That was, what, eight of them? I felt strangely giddy. The paralyzed bodies around me became shields protecting me from the rest, buying me time to fire off more skills before the still-mobile monsters could break through.
“Paralyze!”
“Uh…whoa…” It felt like my blood was being pulled out of my body through the top of my head.
I probably don’t have much mana left. This is bad… I-I’m going to pass out… How many more of them are there…?
“Bwaaak!”
Another bird-head… I steeled myself and raised my arm once more.
“Paralyze!”
“Bwaa—”
It froze, but that moment I stumbled to the side, my world turning white. I tried to stay focused on the monsters around me…
“What the hell…”
Reinforcements had arrived, marching into my field of vision. Five more, coming from all directions…and even more beyond them?
This was really, really bad.
“…”
I don’t quite know why, but…I began to laugh.
“Heh, if this is how you’re gonna play it, then…”
I’ll use every last drop.
I could barely stay on my feet. My mind was fading, grasping onto consciousness through sheer force of will.
“C’mon, come and get me…!”
Every last drop.
“I’ll stop fighting when I drop dead! Paralyze! Paralyze! Paralyze! Paralyze! Pa…ra…”
I felt something snap inside me. My body swayed dangerously.
I guess that was the end of the MP.
My legs wouldn’t hold me up. I could feel my consciousness being sucked under.
“I guess my mind gave out first…heh…no, wait…I can…one more…if this is the end…then…one more…”
I raised my trembling hand.
Last one…
“I’ll…show them…what a background character can do… Mimori Tou-”
My last moment alive…
“Bwa! Bwaaanng…”
What was that? Sounded like…a monster’s last cry of agony before it…died…
Level up!
Instantly, my energy returned. My mind cleared, vivid and focused.
Level 1 → Level 258
Wh-what was that? What just happened?
“Paralyze!”
Why?
The leaping minotaur froze in mid-air.
“Paralyze! Paralyze! Paralyze—!”
Why did my level increase?
“Oh.”
I spared a glance for the original bird-head, lying face down. The first monster I’d poisoned had finally breathed its last.
I remembered the hooded figure saying that I would grow slowly, that I’d need a ton of experience to level up. So the monsters in the Ruins of Disposal must provide an enormous EXP gain.
You’re probably not meant to be able to kill them at all.
When I first encountered the minotaur and bird-head, they’d both moved slowly and deliberately. They’d underestimated me and paid the price. If they’d recognized me as a threat right off, they could’ve killed me before I had a single chance to use my skills. But they let their guards down, sure that I was too weak to worry about.
Trash like that wouldn’t even take ten percent of my strength to crush.
Does my MP regenerate when I level up? Do I only get half back, or a full bar? Do I only gain the new mana from my stat modifier?
If I keep targeting these monsters—keep leveling up, then…
“I can keep fighting! Paralyze!”
I can do this. By the skin of my teeth…I’m gonna pull this off!
“Paralyze! Paralyze! Paralyze!”
Skill level up!
Level 1 → Level 2
Nice, that’s probably for Paralyze.
It seemed that skill EXP and level EXP were separate, and I had to use a skill a certain number of times to level it up…? Even after my level shot up, I didn’t seem to gain any new skills—I had no way to figure out how to get more of them.
“First, I need to focus on getting out of here…!”
Using my mana was totally intuitive, luckily. And as I looked out at the monsters, another revelation struck me.
“Whoa, no way… I can already do that…?”
Multiple targets.
A triangle mark appeared above the heads of all the monsters in my field of view. I raised my arm…
“Paralyze.”
They stopped in unison. Paralysis successful.
Maybe the Goddess is the only one my skills can’t affect.
Since I was sent to the ruins, they hadn’t failed me yet—a 100% success rate.
I laughed menacingly.
“So there it is. If just one gave me that much EXP…if I kill every single one, I’ll be drowning in it! Hah!”
While the other monsters were shoving their way through the paralyzed crowd, I used another skill on the motionless creatures spread out before me.
“Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison, Poison—”
Skill level up!
Level 1 → Level 2
These monsters just look like walking, oozing experience points to me now.
I backed up to the wall and sank to sit on the floor. Monsters lay motionless in front of me, slowly having their lives drained away by the poison.
“How many of these things were living down here…?”
The paralyzed creatures formed a disorganized semi-circle around me. New monsters pushed the others out of their way, acid erupting from the holes in their bodies.
Fresh prey.
The eyes of the frozen, sickly, bubbling things pierced me as I watched.
“As soon as I can move again, I’m going to murder you,” they seemed to say.
“Just try it,” I said, glaring right back. “I’ll kill you before you get the chance.”
My skin felt tight, tingling.
For some reason, the monsters’ murderous looks filled me with a strange sense of relief. Maybe all this hate aimed at me made it easier to kill them without mercy.
I couldn’t look them in the eyes for too long—keeping an eye on their gauges was more important. And maybe this was a chance to learn something new about my skills—I had a lot of theories to test out.
Does the poison deal the same damage every time, or is it somewhat random?
I couldn’t test that now—I needed to stay focused and prepared to cast Sleep if it was needed.
Huh…I still haven’t checked if I can stack paralysis and sleep on the same target. That would be good to know now. But first, I’d better check how much MP I have left.
“Status Open.”
Too-ka Mimori
Level 258
HP: +774 MP: +8194 / 8514
Attack: +774 Defense: +774 Vitality: +774
Speed: +774 Intelligence: +774
Title: E-Class Hero
Well, my stat modifiers had definitely gotten better.
3 times 258 is 774…so they’re multiplied by my level.
And since my starting MP value was actually decent, my mana was much higher—a huge relief, since my mana was my only lifeline down here.
So, did the MP I used on skills recover when I leveled up?
I didn’t know what to make of the other stat modifiers, though. If Oyamada’s vitality was +500 at level 1, maybe mine weren’t as good as they looked.
Well, at least I feel like I got some stamina back after leveling up.
“Grraa…nngh…”
Somewhere, a minotaur breathed its last.
Level up!
Level 258 → Level 277
I waited a while longer. Another minotaur gasped and wheezed out its final breath—then another, then another…
Level up!
Level 277 → Level 321
More time passed. Other than the first bird-head I’d poisoned, only minotaurs had died so far—the bird-headed monsters must’ve had a lot more H
P.
“Bwaaak! Bwa…”
“Oh?”
Finally, it happened.
Level up!
Level 321 → Level 395
“Looks like the bird-head ones give better EXP.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t see any detailed information about experience points on my stat display. There was no “this much EXP to the next level” marker like you see in a lot of games.
It sucks to play a stamina-based game and not get to use all your mana before a level-up. It feels like a waste if you’re going to be back at full MP at the next level anyway. Huh…maybe knowing what it’s like to be poor made me more sensitive to this stuff.
“Anyway…”
I opened my stats to check my mana.
MP: +13035 / 13035
Completely restored, like I thought. My skills cost 10 MP to use, so I can use them 1303 times. And there are still monsters alive here—once they die, I should level up again. If I can stack effects on all of them…
“I could farm them for skill experience.”
I locked on to one of the bird-headed monsters and raised my hand.
“Sleep.”
It didn’t fall since it was still paralyzed where it stood, but its eyes closed.
“It works. Sleep and Paralyze stack.”
Two gauges were now displayed above the monster, yellow and blue—Paralyze and Sleep. Now even when the Paralyze gauge wore off, I wouldn’t need to reapply sleep right away. That moment of risk when the monsters could move around was gone—my combo was flawless. The Poison effect continued to bubble.
Now I can farm them for skill experience with all this excess mana. With the amount of EXP they’re giving out, I should level up at least a few more times.
No need to hold back, then…
“Sleep! Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Sleep—”
I walked around to each paralyzed monster, stacking the effect on them.
“Sleep, Sleep—”
Skill Level Up!
Level 1 → Level 2
There it is. Now Sleep is level 2 as well.
The monsters around me croaked their last, one after another.
Level up!
Level 395 → Level 501
“That’s about all the Sleep I can stack…”
Looking at the numbers, I was sadly letting a large amount of mana go to waste. But considering I almost died when I ran out of MP earlier, I couldn’t complain too much about having extra.
The minotaurs outside my protective paralyzed circle glared at me one more time, then a few turned and withdrew into the caves.
“Did they give up on killing me…?”
Suddenly, the bird-headed monsters all opened their mouths wide as if in fear.
“B-bwaaaaak!”
In one motion, they flocked together and ran, their four arms flapping like wings against the rock.
“Bwaa-kk!”
They thought they were getting an easy meal, but then their buddies were frozen in place, turned purple and sickly, and eventually died. Makes sense that they’d realize this human is too risky to fight.
They might be monsters in the Ruins of Disposal, but they’re still living things, then—they value their lives.
I gazed after the retreating horde.
“What do I do now?” I asked myself. “Chase them down and kill them?”
No, not now. Not that I’m feeling particularly compassionate or anything…but my goal is to reach the surface, and I’ve probably leveled up enough for that. Next, I need to explore and get my bearings.
Standing up slowly, I looked in the direction the mintoaurs had fled. I hadn’t been able to properly search the place where I was first teleported in—there might’ve been something useful there. I’d only seen that one half-skull before the minotaur’s attack distracted me from searching for loot.
“No harm in going to check.” There could be all kinds of stuff left by those other discarded warriors.
I can’t let my guard down, though—a surprise attack or an ambush could finish me off before I get a chance to use any of my status effects. Without them, those monsters could probably kill me in a single hit. That Goddess has probably sent S-Class heroes down here before, so I doubt my E-Class stats will do me any good, even after gaining all those levels.
So I always need to make the first move. I can’t get hit, no matter what. That’s all I need to focus on—not getting hit.
I made it back to my starting point, still organizing my thoughts. I raised my illuminated pouch.
Right now, darkness is more dangerous to me than light—even if it attracts their attention, I can’t hit what I can’t see.
Well…as long as nothing down here has a projectile weapon.
“I don’t see anything useful down here…”
I did find a bunch of human bones half-dissolved by acid, probably killed by a minotaur. There were a few weapons, but they’d mostly been ruined by the acid, too—they’d just be dead weight I’d have to carry.
“Guess this is it. Hunh.”
I’d managed to find a black overcoat on one of the skeletons and a rusted-but-intact shortsword. I gratefully wrapped the warm coat around my shoulders to shut out the cold of the cave; then I took the shortsword from its leather scabbard and checked the blade. I wasn’t sure it’d be much use, but it looked functional enough, so I jammed it into my leather pouch. I had to hold the pouch in my left hand to keep my right free for skills. I’d found that they only worked if I locked onto a target by pointing at it, so I needed the free hand.
It was hard to imagine the shortsword hurting one of those monsters, but maybe it would come in handy for defense? The reverberation when I’d tried to cut bird-head’s monstrously tough hide had traumatized me a little.
Soon I caught sight of the magic circle carved into the rocks that I’d arrived on.
“This magic circle thing…I doubt I can use it, right?” I had to assume that only the foul Goddess could make them work, otherwise prisoners would always just go right back through.
“…”
I wonder what my classmates are doing now… No. Don’t think about them. Think about all the danger you’re in. About how to survive, and how to get to the surface, any way you can.
I started a more thorough search of the cave, even returning to the battlefield I’d just left. The mountain of monster corpses remained, of course, untouched.
“Now that I see them all laid out like this…there sure are a lot of them.” It felt like the battle had happened in a past life. I peered forward into the cave the bird-heads had retreated through.
“Time to try a new direction.”
I came out of the tunnel into a wide open cavern, too large to illuminate with my leather pouch. The ceiling was high, with jagged stalactites hanging down like you’d see in a limestone cave.
Grrrgh…grrr…
I was trying to ignore it, but my stomach won’t let me…I’m starving. Thirsty, too. I haven’t eaten since before I got on the bus.
Sprinting around escaping monsters and battling them to the death really worked up a sweat. I’d lost a lot of liquid. I’d kept an eye open for a puddle or water source on the way here, but no luck yet.
First obstacle: monsters…cleared. Next up: food and water.
Monsters were one thing, but food and water were a more fundamental problem.
“Nothing I can do but keep going…”
Do those monsters eat and drink? Maybe I can find their food source.
I walked slowly through the expanding dark.
The Runaway
THE WOOD WAS lush and deep. Warm sunlight dappled the cool forest floor and danced on the ripples on the surface of the water.
A girl stood bathing, completely naked, knee-deep in the river. The sun shone down on her through the trees, making her silken, milky white skin sparkle. She was thin, but not too thin, and her long white-blond hair was damp and clung to her round, voluptuous breasts. She gently pulled i
t back and tucked it behind an ear.
Have all these sleepless nights of running brought me any further from harm…?
She’d finally thrown off her overly persistent pursuers, and this forest would make a good hiding place. Hermits would throw away all their worldly cares to make the forest their home, so why couldn’t she? Although the girl hadn’t been raised here, she’d spent enough time exploring its twists and turns to be sure she could stay undetected here for a while.
The water was warm and welcome against her skin. Taking a wet cloth in one hand, she began to wash herself. It was her first true bath in quite some time. Washing away the bad and becoming clean and pure again felt good, like running through a cool breeze. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a chance to bathe—not since she’d been forced into the harsh life of a runaway. Her clear blue eyes shone with sorrow.
When will I be able to rest again…? How long will this go on?
A soft wind swept through the trees, lightly carressing her naked form. Above her, the cloudless sky stretched out for miles above the rustling leaves, but her heart was grey, heavy with rain.
Mimori Touka
I KEPT WALKING. Everything looked the same.
I found a path that appeared to lead upward, but it just took me past more of the same kinds of caves and rocks I’d been seeing for hours now.
At least it felt like hours…I was feeling faint and tired.
“…”
How long has it actually been? It sure feels like a long time, but I can’t tell down here.
No clocks, no sun to rise—just monotonous dark. My sense of time felt broken.
Grrrgh…grrrgh…
“Haah, Haah…”
I can level up and improve my stats, but I’m still going to get hungry. Hell, I’m hungry now. But that’s not even the main problem…I desperately need water, and soon.
“Haah… Haah…”
The soles of my shoes, like my nerves, were slowly being worn away.
Have to stay alert…monsters could be around any corner. Can’t space out…
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells Vol. 1 Page 7