I looped.
I threw myself into the grind with everything I had.
I ran loops through the Monster Room.
I arrived at the Floor 4 Monster Room at approximately 11:00 AM today.
For the first hour, I spent time increasing my skill levels and testing the effects of those leveled-up skills to analyze them, so I only managed about eight loops.
However, during the next hour, I completed twelve loops exactly as I’d calculated.
Then, at 1:00 PM, I took a one-hour lunch break. My dining area was inside the Monster Room itself, right after I had finished wiping out the goblins.
At 2:00 PM, I resumed my loops.
For the next two hours, I maintained a pace of twelve loops each. I felt like I still had plenty of physical energy to spare.
But once it passed 4:00 PM, the fatigue I’d accumulated up to that point seemed to hit me all at once. I started making more mistakes in combat, the number of dangerous situations increased, and I was forced to activate Fighting Spirit several times just to manage.
Even as I pushed through the loops, I ended up taking an enemy's hit for the first time today.
An Archer’s arrows pierced my shoulder and thigh. As my movements slowed from the pain, a Thief landed a solid blow on me.
My HP, which had already been somewhat depleted, suddenly dropped below 20%. I was struck by a genuine sense of impending doom, thinking, "Wait... am I actually going to die here?"
However, Blood Vengeance activated, and thanks to all my stats increasing by 20%, I managed to escape the predicament.
After wiping out that pack of goblins, I finally forced myself to take a thirty-minute break. In the end, I had to use two of the four potions I had brought to heal my wounds and the damage I'd sustained.
Fortunately, perhaps thanks to the HP Barrier, the wounds weren't very deep.
At 5:00 PM, I resumed my loops. Perhaps because I’d taken a break, I was able to complete twelve loops in the final hour leading up to 6:00 PM.
Feeling that exhaustion had finally seeped into the very marrow of my bones, I called it a day.
Below are today's results:
Monster Room Clears—62.
Total Goblins Defeated—992.
Beginner Heal Potion Drops—18.
Total Experience Points Earned—273,420.
This was my Status at the conclusion of the grind.
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【Name】Takeo Samejima
【Level】『21』
Experience Points until next level『270060』
《HP》82／106 (5 up!)
《MP》26／26 (2 up!)
《Strength》56
《Constitution》50 (5 up!)
《Intelligence》6
《Spirit》20 (2 up!)
《Agility》55 (4 up!)
《Dexterity》55 (4 up!)
【STP】『0』
【SP】『0』
【Skill】《Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons Lv.Max》《Berserk Lv.1》《Goblin Slayer Lv.Max》《Fighting Spirit Lv.Max》《Blood Vengeance Lv.1》《Sword Aura Lv.1》《Taunt Lv.1》《■■■■■■■ Lv.1》《Life Magic Lv.1》《Magic Sword Lv.1》
【Title】《Battle Junkie》《Goblin Slayer》《■■■■■》
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Yes, I leveled up.
To think I would level up in a single day without any Irregulars like Kanzaki appearing...!!
Leveling in the 20s starts at 300,000 Experience Points, and the required experience increases by 15,000 with every level. I thought it would be no easy feat, and that's what was written on the Modern Dungeon Strategy Wiki, too.
But the results speak for themselves.
I can't believe I leveled up just by killing 992 goblins on Floor 4! (Actually, the level-up happened before I even hit that number.)
I earned over 270,000 Experience Points in just today. Once my level goes up and my stamina increases, my efficiency should improve even further.
At this rate, it might be possible to level up once a day until I reach Level 29.
And—did you notice?
That's right, I've learned two new skills.
Below are the details for the new skills.
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【Skill】
《Life Magic Lv.1》— Consumes 5 MP per use to cast the magic spells: "Ignite," "Heating," "Drinking Water," "Cooling," "Breeze," "Voice Amplification," "Dig," and "Mound."
《Magic Sword Lv.1》— Allows the use of a Magic Sword corresponding to the learned magic attributes. Clads the blade in a magical aura to increase damage by 1.2x. Alternatively, it is possible to fire the magical aura as a slash, but the damage is 1.0x. Consumes 1 MP every 10 seconds. Firing a slash consumes an additional 1 MP.
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Explaining Magic Sword first, it's the skill that Kanzaki guy used when we fought.
As for its effect, I suppose it's like a magical version of Sword Aura.
However, the damage calculation references a value determined by adding Strength and Intelligence then dividing by two, and the attack attribute changes from a Physical Attribute to a Magic Attribute. In other words, when hit by a Magic Sword, the HP reduction references the target's Spirit value instead of their Constitution.
Therefore, with this skill, I should be able to defeat even the Goblin Knights I fought before without much of a struggle. Those guys have high Constitution but low Spirit.
As I descend to the lower floors, monsters that are immune to physical damage will start appearing, so the Magic Sword skill could be considered essential for a warrior-type Explorer like me.
Next, about Life Magic.
After defeating a total of over 200 Goblin Mages so far, a Skill Orb finally dropped!
It looks like a crystal ball about the size of a fist—a real fantasy item with a faint light flickering inside. When used, it turns into countless particles of light that are absorbed by the user, allowing them to learn the skill at Level 1 without consuming any points.
If there's anyone out there thinking, "A drop after only 200 kills? That's a piece of cake," let me tell you right now that you have a "gamer brain."
True, in modern games, a 0.5% drop rate isn't considered particularly difficult. However, when it comes to killing over 200 of a specific monster in a real dungeon, it's quite the task.
After all, the target monster doesn't always appear. Even in this Monster Room, only three Mages appear at a time. Killing over 200 of them is, well, a chore... or so I'd like to think.
Actually, I guess I did achieve it in just a few days.
And I’m pretty sure I killed nearly 200 of them in just a single day today.
Anyway!
Even so, Explorers aiming for the lower floors seek out this Life Magic Skill Orb.
The reason for that is obviously not because spells like "Drinking Water" or "Ignite" are convenient.
The burden of carrying water increases the further down you go, but in reality, there's a canteen-type Magic Item that produces water using Magic Stones. They're quite expensive, but an Explorer can afford one if they try.
That's why Life Magic itself is a skill that is rarely used even if learned.
Ignite? You should just bring a lighter.
So, what makes this skill so amazing? First of all, it satisfies the requirements to acquire Magic Sword.
The requirement to acquire Magic Sword is to possess some kind of magic skill and the Sword Aura skill. By the way, the skill levels for either don't matter.
Well, in short, Life Magic is popular because it's the most easily obtainable magic Skill Orb in the dungeon... but that's not all.
Did you notice that the description for Magic Sword says, "Allows the use of a Magic Sword corresponding to the learned magic attributes"?
If you look at the spells usable with Life Magic after reading that, you'll understand how wonderful this magic is.
That's right! By learning this single Life Magic skill, you've essentially acquired four magic attributes: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth!!
Incredible!!
By the way, as the level of Life Magic increases, the MP consumption decreases. However, its effects are standardized; it's an extremely rare skill that isn't influenced by Intelligence or the presence of magic-support skills.
To be blunt, nobody exists who would actually spend points to level it up. Though there are people who level it up through methods that don't use points.
At any rate.
"With this, the preparations to proceed to Floor 5 are complete."
With the Magic Sword skill, I can defeat Goblin Knights, and I'll also be able to move to even more efficient hunting grounds.
"...Well, I'm not going to Floor 5 yet, though."
It was only natural.
Without Hinata-san around, the number of times I can engage in combat would be limited in places that consume HP and MP.
In that case, for now, this Floor 4 Monster Room is the hunting ground where I can hammer out the highest experience efficiency.
I'll be leveling up here for a while.
Ah, by the way.
I only sold the Magic Stones today, but the total exceeded 7.7 million yen. That's the amount before taxes are taken out, of course.
...I wonder.
It's certainly a dangerous job, to the point where I almost died today, but even so, aren't Explorers earning way too much?
Well, I suppose the economy is good right now, but... maybe all humans who are struggling for money should just run loops in a Monster Room...