「It's not paper, but a papyrus, master.」
「Papyrus?」
「Yes, a papyrus.」
So the thing this booklet is made out of is not ordinary paper, but a papyrus? I think I remember learning about it in one of the history classes is school, back when I used to still attend it. It was a thin, brown stiff paper used in ancient Egypt. No, actually… I think calling it a paper-like material would be much more fitting, because it looks like it could be torn much easier than regular paper. This is my first time seeing it, but now I think I understand why the maps are written only on one side of it. It's because the entire page would probably end up torn to pieces if they tried to write the maps on both sides of it. *Sigh* I knew there would be a catch to producing a 90 pages booklet in mass quantities, but to think that it would actually be something like that…
I looked at the "map" of the first floor. Since it was the very first one in the entire booklet I didn't have to do anything to pull it out of there, because if I had to do it then I'm afraid that it would have ended pretty badly. I briefly looked over it back home, but now I noticed something that I did not see before. In addition to being arranged in order, the papyrus with the map of each floor also had a number written in the corner. That's probably a countermeasure in case the booklet would fall apart for any reasons. With the map in hand, we went forward towards the path it indicated, all the while being careful not to bump into the other Adventurer's by accident.
「So many people here even though it's so early in the morning… you think the waiting room in front of the Boss Room is going to be just as crowded?」
「Quite possibly, but if we're lucky, then we should not have to wait for a long time before we can have our own turn to try challenging it.」
「Oh really?」
「Yes. And while we are on the subject of this place being crowded, it's mostly because many people are forced to stay for a long time because they pay for it.」
Even though it is early in the morning, there are quite a lot of people around us, however, just by looking at them, I can clearly tell that the exact number is lesser than the number of people who were here at noon yesterday. It would seem that even those Parties that looked stronger than us and had more people in them were also making use of the maps as they were proceeding forward a few meters in front of us. And when we pushed ahead even further… yeah, sure enough, there were already a few Parties ahead of us, all of them waiting in line in front of the door to the Boss Room. And on top of that, there were also some of them behind us. What is this, a queue for a friggin' tourist attraction?!
This really makes me feel like we didn't need a map at all to get here. All that we needed to do was to follow whatever Party that was in front of us, and eventually they would lead us right to our target's very doorstep.
Realizing that using magic to fight monsters in a Labyrinth as crowded with people as this one, I reset my character and equipped Durandal. I was still worried about other people realizing what kind of weapon it was, but since we are about to enter a battle with the Floor Boss, I cannot allow myself to skip out on my most powerful weapon because of something as trivial as fear. The saving grace here was that we didn't have to fight any monsters on the way to the Floor Boss, most likely because other Parties that went the same way before us already did most of the cleaning. After a few minutes the door to the Boss Chamber opened, and one of the Parties ahead of us went inside. Now we have no choice but to wait until they are finished so we could also have a stab at it.
A short while later, the door to the Boss Room slowly opened. Great, now we can go inside, so we made our way there without any needless dilly-dallying.
「That was rather fast. You think that Party that went before us managed to succeed?」
「I think so. This is the first floor and it has a Kobold for a Floor Boss, so I imagine you would have to put a pretty large effort to die in here.」
Roxanne answered my question like that. Putting an effort to actually die, huh? As someone who seriously contemplated ending my own life, that is a phrase that I would rather not hear again. But since I know from experience that Kobolds are actually laughably easy to fight because they are not that strong even though they possess weapons, then I guess it would make sense for other Parties to breeze through them. And if everyone breezes through them, then even if we had to wait in front of the Boss Chamber to have our shot at the Floor Boss, then the actual wait should not be all that long. Or at least I hope so. I would suck some major balls if it turned out that the Kobold Floor Boss is stronger than its cannon fodder counterparts.
Whatever the case may be, we didn't have to wait long to find out about it.
The green smoke gathered in the center of the room, reveling the appearance of the monster that came out of it. It was a small blue monster with sharp fangs and a comically large head. It is the same size as a regular Kobold, but instead of a small knife it is equipped with something that looks like a small machette, and the overall feeling it exudes it that it should be stronger than the regular weak-ass ones. According to my identification, this guy is actually called a Kobold Kampfer. Kampfer? Does that mean warrior or something? Yeah, that probably means its going to be tougher to beat than the regular Kobolds, with that larger weapon and its more intimidating posture it cannot be any other way than that.
「Master, I'm going in!」
Almost immediately after the Floor Boss materialized, Roxanne rushed towards him with her Scimitar drawn and ready to attack. Noticing her charge, the Kobold Kampfer readied his own weapon and swung it towards her, but she avoided it by bending her body sideways.
I have to admit, even though we have already established that even though Kobold Kampfer is stronger than its normal kin, it should still be weak, it is still scary to go and face off against an enemy who uses a weapon in the same way that you do, because it implies that it possesses enough intelligence to wield it properly. If I was forced to fight it alone, I would have most likely lost my shit from the fear of what would happen if he ever managed to cut me or sever one of my limbs with that sword of his. But Roxanne… she was evading his attacks like they were nothing. The Kobold Kampfer'a attacks were also painfully slow, so I bet that even I could have dodged its attacks like a real pro if I had to fight with it in a one-on-one duel. So this has to be one of those cases where you can defeat even an opponent with the rank of a Boss as long as you keep your distance and continue to study its movements carefully. Also… now that it is completely occupied with Roxanne who's keeping it busy from the front, nothing is stopping me from using that opening to slash it in the back when it is least expecting it! Roxanne exchanged a few attacks with it, and my single strike reduced its HP to zero. Kobold Kampfer collapsed onto the ground and turned into a puff of green smoke. The only thing that was left after it disappeared was a small fang-like object.
「….. Weak.」
Even for a Floor Boss, it Was still so weak that I almost feel bad for killing it.
「Well, it is still a Kobold after all.」
Now that the Kobold Kampfer was gone, the only thing left to do was to collect the object that it dropped. Upon closer inspection, it was something that was called Kobold Flour.
「Kobold… Flour? What is that? It has a shape of a Salt Stone, but the name is obviously different.」
「It is a type of wheat flour produced exclusively by Kobolds. If rumors are to be believed, it is supposed to be more tasty than the regular wheat flour.」