- “Wow, you have dealt with it so fast, babe. I just hope you will take your time with me personally if you know what I mean? You have gained eight experience points and your party members have gained sixteen.” – Lavita was having a good time announcing our experience gain.


    We have been exploring the mine for couple of hours now and the deeper we went the more of those spiked shell turtles we started to encounter. Right now, we were at a dead-end cave which wasn’t uncommon to come across as it turned out and we were fighting monsters inside of it. It was an average size mining cave and there were two Stoneskin Lizards and three spiked shell turtles we had to kill.


    I had Lilfira try and take down the Stoneskin Lizards while Ranalaiya, Sylfrin and I were fighting the turtle monsters. It was tricky to fight those spike shooting creatures when we’d encounter two of them in a single room, but with the three of them around, it was rather difficult to say the least. I wasn’t really afraid of getting pierced by the spikes the monsters shot at this point even if they hit me. Although, my armor would get damaged if it was a direct hit. However, my Stamina stat protected me from sustaining any serious injuries while my Minor Regeneration skill healed any wounds if I were unlucky enough to be grazed by one of the spikes.


    Unfortunately, my three female companions had neither high Stamina stat nor they had any skills that could heal their wounds without help of a Healing Potion. Ranalaiya was fast on her feet which helped her evade the spikes shot by the monsters, but Sylfrin and Lilfira couldn’t do much about them, so I had the two of them stay behind my back for the most part. That not always worked since the spiked shell turtles would run in any direction just to get away from my melee range and sometimes would end up on two opposite sides from where I was. When that happened, I had Sylfrin and Lilfira either run away and out of the cave or if it was too late for that, they had to drop down on the ground to not get hit by the spikes that the monsters shot at them.


    After more than a few encounters with those spiked shell turtle monsters, I understood why the mines weren’t the most popular place for the adventurers to visit. The turtle creatures weren’t particularly strong. Once they were flipped upside down and revealed their bellies, it didn’t take many hits to kill them. The real problem fighting them was that their shells were really tough and sturdy, and they could run away from the melee range really fast, spinning around and shooting the spikes from their backs at us the moment they built some distance between them and their target or targets.


    I could probably fight several of the spiked shell turtles on my own and would be able to kill them one by one no matter how long it would take. However, for anyone else who wasn’t as tough and as strong as I was, it wouldn’t be that easy. Anyone who would want to explore deeper parts of the mines, they would need to have a party with either two tanks or if they had only one tank, they would need to have another person who had a skill similar to Sylfrin’s Frost Spear to be able to flip the monsters over from a distance so the melee fighters could jump in and kill them.


    - “You’ve grown really strong to be able to kill monsters so fast. You’ve gained eight experience points and your party members have gained sixteen.” – Lavita announced one more time after we killed the last turtle monster inside the cave.


    “Phew… Good job girls,” I said, letting out a sigh of relief. It was a difficult fight this time, but fortunately, we’ve come out on top once again.


    - “Maximum experience points reached. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – And a voice announced before any of the ladies could say anything back to me.


    “I have gained enough experience points to level up again, Master Rockin,” Lilfira told me after checking her status.


    “Right, ok,” I said, closing my own Status Window. I thought it was Sylfrin who gained the Level Up offer this time, but as it turned out it wasn’t her. “Shall we look around the cave first before we accept your level up, Lilfira?”


    “Yes, ok, Master Rockin,” Lilfira agreed before turning to go look around.


    “I’ll check for the drops, Master Rockin,” Ranalaiya said, running off to look around too. Ranalaiya was best for that kind of job here anyway since she could see better in the dark. It wasn’t exactly dark in the mines thanks to the lamps set on the walls, but it wasn’t a daylight light either.


    “There’s a Brown Iron Ore deposit over there, Master Rockin,” Lilfira let me know while standing near it on the right side of the cave from where we came from.


    “Ok, coming,” I said, opening my Item Storage Box and taking out a pickaxe for her. “Here you go, Lilfira.” I said, passing the pickaxe to her after coming over.


    “Thank you, Master Rockin,” she smiled. Lilfira was now calling me Master Rockin just like Ranalaiya and Sylfrin were, and she was feeling very comfortable with it too. I on the other hand, was still getting used to it, but I didn’t mind it anymore. “Humph. Oops. Oh no.” Lilfira exclaimed when she hit at the deposit with the pickaxe and it broke. “I’m so sorry, Master Rockin. I didn’t…”


    “Right. Don’t worry about it. Alragus said pickaxes break eventually. Here take another one,” I took out a brand new pickaxe for Lilfira to use, taking the broken one back from her. I thought Alragus could still use the broken metal bit of the pickaxe to craft something else out of it or a new pickaxe for that matter.


    “Thank you, Master Rockin,” Lilfira said, taking the new pickaxe from my hands. She mined two pieces of Brown Iron ore from the deposit for us, exclaiming in surprise after she was done with it for some reason.


    “What’s wrong?” I asked, feeling curious.


    “My… Mining skill. I think it has been increased by one level just now,” Lilfira said before opening her Status Window to check. “Yes, my Mining skill is level two now.” She told me excitedly.


    “Oh, nice. Congratulations,” I said, feeling happy for her. I knew her Mining skill would increase eventually from mining ore from the ore deposits.


    “I’m sorry, but I didn’t find any drops, Master Rockin,” Ranalaiya came to where I was to let me know.


    “Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything either, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin brought the same news as well.


    “Oh well,” I just shrugged. With us encountering more of those spiked shell turtles, we had lower number of Stoneskin Lizards appearing too which meant lower chance of getting Brown Iron ore as well. The downside was, the spiked shell turtles were yet to drop a single item even though we have killed over ten of them by now. I started to wonder if they drop anything at all at this point.


    “Would you mind helping me level up now, Master Rockin?” Lilfira asked, showing a very sweet smile.


    “That’s right, you should gain a class at level five, Lilfira,” Ranalaiya said, becoming excited for her.


    “I wonder what class you would get,” Sylfrin wondered.


    “Yes, I’m excited to find out too,” Lilfira said before coming closer to me with a very cheeky look in her eyes. “Master Rockin.” Lilfira added after turning her back at me.


    “Yes, of course,” I said, rolling my eyes playfully before coming closer and hugging her around the waist with my left hand.


    - “Level up accepted. Increasing character’s level from level four to level five. Complete. Character has reached level five. Class acquisition available. Calculating… Complete. New Class: Spear Knight, acquired. New skills acquired. Class specific skill: Armor Pierce, acquired. … ???? acquired. Level up complete.” – The mechanical, lifeless voice announced after Lilfira accepted her level up.


    “What… was that?” I crinkled my nose after hearing some weird gibberish I could not understand when the voice was announcing the second skill or whatever it was that Lilfira has acquired.


    “Oh, wow. A Spear Knight class?” Lilfira gasped in surprise.


    “What kind of class is that?” Ranalaiya wondered, feeling curious.


    “It must be some rare class for sure,” Sylfrin added.


    Wait, Lilfira’s class? It didn’t evolve? I must’ve screwed up on her stats after all. Damn it. I waited for a short while longer to see if Lilfira will be offered to evolve her class, but it didn’t happen.


    “Is something wrong, Master Rockin?” Lilfira asked me after turning around and noticing my grumpy facial expression.


    “Ah, n… no. It’s nothing. Congratulations on reaching level five and acquiring a class, Lilfira,” I said, doing my best to become genuinely happy for her. “Let’s check your stats and your new skills, ok?” I was both confused and curious to learn what kind of skills Lilfira had received.


    “Yes, let’s do that,” Lilfira said, looking happy.


    “Ok, so… huh? You have received only four stat points this time?” I was disappointed to learn she had received only four stat points this time, but then again, she had received six stat points three times in a row with her previous level ups.


    “It would seem so,” Lilfira added, showing a smile.


    “Ok, never mind that for now. I’d like to check your skills first before assigning your stat points,” I said, itching to know what kind of skills she had acquired. “Let’s see, Armor Pierce: a piercing attack that ignores up to thirty percent of target’s defense. Requires a spear or a polearm to use. Cooldown: thirty seconds. Ok, that’s a really nice skill to have and it’s an epic rarity skill too.” I was impressed with it.


    “Wow, that’s a really great skill, Lilfira,” Ranalaiya said.


    “Yes,” Lilfira smiled happily.


    “Right, the next skill is… huh? What the…” I went out of the Armor Pierce skill’s description window and wanted to check what the other skill that Lilfira had acquired was only to see a greyed-out line of question marks where the skill’s name was supposed to be written instead. There was no skill name to see, nor it was clickable to open and check what it was.


    “Huh? What does that mean, Master Rockin?” Lilfira asked, looking as puzzled as I was.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    “I… don’t know,” I said, making a sour facial expression. It was weird to say the least. Something was clearly added there, but instead of words there were several question marks shown where the skill’s name would be. The worst part was, Lilfira couldn’t click on it to open the skill in order to check what it was either.


    “Maybe it’s some sort of special skill that I will be able to use later?” Lilfira wondered.


    “Ah, maybe…” I said, not knowing what to think. “Anyway, let’s assign your stat points before I forget.”


    “Oh, that’s right. My stat points,” Lilfira exclaimed, perking up and leaning at me with her back once again.


    Sigh… Whatever, just… be happy for her acquiring a class and a new skill that she would be able to use. I had to scold myself for becoming grumpy just because Lilfira hasn’t received a class evolution. Besides, that new unknown skill that she had acquired might turn out to be something incredible down the line, I hoped. Now then, her stat points.


    I had to think about Lilfira’s stat point distribution, really. I was almost convinced that Lilfira would receive her class evolution upon reaching level five, but now that she hasn’t, me assigning her stat points the way I had previously might’ve been the reason behind it. Still, one part of me wanted to believe there was a reason why her Magic Energy stat was so high. Sometimes you had to do things you didn’t like or didn’t fully understand in order to achieve a better end result. I have learned that while working at my previous company. There were lots of jobs other people were doing that I not only was bad at, but also didn’t understand why they were doing them. But once each person delivered the results, it all connected in the end.


    “Right, you have received four stat points, so I think putting one point to your Stamina stat, two points to your Strength stat and one point to your Magic Energy stat would be the most reasonable thing to do,” I suggested, deciding that keeping the same pattern will turn out for the best in the future.


    “Yes, ok,” Lilfira agreed.


    “Here you go, done,” I said after assigning Lilfira’s stat points. Well, she was assigning her stat points herself. I was just holding her by the hand while she was doing it. “Now, how about we take a short break here before continuing our exploration. There were two caves that we’ve passed that had more than two exits out of them, so let’s check those on our way back.” I suggested before going to sit down and have a drink on one of the larger rocks inside the current cave.


    “Can we see your stats, Lilfira?” Ranalaiya and Sylfrin were right next to her the moment I stepped away.


    “Of course,” Lilfira was happy to show them.


    ***


    Lilfira Rageflame. Level 5.


    Class: Spear Knight.


    Character stats:


    Stamina – 12


    Strength – 27


    Agility – 3


    Spell Power – 0


    Magic Energy – 18


    Luck – 15


    ***


    “Wow, nice. Your stats are going up, Lilfira,” Ranalaiya was happy for her.


    “Yes, they are. However, I have received only four stat points this time,” Lilfira said, not that she felt sad about it or anything.


    “Still, you are becoming stronger with each level up, Lilfira,” Sylfrin said, sounding supportive.


    “You’re right, Sylfrin. Sorry for sounding negative about it,” Lilfira cheered up, showing a smile. After that, the girls sat down to have a short rest themselves, talking about things I tried not to listen to.


    We had to go back from where we came from to reach the cave that had two extra exits, with one of them being an exit we haven’t checked yet. As it turned out, that one exit led us to a single dead-end cave yet again which had three Stoneskin Lizards and one turtle monsters in it. I had Lilfira try out her new Armor Pierce skill on one of the monsters which was pretty cool to see. When she used the skill, Lilfira basically thrusted her spear forward with such force, it almost looked like the spear grew in length during the thrust because of how fast it went forward, killing the Stoneskin Lizard on the spot too. We’ve killed the rest of the monsters quite easily, got one Brown Iron ore as a drop from one of the lizard monsters and went back to find places within the mine we haven’t been to yet.


    “Will we be going back to the Workers Lodgings now, Master Rockin?” Ranalaiya asked while we were making our way back.


    “I believe there still was another exit from one of the caves we have passed at the beginning that we haven’t gone through. It should be on the way, so let’s check that one first before returning to the Workers Lodgings,” I said.


    If my assumptions were correct, that one extra exit would lead us to another dead-end mining cave with probably a few monsters in it. If we are lucky, we might find another Brown Iron ore deposit inside of it too. If not, well, we’d just have to go back to where the resting area was and maybe explore more of the mine after that. In all honesty, I was growing tired of exploring these caves. We had already collected eighteen Brown Iron ore pieces, three times the quantity we actually needed, and with the turtle monsters not dropping anything, it honestly was not worth sticking around any longer.


    Hah, I knew it. I smirked to myself when that one exit we haven’t taken yet actually led us to another dead-end mining cave.


    “There are three Stoneskin Lizards and one trottle monster inside, Master Rockin,” Ranalaiya informed after scouting the cave.


    Trottle… I almost chuckled.


    “Ok, so let’s kill all those monsters and see if we can find any more ore deposits inside the cave,” I said, readying to fight.


    - “Maximum experience points reached. Level up is available. Would you like to level up?” – Finding any additional ore aside, the lifeless, dull voice announced someone was finally ready to level up again after we have killed the first monster inside the cave and I knew for sure who was it this time.


    “Congratulations Sylfrin,” I said before we even killed the remaining monsters. “Don’t mind me. Just kill the remaining monsters, ok?” I added, so the girls wouldn’t let their guard down until it was safe to do so.


    “Wow, you have finally reached another level up, Sylfrin. Congratulations,” Ranalaiya was the second one to congratulate her once the battle had ended.


    “Congratulations, Sylfrin. I’m so happy for you,” Lilfira added as well.


    “Thank you, Ranalaiya and Lilfira,” Sylfrin said, showing a smile but staying calm before turning to face me. “Master Rockin…”


    “Yes, yes. Let’s level you up, Sylfrin,” I knew what was coming next.


    “Wait, what I wanted to say is that it’s ok if you increase my level the usual way,” Sylfrin told me.


    “Huh? What?” I asked, thinking I misheard her.


    “I said you don’t have to hold me while leveling me up if you don’t have to, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin said, sounding she was totally ok with it.


    “Oh, ok,” I said, not being against it either.


    Wait, hold on… I was about to accept Sylfrin’s level up normally when something literally hit my gut. Hey, if I accept her level up normally, Sylfrin might think I don’t like hugging her. Besides, I did the same for Ranalaiya already, so leaving Sylfrin out of it would make me look like a total scumbag. No… no, no, no, no. Where is she?


    “Sylfrin, come here, please,” I said, extending my hand as an invitation to come closer.


    “Yes, Master Rockin?” Sylfrin asked, stepping closer. “Huh? Woah, Master… mhmm…” I quickly grabbed Sylfrin, pulled her close to my side and kissed her on the lips. Sylfrin being surprised at first, wrapped her arms around my neck and returned my kiss with her own, taking her time and being rather passionate about it too.


    “Don’t ever think I don’t want to hug you,” I stated, sounding almost proud about what I just did.


    “Master Rockin…” Sylfrin whispered, sinking her head unto my chest, her fluffy, white bat ears turning inwards which meant she was becoming embarrassed.


    “Now, let’s level you up,” I said, taking Sylfrin by her hand.


    - “Level up accepted. Increasing character’s level from level eleven to level twelve. Complete. Frostbolt skill has been improved. Level up complete.” – The same lifeless voice announced after I chose the Yes option to accept Sylfrin’s Level Up offer.


    “Nice, your Frostbolt spell has been improved,” I said, quickly navigating to her Skills tab to check what the improvement was. “Right, the slow effect has been extended to two seconds now, but the skill’s cooldown has been increased to eight seconds now. You’ll have to adjust during the fights going forward.”


    “Ok, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin said, pressing herself closer to my chest.


    “Now let’s assign your stat points,” I said, going back to her character tab. “Oh, nice. You have received six stat points this time. Let’s increase your Spell Power by two and your Stamina and Magic Energy by one point each. Done.”


    “Thank you, Master Rockin,” Sylfrin said, lifting her passion filled eyes to look directly at me and literally forcing me to give her another kiss before letting her go.


    “Ok, let’s check if monsters dropped anything now,” I said, going to look around the cave. “Huh?” But then noticed Ranalaiya and Lilfira looking not at me but at Sylfrin in a strange way.


    What’s going on? Why are they looking at Sylfrin in such a… I turned to look back at Sylfrin, noticing a strange glow in her eyes, but it wasn’t the effect of her Echo Sense skill. Hold on, I neither kissed Ranalaiya nor Lilfira while accepting their level ups and yet… It didn’t even occur to me that I was doing something unusual when I was kissing Sylfrin, but now it hit me. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t have kissed Ranalaiya or Lilfira, it’s just that Sylfrin was very smart to act the way she did to make me want to hug and kiss her, and I thought I was the one who decided to do it. How wrong I was…


    Ok, Sylfrin, you deserved it. I took my defeat like a real man, feeling proud I had succumbed to her charms. Of course, I expected for Ranalaiya and Liflira complain to me for not receiving their kisses from me as well, but they went to talk to Sylfrin instead which just looked too suspicious and made me become worried for some reason as well.


    “Huh? Is this… an ore deposit?” I spoke out loud, noticing a similar to a Brown Iron ore looking deposit near the wall only this one was light grey in color. “Lilfira, can you come over, please?” I called for her.


    “Yes, Master Rockin,” Lilfira came running, looking bashful when she spoke to me, brushing her beautiful, long, red hair to the side while she was gazing into my eyes.


    Of course. I wasn’t so dense by now to not understand what the look in her eyes meant.


    “Look here. It looks like an ore deposit, but it’s of a different color than the Brown Iron ore. It could be just an ordinary rock, but I’d like you to try and mine it,” I told her, passing a pickaxe to her.


    “Oh… Ok,” Lilfira said, dropping her eyes in disappointment before taking the pickaxe from my hands.


    “And this is for good luck to hopefully mine something good,” I added, giving her a kiss on the cheek, Lilfira totally not expecting I’d do that.


    “Huh? Master… Rockin,” she almost jumped, touching the cheek I have kissed with her hand, her red face looking charming.


    “Go on,” I said, adding a wink.


    “Yes, right away,” Lilfira said, becoming livelier than ever. “Humph.” She hit the rock several times and a piece of it fell out, rolling to the side when it hit the ground. It was almost twice the size of the Brown Iron ore that we kept getting.


    - “Hey, now. You’ve just acquired a Hardened Iron ore, handsome. I really love the hard part about it. You know what I mean, right babe?” – Lavita let me know that the rock I was holding in my hand wasn’t just another useless rock.


    “Wow. Hardened Iron ore. Nice,” Lavita’s news made me become excited for a change. “Is it all gone or can you mine some more, Lilfira?” I quickly turned to check with her.


    “I think I can still mine it. Let me try again. Hmph,” Lilfira swung at the deposit several more times, the rock finally braking apart and another piece of ore falling on the ground.


    “Sweet. We got two Hardened Iron ore pieces,” I exclaimed excitedly after picking up the second chunk of ore from the ground.


    “Is the Hardened Iron ore better than the Brown Iron ore, Master Rockin?” Sylfrin asked.


    “Yes, it is. Alragus will be able to craft something decent from the Hardened Iron ore. It would need to be smelted into the Hardened Iron Bars first, of course,” I said before adding. “Cool. It was worth coming here, after all.”


    “You mean, coming to this cave, Master?” Lilfira asked.


    “Well, coming to the mines in general. My goal for coming here wasn’t just to get enough ore to fulfill the quest for Alragus. I was hoping to find something better from the very beginning,” I told her. “Now, let’s go home.”


    “Home?” Lilfira gasped in surprise.


    “Yes. We still have some meat left to last us another day, but we got ourselves some Hardened Iron ore, so let’s just go home,” I said.


    “Ok,” Lilfira smiled. We then went to tell about it to Ranalaiya and Sylfrin.


    “What? We’re going home now?” Ranalaiya exclaimed in surprise. “But… we could still explore the mine. We might… still find something good.”


    “We could, but then we’d have to sleep at the Workers Lodgings in separate beds again and we’re all dirty, and there’s no bath in here, so you know… Of course, if you insist, I don’t mind staying here longer,” I teased Ranalaiya.


    “Oh, no. Let’s go back to Hirvant. I just…” Ranalaiya said, swinging from side to side and looking bashful.


    “You just what?” I asked, pretending I didn’t understand what she wanted.


    “I just… would like you to kiss me too, Master,” Ranalaiya said, looking totally cute.


    “Ok,” I said, sounding way too casual.


    “Really?” Ranalaiya perked up, turning to face me.


    “Of course. Where do you want it?” I asked.


    “Huh? Where do I want what?” Ranalaiya asked me back, feeling confused.


    “Where do you want me to kiss you?” I returned another question to her, feeling like teasing her more.


    “What? I… I want you to kiss me… on my lips… Master Rockin,” Ranalaiya said, looking down at the ground, her cheeks burning red.


    “Ok,” I said, pulling Ranalaiya closer to me, her lifting her head just at the right time for our lips to connect.


    “Mhmm… Purr…” Ranalaiya purred from delight, also making a shiver run down my spine from how arousing it felt. However, the more arousing part had to wait until we return to Hirvant.