Enjoy~
TL: ALT
Chapter 27 – This Is How I Earn It
After lunch, Serika and I split up with Honoka and went to the dungeon on the grounds of the Tengumine Shrine.
A black water-mirrored portal floats in the simple shrine.
At the entrance of the shrine, there is a book to write down the names of the visitors, but there is no one like an attendant.
Serika and I write our names in the book and quickly enter the dungeon.
As a B-rank dungeon, the color of the walls is almost blacker than the C-rank dungeon in the water park.
However, the walls of this dungeon are not made of stone but of bare earth.
“Yuto, be careful. Mud Kappa can move through the dirt.”
“Yes.”
I know the monsters that appear here from the wiki.
So far, I don’t see any sign of them being caught by my Enemy Search.
After a while, I felt the presence of a monster deep in the darkness of the dungeon.
“There it is.”
“Right. I mean, how did you know?”
“Because I have the Enemy Search skill.”
“Enemy Search? Why would a novice explorer have such a high-level skill?”
“I’ll explain it to you now. Serika, please don’t interfere in any way, okay?”
Serika and I are not in a party right now because we did not form a party in Dungeons Go Pro.
It’s just two solo players together.
“Yeah, that’s fine, but not if it’s dangerous, okay?”
“No, don’t do anything even if it’s a little dangerous. If it’s just once, I can use my skill to hold on with only one HP.”
“Oh, you have Survive?”
“You know a lot.”
It was a skill that wasn’t listed in the wiki, but Serika seemed to know about it.
“I know someone in my guild who has it. If you insist on it, I won’t interfere until you ask for help.”
“Please. I have many restrictions.”
While we talk, I use Enemy Search to locate the monster.
It is a presence… that I don’t know about.
With Enemy Search, I can’t tell what kind of monster I’ve never encountered before.
I use Stealth to eliminate my presence.
“Wow, even Stealth…”
As expected, Serika is surprised when she lowers her voice.
“Then watch me.”
With my presence removed, I approach the group of monsters.
There are three of them, and each of them seems to be a different kind of monster.
I don’t know what kind of monsters they are, but I can tell by the different Presence that they are of different types.
I use the Appraisal function,
Status──────────────────
Raven Tengu
Level 47
HP 376/376
MP 614/614
Attack Power 723
Defense 482
Magic Power 627
Mental Strength 470
Agility 557
Luck 470
・Acquired Skills
Swordsmanship 2, Wind Magic 1, Flying (Magic) 1
423 Experience gained by defeating the enemy
13 SP gained by defeating the enemy
Mana coins (converted to yen) earned upon success 9,870
Drop Item: Food Pill, Raven Tengu Mask, Tengu Fan
────────────────────
Status──────────────────
Mud Kappa
Level 48
HP 432/432
MP 0/0
Attack Power 482
Defense 730
Magic Power 338
Mental Strength 586
Agility 192
Luck 192
・Acquired Skills
Liquefaction 2, Mud Throwing 1
432 Experience gained by defeating the enemy
11 SP gained by defeating the enemy
Mana coins (converted to yen) earned upon success 9120
Drop Item: Recovery Pill, Gold Paint, Mithril Mud
────────────────────
Status──────────────────
Red Oni
Level 50
HP 950/950
MP 0/0
Attack Power 1150
Defense 950
Magic Power 0
Mental Strength 300
Agility 350
Luck 450
・Acquired Skills
Body Technique 2, All-out Strike 1, Ferocity 1
600 experience gained by defeating the enemy
14 SP gained by defeating the enemy
Mana coins (converted to yen) earned upon success 12,500
Drop Item: Recovery Pill, Rage Mustard, Oni Metal Rod
────────────────────
The one with wings, about the size of a child, holding a wakizashi is the Raven Tengu.
The Kappa with its upper body growing out of the mud is the Mud Kappa.
The Red Oni is… it’s exactly as you see it. It looks like an oni from a Momotaro picture book.
The information on the three monsters is exactly as it is on the wiki.
Then I can use the strategy I have in mind as it is.
The first thing to consider is, “Which enemy should I target to earn?”
If it is simply a comparison of SP gain, the Red Oni’s 14 is the highest.
However, the Red Oni has high HP, and even I cannot kill it with a single blow.
Since it is humanoid, the combination of the Assassination Technique and Fatal Critical Hit is effective, but with a success rate of only a few percent, it is not a stable way to earn.
If I kill the Red Oni and leave the Raven Tengu behind, it will catch up with me and expose me to Swordsmanship and Wind Magic attacks.
The Raven Tengu’s attack power, boosted by Swordsmanship 2, is not as strong as the Red Oni’s, but it is not to be underestimated.
Mud Kappa has the lowest SP of the three and low agility, so I would choose to leave it behind.
However, I have heard that Mud Throwing can cause an abnormal slowness condition in rare cases.
Well, in my case, my agility is high, so even if my movement speed is reduced due to the slowness, it will be no problem for me to escape 10 meters.
So I decided to try it,
“――Thunder Spear!”
The lightning spear I fired pierced the Raven Tengu.
I used Surprise Attack, Preemptive Strike, First Move, Knowledge of the Vanguard, Strong Strike Magic, Ancient Chanting, and Heaven’s Punishment.
From the reaction, Magic Critical also came out, huh?
Thunder Spear Critical increased by 4,968 times.
The critical hit has also been multiplied by the effect of Heaven’s Punishment (increased damage on a critical hit against boss monsters, red names, and monsters with levels twice your level or higher) for an additional 1.1 times the damage.
The Surprise Attack effect even has the added bonus of reducing all of the enemy formation’s ability stats by 5%.
The Raven Tengu has been destroyed with a single strike.
The remaining mana coins are immediately sucked into my phone.
Of course, the two remaining monsters notice me.
I have already turned my back on the enemy and escaped.
In an instant, I reach the escape area ten meters away and hit an invisible barrier.
From there, it’s a fight against the escape timer.
Twenty-three seconds left.
The Mud Kappa slides along, turning the ground around it into a swamp.
The Red Oni threatens me, making footsteps that echo in my gut.
The two monsters are closing in on me.
Seventeen seconds left.
Mud Kappa’s Mud Throw.
I bend my knees, and the mud goes over my head.
It’s a lucky dodge.
Ten seconds left.
The Red Oni finally catches up to me and swings down with the metal rod in its hand.
“Guahh!”
I was hit!
And it’s a critical hit.
I stagger from the impact, but I don’t break my escape stance.
“Yuto!”
“Not yet!”
I stopped Serika, who was about to rush out at any moment, and continued my Escape.
The Red Oni’s second attack sliced through the air.
This is not a lucky dodge but an air strike from the Red Oni’s side.
Since it pierced a crater in the ground, it was probably an All-Out Strike skill, not a normal attack.
The mud that flew by was dodged with a lucky dodge.
The Red Oni’s third blow is also dodged with a lucky dodge.
Five seconds left.
The Mud Kappa approaches my feet and tries to grab my legs with its muddy hands.
If it grabs me, I will be dragged into the mud.
If I stop, my escape timer will reset.
“Tch!”
I quickly angled my escape direction.
In video games, if you run at an angle toward an impassable wall, you will slide sideways, and that is exactly what I had just done.
The Mud Kappa’s hand sliced through the air, and I dodged the Red Oni’s metal rod that swung down immediately afterward.
I felt like I saw through it and dodged it, so I guess this is Agile Evasion.
…Diagonal Escape, this is useful.
While I was making such discoveries, the escape timer ran out.
After a moment of darkness, I appeared at a point a short distance away.
‘You have successfully escaped.’
‘No experience gained.’
‘Gained 65 SP.’
‘Earned 5,209 yen.’
‘You have received a Food Pill!’
‘Lost 2598 yen!’
All right, that’s a success.
My level difference with Raven Tengu is 46.
The level difference of 40 or more will be corrected for the higher rank, and the SP gained will be multiplied by 5.
I had confirmed that the SP gained from a level difference of 20 in the Water Park dungeon was tripled, but it was not impossible that the upper limit of the correction was tripled.
At that rate, the SP gain should increase by a factor of 1 for every 10-level difference.
I went back to Serika, whose mouth was still agape,
“That’s it.”
“…..No, that’s not it, is it?”
Oops, I didn’t explain myself well enough.
“When I used Escape, I didn’t get any experience, but I did get SP. So it is possible to leave an enemy group without killing them all and then use Escape to gain SP without increasing my level.”
“Wait a minute. I don���t understand.”
Serika said, holding her furrowed brow.
“Why don’t you level up? From the looks of it, you could have won the fight normally, couldn’t you?”
“The SP you get gets a bonus based on the level difference between you and the enemy. The lower your level, the more SP you get.”
“I know that, but it’s like… 1.5 times, right? I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”
“If the level difference is up to 9, yes, it is. But if the level difference is ten or more, the SP gained is doubled. After that, it increases by ten levels, 3x, 4x… and so on. So now, if my level difference with the Raven Tengu is 46, I will get five times more SP”.
“S-so, that’s how it works. I didn’t know that.”
“Well, normally, you wouldn’t fight an enemy with a level difference of more than 20 levels.”
Also, the wiki only says that the SP is doubled for a level difference of 10 or more.
“Wait a minute! That’s a level difference of 46 from this ‘Raven Tengu Lv 47’, which means… Yuu-kun is still at level 1!”
“That’s right.”
She’s so surprised that she calls me “Yuu-kun.”
“How can you handle a B-rank dungeon monster at level 1? I mean, if you can earn SP, that means you have a lot of skills!���
“Yes, yes.”
“Skills give bonuses to ability stats depending on their content and the SP earned… This means that Yuto will only increase your skill value with these bonuses!”
“That is correct. As expected from Serika.”
“I see… that was a blind spot. Yuto wasn’t blessed with the basic ability value at level 1, so instead of increasing your level badly, you can make yourself stronger by increasing your abilities.”
Huh, amazing… How did she notice that?
“It’s thanks to Serika.”
“Huh, me?”
“It was Serika who told me. There is always a meaning to the fact that I was given this ability. Because of those words, I decided to take a chance on Escape.”
“Yuto…”
Serika’s eyes were moist as she looked up at me.
“A-anyway, I’m quite strong now. But because of the Escape trait, I have to do the exploration alone.”
“That’s right. If you form a group and the others kill all the enemies, you’ll get the experience.”
“I can see what would happen if I killed one of them and then Escaped, and then the rest of the party would kill the rest of the enemies.
In this case, there is a possibility that the various settlements would not be made, with only me escaping.
If the settlement is made after the entire party has finished the battle, there is a possibility that I will gain experience as well.
There is no way to lose experience once it is gained, and there is no way to lower the level.
To avoid accidentally raising my level, I should basically go solo.
The only person I can tell this secret to is Serika.
…But even so, I’m probably the only explorer who thinks, “I don’t want to wipe them out,” “I don’t want to gain experience,” “I don’t want to accidentally raise my level,” and so on.
“I have to agree with you. You’ve had plenty of room to fight, so I think you’ll be fine in this dungeon on your own.”
“Really? I’ve never seen another researcher fight.”
“Normally, you can’t kill a monster with a single blow of magic unless you’re fighting a very low-level opponent… You should be aware that you’re outside the norm, right, Yuto?”
“Is that so?”
When I first fought the slime in the thicket dungeon, I fired five magic shots at it and finally destroyed it.
Come to think of it, my magic, combined with the synergy of my skills, produces a lot of firepower.
“By the way, what is a normal party of explorers like to conquer this dungeon?”
“Since I am not familiar with this dungeon, let’s talk about B-rank dungeons in general, shall we?”
“Please.”
“In B-rank dungeons, the skills of the monsters are more powerful, so it is the official opinion of the Association that there should be more leeway in the level of party members than in C-rank dungeons. Specifically, the level of the party members should be at least ten higher than the monsters that appear at the entrance of the dungeon.”
“More than 10? If the level of the monster is ten or lower than the level of the explorer, the SP gained will be zero, right?”
If the monster’s level is 1 to 9 lower than the explorer’s level, the SP gained is halved.
If the monster’s level is ten or lower, you get 0, which means you get no SP.
“But considering the safety of the party and the speed at which the monsters are eliminated, this level difference is just right for efficient experience gain.”
“I see. In that case, you don’t consider the efficiency of earning SP?”
“Even if you have a lot of skills, you can’t use them all. Once you find your main skill, you should concentrate your SP on that skill without using any half-baked skills.”
“So those who attack dungeons with a level of B or higher can’t earn enough SP?”
“The priority is to increase your level. The higher your skill level, the more effective your skills will be. Besides, there seem to be a lot of people who use leveling as a motivation.”
“I see what you mean. I can’t form a party if that’s the case.”
“That’s right. ….. Sigh. I thought if Yuto became an explorer, we could explore together…”
“…Hmm. Why are you sighing?”
“It’s nothing! Yuto, don’t you have some kind of strange ability that makes you unable to hear anything unpleasant?”
“If I had such a skill, I’d like to have it.”
With such a skill, even I, a former social recluse, might be able to go out into the world with a bold heart.