Before joining the battle, I used [Appraisal] on these baby monkeys, but the results were quite disappointing — not a single one had a stat reaching three digits.
According to Seina, I could easily take them down, so I wanted to make things more fun instead of just fighting normally.
Hmm...
Oh, I've got an idea.
After that, I activated [Adamantine Body] and charged in at full speed.
Right at the entrance, I ran into a few monkeys and finally understood why they had such a weird name. On top of each monkey, there was another monkey — or rather, the upper half of one — growing out from its back. These weren't two separate monkeys, but a single one with an extra half glued on.
Confusing, right?
To sum it up, each monkey had another half-monkey torso fused on its back. They had white fur like me, but a lot uglier.
White is my signature color — no copycats allowed.
Take this!
I just charged forward. Any monkey in my path was out of luck. One hit was enough to either kill them instantly or leave them crippled on the ground.
This is exactly the game I wanted to play.
I kept slamming into everything — a death ball that brought doom to anything in its way. Even the walls collapsed when I crashed into them.
I was nothing short of a real death ball!
"You sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve," Seina said, scolding me.
It's fun, okay?
"You're such a child."
You're the child here! One second you're sarcastic, the next you're pouting for no reason.
"I don't pout for no reason! I have my reasons, okay?"
So you admit you were pouting?
"I..."
Come on, tell me what you're mad about.
"I'm not mad."
You totally are.
"I'm not!"
While bickering with Seina, I lost track of my surroundings. When I looked again, a ton of monkeys were lying all over the ground. Most were dead, and the rest could barely move.
Since I didn't block the entrance at first, a good number of monkeys managed to flee. But now, I used my [Spider Silk] to seal off the exit.
Just then, a mutated monkey charged at me. It wasn't much different from the others though — I sent it flying with one hit. It survived, but wasn't too badly injured.
Looks like the mutated ones are a bit tougher.
I casually used [Scan] on it.
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HP: 400/400
MP: 300/300
SP: 450/450
Attack: 1654
Defense: 1421
Magic: 502
Speed: 1539
Oh, it's a bit stronger than the mutated lizards, but its stats are still nowhere near mine, so it's no big deal.
To prove it, I turned and charged straight at it. The monkey tried to throw huge rocks at me, but they crumbled on impact. I only felt slightly sore.
Crash!
"Boom!"
It tried to block with its body, but its large frame got slammed, spitting blood as it crashed into a wall. I even heard bones break.
Yeah, that was rough.
Just like I said — only two hits, and that mutated monkey couldn't fight anymore. But I wasn't done playing death ball, so I didn't finish it off. After ramming and killing a few dozen more baby monkeys, I finally leveled up.
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My stamina was fully restored, so I just kept on rolling.
At that moment, I spotted another mutated monkey staggering out from another direction. It had a long wound across its chest — no doubt courtesy of senior Exc.
Where do you think you're going?!
"Boom!"
A loud crash echoed as the mutated monkey was blown away, collapsing part of the wall behind it.
Oh... it's dead?
Sorry about that.
I didn't pay much attention and continued with my mission — rolling around like a harmless ball. Any monkey that saw me coming tried to run away, but none could outrun me.
A few could only throw rocks in desperation, but they all vanished moments later.
Am I being too cruel?
"You're evil," Seina chimed in again.
You! You don't want to be a spider but want to defend the monkeys now?
"What's the difference, you idiot?"
Alright, I'm out here busting my butt fighting and you're just relaxing?
"You're basically playing around. And I'm not free, okay?! I'm still working on upgrading the energy supply system for the [Virtual World]!"
Huh? I've killed this many and it's still not enough energy?
"First, you're not collecting their souls, so it doesn't count as energy collection. Second, Suzu is using this place to test some magic-related stuff, so energy usage is massive. The spirits can't keep up with her consumption anymore."
Nai wa!
Why didn't you tell me sooner?!
I immediately stopped and began using [Soul Chain] to harvest their souls. The living ones had no escape, and even the ones I'd killed earlier still had lingering souls, so I got a few dozen more.
After deploying and retracting all the chains, nearly a hundred monkeys dropped, and half my SP vanished in an instant.
After catching my breath, I went back out to gather more.
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Sweet.
More SP for me to mess with.
Eventually, after running all over for an hour gathering monkeys, I managed to wipe out the entire bunch. I focused mainly on the baby monkeys while Exc handled the mutated ones.
Besides the two I crippled by ramming, the remaining three were killed by Exc. After that, he wandered off somewhere, only returning after I'd cleaned everything up.
When I asked, he just said he went sightseeing.
Tch. Like hell I believe that. But pressing him would've been awkward, so I let it go and went back to work.
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Killing the last monkey gave me another level-up. I guess that's the final reward from this hunt.
Oh wait — there's still stat checking.
Last time set a precedent, so I'm excited again.
This time, I killed one mutated monkey and 592 baby monkeys. The rest were either killed by Exc or managed to escape.
I asked Exc about EXP sharing, and he said that when a contract is made, any kills by the contracted creature also grant some experience to the contractor.
Seina later calculated that I likely received 30% of the total experience from Exc's kills.
So without delay, I used [Scan] on myself.
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HP: 325/325
MP: 230/230 (+300)
SP: 355/355
Attack: 6746 (+387)
Defense: 7054 (+380)
Magic: 5252 (+379)
Speed: 6874 (+427)
Nai waaaa!
I figured my stats would increase a lot, but... double?! If I keep having battles like this, who knows how strong I'll become?
Yahooo!
I'm invincible.
I'm the strongest!
Maybe I should stay here and wait for the dungeon to respawn so I can farm more? Max out my stats before heading deeper?
"There's no easy win like that, kid."
Huh? Does senior Exc know something?
"This dungeon only respawns its original monster population. The current overwhelming numbers came from years of breeding."
Oh. That's a shame.
"Don't worry. Just keep heading to the lower levels — you'll find plenty of places like this. And the numbers will be even crazier."
That many?
"There are so many it's impossible to count. One of humanity's biggest challenges in exploring this dungeon is how absurdly overpopulated it is."
Oh? In that case, guess I'll just keep heading down!