“Look, old man! I leveled up again! You were right; you get stronger so much faster fighting higher level enemies!” Radd exclaimed, running up to me.
Like the others, Analyze showed that he’d gotten much stronger in the past ten days.
【Radd】
LV: 34
HP: 772
MP: 166
Strength: 326 (B)
Vitality: 337 (B+)
Intelligence: 117 (C-)
Mind: 255 (B-)
Agility: 242 (B-)
Focus: 211 (C+)
His highest stats were lower than everyone else’s, but his overall stat spread was much more balanced and he served as the party’s central pillar. Plus, after overcoming the Treasure Hunter’s trial he’d gotten much better at using manual Arts and he had a much better sense of how to position and move around in a battle.
It’s almost scary how good these guys are.
Even though I’d trained them myself, I was awed by how powerful they’d gotten.
“Where to next, brother?” Recilia asked from behind me.
Of the people here, she was definitely the one with the most broken stats.
【Recilia】
LV: 34
HP: 694
MP: 203
Strength: 418 (A-)
Vitality: 298 (B)
Intelligence: 154 (C)
Mind: 278 (B)
Agility: 585 (A+)
Focus: 233 (B-)
After class changing to Ninja, her already high Agility had started growing even faster, outpacing even Mana’s Mind growth. Her current power level was insane.
Before, I might have lamented how blessed these guys were compared to Rex’s shitty stats. However, Radd and the others weren’t the only ones who’d grown stronger. I stared at myself in the mirror that was hanging in the hallway.
Rex Tauren, the Aloof Adventurer. He’d been gifted with a high starting level, but in return his growth rates had been handicapped beyond reason. His balanced stat spread of 200 had been made fun of by the community at large. But three months had passed since I’d been transported to this world, and after numerous trials and tribulations, I’d finally managed to tangibly grow in power despite Rex’s many handicaps.
I took off my stat-boosting enchanted rings and sized myself up in the mirror. A dour man dressed in all black stared back at me.
“Analyze.”
Take a look at this, Rex! This is what three months of nonstop effort has accomplished! This is what you, and I, have become!
【Rex】
LV: 52
HP: 542
MP: 281
Strength: 210 (C+)
Vitality: 204 (C+)
Intelligence: 214 (C+)
Mind: 204 (C+)
Agility: 210 (C+)
Focus: 212 (C+)
God, this sucks... I thought, breathing a heavy sigh as I stared at my stats.
You got basically no experience for killing enemies that were lower level than you in BB. And unfortunately, Rex’s starting level was 50. Which meant if I wanted any decent amount of experience, I’d need to defeat enemies level 50 or higher, despite the fact that my stats were lower than Radd and the others, who were level 34. Thanks to the Goblin Slaughterers I’d stocked up on I’d managed to defeat the first Demon Lord, Bring, and level up twice. But barring another miraculous situation like that one, there was little chance I’d be gaining new levels.
But while I couldn’t rely on leveling up to get stronger, there was one other way to increase my stats, like through training. I could increase my Strength through practice swings, my Intelligence through meditation, and so on, just like I’d had Radd and the others do when I’d first agreed to teach them. They’d all gained around 30 stats total over the course of a month.
Of course, I knew this was a trap. Training worked better the higher your innate growth rate was for a stat, and the lower that current stat was. Radd had only 54 Strength when he’d started training, and he’d been able to raise it by a whopping 22. Recilia, who’d trained for just as long as him, had only risen 4 points in Strength since her starting Strength had been 126. My current Strength was even higher than Recilia’s had been back then, and my innate Strength growth rate was way worse. It would take ages to gain even a single stat point. Which was why I’d given up completely on raising stats through training, and only occasionally joined Radd when he was doing practice swings, mostly for fun.
I guess even that small amount of time spent training did at least get my Strength from 209 to 210... I thought.
Still, a single stat point in 3 months was basically nothing. Ultimately, training was too ineffective and time-consuming a method to raise my stats.
Rex really is playing on hard mode, huh?
I frowned at my reflection in the mirror, even though I knew there was no point in grumbling.
“Old man, what’re you staring at the mirror for? Let’s get going,” Radd said in a cheerful voice.
I turned away from the mirror, returning to reality, then put my stat-boosting rings back on and said, “All right. Stay on your toes, though. Don’t forget that these enemies are at significantly higher levels than you.”
“You got it! I’ll make sure to buy enough time for Mana to cast her spells no matter what we run into!”
I could tell my warning had gone in one ear and out the other, but I just sighed and said nothing. At least Radd hadn’t said he’d take them all down himself, so in a sense he had grown a little.
As we walked down the corridor, the air grew chillier, and I honed my senses, alert for the slightest noise.
“I guess this room’s next,” Nyuuk said.
At the end of the stone corridor was an old, worn door. As we drew closer, the rotting door swung open of its own accord. It was nice knowing we didn’t have to pick a lock or watch out for traps, and I nodded to Nyuuk before stepping inside. Pieces of decaying lumber were stacked against the rough stone walls, and there was a wooden coffin situated in the center of the room. Aside from that, the room was empty.
I recognize this room... I stopped in my tracks, trying to bring distant memories into focus.
“Tch, guess this room’s a bust...” Radd said, sounding disappointed. He stepped past me just as I remembered what the room was.
Oh shit! Alarm bells rang out in my head.
“Radd!”
The lid of the coffin blew open, and a torrent of inky blackness surged out of it, rising up to the ceiling. It was hard to describe what exactly the black something was. Though it looked like a single lump, closer inspection showed that it was a mass of many bodies.
As the lump reached the ceiling it split into two, one section going right and the other going left. The many creatures that made up the mass opened their eyes at once, making it look like dozens of red dots had suddenly appeared on the surface of the lump.
“Those are Black Blood Bats! Watch out, they’re among the most dangerous of the vampire bat monsters!” I shouted, grabbing Radd by the shoulder and pulling him behind me.
Black Blood Bats were around the same level as the Greater Mummy we’d killed earlier, but their stats were much lower. In return, they tended to spawn in massive groups like this one. They hadn’t posed much of a threat to me in the game, so I’d forgotten about them.
But we aren’t equipped to handle them right now!
We were pretty heavily understatted for this dungeon, and we were making up the difference with smart tactics and powerful skills. But that was only effective against a few enemies at a time. Fast, numerous swarms like this cloud of Black Blood Bats would overwhelm us with pure numbers. If you were fighting them at the right level the usual strategies to beat these swarms was to either tank through the damage and kill them one by one, or to hold them off long enough for your Mage to get off one powerful fire spell. But at their current level, Radd and the others wouldn’t be able to tank these guys’ hits for long. Unlike the other enemies we’d fought in this dungeon, these enemies weren’t undead either. Mana’s deadly light spells wouldn’t be nearly as effective on them.
“Old man, what are you doing?! You can’t take these many on at—”
Radd hurriedly tried to step forward again but I held a hand out to hold him back. With as much confidence as I could muster, I said, “Don’t underestimate me. Since we’re already here, I’ll take this opportunity to show you just how much I’ve grown as well!”
The bats were flying around too erratically for me to count, but at a glance there appeared to be around a dozen of them. If they all came at me at once, I’d be ripped to shreds in seconds.
“Let’s get this party started!” I shouted, throwing a Goblin Slaughterer at the swarm. The dagger pierced through two bats, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. Though the bats were staggered for a second, they recovered quickly and I could tell they’d barely taken any damage. “Ha ha. Well, I saw that coming.”