"Finally, Level 76," he said, taking a seat on what was left of one of the control room chairs.
Leon glanced at the broken equipment buried under thick layers of dust before continuing, "Levelling up to 100 is supposed to be relatively easy, right? Why do I feel like my levelling is slower?"
"It's not," Camellya immediately responded.
"You're simply being impatient. You're in a hurry to increase your level, so even though you're levelling up at an accelerated pace, it feels slower. But need I remind you that we're currently on the sixth floor of this dungeon, and we've just finished fighting off a small horde of monsters with levels in the 70s."
Leon lightly clenched his right fist, then looked up at Camellya as he asked, "You're not killing any of them, are you? You're letting me get the final hit in so that I can get that bonus EXP, right?"
"Aside from situations where it was completely unavoidable, I haven't been the one to take the life of any monster we've fought so far."
Camellya began walking toward the exit of the control room as she responded to Leon, raising her hand and pressing it against the faint translucent magic barrier that had been preventing them from leaving.
The barrier crumbled under her touch, and Leon got up when he saw that they could now leave.
As he headed toward the exit, Camellya turned to him and asked, "Why are you in such a hurry to raise your level anyway?"
"Well, it's obviously so I can catch up to the standard that's expected of me."
Camellya blinked silently, her expression showing clear confusion, and Leon continued, "I'm 17, soon to be 18. The average high noble of the Russell Empire is at least Level 100 by the time they come of age. I'd be coming of age in less than a year's time and I'm still quite a ways from that. What's more, given my family's standing, the expectations for me are a lot higher."
Hearing his explanation, Camellya had a look of incredulity in her eyes.
"Since when did you start caring that much about the expectations others have of you?" she asked almost instantly.
Before Leon could even answer, she quickly continued, "Also, you were born with a negative Level due to your spiritual illness. It would be ridiculous for anyone to expect the same of you as they would of other nobles who have been hale and hearty since birth."
Leon chuckled lightly at her words and shook his head. "No, no, no, Camellya, you seem to be misunderstanding something. I want to meet those standards for my sake."
Raising a finger, he added, "Firstly, it's so that I can shut up my very annoying set of maternal uncles who like using their kids to poke fun at me, saying that I'm weak."
That response reminded Camellya of the fact that Leon's mother, Lucia Raviaz, currently had a strained relationship with her family because of both Leon's father and Leon himself.
'His relationship with his paternal family isn't exactly the best either,' Camellya thought, recalling how equally strained things were with his father's side.
"I plan to do back to those brats what they did to me all those years ago," Leon continued. "Let them have a little taste of their own medicine. Give them a few right straights to the face, break a few noses maybe, and then tell their damned fathers that it was simply just a scuffle between children."
Leon clenched his fists as he said this, lightning sparking from his fingers, his words and actions making it clear to Camellya how much importance getting even with his cousins held for him.
"Besides that, Camellya," Leon said, turning toward her, "I plan to take part in the Annual Noble Heirs meeting that I missed last year, and for that meeting, I cannot let myself be seen as falling short compared to the children of the Dukes and Marquises of the Empire."
"That makes sense, I suppose," Camellya responded. "There are certainly a lot among the Ducal and Marquisate families of the Empire who believe that your Raviaz family wields too much influence and will do anything to reduce it by even the slightest bit."
Just as Camellya finished speaking, she raised her hand, water droplets condensing in her palm, and with a slight touch of magic power, they solidified into small icicles that shot forward, curving through the air and piercing the knees and ankles of the monsters charging at them from the end of the corridor.
With their joints punctured, the monsters lost their mobility and collapsed face-first onto the floor, where Leon, forming his fingers into finger guns, fired bolts of lightning straight into their heads, some through their open mouths as they screamed and others directly through their eyes.
By the time Leon and Camellya reached their position, all that was left were corpses, scattered brain matter, and blood spread across the floor, and they stepped over the remains before continuing deeper into the underground facility.
Their goal, acquiring a Combat Class for Leon while he levelled up on the side, could be achieved by reaching the last floor of the facility, where a former Hero who had never reached their full potential had fought their final battle decades ago against a high-ranking merman during an invasion and perished.
The last floor they were headed to was the location of the facility's weapon vault, where the weapon of mass destruction that the Hero had used to end that battle, destroying the facility in the process, had once been kept.
Leon and Camellya continued pressing forward, fighting and killing all monsters they encountered, making sure to search each floor as thoroughly as possible for any monsters before moving on to the next.
Eventually, night fell, and the two of them had to pause their dungeon dive.
They ended the day's activities by clearing out all the monsters within a trap room, then tossing out the corpses before deciding to use that space to rest for the night.
Both of them carried storage artifacts that held food, sleeping bags, and other supplies needed for an overnight stay within the dungeon, so there were very few issues with preparing for the night.
After setting up his belongings, Leon sat down on a folding chair and summoned his status board, his eyes scanning the list to see how much his stats had improved.
Seeing him sitting silently with his violet pupils darting around, Camellya raised an eyebrow and asked, "You're checking your status?"
"Mhmm," Leon nodded with a hum.
Status boards weren't visible to third parties unless the observer possessed the Extra Skill: Appraisal or an artifact with that ability, so from Camellya's perspective, Leon was staring into empty air.
"Level 78 and I still have a 'D-' Stat," Leon muttered with a sigh, closing his status board and shaking his head.
"That's not bad, no? Especially considering your condition."
At Camellya's response, Leon moved from the chair and flopped onto his sleeping bag, staring at the cracked ceiling as he said, "Is it really?"
"Having a D- Stat at Level 78 is still normal. All your other stats are D or D+, right?"
"My Energy and Agility are D+. Durability is still stuck at D-," Leon replied, earning a small nod from Camellya.
"Given your current Level, your Durability Stat Level should be close to 100."
Stats were grouped into three sub-ranks: Negative sub-ranks denoted as 'X-', Neutral as 'X', and Positive as 'X+'.
Within each sub rank were Stat Levels that numbered 1-100. For example, acquiring a stat at 'D-' meant starting from 'D- Level 1'.
With every main level increase, that stat 'D- Level' increases, eventually reaching 'D- Level 100', whereupon one gains the 'D Level 1' stat. Take that to 'D Level 100', and one gains the 'D+ Level 1' stat, and so on.
"Unfortunately, I don't have skills like Full or Perfect Appraisal, so I can't see details like Stat Levels," Leon muttered.
Sitting up abruptly, he looked at Camellya and asked, "What about you? You said your level was 140, right? That's around the range for Neutral stats. Do you have any positives yet?"
Camellya nodded and replied, "Two at C+. Energy and Intelligence."
"That's expected for a mage, I guess," Leon said, lying back down as he continued, "Can't wait to reach Level 100 and get C-Rank stats so charting my stat growth curve will be easier."
He held up a hand, indicating the typical level ranges for stats after Level 100, putting down a finger for each line.
"Levels X00 To X33 for Negative '-' Stats, Levels X34 To X67 for Neutrals ' ', and Levels X68 To X99 for Positive '+' Stats."
"Don't forget those ranges aren't always consistent. People develop differently due to factors from Combat Class to affinity," Camellya said, then pointed at herself as she added, "It's even more inconsistent for Nonstandards like me who can fight opponents above their own Level."
"Mhmm…" Leon hummed in response, and Camellya turned toward him, noticing that his eyes were already closed and his breathing had begun to even out.
She watched the sleeping Leon in silence for a few seconds before heaving a sigh and shaking her head.
'He's so unguarded. We've barely known each other for a day, and he just fell asleep without a care.'
Just as she had that thought, a faint ripple of magic power pricked Camellya's senses, and she barely restrained herself from reacting to the alert her Detection Field Extra Skill was sending.
'That mage…Elidyr, was it? Leon should've expected him to be trailing close behind.'
She glanced at the sleeping Leon once more, tying her hair into a bun as she concluded, 'I suppose it's not that he's unguarded, but that he trusts his guards that much.'
With those thoughts, she lowered the rechargeable lamp and tucked herself into her sleeping bag, closing her eyes for the night.