Level Down 2 (Patreon)

Volume 1 Chapter 2 - Level-Down Trap

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The hidden passage wasn’t mentioned on the map Allen was carrying.

“Uwa, did they miss it in the investigation? It might have changed just now, but I can't judge that.”

Allen slowly and carefully walked forward.

He could see that there was a room a few meters ahead. However, this was a passage that is not shown on the map, what’s more it was hidden and was difficult to find. Allen had high expectations for what lies ahead, but at the same time, he also judged that he has to proceed with caution.

When going to an unknown place, it's best to be overly cautious.

That's what an adventurer specializing in scouting who once taught Allen the basics of scouting said time and time again.

Allen proceeded through the hidden passageway, and when he came to the entrance of the room at the end of it, he carefully looked around to the left and right, making sure not to go inside.

He didn’t see any traps, and there were no treasure chests either.

“The disappointment is as high as the expectation, huh. Haa~. No, I didn't have any expectations for the Slime Dungeon though.”

Allen entered the room with a complicated expression on his face while muttering an excuse to no one in particular. Just in case, he tried walking around the four corners of the room and hitting the walls, but he didn’t find any more hidden passages.

Letting out a sigh, Allen stopped investigating the wall any further, and the moment he reached the center of the room, a red magic circle different from the one before appeared at his feet. Then, once again, the ‘ding’ sound resounded in his head.

It was Allen's first time experiencing this trap, but having an idea what it is, Allen's shoulders slumped in disappointment before he even saw the result.

“Status.”

The level written on the status board in front of Allen was 167.

His level that should have increased due to the level-up trap earlier has returned to his original level, and all his stats that had increased by 1 due to the level up have also returned to the values they were before he stepped on the level-up trap.

“Haa, this even has a level-down trap? So pointless~”

Allen's grumble echoed in that small room.

As the name suggests, the level-down trap erases all the experience points you've earned since reaching the level when you stepped on the trap. It was a brutal trap that drops your level by 1.

To explain this in terms of Allen's current situation, he has lost the experience points he gained from the several slimes he has defeated since reaching level 168 after stepping on the level-up trap, and his level has become 167.

However, although his level went down by one to 167, he still has his accumulated experience points he had until just before his level went up to 168. In other words, if he defeats some monster, his level will immediately return to 168.

In effect, you could say it's a trap that causes you to lose all the experience points you earned during the level you stepped on.

Due to these characteristics, the damage will be small if you are a low level adventurer who needs only a few experience points to level up, but to high level adventurers who need a lot of experience points to level up, it’s a trap that is hated like a snake.

After all, if you step on it just before your next level up, all the experience points you've worked so hard to earn will be lost, so it's only natural.

What’s more, this trap, like the level-up trap, cannot be discovered at first glance. In other words, without information, there is no way to avoid it.

“Haa, let's just go home.”

Allen let out one sigh and walked out of the room. Once the boss was defeated, it wouldn't appear for 24 hours, so he didn’t need to fight the huge slime again. Allen's face looked a little better until just now, but it had already returned to the unmotivated look he had before the dungeon change.

Allen headed for the exit with slow steps. He thoughtlessly held such high expectations for the final hidden room that he ended up feeling even more tired.

“I've more or less finished investigating the traps, but I haven't found the location of the monsters’ initial appearance yet. I'll just report back and finish the map at a later date.”

As he was walking while muttering that, a slime appeared in front of him.

Without thinking of anything in particular, Allen stomped it half out of habit, but when was about to pick up the magic stone, he heard a ‘ding’ sound echoing in his head and he stopped.

“Now that I think about it, I got hit by a level down didn’t I? Heeh, it's amazing that even a slime can make it go up. Status.”

Allen straightened his bent waist and casually pulled up his status board, as was his usual habit when he levels up, and when he saw the screen, he stopped moving at all.

The level written on the status board was 168. There's nothing strange about that in itself. level-down traps reduce the experience points gained after reaching that level to 0, and only lower the level by one, so if Allen, who reached level 167 due to the trap, defeated a slime, it was natural that he would become level 168.

The reason Allen stopped moving was the increase in his own stats as he leveled up.

All his seven stats; attack power, defense power, vitality, magic power, intelligence, agility, and dexterity, had increased by 10.

“HAA~!?”

Allen's shouts echoed throughout the dungeon, but no one paid any attention to it as there was no one else but slimes in the dungeon.

.

.

.

Allen was running lightly through the dungeon at the speed of a jog.

The time from when a trap in a dungeon is activated until it is reset is approximately 3 minutes. The distance between the level up and level-down traps is a 3 minute light jog. That was just the right distance for verification.

Allen leveled up through the trap, then leveled down by stepping on the trap in the hidden room, then leveled up by defeating a slime on his way to hit the level-up trap again, and repeated this process.

The verification continued until Allen's level reached 180.

“Phew, so it's not like it will absolutely go up by 10. I guess I was just lucky the first time.”

That was Allen’s conclusion after repeating the routine a total of 13 times.

The stats value that rose when he defeated a slime can be 3, can be 9, and of course even 1. What they have in common is that all stats categories increase by the same value.

There was just one exception, but Allen had some idea of why.

“As for why all the stats categories go up by the same value... Hmm, maybe it's because I didn't do anything special to defeat the slimes? When everything went up by 10, I was so happy that I couldn't help but run seriously, so when I leveled up, I specialized and my agility went up. I bet it's the little things that make the difference.”

* (T/N: I don’t think my translation is wrong, but why did he say the opposite of what happened?)

In fact, all Allen did when he defeated the slime was place his foot down. That was, rather than trying to defeat a monster, almost no different than walking.

In particular, Allen wasn't conscious of any power, so wasn’t that why everything rose evenly? So Allen made that prediction.

“I've never heard of anything about this though. Hmm.”

Allen was hesitant. If this fact is made known, not only adventurers but also ordinary people will flock to this Slime Dungeon in droves. Their level and stats will rise effortlessly. Even if the Guild charges a lot of money and tries to put restrictions on it, they will probably come, Allen predicted.

However, if that happens, the city will be filled with people who have acquired great power without any effort. That seemed dangerous to Allen.

This would be fine if this was just a level-up trap.

Even if one were to raise their level to 500, their status will be around 600 if you add in the average level 1 status of 100. If you think of it to be equivalent to a level 100 mid-level adventurer, that’s quite a level of strength, but that's about it.

It could be said to be a level where a well-trained soldier could easily take them down.

However, if you combine it with the level-down trap and stepping on slime to level up, it becomes possible to obtain many times that stats.

That’s the stats that exceeds even that of the highest-ranking adventurer, known as an inhuman, and the head magician of the royal court, who is said to have mastered magic.

As an adventurer, Allen has steadily raised his level. Because he knows how difficult it is to face danger and raise one’s level, he won’t get drunk on power and hit the residents too strongly. It's similar with most other adventurers.

However, Allen knew that sometimes people who suddenly acquire great powers become completely different people. And that it would end with an unfortunate outcome.

This is true even for adventurers who are accustomed to increasing their power by leveling up. So what would happen if an ordinary person, who is not used to it, obtained such power? At the very least, it would almost never end in a good way, Allen predicted.

“Besides, it's a pain in the ass.”

That murmur that he added was also Allen's true feelings.

It would be better if it was just a level-up trap. There may be a rush of people who’d use it for a while, but they’d mostly be people living in the city, and eventually the demand will subside.

There won’t be many people who would come here from other cities and take the risk of being attacked by monsters, Allen thought.

However, if they found a way to significantly increase their stats, people from all over the country, no, all over the world, might start coming to this dungeon.

If the Slime Dungeon is flooded with people from all over the world, Allen, who was a guild employee and knew about the Slime Dungeon more than anyone else in the Guild, would definitely get dragged into it. If he’s unlucky, it might continue for the rest of his life.

As expected, Allen didn't like that either.

“All right, let's just pretend I didn't know it. Fortunately, unless you're a veteran scout, you won't notice the room with the level-down trap, and those guys won't come here either.”

Having come to that conclusion, Allen tried to return to his daily life as if nothing had happened.

However, his feet stopped one step before climbing the stairs leading to the surface.

He felt like he heard a voice from inside his heart. ‘Isn't this a chance?’ That voice.

A teenager who worked recklessly for his much younger siblings. A man in his twenties who has gotten used to his job, but has not been able to form a fixed party, and has been laughed at by his peers of the same level for his noncommittal stats.

Frankly speaking, Allen has never gone on an adventure as an adventurer. More important than that, was to earn a steady income, support his family, and above all, desperately survive.

However, Allen is already 29 years old. His younger siblings are also independent and are out of Allen's hands. ‘If that's the case, won’t it be fun to start living like an adventurer from now on?’ he thought.

“No, no, no, I’ve already returned my Guild card and am the guild employee to begin with.”

Even as he said this, Allen's legs made no attempt to climb the stairs. That fact proves more than anything that Allen's true feelings are not what he says.

Fuu~, Allen let out a long breath. He closed his eyes and stood still for a moment, then he turned around and opened his eyes.

Those eyes were no longer those of an unmotivated guild employee, but had changed to the sparkling eyes of a newcomer becoming an adventurer for the first time.

“Should I try doing it over? Just one more time.”

After saying that, Allen turned around and headed towards the hidden passage in the boss room again.

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