Soap

Part 1

Kaga Michio

Current levels & equipment:

Explorer Lv.29

Hero Lv.26

Mage Lv.29

Monk Lv.28

On the morning the next day, I woke up hugging Roxanne, feeling the

warmth of her body against my skin.

Maybe it is because that was the first proper bath that I have taken in quite a

while, but because of that and what naturally came after that, I feel like the

sleep that I just woken up from was the best one I had in quite a while. To be

honest, the bed and the sheets are so warm and cozy that I do not feel like

doing anything at all. I just want to stay the way we are now and continue to

bask in this blissful moment. As for Roxanne, after she took the bath with me

her skin feels like it is much more moist, elastic and smooth to the touch. The

feeling of her pressing herself against me as she hugs me is absolutely

wonderful. Oh how I wish that the bath's beneficial effects could stick around

for longer than they actually do. This sensation is honestly something that

you can get absolutely addicted to!

Roxanne slowly opened her eyes and gave me the usual morning kiss as I

continued to stroke her hot skin. Then she slowly stretched out her tongue

and entangled it around mine. I responded to her in kind, enjoying the taste of

our sticky kiss. When we finally had enough, we let go of each other's mouths.

「Good morning, Roxanne.」

「Good morning, master.」

「Let's enter Quratar's Labyrinth today.」

「As you wish.」

After getting ourselves fully equipped and bringing the map along, we

headed out and entered the Labyrinth of Quratar.

Now that we have broken through the four floors of the Veil's Labyrinth, the

next logical step according to the plan we have agreed on was to clear the

fourth floor of the one in Quratar. The monsters that inhabited that floor were

Cheap Sheep, the same kind of monster that we found in the fifth floor of the

Veil's Labyrinth. Back there, I needed to use two strikes from Durandal to

defeat a single one of them, but since here they are one floor below, they

should go down in one hit.

Maybe it was because there were many people wandering around this floor,

but we managed to reach the Boss Room without running into that many

random encounters with regular enemies. Luckily for us, there was no one in

the waiting room, so we were able to jump right into the Floor Boss battle.

The green smoke gathered in the middle of the room like always, and soon

after, the Floor Boss made its appearance. And its name is… Beep Sheep Lv.4. this is the identity of the Quratar Labyrinth's

fourth floor's Floor Boss. It began to squeal (or meehing, or baahing, or

whatever it is that sheep do) as soon as it materialized and noticed our

presence in the room. I thought it was going to sound intimidating, or be so

high-pitched that it will make my ears hurt, but no, no such thing happened. It

was just a normal, loud battlecry. After fighting the Cheap Sheep on this floor

and getting the hang of their battle tactics I can say that they are more

annoying rather than dangerous, so this guy should not be a tougher challenge

to topple than the Hachinosu was, and after taking a nice long look at it, it

does not even look all that ferocious. It will take more than an oversized lump

of wool to scare the pants off of me, you know?

With keeping our focus and careful positioning, we should have no problem

taking this guy down, so just like always, I left the front of the boss for

Roxanne to take care of. I took my established position at the back of the

Floor Boss and prepared to slash at it with Durandal. But then…

An orange magic circle started forming beneath the Beep Sheep's body, so I

hurriedly whacked it with my sword to interrupt the Skill chant from being

completed… or that's what I would have done if I was not too far away from

it!

「What skills does the Beep Sheep have?!」

「I do not know that!」

Damn it, it looks like I cannot count on Roxanne's help with figuring out

what this guy can do.

At the very least I think it is safe to assume that it won't start spitting out

sticky webs and threads like the Green Caterpillar did. And even if it did

something similar to it, then I can always prevent it by casting Fire Wall, but

if I have no way of confirming what exactly is it going to do, then I will not

be able to plan our actions accordingly. Now, even though Durandal has the

ability to interrupt the chanting of the Skills used by the enemies, I am too far

out of that guy's melee range to be able to stop it even though I desperately

want to do so. In this particular case, my own cautiousness got the better of

me!

Damn it, the circle is almost complete! A little more, just a little bit more and

I will be able to…

I desperately threw myself forward and managed to slash the Beep Sheep's

body just as it was to unleash its Skill.

(There! Phew, safe!)

I managed to stop the Skill from being activated, but it does not mean that I

Page 228 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

was in the clear just yet. Noticing my presence after I slashed it, Beep Sheep

crouched on its front legs and came right at me with a kicking attack from its

hind legs. Seeing that attack coming, I had to jump back to avoid getting hit

by it. Heh, stupid sheep. It will take much more than that to stop me!

Just from my battle against Hachinosu I can say that got more than enough

experience in fighting enemies that used their hind legs to attack those who

are standing behind them. I just have to do exactly what Roxanne told me

earlier: observe the enemy's movements carefully and wait for the right

moment to perform a dodge involving the minimal amount of movement

possible. Sure enough, I accepted that I will never get on Roxanne's level of

being able to doge so swiftly and gracefully that no attack would touch me no

matter how close it would brush against me, as it was evident by that one

time when Roxanne managed to avoid the Green Caterpillar's Web Spitting

attack without as much as a single strand landing on her while I got my entire

arm covered in it, but even a clutz like me should have no problems with the

attack that I can see coming from a mile away.

I was able to escape the hind legs kick by jumping back and then retreating

some more just to be sure, but when I recovered myself and re-adjusted my

posture to resume my offensive, but when I focused my attention on the Beep

Sheep, a sight most dreadful has befallen me.

A magic circle appeared under the Beep Sheep's body for a second time.

Oh crap, this is bad!

I ready my weapon and break into a mad sprint. I can't believe how big of an

idiot I was for not noticing something that obvious much sooner. From the

very beginning, the Beep Sheep's goal must have been to give itself more

time so that it could activate its Skill again after I interrupted it. Come to

think of it, maybe that first Skill activation coupled with that hind legs kick

that forced me to back up quite a bit was an intentional manuever that aimed

at getting me, the one wielding the more dangerous weapon away from it?

But wait, monsters from the fourth floor of the Labyrinth should not be that

intelligent to be able to plan something as cunning as that, meaning…

meaning that it was all the more woefully stupid of me to fall for such a trick.

Way to go, Michio you dimwit, you have officially been outsmarted by a

Page 229 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

goddamn sheep. A mixture of anger and fear began to rage within me as

waves of cold sweat started to go down my spine.

I swung Durandal, but this time there is absolutely no way for me to make it

in time. Even if I used Rush or Overwhelming, it would still not be enough to

cover the rest of the distance between the two of us. The magic circle is

completed, starts glowing with a blindingly bright orange light, and then…

「Guooooh….!!!」

(!? What the hell?! W-What the fuck was that?!)

That sensation and the numbing pain accompanying it… was I… was I

attacked just now?

It would seem that Roxanne has been attacked by something as well, because

she was holding her stomach in exactly the same way I did.

Part 2

What was that attack that hit us just now? Teleportation? Telekinesis? Or

perhaps some kind of omnidirectional attack redirected to our stomachs so

fast that we weren't even able to react to it in time?

「Are you okay, Roxanne?」

「Yes, I am fine… watch out, master!」

The Beep Sheep tried to headbutt me, but I barely managed to block its attack

with Durandal. Even so, it does not mean that I got away completely

unscratched from it, because while I the attack did not connect with me, I

could feel the sheer force of the impact reverberating throughout my hands

that were gripping the sword and slowly spreading along my entire arms

length and seeping all the way to the bones. Now that I had a moment of

peace, I briefly glanced at my Leather armor around the area where I have

been hit by the boss' Skill. It was visibly damaged, but still holding together

nonetheless. If I was not wearing it, then that attack could have pierced right

through me.

「Any ideas what the hell was that just now? How was it possible for

something so big to attack me in a split second without even noticing it.」

「I don't know. I was also attacked without even realizing it.」

We slashed the Floor Boss with our weapons and distanced ourselves from it,

only to rush in and attack again.

In between the Beep Sheep attacks, I looked at Roxanne and confirmed that

she has sustained the same wound that I did. That was enough for me to

confirm that I absolutely have to kill this fucker as fast as possible. No matter

Page 231 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

how many wounds I will receive and how much damage will be dealt to me,

as long as I will connect some of Durandal's attacks with the enemies then I

should be able to go back to having full health. However, that goes only for

me and my OP weapon, but not for Roxanne. She unlocked the Herbalist Job

just like I did so she should have some emergency medicine on her, but other

than that she has no way of recovering her own health, and that is why she

focuses so much on evading the attacks that come her way. But, just like we

saw just now, not even she is able to evade some of the attacks, especially if

she cannot even see them coming. Her levels are also lower than mine, I have

to prioritize defeating the enemy in front of me as fast as possible so that she

wouldn't be in constant danger and have enough time to actually recover.

「Could it have been some kind of status effect that affected our cognition in

some way?」

「It's hard for me to say with absolute certainty, but from my perspective it

looked like all of a sudden you stopped moving for quite a while, master.」

「I stopped moving? Really? I don't remember doing such a thing.」

「Yes, it looked almost as if you were asleep, or petrified.」

「Asleep, huh?」

Asleep… sheep… ah, so that's it. It must have been something like that!

I don't know how it managed to do that without me noticing, but the Skill

that the Beep Sheep used must have put me to sleep, much like in that

stereotype where children are told to count sheep jumping over the fence to

help them fall asleep faster.

But. . . . have I really fallen asleep due to the Beep Sheep's Skill? I mean

sure, it would not be all that improbable for it to possess an ability that would

put the target to sleep or stun it, especially since that chant-like meehing of it

did sound like a kind of a warning call signalling that such an attack is

incoming, and it would explain why I failed to notice what was happening

around me until it was too late: I must have been put under the Beep Sheep's

spell and lost consciousness which has been regained the moment an attack

Page 232 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

hit me, or to put it in the more technical terms, when my body has been

exposed to an extensive physical trauma. That's only my hypothesis though.

Let's ask Roxanne about it to be absolutely sure.

「Roxanne, are there Skills that the monsters possess that could put their prey

to sleep or immobilize them in any other significant way?」

「Yes, some of them have effects like that.」

And there you have it. At least now I know that some enemies do possess

terrifying techniques like that. And this one is especially nasty, because it

practically guarantees that you are going to get hit at least once before you

finally snap out of it. In that case, the best course of action would be to not

allow the enemy in front of us to use that Skill of his ever again, so I need to

Rush to it and stick to it like glue and don't stop swinging my sword.

My biggest concern in our current situation is that even though I know

Roxanne was also attacked by the Beep Sheep's Skill, I have no way of

knowing exactly how much damage she suffered with that blow she took,

since I can only see my own MP and HP pools when I use Identify on myself.

For the time being, I think three od so strikes with Durandal should be

enough to bring me back to full health, but if I don't want things to get dire

very quick I should do everything in my power to avoid getting hit with any

more of those Skills. Also…

「Roxanne, switch with me!」

「Roger!」

We swapped our positions, so now Roxanne was in the back of the Beep

Sheep and I stood in front of it, but I was not planning on simply staying

there, waiting for it to come at me with its attacks, oh no. Instead, I ran from

one of its sides to the other, whacking them with Durandal and getting back

all the HP that I lost. The Beep Sheep did not stand there taking it either,

because it tried to follow after me and ram me with its curved horns. Is it just

me, or am I catching this monster's aggro way more easily than Roxanne

did?

Page 233 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

I deflected the horns of the boss with Durandal's dull side and then countered

immediately after with the sharp one. Every time it tried to attack me with its

horns, I would repeat that process while jumping back or to the sides to evade

an occasional body slam attack. After a while, the Beep Sheep did something

new, which was a headbutt attack it performed after bending its front legs and

lowering its head with its horns facing forward. It looked dangerous, but that

was it. In truth, it was even easier to dodge than the horn swings, because just

like with the Minos on the previous floor, all I had to do to get out of the

harm's way was to wait for the last possible moment and then do a dodge

roll. As an added bonus to risking such a perfect timing-dependent manuever

I managed to confuse the Beep Sheep, who seems to be just as bad as making

sharp turns during its charges as the Minos and Hachinosu. Good. That gives

me even more chances for an attack.

In the meantime, Roxanne was also attacking it from the back, but the

damage she was doing to it with her Scimitar should be laughably small in

comparison to the DPS from my own weapon.

At some point The Beep Sheep started using its hind legs trying to kick

Roxanne, but since she is a much more graceful dodger than I can ever hope

to be, she dodges its outstretched hooves with minimal movements without

letting herself be reached by them. No matter how many times I see her evade

the enemy attacks, I still cannot believe that a person can actually move with

such nimbleness. It's like she's moving, but at the same time that she's not,

and just when you think that she's been hit it turns out that it was nothing but

a vanishing afterimage.

Her dodges are the complete opposite my own. Where Roxanne simply

moves her body literal inches to the side, I need to roll or jump away,

creating a large gap between the enemy and myself. That might work in tight

spots, but as was evident by the earlier situation, when enemy possesses

Skills, such a way of dodging is not an effective one if you want to interrupt

their chanting. Even now I still have some difficulties with a swift

continuation of the battle because after every dodge I have to do a short Rush

to get back up close and personal with the boss.

Part 3

But after what seemed like ages of just dancing around trying to deal damage,

it looks like a chance to truly go in for the kill has finally presented itself to

me. The Beep Sheep charged at me, and then immediately went for a

sweeping attack with its horns, first to the left, then to the right, then to the

left again. Now all I have to do is to position myself in the right place, and…

The Beep Sheep's head moved to the right, carried by the momentum of its

previous attack. It shook its horns wildly at me, but right now I could easily

read the trajectory of the entire attack. Dodging out of the way of the

incoming horn, I raised Durandal and dropped it at the Beep Sheep's neck in

one powerful motion. Its blade tore through the skin, muscles and the tissues

underneath, severing the boss's head from the rest of its body.

Finally, the Beep Sheep has fallen. It left its item behind and then

disappeared in a cloud of green smoke.

「Okay… it's… it's finally dead. How are you holding up, Roxanne? Is your

body okay? Are you hurt anywhere? When I snapped back to reality after

being hit with that Skill I saw that you got hurt as well, so…」

「Yes, I did suffer some damage, but I've used recovery items several times

now, so I should be fine for now. Nevertheless, thank you for being

concerned about me, master.」

You don't have to thank me for it, Roxanne. You're my precious companion,

so of course I would be worried about your well-being. If something ever

happened to you, I would not be able to forgive myself for it.

「If you think you have any kind of lingering damage left, be sure to tell me.

Recovering our health and keeping ourselves in the best possible condition is

Page 235 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

our number one priority after all. And also, I… I don't want to lose you…」

「Understood. If I notice any abnormalities, I will be sure to tell you

immediately.」

With that said, we have proceeded to the fifth floor as I kept Durandal

equipped on me just in case any dangerous enemy would pop up and tried to

attack us.

「All right, we have made it to the fifth floor. So, how is it, Roxanne? You

smell any people nearby?」

「*Sniff Sniff* Hmm… there should be a lot less people here in comparison

to the fourth floor, and I also sense a monster nearby. How would you like to

proceed, master?」

「Let's go have a look at the monsters inhabiting this floor then. Just, you

know, let's be cautious about it, okay?」

「Yes!」

Now that we caught up with our progress of the exploration of the Labyrinth

of Quratar in comparison to the Labyrinth of Veil, it was high time to see

what kind of enemies are we going to encounter here. Normally I would have

opted for going back home, especially since the Floor Boss fight was

especially tough, but since the both of us managed to heal ourselves back to

full health and we both still had the energy to spare, then I decided that why

not, let's at least go and see what will be there in store for us.

Walking forward under Roxanne's careful leadership, we have soon reached

the place where the monster she mentioned was located. It was called

Collagen Coral Lv.5. So this guy is the monster native to the fifth floor of the

Quratar's labyrinth, huh? It looks like a round rock… on a thin, twig-like

body… supported by only a single leg? And it is approaching us by hopping

on that one leg very slowly… I mean okay, but… what does collagen has to

do with anything here? Maybe it means that the rock-like thing acting as this

guy's head is actually soft and easy to cut through? Let's check it out!

Page 236 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

I slashed it once with Durandal to see what would happen, and let me tell

you, I was only partially surprised. Because the monster is called Collagen

Coral, a part of me was hopingthat it would mean that its head will ne all

light and squishy and easy to cut in half, but it was anything but that. Quite

contrary to my assumption, the material this monster's head is made of was

surprisingly hard, and making a dent in it required a pretty decent amount of

strength to be put behind the slash of my sword. Is it because its head is made

from solid rock? No, not rock. Since it's called Collagen Coral, then I guess

coral has to be its main component. Yeah, that makes sense.

Naturally, one blow was not enough to kill it, so I had to whack it in the head

a second time. I guess that means that the fifth floor is the natural borderline

of sorts, a place where one strike from Durandal is no longer enough to kill

monsters. I have to remember that: floors one through four: pretty much

everything except Floor Bosses can be one-shotted easily, but from the fifth

floor onwards, every single battle, even against the mob enemies will require

more effort from us.

The monster collapsed in a puff of green smoke and disappeared, leaving

behind an item. Now, let's see what we have here…

「Coral Gellatin, huh?」

The body of the monster was all sturdy and hard to cut through, but when I

touched this Drop Item, it turned out to be solid, but decently soft, to the

point where I could easily make a dent in it by pressing it down with my

finger hard enough. Maybe that was what the Collagen in the name "Collagen

Coral" referred to?

「I wonder if maybe we could make some decent jelly out of it?」

「Excuse me, but what exactly is this "jelly", master?」

「 Nothing, it's nothing, forget I said anything. Just a little thing we had back

in my homeland, is all. More importantly, do you know if this thing is edible

or not?」

I asked Roxanne after I picked up the item and handed it over to her so that

Page 237 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

she could put it back in her backpack.

「I don't know if it can be eaten on its own, but I heard that butchers use it

when they are making sausages and they want them to maintain their shape.

Also, I heard that once it is dissolved in hot water, it can become a pretty

strong adhesive that can then be processed into glue. With enough of it, we

could make enough glue that we could then use to attach the carpets to the

walls like we talked about a few days ago.」

「Is that so?」

An adhesive used in the production of glue, huh? Then maybe it will really be

quite convenient to have as much of it on us as possible? Also, Roxanne's

talk about carpets reminded me that we have indeed talked about buying a

few of them so that we could use them as decorations in our house to make it

look less empty.

「Okay, we will worry about that later once we get back home. Can you scout

ahead with your nose?」

「Of course… *sniff sniff* *sniff sniff* there is someone a little bit further

ahead. If we want to avoid being seen, we can go through the path to the left,

but be advised that I do not sense any monsters there as well, master. The

path to the right contains some monsters, but if we go there then we will be at

risk of being seen. 」

So it is a choice between three possible routes then. The left one is

automatically out of the question, because according to Roxanne there is

literally nothing for us to find there. The way forward is also off limits to us,

because you know, people. I could always switch from The Durandal Build

to Magic Build and we could try going through the path to the right, but that

might not be the best option under the current circumstances. We are

currently on the fifth floor of the Labyrinth, the floor where one strike from

Durandal, my best Bonus Weapon, is no longer enough to defeat monsters as

quickly and efficiently as I was doing it on the lower floors. Two hits from

Durandal are not all that bad, but when it comes to magic, I needed four shots

of it to defeat a single enemy on the fourth floor, and that was already

becoming a kind of an issue whenever we had to fight larger groups of

Page 238 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

enemies back to back without an option for me to switch back to Durandal

Build so that I could recover my lost MP whenever it was dropping to the

critical zone.

Part 4

Here on the fifth floor, I would presumably have to use five shots of magic to

defeat a single enemy, making it even more counterproductive. And if all of

that was not enough drawbacks, we are back to the subject of people. If there

is even the slightest possibility of someone already being there or going there

and seeing me use magic, then that is a risk that I absolutely cannot and will

not take.

*Sigh* I was hoping that what Roxanne said about number of people

dwindling around the fifth floor will turn out to be true, but once again I have

received a grim reminder that reality is often disappointing. Well, no use

crying over spilt milk I guess. Maybe the situation will improve as the day

goes on, but right now, during the early morning, it looks like there is little

else we can do in here. If we want to do whatever we want without worrying

about anyone butting into our business, then we will have to change places.

「Do you think that just one piece of Coral Gellatin will be enough to glue one

carpet to the wall in a way that it won't detach itself from it after a few

hours?」

「I think the amount we have on us right now should be just enough for a

single carpet.」

「Well in that case, there is no reason for us to be overdoing things if we

absolutely don't have to. Let's go to the Veil's Labyrinth for a bit and then

let's go back home so we can grab a bite to eat, shall we?」

「Sounds good to me.」

If I don't want us to be seen, then there is no place better for it than the

Labyrinth in Veil. It's almost completely empty, and we have never once

Page 240 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

bumped into any other Parties as long as we were going there. Truly, the

Labyrinth of Quratar should borrow a page or two from the Veil one in that

regard. If only it was to be like that, then our lives would be much simpler.

By the way, I hope I don't have to spell it our for you, but the plan to go find

a carpet in the Imperial City has been postponed until after we eat breakfast.

For the time being though, we will spend some time on the fourth floor in

Veil's Labyrinth, fighting against Minos, since I want to get used to fighting

them some more. We could have gone to the fourth floor of Quratar's

Labyrinth to fight against Cheap Sheep, but I prefer Minos from Veil's

Labyrinth because they are much more straightforward and easier to deal

with. At least with them I do not have to worry about them whipping

unknown Skills out of their asses.

To change the subject to something less triggering: I am wondering what

kind of carpets are they going to be selling in the Imperial City.

There was no carpet-selling stores in Veil, but from what I saw back at Alan

the Slave Merchant's shop, they are not all that different from what I was

used to seeing back in my old world. In that case, the thing that I have to be

wary the most of… would be the price of carpets. As per the rule I have made

for myself, I want to limit the needless spending of my money as much as

possible, and that goes especially for the gold coins, the most valuable that

this world has to offer. So for the good of my wallet, I sincerely hope that I

won't have to bust out gold coins just to buy a single carpet.

After we got back home and finished eating breakfast, Roxanne and I made

preparations to go carpet-shopping in the Imperial City.

We went out to the wall portal in the Adventurer's Guild in the Imperial

City. There are tall buildings on the other side of the road. The Adventurer's

Guild was also a magnificent building, with tall side-buildings on either side

of it.

Although it is tall, there are no buildings that look like they would have more

than five or six floors, and they were all made with the same type of brown

brick, making me feel as slight sense of intimidation and oppression

whenever I looked at them. It feels like I was in lost in ancient Rome or

Baghdad, even though I was never in neither of those places, only seeing

Page 241 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

them on tv and in pictures.

The road in front of me is wide and straight. I remember reading in a history

book that the medieval cities were made up of intricate roads that did not

allow the enemy to easily pass through them in cases of invasions, but

apparently the Imperial City took a different approach than that.

「It is my first time being here while not having any kind of urgent business to

attend to, but this city is definitely an impressive one.」

「Could not have said that better myself. And the roads here are all wide and

as straight as they could be.」

「If my memory serves me correctly, then I think all of the roads here in the

Imperial City were designed that way as a part of a series of countermeasures

against a monster or demon attack. After all, with the streets like that, you

can spot any potential threat as it approaches from miles away, and that

would not be possible if the streets and buildings were designed in a different

way.」

Ahh, so it is actually because of a practical reason like that? I see, that

definitely makes sense from a city planning point of view. Come to think of

it, Imperial City is the third city that I have visited for now, and so far all

three cities had a different layout: Veil was constructed like a grid or a Go

board (TL Note: Go – an abstract strategy board game for two players in

which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. Similar

to Othello but with bigger, 9×9 board where the pieces are placed on the

board's lines) and Quratar has roads that expand radially from the Labyrinth

that acts as the city's center.

The layout of the capital was certainly designed by a clever man. Just as

Roxanne said, with the street so straight and wide you can see really far

away. With streets like these, there is no way that those standing on guard

duty would not be able to notice any threats to the citizens like monsters

wandering inside of the city after they wound up there from beyond the

defensive walls or getting in through the occasional cracks and holes in it.

From what I managed to gather from my observations it does not seem like

the empire is in a state of war with any of its neighbors, but such a layout of

Page 242 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

this city was definitely not meant for the peaceful times, or at least that is

what my gut feeling was telling me. People may talk all they want about

countermeasures against the swarms of monsters, but this setup is also an

ideal one to handling the threats of the human variety. If anyone was dumb

enough to attack the capital openly, they would definitely not go very far

before being wiped out from afar.

「Is that so? Well, since we are already here and there is nothing rushing us,

do you want to go on a casual stroll?」

During our stroll around the Imperial City I managed to confirm what kind of

shops were there and what exactly were they offering.

Page 243 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Page 244 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

Aside from the monster/bandit security angle, there was one additional

benefit of having wide roads that were pretty tightly secured: with such an

open road, the probability of getting pickpocketed should be extremely low.

Maybe I am overthinking this, but even with the most of my silver and gold

coins stored in the Item Box, I cannot feel completely safe without knowing

for sure that there are no ways for thieves to pickpocket Item Boxes. Until I

confirm that with one hundred percent certainty, I will walk around crowds of

people with the highest level of vigilance maintained.

As for the shops, most of them were gathered around the Capital City's

Adventurer's Guild, which has to act as the main landmark of the downtown

area.

Most of the shops in Quratar were made with the intention of Explorers being

their target demographic, and as a result of that, they were lacking in variety

of the products they had to offer. The only things they had to offer were

miscellaneous goods and daily necessities as well as the basic weapons,

armor and groceries. All in all, they got you covered as far as the basic items

went, but little else besides that. In comparison, the shops here in Imperial

City seem to be a bit more casual.

Part 5

What I mean by that is that they seem to be geared towards everything a

typical resident of a big city might need, and they also have a certain sense of

class to them. Just look at the clothing they sell here, and the difference will

become pretty apparent. The clothes sold in Quratar all looked like a rural

ones that have already seen their fair share of wear, tear and use, but from

what I see on the displays of the clothing stores here, the products they are

offering look like something that might have been sold in the shops with

brand clothing that could be found in Ginza. Needless to say, they are all

expensive as fuck.

Even the displays and the windows of the shops were all made from glass…

yeah, when it comes to luxury, this place really is a cut above all the other

cities we have visited thus far.

「Look, master! A carpet store!」

What Roxanne pointed at with her finger was indeed a carpet store. It was not

on the ground floor, but on the first floor above the other shop, but even so, it

had a solid set of steps leading up to it, there was a rug in front of the door so

that people could tidy the soles of their shoes before entering, and the inside

of the shop itself was spacious and luxurious to such a degree that a part of

me was thinking tha a riff-raff like me has no place in here. The place was

literally lined up from top to bottom with carpets in all sorts of colors and

intricate embroidings that made me think of haute couture (TL Note:

Basically expensive, fashionable clothes produced by leading fashion

houses) items that were sold on earth. Maybe it was because of the closeness

of the Adventurer's Guild, or maybe because this is the Imperial City, but

even though I was expecting the quality of goods offered here to go up in

comparison to other cities, I would have never expected that it was going to

be to such an extent. Maybe we should leave and go fins some other shop, the

Page 246 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

one that will be much more merciful to our money? How about that,

Roxanne? No? Aww…

Even though this carpet store was on the Imperial City's main street, the

inside of it was unexpectedly quiet. The carpets on the floor were all made

from soft and fluffy materials, adding some relaxing aspects to the coziness

factor.

「Welcome.」

「Hello, and sorry for the intrusion, mind if we have a look around the shop?」

「Of course, take as much time as you need.」

A middle-aged female clerk bowed her head lightly and gave us a polite

greeting, watched over us from her spot in the middle of the room where she

without budging for even an inch.

Other than the two of us there weren't that many customers to speak of

inside, making me feel as if were here alone with the clerk lady. Trying my

best to suppress the creepy feeling that she was carefully watching our every

move, Roxanne and I proceeded to inspect each and every one of the store's

carpets, both the ones on the floor and the walls as well as the ones placed on

small podiums and rakes scattered here and there around the entire building.

「How about this one?」

「I think it is not bad… but if we want to display it as a decoration, then I feel

like we definitely need something a little more flashy and representative.」

「How about this one then. It definitely looks like it's made from better

materials than that previous one.」

We took a look at the carpet with geometric patterns that was placed on a low

platform. It looks like a pretty well-made carpet to me. The patterns are all

different, but none of them were too vivid or extravagant. Rather, their colors

were all warm and gave you a sense of calming just from looking at them.

Page 247 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「You really can tell that much about a carpet simply from touching it for a

bit?」

「Yes, and I am sure that with a bit of practice you could learn to do that as

well, master.」

Just like with dodging enemy attacks the same way you do it, huh? Sorry to

disappoint you, but I do not think that's happening anytime soon.

Roxanne slowly examined more carpets by touching each and every one of

them and staring at them pretty intently. One with geometric patterns,

reddish-brown one, a dark one, brown one with yellow stripes and so on and

so on until she went through majority of them.

「How about these ones?」

「They look like they would stand out too much in our house.」

Roxanne told me that after scrutinizing the carpets with a serious look. If

Roxanne says they would not look good in our house, then I have no reason

to distrust her. After all, girls always have better judgement when it comes to

those kinds of things.

「How about these other ones then?」

「Hmm, they are certainly not bad, but….」

「Pardon my intrusion, dear customers, but is there anything I can help you

with? What kind of goods are you exactly looking for here?」

The female clerk walked to us and offered her help with perfect timing. As

expected of someone who must be well-versed in the art of customer service

after a (what I assume to be) a lifetime of work here?

「Ah, yes, your advice will be greatly appreciated, ma'am. Actually, we are

looking for a carpet that we could hang on the walls in our house as

decoration.」

「Understood.」

Page 248 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「For starters, could you tell us how much do the carpets in this section of the

shop cost? Like this one, for example?」

I pointed at the carpet that Roxanne was now holding in her hands.

「The carpets around sir's left side are the non-luxury variants, so the price of

each one of them oscilates around three thousand Nars. As for the carpet held

by your Wolfkin companion, both that one and all the other ones near her,

their retail price is about five thousand Nars each, because they are all luxury

products designed and crafted by the way of special order commissioned

from the famed carpet manufacturer, Dobrou.」

While it is good that apparently I won't have to bust out my gold coins to by

a carpet, these prices still seemed to be a little bit on the expensive side. Since

we want not something to be placed on the floor but rather as a decoration to

be mounted on the wall, we won't be needing anything too extravagant.

「And what about the carpets that are cheaper than the ones you have already

shown us?」

「Those carpets right here are the one that are made by the local manufacturer.

While not exactly on the same level as the luxury items we are offering, they

also cannot be called cheap or badly made.」

「Uh-huh, I see. And their price?」

「Three thousand Nars per item.」

「Hmm, okay. What else do you have?」

「This way, please.」

And the female clerk guided us to the products that were located at the back

of the shop, where the carpets were all arranged on the stands near the walls.

Are those carpets as good as the ones in the front, or are we now getting to

the "options for poor saps" part of the establishment?

「I have a question before we move forward. What sizes are the carpets you

sell here in?」

Page 249 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「Most of our carpets are of the universal size, and that is such that a fully

grown, adult Adventurer could be easily rolled up in it.」

Really? That's the description you're going with? Because let me tell you, it

is, well, a very, very specific one. Also, if they are truly so big, then if we

decide on buying one we will probably have to carry it together, since there is

no way only one of us could haul something so big around. And there is

another issue that we might end up having with it besides that. Is it going to

be okay for us to Warp back to Quratar with such a huge carpet? Now that

got me seriously thinking, because as much as Warp is better in comparison

to Dungeon Walker and Field Walker, being so restrictive when it comes to

the size and the number of the items you may carry with you during the

Warping procedure is its most crippling shortcoming. In the worst-case

scenario, we might end up being forced to ask one of the Adventurers in the

Adventurer's Guild to give us a ride back home.

Part 6

But even then we have no guarantee that it's going to work…. Ugh, that's a

tough nut to crack, but thankfully I am not alone in this. Let's ask Roxanne

what she thinks we should do.

「What do you think we should do, Roxanne? Should we take the carpet that

you're holding?」

「I think that is the best one out of the ones we've seen so far, but let us look

around some more first.」

「All right, sounds like a plan.」

It's good that she made such a suggestion, because if we decide to buy a

second carpet in addition to the one she has already selected, then I should be

able to use my 30% discount Bonus Skill. So, while Roxanne searched one

part of the shop, I moved to the other in search of something that would catch

my eye.

「Roxanne, how about this one over here?」

「This one?」

After noticing a carpet with a dark brown and orange checkered patterns on

one of the back stands, I beckoned Roxanne to my side to show her what I

found. I don't know what's her opinion about it is going to be, but personally

it looks so interesting that I ended up liking it almost immediately when I laid

my eyes upon it. And since it is not in the front of the store I am sure that its

price should be relatively affordable as well.

「Ahh, I see this one caught your interest, sir? Excellent choice. Although the

designer responsible for making this one is still young, they are already

Page 251 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

considered to be an up-and-coming genius in their craft, and we in this store

wholeheartedly recommend their works.」

A genius, huh? I wonder if it is because that person's skills, whoever they

might be, are that advanced, or is it because he or she is crafting such quality

products by using the limited technology available to them here in this

world?

「I think it's a good carpet. It might mot look like it at first glance, but it has

been crafted carefully and meticulously. 」

If Roxanne is saying that, then I have no reason to doubt her intuition and

sense of beauty.

「In that case, can we get this carpet along with this one right here, the one

that my companion is holding onto?」

「Of course, thank you for your purchase. As a special service for buying a

product recommended by our store, the price for the two rolls of carpets you

want to buy shall be reduced to five thousand six hundred Nars.」

「Awesome.」

All that talk about "special service" means that my discount worked exactly

as I intended it to, making the purchase that much easier. If I did not have

that Bonus Skill, then I do not know if I would have decided to buy two of

those carpets. Luckily for us, that is no longer one of our concerns.

The female clerk holds both carpets under both of her arms and carries them

to the counter like that, and then she waited for us so that we could finalize

the payment, which was made by only whipping out my silver coins. The

woman then rolled the carpets up, tied them with a piece of string and handed

them over to us.

Roxanne and I took one of them each, and I immediately noticed that despite

how they looked they were weighting quite a bit. If that woman managed to

lift two of them at once like it was nothing, then she must have quite a bit of

actual strength in those frail-looking arms of hers.

Page 252 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「Before we leave, I hope you won't mind me asking about one more thing: ca

those carpets be transported with Movement Magic?」

「Yes, it is possible to do so. If you roll them up into a certain size, you will

be able to travel with then by using Field Walker. This shop was made with

Shield Cement so you will not be able to do it inside of here, but on the back

wall in the corner here there is a hanging carpet display that acts as a space

that you can cast Movement Magic on. The display itself is also changed

every single day, so there won't be any problems with that.」

Oh, what do you know, so it is possible to move them while using Movement

Magic after all. That's actually quite nice of them to take something not so

obvious into account. So according to her, all we have to do is to go to where

the display is located, cast Field Walker (or in my case, Warp disguised as

Field Walker) and voila, we can be on our way home. And if they are

replacing the display every single day, then that means they do not need to be

worrying themselves about the possibility of theft, because the way

Movement Magic works is that in order to travel between two set locations

the portals have to be in the two fixed places. If that condition is not met,

then the fast travel will not be possible. Also, I have to admit that it has never

once occurred to me that such a countermeasure could be used in order to

prevent Movement Magic's misuse. Maybe I should try employing it for

myself from now on?

With out business in the carpet shop concluded, we headed towards the carpet

hanging at the display. The female clerk did not follow after us, but simply

returned to her original position in the middle of the shop, escorting us with

her eyes, which felt just a tad bit uncomfortable, if I am to be completely

honest with you. At the very least I don't have to worry about her standing

next to us when I cast the spell, but just to be on the safe side I still did my

usual thing where I pretended to move my mouth as if I was reciting the

chant for the spell as I casted Warp.

Then, a certain thought occurred to me. The clerk here said that even though

the carpets are quite big, you could still travel with them with Movement

Magic as long as you roll them up, but she was saying that you could travel

with Field Walker, she never said anything about Warp. I know it's probably

because Warp is a Bonus Skill and the NPC might not be aware of its

Page 253 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

existence, but it does not change the fact that there is always a possibility that

something that might be possible with Field Walker might not be possible to

do with Warp, as unbelievable as it sounds. But if I won't be able to travel

with the carpet while using Warp to get to our house, then what? And what if

it won't be just when going from other places back to our house, but to the

Adventurer's Guilds as well? That would be the worst disaster possible!

There are many Adventurer's Guilds in this world and they will definitely be

a convenient spots for travelling, so I want to continue using them, both when

I have something to transport with me and when I do not. The only saving

grace to this whole situation right now is that even if my Warp fails, the only

one who is going to witness this is going to be this shop's clerk, and since she

is an NPC I really doubt she will go around talking about this to anyone, but

on the off chance that she might do just that… I think I might be forced to do

some unintentional murderhobo play.

As I was thinking about such things, the black portal of warping appeared on

the carpet like normal, so I went inside…. And what do you know, I have

emerged at the destination I have set, the living room in our house, without

any problems or difficulties. Looks like warping from the portal at the carpet

has been successful. Good. It seems that there was no problems with warping

even when it is being performed on a non-sold surface. That means that so far

there was no accidents whenever I was using Warp to move around, and all

the problems that I constantly imagined with it were nothing more than me

simply getting overly worried for no apparent reason. Phew, that makes me

feel relieved. Anyway, why was I worried about all those things anyway? I

had no reason to think something will go wrong, but I ended u doing so

anyway. Is getting too worried when I have no plausible reason to another

one of my bad qualities that I should work on fixing? Maybe, possibly, but

the time for that will be later. For now, since we managed to get back home

safe and sound with our carpets, we can proceed to prepare the glue for

affixing one of them to the wall.

Part 7

「So, how exactly do we make glue out of Corral Gelatin?」

I asked Roxanne about that when we put down the carpets and took out the

item that dropped from the Collagen Coral. Roxanne then took it to the

kitchen and placed it inside one of the pots, after which she poured in some

water inside and started boiling it over low flame, making it look like she was

giving it a hot water bath.

「The procedure itself is actually pretty simple. All you have to do is to place

the gelatin in the pot, light a fire under it so that it starts to melt from the heat,

and when it does, you have to leave it to cool off for a bit and that's that.」

「Wow, it really is that easy? And here I thought there was going to be some

hidden trick to it.」

I'm not sure if it's surprisingly easy or purposefully devious. Be that as it

may, as long as the process of making glue is simple, then so much the better

for us, and I can't think of any easier method than melting something with

hot water and leaving it to cool down.

「As I said, now we just have to wait for the adhesive to cool down, so in the

meantime we can take the carpets and roll them out before we prepare one of

them to be hanged on the wall. On that note, have you already decided which

one are we going to use as decoration, master?」

「I think it would be best to use the carpet you chose for that, Roxanne. As for

the other one, we can lay it down in orb bedroom next to the bed.」

「All right.」

「All we have to do now is to get it to the first floor, which should not be

Page 255 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

difficult with the two of us carrying it at each side, so can I ask you to help

me out with it?」

「Of course. It shall be done as you wish.」

Roxanne and I then carried a checkered carpet to the bedroom and placed it

next to the bed. Since it was still early when we woke up in the morning we

had a spare change of clothes prepared for when we get back, but now that I

rolled out the carpet next to the bed I felt like I didn't really want to change

just yet. When fully rolled out and spread on the floor, the carpet was about

the same size as the bed, so it should be just big enough for us to lay down on

it without our feet sticking out of it (our heads would be okay since I placed it

in such a way that it was right next to the room's wall), in which case…

If my assumptions about this thing are correct, then it should be just big

enough for the two people to have some "fun" on it.

Oh no, this is bad. I feel like something is starting to awaken inside of me.

「Now that I see this carpet all rolled out, I realize how luxurious having such

an item feels.」

「Uh-huh, it sure feels like that. But don't just stand there, Roxanne, come and

lay down here with me. It feels reaaaally nice.」

I laid down on the carpet and invited Roxanne to join me after testing if it is

comfortable or not myself.

「Okay.」

Roxanne did just as I asked her and laid down by my side.

「Ohhh… you were right, master. It feels so nice, and soft, and fluffy…」

「I know, right? Oh man, I could totally get addicted to this…」

Can I take it as an okay sign for us to have some fun on the carpet? I think I

can, right?

Page 256 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「Do we have some free time before the glue finishes cooling down?」

「I think we do.」

And with that, I, Kaga Michio have awakened a new fetish within myself:

Carpet Play.

A few hours after we played on the carpet, I realized that apparently I have

obtained a new Job for myself: Cook.

Cook Lv.1

Effects: Increase DEX (small), Increase STR (tiny), Increase AGI (tiny)

Skill: Rare Ingredients Drop Rate Up, Item Box Operation

Cook, huh? It is definitely nice that it has so many effects and Skills

associated with it, but to be frank I would have preferred it much more if it

had Increase INT as one of the available stat increases since that could prove

to be of help with strengthening of my Magic Build. The Skill unique to the

Job, however, might come in pretty handy. I mean, Rare Ingredients Drop

Rate Up means that enemies should have a higher chance of dropping rare

ingredients as Drop Item, thanks to which we will have more options opened

for experimenting with cooking food. It might be especially useful with

Kobolds since they are so weak that farming items from them should not be

much of an issue and I am curious what other items other than Kobold Salt

they would have to offer. Assuming they even have a Drop Item other than

Kobold Salt of course.

「I will go do the dishes now.」

「Sure, take your time.」

Looking at the description of the Cook's Job and its effects and Skills once

more, I once again realized that the world of this game is Labyrinth-centric to

its very core, because normally everyone who would see the Job titled

"Cook" would probably assume that it will be a Job that either strengthens

Page 257 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

the ability of the user to cook or makes all the processes related to cooking

easier or faster, but here, the Cook Job is doing neither of those things. All it

is doing is to give me an increased drop rates for the rare cooking ingredient

to be obtained from defeated monsters, but that's about it. It would be nice if

ot had a bonus effect that goes along the lines of "Prevents the ingredients

stored in the Item Box from rotting", but I guess that would be asking too

much, huh? Unless it is a hidden effect and I won't see if it works until I will

give it a go of course.

Okay, for now, let's see what this whole Item Box Operation thingy is about.

Character Reset…add Cook Lv.1 to the list of my equipped Jobs… set it as a

First Job… all done… now select the Item Box and…

(Holy Cow it's huge!)

When I finished adding Cook to the list of Jobs and selected it as my First

Job for the time being, the biggest distinction that I have noticed was that the

capacity of my Item Box has been practically doubled. When I had Explorer

Lv.30 set as my First Job, I could fit thirty types of thirty different items in it,

but now it looks like I can store thirty types of sixty different items in it, so

yeah, the overall capacity has been doubled.

(All right, that's admittedly pretty neat. But now, let's see if the system that is

governing the Item Box is able to distinguish which Job's Item Box the items

are placed in… there.)

I switched my First Job back to Explorer and moved part of the items from

the Cook's Item Box to the Explorer's Item Box so in order to have the same

amount of items in both Item Boxes, and when that was done I tried to

remove Cook from my list of Jobs… only to find out that I was not able to do

that at all. So the system does distinguish by which Job's Item Box the items

are placed in.

To briefly summarize what I learned from this Item Box experiment just now:

1. When both the Jobs of an Explorer and Cook are selected, the size of

my current Item Box has doubled, increasing from thirty types of thirty

items to sixty types of thirty items.

Page 258 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

2. The overall capacity of the Item Box is split between the two Jobs,

meaning that I can store thirty types of thirty items in the Explorer's

Item Box and another thirty types of thirty items in the Cook's Item

Box.

3. When activating the Item Box Skill, it seems that the system governing

it cannot make the distinction between the Explorer's Item Box and

Cook's Item Box.

4. However, the system can make the distinction between the contents of

these two Item Boxes.

5. I can change my First Job to Explorer with items staying in its Item

Box and remove the Cook Job if no items are stored in its, but if you

equip the Cook Job and put items in the newly expanded space in the

Item Box, that Job can no longer be removed until you won't take all of

the items out and return to the previous size of the Item Box

Those are the apparent rules that govern the combined Item Boxes and how

the system distinguishes between them.

Part 8

But as to whether or not there are more rules or those existing ones will not

be altered or changed in any way, I have no way of determining that at this

point in time.

However, the size of the Explorer's Item Box is thirty types of thirty items

because right now the level of my Explorer Job is at Lv.30. If my level

increases and Explorer will change from Lv.30 to Lv.31, then the size of the

Explorer's Item Box should also increase from thirty types of thirty items to

thirty one types of thirty one items, so maybe the ever-increasing size of the

Item Box will facilitate some changes in it further down the road? What

about the Cook then? Well, since it started with thirty slots for items at Lv.1 I

think it might actually be what the Item Box Organization Skill is all about,

so it is probably safe to assume that this number of thirty slots is going to stay

the same no matter what level the Job itself will become. Even if I level the

Cook's Job to Lv.30 or Lv.31, the capacity is probably going to stay at thirty

all the time.

No matter how it is going to turn out in the end, the current setting where the

Cook's Item Box has to stay at a fixed size no matter what the level of the

actual Job is felt like a natural one to me, and thinking about all of the factors

that might or might not facilitate changes in it only made my head hurt when

I tried to wrap it around them.

Finally, given the overall size of its Item Box, I think it is safe to assume that

the requirements to unlocking the Job of a Cook is to have the Explorer's Job

at Lv.30 and cook something.

Since I got my hands on the Job with the Skill Rare Ingredients Drop Rate

up, I decided to go to the Labyrinth of Veil's fifth floor while having it as one

of my active Jobs to see how was that going to work, but much to my

Page 260 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

disappointment none of the Cheap Sheep we encountered there seemed to

have dropped anything that would be out of the ordinary. Not a single rare

ingredient, just the regular ass ones. We even went down to the fourth floor

to see if Minos would drop something else, but that was a bust as well. Tch,

what a bunch of useless cows! Then again, maybe Cheap Sheep and Minos

only have common drops and do not have anything that could be classified as

rare on them?

「Roxanne, just to make sure that we are both on the same page here. There

are monsters that drop rare ingredients when they are killed, right?」

「Yes, they definitely are there.」

「So technically speaking, as long as we keep killing them, they should drop

something different than their regular drops at some point, right?」

「Yes, that is what I believe.」

「Okay then, I'm going to trust you on this one. On to the next group of

enemies, please.」

Since Roxanne has a much better sense of smell than I do, I guess we will

eventually find an enemy that will drop something rare if we just continue to

follow along her guidance.

「Maybe we should try going to another floor?」

I proposed after the next few battles where the result was the same as with all

the other ones.

「We might as well. I think that the higher we will go, the better chances we

are going to have.」

「While we are still on the subject, I wonder if one type of enemies has only

one type or rare ingredient that can drop from them or do they have multiple

ones?」

「I think some of them do, but I never had any opportunity to verify if that is

true for all of them, or just for a select few.」

Page 261 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「Okay, we gotta start somewhere. How about Minos?」

「With Minos that started appearing from this floor onward, I think they have

multiple rare drops that are floor dependent. For example, the ones here on

the fourth floor drop one type of beef, but on the higher floors they might

drop things like boneless ribs or other kinds of meat that can normally only

be bought at the butcher's shop.」

In other words, that is another incentive to keep climbing higher and higher

inside of the Labyrinth: the higher the floor, the bigger the risk, but also

better chances of obtaining items of higher quality.

「Also, I think there are other kinds of cow-related enemies dwelling on the

higher floors, and they would definitely drop other kinds of meat that Minos

won't be able to provide.」

「Is that so?」

Good to know that we might have an alternative way of obtaining meat.

「And since you mentioned the butcher already, do you think we could sell

the meat obtained from the enemies for some nice dough?」

「Dough? Why would a butcher pay us with that?」

「I meant money. That's how we sometimes call money back where I came

from.」

「I see. Unfortunately, I do not think that meat obtained from Minos is worth

all that much even though it is a rare item.」

So far I have only shopped at the butcher's once and I only bought ham and

some chopped pieces of meat without paying too much of an attention to the

other types of products the shopkeeper had to offer there. On a side note, I

wonder if all the shopkeepers who run their own shops in the cities used to be

Explorers or Adventurers who decided to pursue the business route because

they were unable to make enough money in the Labyrinths? It would

certainly make sense, since you can get a lot of ingredients relatively easy,

Page 262 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

and once you place them in the Item Box they will not rot no matter how long

you will hold them there.

「Since we have been on the topic of meat how these past few minutes, would

you like to buy some of it for the next dinner or two?」

「Yes, and once the herbs in our garden grow bigger, we will be able to make

even better dishes by combining them.」

「That's settled then.」

Roxanne's right. For the time being the herbs in our garden are too small to

harvest them properly, and the only spices we have on us are the Kobold Salt

from Kobold Kampfer and black pepper from Spy Spider, both of whom are

Floor Bosses. Once the herbs grow ready to harvest, then we will be able to

go to town on the bigger number of recipes, but that is another bridge that we

will have to cross no sooner than when we will get to it, so there's no reason

to think about it too much right now. When it happens, I will leave that to

Roxanne.

Before we continued the exploration, I removed the Cook's Job and replaced

it with Explorer. After that, we were able to quickly break through everything

the fifth floor of the Veil's Labyrinth tried to throw at us. Cheap Sheep were

a given, but this time we even managed to cut the Floor Boss of the fifth

floor, the Beep Sheep without getting hit and allowing it to use its Skill even

once. I think it is safe to say that this combination of enemies no longer is any

particular threat to us.

Once I made sure to always stay close to it and interrupt any of its attempts at

trying to cast Skills, the victory was easily ours to claim, and it was even

easier when Roxanne was taking the position in the front, leaving me in the

back to do my thing with Durandal where I slashed the Beep Sheep in a rinse

and repeat pattern. Even when it tried to kick me with its hind legs, I always

tried to sneak an attack or two at them before it went to recover its posture

without jumping back too far away from it. That was my countermeasure

against its attempts to create a time-buying gap between us

The next morning, we took a map and run through the entirety of the 5th

Page 263 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

floor of Quratar's Labyrinth straight to its Floor Boss. The boss of the fifth

floor of the Labyrinth of Quratar gave us a little bit of trouble because it was

a little tricky where the Collagen Coral had its front and backside, but other

than that this battle was not a big deal for the two of us, and I managed to

beat it simply by swinging Durandal at its general direction.

「Here is the medicine you gave me master. There was no need for me to use

it.」

Part 9

Roxanne handed me the medicine pills she was keeping in her backpack in

case of emergencies.

Not knowing what would happen, I gave Roxanne some medicine pills before

the boss battle. This is a valuable lesson that I learned from the boss battle

with Beep Sheep the other day: to always have an alternative method of

healing available on hand, since I wanted to avoid making the same fuckup

we did while fighting the Beep Sheep and falling prey to its Skill ever again.

I also brought a few antidote pills with me, just in case if some of the enemies

had Skills that could inflict poison upon their target.

「Wouldn't it be better for you to hold onto them until we will see what are

we going to be dealing with on the sixth floor?」

「It will be okay. In Quratar, the monsters dwelling on the sixth floor are

Minos, just like the ones on the fourth floor in Veil.」

The monsters on the sixth floor of Veil's Labyrinth were the same ones that

live on the second floor of the one in Quratar: Naïve Olives. We have already

fought plenty of them before, so taking care of them was relatively easy for

us. As an added bonus, I was able to defeat all of the Lv.6 monsters on that

floor with only four shots of magic, so hunting and grinding for levels on the

sixth floor was a literal piece of cake.

As a way to celebrate our breaking through the Veil's and Quratar's

Labyrinth's fifth floors, I have prepared another bath. Well, I say it was a

celebration, but the truth is that I simply wanted to force Roxanne to go in

with me so that we could have a little slippery & wet fun. The thing that did

not change since the first time I prepared the bath was how troublesome it

was to fill the entire thing with hot water from scratch and then keeping it

Page 265 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

warm enough so that it would not go cold on us throughout the entire

preparation stage. At times like these, I think we could really use some pipes

and a faucet. All we would have to do would be to guide the pipes from the

source of the water to the bathroom, twist the faucet and voila, worry only

about making it hot enough. It would have been quicker, more efficient and

allow me to not waste so much time to go back to the Labyrinth over and

over again in order to recover MP.

The Labyrinth in Quratar is almost always too crowded to go on MP

replenishing trips there, so we end up going to the one in Veil practically

every single time, but that just puts me in a loop of back-and-forth trips that

are not cost-efficient, because the eat up a good chunk of the MP that I have

worked so hard to restore, so it always feels like a kind of a wasted effort.

Not to mention that the process of constant shifting between Durandal setup

and Magic setup and the need to collect all the items as well as taking my

Magic Crystals in and out of the backpack so that they could collect the

energy from defeated monsters.

If only there was not so many people in Quratar's Labyrinth, then we could

go there to recover my MP without any issues, and that would even make

something as tedious as grinding the EXP more bearable, since higher floors

with higher level enemies would naturally reap even more and better rewards.

But since that is not possible, we have to stick to Veil's Labyrinth whether

we like it or not. It would have been a totally different story if I could fight

the monsters without having to switch equipment, Jobs and Skills all the time

and not worry about Magic Crystals, but unfortunately I am not quite at that

power level just yet.

Anyway, back to the topic of bathing.

Initially my intentions were to prepare baths for us only on special occasions,

but I can't shake off the feeling that this conviction of mine has been thrown

out the window sooner than you could finish spelling the sentence "Roxanne

is the best girl in the world「. Why?

Because I realize that it was looking for more and more excuses to be taking

them so that I could have my "fun" with Roxanne in the water (TL Note: I

can totally understand that, soap and lotion plays are awesome), and

Page 266 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

taking a bath as a "celebration" after conquering another floor in each

Labyrinth turned out to be just the thing I needed to make that happen.

Thanks to that, I have been more enthusiastic when it came to exploring the

new floors in the Labyrinths and I tried that much harder during the Floor

Boss fights. Some of you might think that it was a really scummy way of

motivating myself to do something as crucial to my survival in this world, but

that is just how it works, you know? And besides, every motivation is better

than having no motivation at all in my book. It was exactly that mindset that

allowed me to breeze through the sixth floor of Veil's Labyrinth in no time

flat. That should be no surprise, am I right? I might have it easier than most

because of my OP Bonus Weapon and Bonus Skills, but that does not change

the fact that trekking through both of the Labyrinths day in and day out is still

a physically exhausting job to do, and no one with their brain intact can deny

that there is no feeling in the world better than having a nice, long soak in the

bathtub after a hard day at "work" followed by enjoying some sexy times

with your girl right after that.

Besides, with the way that Labyrinths are constructed, meaning that Floor

Bosses are always the same "type" of monster as the ones inhabiting the floor

itself and that they are the same for every Labyrinth but spawning on

different floors, fighting a few groups of them was always enough to give us

the general gist of what we could be expecting from the big baddie. In the

case of Veil Labyrinth's sixth floor, the monsters there were Naïve Olives, on

the sixth floor in Quratar had Minos and Hachinosu as its Floor Boss. Since

we already had prior experience with fighting both of those types of enemies,

we broke through both of those Labyrinth's sixth floors with our eyes closed.

As we were going through the seventh floor, we saw two monsters, one we

have already seen and two that we did not. It looked like a goat. This is the

type of monster native to the Veil Labyrinth's seventh floor? What is this

entire Labyrinth, a giant ranch or what?

When I used Identify on it, it turned out that this monster was called Escape

Goat Lv.7. Well yeah, it certainly looks like a goat. First of all, I will try

using Fire Storm on both the Cheap Sheep and Escape Goat and see how

many of them will I have to use to kill them.

Page 267 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

(Fire Storm… huh?!)

The spell was successfully cast, but before it could connect with the enemy

Escape Goat it… it literally escaped. What, the hell?!

「Uhm, Roxanne?」

「Yes, master?」

「Yeah, uhm… care to explain what just happened here? I'm afraid my brain

is still too shocked to comprehend it properly.」

「That was probably the passive Skill that the Escape Goats possess. As the

name implies, whenever they sense even the slightest whiff of danger, the

first thing they will try to do before doing anything else is to run away until

they won't feel threatened anymore.」

Roxanne explained that to me while the explosions from the Fire Storm that I

unleased just now were serving as a pretty flashy, but ultimately useless

background to her short lecture.

(Then maybe inform me about such things ahead of time so we could avoid

such nasty surprises in the future, okay?)

Well, if they got away now, then I guess there is nothing we can do about it

except chasing right after them… huh? What in the…?!

「Mehe… mehe…. *snort*…!!!」

However, just as I was about to get a move on and chase after the Escape

Goat in order to hunt it down, it came running back straight towards us with

its horns pointing forward. Now this is confusing. An Escape Goat that,

according to Roxanne's words, was supposed to run away at the first sign of

danger, and yet there it is now, charging at us as if it was actually an Attack

Goat instead.

「Please stand back, master! I will handle this Escape Goat!」

Roxanne declared, stepping in front of me with her shield raised high.

Part 10

In the meantime, I also prepared Durandal and assumed my usual combat

stance, ready to take on the Cheap Sheep that retreated along with the goat.

The Escape Goat is not as ferocious as Minos were, but it has the same stern

look on its face as they did, and much in the same vein, is not cute-looking at

all, even though the goats I remember from earth all looked so docile and

passive that they probably would not hurt a fly even if it attacked them first.

Unlike Cheap Sheep, the Escape Goat's horns are like ice picks that are

curved slightly upwards, so getting skewered by them is undoubtedly going

to hurt like all hell, and probably do more damage to me than Mino's horns

since this guy right here is Lv.7, which is admittedly pretty darn terrifying

now that my brain starts overthinking it.

Okay Michio, just keep calm and do what you always do. Ready the sword,

wait until the enemy, who has slipped past Roxanne when the Cheap Sheep

suddenly changed its direction to charge right at her, is going to be as close to

you as possible… now move to the left to avoid the tip of the horns going

through you… that's right, just like that… and now when the Escape Goat is

exposed… give it the good old Durandal bitch slap! Or I should probably say

a good old one two, because since this is a Lv.7 enemy, it did not fall down

after that one strike, even though it hit it right in the torso. In that case there

in no reason for me to even try busting my magic build out, since if Durandal

was not able to one-shot the goat, then magic will not do any better.

「*Snort*… *Snort*… Meheee…」

After it went forward a bit due to the momentum that carried it, Escape Goat

turned around towards me and once again held its head low, pointing its

horns towards me. Heh, if only it learned from that previous hit it sustained

that it will not amount to anything. I just have to wait for the right moment

Page 269 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

again… and dodge!

Thanks to me being constantly vigilant, I was able to avoid the escape Goat's

second rush attack. Now it's only a matter of turning around… and delivering

the second strike!

The Escape Goat that was slashed for the second time let out it's last

「Mehee…」before collapsing and turning into green smoke. Hehe, how do

you like that, huh?! I have to say, I am pretty proud of how I was able to

dodge two of its attacks in a row without messing any of my dodges up

halfway through. Now that if what I call growing up as a fighter!

Okay, since Roxanne has her hands full with the Cheap Sheep, it's high time

for me to take care of that other Escape Goat which has been standing outside

of our range this entire time. Come on now, have at… you?

I don't know if it was being complacent or unusually smart for a monster

from the Labyrinth, but up until now the other Escape Goat which was

present since the beginning of the encounter has been keeping itself in the

back, not engaging us in battle like the other one and the Cheap Sheep.

However, now that its companion was gone, instead of joining the Cheap

Sheep on the fray and charging at us, that one remaining Escape Goat turned

tail and tried to run away!

「Huh…?」

Fuck! When I saw it running away like a coward instead of taking the aggro

from me my brain froze for a solid few seconds, giving the damned goat an

opening it need to initiate its escape! It is already too far away for me to reach

it with Durandal and I will never catch up to it if I simply try to chase after it,

so my only option is to switch to magic and try kill the damn goat with it

hoping that one shot of magic will be enough to do it!

(Please allow this to work, please be enough… Fire Storm!)

The activated spell generated sparks around the Escape Goat and then

engulfed it in a series of fiery explosions. If the previous Fire Storm that

managed to reach all three of the initial enemies managed to inflict enough

Page 270 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

damage to it, then this spell should be enough to definitely end its life.

(Yes!)

As it turned out, that one spell was enough. When the Escape Goat emerged

out of the explosions, it was only to make a few weak steps and collapse to its

side where it disappeared. Good. So it would seem that my earlier attacks did

do enough damage to it.

(All that is left now is the Cheap Sheep that Roxanne was fighting. Let's see

how she's doing.)

Since I took care of all the Escape Goats, all Roxanne had to do was to finish

the Cheap Sheep. Being at Lv.7 naturally means that it will be tougher than

the ones we met on the lower floors, but since it is not an Escape Goat then at

the very least it will not try to run for its life whenever it feels threatened.

Instead, it only tried charging straight at her whenever she was in front of it

or kick her with its hind legs whenever she was moving towards its backside.

That one shot of Fire Storm was obviously not enough to kill it, and since

Scimitar is much weaker than Durandal, their battle was still ongoing. Well,

since I am already done with the other two then there is no reason for me not

to go and help her a bit, so I moved over to where Roxanne and the Cheap

Sheep were and slashed it from the side, collapsing it on the spot. I don't

know how many times Roxanne managed to hit the Cheap Sheep with her

Scimitar, so I am only going to calculate the damage that only I have done to

it: one slash from Durandal and one fire Storm. Whatever damage Roxanne

did to it plus everything that I have inflicted was enough to kill it, and now it

simply perished and disappeared in a cloud of smoke like two other monsters

we fought. And since we are already on the topic of Escape Goats…

It's great that we were able to finish the battle without letting any of the

enemies escape, but I have to admit that this ability of theirs is pretty

troubling.

Back on the fifth floor, instead of just one attack, I was able to defeat all of

the monsters with two attacks from Durandal. As Roxanne and I have already

established, that probably means that from the fifth floor onwards, I will need

at least two attacks to defeat the enemies that are going to stand in our way,

Page 271 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

and that amount will most likely only keep increasing the further into the

Labyrinth, or in this particular case, the higher we will go. Also, judging my

that one shot of Fire Storm that managed to catch all three of the enemies in it

at the start of the battle, I would hazard a guess that the Escape Goat's ability

to escape from the battle activates itself when their HP falls to about fifty

percent of its original value.

After the encounter that concluded just now we proceeded through the

seventh floor only to happen at the lone Cheap Sheep Lv.7. Since there is

only one enemy, this is going to be a great occasion to test exactly how many

magic shots I am going to need in order to dispatch a single enemy with it.

There was no need to use Fire Storm, so I launched a Fireball at it. And then

the next one. And the next, and then two more of them. All in all, defeating a

single enemy took five shots of magic, one more in comparison to the

enemies on the sixth floor, who still required only four of them.

「The enemies on the seventh floor require five shots of magic in order to be

defeated, huh? Looks like I will have to resolve myself to fighting longer

battles from now on. I only hope that the increase won't be significant.」

「Do not worry, master. At our current level, I do not think we should have

any major problems with defeating enemies here as long as we remain

focused and keep our vigilance about us at all times.」

I am afraid that this is easier said than done. The longer the battle lasts, that

means more time when we will have to fight against the monsters. In turn,

fighting monsters for a prolonged period of time means that the number of

times where we will be attacked by the monsters is definitely going to

increase.

Part 11

Even though we only have this bath right now, I hope that we can decorate it

with more bathroom-appropriate furniture soon enough, because even with

the tub taking a large portion of the room, there was still a lot of space left in

it to fill up. If I were to hazard a rough guess then I would have to say that the

entire bathroom was about the size of eight tatami mats (TL Note: roughly

13.2 square meters, if anyone's interested.), so after settling the bathtub it,

we still have roughly ten square meters to fill as we see fit.

「Master, I know that this is the custom item that you ordered back at the

washbasins shop, but what are we going to be using a one so large for,

especially since we have already bought a larger washbasin for laundry

purposes?」

「Can't help it but to fill curious now that the thing has finally been delivered,

huh? Very well then, listen and be ready to be surprised. You see, this thing

here is actually a custom-made bathtub!」

I declared so to Roxanne, filled with pride. That being said, now that said

bathtub has finally arrived, it will have to be filled with water, and just that

process might be… more than a little pain in the ass. I have already

established that since I have the ability to use magic then we would not need

to draw water from a well or a river, but now that I actually started going

over the logistics of filling the bathtub with without the aforementioned

methods, it only now dawned upon me that in order to have just one bath a

crapload of water would have to be made with my Water Magic, and then I

would also have to use Fire Magic to heat all of that water up, and all those

things will likely eat through all of my MP in no time, causing me a lot of

headaches and plunging me into depression.

「A bathtub… you say? As in… something you use to take baths in?」

Page 213 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

「Yup, exactly. Just like you said, you use it in order to take nice, long,

relaxing baths. If you don't mnd, then I would like to start preparing one right

away.」

「Understood. Is there something I can help you with.」

「For the time being, why don't you bring some jugs in here? We can fill

them up while I will fill the tub with water.」

Unfortunately, I have no idea exactly how long the entire process of filling

the tub with water is going to take, but I will use my Water Magic as many

times as it takes to get it done as soon as possible. The fastest way to go

about it should be to use consecutive Water Wall's back to back and have just

enough MP left to use Warp so that I could go replenish my MP in the

Labyrinth when I will start feeling my mood worsening.

First things first, we took the entire bathtub and washed it until it was

squeaky-clean, and after that Roxanne brought a few jugs that were placed

inside of the tub.

「Could you place all of them a little bit farther from one another?」

That way some water is bound to be spilled outside of the jugs once they will

be filled to the brim, but that would only be a problem if they were placed on

the ground. Now that they are in the bathtub itself, we can spill as much

water as we need to without worrying about it going to waste.

(And now to raise the water's temperature… Fireball!!)

I threw a Fireball int one of the filled jugs to see how much warmer it would

make the water. It went from straight up cold to somewhat lukewarm.

(Looks like it'll need at least a second shot, huh?)

And I fired a second fireball into the jug. This time, the water was hot enough

not to need a third shot, so I repeated the process with the other jugs until

they had enough water in them. As for why am I going about filling the

bathtub in such a roundabout way, the answer to that is pretty simple: the jugs

Page 214 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

are made out of pottery which is somewhat heat-resistant, so no matter how

many Fireballs I will fire into the water that is being stored inside of them,

nothing bad should happen to them. On the other hand, since the bathtub

itself is made out of wood, so there is always the danger of the tub itself

catching fire and getting burned if I tried to throw Fireballs directly into it.

There are probably more effective ways of increasing the water's temperature

without risking doing any damage either to the bathtub or the surroundings,

but for the time being noting better than what we are currently doing is

coming to my mind. The other option available would be to pour the cold

water into the tub and then shoot Fireballs at it until it gets to the desired

temperature, but I have a feeling that it would take way too many spells to be

called cost-efficient, so until we won't figure anything better out, the method

of using water-filled jugs with Fireball-heated water and then emptying it into

the bathtub proper is probably our best bet. The rest is only a matter or rinse

& repeating the entire process as many times as needed.

However, the issue of finding the best method for filling the bathtub with

water was not the only one we would need to take care of: it seems that when

it comes to the water placed in the jugs, one Fireball only makes it lukewarm,

and the temperature that can be called just right is reached after adding

another shot into it. That is cool and all, but that only stays true for as long as

the water remains in the jug. We have multiple jugs that have to be filled and

then heated, meaning that when I will move on to take care of the second jug,

then the third one and so on and so forth, the water that has already been

heated in the previous ones will start to cool down, so it will most likely

require two more shots of Fireball to be heated back to the desired

temperature…. No, that sounds like more of a hassle than it is actually worth,

not to mention that it would also take a long time to fill in such a way. Hmm,

what to do, what to do indeed… maybe it would be better to lower the overall

temperature by diluting it all with water form another Water Wall at the very

end?

No matter what I am going to decide to do in the end, it won't change what I

have to do now: go to the Labyrinth in order to get back all of the MP that I

have used up to filled all of the jugs with water.

It is hard. I have to admit: filling the bathtub with hot water proved to be a

Page 215 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com

much more of a difficult task than I ever imagined. And to add to the list of

gripes that I already have, the process of recovering MP might also not be as

efficient as I would have liked because we are in our house in Quratar, and

the place where we are going to get my MP back is the Labyrinth in Veil,

meaning that a trip back and forth is going to deplete my MP anyway.

Currently, the quickest way to prepare a bath for me and Roxanne looks more

or less like that: first, I use almost all of my MP up to create water with Water

Wall that's going to be used to fill the bathtub, and then I use as many

Fireballs as needed in order to heat up the water stored in ceramic jugs. When

that part is over, I have to make sure to have just enough MP left to go to the

Labyrinth, get back all of my MP, make the trip back and then repeat the

entire process until I run out of MP again so that the cycle could continue. Do

you see the picture that I am trying to paint here?

However, whether we like it or not, the Labyrinth of Veil is the only place

where we can go to do things like that because of how deserted its lower

floors are. That is one aspect in which Veil's Labyrinth is a much more

convenient place than Quratar's Labyrinth, where even the first few floors are

almost always crowded with people no matter what time of day you would

try to go there. That is why even though this is a closer, much more efficient

option, we cannot go and use it.