The monsters spawning in this room were stronger than the usual Goblins.
However!
In their newly spawned state, they were only larger in size and appearance, granted more experience points, but their abilities were the same as Lv1—basically no enhancements.
This was a room especially suitable for leveling up!
“Garururu…”
Sensing hostility, the Goblin lazily raised its stone axe and attacked Siloque.
Siloque grinned, full of battle intent, and charged forward.
The long-handled axe and stone axe clashed continuously in a spray of blood.
With experience from previous fights and his higher level stats, Siloque didn’t break a sweat.
The newly spawned Goblin was quickly chopped into a pile of flesh.
Siloque poked at the pile with his long-handled axe and picked out a Crystal Core Fragment.
The Great Goblin’s flesh lost its color, crumbled, and vanished.
“Seems like I’m unintentionally getting used to fighting. Could it be I’m a battle prodigy?”
Just kidding—it’s just stacking stats.
Also, although the Goblin’s attacks were slow, its stats were gradually adjusting upward.
He had to finish the fight quickly; even a single hit could cause serious injury.
“!!”
Suddenly, a tingling, pleasant sensation spread through his scalp, and his mind went blank in an instant.
No soreness in his waist, no pain in his legs—his whole body was full of energy!
“This feeling that’s even better than inverted push-ups… could it be…”
Siloque opened his ring display—
[Name] Siloque
[Lv] 3
[Class] —Newcomer—
[Exploration Floor] —1st Floor—
Max HP: 10→20
Max MP: 9→19
STR: 3→13
END: 6→16
AGI: 9→19
DEX: 15→25
INT: 8→18
[Talent] —Heating—
[Skills]
“So it really is a level-up! The feeling of stats improving… it’s addictive.”
Though he didn’t know the level cap for this body, as long as he kept grinding monsters here, he would soon catch up to Cas Benor and the others.
And he’d be able to do even more.
Siloque was about to close the ring display when a bell icon suddenly popped up in the top right corner of the window.
It was a reminder alarm he had set himself.
“After all the fuss, an hour has already passed.”
It was time to check in with her.
Before opening Hil’s chat window, he received a message from her.
Her avatar was unexpectedly the white-haired, flamboyant middle-aged man from Ghost Cry 5…
—First message worth commemorating! Is big brother still alive?
If no reply within 30 seconds, Hil will report to the rescue team—
“No no no, no need to be so hasty.”
Siloque quickly replied:
—Alive and kicking, just leveled up—
—Great! Congrats on leveling up, big brother. Hil’s enjoying manga and games too (≥▽≤)—
Along with a selfie.
Hil held the camera with a joyful smile.
The background showed a cramped single-person computer room littered with manga volumes on the floor.
Maybe the angle was a bit high, because from the top-down view, Hil wore a gray hoodie with a slight gap at the collar revealing a glimpse of black underwear, and maybe some pink strawberries…
—Is your room locked?—
—Locked! Hil’s an urban girl with her guard up at all times—
—Good to hear—
Siloque closed the ring display.
He noticed something but firmly told himself he didn’t notice anything.
“‘Unlimited Successor’—this manga exists in this world too? I’ll have to borrow a copy when I get back.”
He remembered Hil usually only posted game completion screens or card screenshots on her social feed, never personal or family photos.
Today she actually sent a selfie.
Maybe she got carried away playing games.
At the same time, Siloque made a firm vow: absolutely no dying.
“If I die and the last chat message found is my little sister’s selfie, that’d be too embarrassing.”
If possible, he’d rather have it be Teacher Beiren’s selfie—with a reluctant and disgusted expression.
Gurgle~
Monsters were spawning.
“All right, bring it on.”
Putting aside his drifting thoughts, Siloque raised his long-handled axe again.
Watching the Goblin take shape, he couldn’t help but recall the library books: the Dungeon was alive.
“Alive” didn’t mean the thick walls would attack on their own (except for mimics), but that the Dungeon could “repair” itself.
Damaged Dungeon mazes automatically healed.
Even the large Goblin about to be born in front of him was part of this repair process.
They were like birds breaking out of eggshells.
Besides monsters generated in the cave, some would even crawl out from the maze walls.
No matter how many monsters explorers defeated, they would never be completely wiped out—that was the reason.
The monster species born on each floor were fixed.
Sometimes a few born monsters crawled up or down between floors, but those were anomalies. Generally, the deeper the floor, the stronger the monsters—no mistake there.
Interestingly, these monsters could reproduce.
After all, the Dungeon existed long before humans, and the Dungeon monsters had never left it.
Siloque understood that just like the fixed monsters on each floor, humans in this world were merely the “fixed monsters” above the Dungeon…
“—Behave and turn into experience points!”
“Kagaah!”
Siloque leapt and executed a cranial slash on the Goblin.
The long-handled axe sliced from the Goblin’s head all the way to its pelvis, splitting it in two.
***
“Gaoo!!”
Emitting a death wail, Siloque removed the Goblin’s Crystal Core, and the Goblin once again turned to dust.
After completing another 50 minutes of camping and grinding monsters, Siloque wiped the grease and blood off his greatsword.
While others still had to take turns cooperating with monsters, staying alert for sneak attacks,
Siloque safely farmed monsters right at their spawn point.
He sensed a problem, or rather, he had already anticipated it.
“Durability is wearing down too fast.”
In the game, durability was calculated per battle, but a sprinkle of Light Maintenance Powder could restore durability.
Maintenance Powder could be purchased, but it would be used up after just two or three uses. Buying new powder cost nearly as much as buying a weapon.
He had bought three weapons early on anticipating this, but weapon wear was still rapid.
If he kept grinding like this, according to the game’s mechanics, the weapon would shatter and become unusable.
For example, the long-handled axe’s blade edge had already deformed and bent after continuous use and could only be used as a blunt weapon.
So Siloque switched to the greatsword for grinding to balance durability consumption.
The metal bat couldn’t be used; he had to keep one usable weapon for self-defense on the return trip.
Siloque had leveled up two more times, now at Lv5, roughly reaching the newcomer’s leveling bottleneck.
“Time to return to the surface before continuing. Hmm…?”
Among the flesh that should have turned entirely to dust remained a palm-sized crystal.
Siloque picked out the crystal buried in the dust and tossed it a few times.
The hexagonal amber-colored crystal didn’t vanish. It encased a piece of text:
Weah
‘Intimidation’
It looked like this was a “Drop Skill.”
Skills in this world couldn’t be learned from others.
One could either buy them at the shop,
Open treasure chests or receive map rewards,
Or, as now, acquire them by defeating monsters.
Usage was simple—once crushed, the skill’s use would automatically integrate into one’s soul.
How well one used it depended on personal proficiency.
After all, the “Drop Skill” crystal was effectively part of the monster’s soul.
Stronger monsters not only had stronger “Drop Skills” but also better “Drop Items.”
“Drop Skills” could also be sold for money.
Specifically, one could melt the crystal down for weapon or item materials, which were valuable.
Although not guaranteed, they were generally worth more than Crystal Core Fragments.
“But it took an hour to drop—my luck is awful.”
In the game, Cas Benor got it in five minutes.
Siloque hesitated over whether to learn this “Intimidation.”
It wasn’t a rare skill—bigger monsters all dropped it, and it was relatively cheap in shops.
The problem was once learned, it took up a Skill Slot.
At Lv5, he had two Skill Slots. Maybe he could equip one and try it out?
It wasn’t impossible to switch later, but skill removal required a trip to the Institution and a large sum of money, regardless of skill usefulness…