(Zack)

I advance towards the Love Lord, which watches me, bow raised. Once I'm within fifty feet, it draws the bow and fires its arrow. I deflect it with my sword, sending the arrow crashing into the ground. Game's begun.

Slowly circling, I make sure the twins aren't in its range of fire as it shoots off another arrow, which I deflect again. It fires off several more arrows, which I deflect easily, before it reaches out with one hand.

Sensing the ground shift, I bolt to the side, just in time to avoid the rose thorns that broke through the ground, attempting to tangle me. The Love Lord shoots more arrows at me before trying with its vines again.

It's testing me.

After three minutes pass, a glow appears, then a Level 5 Red Wine Slime drops onto the ground a few feet to the side of the Love Lord.

I bolt forward, cutting through the slime's core as I charge behind the Love Lord, which rapidly fires off several arrows, which I deflect as I read the notification.

+1 Red Wine!

Another thing about the monsters summoned by the Love Lord: they all drop rewards. I don't know if the ones summoned by the Chocolate Love Lord drop a reward every kill, but the ones by the regular version do.

The next slime summoned is a Chocolate Slime, as is the next, and the one after is another Red Wine Slime. We continue to play this dance, the Love Lord picking up speed with its attacks, doing its best to predict where I'll be, even throwing petals to obscure my vision and attempt to overload my ability to track with my Perception.

Almost two and a half hours pass before there are twenty Level 5 Chocolate Slimes here. Forty-eight total summons, with sixteen Red Wine Slimes and twelve White Wine Slimes.

The Love Lord, once the twentieth Chocolate Slime is summoned, strikes a pose with its arms by its sides, head tilted back as if roaring, back arched just a little. Its eyes glow as the Chocolate Slimes it summoned bounce towards it, then circle it. They begin to glow as well, then suddenly suck into it.

The white of the Love Lord turns to the rich, chocolaty brown of its summons' treats, and it releases that pose. I deflect the first arrow, noting when it strikes into the ground that chocolate quickly spreads around.

Considering that was aimed at my foot, I'm guessing it wanted to disable me immediately, prevent me from being able to move around as much.

I wait until it summons more Slimes, and as soon as it does, I kill one of each type, then throw the others towards the rocks Braden and Luca are watching from. They jump, startled, then Braden immediately gets to work. I watch them as I continue my dance with the Love Lord.

Judging by the attacks, he's barely taking out 3 or 4 Health per hit. That's going to drain him fast, since he can only cast seven Wind Spikes before running out of Mana, which isn't actually enough to kill the things.

Please, kid, use your brain and make sure to damage each with a Wind Spike before switching to your staff.

He doesn't, using up all of his Mana on one before striking at it with his staff. That thing needs replacing soon, the slimes' ooze having done a number on it. I've got one being carved for him, though.

When Braden runs out of Mana, Luca just smacks himself in the head, then after Braden manages to kill the first slime, throws his staff at his brother. Braden looks at it in confusion, then thanks the little healer before using it against the other two Slimes, before taking a Mana Potion from Luca.

"Moron," Luca mutters, which I can hear due to my Perception.

"What?" Braden asks.

"Did you get any Experience?"

"From the first one," Braden nods. "But I didn't have enough Mana after it to-"

Luca stares down his brother, who stops talking as he realizes what he did.

"Oh," Braden blushes. "I should've hit all of them, so that Novice would get some Experience from each."

"Duh!" Luca exclaims.

I've already killed all of the second wave of the slimes, since Braden took more than a minute to kill them, and it's almost time for the third. As soon as they're summoned, I do the same as last time, and Braden thankfully uses Wind Spike on each of the slimes before killing them.

When he finishes the fourth wave I send his way, I notice an increase in his Mana, though right now, it's not enough to make much of a difference. Two more waves, and he manages to gain a Level. Take that, goblins! Two of them didn't even put him to forty-percent Experience, and that's with what he already had.

Then again, these are probably tougher fights he's having to deal with on his own, save for Luca using Heal on him between rounds.

After acquiring another Level, Braden's doing another two points of damage to the monsters, but only through the second monster of the seventh total round. Then, it jumps up another five points.

Wind Spike went up a Level. I can see how happy he is at the sudden increase in damage. The more damage he does to them using magic, the more Experience his Class will acquire.

By the time he's used up all twenty of the Mana Potions, Braden's reached Level 3, increased Wind Spike by two Levels, and increased his Intellect twice and Wisdom three times. I think he's also increased his Willpower and Strength once each, and his Vitality went up another point as well.

Now that he's out of Mana Potions to use and has gained some decent Levels, I turn my attention fully to the Love Lord, before bursting through its petal storm, my sword cutting part of the way into the beast. I draw it out, then deliver another swift strike, ramming my sword through its chest before withdrawing it. Then, I cut off the arm holding the bow, then the other as it tries to catch the bow. I sheer off its wings, then behead it.

Health means nothing when the head is severed, after all.

I flick my sword a few times, then sheathe it as the corpse of the Holiday Boss fades away, two notifications in my vision.

Love Lord Slain! +500% Static Experience to Class or Classes of Your Choice, +500% Static Experience to Subclass or Subclasses of your Choice, +10 Gold, +5 Love Ingots, +5 Chocolate Boxes Love Lord Slain in Chocolate Love Lord form! +500% Static Experience to Class or Classes of Your Choice, +500% Static Experience to Subclass or Subclasses of your Choice, +10 Gold, +15 Love Ingots, +15 Chocolate Boxes

I dismiss the notifications, then walk over to the twins. Luca returns to me all nine Health Potions, since Braden never needed them.

"Congrats on your Levels," I clap Braden on his back. "But remember: this just means you can do more damage. It doesn't mean you're actually more capable."

"What about you?" He asks. "Haven't you only been here a few months? You're already a badass."

"I had skill already when arriving here in the Boundary," I shake my head. "That means I'd already trained with swords, knives, and martial arts before dying. I was a badass before the System. And there are things far beyond my ability to kill. Come on, let's head back into town and celebrate your new Levels. Tomorrow, we'll move on to Level 4 and Level 5 Slimes, and possibly even throw in some tougher ones, like Elite Slimes."

Braden doesn't look too pleased about that, but we head back to Maelnor.

"How come no one else came to fight that thing?" Braden asks. "It drops special stuff, doesn't it? You said that."

"Yeah," I nod. "There were actually four spawned in the valley, and another in the pass on the other side of here. It's a Holiday Boss, a special type of Special Boss monster. They appear for a specific day when they show up. The others going after them went to the other four in the area so that you two wouldn't have to travel too far. Luca's building up stamina, but he can't travel that far without getting exhausted, and it would take hours to reach them, anyway."

"Oh," Braden says. "What did it drop?"

"Bonus Experience for a regular Class and a Sublcass, Love Ingots, and Chocolate Boxes."

"What?" He looks confused.

"Bonus Experience," I explain. "Can be used for any Class or Subclass someone chooses. Love Ingots are a type of smithing component – like steel or gold or whatever. Chocolate Boxes are boxes filled with chocolate."

"Oh," he says. "So you can use that Experience to advance yourself?"

"Yes," I nod. "Normally, a team fights a Holiday Monster, so the amount given is split between all who participated, but since I solo'd it, I got the full amount. Unfortunately, using it all at once isn't generally a good idea because of Power Jump. It's a condition that knocks you out for awhile and occurs if you gain a ton of Levels in a short period of time. The lower your Level, the fewer needed in a short timeframe before you get knocked out. It's not a fun experience."

"You've felt it?" He asks.

"I know people who have," I tell him as we reach the gates to the City. "Come on, I'm going to go sell some stuff to Jackson."

The twins follow me through the mostly-empty streets. Everyone's either out hunting the Love Lords or back in the mines, getting stronger.

We reach Jackson's forge, and I notice a woman I don't recognize at the counter, dealing with the line. No Jackson.

"Where's Jackson?" I ask once it's my turn.

"Busy," she answers. "He's smithing in the back. I'm handling all sales and-"

"Tell him his favorite kid's here," I tell her. "He'll come out."

"I handle all-"

"You haven't heard of this town's resident child Dark Knight, have you?"

"No," she answers. "And just because your father-"

"My father," I say. "Has nothing to do with this. Now, either get Jackson, or I holler at the top of my lungs for Jackson. Trust me, I can shout pretty loud. It will let Jackson know his favorite kid's here."

"Sorry, kid," she says. "But-"

"JACKSON!" I let my voice boom through the shop, startling the woman.

I held it back so that my team wouldn't wet themselves again, though a glance lets me know they were still affected by it a little. I turn back to the woman, who's glaring me.

"Just who do you-"

"-think I am?" I finish her question for her. "I'm Zack Noruva, most powerful kid in the Boundary, resident kid Dark Knight, renamer of Big Flame, and the incarnation of hell itself. I've got lots of other titles and roles if you want. Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I'm not a badass super warrior. Plus, not all kids are kids. Ever heard of Nathan Normar?"

"There are less than a dozen," she says. "Adventurers in the entire Boundary who have the appearance of children who are locked into that state, such as Normar himself. You do not match any of their descriptions, Zack."

"That's because I am a kid."

"One who doesn't have access to the System yet."

"Ever heard of Appraisal Resistance?" I ask. "It's a real Skill you know."

"And you have it at Level 8?"

"Yes," actually, Level 6. I never bothered working on it past that because most don't have past Level 5 Appraisal. "Now, Jackson's almost to the door to figure out why I'm yelling his name. You're about to find him interacting with his favorite kid. And you'll get scolded, too."

Jackson enters through the back door, giving me an amused look.

"She wouldn't call you for me," I tell him. "So I decided to call you myself. I have some stuff to sell, and wanted to check on the status of the essences."

"Twenty?" He asks.

"Yeah," I nod.

"They sell for twenty gold apiece," he informs me. "So that's four diamonds. I'll grab that while grabbing the payment for the essences. All of the remaining ones are going to be used. As per our last set of negotiations, you'll receive a thousand each, minus the three thousand for your various commissions."

"Okay," I say. "Also, I'm selling all of my Turkey Ingots to you, so that's another four diamond, minus the forty from the two I already sold you."

"Got it," he says. "And the essences?"

"How much of that was lost during the battle?"

"None," he answers. "Either everyone who already had theirs survived thanks to you and Normar, or I hadn't made it yet, apart from two sets whose owners survived."

"Okay," I say. "And you think there are more worthy of something like this?"

"Yes," he answers. "The Fallen Hunters are all asking for commissions with it, as are many of the Dark Knights."

"Okay," I say. "Yeah, they're worth it. I'll give you twenty more. Same price. How's my gear coming along?"

"Haven't started yet," he answers. "I want to get a few things done before working on it. I'll probably grab your measurements again when I'm about to start working on it, in case you grow before then."

"Got it," I say.

"Give me just a minute," he says, then heads into the back, and I stick my tongue out at the worker.

"What was that about?" She asks.

"Business," I tell her. "If you think that's shocking, then you need to prepare yourself. I'm the one who gave Jackson all that Primordial Essence."

She snorts in disbelief, and Jackson returns with my money. Ten thousand platinum and eight diamond, with a statement that the extra forty gold are for an increase in the price of the ore with how long it's been.

I then pull out the Love Ingots, Turkey Ingots, and twenty more Primordial Essences out of my Inventory. The woman's eyes widen when she sees them.

"Those are-" she starts. "How did you-"

"Have you been under a rock?" Jackson asks. "I know you just got here today, but I'm pretty sure word about Zack having Primordial Essence isn't new news. Thanks, Zack."

We swap items, then he asks if I want to sell any of my Frost Ingots.

"I have thirty of them," I say. "But can you afford to buy them off of me? I know you set that money aside from the-"

"Yes," he says. "I have some extra that I haven't set into a more secure place yet. A few of the Adventurers use frost-based Skills, and I can use some Frost Ingots for that."

"How many do you need?" I ask.

"Ten," he answers. "If you'd be willing."

"Alright," I pull out the ten frosty-looking ingots and set them on the counter. "Ten Frost Ingots."

"Three hundred platinum," Jackson sets it down on the counter, then we swap items. "Anything else?"

"No," I answer. "Now we're off to do some other stuff. Braden gained a couple of Levels fighting the Chocolate Love Lord's summons, so we're going to do a little celebration. I need to pick up something first, though."

"Alright," he chuckles. "Good luck, and enjoy the rest of your day, Zack."

"Good luck with the forging," I dip my head to him.

"How-how did you get all this stuff?" The woman asks. "You can't possibly-"

"Jackson will explain," I tell her, then lead the twins out of the shop.