08 - Confused? So Am I.

I returned from the Hoshimi house and resumed my stretching routine. After warming up for a while, I packed my lunch and water bottle into my backpack and headed back to the slime room.

Despite a few tense moments, I continued to hunt the combined slimes and managed to acquire another slime ring. As lunchtime approached, I decided to take a break and eat.

In the game, there were only two slots for equipping rings, one on each hand. Curious, I tried equipping all three rings on my fingers and found that I could wear them simultaneously. Without real-time status updates, I couldn't tell if all three rings were having an effect.

Clearly, some game mechanics differ here, so experimentation and research are necessary. I'll visit the Adventurer's Guild library on my way home to gather more information about dungeons.

Surprisingly, the dungeon was deserted.

The first floor map is a flat area several kilometers square. The slime room is in a corner, accessible only by navigating through many branches. Yet, I wondered why no other adventurers had come this way.

Perhaps the stairs to the second floor are closer, or maybe they prefer hunting the level 2 monsters on the second floor for a quicker challenge. Even though the combined slime offers the same experience as the goblins on the second floor, it's easier to kill and has a good chance of dropping a rare item like the slime ring. It seems people might not know about the slime room after all.

Well, it's better if there aren't any. It would only be a problem for me if too many adventurers came to the slime room.

Since there were no active monsters around, I relaxed, finished my modest lunch, and resumed my slime hunt.

About two hours later...

Shed your mortal form and ascend to the next dimension!

"I have ascended to level 3!"

I woke from my mild exhilaration, feeling invigorated. The speed at which I swung the bat had noticeably increased. Hell yeah!

I hadn't been able to check my job level precisely, but I was confident it wasn't at 7 yet. Having a way to check my status at any time would be handy. The initial job, [Novice], has an active skill, |Simple Appraisal|, at job level 7, and a passive skill, |Skill Frame +3|, at the maximum level of 10.

|Simple Appraisal| allows you to appraise items and skills in your possession. While it can't appraise deep items or special skills, it's very useful in the early stages of the game. It can also appraise people and monsters, providing a relative strength assessment like "slightly strong" or "very weak." However, it doesn't reveal exact details and alerts the target, so it must be used judiciously to avoid trouble.

Another crucial skill in The Conquest system is |Skill Limit +3|.

In The Conquest, the number of skills you can learn is limited by the number of skill slots you have. You gain one additional slot every 10 levels, but initially, you only have two. At level 3, I can still only learn two skills. If all slots are full and you want to learn a new skill, you must delete an existing one, which I plan to avoid as both my skills have great potential.

To increase these valuable skill slots, |Skill Slots +3| is essential. Other jobs also have skills to increase slots, but even maximizing them, you'll still face limitations. Thus, the |+3 Skill Slots| skill that Novice can learn is one to definitely acquire.

"Now, should I go up to the second floor or continue hunting slimes?" With level 3 achieved, my experience gain from level 2 combined slimes would decrease slightly. However, hunting here was easy, and the second floor would likely be crowded. Besides, "It would be awkward if I ran into those four on the second floor."

Akari and her group were hunting upstairs. Even though I'm unsure how I'd handle meeting them again, I doubted Theo's presence would fit in amidst their camaraderie.

Better to keep hunting here until I reach level 4.

By evening, I had hunted nearly a hundred combined slimes and obtained five slime rings. I tried them all on my right hand but didn't feel any different. Despite their benefits, they looked glaring and unattractive. In the game, I prioritized performance over appearance, but in this world, I might need to consider looks as well.

It's a bit early, but I think I'll call it a day and head to the Adventurer's Guild to gather some information.

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The first floor of the high-rise complex housing the Adventurer's Guild was bustling. The guild handled new applications, item purchases, material trades, and magical stone transactions, attracting a crowd of adventurers returning from dungeons and vendors eager to trade. At a glance, there were easily a thousand people, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a seafood market at its peak.

I checked the booklet listing the prices for buying and selling items, searching for the value of the slime ring. It wasn't listed. Although I could pay a registration fee to put it up for auction, the ring didn't seem valuable enough to warrant the effort. I decided it might be better to simply give it to my family.

After leaving the sales office, I took the elevator to the 18th floor where the library was located. Upon entering, I found myself in an elegant hall with a vaulted ceiling and wood-grained walls, creating a calm atmosphere. The design, based on a famous European library, clearly showcased a significant investment.

With an adventurer's card, I could freely read and borrow books. The library's collection was much larger than others in the city, encompassing a wide variety of topics in addition to dungeons.

As I walked around looking for dungeon-related books, I was secretly impressed by the high-quality mats that muffled my footsteps.

One book, "The Illustrated Book of Dungeon Monsters in Japan," caught my eye. It was published the year before last and, from the table of contents, included information on monsters up to the 29th floor, complete with illustrations.

"The 29th floor isn't even considered the mid-level yet," I thought.

In the game, the floors were categorized differently: the 1st to the 30th floors were shallow levels, the 31st to the 60th were mid-levels, and anything above that was considered deep levels. The 29th floor fell into the shallow category. I used to venture into the very deep levels, from the 90th to the 100th floor, in the game.

It struck me that there were hardly any high-level adventurers among the NPCs in The Conquest.

If the frontline of the dungeon in this world is around the 30th floor, then the adventurers on the front lines are likely around the 30th level as well. This is quite different from the game, where frontline players were at level 90.

However, this doesn't imply that adventurers here lack skill.

In the game, dying in a dungeon resulted in penalties like item loss and temporary weakness, but you could be resurrected at the dungeon entrance. In this world, if you don't have a companion capable of casting a resurrection spell on the spot, death is permanent.

In the game, you could face a boss battle without fear of pain, fatigue, or permanent loss of life, maybe even while humming a tune. But in this reality, where death is final, adventurers naturally take far fewer risks. It's not fair to compare the two in the first place.

'Or could it be that this is the game world as it was when first released, without any DLC?'

When the game launched, the level cap was 30. NPCs tied to the main and sub-stories weren't set to be high level in any scenario. Even Theodore was barely level 10 when he left school in the latter half of the story.

Back then, the maximum level for deep dungeons was around 40. With the release of several DLCs, various jobs, quests, and items were added, and the level cap was raised to 90.

So, if the frontline level is around the 30th floor, this world might mirror the game's early stages, before any DLC.

I had assumed this world matched the game world just before the transition, with a level cap of 90. In that scenario, a balanced character build using both swords and magic would be strong.

However, if the max level is only 30 and the available jobs and items are as they were at launch, focusing on either vanguard or rearguard might be better than a balanced build. There are several reasons for this, primarily the limited number of skill slots and jobs available at launch.

"I need to determine the level cap. But the email from the developers mentioned an update, so how could we revert to the early game era?"

There are a few ways to find out: locating items, jobs, additional areas, or monsters exclusive to the DLC would indicate we're not in the early game world. I'll need to explore the dungeon more to uncover this.

Next, I noticed a job dictionary labeled "Latest," so I picked it up. According to the back cover, it was published last year.

Jobs are categorized into five levels: initial, basic, intermediate, advanced, and highest level. More powerful jobs are available in this order. The extent to which these jobs are implemented will reveal how much DLC content is integrated into this world.

For instance, none of the highest-level jobs were available when the game first launched. If even one of these jobs is listed, it indicates that some DLC content has been implemented.

I quickly flipped through the pages and examined the jobs listed in the dictionary.

The initial job, [Newbie], is followed by the second level basic jobs of [Fighter], [Caster], and [Thief]. This was not changed or added even before the transport.

The third level, intermediate jobs, are [Warrior], [Archer], [Priest], and [Wizard], the four only? In the fourth level, advanced jobs, only [Saint] and [Samurai] are written.

These jobs were not added by DLC, but were there from the beginning. However, there must have been [Knight] and [Magic Warrior] in the intermediate jobs, and [Assassin] and [Berseker] in the advanced jobs from the beginning. I flipped through the pages to find them, but I couldn't find any.

I wondered why there was no mention of them. Are they not known, or are they hidden? Considering the fact that this is a world where adventurers and terrorists are rampant, it is quite possible that countries and international organizations are withholding or restricting information.

I also read about [Novice], but there is something wrong with it.

In summary, it says, "[Novice] doesn't have much benefit, so you should change to an intermediate job as soon as possible." There is no mention of the important skill [Skill Slot +3] that can be obtained when the job level of [Novice] is counter-stopped. If I miss this, I'll have a hard time later, but is there such a thing?

Next time, I will pick up a book called Skill Dictionary and read it. Looking at the skill list from the table of contents, even though [Simple Appraisal] is listed, [Skill Slot +3] is not listed. I also looked at the items about [Samurai], and [Samurai] is in the advanced jobs, but nothing was written about the skills that can be obtained under special conditions.

This skill dictionary, published last year, is packed with information. To be honest, it's more comprehensive than a typical dictionary. I went through about ten other books, but they all contained similar content without any missing parts.

From my research in the library, I couldn't find any elements added by DLC, suggesting a high possibility that this world mirrors the "world without DLC" environment from the game's initial release. However, even in this DLC-free world, there's an undeniable lack of information on certain materials here. It's hard to conclude definitively based on the absence of specific entries.

Rushing to conclusions isn't necessary. As I progress, more will become clear, so I'll gather information gradually.

Tomorrow, I'll attempt manual activation of skills, a feature unavailable at the game's outset. If successful, it could indicate the presence of DLC.

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Below is a summary of the jobs. Jobs in parentheses are unknown jobs that are unknown in the post-transfer world.

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Initial Job - A Job when no job has been changed

[Novice]

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Basic Job - A job that can be changed first from the initial job. It may be this job from the beginning.

[Fighter] [Caster] [Thief]

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Intermediate jobs-Jobs that can be taken by raising the job level of basic jobs.

[Warrior] [Priest] [Archer] [Wizard]

[Knight] [Magic Warrior]

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Advanced Jobs-Need to raise some job levels for intermediate jobs or be appropriate.

[Saint] [Samurai]

[Assassin] [Berserker]

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Superlative Job - the final job. One of them, Weapon Master, was used just before Theodore came to this world.

[Weapon Master]