I also remember her mentioning that some noble children might have been taken to the labyrinths not only since they were little, but also even after their age went into the one with double digits, and they still wouldn't be able to level as fast as I did. I really have no idea if my high level should be a case for concern or not, but just to be on the safe side the wise move here might be keeping it hidden from anyone else unless revealing it would become absolutely necessary. So, to that end…
「Roxanne, I would really appreciate it if you could keep my level a secret and not talk about it to anyone, okay?」
「Of course, master. My lips are sealed.」
Ahh, why am I even worrying about her spilling the beans on that information in the first place? Of course Roxanne wouldn't go revealing sensible information about me to anyone else. Her trust in me is absolute, and she would never do anything that would risk me losing that trust in her. Besides, we have our fair share of secrets already (TL Note: A bit too many if you ask me.) so adding one or two more to the mix should be okay and not make that much of a difference, and we have already established that the safety of my personal information should be our number one priority. She and the inhabitants of this world might not realize it, but information might be quite a powerful weapon when wielded in the right hands and used at just the right time.
While we were taking on another group of monsters, I noticed that there has been a slight change in me. Up until this point I needed roughly four spells in order to defeat a single monster from the second floor, but right now, all I needed to take one of them down were three shots! You might think that this is not that big of a deal, but it is exactly the opposite! Now that I managed to lower the number of spells required to take the enemies down by one for some reason, I can actually defeat them before they can get into our melee range, significantly dropping the risk of us sustaining injuries in battle! That is some truly great news. Of course, it's not like I can snipe them away from like a kilometer or so away, because single target spells still have to be aimed manually in order to maintain the highest accuracy of the shot possible, but putting that little technicality aside, that is going to be a tremendous improvement that showed its usefulness even now, since I was able to finish the battle that much faster with the less spells required to do so.
When there was only one enemy left, Roxanne jumped in front of me and finished it herself, which was a nice contribution, if not a little unnecessary, because with my new discovery I would have been more than glad, and most importantly, capable, of dealing with all of those monsters by myself.
Anyway, I think the number of spells required to kill monsters has decreased because my level as a Wizard has increased, making my spells a little bit more powerful. All of my levels were going up at a pretty decent pace, but the increase that the Wizard Job was getting through was especially fast even among the rest of my Jobs, because it started at Lv.1 just like any other Job, and right now it was already at Lv.12 even though it was the newest Job that I have aquired, so I technically had it for the shortest amount of time in comparison to the rest like Explorer or Hero.
「As expected of you , master. You are growing stronger and stronger by the day.」
「Nah, that's probably beginner's luck since I started using magic only recently. I bet I still have a long way to go when it comes to improving and mastering my skills at it.」
「That may be so, but with your extraordinary levelling speed, the day when you will be able to master more amazing spells might not be as far away as you might think.」
Again, that is only because I have the Bonus Skills that lowered the EXP required to level up by 1/10th of its original value and increase the amount of EXP I'm receiving for killing monsters by x20. Roxanne already knows how much levels I gained when it comes to the Explorer Job, but maybe I should not be telling her how much levels did I gain for my other Jobs just to be on the safe side?
We continued the exploration of the second floor and the extermination of the monsters living on it, and after a while we seemed to have reached the waiting room that was placed right before the Floor Boss's room. I looked around to be sure: no other ways and branching paths, just a pair of doors leading forward and a pair of doors leading back to where we came from. Yup, this is the waiting room alright. Who would have thought that we have advanced through the second floor so much? It felt much shorter compared to the time we have spent on the first floor before we reached its Floor Boss.
Seeing how empty the place is, it doesn't look like any Party in particular was awaiting their turn to take a stab at the Boss of this floor, so this seems like a perfect moment to get Durandal back, since I would like nothing more than to have it as my standard weapon for Floor Boss encounters like that, since its HP and MP Absorption Skills might be all the difference between life and death in the battles with stronger opponents, and this is definitely not a place to be worrying about getting more EXP. For this particular fight, DPS and survivability is where its at.
While performing a Character Reset, I also removed the increased EXP gain Bonus Skill and added myself a Fifth Job. Now that I have decided to bust out Durandal, it would also be good to use Warrior's Rush or Swordsman's Slash Skills, and the Fifth Job is exactly for the purpose of adding one of those Jobs to the rest of the ones that I already have. Obviously I cannot remove Explorer from the list of active Jobs, and Hero has to stay on as well because that Job is also very effective with its Stat boosts and Skill, Overwhelming, which might be pretty useful if I will find myself in a pinch. I should also keep Monk on, since that Job is the one I specifically wanted to get because of its focus on healing abilities that might prove to be more reliable than your standard item-based healing in the middle of a battle. For a moment I was considering whether or not to get rid of the Wizard Job, but maybe I should leave myself the ability to use magic just in case the battle goes horribly, horribly wrong for some reason. For now the only Floor Boss battle that I have experienced was against the Udowood back on the first floor, which was actually not that difficult from your standard battles against Needlewoods aside from the facts that Udowood was bigger than them and could attack in every direction thanks to the sheer number and placements of its branches, but as for the Floor Boss of the second floor, I don't even know what I should be expecting. For all I know, the Boss of the second floor might be the one that negates physical attacks, or he might negate magical attacks, or neither of them. Yeah, since there is too much unknown factors that I have no countermeasures against, the sensible thing to do here would be to prioritize safety over the gains to the EXP points, so I finally chose Warrior as my Fifth Job and ended up the Character Reset.
As we approached the door to the Boos Room, they opened up by themselves, almost as if they were waiting for us, inviting us inside.
「Alright Roxanne, we're going in. Let's go!」
「Yes!」
When I was walking through the double door, I felt my entire body instinctively tightening up. If this was nothing more than a game world where there would be no real risk of me actually dying I would have probably be excited as hell to face off against the new, never before seen enemy, but right now, knowing that my life is legitimately on the line here, I just couldn't force myself into enjoying this situation even if I wanted to.
When we were about to reach the center of the large Boss chamber, our surroundings were filled with clouds of green smoke that gathered in front of us, forming the silhouette of our next enemy.