Chapter 26

When Instructor Nakiita mentioned the battle against monsters, I felt the temperature in the room rise.

It was only natural.

Almost everyone in this room aims to hunt a mountain of monsters during their studies, obtain a lot of magic stones, and become a noble by the time they graduate, achieving Rank 3.

They have a keen interest in slaying monsters.

"So, has anyone noticed anything about this floor?"

Instructor Nakiita asked, and I raised my hand.

"Oh, our promising scholarship student, what caught your attention?"

"There are too many people. Almost as many as the monsters."

"Correct. Indeed, the shallower the floor, the more people there are. After all, even low-rank magic stones are worth a lot of money. Few people venture into the dangerous deeper layers."

Stronger magic stones are selective. The weaker the magic stone, the greater the demand.

Outside this city, there are countless people who haven't raised their rank at all. There's never enough low-rank magic stones.

"Shallow floors are easy to return from, the monsters are weak and safe, and you can earn money. There's no reason for ordinary people to delve deeper."

Then, why do some people delve deep?

To become stronger. Even low-value magic stones provide a tiny boost, but the efficiency is too low, so they need stronger magic stones.

"To improve this situation, the city imposes a heavy tax on taking low-rank magic stones outside, but uses that money to buy high-rank magic stones from explorers at a high price. The country needs strong monsters to be defeated to prevent Elna from accumulating and eventually creating uncontrollable monsters."

As she said, the device at the deepest part of the underground labyrinth continues to collect Elna without limit.

Elna is dispersed by slaying monsters, but only killing weak monsters on shallow floors is like pouring water on a hot stone. If they don't delve deeper and slay stronger monsters, the system will eventually collapse.

"Also, look at that."

She pointed to a spot where a snail-like monster was being born.

Literally, a black mist gathered in the empty space to form the monster.

Three parties of explorers rushed over, their faces tense.

The man closest to the snail raised his sword.

At that moment, a man from the second party fired an arrow, which hit the snail before the sword did.

The man closest to the snail spat and turned around, then stopped his attack and spread his arms wide in front of the snail.

The snail extended its tentacles to attack the man, who grinned and swung his sword to finish it off.

The parties of the sword-wielder and the archer arrived, and a heated argument broke out, which soon turned into a physical fight.

"Amazing, isn't it? You guys are really lucky to see such a high-level game of strategy."

I couldn't help but chuckle at Instructor Nakiita's words.

"There are a lot of low-rank explorers who don't want to raise their rank on the first three floors, and they're always fighting over monsters."

After all, in this layer, there are clearly many more people than monsters.

To earn magic stones, they inevitably end up fighting over monsters.

"To explain, there's a rule that the party that attacks first gets priority in claiming the monster. So, the archer's party gained priority by firing the arrow before the sword hit. However, there's also a rule that you can't counterattack when being attacked. So, the swordsman deliberately let the monster hit him."

The students were speechless at the sheer cunning.

"That was quite blatant. If two parties participate in the fight, the one who lands the final blow gets the magic stone. The swordsman technically got the stone, but the archer is claiming it was intentional and accusing the swordsman of bad manners for firing an arrow when someone was in the line of fire. It's quite entertaining, isn't it?"

No one said anything.

The students, who all have some level of admiration for explorers, are starting to feel disillusioned.

"As an instructor, I hope you don't join that fray. I want you to raise your rank quickly and work on the less crowded floors. Also, a note of caution."

The instructor raised her finger.

"Stronger monsters are less likely to appear on shallow floors because they are far from the Elna accumulation device and the Elna concentration is low. However, monsters from deeper floors can ascend, and sometimes, in low-concentration areas, a strong monster can appear using the Elna of several monsters. If you see one, run away immediately."

I have actually died from such a situation before.

A monster far beyond the floor's level.

One of the major causes of explorer deaths.

"And while running, head for the entrance where people with silver armbands are stationed. Up to the fifth floor, Rank 2-3 gatekeepers watch to prevent strong monsters from ascending and can handle sudden strong monsters."

If a Rank 2 monster appeared here, most of the people here, who are just casual earners, would be killed.

To prevent this, gatekeepers with silver armbands are stationed on shallow floors as a counterweight.

"Alright, that's the end of my explanation. Everyone, do your best. I'll be watching over you today. I'll save you if you don't die instantly. One more thing, in this layer, humans are more dangerous than monsters. Have a good day."

The students dispersed after the instructor's signal.

◇

"Alright, Kuna, Anne. Our goal today is ten magic stones."

"With this many people, it's impossible."

"You're right. It's pretty much impossible."

The first floor of the underground labyrinth is about 20km from end to end, both vertically and horizontally.

There are over 500 people here now.

Monsters spawn about every ten minutes, with about five appearing each time.

We have about four hours to be here, and we need to secure 10 out of the roughly 120 monsters, which is about 10% of the total.

Hidden monsters are not included in this calculation. They have a nature to be attracted to magic power and attack explorers as soon as they are born.

"I can do that if I play it straight, but I can use a spell to predict the spawn location before the monster appears."

"...Soji, you're already cheating just by existing."

"Indeed, Soji. Your mentor is truly something."

Monsters are born from Elna, and the pattern of Elna's fluctuations can be predicted. There is a regularity in the concentration and flow of Elna. After analyzing millions of data points, the regularity was finally discovered. This is a spell developed by the players of the game era in Ilrande, a product of their blood, sweat, and tears.

About five minutes before a monster spawns, the spawn location is determined.

"But why hasn't such a convenient spell spread?"

"Some people have tried, but it's a very delicate and difficult spell, so they couldn't complete it. Even if they did, they wouldn't spread it. They want to keep it to themselves to outdo others."

"Ugh, humans are so ugly and dirty."

"Kuna, you cheated on your exams by using past questions, didn't you?"

"Grandpa, that was a no-tell agreement."

"Who's a grandpa?!"

I interrupted Kuna and focused.

"[Elna Reading]"

The distribution of Elna became vividly clear through the spell. From the movement of Elna, I determined that no monster would spawn in this location within five minutes.

"Kuna, Anne, no monster will spawn here for five minutes. Let's run. The detection range is only 500m, so we need to run to be efficient."

"It's kind of inconvenient."

"Can we try to expand the effect by a hundred times with sheer determination?"

"Can we do that?!"

That would push my computational ability to its limits. Even 500m is quite a stretch.

I ignored their banter and ran.

By moving quickly, I pinpointed locations where monsters would spawn within five minutes. After about ten minutes of running, I finally found the first spot.

"Alright, here it is. A monster will spawn here in two minutes and twenty seconds."

"Wow, Soji, you have a skill that makes the 500 ordinary people searching so hard look like they should bow to you."

"Say what you will. [Silver Magic Refinement: Spear - Pierce]"

I prepped a mithril spear.

The Elna movement became more active. Elna flowed into the spatial rift.

Eventually, the Elna became visible, and a monster materialized.

"Ha!"

At that moment, my spear thrust forward, deeply piercing the soft part of the snail monster.

"[Lightning Strike]"

The highly conductive mithril spear efficiently channeled the lightning strike from my palm, burning the snail monster from the inside. This is a common method to easily slay monsters. No matter how strong the outer shell, the inside is always weaker. Piercing the hard outer shell with a spear and then channeling electricity can bring most monsters to the brink of death.

"Alright, one down."

Including the travel time, it took fifteen minutes and twenty seconds for the first one. Not bad.

I quickly peeled the burned snail shell and extracted the magic stone from the heart.

"Let's move on to the next one."

"Is this really your first time in the underground labyrinth, Soji? You look so experienced it's scary."

"Of course, this is what a master can do. Mastering the sword means mastering everything."

"\"That's not true\""

Soji and Kuna both corrected the sword fanatic.

"I did a lot of preparatory study. Next, I'll let Kuna take it down. After that, Anne. Exploration magic is quite draining, so I want you two to handle the kills."

"Got it. I'll turn it to ashes with my beautiful flames."

"Don't destroy the magic stone."

"I'll try my best."

"That phrase makes me nervous."

"I'll give it my all. I can't show a poor performance in front of my master."

Using my spell to predict spawn locations, we managed to hunt twelve monsters, exceeding our goal, in four hours.

By purifying and efficiently using these, we can raise Kuna or Anne to mid-Rank 1.

Our party will rise quickly with this overwhelming detection ability and the efficiency of purification. It's good to have this confidence today.