"Hello, Max," Elm says. "Would you?"

"How did ya get here?" I ask. "Where did ya come from? How come I didn't sense ya coming up behind me? Who are you?"

"I am Elm," he answers. "I came here through the way I did, from the place I did. You have already figured out how to conceal your own Mana and magic, Max, even if you aren't able to do it in spells. You're a bright boy, I'm certain you can figure out why you didn't sense me."

"Ya are speaking like ya ain't younger than me," I say, and Elm shrugs. "Are ya a god?"

"We went over this last time," he says. "I am not a god. I know you are confused by your Experience gains, because the fight was more monotonous and boring than it was difficult, yes? Would you like to learn how Experience works?"

He's still going to be mysterious about his identity, huh?

"I already read up on it," I say. "Experience just works by how difficult the fight was. That's why it's weird I got so much. So when fights are easy, ya get pretty much nothing."

"That fight was difficult," Elm tells me. "What is the difference between it and your fight against Ko'Nabrul?"

"I had Colt with me for Ko'Nabrul," I say. "He enabled me to focus solely on offense. Even then that fight was a little difficult. With this fight, it was all me, and I had to focus on offense and defense. I wasn't able to cast my big spell until I'd worn him out enough I could cast fewer spells and distract him with some chatter."

"Exactly," Elm says. "That added difficulty to the fight. You were powerful enough to kill him if you got a good hit in, but Az'Raizeul was skilled enough to stop you from doing that. That gave the battle difficulty."

"I guess."

"And most societies of the world," he tells me. "Have lost or never learned the true method of Experience."

"What do ya mean?"

"Only a few do," he shrugs. "Two, on this continent. Six in total across the globe. Zanroval, your ancestral kingdom, has knowledge of it."

"How do ya know where I's from?"

"It's quite obvious to those who know," he says. "And you do wear the Zanroval Wings, anyway. Only a member of your bloodline can."

I touch the amulet concealed by my tunic. Elm did know about it, and that was before I knew about it. He can probably perceive its true nature, too.

"Who are ya?"

"Just a very knowledgeable kid," he tells me. "Do you want to learn the information all members of your family are taught in their lessons by the time they're thirteen? How Experience actually works?"

Everyone in my family gets taught this? That implies this information could be important.

"The information itself isn't important," Elm tells me. "It's simply something to know which is useful for explaining oddities like the amount of Experience you gained from this fight."

"Okay, then," I say. "How does Experience work?"

"It isn't a percentage."

"What?"

"Experience isn't a percentage," he tells me. "What percent toward the next Level you are is only displayed for easy understanding for most. It gives people who aren't that great at math a better gauge for knowing how far they are from the next Level."

"So the god that created it was being kind with that," I say.

"The being was, yes," he nods. "A preliminary version of it, which was on another world so you won't find the values here, did show the actual numbers instead. It caused many people to not be aware of how far they really were, so it was altered and all future versions and locations show the percent."

"Future versions?"

"The menus get tweaked from time to time," Elm nods. "Each tweak is a new version, though there haven't been any since before this world was granted access to the System."

"And ya know this how?" I ask.

"I am simply very knowledgeable," he tells me. "A… chronicler, of sorts."

"You're what, ten or eleven?"

"Would you like me to continue?"

He probably stole the knowledge from his parents or something and is popping up to share it with me because he's lonely and wants friends. But he's awkward, so he's trying to act all mysterious as his way of making friends.

Weird kid.

"Okay."

"The actual values," Elm tells me. "I won't tell you, so we'll use an example of hundreds. Let's say you need 100 Experience Points to reach Level 1, then another 200 Experience Points to reach Level 2, then another 300 Experience Points to reach Level 3, and so on. Every monster has a base amount of Experience they grant when killed. Let's say that goblin grant 1 Experience Point per Level. So a Level 1 goblin grants 1 Experience Point, while a Level 5 goblin grants 5 Experience Points."

"Every monster?" I ask.

"Every monster," Elm nods. "And when it's killed, those Experience Points are distributed to all who killed it based on their contribution to the fight. So if a Level 0 person kills a Level 5 goblin, they gain 5 Experience Points."

"Or 5% of the Experience needed to reach Level 1," I say.

"Using the example, yes," he nods. "That's not the actual formula."

"Ya said that already," I stretch a little bit.

My body's getting stiff from hovering in place, but I'm interested in this and Elm appeared while I was flying. We could probably land, but other than getting a little stiff from not moving, I'm comfortable.

"Yes," Elm nods. "And if five Level 0 people killed a Level 5 goblin, each contributing the same amount, they would each gain 1 Experience Point, using the example amounts I'm giving."

"Or 1% each," I say. "What if three killed while contributing the same amount, or one contributing more?"

"It divides it based on the percent of contribution," he says. "So if one person contributed forty percent of the work, they would receive forty percent of the base Experience."

"Or 2 Experience Points," I say. "Leaving only three for the other two."

"Yes," Elm nods. "And the System is kind enough to round the final amount earned. However, it's only for the total amount earned. Fractional points of Experience are earned by each individual person throughout a battle as well. The more work they have to put into the fight, the more they earn. In tough fights or against strong enough monsters, it can give whole values."

"So the more someone struggles in a fight," I say. "Oh! The more time there is that these additional Experience Points are building up!"

"Yes," he nods. "But it only builds up while they are fighting, and it will disappear if they retreat from the fight and return at a later date. It will only be earned if the monster is killed in that fight. Even if a fight seems easy in some way, such as you being able to stop all of your enemy's attacks, being unable to get a good hit in for awhile counts as a struggle and you continue to build up more Experience Points."

Which must be part of why I gained so much Experience from Az'Raizeul. He was definitely referring to my fight just a few minutes ago, as that's what happened. I was able to keep Az'Raizeul from hitting me, but the only attacks of mine that struck him weren't crippling blows. It wasn't until I'd worn him down that I was able to take him out, and even that needed me to chat with him to distract him a little.

"There's more, isn't there?" I ask.

"Yes," Elm nods. "I'll get to that in a minute. I'm sure you've noticed that when you gain more Experience than needed for the next Level, the leftover percent is how much into the next Level you are."

"Yeah," I answer. "Which doesn't make sense with this explanation. With the other explanation, it was just assumed that it was because you gain a percentage of Experience. But this is in points."

"Exactly," he nods. "If you have 97 Experience Points at Level 0 using the example values we're using, and you kill a Level 5 slime by yourself with ease, you'll gain 5 Experience Points. That's 5% of the Experience Points needed for the next Level, but you only need 3 Experience Points for the next. That's 3% of the Experience needed. Then you have 2 Experience Points out of 200 for Level 2. That's 1% of the Experience needed. The System simply then adds those two together, making it show that you gained 4% Experience."

Probably for ease of understanding, so that people don't see something like they gained 5% Experience but only have 1% into the next when they should have 2% by that visual. Using the example values he gave, since I'm pretty sure the formula is vastly different than this.

"Oh," I say. "Okay. And ya said that each person generates their own amount of additional Experience Points per fight?"

"Yes," he nods. "Based on contribution. That's why healers can still gain Experience as well, even if they perform no attacks at all. If they heal someone who's fighting the monster, that counts as participating. They'll gain some of the base, and then additional based on necessary injuries they treated and how their actions helped the fight."

"That's good," I say.

"The being which created the System wanted to make sure healers wouldn't be forced to fight, themselves, just so they could get stronger," Elm tells me. "He is a generous being."

"You know who it is?"

"Onto your other question, about there being more," he avoids answering, probably because he doesn't and just wants to sound like he does. "Yes, there is more. Some people have additional boosts to how much Experience they gain. This is applied after the distribution is performed."

"Like Colt's 10% increase on monsters stronger than him," I say. "If he kills a monster and gains 100 Experience Points from it, he'd gain 110 Experience Points. If he killed a monster and its base was 500 Experience Points, and it was split between him and five others equally, he'd still get 110 Experience Points, right? This is just ignoring that he'd probably gain more from the kill 'cause if it's stronger than him, it wouldn't have been an easy fight if he split Experience evenly with four others."

"Correct," Elm nods. "That Title is quite useful, and it was created to benefit royals who want to hunt regularly, who have a desire for it in their very souls. To qualify for that Title, that desire within their soul will never disappear, even if it weakens from time to time. Colt's bloodline on his father's side has it innate to them, built up over generations."

"It's pretty cool that he gets it," I say.

"It is," Elm nods. "But Titles aren't the only thing which grants increased amounts of Experience."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Affinities do as well."

"… affinities do?" I ask, then realize what he's getting at. "That's why people with more affinities gain more! Because we all have an innate boost!"

"Yup," Elm smiles. "However, it's not in the way you're thinking. You gain a multiplicative 10% Experience boost for different things. One of them is for having all four base elements – fire, water, earth, and air. One is for having both light and shadow. One of them is for having lightning. One is for having three affinities in total. One is for having five affinities in total. One is for having seven affinities in total."

"That's six whole boosts," I say. "So I gain an additional 60% Experience?"

"That's multiplicative," he tells me. "Not additive. So it's 1.1 times 1.1, for six of those. In total, you gain roughly 77% more Experience for being a seven-affinity."

"While a six-affinity would gain… uh… just 'bout 46% more, right?" I hope I did the math right.

"Correct," Elm nods. "And so would a five-affinity who's missing either light and shadow or two elements from the basic four. But if they're missing from two different sets, then the five-affinity would only gain an additional 33%, roughly. That's why some five-affinities will seem to gain Experience faster than others, and why seven-affinities gain significantly more."

No wonder five-affinities are considered near-equals to six-affinities. They gain Experience at about the same rate if the elements they're missing are from the same group as each other.

"And finally," Elm says. "Named monsters, monsters with Titles, and King Monsters all have additional boosts to the base amount of Experience they gain and a percentage bonus to the Experience generated by those fighting them based on struggle. This bonus is higher the further into that list they are. So a monster with a Title will have a higher base and generate more over time than just a named monster, while a King Monster will be even higher. And all personal bonuses get factored in after that, rather than having their values simply added to it."

So that is why I gained so much Experience from killing Az'Raizeul. Being a King Monster, he automatically had significantly more Experience than an equivalent goblin who wasn't. Not only that, but I earned more from how much effort it took me to kill him than if he hadn't been a King Monster.

"However," Elm says. "Artificial struggles don't increase the amount you build up, so you can't abuse it. If you're intentionally holding back, or not taking opportunities that you could have in the hopes of building up more Experience, it won't work. That's why knowing this doesn't help things out much. You can use it to know which fight between equally-strong monsters will give you more, though."

"Like a Goblin King or just a shadetoad with a bounty," I say. "Or a monster whose element or strongest element is weak to an area I'm strong in or one I'mweak in."

"Exactly," he says. "There are also monsters with significantly more bonuses and base values as well. Dragons, for one. Behemoths, for another. I'll let you discover the rest on your own."

In other words, he doesn't know what the others are, but does know that there are others. Okay, that's good to know. At least I know what's going on with Elm now, and his need to talk with others and sound knowledgeable. Maybe one day in the future, I'll ask him about his home situation.

But not right now.

"Alright," I say, then look south. I can't see the kingdom from here, but I do wonder something. "I'm surprised His Majesty was willing to do an event of this scale. The kingdom is only around eighty thousand in population, and we only have around six or seven thousand fighters, total. At least, ones who can be pulled away from their duties, such as watching our borders. Sure, this'll give a lot of Experience to people – which is why I'm thinking about it now – but we're still vulnerable and there are several seven-affinities and several Rankers in the other kingdoms."

"It's because no one will attack while these forces are gone," Elm tells me. "They know that even if they succeed in taking over today, thousands of people who just gained a ton of Levels will return. Including what will be at least two dozen people who fought and killed Goblin Kings. By my estimates, there will be another six people after you who are Level 100 by the day's end. Another thousand will be over Level 50.

"So if the other kingdoms invaded," he says. "They'll be facing a bunch of seriously pissed-off people who can obliterate them. That's why Arthur chose to do this attack all at once, rather than in stages with only one kingdom being attacked every few months. He knows the other kingdoms won't be that stupid, even if they're given a golden opportunity."

"Another six who reach Level 100?" I ask. "There are that many people who are close?" I ask.

"Among those fighting Goblin Kings, yes," he says. "Especially considering most who do have five affinities or more. And Colt is a seven-affinity. If you hadn't reached Level 100, the base Experience you would have gained from killing Az'Raizeul would have earned you enough Experience to gain 19 Levels, Max. And that's without factoring in how much you generated from how much effort it took you to defeat him and your bonus from being a seven-affinity. Colt will also reach Level 100 after the kill, as will Benjamin."

"Wasn't he only, like, Level 58 the other day?"

"He's been hiding things," Elm tells me. "Such as that he gained another twenty-five Levels over the last week. Daniel – you remember him, don't you – will also reach Level 100 finally, he's already at Level 92. Thomas is another who will reach it, as will Richard – the one from the Silver Star Guild – and one person you haven't met. That is by my estimates."

Does he just study people out of his boredom?

"Oh," I say, then Elm looks west.

"I think I've stalled you long enough," he tells me.

"Stalled me?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers. "I'm sure you noticed that the rest of your guild didn't come home from their hunt before you went to bed last night."

Hailey and the rest of the guild left at some point yesterday after lunch, to go on some hunt. I wasn't really paying attention and wished them luck in it. Elm bringing this up now gives me a bad feeling, especially since he said he was stalling me.

"Yeah," I say. "And I didn't want to wake 'em up early this morning 'cause of it."

"They didn't return last night."

"What?" Horror starts to rise.

"Yes," Elm nods. "You see, Hailey knew of the old plan for this battle. The one which involved only one goblin kingdom not being attacked. And she thought that since the guild master was taking out one kingdom, the rest of the guild could take out another. The rest of the guild agreed."

The one Hailey knew wasn't going to be attacked is around twenty miles west of here, a little northwest. That's the same goblin kingdom I was planning on going to check observe for a bit… right before Elm showed up to stall me from doing so.

Their target kingdom specializes in earth magics. My minions went off to fight a Goblin King?

"Fuck!"

I take off in that direction, flying as fast as I can as an [Air Barrier] forms around me.

"The storm I mentioned… has begun," Elm's voice reaches me on the wind.

That fucking asshole! I'm going to fucking stab him a thousand fucking times for stalling me! He better fucking hope they're still alive when I arrive!

The twenty miles takes too long to pass, even if it's only minutes. When I finally arrive, however… I'm greeted by an unexpected sight.

To'Reimalk, an Earth Goblin King… is on the ground, dead. Judging by the blood oozing out of him, it's a recent kill, too. A very recent kill.

Hailey and the rest of my minions are all collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. They aren't even bothering to heal from this. This fight is over, and though the goblin kingdom still has plenty alive, the monsters are all cowering in fear of my guild.

[Goblin King Killer] instills fear in goblins, with a stronger effect the weaker the goblin is. It's also granted to all contributors to the kill.

…how. How did Hailey, a three-affinity, and the rest of my minions, who are all one-affinities, manage to kill a Goblin King? What's more, Hailey was only Level 22 when I talked with her yesterday morning. There's no way they should have been able to do this.

Yet they did. There are over two hundred dead goblins, and even more dead boars and trolls and troll mages. I count dozens of dead goblins with magic items, too. Not only did my minions manage to do this, but they did it with no fatal casualties on their side.

A storm is coming… no fucking shit, Elm.

My guild is awesome.