I’m Just Leveling up Efficiently, but for Some Reason, the People Around Me Seem to Be Looking at Me With Disapproval - Chapter 5

The experience point efficiency was dropping.

“……”

I looked down at the Ugly Pig Tribe Orc lying on the ground with a serious face.

It wasn’t that this one was strong.

Actually it was weak.

I could take it down head-on pretty easily now.

That wasn’t the problem.

The electronic sound in my head only went off once.

Beep.

Just that.

Only once.

“…This is weird.”

I muttered without thinking.

When I took down the first Ugly Pig Tribe Orc, a bunch of sounds went off like my brain was exploding.

I felt power bubbling up from deep inside my body, like the world itself was blessing me.

But now?

Just one beep.

Lame.

Way too lame.

“Is this… experience point decay?”

It was possible.

Games had rules like that all the time.

You got less experience from enemies weaker than you.

Hunting the same enemies over and over made things less efficient.

Or maybe each race had a cap on how much experience they could give.

I still needed more testing.

But still——.

“So the Ugly Pig Tribe Orcs in this village are already getting treated as small fry.”

I crossed my arms and groaned.

This was the worst.

How could this happen?

These tasty-looking experience points were already close to their expiration date.

No, wait.

It was too early to give up.

There were differences between individual Ugly Pig Tribe Orcs.

The ones I had beaten so far were probably just low-ranking soldiers.

That meant there had to be higher-ranking ones leading this attack.

Squad leaders.

Commanders.

Elite ones.

Or—— a boss.

“Time to hunt the boss.”

I grinned.

Raise your level on small fry, then jump big with the boss.

Classic.

Foolproof.

A really clean early-game leveling plan.

The only problems were that my hometown was currently on fire, villagers were running around in panic, and my body was a total mess of enemy blood and my own blood.

Minor issues.

“All right.”

I gripped my survival knife again.

This knife was getting pretty chipped too.

I wanted to upgrade my weapon soon.

The Ugly Pig Tribe Orc machetes were too heavy and didn’t fit my size.

I needed a short sword or a slim blade.

While I was thinking about that, I heard a shaky voice from behind a nearby house.

“H-Help…”

I turned around.

There was a boy there.

He looked a bit younger than me.

He was sitting on the ground, probably because his leg was hurt.

And right in front of him was one Ugly Pig Tribe Orc.

“Hehe, there’s still one left.”

The Ugly Pig Tribe Orc looked down at the boy and raised its machete.

I kicked off the ground.

My body felt light.

Must be from the level ups.

I burst out from behind the house at a speed I definitely couldn’t have done before.

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

The moment the Ugly Pig Tribe Orc turned toward me, I stabbed the knife into its throat.

“Gah…!?”

Blood sprayed out.

I pulled the knife out and stabbed its heart too.

The Ugly Pig Tribe Orc tried to say something but collapsed before it could.

Beep.

Just once again.

“…Yeah, it’s dropping.”

I frowned.

This was pretty serious.

Hunting small fry like this was getting inefficient.

Of course it was still better than zero.

Better, but not the best option.

“Um… uh…”

The boy spoke in a shaky voice.

“Thank you… so much…”

“Hm?”

I looked at the boy.

Oh yeah, he was there.

I had saved him.

Well, to be exact I just collected the experience points, but it ended up saving him.

“Can you stand?”

“N-No… my leg…”

“I see.”

I looked around.

Screams were still coming from different parts of the village.

The fires were spreading too.

I could sense several Ugly Pig Tribe Orcs nearby.

Carrying this boy to safety.

That was important.

It was the right thing to do.

But when I thought about efficiency…

While I was carrying him, other Ugly Pig Tribe Orcs could kill more villagers.

That meant less experience points.

That was bad.

Really bad.

So I made the most efficient choice.

“Wait here a bit.”

“Huh…?”

“I’ll clean up the Ugly Pig Tribe Orcs around here and come back. It’ll be safer that way.”

And better for experience point efficiency too.

The boy opened his eyes wide.

For some reason he looked like he was about to cry.

“For someone like me…”

“Hm?”

“You’re hurt so badly yourself… and you’re still going to fight…?”

I looked down at my own body.

It was definitely covered in blood.

But big injuries healed every time I leveled up.

Most of the blood now was old.

It wasn’t as bad as it looked.

Explaining all that was a pain though.

“Well, I need to.”

For the experience points.

With that, I ran off.

Behind me the boy shouted something.

“Amazing… you’re amazing…!”

I didn’t know what was so amazing.

But it didn’t feel bad to get praised.

All right.

Time to hunt even more efficiently.