"[Lunar Arc]!" Aria intoned while aiming at the bleeding eye socket that Nyx's masterful assault had left behind.
"[Doom Strike]!" Kaiden jumped at the monster, swinging his War Axe with all his might.
Nyx was in the middle of conducting a power struggle against the mauler as it refused to let go of her dagger, keeping it under its left paw.
Aria's projectile hit its mark, driving deep into the monster's eye socket. The moon-themed spell pushed through and left a severe wound on its skull. Copious amounts of blood gushed forth.
Kaiden's follow-up came at the perfect time. He gritted his teeth and gripped the handle so tightly that numerous veins popped on his arm. The result of his strike spoke for itself—he hit the monster in the side of its head with so much force he pierced right through its skull so deeply the edge of his pick emerged from its eye.
The beast whimpered weakly for a second before losing all strength in its body and crumbling to the ground lifelessly.
[You've slain Silverback Mauler (Level 5). You've gained 1100 XP.]
Kaiden finally allowed himself to relax, collapsing to the ground. His chest heaved from the intense exertion, and as soon as the immediate danger passed, his injuries hit him mercilessly. For a long time now, his body was fueled by nothing but adrenaline.
His ribs were most certainly fractured at best, if not outright broken. The initial attack of the beast hit him the worst. If Kaiden had bought a light armor instead of a medium one, he would've died—the metal chest plate he thought would prove to be more than enough for their first dungeon descent was in tatters.
"Kai!" Aria shouted worriedly before running up to him.
"Hold on, Kai!" Nyx did the same and started rummaging through his backpack. "Drink this!" she instructed while uncorking the low-tier health potion Luna had left behind with him. She took one of each while giving him the other half.
Nyx held the potion to his lips and gently tilted it so he could gulp down its contents with as little effort of his own as possible. "Aria, can you help by watching for threats? Beasts can jump at us from the bushes or even from treetops."
The Scarlet fangirl's many hours spent fawning over awakened and their dungeon clears gave her some secondhand experience. Nyx knew that despite their victory, they were not out of danger—not at all.
"I'm okay… The potion is working… Thanks..." Kaiden grunted between pained wheezes. A low-tier potion was only helpful for light wounds, and its effects would materialize much slower than a high-tier potion's would. It was still much better than nothing, though.
"I got 1100 XP…" Kaiden said with wonderment in his tone.
"900 here. It's an amazing gain!" Nyx replied with a happy smile. If her boyfriend could think about his XP gains, then he was in a better condition than she assumed.
The amount of XP one gained depended on multiple factors. Firstly, the difference in levels. The bigger the gap between the slayer and the slain, the more rewards the slayer gets.
Secondly, the slain monster's difficulty. Even if the rabid forest rats from before were level 5, they would not grant even a third of the XP they received from the silverback mauler simply because they were lesser life forms, an inferior species.
Lastly, the factor of XP sharing. If one fought in a team, their XP gains would be worse than if they fought alone. How much each teammate received depended on their input leading to the demise of the monster or slain awakened human. However, said input didn't necessarily have to be damage dealt. Healing your allies, grabbing the monster's attention at a critical moment, tanks protecting glass-canon attackers or fragile backliners against attacks, etc… could all factor into how the sharing of XP happened for parties.
All that is to say, this was a monumental victory for the three of them. The chat was also going crazy with excitement, though they had no time nor the intention to read any particular messages or even pay attention to the stream at all.
"We're going to be discussing private matters for a minute or so. In the meantime, enjoy the replay of our fight," Kaiden said before swiftly finding the moment where the bear ambushed them and put that footage in place of the live one.
The reason why Kaiden paused the stream was that he was staring at something extraordinary.
[Free Attribute Points: 10]
This was not supposed to happen. His stats should automatically receive a boost to them once he leveled up. The allocation of points should be predetermined.
For example, a mage-type would receive the largest boost to their Mana and Magic stats. Mana increased both maximum capacity and regeneration speed, while Magic boosted spell output and made casting easier. These were the core stats for mages, which is why they received the most points in these areas.
Awakened humans weren't supposed to have a say in the matter. It was theorized that the class type alone determined the path of one's stat allocations.
A sudden system notification sounded in Kaiden's mind.
[The Heavenly Demon despised nothing more than being told what to do. By the time he was capable of creating the system, he was already at an incredibly high level. Resetting one's level was beyond even the means of the Heavenly Demon, making it too late for him to benefit from the ability to allocate his stats gained from leveling up. However, when reconstructing the system before his defeat, the Heavenly Demon incorporated this feature to grant his successor full autonomy, free from what he referred to as the 'Tyranny of the Universe.']
'Damn… What a bro,' Kaiden thought inwardly. The more he learned about this mysterious entity, the more he liked him.
As for how much the 10 points he gained for reaching level 2 were? A lot. When one leveled up, the amount of stats they would gain depended on the path they took to level up. The stronger opponents one killed, the more stats they would be rewarded with. This was another reason why low-tier awakened were so disadvantaged against high-tiers.
A person like David with his mighty arcane arsenal could punch way above his own weight class while people like the gardener girl with the bubbly butt would struggle to defeat a monster that was below her in levels.
This was also why the 'dreamers' were ridiculed. They were forced to farm monsters lower level than them due to the inefficiency of their classes, thus, they gained less stats than those who fought against monsters of the same level or above. The more levels they gained using this cowardly method, the more they fell behind the curve.
The dreamers often only received 2-3 stat points per level.
Normal awakened who fought against monsters of their own level gained about 5.
Thus, Kaiden starting with 10 gained stat points at level one was phenomenal news. It allowed him the chance to get ahead of the curve. The only question circling in his head was how he should allocate them.