「That is what I had heard regarding magic users and their equipment, so I am sorry if any of what I just said turns out not to be true.」
「Don't worry about it. You're already helping me more than enough, so asking anything more of you would be downright rude of me.」
「Thank you for your kind words, master, I really… wait, the enemy is close by!」
Roxanne pointed that out while we were walking through the Labyrinth, having a nice, casual chatter, and just like she said, a Needlewood has appeared right before us. As expected of Roxanne. Her senses are all so perfectly sensitive that she's able to sense enemies even when she's in the middle of talking with me. Can you be more reliable than that?
Normally I would be 100% against idle chatter anywhere outside the entrance to the Labyrinth and the first rooms on every floor, which function as safe zones for Adventurers since the danger might be lurking around every corner, but with mine and Roxanne's current levels, dealing with a single enemy when there is a pair of us should not be a problem at all. Now that she is a member om my Party, no monster attack will catch us by surprise anymore.
I launched a quick Fireball at the Needlewood. Since the enemy is only one, then instead of using Fire Storm, which is an AoE (Area of Effect) Fire-type spell, it's more cost-effective to only use single-target spells. Also, that way I could technically attack this guy all the way from the safe zone, where monsters have no access to make sure that Roxanne, who would have to rush in close to it to hit it with her Scimitar, won't get hurt at all, but right now, there was no need for me to be so overprotective of her, because she fended off each and every attack with swift and agile movements. The are so fast and precise that sometimes I wonder if those are really her natural moves, or is that thanks to some kind of Passive Skill she might be possessing?
Anyway, now that we have defeated that monster without any harm coming to neither of us…
「Going back to our topic of equipment for magic users, I sure wish that Veil had more shops that are opened permanately, and not just on the bazaar days. That way we could go shopping whenever there would be a need for it instead of waiting for the specific shop to be opened on a specific day. Yeah, that would surely be nice.」
We continued the talk that got interrupted due to the sudden appearance of the enemy. So back to what I was saying, it's a shame that there are no permanately opened stores in Veil, but even if they were opened 24/7 (or five days a week for eight hours like most of the shops back on earth, I don't know which would considered to be more normal here), then I don't think any of the stores in Veil, which are open every five days when the bazaar opens would be able to offer me equipment and supplies specifically for the magic users since apparently they are a pretty rare breed around these parts. And that is… inconvenient, to say the least.
「Oh, if it's a store selling wands, staffs and supplies for Mages you want, then you should probably go to Quratar. The stores in the Imperial City should also have those kinds of items, but Quratar is much closer, so that would definitely be your best bet.」
「Quratar, huh? That's the first time I'm hearing the name of that city, but if you say that it should have all of the things we might need, then I think checking it out would definitely be worth the shot.」
「Umu. I've only been there once before, but that one visit was enough to know that there is also a big Labyrinth there, and it's pretty convenient because the shops which sell all manner of supplies for both Explorers and Adventurers alike are situated pretty close to one another.」
How admirable, she explained all that without me even having to ask, but that was probably due to my fake backstory that I told to Roxanne, that I am from a remote region of the world far to the east where I was raised without knowing much about the common sense of the world. She really is like my own personal guardian angel. With benefits. (TL Note: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )
「Well, that settles it then. We should really try going there if we ever get the chance to do so.」
If this Quratar place is even bigger than Veil, then the shops would probably be much bigger with better selection of items, which would be pretty convenient for me.
We stopped the conversation once more to deal with two more enemies that appeared before as we continued to go deeper and deeper into the second floor. Since there are two of them, we did our usual thing where we split up so that each one of us would draw the attention of one monster to ourselves. Actually, I think that right now I would be more than enough to take care of both of them with my AoE spells so that Roxanne didn't have to put herself in unnecessary danger, but suggesting that to her now might be insulting to her, so I think it would be better if I shut up about it for now and just let each of us do our own thing.
Fighting monsters with magic was harder than with normal weapons, but it was not impossible. I can shoot at them with my spells before they even get close to me, but if they get within striking distance without dropping dead I will only have a short moment to react before they will launch their attacks at me, causing me to either evade and reposition myself on use another spell from point blank range while taking the risk of tanking a potential hit, which is why defeating them while they are still relatively far away from me would be a preferable outcome, but as you all probably know, you cannot always get what you want from life. That is just how big of a bitch it is. I wish the battles on all floors of this Labyrinth would be simple ones, but that is little more than my own wishful thinking. Right now the monsters are weak because we're only on the second floor, but once we start climbing onto the higher floors, not only there is going to be significantly more enemies for us to deal with, but they will also grow stronger with each floor, so we should appreciate these short fight whenever we can, because pretty soon they will become nothing more but a distant memory that we're going to look at fondly. Well, I guess that is j=how a natural order of things works, so it cannot be helped. I still think that what we are doing now is the right thing to do. We are taking things slowly, adapting to tougher battles little by little, which is infinitely better than rushing ahead of ourselves blindly until we encounter monsters that will be too strong for us to defeat, sending us to the early grave because of little else than our own stupidity. Yeah, we will gradually get used to the raising difficulty level, and getting me a wand of a staff may wait until then.
After finishing the exploration for the time being, we left the Labyrinth and went back to Veil to sell the items that we aquired. But before we went to the Explorer's Guild's building to do so, we took a moment to replenish our supply ow drinkable water by filling our bottles from the well behind the Veil Pavillion inn, in which we were currently staying. Initially I thought that since I learned how to create water with magic then we won't need to carry bottled ones with us, but that assumption of mine got quickly corrected once I learned that storing magically created water is not as simple as I thought it will be, so I guess it was a good thing that Roxanne mentioned Quratar now of all times, because once we go there, we will be able to buy water storing supplies, like cups, more bottles, or perhaps even bigger containers if we're lucky.
When we sold all of the Green Caterpillar Threads and got our money, we returned to the inn to have a short rest, after which we have set off into the Depths of the Labyrinth once more.
「This way.」
As usual, I followed after Roxanne's guidance. Navigating the Labyrinth's dimly-lit corridors, we soon happened upon a first pair of enemies.