Part 1
Kaga Michio
Current levels & equipment:
Explorer Lv.12
Hero Lv.7
Warrior Lv.10
Swordsman Lv.8
Equipment:
Durandal
Leather Armor
Leather Jacket
Leather Gloves
Leather Shoes
To sum it all up, all of my attempts at reciting various chants, prayers and
scriptures ended up in failure. Yes, that's right, I was making a fool out of
myself for quite a while, and I still didn't unlock Monk's or Priest's Job as a
result, so recovery magic and Skills were still beyond my reach. But I guess I
can only blame myself for that. After all, if something as simple and trivial as
a prayer was enough to obtain a Job, then it wouldn't require harsh training to
begin with, right?
I always thought that prayers and such have nothing to do with magic,
however, in this world, spells and Skills are both considered to be a type of
magic. Right now, it looks like obtaining literally any Job that has access to
healing spells and abilities might be more of a pain than it is actually worth it,
but I shouldn't allow myself to get discouraged so easily, especially if it's
going to help us in the long run. Also, I refuse to believe that training and
pilgrimages are the only way of obtaining a Monk and Priest Jobs. Maybe I
should ask Roxanne if there really isn't…
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「Now that I think about it, I remember hearing that there is one more way to
obtain the Monk Job, the one that was designed specifically for warriors, and
it is to defeat monsters with your bare hands. And I don't want to brag, but I
think I would more than up for this kind of task.」
Roxanne offered me a hint that I was waiting for at just the right time, most
likely because she was starting to worry about my mental health. She could
have told me about it before I started chanting random prayers like a
madman, but I cannot say that to her, because that would be rude of me.
Well, it's good if she's confident in her own abilities, but if at all possible, I
would also like to give it a shot. But can I really pull something as crazy as
that off? And wait a goddamn sec! If Roxanne says she is fine with killing
monsters with her bare hands, wouldn't that make her one hell of a scary
lass?!
Then again, if defeating a monster with nothing but your fists wasn't
possible, then it probably wouldn't be listed as a requirement for getting a
Monk Job. It's the same as with the Swordsman Job or Mage Job: you get the
former for defeating monsters with a sword, and the latter for using Attack
Magic. Therefore, it would stand to reason that you should also get a Job for
defeating enemies without the usage of any kind of weaponry.
But, you know… monks fighting with their bare hands? The only ones who
fit that description to a T are the monks from the Shaolin Temple, since your
typical Buddhist monks are more associated with sutras, Khakkharas (TL
Note: Those staffs with lots of rings on them) and exorcising evil spirits.
And even if I fail to get the Monk Job, maybe using hand-to hand combat
will unlock some other offensive Job, like, maybe a boxer, brawler, or
something along those lines? Either way, looks like it will at least be worth a
try.
Still, there are various uncertainties regarding the exact conditions of
unlocking the Monk Job by fighting monsters bare-handed. Most likely you
have to 「defeat」 them without using any kind of melee weapon, but what
does 「defeat」 mean here, exactly? Do I have to do all of the damage with my
fists alone, or does it only have to be the finishing blow? And is it going to
count if both of us will attack a single enemy?
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For now, I guess we have no other choice but to test all of those options out.
「Roxanne, there's a little something I want to try.」
「Something?」
「Well, I guess you can call it an experiment.」
「An experiment, huh?」
「Yeah. For now, I would like you to put away your sword and try fighting a
few enemies with just your fists.」
「Roger!」
However, I am still skeptical about this. Before I came to Veil, I had trouble
defeating a friggin (Caerbannog) Bunny with a Copper Sword, and now
Roxanne was going to fight something stronger than a Bunny with nothing
but her own two hands? I couldn't help it but to worry, even if there are two
of us now and we should have a level advantage over the Needlewoods. Just
in case, I will have my weapon ready to strike at all times.
Oh man, if I tried doing it alone, it would certainly end up with my death, so
let's just see how this goes without trying too hard. Let's try a single blow
first.
I placed Durandal back at my hip and then jumped in front of the next
Needlewood we encountered and I threw a straight haymaker at it with my
right hand.
「Hng!!!」
Because I couldn't use my sword, I had no choice but to go up close and
personal with it, which meant that getting hit myself was inevitable.
Thankfully, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it will be, most probably
because my levels went up, resulting in me being able to take more
punishment now, but the numbing, burning sensation pulsating in the place
that was hit by the enemy remained much the same.
Then Roxanne joined me and we attacked the Needlewood together, both
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from its left and right sides. Faced with a 2v1 scenario, it wasn't able to
respond to our strikes fast enough. While Roxanne kept its attention on
herself, I stepped a few steps to the back and brandished Durandal. Noticing
me, Needlewood waved its wooden fist at me. I blocked its attack with
Durandal's hilt and then launched a counterattack, cleaving it cleanly in half.
While Roxanne was busy packing the leftover branches into her backpack, I
checked the Party Job Settings once again, but much to my annoyance neither
I nor Roxanne obtained the Monk Job. So it would seem that simply fighting
the enemies with hand-to-hand combat was not enough after all. Maybe we
should try defeating them after all?
The thing is, if we were to do that, then I don't know how long a brawl like
that would take. I'd need to get closer to the enemy than when I was using the
Copper Sword, so that's going to literally be a battle where my life will
constantly be on the line.
At first, let's try only hitting it with our fists as a finishing blow. But in order
to do that, we cannot use Durandal, since it is just too strong and it will kill
the enemy in one hit. Copper Sword is out of the question either because it's
just too weak. Luckily for me, Bonus Weapons Skill has six levels in total, so
let's see what we are going to get when I choose Bonus Weapons 5, one level
below Durandal.
It gave a weapon called Fragarach. It does not have MP Absorption, but it
possesses HP Drain, Chant Interruption and Attack Power 5x, so it's not that
much of a downgrade, if I am to be honest.
「Looks like you have quite a lot of weapons at your disposal, master. This
one looks just as strong as your previous one.」
Roxanne praised me as she examined Fragarach with curious eyes and her
hand on her chin.
「Thanks. I'll try using this one next and we'll see if it makes any difference,
okay?」
「Right!」
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Following Roxanne's guidance, we immediately found our next target.
Having her in the Party is so convenient that it is unbelievable. If everything
goes well, maybe we could really go to the Labyrinth's next level soon. Since
all the monsters on this first level die in one hit from Durandal's one blow,
then as long as we only go one level up we should still be safe.
However, the scariest part about this world is that even with all the things
listed above, I still cannot be absolutely sure that everything will go exactly
as I planned. It is a world filled with Labyrinths that are actually sentient
creatures, monsters roaming the wilderness and a fuckload of Bandits and
other villainous scum wherever you go. A world where you can never know
what will happen to you next, and that is why it is imperative to keep getting
stronger so that when the time comes that the world is going to hit you with a
「Surprise Motherfucker」 card, you'll just have to hit it back with a 「No U」
card and live your life in peace.
But that is a talk for the future. For now, we have to press forward without
any regrets, hoping that our plan is not going to backfire on us.
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Part 2
If we decide to go to the upper floors of the Labyrinth, it is quite possible that
we're going to get more EXP points from defeating monsters. If we advance
little by little without letting confidence to go into our heads too much, then
we should be perfectly fine. We don't have to overdo it just yet. For now, my
absolute top priority should be to guarantee our safety. As they say, slow and
steady wins the race. If we were to force ourselves too much just for the sake
of going forward, then I can already see us falling to the ground hard right
before reaching the finish line.
That being said, we can't allow ourselves to be neglectful either. Even if it's
one step at a time, we have to keep getting stronger by increasing the levels
of the Jobs that we already have and continuing to aquire new ones.
That being said, I have delivered a "steady" slash with Fragarach towards the
Needlewood in front of me, cutting it horizontally at waist-height. Now, let's
see how much damage it did.
As expected, this time a single blow was not enough to kill it. Is that how big
the difference between the Bonus Weapons is? And I just lowered it from
Lv.6 to Lv.5 this time. Is every Bonus Weapon aside from Durandal useless?
No, no matter how much weaker they are in comparison to Durandal, every
Bonus Weapon should be stronger than the weakest of the weak weapons,
Copper Sword.
But still, from the very basic equipment to The Holy Sword Durandal… the
difference in the range of power on those things is a total bullshit. Not to
mention that there's too many options in these things. If Fragarach from
Bonus Weapon Lv.5 is that much weaker than Durandal, then what is a
weapon from Bonus Weapon Lv.1 supposed to be, just a hair's width better
than Copper Sword?!
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While I was busy with my internal monologues, the Needlewood threw its
wooded fist towards me. I've let my guard down too much, so there's no way
for me to dodge it in time…
「Huh?」
… but then Roxanne jumped in front of me and started to shower the
Needlewood with a barrage of punches. Left hook, right hook, left straight,
right straight.
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「Hah…」
She also dodges the enemy's attacks gracefully, after which she immediately
jumps back into melee range to throw a jab or two its way.
Using the distraction Roxanne provided, I moved in with my second slashing
attack, after which the Needlewood collapsed. So Fragarach takes two attacks
to kill an enemy instead of one?
「W-Wow, amazing…」
「Yes, master. That new sword of your is plenty strong as well.」
「N-No, I was talking about you, Roxanne. Those movements of yours…」
「Really? Then, thank you very much, I suppose.」
No no no, you shouldn't be thanking me. But even if she herself doesn't
agree with me, that doesn't change the fact that her performance just now was
outstanding. Huh? But wait a minute… if she doesn't think that something
like that was amazing, then does that mean she wasn't serious just now?!
This is a world filled with dangerous Labyrinths and vicious monsters.
Taking that into account, the fact that Roxanne is able to pull her own weight
in a fight shouldn't be all that surprising. Still, back when I was at the Somara
village, I saw with my own eyes that ordinary people were having trouble
with repelling Bandit attacks and Slow Rabbits, and even if they all banded
together they would be unable to defeat something like a Gumi Slime. But
those with enough strength to enter the Labyrinth would obviously be
different than normal people.
Anyway, as long as battling without Bonus Weapons is concerned, Roxanne
is overwhelmingly stronger than me. Then again, maybe I shouldn't put that
much though into it and just accept it for a fact?
Guided by her superior sense of smell, we continued the exploration.
The next monster we happened upon was killed by me with the usage of
Rush, which I successfully activated by thinking about it as I raised mu
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sword in the air in preparation. I scored a clear hit on the Needlewood, which
collapsed onto the ground with just a single hit.
Rush seems to be a Skill that allows the user to instantenously close the
distance between him and the enemy, attacking them at the same time. I tried
switching it with normal attacks, but I was unable to determine how much the
strength of the attack rose with the usage of Rush.
Next, I tried testing the Swordsman Skill, Slash. Once again, the Needlewood
unfortunate enough to be my test subject was killed with a single blow.
Results? I don't really understand the difference between Rush and Slash. I
guess I technically could run additional tests to test both of those Skills in
more detail, but honestly, I don't want to do it. As long as they involve
fighting against monsters, even the most harmless of experiments could
quickly turn fatal if I wasn't paying enough attention. So instead, I'm going
to try something a bit safer, the kind of experiment I can perform without
much of a risk.
Character Reset not only allows me to redistribute my Bonus Points and
change the Bonus Skills I want to use, but I can also change the values of my
stats by adding and subtracting points from them. I was wondering what was
going to happen if I tweaked them a bit, and now is as good of a time as any
to find that out.
The stat that I'm going to fiddle around with is going to be STR (Strength),
since it directly affects how much damage I am doing with my sword attacks,
and my aim here is to always kill enemies with a single blow.
While keeping the points that I've put in Bonus Weapons to keep Fragarach
(31 Bonus Points) and keeping the option of the Third Job, I used the
remaining 75 Bonus Points to increase the STR value as much as possible,
and with such settings I attacked the next monster. Surprising nobody, the
Needlewood got obliterated with one strike.
Yup, that confirms it: more STR means increase in the attack power.
But even after increasing STR to 75 points, there wasn't really much of a
change, by which I mean that my sword didn't feel lighter and my swings
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didn't get any faster. No, maybe it did become somewhat easier to swing
around, or maybe that was just my imagination playing tricks on me. Maybe
my mindset has changed, and I subconsciously started thinking that I am now
really strong, and that affected my muscles in some weird way? No, that
actually sound way too far-fetched to be true. Even when my levels went up
or Jobs were added and removed, there was no real change to the sensation. It
remained the same the entire time.
I reverted my settings to the ones where I invested in increasing the amount
of EXP gained (x10) and lessened the amount of EXP required to Level Up
(1/10th), except this time I increased my STR to 45 points.
Now, let's see how those are going to perform, shall we?
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Part 3
With an STR score of 45, the next monster I used Slash on died in one hit. A
good result, but I don't want to use any more Bonus Points than it is
absolutely necessary, so I might try lowering the STR value quite a bit before
the next random encounter. If I want to min/max my stats, I have to figure out
the exact number of points placed in STR to know how much should be
enough to both one-shot the enemies and still have many points to spare for
other abilities, so for the next battle I will lower my STR to 13 points and
we'll see how this goes.
Okay, I can say that the result was not ideal, but it wasn't all that terrible
either. With my STR at 13 the Needlewood survived the initial slash,
meaning that I must have lowered my stats a bit too much. Thankfully, that's
what Roxanne is here for. When I finished my attack she immediately
jumped into action and showered The Needlewood with attack after attack
without giving it time to breathe (or whatever it is that trees are doing). One
of its branch attacks was faster and more unpredictable than the others, so I
thought she was going to get hit by it, but she avoided it at the last possible
second by leaning forward and slightly to the side. That move! That right
there was the same maneuver that boxers back in my old world were using
when they wanted to avoid their opponent's punch and launch a counterattack
right afterwards! I think it is actually called a duck. Using her body flow to
its fullest extent, she moved and dodged around the monster with a
combination of both grace and deadly accuracy. Using the opportunity she
created for me, I swung Fragarach at the monster when its back were turned
against me, ending the battle.
「I should have expected nothing less from you, Roxanne. Your movements
just now were amazing. Thank you for your continued support.」
「Yes, just leave it all to me, master!」
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「I thought about it ever since I first saw you fighting, but you are quite
strong, aren't you, Roxanne?」
「Thank you for the kind words, but I think that someone who kills monsters
with a single blow is even more amazing.」
I'm happy that she thinks of me that way, but the entirety of my strength
comes from my sword, not from myself. But that's okay, there's no need to
be telling her that just yet, or ever. Next, I did another Character Reset to
increase my STR by a few points so that I could kill Needlewoods with one
attack with Fragarach. For a number of next encounters, I was gradually
increasing my STR, trying to find that 「sweet spot」 that would get me what I
was looking for. Every time when my stats weren't enough, Roxanne was
there to finish the job for me.
「Alright Roxanne, listen up. Next time we run into a monster, I'm going to
try to defeat it with my bare hands, and if that won't do anything we'll call it
a day and go back to the inn.」
「Yes!」
With my current settings I should be able to damage the next Needlewood
just enough not to kill but at the same time literally leave it at death's door. I
have a good feeling about this. This time everything should work out, and
there is no more room for mistakes.
The next Needlewood that came at us was slashed by my Fragarach, but it
didn't die. All right, so far, so good. Now for the next step. I took a step back,
unequipped Fragarach and placed it against the nearby wall. All this time,
Roxanne was covering me up by dodging the swings of its arms as she
danced around it. Then she proceeded to go on the offensive.
Roxanne punched it with her right fist, and lightly backstepped whenever one
of the branches threatened to hit her. It tried to strike her shoulder but it
missed, and as a result, its trunk swayed. When it got its shit together it tried
to do another strike from the right but Roxanne avoided it once more, dashing
straight back in front of it and making it eat a good ol' one-two combo and
dodging it by half a step to the side. This exchange of dodge and hit
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continued for a while.
It was spectacular. All I could do was to simply stare in amazement at what
was happening right in front of me.
Roxanne avoided each and every one of the Needlewood's attacks. None of it
was even close to reaching her. From where I stood, it looked like it wasn't
even trying to hit her. Not only she makes it look like all of those branch
swings are easy to avoid, but she's also doing it by the paper length, the
literal skin of her teeth. The distance between the enemy's bushy fists and her
body could be measured in centimeters, if not in millimeters.
At a glance it looks like she is constantly in a pinch, but it is actually the
opposite.
The Needlewoods are rather big and somewhat slow, and that makes their
attacks methodical and easy to predict. It also means that they wouldn't be
able to dodge swift and agile attacks even if their lives depended on it. But
that is how battle works. If you can clearly read your opponent's moves, it is
generally better to dodge them at the last possible moment for maximum
effectiveness.
All of Roxanne's movements were exactly like that. The way she moved her
feet and twisted her body… it was just like she was dancing on the
battlefield. Compared to her, the Needlewood's attacks are all just so…
monotonous. I mean, what can you expect? It is just an oversized moving
bush that can punch people, if you think about it. But this is a perfect moment
for me to strike! I will also hit it now!
Right now, the Needlewood is sandwiched between me and Roxanne from
the back and front, and to its sides are the Labyrinth's walls. It literally has
nowhere to run. I slammed my fist against its bark, but did that really do any
damage?
A branch was swung towards me from the left, so I dodged it by imitating
Roxanne's movements, and what do you know, somehow it worked. Then
another branch went flying towards me from the opposite direction, which I
avoided by twisting my upper body to the side. Now that it has left itself wide
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open, it was the time for me to strike!
My next two blows connected, and I avoided the counterstrike by pulling my
body away from it, going back a few steps because of the momentum that
carried me backwards. That was a close one. For a moment there I thought I
fucked up, which would suck after I made such bold declarations.
On the other hand, Roxanne continued to brilliantly dodge the Needlewood's
clumsy attacks. The more I watched her, the more I understood that moving
the way she moved was simply impossible for me. No matter how hard I'd
try, I cannot move as nimbly as she does, which would really come in handy
now that I do not have a sword, which forces me to be withing the monster's
arm's reach all the time, making me work my ass off quite a lot, so being able
to dodge properly would take at least a bit of the pressure away from me. A
damn shame, really.
Moreover, Roxanne's punches were way faster than mine.
Fuck!
Using my rage and frustration as a catalyst, I dashed forward. First I threw a
kick at it, and then followed up with a punch. When I was done, a branch was
already coming my way. At this distance, there's no way for me to dodge it,
so the only option left… id for me to put my everything into this next straight
punch and push through with brute force alone!
With the impact of my fury-filled blow, the Needlewood's entire body shook.
After a few seconds, it collapsed on the ground behind it.
Fucking… finally! It took like, forever, but we finally managed to beat it with
our fists only. In this battle to the death, I was the one who emerged
victorious. Of course, it was a death battle only for me, because Roxanne
wasn't hit once throughout the entire encounter.
The monster turned into smoke and disappeared.
Almost immediately after it was felled I checked my own status. How was
that, game? Good enough to finally get myself that Monk Job?
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Well, apparently it still wasn't enough, because I still didn't have it. So what,
all that unarmed brawling I just did was for nothing? No, let's not get all
pessimistic just yet. I'll try checking the Party Job Settings next and search
through Roxanne's Jobs. Now, let's see here… Beast Warrior Lv.6, Villager
Lv.8, Farmer Lv.1, Warrior Lv.1, Swordsman Lv.1, Explorer Lv.1, Monk
Lv.1 …
Oh, would you look at that. Roxanne got it.
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Part 4
「Roxanne, did you do something to that monster after I punched it?」
「Ah, yes, yes I did. After you delivered that punch that stunned it, I whacked
it in the back one more time, causing it to collapse. Why are you asking,
master? Have I done something that I shouldn't have done?」
「No, everything's fine.」
So she was the one who killed it, huh? Well, I certainly didn't saw anything
that looked remotely like that, but to be fair, my eyes were pretty clouded
with rage at that moment, so it's entirely possible that she truly did that and I
simply missed it. But that gives me a crucial piece of information.
Based on what Roxanne said, it looks like the Job of a Monk can be obtained
as long as you deal the finishing blow to the enemy with your bare fists, and
that is supported by the fact that Roxanne, who dealt the last blow to that
Needlewood got herself a Monk Job, while I, who was fighting the enemy
unarmed, but did not kill it unarmed, failed to get it. That would truly mean
that what is needed to obtain it is the last blow.
「That was some truly impressive dodging game there, Roxanne. I didn't
know you could actually move like that.」
「Thank you very much, but it really wasn't anything that impressive.
Because there were two of us fighting it at the same time it was distracted,
which made seeing through the patterns of its attacks that much easier.」
I don't really care that much now that it's all over, but…
「Uh-huh, I see.」
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「Everyone can avoid that kind of slow attacks as long as they pay attention
and look closely enough.」
Yeah, right, not happening. Calling BS on that.
But once again, I am reminded why Roxanne is such a great person. Not only
she knows a lot of things that I do not have a clue about, but she can also
sense monsters with just her nose alone, as well as avoid their attacks like it
was nothing!
Anyway, the lesson we have learned today is that you need to deal the
finishing blow to obtain the Job, so now we can act on it properly.
「Okay Roxanne, the plan for the next battle is as follows: I will try to deal the
finishing blow, so I would like you to keep yourself distanced, but not to
engage the enemy unless it will be an emergency.」
That way I will be one hundred percent sure that my kill is not going to get
stolen, accidentally or otherwise.
Or so I thought, but once again, the next Needlewood collapsed after only a
single blow, which is strange, since I didn't do a Character Reset to change
my STR value just yet. Apparently there is some fluctuation to the damage
dealt to monsters, but at the current moment I have no idea if it is also
affected by things like attack power or STR value, or just plain inconsistent
damage.
Well, whatever.
For now, I was able to recover all of the damage I have sustained with
Fragarach's HP Absorption, after which I added one more point to the STR
stat and proceeded to hunt more monsters, waiting for the appearance of the
one that wouldn't just drop dead on the spot after eating just one hit from me.
It took some time, but finally such an opponent appeared again.
Now I know that fighting monsters without a real weapon is an unbelievably
butt-hurting chore, but if I want to add Monk to my list of Jobs there is
nothing I can really do about it.
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All I have to focus on now is the enemy in front of me. Everything else will
come after he will be dispatched.
If this guy is the same like that one which gave Roxanne a Job of a Monk
when she defeated it, then that would mean that even if my slash with
Fragarach didn't kill it, it should still be damaged enough to be felled by my
fists alone, that is to say on the brink of death.
However, since I asked Roxanne not to interfere this time it means that it will
still be incredibly dangerous for me since I'm going at it alone, doing fifty
percent less attacks than we did before, resulting in the unnecessary
prolonging of the battle.
Could it be that I fucked myself over without even realizing it?
Be that as it may, the battle has begun, and right from the get-go I had to deal
with branch-fists heading my way.
I've been thinking: are Needlewoods able to distinct between their front,
back, left and right. I don't even know if they need it in the first place, since
they can technically attack in a 360 degrees radius with the branches
protruding from their bodies. On that note, do they even have eyes? Because,
to be honest, I never really bothered to look at them closely enough to check.
Somehow I feel that even if they were surrounded by two or more people, it
wouldn't place them at that big of a disadvantage. They are technically
moving trees, so they should be sturdy enough to take a fair bit of punishment
from both humans and other monsters alike.
Roxanne wasn't attacking just like I instructed her, but the Needlewoods
behavior didn't change much because of it. If anything, it gotten a little bit
more aggressive when the other target wasn't doing anything to retaliate
against it.
Yes, I cannot forget that when it comes to hand-to hand combat, Roxanne is
stronger than me. I told her not to fight with me this time… but it does not
mean that she cannot distract the enemy to make my job of hitting it that
much easier! That's it Roxanne, keep doing your paper-thin dodges for me.
One of them is bound to leave this Needlewood in a vulnerable position.
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This time I didn't simply unequip Fragarach, but completely erased it by
doing a Character Reset mid-combat, pouring all of my remaining Bonus
Points into STR. With that, by bare-handed attacks should be that much more
effective. Roxanne continued to serve as a distraction, so I had plenty of
room to prepare myself and launch a single, decisive strike.
... There!
I jumped extremely close to the Needlewood while it was still recovering
from a swing of its branches. It noticed me, but it wasn't able to get back into
position in time. And like that, my outstretched fist collided with the enemy,
sending it flying and tumbling along the ground. The Needlewood has fallen,
and I was victorious once more.
「Amazing! That's another one hit victory for you!」
One-hit victory indeed, but there is nothing to gloat about here, because I
cheated a little here by hastely allocating all of my remaining Bonus Points
into STR.
Phew, that was tough, but since I was the only one who delivered the asswhooping onto that Needlewood, then it should mean that this I should obtain
that Job for sure. With those thought in mind, I opened the menu to check my
Job Settings.
Monk Lv.1
Effects: Medium SPI Increase, Small MP Increase
Skill: Medical Treatment
Well, this is it.
I set up Monk as my First Job and immediately proceeded to check the
effects of the Medical Treatment Skill. When I did, the pain that was
permeating my shoulder due to one of my earlier attacks has completely
disappeared.
「All right, the pain has subsided. From now on, if we ever get attacked by
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monsters and end up wounded as a result, I will be able to heal us no
problem.」
I told Roxanne.
「You can really do something so useful now?」
「That's right. And as always, promise me you'll keep it between us,
capiche?」
「U-Understood. You really are full of surprises, master.」
To be honest, you can use that Skill as well, Roxanne. But it will probably be
for the best if the one responsible for healing us in the middle of battle was
me, since I have the Chant Omission from Fragarach and all that. One thing
worth noting though: when I used Medical Treatment just now, a single usage
used up ¼ of my total MP, so MP cost-wise it's going to be one of my pricier
abilities to use, and that calls for going back to using Durandal, since it has
the MP Absorption Skill.
Yeah, I will be in charge of our healing.
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Part 5
After that, I tried experimenting with various settings and combinations of
Jobs and Skills to see which one will allow me to kill the enemies in the least
amount of time. First I tried to set my Job to Swordsman, which has the effect
of slightly increasing STR, and checked if there were any changes to the
amount of Bonus Points I still needed to add to the total STR in order to
defeat a single Needlewood. If the total amount of Bonus Points required to
do so, then it means that the added Job was a valid one. I am still not
absolutely sure about it though, because there are the cases where I could
defeat them easily, but sometimes I was unable to do so even when my Bonus
Points remained distributed in the same way, but overall that little experiment
ended in success.
Once that was done, I tried adding more Jobs at once to check if their effects
will overlap, or is it going to be that the "better" effects with higher increase
values are going to be prioritized over the ones with lower increase values.
The result was that Job's stats and effects do stack with one another, meaning
that setting four or five Jobs at once is will be more effective than just having
the regular two or three.
「I think it's high time for us to be making our way towards the exit.」
We were inside the Labyrinth for quite some time now, so I concluded that
maybe we should call it a day for today, considering the fact that the progress
we've made today was substantial.
I opened the Item Box and placed all of our current equipment: Leather
Helmet, Shield, Mittens and Gloves inside. Taking it off of us while we were
still inside the Labyrinth might have been a little careless, but at our current
level we should be alright even if we were to happen upon another enemy,
and it is certainly a better alternative to doing so while being outside where
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someone could very well see us and could start asking uncomfortable
questions like "Why are you able to summon the Item box without chanting
its spell at all?". If I am able to avoid annoyances like that, you can be damn
sure I am going to avoid them at all costs.
「Right!」
「How is your Magic Crystal doing, Roxanne?」
She showed me that hers was still black in color.
「No change from Black, huh?」
「Yes, unfortunately. It's because I wasn't able to defeat enough enemies. I'm
sorry for not being more useful.」
「Don't say that. It doesn't matter if you defeat monsters or not. Your
presence alone is a huge help to me.」
「Thank you master. Even though you are so amazing, you're still praising
someone like me, who couldn't even defeat enough monsters to change the
color of the Magic crystal.」
Assuring her once again, I placed both of our Magic Crystals, Black and
Purple, into the Item Box as well. Right then, a question randomly popped
into my head.
「Say, what if one person held two Magic Crystals at once?」
「I don't know. I have never heard of something like that happening.」
Well then, that's all the more reason to check this out. If I were to hold both
of our Magic Crystals in my backpack, I wonder what would happen? Will
the energy obtained from defeated monsters be stored in only one of them, or
is it going to be split equally among the two? Then again, tha would mean the
amount going into each one would actually get halved, making the farming
process unnecessarily longer. And finally, How would Crystal Acceleration
affect both of them?
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「If possible, that's one last thing I would like to try before wrapping things
up for today.」
「I see. You want to make an experiment with the Crystals to see what will
happen if you have two at once, right? As expected of you.」
I don't think it's anything like that, but okay, I'll just let her think it is like
that. But I guess that somewhere deep inside, a part of me was really eager to
find out the answer to that question.
Before we conducted the experiment we made a quick trip to the
Adventurer's Guild to sell the items we've obtained from all the
Needlewoods we have slain, and then returned to the Labyrinth. Initially I
wanted Roxanne to stay int the Labyrint's entrance room since selling the
going back to the town, selling the items and doing a trip back would take me
ten minutes at best, but she insisted that since we are a Party we should
always go everywhere together, so we did.
The experiment itself was actually extremely short. All I did was Reseting
my character so that I would have Crystal Acceleartion x16, and then I just
offed one, single monster with the two Magic Crystals in my backpack.
Nothing fancy or complicated, just a trip from point A to point B without
taking any unnecessary detours throughout the rest of the alphabet.
Results of this particular experiment: Black Magic Crystal remained black,
and the Purple Magic Crystal remained purple. With the x16 multiplier, the
black one should have turned red from all the accumulated energy, but it
looks like it does not accumulate the way I assumed it would. If that test was
successful, I was going to invest in Crystal Acceleration x64 and use it to
gain magic energy for both of our Crystal at once, but thinking about it now,
if something like that was possible, it would be nothing less of a gamebreaking cheat, so of course it was a no-go.
「Okay, the next experiment will really be the last one. I know it's a bother,
but please, just bear with me for a little while longer, alright?」
I said to Roxanne while giving her the Black Magic Crystal back.
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「How was the experiment, master? You defeated only one enemy, so…?」
「So it means that I would rather not talk about it. Or to put it simply: it was a
failure.」
「I see. That is a shame.」
Yes, but not quite. Such tests are also needed, because failure is the mother of
success. That is why tests like that are also important.
「So, will you cooperate with me on this last one?」
「O-Okay, of course!」
I opened the Party Job Settings and changed Roxanne's Job to Monk Lv.1,
and then I did the same for myself. Now, the experiment we are going to try
is related to how the EXP points are divided between multiple Jobs. With
both of us having the same Job at the same Level, we will see how fast the
EXP for it is going to accumulate.
Normally I should be the one to Level Up faster because of my EXP Boost
Skill, but if I set it up so that we the both of us would use it, then we should
be getting EXP at the same rate, but because Roxanne has only one Job while
I have multiple ones set up, she would be the one to Level Up faster, so I can
judge the results by how many time her Monk Job levels up.
I went through a Character Reset where I only took the ability to gain x10
more EXP. I'm going to use Durandal for this, I won't have enough Bonus
Points for anything more than that. Technically I could use Fragarach to
achieve x20 EXP Boost, but I cannot do that, since I need Durandal's raw
power to kill the enemies with a single blow.
x20 EXP Boost costs 63 Bonus Points, Fragarach costs 31 Points, 3rd Job is 3
Points, and then I also need Identify to check our statuses and Character
Reset to make adjustments, which means that would have left me with an
insufficient amount of Bonus Points to increase my STR enough to one-shot
everything with Fragarach. I could try switching my Job to Warrior and fight
by using Rush, but Fragarach does not have MP Absorption, and I absolutely
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don't want to risk running out of MP.
Even though Fragarach is supposed to be only one level below Durandal,
Bonus Weapon Lv.5 instead of Lv.6, it feels like it is so vastly inferior to it as
if there was an insurmountable rift between those two weapons. But whether
I like it or not, in the Labyrinth, mine and Roxanne's safety is my number
one priority, and both stat and Skill-wise, the one that is better suited for this
job is Durandal, hands down.
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Part 6
「How are you feeling, Roxanne? Have you noticed any changes to either
your mind or body?」
「No, not particularly. I feel the same as always.」
So when I change my Jobs or make alterations to my stats, I am the only one
who is aware of the changes happening, and Roxanne was not even aware of
it.
「We're just doing experiments right now, so make sure that you don't push
yourself too hard, okay?」
「Are any of the other ones you have in mind dangerous?」
「No, I'm not planning on doing anything life-threatening. Our safety always
comes first.」
I hurriedly denied it. Have I phrased something wrong that she thought I was
going to place her in danger?
I don't know the differences between the Beast Warrior and the Monk jobs,
so I just thought that being cautious for now would be for the best. Better safe
than sorry, right? Also, with a new Job starting from Lv.1 she won't have
stats as good as she did with her Beast Warrior Lv.6 one, and I suspect that
until she leveled it up she won't be able to kill enemies with one or two
strikes like she did before. Now, how can I put this delicately…
「It's just that your Job has been set to the Monk which is at Lv.1, so….」
「Eh?」
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「Eh?」
「「Ehh!?」」
Holy balls, maybe I shouldn't have said that after all, or at least try to phrase
that differently.
「But my Job is a Beast Warrior. I have never been a Monk …」
「Well, you are now, so keep it confidential, okay?」
*Sigh* There I go again. Another secret that I am forcing her to keep on top
of not telling her everything about me and my circumstances.
「You can do something like that as well? I probably sound like a broken
record, but you are amazing, master.」
Roxanne seems to be convinced for now, so that's fine I guess.
Both of us obtained the Monk Job now, so we might as well go hunt some
monsters to level it up as much as possible. Due to the settings I have
currently set up, we gained EXP at the same pace, as if we were both using
the EXP Boost Skill.
Most likely it's that the EXP you gain does not get divided even when you
have multiple Jobs equipped, like twenty five percent of it for each of my
three equipped Jobs, and its entirety to Roxanne's one Job. Maybe I should
try how it's going to be when I use the Essential EXP reduction Skill? But as
a result of that action, only my Monk Job quickly rose up to Lv.3, while
Roxanne didn't Level Up at all. The skill that reduces the required experience
value seems to be effective only for me, not for the whole Party.
「Okay, that should be good enough. Let's wrap up the experiments for today
and go back to the inn. If my estimates are correct, it should be evening
soon.」
「That's right. I think it really is getting quite late.」
After we both agreed that this was the best point to stop, we got out of the
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Labyrinth. We ended up experimenting all day today, but I can't say that it
was a wasted day. We managed to confirm quite a lot of my theories and
suspicions, and we also obtained a new Job that might be essential for our
survival when we go to the Labyrinth's higher floors. So overall, I'd say that
this day was pretty successful.
From the Labyrinth's entrance, we Warped back to the alleyway behind the
Adventurer's Guild, dropped by their reception counter to sell the rest of the
Needlewood branches we had obtained today, and then we were on our way
back to the Veil Pavilion.
Thanks to Roxanne being with me, the number of monsters we are able to
defeat in a single foray into the Labyrinth has effectively doubled, and her
radar-like nose allows us to always be aware of the enemy's location, which
means the possibility of us falling into a trap has also been significantly
decreased. And of course, double the numbers of defeated monsters mean
double the income from the items that they drop. When we sold the rest of
the branches we had on us, we got 2000 Nars from them alone, including my
30% Price Increase Skill, which means that I can put over half of it, 1000
Nars into my personal savings. If I can save 1000 Nars in a single day, then it
means that ten days worth of savings will give me 10,000 Nars, and 100,000
Nars for a hundred days. With savings like that, the two of us could easily
afford to venture into the higher floors soon, which would not be so bad, now
that I seriously think about it.
But even if it doubles, we will still divide the earnings equally by half, so the
income of each individual person will not change that much. Then again,
Roxanne is my slave, so everything that belongs to her also belongs to me.
Excited by the prospects of what is going to happen to us in the future, we
returned to the Pavilion.
「Double room for two nights, with dinners. After supper, bring two basins of
hot water and a lamp to the room.」
I hope I didn't let any of my excitement slip just now, because he might have
figured out that I'm planning on getting some action again tonight. I should
stop thinking about it so much, because at this point, people might read me
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like an open book if I won't be too careful.
「Understood. 385 Nars, special discount included.」
I paid the fee and received the key. We went to the 5th floor and entered the
same room as yesterday. Out of habit, I patted the space next to me on the
bed, signaling Roxanne that it was fine for her to sit next to me.
「Ah, uhm… Sorry for the intrusion.」
She lowered her backpack and sat on the bed next to me.
I immediately hugged her and played with her ears. Whenever I do this, I
always feel refreshed no matter how tired I am. Ahh, this is the best!
「Thank you for your hard work today.」
「Y-Yes, good work out there as well… *Glance*…」
Her attitude is still a little stiff, just like her body, but at the very least she is
sitting closer to me, just like I asked her to do. I moved my hands as gently as
possible, stroking her shoulders, thighs and her cute doggy ears.
「How was the fight today? Was there anything strange or unexpected from
your point of view, Roxanne?」
「No. You were as amazing and wonderful as always, master. I only wish that
I could have been of more use to you. I'm sorry I didn't help too much.」
「You don't have to be. Your ability to detect monsters alone has been a huge
help to me.」
As we continued the conversation, I found that Roxanne was getting more
and more relaxed, as if she was entrusting herself to me. I held her tightly,
leaning my face closer to hers. As we approached one another, Roxanne
slowly closed her eyelids.
Th-This is…!
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Am I supposed to take it as an invitation? Because this totally is an invitation,
right?!
Her pale, soft lips shimmered like rubies in the red light of the setting sun.
Roxanne closed her lips tightly, but then she opened them ever so slightly.
With that gesture, her intentions became obvious, so there was only one thing
left for me to do.
The next morning, the feeling of her soft lips on mine was the first thing that
welcomed me as soon as I opened my eyes. Once again, Roxanne did exactly
how I ordered her when I first brought her here, and gave me a good morning
kiss. At first I only stuck out my tongue and traced it along Roxanne's
seductive lips, but it slipped into her half-opened mouth only moments later. I
don't really know if it is good to be so forceful and pushy first thing in the
morning, but nevertheless, I appreciate that she is the one who's showing the
initiative in those matters every day.
Gently and slowly, I move my tongue around hers to caress hers. I lightly
hugged Roxanne's body. Her large, plumptious beauties are firmly pressed
against my chest.
「Good morning, master.」
「Good morning, Roxanne.」
This is bad. If this keeps up, we might end up doing it more than once a day,
and that is sure to catch somebody's attention at some point. But I guess
there's no use worrying about it now. We will cross that bridge when we get
there.
For now, I released Roxanne from her daily "duties", and we started another
day of our life together.
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Part 7
Even though we had our fun yesterday, we still went to sleep relatively early
the next day, and woke up when it was still dark outside. Looks like we woke
up even earlier than usual today. There was no point in us going back to
sleep, so we decided to go do some farming a bit early. We're not doing any
experiments today, so we're just focusing on the usual mixture of battles with
the monsters and exploration. Roxanne guided me with her nose and I just
one-shotted everything that had the misfortune of ending up at the business
end of my Durandal. Compared to fighting the enemies bare-handed, these
motions were as secure as they could be. I know that such laid-back
exploration cannot last forever, but for the time being both Roxanne and I are
fine with it, and that is all that matters.
After hunting monsters for an entire day, we left the Labyrinth, returned to
the inn where we enjoyed our dinner in peace. When we finished eating, we
went to the Adventurer's Guild to sell the items that dropped from all the
monsters we managed to defeat today. Thanks to the fact that I do not belong
to any particular Guild yet I can sell my stuff pretty much anywhere I want,
but I usually just do my selling in the Adventurer's Guild since I have set up
my Warp point on the wall of their guild building in an alleyway that is rarely
frequented by anyone because that is the most convenient for us at the current
moment, but maybe I should try going to the Explorer's Guild more
frequently, since they have various information related to the exploration of
the Labyrinths that might come in handy in the long run.
Finishing our item-selling business, we went to the Labyrinth again. It has
become our routine to delve into it three times each day: once in the early,
morning, once before noon and once in the afternoon. Because we're going
there so often, we're trying not to stay in there for too long, since it would be
bad if the fatigue from overexerting ourselves caught up with us when we
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would least expect it, so we're always making sure to take nice long rests
before going back in. We stayed inside all the way to the evening, and after
we got back and ate another delicious dinner, after which we tended up to our
equipment.
And now that all the bother some chores have been taken care of, it was
finally time for us to have some quality time together.
As soon as the Innkeeper brought over the basins with hot water and was out
the door, I hugged Roxanne. Ahh, it has been half a day since I could last
enjoy the delicate, yet soft and elastic feeling of her body in my arms.
Enjoying such an exquisite sensation two times in the span of a few hours, is
today my lucky day or what?
I brought my face closer to hers.
「You're beautiful, Roxanne.」
「Th… thank you v-very… m-much…」
「Truly, seriously beautiful.」
She looked a little embarrassed, but didn't try to stop me from complimenting
her, so I moved my hand to gently stroke her shoulders, arms and back… and
then I slowly started to undress her.
Now that we've done this a few times, I know that I don't have to hesitate
anymore. It is clear that whatever I will try to do to her, she will not resist.
「Ah, uhm…」
「It's fine, it's fine.」
Getting out of my own clothes was easy as pie, but when it comes Roxanne's
clothes, taking all of them off took me more time than I would have liked.
Honestly, being so clumsy about something so crucial felt embarrassing. I
just hope that she won't think that I'm lame because of it.
「B-But…」
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「Have some faith in your master, will you?」
I soaked on of the towels in hot water and proceeded to wipe Roxanne's
entire body. My palms were literally sliding all over her beautiful skin, so I
made sure to go slowly in order to savor this exquisite sensation for as long
as I could. And when I got to a particular place…
「Y-You don't have to do this, master. I… I can take care of that myself…」
「And I said that's it's fine. It's not a bother for me at all. I'm not doing this
out of obligation, but because I want to.」
It's a dream like situation that I never even dreamed of finding myself in
while I was living back in Japan. I didn't have any friends back there, and the
chances of me scoring myself a girlfriend were lower than zero, but now…
now I found myself a girl who is not only obedient, but also strong, bigbreasted, beautiful, and has an actual pair of friggin' droppy doggy ears!
What more could you possibly want from life?!
Is this what people call the joy of being alive? Of experiencing your youth to
its fullest? It might as well be, because, to tell you the truth, ever since I have
been brought to this strange, game-like world, I have felt more alive than for
the past seventeen years of my life. So in order to feel even more alive, I
asked Roxanne to wash me as well, ant to take care of my "special place"
「....」
「...…」
What does it mean to be truly alive? And is it even possible in the first place?
Spending our days like this, we continued the exploration of the first floor of
the Labyrinth. Every battle was an easy victory for us, because the only
monsters we encountered were the Needlewoods, and since I had Durandal
with me, all of them died after only one attack, so we were basically parading
through them collecting their branches like it was a leisurely Sunday
afternoon stroll. But one day, just as I was thinking that we've been making a
great amount progress in exploration these past few days…
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… We happened upon a certain room with a big double door at the far back
of it after the path we were walking down have been closed of from the rest
of the Labyrinth by a wall that came out from the ceiling and slid down all
the way to the ground behind us with a loud, thunderous sound. There was no
monsters in there, but the door itself looked like they were emanating some
pretty bad, ominous aura.
What is this strange place, I wonder?
Oh, right, one more detail I should mention. This room was different from all
the others in such sense that it only had one set of doors dead ahead of us and
one back where we came from, while normally there would be four pairs of
them: in the front, in the back, to the left and to the right.
「Roxanne, do you know where we are?」
「It's a Waiting Room, if I am not mistaken.」
「A Waiting Room?」
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When I turned around to check if the doors were still there, they were still
there. As I mentioned above, they were only behind us and in front of us.
「Well… behind this door is the Floor Boss of this floor. If we manage to
defeat it, the door leading to the second floor should open. As per the old
customs, only one Party can challenge the Boss at a time. If multiple Parties
try to enter the Boss Chamber then it will not appear, and the door to the next
floor will not open. As long as one Party challenges the Boss, the other
Parties who wish to do the same have no option but to wait for their turn.」
Roxanne explained. It's a pretty standard in the most of modern MMORPG's,
actually.
「I see. So that is what a Waiting Room is, huh?」
「Yes. This is a last safe heaven where you can check on the condition of your
equipment, heal your wounds and make all the preparations necessary to
challenge the Floor Boss.」
「Hmm, I see. You think we're ready to do this?」
「Master is super strong, so I don't think we will have any problems defeating
it at this point.」
「Heh. Thanks for a vote of confidence.」
So we have finally reached this point, huh? Behind that door is the Floor
Boss of this Labyrinth's first floor.
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Part 8
Roxanne doesn't seem to be concerned about this at all, but I still have my
doubts, to be honest. I really don't know if we should be facing this Floor
Boss just yet.
We will only have one go at it, and no retries, because failure here means
death, plain and simple. And we don't even know how powerful this guy is
going to be, and we have no reliable way of judging that up. Sure enough,
Needlewoods, the enemies of this first floor all die after one blow from
Durandal, but Durandal is OP as shit, so that's not much of a milestone here.
But then, what should I do? Grind and train until I could kill Needlewoods
with the Copper Sword, the crappies of the crappy weapons? Technically that
is perfectly doable, but I'm afraid that it would take too much of our time and
ultimately accomplish nothing. And while we are on the subject of grinding,
stronger monsters from the higher floor would truly be more suitable for it
than the weaklings found here. To that end, ascending to the higher floors as
fast as possible would really be a good idea. And you know, maybe the fact
that the enemies here can no longer offer anything to us really is our cue that
it is high time to face the big baddie and be out of here onto the greener
pastures.
「Since it is a Floor Boss, then doesn't that mean that it is pretty strong?」
I asked her for confirmation.
「It's going to be all right, master. I believe that the Floor Boss here won't be
any problem to you. For you see, both the monsters inhabiting the floors and
the Floor Bosses are a set. As for the Boss itself… well, I seem to have
forgotten the exact details about him… but anyway, since you have been able
to kill all the enemies thus far with one or two blows, he won't stand a chance
against you, master!」
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「Okay, that's… cool, I guess?」
I feel like Roxanne's faith in me and my combat abilities might be a bit too
enthusiastic, but on the other and, she might be right. If we were fine thus far,
then how hard this guy can actually be. If the normal Needlewoods are any
indication, she shouldn't be much harder than them, unless we're in for a
sudden difficulty spike of course.
「Ah! Master, look!」
While I was listening to Roxanne's explanations about the Floor Boss, the
door to the Boss Chamber slowly began to open. Welp, if there was ever any
chance for us to turn back, it just went and fucked itself out the window.
「I know you might be nervous, master, but do try to relax. Not many people
have entered this Labyrinth so far, and I bet that even fewer made it this far!
Now then, let us be on our way. And who knows, if we're lucky, then maybe
we'll be able to salvage some of the equipment from the Parties that tried to
conquer this Floor Boss before us.」
Whoa there, care to run that by me again?!
「Equipment from… previous Parties… as in…?」
「When a Party gets annihilated by the Floor Boss, the next Party to challenge
him has all the rights to claim the weapons, armor and items of the ones who
tried before them as their own.」
Should you really be calling that 「being lucky」 then? And more importantly,
should you really be so excited about such a possibility?!
Without delving into the matter further, Roxanne went ahead and entered the
Boss Chamber before me.
I don't know if I am just too cautious about this or is she being too casual, but
a little caution never hurt nobody, but she's already inside the chamber so I
guess there's nothing I can do about it now other then heading in myself,
hoping that we are somehow going to pull through this.
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As soon as I set foot inside, the door closed behind me with a loud bang. As
for the room itself, it wasn't all that different from the rest of the first floor,
just your regular cavern measuring about four to five square meters. When I
looked at the floor and near the walls, I saw no pieces of equipment lying
around anywhere, which could basically mean one of two things: either the
Party who challenged the Floor Boss before us succeeded without anyone
dying and they have ascended to the second floor, or no one has actually
fought this guy before us. Honestly, I think possibility #1 is more probable.
Finally, when we reached the center of the room, clouds of green smoke
gathered before us, revealing the figure of this floor's Floor Boss.
It is taller than me and the normal Needlewood combined. It's body is
entirely green, and it has two massive branches that could very well be the
separate tree trunks instead of arms.
Identify!
When I appraised it, its name has been revealed: Udowood (TL Note: Udo: a
type of medicinal plant related to ginseng, native to Japan, Korea and
eastern China. It commonly is found on the slopes of wooded
embankments. And that's your piece of useless trivia for today).
Udowood, huh? Well, to me it looks like an oversized, beefed up
Needlewood, but sure game, let's pretend that it is something else entirely. It
definitely is stronger than the usual Needlewoods, but thankfully it is at the
same level as them, so maybe it's a rule that the Floor Boss's level cannot be
higher than that of the mobs.
「Let's go, master!」
Roxanne run up to it and slashed one of its legs with her Scimitar. I hurriedly
rushed in behind her.
Udowood raised its branch arm and slammed it towards Roxanne, but she
avoided it like it was nothing by lightly twisting her body. I also avoided it by
backstepping.
After recovering from its previous attack, Udowood attacked once more, this
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time with its other arm. Roxanne dodged it once again and counterattacked
by slashing it with the scimitar. I wanted to jump in to attack it as well, but I
just couldn't find the right timing to do so.
Aside from its two main arms Udowood also had a second set of them
located on its back, so it possesses the means of defending itself from being
attacked by two people simoultaneously.
Next time it attacked, Roxanne took its blow head on with her Wooden
Shield and slashed back at it the moment it was briefly stunned after having
its attack blocked. That was also a change for me to finally let it have a taste
of Durandal's blade! Take thissssss!
My attack connected, but even after eating it in its entirety, the Udowood was
still standing. As expected of a monster classified as a Floor Boss, it probably
has so much HP that it didn't even flinch from that strike just now. By the
way, even though it was nothing more but a small fry when compared to this
guy right here, the Gumi Slime that I though on the road to Veil also could
not be felled with Durandal's single strike, even though it was Lv.1, the same
as this guy here. But that was to be expected, since even though their levels
might be the same, different monsters will have different HP pools and
damage resistances.
When it finally took notice of me, Udowood started employing its other set of
arms to attack us more fiercely. Roxanne did her best to draw its attention
away from me so that I could have another clear shot at it. Going behind it's
back, I slashed it with a wide, diagonal arc. It was another successful hit, but
once again, it was not enough to take this guy down. Just how much health
does he have?! I'm hitting him with Durandal, the strongest weapon at my
disposal for Christ's sake!
Comparing my movements to Roxanne's once more, it's obvious that they
are completely different. It attacked her again, but she evaded and escaped his
every attack like it was the most obvious thing to do in the world. After
Roxanne's next dodge, I took another step back to get a better look at what
we are dealing with. Those four arms are a problem, but I feel like as long as
we will keep moving and attack it in a hit & run fashion, Udowood won't be
able to keep up with us. It shook its branches and targeted Roxanne with its
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next attack.
Yes, this might just work.
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Part 9
Well, to be specific once again, I do not have the power to finish this guy off,
but my Durandal does. But of course, Roxanne does not know about that, and
maybe that is why she is acting a little bit bolder than usual.
Anyway, now that this guy's attention is focused sorely on Roxanne, I can
switch my focus to another part of its body, specifically the back right above
where its ass should be… and go all out and go in dry with another slash, the
one that will hopefully end all!
Here it goes…. RUSHHHHHHHH!!!
*SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!*
There was dull sound of metal cutting through wood when my attack hit the
Udowood's back and slid all the way down to his cheeks. And after that, it
slowly took a few steps back and fell to the ground, where it disappeared in a
storm of green clouds.
Alright, we did it! The Floor Boss bites the dust, and we're both alive and
well!
「Ah, look, master it looks like a leaf.」
When the smoke from the monster disappeared, what was left after it was a
single leaf. This is Udowood's Drop Item? But it really looks just like any
ordinary leaf with no peculiar qualities whatsoever. Even after looking at it
with Identify, it told me exactly that: this is a normal leaf.
Roxanne went and picked it up for me.
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Essentially, it has to be said that while it was my damage that secured us the
victory, what made that victory possible to begin with were her godly moves.
I mean seriously, they were something that would be totally impossible for an
ordinary human like me. Even if I were to use Overwhelming, I am sure I
would only be able to imitate her motions in a truly non-graceful display, and
even that's something I cannot be absolutely sure of, since Overwhelming
only slows the enemy it hits down, doing nothing to improve my own
reflexes… ah! That's it! Maybe she' actually using Overwhelming, or a Skill
that is similar to it? Wait a minute, what was the Skill of the Beast Warrior
Job again? I'll have to check it in the Party Job Settings.
Roxanne's current Job levels are: Beast Warrior Lv.7, Villager Lv.8, Farmer
Lv.1, Warrior Lv.1, Swordsman Lv.1, Explorer Lv.1, Monk Lv.2 and
Herbalist Lv.1.
Oh? Looks like she unlocked one mor Job! A… Herbalist?
「Roxanne, what is a Herbalist, exactly?」
「Herbalist? That is a type of Healer who can turn leaves and such into
medicine, salves, potions and the like.」
Roxanne explained when I asked her about it. Oh, and by the way, the Skill
associated with the Beast Warrior Job is called Beast Attack.
Now that we have defeated the Floor Boss, the door at the other side of the
room opened in their own. Aside from the leaf that dropped From that
Udowood, there was no other reward for us, no treasure chest, no pile of
gold, no nothing. Maybe there was some kinda additional reward, but it was
snatched by the Party that came here before us? That would suck serious ass.
Just to be on the safe side we checked the entire room one more time, and
when we found nothing we decided it is high time to move on.
「Can I see that leaf for a sec?」
「Of course.」
Roxanne handed it over to me. Yup, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary
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here. This is just a normal leaf.
「So… about the Beast Attack. What kind of Skill is that, exactly?」
I asked while spinning the leaf in my fingers. What I specifically wanted to
know was if it possesses any effect similar to that of Overwhelming. But if
the name itself was to be any indicator, then I guess that it is a purely
offensive Skill rather than a support one.
「Ah, so you wish to know about it? Well, from what I heard it's a Skill that
all the Beast Warriors possess, and that it can inflict a great deal of damage to
monsters… but that is all I know. Also, I'm sorry… but I cannot use that
Skill myself.」
「Huh? What do you mean you cannot use it?」
「Every Skill can be considered to be a type of a magical spell that uses a
chant that is composed entirely in Brahim language, and Brahim itself is a
holy language so ancient that its words themselves became seeped in magic.
Therefore, if you cannot speak Brahim fluently, then you won't be able to
cast spells or use Skills.」
Is that so? Then it's a good thing that apparently I am able to speak it
fluently. I always thought that it might be a very useful language, and I am
happy to see that apparently I was right. So if you want to use Skills and cast
magic, you have no choice but to learn Brahim, huh? At this rate, it might
very well become a common language one day.
「But, like… weren't you studying Brahim before we met?」
「Well, yes, but actually… I am still not all that good at using it.」
「How so? You don't know the exact chants needed to cast spells and Skills?」
「No, that's not it. The chants do come to my mind whenever I want to use
them… but there is just too much details and complicated nuances in them,
like accent or pronounciation, and if you want get all those things right, the
spell or Skill won't work at all. So as you can see, it is something way above
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the level of a casual everyday conversation where you have to basically be
able to understand the entire language perfectly, otherwise you might as well
just give up.」
Chants just come to her mind whenever she wants to use the spells or Skills?
That sounds oddly familiar, but does not concern me, since I have the ability
to omit the chanting part entirely. Anyway, it's good to know that those rules
apply to other people as well, not just myself.
「Is that so?」
「Also… whenever the chants popup into my head, they always catch me off
guard so I am unprepared, but not being able to use them is not that big of a
deal for me anyway, and beginners like me are generally discouraged from
using them, so…」
「I see.」
Well, it sure sounds like a big deal to me. And personally, I don't think that
Roxanne is a beginner at all. If she's so powerful now, then I can't help but
wander just how much stronger she would have become if she was able to
properly utilize all of the Skills at her disposal.
We proceeded to the next room through the newly opened door. Behind them
was a simple stone corridor with a black wall-portal at the very end.
「If we use this portal, we should arrive at the Labyrinth's second floor.」
「Let's go then. There's no point delaying the inevitable, is there?」
「Right!」
And with that we stepped right into the portal, eagerly expecting what was
going to be waiting for us on the other side.
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Part 10
After entering the portal and passing through the momentary all-engulfing
darkness, we have found ourselves in a room that was awfully similar to the
Waiting Room before the Boss Chamber on the first floor. It was a room four
to five square meters wide, but this time, instead of having only two
doorways, one in the front and one in the back, the passages to the left and
right were also present, like in the normal room with the crossroads on the
first floor. When we got here, the portal behind us didn't disappear, meaning
that we can probably use it anytime if we want to go back to the floor below
us.
But seriously now, everything here look exactly as it did below, to the point
where it would be impossible to tell that you have ascended to the higher
floor if you were blindfolded and kicked through the portal, because the
process of teleportation itself didn't involve any kind of giveaways that you
were being transported, like having goosebumps all over your body or that
unpleasant, sinking feeling in your stomach. Also, if I'm not mistaken or
missing something, Dungeon Walker should work here as well, so there is no
harm in giving it a try.
「Roxanne, would you mind fighting the Floor Boss of the first floor again
with me?」
「Yes, of course! I see no problems with it!」
All right. For now, this will be our number one priority.
When we defeated the Floor Boss, Roxanne obtained another Job: Herbalist.
That is nice and all, but how exactly did she do that? What kind of condition
she managed to fulfill for that to happen? You become a Thief when you
steal things, and going into the Labyrinth makes you an Explorer. Going by
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that logic, the most probable condition for becoming a Herbalist was picking
up medicinal herbs. I do remember, although vaguely, that some leaves can
be turned into medicine, therefore they can be classified as medicinal herbs,
so picking it up will grant you the Job of Herbalist. Then again, I have not
obtained it after I held it in my hand when Roxanne gave it to me, so I guess
just holding it won't do. Maybe I have to specifically pick it up right after it
is dropped after the Floor Boss gets defeated. At least, that is my hypothesis
about it, we will see whether it is right or wrong. But if it would be as simple
as picking it up, then my life would be that much easier. From now on, I
guess we just have to make a habit of collecting every single item that the
monsters drop, not that we didn't do that already anyway.
I gave the leaf back to Roxanne and then we went back through the black
wall to the floor below. But instead of going back to the room right after the
Boss Chamber, our eyes were assaulted by the flood of dazzling radiance.
We were back at the entrance to the Labyrinth, where the Explorer guy who
could teleport you to the floor of your choosing was standing. So I guess that
door is a one-way street, huh? I can't say that it ruins our plans, but it is a
kind of a bother. I thought we could go back to challenge the Udowood right
in a matter of seconds, but now, who knows if we won't have to go through
the entire first floor again? Whoever designed it in such a way must have had
a very weird definition of the word "convenience" written in his/her personal
dictionary.
Roxanne looked like she wanted to say something, but just as she was about
to open her mouth she decided not to do so, because right behind our backs, a
group of six people appeared. Judging by how they were dressed, they must
be a Party. She must have heard them approaching, and that's why she didn't
speak up. Good going, Roxanne. The last thing we want is some randos
listening in on our conversations by accident.
The one who looked like a rouge, a tall man in a long cape came to the
Explorer and started a conversation.
「How far?」
He asked. The Explorer answered him without even lifting his head or
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opening his eyes to look at him.
「Fourth floor.」
Roxanne and I moved away to the side of the road where we pretended to
organize the items in our backpacks so that we could evesdrop on what
exactly they were talking about. We're not doing anything bad, or against the
law, before you ask. Information gathering in one of the most important skills
an aspiring Adventurer is supposed to have, and how those information are
obtained is not anyone else's business but ours.
The caped guy looked at his companions, especially at the one who looked
like a Knight, and gestured them to come closer. Compared to the rest of
them, the Knight's armor looked to be the most solid one, but that should be
obvious, since in games Knights always fight at the frontlines, tanking the
most damage. Good to see that some of the video game stereotypes I am used
to still hold true here.
「What monsters are on the fourth floor?」
The knight spoke directly to the Explorer at the entrance.
「Minotaurs. Going up from the first floor to the fourth, there are
Needlewoods, Green Caterpillars, Kobolds, and then Minotaurs.」
「We could deal with the Kobolds of the third floor, so I think we can try
taking on the fourth.」
Everyone nodded in agreement, after which the Knight urged the caped guy.
He held out hos hand and said:
「Bring forth the stored riches of eight hundred thousand five hundred. Item
Box, open!」
Was that the actual chant needed for the summoning of the Item Box? Ever
since I have been able to use it I did so with the Chant Omission Skill, so I
wasn't even aware that you needed to say something so mouthful just for it to
pop out.
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The caped guy, who, for the ease of reference I assume to be the Party's
Explorer opens up the summoned Item Box and takes something out of it. I
couldn't see it well, but Identify revealed it to be a silver coin. As usual,
Identify proves itself to be handy in a situation such as this. The Party's
explorer then tossed the coin to the one at the Labyrinth's entrance. He
caught it midair and stored it in his own Item Box, the one where he probably
kept all the money Adventurers paid him for his teleportation services.
「Faith in companions, with pure, honest hearts, Party Formation!」
The caped Explorer than sang another chant. What is it this time, some kinda
Party-forming spell?
The two Explorers then entered the newly opened portal, and went inside.
Just the two of them, while the rest of the Party stayed behind, but the other
two were back at the entrance before long, and the Explorer casts the Party
spell again after he whispered something to the Knight.
「Very well then, let us march onwards to the fourth floor!」
He declared that loudly, giving everyone else the signal to march through the
portal. Watching them all as they disappeared one by one, I approached the
entrance as well.
What was that all about?
Did those two went on to the fourth floor to scout out the terrain?
Since Dungeon Walker can let you travel to any place within the Dungeon
that you have previously visited, then I guess that the leader of this Party
must have been to the fourth floor before. The Explorer at the entrance serves
as a guide, so he probably visited the fourth floor before as well. I imagine
his services must be especially valuable to those who have never been into
the Labyrinth themselves before, but joined the Parties of the Adventurers
who did. If two people form a Party, a guide who has already been to the
fourth floor could go back there with those who have yet to reach that floor
themselves, and once they are taken to the fourth floor, those who have never
been there before could now travel there with their entire Parties.
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They went in with the Party of five people, but I cannot say whether those
numbers will be enough to conquer the fourth floor or not. And more
importantly, will the two of us even be able to go that far ourselves without
enlisting additional help?
Well, I guess there's no use worrying about that now when we just barely
arrived at the second floor. We have to do the best we can for now, and worry
about the next floor when we actually get to them.
「Well, shall we go back inside, Roxanne?」
「Yes!」
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Part 11
Going back to that talk about being able to visit places that you have yet to
visit yourself though… I remember that when I was still gathering the funds
for Roxanne's purchase, I once saw those two guys who appeared in the
Adventurer's Guild building, asking is anyone wanted to get along for a ride
to that one town with them. In that sense, I guess traveling to the places you
have yet to visit yourself could also work like that. Let's assume that there
are two Adventurers who can use Field Walker, but one of visited a town that
the other one did not, once they move to that town together, they both will be
able to travel there from that point onward. It might not be on the level of
cars, plains and trains from my old world, but I guess in this one people also
can travel pretty much anywhere rather freely, as long as they will make an
active effort to do so.
We approached the entrance to the Labyrinth once again. The Explorer at the
entrance didn't even flinch when we went past him. He just stood there, back
against the wall and his hands crossed on his chest, looking all cool. I wonder
if there are cases where he takes people to certain floors but has to take them
right back because they get overwhelmed by how strong the monsters are, to
the point where they actually decide to skidaddle the hell out of there and reenter the Labyrinth at a lower level? I just hope I won't have to make such an
embarrasement out of myself, now and never.
When we approached the black portal's wall, I noticed that I could now
choose the point that I wanted to be teleported to. Up until no we were only
exploring the first floor, so I didn't have much of a choice of where to go, but
because we have defeated the Floor Boss and ascended to the Labyrinth's
second level, the options available to us have increased. Well if that is the
case, then second floor it is!
Thinking about the second floor, I marched into the portal with lively steps.
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The small room serving as the entrance point was not all that different from
the one at the first floor, to the point where it could be said that they are
basically identical. Well, since I came through the portal then we should be at
the second level, so I don't think there is any reason for worrying just yet.
Before we head back to face the first floor's Floor Boss one more time, I
might as well test something out. Dungeon Walker!
One of the places possible to go on the list was {First Floor: Waiting Room
before the Boss Chamber}. Choosing that travel point I wanted to go through
the portal… but I couldn't do it. *Sigh* So I guess that confirms my
suspicions that even when using Dungeon Walker, there are places where you
can go, but also the ones that you cannot go to. Waiting Room before the
Boss Chambers seem to be one such place. Could this be… a prevention
method of sorts? Maybe against one Party challenging the Floor Boss over
and over again, since it would bother the other Parties wanting to do the
same?
「So you won't let me take the easy way out? I see, so that's how it is. I
understand, I totally get it! But it's fascinating nevertheless. Who would have
thought that it just wont work this way?!」
「Uhm… I… I see?」
Roxanne looked at me with worried eyes filled with pity.
Okay, alright. It's a bummer that we cannot go straight to the Boss Chamber,
but that is nothing to be salty about. As they say, failure is the mother of
success, much in the same way as boobs are the source of every man's libido
(TL Note: Well excuse me, what about those who prefer butts over
boobs, huh?!). For the time being, let's just move on to the warp point
closest to the Boss Chamber. Maybe we would have been able to go straight
to the Waiting Room by using Warp to get there, but there is always a
possibility that other people might be there, and things would definitely get
heated if they started asking questions about how we got there. And as for
trying to use Warp to get into the Boss Chamber only to find out that that
there is already a Party fighting against the Floor Boss… yeah, so I'm not
even going to bother trying that.
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「Okay, we're here. Do you know where we are, Roxanne?」
「Yes, we should be pretty close to the Boss Chamber, so we should be able to
go back there without any issues.」
「All right, then let us go straight there. Without any needless stops, if at all
possible.」
「Roger!」
I ask Roxanne to guide us there. We proceede3d forward while swiftly
dispatching any Needlewood that came into contact with us. The door to the
Boss Chamber opened as soon as we reached our destination. Looks like we
are in luck; no one seems to be fighting inside.
If it's like that then we could have Warped here no problem, but now it can't
be helped since we're already here. Once we stepped into the proper Boss
Chamber, clouds of green smoke began to gather, revealing the figure of
Udowood. So, we meet again, huh? Can't say it's been that long since we last
met or that I am missing you, so be a good monster and die now!
Together with Roxanne, we stood at the opposite sides of it. In response, it
shook its branches at us. I hurriedly stepped back to get out of harm's way.
Roxanne also dodged its attacks by twisting her upper body. I wish I could be
right there next to her to help her, but with my sluggish, clumsy movements it
is unavoidable. My safety is my top priority.
Roxanne, who evades the incoming attacks with barely any movements
slashes at the Udowood's branches whenever she can. I firmly grabbed
Durandal with both my hands and lowered my stance.
Udowood took a big step and swung its branches at her from overhead.
Roxanne stepped back and avoided it, even though after such a strong attack
the entire surroundings shook and trembled from the impact's force.
Now that we put some distance between us, I noticed that something started
glowing at Udowood's feet. A geometrical pattern shining with a pale blue
light…
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That was a magic circle!
Crap, this is not good!
I don't know if it's an Attack Magic circle or Summoning circle, but
whatever that thing is it's obvious that is nothing good! Literally every fiber
of my body is screaming that I should not allow it to activate or else!
A Skill, spell, or summoning smaller monsters to aid it, which one of those
it's going to be?! In any case, if I don't want to find out the hard way, I'll
have to defeat it quickly!
I hurriedly smacked the Udowood with Durandal. When I did that, the magic
circle, which started to glow so brightly that it began to hurt my eyes,
disappeared. What the hell?
Then I remembered that one of Durandal's Skills was the Chant Interruption.
That is probably why the magic circle disappeared when its blade came into
contact with the Udowood's body. Come to think of it, that thing doesn't
even have a mouth, so technically it cannot use chanting, so that's why it
wanted to use a magic circle instead? In that case, the magic circle could
really be called a substitute for chanting, meaning that it could also be
interrupted with a Chant Interruption Skill. Yeah, that makes a surprisingly
large amount of sense!
「Master, look out!」
Roxanne screamed towards me. I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I
didn't even noticed when a branch started heading my way. I was being
targeted!
Oh crap! I won't be able to dodge it in time!
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Part 12
「Ghaaa!!!」
Fuck! Even though this guy is nothing more but a walking piece of rotting
tree, that one direct hit was more than enough to make me gasp for breath.
Yep, its attack is definitely higher than that of the Slow Rabbit and the
Needlewood's combined. Unlike the strikes of its smaller brethren, I can still
feel that blow pulsating in my side and reverberating throughout my entire
body.
I could hear the sound of branches cutting through the air, meaning that
another strike was coming my way. I wanted to hurriedly roll to the side in a
desperate attempt at evasion, but before I could do that, the thick branch was
stopped dead in its tracks. Looks like Roxanne blocked the incoming strike
with her shield, and then she avoided the other one that tried to hit her from
the right.
I waited for the moment when the branches will go past me and launched an
attack with Rush. Thanks to Durandal's HP Absorption I regained the health
that I lost due that attack just now and I no longer felt like my lungs were
about to burst with every breath. I tried to avoid the branch that was swiped
at me from the left, and barely managed to do it, being literal inches from
sustaining another injury. But at least now I know: if you watch their
movements closely, even someone as sluggish as me will be able to dodge
most of the attacks, it's just a matter of getting the timing right.
Roxanne blocked another strike coming her way with the shield, and I aimed
my second attack at the moment where the Udowood was briefly stunned
after having its attack parried. Unfortunately it didn't connect, because its
second left branch forced me to halt my advance just as I was about to bring
my sword down on it. Damn it, and I was this close!
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Another attack was coming towards us from the right, right after the previous
one. Roxanne moved swiftly and dodged it, but I couldn't avoid it in time. I
was hit with another wave of dull pain, but quite ironically, this worked to
my advantage, because the Udowood's movements stopped for a second
again. That was the opening I needed for another Rush attack. It connected
splendidly, and Durandal's blade cleaves through its body with ease.
Udowood trembled, and then fell to the ground, and we were victorious once
again. Eventually its body turned into the clouds of smoke and disappeared.
「Phew, we somehow managed to pull through… again.」
But this time I allowed myself to be hit by its attacks not once, but twice. No
matter what, I have to get stronger so situations like that, where Roxanne has
to protect me by putting herself in danger won't happen again.
「Yes. It was also good thing that master was able to get rid of its magic circle
before it activated.」
「Yeah, but more than me, it is this sword that you should be thanking.」
「Y-Yes, of course. Your weapons are as amazing as you are, master.」
As I said to Roxanne, the most likely reason for the disappearance of the
Udowood's magic circle was Durandal's Chant Interruption Skill.
When the smoke after the Floor Boss finally disappeared, a single leaf was
left in the place it fell, just like before.
「Wait a second, Roxanne. Allow me to pick it up.」
「Oh, okay. As you wish.」
I stopped her just as she was about to pick the leaf. Now that I picked it up
myself, I should have also obtained the Herbalist Job. I focused my mind and
summoned the Job Settings screen. Ooooh, there it is. I have obtained the
Herbalist Job. So it was just as I suspected, we really do have to pick up
every single thing that monsters drop if we don't want to miss anything, and I
have to be the first one to do it, otherwise Roxanne will be the one who will
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unlock the potential new Jobs first. Now then, what Skill does this Job
have…?
Looks like it's Crude Drug Creation. If I remember correctly, leaves could be
processed into something like that. In that case…
I changed my third Job to Herbalist and tried generating the Crude Drug from
the Udowood's leaf in my possession, and watched as it turned into a bunch
of pills in my palm.
「There. Done and done.」
「Eh?! Umm… master, amazing! That's amazing!」
Well, technically Roxanne can do it as well, but I'd have to set her Job as a
Herbalist first before she could use that Skill.
「But remember: your lips are sealed.」
「R-Right, of course. Master, the longer I am with you, the more you manage
to surprise me.」
Roxanne look at me obediently. The way she doesn't question anything when
I'm telling her to keep more and more secrets is truly awesome. That is one
of the things that I admire the most in her. After all, I am nowhere near as
amazing as she is making me out to be. All that is amazing about me is that I
can have multiple Jobs equipped at once, and that's it. If anything, I am an
amazing fraud.
「Can you give me you leaf? I'll make some medicine as well.」
「Ah, okay.」
When I appraised the finished pills, it turned out that they are Poison
Antidote Pills. So just as their name implies, they are supposed to be curing
various poisonings, right? No, wait just a gosh-darn moment…!
If something as Poison Antidote Pills exist, the status of being poisoned must
exist in this world as well. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any need for making
206 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Antidote Pills for the poisoning if there was no risk of getting poisoned in the
firs place!
If that's the case, then coming to the Labyrinth for so long without any
methods of countering poison was very reckless of me. Ridicolous even.
「Roxanne, are there any monsters that can poison you?」
「O yes, there are, quite a lot of them, actually.」
…. FUCK!
Roxanne handed me the leaf left by the first Udowood we have slaughtered.
「Can you tell me more about it?」
I need to know as much about them as I possibly can.
「Well. I don't think we will have to worry ourselves with it on the first or
second floor.And even then, I don't think it will be any problem since you are
so capable, master.」
「I see.」
「In the first place, there is nothing to fear unless you get hit by such a
monster's attack.」
Roxanne, it makes me happy that you're the only one who thinks like that.
「You sure are wise, Roxanne.」
「T-Thank you very much.」
Next, I turned Roxanne's leaf into Antidote Pills as well. I made around ten
of them from a single leaf, which I think is a lot. When I was done, all of
them went into the Item Box.
「Think we could sell those to the Adventurer's Guild?」
207 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
「Absolutely. Normally, if you're a Herbalist you'd only be able to sell them
to the Herbalist's Guild, but you can either sell them to the Adventurer's
Guild since you do not belong to any guild yourself yet, distribute it between
Party members or simply dispose of it. Actually, Adventurer's Guild is the
usual place for people to buy those kinds of supplies.」
So normally you buy that stuff from the Guild rather than making it yourself,
huh?
If there is the medicine that can cure poison, then there are probably all kinds
of medicine that can cure all kinds of different status ailments, am I right?
It was really dumb of me not to think about them before, but what could I do?
Up until a few minutes ago I had no idea those things even existed, so I guess
that makes for a pretty viable excuse.