Maids VS Apocalypse

Jumping to his feet, Mark tried to withstand the pain but realized he couldn’t. His legs gave in and he crumbled to the floor, curled up into a ball, and held his head. A tormented scream escaped him, and his nails began to dig into his scalp.

"Kid! What happened!"

Ramsay suddenly appeared by his side. He looked around the destroyed room and back at him, and as if he understood what was happening, his expression changed to one of disappointment.

"Damn it, don’t scare me like that." He clicked his tongue.

"Master!"

Lara came rushing in the next moment. Looking around a few times, confusion overtook her when she saw no danger in the vicinity.

"Don’t worry, he just leveled up, that’s all."

Ramsay’s reply did little to make her understand, but seeing that he was unperturbed, she realized that there was nothing to worry about.

"Da... damn it..." Mark forced between gritted teeth. "Why... you..."

"You asking why I didn’t tell you how painful it would be?" Ramsay asked in a mocking tone. "Haven’t you read enough novels to know this might happen?"

"You... you bastard..."

"Maybe next time you should listen instead of being a little shit."

Heaving a long sigh, Ramsay walked to a nearby pile of rubble, sat down, took out a cigarette, and started smoking.

Fire eating at his skin and needles piercing every millimeter of his flesh. That was the only way Mark could describe the sensation he was experiencing, and with each passing second it only continued to get worse.

He wanted to scratch himself and get rid of the itch. He wanted to tear his skin off and let the heat out. He wanted to dive to the bottom of a frozen lake and let it freeze him to death.

Though it felt like he was suffering for hours on end, the truth was that barely a minute had passed since he filled the AP meter. The pain began to subside bit by bit, and after another three or four minutes it finally went down to bearable levels, finally allowing him to get up.

"What... the hell..."

"Don’t check your stats just yet," Ramsay said. "The process isn’t over until you get the level-up notification."

"Why... why is it so painful?"

"You seriously asking that?" The Peace Keeper sighed. "Your entire existence had just changed. You think that won’t hurt at all?"

"I... I didn’t..."

Just then, a small window popped up in front of Mark with the words LEVEL UP written in bold letters.

"It’s... it’s finally done." he sighed in relief. At the same time, he noticed that the pain was done, leaving only a slight aching behind.

Like a camel that had spent the entire day walking under the sun, Mark felt extremely parched. He pressed the Y button on his imaginary controller and opened his Inventory, taking out a bottle of water he got from the Peace Keepers before departing.

He downed the entire two liters in one go then dropped on the floor panting. It was only then that he felt life returning to him.

"Congratulations on your first level up, Private." Ramsay said while clapping. "I guess this is the part where I explain to you why what you did was a really bad mistake."

Mark’s neck almost snapped as he turned in the man’s direction.

"The hell?"

"Seriously, you should’ve just listened to the Head General and went to the academy." Tossing the butt of his spent cigarette and stepping on it, the Sergeant sighed. "Teaching this stuff is a pain."

His right foot tapped the floor repeatedly as he stared into the distance. After a few seconds, he clicked his tongue and scratched his head.

"Listen, we both know you barely moved in the past two years. Your physical stats are slightly better than a toddler’s and leveling up wouldn’t fix that."

Mark was lost for words. He opened his mouth to argue something only to close it without making a sound.

"The doctor said something similar." He eventually said. "Is there a particular reason why?"

"So she told you and you still did it?"

"Why the hell wouldn’t I?"

Being told that it would affect his training wasn’t a good enough reason. He needed the stat boost asap and he was willing to trade it for a small inconvenience later on.

"Didn’t it never occur to you that maybe, just maybe, you have to raise your stats first before raising your level?"

Once again Mark found no words to retort with. A few seconds later he asked the first question that came to his mind." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"You can raise your stats without leveling up?"

"Of course you can," Ramsay said matter-of-factually. "If that wasn’t the case, any random schmuck with enough AP could get stronger."

"That’s..."

"Did you think you can make your maid hunt for you while you do reap the rewards?"

"I never..."

Mark could only hang his head. The sergeant wasn’t in the wrong for thinking he would follow that strategy. He was a summoner, after all, and summoners usually let their summons do the fighting.

With Lara being the more capable fighter among them, it was only natural that he would let her take the vanguard while he offered support from the back. He was no ally of justice who would fight on the front line so his servant wouldn’t have to.

"I will now do some of that exposition you really hate so just keep it shut and listen." Pausing, Ramsay stared at him as if waiting for a reply but then sighed. "First of all, leveling up doesn’t actually make you stronger."

"Wha-"

"I told you to shut it and listen!"

Ramsay’s patience seemed to be running out, making Mark swallow his words. The absurd statement thrown at him by the Sergeant defied everything he knew so of course he had questions. There was no point in asking them, however, since the answer was coming right after.

"Humans have limits, you should know that much already."

Having learned his lesson, Mark remained silent and listened.

"Once you reach that limit, no amount of training will lead to any improvements. That’s where leveling up comes in." Pausing for a moment, the Sergeant then added. "Leveling up expands a person’s natural limits, which gives them more room for growth. Doing so can give you a slight stat boost, but that’s just a side effect. It doesn’t directly make you stronger. It just increases the maximum limit your stats could reach."