Master Smith

Part 1

『Player Name: Kaga Michio』

『Current Character Levels & Equipment』:

Jobs:

Explorer Lv.34

Hero Lv.32

Mage Lv.33

Monk Lv.33

Alchemist Lv.6

Equipment:

Wand

Leather Helmet

Leather Armor

Leather Gloves

Leather shoes

As you all should already know by now, the enemy native to the seventh

floor of the Vale's Labyrinth are Escape Goats, the bastards who tend to run

away if not enough damage is being dealt to them fast enough, so naturally

the time when they can be fought is extremely short. That is why the best

course of action when stumbling upon them is to surround them in such a

way that would prevent them from escaping, and even if they do manage to

break through your attempts at stopping them from doing that, everything is

going to be fine as long as you kill them with magic before they manage to

get too far away from the location of your Party, where chasing after them

further is ineffective, because there is always a possibility that they might be

leading you into a trap or a larger group of monsters that is just waiting for

you beyond the corner. At first it was difficult to establish the proper strategy

that would work most of the time, but a after a few dozen tries we managed

to come up with something that worked out pretty nicely for us, and most

importantly, something that was not putting Sherry in any kind of

unnecessary danger while she was fighting in the vanguard. Because of that, I

began to wonder: should I keep Sherry's Job as a Villager, or should I switch

it with something else, I mean, she already reached Villager Lv.5 and

unlocked Monk and Swordsman Jobs, but Master Smith continued to elude

her, so if there is no guarantee that she is going to get new Jobs by obtaining

higher levels of the Villager one, then there really is no reason for her to be

keeping it any longer. Then again, what if the condition that has to be

satisfied is actually to have the Villager Job at Lv.10 instead of Lv.5?

Normally I would have switched her Job back to Explorer Lv.10 because that

his the Job with he highest level for her, but I do not want to do it, since if she

ends up gaining even one more level in it, turning it from Explorer Lv.10 to

Explorer Lv.11, that might mean that her chances of gaining Master Smith

Job will be gone forever. However, since Explorer Job has access to the Item

Box, then she might find out that I changed her Jobs without asking her for

permission first if she tried using it one day and she found out that she was

unable to use it. One option that I could try is equipping her with the Shrine

Maiden Job, the second one that she tried to obtain and failed in the same

way she did with Master Smith. But if I wanted to do that, it would probably

mean that we would have to go back to the first floor so that she would not

get obliterated by the enemies here on the seventh floor, and that would be

such a pain in the backside after we have already made it this far. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . .

The biggest disadvantage of fighting on the seventh floor of the Vale's

Labyrinth is that when you happen to encounter a group of enemies that has

Escape Goats mixed in with other monsters, there is always a possibility that

when Escape Goats make a run for it after being dealt enough damage, they

might attracts other Escape Goats or other monsters towards the group that

you are already fighting, making the resulting battle even longer and that

much more difficult. Thankfully we did not have too many of such incidents,

because now that Sherry is with us, she and Roxanne are taking care of all the

opponents within their melee range while I am raining down magical

punishment on any of them that try to attack them when their backs are

turned towards them or if they try to flee for their lives. As long as Roxanne

is in the vanguard to guide Sherry with her instructions and fight all of the

monsters swiftly with the combination of her sword prowess and godly

dodging skills, it feels as if nothing will be able to threaten us, and that

feeling enabled me to approach every incoming battle with that much more

confidence. On that account, I can proudly say that Sherry has finished her

first day as the official battle member of our Party with a relative success.

Naturally, in order to celebrate that successful first day of hers we decided to

have another bath, which of course led right into another night of fun

bedroom activities. And since it was such a special occasion, I decided to

equip my Sex Maniac Job in order to see if its Skill, Enhanced Vigor is going

to work when applied to the sexual activities instead of purely battle-related

ones. I know, I know, it was just today that I decided that this Job and its

Skills were essentially useless and that I am going to be sealing that Job

away, but that was in the Labyrinth, where the Sex Maniac's Active Skill:

Abstinence Attack does indeed royally suck major ass. But the bedroom

though. . . . . . . . . that might turn out to be an altogether different story. I

mean come on, the Job is literally called Sex Maniac, so it would be pretty

strange if it did not have some sex-related abilities that would serve as

performance enhancers, right? Exactly. Therefore, I think that giving it a

chance in different circumstances is the least thing that I can do. If I did not

run at least one test with it too see if it actually works or not and later learned

that it did indeed worked and I missed out on all the additional fun that I

could have thanks to it, I would have never forgiven myself as a man.

My expectations were originally pretty low. . . . . . . . but when I actually tried

it, I have to say that, as crazy as that might sound, I was really able to spot the

difference in my performance. Normally I would not be able to muster any

strength to continue on and just lie down on the bed completely spent and

breathing out ragged, exhausted breaths, but with Sex Maniac set as my First

Job, its Enhanced Vigor Skill worked like a charm, and it turned out to be a

hell of a lot effective, enabling me not only to do it with Roxanne and Sherry

immediately one after the other, but I noticed that I did not felt as tired like I

would usually feel after doing them both in quick succession, but I was also

fired up and raring to have a go at it for another round, which I totally did,

much to the girl's surprise.

As a result, Sherry was now lying on the bed, breathless and out cold. Yeah,

looks like she is not going to be able to go another round even if she tried. It

might still be a while for her to get used to this kind of thing, but since she is

always doing her best no matter what, then with enough training I think it

will be possible to make her last for three, or even four consecutive rounds.

But for now, she has learned her rest, so I will just leave her be. And by the

way, I think that the same logic can be applied to me. It is entirely possible

that the Enhanced Vigor Skill might get stronger when the Sex Maniac Job is

going to earn more levels. But in that case, I think that I should definitely

start thinking about aquiring more female slaves in the future in order to not

be too rough on both Roxanne and Sherry, who do not have this amazing

Skill.

「Master, today you loved us so violently as well.」

As we were resting after our finished second round, Roxanne said that to me

quietly while she still tried to catch her breath.

「Yeah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I guess I did, huh?」

「It. . . . . . . it was really amazing. . . . . . . master.」

Sherry slowly lifted herself up from the sheets and also commented on what

we just did, which honestly surprised me. I though that she is going to be out

cold, sleeping, but apparently she managed to recover herself enough to at

least remain conscious.

Part 2

I guess it was her deep and slow breathing that got me thinking that she

passed out, but apparently this girl is much more resilient than she looks.

Nevertheless, I think it is going to be more tactful to not raise my voice too

much, so I asked her a question with a quiet voice:

「So, what do you think, Sherry? About today as a whole, I mean?」

「Thanks to both master and Miss Roxanne's advice and guidance I was able

to do a lot in just this one day, and I was also not dragging you two down. So.

. . so I want to thank you for including me in your amazing Party.」

「I also think that you were as amazing as always, if not even more, master.」

Roxanne showered me with another praise. Oh stop it, you two, you are

going to make me blush!

「Miss Roxanne is also amazing! Your movements are always so swift, and

they way you are dodging each and every one of the monster's attacks is truly

divine! And master as well, your magic is one of the reasons why I think we

were able to achieve so much in such a short time! Before today, I only heard

the stories of how powerful magic is, but now, after witnessing it for myself,

I can definitely confirm with utmost certainty that magic is a truly useful tool

that makes all of the battles way less difficult than they could have been!

Forgive me for being so bold, but I honestly think that this Party is going to

achieve a great deal of wondrous accomplishments in the future, and I

promise that I am going to do my absolute best to be a part of those great

achievements together with master and Miss Roxanne!」

In other words, Sherry seems to be positively thrilled about our performance

today. And I have to say, that optimism of hers is pretty darn contagious.

「Yeah, likewise. I am looking forward to working with you and Roxanne, so

let us do our very best from now on, shall we?」

「To be honest, before I decided to come to the Labyrinth with you, I did not

know what I should be expecting, but I was preparing myself mentally for

even the worst of eventualities, because I heard that it is not an uncommon

practice for masters who own combat-oriented slaves to use them as meat

shields and free laborers in the Labyrinths while they themselves reman in

the safety of their houses, doing nothing to help them, so when I learned that

this Party is nothing like these awful ones from the stories, my heart has been

set at ease.」

「Yes, you will never have to worry about something like that happening,

Sherry. Master is not a cowardly person like that. And even if he was, we still

would not have to worry about a thing, because no matter how tough the

enemy is, as long as we crush them before they manage to crush us, then

everything is going to turn out all right in the end!」

She thought that since she was a slave, she might be treated as little more

than atool that is going to be used up for all it's worth and then tossed aside

when it would no longer be useful. As much as I want to say that there was

nothing for her to worry about at all, Sherry was right to be worried about

that. And also, I cannot agree with what Roxanne said just now about

defeating the enemy before it defeats you. I know that she is biased when it

comes to fighting because she has her godly dodging skills and she

airheadedly thinks that this is something that just about anyone can learn as

long as they continue to practice long and hard enough, but right now, she

should have realized that this is not the case when she tried to teach that

dodging of hers to me and sherry and failed both times. She herself would

have simply continued to avoid the enemy's attacks and drawing its attention

so that I could defeat it with either my magic or my sword, but I am afraid

that such a tactic might now be possible all the time. Somewhere down the

line, we are bound to happen upon the enemy who is going to be so powerful

that even Roxanne's dodging any my uber OP gear alone might now be

enough to handle it, and I cannot help it but wonder how are we going to deal

with such a threat when it finally shows itself before us?

There are things that only Roxanne can do. There are things that only I can

do. There are things that only Sherry can do. So if we work together, there

will be no adversary that we will not be able to overcome. Heh, look at me,

thinking about such heavy and serious things while in a state of post-sex

clarity. But with very minute now my consciousness is getting more and

more hazy, so I think that it will not be long before I will drift off to sleep

*Yaaaaawn!* Aaaanyway, from now on, all that I have to worry about is

leaving the vanguard position to Roxanne and Sherry, and support them from

the back with my magic to the best of my ability. Today was Sherry's first

day of fighting with us for real and there were experiments with the Jobs to

perform so I had no choice but to step up and defeat a number of enemies

myself, but ideally I want to have the two of them capable of defeating all of

the three monsters that can be in a group at once on the seventh floor without

my help at all. And once we advance onto the seventh floor, where the

number of maximum enemies per encounter is going to increase from three to

four, I would want each of them to be able to handle two enemies at once. . . .

. . . . . . . but now that I think about it, is such an approach not reminiscent of

the concerns that Sherry told us about just now? Because it might not be as

cruel as ordering them to fight in the Labyrinths while I myself would be

sitting on my ass in the safety of our home, but it is still a pretty selfish thing

to do. So maybe I should still be helping them out in the vanguard on

occasion so that they would not feel like they have been left alone? That

might be a good thing to do, because it might lead into the deepening of the

trust between us, and the more Sherry and Roxanne trust in me, the better.

That is a no brainer, or at least I think so.

The next morning, we took Sherry to the seventh floor of the Labyrinth of

Quratar with us. I only just bought Sherry and I do not have the need for

getting the large amounts of money urgently, but it does not mean that we

should be breaking our routine of fighting the enemies who drop items that

we could sell for a good amount of Nars. As they say, money cannot buy you

happiness, but they can certainly help in obtaining it and keeping it by your

side. Besides, since Sherry was doing okay on the Seventh floor of the

Labyrinth of Vale and was holding her own against the Escape Goats, then

she should have no problems dealing with the Slow Rabbits here. And she

really was fine, because she was slamming them to the sides left and right

before they could even get close to her with the slow hopping.

Until recently, Roxanne and I have been coming to the seventh floor of

Quratar's Labyrinth so that we could hunt down Slow Rabbits and sell their

skins for profit, but now there is no need for us to do so, and we used that

additional time to proceed further wit our exploration of Vale's Labyrinth.

After hunting the Slow Rabbits and collecting their skins for a bit, we moved

to the Labyrinth of Vale, where we proceeded straight toward the Boss Room

of the seventh floor. Looks like we made much more progress and at a much

faster rate than I thought. . . . . . or it is much more likely that I have

consciously avoided coming back here, because I was refraining from

moving to the eighth floor due to my lack of confidence and fear of having to

fight up to four enemies at once.

The room where we have emerged was the small one next to the Boss

Room's waiting room. As usual, there are only two doors: the ones leading

forward, and the ones leading back.

Part 3

Originally I was planning on stopping buy in Quratar's shops for a little bit

first to buy some more things for Sherry in the early afternoon, but I

ultimately decided against it and continued through the Labyrinths as it was.

We can always do the shopping later when we will finish our exploration for

the day, but for now, let us put all of our attention into taking care of the

Floor Boss, Rapid Rabbit. If we successfully clear the Floor Boss fight now,

then we are going to be able to proceed to the eighth floor on today's evening

or in the early morning tomorrow, so no matter how we choose to tackle it, it

should all be good.

There were people waiting in front of the Boss Room, so that means that the

previous Party that tried challenging it has to still be inside. So it is the same

like everywhere else even here in the Labyrinth of Vale, where there were

supposed to be only a scarce number of people. But I guess that makes sense.

For the people of this world who have to challenge the Floor Bosses in bigger

Parties, Floor Boss battles, which are supposed to be a grade above in terms

of difficulty in comparison to the normal enemies on crawling around any

given floor, will always take a long time. And that time is only going to grow

even longer, because it is daytime now, and daytime automatically means

more people than in the evening or night hours.

The Party that was now standing in front of the Boss Room's door consisted

of six members. Initially, all that I wanted to do was to Identify them to see

what Jobs each of them had, but then I noticed that all of them were looking

at us with suspicious gazes that clearly telegraphed that they were up to no

good. No, I should be more precise with my words. They were not looking at

us, at my Party as a whole. Following their lines of sight, I saw that they were

all focused on one, singular point. . . . . . . . . . . all of their ugly mugs are

blatantly faced towards Roxanne! And they are not even trying to hide that all

of their vulgar gazes are focus on Roxanne's rich chest! I know that her

boobs are out of this world, but just because they are so big does not give

them any kind of right to be looking at her lie she was just a piece of meat to

be consumed! Only I am allowed to do that as her master! They are simply

oogling her right now, but those glints in their eyes and smirks on their faces

were a clear enough indication that their thoughts were already much, much

more ahead in their fantasies of what they would have done with her. These

barsatrds. . . . . .! Since there is no one else but us right now, then maybe I

should turn them all into nothing more but specks of rust in Durandal's

blade? That would definitely teach them a lesson not to direct their swine-like

eyes towards the girls that belongs to me and me alone! I mean, no one would

hold it against me if I put them in their places, right? Because they are the

ones who started by staring at my girl, and with my weapon and Stats,

disposing of them should not present that much of a challenge. . . . . . .

Unfortunately, before I could have done anything with these scum, the battle

in the Boss Room has ended, and the door opened themselves automatically,

letting this garbage of a Party inside, but they entered only after stealing one

last glance at Roxanne's breasts and smirking widely. They were also talking

about something amongst themselves, but I was not able to hear what that

was exactly, but maybe that was for the better. If I were able to hear them, I

am pretty sure that I would have torn them to shreds right then and there.

「These trash. . . . . . . . . *Tch!*」

「Every last one of them. . . . they were all. . . . . staring at Miss Roxanne. . . .

. . . Every. Last. One of them. . . . . . .」

I clicked my tongue in disgust, while Sherry hanged her head down, looking

pretty depressed. Well, makes sense since neither one of the guys who

entered the Boss Room just now even bothered to look towards Sherry,

because. . . let us face it, Sherry's boobs were infinitely smaller than

Roxanne's. I guess I will have to comfort her about it later.

「The expressions on their faces. . . . . . . . . . . . they were pretty nasty and

unpleasant.」

Roxanne commented on the scum's behavior as well. Well, they were so

blatantly obvious about what they were doing that it was virtually impossible

to miss where they were staring and what their intentions in doing so were.

But the fact that she was aware that they were eyeing her down as if she was

just an object with boobs attached to it made this whole situation that much

more infuriating.

「W-Well. . . . . I know it might be pretty hard to do, but try not to mind what

just happened, okay? Scummy guys like that do exist after all, and as

unfortunate as it is, there is pretty much nothing that we can do about it

except ignoring them.」

Believe me, I am even more frustrated than you are, but as I just said. There

is pretty much nothing we can do about behavior like that, or at least nothing

that we can do that would not end up with us getting on the wrong side of the

law.

「「Yes, master.」」

Since we have some time before it is going to be our turn to fight against the

Floor Boss, I used that time to equip myself with Durandal and handed some

Medicine Pills to Roxanne an Sherry respectively, just in case that they

would end up needing emergency healing. Then, I have Sherry a Copper

Spear.

「Sherry, I know you feel much better with a Club, but trust me, I think that a

spear is going to be of much better use in this particular Floor Boss fight.」

「Okay. Uhm. . . . . . . . . are we. . . . . . . . . are we really going to challenge

the Floor Boss like this?」

「Yes, that is the plan. Do any of you know what the Floor Boss of this floor

is like, exactly?」

「The enemies on this floor were Escape Goats, so the Floor Boss should be

Pan: a half-human, half-goat monster that primarily uses magic. Supposedly

it is the strongest Floor Boss of all the lower floors of the Labyrinths, and its

Area of Effect magic attacks are so powerful that I think even miss Roxanne

is going to have difficulties dodging them. The Party that entered the Boss

Room before us, as disgusting as they were, is probably testing their skills

against it. Also, when challenging Pan, it is a common practice to prepare

equipment that has 「Chant Delay」added onto it.」

I kept on nodding my head while Sherry was continuing her lecture. I see

now. I have to say, it is pretty nice to be learning the information about the

enemy we are about to face before we are actually going to fight it, and it is

even nicer to have someone who actually has such information and is willing

to share them with us. I cannot stress enough how useful that is.

Even though the levels where they show up might be different depending on

the Labyrinth, the monsters that appear inside of them are always the same

ones, so now that we have information about the Floor Boss here in Vale's

Labyrinth, we will know how to deal with this Floor Boss when he shows up

in a different Labyrinth on a different floor. It makes me feel awfully stupid

about my attitude thus far, where the only approach that I thought to be right

was to continue storming through the Labyrinths without even stopping to

think about analyzing the enemies we have encountered thus far. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . but it is not like I can really help it, now can I? I could use my Bonus

Skills to make gathering information about the monsters we have

encountered a breeze, but doing so would inevitably come with a risk of the

information about me getting revealed to the public.

Part 4

It is the same as with detecting enemies via radar. Just because you used a

radar to detect the position of the enemy, nowhere it is said that the enemy

cannot use the very same trick to detect you as well. I came here to this world

from my own world which is vastly different from this one, and because of

that, my understanding of it is barely above the level of being able to

differentiate right from left, much less understand the more nuanced details,

so for someone like me, charging on ahead as if I was swimming in a sea of

dark clouds was the only option available. But no more.

「Magnificent, Sherry. You sure know a lot about monsters. Whatever we

would have done without you and your knowledge?」

「T-Thank you very much, master. Truly, I do not deserve such praises.」

Sherry said, visibly embarrassed.

「Oh, but I think you do deserve them more than you are giving yourself

credit for, actually. If it is all right with you, then please, continue doing the

good job that you are doing now.」

I think that from now on, whenever there will be something that I do not

know about, I will be asking Sherry about it. And since she is the smartest

one of our group, then I also think that entrusting her with the role of

information gathering might not be such a bad idea either. After all, if there is

someone who can do so efficiently and effectively, it is definitely her, since

neither Roxanne nor I do not have the predispositions for that kind of a

brainiac task. And as an added bonus, I might some more trust points with

Sherry by entrusting her with such an important Job and claiming that she is

the only one whom I can count on to do it.

「Yes, of course. Leave that to me!」

「Nice. However, you do not have to worry about anything for now. If the

Floor Boss we are about to face, this 「Pan」 is exactly like you said he is, then

my swords should be more than enough to defeat him with ease.」

「Because it has the 「MP Absorption」 Skill, so you will be able to drain him

from all of his MP by continuously attacking him?」

「That as well, but the main reason for why I am so confident is that this

weapon also has the 「Chant Interruption」 Skill.」

I said while showing Durandal off to Sherry.

「Huh? That sword also has 「Chant Interruption」 Skill embedded into it? I

thought it only had 「MP Absorption」, since you said that this is how you are

replenishing your lost MP when you are filling the bathtub. . . . . . . . . . . 」

「Because it does have 「MP Absorption」, but it also has 「Chant

Interruption.」

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . 」

When I told her that, Sherry gave me a look that could best be described as

something between 「Seriously?!」 and 「I can't even with this guy anymore」,

mixed with a little bit of fright and maybe even possibly disgust? I cannot say

for sure, but that was the vibe that I was getting from her current gaze. Uh,

Miss Sherry? Could you, maybe, just maybe stop looking at me like that?

What are you going to do if you end up getting addicted to it or your face

ends up getting permanately distorted with such an unappealing grimace?

「Is. . . . . . . . is that bad?」

「Uhm. . . . . . . . it is not that it is bad, but. . . . . how do I put it? As someone

who was aspiring to become a Master Smith, I do know that it is not

impossible for a single weapon or a piece of equipment to have more than

one Skill embedded into it, but it is just. . . . . . . . . 」

「So it is that unusual, huh?」

「Not unusual, but extremely risky. You remember what happens when the

process of infusing a weapon or a piece of equipment with a Skill fails,

right?」

「Yes, I remember. The weapon or equipment gets disassembled into its base

components, and the Skill Crystal used during the fusion process is lost.」

「Exactly. Now, with multiple Skills, it is even worse, because not only the

risk of failure of the fusion remains the same, but when the fusion does fail

and the thing that you wanted to infuse gets disassembled, then even if the

fusion of the first Skill Crystal was a success, you are going to lose both Skill

Crystals without any way of getting them back.」

So, what Sherry basically tries to say here is that if you get greedy with the

number of Skills that you want to attach to your weapon or equipment, you

are more than likely to regret it in the worst way possible. But since the

probability of failure is already quite huge when infusing your gear with only

one Skill Crystal, then you would either have to be incredibly brave or a very

special kind of stupid to go and take an even bigger risk just so that you could

maybe attach a second one to it.

Yeah, fusion of the Skill Crystals fails more often than not, and since I cannot

allow myself to lose even a single piece of equipment, I would never took

such an unnecessary risk unless I had some way of cheating out the odds in

such a way that the fusion would end up a guaranteed success. But since I do

not know of any such methods, my only option is to not engage in such

gambles. The way I see it now, the only people who would be willing to

gamble with their gear and resources like that have to be great eccentrics or

complete and utter fools. That was probably the true meaning behind

Sherry's gaze. Since she is someone who wanted to become a Master Smith,

then I wonder if she is able to tell exactly how many Skills are embedded in a

weapon simply by looking at it, or is she going to be able to do that only after

aquiring some special Skill? Whichever one of the two it may be, it would be

best if she obtained it later rather than sooner, when her trust in me is going

to increase.

「Well. . . . . . . . oh, would you look at that, the door opened. Then, shall we

go?」

Now that the door to the Boss Room has oh-so conveniently opened

themselves, I decided that it was no time like the present to make my escape

to avoid Sherry's further questioning. Geez, I think this might actually be the

first time when someone tried to escape from something into the Boss Room.

Heh, talk about being a pioneer in unexpected things. Maybe I should patent

that so that all the other people doing the same would have to pay me a

percentage of their money to utilize such a strategy? Yeah, right, as if that

was possible in this world where there is no such thing as a Patent Office.

「Understood. Lead the way, master.」

「Right.」

And we went through the now opened door right into the Boss Room. At the

beginning it was difficult for me to see anything through the dense clouds od

smoke, but when they finally dissipated, I could have a closer look at our

surroundings.

「Uwah. . . . . . .」

What I saw there has indeed surprised me, but not in a positive way.

The entire Boss Room has been littered with equipment. Counting all of the

swords, helmets, breastplates, gauntlet and legwear, there was probably more

than twenty of them just lying around. And among all of those pieces of

equipment left by the Adventurers and Explorers killed by the Floor Boss,

there stood a tall, muscular man with a muscular upper body and the lower

body covered by a beat-like fur.

A man? No, when I saw the pair of long horns protruding out of its head, I

understood that this was not a man, but the Floor Boss itself.

Part 5

Since it did not appear by emerging from the gathered clouds of green smoke,

then my guess is that he must have annihilated the Party that entered the Boss

Room before us. And as cruel as that may sound, I do not feel sorry for them.

Serves them right for casting their leecherous gazes upon my Roxanne.

Besides, they are not important at all right now. What is important is that the

beast has noticed our presence and was staring at us with its creepy eyes,

which were combining pretty nicely with its face, which was just as

disturbing, looking like a mask made of human skin that has been put on a

beastly head in a grotesque attempt to hide its real identity from the rest of

the world.

I already know what it is, but just to be sure. . . . . . Identify!

『Pan Lv.7』

Yup, the name matches its appearance perfectly. Pan, a monster that is halfhuman, half-goat, with goat's legs and horns.

「Be careful, master. It is going to be coming at us any moment now.」

「Yeah, no need to tell me that twice.」

The Floor Boss is standing right before us, amidst the piles of equipment

littering the floor. Its presence is truly imposing, and it does not look like he

has sustained any serious injuries during the battle with the Party that entered

this Boss Room before us, and that can only mean one thing: he annihilated

those scummy guys without much difficulty, and now that we are here, we

are definitely its next target.

This is just like what we have seen back on the seventh floor of the Labyrinth

of Quratar, when Roxanne and I entered the Boss Room and its Floor Boss,

Rapid Rabbit was already there, waiting for us, with the equipment of the guy

who just casually talked to us moments before tucked away in the corner of

the chamber. Ugh, what a bunch of unpleasant memories. And for them to be

flooding back to my mind now of all times. . . no, do not think about it now.

The enemy is right in front of you, so focus on defeating it first and foremost,

and worry about anything else later!

The previous Party has been wiped out, and that is a fact. That they were

looking at Roxanne with perverted eyes is also irrelevant. They were

probably thinking that they are going to defeat Pan with ease, and paid the

ultimate price for their overconfidence as a result. This reminds me about

what Sherry told us about 「The Demon of the Seventh Floor」: a phenomenon

in which the people who traverse the Labyrinths get overly confident and

lenient because of how easy the first few floors are to break through, which

makes them loosen their guard up on the seventh floor as well, because they

thinking that it will not be any different than what they were encountering on

the lower floors, and now that attitude proved their undoing. A very fitting

end for the ones who must have thought of themselves as all-powerful and

invincible. Granted, I have no way of knowing how exactly did their battle

went, but I imagine that they were unable to inflict any kind of wound onto

Pan's body. My only hope now is that we are not going to end up in the same

way as they did.

「Master, it is going to be attacking soon.」

「I see it. Roxanne, go to the front and prepare to intercept its attacks. Sherry,

all of that equipment on the ground is going to get in our way, so I want you

to push it as far to the sides as possible. Can you do that?」

「Of course!」

「All right then. . . . . . . . . . . . . attack!」

I issued the order for Roxanne and Sherry as fast as I could, and then we

rushed forward to meet Pan in the middle of the Boss Room. This is where

our battle with it starts. All distractions need to be cast aside, and eyes kept

only on the goal in front of us: defeating the Floor Boss, and the prize:

advancing to the next floor.

Even though it presumably wiped the floor with the people from the previous

Party, it would be strange if it was not even a little exhausted after fighting

six people at once. Then again, what kind of damage could a band of leechers

possibly hope to do to such a behemoth of an enemy, if all that could think

about as soon as they saw them were Roxanne's boobs? Probably none, or

miniscule at best. Oh do not get me wrong, I totally understand why would

they find Roxanne's chest to be so captivating. After all, it is enormous, and

the tight fit of her Leather Armor only serves to accentuate the curvature of

her body even further. But even if she is like that, allowing your mind to be

overwhelmed by perverted fantasies in the dungeon where even a moment's

distraction can cause you your life, so if someone like me can hold himself

from looking at Roxanne's boobs at Roxanne's boobs all the time while in

the Labyrinth, then the other people should be able to make the bloody effort

as well!

But even if that was indeed the case, Sherry called this beast 「the strongest

monster of all the Floor Bosses on the lower floors of the Labyrinths」, so

going against something like that while their minds were in horny mode was

entirely their mistake. I have to learn from that mistake of theirs and proceed

and fight it very carefully while keeping her words in mind.

The first order of business is to do something with all of the pieces of

equipment that litter the floor of the entire Boss Room, since they will only

impede our movements here if we will constantly be forced to jump around

between them just to avoid tripping and falling on our butts, which is why I

ordered Sherry to shove them all to the sides, where they are going to hinder

us no longer.

While Roxanne was in front of Pan occupying its attention and sherry was

moving around the room shoving the pieces of weapons and armor as far to

the sides as possible with the tip and the handle of her Copper Spear. Good.

Just imagine if any of those swords and other weapons ended up being sent

flying into the air at high speed. While she was doing that, I carefully made

my way to the side of the monster in order to ambush it. . . . . . . . . . but then

I saw that a red magic circle began glowing right under Pan's feet.

(Damn it! Taking out the big guns already?!)

According to Sherry's analysis, Pan's main way of attacking is 「a powerful

Area of Effect magic that might be too strong even for Miss Roxanne to evade

without sustaining any damage」. I was hoping that we will be able to keep it

occupied with close range combat for so long that it would not even be able

to whip out its trump card, but now that it has come to this, I absolutely

cannot allow it to finish chanting up that spell. If you think that I am going to

do the same kind of mistake that I did during the battle with the Beep Sheep,

then think again! I immediately jumped towards Pan, ready to strike at its

side with Durandal at any moment to interrupt his chanting, and I slashed it

diagonally down from the upper right shoulder down to the left corner of its

body while shouting 「Interrupt!」in my mind. I do not know if an action like

that is necessary for the Skill to take effect, but I am not taking any chances

with it.

As a result of my attack, Pan stumbled forward and fell onto the floor. I

expected it would maybe try to use a kick or something along those lines

since it was a half-human, half beast after all, but it looked like that was not

going to be the case. It. . . it looks like that is it. I think the battle is finished.

「One blow was all it took to defeat it, huh?」

As if to confirm my words, Pan's body exploded ito clouds of green smoke

and then dissipated shortly after.

「It would seem so.」

Roxanne commented while she got back to my side. I have to say, after

Sherry hyped it up as the strongest Floor Boss of all the lower floors, I was

certainly expecting something a bit more. . . . . . . . . challenging, I guess?

Part 6

With the way how the things played out, the only thing that I am capable of

saying is. . . . . . . . . . . .

「Eh? Already down? Weak.」

Yeah, that is it. I was honestly expecting it to put up a little bit more fight

than that. I mean seriously, one attack that interrupted its chanting process

and it is done? This is probably the most disappointed that I have felt in quite

a long while, if I am to be honest. Pan was supposed to be the strongest Floor

Boss among all of the Floor Bosses of the lower floors, but the Rapid Rabbit

from the seventh floor of Quratar's Labyrinth presented us with much more

of a challenge than this guy here. Because I will be damned, but her really

turned out to be quite a weakling.

Normally, even the Escape Goats, the regular enemies from the seventh floor,

do not go down in just one blow, and need two of them in order to be dealt

with. I do not really want to believe it, but as it stands, the Floor Boss that is

feared all those who possess the information about him. . . . . is weaker than

the regular enemy from his floor! I did not even think that something like that

could be possible!

When the smoke from Pan's death finally cleared, the only thing that was left

behind was his Drop Item, Goat's Meat. So even if it was a hybrid of a

human and a goat, the game still treated him as a goat when it came to

generating a Drop Item, huh? Well, I do not know if it is really a half-human,

half-goat hybrid, but that is how it looks to me, and that is why I am calling it

like that. In reality, it might be its own entirely separate thing, but I do not

care about that. Right now, the most important thing to me is that the piece of

Goat Meat that it dropped is rather big, so it is more than likely that it is

going to be enough for all three of us as an ingredient for today's dinner.

「For something that was supposed to be the strongest of the lower floors

Floor Bosses, it was really easy to beat. I thought it was going to last a little

longer than it did, but I guess not. Its movements were also really simple and

predictable, making it easy to block and dodge its attacks.」

「W-Well, I guess it might be thanks to that previous Party that went in here

before us. They must have weakened the boss to some extent.」

「I think that it might be exactly as master said, because normally Pan

definitely is not the kind of a Floor Boss that would go down with just a

single blow.」

Sherry said while picking up the Goat Meat from the floor.

I also think that I might have been to harsh on the people from that previous

Party, simply because their actions left me with the absolute worst kind of

first impression possible. When we came into the Boss Room, Pan did not

materialize in a cloud of smoke, but he was already waiting in there for us,

just like Slow Rabbit did when he defeated that lone Explorer guy whose gear

we took. This only happens when the Floor Boss defeats the Party that tried

to challenge him, and upon killing all of the current challengers, the door to

the Boss Room opens to let the next group of eager Adventurers and

Explorers in, and that also has to mean that whatever damage he has

sustained from the previous battle is not healed in between the groups of

challengers who enter the Boss Room, but rather, all of the wounds that the

Floor Boss has sustained and all of its lost HP carry over to the next

encounter, meaning that whoever comes in next is going to have a much

easier time in comparison to those who entered before them.

「I see. So that is why master was able to defeat is so easily? Well, if it means

that this nasty Party has been obliterated, then so much the better. That is an

outcome that I am willing to accept.」

Roxanne murmured with open hostility, and Sherry joined her while saying

「Divine Punishment on those who judge a woman by the size of her chest

alone!」Wow there girls, these guys are gone now, so I do not think there is

any need to be so hostile towards them now. It is not like they are going to

hear you and repent for their leecherousness in the afterlife, right?

(. . . . . . . . . . . . . .)

Normally I would have told them to calm down, but for some weird reason

they seemed to be more fired up than usual, which made them look kinda

scary, so I decided to drop the subject entirely.

「What about the equipment of these guys, Sherry? You did place it near the

walls like I instructed you to, right?」

「Of course, master. It is all over there.」

Sherry said, pointing towards the wall of the Boss Room. I walked up to the

pile of gear and started examining the things that these guys left behind one

by one, starting with what looked like a bunch of two-handed Copper

Swords.

(Okay, let me see what do we have here. . . . Identify.)

{Two-Handed Copper Sword of Obstruction}

Skills: Chant Delay

A total of four Two-Handed Copper Swords of Obstruction, each one of them

equipped with a 「Chant Delay」 Skill.

「So it is not that they just stormed in here unprepared, huh? They were

prepared for the enemy they wanted to face, but in the end they all ended up

dying anyway, huh?」

「You can tell if a weapon has a Skill embedded into it just by looking at

them?!」

Sherry looked up at me with her eyes shining with that knowledge-hungry

light of hers. Uh-huh, was that perhaps something that I should not have said?

Is it something that people cannot normally do? Because I definitely did not

want what I just said to sound as if I was bragging about it or anything. . . . . .

but on second thought, you know what? Screw it. Identify is one of my

Bonus Skill, so allow me to take pride in at least that much!

「Yeah, that is right! I. . . . . . . . 」

「Ohhh, so you must have used Identify Weapon without chanting, right?!」

I confirmed Sherry's words, but before I could boast about it some more she

arrived at her own conclusion, completely overshadowing me. I mean, she

basically arrived at pretty much the same thing that I wanted to say, but still,

how quickly she lost interest in it has cut me to the core. I wanted her to be

amazed and tell me how amazing I am, but she denied me that simple

pleasure. Damn it!

「As expected of master! You never stop to amaze me!」

Ahh, at least Roxanne remains my one and only surefire oasis of praise

whenever I need it the most. . . . . . but back to the subject at hand.

Usually, weapon appraisal is performed exclusively by the owners of the

Weapon Shops, people who possess the Weapon Merchant Job, so I think it is

best to assume that Identify Weapon is a Skill that they possess, so it would

be perfectly reasonable that I should be capable of doing the exact same thing

if I had the Weapon Merchant Job, so maybe that is what Sherry assumed.

However, that assumption of hers is wrong, because I have not unlocked the

Weapons Merchant Job yet, even though I have already bought and sold a

fair share of weapons and armor. Maybe one of the requirements for

obtaining it is to increase the level of my Merchant Job? And also, just for the

record, what I did was Identify. Just your plain Identify. Not Identify

Weapon, just Identify. But that got me thinking: if Weapon Merchants can

have Identify Weapon Skill used for the purpose of appraising weapons, then

I wonder if armor can only be appraised by Armor Merchants with the

Identify Armor Skill? Not that it matters to me anyway, because my Identify

allows me to appraise weapons, armor, and even people.

「Sherry, give me a little refresher here. 「Chant Delay」does exactly what the

name suggests: it delays the process of casting a Skill or a Spell, correct?」

「Yes, exactly. And weapons infused with that Skill are going to have exactly

the same effect.」

Part 7

「In that case, do you have any ideas why did the previous Party that tried

challenging Pan ended up dying anyway, even though most of their Party

members came equipped with the weaponry that had 「Chant Delay」on it?」

「Usually 「Chant Delay」should work without any issues, but maybe they

simply were unable to delay Pan's magic attacks with just the four of them?」

「Five of them, it would seem.」

Sherry said while presenting me with another Two-Handed Copper Sword of

Obstruction that she was holding in her hands. So, their Party had five people

with weapons that had 「Chant Delay」added onto them, but it was still not

enough to stop Pan from casting his magic, huh? Oh, and by the way, the last

member of that Party must have been a Mage, Monk or Perhaps a Priest

focused on Healing Magic, because the other weapon I found just lying

around here was a Wand.

「Five people with 「Chant Delay」 were not enough to contain the Floor

Boss's magic? I have to say, that it pretty terrifying.」

「Indeed it is, but it is not our problem right now. However well prepared

these guys might have been, they were bad people, and bad people are always

going to get what is coming to them.」

「You can say that again, Sherry. That is the price hot-headed morons pay for

getting in over their heads.」

Aaaand the girls are still holding a grudge against the members of that Party.

Come on now, you two. These guys are dead now, so there is no use in

continuing to berate them like that since they already got what was coming to

them, but. . . . . . . .

Pan was wounded to the point where all that it took to defeat him was a

single blow from Durandal, which means that these guys had to be doing

pretty well for the most of their battle. But in that case, what was the thing

that sealed the deal for them? Was it some kind of accident during battle, or

perhaps Pan was able to activate his AoE magic attacks continuously because

the five of them were unable to delay it enough to stop him from finishing the

chant?

「That just goes to show that even though information and strategy are very

useful things to have in the Labyrinths, relying on them too much might be as

bad as not relying on them enough, because one accident or misstep can still

lead to failure all the same. That is why it is important to always steadily

increase your own abilities so that you would not fail when the situation

would call for you to act.」

「Yeah, I suppose.」

「I promise that I will always do my best, master!」

Sherry nodded with an ambiguous answer, while Roxanne gave me a

passionate one.

「Now, I am simply wondering, but. . . . . what happened to the bodies of

those six guys? Because it was not that much time between them getting

killed and us entering the Boss Room, but when we went inside there was

already no one there.」

「That is because the corpses of those who are killed by monsters or die in the

Labyrinth for any other reason are quickly getting digested by it.」

Sherry explained as she kept on bringing the other pieces of equipment to me

so that I could appraise them. This time it was the gauntlets. If what she said

about the digestion of the corpses was true, then that is truly terrifying,

because not only there are no bodies left here in the room, but there are not

even any traces of these guys being here, not even a singular bloodstain left

on the floor or the walls. If it was not for their equipment that was littering

the floor of the Boss Room, I would have probably not even notice that

someone was in the Boss Room before us.

「What about the equipment then? Why is it not getting digested along with

those who were holding it?」

「Because unlike the bodies of Adventurers and Explorers, equipment and

weapons are treated by the Labyrinths as the undigestable foreign bodies.」

「Really?」

「Yes. Moreover, just because it is undigestable, it does not mean that the

Labyrinths are not going to try and consume those items anyway, only to spit

them back up after a while.」

Speaking of which, the equipment of those who died in the Labyrinth gets

turned into a treasure chest, so maybe that is how the Labyrinths are dealing

with those foreign bodies that they are unable to digest? By spitting them

back out towards the surface in the shape of mound-like earthen sacks that

got dubbed as the treasure chests over time? Anyway, that is how it is: human

bodies get eaten without leaving anything back while equipment gets vomited

back up and then left for others to find while they are on their way through

the Labyrinth's halls.

「That is right. It is precisely because they are foreign bodies to the Labyrinth

that it takes so much time for it to process them into treasure chests, and that

is also why they are so rare no matter which Labyrinth you go to.」

I see. So that is why we can claim any piece of equipment that has been left

by the previous Party that failed to defeat the Floor Boss. It is because the

Labyrinth needs way more time to process the equipment into treasure chests

than it needs to process the bodies of Adventurers in order to continue to

grow up that we can simply walk in, defeat the Floor Boss and claim all of

the spoils present in the room before they get absorbed into the ground.

「That being said, it does not really feel right to be using the equipment of

someone who died wearing it literal moments ago, so maybe we should just

go and sell all of it?」

That previous Party did not have any useful pieces of armor aside from

Leather Gloves and Leather Boots, but I think that since all of those TwoHanded Copper Swords of Obstruction have 「Chant Delay」 placed onto

them, then we should be able to get ourselves some pretty nice money for

them.

「Anything that belonged to a defeated Party belongs to the Party that kills the

Floor Boss, so now that we defeated Pan, it is okay to not think about this

equipment as the one who belonged to that awful previous Party and start

think about it as our own. Once we get back home I will make sure to give all

of them a thorough maintenance, so it should be okay for us to be using the

pieces that seem useful and sell the ones that we will not need.」

As usual, Roxanne is such an equipment maintenance freak. Well, since she

says that it should be all right for us to take all of it, then I guess that is how it

really must be. Ne of the other pieces of equipment that remained after the

annihilated Party was a single piece of Leather Armor, but right now we have

no need for it, because all three of us already have their own pieces of armor

that we are currently using. Sherry was the one who found and presented it to

me, but no matter how hard I try to justify her using it my head, I just. . . . . I

cannot find any reasons in favor of it, not when I have Roxanne right next to

me, who is also wearing exactly the same Leather armor to a much more. . . .

bombastic effect.

「. . . . . . . . . . ??? What is it, master? Is something troubling you?」

「N-No, not exactly. . . it is. . . . it is just that I thought that we will have to

sell this Leather Armor here, since we do not need another copy of the same

one we already have, since no one of us is going to be using it. . . that is all.」

Yeah, that is all I am going to say about it. I do not want to say anything else,

and I do not want to even think about it.

「Certainly, mine are small, but. . . . . . . . . . . 」

However, Sherry, being a smart girl that she is, was able to catch onto what I

was thinking by saying it like that, and was now staring at her own chest with

a look of disappointment painted all over her face.

Part 8

Girl, do you have to be so hung up on that particular thing?! Because right

now you are just making it look like you are simply paranoid when it comes

to the size of your tits!

Aside from all the equipment, upon closer inspection of our surroundings we

have also found six Magic Crystals lying around: One Blue Magic Crystal,

one Red Magic Crystal, one Purple Magic Crystal, and the last three of them

Black. Looks like the three of the members of that Party did not even defeat

enough monsters for their Magic Crystals to turn Red, or perhaps they sold

the other Magic Crystals they had on them and just got themselves the new

ones. I placed all of the items into my Item Box, and like that, we were

finally ready to leave the Boss Room behind and advance to the eighth floor.

However. . . .

「You know what? It is not like there is any need for us to do it, but since this

was essentially not even half of the Floor Boss battle. . . . . would either of

you have something against us attempting this battle one more time, but

properly this time? The three of us, fighting Pan from start to finish?」

「Personally, I do not think there are going to be any downsides to

experiencing this Floor Boss battle fully. Moreover, that way we will be able

to see how strong Pan really is, and getting more experienced with fighting

against strong opponents is always a good thing.」

「Since I did not have the chance to properly participate in the battle against

Pan this time, I would like to have another go at it as well so that I could get a

hang of its attack patterns. That is, if that is okay with master as well.」

I guess it would have been better if I did not say anything, but now that I

have opened my mouth, I guess I have to go through with what I said from

start to finish. Ah well, we already know what the Boss' weaknesses are, so

we should be okay.

Unfortunately, the Boss Rooms are designed in such a way that once you

clear them, the only way you can go is forward, not back, so after we got to

the eighth floor, I used Dungeon Walker to move us back to the small room

before the seventh floor's Boss Room's waiting room, because as much as I

wanted to get us to the waiting room directly, it looks like that is impossible

as well, at least with Dungeon Walker. I have a lingering suspicion that it

could have been possible if I decided to use Warp to get us there, but since

there is a possibility that other people might already be gathered there, it

would be bad if they saw us doing something that technically should not be

possible, so for our own safety, it would be better to do everything the

「normal」 way.

「Master, if I may, there is something that I would like to discuss with you.」

Roxanne pulled on my sleeve when we got out of the Dungeon Walker's

portal.

「Sure thing, Roxanne. What is it?」

It must have been something serious, because Roxanne was looking me right

in the eyes with a look of stern determination on her face.

「Since Pan is a type of monster whose magic attacks can be stopped by

master's sword and its physical attacks are simplistic and easy to avoid, then.

. . . would it be all right if I tried using my racial Skill during the next battle?」

By her racial Skill she must mean. . . Beast Warrior's 「Beast Attack」? Since

you have no choice but to remain completely stationary throughout the

chanting process, I guess she really did not have any chance to actually use it,

since I always asked her to take position at the front of the battle so that she

could focus the monsters aggro on herself with her superb dodging skills.

「Hmm, let me see. . . . Sherry, can I entrust Pan's front to you? You should

be okay since you wanted to get a hang of his attack patterns, right? Then for

that next battle with it, you are going to be occupying its attention while

Roxanne will be using her Skill. Once Pan starts chanting spells of its own,

simply leave it to me to take care of that, okay?」

「Roger that, master. I will do my best to meet your expectations!」

Sherry exclaimed while giving me an affirmative nod. But I have to wonder. .

. . . . . . is she really going to be all right, or was she only saying that so that I

would not get disappointed with her?

「Okay, that is settled then. Roxanne, as soon as you get the chance to do so,

feel free to go ahead and try using your Skill.」

「Yes, thank you very much!」

Now that I have given Roxanne my permission to try her Skill, she was in

such a good mood that she actually started wagging her tail left and right.

Wow, she must have really been dying to try it out. And in this particular

situation, there was no reason whatsoever for me to forbid her from using

「Beast Attack」. If she has that Skill available and she is sure that she will be

able to use it, then allowing her to use it was hands down the only option

here. Who knows, once I see how that Skill of hers actually looks, maybe it

will turn out that it is going to be a good one to be used in case of

emergencies or the most dire of situations? We have nothing to lose here, and

if it is to be Roxanne's trump card, then it will be better to have it tested in an

actual battle that we know we can win instead of using it in desperation after

being driven into a corner with no other alternatives. And since Pan is

primarily using AoE magic attacks that take a good moment to fully chant,

then we will not have any better chances to conduct a fully controlled test like

that.

「Well then, let us be on our way.」

When we moved into the waiting room, it was conveniently empty, so with

no one there to interrupt us, we went ahead and approached the door to the

Boss Room, which opened on their own, inviting us to go inside.

This time, Sherry and I stood in front and Roxanne was in the back, and our

plan was to surround Pan from three sides so that Sherry and I would keep on

distracting it with our attacks, giving Roxanne a chance to chant her Skill and

use「 Beast Attack」. Sherry was the first one to attack him with her Club from

the front, while I slashed him diagonally across the back with Durandal. And

since it did not look like those two attacks of ours have inflicted any kind of

major damage upon it, it would seem that our assumption about Pan here on

the seventh floor must have been correct: it is not so weak as to be defeated

with a single blow, so that previous Party truly must have been this close to

defeating it before it killed all of them. While we were busy keeping Pan off

of Roxanne, she began reciting the chant for her Skill.

「As a. . . . . warrior? As a warrior of X X beasts. . . . . . . 」

(Hmm?)

「. . . . . . . . . . unleash my X X power.」

(Huh?)

「Mortal Blow. . . . . Beast Attack! ! ! ! ! !」

Roxanne chanted. . . . . . . . if we can even call that a chant, the incantation for

her Skill and then swung her Scimitar down on Pan. Did it work? No, no, no,

of course it did not work, since the chant was so poorly done that parts of it

were not even properly translated, meaning that Roxanne must have botched

them horribly. Her attack still connected with the enemy, but it did not look

any different from her usual attacks, so it obviously did not work, no two

ways about it.

「Hmm. . . . . . . . it failed, huh? Brahim sure is a difficult language to use in

the heat of battle.」

「Even if you failed now, it is still okay. What is important is for the words to

be appearing in your mind on their own so that you could recite them

naturally. So try one more time, but slowly, and try to speak each word

loudly and clearly without worrying about the speed of your chanting. Sherry

and I have you covered, so take as much time as you need!」

Part 9

Taking advantage of Pan's attention being occupied by Sherry, I got to

Roxanne's side and gave her as precise instructions about chanting as I

possibly could. Just like I told her, the words for the chant itself should be

appearing in her mind naturally and on their own, and she should be speaking

them loudly and clearly. Now let us see if she understood what I was trying

to tell her.

「As a warrior? of amaraha beasts, unleash. . . . X X. . . . X X X. . . . . . ah,

wait, I think I know this one! It should be 「unleash my full power」 . . . . . . . .

. probably. I think so.」

Since most of what she said got properly translated to me, then I guess this

time we have to be on the right track.

「Okay, that sounds great and all, but what does 「Amaraha」 mean, exactly?」

I think that one word is still something that she got wrong, because that does

not sound like any word that I know of, which probably means that it still did

not get translated properly. If it was a legitimate Brahmin language word,

than the game's system would have swapped it for the Japanese equivalent of

it so that I could fully understand what it meant, so if I want Roxanne's Skill

to work, I think I have to help her correct her wording mistake. In the

meantime, another red magic circle appeared under Pan's feet, so I slashed

him again in order to interrupt his chant and allow Roxanne to continue

figuring her own chant in peace.

「「Amaraha」. . . . . . . no, I feel like that is not it. 「Amarama」? 「Araraha」?

Ugly. . . . hideous. . . . unsightly. . . . . . 」

「Ugly? Hideous? Unsightly? Uhm, Roxanne? Why are you throwing out

insults in the middle of the chant brainstorm?」

「Oh, I am sorry if you took it that way, master. It is just that the word that I

am looking for sounds kind of like that, but at the same time, not quite.」

Same, but not quite? I am afraid that I completely lost track of what she was

talking about, but it is true than when she began translating those words from

Brahim, I was able to properly catch their meanings.

「The thing is, master, that in the context of the chant the words that I am

looking for would have to mean something along the lines of 「unsightly

Beast Warrior」, however, as far as I know there is no such thing as an

「unsightly Beast Warrior?」

Maybe it was translated that by chance? Or that was the closest thing to the

original meaning in Brahim language? I though about it while jumping

around Pan's lower body which I was slashing with my sword whenever he

was summoning the magic circle and resuming the chanting process all over

again, and then at one point, a certain thought occurred to me.

「Then. . . . . . then maybe instead of 「unsightly」 the word that you are

looking for is actually 「formidable」?」

「So like. . . . . . . 「Amuraha」?」

Roxanne repeated the word that I just spoke, but in Brahim language.

「Yes, formidable.」

「For. . . . . . . mi. . . . . dable. . . . . ?」

And then slowly, syllable by syllable, she repeated the word I said in the

common language.

「What does that mean?」

「It is an archaic way of describing someone who is powerful in the country

where I am coming from.」

And also an obvious issue with translation, if you were to ask me. But since

the magic circle under Pan's feet got activated again, I had no choice but to

explain that to Roxanne in the middle of dealing with it. That is as far as the

semantics go. But when it comes to translating the Brahim language into the

one used here in the game's world and translating it into Japanese for me and

the other way around, it was clear as day that the game's language interface

cannot handle words with multiple or possible archaic meanings very well.

「How do you even know such archaic words, master?! Pretty much no one

uses them anymore these days!」

Sherry shouted without taking her eyes off of Pan, focused entirely on

blocking the physical attacks which he was raining down on her when he was

not trying to recast its magic attacks. But Roxanne was definitely right about

him: even though his magic attacks are said to be formidable, his physical

attacks were rather easy to predict and learn, not to mention that that they

were pretty much all telegraphed by some sort of additional movement that

allowed you to properly differentiate between what kind of attack was

coming, giving you more than enough time to either dodge in the right

direction or prepare an adequate counter. For an observant fighter, or the one

skilled at dodging, these kinds of attacks were really not as severe as his

initial impression would suggest. Now that he was simply trying to slam his

fists into Sherry's Club, which she was now holding horizontally while in a

defensive stance, this provided a great opportunity for Roxanne to fix up her

chant and (hopefully) finish casting the Skill.

「W-Well. . . . . . . . . . . 」

But when it comes to the question that Sherry shouted at me, I could not find

any words that would make for an answer that would be convincing enough

for someone as inquisitive as she was. My only saving grace here was that

this time the words managed to be properly translated, because otherwise I

probably would have to prepare a much more convincing excuse than that

dismissive 「W-Well. . . . . . . . . . 」of mine.

「As a. . . . . . warrior? of formidable beasts, unleash my full power. Mortal

Blow. . . . . . . Beast Attack!」

Taking my advices into account, Roxanne recited her modified chant, and

then tried to unleash Beast Attack once more. However, since there was still

some hesitation in her words, it looked like the resulting attack was a failure

as well. Looks like the Skill will not be properly activated if even a small part

of it is phrased like a question. She needs to have absolute conviction in the

words that she is saying, or else she is just going to be failing over and over

again. A red magic circle has appeared under Pan's feet once more, so I

hurriedly slashed him with Durandal to stop him dead in his tracks.

「What is wrong, Miss Roxanne?!」

「The Skill does not want to work, probably because I am still making a

mistake somewhere. And it does not help that Brahim is such a difficult

language.」

「Well, you said it. It is Brahim, so it cannot really be helped.」

To me the mistake she makes is clear as day. She needs to stop saying the

word warrior with a question mark at the end. In that case. . . yeah, maybe

that is going to work. I do not know for sure, but it is definitely worth a try.

「Roxanne, try doing something like this: instead of saying warrior (senshi),

try pronouncing it as warrior(mononofu) and try to make the chant rhyme.」

I suggested that to Roxanne while shaking Durandal at Pan, who was trying

to prepare another magical attack. As for the exact meaning of what warrior

(mononofu, or mononofu no yose to be exact) means, it is a makurakotoba

(TL Note: figures of speech used in Japanese waka poetry in which

epithets are used in association with certain words) describing a samurai

similar to Chiyahaburu or Tarachine no Haha or other similar nonsense

phrases present especially in Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (TL Note: a classical

Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese waka by one hundred

poets. Hyakunin isshu can be translated to "one hundred people, one

poem [each]"; it can also refer to the card game of uta-garuta, which uses

a deck composed of cards based on the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.)

「Warrior (mononofu)?」

「I think that the word master used means warrior (senshi), but the meaning

he has in mind is probably really outdated.」

Sherry gave Roxanne another pointer.

Part 10

Feel free to think whatever you want about the actuality of the words that I

am using, but as long as you make Roxanne understand and say the chant for

「Beast Attack」 in a proper way, then I really will not give a damn about it.

「As a warrior (mononofu). . . . . . . . . yes, that might be it!」

Roxanne closed her eyes, took a couple of deep breaths and the began to redo

the chant.

「As a warrior born of formidable beasts, unleash my full power and grant it

to me! Mortal Blow. . . . BEAST ATTACK! ! ! ! ! !!」

Roxanne shouted, and slammed the Scimitar into Pan's body with visibly

more force than before, and twice as much speed. I do not think if describing

it like that is going to be accurate, but. . . . . but I think that for a moment

there she was moving so fast that I had lost her from my sight for a split

second. Could it really be that this Skill of hers made it possible for her to

move so fast and hit so hard with just the momentum alone? And speaking of

hitting hard. . . . .

Instead of slashing through Pan in an instant, Roxanne's Scimitar dug itself

into his guts, and moved forward after a few solid seconds of being

embedded inside of him, after which the sheer impact of the blow the tore his

side wide open send him tumbling into the nearby wall that he then bounced

off of it, landing on the ground pretty hard.

「Ohhh!!! Just now, that was. . . . . . . . . .!!!!!」

「YES! I did it, master! It was a success!!!!!!」

「Yeah. . . . yeah, you can say that again, Roxanne. That attack just now was

really something.」

「Amazing! You were so cool just now, Miss Roxanne!!!」

Sherry was absolutely right to be amazed. If nothing else, the attack that

Roxanne executed just now certainly deserved to be called life threatening. If

an ordinary human were to be hit by something like that, they would

probably either dropped dead on the spot or be cleaved cleanly in half. Even

looking at if from the outsider's perspective, the difference between 「Beast

Attack」's and regular attack's power and speed was plain to see even with

the eye of someone who has nothing to do with Labyrinths and adventuring

on a daily basis.

So yeah. Roxanne called the successful execution of her 「Beast Attack」 a

success, but I would go even further than that. It was a great success, no, a

tremendous success.

In a last-ditch effort, Pan tried initiating his magic attack one last time, but as

soon as I saw that the red magic circle formed under its body, I ran up to him,

looked him in the eyes with a look that was saying 「Thanks for your hard

work」 and I swung Durandal down on him, finally killing him. He

immediately turned into a burst of green smoke and disappeared.

「Once again, Roxanne: that was a magnificent attack.」

「Thank you very much, master, but I would not have been able to do it

without your and Sherry's help. You have my sincerest gratitude for helping

me figure out the right chant for 「Beast Attack」 to work, and keeping Pan

occupied long enough for me to be able to finish casting it.」

「Of course! Just say the word and I will gladly help you again, Miss

Roxanne!」

「What she said, basically.」

Based on my observations, a single hit from 「Beast Attack」 does the damage

that should be roughly equivalent to two regular strikes from Durandal,

meaning that this Skill was something that could allow even a regular

weapon such as the Scimitar to deal damage similar to the one done by the

weapon known as the Holy Sword. Roxanne is going to be fighting in the

vanguard for the most time so she will probably not have all that many

occasions to be actually using that Skill, but nevertheless, it is a good thing to

know that she has something that powerful in her arsenal of available Skills.

「Miss Roxanne, I knew you were an amazing fighter, but that was an entirely

different kind of amazing!」

「Thank you for you kind words, Sherry. You were also amazing, holding out

against the strongest of the Floor Bosses of the lower floors all on your own.」

Roxanne shared her joy with Sherry, who then walked to the place where Pan

disappeared and picked up his Drop Item: another huge piece of Goat Meat,

and promptly handed it back to me. Coupled with that previous Goat Meat

we obtained from our first battle with Pan, I think we now have more than

enough meat to last us for a few days, so I think tomorrow will be a good

occasion to prepare some Genghis Khan (TL Note: also known as

Jingisukan or Mongolian Barbecue. It is a Japanese-style grilled lamb

meat dish popular mainly on Hokkaido and in China)

「On another note, master. Your knowledge of the Brahim language is truly

incredible. If it was not for your hints, I would have never thought of using

archaic forms of modern words while preparing the Skill chant. I should have

expected nothing less from you!」

「Nah, you are giving me way too much credit than I actually deserve. I just

knew a few old words and I thought that they might just work, so I threw

them your way to try them out.」

「You might say that, but trust me master, knowledge of the old words and

expressions in Brahim language is kind of a huge deal.」

「Well, if you say so.」

I wonder if Sherry's opinion of me increased a little bit more thanks to that?

Then again, I only know Brahim because I basically cannot see the

distinction between Brahim and Japanese, my native language, so I feel like I

should not be just going around claiming to have mastered it to God knows

how big of a degree if I want to stay out of trouble in regards to it, like I have

been doing up until now.

「However, there is one thing that I do regret. Even though we have fought

properly against Pan, who was supposed to be the strongest of the lower

floors Floor Bosses, the battle still ended too quickly for my liking. I tried to

do my best, but even so, I was still unable to fully grasp all of its attack

patterns.」

So it is hopeless after all, huh? Instead of praising me some more for my

knowledge of Brahim, Sherry was focused only on the fact that she was not

able to study Pan's attack patterns and movements as thoroughly as she

wanted. And with her complaining like that, we have finally proceeded to the

eighth floor. From here on out, monsters are going to start showing up in

groups of up to four of them, so we should make sure that we are going to be

as careful as we possibly can be. For the time being, I think that the best

course of action will be to continue having Roxanne and Sherry in the

vanguard so that I could support them with my magic from the relative safety

of the backlines. If such a setup worked nicely so far, then I do not see any

need to change it anytime soon.

「Since we are on an entirely new floor, then let us do the usual thing where

we kick things off by picking a fight with a smaller group of enemies first,

okay?」

「Okay! *Sniff Sniff* *Sniff Sniff* Looks like there is a small group of

Collagen Corals nearby. 」

「Collagen Corals, huh?」

After I instructed Roxanne about what we are going to be doing, she used her

sense of smell and immediately located the nearest group of enemies. The

monsters native to the eighth floor of the Labyrinth in Vale seem to be

Collagen Corals.

「Is there any way for us to gain knowledge about the monsters from specific

floors of the Labyrinths?」

「There is a number of ways, actually. We can do that by asking the Explorer

standing at the entrance to the Labyrinth, from the Explorer's Guild in Vale,

and from the Explorer's Guild in Quratar.」

「Well, I know that much, but to be honest, I am not interested in getting to

know about them in detail, or at least not yet. For the time being, I am going

to be fully satisfied with knowing which monsters appear on which floors.」

Part 11

Under a different set of circumstances, Sherry's advice would have been

pretty useful, if not for its one, blatant weakness: if we really tried asking the

Explorer at the entrance to the Labyrinth or in any of the Explorer's Guilds

about the monsters inhabiting specific floors, the only thing they would have

been able to tell us would be what types of monsters are there, and that kind

of information gives us jack shit, to say it lightly.

What good would the information about the types of monsters be if they do

not tell you what are their weaknesses, the attack patterns they are going to

use and how to deal with them in the best way possible? For example, we

have fought against Collagen Coral before so we already know that even if

their levels are higher we can deal with them without any kind of trouble, but

the same cannot be said about the monsters that we have never fought before.

If we happened upon such monsters, we would have no choice but to go back

to the good old strategy of hitting it until it dies to figure out where it is best

to hit it and what its attack patterns actually are, so if possible, I would like to

learn about such monsters first, and for that, Sherry would be an ideal source

of information. . . . . . . . assuming that she possesses the knowledge about

most of the monsters that can be encountered in the Labyrinths of course.

「Haaaaa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 」

「Sherry, in the future, can I ask you to gather all the information about the

monsters from the Labyrinths that you possibly can for us?」

Instead of worrying about that myself I decided that it is going to be best if I

pushed that problem onto Sherry, who sighed heavily and gave me a really

tired look. But really Sherry, stop looking at me in such a disappointed way,

or it will really become a habit and your face is going to stay permanently

distorted like that! This is fine with you, right? You are not suddenly going to

say that you do not want to do this because this is too much work for just one

person, right?

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . All right. I will take care of it.」

She nodded and agreed to my request, but her look when she was doing that

was somewhat cold. At this point, it was hard for me to tell if she was doing

that because she truly meant it, or just because she was trying to screw with

me a little. Either way, when she was looking at me with such eyes, Sherry

was well and truly scary.

「O-Okay, now our biggest issue to resolve should be: what are we going to

do once four monsters start showing up?」

「Hmm, let me see. . . . we could split it in the following ways: three monsters

for me and one for Sherry or two monsters for me, two for Sherry, or I could

handle two of them at once while Sherry and master would take one each. Or

if you want. . . . . .」

「Uhm. . . master? Miss Roxanne?」

All of a sudden, Sherry raised her hand, interrupting Roxanne mid-sentence.

「There is something that I would have liked to try. Is. . . is that all right with

you?」

Ohh? Could it be that Sherry has come up with some kind of new way to deal

with our current situation? Roxanne clearly had something ore to say, but if

Sherry has an idea as well, then I am more than eager to hear her out.

「Of course, Sherry. What is it?」

「Normally, hammers and clubs are the kind of weapons that you are

supposed to be swinging with all your strength at all times, and their biggest

standout trait is that they can be used to attack multiple monsters at once due

to how big they are. If I could learn how to utilize that tactic properly, then I

am sure that I could take two monsters on at the same time, just like Miss

Roxanne.」

That was something that I have legitimately had no idea about. I mean, I

knew that hammers and clubs have a pretty long reach, but to think that they

had such an awesome advantage? If what Sherry says is true and she could

learn to utilize such a handy technique, then that would really solve all of my

problems with how to divide the responsibility of fighting four monsters at

once, because that way the only division we would ever need would be

Roxanne against two monsters, Sherry against the other two and myself

acting as a support at the rearguard, where I would be relatively safe from

harm. It would literally be like killing two birds with one stone!

「I see. So, do you want to try practicing that right now?」

「I do, but the ideal situation to test this out would be when the monsters will

be all crowded together, so I am going to try this when we will find a group

of four monsters. If it is not a problem for master of course.」

「Of course it will not be a problem. If this is what you want, then that is

going to be the setting we are going to go with for the time being. Roxanne?

First guide us to the place with a few monsters as a warm-up on this floor,

and after that, let us search for a group of four of them so that Sherry could

test her idea.」

「On it, master!」

As expected of Roxanne, she is always so cooperative. Going along with my

ideas is one thing, but I am so happy to see that she is ready and willing to

help sherry as well. Thank you, Roxanne. You truly are the best slave a guy

could ask for. If Sherry manages to get a hang of the technique she was

talking about fast enough, it is going to tremendously increase the flexibility

of our Party.

When the first group of Collagen Corals appeared, I got rid of all of them

pretty much effortlessly thanks to my magic. Even though the monsters here

on the eighth floor take as much as five shots of it to be taken down, at my

current level I do not feel like that is much at all. To be honest, the Lv.7

enemies on the seventh floor in Quratar's Labyrinth felt like they were

tougher to beat than Lv.8 enemies here in Vale's Labyrinth, and just to

remind you, they were the friggin Slow Rabbits! So even though we just

defeated what was universally referred to as the strongest monster of the

lower floors, it does not mean that the regular monsters on the eighth floor

got drastically stronger in comparison to their counterparts from the lower

floors, which bodes really well for the future.

The next group of three enemies was also easily defeated by Roxanne and

Sherry's combined efforts, and then finally a group that we happened upon

after that was the one we were looking for: the one consisting of four

monsters at the same time, three Collagen Corals and one Escape Goat. The

presence of the Escape Goat is going to make this encounter that much more

awkward, but at this point there is nothing that we can really do about it

besides rolling with it.

「Roxanne, go and handle the right side, the one with the Collagen Coral and

the Escape Goat! Sherry, you go and take out the other two!」

I gave the girls my instructions as I launched two Fire Storms towards the

monsters. Even if I wanted to fire more of them, this is as much as I can do,

because the third Fire Storm would likely drop the Escape Goats HP to such a

level that it would have started to run away, and that is not what I want at all.

I want all four of the enemies to stay together, exactly like they are now, so

that Sherry could get some practice with her Club swinging.

Roxanne and Sherry engaged the monsters. Sherry swung her Club and hit

the first Collagen Coral from the left, but when she wanted to continue the

swinging motion so that the strike could be carried onto the second Collagen

Coral, she was unable to do so, because the edge of her Club stopped soon

after it came into contact with the second Collagen Coral's round body, and it

used that chance to jump up to Sherry and ram itself into her.

Part 12

「It looks like it is just how I was afraid it would be. I cannot swing the Club

like I usually do.」

「Is it too difficult for you to do after all?」

In theory, Sherry said that it is possible to execute the swing of a hammer or a

club in such a way that you could strike two monsters at once with one

swing, but that was just that: a theory. The practice, however, was a whole

other can of worms altogether. Just because she should be able to hit the two

monsters with her Club because she has high enough STR to pull something

like that off, it does not necessarily mean that she will be able to pull through

with that. I think Sherry really should be able to do that, but she cannot focus

her entire attention on the beginning of the swing alone.

「In order to execute the technique properly I have to continue the swing past

the first monster and onto the second one, but by doing so I am losing the

momentum, which means that the swing's full power cannot reach the second

monster!」

Yes, that is exactly the problem here. Which is why she should take a

different approach to it, mainly:

「With the next strike, try to do the following thing: instead of putting all of

your strength into hitting the first monster, try just to graze it with the tip of

your club instead! A direct impact will do nothing but absorb all of the

energy put into executing it, leaving you with no momentum to hit the second

strike properly!」

I shouted to Sherry as I hurriedly used 「Medical Treatment」 on her and then

re-applied 「Plating」, after which I used the third Fire Storm, catching all four

enemies with it once more, Escape Goat included. As expected, now that it

has been hit with another shot of Fire Storm and its HP dropped below a

certain level, it was preparing to make an escape. Normally it would have

been a bad thing, because without firing another shot of magic right after the

previous one there would be almost no chance for us to get it due to the sheer

distance it could cover in a matter of seconds, but in the current

circumstances, this might actually be a big chance for us.

Since the group we are currently fighting is made out of four monsters, the

Escape Goat does not have as much room to maneuver. Roxanne and Sherry

manipulated the positioning of the enemies in such a way that the three

Collagen Corals blocked one of its paths of escape, and Roxanne was

standing near the other, meaning that if it wanted to try that route, it would

have to go through her first, and I know that now that she had it right where

she wanted, there was no way she would allow it to slip past her.

The goat tried to back up to the point where there were no monsters next to it

and looked around, searching for other possible corridors where it could try

to run. But it found no such thing. And even if it did, escaping through one of

them would still take it some time, and time was the one thing that it needed,

but did not have. Because Roxanne and Sherry are not the only people in

here. I was here as well, and I was just about ready to fire another Fire Storm

right at it.

(Fire Storm!)

This is going to be the fourth shot in total.

Things are going quite well so far, but a part of me cannot stop thinking how

different the flow of battle would be if the monster group we are fighting

right now consisted not of three Collagen Corals and one Escape Goat, but of

four Escape Goats instead. If we had to deal with the four enemies that can

run away after you whittle their HP down enough and they all started running

at exactly the same time, then things would definitely get more than a little

hectic. With our current line up being two members in the vanguard and one

me in the rearguard, it is more than probable that at least one or two of the

Escape Goats would be able to make a run for it, because I can only do so

much with my magic that needs to be on cooldown for a couple of seconds

between each shot, and Roxanne and Sherry would not be able to reach the

enemies that would be placed too far away from them to prevent them from

escaping in time. In fact, I think that the battle with four Escape Goats could

have ended in such a way even if there were four of us, unless the three

members of the vanguard were able to either kill all of them fast enough or

move fast enough to intercept them and cut off their escape routes like

Roxanne and Sherry did just now.

Sherry shook the club again, attempting to hit the two monsters in front of her

at once one more time. Even though she managed to hit the first Collagen

Coral with a strike that was not as powerful as her previous one and the

momentum did carry her towards hitting the second opponent, she ultimately

missed the second Collagen Coral by only a few centimeters. That gap,

however, along with the few seconds Sherry needed to recover herself from

the strike and assume the battle stance again, was enough for that second

Collagen Coral to attack her again.

「Kuh. . . . . . . . . !」

Since it has come to this, then I had no choice but to step in and take care of

both the Collagen Corals and the Escape Goat that began to make its escape

by using the gap in our defenses that appeared when Sherry was knocked

back by Collagen Coral's attack. I have no time to re-apply 「Plating」 and

heal her wounds, because right now, the more important thing it to put a swift

end to this battle, which should be brought by my fifth Fire Storm.

(Fire Storm!)

There, that should be enough to kill all of the monsters at once.

Sparks fly in the air and erupt in a fiery explosion, causing all of the monsters

present in battle to fall to the ground. I slaughtered all the monsters before

Sherry was hit again by another one of Collagen Coral's attack.

「Haaaaa. . . . . . . . I have to say, only grazing the enemies with my strikes is

way tougher than I thought it was going to be.」

「It certainly is, is it not? But if doing it in such a way seems to be impossible

for you, then we can always try using a different method, or a different

formation. So, what do you want to do, Sherry? I am going to leave that call

up to you.」

I told her while I re-applied 「Plating」 and 「Medical Treatment」 onto her

now that the battle was finally over.

「As tempting as that would be. . . . . I would like to continue trying the way

we are now for a little bit more. I feel like I am beginning to be getting the

hang of it, so I should be able to nail it after a few more battles.」

「I see. Is that okay with you as well, Roxanne?」

「Yes, it should be fine for us to continue like we were up until now, and I see

no trouble with it.」

「Okay, so continuing the way we were going so far it is then.」

When I looked at Roxanne for confirmation, she nodded in agreement. Or

maybe not in agreement. Since this is Roxanne we are talking about, she is

basically going to accept every plan that I will come up with, regardless of

what it is and how dangerous or reckless it might be, and is not going to

question it in any way whatsoever. That is how much she trusts me in the

Labyrinths. I could sing her praises for much longer, but then that would take

us an entire day or even more to take care of it, so I will better stop before

that happens.

「By the way Roxanne, good job on blocking that Escape Goat's escape path.

If not for your quick thinking and Sherry's immediate follow-up, it would

have probably gotten away.」

「Thank you. I am just glad that I was able to be of use to you, master.

However, I would also like to point out that if it was not for your magic, the

Escape Goat would have probably escaped, so this battle's success if your

success as well.」