Chapter 76

The nightmare-like scene had passed, and we finally managed to review the skills we had acquired so far.

I’m pretty sure it was up to “The One Who Warms the Miracle of New Life.” It’s the title I received from the System when I first called out to Kano-san… I won’t forget the outrageous actions of Hamaguchi-san.

From there, the next one I got was definitely…

“‘The One Who Paves the Way and Strides Forward, Now Accumulating’?”

“It’s the title with the most extreme effects.”

Kano-san advanced to the next slide in the slideshow projected on the screen. There, it detailed the very title we had just discussed.

Title: The One Who Paves the Way and Strides Forward, Now Accumulating

Explanation: The mere will to advance even a single step is your greatest beauty.

Effect: Level up by 1 when completing a dungeon.

“The level increases by 1 when completing a dungeon. It’s an effect that’s hard to believe.”

“To put it simply, if I clear 700 F-class dungeons, I’ll be on par with Kano-san.”

“While that’s an extreme example, it’s true. However, generally, exploration of dungeons more than two levels below an advanced explorer’s level is not recommended. Overdoing it can hinder the growth of junior explorers.”

“Considering that, it might be difficult to always level up easily.”

“Ultimately, levels only relate to physical abilities. Without the experience to back it up, the effects of skills and titles can be easily nullified.”

Kano-san shared her insights. As a top A-ranker, her words are usually more accurate than my inexperienced imagination.

Level… A value unique to explorers, which has been scientifically proven to increase physical abilities by about 5% for each level up, starting from the initial physical abilities.

Along with titles and skills, it is one of the elements that make explorers superhuman and also functions as a benchmark for each rank.

The higher this level value, the higher the rank of the explorer. And, as expected, the physical abilities of high-ranking explorers are completely superhuman.

Looking at the top A-ranker in front of me, she’s nearly level 700. That means she has physical abilities about 35 times greater than non-explorers or new explorers.

I remember during the new recruit training dungeon exploration, even with “Traversing the Wilderness Where Not Even the Wind Blows” activated, my full sprint was easily caught up by Kano-san. That was partly due to my weak physical abilities, but mainly because of Kano-san’s physical abilities and level adjustments.

Scary… She’s even outperforming the System’s forcefully pushed skills.

As I was feeling the terrifying power of a top A-ranker, Mochizuki-san joined the conversation.

“The effect becomes more valuable the higher the rank! I’ve heard that it becomes harder to level up from around A-rank.”

“Is that so?”

“You seem well-informed, Mochizuki-san. Strictly speaking, it starts from the upper B-rank, around level 250. From around level 250, the rate of level increase visibly slows down.”

According to Kano-san, the level distribution for most B-rank explorers is roughly between levels 120 and 300. It overlaps slightly with the upper C-rank and the lower A-rank, but generally, that’s the range for B-rank explorers. Among them, the line for upper B-rank or lower A-rank is around level 250, and from that point, the level increase becomes noticeably slower.

“There are various clear differences between A-rank and below, but one of them is the significant level gap within A-rank. This is related to that.”

“Level gap? There’s such a big difference within A-rank explorers?”

“The highest is presumptuously me at 700, and the lowest overlaps with the upper B-rank at 250. There’s a gap of 450 levels within the A-rank framework.”

“Really?”

“I’ve heard that it becomes harder to level up, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent for A-rank.”

This is unbelievable. The gap between the lower and upper A-rank is even greater than the combined gap from F-rank to B-rank.

Mochizuki-san is also surprised. I guess this kind of information is only available once you reach A-rank. You might think you’ve climbed to the top, but then you realize the path above is even more endless. It’s terrifying.

“Therefore, your effect will truly shine once you reach A-rank. You can level up by 5 with the same effort it takes others to level up by 1 in the vast and complex A-rank dungeons.”

“A 5 times faster growth rate… That’s amazing.”

The effect I initially thought was impressive is now gaining even more value.

Along with the unexpected reality of the world, I was truly feeling the effect I had gained.

At the time of posting this story,

- It has ranked 1st in the Low Fantasy category for daily, weekly, and monthly, and 4th for the quarterly.

- It has ranked 13th daily, 10th weekly, and 11th monthly overall.

- It has also surpassed 40,000 points in overall evaluation and 10,000 bookmark registrations.

Thank you all.

I would appreciate your continued bookmark registrations and evaluations.