I decided to test whether I could truly manage without the Bracelet of Fleet-footedness or Hinata-san’s Energy Protection.
Without the bracelet, my stats after activating Goblin Genocider, Fighting Spirit, and Berserk looked like this:
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Strength: 90
Endurance: 78
Intelligence: 32
Spirit: 52
Agility: 78 (-30)
Dexterity: 70
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The thirty-point drop in Agility was worrying, but even an Assassin—the fastest monster on Floor 6—only has an Agility of around 60.
By the numbers, I still had the advantage, and I also had Danger Sense. As long as I only had to face about four enemies in close quarters at a time like during the last run, there shouldn't be any issues.
And if things got hairy, I could just take them out from a distance with Flying Blade.
With that plan in mind, I challenged our second Monster Room of the day.
The result was—
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!! He won again?!”
“He was sandbagging even more than in the last fight, so I thought he was actually gonna die this time... but he won just as overwhelmingly as before!!?”
“W-well, it's not like he actually needed Energy Protection last time anyway...!! (Trembling voice)”
“But his Agility should've dropped, right?! Why is he still moving faster than the Floor 6 monsters?! Didn't his stats reset to their initial values?!”
“Wait, I just realized something. His stats are back to level zero, but he's still one-shotting goblins with normal attacks without using Mighty Blade. No matter how you look at it, that's insane, isn't it?”
“If he maxed out Goblin Killer, that's a 4x multiplier with his equipment buffs... and if he maxed out Magic Sword too, that's an 8x multiplier for direct attacks... I guess it's not impossible?”
“An 8x damage multiplier?! Isn't that way too strong?! Is Goblin Killer actually a god-tier skill?!”
“Calm down, lol.”
“There's no way Goblin Killer is a god-tier skill...”
Well, for what it’s worth... there were no problems at all.
I defeated them easily.
Repeating this loop shouldn't be an issue.
That meant the remaining problem was MP consumption. I had brought about thirty Mana Potions just in case.
Even so, it was questionable if that would be enough.
Assuming Hinata-san recovers roughly 100 MP per hour and each run consumes 20 MP, we could do five runs an hour.
On the other hand, while I only consumed 10 MP per run, after fighting several times, my MP wouldn't recover to its maximum. My natural recovery was probably only around twenty-something per hour.
If I wanted to match Hinata-san's pace, I would just need to drink one Mana Potion every hour.
But even then, we could only manage five runs per hour... That felt slow.
Well, there was no point in complaining, so we continued to clear the Monster Room at a pace of five runs per hour.
We had arrived at the Floor 6 Monster Room around 2:30 PM.
From there, we continued our grind until 9:00 PM, taking a one-hour break in the middle.
On April 17th, we completed twenty-eight runs.
Yes, only twenty-eight.
That was all...
And yet...
“...H-huh...!!”
“Takeo-kun? What's wrong?”
“Hm? What is it? What happened, Junkie Bro?”
“Why’d you suddenly freeze up?”
“Hurry up and gather the Magic Stones.”
While Hinata-san and the viewers called out to me, I remained paralyzed after finishing the twenty-eighth run, staring into the empty air.
The purpose of this session wasn't to level up.
It was to explore the potential of the Seeker series of skills by unlocking an Evolution Skill or a Derivative Skill.
I was braced for it to take a long time—and with good reason. Countless pioneers had poured massive amounts of time and effort into this path, only to fail and leave behind nothing but their corpses.
Still, I didn't know when or under what conditions an Evolution Skill or Derivative Skill would be unlocked. That was why, after every battle, I meticulously checked my status to see if a new skill had appeared in the List of Obtainable Skills, or if the description for Seeker had changed from "Lv. Max" to "Lv. 5."
And now—right before my eyes, a completely new skill had appeared in the List of Obtainable Skills.
With a trembling hand, I tapped the new entry to check its details.
There is a close relationship between the unlock conditions and the skill itself.
For example, if you practice swinging a wooden sword repeatedly, you unlock Increased Damage with Blunt Weapons or Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons. If you work incredibly hard at swimming, you unlock Water Resistance Adjustment or Water Breathing.
Based on that logic, the only possible unlock condition for this newly available skill was repeated combat while using Seeker.
“—!”
As the realization hit me, a wave of euphoria rushed over me.
As a leveling fanatic born into this world, discovering a new, efficient way to level up that no one else knew about—unlocking a skill for that very purpose—made me happier than any single level-up ever could.
Which meant—
“—Nggibodyiiiiii!! It’s heeeeeeeeeeere!!”
“Kya?!”
“Whoa?!”
“What was that all of a sudden?!”
“Shut up!!”
“RIP my eardrums.”
Hinata-san let out a small shriek, and the comment section erupted in complaints.
None of it reached my ears. That was how happy I was. Even the word "ecstasy" felt too mild. It was more like my brain was spraying pure dopamine.
Twitching and spasming, I arched my back into a deep Inabauer, shivering with delight.
“Ah... Could it be, Takeo-kun, did you level up?”
“Oh, what, it's just the usual, lol.”
“He’s having a Levelgasm peak, lmao.”
“Glad to see Junkie Bro is his usual self, lol.”
“There was a weird time lag this time, though, lol.”
Hinata-san, who had regained her composure for some reason, looked at me as I tried to convey my achievement while still being assaulted by waves of pleasure.
“A-hee... Hinata-san... I... ngh! A-a new... ski-lllyuuuuuuu!!”
“Ah, yeah, okay. Come to think of it, you did say you were going to get the Asceticism skill too. Did you take it because your level went up?”
“Whoa, seriously, Junkie Bro?”
“I honestly thought he'd do it, but he actually grabbed Asceticism, lol.”
“Asceticism is a literal slog!!”
“It looks like he managed Seeker thanks to Hinata-chan's Support Magic, but what's he gonna do about Asceticism?”
“I can't even imagine him being able to use that, lol.”
“Wait, but if it's Junkie Bro, maybe...!!”
“N-no... that's not it... nnghoooooo!!”
“Takeo-kun, wait a second. I’m going to end the stream first.”
I wanted to correct them, but my words weren't getting through to Hinata-san or the viewers.
Seeing that I was unable to move, Hinata-san seemingly decided to end the stream for now. She turned her back to me as I lay twitching on the ground and faced the drone.
“Um, anyway, that’s it for today’s stream.”
“What do you mean 'anyway', lol.”
“Hinata-chan suddenly declaring the end of the stream because of Junkie Bro's unsightly state, lol.”
“Ending the stream right at the peak of Junkie Bro's Levelgasm is a new one, lol.”
“What a terrible way to end, lmao.”
“I’m gonna see this in my dreams, lol.”
“I’ll be streaming again tomorrow morning, so please watch if you can. Well then... good night.”
“Good night!” “Good work!” “Bye-bye!” “See you tomorrow!” “Bye-bye, Hinata-chan!” “I’ll watch tomorrow too!”
And so, the day’s stream came to an end.
After a while, once the lingering afterglow of pleasure had settled, I told Hinata-san that a new skill had been unlocked.
She was greatly surprised, saying, “So it wasn't a level-up after all!!”
I felt like she was surprised by the wrong thing... but anyway!
I consulted with Hinata-san and decided that tomorrow morning we would start grinding the Floor 7 Monster Room.
I didn't have any skill points left to acquire the new skill right now, so I planned to raise my level on Floor 7.
Incidentally, this is what was written in the new skill's description:
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【Skill】
Indomitable Spirit Lv. 1: When in combat with an enemy of a higher level than oneself, all stats except HP and MP are enhanced by a value of (Enemy Level - Own Level) x 1.2.
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Depending on the situation, it was a god-tier skill that could potentially offset the drawbacks of the Seeker skill...!!
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• Information currently not disclosed
Unlock conditions for Indomitable Spirit:
Satisfy one of the following conditions:
Defeat 1,000 enemies at least 10 levels higher than oneself in solo combat. Or, defeat 100 enemies at least 20 levels higher than oneself in solo combat. Or, defeat 10 enemies at least 30 levels higher than oneself in solo combat.
The total level sum of higher-level enemies defeated in solo combat exceeds 10,000.
*Definition of Solo Combat: Defeating an enemy by dealing 100% of their HP damage through one's own attacks or actions.