Part 1
After we defeated the first floor's Floor Boss for the second time, we headed
straight to the Adventurer's Guild to sell the Crude Drugs what we made
from its Drop Items. Technically we could go to the second floor, but we
decided to postpone it until we get our hands on more medicinal items.
Roxanne told me that we won't have to worry about being poisoned on the
first and second floors, but it's better to be safe than sorry. That way, if we do
end up getting attacked by something that can use poison, we will be ready to
counter it at any given time.
First off, we're selling the branches and Poison Antidote Pills I have made at
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the Guild's counter. I know that a viable option here was to leave some of the
pills for ourselves, but let's be honest here, if all it takes to make them is
killing the Floor Boss on the first floor for the leaves it drops over and over
again, then that won't be a problem for us. And since the both of us acquired
the Herbalist Job, then we can cheat the system a little by having some of it
on us at all times.
「Here you go.」
The very nice (and well endowed) lady behind the counter returned to us with
the money for everything we have sold her plus the additional 30% from my
Skill.
「So, do you sell any medicine besides Poison Antidotes?」
「Of course, sir. Besides Poison Antidotes, we also sell Potions and Remedies,
the cheapest ones for only 60 Nar each. We also have Anti-paralysis Potions,
Softeners and Cure-All's, 100 Nar each.」
My guess is that Potions recover HP while Remedies do the same for MP? As
for the rest, they probably heal various abnormal status changes, but I have
no idea which of them are going to be an absolute necessity for now, so…
「Give me two Softeners and two Anti-Paralysis Pills.」
For the time being that seems like the most practical thing to do. Since I don't
know how many of them we are actually going to use, it is better not to buy
anything in needlessly large quantities.
「Understood.」
The woman left her seat and returned with the items shortly after, placing two
white and two yellow pills before me.
「And those are?」
「Allow me to explain: the white ones are the Softening Medicine, while the
yellow ones are the Anti-Paralysis Medicine.」
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Oh, so the effects are color coded? Neat.
Just to be absolutely sure I appraised them myself, and it was just like the
lady said: white ones where Softeners, yellow ones were Anti-Paralysis, there
could be no mistake about that. The name of the Anti-Paralysis Medicine was
pretty self explanatory: it is the medicine that cures the Paralysis status effect.
But then, what does the Softeners do? Going by the name, it should have
something to do with fixing the stiffness of the body, so maybe it is used to
cure Petrification, or however this effect is called here? Anyway, no further
explanations were given to me, so I just placed four silver coins on the
counter.
The lady counts each coin carefully and pushes the pills towards me one by
one. But even though I bought more than one item, my 30% discount didn't
activate, and it is starting to piss me off. When I was buying hot water and
lanterns at the Veil Pavilion it always seemed to work as long as I was buying
at least two of them, so I wonder why it didn't work this time?
「What about something for the recovery of both mind and body? What are
the prices of those medicines?」
「The cheapest healing medicine are the Nourishment Pills, costing 60 Nar,
and the cheapest exhaustion Remedies are the red Strengthening Pills, also
costing 60 Nar.」
「Then give me two of those as well.」
I decided to buy them as well. I am sure that having HP and MP recovering
medicines will benefit me, if not in the future then in the long run. The lady
left her seat again and returned with another set of Pills: blue ones and red
ones. According to the appraisal, the blue ones were the Nourishing Pills and
red ones were the Strengthening Pills. In the end, I guess it's good that they
all have different colors, since without it distinguishing between them would
be pretty much impossible.
「Thank you for your purchase. That will be 240 Nar.」
「All right.」
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So the discount didn't work this time either.
「Ah, I am terribly sorry to ask this of you, sir, but could you make your
payment in bronze coins?」
「Sure, no problem.」
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I said, handing two silver coins and fourty bronze coins to her. Is is
customary to pay for those Pills with bronze coins? Because if so then I
didn't know that and no one bothered to inform me about that. And besides,
she should be able to tell that I gave her the exact amount of money she
requested, 240 Nar, simply by checking the amount of silver and bronze
coins.
「I am truly sorry for the inconvenience, sir.」
Well, if she honestly feels bad about it, then I guess there's no reason dwell
on the matter any further. She then collected each coin separately, giving me
one Pill every sixty coins. It took a while, but when she finished, I was
absolutely certain that the total amount of money required for that transaction
was 240 Nar indeed.
「Thank you very much for your patience, sir. I have confirmed that the right
price has been paid for your items.」
Well duh, of course it was. It should be obvious to anyone who could
perform basic calculations in their head. Unless… could it be that she is
unbale to calculate the equation of 60 x 4 = 240 in a flash?
I don't know what is the level of education in this world, but judging by the
fact that the percentage of literate people is so low that they had to create a
profession of Substitute Reader, it cannot be very high.
I know for a fact that Merchants have the Skill called Calculating, which
allows them to perform complicated calculations on the spot. But if this lady
right here cannot do that, then that would mean that ordinary citizens or
Villagers do not have access to it as long as they don't have the Job of a
Merchant. And if they cannot calculate properly then that means the would be
unbale to factor discounts into prices, because how can you know how to
calculate 30% of something when you cannot even do basic multiplication
and division. However, my 30% discount is supposed to be effective at all
times, so why is it that it works when I'm buying things from the Slave
Merchant or the Innkeeper, but from the clerk at the Adventurer's Guild?
「Who is responsible for calculating the prices for all the purchases?」
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I asked the lady.
「All the prices are set by the officials at the Guild's temple, but that is
something everybody who came there to have a Job Change should know
about.」
Damn it, another sticky subject that I had no idea about! I should just drop
this subject entirely if I don't want to get into unnecessary trouble.
So apparently this lady thinks I am an Adventurer. Well, I have my Warp
point set up on the back wall of the Adventurer's Guild's building and I've
been coming here quite often to sell my items, so I guess I cannot really
blame her for thinking that, and honestly, I much prefer it to stay that way.
「Is there anything else I should know about the medicines?」
「They should be kept in your Item Box at all times to avoid them getting
spoilt or damaged. If they do end up like that, the Guild won't buy them off
of you, so please bear that in mind.」
「Okay, got it.」
Thankfully, she just offered me an explanation without asking any further
questions. It might not have been much, but at least I have learned something
new again today. After I packed all the Pills into my backpack, we left the
Adventurer's Guild.
So the clerks in the Guild are not responsible for calculating the prices of
items themselves. This makes sense. She doesn't have the skills necessary for
the proper calculation of discounts, so my 30% discount won't activate. So
maybe that means that it will work with Merchants who do have the
Calculation Skill, and with them only?
Calculation. Looks like this Skill might be more important than I actually
gave it credit for.
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Part 2
So far, according to my personal knowledge the merchants that can use
Calculate include: Slave Merchants, Weapon Merchants, Armor Merchants,
Clothes Merchants and Innkeepers, although I don't know if the Innkeeper's
Job allows him to use it or perhaps he also has the Merchant Job. As far as I
know, if people don't have any of the aforementioned Jobs, they won't be
able to use Calculate, meaning that my 30% discount will become effectively
useless when doing business with them.
If the merchant possesses the Calculate Skill, my discounts will work without
any problems, and the Skill itself is a passive one that triggers whenever a
calculation has to be performed in one's mind, presenting you with the right
answer straight away, factoring in the percentages from any increases or
decreases the Skill in your possession might be giving you. Moreover, even
though it is always active it doesn't use any MP. There is no need to use
Calculate when you buy and sell things separately, because the numbers and
their value won't change. 1 Nar is still 1 Nar, 100 Nars is still 100 Nars. That
must be why my 30% discount didn't work, because when you buy and sell
multiple things and the clerk's Calculate activates, the Prize Discounts Skills
activate as well. Well, it is nothing more but a hypothesis, but knowing that
might actually come in handy in the future.
Once our buying business was completed, we were ready to go back to the
Labyrinth's second floor, this time for real.
「Stay vigilant, master. The enemy is really close by.」
We went forward with Roxanne's guidance, and soon we saw it, our first
monster encounter on the second floor. Appraisal!
Needlewood Lv.2
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Bah, what a killjoy. The first enemy we have run into on the new floor was
the same Needlewood that was prowling on the first floor, except this one
had a higher level. I wonder it is going to become a pattern where the
enemies stay the same but their levels will progressively go up with each
floor? But I must admit, a part of me was genuinely happy that the level of
that monster is only Lv.2. That means we should expect Lv.3 monsters on the
third floor and Lv.4 monsters on the fourth floor, right?
But the most important question for now is: how much stronger did it get
now that it is Lv.2? To test it out I attacked it with Durandal, and it died after
a single blow, just like its brethren the floor below. It might have became
stronger when its level went up, but in the end, when faced with the might of
my Durandal it was still not enough to save it from being one-shotted. Also, I
think the fact that I am much stronger and my levels are much higher in
comparison to when I first entered the Labyrinth's first floor might have
something to do with that as well. Or at least I want to think that it does.
Then, I noticed something.
「Roxanne, look. Isn't that another monster, right there in the shadows?」
「It's a Green Caterpillar. It is a monster native to this particular floor. It is a
rule that aside from the new ones, the monsters from the lower floors may
also be present on the higher ones.」
Roxanne imparted another piece of knowledge to me. I see. So the first floor
only had Needlwoods because it was the very first floor. But here on the
second floor, which is a native habitat of the Green Caterpillars (which are
totally gross by the way), there is also a possibility of Needlewood's showing
up, even though they are not this floor's main monster. So when we will go
up t the third floor, we will encounter both Needlewoods and Green
Caterpillars in addition to the third floor's main monster type, huh? I see, I
see.
「Okay, let's take this guy down as well!」
「On it!」
Our next target was the Green Caterpillar Lv.2 in front of us. It was a
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caterpillar in every sense of the word, meaning that is was all bouncy and
slimy, and had those big, creepy segmented eyes, and to add fuel to the fire
this monstrosity was the size of a medium dog. I can't say that I am afraid of
bugs, but I am also not particularily fond of them either, so every time I saw
it crawling forward by constricting the muscles of its entire body I couldn't
stop myself from shivering. Thankfully a short mid-battle observation
showed that it only possessed a few slow, telegraphed attacks, so avoiding it
was much easier than with the Udowood in the Boss Chamber. Now if my
guess is correct it shouldn't be all that mobile with a body like that, so it
won't be able to dodge me when I will flank it from the side and swing
Durandal down at it!
Yes, this one was also downed in a single blow! When the green smoke
disappeared, the Revealed Drop Item was a bundle of threads. I'm guessing
it's the thread that these guys would eventually use to encase themselves in it
to wait until they could morph into butterflies… yeah, right, as if something
so ordinarily cute was to happen in a deadly dungeon filled with bloodthirsty
monsters.
As we made our way forward and fought more monsters, I started to notice a
pattern of sorts. We are at the Labyrinth's second level, the enemies are all
Lv.2, and so far all of them came in groups of two: either two Needlewoods
Lv.2, two Green Caterpillars Lv.2 or a mixture of a Needlewood Lv.2 and a
Green Caterpillar Lv.2.
「Two monsters ahead of us: one Needlewood and one Green Caterpillar.
Shall we proceed that way, master?」
By the way, is it just me, or is Roxanne able not only to smell the presence of
monsters, but also differentiate between their types as well? Depending on
how I choose to use it, it might become a very powerful ability
recoinassance-wise.
「As expected of my ever so reliable Roxanne. I am still not used to fighting
two of them at the same time, but they die in one hit so I guess there's
nothing to be afraid of. Lead the way then.」
「Right. Leave it all to me, master!」
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Roxanne then guided me to the location of the two Green Caterpillars. They
had their backs against us, so by the time they realized we were approaching
them we were able to dispatch them in a swift and sure manner.
「I wonder if we will always fight pairs of enemies here.」
I said after the finished battle.
「Most likely. But we might as well happen upon just one enemy.」
「Huh. So, do you think that when we will go up to the third floor, we will
fight a maximum of three enemies at once?」
「No. Based on what I heard, groups of three enemies start appearing from the
4
th floor onward, and from 8t floor onward there will be groups of up to four
enemies at a time.」
That's a relief to hear.
「So going with that tendency, there would be five enemies starting from the
16th floor, am I correct?」
「Yes, you understood it perfectly. That is exactly right. You are such a swift
learner.」
That is nice to hear, but it doesn't change the fact that the further up we will
go, things are only going to get scarier and more difficult. Even if the enemy
numbers won't be increasing by one per each floor, we will have to face
groups of three on the floors 4 through 7, and groups of 4 from 8th floor
upwards. And if the Labyrinth will be big enough, we will probably have to
face groups of 5 different monsters from the 16th floor onward, and six from
the 32nd one…. And that one makes me more than a little worried. Hopefully
this Labyrinth won't be this big.
Well, there is no point worrying our asses off with such a distant future. For
now we only have to deal with a maximum of two monsters at once, so when
the time comes for us to finally take on larger groups, hopefully we are going
to be richer and stronger, and capable of taking on any number of adversaries
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without breaking a sweat.
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Part 3
The next pair of enemies we happened upon was a Needlewood Lv.2/Green
Caterpillar Lv.2 pair.
「Take care of that Green Caterpillar, Roxanne!」
「Umu!」
I gave the battle instructions and we charged in together. Since the Green
Caterpillars are just like their normal counterparts except for being really big,
they are not all that mobile, which makes them vulnerable to the attacks from
the back and the sides, since turning around takes them too much time.
Because of that, in my personal opinion they might be even easier to fight
than the Needlewoods, who are dangerous no matter from which side you try
to approach them due to those pesky branches of theirs.
I slashed the Needlewood in half with Durandal, while Roxanne attacked the
Green Caterpillar with her Scimitar. Green Caterpillar tried to retaliate with a
Rush attack, but Roxanne just twisted her body lightly, making it miss the
mark completely and slam into the Labyrinth's wall with a rather squishy,
wet sound. She's just so awesome. Taking advantage of the fact that the
Green Caterpillar must have blacked out a little after its collision with the
wall, I swung Durandal on its back. It screeched loudly and exploded into
smoke. The way I see it, it doesn't matter if we face two, three or six enemies
at once. As long as I have Roxanne with me, I feel like nothing will be able to
stop us.
Morning the next day. When I woke up, I noticed I was hugging Roxanne.
Having her as my personal hugging pillow was the best thing ever, since she
was soft, smooth and warm like no other, and when I pressed my face against
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her chest, I was met with the sweet feeling of bouncy elasticity that
threathened to suck me in at the same time. This is great. This is truly
irresistible!
While still half-asleep, I received my good morning kiss from Roxanne. Her
soft lips and mouth both taste so sweet, making all of my senses melt from
the pleasure. While fully enjoying both the taste and the sensations, I slowly
sticked out my tongue and made it twirl around hers. She welcomed me with
little to no resistance, so I traced mine along its surface, taking my sweet time
as I did so.
With each passing minute, Roxanne wanted more and more of me, which I
could tell by the obvious movements of her tongue, which only grew in
intensity. As I did my best to satisfy her needs, I felt a familiar firmness
rising between my legs, but I did not care about that. All I cared about for
now, was the union of our intertwined tongues and how they danced with
each other.
When we both decided that we finally had enough, I let go of Roxanne's lips,
although I did so very reluctantly.
「Good morning, master.」
「Good morning, Roxanne. Here's to another successful day.」
「Yes. May it be filled with success once again.」
We got dressed and left the inn, heading straight into the Labyrinth once
more.
Our exploration of the second floor is going well. Surprisingly well, I would
say. Even if we're facing two enemies at once, both the Needlewoods and
Green Caterpillars die with a single strike from Durandal. It can be said that
so far our victories were all an easily achieved ones. In fact, they were so
easy that I asked Roxanne to guide me to a lot of places on this floor without
taking the time to rest, because we weren't even tired, even after a few battles
that happened in quick succession.Also, out of all the groups of enemies we
fought against, only about half of them consisted of the pair of monsters. It
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seems that Roxanne was right: even though this is the second floor, where the
number of enemies per battle increased from one to two, the appearances of
lonesome monsters were still quite frequent.
If we are only facing a single opponent, it can be defeated it with only one
strike from Durandal without possessing any kind of risk to us. When we're
facing off against two, we split them up between us, meaning that Roxanne
takes on one monster while I clean up the other one.
Roxanne uses her tremendous moves to keep her enemy at bay by dodging,
blocking with her Wooden Shield or parrying it with her Scimitar. Each of
her actions is a display of splendid movements that makes me fall for her
even more every time I see them. With her at my side, I cannot feel the
increase in the enemy's levels at all, because the strength of our teamwork
turns them all into an absolute cakewalk. Durandal has its role to play in
making our battles even shorter. Whenever I happen to dispatch my enemy
first and I see that Roxanne did not defeat hers after slashing it with the
Scimitar a few times, I always Rush in to help her. Usually, one Rush attack
to the back of the unsuspecting monster is enough to send it six feet
under.The Green Caterpillars have an attack where they can spit their threads
at you, but it is not a problem if you just move to their sides or behind their
backs, since the threads only travel a little bit to the front in a cone-like
pattern. Just be sure to do that, and you won't be in any kind of danger.
Roxanne does not allow monsters to hit her at all, and I myself am rarely
attacked because I kill all of my opponents with a single strike of my sword
and then help Roxanne deal with the ones that focus on her, leaving them
entirely at my mercy.
The one thing that I am potentially worried about though, are the Trap
Rooms, a.k.a the small rooms filled to the brim with monsters, just like that
one I happened upon on the first floor.
I'm not worried about myself because of Durandal's HP Absorption Skill, but
Roxanne is another story entirely. Even though her reflexes are superior to
mine and she can evade almost every attack that is being thrown her way, I
fear it would amount to nothing when faced with large number of enemies
who could overwhelm us with their numbers alone, and that terrifies me. I
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know she's strong, but if anything happened to her, I would have never
forgiven myself for it. We got ourselves the Monk Jobs exactly for that, to be
able to heal ourselves if we ever ended up in a bad situation, but the question
here is: would we be able to heal ourselves in time if such a situation ever
happened?
But you see, the problem here is that if we won't try to clear such a room
with the two of us we won't even know whether we are cut out for it or not,
but knowing the risk that it entails, I just don't want to push our luck more
than we absolutely have to.
Despite my continous concerns, today's hunting went extremely well. I guess
that's the power of being overly cautious to you.
Roxanne took the lead and guided us to another cavern, casually approaching
the wall at its end. When she did that, a part of the wall made a noise and
slowly slid down, reveling a hidden passage leading to a small room. Could it
be? Did we really stumble upon the dreaded Trap Room just now?!
Keeping all of my senses on high alert I re-grasped Durandal and readied
myself for an intense battle… but there was no monsters inside. Is this place
actually safe? I found it somewhat hard to believe.
「Roxanne, we should remain cautious.」
「It's all right, master. We should be fine, because the smell of monsters is
very faint here.」
「I… I see. T-That's… that's good, I guess.」
Roxanne can locate monsters based on her sense of smell, but she also said to
me herself that it is not a perfect method of detecting that might not be able to
locate enemies in certain locations, like rooms behind closed doors or Trap
Rooms.
Am I still being cautious? Or is my cautiousness bordering on cowardice
now? Well, I do have to admit that when that door moved with that pretty
loud noise it made me freak out a little bit, but can you blame me? The last
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time I went into such a room I was in real danger of being gangbanged to
death by Needlewoods, so forgive me for being a little on edge here, will ya?!
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Part 4
If there is any place for us to get in trouble here on the second floor, then
there is no place better for it than the Trap Room. Just imagine it: we're
brimming with confidence, thinking that everything is going to be fine as
long as we can one-shot everything with Durandal and avoid the attacks
coming our way and then BAM and we're getting jumped by so many
enemies that all our advantages can just go fuck themselves. That is also why
I think that being wary of it is not a bad thing to do at all.
[In the first place, stumbling upon the Trap Room is already a pretty rare
occurance. It's that kind of luck that you just don't see everyday.] [Can you
really call that "being lucky" though?] [Well, I guess normally you would
call that unlucky, but since you're here, master, then we will be able to take
care of all the monsters in no time! We might get surrounded if we're not
careful, but isn't that why we worked so hard on obtaining the Monk Job for
ourselves? So that we could use Healing Skills in the hour of need? That way,
we will fight lots of monsters, waste them with one or two attacks and obtain
a lot of their Drop Items. That's why I said we are being lucky.] [Y-Yeah.]
I know what she wa trying to say, but I still find that idea to be rather strange,
but of course I'm not going to say that out loud.
Going beyond the would-be Trap Room, we happened upon another
Needlewood-Green Caterpillar pair. Without even thinking about it, I charged
at the Needlewood and slashed it with Durandal. Now that one nuisance is
taken care of, I can focus on supporting Roxanne by attacking the Green
Caterpillar from the back if the need for that arises. For now though, I can
just stay on the sidelines and watch how it's going to turn out.
As expected, Roxanne was avoiding Green Caterpillar's attempts at harming
her without much difficulty. What's more, she does so by only tilting her
body ever so slightly to the sides, dodging the attacks at the last possible
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moment without making any wasteful or unnecessary movements. After
witnessing so many of her fights, I developed an absolute trust in her ability
to avoid attacks, and I am confident that she can handle every normal attack
thrown her way, probably as much as she must be. When the Green
Caterpillar Roxanne was fighting missed its Rush attack and briefly stopped
moving, that was a cue for me to whack it with Durandal from the side, so I
guess that makes it another time where I have basically defeated all of the
enemies by myself, and that makes me feel kinda bad about myself. But just a
little bit.
The next group Roxanne guided us towards consisted of two Green
Caterpillars. As per the usual routine, I ran up to the nearest enemy and
promptly dispatched it with one strike. But just as I was about to turn around
to how Roxanne was doing…
[Look out, master! Something's coming!]
She shouted a warning towards me.
Looking closely at the second Green Caterpillar, it had an orange magic
circle glowing under its body. I was too far to interrupt it in time, so it had all
the time it needed to finish casting whatever it was that it was trying to cast,
and when the circle disappeared, it opened its ugly mouth wide and spat out
something.
It's a thread.
Much like with that one other attack that we saw earlier, Green Caterpillar
threw webbings from its mouth, only this time, the threads it spat looked a lot
stickier and covered both more distance and had a much bigger radius, flying
widely in all directions. Such a move was definitely more befitting of a spider
rather than a caterpillar, but now is not the time to be worrying about such
technicalities!
Sensing the danger behind it, Roxanne made a hasty retreat to put as much
distance between herself and the flying wave of webbing as possible. I tried
to slash it away with Durandal, but there was too much of it, so I ended up
covered with the sticky stuff. The feeling was every bit as creepy as I
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expected, and to top it off, the web that landed on me seemed to restrict the
movements of my arms and legs, as if a sticky tape was wrapped all around
my body. I writhed and trashed about, but no matter how hard I tried, the web
just didn't want to come off!
Meanwhile, the Green Caterpillar that spat all over me turned its attention
away from Roxanne and started to move towards me. Damn it! Does it
prioritize the targets that it managed to immobilize with its web attack?!
Roxanne hurriedly ran towards me with the aim of drawing its attention away
from me with her Scimitar, but she will not make it in time.
If the Green Caterpillar's intent was to slowly devour me, then I guess it will
try to do so by biting into me, in which case I should be able to endure a few
bites, since with my current levels the damage I would take from a Lv.2
monster should not be all that big, but if at all possible, I would like to avoid
being chowed down on altogether. So how about… if I try to do… THIS?!!
The web bound my legs below the knees, so thankfully I was able to bend
them and move them just enough to kick the Green Caterpillar in its ugly
mug just as it entered my melee range. Following up on that, I threw my
bound hand, which were still gripping Durandal's hilt tightly, into the air,
allowing the gravity to do its thing for me. As a result, Durandal's blade was
driven into the Green Caterpillar's back as if it was made out of jelly,
splitting it almost in half, after which it just rolled onto the floor, green blood
spilling out of the fatal wound I inflicted.
Not gonna lie, that was a closer one than I would have liked. I wonder if the
webby restraints had no negative effect on my attack power, or they did, but
it was so miniscule that I was still able to defeat the Green Caterpillar in a
single blow despite being under their influence?
The Green Caterpillar disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving it's usual Drop
Item, its thread, behind. At the same time, the threads that were restraining
my movements also disappeared.
「Note to self: these assholes have not one, but two web attacks. Avoid at all
costs.」
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「It really does look that they possess such an ability. I'm sorry, master. Due
to my incompetence you found yourself in a position where the enemy could
easily target you…」
「It's fine, don't beat yourself up over it. There was nothing you could do
about it, and besides, it's also my fault for letting my guard down around
them too much, so it is as much my L as it is yours. One saving grace here is
that as long as you defeat the monster that use the Skill, then the threads
disappear. If it wasn't for that, then I guess you can say that we would have
been in a pretty… sticky situation.」
「….」
「… Also, if we just watch the Green caterpillars more closely from now on,
we should be able to easily avoid their attacks and stop them from casting
that Skill.」
But the one who got caught in it was just me. Roxanne managed to avoid it
without any difficulties.
「So from now on, let's defeat the Green Caterpillars every time we happen
upon one, okay?」
「Yes, no objections here!」
Green Caterpillar can use the Skill that makes them spit sticky threads that
seal the movements of whomever it touches. Still, we've been around the
second floor for quite a while now and that was the first time I saw one of
them actually use that Skill, so it has to mean that they do not use it all that
often. If we just focus on dealing with them first. The only potential problem
can happen once they start appearing I large numbers, like, for instance, in…
yes, that's right, you guessed it, the Trap Room like the one on the first floor.
If an entire room's worth of them were to use their sticky threads at all time,
we definitely wouldn't be able to dodge them all or kill each and every one
that used them.
And then there is also the other web attack that will slow you down when it
hits you. My bigger concern with it is that if we get hit with enough of those,
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we might end up becoming so slow that the fight might be grinded into a
complete halt, and we will be opened for more thread attacks that will slow
us down even more, Durandal's HP Absorption included.
That, I'll have you know, would suck some serious scrotum.
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Part 5
What if we fail to annihilate the enemy on time? The answer to that was quite
obvious: injury or certain death. Even Roxanne, who is quite adept at the art
of dodging attacks might not be able to do anything when slowed down and
faced with the omnidirectional attack, even if she tried to jump over the
Green Caterpillar's bodies before they finished casting their Skills, which I
can easily imagine.
「For the time being I think that the best course of action will be to avoid the
Trap Rooms whatsoever, since they still might be too dangerous for us to
tackle with just the two of us. Let's exercise extreme caution if we happen
upon one of them ever again, alright?」
「Understood. As long as master is with me, I feel like I can take on any kind
of challenge, no matter what it is!」
I wonder what is she basing that rather pompous assumption on? And why
did it sound so sexual? Maybe she is going to try and show off by dispatching
the Green Caterpillars in some overly flashy way, like a leaping charge attack
on the poor bastards that won't even know what hit them? I know it sounds
ridiculus, but I also know that Roxanne would be willing to do something
like that, and she is more than capable of pulling such a crazy stunt off,
especially with her Monk Job.
Maybe I should think of a way of pulling us out of the ambushes and other
similar situations? For example, if I could use some powerful AoE magic that
could hit multiple enemies at once, carving out an escape route wouldn't be a
problem at all, even if we were facing off against a small army of monsters.
Something tells me that Meteor Crash would be ideal for it, but regretfully I
am still unable to use it effectively (read: I can't use it at all.) How much
longer will I have to grind to change that? Even though I have been killing
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monsters diligently in order to raise the levels of my Jobs, I have a feeling
that they are starting to get harder to raise now, but there is nothing I can
really do about it, since it is only natural that the amount of EXP points
required foe a Level Up won't be the same for a Job at Lv.1 and the Job at
Lv.99. Now, should I just continue to do exactly what I was doing up until
now until I can finally use Meteor Crash, or should I find some other way in
case that does not work?
Well if this Labyrinth turns out to be more dangerous than it is actually worth
it we could always try moving into another one, but I feel like that would be
nothing more but taking the easy way out, so I don't want to resort to using
such a drastic measure, if at all possible. *Sigh* what should I do here? What
is the right answer here?
Finishing the exploration and leaving the Labyrinth for today, we returned to
Veil and walked around it. The city seemed to be even livelier than usual,
most likely because today should be the day of the bazaar. Yeah, come to
think of it, it has been around five days since I started taking Roxanne to the
Labyrinth with me, so that should be about right. Looking at what the various
stalls had to offer, we went to the Explorers Guild. But before we could even
set our feet inside…
「Master? What are you…?」
I stood in front of Roxanne and covered her with my body, hiding her from
view.
「Roxanne, listen. Try not to make it too obvious that you're looking, but…」
Right now I am facing the Explorers Guild with my back with Roxanne
pinned with her back to the wall, glancing sideways. Normally I would gloat
about performing a splendid kabedon on her, but now was not the time for
such trivialities.
「Ah, y-yes?」
「Can you see that man standing in the shadow of that building over there?」
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「Umm… yes, I see him. He's standing there all alone.」
Roxanne turned her face to me and moved her gaze a little, so that it would
look like we were just talking to each other.
「Does it look to you like he's looking at Alan-san's slave shop?」
「Yes, it doesn't look like that at first glance, but upon closer inspection,
you're right. That is exactly what he is looking at.」
「As I thought.」
So Roxanne thinks so as well.
When we were going through the city earlier and headed to the Explorer's
Guild I saw that Bandit standing across the road. How do I know that he was
a Bandit? Because ever since I hunted Bandits to get the money I needed to
buy Roxanne, I developed a habit of Identifying suspicious-looking people
when I see them, and that guy over there… was the acquaintance of that one
scumbag I killed in their hideout. And now he is just standing here, looking
suss as hell. Could this be fate, or one of its sick jokes? Also, it is incredibly
rare for Bandits to be seen in the good part of the city when the sun is till up.
I never thought I'm going to see them going out of the slums, if I am to be
perfectly honest.
「You think he might be a customer? Because he doesn't look like that to me
at all.」
「I think so to as well. But if he is not a customer, then who is he?」
「Most likely a Bandit. And the one that is not probably not interested in your
usual, legal transactions.」
「But what might he want form the slave shop I was in?」
That I do not know, but there is no doubt that he is eyeing up Alan-san's
shop, the one located just across the road from where the Explorers Guild
was.
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「I don't know that. Maybe there are some pretty important customers inside
right now? For the time being, let's go back inside the Explorer's Guild.」
「Alright.」
We went inside and sold all of our items first, and after we got our hands on
the money, we proceeded to check the boards for any useful information.
Since this guild posts all of the information related to the Labyrinth and its
exploration, it might be worth our while to check if there are any information
regarding the Trap Rooms or the quests available at the second floor. If we're
lucky, then maybe we'll find out that the End of Search Declaration has been
posted? Once it is issued, we won't have to worry about stumbling upon any
Trap Rooms, because issuing the End of Search Declaration means that the
entire floor has been thoroughly explored and all the Trap Rooms have been
cleared of the monsters inhabiting them.
「And? Found anything over there?」
「No, no declarations have been posted for the second floor so far.」
Regretfully, we found no such notice on the Explorers Guild's bulletin
boards.
「Well? What do you want to do now? Should we at least go and give Alansan and a warning?」
I made sure that no one was listening in on us and asked Roxanne in a voice
that only she could hear.
「I would be grateful lif we could do that. One of the ladies who works there
has always been nice to me, so I would like to keep her safe if at all
possible.」
Even though she was sold there by her relatives, it looks like not all of her
memories of that place are the bad ones. Yes, giving them a warning is the
least we can do right now, because if we just chose to do nothing, it would
leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth.
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「Let's go then. And when we will be going past that guy, try not to stare at
him or else he might catch that we are onto him.」
「Right!」
And we left the Explorer's Guild, heading towards Alan-san's slave shop
while trying to behave as naturally as possible so that the Bandit didn't start
being suspicious of us.
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Part 6
When we arrived at the slave shop and knocked on the door, the young
servant came to greet us.
「Welcome. What can I do for you?」
「Is Master Alan inside? Could you get him for us?」
「Yes, of course. And please, do come in.」
We came inside, just like the servant told us to. As I was going through the
door I glanced back over my shoulder, but I wasn't able to see the Bandit,
meaning that he must have retreated deeper into the alleyway where it would
be more difficult to spot him.
Roxanne and I were guided to the back room, where Alan-san was meeting
with all his customers. His servant opened the door for us and told us to wait
inside, leaving us with a short 「Please wait here for a moment」.
I entered the room and sat on the sofa. If Alan-san is really meeting with
some customers right now, then it is possible that we will have to wait quite a
bit for him to come down to meet us.
「You can sit down if you want, Roxanne.」
「Thank you, master, but it's fine.」
「So you're just going to stand the entire time?」
「I think that will be for the best. Besides, I am used to it, so it's not a problem
for me.」
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I sat down, but Roxanne continued to stand up, just like she said she would,
but I don't know about that. What does she mean by 「it will be for the best?」
anyway? I want her to be treated as my equal, so maybe I should tell her to sit
down, or stand up myself? Well, Roxanne's judgement in those kinds of
situations is probably way more accurate then mine, since I cannot read the
mood of people's intentions for shit, so I just decided to nod and drop the
matter entirely.
It wasn't long before Alan-san came down to greet us.
「Oh, now what do we have here? Welcome, and thank you for stopping by
my shop once again.」
「Sorry to bother you. Weren't you with another customer just now?」
「No, not at all. I am free at the moment.」
「I see.」
Yup, now I am absolutely sure that this place is 100% targeted.
「So, what did you wanted to discuss today? Because I assume that is the
reason for your visit?」
Alan the Slave Merchant sat on the sofa. After giving Roxanne a brief but
stern look, he joined his hands together and leaned forward in front of the
table.
Ahh, I get it. He thinks that I came here today to discuss a refund for
Roxanne. I can't say I really blame him it that is really what he thinks. After
all, if I was in his shoes and a customer who bought a slave from me returned
after just a few days, I would also assume that it was either to make a
complaint or to try and get his money back. *Sigh* Maybe Roxanne was
right about not sitting down after all?
I remembered that the first time I came to this shop in order to sell the
Villager who has become my slave because he tried to steal the Bandit
Bandana that rightfully belonged to me, instead of being sent to this very
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waiting room he met with us inside of the shop itself. But the fact that we are
sitting here right now seems to be indicating that he is not treating me as a
random customer anymore, but maybe that was because that young aide, or
worker, or servant or whatever you want to call him didn't tell him I came
here to sell Roxanne? Then again, assuming that would have been kinda
dickish of him, when we only asked him to announce to Alan-san that we
wanted to speak to him. Well, I guess there's nothing I can do about it right
now. I just have to go with the flow.
「Allow me to cut right to the chase. This place is being watched.」
「Watched, you say?」
「Yes, that is indeed what I said. We came to warn you about it, because
Roxanne said that she couldn't ignore the shop that helped her out so much
and the people who work here.」
That should make it clear enough that I am not here to sell Roxanne today,
but now everything hinges on how is he going to react once he realizes that I
will probably not be buying any new slaves as well.
「Is that so? Ohohoho, I guess I'm getting so old that even I fail to notice such
things more and more often.」
The corners of Alan-san's mouth rose a little.
「Duly noted. I will be sure to be more careful in the future.」
「That's it? I told you, there is a suspicious-looking man watching your shop
from the outside.」
「I understood that, and I realize full well that things like that might be
happening from time to time, due to the… peculiar nature of my business.
Nevertheless, I thank you for you attention and the time you took to inform
me about this matter.」
He told me with a gentle expression. Looks like he's not taking me seriously.
Again, I can understand why he is acting like that. Everybody would have
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done the same if someone suddenly came to them and told them that their
business is being eyed by some shady individuals.
For him, I am not a regular customer, not a nobleman, a great knight, a bigshot or even someone well-versed in the matters of slavery. To him, I am just
your regular one-time customer same as all the others he probably has to deal
with on a regular basis, no different than a total stranger. Thinking about it
that way, it's not surprising that he dismisses the words of such a nobody as a
mere triffle.
「Anyway, we just wanted to give you this warning, so we will be on our way
now.」
「Once again, thank you for going through the trouble of informing me about
this, but running this kind of business often makes us a target of many-adifferent people, many of whom are too indecisive to actually set foot in the
shop, loitering around the entrance.」
「Trust me, the "customer" we saw outside definitely didn't look like that. He
seemed to be one of the more "problematic" kind, the one that is not
interested in simply "buying" slaves.」
「Or perhaps he was a private eye hired by a wife suspecting her husband of
infidelity.」
Is he trying to say that this shop being monitored is an occurrence so
common that he stopped paying any mind to it? I guess that's true given the
shady nature of his business, but still…
「Uhm… the person who watches your store right now… is a Bandit.」
Perhaps she was bothered by the fact that we were not being taken seriously
as well, so Roxanne chose to open her mouth with such bold words.
「Hou… a Bandit, you say?」
Alan-san's face tightened visibly.
「Yes, that's right.」
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「What makes you think that?」
When I confirmed Roxanne's words without batting an eye, Alan-san
inquired further. Well, I knew that sooner or later it had to come to this. Even
if someone is really eyeing the shop, that alone does not make them a
criminal just yet, so obviously he wanted to know what I based that
assumption on. But I cannot tell him that I found out about it by using
Identify on that guy, so I have to feed him the best possible lie I have in my
repertoire.
「He's one of the people whom I got to "know" while I was making money to
purchase Roxanne.」
I managed to scramble up the necessary amount of money to buy her only
because I decided to do some Bandit Bounty Hunting, but I imagine that
since he is a Slave Merchant then he must at least have an inkling of how
someone like me managed to get that much money so fast. He might not be
getting the entire picture here, but he can probably guess enough to know that
I wouldn't be lying about something like that.
If you wanted to take on Bounty Hunts related to Bandits, naturally you had
to know where to look for them and how to discern them from ordinary
citizens. And I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but after all the
investigating that I carried out in the slums, I guess you could say that I got to
memorize quite a few suspicious faces rather well.
「I see now.So that's how it is.」
Alan-san sank deeper into the sofa. He then closed his eyes and let out a big
sigh. Was he finally going to seriously listen to what we had to say?
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Part 7
「I am afraid that I cannot say much more, for the sake of one of your workers
who was especially good to Roxanne whom she wishes to protect.」
「Yes, I am very grateful to her for all that she did for me when I was still in
your care, so I would like you to pass our warning onto her as well. If nothing
else, I don't want her or any of this store's employees to be caught in
something disastrous.」
She bowed deeply to him.
「I see, I see. Certainly, I can't say I don't see where you're coming from, or
what you are talking about.」
Alan-san acknowledged. So at the very least he has some inkling of what is
going on here? Then why didn't he do something about it from the start.
「Do you, really?」
「When you run a slave-trading business for long enough, you naturally give
many people more than enough reasons to target you, and before you will
realize it, you will have a full plate of things to worry about….」
「That's how it is, huh?」
Sounds like a cheap excuse if you ask me, and frankly, I'm not buying it.
「… especially since we are getting more acquainted with our slaves and
those who buy them than you might be thinking. For example, the man you
came here to sell, the one that tried to rob you.」
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「What about him?」
The man who tried to steal the equipment from the Bandits I had defeated
back at the Somara village. He was caught stealing by his fellow villagers,
which resulted in him being stripped of his Villager status and becoming my
slave, whom we had taken to Veil in order to sell him at this very Slave shop.
Thinking about it now, I guess I should be grateful to the guy. Because he did
what he did, I had a reason to come here, and thanks to coming here, I was
able to have my fated meeting with Roxanne. So yeah, thank you, random
Villager. You have my undying gratitude, but you were quite a messed up
matchmaker, I will give you that.
「He was sold just yesterday. The person who bought him has filled all the
necessary paperwork that was required of him and finished all of the
necessary preparations, after which he announced that he will come back to
pick him up in two days time so that he could finish the preparations for
accommodating him on his end.」
「Do you often have to deal with the cases that some slaves are unable to be
sold?」
「I wouldn't say that such things never happen… however, now that I think
about it there is something strange about that man's case. He was practically
a fresh arrival, being in this shop for only a few days, and he wasn't even
able to speak Brahim at all. As far as slaves go, he had next to no value, but
despite that he was bought astonishingly fast. Moreover, the client who
bought him seemed to have been decided on buying him in particular right
from the very beginning.」
Once you've been made a slave as a punishment for theft, I can't imagine
anyone would be willing to teach you Brahim, because that would be straight
up too charitable. If you can't speak Brahim, I imagine your value as a slave
would plummet down considerably.
「And that client of yours really decided to buy somebody like that?」
「Yes. Also, he seemed to be even more interested in him when he learned
that the item he tried to steal was a Bandit Bandana.」
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Yes, Bandit Bandana was the item that guy seemed to be the most adamant
on getting from all of the items left by the raiding party that attacked Somara
village. Supposedly that thing can only be worn by Bandits, and when done
so, it increases their physical capabilities, most likely giving them boosts to
all their stats. According to both Picker-san from Somara and the Armor shop
merchant we initially tried to sell it to, it could be sold on the black market
for a small fortune. If he wanted to steal that, then it most likely means that
he must have had a buyer willing to buy it off of him.
「His current owner will be here to pick him up… tomorrow, am I right?」
「That's right.」
「Have you noticed anything suspicious about him? Anything at all?」
「There were two guests in total. One of them was asking me all sorts of
question related to purchasing slaves, while the other talked with the slave in
question. Perhaps he was passing some kind of instructions onto him? I tried
to listen in on what they were talking about, but they were doing so in
especially hushed whispers, so I am afraid I wasn't able to learn anything of
significance.」
Maybe it's just my bias towards Bandits speaking through me, but that
seemed suspicious as fuck.
「If you asked me, those guys give me all kinds of bad vibes just from hearing
about them from you.」
「Whatever the case may be, once the payment has been made and all the
necessary paperwork has been delivered I'm afraid that I cannot interfere in
the affairs of my clients and their newly-bought slaves. We wanted to keep
that slave in a locked room separated from all the rest, but the buyer
requested that we did just the opposite: he specifically requested for his
purchase to be kept in an unlocked room until the day he would come to pick
him up. For the time being, we are keeping him in a separate room on this
floor of the building. He's been on his best behavior for now, but there is no
telling if he won't try to leave in the middle of the night, going as far as to
meet the Bandits who bought him at the front door.」
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Alan-san told us all of that with a calm face. He didn't look worried or scared
at all, which was quite bald of him.
「Is… is that really okay with you?!」
Roxanne raised her voice worriedly.
「Of course. We are in the middle of a city after all. Even if they do appear, a
large number of uninvited guests will not go unnoticed.」
「B-But if something happens to that nice lady…」
「Do not worry. No matter what happens, we will probably be fine.」
Alan-san said that they will be okay, as if he had absolute confidence in his
own words.
Well, whatever. We have warned him about the potential danger to his shop,
so I say that our job here is done. Whatever ends up happening next, it will be
Alan-san's problem, not ours.
「We're going home, Roxanne.」
I said, standing up from the sofa.
「Ah, uhm…」
Roxanne mumbled as if she was having trouble with finding the right words
to say.
「Still worried after all?」
「... Y-Yes.」
*Sigh* What to do Michio? What to do?
I mean I have dealt with Bandits already, so it's not like I feel any kind of
aversion towards killing them simply because they are human beings just like
me. And as long as I have Durandal, I am pretty sure that none of them could
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pose an actual threat to me. So, with that in mind…
「How about this, Alan-san? Why don't you hire me as a bodyguard? What do
you say to that?」
I presented Alan-san with my proposal.
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Part 8
By proposing to be Alan-san's bodyguard, I should be able to quell
Roxanne's worries, even if just for a little bit, and avoid having a guilty
conscience myself. Because you know, I might not give two shits about the
guy I sold here, but if anything happened to innocent people because of him,
I have no doubt that it would have left an incredibly bad aftertaste in my
mouth.
「Are you sure about that? For an owner of the shop to hire one of his
customers as a bodyguard, this is rather unheard of.」
「Yeah. Besides, I don't want anything bad to happen to the slave I sold, so
you can say that I have a bit of a personal interest in this matter as well.」
That was only half of the truth, but he doesn't need to know that. Also, if I
get the chance, there is a little something that I would like to try.
「Thank you very much, master!」
Roxanne bowed to me in gratitude. She really looks relieved now. So she was
that concerned about the wellbeing of the lady who was nice to her, huh?
「Very well then, I accept your humble proposal.」
Nice. Should things get too hairy for us to handle, the is always an option of
getting the hell away from this place by using my Warp. I couldn't use
Dungeon Walker while fighting against the monsters in the Labyrinth, but I
think it should be good as long as our enemies will be just your regular
Bandits and the battle won't suddenly move to the Labyrinth itself, since I am
able to Warp between the Labyrinth and the Adventurer's Guild without any
issues. Also, a mental note for the future: next time we happen upon one of
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those monster-filled empty Trap Rooms, I should try fleeing from them using
Warp to see what will happen.
「Great. Looking forward to working with you.」
「Likewise. Now, whether I hired you or not I do not think the problem is
going to be as big as you are making it out to be, but let me be absolutely
clear about one thing: above all else, I don't want for anything to happen to
my customers and slaves, therefore I would like you to remain in the
backline, and only step forward when it is going to be absolutely necessary.」
「Gotcha.」
「Do exactly that, and your payment will be 1000 Nar. If you manage to
defeat the Bandit that threatens the shop, feel free to take any of his dropped
items and goods as a bonus to your reward.」
「Understood.」
I thought he was going to be more wary or restrained towards the idea, but
Alan-san accepted my proposal much easier than I thought he would. That
aside, getting my hands on that extra reward would be pretty sweet, so maybe
I should make it my priority to take that one particular Bandit down? Yes, in
order to maximize the profits from this job, we absolutely cannot let that guy
sneak out and rejoin with his companions. Still, even if we don't have the full
picture of what is going on here, this looks kinda strange. Why would my
former slave cooperate with those guys, if the possibility of them betraying
him at literally any point in time was quite high? No matter how hard I tried
thinking about it, all I could see was no merits to it at all, only the everincreasing odds of getting backstabbed.
Combat wise, I don't think any of the Bandits in the city or in its vicinity
were on the level of a guru, since none of the ones I fought with so far
displayed any remarkable skills with their weapons, but there has to be
something more to it than that. If that was the case, then even the guys who
attacked Somara village and were slaughtered by me when I was still a
complete noob were guru's, which was not the case. Even Roxanne wasn't a
guru, even though her combat prowess and the way she was able to avoid
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even the more complex attacks of monsters seemed to be indicating
otherwise.
Be that as it may, what I am getting at is that even if the chances of anything
happening today are low, Alan-san still would lose nothing if he chose to hire
us as an insurance against Bandits.
「The one watching the shop definitely saw me going inside, so for now we
will go back to our inn and come back here when the night falls. That way we
won't make him unnecessarily vigilant.」
「If that is the case, then I think it would be best for you to come back here
around dawn. If my shop really is being targeted by Bandits, I think that will
be the most probable time for them to arrive.」
「You think so?」
Generally, I have to agree with him. The dawn seems like the most probable
time for the Bandits to attack, since normally people would assume they
would have made their strike in the middle of the night.
「Some of my slaves are also capable of fighting. Three of them are here in
the shop at all times, while the best five of them always venture out into the
Labyrinth around daybreak. If we were being watched for the past few days,
then it would be wise to assume that our observer has also taken notice of that
fact. I'll also have you know that I am somewhat strong myself, since I did
some adventuring together with my reliable Party before I started studying
the ways of the merchant in order to become a Slave Merchant.」
「That makes sense.」
When Roxanne was explaining to me how Parties and adventuring worked,
she mentioned that oftentimes the aristocracy and the noblemen would send
their children to the Labyrinths accompanied by strong Parties so that the
children themselves could gain experience and raise levels quickly and
effortlessly since the EXP gained from slaying monsters is being shared
across all the Party members. And based on what Alan-san just told me, it
looks like that if you want to become a Slave Merchant, you have to raise the
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level of the ordinary Merchant Job first. Alan-san's Job is Slave Merchant
Lv.44. His age is quite advanced, but even taking that into account, his level
is still abnormally high. Now I really wonder if he was frequenting the
Labyrinths in his youth.
「The peak in the adventuring activities in the Labyrinths is usually early
afternoon to an early evening, so my Parties always go there right before
dawn to avoid running into an unnecessary traffic. But, as I mentioned
before, the Bandits should be well aware of that routine of ours if they were
keeping a close eye on us. If we assume that this is indeed the case, then the
most probable time for them to make their move would be when the Party of
combat-capable slaves leaves the shop for the Labyrinth, meaning from dawn
until the afternoon. Of course, I won't be having them going there. They will
remain here on standby, and those of them who cannot fight will serve as a
deception.」
Was that why Alan-san sounded so confident and seemed like that entire
matter wasn't such a big deal? Not that I am complaining, mind you. If
anything, I quite like this new development, since instead of waiting
cluelessly or getting dragged in the Bandit's trap, now it feels more we are
the ones setting the trap for them.
「Hearing that is certainly reassuring.」
「I have to admit that it has been quite some time since I retired from the
adventurer's lifestyle and passed the place in my most reliable Party to my
son, but I should still have enough steam left in me not to let some petty
Bandits get the better of me.」
He said proudly. Maybe he actually is more amazing than I gave him credit
for?
250 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
Part 9
「Does this place have a back exit?」
「Of course it does. Why do you ask?」
「Because we should probably leave through there to avoid being seen.」
「Very well then. Allow me to show you the way. It's just over here.」
Alan-san showed us the way.
「Here we are. I suggest that you use this entrance to get into the shop when
you will come back here at dawn. The alleyway is connected to that street
over there, so even if the front door will be constantly monitored, no one
should notice you when you arrive. Just be sure to remember which building
is ours to avoid any needless complications.」
「Thanks, but I think we will manage somehow.」
All we have to do is to Warp over here, so that takes care of that problem.
He opened the door and let us out. There really was a narrow alley between
the buildings. In such a tight space no one would really see us, and getting
here would only require a small detour from us, so using this back entrance
might really be a good decision. After we confirmed everything we wanted to
know, Alan-san walked us all the way back to the front door.
「Well then, thank you for your patronage today.」
「Yeah, you've really been a huge help.」
I said that in an especially loud voice to be sure that the Bandit watching over
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the shop could hear us.
「I look forward to your next visit here.」
And like that we have left the Slave shop. We went straight ahead, without
any needless wandering around, but when we were passing the alley adjucent
to the shop, I couldn't see the Bandit's figure anymore.
「Is he there?」
「I can't really see him, but I can definitely smell him from behind the
building.」
「Good.」
I had a quiet conversation with Roxanne once we went past the Explorer's
Guild. As expected of Roxanne, even in the crowded city filled with all kinds
of smells, she was still able to track down that particular one like it was
nothing.
「Uhm… I'm sorry for being so selfish during the meeting.」
「You don't have to be. I was the one who made him the offer, and he
accepted it out of his own volition.」
「But I was the one who blurted out that that man was a Bandit because I
allowed my emotions to get the better of me.」
So she realizes how risky that was. True, things could have gone very bad if I
didn't come up with an excuse, but since I did then I guess it's all fine. I
managed to keep my secrets, so there's no use mulling over it now.
「It's all fine with me. Just try to be more careful in the future, okay? And
remember: any trouble of yours is a trouble of mine as well.」
「Yes! Thank you so very much!」
With Roxanne thanking me once again, we have returned to the Veil
Pavilion. Initially I just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed, but with our
252 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
current arrangement I guess that won't be happening. For the time being,
Roxanne performed both the usual maintenance of our equipment and the
laundry of our underwear by using the hot water delivered to our room after
we finished eating. She had to do it, because, to be frank, I sweat a lot. Not
because the Labyrinth is a particularly hot place, but because of all the
fighting I was doing, which should be an obvious thing, right? Fighting
requires you to move your body around a lot, and moving around a lot causes
you to sweat, all the more if the equipment and armor you are carrying
around with you weights a hefty amount. And since sleeping in sweaty,
smelly underwear would be a straight-up unpleasant experience, I was
grateful to have someone ready and willing to do my laundry for me.
Unfortunately, there are no normal baths or showers available for everyone is
this world, so we have to get by with the closest equivalent available, which
is wiping our bodies with towel dowsed in hot water. It cannot hold a candle
to a long, refreshing soak in the bathtub, but it was definitely better than not
washing ourselves at all. Given the circumstances, it was actually quite
comfortable. And since Roxanne was wiping herself without voicing any
complaints, then she must be thinking that as well. And now it is my job to
carefully wash every part of that work-of art body of hers.
A fresh and clean-looking skin. A bust so magnificently big and well
proportioned that it almost seemed like a miracle. Once again I have felt
something slowly accumulating inside of me, but it shouldn't be a problem
for now, because if it will be close to bursting, I have someone who will
readily take care of it for me.
「Mmm… ngh….」
A few hours later, after Roxanne made me spit out all of my accumulated
lust, she once again woke me up with a passionate kiss. Since I managed to
catch a good amount of z's, I was in a refreshingly good mood even though I
have just woken up.
Since we had a job to do very early in the morning, I asked her to wake me
up a little bit earlier than usual. I gotta say, having my tongue massaged by
Roxanne's own soft tongue is the best way to wake up ever. Never in my
wildest dreams could I ever imagine that there will come a time in my life
253 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
where I will be able to be woken up in such a wonderful way.
After fighting off my initial drowsiness, I hugged Roxanne strongly, having
the bulges of her chest bounce and press against my own torso. Enjoying that
unearthly elasticity, I slowly extended my own tongue to give her tongue a
friendly greeting, and our wet tongues started playing with one another,
slowly returning the pleasurable favors, occasionally stretching deeper into
our oral cavities and deeply entwining around each other.
「Good morning, master.」
「Yeah… good morning, Roxanne.」
After tasting Roxanne's sweet tongue for a good while, I finally let go of it so
we could exchange our usual morning greetings. As usual, I needed a
moment to properly catch my breath after such an intense exercise first thing
in the morning.
「It is about time for us to leave.」
Prompted by Roxanne, we proceeded to put on our clothes and armor,
finishing our preparations. I just hope that we didn't kiss for long enough to
actually be late to the meeting with the Slave Merchant.
「Ready? Then let us be on our way.」
「Yes, let's go.」
「Actually, I was thinking if it wouldn't be better if you sat this one out,
Roxa…」
「I. Am. Going. As. Well.」
Roxanne said, putting emphasis on every word.
「Fine. You can come with me, but I want you to stay behind me as much as
possible. Putting you in unnecessary danger is the last thing I need.」
If things get too dangerous for her, I can always order her to escape. I
254 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com
understand that she wants to protect those who helped her during what was
probably the most difficult time in her life, but that does not mean that it is
okay for her to be putting herself in danger.
「Yes, of course!」
After leaving the room, we left the key at the front desk and walked out of the
inn. I took Roxanne's hand and proceeded to go along the inn's outer wall,
entering the labyrinth of the back alleys so that we would avoid being
detected. Like that, we made our way to the alley behind the Slave shop
which we were shown just few hours earlier. As expected, there was no one
there and no one bothered us on the way. Shifting myself so that Roxanne
was being placed between myself and the building's wall, I confirmed the
door's exact location with my hand and knocked on it, doing so very lightly
in order not to make too much noise. The door was opened not even a few
seconds later. The one to greet us was Alan-san himself.
「I have been expecting you. Please, come inside.」
We nodded at his invitation and went inside the Slave shop, ready for
whatever might have been awaiting us.