"So,” Ari said. “I guess I’ll just … get right into it?”

“Please.”

Sigrid’s voice was gruff, but not unfriendly. Ari didn’t know her class, level, or really anything about her besides that she was mid-rank—somewhere in the range of level twenty to forty, which was a huge gap—but she exuded competence that was, to be completely honest, intimidating.

It made her incoming questions even more embarrassing. A clueless person would’ve been much more comforting, because maybe they wouldn’t read into her questions.

“How long does it take to level up, normally?” Ari asked.

Almost as much as the fact she, y’know, had to have sex with monster girls, it was her prodigal pace through levels that had Ari disoriented. Yesterday’s efforts had resulted in a second level—meaning she was now level three, and had received a new skill, [Powerful Grip], which, no, wasn’t referring to how tightly she could clench her hands together. Rather, how tightly some other things, lower down, could clench. She’d yet to experiment with it. And right now, considering the looming professional conversation, she avoided thinking about it.

But the speed she was leveling—the relevant point. Two levels in two days was insane, as far as she knew. Just how much so, she was trying to find out.

Sigrid tilted her head, obviously not expecting the question. Though, not wholly strange, either. She didn’t pause for long before answering.

“The first few?” Sigrid said. “Mmm. How long did it take me? Three days for the first, to two. Then a week to three? Took me about, three years to get to twenty?” She shrugged. “It varies, kid. Someone who’s out every day, all day, beating themselves to a pulp? They’ll level a whole hell of a lot faster than, say, a person who who goes out with a party, splitting the experience, twice a month.”

“Right.” Ari knew that. “But, like, every day, real dedicated. Was that you?”

Sigrid wavered her hand.

“And it took three days for two, then a week after that, to get to level three?” Ari asked.

“I could’ve done more,” Sigrid said, “but yeah. I’d say that’s a pace someone could expect.” A pause, then a snort. “We could expect, at least.”

“We?”

Sigrid quirked an eyebrow. “We. Commoners.”

“Oh.” Yeah, that made sense.

Someone born to a royal family, or other circumstances, would obviously have a whole slew of ways to advance faster than someone less fortunate. Both direct and indirect—a constant supply of powerful items, a bodyguard to let them push their limits, on and on.

“Okay. And does that change person-by-person?” She knew the answer to the question, but she was looking for more.

“Sure,” Sigrid said. “Some people are born blessed by the heavens. They say the Gilded Spear was mid-rank just months after her awakening.”

“That’s not a story?”

“And I would know that for certain, how?” She shook her head in amusement. “But I’d say it’s not,” she said. “Seeing how she’s twenty-three now, and carving her way through the Glacial Dragons of the Hollowpeaks, last I heard.”

“Right …” But Ari hadn’t really received an answer to her question. “How rare is that? Leveling a lot faster than normal?”

Sigrid gave her an odd look. Ari had probably been too obvious. “Why? Already got your first? You’re a fresh intake, right? Eighteen?”

“Yeah. To the, um, eighteen part.” She squirmed in her seat. It seemed prudent to not go around blabbing about the details to her class, and how fast she was leveling up. Avoiding attention until she knew what the heck was going on—which might be never—seemed the smart thing to do.

Sigrid seemed amused at Ari’s deflection. “You don’t have to tell me. I’ll keep your confidence—both because I’d be strung up for not, but also because it’s the right thing to do—but don’t feel obligated.” She smirked. “That said, don’t be so obvious if you’re trying to keep it a secret.”

“Right.”

“To answer the question—most people level at more or less the same pace. If you were leveling faster than normal, say, fast enough to feel the need to ask a guild superior about it, then that would be odd. Highly odd.” She seemed interested, far more interested than she had at the start of the conversation, though still only vaguely—like something intriguing had popped up, but which she didn’t ultimately care about.

“Okay. And, um. Classes. How common are strange classes?”

“Strange?”

“Yeah, like. That don’t fit the … common mold.” Ari was definitely giving some things away, but she couldn’t avoid it. And without specifics, it didn’t matter to anyone. If Sigrid was a gossip—which she really didn’t seem to be—then maybe word would get around that Ari had a strange class … but so what? Who cared?

“I guess,” Sigrid said slowly, “it depends what you mean?” She sounded confused for the first time.

“Like, a class that’s clearly an adventuring class, but, uh, has alternate ways to advance?” Okay, now she was definitely giving too much away, but she kept the important stuff obfuscated … and she had said ‘alternate path’, as if fighting the normal way gave her experience too.

“Alternate how?”

Ari shifted in her seat.

Sigrid took that for the ‘I’d rather not say’ it was. She didn’t push. “I don’t know, honestly,” Sigrid said. “Very uncommon. I haven’t met anyone like that. Though, adventurers are the stingy sort when it comes to class details. Maybe they’re more frequent than we think, and nobody talks about it.” She swirled her drink around, considering Ari. “I don’t think I can help you figure out an ‘unusual class’.” She air-quoted the word, though still gripping her drink—it looked a bit funny. “You might be better off scrying in to a Goldshield expert.”

“Expert?”

“One of the reasons they’re fleecing you,” Sigrid said wryly. “I’ll get a meeting set up for you, if you want? With someone who really knows this kind of stuff.”

“I—“

“They’re confidential, too,” Sigrid said. “In a real way—not this informal kind. It’s their entire job.”

“Okay?” That sounded … useful. Sigrid clearly wasn’t equipped for this conversation, which Ari should have expected. Her questions weren’t of the normal sort. The advice Sigrid could offer would be suggestions for how to stay safe, work more efficiently, combat strategy and such. “I’d appreciate that.”

She nodded. “I’ll have Lurran pass on the details. Sorry I couldn’t help. Unless you have other questions?”

Well … there were a few mundane ones she had. Even if her class was odd, her life still followed the general adventuring structure. Advice on item selling, advancement, equipment, and, most of all, dungeons.

Because she would, after all, be going to one tomorrow. Best to know what she was in for.