Level-up Maniac, Level up in Modern Dungeons - Episode 15

March 21st.

　I came to Shinjuku Dungeon again today.

　While checking the map on my smartphone, I took the shortest route down to the third floor and, just like yesterday, focused on groups of two or three to earn experience points.

　My whole body was torn to shreds, and I was bleeding during the fight, but I’m okay. Thanks to my HP barrier, my injuries aren’t as bad as they looked.

　So there’s no need to worry.

　What do you mean?

　People who passed me while I was resting on the stairs or the third floor talked to me with worried looks on their faces. They had mistaken my appearance because I was so bloody at first glance.

　I cheerfully reassure people like that there’s nothing to worry about.

　There are a lot of bad people in the dungeon, but it’s the same on the surface. I realized that the majority of people are kind and have common sense, and it made me feel relieved that Japan isn’t a lost cause after all.

　However, there was nothing I could do about the decrease in HP, my efficiency in gaining experience points did not improve, and my level did not increase today either.

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[Level] 『9』 Experience points to next level 『4485』

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　●◯●

　March 22nd.

　I came to Shinjuku Dungeon again today.

　I went straight down to the third floor and started hunting goblins just like yesterday.

　Changing the subject, leveling up feels good.

　It gets your brain juices flowing like crazy, and it’s addictive.

　What I’m trying to say is that the withdrawal symptoms are getting pretty bad. I’m not even 20 yet, so I’ve never had the experience of quitting drinking or smoking, but I wonder if adults in the world have such a hard time quitting drinking or smoking.

　If that’s the case, then even if I turn 20, I won’t drink alcohol. I won’t smoke either. I’ll just level up.

　Yesterday I leveled up in my dream, but when I woke up, I realized it was just a dream, and I was in despair.

　So today I decided to level up, and I pushed myself a little harder than yesterday. At one point, my HP went down to single digits, and I seriously thought I was going to die.

　I went back to the stairs and messily bandaged it up to stop the bleeding.

　The bleeding abnormality slowed down the recovery of HP, and as a result, the efficiency was worse than yesterday.

　It seems that impatience is a no-no.

　I decided to take a deep breath and calm down.

　Hee hee hoo! Hee hee hoo!

　It was strange, though, that today, even when I passed by the other explorers, no one spoke to me.

　Aside from the fact that he doesn’t seem worried about me, I wonder why he turns his face away and quickly walks away.

　I have my doubts, but more importantly, it’s a goblin.

　I’m not going to forgive these damn goblins anymore. They’ve been tearing me to shreds again today.

　Four o’clock in the afternoon.

　The bleeding was taking its toll on my stamina, so I used the teleport circle to return to the first floor, sat down at the edge of the hall where the obelisk was, and tried to recover my HP.

　Oh, by the way.

　Those who obtain this status will be able to heal wounds faster within the dungeon. I get ripped to shreds every day, but while I’m resting on the first floor, the bleeding has completely stopped, and my wounds are beginning to close.

　Well, it’s not completely healed, and the wound reopens if I move around too much.

　I could recover quickly if I had a basic heal potion, but slimes haven’t dropped any yet. On the other hand, they’re out of stock and I can’t get hold of one, and even if I could, it would cost about 100,000 yen a bottle.

　This is because when applied to the skin, beginner’s healing potions are said to be effective in curing all kinds of rough skin, blemishes, freckles, and enlarged pores, and when they are sold on the market, the wealthy upper class buy them up in droves.

　It seems the Explorers Association is also working to secure it for the explorers, but it seems difficult when dealing with people in power who have money.

　Because of this, explorers find it difficult to even purchase basic healing potions.

　If you want it, it’s quicker to get it yourself as a monster drop.

　That being said, I don’t hunt slimes for potions because I don’t know how many days it will take. Anyway, if I go to the 4th floor, goblins will occasionally drop potions.

　Ah, I want to quickly kill some goblins and get a ton of potions.

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[Level] 『9』 Experience points to next level 『2255』

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　●◯●

　March 23rd.

　Of course, I came to Shinjuku Dungeon again today.

　As soon as I entered the dungeon, I ran out and went down to the third floor as quickly as possible.

　Then he carefully finds a group of two or three and calmly hunts them.

　Even though I take damage every time I fight the three of them, I’m already used to the battle itself. It’s almost like a routine.

　Fight, fight, rest, fight, fight, rest, fight, fight, rest.

　Then it was around four in the afternoon.

　After eliminating two groups of goblins, the time finally came.

　–Your level has increased.

“— N-n, that’s so looooong!!!!!!”

　First level up in a while.

　It also feels really good.

“Now then… (Sage time).”

　However, this time I basked in the afterglow for less time than usual and quickly returned to my senses.

　I have something to do later today.

　I immediately brought up the status screen and allocated points.

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[Name] Takeo Samejima

[Level] 『10』 Experience points to next level 『10995』

《HP》28/50 (5up!)

《MP》18/18

Strength: 30

Sturdy: 20 (5 up!)

Intelligence: 6

《Spirit》12

《Agility》30 (3up!)

Dexterity 21 (2 up!)

[STP] 『0』

[SP] 『0』

[Skills] 《Damage Increase Lv. Max, when equipped with swords, 》 《Madness Lv. 1》 《Goblin Killer Lv. 3》 《Fighting Spirit Lv. 3》

[Title] 《Madman》 《Goblin Killer》

《Fighting Spirit Lv.3》– 《Sturdy》 and 《Agility》 increase by 60%. Consumes 3 HP every 10 seconds.Activated muscle strength

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　Now we’re ready to go.

“Shall we go?”

　Without returning to the first floor, I started to move deeper into the third floor, running at a fairly fast pace.

　Every day I was getting torn to shreds, and on top of that, my experience points weren’t going to be good either. The frustration that had been building up made me want to scream.

“I’ll kill you damn goblins! –Ah, hello!”

“Ah, uh, hello…”

“Th-Thanks…”

　On the way, I met another party of explorers. I was seen screaming, but I didn’t care now. I greeted them cheerfully and passed them by.

　After walking like this for a while, a figure that was not an explorer appeared at the end of the corridor.

　Fittingly enough, it’s a trio of goblins: a thief, a warrior, and a swordsman.

　I pulled my sword out of its sheath, expending 3 HP, and activated my 《Fighting Spirit》, and this time, my 《Madness》 as well.

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Strength 54 (+24)

Endurance 32 (+12)

Intelligence 5 (-1)

《Spirit》12

《Agility》48 (+18)

Dexterity 21

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　There’s no need for a prelude to the outbreak of war.

　The goblins have also noticed us and are already running.

　Taking advantage of my agility value of 48, I also started running as fast as I could.

“–!?”

　The distance between the two of us was rapidly closing in. The edge of my vision was moving backwards at high speed, and in the center, the Warrior seemed slightly shaken by my unexpected speed, and in a panic, he lowered his hips and readied his shield.

　I leapt forward with the same momentum as my sprint and delivered a flying kick towards the shield that was set up.

“Yeah!!”

“Gugh?!”

　The warrior is sent flying in an ungainly fashion and tumbles spectacularly.

　Meanwhile, Thief was approaching me after I had landed. However, I hadn’t lost my balance. I quickly turned around and swung my sword, cutting the Thief in half with a single slash.

　Next–,

“You’re too late!!”

“!?”

　The Swordsman approached from behind, raising his sword.

　These guys have a fair amount of skill and knowledge, but they haven’t been around for very long, so they don’t have much experience. So no matter how talented they are, what they do is always monotonous.

　Therefore, he knew that he was behind him, and the timing of his attack was also obvious.

　However, until now, my reaction time was not fast enough due to my lack of agility.

　But that’s no longer the case.

　With the speed of a spinning top, he turned around and swung his sword. It was even faster than the Swordsman could bring his sword down, and it snapped the Swordsman’s head off.

　Finally, one left.

　The warrior was already on his feet, preparing himself and holding his shield towards me.

　I don’t have time.

　Without a moment’s hesitation, he kicked the ground towards the Warrior.

　I went around to the left side where he was holding his shield. Because warriors hold their swords in their right hands, the shield gets in the way, and they can’t swing their swords. I rotated my body to follow him, but by the time he turned to his left, I had already moved to his side.

“–!?”

“It’s over.”

　As the warrior frantically tried to change position, he swung his sword sideways at his neck, slicing his head off.

“Phew.”

　Before the warrior’s head could hit the ground, he exhaled and deactivated his 《Fighting Spirit》 skill.

　Looking at my status, my HP had only decreased by 3.

　In other words, within 10 seconds of activating the skill, I wiped out a group of three goblins without a single scratch.

　It was a crushing victory against the pack of three that had been struggling so much.

　I clench my fist and am convinced.

“It’s levels after all…!! Levels solve everything…!!”

　Status violence due to the level increase.

　The goblins were powerless against the overwhelming strength and agility.

According to the “Modern Dungeon Strategy Wiki,” the highest ability score a third-floor goblin can achieve is around 25.

　Thieves have high agility, warriors have high endurance, and swordsmen have high strength.

　However, even a highly agile thief couldn’t keep up with my movements.

　With a difference in ability values ​​of roughly two to one, it seems the battle has become so one-sided.

　This is it!

　I just want to level up. I don’t want to have a moderately difficult fight or fight a strong enemy. In the first place, fighting a strong enemy is not efficient for leveling up.

　After all, the key to leveling up is hunting small fry.

“Now, if I can defeat these four without taking any damage, I should be able to make good progress in leveling up on this floor…! And if I can get two or three levels up, I should be able to fight on the fourth floor…!!”

　I decided not to go home just yet and to look for the group of four.