I was now level 10.
I see, so I gained a bunch of levels thanks to killing all those tour members. But I killed over twenty of those guys, and they were all supposed to be at least level 10 or something. Is this how it’s supposed to work? Hrm, I’m not sure what the standards are. I kinda feel like it should’ve raised more, but I dunno if that’s normal or not. Oh well, I guess that’s just how it is. My level didn’t go up at all when the thief killed his friends earlier, but that was probably because I wasn’t the one who killed them. I probably should’ve asked Slatarou about this when I had the chance, but it’ll feel weird going back now. I guess it can wait till later.
“Mmm...what’s weird is that I’m not as hurt as I should be.”
I looked up at the ceiling. As I expected, it was cracked. The ceiling was made of stone, whereas I was made of wood. I’d crashed into the ceiling with enough force to crack it, but I was just a little sore. That begged the question: what was up with that?
Is it actually because my defense has gone way up? Am I, like, super tough now?
“Let’s test it out.”
*BOOM!*
I did a light jump straight up. I’d been fully ready this time, so it didn’t hurt all that much. I continued to jump, leaping up a little harder each time until I was shooting up at full power. Fortunately, it still didn’t hurt much.
So I moved on to practicing horizontal movement. I didn’t have to worry about breaking, so I could go ahead and crash to my heart’s content.
*BOOM!* *KAKOW!* *KRAKOOM!*
At first my body would end up leaving the ground, but as I got used to things, I started to be able to run pretty fast. It seemed that the trick was to lean forwards and lower my center of gravity.
Also, I didn’t need to gun it all the time. As long as I could run at a decent enough speed, I figured things would be fine. I could just adjust myself to be slow, decently fast, or full throttle depending on the situation. It was all about tempo—yep, tempo was the most important part!
Anyway, now that I’d grasped how to move, it was time to restart my exploration of the first underground floor.
It was hard to see my surroundings—not to mention tiring—while I ran, so I decided to start off slow.
*Clack, clack...*
I didn’t know if the entire dungeon was the same, but this area was pretty heavily normalized. The burial chamber I’d started in was around five meters squared in size; that seemed to be the smallest block size for this dungeon.
I could see the lines corresponding to the edges of blocks in the corridors—that’s how I could tell. It seemed to me that it would be easy to use blocks as a system of measurement. Talk about convenient!
“Actually, there seems to be something on each block.”
When I looked closer at the floor, I saw a small metal plate embedded into each block. The one I was currently looking at had the letters E9N12 carved into it. When I moved one block over, the next one said E9N13.
I see, they look like coordinates. Taking this at face value, I believe this’d mean that I just moved north 1 block.
“Does that mean the starting block is E0N0? I guess I should look for that for now.”
*Clack, click, clack...*
The layout wasn’t that complicated, so I reached E0N0 pretty easily just by following the plates south. As I got closer, I started to hear loud noises—as if there was some sort of commotion going on. It only got louder the farther I moved.
I started to feel like it was dangerous, so I peeked carefully around the next corner. My ability to change my point of view was extremely useful in times like this. I could only shift my view up to around thirty centimeters away from my body, but otherwise I was free within that space. That meant I was able to look around the corner without exposing my body.
*Swarm, swarm. Gather, gather.*
I was looking at a square room that seemed around 4 × 4 blocks large, and there was a veritable mountain of adventurers in it.
There was also a set of stairs leading up, so this was probably the dungeon’s entrance.
I’m guessing they do their preparations here before challenging the dungeon proper? Wait, are those stalls? This is more like a festival!
“Hmm, but were there really this many adventurers on the first floor?”
If there were, the dungeon definitely would’ve been a lot more congested. I hadn’t even encountered another adventurer since I’d left Slatarou’s room, though.
Apparently almost all the adventurers had gone to the eastern side of the dungeon, since they were mostly returning from that direction. By the way, I was peeking in from the north.
It was just a hunch I had, but the eastern side might’ve been for the more experienced. It seemed like all the people going that way wore more extravagant equipment. They looked like veterans.
“What was that skill again? Analysis? If I could use that, I’d be able to pick out the weakest ones...”
Well, I was told that monsters would disappear when they left the dungeon anyway, so there was no real need for me to try. Instead, I quietly turned around and left.
Let’s just say that the southwest is off-limits for now and go in the opposite direction. I suppose I could just go as far north as I can... That might allow me to get a sense of how big the dungeon is.
*Clack, clack...*
After turning several corners, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with some sort of black cloud.
“The hell is this?”
I hesitantly extended my hand. It didn’t really feel like anything, and it didn’t make my hand dirty either.
Hmm, should I keep going? It looks like the path continues... Well, it’s worth a shot. I’ll try walking. Wurgh, it’s pitch black! Nothing but darkness all around. Can’t see a damn thing.