I kept fighting.
I fought and fought and fought, bisecting Metasla after Metasla, over and over again.
How many dozens of them had I taken down by now?
Perhaps my fury had finally reached them, as the other explorers had stopped trying to interfere. That was a relief. However—
(Tch! The fourth time already!?)
Three minutes into the battle, the fourth wave of stat reductions from "Frailty" hit me.
The penalty now outweighed the buffs from Blood Vengeance, causing my stats to plummet across the board.
If that was the case... what if I activated the second stage of Blood Vengeance?
Stat-wise, I’d certainly be able to keep fighting. However, maintaining the second stage required my HP to be below 20%, which meant I would have to fight with a constant HP of 68 or less (my current maximum HP being 340).
To make matters worse, in that state, receiving even a single Heal would deactivate the second-stage buff. I wouldn't be able to receive any healing magic from Hinata-san other than High Regeneration.
And above all, the biggest problem was that by maintaining Asceticism, I was taking 22 damage every ten seconds from "Poison" and "Consumption."
That damage output exceeded the recovery provided by High Regeneration. In short, I wouldn't be able to use Mighty Blade to attack.
Without Mighty Blade, I doubted I could even damage the Metaslas.
Therefore, there was no point in activating the second stage of Blood Vengeance.
But if that was the case, what was I supposed to do!?
In the middle of a high-speed battle, I wavered.
It was a slight hesitation—too long for an instant, yet too short for a moment. But that hesitation caused a delay in my reactions.
"—!?"
The next instant, a zip rang out. A Metasla passing by at high speed grazed the edge of my clothes.
My posture was thrown completely off-balance. I scrambled to recover my stance.
However, a Metasla's body slam was already flying toward me.
This was the worst possible timing; I wouldn't be able to dodge it.
(This is bad!?)
In that split second, my thoughts accelerated. What should I do!? What can I do!? How can I get through this!? I searched for a solution within every memory I had ever acquired. The CPU inside my brain, boasting a 530,000 IQ, roared as it spun at full power!!
But!
But!!
The answer it derived was—no moves left.
"D-Dammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Why am I so weak!?
Why am I not stronger!?
—I want to be strong.
I want to be so strong that I never let a single point of experience slip through my fingers!!
It was the first time in my life I had ever felt such resentment toward my own weakness.
And so.
I made the decision to cut away what I held most dear.
The next moment, I—
"Eh!?"
"Hah!?"
"Wh-What is he doing!?"
While dodging a Metasla charging like a cannonball, I lined up my sword with another passing by and bisected it.
The explorers watching the battle shouted in shock.
It was only natural. They had noticed. They realized that I had cast aside my precious—more precious than anything else—experience points.
In other words.
For a brief moment, I had deactivated Asceticism. This reset the influence of the stat reductions and returned my status to what it had been at the start of the battle.
Asceticism could be deactivated at any time by my own will. The effects of "Frailty" tied to the skill were also resolved upon deactivation.
However.
If I deactivated Asceticism even once during combat, I would lose the experience point bonus for the remainder of the fight.
My experience multiplier would drop from the 16x I’d enjoyed until then to a mere 6x, provided by Seeker and Awakened One.
It was painful.
It was far too painful.
It was a gut-wrenching, soul-crushing kind of pain.
But if I died, I wouldn't gain any experience at all, and I wouldn't be able to level up. Living to steadily level up was more vital than the immediate experience points before my eyes.
Even knowing that, I couldn't help my own powerlessness, and I fought while shedding bitter tears.
I immediately reactivated the Asceticism I had turned off. I had to, otherwise the Metaslas would flee. Besides, Asceticism was necessary to trigger the effects of Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds.
However, whenever the effects of "Frailty" became too strong, I could now simply toggle Asceticism off and on again.
My reactions were no longer delayed by stat reductions—which meant I no longer had any reason to lose.
As I continued to fight, inevitably, it wasn't just losses; there were gains as well.
Experience points.
In the heat of the battle, I heard that familiar woman's voice.
—Your level has increased.
"—IIIIIIIIIT FEEEEEELS SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODD!!!!!!!!!"
I won.
I won fair and square.
I wondered how many minutes I had been fighting since the start. Having slaughtered every last one of the dozens of Metaslas, I stood victorious.
I’d been holding it in until the end of the fight, so the release felt even better than usual!!!
Twitch, twitch!!
"—A-Are you serious...!?"
"Am I dreaming...?"
"He actually took down that many Metaslas...!!"
"Incredible...!! You're seriously amazing, Leveling Junkie Bro!!"
"Wait, Takeo-kun's movements looked like they suddenly got faster halfway through... what was that about?"
"You dummy, Teruya! It's obvious! It's the power of love between me and Leveling Junkie Bro-kun!! To protect the me he loves, Leveling Junkie Bro-kun had an awakening!!"
"There's no way that's it..."
"Is this guy’s brain fried?"
『Woooooaaaah!!』 『Leveling Junkie Bro seriously won lol』 『I mean, his movements didn't just get faster halfway through... didn't they just go back to normal after being slow?』 『No, I suspect that this guy...』 『Don't even say it!! He had Seeker and Asceticism active the whole time, thank you very much!!』 『lol』 『You said it all, though lol』 『So that means he deactivated Seeker and Asceticism halfway through?』 『Yeah, that's why he was screaming "Dammit!!" and all that lol』 『Wait, you mean he was messing around against that many Metaslas!!?』 『Messing around against Metaslas lol. How is he even alive lol』 『Leveling Junkie Bro is always desperate when it comes to leveling up lol』 『Even so, pick your opponents!!?』
The explorers who were watching and the viewers on the stream were all probably celebrating my victory. Everyone was talking at once, so I couldn't quite hear what they were saying.
At any rate, now that the battle was over and I had finished feeling thoroughly good, I checked my status.
I never thought I'd level up in Sladan without grinding monster rooms.
That's because going from Level 49 to Level 50 requires "1.5 billion" experience points. I mean, 1.5 billion. The scaling is just brutal.
Back at Level 40, it was only 100 million.
Well, it's the same every time, so I'll just swallow my complaints.
Still, to fill the remaining requirement of over 1.4 billion... as expected of Metaslas. I killed 51 of them at 16x, and 36 at 6x... Adding the one from when I met the Animal Gorenger, that's only 88 Metaslas to reach this... I seriously wish Metaslas would infinitely respawn somewhere.
Anyway.
This is my current status!!
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【Name】 Takeo Samejima 【Level】 50 Experience until next level: 1,459,206,318
《HP》 32/340 (80 up!) 《MP》 0/127 (40 up!) 《Strength》 175 (40 up!) 《Constitution》 165 (40 up!) 《Intelligence》 6 《Spirit》 121 (40 up!) 《Agility》 170 (40 up!) 《Dexterity》 175 (40 up!)
【STP】 30 【SP】 1
【Skills】 《Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons Lv. Max》 《Berserk Lv. 1》 《Goblin Genocider Lv. Max》 《Fighting Spirit Lv. Max》 《Blood Vengeance Lv. 3》 《Sword Aura Lv. 3》 《Taunt Lv. 1》 《■■■■■■■ Lv. 1》 《Life Magic Lv. Max》 《Magic Sword Lv. 1》 《Danger Sense Lv. 1》 《Mighty Blade Lv. 3》 《Seeker Lv. Max》 《Indomitable Spirit Lv. 1》 《Asceticism Lv. Max》 《Awakened One Lv. Max》 《Equanimity》 《Footing Creation Lv. 1》 《Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds Lv. 2》 《Slime Killer Lv. 1》 《Brave Heart Lv. 1》 《Silver Lightning Magic Lv. 1》 《Magic Shroud Lv. 1》
【Titles】 《Battle Junkie》 《Goblin Genocider》 《■■■■■》 《Swordmaster》 《Awakened One》 《Slime Killer》 《Hero》
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Incidentally, since I had reached Level 49 as of the day before yesterday, Awakened One was already at maximum level. I put the skill points left over after maxing Awakened One into Blood Vengeance, Sword Aura, and Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds.
Including the Slime Killer I got today, the performance looks like this.
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【Skills】 《Awakened One Lv. Max》 — Experience multiplier 2.0x. Becomes 3.0x in battles using either Seeker or Asceticism. Becomes 4.0x in battles using both.
《Blood Vengeance Lv. 3》 — All stats except HP and MP increase as remaining HP decreases. Increases by 30% when HP is 50% or below, and 60% when HP is 20% or below.
《Sword Aura Lv. 3》 — Cloak a blade in sword aura to increase damage by 1.6x. Alternatively, the sword aura can be fired as a slash, but damage is 1.0x. Consumes 3 HP every 10 seconds. Firing a slash consumes an additional 1 HP.
《Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds Lv. 2》 — When afflicted with one status ailment, damage multiplier is 1.4x. Thereafter, for every additional status ailment, the damage multiplier increases by +0.4x.
《Slime Killer Lv. 1》 — Damage dealt to Slime species is 1.2x.
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Man, even if I do say so myself, I've really gained a lot of skills.
In terms of skill count alone, wouldn't I be quite high up among explorers?
I'm not sure which skill to put points into... Well, it would be fine to just grow Blood Vengeance like usual, but assuming I'll be fighting monsters other than Goblins like this time, putting points into Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds is also an option.
See, at my level, it wouldn't be strange to clear Floor 10 of the Shinjuku Dungeon soon. Goblins don't appear from Floor 11 onwards, after all.
And come to think of it, as a special crisis case explorer, it's entirely possible I'll be requested to subjugate monsters other than Goblins.
In that case, I should definitely go with Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds... but then again, if I'm fighting monsters other than Goblins, Blood Vengeance is also important.
One of these two... or, if there was a more versatile and powerful skill... Oh, right, these like Brave Heart or Magic Shroud look good. Brave Heart is a well-known cheat skill for a "Hero," but Magic Shroud in particular seems very versa...tile?
"—Huh?"
Rub, rub.
I rubbed my eyes and checked the status screen carefully once more.
【Title】 《Hero》 【Skills】 《Brave Heart》 《Silver Lightning Magic》 《Magic Shroud》
"............. Huh?"
.............
......Huh?