chapter4 · 084-ep84

Episode 84: What Stockpile's For

"Is Stockpile mixed up in this somehow?"

Easy to say — deciding from this alone was still too hasty.

The moment my stockpile fell from over ninety percent to zero, the monsters had drifted away.

Suspicious? Sure, suspicious.

But maybe they simply didn't chase past this point — a place thing.

"...Worth testing."

Leaving it nagging at me was the impossible option.

A sweep with Interference Eye+ turned up several signatures.

For now, every one of them was just wandering around normally. None were coming at me like before.

"Right now, there's nothing in the tank."

So all I had to do was stockpile again and see.

Conveniently, one was lurking a short distance off.

"Let's borrow you for this."

Waiting there was a sword-toting armored Greyfish.

It spotted me and immediately swung, launching a slash my way.

"Stockpile."

I met it with Stagnation and let it flow straight into my body.

【Current stockpile: 14%】

"This much probably changes nothing."

Nothing about my surroundings looked different through Interference Eye+.

Well, it had been over ninety percent before. One shot wouldn't tell me much.

I dodged the next slash normally and banked the one after that.

"You've basically become my portable charger, you know that?"

Naturally, the sentiment was lost on it.

Oblivious to what I was doing, the armored Greyfish swung again.

After banking several attacks, I spread my awareness outward.

"...Hm?"

A monster a little ways off had entered a different passage than before.

One leading toward me.

"Did it work?"

Then again, one monster could easily be coincidence.

Maybe it was just wandering.

"Build a little more, then."

The guy in front of me could put in a bit more overtime.

Trouble was, I'd seen its attacks so many times that Universal Adaptation kept pulling my body toward the easiest dodge.

To stockpile, I had to time Stagnation around my own dodging body.

"Getting better at dodging makes it harder to charge up? Seriously?"

Blessing or curse.

Okay, in everyday use, definitely a blessing.

A few more banked hits, and I widened Interference Eye+.

"...Ahh."

This time it was unmistakable.

Not just the one from before.

A monster even farther out had switched directions at a fork midway.

Both were closing in on me.

"That's it. That's the thing."

More stockpile, more monsters coming.

No way that was a coincidence.

"But why?"

The stockpile sat inside my body.

It wasn't making noise, and I probably looked exactly the same.

What were they picking up on?

"...Can they see it?"

So I turned Interference Eye+ on myself.

I only ever used it on passages, walls, monsters — outward.

Come to think of it, I'd almost never actually looked at myself with it.

"Hm?"

Something was leaking.

Apart from what was pooled inside me, a thin layer of something spread around it.

Through Interference Eye+, it looked close to Magic.

"It's leaking out of me?"

I'd never noticed anything like this before.

To test whether it was tied to Stockpile, I vented a bit into an empty stretch of wall.

"Dispersion."

With my stockpile reduced, I looked at myself again.

"...It's thinner."

Clearly less than before.

"So it's this."

The fuller my stockpile, the more of it escaped my body.

And in that state, the monsters that had switched directions were still heading my way.

"........"

I looked at myself.

I looked at the monsters coming.

"I'm the bait."

Congratulations, me. Worst side effect ever.

No wonder hauling ninety-plus percent around summoned a mob —.

"...Wait a second."

I'd stocked up before, though.

During the three-hour escape.

By the end, my stockpile was at a full hundred percent.

"But nothing like this happened back then, right?"

I couldn't swear not a single one drifted over.

Back then, surviving three hours against that huge thing had taken everything, and Interference Eye+ had been glued to my pursuer.

Still — at minimum, nothing like a dozen monsters all turning my way.

"So it's not just the stockpile?"

I could see the stuff leaking around me.

Drain the stockpile, the leak thins.

Fine so far.

But it hadn't happened last time.

"What's different?"

I thought for a moment, then looked at the monsters around me.

"Well, if I had to point at something —"

It's these guys.

Every monster spawned since the dungeon changed carried visibly denser Magic than the old ones.

Bigger bodies, more armament.

"Maybe these ones just pick up on this stuff more easily?"

No idea.

The old monsters were gone with the old dungeon; no side-by-side comparison possible.

One thing was sure: before the change, this never happened.

After it: grow the stockpile, and they come.

"Well, no arguing with how it works right now."

I didn't need the full mechanism to test whether it was useful.

"...Hm?"

They were coming.

Toward me.

"Hold on."

Until just now, I'd been hunting monsters one at a time for this thousand.

Grow the stockpile, and they come to me.

"Isn't this insanely useful?"

It's a thousand.

Searching one at a time like before — there was no way I had the hours.

If they gathered themselves, though, different story.

"Let's test it a bit more."

Ten minutes ago they'd chased me across the dungeon; now I was inviting them over.

Even I wondered what I was doing.

Well, if it got dicey, I could always Dispersion the stockpile down.

"Anyway, you're off the clock."

I approached the armored-Greyfish-looking thing that had been my charger this whole time.

Thanks to all those repetitions, its swing found my body already settled into a spot the blade couldn't touch.

Enchant Swap to Strength, and in went the fist.

"Thanks for the charge."

A few punches in, it dissolved into light.

"Now then."

I widened Interference Eye+.

"Yeah, they're coming."

More than before.

Not just the nearby ones — several from deeper in were headed my way too.

"Waiting here was a mistake, though."

I was in a narrow passage.

Sealed front and back again, and I'd relive the last hour.

Tilting toward Agility, I made for a wider stretch of tunnel.

A few closed in along the way; I didn't bother killing every one.

"Yes, yes, this way, everyone—"

...What am I even doing.

They followed perfectly, though.

Reaching the open area, I checked: several were already close, with more signatures stacking up behind them.

"Isn't this a few too many?"

I did invite them.

Once the vanguard grouped up, I aimed my right hand.

My Dispersion so far had mostly blasted forward to open roads.

"What if I fanned this one out sideways?"

No need to pick targets one by one.

I spread the stored energy, intending to sweep up everyone in front of me at once.

"Dispersion!"

The energy surged out and fanned wider than I'd pictured.

"Whoa—!"

The monsters ahead went flying in a bundle.

Several dissolved into light on the spot.

"Ohh!"

The ones at the edge were still standing, though.

"Fanned too wide, huh."

Wider area, less force on each target — that might be the trade.

Fine-tuning that was beyond me so far.

The survivors charged.

This many was no problem.

Universal Adaptation auto-tuned my body against attacks I'd seen plenty, and battle armor had my Strength up.

Each dodge flowed straight into punching range, and I put them down one by one.

Here and there, only the nastiest attacks went into Stockpile.

"Oh."

A little of what Dispersion had spent trickled back.

A few catches later, monsters a little farther off started turning my way again.

"So this..."

I could refill what Dispersion spent off the survivors' attacks.

As it refilled, fresh monsters would drift in.

"This just... loops forever."

What even is this.

And here I'd called it the worst side effect ever.

"I'm definitely using this wrong, huh."

Pretty sure Stockpile wasn't designed for bait-fishing.

Probably. Who knows.

If it works, I'm using it.

"I do have a thousand to get."

This round I relocated to open ground a beat earlier.

As the stockpile grew, the surrounding monsters drifted toward me, just like before.

I spent Dispersion before they fully gathered this time.

"About this much... Dispersion!"

Keeping it narrower, the core of the group took it much harder than last time.

"Yeah, this is better."

Not a one-shot wipe, but it downed several at once.

The rest just needed punching as they closed in.

"At this rate, the thousand's actually doable?"

Yesterday, I'd have sworn there wasn't enough time no matter how I ran the numbers.

Now I was dropping handfuls per engagement.

And the truly absurd part: my MP had barely moved.

Battle armor burned no MP to maintain once fixed, and everything Dispersion threw was originally monster-sourced anyway.

Honestly, Observer Skills didn't consume MP in the first place, for reasons unknown.

"That is genuinely, absurdly broken."

That was the only reason I could fight this long.

Anyone clearing hundreds with normal attack Skills would obviously run dry partway.

"No wonder this Achievement's still sitting there."

It bans combat Skills on top of everything.

Actually, the real question is how many people anywhere lock themselves in a dungeon for a week chasing a thousand kills.

A few more trials later, once I had a feel for the range, I checked my watch.

"It's that late already?"

I had seriously overdone it today.

Before heading back, I emptied the remaining stockpile with Dispersion and confirmed the route to base camp with Interference Eye+.

Only after eating and drinking did my body finally unclench.

"Exhausted..."

I could've crashed right there, but I wanted to know today's numbers first.

I pulled up the achievement list.

【S: Defeat 1000 monsters during a single dungeon clear without using a combat Skill even once】

【In progress: 318/1000】

"Three hundred and eighteen?"

When day three started, I'd been sitting at barely two hundred.

So today alone was over a hundred.

"No kidding."

And I'd only stumbled onto the gather-and-Disperse method partway through today.

This wasn't a from-dawn strategy.

"........"

Six hundred and eighty-two to go.

On paper, still a mountain.

A mountain, yes.

"But... the thousand's actually in reach, isn't it?"