“I got a level from that and another level to my fencing skill. No changes to my Gunner skill though.” Marco held up his empty hand and curled his fingers wistfully. “It’s a waste.”

“I got the same new level, but… this can’t be right. I gained two levels to the elemental hand skill,” Elisa said.

“Two? Why?”

“My guess? I think because it’s not really a combat skill and that monster was way too strong.”

“What’s it look like now?”

Elisa shrugged and held up her hand. It flashed with electricity as before, but now sent a tendril of searching lightning forward five or six inches from her fingertip.

“Not bad,” Elisa commented. “Next time, I don’t need to get so close to shock them.”

“You still want to fight after that? You were the one who said it was stupid of us.”

Marco hadn’t been afraid for his own safety in that fight, despite a couple of tense moments. Mostly, he had been afraid he’d fail and that Elisa would have no way to protect herself. He had been planning on leaving the dungeon as soon as they caught their breath.

“Of course I want to fight. I just gained new capabilities and so did you. Plus stats, Marco. You don’t feel it yet, but the next time we meet the brutes again, it’s going to be within our range.” Elisa looked around. “See? There. It doesn’t see us yet. We won’t be surprised. Just make sure you block the spear throw.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. Let’s go.”

It was another Palmer, and the fight went pretty much as Elisa thought it would. This time, when the enemy got frustrated and switched to strength instead of finesse, Marco held his own. More than that, really. He had been nicking and scratching it the whole fight up to that point, relying on his improved weapon skill and higher dexterity to make progress in the fight where it would have been impossible before.

By the time Elisa walked up to render the coup de grâce with her lightning, she was in no danger at all.

Once the fight was done, Marco pulled up his system screen before frowning. “I didn’t get a level. What gives?”

“An entire level from a single enemy is insane, Marco. You only got those because you were getting all sorts of credit for the level difference. And that it was your first dungeon kill.”

“Lame.”

“You’ll get another one soon enough, but leveling is never going to be that fast again.” Elisa nodded in the distance. “Looks like we have trouble. Do you think you can take two of them?”

“No?” Marco said. “At least not… no, wait. Maybe.”

“Can you run one around? Just for a second?” Marco brought his sword up to a fighting position. “I’m going to charge the other.”

“Yup. In fact, I’ll just stay here. Double back as soon as you can.”

Marco nodded, yelled, and charged. He let loose with a slash that was so heavy it would have pulled him off his feet if the little guy wasn’t there to absorb the force.

The first grunt was so surprised it hardly got its knife up in time to block the first hit, and almost fell down to the ground under the sheer weight of the strike. It then fell prey to its complete inability to block any of the ensuing strikes that Marco rained down as it tried and failed to get its footing back. Its arms were weaker, as if just blocking Marco’s attacks was enough to injure its muscles.

He kept the onslaught up just long enough to make sure the Palmar was either dead or close to it before turning to run towards Elisa.

He didn’t really need to. She had stunned the little guy somehow, and he watched as she lowered her dagger into its neck a few times, efficiently ending its life with as little effort as possible.

A few hours later, Marco was well on his way to being miserable. He had sand in every nook and cranny of both his shoes and feet, blisters on his hands, and had heard so much gibberish from panicked Palmars that he almost thought he could understand it. Using heavy strikes to start every fight off with a bang had worn on him, and had not helped his condition or his mood. After several battles, every muscle in his body was sore, like he had spent the day throwing boulders.

“I wish I could raise my intelligence. Just a little,” Marco said. “I’m so close.”

“I told you they don’t have a real language. It’s just part of the trappings,” Elisa said.

“We can agree to disagree. I just want some free points already.”

“Level ten. That’s the catch-up level.” Elisa flourished her book at him. “And don’t you dare spend those free points without asking me first.”

“I don’t even get why it’s that way. Just let me have them, system.” Marco shook his free hand at the sky, generally.

“It’s that way for everyone. Didn’t you read On Stats?” Elisa asked.

Marco looked at her blandly.

Elisa continued, “I guess not. Honestly, it’s probably for the best. That book uses an awful lot of words for not a lot of content. Basically, stats aren’t real.”

“Lots of dead Palmars that say otherwise, today.”

“No, listen. Your strength stat isn’t exactly just strength. Your wisdom isn’t entirely separate from your intelligence. They all reinforce each other. So, say there was a class that only got mental stats. And they put all their free points into mental stats.”

“Okay.”

“They’d still be physically stronger than you are now when they were at level forty.”

Elisa didn’t do it often, but she pulled Marco’s leg sometimes. This felt a lot like one of those times. Marco waited patiently for the punchline.

“I’m not kidding,” she said. “Your whole body is getting stronger with every stat point, no matter where you put it. Your brain included. Those ten level thresholds are major milestones in development. The reason you get points then is to round everything out, to make sure you aren’t too lopsided. That mental class I mentioned earlier, if they were to assign every stat point in a single category, they’d be very smart, but they’d be broken in a lot of ways.”

“So there’s a right way to do this.”

“Kind of. But if you spend a single point of those without asking me, I’m going to break your head open like a walnut. Just bear that in mind.”

They had been walking towards a particularly thick bunch of trees, which is where they had found the most Palmars during their trip through the dungeon. This time, there were none until they got nearly to the other side of the thicket, at which point there were plenty.

“A village,” Elisa hissed. “There must be a dozen of them.”

“Too many. Let’s go.” Marco grabbed her hand. “Before they see us.”

“Help!” a voice yelled. “Help me! Anyone! How long are you going to keep me in here, you little…” The voice collapsed into a hoarse sob. The roughness in their voice made it seem like they spent a lot of time either yelling or crying. “Just let me out. Please.”

“See?” Marco whispered. “Language!”

“Yes, I hear it. Marco, that means there’s someone trapped here,” Elisa said. “Someone real.”

“What should we do?” Elisa’s eyes tracked over the village, where a single wood cage sat between two of the Palmar’s grass huts. Marco thought he could just make out a boot peeking around the corner of a building. “We have to save him, right?”

“We might not be able to,” Marco said. “We could kite them. Garrick talked about that. Just leading big groups of weak enemies away while you pick them off, one by one. But that might be too slow.”

“You could sneak,” Elisa said. “You can be sneaky. You have to try, Marco. I’ve seen you do it.”

“Maybe. I might also get us both killed. Why are you so dead set on this?”

“It said he had been in there a while. I just think…” Elisa shook her head. “If it was you or me, we’d try even if we were alone. To save the other.”

“Still.”

“And top rewards from a dungeon, on top of that. We’ve done okay in here, but there’s no chance we are anywhere near top performance. That’s an over-leveled thing, for people who are already veterans at their local dungeons. We might get anything.”

Marco shook his head.

“Fine. But we are waiting until night.”