Dungeon Survival Chapter 5

 Chapter 5: Level Up

After that, it took a good two hours but I killed five Goblins.

Bottom line, learning Ambush had been the right call.

Just like on my first dive, I made my way through the Dungeon slowly, mapping as I went.

Doing that naturally kept my footsteps quiet. And in a Dungeon with no other sound sources to speak of, the enemy's footsteps became the only noise around.

Once I caught onto that, I'd lie in wait at a crossroads or a bend and land the first hit the instant we crossed paths. The Goblins would flinch, plain as day.

With the damage boost from Ambush, it seemed like I could finally chip all the way through a Goblin's HP. And a hit to the head clearly started slowing its movements.

After that, finishing off a staggering Goblin was just simple work.

Of course, it didn't all go smoothly.

Just once, I ran into a pair of them. Ambush took one out of commission. But I let the other one get a counterattack in.

Even so, after ambushing so many Goblins by that point, I'd gotten at least a little used to combat.

Making the most of the bat's reach, I managed to end the fight after taking just one counterattack.

With my kills at exactly five, I eagerly hurried back toward the entrance.

My homemade map had earned its keep. After all for just the first floor, the place was absurdly huge inside.

「Alright, let's try leveling up!」

Back at the entrance terminal again, I selected the Level Up option, this time with my hands trembling from excitement.

──────

【Level Up】

EP Owned: 10

The EP required to level up is 10.

You are able to level up.

Level up?

──────

For a second, a bunch of thoughts crossed my mind, like maybe I had more Skills available now.

But I couldn't fight the urge to just try leveling up first.

「Leveling up. Here goes.」

Voicing it out loud again, I selected 『Yes』 on the level-up confirmation.

After that, just like when I'd learned a Skill, white particles poured out of my body and were pulled into the terminal.

A while later, the particles that had been drawn in came flowing back into me from the terminal, yellow this time.

「O-Ohhhhh?」

Power welling up from deep within my body!

That's not how it felt.

It was more like a gentle warmth spreading slowly from my core outward.

Less like my abilities had gone up, more like my vessel had gotten bigger.

『Level up complete. Please allocate your Status points.』

──────

Points Remaining: 3

Strength: 8

Magic: 10

Vitality: 7

Speed: 8

Luck: 9

──────

So Status points were the kind you allocated yourself.

That made it suddenly terrifying.

If this were a game, the standard approach would be committing to a role from the start and specializing hard into one stat or another.

Form a party. Dump points into durability for the frontline and firepower for the backline, and the party's combined strength goes up as a result.

But the place I was in right now was a real Dungeon.

And on top of that, I was solo.

Putting points into firepower was fine. Without enough firepower to actually kill something, my adventuring would eventually hit a wall.

Putting points into durability was fine too. If I couldn't take a single hit, I could see a future where a surprise attack cost me my life.

If I'm being extreme about it, I wanted enough in both.

But choosing both risked leaving both of them half-baked.

「I need to think this through carefully.」

Fortunately, the terminal didn't rush me once I'd started the level-up process.

The screen just sat there, waiting on me the whole time.

If I was stuck, maybe I should just ask.

「Is it possible to redo this Status allocation later?」

『You cannot freely redo it from the terminal. But a method for doing so does exist.』

「Can I check what that method is?」

『That information cannot be disclosed at this time.』

So there was apparently some kind of safety net.

A level reset or something like it. Maybe a dedicated item of some kind?

Either way, just knowing something existed put me a little more at ease.

For now, let's think about priorities.

...More than anything, it's for survival.

Wanting to get strong, wanting to become invincible, big dreams like that were fine and all.

But diving solo the way I was, my own life had to come first.

This was a Dungeon that had appeared inside my own house.

Even if I ended up in real trouble, I couldn't count on anyone coming to help.

Which meant the only one who could save me if things went bad was me.

So, here's what I settled on:

──────

Points Remaining: 0

Strength: 8

Magic: 10

Vitality: 7

Speed: 8 → 11

Luck: 9

──────

『Status allocation confirmed. The EP required to reach the next level is 20. Ending level-up.』

Would the required EP double next time, or was it just a flat +10 increase?

The terminal's display finished and my Status was locked in.

Once it was done, I felt a small twinge of did-I-just-screw-that-up.

But it mattered.

Diving solo, I figured the single most important thing for staying alive was the ability to outrun an enemy I couldn't beat.

Obviously everything else mattered too. But if I was slower than my opponent to begin with, running into someone I couldn't beat = death.

When I thought about how bad that would be, this was one stat I needed to secure to some degree no matter what.

「It's fine, it's fine. If it comes down to it, I can redo it. And if I screw up, I'll deal with it when I screw up.」

Besides, it wasn't like Skills couldn't make up for a lack of firepower.

With my EP back to zero, I couldn't buy any Skills right now. But if I kept grinding Goblins a while longer, I could at least line up an Active Skill for emergencies.

「Come to think of it, I should have more Skills available too, right?」

That 『!』 from earlier was back again. So a few new Skills must have opened up.

「Hmm...」

But from a quick glance, nothing really stood out.

I hadn't changed my fighting style at all. So maybe that was just how it worked.

Personally, I'd wanted an Active Skill that helped with running away. But maybe that would only show up if I ever actually ran for my life at full speed.

Anyway, that wrapped up preparations for now. Last on the list was checking what remained of my lifeline.

HP: 22/42

CP: 27/37 (In Use: 2/39)

Checking my Status, I saw that max HP and max CP had both gone up by ten.

My current HP and CP hadn't recovered though. A stingy kind of level up.

That said, my current HP had probably ticked up a little just from time passing. I'd taken damage after that too, which made it hard to tell exactly. But maybe something like 3 points an hour?

For now, let's just assume it recovers at around 10% an hour.

「...Alright then. One more lap, maybe?」

Sitting at about half HP was a little worrying. But by the numbers, I could still take two more hits from a Goblin.

I'd push the dive a bit further, at least until I took one more hit.

There was still a little time before noon.