After escorting Nanami’s group to the town, I was finally free. The opportunity to do whatever I wanted had finally arrived.
“d.a.m.n, I forgot to teach Seki how to level up in this world.”
“You called?”
k.u.miko had found and approached me. Behind her was the calm girl with large b.o.o.bs, Saeki Ena and short bob cut, Tachibana Mio. It seemed that girls from Cla.s.s A were sticking together. The amazing thing was that they were already wearing the hard leather armour I had bought.
Step right up, ladies. Since I have money in my pocket right now, I’ll give it to you guys so you can buy weapons. Oi, k.u.miko, go away. I already got you that long spear. Shoo, go away.
“I said Seki, not your name.”
“Seki-kun’s still sleeping at the hotel.”
Was he sick again? Seki has a weak body and gets sick very easily. I had other curiosities such as “when do you need to check out by?” or “what happens if we don’t leave the hotel?” so I went back to the hotel.
When I entered the suite room, Seki was on the bed with a tired face. He didn’t look sick, but he was sleeping peacefully.
I touched Seki’s forehead and it seemed his temperature was normal as well. After looking around carefully, there were scrolls containing information about the usage of magic and potions containing yellow and blue liquid was spread out everywhere.
“So that’s it. Wake up, Seki.”
Mana recovery rate increased when you were asleep. Seki probably noticed that and used mana until it depleted and then went to sleep, after which he repeated the process. It was me who told Seki to practice making potions, but it seems he was concerned with efficiency to discover this method by himself.
“Ah…… Shinjo-kun, you’re ok.”
“Yea, wake up. Your training method’s not wrong, but it’s too extreme.”
If power-playing as a party, there was no need for a character to be balanced. Each person needed to master their own role and cla.s.s up to Master rank. For Seki, who was a priest, that meant practicing his mage rank.
However what we’re playing right now was a death game without any revival. To increase the chance of survival, I needed to teach him how to train in other areas as well.
“I can now make beginner potions without failing.”
“Good job, but you need to train your body as well.”
I put my hands under Seki’s shirt, who was lying in bed, and touched his chest. Seki let out a strange scream that sounded like “Hyyyiiiiii” and backed away.
Seki had really white and soft skin. His skin was so soft, it was more like a girl’s. While it felt good to touch, it meant he was no good in combat.
“I can tell just by touching that you barely have any muscle.”
“S, sorry… I just thought that me making potions would help you more, Shinjou-kun.”
“No, you’ve thought about helping me best you can. I’m happy that you went to such great length for me, but I only need couple agility potions.”
I used basic magic successfully a couple of times, but none of my magic-related skills levelled up. Subsequently, having even the most basic stat boost potions, which I couldn’t make, was going to be helpful.
“Agility potions? I’ll make some right away.”
I gave Seki my empty flasks and received flasks filled with purple liquid in return. Seki was training really hardcore considering he never failed once while making those four potions.
“I’ll teach you how to train your physical stuffs. You can train while waiting for mana to regen.”
Expend all the mana, then train while waiting for mana to regenerate. It was the most efficient way of training. Considering the effectiveness of sleeping, it was best not to sleep until your stamina was drained as well.
I took Seki, k.u.miko, and her group, who suddenly decided to follow along on their own, deep inside the workplace in the smithy. There were furnaces and anvils. Hammering noises came from somewhere despite n.o.body being there.
The place being a smithy was not useful in itself. What was important was that some part of the building was made with hardened steel for some reason.
“The way to rank up warrior proficiency is basically to use a weapon. You also gain experience faster if do more damage. And this, is the strongest enemy you’ll find in this town.”
I tapped at the wall made of steel. To demonstrate, I swung the Screamer Shark at the wall. With a metallic clanging sound, my hands could feel the impact and my arms felt the strain of using something so heavy.
“So that’s why Shinjo-kun bought that heavy and useless weapon…”
“The warrior proficiency is generally categorized into “pierce”, “slash”, “blunt” and “Dodge/Defend”. It’s not something you can check at the temple, but different type of attack gives you different exp points. The “blunt” type attacks with heavy weapons give you the most HP, and since a priest’s weapon is mace, it goes well with you.”
“Alright, I’ll try.”
I handed Screamer Shark off to Seki and watched him swing that ma.s.sive weapon with his frail arms. His stance was weird, but everyone would be like that in the beginning. He only needed to train a bit more.
To survive, increasing HP was necessary. In the current status, where a single strike from a strong monster would be instant death, it was dangerous to explore about. I zoned out for a bit, then noticed that k.u.miko had taken out throwing knives from her backpack and was throwing them against the wall.
“Say, Wataru-kun, you increase acrobat proficiency like this, right?”
“Yea, keep doing that and throwing skill will go up.”
As expected of a model student. She already understood how Geno-Real worked from what I had said. Damaging the opponent gave exp point to acrobat rank as well. k.u.miko wasn’t strong to start with, so she probably wanted to focus on training agility.
“If you have enough mana, if you do doping using strength or agility potion, you’ll get stronger even faster.”
“Doping… that makes it sound like I’m not supposed to do it.”
Seki made a bitter expression. I guess it wasn’t the best word to use.
“There’s no side effects, and it’s more efficient to train by using the highest level magic you could use. Make sure you make wisdom potions regularly.”
A lot of priest’s magic revolved around making potions. One ironic thing about Geno-Real was that you relied more on potions the higher your level was.
“By the way, k.u.miko… did you check out your job at the temple?”
Since she bought throwing knives, I had my guesses on what her jobs would be. Thief for example. k.u.miko looked like she didn’t want to share, but she told me surprisingly easily.
“It was…. “Apprentice Ninja”.”
“What….”
She stopped me from saying it out loud by covering my mouth. k.u.miko seemed rather embarra.s.sed.
“Don’t tell others. Everybody else was something like a warrior or a mage, but I’m the only one with a job like this.”
“It’s ok, k.u.miko. If you level up, you can become an “Expert Ninja” or a “Master Ninja” at the temple.”
k.u.miko didn’t seem happy at all, but secretly I was very surprised. k.u.miko’s job, Apprentice Ninja, was something you could only get by ranking up multiple times from a thief. It was one of the best starting job you could have.
Apprentice Ninja had the lockpicking skill of a thief, yet was still stronger than a warrior. It seemed that eastern t.i.tles, such as ninja or samurai were considered exotic by the American creator, so such jobs generally tended to be very strong.
Apprentice Ninja was truly something that people would remake their character over thousand times for (There were actually macro tools to do something like this). I wondered how lucky k.u.miko was, but it was better to be lucky in this world than not.
“So make sure you guys train until it’s safe for you to start exploring the dungeon. I’ll be out scouting around and be back in a bit.”
I already taught them all they needed to know. There was no more regret. I left everybody behind and headed underground. I said “be back in a bit”, but truthfully, didn’t know if I’d ever be back.
I felt hungry so I dropped by the burger shop for a bit. It may be junk food, but it’s still a food. I thought about bringing some with me, but it was going to be extra weight. I was weak, so I needed to be agile.
“Well, time to go.”
My mana was barely enough to use the “torch” and warrior rank was apprentice, thanks to the encounter with Mustard Dragon earlier. However, it was time to take on a boss.
Thanks to the Mustard Dragon, there were considerably fewer goblins and orcs in the dungeon. The enemies on the first floor moved around the floor traps, so I killed them one by one. Sometimes there were orcs that wasn’t agile enough to move around the trap, and I smiled whenever that happened.
I opened any treasures chests I could find, but took only the gems and left the gold there. Diamond, ruby and sapphire could be used in place of mana potion, so I constantly made stamina potion to train my magic as well.
I also used Emerald, peridot, lapis lazuli to gain poison resistance, reduce hunger and tiredness to forge forward. After repeating the steps for a while, I finally arrived at the boss’ room.
“Time to use the agility potion.”
I thanked Seki while drinking all the agility potions and kicked open the flimsy wooden door to invade the Orc Lord’s room. I picked up a stone and chucked it into the room, and a monster came rushing out as expected.
“KUAAAAHHH!!!”
With a b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l roar, an Orc Lord that was as ripped as a body builder came out with a giant hammer in one hand. It looked different than a regular orc and wore a proper full plate armour.
It was suitably intimidating enough to be called an Orc Lord.
I ran and lured it to the large room in front.
“Kuaaaahh!!”
It was angry from the rock I chucked at it, but wasn’t stupid enough to walk into a floor trap. We started playing a game of “catch” around the invisible trap in the middle of the room.
“Ora ora, come and get some.”
“Kuaaah!”
Thanks to the agility potions, I was much faster than the orc. Just like how my stamina was decreasing, its stamina would be decreasing as well. I could use a potion to recover my stamina, but the Orc Lord couldn’t.
The distance between us begin to widen and its movement started becoming slower. I finally circled around it completely and stabbed it from behind.
“GYAAAAH!”
No matter how big you were, being stabbed in the heels was painful. I specifically aimed for the unprotected part of the body as well as to hinder its movement, but it seems my strike didn’t manage to cut through to the bone.
The Orc Lord screamed out in pain and turned around to catch me. It was time to run the other way.
“What’s wrong? You’re too slow.”
“KUAAAH!”
I went another full circle and stabbed it in the back of the thigh this time. The steps would be repeated until the orc couldn’t move anymore.
“Pant, pant…. hmph, idiot.”
“GUAAH--!!”
It took about 30 minutes for me to kill the Orc Lord. I delivered the finishing blow to its head with my samurai sword. With a singular scream and flashy noise, the Orc Lord’s head exploded while letting out a fountain of blood.
A treasure chest appeared immediately after the Orc Lord’s death, but it didn’t contain anything useful as expected. I didn’t need any gold, so I pocketed just the gems.
“Ah, I need the “Tusk of Orc Lord”, I almost forgot.”
It was sort of a proof that you had defeated the Orc Lord, boss of the first floor. Any orcs had tusks, but you didn’t just cut it off their body. The tusk was an item that you found in the treasure chest.
Since I obtained the tusk, my business on the first floor was finished. I descended down the stair to the second floor in the boss’ room.