Chapter 177
Chapter 177
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TL: ALT
Chapter 177 – Start of A-rank Dungeon Tour
The next day, I spent the morning at Chidorigafuchi Dungeon, an A-rank dungeon.
This dungeon, which is said to be unpopular among the A-rank dungeons in the capital, is said to have only ghost-type monsters such as wraiths, ghosts, and wights.
However, I have the Shadow Slayer, a magical sword I obtained in the Job World.
Just by swinging the blade of the Shadow Slayer, which has a rippling blade, I can easily cut through the ghost-type monsters that are supposed to have no substance.
The level of the monsters that appear is in the high 700s.
That’s about average for a rank-A dungeon.
But in the job world, after the Okutama Lake Dungeon collapsed, the level of the monsters that appeared was over 10,000.
Now, I don’t feel threatened by monsters that aren’t even level 1000.
I use Shadow Slayer to slash at nearby enemies and light-based magic to blast away enemies in the distance.
Thanks to my job, Demon King’s skills, I can now handle all kinds of magic at a very high level.
I can’t use magic that I don’t even know exists, but when I search my memories, I can still cover a considerable range.
In particular, being able to use the magic that Sayuki the Black Magician used (in the job world) is a big plus.
The Void Flare, which can cancel the target’s chant, will certainly come in handy in boss fights.
…To be honest, there’s no need to bother using a distraction against a boss in an A-rank dungeon.
There is no need to Escape and leave the last specter behind.
I use Shadow Slayer to slash the specter, which seems almost motionless due to the overwhelming difference in Agility.
‘You have destroyed the enemy!’
‘You have gained 0 experience points.’
‘You have gained 33,926 SP.’
‘You have gained 816,480 yen.’
‘You have obtained the Saint’s Ashes!’
“Alright!”
I clench my fist in response to the Voice of Heaven.
――When you defeat monsters, you gain experience points.
Even elementary school children know this in this crazy modern age.
However, the Voice of Heaven I just heard said that I had gained 0 experience points.
“It looks like I’ve really taken on the disadvantages of the five-job system.”
One of the reasons why multiple jobs were unpopular in the job world was that they reduced the amount of experience you could gain.
I used that to my advantage. By having five jobs, I reduced the amount of experience I gained to zero.
I didn’t know if the negative experience correction from multiple jobs would work in the skill world until I tried it.
That’s why I equipped the Level Sealing Bracelet just to be sure and then killed all the monsters I came across.
Earlier, when I used the Level Sealing Bracelet to kill the monsters in the Hikarigaoka Park Dungeon, the experience points I was supposed to get from the monsters were announced as normal.
On the other hand, the Voice of Heaven clearly states that I’ve gained 0 experience points.
This means that even without waiting for the bracelet to take effect, the experience points I should have received were 0 from the beginning.
I take off the Level Sealing Bracelet and try to defeat the next group of monsters I find.
The experience points I gained were also 0.
“So it’s completely confirmed.
This means that no matter how many monsters I defeat from now on, I won’t have to worry about gaining experience points.
…Well, I can’t help but feel a little strange at the thought of staying at level 1 for the rest of my life.
And this is also a matter that will shake my identity.
“…I don’t have to use Escape anymore…”
That’s right.
Escape, which used to be a way to avoid leveling, has now finished its job.
“Well, there’s still a chance I could use it to steal items…”
If I want to steal items from the same enemy repeatedly, Escape is useful because it allows me to reset the situation.
If I want to target the rare slot of the dungeon boss’s drop item, I’ll probably need to use Escape repeatedly.
The same is true if I want to make efficient use of the “good” party I found along the way to earn SP.
If I’m going for the special condition of killing 400 of the same race in a row, there will be times when I need to use Escape to leave monsters behind that I can’t kill.
It’s still an important skill for me.
However, in order to use Escape, it is necessary to maintain the escape posture for (30-5×S.Lv) seconds.
At the current skill level of 3 for Escape, this is 15 seconds.
However, in many cases, it is better to quickly kill the enemies and move on than to spend 15 seconds.
Although time itself has decreased, perhaps because my Agility has increased too much, it feels slow.
Aside from the Escape from Reality speed adjustment and the Thought Acceleration clock speed-up, it seems that the passage of time feels slow (time in my body passes quickly) even when Agility increases overwhelmingly.
For me right now, 15 seconds is a long time.
Especially when I’m traversing A-rank dungeons.
Even a group of six or more monsters can be killed in 15 seconds.
For me, A-rank dungeons are now overwhelmingly inferior dungeons.
What? If that’s the case, why did I choose to avoid A-rank dungeons?
There’s more than one reason.
Unusually, for me, earning SP is not a high priority this time.
If the only goal was to earn SP, it would be quicker to go into the S-rank Shinjuku Station Underground Dungeon and do the Escape hunt.
What’s the point of doing A-rank dungeons now if I can do S-rank dungeons later?
This is going to get a little complicated, but let’s go over the basics before I start raiding A-rank dungeons in earnest.
The first priority is to check Your Own World.
Job──────────────────
Support Ability
Your Own World
By enveloping yourself in the cocoon world woven by the otherworldly dragon Splefnir around your own existence, you can neutralize harmful interference from the world system on your status. The Cocoon World translates your current status to match the system of the world in which you currently exist. In addition, this cocoon world will eventually contain the minimum system necessary for the unique system of the job world to function.
────────────────────
I know it works, but there are still many details I don’t understand.
For example, the relationship between skills and unique bonuses.
When I was transported to the job world, the world’s translation function converted the skills I had already acquired into jobs, abilities, and unique bonuses.
In terms of numbers, the number of unique bonuses converted would be overwhelmingly large.
So, if I acquire a new skill now, will that skill be converted into a unique bonus immediately?
Actually, I have done some preliminary testing on this.
I acquired skills I hadn’t yet acquired―specifically, Sumo, One-Handed, Command, and Shooting―and checked what happened.
The result was that “acquired skills can be translated into the job system at any time.”
For example, it is possible to acquire Sumo 1 and translate it immediately or to increase the skill level and then translate it.
It seems that the level of expression of the unique bonus and other bonuses after translation will also go up or down depending on the skill level at that time.
If you are consciously translating, the result after translation will come to mind, so the risk of regretting an unexpected translation is low.
However, once something has been translated into the job world system, it cannot be returned to the skill. It is best to think carefully before translating.
This raises a big question.
Is it more efficient to upgrade the skill while it is still a skill or to translate it immediately?
I have a hypothesis on this.
Basically, it’s more efficient to translate after raising the level while the skill is still a skill.
While it’s possible to increase your skill level simply by mechanically increasing your SP, you have to wait for the level of expression to grow by fighting powerful enemies.
Considering the fact that I’m able to earn a large amount of SP, it’s easier and faster to increase the level of skills as they are.
What’s more, there are ability value bonuses for skill leveling.
When a skill is acquired or leveled up, an ability value bonus equal to the amount of SP spent is applied.
For example, if I acquire Fire Magic, I will receive a 50 bonus to both MP and Magic Power, compared to the 100 SP required to acquire it (*1).
However, there are no ability value bonuses for growth in degree of expression.
The only way to get an ability value bonus in the job world is the ability value growth bonus when you level up, which is set for each job.
However, it is impossible for me, who never levels up (even if I wanted to, I can’t), to benefit from this growth bonus.
Suppose you translate a skill you’ve acquired while its level is still low. In that case, it will be difficult to develop the degree of expression. You will also miss out on the ability value bonus you should have received.
Once you’ve translated an expression, you can’t put it back into the skill, so there’s no way to get back the ability bonus you missed.
“I’ll translate it after I get the skill up to level 5.”
Of course, it’s not inconceivable to raise the skill level limit even higher with the Philosopher’s Stone Fragments before translating.
But the question is, can you wait to translate until you have the rare Philosopher’s Stone Fragments?
If you leave the skills as they are without translating them, another question arises: Can you effectively use the one-time skills in their raw state in fights that primarily involve five-job characters?
If it’s a skill that you can leave unused, you can just translate it without using fragments, but if it’s a skill that you want to use somehow, it’s a dilemma that it’s a waste to keep waiting for fragments that you don’t even know when you’re going to get.
But you can also look at it the other way around.
“Maybe the growth of the degree of expression will reach the sixth level even without the fragments.
The description of the Demon King as having “an aptitude for all kinds of magic and all magic-related technology that defies description” is an expression that does not exist in the five known levels (in the job world).
It is probably an unknown sixth level of expression.
However, it is unlikely that growth into the sixth level of expression will occur so easily.
It’s unlikely to happen in an A-rank dungeon, and even in an S-rank dungeon, it’s probably impossible unless you go deep into the dungeon.
Even in my exploration of the post-collapse Okutama Lake Dungeon, which I approached as a low-level solo player, there was no example of a level expression increasing from the fifth to the sixth level (the Demon King’s language-defying expression was an expression that existed from the beginning).
“I can’t say anything about this area without trying it.”
Your Own World is an ability that is even more broken than my broken state, so it’s the most broken of the broken.
Not just for this A-rank dungeon tour, but it’s something that needs to be looked at in the long run.
…Oops, I was talking about the purpose of the A-Rank dungeon tour.
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