Chapter 215.1: Sadly, The Stat Boost Seems To Have Had No Influence On The Intelligence Part 1
Day 58 – Afternoon, Dungeon, 38F
Hmm, since I’m going to eventually remodel the place anyway, this is good enough to give it a passing mark, but the ceiling is too low. It might be because there are only a few large monsters, but lack of height creates a feeling of oppression? For private rooms that might be fine too… But I can’t help but compare it to the Great Dungeon. To that degree of perfection and its refined architecture. And then all the rough parts end up standing out, and the layout doesn’t appear that great as well. However, location-wise this place is better.
「Vanguard, get ready, charge at the same time with the arrow volley! Release! Also, the trio in the back, stop remodeling!」
「「「Roger! Moving out!」」」
Level 38 Bears are losing to them in strength and go flying. The heavyweight-class equipment combined with a high-speed charge scatters enemies with a terrible clash, the collision alone eliminating most of their HP.
This is the level wall, the irresistible overwhelming power.
It’s unfortunate, but it seems it did not reflect on their intelligence. Why would they go out of their way to bring boomerangs to a high-speed heavy infantry charge? Since when did this become a charge weapon? And just when are you going to throw it? Why would you switch to boomerangs without a hint of hesitation after I went through the trouble of making halberds and arming every frontliner with them? And they actually went and wiped them out with boomerangs. Just what are boomerangs supposed to be?
In this case, the boss fight on the 50th floor also shouldn’t pose much of a risk. As they are right now, they’d be able to overwhelm even the rafflesia, and even break through the sea of mummies. Well, Slime-san shouldn’t be viewed as the same category as other dungeon masters anymore, and even if they happen to encounter something like the Sand Giant, with their current strength they should be able to retreat.
They can withdraw while defending together, and that is the most important thing. Running away is perfectly fine in order to make it home alive.
And since I put simple barrier devices inside the fancy item bags, they should be able to buy them some time. It’s just that they are too large and can only last for a short amount of time, but they can help in an emergency. Meanwhile, there is no hope at the moment for the emergency escape devices. After all, I’m the only person who has 『Teleportation』, and even I can’t control it at all, which makes it too unreliable to assign to items.
It’s amazing that I managed to teleport to Stalker Girl back then. Since then there has been no successful mid-range jump, let alone long-range ones. Maybe it works better if there is a target?
But as I thought, this dungeon is deep, nowhere near 50 floors. How far should I take them? Yes, they are stronger than me, but eventually, they are going to be pushed back. Aside from the level difference, humans and monsters also have a difference in resilience and physical build, so eventually, they definitely will face pushback.
While they are on their way to becoming the greatest of heroes, they aren’t killers, if they can’t overpower the enemy, they lose. They can’t eliminate the enemy before the enemy resists. Because that’s cheating.
It’s possible if it’s us alone. Here I have Armored Pres-san with her unfair technique and Slime-san whose entire existence is like cheating. And then there is me, praised by the girls day and night as the winner of the triple crown of sneakiness, scumminess, and underhandedness. I’m exceedingly good at it. Wait, a moment? Now that I think of it, it’s not a praise at all!.. Let’s rip them off again tonight. And I was getting happy like a fool.
With this and that, we finally encountered the first hidden room on the 43rd floor. The monsters were already routed, battered, torn, shredded, and scattered to the wind. Everything is being resolved through an arrow volley followed by a charge. They are unrecognizably stronger. This is level 100, anyone would call them the strongest, this is the realm of strength that can be called transcendent.
「I’m ba~ack? The treasure was 『Windstorm Mace – PoW MiN InT 30% Up, +ATT, Windstorm, Shattering Impact, Weapons and Armor Internal Destruction』, isn’t this nasty? It probably won’t only destroy the armor but will also turn what’s inside it into a mashed ground meat hamburger or dumpling. This is harsh! What do you want for dinner today? Kind of?」
「「「Apologize to Hamburgers and Dumplings! And don’t bring up dinner after drawing such a scene! No ground meat today!」」」
With the deficit of hammers and maces this is a precious weapon, plus, since it came from a dungeon, it has good bonuses as well. I’d like an axe next, but we still need more gear too. The amount of swords is adequate, and armor or light armor is so-so. Gloves, boots, cloaks, are all in shortage, there were a few accessories, but that’s not enough. Even assuming that Armored Pres-san who already has ultimate equipment doesn’t need anything new, I still would like to fuse new items into my equipment if I find anything nice, so we need to gear more than 30 people. We might never have enough. Even so, there is no other choice but to gradually keep strengthening the equipment. As there is no such thing as absolute safety, there is no other choice but to keep going towards even greater safety. Therefore, dungeons.
And on the 48th floor was an axe, did I set a flag? Should I decide beforehand on what I want to find? However, to this day, no matter how hard I desired, there wasn’t a single Affection Rating boosting item! Did I block this flag somewhere?
But, conveniently, or perhaps this is the specialty of this dungeon, this is the second weapon in a row that comes with Weapons and Armor Destruction attached. I shouldn’t let that Internal Destruction part bother me. These weapons could be considered extremely useful in anti-human fights, or a war. Basically, if one can render the opponent powerless or weaken them by destroying their equipment, then it would allow carrying the fight in a favorable direction. Well, if insides get destroyed along the way too it’s a bit “that”, but these are still unmistakably strong weapons. And it seems there is a need for protection items for the lower half of the body, that Inside Destruction is scary! Actually, can the lower part properly Regenerate if crushed through the Internal Destruction? I don’t want to test that! Not only as a highschool boy, any man would be against that! That place is off-limits.
But well, even if we found some useful equipment, I have no intention whatsoever to let them go to war, but they became too strong. They aren’t going to obediently stay behind anymore. It felt long because they were stuck at level 99 for a while, but it’s been less than 2 months, the growth speed of Cheat owners greatly surpassed expectations. This was a miscalculation.
And this is another great find『Shattering Long Axe – ViT PoW DeX 30% Up, Physical Resistance (Greater), + ATT, Fracture, Weapons And Armor Destruction』, not only does it have good stats but also resistances, a skill, and on top of it weapon and armor destruction. This dungeon seems to be a jackpot in quite a few ways. That’s why it might be dangerous.
Now, the most efficient option would probably be to give the gear destruction weapons to Rhythm Gymnastics Girl, who can be seen as specializing in anti-personnel fighting, but she already has some sort of a weird personal weapon, which also had pretty good stats after being upgraded with mithril. And what’s more important, it goes well with her fighting style. A weird weapon that can freely change form. From a ball to a club, from a ribbon to a hoop, a Rhythm Gymnastics weapon. The hoop was the only form that I haven’t seen in use, so I thought that maybe she can’t fight with it, but as it turned out, it was the most vicious one. Even during sparring she was trying to catch the neck with it and then break it by throwing the opponent to the ground, or trying to catch an incoming sword or a spear to trap the arm so she could break it or the neck, it was really terrifying! That’s scary, the ribbon was crazy too, but when dealing with other humans the scariest one is the hoop. It was so brutal that it even got a nod of approval from Armored Pres-san. It didn’t even occur to me that a mere hoop can be this scary when handled with mastery.