The inside of the room was, from the lack of a more suitable words, a total mess. The blood of the Bandit, and even his bits and pieces, were literally scattered all over the place. The same could be said about his equipment, or at least the one that wasn't damaged by him erupting into a bloody smear on the floor and nearby walls. The only thing that was in good enough condition to be salvaged was the Copper Sword. I already have one of those myself and don't need a copy, but hey, a deal's a deal, so I'm going to take whatever I can. I will probably go sell it later when I will have some free time on my hands.
「As per our agreement, I will be holding onto this.」
Now that everything has been settled, all three of us left the room. Due to the loss of MP from using Equivalent Exchange my body was still in a lot of pain, and now that I have used up the only two MP Recovery Medicines that I bought the only way to fill it back up was to go to the Labyrinth and kill some monsters with Durandal. A hassle for sure, but this time it is a necessary one.
「Before you go, please wait a moment.」
Alan-san said to us before he went and disappeared inro one of the rooms.
「Uhm, master…?」
「Yeah?」
「I am deeply sorry. Due to my selfishness, you ended up getting badly hurt like that.」
「No, that's not a problem at all. Besides, what happened to me was not your fault, Roxanne.」
I don't know why she is the one apologizing when this time I was actually the selfish one here, so what happened to me was 100% my fault.
「Sorry I kept you waiting. Here is the promised reward for your work. That being said, I didn't expect thongs to escalate the way they did, so allow me to express my deepest apologies as well, and thank you very much for everything you did for us.」
I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, but if he's offering us a full reward without any buts, then who am I to complain? Now that the Bandits have been taken care of, we could safely leave the shop through the front door. Alan-san saw us off the entire way, and after saying our goodbyes to him we left the shop and got ack out into the streets.
The outside was still very dark, so apparently sun hadn't rose up enough to start shedding its light onto the surroundings. Navigating the streets without any source of light might be a bit problematic, so much in fact that a part of me wished for Alan-san to share his lantern with us instead if giving us money.
Right now, we need to go to the Labyrinth as soon as possible so that I could replenish all of my lost MP. And since it is dark and no one seems to be around, this looks to be as good of a place as any for a Warp. Warp… just Warp to the damn Dungeon…
I grabbed Roxanne's hand and went through the portal together with her, arriving in Veil's Labyrinth… but that Warp was a bad move. A very, very huge oof. I thought getting to the Labyrinth as soon as possible was a good idea, but it turned out to be a bad one that just made my situation worse. How, you ask? Just think about it really carefully. Warp is a spell, and spells consume MP in order to be used, and right now I only managed to recover a small amount of it and almost immediately used it all up again… so yeah, we are back at the square one with my MP completely depleted because of my fucking stupidity! Hoe could I be such an idiot as to forget something so crucial… fuck, now my body hurts even more than it did before!! The only saving grace here is that we have Warped into the entrance room where there wasn't any monsters. Yes, such safe places are oh so very much like me. Now I can just curl up into a ball in a corner and shiver with fear like a blasted coward that I am. I will e safe and won't be hurt here anymore. Yes, this place can become my very own sanctuary of peace and safety…
No, I came here for a fucking reason, and I am going to goddamn see it through! I have to find some of those dickless monsters and buttfuck the living shit out of them with Durandal's business end so that I can get all of my MP back with the MP Absorption skill.
「Roxanne… the shortest way to the nearest group of monsters… please…」
But what if we won't happen upon any monsters anytime soon? Ahh, screw it, we will just look for them until we find them. That is why Roxanne is here with me, to give me the push I need to continue going forward even if I don't really want to.
Right now I am sure I am nothing but a burden to her, since there is nothing half as bad as having an incompetent, unmotivated fool like myself for a companion. She is so always so good, you know? Keeping a failure like me company and putting up with my loser shenanigans… okay, my self-deprecating rants are only growing stronger and more fierce, so let's just go out there and slay us some monsters before I really turn into a spineless quitter and run away with my tail up my ass…. Yeah, right, what are you even thinking about, you idiot?! Are you touched to the head or what? A dimwit like you, going outside, killing monsters? There is no way in hell you can do that. The fact that you somehow managed to do it up until now is in and out of itself a one-in-a-million miracle that should not be allowed to happen again! You are such a failure that when the monsters will find you, they will kill you without even trying to do so! You don't want to be killed, right? You just want to continue living like you did before, in the absolute safety of your cramped room, where you didn't have to do anything! So go ahead and stay in this entrance room. Not moving an inch from here is what really suits a spineless chickenheart like you!
「The closest group of monsters should be this way.」
Roxanne pointed with her finger.
「Master? Are you not feeling well?」
「No, it's nothing. I… I will fight those monsters, so you just stay behind me, alright?」
Damn it all to hell! Roxanne is right in assuming that I am not feeling well in the slightest, but the only way out of this sorry state is for me to kick myself back into high gear and kill as many monsters as I can with Durandal, but… is it really going to be safe? I mean, there are monsters roaming the halls out there, so who decided that they won't suddenly charge in here to murder me if they sense me? To be honest, I don't even know what I'm thinking anymore. This is the Labyrinth, dangerous, and filled with enemies at every turn. No place is completely safe in here. There is no escaping them, and there is no escaping death. So that's it, huh? Well, if I'm going to die, then at least I will die standing.
Mustering every last ounce of energy I had, I left the entrance room.
No! Go the fuck back! Do you have a death wish? You want to die that badly?! No. Whether I go back there or not does not matter. The monsters will eventually come to the entrance room, and since I won't be able to beat them, that place will become my graveyard. And suddenly, as if it heard my internal turmoil, a single Needlewood appeared at the back of the passageway. Run away. It's not too late to run, you can still do it! Just go back to the entrance room and stay there, where no one will be able to harm you! No, there's no time! Even if I run right now, I won't make it in time! I am going to be killed by this basic monster and die a horrible, meaningless death! The patrolling Needlewood is approaching, and it is definitely out for my blood!
But then…
I don't even know when it happened, but at some point I must have swung my Durandal at it, killing it in one blow. Was it survival instinct, or perhaps a motion that my body got so used to that it was performing the moves on its own? Well, it does not matter. What matters is that with a bit of MP I have regained, my head got a little bit clearer, and that was a start of my return to full mental health!