"Oh right, I almost forgot about his big friend."
The massive creature was pounding against the cave from outside, producing deep, powerful tremors that shook the ground beneath our feet. It almost felt like some force of nature itself was hunting us. With each blow, chunks of dirt and ash-colored debris fell from the cave walls.
Even so, the cave remained unmoved—no cracks appeared on its shining walls, unscathed despite the violent shaking.
The rumbling went on for long minutes without stopping, until suddenly, it ceased without warning.
"Ahhhg, my head… finally, it's stopped."
I found myself inside the cave chamber with two people I had never seen before—a girl, not very tall, with shiny black hair down to her shoulders, skin as white as snow, and long eyelashes that emphasized the darkness of her large eyes. She wore what looked like a school uniform: a white long-sleeved shirt, a light brown wool vest over it, a short skirt with a gray-and-red plaid pattern, black stockings covering her legs, and brown shoes matching her vest.
The boy with her was slightly taller—maybe 155 and 160 centimeters respectively—with hair as gray as the cave walls, falling down to his eyelashes, and sharp hazel eyes, perhaps from lack of sleep. He wore a similar outfit: a long-sleeved white shirt with a light brown vest, a red tie, gray school pants, and black shoes.
Both of them had spent the entire time the giant shook the cave lying on the ground, trying to catch their breath.
"It'd be kind of awkward to ask questions right now, wouldn't it?"
I waited a few more minutes after the giant stopped hitting before I finally spoke.
"Umm, well, I'm Levy. Welcome to my humble abode…"
The two, who had finally regained some breath, turned toward me with a mix of emotions on their faces—fear? joy? gratitude? confusion? I really couldn't tell. A few seconds passed before one of them finally spoke.
The boy stood up, smiling widely as he reached out his hand.
"I'm Kris. Thank you so much for your help… friend."
"Nice to meet you, Kris."
The girl immediately followed his example, standing up with a shy smile and a faint blush. She clasped her hands together and gave a small bow.
"Umm… I'm Jess. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, Jess."
"Such a pretty girl… very different from Emily… I hope… Emily and Julian are okay."
"I can't help but feel nostalgic looking at these two. Their personalities, at least at first glance, remind me so much of them—just swapped in gender. I can't help feeling a bit sad seeing that."
The girl looked at me with slight concern.
"Uh… are you okay?"
Her question brought me back to reality. I rubbed the back of my head and replied, slightly embarrassed,
"Ah, yeah, yeah, sorry, I just spaced out for a second, haha."
Introductions done, I sat down on the floor around what was left of the campfire—now a bit scattered after the fight with the two blood wolves.
"I'd love to talk. I saw some people when all this started, but as you can see, I'm alone now. Still, I can wait until you get some rest first."
Both Kris and Jess had dark circles under their eyes—it was obvious they hadn't slept much, if at all, the previous night. Offering them the chance to rest, even for a few hours, was the best thing to do.
When I mentioned sleep, both their faces lit up. Kris, eyes shining like a puppy's, said.
"Really? You're okay with us sleeping here with you? Really?"
"Wow, he said 'really' twice."
"Hey, of course. I might've gotten here first, but it's not like this place is mine or anything."
"Thank you so much!"
Kris immediately sat down, and just as he was about to lie on the cave floor, Jess—still standing—spoke with a worried look.
"But… what if more monsters come?"
"A fair concern. After all, there are corpses inside, and that huge thing outside made a ton of noise. It's possible."
I frowned slightly.
"It's possible. After everything that happened here and all that noise—plus, it seems like we're its target."
"Its… target?"
"I'd love to talk. There's a lot I want to confirm with you two, but honestly, you don't look so good. We can't go outside with that thing still out there. And if something gets in and makes noise, I'll be able to sense it thanks to one of my skills. So rest for a while, and we'll sort things out later, alright?"
The girl nodded, a bit embarrassed, and lay down in the farthest corner from the room's entrances. Kris lay down on the opposite side.
"Now here I am, in my lovely room, with two kids whose names I barely know and not much else, while a four-meter monster is right outside. We're better off than before, right? …Right?!"
***
While the two of them slept, I gathered all the wood I'd collected during my earlier trips. Before I ran into the pair, I had made a few supply runs, so I had enough for several days. I also rebuilt my improvised campfire—a circle made of stones I'd found inside the cave, with leftover ashes from the night before piled in the center.
Pretty rustic and lacking in detail, but considering I'd made it while I had a dagger stuck in my leg, it wasn't half bad.
As I finished tidying up, I used [Pulse] a few times to check the surroundings, until suddenly, Jess woke up—about two hours after they'd gone to sleep.
I shrugged.
"Umm, sorry… did I wake you?"
"No… it's just that…"
Jess wore an anxious expression for a moment.
"It's just that… I'm scared."
"Wait, this is the same girl who just stabbed that blood wolf in the neck like a savage a few minutes ago?!"
"Uhh, I think it's perfectly understandable to be scared. I mean, I'm scared too. Last night a green dwarf made my life hell."
"The one behind you?"
"Huh?"
I turned around and saw the goblin's body still there—I hadn't disposed of it in case I needed it for food later.
"Yeah, that one. What I mean is, I don't think there's anyone here who isn't scared. It's okay to feel that way. Still, what you did to that wolf was impressive. You might be scared, but you've got guts too."
Her eyes widened at my words, surprise quickly turning to embarrassment. She waved her hands to cover her face.
"No, no, that was just…"
"Ha ha ha, relax a little."
Just then, Kris woke up and sat up to join our conversation. I had a lot of questions and hoped they could answer some.
"Well, now that we're all awake, I wanted to ask a few things."
"Eh, I just woke up and you're already giving me a test?"
A few seconds of silence followed before I asked my first question.
"Are you two level one?"
Jess nodded, and Kris checked his status panel before replying.
"I just leveled up to two. That wolf gave me a lot of exp."
"So you got the exp from the second wolf. Can I ask how much?"
"Eleven. Five from killing it and six from some level-difference bonus."
"I got four from the level difference… so the higher the gap, the more exp you get for killing a stronger monster."
"Interesting. I'd also like to ask—how did you two reach level one? I leveled up after killing an ogre by… accident."
Both of them looked confused—probably wondering how anyone could kill an ogre by accident—but that was exactly what happened. I hadn't expected to survive that.
Jess broke the silence.
"We leveled up while running away from the wolves."
"What? You're telling me you leveled up without killing anything?"
I couldn't hide my surprise. Until now, I thought the only way to gain experience was by killing monsters.
"Ahhh, right. We were running with everything we had. Since we're both on the track team, we managed to hold out for a while. But just when we were about to give up, we got a message about an interference—and then a gift, right Jess? Actually, that wolf earlier was the first one I ever killed."
Jess nodded.
"So they also had an interference before receiving the gift."
"Didn't you get anything before the level-up message? I got a message about a first downfall, so that's why I'm surprised."
"I think I remember something like 'First Skill Acquired,' and then a level-up message that healed us a bit… right, Kris?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's when we got something about a system with a weird name, plus the swords and a really useful kit."
With the information I'd gathered so far, a few things became clear: you had to reach level one to receive the gift and the second system, but killing a monster wasn't necessary to level up. That meant there could be plenty of level ones, twos, or even higher out there who hadn't killed anything—contrary to what I'd thought.
"So any form of gaining experience can trigger the process. In my case, it was killing the ogre; in theirs, it was gaining a skill."
"Gaining a skill…"
"Wait, how did you both gain a skill while running? Did you find two skill stones at the same time?"
The two of them looked at each other, confused, as if I'd said something absurd. Then they answered together, calm as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"We just ran."
"We just ran."