[center][h2][color=F0E68C]Asteria[/color][/h2][/center][hr][hr]
The fight was over as soon as it began, their somewhat strategic team-attack once again proving to be exceptionally effective. Just after Asteria felt the lizard dying under her teeth, another system message showed up to her. She was no longer surprised that there was such a thing as system messages in this world, but the fact that she actually gained a level was starting to get her thinking in terms of half-forgotten game logic. Gaining experience by killing monsters was definitely common to gaming. 

What was more, seeing her current skills led Asteria to believe that levelling up wasn’t the only way to get better, perhaps not even the best way. Sure, she got skill points from gaining a level, but it seemed unlikely that one point would get her a whole level in any skill. If she wanted to confirm her hypothesis, she’d have to invest some skill points and see what happened, but Asteria wanted to try another approach. So, she memorized her current unusable skills with the intent of trying to raise them herself whenever she got the opportunity to do so. For now, she bit into the lizard’s soft body, the chewy and bloody meat serving as a light dinner.

Having been so absorbed in her own thoughts relating to this world’s nature, Asteria noticed Mei only when she was right in front of her, and had apparently dragged the other lizard towards her.

[color=F0E68C]“I already ate from this one, but thank you,”[/color] she stared at the lizards’ corpses as an idea formed in her mind. [color=F0E68C]“Would you help me drag one or both back to our little chamber? A food supply would serve us well, and there is something I want to try out…tomorrow,”[/color] Asteria commented. 

Standing so close to two corpses made her realize the stench they produced, and it was sure to get worse as they decomposed over time. She was willing to put up with it in their temporary base back underground, but it did lead to another problem. [color=F0E68C]“Do you think we should cover the tracks leading to our ‘home’? I don’t want to get attacked while I’m sleeping,”[/color] Asteria thought she might be rambling already, but she was honestly tired, and wanted to go to sleep. The threatening situations she had faced today really seemed to be developing a bit of a healthy paranoia in her though.

[@Jobst]