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Volume 8 Chapter 2 Part 10

The Oyster Shell’s body shakes, and it falls to the side. Smoke then spouts from the monster.  It seems that I gave the decisive blow this time.

When we surround the Boss with everyone, it’s not certain that I’ll be the one to give the final blow. When we surrounded the Clam Shell before it was Sherry who gave the final blow. It’s the same thing right now.

The fact it has a large amount of HP doesn’t really matter. The ratio of HP that I have compared to the other three is what’s important. If I simplify it, if those three combined do half the damage of Durandal, then the probability of me delivering the final blow is two out of five. If the other three can do the same damage as Durandal, then the probability of me giving the final blow becomes half. Later on, it might not be worth using「Increased EXP Gain」and 「Crystallization」 against bosses. If I think about it, is it really a good thing?

The smoke disappears and only the Drop Items are left behind. The Drop Item from the Oyster Shell is volley. Is this some kind of bird food? I thought it would be an oyster because it’s from an oyster.

「I thought an oyster would be dropped from this Floor Boss.」

「The oyster is a rare drop of the Oyster Shell, so there’s no helping it if it doesn’t drop from it immediately.」

Sherry teaches me. So oyster can drop from it? The volley is the usual drop, and oyster is the rare drop, it seems. I should have used the Cook Job in that case. But I didn’t use it, so there’s no helping it now.

If it’s similar to the clam and I need four of them, I’d have to do this fight dozens of times to get them. That might be hard.

We obtained the volley, and continued on to the seventeenth floor.

「Sherry, what monster is on the seventeenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth?」

「The Kettle Mermaid. It occasionally uses Water Magic, and has a resistance to Water Magic as a result. Its weakness is Earth Magic.  and there’s a chance of being poisoned when it attacks you.」

「It’s element is the same as the Clam Shell? That’s good. Roxanne, please find us one so that we could see how we should be fighting against it.」

「Um, I think there is a group with both Clam Shell and Kettle Mermaids nearby. I don’t think there are many of them, so is that alright?」

Roxanne asks me. As the floors go up, the maximum number of monsters that we’ll have to fight will increase as well. Does the chance to find a single monster on a floor also become more difficult as the floor go up? I certainly hope not.

「I understand. Roxanne, feel free to use your own judgement however you see fit from now on.」

「Thank you master, I am going to do just that.」

Roxanne guides us to the next group of monsters. She guides us to a group which consists of one Kettle Mermaid, and one Clam Shell. I use 「Sand Storm」against them.

When it comes to my impressions of the Kettle Mermaid, I think it would be more accurate to rename it something along the lines of Disappointing Mermaid, because as an enemy monster, she really was just that: disappointing.

Even though it’s called a mermaid, the face and chest of a beautiful woman… was not there. Nowhere to be found. It was just a monstrosity with a long mouth and something that I could only describe as a distorted kettle. Could it be that this is where the name Kettle Mermaid came from?

It becomes a regular fish from the neck all the way down below though. That’s why if it was dependent on me, I would classify this thing as more of a human-faced fish rather than a mermaid, because this thing is a blatant slander against my romantic imagination of what an actual mermaid was supposed to look like.

With the face of a kettle.

It doesn’t walk, but instead it moves towards us with the motions that resemble swimming, which is both sickening and somewhat fascinating at the same time, but more disturbing to look at than anything else.

Oh, and I can’t forget that it can also use poison, so there’s the possibility that I might get afflicted by it if it manages to hit me, so I have to make sure that this doesn’t happen.

I use Earth Magic against them again. The Kettle Mermaid and Clam Shell are defeated with seven uses of the Earth Magic. And since both of these enemies are weak against Earth Magic, the combat also went smoothly time-wise.

On the seventeenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth, the next group od monsters that we’re up against is that consisting of a Bitch Butterfly and Kettle Mermaids. I take the Kettle Mermaids, whose weakness is Earth Magic, out in seven uses of Earth Magic, and after that, I finish the Bitch Butterfly off in three 「Breeze Balls」.

「Although the duration of battle was long, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with this combination of enemies.」

「Yes. Kettle Mermaids and Clam Shells both are weak against the same attribute of magic, therefore it will be easier to shortlist the combinations of monsters. If you can take out Kettle Mermaids and Clam Shells, there will only be one or two monsters remaining at the end.」

Honestly, I think that for Roxanne it doesn’t really matter what the enemies that we’ll be facing would be and what are their elemental weaknesses, because Roxanne is going to be able to deal with all of them as long as that is going to be required of her.

Next, I cast 「Meteor Crash」. The Kettle Mermaids collapse in just one use of it, so it must be just like I conjectured, that「 Meteor Crash]」seems to be effective against monsters whose weakness is Earth Magic as well.

By definition, 「Meteor Crash」 is a magic attack where you shoot a scorching meteorite at the wide area, so it possessing the earth attribute, too shouldn’t be too absurd in a grand scheme of things.

It works against monsters whose weakness is Fire Magic, and is also equally effective against monsters whose weakness is Earth Magic. I guess that peculiar property is what makes it special, and different from all the other Spells. After all, if it weren’t special, it wouldn’t be classified as a Bonus Spell.

「This much trial is should be enough for now.」

We seem to be able to fight the monsters on the seventeenth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth without any difficulties, so now it’s time to kick the exploration of this floor seriously.

The next group of monsters that we encounter comprises of three Kettle Mermaids and two Clam Shells. Although there are many monsters, all of them are weak against Earth Magic, so we shouldn’t have any difficulties fighting them at all.

I cast 「Sandstorm」in order to kick things off. In the middle of the attack, a Kettle Mermaid suddenly comes to a halt.

「Here it comes, master. Be careful!」

Unfortunately, an orange magic circle appears under the feet of the mermaid. Nope, not feet. Tail? Or maybe feet after all? Well, you know what I mean, right?

「Water Magic, huh?」

The Kettle Mermaid spits water from its mouth, which resembles a Hyotokko mask. Now that I look at it as it is about to do so, it really looks more like an archerfish rather than anything else, and certainly not like a mermaid. Calling it a mermaid now would be an insult to all the beautiful mermaids.

Roxanne maneuvers the upper half of her body and dodges the water attack swiftly.

At the same time, a Clam Shell in the front of her opens its shell.

「Here it comes again!」

That second Clam Shell spits water at her, too.

When there are many monsters, such things happen. That’s why it’s difficult to fight many of them at once and why I’m not the biggest fan of it.

Although Roxanne was in a difficult position, having already dodged the water magic attack of the mermaid, she twists her body splendidly to evade the Clam Shell’s water attack as well.

As expected of Roxanne. If I were there, I would have surely received that attack in its entirety. Actually, forget the second attack. I’m not even sure if I would have dodged the first one.

While enduring the 「Sandstorm」, two Kettle Mermaids and a Clam Shell line up in front of the girls, making it possible for Miria, Roxanne and Sherry to take one monster each.