ch441-ch460 · 443-ch443

Chapter 443: Skeletons from Floor 46 Onward

"Sorry, I'm out of MP too. Let's take a break."

Going full throttle into leveling was all well and good, but the situation stays about as inefficient as it gets.

For one thing, my normal attacks often don't go through.

Armored skeletons are mostly 【Samurai】 skeletons, so the enhancement they use is the high-tier kind.

Even with Aikawa's dance buff putting weapon enhancement on me, piercing their armor is a coin flip—and if the buff has run out, I just get blown away without landing a fatal wound.

Once that happens, it's time for 【Charge・Spear】, which means running dry on MP and calling it early.

"All right, let's pack it in. We restart at four."

We finish early in the day, go outside the dungeon to recover MP, then burn it all again before dark.

And unlike our leveling so far, we can't take on groups, so the EXP-per-hour efficiency is terrible.

Right now we're inside the fortress, repeating the pattern of luring out a few at a time and fighting them.

Soushi has given up on close combat entirely and fights only with 【Water Magic】 via his fujutsu.

The newly learned 【Charm・Manipulation】 lets him fly charms in from a distance—but each one costs over 20 MP, so working through numbers is hard going.

The water-pressure jets pack serious power once a charm sticks, though.

For now he can only steer one charm at a time properly, so that'll need practice too.

If a charm isn't level, air resistance sends it flying off in some random direction—it's rough going.

We tried all sorts of things, like the paper-airplane strategy.

The thrown charm has to stick right-side up, so once it gets up to speed things go badly.

All told, the one whose leveling is going worst right now is Soushi.

"How did you ever raise yourselves to Level 50 like this?"

"We'd stay in the dungeon over a week at a stretch once we entered the 40s floors. The whole time, it was leveling like this, day and night, nonstop. Took us a whole year to finally go from 43 to 50."

43 at the moment you break Floor 40, then a year to 50......

If we don't pick up the pace a bit, adventurers from other countries might beat us to it.

"Hey, hey, we've still got a long way to go. Floors 48 and 49 are hell. Leveling there is corner-camping or nothing. Even getting INTO the fortress is a life-or-death gamble. It's honestly unbearable."

That deep in, the enemy is SDF skeletons.

And not just that—they'd be copies of the special forces, Quadruple-equivalent.

Since it would mean publicizing SDF weapons and capabilities, almost none of that footage has been released—but are they going to be firing bazookas down from the fortress walls?

There can't be that many special forces units, so if things go badly, we might run into our OWN skeletons before even reaching Floor 50.

"We're not allowed to use SDF weapons, right?"

"That's the warning we got. The dungeon counts as part of Japan, so firing guns is off-limits. They went so far as to say we can't even take them home."

The SDF hauls their weapons back themselves, so they're hardly starved for specimens.

Under the Sword and Firearms Law, swords count too—but an adventurer license apparently serves as the official permit for using blades inside a dungeon.

"What about using them in secret?"

"Well, I did pick one up and have a look. Most have no sights at all, and some are shaped so oddly you'd doubt they fly straight. And the biggest problem is the ammunition. Every caliber, every shape is different—no way to resupply, I'd think."

Mad-modified by the dungeon, in other words.

Every weapon and piece of armor the skeletons carry has some mysterious spikes on it.

That nice-looking armor I spotted earlier was bristling with spikes on the inside......

A bazooka with spikes inside—you load in a different round and WHAM, it could go off......

"Don't push yourselves too hard. Safety first, please."

Kasumi-san cautions us.

Even out on the surface, this is where we stand—still hunting for an efficient way to level.

"From Floor 46 on, magic users are in danger too. They'll unload high-tier area attacks. Kaito-senpai isn't here, so Haruki, do something about it."

With Floor 46 possibly coming as soon as tomorrow, Chiharu-san adds her own warning.

Magic jobs are said to be of little use in dungeons.

Sorry, Soushi.

The reason is, as ever, MP consumption.

The high-tier jobs' area magic ignores MP efficiency entirely—word is it often ends up shelved for good after one practice cast.

MP management is one thing, but the areas are SO wide you end up catching your allies in them.

Against skeletons, though, that's a different story.

They don't think about MP at all—they thoughtlessly unload the biggest firepower they can produce.

The Lich was throwing fireballs around even with skeletons caught in the blast, you know.

Useless as an ally, a nightmare as an enemy......

"Hmm, a slightly easier way to level...... no, that's not impossible, actually?"

Power leveling—or rather, grinding EXP off stronger enemies......

The defense side of it is the problem, though......

What I want next isn't a powered suit—it's something like a tank.