I gathered the dropped Magic Stones and continued through the dungeon in search of more prey.
Before long, I encountered a group of five goblins.
The lineup consisted of one Thief, one Warrior, one Swordman, one Archer, and one Mage.
It was my first time facing a group of five, but I’d already gained plenty of experience fighting multiple opponents at once.
I didn't see any way I could lose.
With that confidence, I engaged them. The ensuing battle was an overwhelming victory from start to finish.
I closed the distance immediately, intending to take out the Archer and Mage first. I calmly dodged the opening arrow and Fireball, ignored the lead Warrior, and leaped off the wall to vault over the three front-liners.
I closed in on the panicked Mage and cut it down with a quick strike, then blocked a follow-up shot from the Archer, who was trying to back away. By then, the Thief had rushed back with its high Agility to strike, but I simply cut it down in a single blow instead.
Seeing the Archer trying to retreat behind the Warrior again, I rushed forward and took its head off before things could get tedious.
That left only the Warrior and the Swordman. At this point, my victory was assured.
Following my usual flow, I knocked back the Warrior, finished off the Swordman, and finally dispatched the Warrior to end the encounter.
The whole thing had taken somewhere between twenty and thirty seconds. I’d consumed 12 HP. The Experience Points earned were 1,240.
"As I thought, the HP consumption is heavy... but the experience efficiency is amazing."
Since I still had over 40 HP left, I continued my exploration.
Afterward, I fought groups of three, four, and five. When my HP finally ran low, I retreated toward the stairs while avoiding any goblins I encountered and took a break.
I repeated this cycle of fighting and resting several times, eventually returning to the 1st Floor after 7:30 PM.
I recovered more HP in the plaza in front of the 1st Floor's Teleportation Circle and finally left the Association around 9:00 PM.
To my surprise, even though I’d only started in the afternoon, I managed to gain a level.
●◯●
March 30th.
I headed to the Shinjuku Dungeon in the morning and devoted myself to leveling on the 4th Floor.
I stuck to a cycle of one hour of exploration followed by one hour of rest. The number of battles I managed per hour was roughly five. This wasn't due to a low encounter rate; it was simply that the HP drain forced me to stop.
"Oh, finally."
As I continued the goblin cull, an Archer dropped a long-awaited Beginner Heal Potion.
This item would sell for 30,000 yen at the Association, but I had no intention of selling it.
The effect of a Heal Potion, much like the Heal spell, is to treat injuries and recover HP. A single Beginner Heal Potion restores 30 HP.
I wasn't particularly injured, but I downed the potion once my HP had dropped.
Thanks to that, I was able to shorten my rest time slightly and earn experience more efficiently than the day before. As a result, I managed to level up again today. And I did it with quite a bit of room to spare.
However, the drop rate for Heal Potions was clearly quite stingy. Despite killing so many goblins today, only one had dropped.
Well, even though I say I killed "so many," if I narrow it down to just the Archers who actually drop them, the number naturally becomes smaller. I suppose the low drop rate is unavoidable.
If they dropped more frequently, I could earn experience without these useless breaks.
――――――――――――――――
【Name】 Takeo Samejima
【Level】 15
Experience until next level: 9,740
《HP》 18/75 (14 up!) 《MP》 18/18 《Strength》 40 (5 up!) 《Constitution》 35 (9 up!) 《Intelligence》 6 《Spirit》 12 《Agility》 40 《Dexterity》 36 (6 up!)
【STP】 0 【SP】 0
【Skills】 《Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons Lv. Max》, 《Berserk Lv. 1》, 《Goblin Killer Lv. Max》, 《Fighting Spirit Lv. Max》, 《Blood Vengeance Lv. 1》, 《Sword Aura Lv. 1》
【Titles】 《Battle Junkie》, 《Goblin Killer》
――――――――――――――――
This is my current Status.
Yes, you noticed. There’s a new skill and an unfamiliar title. Here are the details.
――――――――――――――――
【Titles】
《Battle Junkie》 — There are many types of madmen. You have been recognized by many as a combat-crazed warrior. Grants the skills 《Berserk》 and 《Blood Vengeance》.
【Skills】
《Fighting Spirit Lv. Max》 — While active, Strength, Constitution, and Agility are increased by 100%. Consumes 5 HP every 10 seconds.
《Blood Vengeance Lv. 1》 — All stats except HP and MP increase as remaining HP decreases. Stats increase by 10% when HP is below 50%, and by 20% when HP is below 20%.
《Sword Aura Lv. 1》 — Clads a blade in Sword Aura to increase damage by 1.2x. Alternatively, the Sword Aura can be fired as a ranged slash with a 1.0x damage multiplier. Consumes 1 HP every 10 seconds. Firing a slash consumes an additional 1 HP.
――――――――――――――――
Let me explain a bit.
Regarding the 《Battle Junkie》 title, for some reason, the day after fighting the Goblin Knight, my 《Madman》 title had evolved into 《Battle Junkie》. And with it, the skill 《Blood Vengeance》 was added.
I suppose some kind of misunderstanding is spreading on the internet again.
As for the 《Sword Aura》 skill, this is a derivative skill that was unlocked by raising 《Fighting Spirit》 to its maximum level.
In addition to being able to strengthen my slashes by consuming HP, I can also fire them as projectiles by spending extra HP.
That's right—I have finally obtained the long-awaited means for a ranged attack!
The Sword Aura's passive damage bonus doesn't apply to the flying slashes, but the multipliers from 《Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons》 and 《Goblin Killer》 do, so it's plenty strong.
That said, if I raise the level of the 《Sword Aura》 skill, the HP consumption will increase, making it harder to manage. Until my total HP increases further or I obtain a stable way to recover, I should probably refrain from leveling it up carelessly.
—End of explanation.
Next, today's income...
Level 6 Thief x 8 = 28,000 yen Level 6 Warrior x 10 = 52,500 yen Level 6 Swordman x 7 = 36,750 yen Level 7 Thief x 5 = 20,000 yen Level 7 Warrior x 7 = 42,000 yen Level 7 Swordman x 5 = 30,000 yen Level 7 Archer x 8 = 64,000 yen Level 7 Mage x 7 = 70,000 yen Level 8 Swordman x 9 = 60,750 yen Level 8 Archer x 10 = 90,000 yen Level 8 Mage x 9 = 101,250 yen
The total came to 595,250 yen. After subtracting withholding tax, my take-home pay for today was 534,475 yen.
To save time, I ignored all monsters on Floors 1 through 3 and headed straight for the 4th Floor, so I only hunted 4th-floor variants today.
Furthermore, I’m still only selling Magic Stones, but those aren't the only drops. As I mentioned, I got one Heal Potion, and several pieces of goblin equipment dropped as well.
However, goblin gear is heavy, bulky, and cheap, so I just leave it where it falls. For high-value or usable gear drops, I'll likely have to wait until a Goblin General appears.
Looking at it this way, goblins really aren't the best monsters for making money, but...
Even so, it's incredible. Explorers can seriously earn a ridiculous amount of money.
Even at my current stage, if I dived every day for a month, my monthly income would exceed 15 million yen.
At this point, if anyone is ever desperate for cash, they should just dive into a dungeon.
Anyway, enough about money. The real issue is experience efficiency.
I did a bit of math, and the total experience I earned today was 20,890. To be honest, that’s enough to keep me leveling up once a day until Level 19.
Once I hit Level 20, the required experience jumps to 300,000, so I’ll likely have to move to a different floor...
Lately—or rather, ever since I got the 《Fighting Spirit》 skill—there’s been a thought stuck in my head.
The tempo is terrible!!
Having to sandwich a break in every time my HP drops is incredibly inefficient!!
While waiting to recover, I’m basically just watching videos or reading manga on my phone, so it’s not like I’m bored.
But.
Did I come to the dungeon to watch videos or read manga?
Hell no!!
I came to the dungeon to level up.
With that in mind, I really have to do something about this wasted downtime.
My experience efficiency certainly improved on the 4th Floor, but I feel like I’m wasting more time than ever before.
I have to... I have to fix this...!
After racking my brain, I finally realized there was a solution.
Until now, there was no way to resolve this bottleneck. But it's different now. My personal experience gain would be cut in half, but I knew a way to fix the problem.
The question was whether it was worth doing "that" even if my share was halved.
Currently, most of my time in the dungeon is spent resting or traveling.
If I could convert that downtime into combat time, the experience I could earn would be more than double.
If I used "that place" on this floor, I could even skip the time spent searching for monsters.
Then there was the question of whether it was physically possible.
I thought about it.
"...Yeah, I can do it."
Thanks to my recent level ups, I still had plenty of stamina even after repeated intense combat.
I was certain that if I didn't have to worry about HP consumption, I could earn more than twice as much experience as I did today.
I’d turned down the offer once because I didn't want my experience points split, but if the end result is a net increase in total experience, then there's only one logical choice.
Besides, even in games where experience is shared, having allies usually makes the grind go faster anyway.
I’d been a bit too stubborn, I suppose, caught up in the high of solo leveling.
Typical me... I really need to do better.
"It's a bit awkward since I turned her down before, but... I'll try asking."
It was just after 10:00 PM, and I was relaxing at home.
I made up my mind, picked up my phone, and contacted a certain person.