The Level-Up Junkie Allocates Stat Points

I picked a Skill and allocated my Stat Points.

Once I'd spent it all, my updated status — and the details of the Skill I took — looked like this!

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【Name】Samejima Takeo

【Level】『1』   To next level: EXP 『95』

《HP》27/27 (2 up!)

《MP》18/18

《STR》15 (2 up!)

《VIT》12

《INT》6

《MND》12

《AGI》14 (3 up!)

《DEX》10

【STP】『0』

【SP】『0』

【Skill】《Bladed Weapon Damage Up Lv.1》

【Title】None

《Bladed Weapon Damage Up Lv.1》 — When attacking with a bladed weapon, damage dealt to the enemy is ×1.2. No effect with non-bladed attacks.

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For the time being, I've decided to dump Stat Points into 《STR》 and 《AGI》, and 《DEX》 once in a while.

Reason is simple — make Goblins easier to kill — but a high 《AGI》 also raises movement speed. Dungeon interiors are a separate space, so each individual floor is genuinely huge in surface area. Spending less time hunting for EXP — er, sorry, monsters — is obviously more efficient.

The reason I'm putting some into 《DEX》 too is that if 《STR》 and 《AGI》 race too far ahead of 《DEX》, you turn into a klutz.

There've been cases reported of people accidentally injuring themselves from putting too much force into something, or sprinting at speed and slamming into walls or tripping over and getting badly hurt. It's actually pretty dangerous.

Next, the Skill — I picked 《Bladed Weapon Damage Up》 to crank up my Goblin extermination rate, same logic as the stats. My near-term goal is to push that one to Level 5, ASAP.

Until then, the plan is honest grinding on Floor 1.

"Time check… just past 10 a.m. Plenty of day left. …Should be able to hit Level 3 by end of day."

Stat allocation and Skill selection done, I resumed exploring the Dungeon.

●○●

Once I had 《Bladed Weapon Damage Up》, my fight times against Goblins dropped visibly.

Fewer hits to drop one, fights feel more stable. And whether it's the higher 《AGI》 or not, my encounter rate also feels like it's gone up.

That latter feeling stopped feeling like just a feeling once another level-up came in. The Skill rose to Lv.2 and 《STR》 climbed too — these days, three swings is enough to put a Goblin down. Slimes go in one.

The time-efficiency on combat-and-exploration is going up across the board.

By the way: even in the unpopular Shinjuku Dungeon, the easy-kill Slimes seem to be popular all the same — actively over-hunted, in fact, because my Slime encounter rate is conspicuously low.

Slimes are supposed to spawn in higher numbers than Goblins, and yet I keep running into Goblins.

"Helloooo."

"Oh, hello…"

I crossed paths with other Explorers from time to time, traded cheerful greetings each time, and pressed on.

"Helloooo."

"GUGYAH? GUGYALULULAAAAAAAH!!!"

"Helloooo, this'll only sting a biiiit. Borrowing your EXP for a sec — ngh-ngh-NGH!!"

"GUGYAAAAAAAAAH!?"

Whenever I bumped into Mr Goblin, I'd exchange pleasantries and then merrily run him through with the sword to collect the EXP and the magic stone.

The tension of that first fight feels almost embarrassing now — I can take a Goblin without breaking a sweat. Without breaking a sweat doesn't mean it's easy, mind you. It's still kill-or-be-killed. Every encounter is for real.

Every time I face one, I bring the sword down with everything I've got.

"NGH! NGH! NGNNNNGH-S-S-S-OOOOOOOOOOO-G-G-G-OOOOOOOD!!!"

Levelling up in real life feels too damn good!!

Maybe because of that, even without a level-up, just dropping a Goblin and gaining EXP can get me partway to that high.

Just finding a Goblin, just swinging the sword down, just taking the Goblin's EXP — my brain has rewired itself into a complete reward circuit that fires happy chemicals at every step.

"E-eep!?"

"Oh, sorry."

A few of my fights with Goblins were witnessed by other Explorers, who recoiled at my unbecoming face — and I kept right on grinding.

So the day went, until just past 3 p.m.

I'd taken about an hour for lunch outside the Dungeon partway through, and even so, hitting the Level 3 target was easy.

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【Name】Samejima Takeo

【Level】『3』   To next level: EXP 『190』

《HP》32/32 (5 up!)

《MP》18/18

《STR》20 (5 up!)

《VIT》12

《INT》6

《MND》12

《AGI》17 (3 up!)

《DEX》12 (2 up!)

【STP】『0』

【SP】『0』

【Skill】《Bladed Weapon Damage Up Lv.3》

【Title】None

《Bladed Weapon Damage Up Lv.3》 — When attacking with a bladed weapon, damage dealt to the enemy is ×1.6. No effect with non-bladed attacks.

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After I hit Level 3 I tested it with one more Goblin fight.

Probably the combined effect of the 《STR》 boost and the Skill ranking up — I dropped it in one hit.

The Floor 1 Goblins are themselves only Level 1 (the Appraisal skill confirmed that monsters have Levels too), but considering it took me five or six swings to kill the first one I ever fought, that's pretty serious growth.

The 《Bladed Weapon Damage Up》 effect is particularly large. Just attacking with the sword adds 60% damage on top.

So Goblin-hunting will continue to accelerate from here, no question — except…

"Ngh… damn, this fatigue is brutal…!!"

Just past 3 p.m.

I'd love to stay and merrily pick off more Goblins, but the fatigue has me cooked, so it's not really an option.

Stat-wise my 《HP》 hasn't dropped — I'm fine on paper — but apparently stamina-loss doesn't get reflected in 《HP》.

I'd been on the move basically nonstop, and even if the late fights were easy, I'd probably been quietly tense the whole time. The fatigue all hit at once.

"No point pushing it and dying to Mr Goblin… better head home today."

So that was the call. Pack it in.

When you exit the Dungeon, you don't actually come out into Shinjuku Station proper.

You come out into the Shinjuku Branch of the Explorer Association — built by retrofitting one corner of Shinjuku Station after the Dungeon appeared.

The Branch interior is basically a city office. A bank of reception counters and consultation windows; rows of long benches lined up tidily across a wide lobby.

I went to the Dungeon-resource buyback counter inside the Branch and handed over the day's haul along with my Explorer license.

"Excuse me — I'd like to sell these."

"Certainly. We'll appraise them — please take this and have a seat in the lobby."

I took the numbered ticket from the receptionist and sat on one of the long benches in the lobby to wait.

Glancing around: only a handful of Explorers in sight.

I've been to other Dungeon Association branches during the licensing course (you have to actually go into a Dungeon to acquire a Status), and even compared to those, this one is much emptier. At others, the place is heaving for the entire business day.

True to form. Shinjuku Dungeon — you'd never believe a Tokyo-train-station branch could be this dead.

— And then —

"Number 18, thank you for waiting."

While I waited, the appraisal came back and I was called to the counter.

"Twenty-six Level 1 Goblin magic stones, nine Level 1 Slime magic stones — for a total of ¥14,800. After withholding tax, that comes to ¥13,289."

"Whoaaa…!!"

Roughly 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. With an hour-long break in the middle, that's five hours of actual work — pretty good rate, wouldn't you say?

I didn't get any drops other than magic stones today, and I'd heard beginners barely make any money — so I was nervous — but at this kind of income, even Father and Mother won't be able to complain.

Probably helped that I dropped a lot of Goblins. Slime stones go for ¥200; Goblin stones, ¥500.

Then again, considering this is a job where you can plausibly die, this kind of rate isn't out of line. For some reason it doesn't really make the news, but Explorer mortality is apparently fairly high. New Explorers in particular die a lot.

"If everything's in order, please sign here."

"Oh — yes."

I signed where I was told.

The money would go straight to my account, and I caught the train home for the day.