"An acquaintance? Hi, I'm Miria?!" At the last moment, she dodged a stinger that came towards her, and so she called out her name in a strange way.
"I feel like... I've... seen you" Similarly, Irina dodged some attacks while talking to Alessia.
Alessia: "…"
'— More than helping, maybe I came to bother them?'
Alessia seemed depressed.
Seeing this, Zia smiled warmly and explained the situation.
"Listen carefully, the monsters on the right will attack in 12 seconds plus, the ones on the left just did it, so in 30 more seconds they will do it again. The ones in front and behind will attack in 22 seconds. In the next 2 minutes, you must defeat 3 monsters! No more, no less!"
"If you kill any more monsters, you must inform us, because you will put yourself in the sights of all the monsters as 'the most dangerous', and every monster will want to kill you. Good luck!" Miria said it in a very cheerful way.
"Mn, I understand. I will attack the ones on the right then"
Since they are all in the same degree of danger, the monsters will not hesitate to attack. In this way, their attack times will remain fixed. If any of the combatants break this cycle, they will have to re-time all enemy attacks.
'A simple but effective plan.'
They should have told me before; now, in the sector near the door, all the monsters are heading towards me. I want to cry, but tears would get in the way of shooting arrows, so I held them back as a male.
"You must think of this as a dance. Normally, these require timing, but once practiced the body unconsciously remembers the times. Now you must do the same: focus on the battle but let your body keep counting every second before the next move."
"Mn"
Unlike the three annoying beauties who can talk and fight, Alessia can only fight and reply to them when she's free.
I'm similar situation and, when I heard her comment, I actually wanted to yell at her 'I don't know how to dance!' but I can't change my focus for fear of neglecting a flying stinger… of which there are many!
"Irina, take the HP potion" Miria threw a potion towards Irina.
"I don't need it." She caught it, but seemed to want to return it.
"Don't throw it back at me. Look at your body first!"
Irina: "…"
Hearing her, Irina looked at her own body with a serious face.
Once she saw dozens of small wounds, she smiled.
"They are very small wounds, but I understand that the damage will accumulate. Thanks"
"No problem!"
'— Already twice this girl avoids the stingers by sheer luck, I'll put her in her place later! Zia looked at Miria with a warm smile, but her eyes reflect anything but warmth.'
***
In my mind time passed slowly.
Maybe it was only 5 minutes, maybe 10. The truth is that, after a while, the last monster fell down and died. Ending this indiscriminate hunt for natural resources.
Scattered everywhere on the floor are jars of honey.
"Miria… We have to talk"
Miria: "!!!"
'— I know that look!'
Quickly, Miria pulled out an HP potion out of thin air and put the liquid in her mouth. The next second she stretched out her arms and hugged Zia's neck, then…
"Mmn mna lero mnn amn."
Emir: "!!!"
Alessia: "!!!"
"Consider that your reward, monkey!" After finishing her kiss with Zia, Miria yelled in my direction.
I wanted to decline her reward, but I don't deny that seeing two beauties kissing was very exciting, so…
'Reward accepted. I look forward to future business with you.'
I have a lot of money after all, and I prefer this kind of reward to the crude and cold golden coins.
"Then what would be my reward-…? No, nothing. I take it back"
Alessia initially said it jokingly, but halfway through the sentence she noticed the bright eyes of the 3 annoying beauties, so she finished her sentence in a very polite tone and casually walked in my direction.
Like a protective man, I pulled Alessia behind me to be the first to be attacked…
'Come on, attack me! I will not defend myself!'
"Although I feel that part of the mission was stolen from us, you did not do a bad job. But we cannot reward you. We are here by order of the adventurers' guild. If you really want one reward, you can ask for a portion of the money that the guild gave us; we will not turn you down. Although, to be honest, you just got something much more important. If you can see it, then we won't have been wrong about you."
After Irina's words, I felt a luminous stone light up in my mind.
'How come Miria took out an HP potion if she's not an [Adventurer]? Why in our previous meeting did Zia treat her companions only as friends? Why are they suddenly showing us their true relationship? What they gave us is their trust.'
"By your look, I can tell that you realized it. How unexpected, a man who can think"
Emir: "…"
"If only you were a woman, I would feel more grateful" Zia added.
Emir: "…"
"Make sure you take a shower when you get home. Don't forget it!" Miria finished.
Emir: "…"
'I trade your trust for money! At least the money is palpable!'
After this fight, I thought about removing that nickname I have for them in my mind, but in the end I won't. In my mind, they will still be the three annoying beauties!
"Alessia, the above was a joke. I hope you didn't mind our sense of humor. If you want a reward, how about information? Because we already spent all our money…" Zia smiled with a touch of embarrassment.
"Okay, we originally came to help you not knowing that it was you from the beginning. We knew that the reward might be scarce. So, we will accept what you can offer us"
"So cute! I want to take her home to take care of her and protect her!"
"Hehehe"
With Miria's words, Alessia smiled adorably.
'Ah, I want to squeeze her cheeks.'
The next moment, they took Alessia away from me and started talking to each other. From their expressions and way of speaking, it doesn't seem like they want to take her to the dark side, so I just let them.
It's good that Alessia can share with someone other than me, because doing so will enrich her as a person, and she will attract me even more.
I more calmly assessed the appearances of the two annoying beauties I just met.
Miria carried a saber as her weapon. She has waist-length brown hair, light brown eyes, and a fine nose. Her smile is extremely bright and makes you feel that no evil can contaminate her. Of course, she only smiles like that at Alessia, not at me.
The weapon that Irina carried is the spear. She has black eyes and short shoulder-length black hair. She has a serious expression on her face on a daily basis, but while when she smiles she curves her lips ever so slightly, making you feel a satisfaction in making her smile. Of course, I'm sure she will never smile at me.
The only quality the three annoying beauties share is their physicality, specifically their curves. Thin, with ample chest, and nice rear. Each one has different measurements, but at first glance only the word 'beauties' can define them. Of course, they don't like men, so I have no chance with them from the beginning.
'Hmph, whatever, I didn't even want to do a foursome!'
"In fact, what we want most now is information. What do you know about the great movement of the knights? On our way here, we did not see any adventurers, something in which the knights had to do" Alessia said with a serious tone.
"???" At the same time, they all cocked their heads to the side, indicating ignorance.
'Oh, so cute. I want to spank them until they apologize.'
After Alessia explained the situation in more detail, they managed to understand.
"Sorry, we don't know anything." Irina shook her head.
"All these days we have been making preparations to be able to reach the 10th floor and stay on the upper floors for some time."
"Therefore, the mission I accepted from Emir was to obtain some easy money and spend it quickly. All in order to prepare ourselves for what is to come"
According to their words, at the time of reaching the 10th floor or higher, they plan to stay there and not leave the labyrinth. There are magic items that allow you to stay in the [Nobody's Zones] without any monsters bothering you, but it's only in the vicinity. The deeper you go into a no-one's zone, the more valuable the magic item that makes you invisible to high-level monsters has to be.
Those magic items have many restrictions, so it's impossible to use them as a panacea that blocks all monsters. In other words, it's not usable for battles. It only serves to be able to spend the night in a calm and safe way.
"I see, don't worry. So what information did you plan to give me?"
"A storage ring!" Smiling, Miria raised her hand and brought out the ring on her finger.