I Reincarnated for Nothing by Naughty Otter

C6 Dungeon with Death (2)

Many adventures entered the dungeons with dreams of becoming rich overnight.  However, most of them were wiped out before they were able to get past the 1st floor.  The reasons varied.  They might be lacking in combat capability, or they might not have caught sight of a trap.  They might have mismanaged their equipments or they might have ran out of food. 

“Wow,  Look!  Look at this stairway!  Does this stairway perhaps lead to the second floor?”

“Yes, that’s right..”

Of course, their team’s battle capability was taken care of by the human hero Maetel.  Everything else was taken care of by the ex-Four Heavenly King Artpe.  There was no way this two man team would face any difficulties here.  After defeating the Elite Zombie, Maetel had advanced into being a level 6.  The momentum created by Maetel allowed them to clear the 1st floor in just 6 hours.  They had cleared it at superspeed.  At the end of the 1st floor, Maetel was level 8, and Artpe somehow managed to advance into being level 5.

“Mmmmmmm.  Why am I progressing so fast?  Artpe is more amazing than me.”

“It is usually like that.  Each person has a different area of expertise.”

Maetel’s growth speed was much faster than his.  He should be upset at this reality, but Artpe already knew about the growth speed displayed by the hero in his previous life.  In Artpe’s eyes, the current Maetel was progressing very slowly.  She’ll probably level up much faster when she awakens to her Innate ability.

“This won’t do.”

“What?”

Unlike Artpe, who had just accepted this fact, Maetel thought long and hard in front of the stairway  Afterwards, she resolutely nodded her head as she turned to look at Artpe.

“We have to match our levels.”

“No, we really don't need to do that.  As I said before, it’ll be safer for us if you leveled up, since you are in the front….”

“We have to match our levels.”

The light in Maetel’s eyes was very serious.  Artpe couldn’t help help but ask the question.

“What’s the reason behind this?”

“If our level difference is too high, I’m afraid we will grow apart.”

“You are using some pretty poetic figure of speech…..?”

However, the point brought up by Maetel unexpectedly touched on the core of a problem faced by all parties. This was one of the main reasons why most parties broke up over time.  If one member of the party increased his level too quickly, it meant the other party member would fall behind.  As the difference in level becomes more severe, the difference in ability also widened.  At that point, it was mutually harmful for that party to remain together.  It was to be expected, since a monster’s level wasn’t fluid.  It didn’t adjusted to the level of its opponent.  

‘I’m pretty sure this dummy didn’t think that far ahead…  She simply doesn’t want a gap to form between the two of us.’

Artpe let out a bitter laugh.  He had wanted to overwhelmingly develop Maetel’s ability.  This would allow him simply stand in the back.  He had planned on eating the crumbs off her table.  However, he had no choice now, since the hero wouldn’t let go of this issue.  He had to keep step with her to a certain extent.

“All right.  We’ll do that, but my growth rate is much slower than yours.  It’ll be impossible to match our levels.  How about we split the monsters evenly?”