Level-up Maniac, Level up in Modern Dungeons - Episode 16

　After killing the three goblins, we discovered a group of four goblins a while later.

　The breakdown is 1 thief, 1 warrior, and 2 swordsmen, which is the worst combination.

　With two swordsmen in the mix, it was an opponent I would never have taken on before leveling up.

　But I decided to give it a try.

　If you run away from every monster you encounter, your leveling will not be as efficient. If you can’t easily defeat all the monsters that appear on this floor, your time will be inefficient.

Activating his “Fighting Spirit” and “Madness”, he charged into the group of goblins.

　First, he kicks the warrior away, rendering the tank unable to act, and in the meantime, he takes out the pesky thief with one hit.

　The swordsmen attacked from behind and the side, and if I attacked either of them, I would be hit by an attack from the other.

　So I evade by rolling on the ground and put some distance between me and the swordsmen.

　We have to hurry because the Warrior is up and trying to get back into the fight.

　He lunges at one of the swordsmen closest to him. His first blow is blocked by his sword, but he pushes back and throws him off balance. Since there is a roughly two-fold difference in strength between them, the swordsman loses his balance, and his torso is left wide open.

　He swung his sword and killed the first swordsman.

　At the same time that the second Swordsman attacked, the Warrior circled to his back. Not wanting to be sandwiched between him and the front and back, I deflected the Swordsman’s attack and put some distance between us.

　From there, it’s just work.

　First, he charges at the warrior and slams his sword into his shield, blowing him away. Meanwhile, he kills the swordsman with two blows. There’s no way he’ll have a hard time with the only remaining warrior. He attacks and throws him off balance, then he slams his sword back and finishes him off.

　HP consumed: 6.

　More than 10 seconds had passed before all four were defeated.

　Still, I was able to kill a group of four without getting hit.

　The experience points you gained in this battle are 540. Amazing!

“This is getting fun!! –Ah, hello.”

　It looks like I can finally level up properly. I couldn’t be happier. I saw another party of explorers peeking at me from the corner of the passage, so I said hello. Sorry for the bother. The explorers looked away, bowed, and headed back the way they came.

　I fought the goblins two more times after this, but my HP reached the danger zone so I decided to go home.

　●◯●

　March 24th.

　Of course, I came to Shinjuku Dungeon again today.

　We immediately moved to the third floor and began hunting goblins.

　Today, I don’t feel the murderous intent gushing out towards the goblins like I did yesterday. Now that I can consistently defeat groups of four, the goblins are no longer enemies, but merely experience points.

　However, because Fighting Spirit consumes HP, I had to repeat the cycle of exploring for an hour and then resting for an hour.

　I encountered about six enemies in an hour. After that, I went back to the stairs and rested for an hour.

　However, since I wasn’t physically damaged and I was taking excessive rest, I didn’t reach my limit at around 4 pm like before.

　We explored until about 6 o’clock, then returned to the first floor to recover HP for an hour, and left the Explorers’ Association at around 7:30.

　By the way, the items I sold to the Association that day were as follows. They were all magic stones, and the number was equal to the number of enemies I had defeated.

　1 level slime x 2 = 400 yen

　1 level goblin x 3 = 1500 yen

　Level 2 slime x 2 = 600 yen

　3rd level slime x 1 = 400 yen

　2 level goblins x 2 = 1500 yen

　3rd level goblin x 2 = 2000 yen

　4th level thief x 20 = 50,000 yen

　4th level warrior x 12 = 45,000 yen

　4th level swordsman x 8 = 30,000 yen

　5 level thief x 12 = 36,000 yen

　5 level warrior x 8 = 36,000 yen

　5th level swordsman x 4 = 18,000 yen

　After deducting withholding tax from the total of 221,400 yen, today’s income was 198,796 yen.

　…This is bad.

　Aren’t explorers making too much money?

　It’s still only the third tier. Strangely, people say you can’t make money on the internet even though there’s so much profit to be made.

　I wonder why? Maybe I’ll ask on the Explorers’ message board next time.

　Oh, and the fact that all the items I sold were magic stones doesn’t mean that no other items were dropped.

　Other items dropped as well, such as the “Goblin Thief’s Knife”, “Goblin Warrior’s One-Handed Sword”, “Goblin Warrior’s Round Shield”, and “Goblin Swordsman’s Long Sword”.

　These can be recycled into metal materials, but because they are low-quality iron products, the purchase price is ridiculously low. On the other hand, they are too low-quality to be used as weapons or armor and would probably break during a battle.

　In other words, it’s a more unlikely drop than a club or a waistcoat. If you sell everything except the knife and shield, they’ll be worth more than the waistcoat, but they’re still heavy.

　At one time, research was carried out to see if there was any way to use it, but it was quickly concluded that, unlike clubs and loincloths, which were made from biological materials, it was simply a cheap iron product.

　Therefore, it’s a dropped item that no explorer picks up because it’s heavy, bulky, and cheap. Of course, I threw it away on the spot.

　As for my level, I didn’t level up today. Still, I’m not as annoyed as I was yesterday. I’m much more efficient now than before.

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[Level] 『10』 Experience points to next level 『2380』

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　Just today, I’ve earned over 7,000 experience points. This is almost three times the amount I got when I was level 9.

　At this rate, I’ll be able to level up by tomorrow.

　●◯●

　March 25th.

　Naturally, I came to Shinjuku Dungeon again today.

　I now have the route up to the third floor perfectly memorized. I head to the third floor by running lightly and taking the shortest route possible, but perhaps because my agility value is over 30, it only took me about an hour to get down to the third floor.

　Then the hunt begins immediately.

　And I leveled up during the morning.

“That’s so sweet!!!!!!”

　As usual, he leaned back dramatically and shouted at the top of his lungs.

　Although it’s not as good as when I first leveled up, I’m still convinced of it. Maybe it’s because I can get more status points, but leveling up to level 10 and above feels much more satisfying than level 9.

　What will happen if I increase the level even more?

　With my heart pounding with anticipation and anxiety, I continued hunting, and as my HP was reaching a dangerous level, I decided to take an early lunch break.

　I went back to the stairs and sat down to have lunch. I bought 10 rice balls and two sweet rolls from the convenience store and washed them down with tea.

　…Well, I’ve been feeling strangely hungry ever since I became an explorer. I guess it’s because I’m on the move every day, but…

　Anyway.

　After quickly finishing my lunch, I took out my smartphone and killed time until my HP recovered. I opened YouTube and decided to watch a random short video.

　And then, a few minutes after I started playing random videos, I came across that video.

　I don’t know whose channel it is, but the content is a video of someone playing an incredibly difficult rhythm game without making any mistakes. The video shows the rhythm being played so smoothly that it’s satisfying to watch, and eventually the game is played perfectly without any mistakes until the end, and the word “perfect!!” appears in large letters on the game screen — and the next moment,

“That’s so awesome!!!”

　Suddenly, the screen changed to a young man dressed like an explorer, doing the Ina Bauer and yelling something with a face that shouldn’t be shown to other people.

“–teeth?”

　What is this video?

　I was stunned and confused by the young man’s appearance, which seemed familiar to me.

　Still wondering, I played the next video. Soon after, the next video that came on was a clip of a motherly older sister type VTuber doing an ASMR broadcast.

　The woman with a sweet and gentle voice counted down in a whispering, strangely erotic voice.

『Five, four, three, two, one, zero– 』

“That’s so awesome!!!”

“–teeth?”

　Also?

　What? What’s going on…?

　I continued to play one video after another, my mind racing with confusion as the strange short videos that occasionally played became more and more perplexing.

　The moment Niki, a foreign player, held a basketball facing away from the goal and threw the ball behind him, it landed beautifully in the goal.

“That’s so awesome!!!”

　The moment he flicked the playing card with his finger, the thrown card cut the cucumber in half.

“That’s so awesome!!!”

　The moment my team won in an FPS game,

“That’s so awesome!!!”

　The moment a game streamer successfully defeated the secret boss in a restricted playthrough,

“That’s so awesome!!!”

　For some reason, footage of a young man who is being referred to in the comments as “Ina Bauer Niki” is played over and over again in a wide variety of videos.

　…It seems that while I was absorbed in the dungeon, a new internet meme had been born.

　This is me.

“Don’t mess with me…!!”

　I was shaking with anger.

　My image, which was caught on Bourgeois Onii-san’s stream, was spreading at an alarming rate as a convenient MAD material.

　I’m fine with making people laugh, but I hate being laughed at by others…!!

　I sent a message to Bourgeois Onii-san — or rather, to Survivor Tachikawa’s Ruin. By the way, we exchanged contact information on the day of the interview.

“My video is being spread as MAD material (angry). Please take responsibility and do something about it (angry)”

　The reply came quickly.

“I am truly sorry. I understand that Mr. Samejima is angry, but I hope you will understand that now that it has spread online, there is nothing I can do about it. Thank you for your understanding. m(_ _)m”

　I immediately sent a message back.

“Litigation lawsuit litigation lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit death penalty lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit lawsuit death penalty! ! ! ”

　There was no reply.

　This guy just read the message and ignored it.

　Well, what should I do…?

　That being said, I know without even thinking about it that it would be unrealistic to sue all the third parties who used footage of me without my permission. There are just too many of them.

　It was frustrating, but I had no choice but to accept it.

　…Well, to be honest, I’m not that angry. I don’t think Tachikawa intended it. I’m sure it was an act of inevitability for him, too.

　Besides, I’m wearing a helmet in the video, it’s dimly lit because it’s inside the first floor of the Shinjuku Dungeon, and my expression is like that, so there’s no way Ina Bauer-niki would recognize me if I were walking around town.

　So, I had no choice but to forgive him.

“That’s a lie♡ , I’m not that angry (^-^)”

　Pop!

“Eh, that sudden change in attitude is too scary…But, thank you, thank you!!”

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