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Volume 7 Chapter 4 Part 1

Chapter 34: Information Gathering

 

『Miria』

Current Levels & Equipment:

Diver Lv.37

 

Equipment:

Scimitar

Steel Shield

Chainmail

Hardened Leather Gloves

Hardened Leather Boots

 

We have found the Boss Room of the thirteenth floor of Haruba’s labyrinth rather quickly.

 

Now that Miria was done helping the neighbors with the regional activities, we could once again focus fully on the exploration of the Labyrinths, which directly translated itself into us finding the waiting room before the Floor Boss exceedingly quickly.

 

At first, I thought that this was going to be just another small room like many others, but as soon as the door opened and we walked inside I immediately understood that this was the Waiting Room, because instead of multiple branching paths there were only two waiting for us: the one through which we came here from, and the one leading forward straight to the Boss Room.

 

「The Floor Boss should be right ahead of us. Sherry, what is the Floor Boss of the thirteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth?」

 

「The Floor Boss of this floor where the Pig Hogs are the main enemy is called Pick Hog, and generally speaking, Pick Hogs are just like upgraded versions of Pig Hogs, which means that they are a really tough monsters that mainly attack their prey by using their front hooves. I think that with her dodging abilities Miss Roxanne should still be okay while fighting it, but just to be on the safe side, you should make sure to remain as careful as possible.」

 

After Sherry finished her explanations, the door in the back opened, so I brandished Durandal and gave the order to rush inside.

 

「The three of you handle Pick Hog, I will take care of Grass Bee.」

 

「「「Okay, master!」」」

 

The monster accompanying the Floor Boss was a Grass Bee, so I need to finish it off as quickly as possible to ensure that none of us is going to get poisoned like I did before.

 

I finished it off as quickly as I could, and then I joined in on the attack on Pick Hog.

 

Pick Hog is the Floor Boss of the thirteenth floor. As such, it is at least one size bigger than the regular Pig Hog, with one major difference: its front hooves were very reminiscent of drills or cones, which makes sense of what Sherry was saying about its primary method of attack. If a regular human were to receive a strike from those things, then surely they would inflict quite a lot if damage upon them.

 

And so, the Pick Hog stood on its hind hooves while raising the front ones into the air and it started to move forward while aiming its strikes towards Roxanne. That strategy of attack is awfully similar to what boars in my old world used to be doing to compensate for their short legs. But that makes me wonder: if that is its primary method of attack, then is it really okay for me not to lend the girls a hand in fighting it?

 

Such thoughts were rushing through my head right now.

 

The Pick Hog made another attack towards Roxanne, but she easily avoided it without any difficulties whatsoever.

 

As expected of Roxanne. There’s no way that a simple attack like that would ever be able to cause any kind of harm to her. On the other hand, if I was the one standing in her place, then I surely would have been hit by that attack even if I tried to dodge out of its way.

 

Well, there is still a possibility that one or two attacks might be directed my way, because just because I am standing in the backline casting my magic, there’s no guarantee that I will never be attacked simply because I am standing a little bit farther away from the enemies than the rest of my Party.

 

That is why even though I am holding Durandal in my hands, I still make sure to slash at the Pick Hog extremely cautiously. A careful observation revealed that only the front hooves of the Pick Hog were sharp, so al long as we make sure that the brunt of its attention is focused on Roxanne and Roxanne only, then we shouldn’t have any trouble bringing it down with our coordinated assault.

 

Perhaps it was exactly because of those careful attacks and the maximum amount of caution that we maintained, but we managed to wrap the battle against the Pick Hog up without any of us getting injured and without any unfortunate accidents occurring along the way.

 

Well, we have already managed to defeat the Floor Bosses up to the fifteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth, so I guess that would explain why a Floor Boss of the thirteenth floor here in Haruba’s Labyrinth would pose no threat for us.

 

「Sherry, what kind of monster can we expect on the fourteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth?」

 

「It is going to be Sarracenia.」

 

Sarracenia, huh?

 

The weakness of Sarracenia, which is basically a carnivorous plant-type monster, is Fire Magic.

 

We then proceeded further to the fourteenth floor under Roxanne’s careful guidance.

 

After killing Sarracenia with five 「Fire Storms」, I then killed the remaining Pig Hogs with five more 「Water Balls」.

 

Next, we fight against a group of three different types of monsters. First of all, I killed the two Sarracenias using five 「Fire Storms」.

 

After that, I finish one Grass Bee using five 「Breeze Storms」, and then I slaughter the remaining Pig Hog with a single 「Water Ball」. Nine attacks in total to defeat a group of four enemies, huh?

 

「Hmm… Even though there were three types of monsters, I needed one extra spell in order to finish them off, assuming that I didn’t make any mistakes in my calculations. All right then. Roxanne, try to guide us towards a group consisting of three different types of monsters next.」

 

「Understood, master.」

 

I instructed Roxanne with specific set of guidelines, and she did exactly like I told her. Although the duration of the battles got slightly longer once more, it’s not something that’s going to hinder our plans of fighting on the fourteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth.

 

Whenever we’re fighting against a group of monsters consisting of only one enemy, I can deal with that group by using the AoE magic of the type that said monsters are weak against and it usually takes me about five Spells to do so. And even if some enemies manage to survive my attacks, Roxanne and the others should be more than enough to dispatch any stragglers that are going to be left.

 

That is the most efficient strategy for clearing the floors of the Labyrinths: whenever we’re fighting a group of monsters, you always go first and foremost for those monsters whose numbers are highest, and then you move on to clear out the ones that remain. And as a rule of thumb, whenever we’re facing Grass Bees or other enemies that have access to either long-ranged Skills or status ailments-inflicting attacks, these ones need to be defeated ASAP.

 

It all sounds difficult and complicated, but as long as we approach these battles carefully and with attention, we will be able to fight these enemies properly. And besides, it’s not like we can avoid it entirely, so the best thing that we can do is to grit our teeth and just get it over with as fast as possible.

 

Now that we were able to successfully clear the fourteenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth, we decided to go to Bode’s Labyrinth in the afternoon in order to switch things up a little bit and keep them from becoming repetitive.

 

Ever since I gotten permission from the Duke to help them Explore and clear out the Labyrinths of the Hartz Duchy, I have made sure to go to Tare and Bode’s Labyrinths in order to check out if their exploration progress has changed. Even if I’m not going to those Labyrinths, keeping the tabs on their progress is definitely a good thing to do. That way, I won’t be caught out of the loop in case if some substantial progress is going to be made in one of them.

 

And who knows, it might as well turn out that one of the floors that I have yet to explore is going to be unexpectedly easy to conquer, much in the same vein as the sixteenth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth.

 

「How far has the exploration progressed?」

 

「Up to the eleventh floor.」

 

The Explorer at the entrance informed me thusly when I asked him about the progress of the exploration of the Labyrinth. So what I can see from that is that the progress of the exploration of the Labyrinth of Tare is much slower in comparison to the progress of the exploration in the Labyrinth of Quratar.