I began exploring the first floor, and while doing so, I swung my new knife to test it. 'It's better than the knife I gave to the clone. It's heavier and also seems sharper.'
Speaking of that, the knife I gave him must be close to breaking by now.
But since he keeps killing monsters, I guess it's fine.
'I wish I could contact him. I want to avoid us being on the same floor. Is he on the second or third floor?'
Either way, I'll only explore the first floor for now. I want to take things slowly. Leaving my clone behind to read all those books was a good idea—I basically have the map of the first floor stored in my head.
Feeling quite confident, I went after my first enemy.
Of course, it was goblins.
This time, it wasn't a group—just a single goblin.
As soon as it saw me, the goblin noticed the difference in our strength. But since it's basically an irrational "animal," it charged at me, trying to kill me. It came running at me almost as if in slow motion.
I instinctively raised my eyebrows, surprised by just how slow it was.
I sighed and let it approach. When it got close enough for my kick to land, I kicked it—using the top of my foot, striking directly into the side of its body.
Its body flew through the air and slammed into the wall. The goblin died instantly.
'I think I'm stronger than I expected…'
I'm very curious to know how my current status would translate into the values shown in falnas. Would it be three times higher? Ten times? I have no idea. Well, they're completely different systems anyway, so I don't think they can really be compared.
"All right, who's next?" I said after killing the first goblin and receiving a notification.
[ EXP +10 ]
I felt extremely excited to keep killing monsters.
Unfortunately, there aren't many monsters on the first floor, so I can't kill that many.
'I should go down to the second floor. The monster "spawn rate" there is higher.'
If I do that, my EXP will increase much faster.
"Is it possible to reach level five today?"
That depends heavily on how much the required EXP increases with each level. If the values keep doubling, it'll be very difficult to reach level five today.
'Let's hope that's not the case.'
I'd understand high values if I had several clones, but I only have one!
'Speaking of which… how do I increase the number of clones I can have? By leveling up?'
We'll see.
Several hours had passed since I started exploring the dungeon, and I managed to reach level 3.
On top of that, the skill "Knife Combat" reached level 6.
However, the bad news is…
Name: Zane
Level: 3 ( EXP: 343 / 4,000 )
Clones: 1/1
Strength: 32
Endurance: 32
Agility: 40
Dexterity: 14
Magic: 12
Points: 10
Skills:
Clones EX
Knife Combat LV6
Movement Acceleration LV3
"The required EXP really doubled after I leveled up." Since all the monsters that both my clone and I are killing only give 10 EXP—and there aren't that many monsters to begin with—we aren't gaining much EXP.
Honestly, it's really annoying.
I guess we'll have to go to deeper floors if we want to level up faster. From the 1st to the 4th floor, the dungeon is basically identical. The only difference is that the monsters called "Dungeon Lizards" don't appear on the first floor.
My assumption is this:
Once we move on to the next dungeon "area," which starts on the 5th floor, the amount of experience monsters give will increase. It's just a guess, but I've seen similar things in games before.
In other words, my clone and I need to go down to the 5th floor if we want to gain more experience.
I'm currently on the second floor, and he's on the third (probably).
Since I can't contact him, I should head down to the third floor to meet up with him.
'Actually…'
The system gives me the option to destroy my clone and summon it again. I think it's better to do that so I can give him new orders. The third floor isn't that small, so finding him could be difficult.
So that's what I did.
[ Are you sure you want to destroy "Clone 1"? ]
"Yes."
After destroying him, I summoned him again.
When he was summoned, he was wearing the same equipment as me. Even the knife I had just bought was recreated. I smiled in satisfaction and gave him new orders. "Let's head down to the fifth floor so we can farm more experience. You go ahead."
"All right."
"Oh, and I'm starting to get hungry and didn't bring any food, so you can go first."
"I will follow your order," he replied like a robot, then ran off without looking back.
"Don't forget to use your hood!" I shouted.
As he ran, I saw him pull the hood over his head.
'I should've put food in my inventory. I only brought water…'
I sighed, feeling a bit depressed.
Well, I've been doing this for hours now. It's time to rest.
I'll let the clone do the work for now.
####
After some time outside the dungeon, I returned to the inn to eat. It was already late, and lunchtime had long passed, but they still served me some food. After eating, I left the inn to look for a place to live.
I want to settle this as soon as possible.
I could live in that inn for years with the amount of money I have, but it's good to have a place of my own. I gathered some information and managed to find a place that sold houses.
They didn't even ask many questions. As long as I had money, they were willing to sell me a house.
Fortunately, the woman in charge of the real estate agency gave me a discount, but even so, I still had to pay three million for the house. Honestly, though, it was a very fair price, and the process of signing the documents was extremely simple.
This time, I used my real name, of course.
After making the payment, I received the keys immediately. Just like that.
'The house is in a normal neighborhood far from the city center, but who cares?'
####
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