April 4th.
The date had changed, and having completely recovered from the previous day's fatigue, I headed to the Shinjuku Dungeon once again.
I jogged from the first floor all the way to the fourth-floor Monster Room.
Perhaps thanks to my increased Agility, I managed to reach my destination in about an hour and fifty minutes. My immediate goal was to break the ninety-minute mark. I felt like I could have done it right then if I’d gone all out, but that would have been physically taxing, and I didn't intend to waste all my energy on a sprint.
At my current pace, it served as a perfect warm-up.
Regardless, it was time to get back to slaughtering my way through the Monster Room loops.
I opened the door, stepped inside, and began fighting just as I always did.
Then, at 7:00 PM...
I called an end to the day's grinding.
Since I’d already grasped the general pacing for my stamina the day before, I limited the number of loops I performed per hour. This prevented me from needing unnecessary extra breaks or losing focus, which would have resulted in me taking hits from the enemy.
I maintained a steady pace of about ten loops per hour. Although I took an hour-long break for lunch in the middle, I was able to keep a consistent rhythm for the rest of the day.
I made sure to take a few minutes after every single battle to catch my breath, and if I felt fatigue starting to build up, I’d drink a heal potion even if my HP wasn't depleted. While heal potions restored both injuries and HP, drinking them also recovered a bit of stamina. Curiously, they didn't provide that same refreshing effect if I simply poured them over a wound.
It was a luxurious way to use potions, but since the number of drops only increased while I was grinding here, it didn't really matter.
Technically, I could have just sold them, but I had no intention of doing so—it felt like a waste. When Hinata-san wasn't around, the availability of potions directly dictated my leveling efficiency.
And so, my total for the day came to 70 loops. (Note: I actually arrived 10 minutes earlier than planned, but I spent that time resting, so I didn't officially start the loops until 11:00 AM).
Total goblins defeated—1,120. Number of Beginner Heal Potions dropped—21 (6 of which were used for fatigue recovery). Total experience points earned—308,700. Sale price of magic stones—8,715,000 yen (plus tax).
...What was with these numbers? Even without selling magic stones for a while, I was already earning more than enough to live comfortably.
At the moment, I had no plans to spend a large amount of money, so I figured I might as well just start ignoring the magic stones. I’d already begun to feel that gathering them was nothing but a chore. More importantly, I suspected I could loop even more efficiently if I stopped stopping to pick them up.
Besides, bending over to gather stones 1,120 times really did a number on my lower back, despite my stats being enhanced.
Furthermore, even though I must have killed over 200 mages today alone, not a single new skill orb dropped. Luck just hadn't been on my side.
Well, I decided to leave the decision of what to do with the magic stones to the "me" of tomorrow.
My level had risen again!
————————————————— 【Name】 Takeo Samejima 【Level】 22 Experience Points to next level: 306,360 —————————————————
●◯●
April 5th.
Naturally, I returned to the Shinjuku Dungeon.
Upon descending to the first floor, I ignored all the monsters I encountered along the way and jogged the shortest route to the fourth-floor Monster Room.
The trip took an hour and forty-five minutes.
My Agility had gone up slightly since yesterday, and I suppose aggressively taking the inside corners of every turn to shave off distance had paid off.
The moment I arrived at the Monster Room, I got right back to the slaughter!
I’d thought about it while lying in bed at home the previous night, and I’d officially decided to leave the magic stones where they lay. From now on, the only drops I would bother picking up were the Beginner Heal Potions.
Oh, by the way, I’d discovered that if I left drop items like the goblin equipment series on the floor and then re-entered the Monster Room, the dungeon absorbed them. They vanished completely, leaving the room spotless.
The same applied to magic stones. Even if I ignored them, the floor wouldn't end up covered in a mountain of clutter, so anyone else trying this method could rest easy.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. As for the dropped heal potions, I already had about 30 of them saved up at home. To be honest, having any more than that was becoming a nuisance, so I decided to use up every single one that dropped today.
That was when I realized—wasn't it a bit too wasteful to use potions solely for stamina recovery?
So, I decided to start actively consuming my HP as well.
That didn't mean I was going to use Fighting Spirit. I was going to use Sword Aura.
By utilizing the Flying Blade technique from Sword Aura, I could save myself the trouble of closing the distance to the enemy. This saved time and, more importantly, preserved my physical stamina.
For that reason, I began actively incorporating Sword Aura into my routine.
Essentially, I maintained my HP so that it was always below half, keeping the first stage of Blood Vengeance active at all times. This meant that in combat against goblins, all my stats were constantly boosted by 60%.
Even a 10% difference was visible now. The battles, which were already stable, became trivial.
I decided that whenever my HP dropped by 30 points below the halfway mark, I’d drink a potion to recover. While looping the Monster Room, a potion dropped roughly every three to four runs.
To compensate, I kept my HP consumption per loop to about 10. Whenever the drop rates were unkind and a potion didn't fall, I restricted my use of Sword Aura to a single strike to kill the commander, fighting normally until a potion finally appeared.
My clear time per loop was now under one minute. If I shamelessly spammed Flying Blade, the battle was over in 30 to 40 seconds.
After each fight, I’d grab a potion if it dropped; if not, I’d leave the room without picking up a single thing.
If I’d pushed myself to the limit, I probably could have managed one loop per minute, but my stamina wouldn't have held up. Instead, I gave myself over a minute to catch my breath after each battle, maintaining a pace of one loop every three minutes.
In other words, 20 loops per hour.
Since I didn't have to constantly bend over, the burden on my body was much lighter.
With a one-hour lunch break in the middle, I continued looping the Monster Room until 7:00 PM.
Today’s results were as follows:
Number of Monster Room loops—145 (Since I planned to heal my fatigue with potions, I started looping the moment I arrived). Total goblins defeated—2,320. Number of Beginner Heal Potions dropped—43 (All 43 were used). Number of magic stones obtained—0. Number of skill orbs obtained—1. Total experience points earned—639,450.
For the record, the volume of a heal potion was about the size of an expensive nutritional drink bottle—roughly 50ml.
That said, drinking 43 of them meant consuming over two liters... but since I was constantly exercising and sweating, and I wasn't drinking them all at once, my stomach never felt like it was sloshing.
More importantly, look at that experience gain. It was more than double yesterday's amount.
Just as I’d suspected, the task of picking up magic stones had been eating up a massive amount of time. And it really had been a literal pain in the back.
In exchange, my income for the day was zero, but I didn't mind at all. If I thought of it as buying experience points with magic stones and potions, it was a bargain. No, it was a steal.
After all, I’d leveled up again today—only one level, sure, but with the remaining experience, it was fair to say I’d earned enough for nearly two.
————————————————— 【Name】 Takeo Samejima 【Level】 23 Experience Points to next level: 26,910 HP: 53/121 (15 up!) MP: 31/31 (5 up!) Strength: 65 (9 up!) Constitution: 56 (6 up!) Intelligence: 6 Spirit: 25 (5 up!) Agility: 60 (5 up!) Dexterity: 60 (5 up!) 【STP】 0 【SP】 2 【Skills】 《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》 【Titles】 《Battle Junkie》 《Goblin Slayer》 《■■■■■》 —————————————————
Man, what could I say? The stat growth was on a completely different level compared to the early days.
The experience points needed to level up were increasing, but from Level 20 onward, the Status Points granted per level had jumped to 15. It was no wonder my stats were skyrocketing.
With these numbers, it looked like I’d be able to loop even more efficiently tomorrow...!