Reaching the Limit

With the rays of the morning sun, piercing through the large window in his room, Valyr could not help but slightly crack his eyes open as he lightly frowned, turning around to avoid direct sunlight. Although he was successful in getting a bit more shuteye, the moment of bliss only lasted for another half hour as the room gradually grew brighter, eventually forcing Valyr to get out of bed as he let out a slightly annoyed yawn.

Scratching his back before doing a series of light stretches, Valyr could not help but think about how he slept last night, which he found to be less pleasant than usual. Even though the bed he laid down upon was somewhat better compared to the bed he slept at in the barracks, he knew that the reason why he couldn't sleep that well was due to the thoughts swirling in his mind as he tried to fall asleep, some regarding the upcoming monster tide, and some regarding the need for him to level up.

After going through his usual morning routine, Valyr eventually left the room he had stayed in, heading towards the lobby to find Adrian already awake.

"Good morning, sir," Adrian said with a light smile. "Have you gotten good sleep last night?"

In response to that, Valyr wryly smiled. "Is it possible to get some breakfast before I leave?"

"Most certainly, sir." Adrian nodded before gesturing Valyr to head towards the dining area. "Consider it a complementary service of your stay."

Shrugging his shoulders in response, Valyr made his way to the dining area, seating himself in front of a random empty table as he waited for breakfast to arrive. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes for breakfast to arrive, consisting of a few pieces of toasted bread and a small assortment of cured meats, as well as a mug of what looked like coffee on the side.

Taking a small sip of the coffee, Valyr went ahead and ate the simple breakfast that was given to him, enjoying the entire meal as he stood up from his table around ten minutes later.

Returning to the lobby, he then bade farewell to Adrian as he thanked him for the hospitality he had shown to him. Waving goodbye, Valyr left the inn, swiftly making his way to the Klaus Village's gates as he headed towards Mak'aroni Forest.

…

As the distance between the village and the forest wasn't that far, it only took around half an hour for Valyr to arrive at the periphery of the forest, considering that he wasn't going at full speed. Basking himself in the slightly harsh rays of the sun for a bit, he then sat down on a nearby rock as he pondered over what he was going to do for today.

"Since I've decided to have most of the day today allocated towards hunting monsters for XP, it could be said that it's certain that I'll have enough XP to raise my level to Level 10," Valyr muttered to himself, wondering as to how much XP he truly needed to reach Level 10. Unfortunately for him, he could only view the amount of XP he needed to reach the next level, and not any of the levels after that. 'With how the levels at the hundreds need hundreds of millions of experience per level, it's no surprise that I've forgotten how much XP I need to level up at the beginning."

"In any case, before I leave, I should probably try finding monsters at Level 14 and 15," he said soon after, thinking about his chances against monsters at this level. "I'll have to try fighting against a lone Level 13 monster first. But then again, considering the only injury I got from that fight was a few lacerations on my skin, as long as I find a lone monster at Level 14 or 15, I should probably be fine."

With that in mind, Valyr unfurled the fabric affixing the wooden spear on his back, standing up as he firmly gripped on his spear. Taking a deep breath, he then headed into the forest, looking for a lone monster at Level 13. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes of wandering about, the world had answered his prayers, allowing him to come face-to-face with a bear at Level 13.

Just as he had expected, with the fight being a one-on-one, there wasn't much problem with Valyr fighting against monsters at Level 13. With renewed confidence in fighting against Level 14 and 15 monsters, he left the bear he had killed and moved deeper to the forest, looking around for monsters that fit his current criterion.

Of course, while looking for a monster at Level 14 and above, he did not pass up on wandering Level 13 monsters, killing four more monsters at that level before finally finding what seemed to be the ideal target he had in mind. Hiding behind a tree, he eyed a bear that was quite a distance away from him, which seemed to be idly gazing at the river before it.

With spiky black fur and a silver stripe running along its back, the bear before him exuded a level of power he wasn't expecting. 'That's weird, shouldn't the feeling I'm getting from a monster like this only be marginally stronger than a Level 13 monster?'

Curious, Valyr went ahead and identified the bear through the system. However, once he read through the system's words, all color was drained off his face as he silently moved away from the premises.

"There's no way in hell am I going to face off against an Elite!"

Ding!

[Level 14 | Silver-striped Bear (Elite)]

Just like how variant classes existed, which dictated the level of strength a being wielded at a certain class, variants also existed among the monsters one could come across, the weakest and the most common variant among them being the Elite monster.

Unlike a normal monster, an Elite monster had stats that were 25% higher than a normal monster at the same level. Even though Valyr had almost all of his stats in the low 20s, he knew for a fact that he wouldn't be a match for an Elite monster, considering that their important stats were most likely at least twice as high as his.

Hastily running away from the Elite monster he had passed by, Valyr went ahead and searched for monsters at that level that weren't Elite. However, no matter how much he tried, all of the monsters at that level and above were considered Elite, with one of them even being a variant far more dangerous than a normal Elite.

Ding!

[Level 15 | Windclaw Wolf (Uncommon Elite)]

Although it was only the addition of a prefix, an Uncommon Elite monster was far more terrifying than a normal Elite, with inexperienced players even 5 levels above it becoming its prey. After all, compared to an Elite, an Uncommon Elite had stats 50% greater than a normal monster of the same level, which was enough for players and NPCs alike to be wary of their existence.

Much less to say for Rare Elites and above.

Eventually realizing that every monster he came across that was Level 14 or 15 was an Elite monster, Valyr could not help but let out a sigh and settle for Level 13 monsters. Including the first five he killed before coming across his first Elite, he had killed a total of 50 Level 13 monsters by the time the sun was about to set, netting him about 39,000 XP.

Taking a seat on a decently sized boulder, Valyr went ahead and looked at the amount of experience he currently had, being left at a slight loss for words as he noticed that he had amassed close to 50,000 XP within these past two days.

"Surely, this is more than enough to raise my level up to the limit, right?" Hoping for the best, he then went ahead and allocated all of his XP towards leveling up. Fortunately, by the time he had reached Level 9, he still had enough XP left over for the final prompt, allowing a light smile to appear on his face.

Ding!

[12,260 XP has been allocated. You are now Level 10.]

[All of your stats have been increased by 1 point.]

[You have gained 1 unassigned stat point.]

[You have reached the level limit of your current class. To increase this limit, it is highly advised for you to ascend to a higher class.]

[Would you like to ascend?]