"I do not need whatever you are offering. All I need is trust." I said as I motioned to the golden fire in the center of the room. "Though the information would be a nice bonus."
She raised her head with narrowed eyes, whether that was from my refusal or my request to see her stats. Yet she quickly nodded and stood in front of the Arc.
{Essence: 910,000}
Lvl:194
Name: Achel Durella
Mana: 200/200
Class: (Rare) Twin Bladed Rouge
Rank: Awakened
Strength:20
Agility:99
Endurance:28
Dexterity:99
Intelligence:20
Faith:5
[Statistical Upgrade Cost: 180,000]
'There was a lot to unpack there…..' To start with it felt like she was extremely low-level. I had dropped forty floors down and I would be reaching her level in a month, maybe two at the highest.
Ivar and I had climbed to well over a hundred levels in a single floor. Now I didn't imagine every floor was as open and as populated as the swamp but the point still stands. Next came the essence she managed to accrue in the 'forty' years she's been stuck here.
"There is a limit on the amount of essence you can hold….." I realized after I did the math in my head, she had just enough essence to reach level 199.
"Correct my lord, there is something of a bottleneck when reaching the second tier. After you've acquired everything for your class the amount of essence you can hold will never go above what you need to reach level 199." Achel answered my question.
The second tier? That meant level two hundred and above. So there was a limit, a soft-level cap. 'It made sense, there was a difficulty level of this place that the maker didn't want to be disturbed.' Sure I could've kept grinding and probably reached this level cap in the nineties, yet I would've been stuck at that level until I got to this floor. There was no reason to grind, it seemed.
This place was probably designed so that you could reach the level cap naturally. So why fight a mini-boss or the mobs when you don't have to? The only answer is the loot they could drop.
The question of how to break this level cap remained. I'd bet the answer is on this floor or the ones below….
It was beginning to become a running theme of this place, I'd learn something and question fifteen other things.
"Well, I tentatively trust you lady plus you seem knowledgeable. Let's break out of here, seven hours as a slave is more than enough for me" I said with a smirk as I began gathering my stuff. I ain't have much. Just my spear, which I could've just summoned to myself at any time.
How I missed my enchanted bag of holding but it's probably better that Ivar gets a hold of it. He had an epic class and a companion that could betray him at any moment. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd die for the man, but I'd fight for him and consider him my first friend in this world. Though I missed my bow and quiver quite a lot.
The monocle was also a rather hard blow to take, being able to hunt for treasure and have hints of where secret rooms are was incredibly valuable.
"I believe you are moving too fast, you still have those magic-dampening gauntlets and a slave collar that will either blow up if you get too far or let them track you from anywhere," She said with a raised eyebrow.
I tentatively brought the pommel of the spear down on my foot, and a small flame stopped it dead. In a true safe zone, you couldn't be hurt not even by yourself.
"Simple," I said as I wedged the tip of my spear between the collar and my neck, I roughly jerked the spear despite her yell of protest. A cling sound reverberated with the crackle of the fire, my slave collar was off. "Seems it was just a tracker, points for the crazy necromancer"
"Now, will you either pull or cut one of these off for me? The angles are kinda rough for my big ass spear." I asked the shocked woman across the fire from me. Yet she shook her and walked over daggers in hand. A few expert cuts and a flinch from me and too loud thuds hit the stone floor.
"So you need help with that or…..?" I asked as I noticed she hadn't taken her chance to cut her collar off. Her hand was shaking and her shoulders trembled.
"I…I can't, we need a few allies and I can't go out there collarless." Achel said much to my surprise as I hadn't even thought of that. I traveled for a few hours dragged along by a revenant, there weren't enough mobs to justify acquiring an entire cohort.
Yet, I also couldn't stop her. Nor would I destroy this safe zone once I left, what would I be if I denied these people a chance to free themselves? I'd be no better than the one who slapped the collars on their necks.
Sure they were assholes that didn't care if I died. Not one of them besides this woman here had 'watched' my back, so I didn't feel comfortable offering them a place on my team.