"The Experience Pit? You know, the one that just newly opened in the city since the dungeon is so far away?" Arcenne responded back, expecting the man before him to know about it. Fortunately, it did not take long for her to recall that Valyr was not from the city, inwardly admonishing herself for forgetting that part as she tapped her forehead. "Ah, right. You're not from here, I forgot."
"How do I explain this…" Rubbing her chin in ponderation, Arcenne took a while to find the words that would best describe the place. "I'm sure you know that dungeons are located in fixed areas and have fixed requirements before being able to enter, right?"
Nodding in response, Valyr raised his eyebrow in slight curiosity, wondering where Arcenne was heading with her words as he continued to listen in silence.
"With that in mind, the level of the monsters you would face in those dungeons would be fixed as well, which is fine if you were to enter the dungeon at the same level as the monsters. However, for those who repeatedly enter the dungeon at a lower level, only to level themselves up with every run, they would lose out on a ton of experience." As Arcenne took in a deep breath, Valyr felt that she was now about to start explaining the Experience Pit in detail.
And indeed she did.
"To make sure that the time wasted on traveling could be used to earn experience instead, the Experience Pit was born, situated near the west edge of the city," Arcenne said. "Unlike dungeons that have monsters with fixed levels, you could set the levels of the monsters you fight to as high as you want or as low as you want."
"Aside from that, you wouldn't have to fear about losing out on possible XP gains even when you level up. Normally, the solution to this problem would be to not allocate the XP one gained while traversing the dungeon, leaving one's growth stagnant until one left the dungeon. On the other hand, the levels of the monsters in the Experience Pit would automatically adjust to your levels as you continue to level up."
"I see." After listening to Arcenne's explanation, Valyr recalled a couple memories from his past life that he used to frequent these Experience Pits whenever he needed a great amount of experience. Though the cost to enter these pits was slightly high and there was the fact that you would have to give part of the experience you earn back to those manning the pit, the overall efficiency in gaining experience was still far greater than delving a dungeon.
Thinking that the man before him seemed interested in entering the Experience Pit, Arcenne went ahead and laid out the costs to enter it, as well as the time the pit usually opened. "The pit usually opens around an hour after the sun starts to peek out of the horizon. To enter it, you would have to pay a gold coin for entry, plus you would have to give the people manning the pit 30% of the experience you gain from. However, there's no limit to how long you can stay in the pit, though the pit does close around an hour after sunset."
At this point, Valyr could not help but notice that Arcenne's knowledge regarding the Experience Pit was incredibly detailed, far more detailed than those who had explained the Experience Pit to him back in the past. Wondering if she had anything to do with the Experience Pit, he asked her, "Why does it feel like you know the ins and outs of that place while I was listening to your explanation?"
Hearing his question, Arcenne let out a light chuckle. "That's because I do. The Stelyra clan is the main proponent of the Experience Pit, after all. That's one of the other reasons why I was sent here to this city, to supervise over the construction and the overall workings of the Experience Pit."
In response to the question, Valyr could only nod in silence, not expecting that one of the features he had taken for granted as something to be abused in the past was actually the creation of one of the world's noble clans. 'The game company really did a good job at making everything feel lifelike. I never would've thought the Stelyra noble clan was behind the Experience Pit. But now that I do, it makes a lot of sense.'
After that, Valyr asked Arcenne a few more things regarding the Experience Pit, mostly the directions that would allow him to head to the place. Once he was certain that he had memorized the directions he had been given, he then thanked Arcenne for her time and bade farewell, telling her that he might drop by the training hall from time to time in the future.
With that, he left the training hall, only for his stomach to start rumbling all of a sudden out of hunger. Looking at the sky, a wry smile soon appeared on his face as he noticed that it was already past noon. Thinking that he should listen to his body's needs, he walked around the city's streets for a bit before stopping in front of a restaurant that looked like they served sumptuous meals for cheap.
Sitting himself at one of the seats before calling for a waiter to take his order, Valyr idly sat there for a while, thinking about the things he was going to do after he had cleared the dungeon at the village. 'Once that dungeon is cleared, Astarto Village can expand into a town and then… what comes after that? What do I after that?'
'I mean… there's the fact that I have yet to complete the quest Damian gave me, but seeing how there's not much progress being made, it's not a problem for me to focus on that after I finish the task Alfaera gave me.' Lightly scratching his head, Valyr then rhythmically tapped his fingers on the table just as the waiter that took his order earlier served him an appetizer.
Taking a bite out of it, his mind continued to wander once more. 'I guess I'll have to think more about what I'm going to do next after clearing the dungeon. I know what my end goal is, but there are so many paths I could take to reach it that I effectively don't know what to do next.'
"Hopefully the Experience Pit helps me clear my thoughts…" Just as these words came out of Valyr's mouth, a familiar person appeared in front of him and sat on the opposite side of the table with a smile. At first, Valyr was about to ask the person to leave, but when he recognized the get-up the man before him was wearing, he only responded back with a light smile.
"Mind if I sit here, Valyr?"
