Loop Mob – A Mob’s Interdimensional Travel Caught in a Loop

Chapter 30: Unpopular Dungeon Again (Part 1)

The long-awaited Saturday arrived. I came to that unpopular beginner’s dungeon. I didn’t prepare any weapons or armor in particular. What I brought were a pickaxe and a sieve that I found in my family’s warehouse. The maces sold at weapon shops are made to be easy to swing, considering the center of gravity and all, but if all I needed to do was crush cores, a pickaxe would do just fine. It’s the venerable representative of blunt weapons.

And the sieve was for collecting cores supposedly in water puddles, less than slimes. In the first loop, I heard that scooping them up by hand would turn them into scrap magic stones and breaking them would count as subjugation.

I won’t make the same mistake again. To avoid rats, I lit a fire life magic and entered the dungeon.

The inside of the stalactite cave dungeon was dark. The light from the fire life magic was not enough compared to regular light. I searched for water puddles, scooped up small stones inside by hand, and put them in the sieve. I couldn’t tell which ones were stones and which ones were slime cores. For now, I stored pebble-like stones in the sieve and exited the dungeon.

At the dungeon’s exit, I sorted the collected stones. Slime cores, or magic stones, had a unique bluish color. Leaving a few larger ones aside, I smashed the rest with the pickaxe. After repeating this process about three times and becoming anxious about whether this would really count as subjugation, a fanfare played in my mind. It seems I leveled up safely.

I still don’t have the appraisal skill. It’s impossible to scrutinize and appraise 1,000 types of items while living a normal life. During winter break, I’ll do my best with warehouse organization at my parents’ house. If I do that, I should be able to collect magic stones more efficiently. No, by that time, I might not be scooping up scrap magic stones here anymore. Instead, I’ll bring a ladle, a scoop, or a hand bucket if I come here tomorrow. It seems much more efficient than scooping by hand.

I walked back and forth near the dungeon entrance, sorted cores, and crushed them. It was a steady task, but I gradually got used to it. Around that time, the second fanfare played.

All right. It’s about time.

Today, I came here for one reason only. I wanted to try this. The appearance is like a small wooden piece about the size of a fish cake board. It has rough shapes carved, and the grooves are filled with fine sand fixed with adhesive. Embedded at one end is a magic stone about the size of a pachinko ball, and on the opposite side is a dimple the size of a marble.

This is my first homemade magical tool, and its name is “Shotgun.” Ancient characters for “small multiple,” “stone,” “fly,” and “strike” are drawn with the fine sand of magic stones. Level 2 of Stone Pellet, and the sacred words of the Shotgun. I connected everything from the sacred words to the pachinko ball in one stroke, adorned these circuits with magic stones to maintain them, and finally, embedded a magic stone in the dimple. The mechanism is that when the magic stone is embedded, the shotgun is fired from the tip of the pachinko ball.

What’s amazing about this is that I haven’t taken the Stone Pellet skill yet. In other words, if a magical tool can be activated with a magic stone without requiring a skill, who needs a skill? Some skills may require certain status conditions to be met, such as POW above 10 or INT above 300, and whether they can be used or not may vary. Needs verification.

Yes. I am currently at Level 3, and if I allocate all my skill points, I can learn and use the shotgun on my own. However, with this, I don’t need the hassle of leveling up or consuming valuable skill points. Furthermore, in the world, there are already fire magical tools and light magical tools. Since these are magical tools that use life magic, anyone can use them, but perhaps even skills that are not of your own attribute can be exercised with magical tools.

I’ve gone off on a tangent for too long. Anyway, there are plenty of scrap magic stones here. What I’m aiming for is just one thing. Yes, the giant bat that I didn’t even consider dealing with when I first came here.

I left the sieve and entered the dungeon again. I remembered the bat spawning point. In my right hand, I had a fish cake board, and in my left hand, I had three magic stones. When I leveled up earlier, I allocated all my status points to DEX. Please, let it activate properly and hit.

I held the fish cake board towards the ceiling and embedded the magic stones in the dimple.

Crack!

Two stones flew out from the tip, hitting the bat. It’s not dead. This is bad. I hurriedly took a magic stone from my pocket and embedded it in the dimple. I was bitten and scratched by the bat, went through a rough time, but managed to defeat it on the third try. I thought I was going to die.

At the spot where the bat crashed, I obtained a coin and a wing. The coin was 400 gold, and if I sold the wing, it would be 100 gold. These guys are a bit stronger than dragonflies. I couldn’t defeat them in one hit.

After going outside again, I reflected on my experience. In every loop, my first battle was a disaster. While healing the bites from the bat with a potion, I checked my stats.

Name: Alexi Appel
Race: Human
Title: Appel Company Heir
Level: 3
HP: 20
MP: 30
POW: 2
INT: 3
AGI: 2
DEX: 23
Attribute: Earth
Skills:
None
(Stone Bullet)
(Landscape)
(Rock Wall)
(Spear Techniques)
(Body Enhancement)
Equipment: E Casual Clothes
E Magical Tool – Shotgun
Status Points Remaining: 0
Skill Points Remaining: 30

I allocated all 20 status points gained from the level increase to DEX, making my shots hit even the agile bats. That’s good. But the problem lies with my INT.

The result of the appraisal of the Shotgun skill last time was, if I remember correctly, “Shoots multiple gravel. Number of projectiles is INT/2, attack power is INT/10. MP cost: 20.” My INT is currently 3, so only two bullets came out. It’s kind that decimals are rounded up. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be any different from the level 1 Stone Bullet. And the power also depends on INT. Did I mess up my stat allocation? No, if I can’t hit in the first place, it’s pointless.

Yeah, it’s because my level is too low. I’ll spend the remaining time today quietly collecting slime cores.

I returned home with torn and blood-stained clothes, and a bag full of scraps, a sieve, and a pickaxe. My family and the employees at my parents’ house were extremely worried about my unusual appearance. But when I showed them the magic stones and said, “I need them for a school internship,” they squeezed me dry but didn’t ask further questions. Well, tomorrow is another challenge with a ladle or a hand bucket. Ganbatte, me.