Chapter 5

Without thinking, I allocated three points to Growth Acceleration, which turned out to be a mistake.

After rejoicing over the three rotations of the PV, Seiki calmed down and began to think.

The skill points and PV are both three.

There might be some connection... but probably not.

The Gegegi was an incredibly delicious monster.

However, it was unclear how effective Growth Acceleration was.

Seiki regretted not experiencing Growth Acceleration at levels 0, 1, and 2 before making a judgment.

Perhaps he should have hunted monsters he had already killed at "Chikaho."

The conditions for increasing points were still unknown.

After killing about 100 Gegegi, he felt the dizziness of leveling up multiple times, but the points did not increase.

So, there must be conditions other than leveling up.

Or perhaps they will never increase.

"I don't think they won't increase... but will they?"

With a mysterious magic tool he had picked up, Seiki allocated points to his skills.

There was no disadvantage to Seiki just for doing that.

It wasn't something to be depressed about just because there was no benefit.

"Maybe I'll explore the first floor today and take a quick look at the second floor..."

While setting his daily hunting schedule, he prepared breakfast.

Cooking skills are essential for living alone.

Naturally, Seiki was good at cooking.

Although his cutting technique was uneven, he could cook anything up to a medium level.

Of course, as long as he had the ingredients.

He prepared bread made from flour he received from a nearby farmer and eggs from Mokuji, who lived nearby (a 10-minute walk).

Whistling, Seiki made an egg benedict and ate while browsing the Naro blog, which had become a daily routine.

"Hmm. Bacon is giving a beginner's lecture again today. That's nice, I'd like to learn from Bacon. Masatsugu... no update. Maybe he's on an expedition?"

Bacon and Masatsugu are both top-ranking adventurers in the Naro rankings.

They are both highly skilled and sponsored by companies.

Masatsugu is classified as a hardcore player.

He has titles such as the Strategy Team, Unshakable Ranker, and Hero.

The record for the deepest floor reached in the most difficult dungeon in Tokyo, Shinjuku Station, is usually set by him.

Bacon is a popular ranker who gives beginner lectures whenever he has free time.

He is more of an enjoyment player.

Still, he is a ranker, so he is impressive.

His titles are Muscle, Uncle, and Naked.

If he gets a pervert title, it would be a full house.

He read through the new posts of the blogs he had bookmarked.

Among them, his mouse paused slightly on a certain blog.

It was a blog called "Today, Too, Samidare."

The administrator's name is Shizuki.

She is the only female ranker in the top 10.

Her weapon is a sword, and she wears light armor.

Her profile picture, with her long black hair tied back and looking into the distance, is captivating.

She is dignified and looks cool just standing there.

She has been practicing iaido since childhood and has never lost in a duel.

Her skill earned her the title of Senki, a play on the word for "war maiden."

She is also called Onee-sama and Ojou.

She is popular not only among men but also among women.

Seiki often compared himself to her.

He admires her... or rather, she is his goal.

As an adventurer, he wants to be like her.

(Next would be Bacon, but it's impossible for Seiki, who is like air.)

The updated post mentioned an upcoming expedition.

It will probably be a while before the next update. That's a shame.

"Maybe I'll make my main weapon a sword."

He only has 100,000 yen in activity funds.

To buy a monster-hunting sword, he would need at least 1,000,000 yen.

Such a large sum is out of reach for the current Seiki.

He let out a deep sigh.

But today, he slapped his cheeks and stood up.

A dungeon is right there.

Plus, he has a mysterious magic tool.

There's no time to sigh!

After finishing his egg benedict, washing the dishes, and equipping himself, Seiki headed to the dungeon.

He will become stronger and gain presence!

*

In yesterday's first battle, the Gegegi gave him some trouble, but today he can easily dispatch them.

At first, he couldn't pierce the carapace with one strike, but now he can almost do it in one go.

The Gegegi make noise, so they won't catch him off guard from behind.

On the contrary, Seiki can now catch the Gegegi off guard.

He never thinks that his existence has become even more obscure despite leveling up.

Things can always be viewed happily from the good side.

He spent the whole day in the dungeon, killing over 100 Gegegi.

He had planned to go to the second floor that day, but decided to focus on leveling up even more.

The next day, he was surprised by how much better his body felt and killed five Gegegi as a warm-up.

Against the Gegegi, he won't fall behind anymore.

It's good that hunting has become easier, but Seiki felt a slight sense of guilt.

It feels like bullying the weak.

Killing monsters isn't evil.

But even if they are monsters, he doesn't enjoy overwhelming them.

"Strength is not a problem. Should I go to the second floor?"

Seiki started walking to find the stairs to the second floor.

After about an hour of mapping, he arrived at a large room.

"Are those Gegegi?"

A puzzled voice escaped from Seiki's mouth.

In the center of the room, several Gegegi were clustered together.

If they were small, they might look like a clump of threads.

But with each one being 50 to 100 centimeters long, they looked like a truly terrifying object.

A person who hates insects would probably faint at the sight.

Seiki frowned as he looked at them.

"How do I defeat them?"

The strange appearance didn't matter.

He was only thinking about how to defeat the monsters and about adventuring.

Seiki had mapped the entire first floor.

The only unexplored path was this one.

It seems he has to pass through this room to get to the second floor.

Is this the boss room of the first floor?

Is it strange to have a non-lethal monster as a boss...?

He tried to regain his composure despite feeling disheartened and pulled out his knife with a swish.

He had experience fighting one or two Gegegi at a time.

But this time, there were six.

What should he do?

The basic strategy for fighting multiple enemies, as written in the Naro blog, immediately came to mind.

The easiest way to eliminate a group of monsters in a large room is to throw something to lure them into a narrow passage.

This way, the number of monsters attacking at once can be reduced.

Seiki picked up a small stone from the ground.

He threw it with all his might at the clustered Gegegi.

The stone embedded itself in the body of one Gegegi.

The sound of the carapace cracking echoed.

Instantly.

The five Gegegi moved in unison.

As Seiki had expected... no, more than expected, the five Gegegi attacked him all at once.

"Wh-What!?"

Unexpected.

...No, it was Seiki's fault for not expecting it.

To begin with, the method of luring monsters into a passage only works if the passage is narrow.

The passage where Seiki was standing was about five meters wide.

Luring them into such a place would be meaningless.

Moreover, the Gegegi can crawl on walls and ceilings.

He could be attacked by more than twice the number of normal monsters.

The Gegegi, crawling not only on the ground but also on the walls and ceiling, targeted Seiki.

Trouble.

His armor is in trouble!

Seiki turned around and stomped the ground with all his might.

"Whoa!?"

The sudden acceleration made a strange sound escape from his mouth.

It was like the launch of a reverse bungee.

He quickly kicked the ground in the opposite direction to slow down.

Turning his head, he saw that he had put a considerable distance between himself and the approaching Gegegi.

"Is this because I leveled up?"

In the last part of the previous day's hunt, Seiki hadn't used his full strength.

He could repel the Gegegi with about 50% of his strength, which was undoubtedly due to leveling up.

Seiki, who had only experienced this state, was now feeling his full strength for the first time.

That's why he was surprised.

To be able to exert this much strength...

"Can I do it?"

Fighting six monsters at once was a new experience.

But with his current physical abilities, he felt he wouldn't fall behind.

Determined, Seiki turned his body.

He held his knife in front of him and sized up the Gegegi.

His spine shivered.

His heart rate increased.

Adrenaline heated his body.

—It's time for an adventure!

He targeted the two Gegegi that were slightly ahead and charged forward.

He cut off their feelers with his knife and pierced their heads.

That was the first one.

In the meantime, another one reacted and bared its small fangs at Seiki.

But Seiki calmly rotated his body.

He pulled out his knife and accelerated.

He kicked the ground and closed the distance.

His knife, thrust like a backhand punch, missed its target.

It was inevitable since he didn't have eyes in the back of his head.

But he didn't give up and followed up with a left punch.

It hit the Gegegi's head directly.

Instantly.

"Ah!!"

The Gegegi's head split open.

Seiki's left fist, which had made contact with the carapace, tingled.

The Gegegi's carapace was hard.

It was supposed to be hard enough that even the tip of a knife couldn't pierce it.

Yet it was shattered by a punch.

"Is this because of Growth Acceleration...?"

He brought his consciousness back to the battle and selected his next target.

This time, three Gegegi.

The long legs of the Gegegi hindered the reduction of the encirclement.

Therefore, the maximum number of Gegegi that could attack from the same direction at once was two.

Seiki took care to avoid being attacked from all directions—ground, walls, and ceiling—while fighting the Gegegi.

The defeat of the five Gegegi was easier than expected.

On the day he first fought the Gegegi, he was out of breath after defeating one, but now he wasn't out of breath even after fighting five.

Moreover, he shattered the carapace of a Gegegi with his left fist.

"It doesn't feel like my own body."

Seiki frowned as he looked at his hand.

What do the people who say they're afraid of Gegegi think about their own strength?

Maybe he'll ask them if he gets the chance.

The remaining one had not moved from the center of the room.

It probably fainted when hit by the stone. He stabbed its head with his knife while it was still motionless.

"Still, it's thanks to Growth Acceleration... right?"

Seiki had never felt such growth in just two days.

Seiki is a beginner adventurer who has been an adventurer for about two months.

At "Chikaho," the most numerous beginners among adventurers constantly fight over monsters.

Therefore, he could only hunt about 15 in five hours.

But he had hunted over 200 by yesterday.

Would hunting 200 monsters result in this level of growth?

Now, there's no way to verify it.

He had grown to the point where he could overwhelm the Gegegi in one day.

But he won't grow at the same rate in the future.

Like in role-playing games, the stronger you become, the slower your growth.

Moreover, with Seiki's current physical abilities, his strength will eventually hit a ceiling.

At some point, he will need to receive proper sword training from someone.

There are many things he wants to do.

But, in any case, he needs money first.

Looking at his knife, it was quite chipped from yesterday's overhunting.

His leather armor was also damaged and covered in scratches.

First, he needs to replace his equipment.

How much will it cost...?

Seiki let out a big sigh.

"Alright!"

He regained his composure and began processing the Gegegi.

A staircase leading down was visible at the back of the room.

This place was probably treated as the boss room.

There was no boss, though...

"If there was a boss, there were things I wanted to confirm."

He will confirm them in the future.

He left the materials in the room for now and checked the situation on the second floor.

"Before that..."

Before descending the stairs, he brought up his skill board to check his points.

Skill Points: 0

"Didn't get any points for defeating the boss room monsters?"

Maybe he didn't get points because they were weak monsters.

Or perhaps he won't get points even for defeating a boss.

In any case, he didn't get any points for clearing the first floor.

"Well, I'll get them eventually."

Surely.

Probably.

If he gathers even small hopes,

adventuring can be fun no matter what.

Fun enough to risk his life.

But he should hold onto hope lightly,

in case he loses it at any time.

After confirming, Seiki whistled and headed to the second floor.

The second floor had a similar layout to the first floor.

The size increases by about 1.1 times for each floor.

It might not seem like much, but by the 50th floor, the area would be over 100 times larger than the first floor.

Even small changes can't be ignored.

The terrain changes significantly from the 10th floor, which is generally called the middle layer.

Once he starts operating in the middle layer, he will officially graduate from a beginner adventurer, but only about 10% of adventurers can descend to the middle layer.

Due to the early stages of the adventurer industry, information about floors beyond the middle layer is hardly available.

The Naro blog rarely provides strategies for floors beyond the middle layer.

This is because the materials from the middle layer are expensive.

Adventurers are freelancers.

They are like individual entrepreneurs.

There's no one who would willingly teach their rivals how to make money.

Once they can no longer make money from middle-layer materials, the strategies will spread quickly.

Then, the proportion of intermediate adventurers will increase.

Until then, the information will be monopolized by the strong.

They should be forgiven for the returns they get for risking their lives to explore.

In any case, the second floor.

What kind of monsters will appear?

Hopefully, not more Gegegi.

As he walked slowly down the corridor, he noticed a long, green object growing from the ground.

The ground was slightly raised, and a white object was visible at the tip.

"What is this?"

As if reacting to his voice, the green object swayed sideways.

Instantly.

A basketball-sized round object shot out of the ground.

Roots extended from the bottom of the round body, moving in small motions.

Faint vertical lines ran along the body.

There were no eyes.

It might be a type of monster that reacts to sound or vibrations, like the Gegegi.

Seiki had seen this shape before.

"It's... an onion!!"