Experiment

Part 1

Kaga Michio

Current levels & equipment:

Explorer Lv.19

Hero Lv.15

Mage Lv.1

Herbalist Lv.3

Equipment:

Durandal

Leather Armor

Leather Jacket

Leather Gloves

Leather Shoes

We returned to the inn where we had breakfast.

It's a very good thing that I managed to become a Mage. Now that I can

command the very forces of nature according to my whims and use them at

the snap of my fingers, I got overwhelmed by a sense of omnipotence. From

now on, I could technically set fire to everything around me simply because I

felt like it, and knowing that made me smile involountarily. I am positive that

everybody around me, Roxanne included, must be thinking that my smiling

281 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

face looks very creepy, but at the very least Roxanne was tactful enough not

to bring this up out in the open. I am glad that she's so good at keeping the

mood positive without ruining it. It makes the food taste that much better in

my opinion. We finished our meal early and then went back to the Labyrinth.

Just like the last time, we started from the first floor.

「Roxanne.」

「Yes, master?」

「For today, I would like to focus on fighting monsters by using magic.」

「An experiment involving magic? Understood!」

When I used magic for the first time, none of the spells I tried were enough to

defeat the Needlewoods, a.k.a the weakest of monsters with a single hit. I

know that using Durandal finishes each and every battle in a literal flash, but

if I wanted to do the same with just magic, it would take considerably more

time.

「This way, master.」

However, magic has one advantage over Durandal, and it's a rather

significant one. In order to get Durandal, you need to spend 63 Bonus Points.

But if I choose to fight mainly with magic, I can spend those points for other

things without wasting them for getting Durandal. So whether I spend them

on EXP related Skills, Crystal Acceleration or simply for getting multiple

Jobs, the benefits are still going to be considerable. So if only I can find a

way to fight effectively with magic alone, I should just go for it.

The first of the tests I wanted to perform was to see how effective fighting

with magic alone could be. That is why we have started today's foray into the

Labyrinth from the first floor which has the weakest enemies. When Roxanne

found us the first Needlewood, I tried launching a single Fireball at it to see

how it was going to go. The attack was successful, but not enough for a onehit kill, so I tried launching another fireball at it right after that first one, but

for a few solid seconds nothing was happening, even though I was screaming

「Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!」 in mu mind like some kinda madman. The

282 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

second shot was finally fired, but by the time it happened the Needlewood

was close enough to met swing its now flaming branch towards me, but

Roxanne got in front of me and blocked the incoming attack with her

Scimitar, giving me enough time to prepare the third Fireball, the one that

finally took the monster down.

So taking down a Needlewood with Fireball requires at least three of them to

hit it, huh? The delay, or maybe I should say the cooldown between each

consecutive spell is a little troublesome, but with a little bit of practice I

should be able to get used to it in no time. Also, it was probably because I

said that I wanted to experiment today, but Roxanne didn't do anything else

beside stopping that Needlewood's attack from reaching me, giving me the

opportunity to defeat the enemy myself, for which I am grateful. As for

myself, I was contemplating if I should switch Durandal for the Copper

Sword for the duration of this test, but ultimately I decided it would be best

for me to stay with Durandal. If the situation like that one form just now,

where I won't be able to beat the enemy with magic happens again and it will

come within melee distance from me, I will have no choice but to engage it in

melee as well, and for that, I need all the damage I can dish out in order not

to make individual battles unnecessarily long.

The next Needlewood we fought with also managed to get close enough to

me to try attacking me, so I backstepped to create enough distance between

us to have a large enough safety margin, and used another Fireball. It slowly

formed over my head and started advancing towards the monster, covering it

with fire until it burned down and fell onto the ground.

「Another one that needed three shots to be taken down. I don't know if it's

just me, but those Beginner-level spells seem to be unexpectedly powerless.」

「Not at all, master. The fact that you can use magic with such ease is a great

achievement in and out of itself, but to be able to defeat monster with just

three shots of it is even more amazing. As expected of my master!」

On a side note, we have been driven near the cave's wall without even

realizing it. That's dangerous. Almost too dangerous I dare say!

「If anything, master, I am sorry for my lack of knowledge about magic, but

283 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

during my short time as an Adventurer I just didn't have much contact with

the ones capable of using it.」

「It's fine, it's not like you could do anything about it. While we are on the

subject, is there anything more you remember about magic and using it?

Every little bit might be helpful.」

「Well, I heard that certain monsters can be either weak or resistant to certain

types of magic. I think it was called… Elemental Affinity? I think you were

able to defeat those Needlewoods so quickly because they must be weak

against fire.」

「So that means that if we keep on hitting the monsters with the element they

are weak to, then we should be able to defeat them that much faster, right? In

that case, let's try fighting by using magic some more. Any problems with

that strategy?」

「None to speak of! If that is what you decided to do master, then I will follow

your every command!」

Roxanne expressed her agreement with my general plan of action as she was

picking up the branches left by the defeated Needlewood.

「Also, feel free to use your Scimitar to assist me more actively. And be sure

not to let yourself be pushed against the wall, even by accident.」

「Don't worry, I will protect you from the front, because mages always fight

from the backlines. Not to mention that protecting you is my duty as your

slave, master!」

Now that sounds like a solid strategy. Only a genius tactician like me could

have come up with something as elaborate like that.

We continued to walk around the Labyrinth with my magic ready to cast and

my hand always close to the handles of both Durandal and the Copper Sword.

Another Needlewood we have come across got hit with a Fireball straight to

its ugly mug. If defeating monsters with magic takes time, then the remedy

for that is quite simple: you just have to spam magic as soon as you see the

284 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

enemy appear, and don't give him even a moment to react. That is my master

plan.

The Fireball advances through the cave, but then something rather bizarre

happened: the Needlewood avoided my Fireball by ramming itself into the

wall. Hot damn that was weird to watch. Well, they might not be intelligent,

but monsters should still have their instincts which should be telling them

when the danger is approaching, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that they

are able to avoid attacks like that, so maybe launching the Fireball right from

the get go wasn't as good of an idea as I thought it was? Unlike the Fire

Storm, the Fireball is not an AoE spell, so it has to be precisely aimed in

order to work properly.

I tried using it again, but failed. It seems that you have to get close to some

extent firing the next shot, so I did just that and tried conjuring the next

Fireball. However, it did not work. Aww shit, another failure? Having no

other choice, I finished the Needlewood with Durandal

As I expected, there is a few seconds delay between each consecutively fired

spell, even with my Chant Omission Skill, so even with it active the spells are

going to be on brief cooldown each time. All in all it's not that big of a

problem, but in tough fights that might require fast reactions from me it

might make that just a little bit tight.

285 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Part 2

Since the Fireball always forms over my head whenever I cast it, the delay

between casting consecutive spells must also include the period needed for

each Fireball to form. After shooting another Fireball at that Needlewood it

entered my melee range, so Roxanne slashed it with her Scimitar. It shook its

branches at her, and she lightly dodged them. Using that opening she created

for me, I casted another Fireball, shot it towards the Needlewood, hit it, and

subsequently defeated it. It takes more work than I would have liked, but as

long as Roxanne and I coordinate our actions and compensate for our

weaknesses, it is definitely possible to fight with using just magic.

「Sorry for putting you in the vanguard like that.」

「Not at all. Protecting you is my duty, therefore I will do whatever it takes to

keep you safe, both as this Party's magic caster and my master!」

As much as I hate always putting her on the front lines, she is right. Normally

Mages and Wizards have little to no melee capabilities, so it is only natural

for them to be sticking to the backlines, where they can focus on casting their

devastating spells without having to worry about being interrupted. And as

far as I can see, Roxanne is more suited for the vanguard position than I am.

If she herself is fine with it, then I guess there is no need for me to forcefully

remove her from the position she feels the most at home at.

「Okay, now that I have learned a lot about fighting with magic here on the

first floor, I think it's high time for us to go hit the second floor, since there is

another thing that I want to experiment with.」

「Yes!」

But before we go to the second floor, there's one more thing that I have to

286 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

check: something that has to do with Leveling Up Jobs.

When I previously leveled Monk to Lv.2 I was using three Jobs at the same

time and defeated about fourteen monsters. Now, since I have gone through

the trouble of getting myself the Herbalist Job, I have no choice but to use it,

even though it is totally not my style. Now, what would happen if I had only

one Job set up? If the EXP is divided equally between all the Jobs you have

set up, then with only one Job, it should earn that much more EXP with

killing fewer monsters, right? Of course, I have no guarantee whether or not

putting it at my First Job will give it a different levelling rate compared to the

others, but nevertheless it should be worth a shot. Even if the EXP I'm

gaining is divided between my Jobs and Roxanne's Job, they should still

Level Up at about half the normal speed. Also, the amount of EXP needed to

increase the levels of both Monk and Herbalist to Lv.2 will most likely be

different, but that difference shouldn't be all that big.

Let's give it a try.

「...?」

Hmm? I can't set Herbalist as my First Job. Why? I have more tha enough

Bonus Points to do so, so why can't I do it? Maybe there are some additional

restrictions to the process of Job changing? Bonus Points can be earned when

you level up your First Job. That is why you cannot change your First Job to

the one with a higher level if you ae using all of them. That much I

understand. What I cannot understand though, is why can't I switch the First

Job even though I have enough Bonus Points to do so?

Think about it, Michio! Think! There must be something you have missed!

Maybe it's an Item Box?

My currently equipped First Job, the Explorer, has an Item Box Skill, and

said Item Box contains pretty much all of my items withing it. What happens

to all the items stored in there if the Explorer id removed from the position of

the First Job? That is something that I have honestly never even thought

about, and if I don't want to find out about it the painful way, it would be best

not to change the First Job at all. I see. Good job for noticing such a crucial

287 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

fact before it was too late, me.

While I was lost in thoughts, we happened upon another Needlewood. I

slashed him with Durandal, turning him into green smoke in an instant.

「Wait a minute… maybe that's what this is all about?」

I frowned and muttered to myself as I looked at Roxanne as she took the

branches left by the Needlewood and packed them into her backpack. So far

what I have in mind is just a hypothesis, and I don't know how to explain it

well, so maybe I should just straight up try and do it?

「Uhm, is something wrong, master?」

「No, no, everything's fine. We will continue the experiment for now. I still

need some more time to get the results I am looking for. By the way, can you

hold onto these for a moment?」

I asked, giving her the items from my Item Box.

「Yes, of course.」

I took all of my items out of the Item Box and allowed Roxanne to pack them

into her own backpack. Now, how about trying to set Herbalist as the First

Job one more time now that the storage space in the Item Box has been freed?

Sure enough, it worked like a charm. So it was about the Item Box after all. It

is an item exclusive to the Explorer Job, so as long as I had items stored in

there removing it was not possible, but once you emptied it, nothing was

preventing you from switching Jobs to whichever one you wanted. I had no

idea its contents actually mattered for things like this, but now I know, and

will be all the wiser for it in the future.

「Thinking about it that way, that's a really balanced system.」

「???」

Now I can challenge the next monster we encounter while having only the

Herbalist Job set up. I wonder how it is going to go?

288 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

To my surprise, I wasn't able to defeat the next enemy with just one hit.

「Eh?!」

「Huh?」

It made the both of us very concerned, but thankfully a few more hits later it

finally died.

「Uhm…」

「Do not worry, Roxanne. That was a part of my experiment as well. Such a

thing happening was well within my scope of expectations.」

「It was? Well, okay then.」

Up until now I always one-shotted everything that came close to the business

end of my weapons and Roxanne knows that, so I had no choice but to play it

off as a part of the experiment I was conducting so that she wouldn't get hella

suss of me. Ever since the first time I entered the Labyrinth, I was always

able to defeat the Needlewoods with one attack from Durandal, but I never

really knew why exactly was I able to do that? OP stats and effects are one

thing, but what about other factors? For example, when I defeated my first

ever Needlewood with a single attack, my First Job was nothing more than a

Lv.2 Villager if I remember correctly. Maybe the fact that I had more than

one Job equipped had something to do with it? Like, you know, the more

Jobs and their passive effects you have equipped the stronger your weapons

get kinda thing?

「Okay, that should do it for this floor. Now, let us be on our way to the

second floor, and we will continue the experiment there.」

I declared to Roxanne, and with that, we moved to the Labyrinth's second

floor. The experiment itself can be summarized in the following way: Even

though it took more hits than usual, I was able to defeat enough Needlewoods

to raise the Herbalist Job to Lv.2. It also seems like whether or not you have

one Job or multiple Jobs set up, the amount of EXP you will get will always

be the same. What that means for me is that I can have as many Jobs at once

289 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

as I want, and I won't be suffering any penalties or negative effects for it.

I increased the number of my active Jobs back to four, and placed all of my

items back into the Item Box.

「This way, master.」

「Right behind you.」

Finally back on the second floor, I made preparations for the continuation of

my experiments.

290 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Part 3

As for the way we could proceed, we had two options when we reached the

intersection: the left one and the right one, so I asked Roxanne if she could

try sensing how many enemies were down each route.

「On the right there seems to be a group of two Needlewoods and one Green

Caterpillar. On the left there is only a lone Needlewood. What do you want to

do, master?」

「The closer the enemy is to us, the better. We're going to the left.」

「Understood.」

And so we proceeded down the corridor to the left.

Now that I have tested pretty much all variants of the Fire-type spells and

their general usage, it would be good to try my hand at using different kinds

of magic as well.

I tried Beginners Fire Magic already, but the Wizard Job has given me access

to three more Skills that I have to test out: Beginners Water Magic, Beginners

Wind Magic and Beginners Earth Magic. If Fire Magic used spells that were

based on the word fire 「insert the rest here」, then it should be the same with

all the others, right? Like, for example, Fire Magic has Fireball spell, so for

Water Magic it would be… Waterball? Let's give it a try.

(Waterball!)

When I spoke the spell's supposed name in my mind, a ball of water

materialized itself in my hand and immediately shot forward from it.

291 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Oooooh! So that is Water Magic, huh?

Since there was an enemy not that far away from us, I concluded that there

was no better time than the present to test it out against live, moving targets,

and the Needlewood Lv.2 fit that bill perfectly, so when we approached it, I

launched the Waterball at it from a safe distance. When the monster's body

was hit by the rapidly flying spell it was pushed back a few steps and lost its

momentum and was staggered for a few seconds, but it collected itself and

continued its advance towards us immediately after that. Okay, aside from

that brief stagger, it doesn't look like this Waterball attack did that much

damage to it, so I patiently waited for it to come just within slashing distance

and disposed of it with one blow from Durandal.

「So, that did way less damage than I anticipated, which is admittedly kind of

a bummer.」

「Some monsters may actually be resistant to certain magical attributes or

have different set of weaknesses, so Needlewoods might be resistant to Water

Magic. I'm sorry I can't tell you more about this matter, but as I said before,

Wizards and Mages are rare to begin with, and I didn't have much occasions

to meet them and ask about magic.」

「Well, I guess we'll just have to keep trying different spells on them to see

which are effective and which are not, but that will come in due time. For

now, there's no need for us to worry about it too much.」

That being said, I wonder if what Roxanne said about Needlewoods being

resistant to Water Magic was really true? I mean, they technically are

nothing more but sentient trees, and trees thrive from water instead of being

harmed by it, so I guess that would make sense?

「Well, then, shall we go to the next spot with the enemies?」

「Of course! The next ones should be over that way!」

Our next opponents turned out to be a group of Green Caterpillars, so I tried

using Fire Storm on them. The sparks created by the spell gathered around

two of them, and in the next moment they were engulfed in the series of fiery

292 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

explosions, turning them both bright red before they turned into lumps of

charcoal and burned body chunks. Oh yeah, as long as the enemies are weak

enough, Fire Storm might actually be the best way of dealing with groups of

them, provided that they won't prove to be resistant to fire damage.

When the flames of the Fire Storm finally died out and the monsters slain

with it turned into the puffs of green smoke, I decided to test Fire Storm's

Water Magic counterpart, Water Storm on the remaining ones. Initially it

looked like a single droplet of water, which made me think that it was

somewhat unimpressive, but as soon as that droplet hit the ground it grew and

erupted into a pillar of highly pressurized water that closed in on the Green

Caterpillars' location, and then it swallowed them all, squeezing them in one

place where the torrents of spiraling water continuously lashed at them.

Water Storm might not be as destructive as Fire Storm, but that property of

keeping groups of enemies bundled together in one place might certainly

come in handy somewhere down the line.

Then I tried eliminating Green Caterpillars using the Waterball spell. As

expected, they didn't die in one shot, but I guess such an outcome was to be

expected since I needed three Fireballs to kill a single Lv.1 Needlewood

down on the first floor, so obviously it would be unreasonable to expect the

Lv.2 enemies on the second floor to die in two or three hits from a Waterball.

However, unlike with the Needlewood, it didn't feel like Green Caterpillars

were particularly resistant to Water Magic, which was a good piece of intel to

obtain.

The next Green Caterpillars must have been a little tougher than the rest,

because when I threw another Fire Storm at them, they endured the attack

while being colored a mixture of charcoal-black and smoldering-red. I have

to admit, there was something especially ghastly in the appearance of a giant,

oversized caterpillars that continued crawling towards us even when their

meaty bodies were slowly being consumed by the raging flames that

wouldn't let go of them until they were burned to cinders. It's not like I'm

worried that they might kill us considering their current state, so we just have

to stay calm and respond to whatever tricks they might try to pull on us with

their dying breaths. And in case of any emergency, I will simply smack them

with Durandal to kill them instantly for sure. Or maybe I should use Durandal

293 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

right away and be done with it without sweating the small stuff?

When they came into our melee range, they were only two of them

remaining, so Roxanne and I each took on one of them. The Green Caterpillar

that I faced tried to rush at me, and I avoided its attack, although barely, I

have to admit that much. It was a really close call. I knew that things will

only get tougher once we go to the higher floors of the Labyrinth, but to be

honest, I thought we would still get some kind of leeway on the second floor.

I guess the times of taking down enemies quickly and effortlessly couldn't

have last forever, did they?

I used Fire Storm once more after throwing two more Fireballs at it, but as

soon as its sparks appeared in the air, I sensed a wave of negative thoughts

washing over me.

I cannot avoid the monster attacks forever. I want to, but that's simply not

possible with my current self. Their attacks will reach me and kill me. I have

to escape if I want to leave this place alive! Just do it, you insufferable idiot!

Turn your back on everything in this shithole and run as far away as you can!

Just when I was about to heed my basic instincts and turn tail and run, the

Green Caterpillar finally collapsed right in front of me while burning bright

red from the flames of the Fire Storm that did enough damage to it to reduce

its remaining HP to zero.

Haha, hahaha, kill them in one shot with magic? What the hell was I

thinking?! It took a total of four spell to kill that one enemy. Was that how

big the difference between mobs of Lv.1 and Lv.2 was? Or perhaps my own

stats are to blame because my Magic ATK is too low? Is that it? So many

shots to kill one monster because I am too incompetent?!

I don't care about that now! This is bad! The amount of my MP has

decreased too much, affecting my thinking processes in a negative way. I

have to kill some more monsters with Durandal now to get myself back to

normal before I will do something really stupid! Those spells decreased my

total MP to around 1/4th of its total value, so killing a few more monsters

should put me back on my feet as usual, and then, assuming I will live

through it of course, I will be able to go back to checking the rest of the spells

out. I already tested Waterball And Water Storm out, so next will be Water

294 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Wall.

295 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Part 4

After killing a few more monsters with Durandal and absorbing their MP into

myself, I was back in the condition where I could cast a few spells without

my MP supplies dropping into the mental danger zone, so it was about time

to try how different Water Wall would be in comparison to the Fire Wall.

(Water Wall!)

Yes, the activation of the spell was a success, and soon I have watched as a

wall made out of water was erected in front of me from, sprawling from the

floor to the ceiling, and blocking most of the corridor with itself. Technically

it should work in the same way as Fire Wall does, meaning that it should deal

damage to whatever tried to pass through it, but will that really be the case?

With Fire Wall it was obvious that the flames would cause harm upon

contact, by now that I took a closer look at this Water Wall, it was not made

from swirling, torrential water like Water Storm was, but from normal, still

water shaped like an elongated square. Will something like that really be able

to successfully stop monsters from coming near us? Maybe it was supposed

to act like a trap that would drown them to death? Or maybe Water Wall is

meant strictly for blocking fire-based attacks?

After a few minutes the spell stopped working, and the water that made up

the Water Wall lost its form and fell onto the floor, splashing a generous

amount of liquid over my pants as well. Okay, what did we learn from this

unfortunate misshap? That apparently, unlike Fire Magic, where the flames

go *poof* and disappear when the spell is finished, water used in the Water

Magic spells actually stays behind. That's kinda like… like fir and water in

real life I guess? You know, with how flames from fires have to be either put

out or they have to die on their own but whenever there is a flood then all the

water has to be pumped out manually because it won't evaporate on its own?

296 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

So that's normal, right? Or not? Well shit, I don't know anymore, because

now that I am in a world where magic seems to be a rare but integral part of

the world I am not really sure what the criteria for being considered 「normal」

actually are.

「Roxanne, do you think it is safe to drink the water created through Water

Magic spells? Because to be frank, using all of those Fire Magic spells made

my throat kinda dry.」

「I am pretty sure that water is safe to drink. It's just regular water after all.」

Yeah, since it's normal, plain-ass water, then drinking it should theoretically

be okay to drink it. Also, if it's safe to drink, then it could serve more than

one purpose. For example: from now on, we won't have to carry heavy water

bottles with us whenever we would fancy a drink. But perhaps we should still

carry one or two of them with us just in case? Yeah, that sounds like a

reasonable thing to do.

The next two Needlewoods Lv.2 we encountered were slain by me with four

Fireballs, two for each one of them. Two spells needed just to defeat a Lv.2

monster. That result is far from an ideal one where I would dispose of a

single enemy with a single spell, but I guess it cannot be helped for now.

Anyway, now that I tested both Fire Magic and Water Magic, the next on

waiting to be tested out was Wind Magic. If the patterns from the two

previous tests also apply here, then something should happen once I chant the

name of the spell.

(Windball!)

I chanted the name of the spell in my mind, but to my surprise, nothing

happened. Huh? Strange, that's not how it went the past two times. Maybe I

should try some different names?

(Wind Arrow! Wind Storm! Wind Strike! Wind Cast!)

I tried all the different names that I could think of, but the result was one and

the same each time: nope, nope, nope and… that's right, you guessed it,

297 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

nope. And here I thought that since Fireball and Waterball worked, Windball

would be the correct one as well. No matter, we just have to keep trying with

the combinations of different words.

(Airball! Thrustball! Galeball! Typhoonball! Tornadoball! Breezeball!)

Oh, looks like that last one was it. When I thought about the name

Breezeball, a ball made out of compressed air was formed in my hand and

then flew forward at great speed. Or at least I assume that's what happened,

because whatever I created with that command was invisible to my naked

eye, and the sound of the wind cutting through the air around me was the

only audible indication that something happened at all.

So that was a breeze, huh? Part of me was hoping for something more epic

like a tornado, but since this is the Beginner-level magic then I guess

expecting something like that right from the get-go was more than a little

unreasonable. Maybe it will come later as I will obtain more advanced levels

of magic mastery, but for now this is what I have to make-do with.

The opponent that would act as a test-subject for my Wind Magic testing was

a Green Caterpillar. As soon as it appeared in my line of sight, I created a

Breezeball and hurled it straight at it, expecting it to be hit one hundred

percent since this attack was practically invisible, but just before it hit the

Caterpillar bastard, it rolled over to the side and avoided taking any damage

whatsoever! How was it able to dodge my Breezeball? Was it somehow able

to sense it?! No, don't think about it for now. Once more. Just focus on

attacking it with magic once more! And since now would be as good of a

time to do so as any, I waited for the Green Caterpillar to get closer and tried

Using Breeze Wall to see how it would look.

(Breeze Wall!)

I thought about it, and then a wall made out of invisible air formed before me

and the Green Caterpillar. Alright, at the very least the spell seemed to have

worked properly. Just as I predicted, it was must have been a wall made from

colorless air, transparent and invisible to my eyes just like the Breezeball.

Alright, come on, you stupid caterpillar, go ahead and charge head first into it

for a real nasty surprise!

298 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

I waited for the gory fireworks to pop up, because I assumed that once the

Green Caterpillar gets trapped in the Breeze Wall it would rear I up to shreds,

but once again, it stopped right in front of it as if it sensed the danger it was

about to walk into. And then the son of a bitch actually had the audacity to

activate an orange magic circle under itself, meaning it was preparing to use a

skill of its own! If this is the same web spitting attack that caught me once

before, then I am screwed!

I just don't get it! Breeze Wall should be practically invisible, so then how

was this mindless monster able to stop right before he walked into such a

perfect trap? And not only this once! It was able to avoid the Breezeball I

threw at it earlier, so in hindsight I guess I should have expected it to avoid

Breeze Wall as well.

The problem now is that it was getting ready to use its Skill. Form what I

remember the webbing the Green Caterpillar spat last time had a pretty wide

spread, so there is a possibility that even with the Breeze Wall deployed some

of it might still hit me. But hey, such protection is better than no protection at

all, so if I can use it to minimize the potential damage done to me, then you

can be sure as hell that I am going to use it! And if I'm really lucky, then

Breeze Wall might just block the entire Web Spit attack altogether!

A few moments later, the Green Caterpillar unleashed its Skill. From where I

was standing, it looked like it was waiting for the exact moment where my

Breeze Wall would begin to disappear. Ugh! Another L that is entirely my

fault! I should have backed away to a safer distance while there was still a

wall dividing us! Roxanne managed to get away in time, but I got hit with the

sticky webbing, and while I was struggling to free myself out of it, Green

Caterpillar used that opportunity to hit me with a ramming attack. Thankfully

this one attack was not enough to seriously damage me, and when it was

going at me with a second one I already broke my Durandal-wielding hand at

it, killing it instantly.

299 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Part 5

The Green Caterpillar collapsed on the ground and disappeared in a cloud of

green smoke, but its webbing still remained entangled around me.

I made another careless mistake, but Durandal has once again saved me from

falling into a pretty bad spot. That being said, it turns out that Wall Magic is

much more difficult to use than I initially thought, or maybe it's just a matter

of me not using it properly? I wonder if the result was the same even if I used

Fire Wall instead of Breeze Wall? No, probably not. If such a simple monster

was able to wait until my spell ran out of time and disappeared, it would have

probably done the same no matter what type of Wall I would have used, be it

Fire Wall or Water Wall.

Man, what a total failure.

Based on what I saw now, the exact width of the Breeze Wall was

approximately one and a half meters, so as long as I or the enemy would

move to the sides of it, it would technically still be possible for us to attack

even with the Wall fully deployed, unless I would have used two of them to

actually block the corridor entirely. Alright, I guess that is a lesson learned

for me then. Now I just have to make sure that such embarrassing failures

won't happen to me ever again.

Our next opponents were Needlewoods and Green Caterpillars. I tried using

Breeze Storm against them. With the sharp sound of the wind cutting through

the air, the monster's bodies have all been shaken, especially the branches of

Needlewoods who looked like they were nothing more but tree saplings

ravaged by the tropical typhoon. Yup, it looks like Breeze Storm will also be

pretty effective as a general-purpose Wind Magic AoE spell.

After the spell died down, it became obvious that, just like with all the others,

300 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

another attack will be needed to properly put all of the enemies down. I

attacked the Needlewood that was coming towards me with a Breezeball,

while Roxanne disposed of the Green Caterpillars by slashing them with her

Scimitar. While using magic I couldn't attack with Durandal at the same

time, so I had no choice but to stay in front of the approaching Needlewood

before I could hit it with another spell. Launching another Breezeball at it to

stagger it, I then hurriedly dodged one of its branches which was being

swung at me with the momentum it gained before my spell hit it.

「Here it comes!」

Roxanne's voice echoed in my ears. It was not a loud shout by any means,

but it was audible enough for me to hear it firmly and prepare for what was

approaching.

When I turned towards one of the Green Caterpillars, I saw that it was

deploying an orange magic circle beneath its body, meaning that it was

preparing to unleash a Web Spit attack again. Okay, you big bug, you're on!

This time I won't allow myself to be had like a noob.

This time I waited until the Green Caterpillar began to spit the webbing out of

its mouth, and deployed a Fire Wall at the last possible moment. Now that the

sticky threads were already flying out of its mouth there was no way it could

have changed their trajectory or adjust its position to bypass my Fire Wall, so

it crushed into the flames and made a sharp hissing noise.

301 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

302 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Now that I successfully stopped the web from hitting me, I tried to see if I'll

be able to cast a second Fire Wall While the first one was still active, but

unfortunately that was a no-go. As long as the first Fire Wall was burning, I

couldn't cast if for a second time next to the already existing one, so in a

sense it was the same with how I could not use two ball-type or storm-type

spells in rapid succession, meaning that only one spell can be used at a given

time, which is a shame because being able to completely block the corridor

so that the enemies wouldn't be able to approach me at all would be quite

handy of an option to have, but I didn't have the time to properly contemplate

it, because other Needlewoods were just about ready to attack me from the

other side while I was focused on the web-spitting Green Caterpillar.

I released another Breeze Storm towards them, their bodies were shaken

along with one another Green Caterpillar that got caught in the blast. Overall,

it took me four castings of Breeze Storm to finish off the current group of

enemies. If only I had used Breeze Storm instead of that one Breeze Wall,

maybe that number could have been taken down to three. Allowing me to

save that much MP for other spell in case I ever needed them. Well, I guess

situations like that cannot be avoided when performing experiments. Now I at

least know that I can only use one spell at a time, which will save me the

potential embarrasement and quite possibly harm if I tried to pull a stunt like

that off while fighting against stronger opponents.

Now then, let us move to the final phase of today's experiments. I have

already tested Beginner's Fire Magic, Beginner's Water Magic and

Beginner's Wind Magic, so the only one left to try out is the Beginner's Earth

Magic.

However, this time, instead of shouting things like Earthball, Earth Wall Or

Earth Storm, let's try throwing the system a little curve ball, shall we? When

we think earth, what do we typically associate it with? Most likely rocks, dirt

and sand. With that said, going backwards from the list of those three

things…

(Sandball!)

Well well well, would you look at that, I got it the first time around this time!

Am I a genius when it comes to those things or what? The small Earthball

303 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

was formed in my hand and shot itself forward, crashing into the Labyrinth's

wall, cracking it a little. Oh, wait, not Earthball. The command that got e the

immediate result was Sandball, so that's how I should probably call it. Yeah,

Sandball it is then.

Next, I tried casting Sand Wall. Like the name implied, it created a wall of

solid sand to erupt from the ground in front of me. After a while, it dissipated

just like the Water Wall, but instead leaving a pile of sand behind it. But

unlike all the other versions of the Wall spell, I cannot possibly fathom what

kind of usage would sand be off to me. Meaning that it was effectively

useless if I cannot process it or utilize it in making it into anything else.

The next monsters that appeared before us became my guinnea pigs for the

Sand Storm spell.

Summing up everything that I have learned about magic today: there are a

total of twelve battle oriented spells I can use right now, divided into three

types: Ball, Wall and Storm and belonging to the categories of Beginner's

Fire Magic, Beginner's Water Magic, Beginner's Wind Magic and

Beginner's Earth Magic. Balls are meant for single target attacks, Walls act

as defensive barriers and storms are Area of Effect offensive spells. All of the

above make what I believe to be the main core of the system of magic in this

world. Spells of Fire and Water Magic have 「Fire」 and 「Water」 in the names

of their spells, but Wind Magic and Earth Magic deviate from that rule,

because spells of the Wind Magic are actually invoked by the word 「Breeze」

while Earth Magic's activate when the word 「Sand」 is used. There might

actually be more offensive forms of magic that we simply do not know about

yet, but since Roxanne, who is a native inhabitant of this world, says that

generally there are only three of them, then I have no reason to distrust her

words.

「Okay, I think this should be enough when it comes to our experiments with

magic for today.」

「Understood. You worked really hard to figure everything out, didn't you ,

master?」

「Thank you, but I would have never been able to do any of that without your

304 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

help, Roxanne.」

「Thank you very much for your kind words.」

The biggest question that I had to find an answer to now was how do I want

to fight the monsters in the Labyrinth from now on. Should I focus on

fighting them with magic, or maybe go back to the purely physical fighting

style that capitalizes on Durandal's absurd strength?

Currently, I can defeat Lv.2 monsters on the second floor with four spells,

which is a bit much, and admittedly the battle times are a little bit too long for

my liking, because the longer the battles, the more stupid mistakes I tend to

make, and I am painfully aware of that.

305 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Part 6

Ugh, damn it, what should I do?

I can certainly use magic attacks, but using them and using them properly are

two entirely different things. Not to mention that if I decide to go down the

path of magic, I will have to put Durandal away, turning me next to useless in

purely physical combat. But on the flipside, if I store Durandal away, I would

be able to invest the points that would otherwise be spent on Bonus Weapons

6 into something else, like increasing the amount of EXP gained from slaying

monsters.

Bonus Weapons 6, which gives you Durandal costs 63 Bonus Points in total.

Usually, I tend to use it with the Skills that decrease the amount of EXP

needed for a Level Up by 1/10th and increase the value of the EXP I earn x10,

both of them for 16 Bonus Points, so the Points left after Durandal's removal

could easily be used to double their effects, giving me x20 EXP earned and

1/20th of the EXP needed to Level Up. And since it is necessary for me to

divide the EXP I earn between me and Roxanne, she would also benefit from

it.

With the current "Magic Setting" that I am using, I have 1/5th of the EXP

needed and x5 EXP gained, so the difference in EXP efficiency would be x8

better, and that is a really big difference, but..

But to be honest, I am scared to put Durandal away. It has the ability to kill

monsters in one strike, not to mention the abilities to absorb both HP and MP

from the defeated foes, which is why I could always just throw myself at the

monsters before me without worrying about getting hurt or dying, which was

infinitely more useful and reliable than the ability to shoot spells in rapid

succession. So right now, I have to ask myself what is it that I really want:

306 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

safety and stability or the increased EXP values?

If I were to stick to my rule that safety always comes first, then I should

continue to use Durandal, no questions asked, and it will get me out of

probably every emergency imaginable. True, maybe there will be times

where the lifeline such as Durandal won't be needed anymore, but that

certainly won't be happening anytime soon. What if we were to happen upon

some unbelievably strong monster while I could only use magic? Yeah,

things definitely wouldn't be pretty if that happened. But the thing is,

Labyrinth is a battlefield, and on the battlefield there can be no such thing as

absolute safety. It is a chaotic cesspool where literally anything can happen at

any given moment. That is why humans invented a very convenient

mechanism called risk management in the first place. I know that every time I

enter the Labyrinth I should be prepared for the worst, but on the other hand,

coming into the Labyrinth does not have to equal throwing myself into

certain death situations all the time, even if we take the 「No risk = no gain」

rule into account.

From the efficiency standpoint, increasing the value of gained EXP would be

the most reasonable thing to do. Gaining more levels quickly will help reduce

a lot of risks in the long run. Also, I am no longer alone. I have Roxanne with

me. So not only do I not want to die, but I also want to protect her at all costs.

I looked back at her. She is unspeakably beautiful, has wonderful, big breasts,

and most importantly, I finally managed to make her mine after overcoming

many hardships to do so. She is a pure, gentle soul who devoted herself

completely to someone as unremarkable like me. Right now, I don't even

want to imagine what would happen to me if she was not by my side.

If I want to protect her, then I should focus on getting as much EXP as soon

as possible to increase our levels. Durandal can protect me, but I cannot say

that having it will be enough to also keep Roxanne safe. And now that I

confirmed that I can kill monsters with magic alone, Durandal is no longer an

absolute necessity for keeping me afloat. Which is why….

After making up my mind and exhaling heavily, I did a Character Reset

where I removed Bonus Weapons 6 from the list of my Bonus Skills.

307 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

I will put it away for now, but once I get more levels I might go back to it,

because its MP Absorption Skill will be useful to me. With Durandal, I won't

have to waste too much money on the MP Recovery medicine, which isn't

exactly cheap. And of course, if any emergency calls for it, I will go back to

it immediately.

With that, after the Character Reset was finished, I now have 1/10th Required

EXP Value and x20 EXP Aquired. Next I took Second and Third Job, and set

Explorer as my First Job. I could have taken up to Sixth Hob with the amount

of Bonus Points I had, but in order to do that I would have to get not x20

EXP Aquired, but x10 at maximum. After all, getting EXP faster will always

be more beneficial than having more Jobs, and for that the x20 option is

definitely more efficient. As for the rest of the Bonus Skills, I took Chant

Omission, Character Reset, Crystal Acceleration x8 and MP Recovery Speed

x2. I doubt doubling it will do much, but it will always be helpful to have.

「Roxanne, from now on I will try fighting while focusing on using magic

instead of physical weapons.」

「Of course, I understand.」

「Defeating monsters that way will undoubtedly be much slower in

comparison to doing it with my sword, so I am sure you're going to have

your part of the work more than cut out for you.」

「Please do not worry, master. I am more than fine with that.」

She might be okay with that now, but I really hope she won't come to regret

those words further down the line.

「Now that I am going to stick to the magic-oriented combat, could you please

continue guiding us to the places where there are no other people?」

That is one of the major risks associated with deciding to only use magic

from now on: I absolutely cannot allow any other people to see me using it.

Also, my Second Job and Third Job are Bonus Skills, so if someone were to

see an Explorer who's capable of using magic they would undoubtedly start

asking all sorts of risky questions, like how is it possible for someone to have

308 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

the Skills of two or more Jobs at the same time, or why can I use both Warp

and Dungeon Walker along with attack magic of the Wizard Job, because

Warp, which falls under Space Magic category is not something that Wizards

can use. Not to mention that if someone decides to observe me closely, they

might notice that I am not using chants for my spells, and that would be the

final nail to my coffin.

「Of course. Leave everything to me!」

But Roxanne assured me once more to leave everything in her capable hands.

Yes, I think I will do just that. After all, now Roxanne is not just my slave,

but also my reliable, amazing-looking, irreplaceable Party member.