Level-up Maniac, Level up in Modern Dungeons - Episode 6

March 19th.

　Today, like every other day, I came to Shinjuku Dungeon early in the morning.

“Hey, perhaps…”

“Isn’t it that guy…?”

“Ahh… that crazy thing yesterday…”

“Hmm? What is it…?”

　After entering the Explorers’ Association branch inside Shinjuku Station and changing in the dressing room before heading to the dungeon, I felt like people around me were staring at me for some reason.

“…………”

　I instinctively looked around, but for some reason, everyone quickly looked away.

　I checked to see if there was anything strange about her clothes or anything, but I couldn’t see anything particularly strange.

　Am I just being too self-conscious?

　Although I found it a little strange, nobody said anything, so I decided not to worry about it and headed towards the dungeon.

“Well then, let’s go and kill some more today…!!”

　Yesterday, I left work halfway through due to fatigue, but I no longer feel nervous about the monsters on the first floor. So, I won’t reach my limit of fatigue like yesterday. I think yesterday I was a bit tired.

　So with that in mind, I set off in high spirits, heading deeper into the dungeon.

　Along the way, their numbers seem to have recovered during the night; a large number of slimes have appeared. I use my long sword to cut them apart, while searching for a goblin with a lot of experience.

　Soon after, the first Goblin of the day was found.

　My face brightened up, and I approached him with a brisk step, as if I had just met a close friend.

“Mr. Goblin!!”

“Guuuh? Guuuuuuuuuuuh!!!”

“–Die!!”

　I swung my sword down towards the Goblin’s shoulder, slicing it to the center of his chest.

　It’s still not a one-hit kill, but it would be a one-hit kill for a level 1 goblin.

　I picked up the dropped magic stones and put them in my backpack while walking around looking for my next prey.

“Hmm, but if we’re winning this easily, wouldn’t it be more efficient to just go down to the second floor…?”

　The monsters that appear on the second floor are slimes and goblins. This is the same as on the first floor, but there are two differences.

　First, the monsters’ levels have increased. According to the “Modern Dungeon Strategy Wiki,” level 2 to 3 slimes and goblins will be appearing. I think that I’m strong enough to defeat them now.

　But there is another difference, or problem.

　On the first floor, monsters almost always appear alone. This is because the locations where monsters spawn are far apart from each other.

　However, on the second floor, monsters of the same species may appear in groups of up to three. For this reason, it is generally recommended that players form a “party” to explore floors two and below.

　By the way, a party does not simply mean a group of people who explore together. The black obelisk at the entrance to the dungeon has a function called “Party Formation,” and a group of explorers formed using this function is called a party.

　The advantage of this is that all members receive the same amount of experience regardless of their contribution in battle.

　This feature was welcomed by explorers because if experience points gained were determined by contribution in battle, it would mean that only attackers would become stronger, while tanks and healers would not grow.

　Also, the hurdles to forming a party are not as high as you might think.

　The Explorers Association provides a matching app for recruiting party members called “Dungeon Pairs.” Even if you don’t have any explorers among your friends or acquaintances, you can use this matching app to form a party with people you’ve never met before.

　Well, this is popular for a different reason. –I think it’s wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon!!

　Anyway.

　Going back to my own story, I had no intention of ever forming a party again.

　This is because when you form a party, the experience points you get are divided equally among the number of people. The maximum number of people in a party is five, which means that the experience points you get will be reduced to a maximum of one-fifth.

　A level 1 slime has 5 experience points, so if there are 5 people in the party, that will be reduced to 1.

　Even a level 1 goblin only gets 10 experience points, so each goblin only gets 2 experience points.

　Of course, you can gain more experience points by hunting stronger monsters on lower levels, and with more people, you can defeat stronger monsters with more experience points.

　However, even taking that into account, playing solo is overwhelmingly more efficient in terms of leveling up.

　Generally speaking, if this were a game, it would be fine because I could feel good about leveling up characters other than the main character, but in the real world of this dungeon, raising the level of someone other than myself doesn’t give me any sense of satisfaction.

　In that sense, there is probably no choice but to form a party.

　–Well, I’ve gone off topic a bit, but…

“Should we move up our plans and dive into the second layer?”

　Try fighting, and if it doesn’t work, just go back to the first floor.

　With my current status, I should be able to escape even against the goblins on the second floor―I checked my status again.

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[Name] Takeo Samejima

[Level] 『3』 Experience points to next level 『165』

《HP》32/32

《MP》18/18

Strength: 20

Sturdy: 12

Intelligence: 6

《Mind》12

Agility: 17

Dexterity 12

[STP] 『0』

[SP] 『0』

[Skills] 《Increased damage when equipped with swords Lv.3》 《Madness Lv.1》

[Title] 《Madman》

————————————————–

“……Hello?”

　What is this?

　Before you know it, unfamiliar skills and unfamiliar titles have appeared, haven’t they?

　For now, I’ll check the details of the skills and titles on the status screen.

————————————————–

【title】

《Madman》―The proof of being recognized by many as a madman. Acquires the skill 《Madness》.

【skill】

{Madness Level 1} – While the skill is activated, {Strength} increases by 20%, {Intelligence} decreases by 20%, and damage taken is multiplied by 1.2.

————————————————–

　…It’s not proof that many people recognize you as a madman!

　How on earth did this happen?! I have no recollection of it!

　I was seriously confused!!