Excuse and Reflection
One adventurer fell down in a red shower of blood.
His eyes were opened wide in surprise; he might not even have understood what had happened to him.
「Uwahahahaha! Don't let down your guard, you damn fool!」
Milim's joyful voice rang while the five remaining adventurers nervously huddled together.
However, it was in vain.
「Oh wind that blows,spin into a Tornado and cut downmy enemies! Tornado Blade!![1]」
Huddling together was a mistake .
The Tornado Blade I threw chopped them up as if sneering at the wary adventurers.
Tornado Blade was a spherical version of the Wind Blade magic. Though it consumes more magic power, it becomes possible to cut through several enemies in a fixed range at the same time. It's a convenient magic for group battles.
Milim performed a surprise attack against the first person to scout for traps.It was a quick death. And before my magic arrived, she had quickly moved to our rear.
Without making a blunder, like hitting Milim, my magic only hit the adventurer that huddling together.
Before we could be sensed by the enemy group, I activated invisibility magic[2].
Once our side began attacking, the invisibility magic was canceled, but the enemy's numbers were already decreased by one or two people. In addition, they had lost their attacker[3] and the healer[4]from the rear support.
「It's bad, it's the ScarletRed Meteor[5]! Be careful!」
「Damn it, Marja and Nadja were killed by magic. Jean isn't breathing either! 」
「Shit, you guys! How dare you!!」
They confirmed our identities now that they could see, and the vanguard came at us burning with anger, but...
「Kuahahahaha! How naïve!!」
「Oooooohoohoohoo! I can't let you pass!」(You shall not pass! Lol)
Veldora and Ramiris stopped the vanguard's charge in high spirits.
I could perceive the bright red bar above the warriors' heads decreasing by half when I looked at them with analysis.
「Those fellows' HP are below half. You guys can deal with them right?」
Yes, the red bar above the warriors' heads expressed their HP= Stamina[6].
I used this display rigorously. It made it easier to understand by making things look like a game.
Since I've gotten used to the display, it became possible to quickly confirm the situation and give out appropriate instructions.
Currently, it's a pattern of a certain victory.
Beginning with a surprise attack, we managed to kill some of the enemy explorers without alerting them to our presence. That way we could take out the rear support members with low HP early via magic. It would be another story if it was a stronger enemy that capable of activate a continuous barrier.
However, in this case this party's lineupwas easy to defeat, so our victory was already decided.
As expected, Veldora and Ramiris made a bloodbath out of the three warriors acting as vanguards.
It's was an easy victory.
Part of our certain victory tactic is for Milim's surprise attack to kill the scout while I take out the rearguard with magic like earlier.
Oh well, we have been hunting Adventurers indiscriminately lately, it seemed like the amount of people taking counter measures had increased a little.
Though it still hadn't become a situation where they steered clear of us.
Even if that happened, I'd merely switch to a different strategy.
We were within the 24th floor of the Labyrinth. Moderately strong people would arrive here; it's the perfect hunting ground for us.
「We did it! Even the likes of them, weren't a match for us.」
「Uffuffu. That's right! We are invincible. The strongest!」
「Kuahahahaha! They're merely small fries, they're not even a little worthy of us!」
My companions uttered such cocky words.
Yes, we were a set party of 4.
Eh, what were we doing?
Of course, we were researching how the ways the adventurers fight, we learnt many things.
I operated a Ghost, a Wizard[7] fluent in magic with a body clad in a bluish-white flaming aura.
I've learned several magics since we began, and I've became able to clad my body in Fear Aura[8].
Veldora was a skeleton but his bones somehow turned golden by using a special alloy called OrichalcumGod's Shine Metal Steel[9] that I had manufactured.
Orichalcum is mix of Demon Steel and Gold, in addition, it's a special alloy refined by injecting dense magic power.
Veldora started by saying that a golden skull was good, but then I made a whole skeletal structure golden.
As long as there was a core, anything seemed fine for making bones, so the conversion was done easily and a golden Skeleton was made.
The current strength couldn't be compared to that of the bones from before, it became pointlessly high spec.
Milim was feared as the Red Meteor.[10]
Because she moves at an abnormal speed, she leaves a red afterimage that looks like a meteor.
As an Assassin, with her way of eliminating her presence and leaping at the target after approaching unnoticed from the ceiling, she boasted a high success rate for assassination.
She threw away all abilities except agility. Her battle style relied on speed and critical, it seems she become a fearsome legend.
Ramiris was part of the Fighter faction.
She wields an axe with all her strength as if she mocking the powerlessness of her original body.
Her combat style was to go all out, making her popular as the Living ArmorMoving Heavy Armor[11] that wields aDeath AxeGrim Reaper's Great Axe[12] insanely.
Perhaps, it was stronger than the original body.... No, it's nothing.
Such a thing doesn't matter.
Making such an impression, we had become a source of fear known as the DungeonDeath Bringer of the DominatorLabyrinth's Will[13]".
Because we were stronger than an unskilled boss, we were the pinnacle of badness.
It could be called a natural reaction.
As I mentioned earlier, our main purpose was to research the ways the adventurers fought.
We weren't playing at all. That point shouldn't be misunderstood.
We make an effort every day and do nothing but research day after day. Such an honest effort may be useful someday.
And so, we saw a rare adventurer that used a never before seen extra skill, and used an original magic. We gained a splendid amount of knowledge.
Right now I can analyze extra skills just by seeing them.
Such an ability was useful since it influenced our avatars.
With a pseudo soul as a core, the avatars made with magic power completely matched the main body's soul. It was very convenient.
The skills that were obtained by the avatar could be used by the main body. If the avatar grew to a certain extent, it seemed possible to use an ability from the main body.
They seemed to be more linked than I thought.
I kept researching with such feelings every day. We have proved various things.
...I'll say it once again, we weren't playing around, so please don't misunderstand.
It was difficult to arrive here.
In the beginning, we were defeated by adventurers in the upper floor.
Also, an unamusing situation where we were annihilated by the traps from our own labyrinth occurred.
Angry, it was a good idea to prepare a magic item that would keep the labyrinth's traps from activating.
Ramiris was the one who triggered the trap, but the one who was swallowed by it was Veldora.
I was floating in the air and Milim was clinging to the ceiling. Since she'd never fallen into a pitfall, Ramiris was careless.
But, Ramiris...
"What are you doing, falling into your own trap?"I think that everyone wanted to tsukkomi.
We spent the troubling times having such feelings.
The adventurer in front of me whom I had just defeated turned into particle of light and disappeared.
This was a familiar scene.
Once we got cocky and tried to defeat the boss of the 30th floor.
The boss was Gozurl whose power was sealed by a magic item.
As a result, we suffered a crushing defeat.
With our current abilities, Gozurl was a tall obstacle in our way.
We who believed ourselves too weak to defeat him, trained ourselves in the 25-29th floors.
No that's wrong, it's not training but learning.
It's not playing.
Truly, please don't get it wrong!
「It was an easy victory.」
The three people nodded to my opinion.
Well then, let's keep going at this pace! When I thought that, I received a messagefrom my emergency-communication-duty clone in the office.
What's going on?
Is what I was thinking when I received a message that 『Hinata and Demon Lord Ruminas seemed to have talked regarding an alliance』.
Apparently, it's not the time for me to study (play).
Because it couldn't be helped, I switched on the avatar's pseudo soul's Automatic Mode, and we decided to go back to the office.
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
When we returned to the office, Ruminas and Hinata were waiting.
With them was a woman I had seen before. The former Demon Lord Frey sat down on a chair.
She glanced at me when I entering the room, then she looked to Veldora, her glance stopping on the entering Milim.
And then a sweet smile floated on her face.
I wonder why? I felt that smile was very ominous.
「Ah, Milim. You were in here?
By the way, what happened with the homework I gave you?
The guards fell down and were rolled up in a bamboo mat, but you can give anexplanation about what happened, right?」
Scary.
Even though I wasn't involved, for some reason I felt an unbearable sensation.
Yes, a friend should play after finishing their homework, but in reality the homework was completely untouched. I happened to catch a similar scene to when lies were exposed to the parent, making them mad....
It's such a nostalgic feeling.
「Gee! Fr, Frey!! It's, it's not that. There's a good explanation!」
Milim became flustered as soon as her eyes met Frey's.
This is... So it's over, Milim.
Though I said it daringly, the matter had no relation to me, no, to us did it?
「Haha, Milim. If you have work, you better go back.
Because you delaying something, you should finish your work quickly!」
「Yeah, like he said. Sorry to get you involved with our long-drawn research.
Although you should have told us you had work to do.
But, it seems we should have paid attention to that. Let's apologize!」
「Th, that's right! Like he said. Don't be reserved, if you had told us about it we wouldn't have detained you!」
As expected.
Veldora and Ramiris who read the situation backed up my words.
With this we established our ignorance, and furthermore, it stated that we were unrelated.
Though I saw Milim'seyes watering, I'm sorry there seems to be no way to help you.
Give up and bind yourself with a rope[14].
Thus, Milim was caught by Frey.
「It's, it's different. The story, listen to the story, Frey!」
So Milim screamed to the end, but it failed before Frey's iron smile. Resistance was futile.
Sadly Milim was caught and carried away like a cat[15] back to her own country.
Phew, that was scary.
I thought I going to be dragged into it, but it seems like I was able to make it through safely somehow. When I thought so,
「By the way Rimuru-sama, What have you been doing in all this time?」
Shuna stood at my back without any presence, and threw a sharp question at me.
I felt sweat which couldn't flow appear on my forehead.
No, we're safe, it's alright.
We never played. Yes, research! Because we were researching.
「It seems like we have become a hindrance to you. Let's perform the magic research in my room.
Because sorcery is deep, it grants me with wisdom」
Veldora turned his back with a favored bookManga in his hand while saying such a thing.
Is he going to run away!?
When I was going to detain him,
「The, then, I should accompany you too〜」
Ramiris betrayed me too and left, running away together with Veldora.
How cruel!
However, right now was not the time to be thinking about those cruel friends.
I think it was a little weak to keep insisting it was a research.
Hinata and Ruminas stared in my direction with suspicion-filled eyes, it seemed like a poor excuse would destroy me.
As I let Veldora and Ramiris's escape go, my brain cells operated at full strength searching for the optimum solution.
It's no use, a good idea won't come. Since it came to this, I went with my last resort.
（Raphael! Help me find a good excuse to safely get through this situation!）
Yes, the crystallization of my wisdom, SenseiRaphael should be my ally.
There's nothing to be afraid of.
"Solution. Explanation is unnecessary"
What? Explanation is unnecessary!?
What does that mea.....
「Ah, you were here? I've been looking for you, Danna!?」
Such a nostalgic presence, it was Fuze.
I see, that's what it meant!
「Oh, Fuze-kun. The matter I asked you about, how did the investigation go?*
Let's hear about it inside.」
It was a godsend.
It's seems like I was able to survive because I used Fuze to investigate Yuuki.
Nevertheless, as expected from Raphael.
Was the timing of this and Fuze's arrival already predicted? You don't say. Still it's impossible.
But, there's no doubt that I was saved. I'm glad I didn't carelessly make a weird excuse.
I enter the room and invited Fuze inside.
Then I absorbed my communication-duty clone, and sat in a chair.
I seemed able to deceive her somehow or another.
「A secret investigation was it? As expected of Rimuru-sama!」
So Shuna nodded with a satisfied smile.
The crisis had passed.
However, to not forget this lesson, I swore to stop playing too much.
Because I felt guilty, I became unnecessarily flustered.
You should do things within reason.
I reflected in my mind to be careful from now on.