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Volume 7 Chapter 3 Part 16

Therefore, the real test here would be to allow myself to be hit directly by the monsters on the higher floors, but I won’t deny that doing that carries the risk of either being inflicted with a status ailment or being hit too hard and dying because of it. So, what can I do to carry out the right experiment here that would show me proper results?

「How is the helmet doing, master?」

「It works just fine. Now that I have a piece of gear with 「Physical Damage Reduction」 on, the attacks of the enemies certainly have less of an impact to them.」

That being said, further verification against stronger enemies might be needed here, but that would mean continuously exposing ourselves to attacks just so that I could compare their damage with and without the Skill being active, so Roxanne is not going to be an ideal test subject for it, because she would never allow herself to get hit even on purpose, since that would be against her instincts.

Am I going to have to be the one to verify it after all?

「Is that so? That’s good then.」

「Yeah, I got my hands on a really good piece of equipment, and its all thanks to you, Sherry.」

「No, not at all, master.」
I already managed to acquire Lv.5 as a Bounty Hunter, so let’s try and raise it to Lv.10 as well.

Then, we went to the first floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth again. However, even when the Bounty Hunter reached Lv.10, it was still difficult to activate its Skill.

Ugh, this is getting annoying. Is it really correct to think that 「Ignore Life and Death」is a Skill that deals a death blow to monsters?

There is a possibility that it is a different Skill after all.

But then….
「Ah!」
「Eh?」
「The monster…!」
When I was beginning to slowly lose hope, the monster fell after being hit only once by me.

「Well, I guess that’s it when it comes to the test.」

「Amazing. The monster collapsed without master doing anything!」

「I see. So this is 「Ignore Life and Death」.」

That would be a perfect Skill for Sherry to use.

「However, its gimmick is definitely going to make it potentially hard to use.」

「Ignore Life and Death」 is a Skill that allows you to kill a monster instantly. However, it is not easy to use, as the chance of activation seems to be pretty low. It hardly activates with a level difference of about ten levels. If the level difference is twenty or thirty, it will be even more difficult, but the ever increasing level difference is something that we cannot do much about.

The higher the level, the harder it is going to be to to raise this level, but the level of the monster will definitely rise as you climb to the next floors, so al long as we won’t power-level too much, we should be able to keep the level difference between us and the monsters at reasonable levels.

Even if our opponents are going to be Grass Bees that are capable of using poison or other status inflicting monstrosities, we are still going to be fighting against them. With that mindset, we decided to go to the thirteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth.

Because the vanguard role was usually left to the girls, including Miria, the burden on me this time around is that much greater, which makes me feel really glad that Sherry created the Sturdy Hardened Leather Helmet.

Because they appear before I can employ Durandal, I wasn’t able to weaken any of the monsters properly first, but strangely enough, I remember being able to fight against such enemies without any issues even before Miria came to our Party.

I barely manage to dodge the rush of a Pig Hog. Once my evasive manuever is completed, I stare it in the eyes and cast 「Water Storm」.

Two Pig Hogs fall to the ground before me, disappearing in front of my eyes. For now I was safe, but the one remaining Grass Bee was still being kept occupied by Roxanne, so in order to keep some of the pressure off of her, I shot the 「Breeze Ball」at the Grass Bee next to Roxanne when a moment where she stopped avoiding its attacks for a brief second finally presented itself to me.

That one shot was all that it took to kill it without any difficulties. With that battle done, I ordered Roxanne to guide us towards the next group of enemies which consisted of a Pig Hog and two Grass Bees.
Sherry hits the Grass Bee that tried to cast its Skill from the get-go with her spear that has the 「Chant Interruption」 Skill embedded into it, while I confronted the Pig Hog.

The Grass Bees started emitting clouds of poison mist, so without any other way to proceed until they’d be dealt with, I decided to leave the Pig Hog for later and take care of them first by shooting them with a 「Breeze Storm」.

It was a long and arduous battle, but throughout the entirety of it I was somehow able to receive only one attack, so I guess I can count myself lucky.

The following group of enemies consisted of one Pig Hog together with three Grass Bees. Even though we were dealing with the three enemies capable of long-range attacks, it was okay because Roxanne was taking care of all of them by blocking them with her shield.

While keeping an eye on the Grass Bees that came out to the front, I cast 「Breeze Storm」.

I dodge the charge attack of the Grass Bee which attacked from the front and then I smacked it with my Rod of Offerings. The ones in the back had their skills delayed and so they were also forced to fight in the front.

It’s also necessary to take caution of the movements of the Grass Bee that Roxanne’s fighting with her Rapier. I glanced at it from the side and confirmed that it wasn’t aiming at me. I should be fine for now.

Then, at that brief moment when I took my eyes off of them, one of the Grass Bees saw me shifting my vision and took it as a chance to attack. I twisted my body in a panic, but was still hit by its charge. In returned, I made the two of them eat one more 「Breeze Storm」after I made sure that the one that Roxanne is fighting is also going to be caught in its range.

Three Grass Bees fall to the ground, defeated, but at the same time my body has become incredibly hot and I started feeling as if a number of sharp needles was being forcefully driven into every single muscle in my body.

This sensation… I know it all too well.

It’s poison. I have been poisoned by the Grass Bees. I guess one of them must have succeeded in inflicting it on me when they performed those charged attacks earlier.

Is this some kind of punishment for me because I got too greedy and careless even though Miria was not together with us? But even if it is a punishment for me, then I feel incredibly calm. Most likely because it is actually my second time being inflicted with poison, so I more or less knew what I was supposed to be expecting.
Still, it doesn’t change the fact that it physically hurts me.

My chest felt tightened as if someone was squeezing down on it with an invisible hand. But even so, my number one priority here was to defeat the monsters that were right in front of me, so I mustered up my strength and fired a 「Fire Ball」 at it.

No, wait, I shouldn’t have done that.

The opponent against whom I am fighting right now is a Pig Hog, so there’s no use using Fire Magic against it because it is not weak to it. At least I am still focused enough to realize that I have made a mistake, so all that I need to do right now is to correct it.

Even though it was causing me great pain, I still managed to throw a 「Water Ball」towards the Pig Hog. Just how much more am I going to have to throw at it in order to finally kill it?

I threw yet another 「Water Ball」at it. Good. I can still count down how many Spells I have used without my mind getting all tangled up in my own thoughts. Calm down. I have to keep calm, and as long as I’ll be able to do that, then everything is going to be just fine.

And then, Sherry appeared right in front of me. Oh yeah, she’s carrying an antidote, Anti-Poison Pill with her. As long as she administers it to me via mouth-to-mouth, then everything should end up just fine for me.

Until that happens, I have to make sure that my head remains as clear as possible so that I could still comprehend what is happening around me.

Giving in to my desires, I embraced Sherry tightly, almost as if I was afraid that she’s going to run off somewhere far away if I won’t hold her in my arms, and then I pressed myself into Sherry’s lips.