<span style="font-style: italic">That voice...</span>Doce thought.<span style="font-style: italic">Award it to us "personally"? That wasn't an NPC...</span>More importantly--auto-advancing her to level six? Fucking dick move right there. At these low levels, gaining enough experience to level up was child play. And at this point where experience in gameplay contributes more to playerskill than level does in the first place, auto-leveling did more harm than good. Now, if she'd been level 40, or something like that, when it takes<span style="font-style: italic">ages</span>to level up, an auto-level would be phenominal, but she was already<span style="font-style: italic">half</span>way to level 6! Those experience points were now null!<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">So,</span>she pondered.<span style="font-style: italic">Is this a consistent reward, so that it will be advantageous in the future? Are the game developers stupid or think I'm stupid? Or... God, I'm so paranoid... and self-centered... even to consider that they're hurting my character like this because I'm some sort of threat. Seriously--a threat to what? There's nothing bad happening here. Why am I even complaining about getting an extra level?</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">I'm just upset because I didn't get any new gear,</span>she sighed.<span style="font-style: italic">I love getting gear.</span><br/><br/>"Two things before we go," Doce interjected. "First, if there's a town by the arena we should stop there. More often than not, healing items aren't allowed during arena fights, so some new gear might be helpful if they have any. Also, I'm just plain curious what a town might be like in this game. Second," and she looked directly at JD here, "Lucy's strong, but she isn't built like a tank. Disregarding level, I pretty much have the lowest HP/Defense combo of any of us. I'm a DPS character, a heavy-hitter, a finisher, a one-shot kill. Please use my skills more appropriately."<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">I'm angry,</span>she thought suddenly.<span style="font-style: italic">I don't need to be, but I am. I wonder if Lucy is having some influence over me; she would be angry over something like this. Oh well.</span>she shrugged mentally.<span style="font-style: italic">This is only a trial run anyway. I'm a solo player. If this group doesn't satisfy me I'll abandon them. Easy.</span>