The Level-Up Junkie Vents the Frustration

March 21.

Like every other day, I came to Shinjuku Dungeon.

Phone-map open, shortest path to Floor 3, dropped down, and — same as yesterday — narrowed in on 2-packs and 3-packs to grind EXP.

My whole body got carved up, blood pouring as I fought, but I'm fine. Thanks to the HP barrier, the wounds aren't as bad as they look.

So really, no need to worry.

Eh, what about?

When I was resting at the staircase, and again when I'd cross paths with people on Floor 3, they'd talk to me, looking concerned. I do, at a glance, look pretty spectacularly bloody — easy mistake to make.

I let those people know they didn't need to worry, swapped a few cheerful words, set their minds at ease.

There's plenty of rough types in the Dungeon, sure, but that's the same as on the surface. The vast majority are kind people with common sense and a working moral compass — that hits home, and I get a bit warm thinking Japan's not so bad after all.

But — bleeding HP is a hard problem to engineer around, my EXP-per-hour didn't move, and today again I didn't level up.

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【Level】『9』   To next level: EXP 『4,485』

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March 22.

Like every day, I came to Shinjuku Dungeon.

Straight down to Floor 3, hunting Goblins exactly like yesterday.

To change the subject — levelling up feels good.

Like, the brain juice comes pouring out, in dangerous, addictive amounts.

Which is to say — the withdrawal symptoms are starting to bite. I'm not 20 yet, so I have no experience giving up alcohol or cigarettes, but is this the kind of pain adults go through trying to quit drinking and smoking?

If so — I am never drinking, even at 20. Not smoking either. Level-ups for me, thanks.

Yesterday I dreamt of levelling up, woke up, realised it was a dream, and despaired.

So today I was determined to level up — and pushed myself a bit harder than yesterday. At one point my HP dropped to single digits, and I really thought am I dying here?

Got back to the staircase, slapped bandages on, stopped the bleeding.

The Bleeding status effect slows 《HP》 recovery, so as a result, today's efficiency was worse than yesterday's.

Lesson: panic is the enemy.

Deep breaths. Calm down.

Hee, hee, hooo! Hee, hee, hooo!

Strange, though — today, even when I crossed paths with other Explorers, no one spoke to me.

Sure, fine, no concerned looks — but why are they all averting their eyes and hurrying past?

Puzzling. But whatever. Goblins.

These damn Goblins. I'm done being patient. Carving me up again today —

Four p.m.

Bleeding maxed me out on stamina. I took the Warp Circle back to Floor 1, sat down at the edge of the obelisk plaza, and worked on getting 《HP》 back.

By the way, by the way.

If you have a Status, your wounds heal faster while inside a Dungeon. Even an everyday-bloodbath case like me — while I was resting on Floor 1, my bleeding stopped completely and the wounds were already starting to close.

Not fully closed; if I move sharply they'll reopen. But still.

A Beginner Heal Potion would patch me up immediately — but Slimes refuse to drop them for me. And buying them is barely possible: they're constantly out of stock, and when you can find one, they go for around ¥100,000 a bottle.

That's because Beginner Heal Potion, applied to skin, apparently fixes any rough skin / blemishes / freckles / open pores you can think of — so the moment any hit the market, the wealthy upper class scoop them up wholesale.

The Explorer Association is supposedly trying to secure them for actual Explorers, but going up against rich-and-powerful types is, apparently, hard.

So — even Beginner Heal Potion is something most Explorers can't reliably buy. That's the Explorer reality.

If you want one, getting it via monster drop is the faster route.

Although hunting Slimes for Potion drops is open-ended; no idea how many days it'd take, so I'm not doing it. Once I get to Floor 4, Goblins start dropping it occasionally too.

Aaaah, hurry up and let me kill more Goblins and farm Potions —

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【Level】『9』   To next level: EXP 『2,255』

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March 23.

Of course I came to Shinjuku Dungeon today too.

Sprinted in, shortest path to Floor 3.

Then carefully scouted out 2-packs and 3-packs, hunted them coolly.

Even with damage every 3-pack fight, the combat itself is routine at this point. Practically a chore by now.

Fight, fight, rest. Fight, fight, rest. Fight, fight, rest —

Around 4 p.m.

Just after wiping out a 2-pack, the moment finally came.

Your Level has risen.

"— NGEE-BLEH-DEE-S-S-S-SHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

A level-up after this long.

The high hits hard.

"Right… (post-bliss clarity.)"

But this time I cut the afterglow shorter than usual and got back to my senses fast.

Got something to do, right after this.

I called up the Status and allocated.

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【Name】Samejima Takeo

【Level】『10』   To next level: EXP 『10,995』

《HP》28/50 (5 up!)

《MP》18/18

《STR》30

《VIT》20 (5 up!)

《INT》6

《MND》12

《AGI》30 (3 up!)

《DEX》21 (2 up!)

【STP】『0』

【SP】『0』

【Skill】《Bladed Weapon Damage Up Lv.Max》《Berserk Lv.1》《Goblin Killer Lv.3》《Battle Aura Lv.3》

【Title】《Madman》《Goblin Killer》

《Battle Aura Lv.3》 — While active: 《STR》, 《VIT》, 《AGI》 +60%. Consumes 3 HP per 10 seconds.

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That's the prep done.

"Let's go."

Without going back up to Floor 1, I started pushing deeper into Floor 3 — at a fairly serious pace.

Day after day after day getting carved up, EXP gains middling at best. Frustration that had been pooling for days finally made me yell.

"I'm gonna KILL you, you damn Goblins!! — Oh, hi there~"

"Ah, oh, h-hi…"

"M-morning…"

I crossed an Explorer party on the way. They saw me yelling — but I couldn't be bothered to care anymore. Just for the moment, I greeted them cheerfully and walked on past.

I kept going. This time, a non-Explorer figure surfaced on the far end of the corridor.

Right on cue: a Goblin trio of Thief, Warrior, and Swordsman.

I drew the sword from its sheath, burned 3 HP, and activated 《Battle Aura》 — and this time, 《Berserk》 too.

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《STR》54 (+24)

《VIT》32 (+12)

《INT》5 (-1)

《MND》12

《AGI》48 (+18)

《DEX》21

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No need for any combat-opening line.

The Goblins had spotted me; they were already running.

I let my AGI 48 talk and sprinted, full speed.

"— !?"

The closing distance shrank fast. Edges of my vision streaming past at speed; in the centre, the Warrior visibly flinched at how fast I was, panicked, dropped its hips, raised the shield.

I rode the run-momentum into a jumping kick at the braced shield.

"HAAAH!!"

"GUGAH!?"

The Warrior went flying — ungraceful, full sprawl.

The Thief, meanwhile, was already on me. But I hadn't broken stance landing. I pivoted, swung the sword, cut the Thief in two with a single stroke.

Next —

"You're too slow!!"

"!?"

The Swordsman was closing on my back, sword raised.

These guys have technique and knowledge of a kind, but they haven't lived long enough to have experience layered in. Even with the high stats, what they actually do is monotonous.

So I knew it was coming around behind me. I knew the timing of its swing too.

Until now I just hadn't had the AGI to react in time.

Not anymore.

I spun on my heel like a top, the sword moving on its own; faster than the Swordsman's downstroke, the cut came across — and his head went into the air.

One left.

The Warrior was already up, stance recovered, shield raised at me.

No time to spare.

Without a beat I kicked off the ground, charging the Warrior.

Sliding around to his shield-side — he was holding the sword in his right hand, so the shield itself blocked his ability to swing. He rotated to track me, tried to flip his stance — but by the time he'd come around, I'd swung further to his flank.

"— !?"

"Time's up."

He scrambled to switch stance again, and as he turned, I cross-cut at his neck — a clean horizontal — and his head came off.

"Phew."

Before the Warrior's airborne head hit the ground, I exhaled and dropped 《Battle Aura》.

Status check: HP only down by 3.

So — I cleared a 3-Goblin pack, unscathed, in under 10 seconds of skill uptime.

The 3-packs that had been giving me hell — total domination.

I clenched a fist, certain.

"Levels are everything…!! Levels solve everything…!!"

A stat-stick beating, courtesy of a level-up.

In front of overwhelming STR and AGI, the Goblins simply had no answer.

Per the Modern Dungeon Strategy Wiki, Floor 3 Goblins peak around 25 in their highest stat.

Thieves are AGI-specced, Warriors are VIT-specced, Swordsmen are STR-specced.

Even the Thieves, with their high AGI, couldn't keep up with my movement.

Apparently, when there's roughly a 2× gap in stats, it stops being a fight.

This is what I want!

I just want to grind levels. I never wanted "challenging fights" or "battles against worthy foes". A challenging fight is, level-grinding-wise, bad efficiency.

The fundamentals of grinding: clear easy mobs.

"All right — if I can take a 4-pack without damage, this floor becomes farmable…! Two or three more levels and I should be able to dive Floor 4…!!"

I stayed deeper in the Dungeon, hunting for a 4-pack.