Chapter Seventy-Six.

(Luca)

"Whoo!" Braden dances in a circle. "Wind Spike: Level up!"

The Slime he was fighting slams into my brother's back, sending him crashing into the ground. That's pretty funny, but I'm worried for him. I start to climb off the rock I'm sitting on, but the scary guy grabs my hand.

"He's got enough Health left to deal with it," the scary guy tells me. "He'll be fine. Besides, you're out of Mana and you can't fight."

But I want to make sure my brother's okay!

I guess he has a point, though. I can't help my brother, so I can only wait for him to finish with the Slime.

Braden wiggles, throwing the Slime off of him as he strikes out with his staff, impacting the core of the Slime, which dies. The scary guy tells my brother to not let something good distract him during a fight. Why can't he just compliment Braden?

He's so mean. And scary. He's also nice. But not really that nice to Braden. When Braden complains about how mean he is, the scary guy just says that he needs to be tough to help him get stronger.

They argue a lot.

Something catches the scary guy's attention, and I look in the direction he's looking in. There's a small glow in the air about a dozen yards away. It expands a bit, wiggling as it does, until it's taken on the rough shape of a Slime.

The glow fades, revealing a dark brown Slime in its place that's almost impossible to see through. Actually, I can't see through it, but I'm pretty sure it can be. My Perception's not high enough. That doesn't look like a Stone Slime, those things are a lighter brown.

"By the way," the scary guy says. "That is what it looks like when a Slime spawns on its own. Looks like it's a Chocolate Slime."

I focus my gaze on it, trying to gain Appraisal again. I've been trying hard over the last two and a half weeks, but it hasn't come yet. Braden says he hasn't gotten it yet, either.

New Skill! Appraisal Active/Passive Reveals information about items when used, and on Adventurers and Monsters actively, showing information on them up to five Levels above your own.

Oh, cool! Finally got it! I look at the Slime, checking out its information.

Chocolate Slime Level 1 Health: 34 Mana: 187

That's a lot more Mana than the scary guy says Slimes have. Though I think the Snow Slimes have a lot, too. They keep making snowballs and throwing them at us if we get too close, and the scary guy said to ignore them.

It's weird. They're not like other Slimes, which will pursue us once they start attacking. I guess that's why the scary guy leaves them alone. He said that there's lots of them that are stronger because he didn't bother culling those.

Looking around, I spot a few more Level 1 Slimes. Their Health is in the range the scary guy's been giving us, and their Mana's around thirty to forty.

"Guess it's almost time for the Love Lord to show up," the scary guy says. "They said it's about a week before it that these fuckers start spawning. What do they give?"

The next thing I know, the scary guy's by the Slime, his sword stabbed through it and into the ground. He pulls his sword out, grinning.

"It gives chocolate!"

That. Was. AWESOME!

How did he move so fast? What Skill did he use to do that? How fast is he really? How can I get that fast? Did he do that from running so much? Is that why he's got us sprinting every other day? So we can obtain a Skill for that?

THAT IS SO AWESOME!

A chocolate bar appears in the scary guy's hand, and he takes a bite of it.

"This is some damn good chocolate," he grins, taking another bite. "If you want some, Braden, you'll have to kill a Chocolate Slime on your own. Be forewarned, though, that they're going to be harder to kill than the regular Slimes and elemental ones you've been fighting so far."

"You killed it in an instant!"

"Any Adventurer who's been around a bit can," the scary guy snorts. "There are dozens of mages in town who could wipe out dozens of stronger Slimes with a single spell."

That sounds strong. Like, really strong.

I walk over to Braden and tug on his arm. He gives me a curious look, moving his right ear so it's by my mouth.

"I bet you can do that one day."

He pulls back and grins at me.

"Definitely," he says, giving me a hug. "Let me get my Mana back up, and I'll kill some more for you, okay?"

I nod, then return to the rocks that the scary guy had me sitting on. Braden does the exercises the scary guy makes him do as the scary guy sits back beside me. As soon as he can, my brother attacks a nearby Slime that I think was eyeing him like he was lunch. That kind of bothered me.

"Here," the scary guy says, and I look at him to find him holding out a piece of chocolate. "It's delicious."

I take the piece and pop it into my mouth. It really is delicious. Why did he give me some instead of Braden? Braden's doing all the work.

"You get some because you can't fight," the scary guy tells me. "You just heal, so that removes your ability to obtain loot. Thus, you get the chocolate."

He pats me on the head. I don't like it when he does that.

Braden continues training against the Slimes, and the scary guy makes me continue to heal him when he bites himself. Why doesn't he ever look like he's in pain? He's biting hard enough to draw blood, and repeatedly. Shouldn't his skin be tender or something?

After awhile, I realize that the scary guy's started to have Braden attack stronger Slimes, but didn't say that he was. In fact, he's still saying they're Level 1 Slimes. He's lying to my brother. I don't like that.

I don't think Braden's realized, though.

The scary guy just sits here for the most part, though he does suddenly shift a few times. I don't know why. He looks tired, too. Maybe he should stop disappearing for a few hours every night?

When he's done tormenting my brother for the day, the scary guy leads us home, and Braden and I go to the bath.

"That was exhausting!" Braden exclaims as we sink into the bath, the hot water relaxing my body. I'm sore from the physical training the scary guy puts us through every morning. "I feel like the monsters got harder, I was so exhausted!"

"They did," I quietly tell him.

"What?" He looks at me.

"After lunch," I say. "He had you fighting mostly Level 2 Slimes. The ones you really struggled with were Level 3 Slimes."

Braden stares at me for several moments.

"Aaargh!" He flails in frustration.

(Zack)

That's the most I've heard Luca speak since they arrived in the Boundary. The fact that he noticed the Levels of the Slimes tells me he finally obtained Appraisal. I know the twins have been trying to obtain it, and I'm happy he finally managed.

I'm impressed Braden didn't realize I was lying to him about the Levels of the Slimes. If I'd told him what they really were, he'd have probably hesitated a bit more when attacking. At least he doesn't hesitate as much, even though it's only been a few days since my practical training for him began.

I've theorized that part of why people take so long to Level up is because they work in teams. I was absurdly fast at their Level, and I doubt it was entirely because of my natural affinity for rapid growth.

When I mentioned this to Nik yesterday, he said it's been considered as well, but never put to the test because it's hard to judge something like that. Everyone has their own growth rates, and even the weakest monsters can wear out a new adventurer.

An example of that is Braden. He's exhausted his Mana after just one kill, though now that Wind Spike is Level 2, he can probably handle two kills of the weaker Slimes. If he does all the work, then all the Experience goes to him, no distribution involved.

And now that Wind Spike is Level 2, he can start working on harder Slimes, too.

I continue working on dinner as I wait for the twins to finish their bath, then we eat. After dinner, I clean up while setting them to play marbles again. Braden doesn't like playing it, but he does it for his brother, because Luca enjoys it.

Though I think Luca's also happy that I don't play with them. When it's a game involving me, it becomes a game of 'which twin will have more marbles than the other' anyway because I end up with most of the marbles.

It's not really fair when someone with many times their Strength is playing, since I can just hit the marbles hard enough to send most of them out of the circle.

The twins relax for a bit before bed, then I wait for them to fall asleep, then climb up onto my bed, relaxing and falling asleep. A little after midnight, I wake up and slip out of bed, changing back into my combat outfit, but leaving behind my coat as I slip down to the yard.

There, I pull on my equipment, then leave, making my way out of the City.

In the fields where we train, I get to work wiping out any Rats that spawned and any Slimes that grew past my allowed Levels, leaving only a few stronger ones and half of the Level 1's. It's a long and tedious thing, but it ensures that there's a minimal risk of anything happening if I take my gaze off the twins for even a moment for whatever reason.

I want to make absolute sure that nothing happens to them.

In addition to decreasing the threat to the twins, it also helps me train Braden and test my theory about solo-killing. If I push him hard all day against monsters, then I'm sure he'll reach a higher Level soon. And having fewer monsters around makes it easier to select which ones he's facing off again.

Once I finish my work, I return home and clean up, soaking in the bath for half an hour before drying off, pulling on my night tunic, and heading to bed to catch a few more hours of sleep.

When morning comes, I run the twins through my usual physical training exercises, which involves a mix of pushups, situps, planks, sprints, a jog up and down the street, and some martial arts and staff combat training.

Then, we eat breakfast before making our way out into the fields so I can train Braden against the Slimes and Luca in healing.

"Luca?" I say while Braden's busy running from a Slime that's shooting jets of water at him, and the quiet twin jumps, a spike of panic going through his head. "Jumpy much?"

Embarrassment washes over him, and I immediately regret saying that. I didn't mean to make him upset.

"Anyway," I say. "What percent is your Class at?"

He shifts uncomfortably.

"You don't need to talk," I say. "You can just-"

"Two," he says quietly.

So he will talk to me here. That makes me happy.

"Only two?" I ask, and he nods as he suddenly feels awful and unworthy and useless. I ruffle his hair. "Don't look down, Luca. I was just surprised. Everyone grows at their own rate."

But from what Adrian told me a few nights ago, with as much as Luca's been healing me, he should be up to at least ten percent by now. Priests apparently do Level quickly compared to other Classes, which may be partly because of their fully supportive role. They gain Experience while healing, not after a kill, and a healing isn't shared, even if multiple people are healing the same target.

Even Braden's already at twelve percent of the way to Level 2 from my training – which tells me I'm right with my theory on Leveling. Getting him to tell me that on the way here was a pain in the ass, though.

The rest of the day passes with only some light level of amusement at Braden's struggles, but I know that it's helping him. Next time we're out here, I'm going to set him against duos to see how he deals.

But not with Flame Slimes or Heal Slimes. Those will continue to be purged at every opportunity, just like any Rats that spawn. A few times, I have to leave to kill those, but the twins aren't aware of that.

From what I can tell, they don't even see me if I move at my full speed, so if I kill something and return to where I was, it just looks like I quickly shift my position.

We return home and go through our usual routine up through dinner.

"Hey," I say to the twins after I finish cleaning up from dinner. "I have to head into town to grab a few things. Stay here, okay? Don't leave the property, or I'm pushing you even harder tomorrow. Got it?"

They both nod, but I can tell Braden's not happy. They ignored me when I went shopping for more food a week ago, and I pushed them harder. Braden's still trying to figure out how I knew.

First, my Perception's good enough I could smell that they'd left it. Second, Aurum's been peeking at them from across the street, though they haven't noticed him yet.

I make my way into town, purchasing more food before making my way to the temple. I need to make some arrangements. My timetable on this is moving up.