Level-up Maniac, Level up in Modern Dungeons - Episode 31

A magic circle appeared on the floor in the center of the monster room, shining brightly.

　And at the next moment, several goblins appeared on the magic circle all at once.

 

　He had been summoned.

 

“T-Takeo-kun, can you win…?!”

 

　Hinata-san muttered in shock. I replied, “It’s fine,” but I was a little confused, thinking, “Huh? There are more than I expected.”

 

　The number of monsters that appear in the monster rooms is determined by the floor, with 16 on the 4th floor of Shinjuku Dungeon.

 

　Right, so what I have in front of me right now is a group of 16 goblins.

 

　The breakdown is also fixed for each location; here, there are three groups of five each consisting of a level 7 thief, a level 7 warrior, a level 8 swordsman, a level 8 archer, and a level 8 mage, for a total of 15 monsters.

 

　In addition to this, there is one goblin mixed in that doesn’t normally appear on the fourth floor.

 

　A level 8 Goblin Commander.

 

　That makes 16.

 

　The Commander is a goblin equipped with metal chest armor, a helmet, and a rapier, but he does have one special skill.

 

　The skill is 《Command Level 1》.

 

　The effect of this is that it becomes easier to give instructions to subordinates, and it also has a passive effect of increasing all of the stats of subordinates by 10%.

 

　Even if the status of the goblins on this floor increased by 10%, the highest status would only increase by around 4 points… but combined with the number of enemies, it’s not an effect that can be underestimated.

 

　It’s probably best to think of all goblins as being at least one level stronger than their actual level.

 

　…….

 

　Hmm, what’s that…?

 

　For some reason, I was confident I would win, but this might be surprisingly dangerous.

 

　I think that way, but for some reason, I don’t feel any sense of crisis and remain calm.

 

　Well, I can’t escape now anyway, so I might as well trust my instincts and fight.

 

“– I’ll go.”

 

　I told Hinata behind me and jumped forward.

 

　The sword is already drawn. The 《Fighting Spirit》 skill has already been activated, and the status is rising. By the way, the current level is 16. The base status and the enhanced status are as follows.

 

　Raw status.

 

————————————————–

 

《HP》76/81 (6up!)

 

《MP》18/18

 

Strength: 46 (6 up!)

 

Sturdy: 35

 

Intelligence: 6

 

《Spirit》12

 

Agility: 40

 

Dexterity: 40 (4 up!)

 

————————————————–

 

　Status after enhancement.

 

————————————————–

 

Strength 92 (+46)

 

Sturdy 70 (+35)

 

Intelligence: 6

 

《Spirit》12

 

《Agility》80 (+40)

 

Dexterity: 40

 

————————————————–

 

　Before entering the monster room, Hinata had fully restored my HP. Well, it was used up a little with her skills, though. fighting spirit

 

　Anyway.

 

　The goblins’ gazes were focused on me as I stepped forward.

 

　We were still not far enough away from where the battle was about to begin, so I activated the skill 《Provoke Level 1》. I raised my middle finger on my left hand and shouted, showing it to the goblins.

 

“Hey! Porkbits! What’s wrong? Are you scared? Bring it on!”

 

　They didn’t seem to understand what I was saying, but perhaps due to the effect of 《Provoke》, the goblins’ gazes focused on me became more and more intense.

 

　At almost the same time, the Commander pointed the tip of his rapier in our direction and shouted, “Gugya!” The goblins under his command began to move forward while maintaining their formation.

 

　In response, I activated my 《Sword Spirit》 skill, enveloping my long sword in a pale blue aura, and swung it sharply.

 

　A crescent-shaped slash flew out, slicing the targeted mage to pieces — or so it seemed, but Thief quickly jumped in front of it and shielded him with his own body.

 

“Tch! That’s so troublesome…!!”

 

　While cursing, he placed the group of goblins in the center and began running in a circle around them.

 

　It’s troublesome not to be able to quickly eliminate long-range attackers, but it seems that the warrior can’t defend in time. As expected, if you aim at enemies at a distance from the warrior, you can reduce their numbers sufficiently with flying slashes without being blocked by a shield.

 

　And――

 

“Gugh! Gugh!!”

 

　The commander was busily barking out orders, but the attacks missed me as I continued running.

 

　Arrows and fireballs from the archers and mages came flying one after the other, but as long as I kept moving and kept my distance, it was easy to avoid them.

 

　Meanwhile, I was swinging my sword as I ran, using my 《Sword Spirit》 to thin out the number of goblins.

 

　They quickly wiped out the three thieves, then dealt with the troublesome Archer and Mage, but–

 

“Gugh!!”

 

“The Warriors are just too much of a nuisance after all…!!”

 

　Perhaps because time had passed since the start of the battle, the slashes were blocked in places by the warrior’s shield. I should have aimed for enemies in positions where the warrior’s cover couldn’t arrive in time, but as expected of a shield-bearer, it seemed he had begun to understand my intentions. His positioning was good, and he blocked my line of fire.

 

　In addition,

 

“Gughh!!”

 

　Perhaps realizing that continuing to move wouldn’t get us anywhere, the goblin group split into three at the command of their commander, moving in different directions and beginning to disperse.

 

　It seems that they prioritized surrounding me with a group, even if it meant some casualties.

 

　Although it would mean splitting up their forces, it was an extremely reasonable decision. The reason they hadn’t done so until now was probably because there were only two of them, including Hinata, and they thought it wasn’t necessary. Or perhaps they were planning to use their numerical advantage to crush them head-on.

 

　Needless to say, if I were to be surrounded, I would be beaten to death. Therefore, my top priority was to escape the goblins’ encirclement, but–

 

“-No, this is the time to attack!”

 

　For some reason, I was high at the time.

 

　For some reason, this battle is fun.

 

　The more level-headed part of my mind wondered if I really wasn’t that kind of person, but now was no time to waste on such petty discomfort.

 

　Suppress your doubts and focus on the fun of combat.

 

　With the group splitting into three, the number of each group was reduced. Each group consisted of only three or four animals. They were already used to fighting with such numbers.

 

　I charged head-on into the group of three with the fewest numbers. The breakdown was one warrior, one swordsman, and one mage.

 

“Orrrrrrrrrrr!!”

 

“Grrr?!”

 

　A flying kick from a charge. The warrior blocked it with his shield and was sent flying, knocking the mage behind him down.

 

　In the meantime, he received a blow from the swordsman who had come charging towards him, and taking advantage of his overwhelming difference in strength, he raised his sword and swung it at the swordsman’s exposed torso, cutting it in half with a single blow.

 

　As expected, a 4.8x damage attack from a Strength value of 92 was easy to cut through. It seemed like it was still possible to kill goblins on this floor with one blow. That is, unless they were blocked by a shield.

 

　Anyway, I tried to step forward to finish off the fallen warrior while I still could–,

 

“Oops!?”

 

　He panicked and jumped backwards.

 

　An archer’s arrow and a mage’s fireball flew past the spot where I had been just a moment ago.

 

　Surely there’s no way we could tolerate such a one-sided attack?

 

　I started running again. The circle of encirclement hadn’t narrowed yet. So it was still possible to escape from the encirclement.

 

　Meanwhile, as if the commander had given orders, one of the four animals ran off to join the group of two that had just been split into two.

 

　It seemed that they were planning to reinforce the weak points of the encirclement while they still had the chance.

 

　It would probably be best to escape from the encirclement for now.

 

　I ran, not towards the gap between the groups of warriors — but towards a different warrior than the one I’d kicked away earlier.

 

“Orrrrrrrrrrrrr!!”

 

　Sprint and then jump, kicking your feet out in the air.

 

　The Warrior, seeing this, naturally raised his shield to defend himself. I kicked the Warrior away from the top of my shield – but I didn’t.

 

“–!?”

 

　The Warrior seemed agitated, as the expected impact didn’t come.

 

　As soon as I put my feet on the shield, I bent my knees to absorb the impact. In an instant, I landed on the shield. Then I stretched my bent knees with all my might, kicked the shield, and leapt into the air.

 

　The goblins focus their attention on me as I fly overhead.

 

　Meanwhile, I also jumped, and as my parabola reached its apex, I looked down at the goblins below.

 

　Goblin Commander, to be exact.

 

　All the warriors were at the front of the pack, not next to the commander, who was giving orders from the back. And the thieves who could have taken their place with their speed had all been taken care of.

 

　That is,

 

“–It’s empty!!”

 

　I yelled, laughing, waving my sword in the air.

 

　A blue slash flies towards the Commander below.

 

“–!?”

 

　There was no time for defense or anything.

 

　Before the Commander could even react, his whole body, including his metal body armor, was sliced ​​in half, and he fell to the ground.