame steps in front, effortlessly deflecting its attack with her blade. She gestures for me to move in.

"Now, strike at its joints!" she commands.

I take a deep breath, channeling my pumping adrenaline into determination. I thrust my spear at the beetle, aiming for the joint near its front leg. The spear pierces through the weak spot, and the creature screeches in pain. It retaliates, snapping its mandibles at me, but Ayame steps in, deflecting the attack.

"Good job, keep it up!" she encourages.

With another well-aimed thrust, I hit another joint, and the beetle collapses, its legs twitching. Ayame instructs me to stab its brain through its eye, and I do as told.

[New Class Unlocked: Warrior]

[You've Slain Steel Carapace Beetle (Level 1). You've Gained 3 XP]

"Well done," she says, a hint of pride in her voice. "You handled that well for your first fight."

I nod, feeling a mix of relief and gratitude. "Thanks. Boy am I glad to have received your help, Ayame. If my arrogant ass walked in here alone with zero practice I would've gotten myself killed for sure."

She doesn't reply, just looks at me with a slightly smug expression, as if she was stating 'yep, you better be grateful!'

I chuckle and shake my head then I take this moment of brief respite to examine my status.

[Name: Quinlan Noir]

[Race: Primordial]

[Title: -]

[Primordial Level: 1. XP 5/100]

[Primary Class: Thief lvl 2]

[Secondary Classes:

- Slave Master lvl 1

- Merchant lvl 1

- Commoner lvl 1]

[Vitality: 10]

[Strength: 10]

[Agility: 11]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Wisdom: 10]

[Unused Skill Points: 0]

[Unused Attribute Points: 0]

Oh, great, I finally received a fighter class. I put Warrior as my Primary Class and say goodbye to Commoner, hopefully forever. Or maybe it's hidden OP? Perhaps a bit of experimentation is needed…

Anyways, the Warrior class gives me the minor effect of extra Strength, which means I lose my Agility point from having Thief as Primary Class. It has a basic skill called 'Power Surge' which increases my Strength by another 10% for 5 minutes for 12 mana. Nothing amazing, but it's a start. As I stated on the day of my transportation, I prefer to grind over getting gifted overwhelming personal might right out of the box.

Slowly but surely I'm going to increase my personal combat power.

Now that I take a look at it, I've gained only 3 XP for the monster but I'm at 5/100. After a few seconds of contemplation the only thing I can come up with as an explanation for this occurrence is that increasing my Thief class from lvl 1 to 2 gave me the remainder of my XP.

Ayame did mention that these low level monsters will give little XP in the labyrinth but it doesn't seem that bad, though to be fair I have my 3x XP boost bonus from my Primordial species. Reaching 100 XP and leveling up won't take too much effort. Maybe I can reach a higher level faster than I originally expected.

Just to confirm the level scaling, I ask my companion, "Ayame, how much XP do you need to get to level 15?"

She inspects her status before replying, "I'm at 241/3973"

My eyes bulge. Damn, I should've expected something like this. Linear scaling would've been too generous. "I only need 100 XP… Will I need the same amount as you do to go from level 14 to 15?"

She looks at me with a hint of disbelief. "You don't know even this? Now I believe you with certainty that you really didn't have the system in your home continent. The land must be very well hidden if it wasn't overrun by others if everyone is as weak as you. Ah, I don't mean to belittle you at all, it's just a little hard to wrap my mind around your unique circumstances. Anyways, yes, everybody needs the same amount of experience points, with each level requiring 30% more than the previous one. That's why once you reach level 10, which requires 1060 XP, things slow down a lot. If I become level 15, I will need more than 5000 XP before my next level up, which is more than what you will need to gain to go from level 1 to 10 all together. Of course, once you reach higher levels you will also fight stronger monsters who give you more XP, so it balances itself out a tiny bit, but leveling up is a serious, lifelong effort and commitment that all combatants pursue until their dying breath."

I nod while stroking my chin. I can understand now clearly why combat slaves above level 10 were expensive at the market while those above level 20 were extremely rare and also much more pricey. There's little I can do but grit my teeth and grind XP.

What I'm very happy about is that I have no time limit. I absolutely despise games where a clock is ticking down and pressuring me. Here, I have to grind, yes, but I can progress at my ideal pace. There will be no game over if I don't become level x in y hours, allowing me to take a more explorative approach to my newfound life.

In the meantime the Beetle corpse dissipated into nothingness, but it left behind a palm-sized piece of its sturdy exoskeleton. I hope they are worth a few coins. I kneel down to pick it up and open the bag on Ayame's back to store it inside.

We then continue down the corridor, encountering a few more Steel Carapace Beetles. Each battle becomes a bit easier as I get used to the rhythm of combat and the weight of my spear. Ayame guides me through each encounter, offering tips and correcting my stance and other mistakes along the way.

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