"—Hnnngh... feels... so... goooooood!!!!!"
The moment I felled the Special Variant Blade Horn, a massive surge of Experience Points rushed into me—and the sheer bliss of it made me arch my back.
Now, don't get the wrong idea. I didn't actually level up.
And even though I say it was a "massive" amount of Experience Points, it wasn't actually that much for me anymore.
The truth is, Hinata-san and I have already cleared up to Floor 18 of the Shinjuku Dungeon. In the Floor 18 monster room, with my 16x XP multiplier from Seeker, Asceticism, and Awakened One active, a single lap nets me over a hundred million Experience Points.
In comparison, what I gained just now was a mere pittance—but obtaining such a huge sum from a single monster still felt incredible. It’s a feeling anyone can relate to, right?
Once the afterglow of pleasure faded, I checked my status to see exactly how much I'd gained. The number was...
"7,104,000...!?"
I was a bit surprised by the unexpected magnitude.
It didn't come close to a Metasla, but even for a Special Variant, it was remarkably high. Think about it. The specific individuals I’ve fought before—the Goblin Divine Knight, the Mighty Blade-using Goblin, and Metal Oishi-san—were all terrifyingly strong for their floors, but they only yielded slightly more XP than their average counterparts. The only exceptions were the Metakin and Metasla.
Divine Knight-san’s base XP was only 20,000, for instance.
To the current me, that’s practically less than a single regular mob.
By contrast, the base value for this Blade Horn—stripping away the multipliers from Asceticism and Awakened One—was 1,184,000.
It really was high.
For context, a Level 30 Blade Horn in a standard dungeon only gives 4,800 XP.
And presumably, in this dungeon...
"Mayurin-san! Tamaki-san, Ashitaba-san, Hondo-san! Please tell me how much Experience Points you gained for defeating those Blade Horns!"
I spotted Mayurin-san and her group among the others who were staring at me for some reason, and I called out to them.
"Eh? Ah, what?"
Mayurin-san looked bewildered for a moment, but she dutifully pulled up her status to check.
"I-It was 2,400," she said.
"Mine was the same, probably," Tamaki-san added.
"Me too..." said Ashitaba-san.
"And me," Hondo-san finished.
Hmm. Since Ikegami-san hadn't participated in the attack, only those four received XP based on this dungeon's rules. That meant the total for that one Blade Horn was...
"9,600, then..."
Exactly double the standard amount.
My experience clearing low-level mobs had already taught me that monsters here generally give twice the XP of those in normal dungeons.
But even if the Special Variant was "strengthened," a simple doubling wouldn't explain the numbers. It was likely multiplied by another hundred on top of that doubling. This Special Variant gave roughly two hundred times more XP than a normal Blade Horn.
Then again, a Special Variant is only "special" because they're so rare. No matter how delicious the XP was, I couldn't exactly rely on hunting them for leveling... or so I thought.
"Junkie-niki-dono, what's wrong? I'm not entirely sure how these things work, but don't you usually do an Ina Bauer when you level up? Did your level just go up?"
"Hm...?"
Saito-san looked concerned, so I gave him an honest answer.
"No, I didn't level up. It’s just... that Special Variant had an incredible amount of Experience Points. Nearly 1.2 million base."
The drones surrounding us exploded with comments.
『1.2 million!?!??』 『From one monster?!』 『Whoa, that's insanely high!!』 『As expected of a Special Variant.』 『No, even for a Special Variant, the XP shouldn't be that high.』 『Usually it’s just the Class Value that’s different, so even at the highest, it should only be a few times more.』 『Eh? Then why?』
Meanwhile, Saito-san wore a thoughtful expression.
"I see... It seems the Special Variants in this dungeon yield high amounts of experience. Since the other monsters give at least double the normal amount... it appears this place operates under different rules than standard dungeons."
...Hmm?
I felt a flicker of cognitive dissonance at his response... What was that?
...Eh, probably just my imagination.
Regardless, I agreed with Saito-san's assessment—or rather, I hoped he was right. I'd much rather all the Special Variants here give high XP than just that one being a fluke.
Up until now, the rewards were way too low. Divine Knight-san, the Mighty Blade-using Goblin, Metal Oishi-san... they were such powerful enemies, yet getting only tens or hundreds of thousands of XP didn't even come close to compensating me for the effort. I almost died, dammit!
Of course, even if Saito-san's theory was true, it was unlikely that we'd run into Special Variants often enough to actually farm them. It was a depressing thought.
As I was mulling it over, Saito-san picked up a spherical crystal from the ground. It was a Skill Orb, pulsing with a faint internal light.
I hadn't even noticed the Special Variant dropped anything.
"Oh! Luck is on your side, Junkie-niki-dono! This drop appears to be a Skill Orb for Lightning Magic!"
Saito-san must have used Appraisal on it. He handed the orb to me with a smile.
"Heh, is that so? Thank you."
I thanked him and shoved the orb into my backpack. It was a rare find, but I already had Silver Lightning Magic, so it was redundant for me. Maybe Hinata-san would want it?
"Right then! Now that the monsters have been dealt with, let's get back to it!"
"Understood."
And so, we resumed our trek.
For the record, the members of the Association and the Fallen Angels who had been sent flying by the Special Variant's lightning were all fine. They weren't high-level explorers for nothing.
We trekked deeper into the Great Tree Forest, only to encounter another pack of Blade Horns almost immediately. And then—one of them cast Wind Magic, launching a blade of air at us.
"Not again!!???"
"Two Special Variants in a row?! What kind of luck is this!!???"
『Could Blade Horns use Wind Magic!?』 『There's no way they can!!』 『I'm telling you, Blade Horns don't have magic skills!!』 『Which means it's another Special Variant!?』 『What are the odds!?』
The members of the Association and the Fallen Angels were sent flying again, and the comment section went into a frenzy.
As for me—
"—That one is my prey!!!!!"
I pounced on the Special Variant with everything I had.