"Oooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh!!!!!"
I lunged out from the plaza.
I threw myself headlong toward the swarm of Metaslas surging in our direction.
『Wha?!』
『Are you serious?!』
『What the hell is Leveling Junkie Bro doing?!』
『Calm down!!』
"Leveling Junkie Bro?!"
"You can't take on that many!!"
"You idiot!! Come back!!"
I thought I heard the viewers and other explorers shouting something, but by that point, their words no longer reached me.
"—Hinata-san!! Support, please!!"
Only a single grain of sand's worth of reason remained in me at the very end, enough to request support from Hinata-san. Of course, I didn't stop my feet for a second after shouting that.
"Takeo-kun?! Wait a minute! That’s just impossible, even for you! —Oh, honestly!"
"What?!"
"Who is that?!"
"Y-You idiot!!"
On the way, I immediately passed Arnold Oishi’s party and headed even deeper. Then, I came face-to-face with the surging swarm of Metaslas.
Seeker and Asceticism were already active. Thanks to the Maximum Aggro of my Mark of Death, the aggro of the Metaslas that had been chasing Oishi and his group shifted entirely to me.
Now they wouldn't be able to run away.
I coated the sword I’d drawn at some point with Sword Aura, then activated Indomitable Spirit, Fighting Spirit, and Berserk in rapid succession. I triggered the Bracelet of Technique for good measure!
Since some time had passed since the previous Metasla fight, my HP was nearly full, so I still couldn't activate Blood Vengeance, but—
"—Holy Bless!!"
As expected of Hinata-san! The support magic made it in time!
With this, there were no more obstacles to taking down the Metaslas. As thanks, I’ll be sure to share a massive amount of experience points with you, Hinata-san!
"Hyahahhh!!! Every last one of you, turn into my experience points!!!!"
As we closed the distance at high speeds, less than a second remained until contact. Even so, we were still more than ten meters apart. At that distance, I poured a massive amount of HP into my Sword Aura and swung my sword in a horizontal sweep.
It was a Great Flying Blade constructed with 30 HP—a strike bolstered by Mighty Blade.
However, to cut down the Metaslas dashing at a low position all at once, I would have to fire the flying blade at a height grazing the ground. That wasn't impossible, but it was difficult, and there was a chance they could easily evade it.
That was why I did this.
"Blow away!!"
The Great Flying Blade slammed into the lead Metasla. Immediately after, the massive blade of aura burst.
「「「—!!?」」」
Numerous screams erupted from behind me. I couldn't tell what they were saying because a deafening explosion roared out.
That’s right—instead of slicing through the Metasla, the Great Flying Blade exploded the moment it collided, scattering a tremendous sound and shockwave. A shockwave tore through the corridor, and the impact of the explosion shook the cave.
It wasn't just one. I had unleashed it three times in an instant.
Not flames, but a light of pale-blue aura spread through the passage like an explosion. It was a bombardment using the aura of Sword Aura.
This wasn't some new trick that became possible because the skill level reached 3. Do you remember during the battle with the Special Variant Goblin in the Floor 8 Monster Room of Shinjuku Dungeon, when I tried to use Parry with a Sword Aura boosted by Mighty Blade? The aura went out of control and exploded back then.
In short, it was that. I had increased the scale of that explosion and turned it into a long-range bombardment by making it a flying blade.
Of course, I hadn't just winged it on the spot; I had already finished practicing and verifying it in the Floor 7 Monster Room of Shinjuku. To my surprise, it seemed that the damage multipliers from various skills applied to this explosion. The power dropped sharply in proportion to the distance from the center of the blast... but I discovered that by increasing the amount of aura—the amount of HP poured into the Sword Aura—the blast radius expanded, and the decay of power became somewhat more gradual.
In other words, I had acquired a wide-range attack method second only to the Great Flying Blade! Since I was using Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds in addition to Mighty Blade, the damage multiplier was perfect!
And for the time being, I named this attack Explosive Blade!
"It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s cominggg!!!!"
Just before the flames of aura from the Explosive Blade cleared, I felt a massive amount of experience points flow into me. If the level of all the Metaslas was fixed at 60, there were roughly 13 Metaslas' worth! Based on my intuition!
How did I know?! I just knew! Obviously!
However, even after defeating thirteen Metaslas, there were still plenty of refills left. I mean, if it were the Floor 7 Monster Room, that attack would have had enough power to blow away every single Goblin... as expected of the Metaslas. To think I only managed to kill thirteen.
Regardless, in the corridor where the aura flames had cleared, there were so many Metaslas that it created the illusion that their numbers hadn't decreased at all. Perhaps wary of my attack, in the next instant—Thump!!—they began jumping with great momentum.
A multitude of Metaslas began closing the distance, bouncing off the ground, walls, and ceiling of the passage like superballs. And then, one after another, they tackled me.
Numerous Metaslas came flying at me like cannonballs.
But right now, I had lost 180 HP from the three Explosive Blades, and on top of that, I had taken 22 damage from the Poison and Consumption of Asceticism. My HP was already below half, which meant that naturally, Blood Vengeance had activated.
Currently, my Blood Vengeance was at Skill Level 3. The first stage of empowerment granted a thirty percent increase to all stats.
Therefore, it looked like this:
———————————————— Strength: 592 Constitution: 534 Intelligence: 208 Spirit: 266 Agility: 534 Dexterity: 277 ————————————————
Based on my intuition, the Agility value of the Metaslas and my current one—or rather, the actual speed displayed through the combination of Agility and Dexterity—were roughly equal. No matter how fast the Metaslas moved, they were only at a level inferior to Cheetah Mask or the Special Variant Goblin that appeared on Floor 8.
This was likely because even if the Metaslas had high status points, they had allocated many of them to Constitution and Spirit. It seemed that as a result of seeking high defensive power, they couldn't reach an extraordinary Agility value.
And if they were only at that level—evading them was easy!!
"Hyah!! This is fun! It's just like dodgeball!!!!"
Thanks to the guidance of Danger Sense Sensei, I could take evasive action a fraction of a second faster! And for an explorer, that fraction of a second was enough to even transition into a counterattack!
While dodging the ultra-high-speed three-dimensional dodgeball from the numerous Metaslas, I swung my sword simultaneously with my evasion. A strike coated in Sword Aura and bolstered by Mighty Blade and Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds. Since it was a direct attack, the Sword Aura damage multiplier was also applied, resulting in a 138.24x multiplier attack!
Now, I could slice through even the Metaslas with laughable ease!
While continuing to evade as if dancing in the center of the passage, I bisected Metaslas that had slammed into the ground or those passing by at high speeds.
"—Holy Protection!!"
In the midst of that, Hinata-san, who had chased after me into the passage, cast a new support magic on me. It was a new spell learned through Divine Magic, and its effect was an enhanced version of Energy Protection.
Continuing on—
"High He—"
"Wait, Hinata-san!!"
Noticing she was about to fire a High Heal, I shouted while dodging a Metasla.
"Keep the recovery to Heal!! I'm using Blood Vengeance!!"
"Ah, Heal!!...High Regeneration!!"
As expected of Hinata-san! After switching the recovery to Heal, she cast High Regeneration on me to make HP management easier. The effect was "Restore 20 HP every 10 seconds for 5 minutes." By the way, regeneration-type recovery magic doesn't accept bonuses from the Saint skill or equipment; the recovery amount is always constant.
Then, she said, "Takeo-kun, I'll be on standby with Heal!!"
In short, it meant I should call out to her when I needed healing. With this, I could fight without letting Blood Vengeance expire. I was grateful!
"Roger!!"
From there, my combat accelerated. I could fight without worrying about a shortage of HP. There was nothing more delightful than this.
I evaded the Metaslas, swung my sword, and bisected them with a single strike of Mighty Blade. Bisecting, bisecting, bisecting, bisecting—
"Heal!"
"—Heal!!"
Whenever I requested healing, a Heal would fly over instantly. While keeping my HP below half, I was able to fight stably.
But—
"(Wait... has a minute passed?!)"
One minute after the start of the battle, I felt my stats drop sharply. The Frailty debuff from Asceticism had entered its second stage, shifting from the previous ten percent stat reduction to a twenty percent reduction.
"Guh?!"
Due to the unintended fluctuation in my stats, my evasive movement was delayed by a mere half-instant. Though I avoided a direct hit, the body of a Metasla grazed my clothes, and that alone threw off my stance. This was bad. But—
"—Not yet!!"
I recovered immediately. By continuing to fight this long, my eyes had grown accustomed to the Metaslas' movements. Furthermore, my movements were the minimum necessary for evasion and counterattacking; there was no need to run around. The negative impact of the lowered Agility was minor.
To begin with, if my Agility had dropped, I just had to move with the understanding that it had dropped! I listened closely to the inner voice of Danger Sense Sensei and adapted to the drop in Agility by starting my movements half an instant earlier than before.
And then, I counterattacked.
"I can do this!!"
I can still kill! I can still kill plenty more!
However, the fact that I had fallen into even a slight bit of danger was the problem. Further behind Hinata-san, the explorers from the Special Crisis Case unit who had gathered in the plaza were still watching my battle without escaping.
Among them, some who saw that I was reaching my limit made up their minds and shouted to their comrades.
"—Tch, you guys!! Are you really going to let Leveling Junkie Bro fight all by himself?!"
"He's right!! We're part of the Special Crisis Case unit too!! Show them the pride of the unit!!"
"We're going to assist Leveling Junkie Bro!! We're taking down those Metaslas!!"
Perhaps inspired by their words, other people began to raise their voices as well.
"O-Oh...!!"
"Y-Yeah!!"
"I can't let this end without doing anything cool!!"
"Save Leveling Junkie Bro!!"
"Let's go, everyone!!"
The explorers who were in the plaza began running toward the passage—toward me. Once the space where the Metaslas were currently dancing wildly came into their range, each of them began unleashing skills for long-range attacks, such as magic or Sword Aura.
Those attacks weren't hitting the Metaslas moving at high speeds. They were merely gouging into the ground, walls, and ceiling in vain. But if they continued like this, or if they got even closer, their attacks would start hitting the Metaslas whose aggro was focused on me.
The explorers who had plucked up their courage to act and started assisting me...
Seeing those people, I...!!
I...!!
"—St-Stoooooooop iitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!! (Genuinely pissed off)"
I screamed, flying into a rage the likes of which I hadn't felt in years.
「「「—Huh?」」」
What the hell are these people doing!!?
Those are my experience points!!? Are you planning to kill-steal and snatch the experience points away from me?! You damn hyenas!!!
I won't let you!! I won't let you do it!!! These are all mineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
"NOBODY LAY A SINGLE DAMN FINGER ON THEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!"