The Level-Up Junkie Levels Up for the First Time

"Excuuuse me~ have you got a moment?"

"GUGYAH? GUGYAAAAAH!!"

"Frightfully sorry to bother you out of the blue~ but would you mind if I borrowed your XP for a moment?"

"GUGYARAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"— SHUT IT! HAND OVER THE EXP NOW!! YEAH!! YEAH YEAH YEAH!! EXP YEAAAAAAAH!!"

An hour into Shinjuku Dungeon, my exploration was rolling along nicely; I was killing monsters at a clip.

Tally so far: 3 Goblins and 2 Slimes. And just now, with another Goblin down, that made 6 monsters in an hour.

If this were a video game, the efficiency would be embarrassing. In an RPG, an hour of early-game trash mobs would easily give you 100+ kills.

But this is reality. A real fight drains your stamina, and even one Goblin takes real time to chew through at single-digit Levels. On top of that, you can't just walk a circle on the map and trip over a monster every few seconds.

Even in unpopular Shinjuku Dungeon, you have to do a fair bit of walking to find them.

In fact, in the busy Dungeons, apparently it's normal not to bag a single Slime in over an hour of walking around.

Either way, against the average pace of a beginner Explorer, mine was a perfectly respectable opening run.

And then — having put down today's sixth monster, I was bending to scoop up the dropped magic stone, and it happened.

"…Hm? Oh? Oh!?"

A surge of strength bubbling up from somewhere deep inside. The fatigue weighing my body and mind suddenly cleared. I could feel energy running through me.

Here it is. Heeeeere we go!

A heartbeat later, as if to confirm the feeling, an inorganic female voice rang out — heard only inside my head — and delivered the announcement.

Your Level has risen.

Instantly.

Like a conditioned reflex.

Or possibly even more strongly than the usual that: a pleasure spiked through my brain, sharper than anything I'd ever felt.

"— NGEE-BLEH-SS-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-SHHHHHH!!!!!"

It's like my brain has broken — the brain juice is overflowing and I can't stop it…!!

I bent backwards on the spot in a full back-arch, twitching bikun-bikun.

My whole body taking the rush of pleasure-chemicals, head to toe.

This — THIS is what levelling up feels like in real life!?

I mean, obviously, but this isn't even comparable to the game version…!!

This is — this is — my brain is going to MELT —!!

"…!! ……!!"

I lingered there for a while in the afterglow, eyes rolled back, drooling out one corner of my mouth, body shuddering — and then —

"— Eep."

"…Uh?"

I caught a voice nearby, and snapped back to my senses.

Down at the corner of the corridor, a little ways off, stood an unfamiliar Explorer — a guy. Floating silently next to him was a drone-camera.

Drones — those use the levitation tech recovered from a magic item found inside a Dungeon, fused with existing science. They were rolled out about a year ago and they're spreading fast.

They let you film yourself without occupying your hands, so they're a staple of the streaming-Explorer subset, the so-called "DungeonTubers".

Sadly, they are also so expensive that even an entire high-school youth's worth of part-time-job pay couldn't cover one for me.

Standing there with one of those high-end drones, this clearly bourgeois older brother and I locked eyes.

The instant we did —

"Eep, EEEEEEEEEEEP!!"

"……"

The moment our eyes met, he spun on his heel and fled.

…Did he, perhaps, see all of that?

How embarrassing. To think someone caught me in such an unbecoming state.

Next time I'll be more careful when there might be other people aro— actually no, never mind. Stifling the level-up high to spare someone's feelings? What a waste. From now on, full throttle — I'm going to feel as good as I want!!

"Phew… right then. (Post-bliss clarity.)"

The level-up rush had been more intense than expected. As the afterglow ebbed, I tucked the Goblin's magic stone into my rucksack and turned to a more important task.

"Status."

I muttered the word, and a hologram-display-like thing appeared in the air right inside my field of vision.

The status screen, ladies and gents.

In this state, by the way, only I can see it. But if I say "Status — Open" aloud, or even just think it pointedly, others can see it too.

The me-only version can also be opened up on the surface, but the Status — Open version is locked to the Dungeon. Apparently the function for displaying your status to others is Dungeon-restricted.

But I digress.

At any rate — please feast your eyes on the status of the freshly-levelled-up me.

————————————————————————

【Name】Samejima Takeo

【Level】『1』   To next level: EXP 『95』

《HP》25/25

《MP》18/18

《STR》13

《VIT》12

《INT》6

《MND》12

《AGI》11

《DEX》10

【STP】『5』

【SP】『1』

【Skill】None

【Title】None

————————————————————————

Quick rundown of what each line means. Though, honestly, anyone who's played a video game probably doesn't need this.

You'll notice 【Level】 is currently 1, but yes, the Level did go up — when you first acquire the Status, you start at Level 0.

《STR》 is what it sounds like. 《VIT》 is the toughness of your body. 《INT》 is thought-speed and the power of magic-type skills. 《MND》 is resistance against magic-type skills. 《AGI》 governs movement quickness and reaction speed. 《DEX》 is precision control over body and mana (MP).

《MP》 doesn't need explaining. Magic Points, or Mahou Points — pick whichever you prefer.

《HP》 is a little weird, though — it's not "vitality" in the literal-stamina sense. Like 《MP》, it's a kind of strange energy, and at times, it can serve as a shield — that's probably the best way to describe it.

《HP》 = 《STR》 + 《VIT》 (sum of the two). 《MP》 = 《INT》 + 《MND》 (likewise).

The average value of each stat (excluding 《HP》 and 《MP》) at Level 0 for an adult is said to be roughly 10. I trained pretty seriously through high school for this career, so I'm a bit above average.

…hmm? INT? Hmmmmm?

…strange. The status must be bugged. I should email the operations team to fix it.

Anyway, getting back on topic — apparently, at the absolute top end of the human curve — pro athletes, Olympians, military personnel — there are people whose top stat at Level 0 hits 20.

That's about where the unaugmented human ceiling is presumed to lie.

Continuing — 【STP】 stands for Stat Points. Stats don't auto-rise on level-up; you spend the STP you gain from levelling on the stats of your choice (excluding 《HP》 and 《MP》, which are sums) to push them up.

【SP】 stands for Skill Points. The selection of skills available to you is determined by your individual aptitude and your accumulated past experience. You spend SP to acquire a skill, or to invest into a skill you already have, raising its skill-level to a maximum of 5.

Note that unlike 【STP】 — where the points-per-level grow every 10 Levels — 【SP】 always pays out a flat 1 point per level-up, regardless of how high you climb. And on top of that, the only way to raise a skill's level is to spend SP — with one exception. Otherwise, no points, no growth.

So no, use a skill enough and it ranks up — that classic system — is not what you have here.

For that reason, acquiring every available skill and maxing them all out is, fundamentally, impossible. So you have to think carefully about where you spend.

Last, regarding 【Title】 — eh, I'll save the explanation for later.

Unlike streaming-type Explorers who post videos to DungeonTube or Yo!Tube, I'm not exactly going to be picking up any 【Titles】.

More importantly —

"All right — let's grab a Skill first."

I tapped the 【Skill】 panel on my Status.

A separate window popped open: the Acquirable Skills List. From here, you select a skill and assign Skill Points to activate it.

This was what I currently had access to.

————————————————————————

【Acquirable Skills List】

《Underwater Breathing》 《Water Resistance Modulation》 《Truth Seeker》 《Brute Strength》 《Fleet Foot》 《Endurance》 《Blunt Weapon Damage Up》 《Bladed Weapon Damage Up》 《Taunt》

————————————————————————

…well, this is about what you'd expect to start with. Talented people apparently get a magic-type skill in the initial pool, but those people are a tiny minority.

My acquirable skills, for my part, are the common-or-garden lineup. Peak ordinary.

— Although, given that I did swim, I did swing the wooden sword, and I did stick to running and weight training in earnest, my count is actually somewhat above average for a beginner.

By the way: in spite of what fiction would lead you to believe, weapon-technique skills like Swordsmanship or Spearmanship — none of those exist. According to the popular fan-reference site Modern Dungeon Strategy Wiki, anything you can learn through training does not manifest as a Skill.

Skills are basically: superhuman abilities (magic-type skills, things like Underwater Breathing which a person physically cannot do), supportive abilities, or stat- and damage-boosters. That's the menu.

Technique is something you put in the work for yourself, basically.

"Hmm, which Skill should I take… well, I've already decided, actually."

I muttered, eyeing the 【Acquirable Skills List】.