I stepped into the Floor 7 Monster Room and faced an army of forty-nine summoned Goblins.
Since 《Seeker》 was already active, my Level was temporarily reduced to zero, which satisfied the activation conditions for 《Indomitable Spirit》.
Combined with Hinata-san’s "Bless," all my stats surged by 38 points at once.
It seemed that when multiple monsters were targeted by 《Indomitable Spirit》, the skill automatically designated the highest-level monster as the reference.
Since the maximum level of the monsters here was 20, the boost from 《Indomitable Spirit》 was—
(20 - 0) × 1.2 = 24.
From there, 《Goblin Genocider》 triggered automatically, and I activated 《Fighting Spirit》. My final Status ended up like this:
(I didn't activate 《Berserk》 this time. I figured I wouldn't need it.)
――――――――――――――――
Strength: 156
Constitution: 150
Intelligence: 88
Spirit: 100
Agility: 150
Dexterity: 98
――――――――――――――――
Yeah, I was strong. I could feel it.
And just look at that—my Intelligence had risen to 88.
My mind felt sharper than it ever had before. I felt as if the very secrets of the universe were within my grasp...! (Note: I was completely mistaken.)
I drew my sword and stood directly in front of the Goblins, addressing them with composed grandeur while activating 《Taunt》.
"Hmph... If you are so eager to die, then come at me."
『!?』 『What!?』 『Leveling Junkie Bro is acting different than usual!』 『What the hell happened!?』
"You should be grateful. I shall bring your miserable, worthless lives to an end... right here, right now!"
『His trash talk is sharper than usual...!?』 『I actually feel a sense of intelligence behind his words for once...!』 『Is this the result of his Intelligence being boosted by Indomitable Spirit!?』 『But this is...!!』 『Instead of sounding smart, it’s more like...!!』
"Prepare to become rust upon my blade."
I swung my sword toward the swarming Goblin army.
A Great Flying Blade infused with 《Sword Aura》 and 《Mighty Blade》. I launched four of them.
The massive blades of light flew toward the force of forty-nine, easily cleaving through their ranks and piercing straight through them.
They carved deep gashes into the walls of the Monster Room. A thunderous roar echoed, and the entire room trembled.
However, I hadn't managed to wipe them all out.
I could now fire one more Great Flying Blade than before, but because the enemy's numbers were so high and their formation had been spread out, there were six survivors.
I didn't wait for them. Instead, I charged directly into the cluster of approaching Goblins.
"Gugaaaaaaaaah!"
"—Your movements are far too monotonous."
I dodged the clumsy attack of a Berserker and cleaved it in two with a single strike.
In the meantime, however, the remaining five Goblins had surrounded me.
Spells, arrows, and spear thrusts were unleashed simultaneously from all sides.
"Hmph. Pathetic small fry."
It wasn't a problem.
Having predicted the trajectories of every attack with 《Danger Sense》, I slipped through the gaps with more ease than threading a needle.
I closed the distance as if dancing through the chaos, swinging my sword with absolute freedom—and annihilated the remaining Goblins one by one.
"Sleep now... embraced by eternal darkness!"
I gave my sword a sharp flick to clear the blood and sheathed it.
Silence followed.
And then—
『He—He’s gone full chuunibyou!!』 『This guy got a little smarter from his Intelligence boost, and now he’s come down with a terminal case of edgelord syndrome!』 『What the hell are we even watching!?』 『His sensibilities, which used to be on the level of an elementary schooler, have leveled up to a second-year middle schooler!』 『Stop trying so hard to use big words, lol!』 『Gwahhh!! Stop it, Leveling Junkie Bro! My eyes!』 『Don't do it! You’ll regret this later! You're creating a dark history for yourself in real-time!』 『Some of the viewers are actually taking damage from secondhand embarrassment, lol.』 『It’s hilarious how he won a Floor 7 Monster Room fight using Seeker and there isn't a single word of praise, lol.』 『Intelligence boosts don't actually make you smarter, so him acting like a chuunibyou out of nowhere is just him being delusional, lol.』 『Is this what they call the placebo effect? I’ve never seen such a blatant example, lol.』
You're all too weak, Goblins...!
I wish to know... defeat...!
●◯●
Running the Floor 7 Monster Room with 《Seeker》 active went off without a hitch.
The Experience Points earned per run had doubled to 185,140.
However, since Hinata-san had to use "Bless" and Healing Magic every single time, our final efficiency hadn't actually improved that much.
In the first run, after using four Great Flying Blades, I’d needed both a "High Heal" and a "Heal" to fully restore my HP. From the second run onward, I limited myself to three shots and took out the survivors in close combat.
I could still win easily that way, and I managed to keep the HP cost per run under 150, which meant a single "High Heal" was enough for a full recovery.
Even so, Hinata-san was still consuming 20 MP per run.
If we did normal runs without 《Seeker》, we could manage ten runs per hour. But with 《Seeker》 active, the limit for sustainable runs using only natural MP recovery was about five.
We had plenty of Mana Potions since they kept dropping, but... perhaps because of what she’d heard about Potion Addiction, Hinata-san was reluctant to drink them too often.
Still, she agreed to drink about one per hour, which she felt was safe. Combined with that recovery, our pace for the day settled at about six to seven runs per hour.
We continued grinding the Floor 7 Monster Room with 《Seeker》 from 12:30 PM until 7:00 PM, at which point we decided to end the exploration.
April 18th, afternoon results for the Floor 7 Monster Room grind:
Number of runs: 42. Total Goblins defeated: 2,058. Experience Points gained: Me: 7,775,880; Hinata-san: 1,943,970.
I’d only just leveled up that morning, and yet I’d already gained another Level.
Wait... was this actually more efficient?
In any case, I had a new Level and fresh Skill Points, so I finally acquired 《Asceticism Lv.1》 as planned.
I’d considered raising 《Indomitable Spirit》, but that would have delayed getting 《Asceticism》 even further, so I prioritized this one.
The details of the crucial 《Asceticism》 skill were as follows:
――――――――――――――――
【Skill】
《Asceticism Lv.1》—Upon activation, the user is afflicted with the "Pain" Status Ailment in exchange for multiplying gained Experience Points by 1.2. This skill must be activated before attacking an enemy and maintained until the end of combat to receive the experience bonus.
――――――――――――――――
...Do you see?
In short, it was a skill that boosted experience by inflicting Status Ailments on yourself. Furthermore, as the Skill Level increased, the number of ailments applied would also grow.
As for the "Pain" ailment applied at Level 1... it was often described as the "lightest" yet "heaviest" Status Ailment.
The reason it was called the "lightest" was that it carried no actual stat penalties. In a video game, a "Pain" status might drain HP every turn, but in reality, there was no Slip Damage involved.
However.
When "Pain" was applied, just as the name suggested, the user was assaulted by relentless, excruciating pain. Phantom pain, to be precise.
The intensity of this pain was reportedly monstrous. According to those who had tried it, it felt like "having a knife driven deep into your body."
Needless to say, there were very few people who could maintain their focus and fight while under that kind of agony.
Hence, it was the "heaviest" ailment. While many had experimented with 《Seeker》, the reality was that almost no one had been able to properly verify the effectiveness of 《Asceticism》.
Though I have to say, the fact that a few people had actually tried it multiple times was impressive in its own right.
Oh, and one more thing.
Status Ailments inflicted by 《Asceticism》 could not be cured by Healing Magic. You simply had to endure it.
"Takeo-kun... are you really going to use that skill?"
As I stared at the Status screen, Hinata-san looked at me with deep concern.
I didn't know yet if I’d actually be able to handle it, but...
"Well, let's just head home for today. We can test it out another time."
It was getting late, so we decided to call it a day.
We left the Monster Room and began the trek back to the Floor 7 Teleportation Circle.
I hadn't ended the stream yet. Since the viewers' questions showed no signs of slowing down, we’d decided to keep broadcasting until we reached Floor 1.
However, on the way back, we found ourselves unable to answer almost any of the viewers' questions.
That was because—
『Hm?』 『Wait?』 『Again?』
"Takeo-kun..."
"Yeah..."
On our way back, we were encountering an absurd number of Goblins.
Encounters were normal, but the frequency was the problem.
Usually, even if we were actively looking for trouble, we’d encounter a group of monsters maybe ten times an hour at most.
But on this trip back, we were jumped more than twenty times before we even reached the plaza in front of the stairs where the Teleportation Circle was located.
There were clearly too many monsters.
At the time, neither I, Hinata-san, nor the viewers thought it was a crisis.
It was just a vague sense of unease—people saying things like, "Isn't this a bit weird?", "This looks bad," or "Is something happening?"
That was all it was.
Right up until we used the Teleportation Circle to return to Floor 1.