arc4 · 059-ch59

Episode 59: District 1-4 Exploration

It was the last Sunday of September, and the lingering summer heat was finally starting to fade. The time was past 6 PM, but the sky was still bright, with a crimson sunset illuminating the city.

Suzuka emerged from the Explorer Association with a gloomy expression.

"Man, this is salty. Can't believe I've already hit a wall."

From the fulfilling summer vacation exploration to a complete reversal, September's exploration was sluggish. The rapid progress since starting dungeon exploration was showing signs of slowing down.

Suzuka's level when summer vacation ended was 46. Having fought the Water Blade Weasel at the end, she had leveled up then. Currently, Suzuka's level is 48. She only gained 2 levels in one month. During summer vacation, there were times when she gained up to 3 levels in a day, yet only 2 levels in a month. That's slowing down too much, isn't it.

There were two reasons for this slow leveling.

One was the lack of time. Even though it's been a month, with school on weekdays, dungeon exploration can only be done on weekends—Saturdays and Sundays. During summer vacation, I could explore the dungeon almost every day, and if I could explore continuously, my instincts wouldn't dull and I could explore the same way the next day.

But having weekdays in between resets that. On Saturdays, I inevitably have to start cautiously, needing to search for and fight weaker enemies once or twice. Whether it's fighting games or FPS shooting games, it's just like checking your own state in practice mode as a warm-up before matches against other people.

Even so, counting today I've explored 8 times, but the total time I can explore in a single day is small in the first place.

The area Suzuka is currently exploring is District 1-4. I've already found the staircase to Floor 2, but Districts 4 and 5 still remain on Floor 1. It would be nonsense to leave those be and advance forward.

Furthermore, the fact that ordinary explorers rarely explore District 4 was another push. If there are no explorers, it means you can hunt as many monsters as you find.

Up to District 3, there were Explorer High students, so even if I found monsters, if other explorers were fighting them, I couldn't join the battle. All materials state that conflicts between explorers are troublesome to deal with, so I needed to explore while being considerate of surrounding explorers.

In that respect, District 4 has no explorers, so there's no need for such consideration. It's a truly free environment.

However, like Floor 2, District 1-4 is far from the entrance. Walking normally would take well over 3 hours one way. I'm jogging just like in District 3, but even then it takes a little over an hour to reach District 4.

Moreover, the environment in District 4 is harsh. District 3 was hilly terrain, but Districts 4 and 5 are forest areas. Strictly speaking, according to my research, District 4 is a forest while District 5 is more like a tree sea. In District 4, light still filters through between the trees and there are occasional clearings, so it's a somewhat better environment than District 5. Even so, without the Map skill, it's an environment where you could easily get lost.

And the visibility is hopelessly poor. Until now I was fighting in grasslands or hills where I could see ahead, so this is an area where it's difficult to find monsters in places with poor visibility. I need to be wary of surprise attacks, so I can't explore as freely as I'd like.

And the second reason exploration isn't progressing. That's because the monsters are strong.

Even for Suzuka, who's been on a straight road of skyrocketing stats, the monsters in District 4 felt strong.

District 4's monsters are insect-type monsters, but they're very hard, fast, and strong. When I fought District 3's regular monsters, I felt I was exceeding appropriate stats because they were weak, but District 4's monsters have strength I'd consider appropriate. It feels as strong as when I first fought the Drunken Sheep.

Because the monsters are strong, I can't defeat many in a day, and there were times I avoided large groups. Since the monsters are strong, each battle takes a long time, and if I spend too much time, other monsters will gather too. Therefore, I need to fight an appropriate number of monsters even if it takes time.

Suzuka is exploring District 4 the way Explorer High students do in District 3. This is Suzuka, who was even completing Area Boss Rushes in District 3. That's just how strong District 4's monsters are. There's such a difference in strength between District 3 and District 4 monsters that it feels like game balance is broken.

Suzuka's experience of District 4 monsters' strength is a common understanding among explorers, and this is why ordinary explorers don't approach District 4.

Explorers who finish District 1-3 have two choices: advance to District 1-4 or Floor 2-1. But almost all—I'd say virtually all explorers—advance to Floor 2-1.

There are several reasons, but the most common reason is the strength of monsters that appear in Districts 4 and 5. Between a level 50 monster that appears in District 1-4 and a level 50 monster that appears in Floor 2-1, the District 1-4 monster is overwhelmingly stronger.

They say the monsters in Districts 4 and 5 are strong enough to be aimed at explorers with boosted stats like Suzuka and zoo, who feel District 3 monsters aren't enough. But even for explorers with boosted stats, many avoid Districts 4 and 5 and advance to upper floors.

One reason is that to raise your explorer rank, you need to conquer higher floors, but that's not all.

Irregular situations tend to happen in Districts 4 and 5.

The levels of monsters appearing in Districts 4 and 5 have a wide range, with level 40-70 monsters appearing in District 4. For someone like Suzuka exploring in areas closer to District 3, the monsters that appear are at most under level 60.

However, that doesn't mean monsters above level 60 won't appear.

Despite maintaining strong stats, because the level range is wide, if irregular high-level monsters appear in shallow areas, the risk of dying becomes overwhelmingly higher—is there any meaning in exploring Districts 4 and 5? In that case, it's smarter to choose Floor 2-1's Area Boss Rush, which has no irregulars, allows safe leveling, and earns more from area boss materials.

This is why Districts 4 and 5 are unpopular.

To summarize why Suzuka's exploration isn't progressing: she can only explore on weekends, and even then, because it's far from the entrance, there's little time available for exploration. District 4 is also hard to explore due to terrain. Furthermore, since enemies are strong, I need to find suitable monsters and can't defeat many in a day, so experience doesn't accumulate easily. This is the current situation.

"The dungeon is pretty harsh too. I mean, if you can pull off a narō move, of course everyone would go that way."

Sighing while riding his bicycle, Suzuka thought.

Why does the dungeon divide Floor 1 into 5 areas yet make the staircase to Floor 2 appear in District 3? Among various interpretations, Suzuka had a conclusion she felt certain about.

The dungeon is a place where you can grow as much as you take risk. Between District 1-4 exploration and Floor 2-1's Area Boss Rush—which has more risk? Overwhelmingly, it's District 1-4. Therefore, if you want to become stronger, you should explore District 1-4.

However, in reality, that wasn't the case. In recent years, data on dungeon exploration has been accumulating, and even among top guilds, they've gathered status information on both District 4-5 exploration faction and Area Boss Rush faction. As a conclusion, Area Boss Rush faction was concluded to be better.

Of course there's a District 4-5 faction too, but it's a method basically not adopted by top guilds. This is because the death rate is overwhelmingly high in District 4-5 exploration. Area Boss Rush faction basically only has area bosses as threats, so irregulars are unlikely to occur. Furthermore, since there are few area bosses, they can take sufficient countermeasures in advance. For example, when facing Twin Poison Serpent, they can bring enough of the antidote "Mimicry Serum" to fight.

Furthermore, even though Districts 4 and 5 say take risk, because enemies are strong, the risk you can take is limited. Simply put, even explorers who can dominate in Floors 1-3 need to explore like ordinary explorers in Floor 1's Districts 4 and 5. In other words, safe exploration is necessary.

While bearing the risk of District 4-5 exploration, safe exploration is also necessary, which reduces risk. Therefore, even if you explore Districts 4 and 5, you can't take sufficient risk and growth is hindered.

Furthermore, to perform safe exploration, exploration speed is slow, making leveling difficult too. On the other hand, with Area Boss Rush, you can efficiently fight high-level area bosses, so levels go up rapidly.

As a result, whether you level up by working hard in Floor 1's Districts 4 and 5 or by Area Boss Rush in Floor 2-1 to 3, the final growth results are similar in most cases. Theoretically, Districts 4 and 5 should yield more growth, but those who took risks to grow died, and conversely those who chose safety ended up with results no different from Floor 2-1 to 3's Area Boss Rush.

Then, naturally, Area Boss Rush, which has less risk and overwhelmingly better growth efficiency than aiming for theoretical values with high difficulty and low success rate, would be adopted. Of course, even with Area Boss Rush, the risk is quite high, so it's not an easy path.

Thus, Area Boss Rush in districts 1-3 of each floor was established as the training method for top explorer guilds.

But Suzuka was different. There's a hole in that. If fighting District 1-3's regular monsters with a safety margin is considered low, then safe Area Boss Rush or District 4-5 exploration with a safety margin could be considered mid. Then, if you can fight in District 4-5 while taking risk, that's high, and could be said to be the best, she thought. Suzuka thought that if theoretical values could be achieved, they'd be the strongest, so she just needed to achieve theoretical values.

However, for a guild that is a company to do this, the risk is far too high. Understandably, they'd want to avoid promising explorers dying from a small mistake.

Moreover, with Area Boss Rush, you can perform brilliantly while staying safe. For regular monsters, like Suzuka dominating against regular monsters in the Water Blade Weasel fight, she'd probably be able to dominate in Floors 2 or 3 too. Area boss items are expensive so you can earn money, and continuing that lets you grow into a top explorer too.

Anyone would be drawn to that path.

"Kicking aside bunches of monsters feels pretty great. Even I had a bit of a smug face during that monster train the other day."

While there was joy in being able to fight the Water Blade Weasel, I can't deny there was also a sense of exhilaration at being able to dominate in front of a large crowd.

That's why everyone gets drawn to the easy path. Since the Area Boss Rush path is also a steep one, it makes it possible to make excuses to yourself, which is also nasty.

If you aim to be the strongest, exploration with risk in Districts 4 and 5. There's only one choice.

"Besides, at the point where I'm fighting solo, there's no such thing as safe."

I've gained 2 levels from District 4 exploration, and both had the highest level stat increase of over 9 on average, just like before. Even though the number of monsters I can fight in a day has decreased and I'm choosing my opponents, such things don't seem to be counted in safety margin.

"I really want to stay overnight in the dungeon and explore."

If I can stay overnight, I can explore without travel time, so the benefits are large. However, I know my mother will absolutely say no, so I haven't been able to bring it up.

"Sigh, wonder if there's some good idea."

In the end, no good idea floated up, and I went home sighing.