Chapter

arc3 · 135-ch135

Chapter 135: Leveling Up Solo

Having taken down the two goblins without issue, I decided to head to even deeper floors first to see how far Hayate's Magic Machine Cannons would carry me. Piloting Hayate and Shiden, I mowed down the occasional goblin or slime that showed up as I descended through the sixth and seventh floors.

Even when higher-tier goblins like Goblin Archers and Goblin Thieves showed up, I brought them down without any trouble. The Magic Machine Cannons are scary. Against trash mobs the fuel efficiency is great too — looks like I've gotten my hands on a pretty solid weapon.

In the end, I made it down to the tenth floor while keeping Shiden in reserve, and arrived at the boss room.

(Can I even get into the boss room?)

The door was shut, but by having both drones push it, I just barely managed to get it open. Thank god it wasn't the kind you had to pull toward you.

Inside the boss room, just like the time I came here with Hyakka Ryouran, two Goblin Knights and two Goblin Magicians were standing in the middle of the room. They were staring this way with their mouths hanging open.

Yeah, I guess if you're expecting explorers and two drones show up instead, that's about the reaction you'd have. But I'm under no obligation to wait for them to get into battle stance.

BZZT-BZZT-BZZT!

That's where I unleashed Shiden's Thunder Bullet Machine Cannon. My MP dropped by 100 every second, but the firepower was overwhelming — in just three seconds, the two Goblin Knights and two Goblin Magicians were riddled with holes and down.

【You defeated the Goblin Knight】

【You defeated the Goblin Magician】

I'd taken them out just like that. It was overwhelming firepower, enough to make me wonder what all my past suffering had even been for. That said, it was also true that those mere three seconds had cost me 300 MP. At this rate, the Thunder Bullet Machine Cannon would run me dry in no time. MP management is probably going to be my main challenge for a while.

Besides, the Goblin Knights and Goblin Magicians I'd just killed should be D-rank. Whether it'll work on monsters with higher ranks and levels, I don't know. To test a little more, I exited the boss room and headed for the eleventh floor.

"Huh? What? Drones?"

"Hwuh? Drones came out of the boss room?"

"Ah!? Wait, are these SS-san's drones!?"

When I pushed open the boss room door with Shiden and Hayate and stepped into the Transfer Stone room, there were already people there.

It looked like a three-woman party, and they had apparently just used a Transfer Stone to get here. Registering the tenth-floor Transfer Stone as a trio meant they had to be a fairly competent party. Probably around D-rank. One of them apparently knew who I was — she'd pegged me as SS the moment she saw Hayate and Shiden.

"Hello. As the lovely lady there just said, these are SS's drones."

She'd gone so far as to drop my name, so I figured I'd speak up from my end too. I'd hate for word to get around that I'm some cold fish.

"U-um, uh, well... thank you."

The woman who knew me suddenly thanked me. Weird — all I did was say hello.

"U-um, it's, uh, it must be some kind of fate that we ran into each other here, so if it's alright... would you maybe consider filming us?"

A woman who seemed to be the leader asked me to film them. At her words, the other two squealed in agreement.

But think about it for a second. I've got a mountain of requests piled up on my HP. There's no way I'd film a random party I bumped into just because we happened to cross paths. Besides, right now I have a noble purpose: finding out how far I can go solo. I don't have time to entertain people whose names I don't even know.

"My apologies. I have business to take care of for the Dungeon Agency. If the opportunity arises another time, I'd love to film the three of you in all your brilliant combat glory."

When I politely turned them down, the three of them — far from looking disappointed — actually seemed a little pleased, blushing and smiling. Are they masochists or what?

Well, from my end, as long as I could turn them down without hurting my reputation, there was no problem. Leaving the three of them behind — who for some reason had started praising one another — I descended to the eleventh floor.

From the eleventh floor on, the Knights and Magicians that had been bosses start showing up as ordinary trash mobs. Since I'd figured out the Thunder Bullet Machine Cannon was overkill, next I'd test Hayate's Magic Machine Cannons.

The first ones I engaged were a Goblin Knight and a Goblin Thief. The thief spotted Hayate and closed in with quick movements.

Pcht-pcht-pcht

【You defeated the Goblin Thief】

The magic bullets Hayate loosed without any particular trickery didn't seem to hit as hard as the thunder rounds, but they still punched clean holes through the thief's whole body. Yeah, the Magic Machine Cannons work just fine too.

GROOOAAAR!

Seeing that, the Knight let out a war cry and charged with its shield raised. Raising your shield like that right in front of your face is just going to make it hard to see what's ahead. Sure enough, it seemed to lose track of Hayate as it darted quickly to the side.

Pcht-pcht-pcht

【You defeated the Goblin Knight】

Slipping around behind it, Hayate shot it in the back and put the Knight down without issue. It took a few rounds to punch through the armor, but even so it only cost about 60 MP — way more cost-efficient than the Thunder Bullet Machine Cannon, which I'm grateful for.

So at least for some species, I now know D-rank monsters can be taken down with the Magic Machine Cannons. I'd love to experiment with how it handles C-rank monsters next, but it's already gotten pretty late.

I'll save the rest for another time — but since I'm wrapping up anyway, I might as well end by burning through the rest of my MP. And I should get some Parallel Thinking practice in while I'm at it.

(Got a little dizzy, but I think I can manage this.)

I set the bucket I'd brought just in case down beside me and focused on piloting the two drones. It felt like there were two of me, each one acting on my own images and ideas. And yet we shared the same memories — a strange sensation.

I lined Hayate and Shiden up and pressed forward, wiping out every monster we came across. Unlike before, the burden of operating two of them had dropped sharply. This is huge. At this rate, no matter how many drones I become able to summon, I'll be able to pilot them all on my own without any waste.

Hayate and Shiden put on a beautiful coordinated display and had taken down over a dozen monsters by the time I ran out of MP, but then...

【You defeated the Orc Mage】

【You have leveled up】

【You obtained 10 Skill Points】

And just like that, I'd gone up a level.