I swiftly shuffled across as a Hobgoblin drove its fist towards me with a bellowing roar, which whizzed past my right side, before I lunged forward and whipped my blade across, slashing along the length of its arm and eliciting a snarl of pain from the Monster.
As I shot past it, I spun around and raised my gun, taking aim and firing a Pulse Bullet at the back of its head, a sharp grunt of pain ringing out as I hit my mark, spasms erupting across its skin as it spun around with a furious roar and raised its fists up.
I leapt forward as it began to swing them down, plunging my blade into the middle of its chest before pressing the barrel of my gun against its solar plexus and pulling the trigger, the Monster shuddering as its body stiffened up sharply.
I kicked off its torso, pulling my blade back out with a sharp twist, blood streaming down its torso as it stumbled back shakily, before starting to back away and retreat.
"<Command: Don’t Move>," I swiftly chanted, the lumbering Monster freezing in place, straining against the effect paralyzing it, but to no avail.
I then approached it, its eyes trembling in fear as I chanted to manifest Drain, the misty white jaws engulfing the Hobgoblin and consuming all of its Mana.
"And, now...<Devour>."
Alright, and with that, the thirty-eighth floor has been cleared. All that’s left now is the Boss Room.
Over the last five or so floors, there have been groups of around fifteen to twenty Hobgoblins on each floor.
As far as Mid Level Dungeons go, this one would definitely be classified as a bit easier than average, though not quite to an extent where it’s deviated from the standard patterns.
In the Mid Level Dungeon I raided for my final exam, there were no Low Level Monsters whatsoever, while nearly half the floors in this one were full of nothing but Low Level Monsters.
Both of those variations are standard patterns for Mid Level Dungeons, some have entirely Mid Level Monsters until the Boss Room, and others have a mix of Low and Mid Levels...so while this one has been easier, it isn’t particularly unusual either.
And even the larger groups of Hobgoblins weren’t much of a problem. Since they’re so low on speed and agility, they’re basically just glorified targets, they’re way too slow to land any hits on me or evade my attacks.
They’re also not very intelligent, they just attack wildly and impulsively, and their coordination with each other is pretty poor, some of them actually ended up getting in the way of the others.
"I have to say, this is pretty damn impressive. You really made it through an entire Mid Level Dungeon with basically no help from us," Remarked Lector, as the others walked over.
"It’s not over yet, though, there’s still one more floor left to go," I replied with a smile, as I stretched my arms up with a sigh.
"The fact that you’ve made it this far unscathed makes it all the more impressive, you haven’t so much as been scratched yet," Chimed in Ferna.
"More than all that, how are you not completely and utterly exhausted at this point? You’ve been moving almost constantly, for almost five hours at this point, and you still look like you’ve got plenty of energy to spare," Added Elicia in bemusement.
"Well, uh...I have a way to restore my stamina, which I didn’t before. I’d rather not get into the details," I admitted sheepishly.
"You sure do have a lot of tricks, don’t you?" Responded Will, an envious look on his face.
"Heh, yeah, I guess I do. I’ve got energy to spare, but I think I’ll take a break before we head into the Boss Room. Not like there’s any reason to rush into it, after all," I remarked, before flopping onto the snow, letting out a slow exhale and watching the mist flow out of my mouth.
"Sounds good, you’ve made pretty good time, especially considering that you’re essentially fighting by yourself," Nodded Lector, as he and the others sat down.
Suppose I might as well take this opportunity to distribute the additional points I’ve gained, give myself a little boost before I take on the Dungeon Boss.
The Hobgoblins turned out to be an absolute goldmine with boosting my stats.
While they had low Agility and Perception, they had pretty high Strength and Vitality, and since I get one percent of the total stat points of the Monsters I consume, the points really stacked up over the last twenty floors.
Assuming the Dungeon Boss going to be an Ogre, I shouldn’t take any chances, so I’ll distribute the points I’ve gained now instead of waiting for after the raid.
While Ogres are classified at the same Threat Level as the Lycanthropes I fought in my last raid, they’re supposed to be a lot stronger.
It’s not like all the Monsters in the same Threat Level are equally strong, after all, just like with the ranks of Hunters.
There was a significant difference between the Hypersonic Bat in my first raid and the Lycanthropes in my last one, the former being a step above the latter.
Alright, I’ll divide up the points as I usually do, with a primary focus on Agility and Perception...there, that should do it:
Stats:
HP: 275 -> 375
MP: 305 -> 402
Strength: 280 -> 380
Agility: 350 -> 500
Vitality: 270 -> 370
Perception: 346 -> 496
Power Level: 304,300 -> 420,500
Potential: 304,300 -> 420,500
Awesome, this puts me close to the upper end of K-Rank. I need to get past a Power Level of 500,000 to cross the threshold into Ace Rank territory, so-...
<Warning, your current rate of growth will drastically slow down very soon>
<I estimate it will happen after you gain an additional fifty to sixty stat points>
Already?
Damn, I was hoping I’d at least be able to reach a Power Level of 450,000 before hitting that EXP curve.
Fifty points won’t be anywhere enough to get me to Ace level, guess I’m going to need to work a lot harder before much longer.
Honestly, at first, I thought gaining just one percent of the stats of the Monsters I use Devour and Drain on was a pretty low percentage, but those numbers really add up the more Monsters I consume.
This is only my fifth raid, and three of the previous fourwere Low Level Dungeons, and I’m already approaching the peak of K-Rank.
But even Low Level Dungeons have close to two hundred Monsters across all the floors, and naturally, the taller and higher-ranked Dungeons have a larger number of Monsters.
I guess my ability to grow more powerful through Devour and Drain is kinda like inflating a balloon, it’s easy and fast at first, but the bigger it gets, the more you have to strain to inflate it further.
<That is a bit inaccurate, since the rate of growth has remained constant, and once it slows down, your new rate will also remain constant until you reach the next slow-down, so-...>
I mean, we don’t really need an analogy, I think it’s pretty clear how it works.
Now, then...I think that should be enough of a break. Time to take on the Dungeon Boss.