"Drake's condition might be more fucked up than I think.", Alec wondered out loud.

Over the stairways, leading down to the depths of dungeon, Jace stood. On his shoulders, sat Alec as he hurriedly shifted his head left and right.

"Can you already tell me what it is? The ground floor starts here. I don't think that it would be a good idea to have a conversation down there." Jace said as he looked at the obsidian castle floor, shrouded within the shadows of blood.

"Well, half knowledge would only lead us to doors of death. I am trying to come up with a theory here. I need to process some stuff first." Alec said calmly.

"What kind of theory?", Jace asked as his eyes shifted towards Alec.

"That, the Drake is much more fucked up than we are."

"... This might've been the worst kind of theory I have ever heard." Jace replied, moving down the stairs.

"How? How? How?"

Jace groaned as he watched Alec, lost in his own thoughts, babbeling random stuff for last three hours. He hadn't even stopped after they left the safe zone on third floor.

"Hey! Focus! We are here!" Jace said, snapping Alec out of his own thought process.

"Oh! Alright!", Alec said as the blood mana swirled around them, two bright vermillion chain serpents, vertically along the surface of stairs, manifested into existence.

[Blood Chains]

"Let's finish this!"

"You seem over-enthusiastic today."

"Why wouldn't I be, just the name of evolution waters my damn mouth." Alec said, swiping his paws over his face, "and sounds like I am also picking some random cat habits. Though, it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"Well, I have recovered half of my mana, so, it won't be a problem even if something unexpected came our way." Jace said, moving forward in now murky corridor.

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot that your mana started recovering yesterday night. And what did you mean by something unexpected? Can you please stop dropping the flags every now and then, for fuck's sake man, you gotta be positive sometimes!"

"Dropping the flags? Wha-" Jace trailed off as he watched Alec, placing a paw on his mouth, gesturing him to keep quiet.

This was when, they heard a soft screech, right before them, across the gloomy foyer. As a sudden rattle echoed, resonated around them, the crimson creature revealed itself.

Sanguis Scolopendra lv27

"That's quite high!" Alec said, wrapping his tail around Jace's neck, activating mystic as the centipede skittered forward.

As the sudden advancement of the crimson creature stopped, a radiant vermillion ball of blood, whistled past the air, piercing through the tough carapace of centipede.

A loud shriek echoed through the corridor, centipede rattled it's mandibles wildly, before there was nothing.

The sound of carapace cracking as it's insides erupted, filled the hollow corridor, as the gore smudged the walls and loitered the bloody path it followed.

Defeated [Sanguis Scolopendra lv27]!

Additional experience provided for defeating the opponent higher level than you!

"Still not enough to gain a level?"

"That's not how levelling up works, kid. And you're already too strong for someone of your level."

"Hey, now that I think about it, how exactly does the experience and levelling up work?" Alec asked as one of the chains shot forward, whistling past the bloody tatters of centipede's body, reaching the unharmed segments of it's lower structre.

"Well, you need to hunt something above your current power level, to level up."

"Current power level?" Alec asked with a confused expression.

"Yep, as I told you before, whenever you kill something, you gain a portion of their soul, as experience. And your level and stats represents your soul strength. But the thing is that, you're already too powerful for someone of your level." Jace paused for a moment before continuing, "and for your species, the number of stats gained per level is kind of insane. No wonder I have never heard of your species, it must have been exceptionally rare."

"So, I won't be able to gain any levels unless I hunt someone equal to, or more powerful than me?" Alec asked in bewilderment.

"Not exactly. You will still gain experience by hunting the centipedes of higher levels than you. It would be lower, of course, so, I can't be exactly sure how many of them you need to hunt before finally levelling up."

"And that's why you're still level 23?" Alec asked as the crimson chain, silently disintegrated the corpse of the centipede.

MP restored +79

"Being a level 23 is quite above the average in the City of Anthea. The forest that separates the city from the rest of empire, possess the lowest of all mana saturations. Although, it's not hard to find a powerful monster in these parts but they are certainly rare. But even if someone encountered them, nobody in their right minds would fight a monster, equal to or more powerful than them."

"Well, same, I wouldn't either!"

"You literally went for the blue centipede's ass in your first encounter with something more powerful than you." Jace groaned as he looked at the black cat.

"Well... It was to... save us! Right! I saved us there! I really wasn't testing my luck there. I just never knew the stats won't add up instantly."

"We could have just made a run for it after you tricked it. But no! You needed to test its defenses!"

"But we are alive now, I see that as a win. We got to test its defenses, see its attack pattern, a powerful regeneration skill and perhaps if we encountered it this time, we just might be able to defeat it!"

Jace just groaned as he opened his mouth, "not a chance! If we see that thing again, we make a run for it! I will make sure to strap your mouth, to avoid you from doing something stupid again."

"......"

Alec was just lost in his own thoughts as Jace moved forward, arched before them was a doorway, providing ingress to a large chamber.

"Hey! Are you listening?" Jace asked the black cat as he shook his shoulder.

"..... that might be...."

"What might be?"

There was a moment of silence before a sudden laughter erupted before Jace.

"Ehehe... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THAT'S IT! THAT'S FUCKING IT! THE DRAKE'S CONDITION IS MUCH MORE FUCKED UP THAN I HAD IMAGINED! HOLY FUCKING SHIT! WHAT KIND OF TROLL DID THE NATURE PLAY ON THAT POOR THING?"

And the source was none other than the devil sitting on his shoulders.

"I have a bad feeling about all this."