"Hell yeah! Take that!"
I had done it!
『Whoaaaaaa?!』 『He cleared Floor 10!』 『Floor 10 was a breeze too!』 『Wait, hold on!』 『He hasn't cleared Floor 10 yet! He just finished the Floor 10 Monster Room!』 『It’s basically the same thing at this point!』 『As usual, the Monster Room is harder than the boss room anyway!』 『I can't believe this guy is still using Seeker and Asceticism to clear even Floor 10!』 『And he’s still using Bless for support magic. Seriously, he’s insane!』 『The ultimate flex, lmao.』 『Total bombardment!』 『He just blew everything away!』
And so, we successfully finished clearing the Floor 10 Monster Room!
Let me explain how we got here.
After finishing the Floor 9 Monster Room, Hinata-san and I moved to Floor 10, but not before re-entering the Floor 9 Monster Room one more time to test something.
Well, calling it a "test" might be an exaggeration. I just wanted to see if the room, which had been left in ruins by my Explosive Blade, would actually repair itself.
We re-entered almost immediately after leaving, and to my surprise, all the damage to the Monster Room had been repaired in just a few seconds.
It was a low-key startling sight—but regardless, I confirmed that the grinding loop using Explosive Blade would work without any issues.
After that, we moved to Floor 10.
In the Floor 9 boss room, the usual group of sixteen goblins appeared, including a Goblin General, but we defeated them normally and moved on.
Then, Floor 10.
In the Shinjuku Dungeon—as far as is currently known—this is the final floor where goblins appear.
The level of the goblins here is a uniform Level 30.
Aside from the Goblin King in the Floor 10 boss room, the types of goblins that appear are the same as those on Floor 9.
If that was the case, a slight difference in level didn't matter at all. We moved deeper without much trouble and safely reached the Monster Room.
And so, we challenged the Floor 10 Monster Room.
The breakdown of the monsters that appeared was as follows:
19 Guarders, 15 Shadows, 15 Berserks, 15 Swordmasters, 15 Wizards, 15 Knight Riders, 5 Knight Leaders, and 1 General—making a total of 100.
By the way, they were all Level 30, which was only one level higher than the ones in the Floor 9 Monster Room. However, since the count increased by 19, and the increase consisted of the new types that only started appearing on Floor 9, the difficulty of clearing it had definitely gone up.
In response, just like on Floor 9, I had Hinata-san cast only Bless on me before I jumped into the fray.
My strategy was simple: spam Explosive Blade.
I poured 55 HP into each Explosive Blade, including the cost for Mighty Blade, and after hitting them with five shots—one more than on Floor 9—the Floor 10 Monster Room finally went quiet.
Including the "Poison" and "Consumption" from Asceticism, I had consumed exactly 300 HP. It was cutting it close, but it was an amount that Hinata-san could fully restore with a single High Heal.
Now.
As for the most important part—the Experience Points.
The base Experience Points obtainable in the Floor 10 Monster Room was 504,300. For a two-person party, that would be 252,150 per person.
Since I was using Seeker and Asceticism again, my experience multiplier was 32x. For one lap of the Floor 10 Monster Room, I earned 8,068,800 Experience Points.
It was a shame I didn't break 10 million... but well, I suppose the efficiency was still high.
That said, once you reach the Level 50 range, the experience required to level up jumps to 1.5 to 1.7 billion or more. By the late 50s, I’d have to run the Floor 10 Monster Room over 200 times to level up once.
I could still level up every few days by looping the Monster Room... but that only applied until Level 59.
As I suspected, even with my 32x experience efficiency, Floor 10 was too low to be considered an appropriate floor for leveling up.
Since goblins wouldn't appear anymore, the multiplier would drop, so I really needed to move on to Floor 11 and beyond as soon as possible. From Floor 11 onward, the base Experience Points would skyrocket, so I had to do it for Hinata-san’s sake as well.
After all, Hinata-san was already Level 49. Without an experience-doubling skill, Floor 10 was even less suitable for her than it was for me.
To keep my promise to her, finding a new, efficient hunting ground was an urgent matter.
Eh? What promise, you ask?
It’s obvious. I say it every chance I get, don't I? I told Hinata-san, "I'll definitely make you feel good!!"
It wouldn't be fair if I was the only one feeling good from the ecstasy of leveling up. I wanted to make sure Hinata-san felt that good too.
"—Well, then."
With that settled, I picked up the magic stones and drop items from the Monster Room and nodded to Hinata-san.
"All right, Hinata-san, shall we head to the boss room?"
"Yeah, let’s do that."
Hinata-san nodded as if it were the natural next step—and immediately after, surprised comments from the viewers started flowing from the drone.
『Eh?!』 『The boss room?!』 『No way!』 『Leveling Junkie Bro and Hinata-chan are moving to Floor 11?!』 『I thought they were going to loop the Floor 10 Monster Room this time...!』 『Wait, wait?! Isn't it too early to move on?!』
I opened my mouth to answer the viewers. However, if I told them the real reason—that I was aiming for Floor 30—they’d probably laugh and call it a pipe dream. So, I gave them the second reason.
"Actually, Hinata-san and I leveled up like crazy when we fought the Metakin in the Minato Ward Dungeon... Right now, I’m Level 54 and Hinata-san is Level 49."
『Wha—?!』 『You leveled up that much?!』 『I knew Leveling Junkie Bro was Level 49 before going to the Slime Dungeon, but...』 『Hinata-chan shouldn't have even been Level 40 yet, right?!』 『The XP from Metasla and Metakin is freaking insane!!!』
"Because of that, the Experience Points in the Floor 10 Monster Room have become too low for leveling. So, we’re planning to move ahead and look for a new hunting ground."
『Oh boy, here it comes!』 『This is it!!』 『Finally, they’re both breaking through Floor 10...!』 『They’re seriously joining the Top Tier now!』 『As a day-one Hinata Channel viewer, I'm weeping.』 『As a day-one fan of Leveling Junkie Bro, this is such a moving moment...!』 『Wait, I’m a day-one fan too!!』 『Wait, "day-one"? It hasn't even been two months since his debut, lmao!』 『At this point, everyone’s a day-one fan, lol.』
The comment section was unexpectedly hyped.
I think it was because the number of explorers who can progress to Floor 11 is extremely small. This is because the difficulty of the Floor 10 boss room increases significantly across all dungeons.
In the Shinjuku Dungeon, the Goblin King appears, and the number of enemies increases to thirty-two.
Explorers who struggled with the packs of sixteen in the boss rooms from Floors 5 to 9 won’t be able to break through the Floor 10 boss room.
Therefore, for explorers, the Floor 10 boss room stands as a massive wall... but on the other hand, there’s also a legend that explorers who can clear Floor 10 will be able to progress smoothly after that.
Well, rather than a legend, there’s a logical reason for it.
Being able to break through the Floor 10 boss room is, simply put, proof of possessing excellent skills.
In the deep floors of a dungeon where almost all monsters use max-level Fighting Spirit and Mind Concentration, you can't even stand a chance against them without excellent skills. And having those skills means it's that much easier to move forward.
In any case, we left the Monster Room and headed for the boss room at the end of Floor 10.
Naturally, there was no way the trash mobs along the way could give us trouble at this point.
After about an hour of travel, we arrived at the boss room without any issues.
Without any particular nervousness, I stepped inside and prepared for battle as usual.
I took off my backpack, placed it against the wall, and drew my sword. Hinata-san cast Bless on me, then caught the drone and held it to her chest, waiting by the wall.
By the way, I would be using Seeker in the Floor 10 boss room as well. The number of enemies was decent, and I didn't want to waste any Experience Points.
Once I had activated my skills and finished preparations, goblins were summoned from the magic circle in the center of the room.
The breakdown was 5 Guarders, 5 Shadows, 5 Berserks, 5 Swordmasters, 5 Wizards, 5 Knight Riders, 1 Knight Leader, and 1 Goblin King—a total of 32.
At the very back of the goblins arrayed in formation, I saw an exceptionally giant goblin.
His height must have been around 3.5 meters. Even though he was tall, he wasn't lanky; his entire body was clad in bulging, thick muscles. He was more like a giant than a goblin.
He was equipped in ornate, full-body armor. However, his head was exposed, and for some reason, he wore a shiny gold crown on top of it. Wearing a crown during battle makes zero sense by human standards, but it's probably just a symbol to make it easy to identify him as the Goblin King.
In his right hand, he held a silver greatsword. This is the "Goblin King's Greatsword," which drops with an extremely low probability. It’s a greatsword made of a mithril alloy with a higher mithril content than the General’s version, though it likewise has no special abilities.
In his left arm, he held a silver kite shield. However, unlike one for human use, it was massive. This also drops with an extremely low probability, but since it’s too big for humans to use, its only purpose is as a material for mithril extraction. The shield, too, is actually made of a mithril alloy.
So, in terms of equipment, he wasn't that different from a General.
His stats were also about 1.2 times those of a General.
To be honest, he wasn't an opponent to be feared at that level.
However, the King possessed a certain skill that even the General did not have.
The King had three skills: Level 5 Leadership, Level 5 Army as One, and Level 5 Goblin King's Decree.
The effect of Goblin King's Decree was: "While active, all stats except HP and MP of subordinate goblins increase by 50%, and HP and MP restore by 10 every 10 seconds."
Wait, that's a cheat!
That’s way too much of a cheat!
In short, it increases the stats of all goblins except himself by 100% when combined with Leadership, and provides continuous HP and MP regeneration. It was a simple yet powerful skill that was beyond unfair.
And because of this skill, the Floor 10 boss room is a notorious obstacle.
To be frank, for an explorer party that can defeat a pack of 16, defeating a pack of 32 isn't that hard with enough effort and ingenuity.
However, due to Goblin King's Decree, when combined with Fighting Spirit and Mind Concentration, the subordinate goblins' primary stats become tripled. Their tripled stats would likely exceed 300 across the board. Furthermore, in the case of Berserks, their Strength alone would be more than tripled, probably easily exceeding 500.
In other words, compared to the goblins up to that point, the enemies in this Floor 10 boss room become drastically stronger. Moreover, since the number has doubled as well, the difficulty is on a completely different level than even the Floor 9 boss room.
And this kind of sudden change in difficulty isn't limited to the Shinjuku Dungeon. It’s common across all dungeons, including the Slime Dungeon, to varying degrees.
Could I really win...?
Now that it was time, I was starting to feel a bit of pressure.
There were no comments from the viewers on the drone. Everyone was watching with bated breath, waiting for the battle to begin.
And then—
"GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Perhaps due to the effect of the "Maximum Aggro" from Asceticism, the goblin army let out a roar as if they were driven mad with rage.
At the very back, the Goblin King thrust the tip of his greatsword toward the ceiling.
Immediately after, every goblin except the King was enveloped in a green aura. That meant they were under the influence of Goblin King's Decree.
Next, each of the goblins activated Fighting Spirit and Mind Concentration—and started running.
Here they come!
Holding the Holy Sword at my hip, I swung it in a horizontal sweep.
"All of you, turn into Experience Points at once!!!"
—Mighty Blade Great Flying Blade: Explosive Blade!
And one more! Mighty Blade Great Flying Blade: Explosive Blade!!!
The two massive aura slashes flying forward impacted the front row of goblins—and then, they exploded with a blinding, brilliant light.
The bluish-white aura flames engulfed the goblin army.
A tremendous blast wind howled, rushing back through the passage leading to the boss room.
I held my arm in front of my face to endure the blast—and after a few seconds, once the sound, light, and wind had stopped, I checked ahead.
A giant crater had been born in the center of the boss room.
The goblin army, including the Goblin King, had vanished without a trace.
Magic stones and items dropped a moment later, falling into the gouged ground.
I did it...! I did it...!!
I won against the Goblin King!!!
With a joyous smile, I turned around, and Hinata-san, who had come walking up to me, smiled and congratulated me. "Good work, Takeo-kun."
From the drone held in her arms, I expected celebratory comments from the viewers—
『Wa... ah...』 『Yeah, I knew it, lol.』 『Lmao, exactly as expected.』 『I knew this would happen, lol.』 『The casual flex is killing me!!』 『Behold this battle scene. There is zero tension, lmao.』 『Even with the Gob-Kin there, compared to the Monster Room, well, you know?』 『Poor Gob-Kin-san's big moment...』
Since no one praised me, Hinata-san and I decided to collect the magic stones and items.
Well, I mean, so what if their stats were over 300 or 500? In the end, the strength you can display depends entirely on how many excellent skills you have.
Except for the Gob-Kin-san, the goblins don't have any significant skills, and if you can land a high-power area attack that can one-shot them, it’s a breeze for anyone.
That said, you can't underestimate the influence of stats. It looked like an easy win because I could wipe them out while there was still distance between us, but if it had become a close-quarters fight, I would have struggled quite a bit. After all, their Agility should have been overwhelmingly higher than mine even with Seeker active, so I might have actually lost if I hadn't activated Blood Vengeance.
So, the Gob-Kin-sans in the Floor 10 boss room definitely aren't trash mobs. Yeah.
By the way, the Experience Points for the Floor 10 boss room were 167,400, which came to about 83,700 per person. For me, with the 32x multiplier, it was 2,678,400.
The efficiency is mediocre. As expected, the Monster Room is better.
Still, the option to loop the boss room instead wasn't out of the question... No, it’s probably better to just stay quiet and loop the Monster Room.
I was thinking that while picking up magic stones and checking my status screen.
"Hm?"
From the bottom of the crater, I picked up a spherical crystal that I thought was a magic stone. If it were a magic stone, it would just be a transparent crystal, but this one held a flickering light inside.
A crystal holding light. To be honest, I’ve picked up things like this before.
As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what a skill orb looks like.
For example, a "Fire Magic Skill Orb" would have an orange, flame-like light flickering inside.
However, the skill orb I picked up was colorless and transparent—or perhaps I should say it was rainbow-colored, containing all wavelengths of light, holding a sparkle like a diamond's brilliance.
"Eh...?"
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait...!!
Is this for real...?!
I was stunned. Stunned, eyes wide, mouth agape, I froze while staring at the skill orb in my right hand.
It was just that incredible of an item.
Before long, Hinata-san and the hovering drone noticed my state and approached me.
"Takeo-kun? Is something wrong?"
『What's up, Leveling Junkie Bro?』 『Did you find something rare?』 『Wait, eh?』 『Hm? Is that a skill orb...?』 『A skill orb? From the Floor 10 boss room?』
A moment of silence. And then—
『Whaaaaaaaaa?!』
From the drone projecting my hand, one shocked comment after another was read out.
『Hold on, wait?!』 『Seriously, seriously, seriously?!』 『No way, man!! How is this even possible?!』 『That's a Gob-Kin drop, right?!』 『This is the first time I've ever seen that drop!!!』 『I mean, to have that drop on your first Gob-Kin fight, what kind of insane luck do you have, Takeo-kun!!!』
"N-No way...!"
Hinata-san probably realized what it was from the viewers' comments. Her eyes widened, she covered her mouth, and she whispered in disbelief.
And with good reason.
It was a skill orb that the Goblin King—or rather, "King-type" monsters that only appear in boss rooms—drop with an extremely, extremely, extremely... extremely rare probability.
It is called:
A "Skill Point Skill Orb."