Volume 3 - Ch 4.01
Explorer Lv.29
Hero Lv.26
Mage Lv.29
Monk Lv.28
On the morning the next day, I woke up hugging Roxanne, feeling the warmth of her body against my skin.
Maybe it is because that was the first proper bath that I have taken in quite a while, but because of that and what naturally came after that, I feel like the sleep that I just woken up from was the best one I had in quite a while. To be honest, the bed and the sheets are so warm and cozy that I do not feel like doing anything at all. I just want to stay the way we are now and continue to bask in this blissful moment. As for Roxanne, after she took the bath with me her skin feels like it is much more moist, elastic and smooth to the touch. The feeling of her pressing herself against me as she hugs me is absolutely wonderful. Oh how I wish that the baths beneficial effects could stick around for longer than they actually do. This sensation is honestly something that you can get absolutely addicted to!
Roxanne slowly opened her eyes and gave me the usual morning kiss as I continued to stroke her hot skin. Then she slowly stretched out her tongue and entangled it around mine. I responded to her in kind, enjoying the taste of our sticky kiss. When we finally had enough, we let go of each others mouths.
Good morning, Roxanne.
Good morning, master.
Lets enter Quratars Labyrinth today.
As you wish.
After getting ourselves fully equipped and bringing the map along, we headed out and entered the Labyrinth of Quratar.
Now that we have broken through the four floors of the Veils Labyrinth, the next logical step according to the plan we have agreed on was to clear the fourth floor of the one in Quratar. The monsters that inhabited that floor were Cheap Sheep, the same kind of monster that we found in the fifth floor of the Veils Labyrinth. Back there, I needed to use two strikes from Durandal to defeat a single one of them, but since here they are one floor below, they should go down in one hit.
Maybe it was because there were many people wandering around this floor, but we managed to reach the Boss Room without running into that many random encounters with regular enemies. Luckily for us, there was no one in the waiting room, so we were able to jump right into the Floor Boss battle.
The green smoke gathered in the middle of the room like always, and soon after, the Floor Boss made its appearance. And its name is (TL Note: JOHN CENA!!!) Beep Sheep Lv.4. this is the identity of the Quratar Labyrinths fourth floors Floor Boss. It began to squeal (or meehing, or baahing, or whatever it is that sheep do) as soon as it materialized and noticed our presence in the room. I thought it was going to sound intimidating, or be so high-pitched that it will make my ears hurt, but no, no such thing happened. It was just a normal, loud battlecry. After fighting the Cheap Sheep on this floor and getting the hang of their battle tactics I can say that they are more annoying rather than dangerous, so this guy should not be a tougher challenge to topple than the Hachinosu was, and after taking a nice long look at it, it does not even look all that ferocious. It will take more than an oversized lump of wool to scare the pants off of me, you know?
With keeping our focus and careful positioning, we should have no problem taking this guy down, so just like always, I left the front of the boss for Roxanne to take care of. I took my established position at the back of the Floor Boss and prepared to slash at it with Durandal. But then
An orange magic circle started forming beneath the Beep Sheeps body, so I hurriedly whacked it with my sword to interrupt the Skill chant from being completed or thats what I would have done if I was not too far away from it!
What skills does the Beep Sheep have?!
I do not know that!
Damn it, it looks like I cannot count on Roxannes help with figuring out what this guy can do.
At the very least I think it is safe to assume that it wont start spitting out sticky webs and threads like the Green Caterpillar did. And even if it did something similar to it, then I can always prevent it by casting Fire Wall, but if I have no way of confirming what exactly is it going to do, then I will not be able to plan our actions accordingly. Now, even though Durandal has the ability to interrupt the chanting of the Skills used by the enemies, I am too far out of that guys melee range to be able to stop it even though I desperately want to do so. In this particular case, my own cautiousness got the better of me!
Damn it, the circle is almost complete! A little more, just a little bit more and I will be able to
I desperately threw myself forward and managed to slash the Beep Sheeps body just as it was to unleash its Skill.
(There! Phew, safe!)
I managed to stop the Skill from being activated, but it does not mean that I was in the clear just yet. Noticing my presence after I slashed it, Beep Sheep crouched on its front legs and came right at me with a kicking attack from its hind legs. Seeing that attack coming, I had to jump back to avoid getting hit by it. Heh, stupid sheep. It will take much more than that to stop me!
Just from my battle against Hachinosu I can say that got more than enough experience in fighting enemies that used their hind legs to attack those who are standing behind them. I just have to do exactly what Roxanne told me earlier: observe the enemys movements carefully and wait for the right moment to perform a dodge involving the minimal amount of movement possible. Sure enough, I accepted that I will never get on Roxannes level of being able to doge so swiftly and gracefully that no attack would touch me no matter how close it would brush against me, as it was evident by that one time when Roxanne managed to avoid the Green Caterpillars Web Spitting attack without as much as a single strand landing on her while I got my entire arm covered in it, but even a clutz like me should have no problems with the attack that I can see coming from a mile away.
I was able to escape the hind legs kick by jumping back and then retreating some more just to be sure, but when I recovered myself and re-adjusted my posture to resume my offensive, but when I focused my attention on the Beep Sheep, a sight most dreadful has befallen me.
A magic circle appeared under the Beep Sheeps body for a second time.
Oh crap, this is bad!
I ready my weapon and break into a mad sprint. I cant believe how big of an idiot I was for not noticing something that obvious much sooner. From the very beginning, the Beep Sheeps goal must have been to give itself more time so that it could activate its Skill again after I interrupted it. Come to think of it, maybe that first Skill activation coupled with that hind legs kick that forced me to back up quite a bit was an intentional manuever that aimed at getting me, the one wielding the more dangerous weapon away from it? But wait, monsters from the fourth floor of the Labyrinth should not be that intelligent to be able to plan something as cunning as that, meaning meaning that it was all the more woefully stupid of me to fall for such a trick. Way to go, Michio you dimwit, you have officially been outsmarted by a goddamn sheep. A mixture of anger and fear began to rage within me as waves of cold sweat started to go down my spine.
I swung Durandal, but this time there is absolutely no way for me to make it in time. Even if I used Rush or Overwhelming, it would still not be enough to cover the rest of the distance between the two of us. The magic circle is completed, starts glowing with a blindingly bright orange light, and then
Guooooh.!!!
(!?What the hell?! W-What the fuck was that?!)
That sensation and the numbing pain accompanying it was I was I attacked just now?
It would seem that Roxanne has been attacked by something as well, because she was holding her stomach in exactly the same way I did.