May 9th.
I decided to take a day off from dungeon exploration.
Between nearly dying in the Minato Ward Dungeon and getting put through the wringer yesterday by the Headshot Yakuza and Mito-san, I judged that I finally needed some real rest.
Besides, I had to buy a new drone camera. Apparently, Mito-san had destroyed the old ones to eliminate any "evidence."
So, I spent the morning of that day with Hinata-san, heading out to buy a replacement.
I went with her because I’d decided to foot half the bill. Given our current income, it wasn't exactly a massive purchase, and I’d been relying on her drone for a long time now.
Explorers are technically required to film their activities in the dungeons, but if you're in a party, it's enough for one person to handle the recording. I hadn't been filming my own footage for quite a while, leaving it all to Hinata-san.
Of course, when I dive solo, I bring my own gear.
Because of that, I insisted on splitting the cost fifty-fifty, even though Hinata-san was hesitant to accept.
After we finished our shopping, we parted ways. But just because I was alone didn't mean I was headed for the dungeons to play around—not this time. I actually had plans to meet someone.
Specifically, I was meeting the members of "Mayurin and her Merry Friends," minus Mayurin-san herself. That meant Ikegami-san and the other three guys.
Ikegami-san had sent me a message on LUINE yesterday. We’d already exchanged IDs back when we were clearing the way to the boss room on Floor 10 of the Slime Dungeon.
As for why they’d called me out... they wanted to talk about what had happened to everyone after the chaos in the Floor 10 boss room. They also mentioned wanting to "deepen our friendship." According to Ikegami-san, there were likely a lot of things we couldn't discuss openly, so the social angle was probably just a pretext for a private chat.
I’d suggested that if we were going to bond, we should invite Hinata-san too, but they said that would be "inconvenient." When I asked why, they told me, "If Mayurin finds out we met with Hinata-san, it’ll be a total pain later."
When I followed up with, "Then why not just invite Mayurin-san, too?" they simply replied, "Then we wouldn't be able to talk at all."
...Well, those two really don't mix.
It was true that for the purpose of bonding, an all-male group might be easier.
I agreed with Ikegami-san’s reasoning, so the five of us met up.
"Takeo-kun! Over here!"
"Hey, guys! Sorry, did I keep you waiting?"
"No, we just got here. Ready to head out?"
We met up at the station and spent the day acting like normal guys: hitting the arcade, shopping, and even going to karaoke. It had been a long time since I’d enjoyed a proper holiday, and I had a blast.
I felt like I really hit it off with Ikegami-san, Tamaki-san, Ashitaba-san, and Hondo-san.
Oh, and the "talk"? We handled that properly at the karaoke box.
Ikegami-san and the others told me what had happened after they returned to the Japan Explorer Association. One thing that came up was the magic stone dropped by the Metakin—apparently, it had evaporated without a trace under the force of my final attack, so they couldn't recover it.
On my end, I gave them a simple explanation for why I knew Mito-san and the Headshot Yakuza. I told them they were lifesavers who had rescued me from a tight spot in the past. They also asked about the skill that emitted the golden aura during my fight with Oishi-san.
To be honest, even before I answered, they seemed more than half-convinced it was Brave Heart.
Since Brave Heart is famous as a cheat-tier Hero skill and a literal trump card, I’d resigned myself to the secret being out the moment I used it in front of them. I just asked them to keep it under wraps. It would probably leak during a stream eventually, but I wanted to keep it quiet until then.
They also asked why I seemed like a different person during the fight with Oishi-san. I stuck to the story that I’d just gotten a "combat high." I certainly couldn't tell them about my Pleasure Killer title.
We also speculated on how Oishi-san had turned into a literal Terminator... but since I didn't know the answer either, the five of us just ended up tilting our heads in confusion. He’d been speaking way too normally to have been completely consumed by the metal slimes.
Outside of dungeon talk, we chatted about all sorts of things.
For instance, I learned that Mayurin-san and the guys were all childhood friends from the same neighborhood. Apparently, Mayurin-san had been the neighborhood boss since they were kids and was feared by all the local boys. Then there was the story from high school where she wanted a boyfriend to show off to her friends, so she’d "confessed" to the handsome and popular Ikegami-san by telling him, "I've decided to be your girlfriend." Ikegami-san had apparently escaped the situation by crying and performing a desperate dogeza while begging, "Please spare me!! I'm begging you!!" It was all very enlightening.
When they asked about my relationship with Hinata-san, I explained that despite her appearance, she has a very martial mindset. I told them she was proactive about leveling up and was an invaluable partner who tolerated my recklessness.
"A martial mindset? Seriously? But Hinata-san looks so gentle..."
Ikegami-san and the others looked skeptical, so I offered a bit more detail.
"Back during the Shinjuku dungeon terrorism incident, she was clubbing goblins to death with a staff. She can definitely hold her own."
Besides... my gut was telling me loud and clear that Hinata-san was a beast in close-quarters combat.
"Wait, she’s a healer but she clubs goblins...? That’s... intense...!"
"No wonder she doesn't back down an inch against Mayuri...!"
"Maybe that’s just how real girls are...!"
"I’m done. I’m sticking to 2D girls from now on...!"
I worried these guys were developing a serious case of gynophobia because of Mayurin-san. I’m pretty sure most girls don't club goblins to death. Hinata-san is an exception.
Thinking I might have given them the wrong idea about her character, I tried to defend her.
"No, really, she’s very kind! We’ve nearly died together several times, but she still willingly parties with me. Even when we did our first Monster Room rotation, she stuck it out even though she complained the whole time."
"…………Dude, she’s terrifying."
"Her resolve is on another level."
"You’ve only been a party for a little over a month, right? And you’ve almost died several times?"
"Her appearance and her personality are light-years apart...!"
Wait, what?
It felt like I’d only made the misunderstanding worse... but whatever! I didn't feel like I could explain it any better, and since it was mostly true anyway, I decided to just get back to enjoying the karaoke.
●◯●
May 10th.
Following yesterday’s lead, I suggested to Hinata-san that we take another day off.
I’d realized that even on her days off, she was usually swamped with things like video editing for Yo!Tube and wasn't getting much real rest. Plus, she’d been busy setting up the new drone after getting home yesterday. I also felt a bit guilty that I’d been the only one out having fun with Ikegami-san’s group.
When I messaged her on LUINE, she replied with, "Eh?! What happened, Takeo-kun?! Do you have a fever?!" But once I explained my reasoning, she was genuinely happy.
"If that’s why... thank you, Takeo-kun!"
"Actually, I still haven't finished the editing for the Minato Ward Dungeon video."
"So honestly, this is a huge help!"
"Oh, but don't worry about this too much in the future, okay?"
"I've actually been planning to outsource the video editing and other tasks, and I finally found someone recently."
"So I won't be swamped with editing work from now on."
"The Minato Ward Dungeon video is getting a massive response, so I'm going to hurry and finish this one myself, but I'll be fine starting next time!"
...That was her response.
I was impressed. She’d decided to outsource the work. Given how much explorers make, that was definitely the smarter, easier way to handle it.
So, it was settled: today was a holiday.
And since I was on holiday————I headed to the Shinjuku Dungeon!!
●◯●
First, I made my way to the Monster Room on Floor 8 of the Shinjuku Dungeon.
Actually, a little before that, when I’d stepped into the plaza by the Floor 1 Teleportation Circle, there were plenty of other explorers around, but the murderous impulses from Pleasure Killer didn't spiral out of control.
It seemed I could properly suppress them with Equanimity. I had plenty of leeway, so it didn't feel like they would spontaneously explode. I’d suspected I’d be fine, but it was a relief to confirm it.
Anyway, back to the point. Starting tomorrow, Hinata-san and I were going to dive deep and stay in the dungeon to rapidly clear the lower floors. So, I wanted to test if I could handle a solo rotation of the Floor 8 Monster Room now that my level had shot up.
For today, I wasn't using the Holy Sword. I was equipped with the Fool's Sword.
For a while, I planned to use the Holy Sword when advancing through new territory and the Fool's Sword for grinding rotations.
In terms of raw power, the Holy Sword was clearly superior, and the Fool's Sword halved the effectiveness of my Magic Sword skill. Plus, since Hinata-san wasn't with me, I couldn't use Seeker or Asceticism.
I also didn't plan on using any of my stored regenerate potions. I had a feeling I wouldn't need them to clear Floor 8 anymore.
To make the rotation efficient without potions, I needed to avoid using Fighting Spirit as much as possible, and the same went for the Great Flying Blade. I wouldn't use the Great Blade either. Using Mighty Blade was completely out of the question. My goal was to minimize HP consumption and see how efficiently I could clear the room.
That meant my combat skills would be limited to Goblin Genocider, Sword Aura, and Danger Sense. Even with Increased Damage with Bladed Weapons, my attack multiplier would only hit a maximum of 12.8x.
The multiplier was low enough that I’d need some real technique to take down a Goblin Guarder, but...
In this state, instead of wiping out groups all at once, I’d have to systematically slaughter them one by one...
Could I do it?
Staring down the horde of sixty-four goblins in the Floor 8 Monster Room, I felt a twinge of anxiety. But then—
"——Here I come, you goblins!! Become my experience points!!"
Pushing down the doubt, I charged into the horde as I always did. And then—
"Shaoraaa!!"
Barely a minute after the fight started, I let out a victory cry in the center of the Monster Room.
Yeah, that was actually pretty easy.
I mean, just look at my current stats.
―――――――――――――――― Strength: 420 Constitution: 380 Intelligence: 12 Spirit: 292 Agility: 390 Dexterity: 430 ――――――――――――――――
This was with only Goblin Genocider as a buff. If I really wanted to, I could boost them even further with Blood Vengeance. My stats were high enough that I could probably solo the Floor 10 Monster Room now.
Since I wasn't using the Holy Sword, I could tell my damage had dropped slightly, but it didn't change the fact that most goblins went down in a single hit. The only exceptions were when a Guarder managed to block with its shield.
Even then, I could calmly take out their legs or use my overwhelming agility to get behind them, so it didn't take much time.
It had been a while since I’d handled a crowd in extreme close-quarters combat without relying on the Great Blade or the Great Flying Blade, but it felt even easier than when I’d done it on Floor 4—back when the Divine Knight appeared and I was doing high-speed rotations while ignoring the magic stones.
With Sensei Danger Sense’s skill level up to 2, reacting to attacks from my blind spots was effortless. I evaded the goblins' strikes with minimal movement, picking them off one by one with precise counter-slashes.
To be honest, Floor 8 wasn't even a challenge for me anymore.
That had been true before I ever went to the Slime Dungeon, but the massive level-up there had made it undeniable. I needed to move my daily hunting grounds to lower floors as soon as possible.
Oh, for the record, the experience points for the Floor 8 Monster Room solo were 177,120. Since I always get 4x experience points against goblins, that was 708,480 per run.
However, since the Fool's Sword was currently eating half, I netted 354,240.
I didn't have the Appraisal skill to check, but the experience points the Fool's Sword gained should be the same as mine. I’d confirmed that with Mito-san, so I was sure of it. That meant the experience points it "absorbed" were the points after they had been boosted by my skills.
So, the more I used experience-boosting skills, the faster the Fool's Sword would grow.
But I digress.
I kept up the pace, taking a lunch break but otherwise rotating the Floor 8 Monster Room about twelve times an hour. The combat itself only took a minute, but as usual, gathering the magic stones was a chore, and even with just Sword Aura, my HP was slowly draining.
Then, just past 2:00 PM—
"Wait... oh crap, I totally forgot!!"
I realized I’d forgotten the real reason I’d come to the Shinjuku Dungeon today.
I hadn't come here just to grind for experience points. I had a specific goal in mind.
I scrambled out of the Monster Room and ran back to the Teleportation Circle, warping to Floor 6. I headed straight for the Floor 6 Monster Room.
I did a few quick rotations there, finally managed to secure the items I was looking for in the quantity I needed, and finally headed home.
That was close. I barely made it in time...!!