Chapter 53 - Party Exploration and the Specialty of Darkness

“2 Ogres. Both with weapons. Can you do it-nya?” (Grapefull)

Grapefull came back from her scouting.

Ogres are the strongest monsters of the 2nd Floor if we exclude the mantis. Moreover, having weapons makes them even stronger.

“Rifreya, can you defeat them if it were one on one?” (Hikaru)

“I can.” (Rifreya)

“Alright. Then, I will lure one to you. [Darkness Fog].” (Hikaru)

I blend into the darkness, approach them, and sink one into the darkness.

The monsters that get swallowed in darkness take time to process what’s happening, so you can incapacitate them for a while.

In that time, I lure the other one with Shadow Runner to Rifreya.

“[Summon Night Bug].” (Hikaru)

I have been fighting while trying to use Call of Darkness as much as possible…

This is the only ability I have that can deal direct damage.

It can deal a decent amount of damage even against an ogre.

The ogre was being bitten away by the bugs inside the darkness, and it was swinging around its weapon wildly.

It is not something I would want to approach directly.

I have gotten physical strength level 1, and my body can move a whole lot better as if I had become someone else. The dagger feels light now. I am sure my individual strength has increased to incomparable levels to before.

Even so, taking an attack of an ogre with a dagger. It isn’t impossible, but it is an action that has barely any safety to it.

It would be better to leave the final hit to Rifreya.

Rifreya is swinging her crazy big sword and is slashing the ogre.

A big sword with the length of the blade being 120cm and width being 20cm. She was swinging that gigantic sword, that would take my all to even lift up, freely.

“[Shadow Bind].” (Hikaru)

In this situation where Rifreya was in the superior position, dark tentacles create a slight opening.

The ogre had its limbs tied up and lost its balance.

With just that alone, Rifreya managed to easily cut its head off.

For the 2nd Floor monsters that are mostly humanoid, Shadow Bind is practically fatal.

Looks like Rifreya still has leeway here .

“Counting on you, Rifreya!” (Hikaru)

“Okay!” (Rifreya)

I move the Darkness Fog and bring the remaining ogre out from the darkness.

Rifreya dashed there as we previously arranged and she ended the ogre with a sweeping slash.

The ogre that came out from the darkness couldn’t deal with the slash.

More so when it was being annoyed by Night Bugs.

“Alright, good work. Are you injured, Rifreya?” (Hikaru)

“No, it was mostly one-sided after all.” (Rifreya)

“Then, let’s go to the next one.” (Hikaru)

We did several more battles after that.

Honestly speaking, with these members, hunting in the 2nd Floor is relatively easy.

We probably should be challenging the 3rd and 4th Floor, but this is our first day. We decided on adjusting our teamwork between party members in the 2nd Floor.

Thinking about the viewers, I should be living more on the edge…show battles of life or death, but I can’t just suddenly push Rifreya and Grapefull into danger.

The Viewer Count Race lasts 2 weeks.

“Uhm, aren’t you tired, Hikaru? You have been casting abilities one after the other.” (Rifreya)

“Not at all. I am only using 3-4 per battle after all.” (Hikaru)

“Wow…” (Rifreya)

Also, if I don’t use them, my proficiency won’t increase.

When the time requires it, I will use Crystals to buy spirit energy potions.

More importantly, right now it is battling.

Gotta earn money, and the way to get viewers fast really is battling. The reality is that the viewer count is increasing more and more, and it is maintaining 300 million people.

But it is lacking when it comes to taking 1st place. My closest objective right now is a billion viewers.

“There’s a group of orcs there. 8. Half half with weapons and barehanded.” (Grapefull)

“Alright, let’s do this.” (Hikaru)

I unsheathe my dagger.

When fighting groups of orcs and goblins, we managed with almost the same strategy.

Or more like, orcs and goblins are enemies that Rifreya can obviously defeat without any problems, but I as well can.

I hide myself with Darkness Fog and run.

I keep only the enemies Rifreya is fighting outside of the darkness, and we defeat them in order.

I hunt the lives of the orcs, that I dragged into the darkness and were confused, one by one with my dagger.

With the effects of physical strength doing its work too, I swung my dagger crisply and systematically.

Rifreya also has no problems dealing with something like orcs.

They are being cut down like paper with just one stroke.

We managed to wipe out a group of 8 in basically 1 minute.

“It is going well. Full’s enemy detection is also meshing well.” (Hikaru)

“Yeah, she is pretty skilled.” (Rifreya)

I haven’t worked together with a lynx before, but if Rifreya, who has hired many scouts before says so, then it must be true.

This is a connection I managed to make, so I want Grapefull to become a full-fledged explorer.

“There’s one orc there. Want to ignore it-nya?” (Grapefull)

“Want to try defeating it, Full?” (Hikaru)

“Eh? But an orc is too much for me…” (Grapefull)

“It is okay. I will assist you.” (Hikaru)

You can take in the spirit energy of monsters you defeat in the dungeon and power yourself up, but no matter if it is in a party, this only applies to the one that defeated the monster.

In other words, a scout doesn’t ever get stronger -because they don’t fight after all.

There’s one orc around the corner.

Fortunately, it is a barehanded one. An orc without a weapon is a monster that is below a goblin that has a weapon.

Honestly speaking, it is a monster that’s just right for training.

“I will assist you here, so just go straight for the neck with that sword. [Darkness Fog].” (Hikaru)

I guide Grapefull as we advance in the darkness.

The orc couldn’t understand what was going on and was crying ‘puki puki’ the whole time.

We move to the back of the orc and adjust the aim to the spine of the orc with the blade of Grapefull.

“Here! Stab with all your strength!” (Hikaru)

“Nya!” (Grapefull)

The blade was stabbed into the base of the neck of the monster with one smooth motion and the orc turned into a spirit stone.

I undo Darkness Fog.

“Good job. Looks like we will be able to increase your level like this too, Full.” (Hikaru)

“Fuuh… Something is entering my body-nya… Is this spirit enyergy…?” (Grapefull)

“That’s right. Well, I don’t think there will be much change with one orc, but I am sure it will be different as you stack the numbers.” (Hikaru)

Honestly speaking, I myself don’t feel much change in this Tier increase thing.

No…there’s some slight feeling of it, but it is hard to tell whether this is because I am getting used to fighting or because of the leveling up.

According to the Status Board, it is still 1:00pm.

After eating some preserved food, we continued fighting.

The number of viewers is definitely increasing. I can do this…