Level Is Everything

When Ryou looked at Luna, he silently thought to himself.

「Am I being scammed right now? I was looking for a party member but what I got is someone with a level lower than me. I didn't really mind if her level is lower than me by a bit but a level 1 is basically the lowest level available. Did she plan on leeching experience from me? 」

Luna on the other hand oblivious to what is running on Ryou's mind and started to introduce herself.

"Hello, my name is Luna and my class is jester. Nice to meet you."

"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Ryou."

"Do you want to look for more party member? If that's the case, then I think it will be better for me to dismiss the party right away."

「Eh, what is this? What's going on? 」

Ryou didn't know what is happening right now but he looked around and saw players are talking within themselves while staring at him and Luna.

"Look, it's the cursed clown. I guess that boy is tricked by her."

"Yeah, how can someone want to enter a dungeon with her?"

"I don't know whether I should be jealous or not? Her character class is rare, but…"

He roughly can guess what is happening right now. It probably has something to do with Luna's unique class. Although unique class is rare, it is easy to spark jealousy because of it. Maybe that is the reason why Luna is trying to find some party member to come inside a dungeon. Maybe she has died too much at the field being PK-ed by the other players. There should also be some player that is monitoring her movement and try to kill her every time she leveled up. It will also diminish other player thoughts of having the same party with her because they will be targeted too indirectly.

Seeing her willingness to dismiss the party if Ryou wanted to find more party member, was it because no one wanted to make a party with her in the first place? Is it also the reason why she is kind of scamming Ryou as a first timer who come for dungeon diving?

「If that's the case, I think it will be better for me to find another party. This kind of thing is bothersome. But, why are you making that kind of face? 」

It crossed Ryou's mind to just dismissed the current party and find another party to go dungeon diving but seeing the looks on Luna's face, he cancelled that thought. Her face was devoid of any emotion as if she surrendered to her own fate. Only bitter smile showed up after some time which shows that she will accept even if Ryou decided to go out from her party.

"You must be disappointed right? Furthermore, my level is only at level 1. I guess it will be better for you to find another party."

She was moving her hand and going to make a hand motion to dismiss the party but Ryou catches her hand and stopped her.

"Who says I'm going to leave the party? What's wrong if you're at level 1? We don't even need to find another party member. Let's enter the dungeon just the two of us."

"Eh?"

Ryou who is still holding her hand dragged her into the dungeon entrance. As soon as he arrived at the entrance, there is a menu appearing in front of him.

「Welcome to the beginner's village dungeon. Please choose your difficulty. 」

The dungeon in the world of Aaru is divided into several difficulty level that can be chosen by the player. Starting from 'normal', 'hard', 'hell', and 'nightmare'. The normal dungeon is a dungeon that will consist of normal monster. At the hard level, the monster will have 150% stats enhanced and 1.5 times the amount of monster spawned. 200% and 2 times for hell mode. 300% for nightmare and 3 times the amount of monster.

It is really hard for players to clear the dungeon at 'nightmare' level because the dungeon also has level limit. Which means if a player has surpassed the level limit of the dungeon, they won't be able to enter the dungeon. So it will be impossible if a level 99 player is trying to clear the beginner's village dungeon at the 'nightmare' difficulty.

Ryou wanted to choose the normal difficulty but it seemed that he can't do that. Only the party leader is able to choose the difficulty level. Ryou is giving Luna an eye signal indicating that she should be the one to choose the difficulty.

"Ah, sorry. I was spacing out there. Alright, I'll choose the difficulty now so we can enter."

Luna was spacing out because Ryou suddenly hold her hands and dragged her away. In fact, she was happy because finally someone is willing to enter the dungeon with her. She then stepped forward to choose the difficulty level with a smile on her face. After Luna choose the difficulty, they seemed to be enveloped by a blinding white light before they are teleported inside the dungeon.

「Welcome to the beginner's village dungeon. You have selected the impossible difficulty level. Monsters inside the dungeon will have 500% of their normal stats. The amount of the monster spawned inside the dungeon is 5 times the amount of normal difficulty dungeon. The EXP and drop rate of the monster have been multiplied by 5. 」

Hearing the notification inside his brain, Ryou is speechless. What's with the level difficulty? He never heard of it before, 'impossible' difficulty level.

「Is this the real reason why no one is partying with her? She is an idiot alright. Truly her character class fits her perfectly, a clown. 」

Luna is there looking at Ryou who is making weird expression on his face. While tilting her head, she asked: "Is there something wrong?"

Ryou pointed his finger at her face and screamed in disbelieve. "Are you out of your mind? Why are you choosing the impossible difficulty level? How are we supposed to clear this dungeon?"

"Eh? B-b-but if it isn't the impossible difficulty level, what should I choose?"

"You can choose normal difficulty, even nightmare is fine. This impossible level difficulty… I never even heard of it. 500% of monster stats and 5 times the amount of monster spawned. What is this?"

"B-b-but there's no other difficulty level to choose. I can only enter the impossible difficulty level. I already told you earlier, it was fine if you want to leave the party and search for another one. You should have known it before, after all the people at the dungeon entrance loved to talk about me. Why are you blaming me now?"

At first, Luna already giving him the freedom to choose his party. Now after he decided to stay with her, he blamed her again for choosing the difficulty level. She feels that Ryou totally wronged her. Ryou also realized now, the reason that no one is willing to take her into their party must be because of this. Hearing that she can only enter the impossible difficulty level, the same thing must have happened before. Because of that, every party that have her in their member list are forced to enter the impossible difficulty level and of course they are wiped out every time. That is also why she is called the 'cursed clown'.

Looking at Luna which is now pouting and tears almost flowing out from her eyes, Ryou felt that nothing can be changed anymore. 'The rice has turned into a porridge' so he can only accept his fate. Seeing that Ryou is sighing and seemed he doesn't have anything to say, Luna feel a little bit sad. Of course she knew that Ryou is a new player that come to the dungeon entrance because she is familiar to the players there; and she tricked him a bit to join her party, but it wasn't the real reason.

When Ryou is lost in his mind in front of the dungeon entrance, she saw something inside his eyes that she familiar with. Loneliness, pain, hopelessness. After all she have been making all of those negative emotion as her friend all this time. Even inside the game, she seemed to be cursed by bad luck which makes people doesn't want to get involved with her. That is also why she decided to greet Ryou when she saw him at the front of the dungeon entrance.

「I just hope that he won't hate me for this. 」

Eliminating the negative thoughts inside of her heart, Luna tried to be cheerful. After all, staying depressed won't change anything so she decided to just deal with it and move on. With a smile, she asked Ryou: "So, what do you want to do now? We can just give up with this dungeon and go back. You can find another party afterwards."

Ryou knows that the sentence was something that he hoped her to say but, why is he hesitating now? Seeing the smile on Luna's face, Ryou finally get it. She is putting up a fake smile to show that she is a strong person that can deal with anything. He is familiar with that because he used to make the same kind of smile towards his family after his father, mother, and brother getting into the accident. With a big sigh, Ryou make a decision.

"Who says that I'm giving up this dungeon? It's only monster with higher stats and more monsters spawned. I am not afraid. Let's go."

Luna was dumbfounded and frozen on the spot because it was something that is out of her expectation. Seeing Ryou walking ahead of her, she looked at his back and smiled. However, Ryou turned his head towards her not long after he walked ahead.

"Why are you still standing over there? Are you not going?"

That sudden question makes Luna surprised so she can only reply clumsily. "Ah, I'm coming. Wait for me."

Luna immediately make a small quick step to catch up with Ryou. Little did she know that Ryou are making a smile that quickly disappeared while looking forward.