May 15th, around 5:00 PM.
In front of the monster room on Floor 14 of the Shinjuku Dungeon.
“We’ve finally made it this far!”
“Yeah. But things have been going smoothly ever since you leveled up Danger Sense.”
『It’s been so smooth it makes you wonder why they were struggling so much before.』
『He’s been spotting and avoiding every single trap in advance.』
『Combat was a breeze too, thanks to Gobu-taro II.』
『There were maps for everything up to Floor 12, even if they were incomplete. I guess they only really lost time getting lost on Floors 13 and 14?』
『Even so, clearing from Floor 11 to Floor 14 in a single day is way too fast!』
Hinata-san, Gobu-taro II, and I—the three of us (if you could call us that)—stood before a massive, heavy set of doors.
From the drone camera floating nearby, the viewers were tossing out one comment after another.
It was true. We had finally reached the Floor 14 monster room.
“It’s been a long road...”
“I don't think it’s been that long, Takeo-kun.”
When I muttered those words with deep emotion, Hinata-san hit me with a retort and a strained smile.
Since I hadn't been able to use Goblin Genocider from Floor 11 onward, and the traps had been such a nuisance that we were forced into some unexpected struggles, it felt like an eternity to me. But hearing her say that, she might have had a point.
On May 12th, the day after our tearful parting with Gobu-taro I, I’d spent my day off on May 13th solo grinding the Floor 8 monster room.
Then the following day—yesterday—I dove back into the dungeon with Hinata-san and tamed Gobu-taro II on Floor 7. After that, we moved to the Floor 10 monster room and started grinding; we called it a day after finishing eighty-four rounds.
By the way, I finally leveled up during that day's grind. It was my first level-up in a while, so my scream was a bit much. Perhaps because of the penalty from Asceticism, it felt even better than usual.
At any rate, combined with the Skill Orb I’d forced the Gob-Kin to drop with Goblin Taker, I dedicated two points to Danger Sense Sensei. As a result, Sensei finally reached Level 5.
And then today, we left the Floor 10 monster room at 8:00 AM, cleared each floor starting from Floor 11, and finally arrived at the Floor 14 monster room. (This was, incidentally, our first monster room below Floor 11.)
Man, thanks to Sensei, getting here was incomparably easier than last time.
Upon reaching Level 5, Sensei no longer just warned me of danger through chills; he started showing me threats visually. Not only did he highlight immediate incoming attacks, but he also alerted me to "dangerous things" within my field of vision.
To put it simply, even those cleverly concealed traps scattered throughout the dungeon were now revealed to me visually—in the form of a red light—as long as they were within my sight.
Because of this, I was able to discover traps in advance and avoid them without ever setting them off.
No, seriously, being able to find traps too... Sensei’s competence knew no bounds.
That said, Sensei’s true specialty was combat; Trap Detection was nothing more than a secondary effect.
I was going to confirm that in this monster room.
“Right! Shall we go, Hinata-san?”
“Yeah! I’ll cast the support magic now!”
After Hinata-san restored my HP and cast Holy Bless, I placed my hands on the massive doors.
●◯●
I lunged into the monster room the moment the doors swung open.
I threw my backpack against the wall, drew my sword, and took a stance, readying myself for battle.
Hinata-san followed me into the room, moving toward the wall as usual, while Gobu-taro II stood vigilantly in front of her with his shield raised to protect her.
By the time our formation was set, the Orcs were being summoned from a giant magic circle glowing on the floor in the center of the vast chamber.
The magic circle flashed with an intense light, and a group of Orcs appeared.
A horde of Level 38 Orcs.
The breakdown was as follows:
Clad in light leather armor with daggers at their waists and shortbows in their hands—Orc Rangers.
Carrying no weapons, fighting with their well-trained, muscular bodies—Orc Monks.
Clad in thick metal armor, holding massive kite shields that looked like tower shields to a human, and gripping wicked morning stars with sharp spikes—Orc Knights.
Dressed in colorful clothing reminiscent of tribal attire, holding eerie staves made of bone and tendon—Orc Shamans.
Equipped with smooth, curved metal half-armor and holding guns that looked like matchlocks... aura guns (unlike the Magic Guns held by Headshot Yakuza, these formed and fired bullets of aura by consuming HP)—Orc Gunners.
There were three parties total, each consisting of a set of five: a Ranger, Monk, Knight, Shaman, and Gunner. Fifteen monsters in total.
And then, one more in the center of the group.
Clad in armor polished like a mirror and decorated with intricate gold-inlaid engravings, holding a sword that looked like a beautiful ceremonial blade in his right hand and a mirror-bright shield on his left—an Orc that radiated a truly unique presence.
An Orc Noble.
Including the Noble, sixteen Orcs had been summoned.
“““GWROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!”””
Immediately after being summoned, the Orcs let out a frenzied roar. The Monks, Knights, and Noble instantly clad themselves in the red aura of Fighting Spirit, while the Shamans wrapped themselves in the blue aura of Mind Concentration. The Rangers and Gunners readied their bows and aura guns respectively, with the Rangers producing arrows of aura via Bow Aura and drawing their strings tight.
The Orcs' fighting spirit was already high, and their aggro was locked onto me.
This was because I’d already activated various skills, including Asceticism.
With Goblin Genocider, Fighting Spirit, Seeker, Indomitable Spirit, and Asceticism active, my current Status—including the buffs from Hinata-san’s Holy Bless—looked like this:
―――――――――――――――― Strength: 551 Constitution: 545 Intelligence: 353 Spirit: 364 Agility: 545 Dexterity: 362 ――――――――――――――――
As expected with Seeker active, even with the Holy Bless buffs, these stats felt a bit precarious for facing sixteen Level 38 Orcs at once.
The Orcs on this floor had high base stats to begin with, but they also possessed Fighting Spirit and Mind Concentration at maximum level, and the Orc Noble had the Leadership skill at maximum level.
In other words, all their stats were boosted by 50%, and for their primary stats, they were likely increased by 2.5 times. At this point, the Orcs probably surpassed my current stats.
On top of that—
“BUGOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The moment an Orc Shaman raised its staff and shouted, the primary attackers for each party were enveloped in a toxic green light.
Shamans possess a magic skill called Intermediate Cursecraft.
The spells included in that skill are somewhat unique: specific buffs, status ailments, and debuffs that lower the enemy’s stats.
The spell the Shaman just used was a special buff called Violent Heart’s Wish. Its effect depends on the skill level, but it can increase the Strength stat by up to 100 in exchange for lowering Intelligence by the same amount.
It was an effect similar to my Berserk. However, if the Intelligence stat doesn't reach the value of the Strength increase, the spell fails. To make matters worse, the stats referenced are the values before being buffed by skills or magic, so in my case, it was a useless support spell that would just fail. It was a spell that could be used from Basic Cursecraft Level 1, though the increase and decrease are only 10 at that level.
However, for some reason, the spell seemed to activate successfully for the Orcs. How cheeky.
With this, the enemy attackers' abilities were further enhanced. Violent Heart’s Wish can only be cast on one target at a time, but if I left the Shaman alone, the buffs would eventually spread to the whole group.
Of course, I wasn't going to let that happen.
The moment the Orcs roared and activated their Fighting Spirit, Mind Concentration, Leadership, and Violent Heart’s Wish, I was already sprinting toward them.
To be honest, even in my current state, I believed it wouldn't be difficult to wipe the Orcs out if I used Mighty Blade to spam Explosive Blade.
However, this time, I wanted to confirm the abilities of Danger Sense Sensei at max level and test the strength of an Orc legion in a monster room. I didn't intend to use wide-range attacks like the Mighty Great Blade or Explosive Blade.
I was going to win in close-quarters combat!
I charged straight ahead at high speed, taking the shortest route, but the Orcs—possessing Agility stats that either rivaled or surpassed my own—quickly launched an intercepting volley.
The Rangers fired arrows of aura with Bow Aura, and the Knights swung their morning stars, sending shockwaves of Impact Aura surging toward me. Then the Gunners fired continuous aura bullets from their guns using the Rapid Fire skill.
At the same time, a chill ran across a wide area on the front of my body. Up to that point, it was the same as Sensei’s previous ability. The function of warning me of danger through chills hadn't been lost, so I could still deal with attacks from my blind spots.
However, the evolved Sensei’s ability was no longer limited to chills.
What I had newly acquired was the ability to clearly see danger.
Within my vision, the trajectories of the Orcs' attacks—their future predictions—were displayed as red light.
The trajectories of the Rangers' arrows, the paths of the aura bullets fired from the Gunners' muzzles, and the way the shockwaves released by the Knights traveled through the air—the predicted trajectories of those attacks, their impact points, and their ranges were all clearly visible.
That wasn't all.
The red light was faint at first, growing darker as time passed. It seemed the color deepened as the "danger" drew closer to the moment it would actually strike me.
Basically, if I were to describe this ability in the style of a battle manga master, it would be this:
Danger Sense Sensei at maximum level could perfectly read the enemy's "interval" and "rhythm."
The location where I would be attacked and the timing of the strikes—both were literally obvious at a glance.
I only needed to move to the spots where the red light didn't reach, using the absolute minimum of movement.
However, the shockwaves from the Orc Knights' Impact Aura were essentially area-suppression attacks, making them difficult to avoid completely.
Even so, there were spots where the red light was "thin."
Namely, the places where the density of the attack was lowest within the simultaneous barrage.
“—Hah!”
I swung my sword compactly toward that spot, releasing a Flying Blade.
The slash, which had its damage multiplier increased tenfold by Blue Sky Beyond the Clouds, easily tore a hole through part of the pale-blue shockwave.
I slipped through that hole, passing through the barrage and coming out the other side unscathed.
There, the chill and the red light attacked me once again.
The Orcs' follow-up.
If this were the old Sensei, I would have shifted into evasive maneuvers here. However, under the guidance of the current Sensei, I knew there was no need.
I kicked off the floor, sprinting even further forward.
The enemy's "rhythm"—the timing of the attacks' impact. Knowing that clearly meant I also knew exactly how fast I needed to move to evade them.
“Hahaha!!”
I easily slipped out of the red light and surged forward. The chill vanished.
The follow-up volleys of countless Aura Arrows and aura bullets pierced the empty space in vain and disappeared behind me.
There was no further follow-up from the Rangers and Gunners.
Before they could reload, I had already caught the Orc front line within my reach.