[Level Up! 12 > 16]

  Name: Rontress Owelline.

  Level: 16

  Stats:

  MAGIC: 105

  PHYS: 93

  DEX: 111

  RES: 53

  An entire day of hunting aberrants has given me exactly four levels. This naturally increased my stats by a decent amount, enough to get my own adventurer's tag even, it isn't enough for me to confidently go back to the Humus Dungeon and start raiding it though.

  One more day, that's all I have left to progress using the aberrants. I'll see if I can reach level 20 tomorrow, I'll wake up early and start killing the aberrants at a much earlier time, then end it late into the night.

  Telling my family about my plans later should be a good idea, I don't want them to start worrying about me and stay up late again. Or maybe Howaph will keep his word and somehow stay up late? That doesn't sound fun.

  Whatever, if he wants to do it then I'll let him, it's not like it'll hurt the function of the store in the morning, Laself and the rest will be preparing the ingredients regardless.

  Maybe it's just the stress but I'm feeling kind of tired whenever I think about my family. I mean, I've helped them out so much and they're acting out like this? It's not their fault, I keep telling myself this, but there's just this sense of regret that tells me if I didn't help them and focused solely on myself, I would be inside the dungeon right now.

  That's the wrong mindset though, with my family having some kind of influence, I have a backup plan when things go wrong in either Flotol or Ghorise, there's also the possibility of me becoming a cripple and needing other people to survive.

  Overall, I think that my family is a good investment.

  A bitter laugh came out before I could think about stopping it, "great, now I'm thinking of them as an investment."

  Sighing, I left the corpse of the aberrant and walked back to Flotol. The house felt warm when I entered, new furniture has been bought so everything felt nice, dad has been repairing the long standing flaws in the walls and ceiling as well, including my past mistake.

  There's a certain air to a home you know you can come back to, and that made all my ugly thoughts and regrets about helping my family disappear.

  "How's the store?" I ask Laself as I walk into the kitchen, "there should be more customers now that the Festival is starting right? There will be even more when the Day of Piling comes so I think we need to prepare more food."

  "Rontress the eggs got bought." Laself didn't sound like she was happy. "A few nobles noticed the sign you posted and they bought all of the eggs."

  "Good." Really? That's the best outcome! Laself didn't think so though and she whipped her head towards me, shocked. I raise an eyebrow. "What? Of course it's good, we don't have to sell it to a merchant specifically, getting our names known by nobles isn't a bad idea you know?"

  "Yeah... I don't think that's a good thing." Howaph said from the sidelines. "Trusting nobles just feels wrong doesn't it? It does to me, don't you feel the same?"

  "It's fine," I waved him off. "They won't do anything stupid, not in this territory." The Haromago would tear them apart and possibly even use their breach of politeness as some kind of social impasse. "We're fine, no one is gonna do anything on the Day of Piling."

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  "If you say so." Howaph nodded.

  He's not wrong though, nobles can be fairly problematic if they see things that they like. The store is something that's slowly making a name so they would want it for themselves, not that, you know, they can run it as well as I can but it won't stop them from getting it.

  Assuming that they're willing to at least, despite being morons who can only think selfish thoughts, they're paranoid bastards who will never let other nobles have something over them, so causing a ruckus in a non-allied territory will never cross the common noble's mind.

  "You brought more eggs just now didn't you?" Mom came downstairs and stared at the storage shed. "What are you gonna do with them?"

  "Sell them again." Aberrant meat is so much cheaper now so earning profits from selling them raw is impossible. "Well, you're all going to be selling them, I'll be busy tomorrow. I won't even be home early."

  Everyone looked at me, waiting, I decided to explain. "I'm gonna hunt aberrants for the entire day to level up, don't worry, I already have scrolls you can bring to the shop and sell." And as for monster cores, that's mainly my thing. "You don't have to worry about me."

  "What about the dagger you asked that smith to get you? What will you be doing with it?"

  "That?" My eyes went to dad, should I tell him I'll make a new wand? Nah. "I'm planning on using it for myself, and yeah, I know that making it out of bronze makes it brittle but I'm not using it for combat." I lied. "There are too many plants and vines in the forest, you know? And my traps also need me to cut stuff so having a dagger is useful for me."

  "Didn't you ask for other parts as well? What was that about?" Howaph pointed out. "A dagger shouldn't need that many extra bits right?"

  "It does if I want it to be used for something other than cutting, like maybe I need to crush a rock or use it as a brace to secure myself in a tree." That's how swiss army knives are used right? I'm not really sure, eh, who cares? They're buying it.

  "That's a pretty good idea, so you're putting several tools into one?" Dad asked, I nodded. He nodded back. "Well if that's the case then who am I to stop you?"

  "Okay, besides the knife, are we all ignoring that Rontress says she wants to level up?" Laself joined in, she stared at me oddly. "Why?"

  "She wants to be an adventurer." My mother answered in my place, which I guess isn't wrong. Technically. "Leveling up is only natural for her, which makes me wonder, what level are you now, Rontress?"

  "16."

  "What?!" Howaph gave me an accusing finger, his tone skeptical. "How do you have more levels than me?!"

  "I've been killing monsters." I replied casually, my mind went over to my traps, which somehow didn't help me level up despite the frequency they killed monsters. Yeah, I can see why Howaph is frustrated.

  "You'll pass your father soon too?" My mom asks, I nodded. She smirked. "Well that's not unexpected, but you can slow down if you think that it's too much for you okay?"

  "I'll do that, yes." When it happens, which it won't. I didn't stop when I encountered that ferret and if anything, it only motivated me to keep trying harder.

  "So killing monsters really helps you level up faster?" Laself turned to me. "How does that work?"

  "No idea." And I really didn't, I'd say that it's a leftover from game mechanics but who's to say this world was created because of a game? That doesn't sound likely. Whatever connection this world has with Firelight Chronicles is a mystery to me.

  "It's not just killing monsters, killing things in general makes you level up. Even fish." My dad explains, he raised a hand and started counting. "It's been years since I last leveled up though, so I think it slows down after a while?"

  And it really does, I wonder if he knows about the exp cap increasing after every level up? His observation of his own levels probably gave him an idea that the higher it goes, the more things he has to kill but does he know about the concept of exp? Or does he understand differently?

  I didn't ask my dad about it despite my curiosity, it just didn't feel right.

  "It should." I supplied, not willing to explain everything doesn't mean that I won't give them a vague idea of how everything works. "A lot of adventurers actually don't level up once they stop challenging themselves and just pick quests suited to their levels."

  Turning adventuring into a job is a good idea though, so I can't fault them for that. And what's wrong with wanting to live?

  ... Why am I sounding like I'm justifying their lack of spine?

  "That can happen?" Laself tilted her head. "So some of the adventurers who come to us?.."

  "Have probably been in their level and rank for years now, don't blame them though, since reaching B rank means that you'll have to start attacking Ogre dens just to level up, several of them even. That or you kill drakes, depends." I explained.

  "That sounds..."

  "Difficult?"

  "... Yes, difficult." Laself nodded. "Why go out of your way to choose that kind of life?"

  "I just think it's better than sitting around all day, or maybe I'm a glory hound, one of those two." I joked.