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Volume 9 Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 41: Dragon Knight

Character Name:
『Kaga Michio』

Current Levels & Equipment:
Explorer Lv.45
Hero Lv.41
Mage Lv.44
Monk Lv.44

Equipment:
Rod of Offerings
Alma
Hardened Leather Helmet
Hardened Leather Gloves
Dragon Leather Boots
Sacrificial Misanga

We entered the Labyrinth together with Vesta, the newest member of my Party who just joined us after I bought her at a slave auction that was organized on the holiday. She doesn’t seem to have any kind of difficulties with moving around the Labyrinth’s narrow corridors.

Well, even if it would be difficult for her to move around the Labyrinth, right now I do not require her to participate in the battles against the monsters in the same way as the rest of my Party.

Since Vesta appears to be a rather shy and timid person, I thought she might be having problems with attacking the monsters or that she might be freaked out by them once they get close enough to her.

As far as the battles with the monsters are concerned, Vesta quickly became just as active as everyone else, because she was being targeted by the monsters pretty often, if not outright the most among everyone else.

Usually, the most targeted person in the Party is Roxanne because she’s always on the very front of the frontlines focusing the attention of the enemies on herself so that the rest of us could have it easier because of her godly evasive abilities so it cannot be helped.

When it comes to Sherry, the length of her spear makes it difficult to use effectively in the narrow corridors of the Labyrinth, but since she’s not standing directly in front of the monsters, she can attack more frequently than me or Miria.

Even though I gave her the Iron Sword that she was holding with two hands, Vesta was still swinging it around and slashing the monsters with ease, cutting them cleanly in half.

(She’s making a great use of that Iron Sword. When I was using it, it was so heavy that I had trouble swinging it around properly, but she’s making it look like child’s play.)

Because of that, a part of me started thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to give my Durandal to Vesta, but as soon as I thought about that, doubts began to rise at the back of my head.

I am currently using Durandal myself in order to properly participate in the battle against the monsters without using magic, and I am probably dishing out more damage by myself than the other four of my Party Members combined.

In that case, if I were to give Durandal to Vesta, who is the second-best damage dealer in my Party, then Vesta would become the main damage dealer of the Party.

To tell you the truth, efficiency-wise it would be better if the Bonus Points needed for Durandal were allocated to other Bonus Skills like「Increase EXP Gained」and 「Decrease Level Up EXP Needed」Bonus Skills.

But no one aside from me knows about that.

That, and there’s also the fact that Durandal’s 「HP Absorption」and 「MP Absorption」 to continue fighting with my magic.

And it should only be natural that since I am the Leader of the Party and the master of my slaves, then I should be holding onto our strongest weapon available, right?

At least I know that Miria and Roxanne won’t raise any objections to that, but I don’t know about Vesta, who uses a two-handed sword.

And then there’s also the matter of Sherry, with whom I can’t even begin to guess what she is thinking about lately. I can only wish for her to not have any kind of complaints about it either.

Well, at the very least, I should make sure to display the same level of attack prowess as Vesta is showing. Therefore, I start to swing Durandal around with all my might.

Like this? Or maybe like that? Or what do you say about this?!

One after the other, every monster before my eyes falls onto the ground where they turn into the puffs of green smoke and disappear shortly after.

It is an absurdly simple strategy, but I definitely cannot deny that it is being an effective one. Am I the only one who feels like that, or are the girls going to share my opinion? I don’t know. I just move forward while continuing doing exactly what I was doing until I decided that it was high time to move on.

「Roxanne, can you lead us to the place where there are three enemies now? I think it’s okay for us to move forward since is holding out on her own against the monsters here.」

「I see, understood, master.」

See, even Roxanne is thinking that Vesta is a capable fighter, otherwise she wouldn’t have given an okay for my request.

「Vesta, we’re going to be moving to the places where there are going to be up to three monsters. Roxanne is going to be in the very front keeping their attention on herself, so you’re going to move in as a part of a proper vanguard now. Are you fine with that, Miria, Sherry?」

「Yes, desu.」

「No problems from me.」

I have the Alchemist Job equipped so I can always cast 「Plating」 on whoever is going to be needing it the most, and if things start looking pretty bad, then I can always go and use the healing abilities offered by my Monk Job.

Also, this seems like an Ideal moment to put Durandal away for a moment and switch to my Mage build for a while….

Or maybe I should not do it? After all, it would actually be good to continue having Durandal around just in case if something serious ever happens to Vesta or Miria? If one of them ends up getting seriously injured, I can just give them Durandal so that they could use its healing properties while also doubling down on the healing from Monk’s abilities.

That being said, maybe I should at least equip myself with the Warrior Job before switching to Mage?

「Here they come, master!」

While I was contemplating such things, we have already reached the group of monsters that Roxanne was guiding us towards, and the members of the vanguard were already well on their way to meet them head-on. Sherry and I followed closely behind them, and while Sherry remained at the back with her spear held firmly in her hands, I moved to the front and took place right next to Vesta.

Lined up like that, we proceeded to properly engage the monsters.

While fighting them, I was once again reminded that due to Vesta’s height, she was towering pretty much above both the monster and us, her fellow Party Members.

Vesta’s presence is intimidating. Not only to me, but to the monsters themselves as well, because they seem to be unusually wary of her. In comparison to her, who is essentially a living wall, people like me and Sherry should be totally invisible to them when we’ll hide ourselves behind her.

Thanks to that uncharacteristic cautiousness of theirs, the frequency of the attacks that they were launching against us has been decreased. I can only hope that the situation is not going to develop into the one where Vesta is going to accidentally hit Roxanne or me.
In order to remedy that, I moved a little bit away from Vesta. But as soon as I did that, the monsters turned their attention towards me, so I had to keep on attacking them while paying attention to their movements.

Now that I have also attached the Warrior Job to the list of my active Jobs, I should be able to dispatch the enemies in one strike thanks to its Skill 「Rush」.

Hmm, judging by how well I am doing so far, I think I might just make do without having to give Durandal away to Vesta. Now that I have managed to defeat the majority of the monsters in front of her with a series of consecutive 「Rushes」, it might even be fine to take things a bit slow for the time being.

Needless to say, Roxanne and Miria were also managing to hold their ground exceptionally well. They were slashing at every monster near them with their swords, which allowed me to observe Vesta’s fighting a bit closer, thanks to which I noticed that Vesta needed only slightly more attacks than me to defeat a single monster.

That is a very good result to which I have nothing else to say, because it is even more than I have initially expected from her.

「Alright. Now that this battle is over, you should know how the Labyrinth feels like. This is the Labyrinth.」