Vol 3 Chapter 9 – “Experience Points and Leveling Up”【Vol 3 – Graduating High School and Taking On the Dungeon 】

“— We’ll now begin the Dungeon Orientation for newly registered Hunters.”

The instructor was a woman somewhere in her mid-forties. She wore a suit under a white lab coat, and carried the particular stiffness of someone who’d spent their career inside a government office.

I was seated in what looked like a conference room at the Association, surrounded by a dozen or so other attendees. The crowd was a mixed bag — students who looked barely out of high school on one end, a guy built like a former JSDF operator on the other. Ages, backgrounds, all over the place.

If this were a conglomerate session, the average age would probably be a lot younger. Maybe they specifically gather civilian applicants for these.

“This orientation is designed to help you understand the basic rules you’ll need to operate inside a Dungeon. In particular, the sections on Level, EXP, and Equipment are the lifeblood of any Hunter’s career. Make sure you internalize these concepts. There will be specific numbers — don’t stress about memorizing all of them today, you can pick those up as you go. Also keep in mind that all figures are derived from data collected from active Hunters. Some values are projections, so treat them accordingly.”

“According to Hunter testimony, the overall structure bears some resemblance to the game Dark Phantasm Online — but there are significant differences from that game in the real world, so don’t let that fool you. The physical laws inside a Dungeon are also entirely different from anything you’re used to on the surface. Go into today’s session ready to unlearn everything you think you know.”

Oh — that game. Haven’t heard that name in a while. If the framework really is close to that one, I’ve got a head start… but I’d better not get cocky about it.

A diagram appeared on the monitor at the front of the room.

■ Enemy EXP by Floor

■ Level & EXP — Core Rules (applies to both Hunters and Equipment)

“Defeating a monster inside a Dungeon will earn you EXP. That EXP goes to the individual who lands the killing blow — or to whatever tamed monster or equipment piece delivers it. Other participants in the fight may receive a small share in some reported cases, but for all practical purposes, the killing blow is everything. Pay special attention to this: if your tamed monster lands the killing blow, the EXP goes to the monster — not to you.”

So that’s what the EXP scramble looks like in practice… classic. You always get people trying to swoop in for the last hit. I knew this from the game side, but the stakes are completely different when it’s real. In a clan setting, this is the kind of thing that starts fights over nothing.

“The deeper the floor, the more EXP each kill is worth. The shallow floors are extremely inefficient for EXP gain, so while you’ll want to factor in safety margins, finding the right floor level for your current strength will serve you better than grinding somewhere you’ve already outgrown.”

“EXP accumulates, and once you hit the threshold, you level up. On the upper floors, kills pay out so little that you’d need to eliminate tens of thousands — sometimes hundreds of thousands — of monsters just to gain a single level.”

“The standard method for fast leveling is to accompany a high-ranked Hunter into the deeper floors and only step in for the killing blow. That said, hiring someone at that level typically starts at a few million yen for lower-level power-leveling sessions, and climbs to tens of millions for higher-level work.”

So the technique is: get carried into a deep floor by someone strong, and just land the last hit. Useless for someone like me who’s planning to go solo. That’s a rich person’s strategy — conglomerate territory. Anyone doing that has an insurmountable head start on a regular person. The game was brutal. So is this.

■ Stat Growth (Base Values and Level Scaling)

“All Hunters begin with base stats of Speed 10 / Technique 10 / Stamina 10. These stats scale significantly with level — each level gained adds +10 to every stat across the board. A Lv3 Hunter, for example, would have 30 in each category. It bears repeating that these values only apply inside a Dungeon. Your stats do not carry over to the surface. Additionally, we have confirmed Hunters up to Lv9, but anything beyond that remains unverified.”

The higher you go, the wider the gap gets — obviously. I’m still Lv1. This is going to be a long road no matter how you slice it. And I still don’t fully understand what these numbers actually mean in practice. Are they straight multipliers? I’ll probably need to get inside and feel it out firsthand.

“One more note — the Speed / Technique / Stamina values are not added on top of your base physical ability. Current theory suggests they function as multipliers applied to your real-world physical performance. In other words, a person who’s been training their body on the surface will be genuinely stronger inside a Dungeon as well.”

That makes sense. And that’s a significant difference from the game. Actual combat is always the best teacher, but regular training on the surface sounds like it matters too. I might need to carve out time for that. My schedule is already packed.

■ Equipment and Its Growth

“Equipment follows the same EXP rules as Hunters — it grows by participating in combat and landing killing blows. Simply having it equipped does very little. With each level gained, performance improves: Lv1 gives a 1.1× multiplier, Lv2 gives 1.2×, Lv3 gives 1.3×, and so on.”

So the equipment is basically useless if it never levels. But at Lv5 it’s already a 1.5× multiplier on a stat — that’s massive. Anyone pushing into the deep floors is going to need leveled gear, no question. It’s going to be tough, but getting equipment sooner rather than later has to be a priority.

“We’ll take a short break here. When we return, we’ll be covering treasure chests — the rare drops that can appear when you defeat monsters inside a Dungeon. Please be back in ten minutes.”

The session broke.

Even just this first half had been more useful than I expected. There were plenty of places where this world diverged from the game I knew — I was going to need to study this carefully.

Vol 3 Chapter 10 – “Treasure Chests”【Vol 3 – Graduating High School and Taking On the Dungeon 】

“Let’s pick back up. This section covers treasure chests — the rare items that can appear when you defeat monsters inside a Dungeon.”

The monitor switched to a new diagram.

■ Treasure Chest Drop Rates by Floor Range

Floors 1–3 (Shallow)

• • • • Drop rate: Near 0% — virtually never appears

• • • • Contents: Almost exclusively bronze chests; silver and gold extremely rare (under 1%)

Floors 4–6 (Middle)

• • • • Drop rate: ~5%

• • • • Contents: Almost exclusively bronze chests; silver and gold extremely rare (under 1%)

Floors 7–9 (Deep — Early)

• • • • Drop rate: ~5%

• • • • Contents: Bronze 80% / Silver 15% / Gold 5% (average)

Floor 10+ (Deep — Late; limited data)

• • • • Drop rate: ~5%

• • • • Contents: Bronze 60% / Silver 30% / Gold 10% (average)

“Treasure chests are special items that appear under specific conditions inside a Dungeon. The easy way to remember it: they can drop when you kill a monster. However, they essentially do not appear on floors one through three — the shallow floors. Starting on floors four through six, the middle floors, there’s roughly a five percent drop chance per kill — but nearly all of those will be bronze chests. Silver and gold chests are reported to appear, but at under one percent combined.”

“On floors seven through nine — the early deep floors — the five percent drop rate holds, but the composition shifts. Average breakdown is approximately eighty percent bronze, fifteen percent silver, five percent gold. The deeper you go, the better your odds of a gold chest. And from floor ten onward, that shifts further — sixty percent bronze, thirty percent silver, ten percent gold. The drop rate itself stays constant, but the quality of what drops improves the deeper you go.”

“All of these figures are derived from data provided by active Hunters. Exceptions exist, and floor ten and beyond has limited data — treat those numbers as rough estimates.”

So you’re not seeing chests at all until you hit the middle floors. And silver or gold is basically out of reach until you’re pushing into the deep floors. That part tracks with the game — though I didn’t expect the Association to have this level of granular data. This alone made showing up worth it.

The monitor switched again — this time to a breakdown of chest types and their contents.

■ Treasure Chest Types and Contents Odds

■ Possible Contents

• • • • Equipment (weapon, armor, or boots — owner-use only)

• • • • Tamed Monster (owner-use only)

• • • • Treasure (non-combat; exchangeable for approximately ¥20,000,000 — market rates fluctuate)

“The odds of a chest actually containing something vary by tier. Bronze is 0.1%, silver is 10%, gold is 100%. In other words, cracking open a bronze chest and finding something inside is genuinely rare — rare enough that it’s become the kind of story people tell. Silver gives you roughly one hit per ten chests. Gold always pays out.”

Same structure as the game. Gold barely drops but it’s a guaranteed reward, which is where the value comes from. Though here it’s just hit or miss — no tiered item quality within a chest. In the game there were good drops and bad drops within a chest, with more variety. This world is harsher about it.

“Unfortunately, current science has not found any way to determine the contents of a chest without opening it. Weight analysis, X-rays, sound wave tests, shake analysis — everything has been tried, and nothing works. Whether a chest has anything inside remains unknown until you open it. Like the Dungeons themselves, it’s a mystery that modern science can’t crack.”

“Now — what actually comes out when you do get something?”

“First: equipment — a weapon, armor piece, or boots. Equippable only by the person who opened the chest.”

“Second: tamed monsters — contractable and usable only by the opener.”

“Third: treasure — valued at roughly ¥20,000,000 at current exchange rates, though the market fluctuates. Most people who pull treasure sell it immediately.”

“Unopened chest market values run roughly as follows: gold chests trade at around ¥20,000,000, silver at around ¥2,000,000, and bronze at around ¥20,000. Think of bronze as a lottery ticket. All of these assume the chest is still sealed — once it’s confirmed empty, it’s worthless.”

Around the room, eyes sharpened. Money had that effect. Kill a monster, pull a gold chest, walk away with ¥20,000,000 in one swing. Push deep enough and you could be pulling those regularly. It was the kind of number that made people dream.

Even a bronze chest is worth around ¥20,000 unopened, and silver is ¥2,000,000. If I could pull even one chest a day consistently, I could actually live on that. Middle floors are probably the threshold where real life becomes manageable. That’s the first milestone — get there.

■ Equipment Types

“As covered earlier — chest-obtained equipment follows the same rules. It grows through combat participation and landing killing blows. Equipping it without using it does very little. Each level gained improves the multiplier: 1.1× at Lv1, 1.2× at Lv2, 1.3× at Lv3, and so on.”

■ Tamed Monsters

Examples: Slime, Goblin, etc. Reported to gain levels over time.

The wealthy pull chests, grab equipment and tamed monsters, power-level their way to high stats, and blow past everyone else almost instantly. I’m running without a budget. How many years is this going to take me?