arc01 · 007-ep7
Episode 7: The One I Choose Is…
After hunting on floor 3 until my usual time, I settled in at home for today's debrief.
"Yep, my damage output is just too low. And being solo, fights against multiple enemies are inevitably brutal. If there were an overwhelming gap in ability, fine—but with my current stats, I don't have that kind of margin."
I replayed the fight with the giant venomous spider. Honestly, one-on-one, I never felt like I'd lose. But the fight dragged on, other monsters came sniffing around, and I couldn't finish it. To fix that, there are only two paths: build the strength to win against groups, or start ending one-on-ones in seconds. Being able to party up would make life easy. I swear, Plunder is a lost cause.
"Realistically, insta-killing one enemy at a time is the closer path. Feels like if I get my hands on a weapon or a skill, I can make that happen."
The weapon will take a little longer. My earnings through floor 3 are pretty sad, and even a cheap weapon aimed at the shallow floors runs about 100,000–200,000 yen at market. And if I'm buying, I want something I can use for a good long while.
Which brings us back to skills.
I'm settled on either 【Staff Arts】 or 【Martial Arts】, but how to choose.
Honestly, I'm leaning 【Martial Arts】.
Going purely on effect, 【Staff Arts】 actually looks stronger, but it just doesn't grab me, personally. When I finally upgrade my weapon, I'm thinking of buying a sword, you see. Swords are just cooler, plain and simple. Look at it that way, and 【Martial Arts】 never rots no matter what weapon I use, plus it puts bonuses on things beyond weapons. Supposedly leveling it is a real grind, but if I'm diving into the dungeon every single day, it'll go up like normal, obviously.
So I opened my status screen, touched the SP section, and selected 【Martial Arts】. Confirmed.
『You consumed 10 SP and learned the skill 【Martial Arts: Lv. 1】』
In that instant, a strange sensation tore through me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet—like a single 'axis' had been threaded straight through the core of my body.
The knack of using my body, how to load my weight onto it, pathways of force with zero waste—the 'secret essence' of all of it poured directly into my brain.
I lightly clenched a fist and let a straight punch fly through the air.
A crisp, satisfying pop cracked through it. The snap of the punch, the smoothness of the step-in—undeniably different from before.
"So this is… a skill's bonus…!"
The write-up made it sound pretty weak, but… no, this changes things enormously.
I probably feel the difference this much because I've never had a single bonus before. 【Plunder】-kun is a total deadweight. You still haven't done one thing for me, buddy.
Whatever the case—time to retry floor 4 with this. If it doesn't cut it, I'll grind money on floor 3 for a while and go the buy-a-weapon route, probably.
◇
At school I've already locked in my position as "quiet, friendless loner," but I've actually got my ears glued to my classmates' conversations.
"I'm starting a part-time job next week. Converted to hourly pay, a job honestly out-earns the dungeon."
"Yeah, that's just how it is when you're low level. Supposedly once you hit C-rank you can make a living as a full-timer, though."
"That's level 20, right? Way too far. How many years would that even take?"
"If you make D-rank while you're still a student, that's plenty fast."
"I'm still level 3."
"Same, same."
"Yeah, that's about normal, huh. It's straight-up dangerous, so a part-time job really is the better deal."
"I wanna hang out over summer break too, so maybe I should get started on the job hunt early."
………….
Well, that's a valid choice too.
Actually, adventurers aren't very popular in this world, you know. Everyone goes to the dungeon once, but the vast majority quit right away. Partly the centipedes' fault, and partly because you can genuinely die.
Which means people as gung-ho about dungeon runs as me are super rare. At least, there don't seem to be any among my classmates.
But here's the fundamental thing: humanity feels no sense of crisis whatsoever. There's never been a monster outbreak like in the fantasy works I loved in my past life. Not even one monster has ever come outside. The only reason humans even dive into dungeons is resource extraction. A few people burn to unravel the mysteries, but… they're research-field types, so they aren't even adventurers to begin with.
Either way, my classmates' take is perfectly reasonable—just this world's common sense, spoken plainly.
Come to think of it, me cooping up in the dungeon for hours every single day… do I maybe stand out at the guild? Standing out is bad, but there's no way I'm quitting my dungeon runs. As long as 【Plunder】 doesn't get out, should be fine, right?
After that, school passed quietly and I blazed home at top speed.
◇
Now then—floor 4, the rematch.
I sprinted through floors 1–3, caught my breath, and set foot onto floor 4. There are monsters here I still haven't met, so those need extra caution too.
Floor 4 has four monster species.
The lineup: giant land turtle, giant venomous spider, giant bat, and wind wolf. All of them unarmed, so once again there's no role for 【Plunder】-kun. Pitiful thing.
Heading in a different direction from yesterday, I ran into a bat right away.
These things ambush you from above, so if you don't know that, they're pretty dangerous. Doing your homework matters, seriously.
"Skreee!!!"
Stand still and square off against one head-on, and you eat an ultrasonic attack you can't even see, so you keep moving constantly to throw off its aim.
Maybe thanks to 【Martial Arts】, my body feels incredibly light. Like I'm moving at double speed, subjective.
"Oraah!"
I closed in fast and brought the steel pipe down. Even my strikes flow smoothly now. Somehow I just know how to transmit force best. Less "understood in my head," more my body simply moving on its own—that's the feeling.
Struck square in the body with a loud crack, the bat dropped right out of the air. It hadn't dissolved yet, so I hammered it a few more times and it scattered into motes of light.
"No way, that was easy. 【Martial Arts】 is insane."
Maybe the matchup suited me too, because yesterday's desperate struggle felt like a lie—total cakewalk. Hope the turtles and spiders go down this smoothly too.
Anyway, things were going well so far, so I decided to press on with the exploration.