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Volume 10 Chapter 1 Part 2

「Okay, let’s move on to the next target.」

「Right this way, master.」

We follow after Roxanne’s guidance, and this time we happened upon a group of three Mabreams. Three Party Members immediately charged to meet them head-on. In a scenario where there are three opponents the battle can be changed into three sets of one-on-one duels, and the area around Roxanne becomes an absolute defense zone.

There is literally no reason for an attack of something like a Mabream to hit Roxanne when she’s like a warlord from a warring empire.

See? Now two Mabreams tried to attack Roxanne at the same time, but Roxanne dodged one attack and blocked the other one with her shield, avoiding them both.

The monsters would sometimes try to change their positions and attack her from the other side, or the two of them would try attacking from the left and right at the same time, but even then, not a single attack had any chance of landing on Roxanne.

When the monsters are trying to attack from both sides at the same time Roxanne usually ends up in the middle of them as the target, but it can also be said that by doing so she is greatly contributing to the stability of the Party.

As long as she remains in the middle, then the vanguard is not going to collapse anytime soon.
「I did it, desu!」

One of the Mabreams fell onto the floor after succumbing to petrification, which means that Miria managed to successfully inflict it upon it. She is also working hard.

The sword that Miria is currently using is called Estoc of Petrification. It possesses a chance to petrify every target that’s going to be cut with it. Even though the chance of petrification is not all that great, then when it does work, the effect looks exactly like this.

When the monster ends up getting petrified, it loses the ability to move, and once that happens, even the flying monsters are going to fall to the ground. It is a handy status ailment that makes achieving victory in battle that much easier.

Well, even when the enemies get petrified, I still have enough time to finish them off. I can still do that much at least. That being said, I guess you could say that my Party has acquired some good equipment, and it makes a great addition to the strength of our Party.

When it comes to the Estoc of Petrification, I prefer Miria to be the one wielding it since Roxanne if more focused on evasion rather than offensive power, and since Vesta uses two-handed sword, the estoc, a one-handed sword, would be a poor match for her.

Going by the process of elimination, Miria has the highest compatibility for wielding it. She also has a Warrior Job equipped right now because I am trying to get her to acquire an Assassin Job for herself.

Since the Assassin Job comes together with the Skill that increases the probability of inflicting abnormal statuses upon enemies, it is going to be immensely compatible with the Estoc of Petrification and the Petrification status that it inflicts.

And then, the last member of my Party is Vesta, whose large size gives me the sense of incredible stability. She might not be the most talkative and both her attitude and remarks are calm and composed, but with her size alone, just her standing there silently was enough to inflict the sense of intimidation upon the Mabreams that we were fighting against.

It is good that she is so big.

「Alright.」

While Vesta and Roxanne were doing their things to stabilize the front line, I made sure to defeat all of the Mabreams with my magic. At this level, we still have no problems with dealing with them.

「Here, desu.」

However, Miria’s eyes are locked exclusively on the white mass that remained after we have defeated all of the Mabreams. With sparkling, no, with beaming eyes clouded by appetite, she picked up the white meat of the Whole Fish and handed it over to me carefully.

It would seem that for her, getting the Whole Fish from Mabreams is even more important than the difficulty of the Labyrinths.
「Thanks. Shall we leave it like this for today? We can have this Whole Fish grilled for dinner tonight.」

「Yes, desu.」

「Or it might turn out to be just as delicious if we boil it instead.」

「Yes, desu!」

「Alternatively, we can just have it fried.」

「Yes, desu!!」

「I will also prepare the egg whites, so make something with that as well.」

「Make it, desu.」

After exiting the Labyrinth, the only things that matter to me are eating good food, experiencing pleasure and sleeping well. That middle part might actually be causing discomfort to Roxanne and the other girls, but even so, I’m just trying to not think about it all that hard. Seeking pleasure is also a part of being human after all.
After refreshing ourselves, we entered the Labyrinth yet again on the next day.

「There’s a door over there.」

「I don’t think we passed it before.」

While exploring the Labyrinth, we found a door. This can only mean one thing. I told Roxanne to go forward and we followed after her.

Right now, the exploration is basically left entirely to Roxanne, and we’re simply going wherever she’s going to lead us. As long as we continue to do that, we should still be fine. Miria also shouldn’t be dissatisfied with the results of our exploration and monster hunting, at least for the time being.

All that is left for me to do is to make sure that it lasts as long as possible.

「Oh! A Boss Room?」

「It would seem so.」

After going through the door after Roxanne we found ourselves in a room with two pairs of doors: one where we just entered and another one on the far end of the room. That is a distinguishing feature of the Waiting Room. After we go through that other door, we’re going to be in the Boss Room.

The Floor Boss variant of Mabream is a Black Diamond Tuna, and since we have fought against it already, there is no need for Sherry to be giving us any briefings about it. I simply equipped my Durandal and prepared myself to enter the Boss Room.

After casting 「Abnormal Status Resistance Down」 on Black Diamond Tuna, I take on the accompanying Mabream, since reducing the number of enemies first is the most effective strategy.

「Did it, desu.」

About the same time as I defeated the Mabream, Miria managed to inflict Petrification upon the Black Diamond Tuna and it fell to the ground, effectively bringing an end to the Boss battle. That is exactly what I wanted to achieve by reducing the enemy’s numbers first.

Well, with that, I think its safe to say that we’re not going to have any trouble even against the Floor Bosses on the twenty-second floor. Petrification might not be occurring every single time, but as long as Roxanne is going to be standing in front of the Floor Boss, that is not going to be too much of a problem.

We’re going to have to repeat this Boss battle many times, because Miria is going to be satisfied only when we finally manage to obtain a rare drop from the Black Diamond Tuna. That being said, with how we currently are, we shouldn’t have any problems with that.
「Uhm, you have challenged the Black Diamond Tuna many times before, right, master?」

When we left the Boss Room and emerged on the twenty-third floor, Sherry asked me that question. When I glanced back at Miria, she was still looking at me with hopeful eyes, so of course there’s no option for me to say no to her.

「I guess so.」

「In that case, I think it might still be a bit of a stretch for us to go to the twenty-third floor of the Nordselm’s Labyrinth, but we should be able to handle its twenty-second floor.」

It would seem like that would be the case, but I don’t really know about that.

We immediately move to the twenty-second floor from the spot where we were currently at, going to the closest spot to the Boss Room. There are no people on the twenty-second floor of the West Forest’s Labyrinth near Zabir, so it should be good for us to go to the Waiting Room in front of the Boss Room by using 「Warp」, but on the other hand, such carelessness can easily lead to our deaths.

As always, our safety is the number one priority.

If we defeat Mabreams along the way, we might earn some more Whole Fishes.