After that, we made steady progress deeper into floor 9, encountering a few more packs of goblins along the way.
And then, we arrived—at the monster room!
『It’s here!』
『It’s finally happening...!!』
『The doors are seriously huge once you get to floor 9...!!』
『Is that a gate for giants?』
『Floor 9 means eighty-one goblins total, right?』
『Eighty-one of those massive goblins... isn’t that insane?』
『They were a breeze on the way here, but I’m actually starting to worry if he can win this.』
『So, what’s the word, Junkie Bro? You got a plan or something?』
"——I do!"
Since I was asked if I had a strategy, I answered with total confidence.
『For real!?』
『I guess even he wouldn't charge in without a plan.』
『So, what are the specifics?』
"I’m going to stop... messing around!"
『Messing around...?』
『Wait, does that mean you aren’t going to use Seeker and Asceticism!?』
『Are you serious...!? Even the Junkie Bro thinks this is so tough that he’d choose safety over experience points!?』
『I guess it’s come to that...!!』
『Well, I think stopping the trolling for the sake of Hinata-chan’s safety is a good thing.』
『No, honestly, that’s just common sense. Running monster room loops with Seeker and Asceticism was crazy to begin with.』
『Junkie Bro gets 4x experience points against goblins anyway, so that should be plenty.』
Voices of understanding rose from the viewers.
I hurriedly corrected them.
"No, no, no! You've got it all wrong! Of course I’m still using Seeker and Asceticism!"
This was precious experience points we were talking about. It would be an insult to the grind not to maximize the multiplier. Besides, if I wanted to fight at full power now, Asceticism was practically mandatory.
『You’re still using them!?』
『Then what do you mean by 'stop messing around'!?』
I answered them plainly.
"It means... I won't hesitate to burn through my HP."
『Excuse me???』
『Isn't that what you always do?』
『Is anything actually changing?』
It was completely different.
To be precise, I never intended to be "messing around" before, but I explained to the audience that I would fear HP consumption even less than before, effectively lowering the bar for my safety margin.
『Safety margin?』
『Did you ever even have one?』
『Junkie Bro, getting rid of something that wasn't there to begin with doesn't change anything.』
Wait, what!?
There was a serious discrepancy in perception between me and the viewers!
However, explaining it further to get them to understand seemed like a pain, so I decided to move on.
"Uhm, Hinata-san, please get ready."
"Right... Are you really sure about using Bless for the support magic? Not Holy Bless?"
"Yes, it'll be fine!"
I had discussed it with Hinata-san beforehand and she had agreed, but she still seemed worried. She asked one last time as a final confirmation, and I gave her a firm nod.
The battle in the floor 9 monster room would likely be grueling, and I would be using Seeker and Asceticism. That was a given.
In this scenario, if Hinata-san cast Holy Bless on me, I believed I could win with relative ease. The effects of Holy Bless were just that exceptional—borderline cheating.
But the MP cost for Holy Bless was 25, even for Hinata-san. That was by no means a small amount, and if we were going to grind loops, that cost would eventually weigh us down.
On the other hand, if we used Bless, which only cost 5 MP, it was logical that we could increase both our looping speed and the total number of runs.
If that was the case, then I had to do it!
『Wait, Bless?』
『Not Holy Bless...?』
『Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!!?』
『What the hell are you saying!!?』
『Stop messing around the literal second after you said you'd stop!』
『Nothing about this is 'fine'!!』
『This is way too much trolling!!』
The viewers piled on the retorts.
Apparently, they had assumed I would be relying on Holy Bless.
『Using Seeker on top of using standard Bless... your stats definitely won't be high enough!!』
『The floor 9 monsters will probably outclass you in every single stat category!』
『Challenging them with stats lower than the enemy is a suicide mission!!』
『And it's eighty-one against one! If your stats are low, you’re dead meat!』
『Take this seriously!!』
How rude. I’m always serious, and every battle for experience points is a fight to the death.
Still, I could understand their concern, so I continued speaking to put their minds at ease.
"—Wait a minute, everyone! When did I say this was the only support magic we were using!?"
『...What!?』
『Is that it!?』
『Oh, I guess that makes sense.』
『So you're making up for it with other support magic?』
『But what else is there? Is there even a spell that can cover such a massive stat deficit?』
『Maybe Hinata-chan awakened to a new spell?』
Once the comment section had calmed down a bit, I turned my gaze toward Hinata-san.
"If you would, Hinata-san."
"Y-Yeah..."
Then, Hinata-san activated another support magic—one that wasn't Bless.
"—Energy Protection!"
It was Energy Protection, the lower-tier version of Holy Protection.
And Hinata-san cast it—on herself.
『Wait, WHAT!?』
『Energy Protection!?』
『And Hinata-chan!? Why on yourself!?』
『I mean, I'm all for Hinata-chan's safety, but still!?』
『That didn't solve the problem at all, Junkie Bro!!』
Retorts from the comment section aside, preparations were complete.
I nodded to Hinata-san and placed my hands on the massive stone doors.
I passed through the doors, which slid open smoothly on their own, and entered the monster room.
In the center of the stone-walled room, which was now wider than a public gymnasium, the light of a magic circle flared up.
I threw my backpack against the wall as usual, and Hinata-san took refuge nearby.
I drew the holy sword from its scabbard, leveled it, and waited for the goblins to manifest.
Before long, with a particularly intense flash of light, eighty-one goblins were summoned from the magic circle.
The breakdown was—five parties consisting of a Guarder, Shadow, Berserk, Swordmaster, and Wizard.
Five parties consisting of a Guarder, Shadow, Knight Rider, Wizard, and Swordmaster.
Five parties consisting of a Guarder, Shadow, Berserk, Knight Rider, and Knight Leader.
And finally, one party of just Guarders protecting a single Goblin General—totaling eighty-one monsters.
The party of only Guarders was positioned to solidify the defense around the Berserks. The General was behind the army in the center... but his figure was clearly visible, unobstructed by the goblins in the front rows.
—The Goblin General.
This was a monster I would be fighting for the first time, but I had already studied its abilities beforehand.
He was equipped with thick metal armor covering everything but his head and a massive greatsword. From a human perspective, it was a two-handed weapon, but the General held it in one hand, wielding it like a standard sword. In his left hand, he carried a shield so massive it could be mistaken for a tower shield.
The shield and sword were made of a mithril alloy, just like my holy sword, and wouldn't even be scratched by steel. Unless a weapon was made of special dungeon metals, crafted with high-level production skills, or was a superior dungeon drop, it would likely be snapped in half just by clashing with that greatsword. It seemed that in the early days of dungeon exploration, several explorers had been killed by Generals for that very reason.
As troublesome as his equipment was, his skills were the real threat.
The General only had two skills: level 5 Leadership and the level 5 Army as One skill.
The effect of Army as One was: "While providing buffs through Leadership, the user can temporarily replicate and use the skills possessed by subordinates. However, if there is a difference in skill level between the original source and the Army as One skill, the lower level is applied."
In other words, the General could use every single skill possessed by the goblins under his command. Fighting Spirit, Berserk, Flame Magic, Iron Wall—nothing was off-limits as long as his subordinates had it.
It was the kind of cheat skill that a monster—which should normally have very few skill points—had no business possessing.
Naturally, a General with subordinates would be absurdly strong, so the standard strategy for clearing the floor 9 and 10 monster rooms was to wipe out the subordinates first before striking the General.
『Whoa, whoa, whoa!?』
『I feel like I say this every time, but the pressure is seriously insane this time!』
『It’s literally a mythological army!!』
『Every single one of them is too damn big!』
『Wait! Isn't the Goblin General's size bugged!? He's more than a full head taller than the Knight Rider!!?』
『He’s definitely over three meters tall, right?』
『Being that huge and being able to use all his subordinates' skills!? That’s way past unfair!!』
『Plus, from floor 9 onwards, Leadership is at max level, so all their stats get a 50% boost!』
『Not just Leadership, but Fighting Spirit and Mind Concentration are also max level...!!』
『He’s still going to challenge this alone? He’s insane as always.』
『For real, you should probably stop messing around! There's no way you can win with Seeker and Bless!!』
『Junkie Bro! Do it for real!!』
You don't have to tell me—I'm going to kill them for real!
Though, being "serious" and going "full power" are two different things!
I activated all the skills necessary for combat. After my stats plummeted, they then surged upward—resulting in this:
Strength: 225 Constitution: 205 Intelligence: 101 Spirit: 137 Agility: 205 Dexterity: 135
This was the result after all stats were lowered to level 0 equivalents by Seeker, then buffed by Bless, Indomitable Spirit, Goblin Genocider, Fighting Spirit, and Berserk, and finally reduced by 10% due to the frailty from Asceticism.
Without Holy Bless, my stats only reached this level... but well, the goblins in the floor 9 monster room were level 29, so the buff from Indomitable Spirit had increased slightly to compensate.
Stat-wise, I was likely a bit lower than a level 29 goblin. My Strength value was less than half that of a Berserk. A level 29 Berserk originally had about 150 Strength; with Fighting Spirit, level 3 Berserk, and max-level Leadership, that would ultimately be multiplied by 3.1.
Additionally, in the floor 9 monster room, the Goblin General and the Knight Leaders all possessed level 5 Leadership. While the effects of Leadership didn't stack, the tricky part was that the buff wouldn't disappear as long as either the General or one of the Knight Leaders remained. And there were five Knight Leaders in total.
Because of that Leadership, the goblins in the floor 9 monster room always had a 50% increase to all stats. With level 5 Fighting Spirit and Mind Concentration, most of their stats were multiplied by 2.5, while the Berserks reached a 3.1x multiplier in Strength alone.
Naturally, those stats were incomparably higher than the floor 8 goblins. For their specialties, they likely exceeded 300. On average, they would be around 250, maybe slightly lower.
However... hmm, I can still do this.
After all, I still have the buff from Blood Vengeance in reserve. I'm safe even in the worst-case scenario.
And then—
"GWUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Having fallen into a state of maximum aggro due to the activation of Asceticism, the goblins let out a collective roar of rage.
An incredible wall of sound thundered through the inescapable monster room.
They shouldn't have had any intimidation-type skills, but even so, if my Spirit stat had been low, I might have been frozen in fear. It was a roar that shook me to my very bones.
Immediately after, the goblins charged all at once. Even while ruled by rage, they maintained a sense of orderly discipline.
Meanwhile, I had already finished my preparations.
The holy sword, held at my hip, radiated a brilliant light from the aura I had poured into it by converting a massive amount of HP.
"—GET BLOWN AWAY!!"
With a shout of spirit, I swung the sword in a horizontal arc.
A massive slash of aura was unleashed, soaring forward.
It was a strike with every possible buff applied except for the Hero title skills. Its damage multiplier was 480x. It was an overwhelming force that crushed any minor difference in stats as if they meant nothing.
—Mighty Blade Great Flying Blade: Explosive Blade.
The moment after the Great Flying Blade easily bisected the front rank of the approaching goblin army, the aura slash shattered, rapidly expanding as it exploded.
The brilliantly shining bluish-white flames of the aura mercilessly swallowed the goblin army.
It was lucky they were crowded together right after being summoned. Many goblins were engulfed in the explosion.
Still, it was far from enough to blow away all of them—
"(Will I make it in time!? —Damn it! The reload is slow!! Is it because my Dexterity stat is low!?)"
I tried to unleash the next Explosive Blade without a moment's delay—but the movement of the aura was worse than usual, and it took a bit more effort to prepare.
It was probably because my Dexterity was lower than usual. Since I had grown accustomed to fighting with high stats lately, 135 Dexterity felt low. The aura didn't move the way I wanted it to. The unexpected pitfall made me impatient.
Nevertheless, I managed to prepare the next Explosive Blade and—
"—SHAAAAAAH!!"
And that’s a win!
Wow, that was easy!
After unleashing the first Explosive Blade, I fired off three more in rapid succession, literally blowing away all the goblins, including the General at the very back.
By the way, because my Dexterity wasn't high enough, the amount of HP I could pack into the Explosive Blade using Sword Aura was 25 (I could have packed up to 27 at max).
Even so, a total of four attacks, each packed with 55 HP. That was more than enough to defeat all of them. After all, compared to the Great Flying Blade, the Explosive Blade had a much wider area of effect. On top of that, the goblins were clustered together, which worked in my favor.
When I had unleashed consecutive Explosive Blades against the Metaslas in the Minato Ward Dungeon, I hadn't been able to kill this many—but that was because of the Metaslas' Constitution.
The power of Explosive Blade weakens the further you get from the center of the blast. And because the Metaslas' endurance was overwhelmingly higher than the goblins', the effective killing radius had simply been narrower.
In contrast, against goblins—even a group of Guarders—the killing radius of an Explosive Blade was quite broad.
Four of them were enough to blow eighty-one goblins into oblivion with room to spare.
The goblins had tried to charge without fear of death, but they were physically stopped by the shockwaves of the Explosive Blades, so they hardly managed to close any distance.
The Wizards and Knight Riders had also tried to use long-range attacks, but it seemed their actions were interrupted by the impact of the explosions as well.
And so, taking my time (though the battle ended in under ten seconds), I unleashed a continuous bombardment and claimed victory.
Including the consumption from Asceticism, I had spent 245 HP. It fell well within the range that Hinata-san could fully restore with a single High Heal.
"Phew..."
I thought it would be fine, but I still let out a sigh of relief at winning without taking a scratch.
When I looked around the room again, massive craters had been gouged into the floor across a wide area. For the second shot and onwards, I had shifted my aim considerably to catch the goblins that had been blown back by the initial blast.
Magic stones and drop items were scattered all over the place in a messy pile; gathering them all seemed like it would be a chore.
But fortunately, there's a time lag between defeating a monster and an item dropping, so it seemed the magic stones and items hadn't been vaporized by the bombardment.
Good, good.
"Ah."
I remembered then.
I hurriedly turned around toward Hinata-san to check on her.
"Hinata-san, were you okay!?"
"—Yeah, I'm fine!"
When I asked, Hinata-san was unhurt—her hair wasn't even messed up by the blast, and she answered with total composure.
That's right, the Energy Protection Hinata-san had cast on herself was meant to protect her from the backdraft.
I mean, even though the monster room is large, it’s still an enclosed space, and there's no telling what would happen if you set off explosions like that. Hinata-san's Constitution had increased, but it was still only 100. It wasn't certain she wouldn't take damage from the shockwave, so we had used Energy Protection as insurance.
Seeing that the light of the Energy Protection had vanished, it seems using it had been the right call after all.
By the way, the drone was also safe.
At some point, Hinata-san had pulled it to her chest and held it with both hands. It seemed that had kept it from being blown away.
From that drone, the viewers' comments finally began to flow.
『Wha—!!?』
『That was way too loud!!』
『As someone wearing headphones, my eardrums have officially passed away.』
『I was so surprised my heart stopped.』
『I mean, he actually won while messing around... or rather...!!』
『It wasn't just an easy win, it was a total slaughter!!!』
『I didn't even have time to type a comment!?』
『I thought Junkie Bro's flying slashes exploded like crazy, and then all the goblins were just gone LMAOOO!!』
『Was that the move he showed off at the Slime Dungeon!?』
『Bombardment www』
『Is this how an explorer with a sword is supposed to fight!?』
『Whoa, whoa, whoa! The floor of the room is wrecked!』
『Those craters are insane lol』
『For real, he is not an explorer who should be on floor 9...!!』
『Junkie Bro, please just hurry up and go deeper... (shaky voice)』
『I thought he could probably handle the floor 9 monster room based on the Slime Dungeon stream, but... he really blew them all away...!!』
『【Sad News】General-san, eliminated before he could do anything in his debut appearance w』
『That was a fight where the Goblin General didn't get to show his strength at all www』
『Wait, wasn't the Goblin General supposed to be a really strong monster???』
『No joke, the General is seriously strong!! Though for some reason he was blown away like a common mob this time!!』
『In the few streams of the floor 9 monster room, there’s usually a life-or-death struggle against the General... or there's supposed to be (stares into the distance).』
While the comments were flowing, I brought up my status to check the earned experience points.
The experience points for the floor 9 monster room were 385,700, and in our case, that meant 192,850 experience points per person.
And this time, thanks to the effects of Goblin Genocider, Awakened One, Seeker, and Asceticism, my earned experience points were multiplied by 32.
In other words, one run of the floor 9 monster room yielded 6,171,200 experience points.
The MP consumption for Hinata-san required for the loop was 15 MP for High Heal, Bless, and Energy Protection. Currently, Hinata-san's stats showed she had over 400 MP, and she recovered 200 MP per hour, plus an additional 5 MP per loop from the Healer skill.
So the actual MP consumption per run was 10.
Since we could likely manage 12 runs an hour even taking time to pick up magic stones, our earned experience points would exceed 74 million in an hour...
What's more, with this, Hinata-san's MP wouldn't run dry, so we could just keep looping indefinitely!
This is quite efficient! If I work hard, I might be able to level up once every two or three days even on floor 9!
The floor 10 monster room should be even more efficient, so I’m looking forward to it!