Part 1
Kaga Michio
Current levels & equipment:
Explorer Lv.20
Hero Lv.16
Mage Lv.12
Monk Lv.13
Equipment:
Copper Sword
Leather Armor
Leather Jacket
Leather Gloves
Leather Shoes
Right now, I am fighting monsters inside of the Labyrinth, but not in my
usual, one-hit-kill-with-Durandal way. No, since I have decided to gain as
much levels for my and Roxanne's Jobs as soon as possible, I am fighting by
only using magic now. That's right, you heard that correctly: just magic, no
Durandal. Since I got rid of Bonus Weapons 6 with my last Character Reset,
the only purely physical weapon I have equipped right now id the very basic
Copper Sword.
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Facing the current group of enemies, I shouted (Firestorm!) in my mind, and
when I did, the activated spell created fiery sparks that appeared all around
the enemies and erupted into fiery explosions as soon as they came into
contact with the monsters that happened to be near them. I didn't have to use
any matches, oil, gunpowder or any other materials in order to make it
happen. The sparks which initiated that series of devastating explosions was
executed from start to finish only by what I imagined, thought about and
ordered, coating the two Green Caterpillars in front of me entirely in flames.
This is magic. A power to turn what's seemingly impossible into possible and
make various supernatural things unavailable to any Jobs aside from that of a
Wizard or Mage happen. However, while it is true that you can certainly fight
monsters by using magic, it's not all rainbows and sunshine as you might
think, because while that method of fighting certainly has its share of
advantages, it also has disadvantages. For example: you can use magic to
fight monsters from a distance, which makes it much safer in comparison to
physical fighting where you have to get up close and personal to them to do
any kind of meaningful damage, but killing them that way takes a few attacks
in a row, whereas with my earlier Character Setting, the one where I had a
bunch of Bonus Points invested into the Bonus Weapons Skill all the way to
Lv.6, which granted me my ultimate weapon, Holy Sword Durandal, I was
able to defeat all regular mobs with a single strike, and the Boss of the first
Floor with a few strikes.
When the fire created by the Fire Storm subsided, one of the Green
Caterpillars that must have survived its raging inferno came at me with its
ramming attack, which I guarded against with the aid of the Copper Sword,
the weapon that was now acting as Durandal's replacement for as long as I
am using the Wizard Build that I am using now to accumulate EXP as fast as
possible. I have to admit, using a weapon that is weak as shit in comparison
to Durandal was tough to get used to, but thankfully the monsters here on the
second floor are not as tough and do not hit as hard as to give me a genuinely
hard time dealing with them. All I had to do was to switch my mindset and
adapt to killing enemies at a slower pace than usual.
Some distance away from me, Roxanne, who was wielding a Scimitar was
nimbly avoiding the attacks of another Green Caterpillar that must have
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targeted her while I was busy with the ones in front of me, which is
admittedly kind of strange, because normally she would have just wailed o it
with her weapon without needing to avoid it that much. I wonder if
something happened to cause it, or perhaps it used its Skill and she had no
choice but to avoid it to not get caught in its sticky webbing? Well, no matter.
For now we both have to focus on fighting, and the time to eventually ask
questions will be after that.
When I finished parrying the Green Caterpillar's charge attack, I went on and
launched another Fire Storm that engulfed the one I was squaring off against
along with the one that targeted Roxanne. Since they were already beaten up
to some extent by our previous attacks, they weren't able to survive the
flames that burned them up to crisps. Both of them fell onto the floor and
disappeared in a puff of green smoke, leaving only their Drop Items, Green
Caterpillar Thread, behind them. Looks like the victory once more belongs to
us.
「Phew… we finally defeated them, huh? I have to say, even though we are
taking countermeasures against that pesky Web Spitting Skill of theirs,
fighting Green Caterpillars sure is much more mentally exhausting than
fighting with the Needlewoods.」
I struck up a casual conversation with Roxanne as we went on picking up the
items all the Green Caterpillars dropped onto the floor after their deaths.
The Green Caterpillar's Skill that I am talking about, Web Spitting, is a Skill
that they are using on those who let down their guards around them that
allows them to pin their prey in place and prevent it from both moving and
defending themselves by with their sticky threads that are pretty similar to
spider's web now that I think about it. Also, I have to confess that I have
been caught in that freedom-of-movement-robbing Skill more than a few
times now, which makes me feel incredibly embarrassed about it, because it
is actually very easy to avoid as long as you will remember to pay close
attention to the Green Caterpillars to see if any of them does not have an
orange magic circle on the ground under their bloated bodies. If they do, then
you have to get as far away from them as possible, since the length and the
width of that Skill are both deceptively large.
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「Maybe so, but still, your magic defeats them so fast that I can't help it but to
feel at ease, master. Not to mention that thanks to you we seem to be getting
much stronger extremely fast!」
「Y-You really think so?」
「Yes! And that is why I am grateful to you for this. Thank you very much,
master!」
Roxanne answered me with a bright smile on her face. Truth to be told, it's
not me that you should be thankful to, but rather to the increased EXP gain
Skill that I have currently equipped. If not for that, then I really don't think
there would be any cause for celebrations.
Normally, Roxanne is able to avoid Green Caterpillar's Skill attack thanks to
her superior senses and agility of the Beastman, and I still have to work on
my own strategy of avoiding it, but we will definitely get there at some point.
As for the rest of the monsters of the second floor, they are only
Needlewoods that are slightly stronger and a little bit tougher than their
counterparts from the first floor, so we have no problems with dealing with
them, since all that it takes to completely avoid their branch swings are some
light dodges. But the thing is, we might have a relatively easy time fighting
the enemies now, but such a state of affairs won't be able to last forever.
Which is why…
「If at all possible, I would very much like us to become just a bit stronger
before advancing to the next floor.」
「Stronger, huh? Let's see… I heard that typically Mages and Wizards tend to
use staffs and wands instead of swords.」
「Staffs and Wands, huh?」
Well, that certainly makes sense. After all, normally swords and other
weapons like that are supposed to be wielded by the members of the front
guard while Mages and Wizards are supposed to hand around the back of the
Party and use their ranged spells to provide support to those fighting on the
frontlines. That might be another thing I should be looking out for then. If
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anyone saw a guy using spells fighting along with the rest of the Party on the
frontlines, that would probably net me all sorts of uncomfortable questions.
In short, if you want to act and fight like a Wizard, be sure to also be
equipped like one… but wait a minute…
What was the typical Wizard equipment again? I have to admit that when I
was doing my shopping back in Veil when I first arrived there and later when
I bought Roxanne, I didn't really paid attention to anything else besides the
things I needed at that time, which is to say, a typical Warrior's equipment.
And since Roxanne fights with the Scimitar and the Leather Armor I gave
her, there was no need to optimize our stuff according to the Jobs we have,
but now that I decided to change my playstyles so drastically, a change of
both weapon and equipment might be exactly what I need. Kind of a pain in
the ass, but hey, it's for the sake of keeping up appearances.
「That is what I had heard regarding magic users and their equipment, so I am
sorry if any of what I just said turns out not to be true.」
「Don't worry about it. You're already helping me more than enough, so
asking anything more of you would be downright rude of me.」
「Thank you for your kind words, master, I really… wait, the enemy is close
by!」
Roxanne pointed that out while we were walking through the Labyrinth,
having a nice, casual chatter, and just like she said, a Needlewood has
appeared right before us. As expected of Roxanne. Her senses are all so
perfectly sensitive that she's able to sense enemies even when she's in the
middle of talking with me. Can you be more reliable than that?
Normally I would be 100% against idle chatter anywhere outside the entrance
to the Labyrinth and the first rooms on every floor, which function as safe
zones for Adventurers since the danger might be lurking around every corner,
but with mine and Roxanne's current levels, dealing with a single enemy
when there is a pair of us should not be a problem at all. Now that she is a
member om my Party, no monster attack will catch us by surprise anymore.
I launched a quick Fireball at the Needlewood. Since the enemy is only one,
then instead of using Fire Storm, which is an AoE (Area of Effect) Fire-type
spell, it's more cost-effective to only use single-target spells. Also, that way I
could technically attack this guy all the way from the safe zone, where
monsters have no access to make sure that Roxanne, who would have to rush
in close to it to hit it with her Scimitar, won't get hurt at all, but right now,
there was no need for me to be so overprotective of her, because she fended
off each and every attack with swift and agile movements. The are so fast and
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precise that sometimes I wonder if those are really her natural moves, or is
that thanks to some kind of Passive Skill she might be possessing?
Anyway, now that we have defeated that monster without any harm coming
to neither of us…
「Going back to our topic of equipment for magic users, I sure wish that Veil
had more shops that are opened permanately, and not just on the bazaar days.
That way we could go shopping whenever there would be a need for it
instead of waiting for the specific shop to be opened on a specific day. Yeah,
that would surely be nice.」
We continued the talk that got interrupted due to the sudden appearance of
the enemy. So back to what I was saying, it's a shame that there are no
permanately opened stores in Veil, but even if they were opened 24/7 (or five
days a week for eight hours like most of the shops back on earth, I don't
know which would considered to be more normal here), then I don't think
any of the stores in Veil, which are open every five days when the bazaar
opens would be able to offer me equipment and supplies specifically for the
magic users since apparently they are a pretty rare breed around these parts.
And that is… inconvenient, to say the least.
「Oh, if it's a store selling wands, staffs and supplies for Mages you want,
then you should probably go to Quratar. The stores in the Imperial City
should also have those kinds of items, but Quratar is much closer, so that
would definitely be your best bet.」
「Quratar, huh? That's the first time I'm hearing the name of that city, but if
you say that it should have all of the things we might need, then I think
checking it out would definitely be worth the shot.」
「Umu. I've only been there once before, but that one visit was enough to
know that there is also a big Labyrinth there, and it's pretty convenient
because the shops which sell all manner of supplies for both Explorers and
Adventurers alike are situated pretty close to one another.」
How admirable, she explained all that without me even having to ask, but that
was probably due to my fake backstory that I told to Roxanne, that I am from
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a remote region of the world far to the east where I was raised without
knowing much about the common sense of the world. She really is like my
own personal guardian angel. With benefits. (TL Note: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )
「Well, that settles it then. We should really try going there if we ever get the
chance to do so.」
If this Quratar place is even bigger than Veil, then the shops would probably
be much bigger with better selection of items, which would be pretty
convenient for me.
We stopped the conversation once more to deal with two more enemies that
appeared before as we continued to go deeper and deeper into the second
floor. Since there are two of them, we did our usual thing where we split up
so that each one of us would draw the attention of one monster to ourselves.
Actually, I think that right now I would be more than enough to take care of
both of them with my AoE spells so that Roxanne didn't have to put herself
in unnecessary danger, but suggesting that to her now might be insulting to
her, so I think it would be better if I shut up about it for now and just let each
of us do our own thing.
Fighting monsters with magic was harder than with normal weapons, but it
was not impossible. I can shoot at them with my spells before they even get
close to me, but if they get within striking distance without dropping dead I
will only have a short moment to react before they will launch their attacks at
me, causing me to either evade and reposition myself on use another spell
from point blank range while taking the risk of tanking a potential hit, which
is why defeating them while they are still relatively far away from me would
be a preferable outcome, but as you all probably know, you cannot always get
what you want from life. That is just how big of a bitch it is. I wish the battles
on all floors of this Labyrinth would be simple ones, but that is little more
than my own wishful thinking. Right now the monsters are weak because
we're only on the second floor, but once we start climbing onto the higher
floors, not only there is going to be significantly more enemies for us to deal
with, but they will also grow stronger with each floor, so we should
appreciate these short fight whenever we can, because pretty soon they will
become nothing more but a distant memory that we're going to look at
fondly. Well, I guess that is j=how a natural order of things works, so it
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cannot be helped. I still think that what we are doing now is the right thing to
do. We are taking things slowly, adapting to tougher battles little by little,
which is infinitely better than rushing ahead of ourselves blindly until we
encounter monsters that will be too strong for us to defeat, sending us to the
early grave because of little else than our own stupidity. Yeah, we will
gradually get used to the raising difficulty level, and getting me a wand of a
staff may wait until then.
After finishing the exploration for the time being, we left the Labyrinth and
went back to Veil to sell the items that we aquired. But before we went to the
Explorer's Guild's building to do so, we took a moment to replenish our
supply ow drinkable water by filling our bottles from the well behind the Veil
Pavillion inn, in which we were currently staying. Initially I thought that
since I learned how to create water with magic then we won't need to carry
bottled ones with us, but that assumption of mine got quickly corrected once I
learned that storing magically created water is not as simple as I thought it
will be, so I guess it was a good thing that Roxanne mentioned Quratar now
of all times, because once we go there, we will be able to buy water storing
supplies, like cups, more bottles, or perhaps even bigger containers if we're
lucky.
When we sold all of the Green Caterpillar Threads and got our money, we
returned to the inn to have a short rest, after which we have set off into the
Depths of the Labyrinth once more.
「This way.」
As usual, I followed after Roxanne's guidance. Navigating the Labyrinth's
dimly-lit corridors, we soon happened upon a first pair of enemies.
The enemies this time are, once more, a group of Green Caterpillars.
(Fire Storm!)
I activated Fire Storm, and the sparks it created began to fall in the vicinity of
the enemies. Most of them got burned down on the spot, but two of them
actually survived, meaning that we were once again put in a situation where
both Roxanne and I had one enemy to defeat. When the one I was closer two
approached me, I slashed it with my Copper Sword and got body-slammed in
return. It didn't hurt all that much, but it was all too evident that this shitty
Copper Sword was not Durandal. If I had it with me, this bug would have
been turned into shishkebab in a jiffy. I managed to avoid the second body
slam that was heading my way and then wanted to launch magic at the Green
Caterpillar in return, but before I was able to cast Fireball or another Fire
Storm at it, it used that brief gap between my actions to get closer to me again
Damn it! Why did I allow something like that to happen! Now, if I was the
previous, close combat oriented me, then I would never allow such a blunder
to happen, but now that I have switched my specs from sword-fighting to
magic casting, it became all too apparent to me that I simply started paying
too much attention to the process of casting spells, which resulted in me not
paying as much attention as I should have to the monsters themselves!
A moment later, Fire Storm finally activated, and its sparks managed to catch
the Green Caterpillar just as I was in the middle of backstepping to create
more of a distance between us. The flames swallowed it, and in the next
moment it moaned loudly, keeled over and died, turning into a puff of green
smoke.
「Ugh…」
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Just like I have previously said, fighting with monsters while being a magic
user is much more difficult in comparison to having a purely physical build,
and it made me groan a little in frustration. If this is how it is on the second
floor, then a part of me cannot help it but get worried about how tough the
things are going to get once we eventually reach the higher floors.
In this world, someone like me who had no other talents besides those I gave
myself while I was creating my character (and all those I have obtained
through performing countless Character Resets) has no other way of earning
money for sustaining himself aside from hunting monsters and exploring the
Labyrinth. Maybe I could try mercenary work or some other job requiring
physical strength on knowing how to swing a sword, but there is absolutely
no guarantee that it would get me more money per day than foraging into the
Labyrinth would give me. Fighting monsters in the Labyrinth might be a
difficult depending on the floor you are exploring and you have to put up
with the constant risk of certain death looming over you the entire time you
are inside of the dungeon's halls, but other than that this so-called career path
is easy and simple enough for someone like me to understand: go into the
Labyrinth, kill everything that moves and acts hostile towards you, pick up
any items the monsters might leave behind when they will die, sell those
items back at the city, profit, repeat as many times as necessary. And
speaking of items dropped by the monsters, I went and picked up all of the
Green Caterpillar Threads that have been left behind by the monster we
defeated just now.
「Roxanne, give the Green Caterpillar Threads that you picked up. I'm going
to store them all in the Item Box.」
I called out to Roxanne as she was picking up the Drop Items near her.
「In the Item Box? Not the backpacks?」
「Yeah, into the Item Box. Right now I should have the necessary space to
handle putting that many items inside, so no worries.」
Just recently I have hit Lv.20 as an Explorer, and since the overall capacity of
the Item Box depends on the level of the Explorer Job, then the space of my
Item Box has increased considerably in comparison to what I had when I was
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just starting in this Labyrinth crawling business. To be more specific, since I
am a Lv.20 Explorer, I can now have 20 spaces for items, each of which can
hold up to 20 pieces of small items. Before I had to be really selective with
what I was putting inside there, but now I have more than enough to safely
store all of my gold coins, silver coins, some pieces of spare equipment and
various medicines, and I will still have some space left in that sucker! And
since the only monsters we have been hunting in the Veil's Labyrinth for a
while are Needlewoods of the first floor and the Green Caterpillars of the
second floor only drop Needlewood's Branches and Green Caterpillar's
Thread respectively, there won't be any problems with fitting them all inside
there.
Part 1
Normally I would keep all of my coins in the string pouch in my backpack so
that I could have an easy access to them at any time, but since now I have
quite a lot of gold coins, which make the bulk of the entirety of my current
monetary possessions, I decided to store them all in the safety of the Item
Box where no one would ever rob them from me even if they tried. It's
possible that I'm getting a bit too paranoid about all of this,but we can never
be too cautious when it comes to the safety of our funds, but even then we
cannot be too sure of our money's safety. Who knows, even if Roxanne does
not know about it, there is a tiny sliver of a chance that there might exist a
spell that allows others to steal items from the Item Boxes without their
owner's even knowing that they are getting robbed.
「Uhm, forgive me for being too curious about the matters that have nothing
to do with me, but may I ask what is your current level, master?」
Roxanne asks about my level in a timid manner as if she thought that she was
doing something that she wasn't supposed to do. She wants to know what my
level is, huh? Well, I see no reason for keeping it a secret from her, so…
「My Explorer level, right? Currently I am at Lv.20.」
「Lv.20…?! As expected of someone as amazing as you, master. In that case
your Item Box should still have a lot of free space for all the items we
obtained today!」
She must know about the Lv. = number of spaces in the Item Box, but she
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didn't know my exact level, and that's why she wanted to ask for
confirmation. I have to say, being praised by her for how big my level was
felt quite good, almost as if she was saying that something else about me is
quite big, if you know what I mean. So come on, Roxanne, praise my level
some more!
Part 3
Then again, I guess me having such a high level can actually be considered to
be pretty abnormal, since normally it looks like the process of gaining levels
in this world is typically associated with aging, similarly to how back on
earth there was this saying that 「with the age comes experience」. This world
is like an example of putting that saying into practical use, except for the fact
that there is a way of gaining EXP faster than normal people, but it has one
prerequisite: you'd have to be a child of the nobility, and then you'd be taken
to the Labyrinth from an early age so that you could have more EXP and the
money until you'd reach an age where you could start going there by
yourself. But I am not a child of nobility according to the fake backstory I
told to Roxanne. To her, I am just another country bumpkin, so it is
understandable that she might be amazed at how someone who's supposedly
no different from any other regular person is able to gain levels so fast.
Thinking about it that way, I guess the level of my Explorer's Job might be
considered a little high for my age, but it should not be that much of a deal.
True, right now I am earning x20 more EXP points due to The Bonus Skill I
have taken exactly for that purpose, and it was that that allowed me to
achieve such a level in such a relatively short amount of time, while normally
getting to Lv.20 in any Job would take a few more years, at least according to
what Roxanne said at one point.
Part 4
I also remember her mentioning that some noble children might have been
taken to the labyrinths not only since they were little, but also even after their
age went into the one with double digits, and they still wouldn't be able to
level as fast as I did. I really have no idea if my high level should be a case
for concern or not, but just to be on the safe side the wise move here might be
keeping it hidden from anyone else unless revealing it would become
absolutely necessary. So, to that end…
「Roxanne, I would really appreciate it if you could keep my level a secret
and not talk about it to anyone, okay?」
「Of course, master. My lips are sealed.」
Ahh, why am I even worrying about her spilling the beans on that
information in the first place? Of course Roxanne wouldn't go revealing
sensible information about me to anyone else. Her trust in me is absolute, and
she would never do anything that would risk me losing that trust in her.
Besides, we have our fair share of secrets already (TL Note: A bit too many
if you ask me.) so adding one or two more to the mix should be okay and not
make that much of a difference, and we have already established that the
safety of my personal information should be our number one priority. She
and the inhabitants of this world might not realize it, but information might
be quite a powerful weapon when wielded in the right hands and used at just
the right time.
While we were taking on another group of monsters, I noticed that there has
been a slight change in me. Up until this point I needed roughly four spells in
order to defeat a single monster from the second floor, but right now, all I
needed to take one of them down were three shots! You might think that this
is not that big of a deal, but it is exactly the opposite! Now that I managed to
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lower the number of spells required to take the enemies down by one for
some reason, I can actually defeat them before they can get into our melee
range, significantly dropping the risk of us sustaining injuries in battle! That
is some truly great news. Of course, it's not like I can snipe them away from
like a kilometer or so away, because single target spells still have to be aimed
manually in order to maintain the highest accuracy of the shot possible, but
putting that little technicality aside, that is going to be a tremendous
improvement that showed its usefulness even now, since I was able to finish
the battle that much faster with the less spells required to do so.
When there was only one enemy left, Roxanne jumped in front of me and
finished it herself, which was a nice contribution, if not a little unnecessary,
because with my new discovery I would have been more than glad, and most
importantly, capable, of dealing with all of those monsters by myself.
Anyway, I think the number of spells required to kill monsters has decreased
because my level as a Wizard has increased, making my spells a little bit
more powerful. All of my levels were going up at a pretty decent pace, but
the increase that the Wizard Job was getting through was especially fast even
among the rest of my Jobs, because it started at Lv.1 just like any other Job,
and right now it was already at Lv.12 even though it was the newest Job that I
have aquired, so I technically had it for the shortest amount of time in
comparison to the rest like Explorer or Hero.
「As expected of you , master. You are growing stronger and stronger by the
day.」
「Nah, that's probably beginner's luck since I started using magic only
recently. I bet I still have a long way to go when it comes to improving and
mastering my skills at it.」
「That may be so, but with your extraordinary levelling speed, the day when
you will be able to master more amazing spells might not be as far away as
you might think.」
Again, that is only because I have the Bonus Skills that lowered the EXP
required to level up by 1/10th of its original value and increase the amount of
EXP I'm receiving for killing monsters by x20. Roxanne already knows how
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much levels I gained when it comes to the Explorer Job, but maybe I should
not be telling her how much levels did I gain for my other Jobs just to be on
the safe side?
We continued the exploration of the second floor and the extermination of the
monsters living on it, and after a while we seemed to have reached the
waiting room that was placed right before the Floor Boss's room. I looked
around to be sure: no other ways and branching paths, just a pair of doors
leading forward and a pair of doors leading back to where we came from.
Yup, this is the waiting room alright. Who would have thought that we have
advanced through the second floor so much? It felt much shorter compared to
the time we have spent on the first floor before we reached its Floor Boss.
Seeing how empty the place is, it doesn't look like any Party in particular was
awaiting their turn to take a stab at the Boss of this floor, so this seems like a
perfect moment to get Durandal back, since I would like nothing more than to
have it as my standard weapon for Floor Boss encounters like that, since its
HP and MP Absorption Skills might be all the difference between life and
death in the battles with stronger opponents, and this is definitely not a place
to be worrying about getting more EXP. For this particular fight, DPS and
survivability is where its at.
While performing a Character Reset, I also removed the increased EXP gain
Bonus Skill and added myself a Fifth Job. Now that I have decided to bust
out Durandal, it would also be good to use Warrior's Rush or Swordsman's
Slash Skills, and the Fifth Job is exactly for the purpose of adding one of
those Jobs to the rest of the ones that I already have. Obviously I cannot
remove Explorer from the list of active Jobs, and Hero has to stay on as well
because that Job is also very effective with its Stat boosts and Skill,
Overwhelming, which might be pretty useful if I will find myself in a pinch. I
should also keep Monk on, since that Job is the one I specifically wanted to
get because of its focus on healing abilities that might prove to be more
reliable than your standard item-based healing in the middle of a battle. For a
moment I was considering whether or not to get rid of the Wizard Job, but
maybe I should leave myself the ability to use magic just in case the battle
goes horribly, horribly wrong for some reason. For now the only Floor Boss
battle that I have experienced was against the Udowood back on the first
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floor, which was actually not that difficult from your standard battles against
Needlewoods aside from the facts that Udowood was bigger than them and
could attack in every direction thanks to the sheer number and placements of
its branches, but as for the Floor Boss of the second floor, I don't even know
what I should be expecting. For all I know, the Boss of the second floor
might be the one that negates physical attacks, or he might negate magical
attacks, or neither of them. Yeah, since there is too much unknown factors
that I have no countermeasures against, the sensible thing to do here would
be to prioritize safety over the gains to the EXP points, so I finally chose
Warrior as my Fifth Job and ended up the Character Reset.
As we approached the door to the Boos Room, they opened up by
themselves, almost as if they were waiting for us, inviting us inside.
「Alright Roxanne, we're going in. Let's go!」
「Yes!」
When I was walking through the double door, I felt my entire body
instinctively tightening up. If this was nothing more than a game world where
there would be no real risk of me actually dying I would have probably be
excited as hell to face off against the new, never before seen enemy, but right
now, knowing that my life is legitimately on the line here, I just couldn't
force myself into enjoying this situation even if I wanted to.
When we were about to reach the center of the large Boss chamber, our
surroundings were filled with clouds of green smoke that gathered in front of
us, forming the silhouette of our next enemy.
Part 5
The Floor Boss this time… turned out to be a caterpillar. But not the same
like all the other Green Caterpillars we have encountered so far, because that
one was like, way larger. After using Identify on it, I learned that it was
actually called a White Caterpillar, which made sense since instead of being
green it was pale-whiteish in color. Since it is the Boss monster for the
second floor, it was Lv.2.
Hmm, I wonder id this is a general rule that the Floor Boss of each floor is
just a beefed-up version of the regular mobs that roam the given floor,
because it was the same with the ones on the first floor. Normal monsters
there were Needlewoods, and the Boss was an Udowood, which looked like a
bigger, thicker version of a regular Needlewood. It would have been nice if
we had a moment to stop and thin about it, but it was not to be, because
White Caterpillar began the battle by creating an orange magic circle beneath
its body.
「It's going to use its Skill, master! Brace yourself!」
Since this thing is a caterpillar, then it probably means that it has a Web Spit
attack as its Skill, so I probably should prepare Fire Wall to guard against it.
Damn, if only I knew beforehand that it might have the same Skill as its
weaker counterparts, then I could have prepared to attack it while it has its
guard down during the Skill casting timeframe. But that's only assuming that
its Skill will really be spitting that sticky thread out of its mouth and not
something else entirely. For the time being, I will proceed while assuming
that it will be a Web Spit indeed.
While keeping a close watch on the White Caterpillars mouth, I chanted Fire
Wall in my mind and deployed it just in the nick of time, because as it turned
out, the Skill that the White Caterpillar used was indeed a Web Spitting
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attack. Kinda disappointing that it didn't have anything else up its sleeve, but
whatever, I will take an attack that I know and can guard against it instead of
something completely unpredictable any time of the day.
Now that Fire Wall was fully deployed, instead of sticking onto me and
restricting my movements so that the White Caterpillar could devour me, its
threads crashed against the barrier made out of flames, filling the entire room
with the hissing sound and the smell of burned thread. I knew it, this is the
best way of using such spells after all. Also, now that I know that it is using
Skills and exactly what kind of Skill it is, I might as well modify my strategy
to incorporate hitting it with Durandal since it has the ability to interrupt the
chants of the spells and Skills used by the enemies, unless it will always try
using it while being far away from us, in a place where it would be
impossible to hit it with physical attacks. But to be honest, that is actually
something that we can use to our advantage.
「Master, I'm going in!」
Roxanne shouted back to me as she ran past the Fire Wall with her Scimitar
in hand and slashed the White Caterpillar's side on her way towards its head,
causing it to divert its attention completely to her as it tried to bite her with its
many rows of teeth. Thankfully, Roxanne's innate nimbleness allowed her to
sidestep and avoid each and every one of its attacks without breaking too
much of a sweat. Capitalizing on the opportunity she created for me, I ran to
the White Caterpillar's backside and started wailing on it with Durandal. It
raised the upper half of its body in an attempt to slam Roxanne with it, but
she managed to avoid getting squashed underneath its weight by blocking
most of the attack's impact with her shield. While all of this was happening
in front of it, I didn't stop slashing its ass for even a second.
I have to say, fighting such a gigantic Boss in such a way was incredibly
effective and relatively easy. Since this is a Floor Boss, both Roxanne and I
knew that the battle is going to be a long one, but I was expecting to have a
little bit more difficulties with it, if I am to be totally honest with you. But
now that we blocked its initial Web Spit Skill with my Fire Wall and divided
its attention between Roxanne, who can do less damage but actually has a
shield that can block frontal attacks and myself who doesn't have a shield for
protection but my attacks are having one hell of a wallop, it became obvious
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that right now we were the ones dictating the pace of the battle. Funny thing,
huh? Take away the monster's strongest ability and surround it, ad it won't
be able to touch you at all, since it cannot turn it's body so much as to use its
Skill against those who are sitting at its ass all the time, and even if it tried to
do that it would have to either let Roxanne hit it with her Scimitar, or keep
focusing on her and risk having its Skill interrupted by Durandal's OP Chant
Interruption ability. Even so, we still had to maintain caution, because we
don't know if it won't start pulling some new moves out of nowhere or when
its HP starts going into the red zone.
Roxanne delivered another series of fast Scimitar slashes to the monster's
head to continue provoking it, and I did the same with my holy sword to its
backside while carefully observing its movements, keeping an eye out for
anything suspicious that could have revealed what kind of attack was it going
to use next, and when I saw that a sufficient enough opening has presented
itself to me, I raised Durandal high into the air and used Rush, dealing even
bigger damage than with my normal attacks. However, even though that
attack fully connected without any issues, the Floor Boss was still standing,
stubbornly refusing to keel over and die. Damn, for just a Lv.2 enemy, this
thing must have a ton of HP if it was able to take the beating from both me
and Roxanne and still be alive and kicking as if nothing had happened to it.
I quickly backstepped as to not get hit when it started thrashing its ass
around, and then watched as it once again tried slamming its body into
Roxanne, only to have her dodge to the sideways to avoid the incoming
assault, leaving the monster in a brief state of confusion when it realized that
its charge didn't hit anything. Sensing that this might be an ideal occasion to
do some big damage, I performed another rush from up close, driving
Durandal deep into the monster's soft flesh, and then yanking it out to the
side with all my strength behind that motion, leaving it with a large, open
wound. The White Caterpillar make a loud, ear-piercing shriek, thrashed its
body upwards and then finally fell onto the ground, dead.
「Phew… we finally managed to defeat the Boss of the second floor, but I
have to say, that was more tiring than I thought it was going to be.」
「Yes, it was certainly more difficult than the battle with the Boss of the first
floor, but thanks to you we were able to once more defeat it rather quickly,
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master.」
Roxanne praised me, but to be frank, I don't know if I can accept that praise
this time. It's true that we managed to achieve victory, and a win is a win, no
matter how it was obtained… but I couldn't shake off the feeling that this
time it all went all too easy for me because all I did was molesting the Floor
Boss's as from behind while Roxanne was playing bait in front of it where it
was infinitely more dangerous. Not to mention that I once again ended up
relying on Durandal's absurd strength for the duration of pretty much the
entire fight, which feels like a personal defeat after all my talking of how I
wanted to rely more on my own abilities instead of the Bonus Weapons, but
on the other hand, what choice do I had here? I didn't know what we were
going to be fighting against and didn't want to risk dying. Nevertheless, some
sour taste was still left in my mouth, even as I went to pick up the Drop Item
that the White Caterpillar left behind it when it turned into clouds of green
smoke and disappeared.
Surprising nobody, it seemed to be some kind of thread. Upon using Identify
on it, it was revealed that this item was actually a Silk Thread. Silk, huh?
Part 6
Since this dropped from the Floor Boss after its defeat, then it probably
means that its quality must be higher than those dropped by the regular mobs
native to the second floor, just like it was with the Udowood's Leaf back on
the first floor. Floor Bosses dropping higher quality materials must be
another one of Labyrinth's rules.
Thinking about it, that White Caterpillar was acting pretty much in the same
way as Green caterpillars did, aside from the fact that it used its Skill at the
very beginning of the battle. But other than that, it followed a pretty clear
pattern: It tried to seal our ability to move with its Web Spit, and when it
failed to do so, it moved to attack us directly. Maybe since it is a bug, its
brain could not process that such a pattern won't work on us? Or maybe it
was not its fault, but rather the code that programmed its natural actions was
to blame? Either way, my point is that the difficulty spike which should be
present when fighting a Boss rank monster was pretty much nonexistent here.
「Roxanne, hold onto this Silk Thread for me, will you?」
This time I had to give the Silk Thread to Roxanne so that she could carry it
in her backpack for me, because I was starting to run a little low on the space
in my Item Box due to all the Drop Items from the Needlewoods and Green
Caterpillars we have hunted down on the way to the Floor Boss's chamber.
Since we were having a little break of sorts, I removed my Leather Helmet
and Leather gloves to give myself a breather from wearing them all the time.
We were lucky that this Floor Boss also dropped its Drop Item after our first
battle with it, because a perspective of fighting it multiple times just to earn
something like that was not a prospect that I would like to entertain. The
battle itself might have been simple, but the Floor Boss is still a Floor Boss,
so it would probably hurt like hell if he managed to actually hit us with one
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of its attacks.
After picking up the Silk Thread, I checked the Party Settings to see if
Roxanne obtained some new Job, but sadly, no such thing happened this
time. It was the same for me as well; the number of my available Jobs did not
increase at all, which is a shame because a part of me expected one of us to
get something along the lines of Weaver Job or something like that. I know it
probably won't be like that every time, but it would be really funny if it did.
Okay, enough jokes and let's move on. But before we move on from here,
let's have a quick look-around first. Anything we have missed because the
battle started right from the get-go? No, it doesn't seem like it. Any items left
by the previous Parties who were unfortunate enough to get killed by the
White Caterpillar? No, it doesn't look like it either. Yeah, there is really
nothing left for us to pick up, meaning that either whoever was here before us
managed to successfully defeat the Boss and proceed to the higher floors, or
no one was fighting against it for quite some time. Whichever one of those
two options it might be, that is not any of our concerns. With little else to do
here, we nodded at each other and proceeded to the Labyrinth's third floor.
The small room that served as the entrance to the third floor looked exactly
the same as the ones on the first and second floors. Behind us was a black
wall-portal, and before us, the road was forking into three possible directions.
The question is: which one should we take. Let's ask our residual expert on
the subject.
「Alright Roxanne, can you tell if there are any enemies nearby?」
「If we go straight ahead, then we should encounter a Kobold and a Green
Caterpillar, but if we take the path to the left, there will only be a single
Needlewood there.」
「Then take us to the left, please. Since this is a new floor we are stepping
into, then let's take it slow and go down the path that has as little monsters as
possible first.」
「Understood. Please follow me, master.」
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Just a quick note about the other roads in the room outside of the Floor Boss
room on the second floor that also have black wall-portals on them: the road
forward leads to back to the first floor, the road forward is a shortcut back to
the second floor, and the road on the left, the one we ultimately took, took us
to our current destination, the third floor.
While still holding onto Durandal, I did a Character Reset to change my
Third Job, and when I was done, we went down the road to the left. The first
monster we encountered soon after was a Needlewood Lv.3. Makes sense.
We are on the Labyrinth's third floor, after all, so it should be pretty obvious
that the enemies we would encounter here would all be Lv.3, even the ones
that were native to the first floor. Not waiting for it to come to us first, I ran
towards it and slashed it diagonally with my sword in a fast blow, causing it
to fall down to the ground and disappear in a puff of green smoke. Huh, so
even on the third floor, where the enemies are supposed to be stronger than
the ones from the second floor, one blow from Durandal was still enough to
kill them in one strike? Good to know, but also disappointing. I thought that
since the enemies were of higher level, then it would mean that they will also
start improving in a fashion similar to me or the Adventurers in video games,
but I guess the improvement that the third floor made to them are still not
enough to turn them into any real threat towards the current me.
For the next encounter, let's test how magic is going to work on the monsters
here. I did another Character Reset, changed Durandal for the Copper Sword
and got all of my Bonus Skills buffing the amount of gained EXP and
lowering the amount of EXP required to Level Up.
The next thing that appeared before us was a new enemy: a Kobold Lv.3. If I
remember correctly, they were supposed to be the monsters native to the third
floor, if what the guy from that other Party we have evesdropped on was
telling the truth. If were to describe it, it looked like a blue dwarf, or perhaps
a goblin (TL Note: please don't go full Goblin Slayer, please don't go full
Goblin Slayer!), because it also had a pair of big, creepy-looking eyes and
sharp fangs and pointy ears. Also, its face is friggin' huge! Like, I
legitimately think that most of its head is occupied by its ugly face! And it's
also holding a knife in its hand! I think that is the first monster that I saw
using an actual weapon ever since I arrived in this world, and the though that
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some of the monsters are intelligent enough to be actually using weapons is
more than a little scary. I mean, I know that any cuts and wounds my body
may suffer will be completely heal with Durandal's HP Absorption Skill, but
what about any other types of wounds? Simple cuts should be fine, but what
about my limbs being completely severed? Because if I were to lose an arm
or fingers of my dominant hand without any way of restoring it, that would
mean my life as an adventuring her would be over before it even properly
began. And what about my internal organs being gouged out? Or if the would
I sustain will cause massive internal or external bleeding? Can HP
Absorption heal damage like that, or is it limited only to the simple kind of
wounds and the more serious ones would require the help of a proper doctor,
or healer, or whatever the hell the medical stuff is called here?
I am worrying about everything like crazy, and the actual battle hasn't even
begun yet, but hey, look, this is my first time fighting against not an armed
human, but an armed monster, so of course I would be freaking the hell out,
you know?! And since this is the thing that I absolutely do not want to test
out no matter what, then the answer to how I should proceed here should be
obvious.
The enemy is a Lv.3 monster holding a weapon, so in this case, victory will
go to whoever will successfully make the first move, and it just so happens
that I have the perfect tool for doing just that!
Part 7
This is one thing that I would like not to test out no matter what, even though
I m still worried about it.
Alright Michio, stop distracting yourself with needless worries and focus.
Your current enemy is holding a weapon, so it means that in this battle the
victory is going to belong to the one who will attack the other first, and when
it comes to attacking first, I have just the right tool for that very purpose!
(Fireball!)
I invoked Fireball, and as soon as it appeared in my hand I sent it flying
towards the Kobold. Back in my old world there was a saying 「never bring a
knife to a gunfight」, but here it's the exact opposite: never go with a knife
against someone who can use magic!
The Kobold's reaction, even when it saw the ball of fire heading its way was
extremely slow. It got hit square in its ugly mug with it, and even then it
didn't even try to put itself out, simply allowing the fire to engulf it entirely.
Without making a single noise, the Kobold collapsed onto the ground and
disappeared in a puff of green smoke.
I really wish I could say something more about it… but I can't, because that
was literally it. All it took to kill that Kobold was one Fireball attack.
Weak! So pathetically weak! Was that really a Lv.3 monster?! Even Green
Caterpillars, Lv.2 monsters from the floor bellow this one needed more hits, 2
to be exact, from the same spell to be defeated! No wait, maybe it was so
effective because Kobolds are actually weak against fire? Let's ask Roxanne
about that.
「Roxanne, wasn't that Kobold just now awfully weak?」
「Well, yes, but that was to be expected. Generally speaking, Kobolds are so
weak that they have been mockingly called 「Beginner's Monsters」 or
「Cannon Fodder」, so with master's strength killing it with one attack was to
be expected.
「Is… is that so?」
It's a weak monster, so it carries a knife to compensate for that weakness,
huh? No, actually, it would be more accurate to say it has to use a knife
precisely because it is so weak. I wonder if that rule can be applied to all
bipedal monsters carrying weapons with them? It would be nice if that was
the case, but on the other hand, an attitude like that might be pretty
treacherous, because if you assume that all weapons-using monsters are
weak, then you're going to have a bad time when one day you're going to
encounter a weapon-using monster that won't be weak at all.
When the Kobold disappeared, it left something that looked like a white fang
behind it. When I Identified it, it turned out to be something called a Kobold
Salt. I wonder if this is something even remotely close to the rock salt that I
know from earth. But since this is supposedly salt, then I wonder if it'll be
safe to keep it in my Item Box without running the risk of dissolving it by
accident?
「Kobolds are supposed to be this floor's native monsters, so if we continue to
kill them we are bound to get more of this Kobold Salt item, but I wonder if
we won't have any difficulties storing it in our backpacks or my Item Box?」
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I summoned my Item Box and placed Kobold Salt inside of it. When I got the
chance to touch it a little bit more with my fingers, it really felt like your
average lump of crystalized salt.
「It should be all right to store it in you Item Box, but if we decide to carry it
in our backpacks, we would have to be careful not to get it wet, because we
won't be able to sell wet salt to any of the Guild shops, but even if that were
to happen by accident, that wouldn't be that big of a loss, because Kobold
Salt is the cheapest item that can be bought from Guild merchants.」
「Oh? How cheap are we talking about, exactly?」
「It costs only 4 Nars for a piece.」
Man, that is dirt-cheap! Ehhh, and here I was thinking that since it is an item
obtained at the Labyrinth's third floor then we were going to make some
serious profit out of it, but I guess that won't be the case after all, which
made me feel depressed as hell. Seeing me like that, Roxanne started
laughing. Her smile was more precious than any treasure this Labyrinth
might have been hiding though.
「We could always try selling the Kobold Salts to the inn, since they might
use it for the seasonings in the food they are preparing, but I don't know if
that idea is even going to work. Think we have any chances with that?」
「Unless you're very close with the inn's owner then that might be pretty
difficult. Even though it is an ingredient that is frequently used in the
gastronomical business, not many places beside the Guilds are willing to buy
them due to how easy it is to obtain. That is how weak the Kobolds who drop
the Salts are considered.」
So we have no chances of selling it outside of the Guilds, huh? I guess that
makes sense. If Kobolds are so weak that a single Fireball was enough to kill
them, then I bet they also die to regular weapons pretty quickly, and that is
what got them their reputation as 「Beginner's Monsters」, and if they are
weak, then it will always be cheaper to go and hunt some of them yourself
than to rely on buying their Drop Items from other people who might try to
get more money for their items than they are probably worth. Okay, so for
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now let's forgo the plan of selling the Kobold Salts and let's just proceed
with the exploration of the third floor.
On the third floor, where we currently are, the maximum size of the enemy's
Party is still two monsters, the same as on the second floor. From the fourth
floor onwards the maximum amount of monsters in one group we would fight
will increase to three, but since Kobolds really are no actual threat, I think the
battles on the third and fourth floor might be a little bit easier then the ones
on the second floor, where the only enemies possible to encounter were
buffed up Needlewoods from the first floor and the Green Caterpillars native
to the second floor itself. That assumption of mine seemed to be truer when I
tried to use Fire Storm on a two groups of two Kobolds, and a single spell
obliterated them all without a trace. Even when Kobolds were mixed with
Green Caterpillars, defeating such a group was still not a problem to me,
because it took a single spell to kill a Kobold, and two more to finish the
Green Caterpillar off.
They certainly are weak. For a while I thought that they might have some
powerful magic as a Skill at their disposal, but that didn't seem to be the case
at all. Since they were the first humanoid-shaped enemies I have encountered
here in the Labyrinth and because they are so gross-looking, with their big
heads, even bigger faces and this bluish skin similar to those of fishes I
thought that I won't be able to face them while keeping my cool
(Needlewoods were obviously plant-type monsters while Green Caterpillars
are just enormous bugs, so I guess I simply got used to their appearances the
more we fought with them), especially since they are carrying knives with
them, and there is not a human being in this or any world who wouldn't be
scared when a monster with a sharp weapon would attack them out of the
blue, but those concerns were entirely misplaced. Kobolds are just weak as
shit, simple as that, to the point where I was actually beginning to feel sorry
for them, thinking that placing them as mobs on the third floor instead of the
first might have been some kind of fate's cruel joke. Unfortunate for them,
but that is how it sometimes is with life: even though you want to do your
best, you still end up picking up the short straw. I am a perfect example of
that. But while it might seem not fair for the, that's actually all the better for
us. I don't know if there is any reason for such weak creatures to be on the
third floor instead of the first along with the Needlewoods. But I am not
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going to complain about that. That is what this world's reality wanted, so that
is apparently how it was supposed to be. And if we're going to have an easier
time exploring this new floor thanks to that, then that is the kind of
coincidence that I will gladly take any day of the week.
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Part 8
However, now that I have become more accustomed to both exploring the
Labyrinth and fighting with the monsters that dwell inside of it and raised the
levels of my Jobs through repeating countless battles, I think I have begun to
slowly overcome that fear, or at least that is what I would like to believe.
But if instead of Needlewoods Kobolds were the enemies present on the first
floor, then I don't know if I would have been able to conquer my fear of their
weapons. But thankfully I didn't have to worry myself with things like that
then, so I guess there's no need in worrying about them now.
The next opponents we have encountered were a pair of Kobolds and a pair
of Green Caterpillars, on which I tried to use Water Storm to how well was it
going to perform, but even with Water Magic, which was normally supposed
to be weaker than the rest of the elemental-type spells (At least if we consider
how is it usually being portrayed in video games), the Kobolds still died after
being hit with a single spell. When I saw that Fire Magic was so effective
against them I honestly thought that fire must have been their weakness, but
it would seem that they are also weak against water. With the next group of
enemies, which was a pair of Needlewoods and a pair of Kobolds, I tried
attacking them with Breeze Storm to see how effective Wind Magic would
be, and as it turned out, Wind Magic was not very effective. But still, instead
of just one Breeze Storm, it took one Breeze Storm and one Breezeball, so
all in all, Kobolds can still be considered weak in my book. But if they are so
weak, then won't that mean that I will get a really shitty amount of EXP for
killing them, which is going to put a wrench in my EXP gaining strategy
which was designed with the highest possible efficiency in mind? I sure hope
that this won't be the case, but now that this idea has popped into my head, I
can't get it out of it. Great, now I will worry about it constantly and it will
ruin the rest of my otherwise pretty pleasant day.
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After we killed all of the Kobolds and Needlewoods, I went over to the place
where the Kobold disappeared and noticed that this time the item that it left
behind was not Kobold Salt, but the knife it was holding onto instead. Further
investigation revealed that it was a type of folding knife, aptly named Kobold
Knife.
「Huh. And here I was thinking that Kobolds won't drop anything other than
Kobold Salt.」
「Because it seems that monsters can drop different items when they die,
although the appearance of some of them is much rarer than the others.」
So in other words, to borrow the video game terminology, Kobold Salt would
be Kobold's Common Drop, while Kobold Knife must be the Rare Drop. I
wonder if the number of drops is determined by the monster's level or some
other factors, because thus far the Needlewoods on the first floor only
dropped Needlewood Branches upon defeat and Green Caterpillars of the
second floor were leaving behind their Threads. Roxanne picked the knife up
and examined it closely.
「That so? Good to know then. Here, let me put it in the Item Box.」
「Are you sure you want to do that, master?」
「Well, yeah? Or what, is there something wrong with it? Can it be sold at the
stores back in Veil or not?」
Before continuing, Roxanne handed the knife over to me, just like I asked of
her. When I saw Kobolds wielding them I was initially scared of them, but
now that I look at it from up close it looks just like any other ordinary folding
knife, pretty much the same as the ones I knew back in my old world.
Something like that would be more useful as a multipurpose tool rather than a
weapon. I mean, you could probably cut the skin open with t rather easily, but
I doubt something of this caliber and quality would be able to pierce through
the hardened leather of our Leather Armors.
「I don't think we will be able to sell those at the Guild shops for much
money either, since this is obviously a trash drop.」
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「So you're telling me that even if the items we pick up here are considered
trash, we can still sell them?」
「As long as the Guild will be able to process those trash drop into something
that can still be useful, then yes.」
So it's like that, huh? Thinking about all the items we have already obtained
in the process of killing monsters as I experimented with all kinds of magic
and its usage against the monsters on second and third floors I was beginning
to think that I might be running out of storage space in the Item Box, but
thankfully my level as an Explorer has just risen, meaning that I should have
obtained an additional bit of carrying capacity. Normally after clearing the
second floor we would have went back to sell all of our items to free the
space in Item Box and backpacks, but this time we went straight to the third
floor, where the enemies were dropping much more items than I expected
them to. If I hadn't Leveled Up just now, then we would have probably leave
all of the drop items that would be too much for us to carry. The Item box can
hold only one type of item in a single row, but the number of said item can be
as much as the overall level of the Explorer's Job. With that additional level
of mine just now, we should be able to carry everything we have obtained
without the need to leave a single thing back.
We left the Labyrinth and returned back to Veil so that we could have lunch
and rest until noon, and then we have made our way to the Adventurer's
Guild to sell all of the items in our possession by using Warp.
When we arrived at the Guild, a pair of Adventurers, a male and a female one
have just popped out of the black portal that appeared at the Guild building's
wall opposite to the one at the entrance.
「A one-way trip to the Imperial City! Anyone wanna tag along for the ride?!」
The female Adventurer shouted, asking if there was anyone willing to go
with them.
Adventurers have a Movement Magic called Field Walker, a type of magic
that allows them to instantly travel to any place they have visited at least once
through the black wall-portal similar to the one I am using with my Dungeon
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Walker, so I guess you could say that Field Walker functions somewhat like
the busses did on earth, except Field Walker must probably be much faster
than any bus I ever used when I was still back there. The problem is, we
currently want to go to Quratar, not the Imperial City itself, because
according to Roxanne there should be a permanently open shop that sells
accessories and equipment for magic users there. But you know, even if we
don't have any business in the Imperial City eight now, I sure as hell would
like to see it someday.
Now that we were on the Labyrinth's third floor, I could no longer kill
Needlewoods and Green Caterpillars with just 3 spells, reverting back to
needing four of them. That is an obvious sign that if I don't want to have a
bad time when fighting mainly with magic, then I should go buy myself a
wand or a staff as soon as possible. However, it's not like I am in any hurry
to do so just yet. It's just that killing monsters with three spells is more
convenient for me, because it allows me to kill them before they can enter my
melee range, and besides, if we wait for a few more days, then surely enough
the bazaar day would be upon us and the shops would be opened once again,
offering us a chance to look for everything we needed here in Veil, so the
timing of those two Adventurers and their lift offer couldn't have been worse.
「Imperial City sounds tempting, but we should really go to Quratar first.」
「You know master, Quratar is actually pretty close to the Imperial City.」
Standing next to me, Roxanne whispered that into my ear.
「It is?」
「Yes! When I went to Quratar that one time before, I stopped at the Imperial
City first. I don't know if it is possible to go to Quratar from Veil, but a travel
there is certainly possible from the Imperial City.」
「I see. Let's try going there then. 」
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Part 9
Now that I have made u my mind, I have to say that I am getting interested in
seeing what the Imperial City looks like. Since it is the capital of the entire
kingdom, then I'm guessing it has to be quite prosperous?
「Okay, then I wish you a safe trip, master. I will be awaiting your return right
here.」
Oh? So Roxanne is not going together with me? Well, I can see where that
idea is coming from. Since those two are offering to take people to the
Imperial City through the portal that they have made, it would be reasonable
to expect that they will want some kind of travel fee, in which case the most
cost-efficient option would be to go to the Imperial City with just me alone
this once to cut costs, and once I have visited both of those places I will then
come back there with Roxanne, especially after I'll obtain Field Walker for
myself at some point… or not, since I don't have to wait for that with all the
Bonus Spells at my disposal, and Warp is that much better than Field Walker
because it can take me not only to "normal" places in the world, but also to
the Labyrinth itself at a relatively low MP cost.
「Alright then, I guess I'll be heading off. Hold down the fort for me while
I'm gone, okay?」
「Of course. Have a safe trip, master!」
And so I walked towards the pair of Adventurers near the wall on the other
side of the room. To be honest, the thought that Roxanne might run off
somewhere while my eyes are not on her at all times makes me a little bit
anxious, but I probably shouldn't worry about such things. After all, I am her
master and she is my slave, but even more importantly than that, we both
trust each other. I think. No no no no, I am absolutely sure of that. If she ever
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wanted to run away from me, then she could have done so numerous times
while I was asleep instead of waiting for a moment where I would be away
that might have never come.
It's fine. It will all be fine. Seriously, stop worrying about it! I want to
believe that she's still going to be here when I get back. I have to believe it!
While having such conflicting thoughts roam the inside of my poor mind, I
approached the pair of Adventurers and asked about the price of the fare,
after enabling my 30% Price Discount of course.
「How much for the trip?」
I asked the female elven Adventurer in a friendliest tone I could muster. She
was quite beautiful, I'll give her that, but not as beautiful as Roxanne is. I
wonder if the Imperial City will have many beautiful girls and women, or are
they all going to be inferior to her? The male one looked like he was in his
fourties, but since he had pointed ears, which indicated that he must have
been an elf, then he might actually be way older than my estimation. The
woman was 20 years old, according to my appraisal with Identify.
「We usually charge 2 silver coins for a back and forth trip, but since this is a
one way trip we're willing to drop it down to 1 silver coin.」
「Okay.」
My discount didn't seem to work. At this point I cannot even say that I am
surprised about that, because from my observations so far it seems that the
discounts only work if the one you want to use them on possesses the
Calculate Skill associate with the Job of a Merchant. In other words: this
female Adventurer does not have that Skill. Well, not that it changes anything
here since this price is pretty small in and out of itself so that 30% discount
wouldn't even do anything.
In order to pay that one silver coin I summoned my Item Box and got the
required amount out of it, but since I was in front of others I had to summon
it with normal incantation, since I didn't want them to get suspicious of me
for not using proper spells and still getting the desired results.
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「Respond to your friend's trust and provide proper service. Party
Formation!」
When I handed the money to them, the elf Adventurer began casting the
Party Formation spell. Whoa, that's right, I completely forgot about that! If I
wanted t travel with those two and the portal they have created with their
magic, I had to form a Party with them first, so I quickly looked back at
Roxanne, with whom I was still in a Party and hurriedly disbanded it so that
no one would get suspicious that a lovely girl like her was standing all alone
without the Party Leader around. Once that was done, a system message
asking me to confirm my new Party appeared in front of my eyes with the
two options available for selection: Yes and No. I pressed Yes without even
thinking about it. I see, so that is how joining someone else's Party actually
looks like, huh? This is my first time ever doing something like that, because
all those times before I was always the Party Leader adding Roxanne to my
own Party. I looked around to see if anyone was gawking at us, but strangely
enough, nobody seemed to care about what we were doing, not that there was
that many people around in the Guild building to begin with. Was this that
common of an occurance to disband your own Party just so you could travel
somewhere with other people? Because it certainly felt strange to me.
Well, whatever the case with it may be, I didn't have any time to actually
worry about it, because the elf Adventurer already chanted Field Walker and
opened the portal leading to the Imperial City o the wall. The elven guy came
through it first, and the lady Adventurer went inside next. Not wanting to be
left behind, I swiftly followed after them.
When I went through the portal myself, I found myself in a large room. Its
basic structure was pretty much the same as the one of the Veil's
Adventurer's Guild, so this must be its branch in the Imperial City. The first
thing that was obvious from the get go was how much bigger it was: about
four to five times larger, or at least that was my initial estimation, and instead
of just a single reception counter in the middle of the room, there are actually
ten rows of them at the walls.
「...… Party Formation!」
I heard the male elf Adventurer chanting the Party Formation spell, meaning
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that our Party made for the purpose of getting here has been officially
disbanded.
「Thank you for your patronage. Now, is there anyone here who wants to go
to Veil?!」
The two Adventurers big me farewell with small nods and then immediately
proceeded to fishing out those who wanted to travel from Imperial City to
Veil, and they actually managed to get themselves five of them, an entire
Party by the looks of it. Just like they did that with me, when each and every
one of them finished giving them the payment for the fare, they chanted the
Party Formation Spell to for one Party, and then the male one used Field
Walker on the wall again to create a black portal leading all the way back to
Veil and went through it with the others while leaving his female companion
behind. Hmm, perhaps that guy was the member of that Party who never been
to Veil, so he tagged along with that girl who had been there before take him
there so that he could travel there with Field Walker himself with the rest of
his buddies, similarly to how I wanted to do with the journey to Quratar now?
And while we are on that particular subject
「Excuse me, but if possible, could I ask you to take me to Quratar? One way
is fine with me.」
I asked the female Adventurer. If she is free right ow then maybe she will be
able and willing to take me to my destination? Asking does not cost anything
and I won't lose anything, so might as well give it a shot.
「Quratar, huh? Sure, that will be two silver coins.」
Yes, so they actually can take me straight to Quratar from here! Lucky me! I
gladly handed the 2 silver coins to the female elf Adventurer and waited for
her to add me to her Party and cast Field Walker again. And then, after
another short walk through the portal…
「Here we are: Quratar's Adventurer's Guild.」
「Thank you, and sorry for the trouble.」
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Part 10
「Don't mention it. Anyone up for a trip to the Imperial City?!」
We have disbanded our Party and went our separate ways when the girl tried
to assemble a new group of people who were up to take the trip she was
offering. As for the Guild building in Quratar, it was bigger than the one in
Veil, but definitely smaller than the one in the Imperial City. Veil had only
one reception counter, Imperial City had many more of them, and the one
here is Quratar has three in total. Hmm, from what Roxanne was telling me
about this place, I thought its Adventurers Guild was going to be a bit bigger.
「A trip to the Imperial City! Anyone?」
The female eld Adventurer repeated her message, but once she saw that
pretty much no one was coming along for the ride she simply clicked her
tongue and then returned through the portal back to the Imperial City. Well,
that's life for you I guess. You cannot always have a cake and eat a cake, or
in this case always have people who would be willing to Fast Travel to
wherever it is you're going.
But that is none of my concerns. All that I care about for now is that my goal
has been achieved. Now that I have personally been to both the Imperial City
and Quratar's Adventurer's Guild, I should be able to teleport to both of
those locations on my own by using Warp, so I think I will do just that. And
when I emerged from the portal back at Veil's Adventurer's Guild building…
「Welcome back, master.」
… Roxanne was still there, patiently waiting for me, greeting me with those
warm words. My God, she has no idea how happy I am to see her!
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「Yeah, I'm ba… whoooa!!!」
When I tried to walk towards her after returning her greeting, I suddenly felt
very weak in the legs and tripped, almost falling on top of her, but Roxanne
caught me before that could happen.
「Are you okay, master?」
Huh, that's strange. Did I use too much MP for that Warp from Quratar to
Veil? But I don't feel the wave of negative emotions washing all over me, so
it must have not go down to the critically low values just yet. But from now
on I should keep it in mind that apparently the further I travel with Warp, the
more MP will be consumed. When I go from Veil to the Labyrinth near it I
don't feel anything, but that might be precisely because those two places are
so close to one another, but a trip to Veil from Quratar must have teken a
good chunk out of my MP bar, which kinda sucks, because I was convinced
that no matter how far I would go with Warp all teleportations would require
the same amount of MP, but apparently that is not the case, and the farther
you want to go, the more of your MP is going to be consumed. And since the
side effects of using too much of your MP include depression and being
overwhelmed by negativity, such a result should be avoided at all costs,
meaning that I should either avoid making too many Warp trips in a row
without restoring MP or travel through short distances only. Anyway, the
biggest surprise this time around was the fact that I didn't feel depressed at all
but that instead my legs got all tangled up.
「It's okay, I'm fine. More importantly, would you like to go to Quratar?」
「Yes, please, let me accompany you this time.」
After selling all of the items we have obtained in the Labyrinth, we walked
out of the Adventurer's Guild's building and headed to the empty alley
behind it where we have once again formed our Party, and I also checked the
time by looking at the position of the sun in the sky, which was quite high.
Could it be that it was about noon? Well in that case we should still have
enough time to do all the shopping I might need, so after waiting for a bit to
allow my MP to be restored we made our first trip to Quratar together. When
we arrived at the Quratar Adventurer's Guild, we immediately left it, since
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we had no business to take care of there specifically.
The streets of Quratar didn't look that much different from what we had in
Veil, with one major exception: this town has its stores perpetually opened,
and how many of them there were! Just the buildings across the street from
the Adventurer's Guild had a dozen of them on their ground and first floors,
which caught me off guard since I was expecting it all to have a more rural
feeling to it, since this was my first time seeing the normal shops since I first
came to this world. Most of them looked pretty similar to the ones you would
see in the Japanese shopping districts of any major city, meaning that there
was nothing particularly special about them from the outside, but maybe that
was the compromise they had to go to if they wanted to have so many of
them? Anyway, since these stores are perpetually opened, it probably means
that from the business perspective Quratar must be more prosperous than Veil
is. Then again, their Adventurer's Guild is smaller than the one in the
Imperial City, so how prosperous is it in regards to adventuring business?
「Now I see what you meant, Roxanne. This city really seems to have
everything an aspiring Adventurer might need and then some. When you
mentioned the size of their Adventurer's Guild, is this what you had in
mind?」
「Yes, although to be precise, it's not the Adventurer's Guild that is the most
representative here. Since Quratar is a town with a Labyrinth nearby there are
a lot of Explorers here, so as a result the Explorers Guild is substantially
bigger than the Adventurers Guild.」
Roxanne explained. Thinking about it that way, it really makes sense. If the
Labyrinth in Quratar is one of the bigger ones, then the services of Explorers,
who specialize in, well, exploring Labyrinths and mapping them out would
really be in higher demand than those of the Adventurers, who are much
more oriented towards slaying monsters, which would also explain why their
Guild in here is relatively modest in size.
「Is that so? Have you ever visited the Labyrinth here, or did you hear that
from someone who was there?」
「Yes! When I was here before I visited the Labyrinth outside of the city once,
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and many more people seem to be doing exactly the same thing.」
「Really? Then maybe we should do the same? If we do, then I'm counting on
you to guide me.」
「Leave it to me then! Please, it's this way!」
Roxanne pointed with her finger and began walking without hesitation.
「you know which way the north is, Roxanne?」
「I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand. Could you repeat that, master?」
「Nah, it's fine, don't worry about it, I was just talking to myself. I'm
surprised that you remember which way to go after not being here for so
long. Ah, could it be that you're following the Labyrinth's smell? Also, aren't
we going to go outside of the city to reach the Labyrinth?」
「No, there' no need for that, because this city has been built around the
Labyrinth in its entirety. The Labyrinth is in the town's center, and all of the
roads extend from there in a radial pattern.」
Wow, really? Initially I found it pretty hard to believe, but the further into the
city we went, the buildings were gradually getting more and more sparse on
the right side of the road, meaning that this was probably the direction of the
town's outskirts, whereas on the left side of the road they continued like
normally all the way to the heart of the town, where we were apparently
heading right now.
We continued to walk down the road towards the town's center. I looked at
the sun to confirm its position in the sky and with it the time, and noticed that
it was a little lower than it was back in Veil, but since I have no idea how far
are those two cities located from one another, it became impossible to
determine whether their longitudes and latitudes were exactly the same or
different, causing differences in the length of the day of the amount of time
one hour was perceived here, if such differences were even present in this
world to begin with.
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The stores we were passing by consisted mainly of fishmongers, butchers,
bakeries and hardware stores. When we went passed them, we arrived at what
looked like a rotary.