Chapter 30 - (Chapter 84): Experiment

I haven't read the LN so I don't know exactly how far it goes up to but going off the Volume 4 cover it's right around where we are now with those hair colors.
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Year 7442, Month 8, Day 15


After finishing the naming ceremony at the temple in the same way as Zulu and Angela was handed over to me. I told Zenom and the others at dinner last night she finally obtained a new slave and I intended to buy her. Accompanied by Angela I walk towards the restaurant we're meeting up at for lunch. After I entered the place together with Angela and Ralpha called out to us from a table near the edge*.

"Is that person the new combat slave you mentioned?"

What the, was this the only place a table was open? I reply to Ralpha who called out to us while she was looking at Angela as if evaluating her.

"That's right, I tested her skill yesterday. Her swordsmanship is about the same as Bel."

I said that and turned around to Angela then said.

"Angela, everyone here is my party. Greet them."

After I said that and Angela fixed her posture and politely said.

"My name is Malso Angela. I'm a slave that is serving master starting today. I'm looking forward to working together with you."

After she finished her introduction and Bel opened her mouth.

"My name is Bernadett Koloil. Sit down here. Also, it's fine if you call me Bel."

After Bel said that she moved to the next seat to her right and opened a seat to her left between her and Ralpha. Angela made a surprised expression and wondering what she should do she kept looking between Bel and I. I nod to Angela and,

"In my place don't worry about that sort of thing. Sit."

After saying that I saw to the left of Zulu. Angela said, "Excuse me." as she sat between Ralpha and Bel.

"My name is Ralpha Firefreed. It's fine if you call me Ral."
"I'm Zenom Firefree."

Ralpha and Zenom introduced each other in succession. Next is Zulu.

"I'm Dadino.Zulu. I serve master the same as you. Call me Zulu. Also, all the people other than me aren't slaves."

Yeah, it seems that greetings are done. Then, let's eat.

After calling the waiter and everyone started ordering the things they want to eat. Oh~ I forgot to tell Angela about it.

"Angela, don't restrain yourself. It's the job of a slave to eat and create a healthy body. Ask for as much of whatever you want to eat. Ah, I want the pork saute and boiled fish. If you have any Keiswago then make it that. Also, beer."

"Al. You never eat vegetables. Eat some vegetables as well. Bring a head of cabbage. Cut it into four parts. Then put mayonnaise on difference small plates to dip it in."

Be quiet~ Did you think the one saying that was Ralpha? That's exactly right, I don't know why but this ex-high school girl always tries to get everyone to eat raw vegetables. It seems that even Zulu is starting to fed up with it but recently Bel has started to align with Ralpha. Since you're a rabbit it's fine. Furthermore, since it's something she's done for quite a while Zenom is completely used to it.

"..Umm, is it really okay?"

Angela asked Zulu in a whisper to confirm.

"Yeah, it's fine. Feel free to eat whatever you like. I was surprised at first as well though."

It seems Zulu is asking for fried meat. However, this guy won't drink alcohol. Since he's physically older than me, he should just drink. Even after confirming Angela still wasn't sure what to order and in the end she chose the fried meat the same as Zulu. Today is Wednesday so it's a day off. After the food came out Zulu paid for his own portion. Seeing that Angela's eyes went wide. Of course, it's not a large amount. The fried meat is just 350 Z and the bread is 20 Z. I smiled at Angela as she was worrying and paid for her food before saying.

"In my party I pay the slaves all at once at the end of the month the wages for that month. For this month I'll pay for everything that you need. And the days we enter the dungeon are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We take Wednesday and Saturday off to rest our bodies. Just, on Saturday only in the morning we do training to practice our ability to cooperate with each other. From here on out I'll be giving you wages but after that starts you'll pay for your own lunch on Wednesday and Saturday. The meal and lodging other than that I'll continue paying for though."

Even looking from normal common sense in this world it doesn't appear like I'm treating my slaves special. Well, the amount I'm paying I think is decently high for a slave though. Normally you either pay them wages and leave their daily necessities up to themselves or in return for looking after everything for them you only pay them a tiny amount of wages, it's commonly one of those. If you were to ask which one is more common then in town areas it's the former but there is a decent number of the latter as well. In farm villages it's the reverse and the majority take the latter option.

"Putting that aside, today I have a bit of business to take care of after this. After we finish eating I'll go and buy some equipment for Angela but after that just make sure you check on how to cooperate."

After saying that I crunched away at some cabbage with mayonnaise. I really want some spicy miso for raw cabbage. The one like which came with fried chicken in Japan. It seems that Zulu isn't good with cabbage and it's easy to tell he's trying to hold back from it but Ralpha is mercilessly telling him to eat it too. Since he's a Lion-people race, go easy on him.

After we finished eating, we went off to prepare Angela's equipment. Since it seems her weapon is the sword I figured I would let her choose. I'm sure there's balance, length, and differences in peoples tastes like that. After that is..I'm sure leather armor is necessary as well. After purchasing a broadsword for 1,000,000 Z we ordered some leather armor at the store which made Zulu's armor. It was 520,000 Z.

After that I told Zulu to tell everyone to properly teach her about coordinating movements in the party and decided to leave the rest to them.




...............




Right now I'm entering the dungeon alone. There was a bit of something that I wanted to confirm. Recently in going to the dungeon we've gotten a good grasp on the combat ability of our party and how to properly coordinate our movements, and I've somewhat understood about the rules of experience gain. Next is level up. What sort of rules do ability values increase during level up, I wanted to know that. I've created somewhat of a hypothesis but I want to confirm if that's correct.

【Alan.Greed/5/3/7429 】
【Male/14/2/7428 ・ Human ・ Viscount Greed Family Second Son】
【Status： Normal】
【Age： 14 Years Old】
【Level： 11】
【HP： 110(110)　MP: 7425(7425) 】
【Strength： 17】
【Speed： 19】
【Dexterity： 16】
【Endurance： 18】
【Unique Ability：Identify(MAX)】
【Unique Ability：Gift of Natural Talent(Lv.8)】
【Special Ability：Earth Magic(Lv.8)】
【Special Ability：Water Magic(Lv.7)】
【Special Ability：Fire Magic(Lv.7)】
【Special Ability：Wind Magic(Lv.8)】
【Special Ability: Void Magic(Lv.8)】
【Experience：156221(210000)】

It's about the ability points that increased during my level up the other day. Thanks to my running other than my level up my Endurance increased by 1 point. It's limited to my guess but you say that the effect of my training appeared just like Mill. Since I'm continuing my running I feel like it might get even higher.

Different from that something strange happened with my level up this time. My HP didn't increase. In exchange for that my Endurance increased. MP, Strength, Speed, Dexterity, and Endurance all increased by 1 point each, and in exchange for my HP not increasing my Endurance increased 1 more point. Starting from the conclusion and this is more convenient for me. Rather than gaining 1 HP on level up it's better for Endurance to increase because in the end you gain 2 HP as well (since my Endurance increased by a total of 2 points my HP increased 4 points for that portion), so I think it's more convenient for the ability points in Endurance to increase.

I've only experienced one of my ability points increasing once in the past. During my first level up. Other than my Strength increasing by 1 point at that time my MP increased by 5 points, and nothing else increased at all. I wonder why my HP didn't increase this time? As a matter of fact I thought about this last night. My last level up was at the start of this year when I was still in Bakuddo. All of my ability points increased that time. The difference between that time and this time. I tried thinking about the differences between that time and my first level up. My memories have gotten a bit vague in a few places but I've created a hypothesis which I think is largely correct.

That is what you can see in the sub-window of Identify 【During level up the number one and number two abilities that you used the most prior to leveling will increase by 1 point. HP and MP is included in these abilities. However, if you're in possession of a Unique Ability then the ability points that increase will be the first ~ sixth. 】 I was able to imagine it. The "However" part after that is in red probably because it only involves reincarnated people but the problem is the details written down.

"During level up the abilities that you used the most prior to leveling" is written there but this is the suspicious portion. During my first level up, the majority of the experience I had gained was related to using magic and after that just swinging the sword. In other words, magic and the muscles in my arm from swinging the sword. If I remember correctly it was around when I was 5 years old. I couldn't do any proper swinging of the sword using my entire body so I was just swinging it with my arms. After learning from that level up I started to do as much exercise as I could and started enthusiastically training with the sword. Moreover in order to use my body more I made the bayonet and I started training bayonet fighting while remembering my past life. I guess as an effect of that, every level up after that all of my abilities increased by 1 point each.

However, while I felt like I was continuing that but this time my HP didn't increase on level up. There's only one difference. The thing that is the same during my first level up and this time and differs from all the others. That's whether or not I was injured between leveling up. During the first time for my first 5 years as infant I never received any injury that could be called an injury.

Of course, there were times when I was bitten by bugs, and small scrapes as well, but HP doesn't decrease for things like that. HP doesn't decrease for small injuries. I think if you take a needle and stab somewhere that isn't fatal as deep as 1 cm then there probably won't be any change to your HP. If that occurs over several places for the first time along with a stabbing wound your HP would start to decrease.

And the period of time I was level 10 until the level up this time. In other words, starting from the end of January of this year until the other day for a period of about 8 months, I was never injured. I think the last time I was injured was when I had the practice match with Mill so it would be before that period. After I hit level 10, whether it be when I killed the parent and child Horned Bear that I had a long history with, when I killed Begulu, after that on my way to Baldukk, and my combat in the dungeon. I don't think I was injured even once.

With sustaining any injuries at all I went from level 10 to level 11. That's why during the period I was level 10, I didn't use my HP ability even once..though that way of wording it sounds weird..but I haven't used it. I wasn't conscious of any time my HP decreased during the period I was level 10. I wonder if I can deliberately select what abilities increase on level up by thinking that I didn't use MP or didn't use my muscles in the same way as that time. I tried making a hypothesis for that.

Honestly speaking, putting aside HP there's one ability that I don't want to raise and in exchange for that I want any other ability t go up. I don't think it even needs to be said but it's MP. In my case, thanks to my Unique Ability I was able to increase my MP by exhausting my mana countless times, so I don't need anymore than this. Currently it's even difficult to completely use up my magic unless I use intentionally trying to do that. In that case then even if HP increases it's still more useful to my survival. That's why this is an experiment.

It's probably impossible for me to stop using MP. I use it to assist the front attackers and if someone gets injured I use it to heal. There's no other choice than to give up on that. I think I can do pretty well with just close combat but not taking any injuries at all requires too much luck and if I even get injured just once I'll end up using healing magic.

The details of the experiment this time are like this.

- Until I either consume half of my mana or I go as far as I can in two hours.
- I use magic to fight as much as possible. In any case, I keep in mind not to take any injuries.
- However, another large increase in just MP would be a problem so I need to do a bit of close combat.
- I try my best to decrease the enemies and then enter close combat in one-on-one situations.

I'm going to try experimenting like this. If a good number of Orks or Hobgoblins appear then I should be able to level up within a few days. For a while my days off will disappear but either way the only thing I'm going other than running is walking or resting. Since I haven't stood at the front during combat much lately and since we rotate the order of who stands at the lead when exploring the dungeon my mental and physical fatigue aren't as bad as when we first started. If it's no good then it's fine if I run away with my tail between my legs.

After I teleported into the dungeon I confirmed my surroundings. It's in the middle of a cave that we always teleport in to. I guess I'll try going this way. Even if I confirm the map, in this tasteless cave that goes straight in both directions I can't even tell where I am until I get to a curve or split path, so it doesn't matter which direction I go.

I face one direction, brace my legs, raise my left hand forward, and use wind magic. I'm using void magic to send a large amount of air created with mana forward. Unlike outside since this is inside a cave with walls and ceiling the air that's created is limited on where it can disperse but since I'm using void magic to push the suddenly generated air in front of me I don't get blown backwards. The reason I'm bracing my legs is just because I somehow felt that would be a good idea.

The reason why I'm doing something like this is in order to blow away the dirt that's covering pitfalls. In the 1st floor I'm on the majority of the traps are pitfalls and rarely there's a different trap that just lets out a loud noise. Although, the noise it makes can lure monsters over so without a doubt it's a dangerous trap, other parties of adventurers who try to avoid combat as much as possible hate them.

As far as I can there doesn't seem to be any traps. Even then I can't completely relax so I carefully move forward. After advancing a bit this time I use the spell {Audible Clamor} several times in succession as far as I can see about 40 m ahead and cause a large rupturing sound a number of times. With this if there's any monsters nearby then even if they don't notice the wind they'll come over here wondering what it is. I use Identify look ahead.

In any case I need to decrease their numbers as much as possible before they get close to here and think about the methods that it would be possible to wipe them out with. It's fine to bury them with dirt or ice but if I do that then I might end up burying the cave. If I ended up sealing off the only path the 2nd floor by mistake then things would be bad so I should avoid that. Otherwise only as a last resort. If I really felt like I needed to use it then it would be troublesome but I can erase it later after all.

Also, I'm sure a large number of monsters will attack me. Since I'm alone here I need to pay attention to the speed they charge at me as well. Though, if they can move faster than my eyes can see them it would be different but I doubt there's any that can go at a speed like a jet engine. As far as I know the fastest on Orth is the falcon. Though I think they can go at a super speed of 300 Km per hour during descent but I really doubt there's a living creature that can go that speed inside of a cave so I doubt anything will be able to reach me before I can use some kind of magic. And even if it comes to a dangerous situation it's just a matter of using magic with all my power 50 m ahead and then immediately retreating to the teleport crystal and running out of the dungeon.

After a few minutes a group of monsters appeared. Che...Goblins, I'm out of luck. I used {Wind Cutter} while putting a bit of extra mana into it and wiped them out in a few seconds. I haven't bothered counting them, I think there were over 10 of them but I only gained roughly 1,000 experience points. I guess I'll leave once. I quickly grab the teleport crystal and teleport to one of the small rooms on the side of the small room where you teleport. I go to the teleport room once again. As long as you don't leave the building where the entrance to the dungeon is then you can enter and leave the dungeon as many times as you want.

There's people who make use of this re-entering the dungeon countless times until they get to an easy to recognize terrain. I use the teleport crystal to re-enter the dungeon the same as them. Just the same I lure over monsters and use magic to wipe them all out except for a few weak monsters. If think I repeat this a number of times then I doubt I'll take any injuries and can earn some experience points.

I wonder how many times I've repeated it? I think I've already done it 5-6 times. The only monsters that appeared every time were goblins. Since the value of their magic stones is low I just left the corpses as is but I've probably already killed 70-80 of them. Oh~ come to think of it, while goblins are weak, they give low experience points, and their magic stones aren't worth much but I can earn experience points towards the Gift of Natural Talent. If I keep putting some effort into it like this then after a few more days of just killing goblins I should be able to get the level of my Gift of Natural Talent to MAX. This was an unexpected byproduct. Then I guess even if the opponent is just goblins it should be fine as long as I make up for in numbers so I'll put some effort into it like this.

The experience points in my Gift of Natural Talent right now is 1524 (2560). Putting it simply the number of monsters I've killed until now is a total of 1,524. Sorry, I lied. Since I occasionally got about 10 experience points from practice matches so I think it's a lot less. I guess about 500 monsters would be right? As expected 1,500 is saying I've defeated too many. The majority of those are Goblins and Leeches. Since there was almost never large monsters like Hobgoblins. Since I was living a lifestyle where I only went hunting 1-2 times a month, so that sounds about right.

In any case, if I kill another 1,000 monsters or so then the level of my Gift of Natural Talent should increase and it'll be even easier for me to gain experience points. Even gnolls would be fine so once I fight something other than goblins I'll stop for today. Thinking that I teleported into the dungeon again. Gnolls finally appeared. Thinking it would be the last I used {Chain Lightning} in continuously and wiped all of them out but one. The last remaining gnoll was seriously injured as well so I easily stabbed it to death. The experience from 12 gnolls was just above 3,000. It's annoying but I can't overlook the magic stones from gnolls. They have a value of 2,000 each. In terms of money that's 20,000 Z. If I sell them it should be about 14,000 Z each. I can pay the tax to enter the dungeon with just 1 and still have some leftover. I quickly gathered the magic stones and went home for today.

Just as I expected the magic stones came out to a total of 162,000 Z. I earned around 9,000 experience points in today as well. If I crush another 2-3 weeks of days off then I should know the results of my experiment.


If I kill another XXXX monsters or so then the level of my XXXX should increase and it'll be even easier for me to gain experience points. 

Welcome to the world of RPGs, Al, you are now officially hooked.