Although I Am Only Level 1, but with This Unique Skill, I Am the Strongest

Descending the stairs, I arrived at the twelfth basement level.

This time, there was no snow falling—just a grotesque dungeon resembling internal organs.

“Just,” I murmured with a slight bitter smile.

I couldn’t help but think that my sensibility must be somewhat off to describe this dungeon that looks like internal organs as “just” grotesque.

Normally, it’s not “just” anything at all.

The appearance is eerie… some people would even find it repulsive.

Furthermore, dungeons of this kind often follow a pattern where, in the end, you find out “it was actually inside Nihonium’s body,” or “it was connected to Nihonium’s womb.” Those kinds of patterns are common.

Given that knowledge, I shouldn’t be thinking of it as “just” anything.

“I must be too poisoned by all of this,” I muttered with a wry smile, making a conscious effort to stay on guard.

In a way, this was probably a good thing.

Noticing this realization, it was good that I had decided to brace myself.

I properly readied my gun, walked along the mental map, and went to encounter a monster.

After rounding two corners, just as detected on the mental map, a monster appeared.

“A bakeneko, huh.”

This time, it was a familiar monster that even I knew.

A huge cat, about the size of a large dog, with its tail split in two.

It was a bakeneko, a fairly well-known monster among yokai.

I aimed my gun and shot the bakeneko right between the eyes.

Since it was a surprise attack, the bakeneko didn’t have time to react and was defeated instantly.

“Again?”

I gave a wry smile, but for a different reason this time.

Even though I defeated the bakeneko, it didn’t drop anything.

The deeper the dungeon level, the more likely it is that special methods are needed to get any drop at all.

For this reason, when a dungeon appears, skilled adventurers are sent to investigate.

Like the previous floor, this one also seems to be a floor where a special method is required to make drops happen.

Right now, I lack definitive information to determine why it didn’t drop anything or what I need to do to make it drop.

To figure this out, I searched for another bakeneko.

With the mental map, I encountered one almost immediately.

“It’s not a fake or anything,” I thought.

Unlike the previous floor, it wasn’t a case of looking like it was there but not actually being there—a fake.

Eliminating one possibility, I noticed the bakeneko leaping at me, preparing to attack.

The huge creature loomed over me, its entire form casting a shadow over my body.

I dodged to the side, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet pierced the bakeneko’s temple, taking it down.

This time, a small pop, and there was a drop.

What dropped was a fruit that looked distinctly citrusy.

I picked it up and cracked it open, and a familiar scent tickled my nose.

“A grapefruit, huh?”

Muttering this, I took a bite.

Indeed, it was unmistakably grapefruit.

I put it in my Grand Eater’s pocket for now and went to meet another bakeneko.

Within less than a minute, I reached the next spot and took it down with a preemptive strike.

As before, there was no drop this time.

This raised the question of whether the preemptive strike was the issue.

I found yet another bakeneko, waited a bit, and let it attack first.

I dodged and then countered, similar to how I did when I got the grapefruit drop.

“Is that not it…?”

There was no drop.

Apparently, whether it’s a preemptive strike or not doesn’t matter.

I kept taking down bakenekos, testing every variable I could think of to figure out the difference between when they drop items and when they don’t.

I even used a portable now-board to check for any effects on my status, suspecting that could be a factor, but the drop status remained at S.

Even with an S drop status, sometimes there was a drop, and sometimes there wasn’t.

The more “failures” piled up, the longer I spent thinking.

I desperately tried to remember each occurrence and pinpoint the differences.

Distracted by these thoughts, I didn’t notice the sharp claws of a new bakeneko coming right at me.

I had completely let my guard down.

At this point, dodging was no longer an option, so I braced myself, determined to take this one hit and counterattack.

But the attack never came.

The claws stopped right in front of me.

Not only that—the bakeneko that had stopped mid-attack began to fade and disappeared, leaving a grapefruit in its place.

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