Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 11

 Chapter 11: The Shortcut After the Weekend

After that, I settled into quietly trampling over Goblins with the sheer brute force of my stats and Skills.

With my Level up to 7, my current stats were equivalent to Lv 15. Considering the recommended Level for Goblin-hunting was 7, my stats alone were already overkill.

Spot them with Detection. Ambush them if I could, and open with Slash. With the Goblin thrown into confusion by that, I'd follow up with a regular attack and finish it off.

Even without an ambush, I'd just dodge the counterattack after Slash and finish it with another hit.

Once my MP ran out, I'd fight with regular attacks alone. At first it took four hits, but maybe because my STR had grown along with my Level, I could take them down in three now. The day Slash could one-shot them outright felt close.

I'd gotten used to both dodging and blocking, and any worries on the defensive side had faded away. Through repeated combat, the tension from those earlier days was gone, and it had started to feel almost like an assembly line. Good, very good.

"Goblin Fangs and magic stones, all collected!"

After a fight ended, while I was checking whether any more Goblins were nearby, Lapis's cheerful voice rang out.

Freed from decoy duty, the gacha fairy had been throwing herself into post-battle drop collection. Had to give her something to do, after all. Seemed like a waste otherwise.

Fortunately, the magic stones you could get on this floor were called "micro magic stones," about the size of a pinky fingernail. Goblin Fangs were also only about three centimeters, so both fit easily in the bag Lapis carried.

This would streamline the hunting at least a little. The "Sand-Throwing Hag tactic" had fizzled out, but that was a minor thing.

For what it's worth, Goblin Fangs had a flat buyback price of 200 yen, but micro magic stones were priced based on total weight. Rather than a per-piece price, you'd gather up a bunch and have the value calculated on a dedicated scale.

At this pace, today's earnings might break 5,000 yen. You could say things were moving along at a pretty good clip.

* * *

Hunting like that until it was time to head back, I'd climbed all the way to Lv 9.

――――――――――――――――――

[Lv] 9

[HP] 107/107

[MP] 2/89

[STR] 26+15

[VIT] 21+12

[AGI] 25+12

[DEX] 23+12

[INT] 27+15

[MND] 32+15

――――――――――――――――――

[SP] 6

[Skills Possessed]

　・Appraisal　・Detection Lv5　・Physical Enhancement Lv5

　・Fortitude Lv5　・Slash Lv1

　・Fatigue Reduction　・Swordsmanship Lv3　・Poison Resistance Lv1

[Unique Skill]

　・Gacha

――――――――――――――――――

I'd been Lv 4 when I started hunting Goblins, so that meant I'd climbed 5 Levels today alone.

At this rate, a ten-pull every two days was doable. I'd confirmed Floor 4 wasn't much of a threat either. Should I start pulling the gacha here from now on?

Except, that came with its own problem.

Distance.

The inside of the dungeon was fairly spacious. Even taking the shortest route from Floor 1 to Floor 4 took close to an hour.

My actual working hours ran six hours, from 10 to 4. Losing an hour and a half to two hours of that just on the round trip was a fairly significant waste. That was part of why I'd kept staying on Floor 3.

Still, with everyone watching, going back down to Floor 3 would be a bad move. In that case, I might as well just push all the way to Floor 6.

There was a shortcut inside the dungeon. A teleportation magic circle leading straight from Floor 1 to Floor 6. Pass through it, and you could get to Floor 6 with zero travel time.

From there, I could hunt on Floor 6, or head back down to Floor 5 to hunt — either worked. There was no question both time efficiency and experience efficiency would improve over what I had now.

Which meant I needed to clear both Floor 4 and Floor 5 at least once.

Floor 4 was easy, just as today had shown.

So what about Floor 5?

"They say battles come down to numbers, after all."

On Floor 5 of the Hachioji Dungeon, Goblins showed up in groups. Usually two or three of them. Very rarely, four.

If Floor 4's lone Goblin was a test of whether you could kill something humanoid, Floor 5 was probably a test of whether you could fight a group.

For what it's worth, cutting Goblins down hadn't bothered me at all. However you looked at it, those things weren't human.

Well, judging by today's fights, multiple opponents shouldn't be an issue. Even if I did take a hit, Fortitude Lv5 would do its job.

Since I had the map too, so taking the shortest route should be easy enough.

One thing to keep in mind: gacha was off-limits until I got the Floor 6 teleportation circle activated. Facing multiple Goblins while dropped down to Lv1 would be too risky, no question.

Right now, including the orbs, I had stats equivalent to Lv 17. Considering the recommended Level for clearing through Floor 5, the so-called Upper Levels, was 10, that gave me a comfortable safety margin.

Settled, then.

My next dungeon attack would be reaching Floor 6.

* * *

"So, anyway, Floor 4 was no problem, so I'm going to go activate the Floor 6 teleportation circle."

"Your pace suddenly picked up, didn't it."

I went back to the counter and had Shimotsuki-san help me as usual. While I was at it, I shared my impressions of today and my plans going forward.

Shimotsuki-san looked a little exasperated but I didn't miss the relieved look on her face when she saw Lapis and me back in the lobby. She was surprisingly expressive.

"Still, I think it's a reasonable call, judging by today's results."

With that, she held out today's proof of purchase. Since payment was made by bank transfer, it was just a single flimsy slip listing the details.

And the amount written on it was a whopping 6,500 yen.

Quite a bit more than I'd expected.

Shimotsuki-san furrowed her brow slightly, looking at me with a touch of concern.

"I understand your cash-in efficiency going up now that you've moved to Floor 4, but hasn't your actual kill count gone up too?"

"...The decoy tactic really does slow you down quite a bit, you know."

I said that, but the real cause was probably just my own mindset.

Up through Floor 3, I'd been the type to hunt safely and take it easy with the decoy tactic. But today, I'd actively closed the distance on enemies and moved to finish them off as fast as possible. And left drop collection entirely to Lapis.

Somewhere along the way, my mindset had probably shifted to something closer to that of an ordinary Explorer. The mindset of hunting as many monsters as possible.

Something I couldn't tell Shimotsuki-san — what happens when you add the brute force of stats and Skills on top of that.

The result was today's haul of 6,500 yen.

Well, even so, it still lost out to a convenience-store part-time wage.

"Judging by how things look, I don't think there's anything to worry about."

Even so, this result was apparently quite the outlier for what you'd normally see on Floor 4. Seeing Shimotsuki-san smile a little proudly, it warmed my heart.

"Take it easy, keep to your usual pace. Good luck again tomorrow."

I got that encouragement from her with a soft smile, but I made a show of shaking my head.

"That'll be a little difficult, actually."

"...?"

Got myself a nice puzzled look there.

"Tomorrow's Saturday. My day off."

I would defend my three-day weekend to the death. Even if things were going well and I felt like pushing further.

Nothing could compare to the sanctity of a day off.

Whether it was because my words clicked for her, Shimotsuki-san burst out laughing despite herself.

"That's exactly why I can send you off with peace of mind."

The two of us exchanged smiles, like accomplices.