What if we fail to annihilate the enemy on time? The answer to that was quite obvious: injury or certain death. Even Roxanne, who is quite adept at the art of dodging attacks might not be able to do anything when slowed down and faced with the omnidirectional attack, even if she tried to jump over the Green Caterpillar's bodies before they finished casting their Skills, which I can easily imagine.
「For the time being I think that the best course of action will be to avoid the Trap Rooms whatsoever, since they still might be too dangerous for us to tackle with just the two of us. Let's exercise extreme caution if we happen upon one of them ever again, alright?」
「Understood. As long as master is with me, I feel like I can take on any kind of challenge, no matter what it is!」
I wonder what is she basing that rather pompous assumption on? And why did it sound so sexual? Maybe she is going to try and show off by dispatching the Green Caterpillars in some overly flashy way, like a leaping charge attack on the poor bastards that won't even know what hit them? I know it sounds ridiculus, but I also know that Roxanne would be willing to do something like that, and she is more than capable of pulling such a crazy stunt off, especially with her Monk Job.
Maybe I should think of a way of pulling us out of the ambushes and other similar situations? For example, if I could use some powerful AoE magic that could hit multiple enemies at once, carving out an escape route wouldn't be a problem at all, even if we were facing off against a small army of monsters. Something tells me that Meteor Crash would be ideal for it, but regretfully I am still unable to use it effectively (read: I can't use it at all.) How much longer will I have to grind to change that? Even though I have been killing monsters diligently in order to raise the levels of my Jobs, I have a feeling that they are starting to get harder to raise now, but there is nothing I can really do about it, since it is only natural that the amount of EXP points required foe a Level Up won't be the same for a Job at Lv.1 and the Job at Lv.99. Now, should I just continue to do exactly what I was doing up until now until I can finally use Meteor Crash, or should I find some other way in case that does not work?
Well if this Labyrinth turns out to be more dangerous than it is actually worth it we could always try moving into another one, but I feel like that would be nothing more but taking the easy way out, so I don't want to resort to using such a drastic measure, if at all possible. *Sigh* what should I do here? What is the right answer here?
Finishing the exploration and leaving the Labyrinth for today, we returned to Veil and walked around it. The city seemed to be even livelier than usual, most likely because today should be the day of the bazaar. Yeah, come to think of it, it has been around five days since I started taking Roxanne to the Labyrinth with me, so that should be about right. Looking at what the various stalls had to offer, we went to the Explorers Guild. But before we could even set our feet inside…
「Master? What are you…?」
I stood in front of Roxanne and covered her with my body, hiding her from view.
「Roxanne, listen. Try not to make it too obvious that you're looking, but…」
Right now I am facing the Explorers Guild with my back with Roxanne pinned with her back to the wall, glancing sideways. Normally I would gloat about performing a splendid kabedon on her, but now was not the time for such trivialities.
「Ah, y-yes?」
「Can you see that man standing in the shadow of that building over there?」
「Umm… yes, I see him. He's standing there all alone.」
Roxanne turned her face to me and moved her gaze a little, so that it would look like we were just talking to each other.
「Does it look to you like he's looking at Alan-san's slave shop?」
「Yes, it doesn't look like that at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you're right. That is exactly what he is looking at.」
「As I thought.」
So Roxanne thinks so as well.
When we were going through the city earlier and headed to the Explorer's Guild I saw that Bandit standing across the road. How do I know that he was a Bandit? Because ever since I hunted Bandits to get the money I needed to buy Roxanne, I developed a habit of Identifying suspicious-looking people when I see them, and that guy over there… was the acquaintance of that one scumbag I killed in their hideout. And now he is just standing here, looking suss as hell. Could this be fate, or one of its sick jokes? Also, it is incredibly rare for Bandits to be seen in the good part of the city when the sun is till up. I never thought I'm going to see them going out of the slums, if I am to be perfectly honest.
「You think he might be a customer? Because he doesn't look like that to me at all.」
「I think so to as well. But if he is not a customer, then who is he?」
「Most likely a Bandit. And the one that is not probably not interested in your usual, legal transactions.」
「But what might he want form the slave shop I was in?」
That I do not know, but there is no doubt that he is eyeing up Alan-san's shop, the one located just across the road from where the Explorers Guild was.
「I don't know that. Maybe there are some pretty important customers inside right now? For the time being, let's go back inside the Explorer's Guild.」
「Alright.」
We went inside and sold all of our items first, and after we got our hands on the money, we proceeded to check the boards for any useful information.
Since this guild posts all of the information related to the Labyrinth and its exploration, it might be worth our while to check if there are any information regarding the Trap Rooms or the quests available at the second floor. If we're lucky, then maybe we'll find out that the End of Search Declaration has been posted? Once it is issued, we won't have to worry about stumbling upon any Trap Rooms, because issuing the End of Search Declaration means that the entire floor has been thoroughly explored and all the Trap Rooms have been cleared of the monsters inhabiting them.
「And? Found anything over there?」
「No, no declarations have been posted for the second floor so far.」
Regretfully, we found no such notice on the Explorers Guild's bulletin boards.
「Well? What do you want to do now? Should we at least go and give Alan-san and a warning?」
I made sure that no one was listening in on us and asked Roxanne in a voice that only she could hear.
「I would be grateful lif we could do that. One of the ladies who works there has always been nice to me, so I would like to keep her safe if at all possible.」
Even though she was sold there by her relatives, it looks like not all of her memories of that place are the bad ones. Yes, giving them a warning is the least we can do right now, because if we just chose to do nothing, it would leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth.
「Let's go then. And when we will be going past that guy, try not to stare at him or else he might catch that we are onto him.」
「Right!」
And we left the Explorer's Guild, heading towards Alan-san's slave shop while trying to behave as naturally as possible so that the Bandit didn't start being suspicious of us.
…
_King_Ace here!
So guys I would really love for you to check
Depending on the feed back I get this week on it, I'll post ten chapters on Thursday!
Thank you very much! Have a lovely day!