I sit down once with my back against the wall.
Right in front of me are the monsters that remain unable to move due to paralysis while their lives are slowly drained away by poison.
"How many of these things are nesting here?"
The paralyzed monsters form an awkward semicircular wall.
The next "prey" pushes aside the paralyzed ones and approaches.
It sprays acid from the holes in its body.
The poisonous-colored monsters' gazes stab into me.
Anger.
Hatred.
Killing intent.
The moment their bodies can move again, they will kill me instantly.
It feels almost as if I can hear the monsters' inner voices.
"Kill him."
I glare back.
"I'll kill you before you get the chance to kill me."
My skin prickles on the surface.
Why is that?
Strangely, right now I even feel a sense of relief from the monsters' killing intent.
Because as long as they direct killing intent at me—I can poison and kill them without hesitation.
However, I cannot afford to spend all my time locked in a staring contest.
I have to keep a close eye on the remaining gauge time.
There are still many things I need to determine.
If I keep observing, I might discover something new.
"..."
Is the poison damage constant?
Or does it have some variance?
The paralysis has not worn off yet.
The paralysis might end before they die from the poison.
If the paralysis expires, I will need to apply [Sleep].
It is still too early to relax.
This is not yet the time to let my guard down.
"By the way..."
I should test whether I can stack sleep on top of paralysis.
It is about time to check.
"But before I test—"
I should confirm my MP first.
"Status open."
[Touka Mimori]
LV 258
HP: +774
MP: +8194 / 8514
Attack: +774
Defense: +774
Stamina: +774
Speed: +774
Intelligence: +774
[Title: E-Class Hero]
Considering the original values, this is an explosive increase in stats.
3 × 258 = 774.
I see.
It multiplies.
MP is abnormally high probably because the base was already high.
This is a huge help.
Right now, MP is my lifeline.
The fuel for my unique skill.
If it runs out, Mimori Touka is completely finished.
By the way, it seems MP fully recovers upon level up.
"So what about the other correction values... how are they?"
I recall Oyamada had stamina +500 at LV 1.
In that case, my corrections might not be that impressive.
They could be called typical E-class corrections.
Well, whatever.
Thanks to the level ups, my fatigue has eased a little.
I feel like my stamina has recovered somewhat too.
"Buru, go, a—..."
[Level up.]
One Minotaur finally runs out of strength.
[LV 258 → LV 277]
I wait a while.
[Level up.]
One after another, the Minotaurs breathe their last.
[LV 277 → LV 321]
Quite a bit of time has passed.
But aside from the very first one, not a single bird head has died yet.
The bird heads seem to have considerably higher HP.
"Ko, po, ko, ke—..."
"Oh?"
[Level up.]
Finally, one bird head runs out of strength.
[LV 321 → LV 395]
"So bird heads give better experience efficiency."
Unfortunately, the status display does not show experience points.
There is no "experience needed for next level" indicator or anything like that.
For someone familiar with stamina-based mobile games...
It feels a little wasteful that I had MP left just before leveling up.
If it fully recovers on level up, I would rather burn through as much MP as possible right before.
I guess I am just stingy that way.
"Now then."
I open status again.
I check the MP display.
MP +13035 / 13035
Full recovery.
As expected, it fully recovers on level up.
The unique skill costs 10 MP per use.
That means I can use it 1303 times.
There are still plenty of living monsters.
If I keep gaining their experience, my level should continue to rise for a while.
"In short—"
If I can keep stacking,
"I might be able to farm skill experience too."
▽
I lock on with my gaze.
I raise my hand toward the bird heads.
"[Sleep]"
It does not fall.
It does not fall because it is paralyzed.
"But."
Its eyes are closed.
Success.
Which means,
"It works."
Stacking paralysis and sleep.
Two gauges are displayed.
Yellow and blue.
Paralysis and sleep.
Now I no longer need to wait for the [Paralyze] gauge to fully expire before applying [Sleep].
There will not be even a single instant where the monster can act.
I can completely eliminate the risk.
The poison effect continues as well.
Perfect combo—complete.
This also lets me rack up skill uses.
I still have plenty of MP remaining.
And with that amount of experience.
My level should keep rising for a while yet.
"All right..."
Now that I know,
"[Sleep]! [Sleep], [Sleep], [Sleep], [Sleep], [Sleep]—"
I stack them one after another.
"[Sleep], [Sleep]—"
[Skill level increased.]
[LV 1 → LV 2]
Yes.
It went up.
Now [Sleep] is level 2 as well.
"Bu, ri, o—"
"Pa ri, pi, o—"
The poisoned monsters die one after another in quick succession.
[Level up.]
[LV 395 → LV 507]
"For now, I have stacked as much [Sleep] as I can..."
Numerically speaking, I wasted a considerable amount of MP.
But it could not be helped.
Well, having plenty of remaining MP is not a bad thing.
Just a little while ago I was on the verge of death from MP depletion.
Compared to then, this is heaven and earth.
And,
"Since my MP is full again—"
I glare at the surrounding monsters.
"Hm?"
"Gu, ru—bu, uu..."
What?
"The Minotaurs that were gathering... are retreating...?"
Thud, thud, thud...
They turn their backs and leave.
The incoming Minotaur reinforcements.
"Did they give up?"
On killing me.
"Paparu n— papii, kokkokkokko...!"
Suddenly, the bird heads open their beaks wide as if gripped by panic.
"Puchi, koro... korokoro, kko— koo!"
The bird heads start spinning in place.
"Ko, koe eee!"
All at once, the bird heads turn their backs.
They flee as a group.
Flapping their four arms like wings,
"Koe ee!"
They run away.
Their comrades keep dying meaninglessly.
They suddenly become unable to move.
They turn purple and bubbles rise with a pop pop.
After a while, they die.
The cause seems to be that human.
Fighting and killing that human carries too high a risk...
Well, that is just my imagination.
But probably something like that?
Even as monsters of the discard ruins, they are still living creatures.
It seems they value their lives.
I gaze blankly at the fleeing monsters.
"So what now?"
I ask myself.
"Should I chase after them and kill them?"
No...
Not right now.
Not out of mercy.
My goal is to reach the surface.
My level has risen enough.
There are other things I need to do.
Explore the ruins.
Investigate this discard ruin.
Search for a path to the surface.
I stand up slowly.
I look in the direction the Minotaurs fled.
The area I could not thoroughly explore earlier.
The transfer point.
"For now, let's go back once."
The first place discarded heroes arrive.
There might be something useful there.