While waiting for the effects of the potion to heal Kawabata’s left arm, I passed the time enjoying some small talk with Mogi and his crew.
Mogi and the others were all colleagues at the same company, and they apparently spent their days off active as Explorers. Apparently, they’d turned to the dungeon because their boss’s power harassment was so unbearable; they just wanted to punch monsters to vent their stress.
"By the way, we stream under the channel name 'Corporate Slave Busters,' so we’d be happy if you stopped by for a look sometime."
"...Is that channel name really okay? It makes it sound like you’re trying to bust yourselves."
I worried that the excessive stress might have actually broken their minds.
"Ahaha! It’s fine, it’s fine. Actually, about half a year after we started working as DungeonTubers, the power harassment from our boss stopped."
"Was that because... the guy got fired or something?"
"No, it wasn't that. It seems like it was because he saw our stream."
"...Oh, I see. So he became a fan?"
"No, it seems watching us fight for our lives just made him terrified of us."
It wasn't a heartwarming story about winning him over. He was simply intimidated by the scent of violence.
"In reality, once you've fought for your life against monsters over and over, you start to feel like even on the surface without your stats, you could easily 'take care of' a boss or two if it really came down to it."
Well, they had accumulated experience in life-or-death struggles far more intense than any street brawl. Even if their physical abilities weren't trained that much on the surface, I imagine they could overwhelm people through sheer resolve, experience, and technique.
"As I thought, violence really does solve everything...!!"
"Yeah, exactly...!! Even if you don't actually use it, possessing that capacity for violence makes your heart feel stable. Now, even if the boss tries to harass me, I just think, 'Well, I could easily handle this guy if I had to.'"
I see, I see. That’s wonderful...!!
I think everyone suffering from power harassment should just dive into a dungeon. If they did, the day power harassment disappears from this world wouldn't be far off...!!
I continued listening to their story with admiration, but one part of the conversation caught my attention.
Mogi and his group had been Explorers for about a year and were Level 12 or 13. Just like Hinata-san, they originally explored a different dungeon, but once they’d grown somewhat accustomed to combat, they’d come to the Shinjuku Dungeon in search of a Skill Orb for Life Magic.
"We have enough levels to explore Floor 4, but the Goblin Wolf Rider was way out of our league. It was a real blessing that you came to save us, Leveling Junkie Bro. Thank you."
"No, don't mention it....But, Level 13, huh."
A slight doubt crossed my mind, and I fell into thought.
"Hmm? Is something wrong?"
"...No. I just want to ask, do you have the Fighting Spirit skill, Mogi-san?"
"Eh? Oh, yeah, I have it."
"If you don't want to answer, that's fine, but could you tell me its skill level?"
"Oh, sure. I don't really hide it on the stream, so I don't mind....I've raised it to the maximum level."
"I see..."
If I recall, when I was Level 13, my Fighting Spirit skill was only Level 4. Because I had dumped points into Goblin Killer, I couldn't max it out.
As a warrior-type Explorer, Mogi likely used an orthodox skill build—meaning he first maxed out damage-increasing skills for his specific equipment and then raised the unlocked Fighting Spirit skill.
But if that's the case, the current Mogi should be able to exert higher stats momentarily than I could back when I was Level 13. Well, I have Berserk too, and more importantly, my damage against Goblins would have been much higher thanks to Goblin Killer, but still...
On a side note, I’d already checked how much experience I’d received after defeating the Rider. The amount was "850."
When multiple parties cooperate to defeat a single monster, the experience is first divided equally among each party that participated, and then that portion is divided equally among the members of the party.
Since that 850 experience was the result of a fifty-fifty split with Mogi's party, the Rider's total experience was 1700.
A monster's experience value can be calculated as "Species Value × Level × Class Value."
Since the Species Value for the Goblin Race is 10, dividing 1700 by 10 gives a combined Level × Class Value of 170. By further dividing that by the Rider's Class Value of 10—which I’d confirmed on the Strategy Wiki—the level of that Goblin Wolf Rider can be calculated.
1700 divided by 10, then divided by 10... its level was 17.
Referring to the Strategy Wiki again, a Level 17 Rider has an Agility of 70. Its highest stat is Agility, followed by Strength and Dexterity, which are both listed as 65...
After calculating the Rider's level and stats in my head, I realized... wait?
—Are you asking if I can do mental math even though I'm a dummy with only 6 Intelligence?
.......
Hey, that's enough of that!!
I've repeated experience calculations in countless games. I can handle simple arithmetic in my head!
Anyway.
What I mean to say is...
"Couldn't you guys have won against the Rider by yourselves, even without my help?"
That was my thought.
It wasn't an opponent like a Goblin Knight where physical attacks were almost useless. If they used Fighting Spirit, their stats should have been equal to or slightly higher than the Rider's. On top of that, there were five of them, even with Kawabata-san injured.
I explained to Mogi and the others that they probably could have won normally.
The rebuttals came fast and hard.
"No, no, no! Even if our stats were close, its size, reach, and speed are totally different! In terms of pure attack power, the Rider weighs much more, so we’re actually at a disadvantage!!"
"You can't just jump into close combat with something like that!!"
"Besides, using Fighting Spirit drains 5 HP every 10 seconds! We don't have any way to heal, so we can't use it except as a final resort!!"
"And there’s no safety margin with that thing! In our base states, if we take a single hit, our HP is either gone or we're on the verge of death. Even if we raise our Endurance with Fighting Spirit, the double whammy of the skill's cost and the monster's damage doesn't change the outcome much!! Sure, we might win, but it’s the kind of fight where some of us would definitely die!!"
"S-So amazing..."
"Even if we had healing, almost nobody would keep using Fighting Spirit while their HP is in the danger zone like you do, Leveling Junkie Bro!!"
"Normally, you're supposed to keep a safety margin so your HP doesn't drop below half, and you regulate how many battles you take!?"
"It’s not like you die the second your HP hits zero, but losing your status in a dungeon basically means you'll be dead soon anyway!!"
"In a game, you might push through when a comrade dies or your HP hits the red zone, but in reality, your only option is to run!!"
"I mean, if you encounter an opponent that strong, you just panic from fear!!"
"Not every Explorer can fight like they're dancing on a minefield like you, Leveling Junkie Bro!!"
"Plus, for some reason, you’re one-shotting almost everything. Normally, you can't do that, so you have to gang up on one monster just to survive!! If you don't, you're almost guaranteed to take damage every time you attack!"
"Dungeon monsters don't care if they die as long as they kill you, but Explorers have to fight day after day. Even against trash mobs, you have to avoid taking damage as much as humanly possible!?"
"O-Oh...!?"
I was hit with a massive wall of text.
I was quite confident in my logic, but being refuted this hard makes me lose confidence in my own perspective.
It's true—if my friends were going to die, I wouldn't fight either...
Besides, unlike when I fought the Goblin Knight, even if they used Fighting Spirit, their Agility would only barely surpass the monster's. Against a Rider with high Dexterity, the monster's actual performance might have even been superior.
Either way, dodging its attacks would have been a nightmare... yeah.
"I was wrong. I'm sorry..."
I admitted my mistake, my eyes spinning from the lecture.
●◯●
After spending some more time chatting, Kawabata-san’s condition seemed to have improved considerably.
Kawabata-san, who had been pale and trembling before, now had some color back in his face.
"Ah, I feel much better. Thank you so much, Leveling Junkie Bro."
He thanked me, and I replied, "No, please don't worry about it."
"No, really, for a moment I thought I was done for... but now I won't have to miss work tomorrow...!!"
"...Huh?"
Kawabata-san muttered this with a look of profound relief. Mogi and the others nodded along, saying, "That’s great!" Even the stream's comment section was flooded with messages like "That’s good!" "Glad to hear it, Kawabata!" and "That was a close call!"
Hearing that, I felt a wave of internal horror.
His arm was healed, and that was his first thought?
Not only did no one think it was strange, they all agreed as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Forget Kawabata-san and his friends—are even the viewers corporate slaves to their very marrow?
No, this is terrifying.
Forget the power harassment—this part of them is already way past saving...!!
They kept calling me a madman and an weirdo, but these people are definitely the abnormal ones.
Feeling chilled by the darkness of the Japanese salaryman, I returned to the surface with Mogi and his group that day.
Ah, by the way.
Regarding the reward from Mogi and the others, I felt it would be rude to keep refusing, so I decided to accept something in the end.
Not money, though—I took it in items.