It can.

Yup, you're totally taking a liking to her. That might be problematic considering your monster-status.

"...Hey," you ask as you follow behind her.

"Yeah?" She glances back at you.

"I didn't know heroes kill each other like back there. Is that like, a thing some do? Anti-heroes, or whatever?"

"Sometimes we agree to duel, just to test each others' strength or for the fun of it," she responds. "Some of the people back at the inn probably thought that's what they were doing. As for 'anti-heroes'... We call those PKers. Scumbags going around killing other heroes without consent. They don't really gain anything from it in terms of loot or XP, so it's purely for 'fun'. To set back others' progress."

"And you're not one of those?"

"Hell no," she says with a laugh. "I don't like attacking others unprovoked. It's a dick move. Only reason I did so earlier was to protect you."

...That's strangely flattering. However, once the flattery settles in your stomach you wonder if you can **** that by throwing yourself into harm's way to get some hero XP... She might notice though.

"Why do you ask, little guy?"

You decide to tell her the truth. It should be pretty transparent anyway. "Well, as a monster I instead hardly get any XP from killing other monsters... I get a tiny bit, but it's nothing compared to the XP I get from heroes. Not to mention the guilt..."

"I see... Yeah, that might be a problem."

She's quiet for a moment, and just as you're about to say something, she continues. "Hey, I have an idea! I could bring you along to a PvP arena!"

"What are those?"

"Exactly what they sound like. A place for heroes to fight each other, only for tangible rewards. It's still mainly for the hell of it, to show off your abilities to other players, but if I were to take you in there, you'd get the added bonus of a bunch of XP."

"...That sounds really, really unsafe though. Even if we got into one of those without someone squashing me on the way there, I'd be in a place full of heroes intent on killing everything around them. I don't even know if I get to keep my XP when I die, or where I'll respawn. I'm a new class now, so I'm not sure if I'd be sent back to my old dungeon or somewhere way worse..."

"Right... Tell you what, we'll go on a few quests to test the waters of what we can get away with, and to give you time to think about it. Sound good?"

You nod, then realize she can't see that since she's turned away from you again, and speak an audible "Okay".

"Great. Then we're off to the swamp next!"

"...The what?"

"There's a swamp somewhere at the end of this forest. I have a quest to do there. Slimes to kill, mostly."

You have only heard about what swamps are like, but from what you know, they're wet and dirty. That does not sound like your idea of fun at all. And there are slimes too? You were never too fond of them. Sure, they are a little cute, but you wouldn't want to fight one as that'd risk them jumping onto you. Back in your dungeon you had once managed to trip and have your fall cushioned by a slime. Your robe didn't feel clean for a long time after that. But Morwyn is still the one calling the shots, so you're just gonna have to go with it...