Read Novel Full Chapter 9
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TL: ALT
Chapter 9 – The Solution Is ‘Up Front’
Earn SP while keeping your level low, without gaining experience through ‘escape’――
It seemed like a revolutionary way to make an earning, but it also had one fatal weakness.
I can’t move forward and step through the dungeon without defeating a monster.
Of course, I couldn’t find a solution on the wiki.
No wonder. This way of making an earning, no other explorer but me would notice it.
My eyes hurt from staring at the monitor.
As I lay on my bed, fidgeting with my eyes, I felt something hard pressed against my ear.
I reach for it and immediately notice it.
“It was the one Serika gave me.”
What Serika gave me were Anti-Poison Earrings.
There are also Poison Slimes in that thicket dungeon.
I guess she gave it to me in anticipation of that.
“I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to that point yet.”
I should be able to find them if I go a little deeper.
“It ‘tastes’ better than the normal Slime, so I’d like to target it actively…”
Poison Slime’s SP gain upon defeat is 4.
It is twice as much as the normal Slime.
In my case, the difference in level makes the SP gain 6.
The efficiency of earning SP will be higher if I kill all the Slimes at the entrance and aim for the Poison Slime in the inner area.
However, in order to do so, I have no choice but to gain experience from defeating the Slimes.
“After all, is it wrong to just escape? No, but I can’t give up this advantage…”
I opened “Dungeons Go Pro” and looked at the details of ‘Escape’ again.
After a while, I realized.
“Oh, right! This description is…!”
The next day, I was in the thicket dungeon again.
The same two Slimes as yesterday.
I fired a fire arrow at the first Slime.
One hit, of course.
And I would have turned around and ‘escaped’ yesterday, but――
I dashed forward.
I dodge the Slime that jumps at me with my Agility and slips past it.
From there, I run further into the dungeon.
Ten meters.
At this point, I was struck by the usual sensation.
No matter how fast I ran, I could not make progress.
There seemed to be an invisible barrier in front of me.
I was unable to move forward, and a familiar gold watch appeared in my field of vision.
“All right! As expected!”
Until yesterday, I had been escaping back in the same direction I had come.
But not this time.
I had fled through the enemy’s flank and escaped to the other side.
I had assumed from the word ‘Escape’ that I was running backward.
However, if I look closely at the conditions of use of the word ‘Escape,’
Skill────────────────
Terms of Use:
……
The combat area is a space with a radius of (10 x S.Lv) meters from the center of the enemy’s initial position.
────────────────────
But there is no specification of the direction to escape.
It doesn’t matter whether you run left, right, back, or forward as long as you can keep your distance.
The escape timer reaches zero, and I warped to a point a short distance away.
I was 5 or 6 meters away from the escape area, so I didn’t feel as if I had shifted.
It was the same sensation as when you escape from an RPG, and the screen goes dark, and you appear at a point a short distance away.
And that point is,
“I did it! I’m going to the far side!”
It was also possible that after a successful ‘escape,’ the player would be returned to the position he was in before the battle.
But the short transition after ‘escape’ seemed to work as an extension of the direction of escape.
“Meaning that ‘escaping before’ would have the same result as slipping past the monster.”
The two Slimes I just fought respawned in the first position.
The fact that even one of the Slimes that I had just fought is ‘resurrected’ seems more like a game than a reality.
“Even a monster that was supposed to be defeated is resurrected…”
How is this possible?
No, there’s no end to it if I start to think about it.
If I were to start with that, I’d have to ask why dungeons were created in the real world.
“If I wanted to fight a series of battles with the same group of monsters, I’d probably have to run to the back. On the other hand, if my goal is to conquer the dungeon, I’ll run to the front.”
Now I’ve defeated one of them, but in some cases, you can get out without attacking the enemy.
If there are more than three enemies, is it safer to leave one and kill the others?
That depends on how many attacks I get while ‘escaping.’
Anyway, with this, I have developed a way to move forward without killing all the enemies.
I’m glad I didn’t make the short-sighted compromise of “I’ll just let them all die because I have no choice, and you don’t get much experience with Slimes anyway.”
Having found a solution, I proceeded deeper into the dungeon.
I encountered several formations of two or three Slimes.
Leaving one of them behind, I used Fire Arrow to destroy it and ‘escaped’ to the front.
After repeating this several times, I finally encountered it.
Status──────────────────
Poison Slime Lv4
────────────────────
“This is it.”
The poisonous purple Slime is blubbering bubbles similar to the Slime dissolving liquid from all over its body.
The Slime on the road is level 3, according to the ‘Simple Appraisal.’
It is only one level higher than that, though,
“Fire Arrow!”
The Poison Slime was vaporized by a single hit from the fire arrow.
“All is well.”
The Poison Slime’s partner was an ordinary slime, so there was no problem in ‘escaping.’
This time, I ‘escaped’ backward.
Of course, to make an earning by using the same formation.
“There are so many skills I want.”
I smiled wryly and unleashed the Fire Arrow again――
In an hour and a half, I got 1004 SP.
I reached the 1000 mark for the first time.
“…Hmm. I still can’t get S.Lv2 for ‘Escape,’ huh?”
The SP required to raise a skill level is not known in advance.
It is said that you can choose when the SP in your possession exceeds the required SP.
For general skills, the type and required SP are specified, but unique skills are very different for each individual.
So this time, I looked at it until my SP reached 1000, but I couldn’t raise the ‘escape’ skill level.
So, I used that 1000 at once to acquire the skill.
‘You have acquired the skill “Paralysis Resistance 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Petrification Resistance 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Instant Death Resistance 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Sleep Resistance 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Preemptive Strike 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “First Strike 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Lightning Magic 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Wind Magic 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Water Magic 1.”‘
‘You have acquired the skill “Ice Magic 1.”‘
Whoaaaaaa!!!
It feels good!
If you’re a normal explorer, you’ll be leveled up by the time you’ve saved 100 SP.
Not many people have the luxury of acquiring skills all at once.
…Of course, it is easier to raise the ability value by raising the level normally.
It can be said that even if you have a lot of skills, you won’t be able to use them all.
It is better to raise your level if you are an ordinary explorer who explores with a party.
It would be best if you focused your precious SP on the skills in your area of expertise.
The division of roles is essential in a party, so it’s better to specialize in one skill than be poor in another.
But I don’t like close relationships.
I’d rather stay solo if I can.
I’d be ridiculed for having ‘Escape’ as a unique skill, and I’d risk leaking secrets if they understood me.
…So, I’d rather go solo! I’m fine with being a jack of all trades, master of none! And I want to proceed.
If raising the level is “vertical” growth, acquiring skills is “horizontal” growth.
Aim for width, not height.
That will be my policy for the time being.
However,
“It would be more efficient to raise the rank of the hunting ground somewhere.”
Poison Slime hunting, which can earn 6 SP in one set, is not bad when considering safety.
No, I would say it is too ‘tasty.’
But there is no doubt that hunting higher-level monsters would increase earning efficiency.
However, it is also important not to get too carried away and raise the rank of the hunting ground when you have just become an explorer.
The higher the level of a monster, the more intelligent and skilled it becomes.
It is dangerous to judge them only by their ability values, and number of skills.
“For now, let’s just step through this dungeon once. Let’s see how it feels.
I know that there is only one floor in this thicket dungeon.
There is a boss, but it is not such a dangerous monster.
The only problem is that my status is so highly uneven that it’s hard for me to know how strong I am.
Nevertheless, even considering only the weakest part of my status, it is hard to imagine that I would have a hard time against the boss here.
Moreover, every boss in every dungeon has ‘certain characteristics,’ which, again, should work to my advantage.
It’s not a bad idea to check that out while I’m at it.
…I feel like I’m being careless and setting up all kinds of flags, but I’m sure I’ll come to the same conclusion when I think about it again.
“So, let’s go for it.”
For starters, I went through the Poison Slime and Slime formation that I escaped behind earlier by leaving the normal and smashing the Poison in the front.
This alone brought me 6 SPs.
As I thought, it was ‘tasty.’
The biggest obstacle is that the escape timer is 25 seconds long.
If this time is reduced, hunting efficiency will increase, but there are still some skills I want to take as soon as possible.
It will be a while before I can raise the skill level of ‘escape,’ which I don’t even know how much SP is needed.
After that, I continued to advance deeper into the dungeon, leaving only the weakest monster in the group behind and ‘escaping’ by using the following methods: destroying Poison and leaving normal, destroying Poison and leaving normal, destroying Poison 2 and leaving normal, and escaping.
It seems like a tiring battle, but so far, I have not felt any hindrance.
The wiki says that explorers who gain status become conveniently tough in that area as well.
When I tried it myself, it was exactly as it should be.
I had been a shut-in until the other day and had no physical strength at all, but even after several hours of dungeon exploration, I felt tired but not exhausted.
I remember the main character of RPGs running from town to town while having encounters with monsters.
When I think about it calmly, I think it’s terrible, but it seems that modern explorers have their own stamina equivalent to that.
However, outside of the dungeon, they seem to get tired as usual.
Incidentally, skills and ability values acquired as an explorer can be used normally outside the dungeon.
However, if you try to live your daily life with the same ability values you have in battle, it may cause problems.
Like what happens if a guy with high attack power pokes a civilian outside…
Therefore, the ability to be an explorer can be consciously turned on and off.
…The reason why I’m rambling on about all this is because I’m… bored.
Defeat Poison, ‘escape’ ahead, and that is all.
The internal structure of the dungeon is simple enough that I don’t need to map it out (I do), and the battle is a monotonous one where you hit the target and leave immediately.
If it weren’t for the Anti-Poison Earrings Serika gave me, Poison Slime’s ‘Poison Spray’ would have been a nuisance.
I’ll have to thank Serika in some way when I get back.
I can’t think of anything to thank her for, though, since she seems to be way ahead of me as an explorer.
‘You succeeded in escaping.’
‘No experience gained.’
‘Earned 6 SP.’
‘Earned 680 yen.’
‘You have obtained the ‘Antidote Fruit’!’
‘Lost 475 yen!’
Money doesn’t accumulate to the point of tears, but SP accumulates to the point of laughter.
At the back of the dungeon, a heavy metal door with some kind of disturbing atmosphere appears.