Volume 10 Chapter 2 PaRT 3
Even though she might be thinking of her as someone with a lot of superficial knowledge, maybe I should have Sherry tell her more stories about the hardships of the Labyrinths, otherwise she might try to set our standard to the fiftieth floor of the Labyrinths.
I think it would be fine for us to fight at about half of that level… or maybe not.
In the Labyrinths, beginners struggle on the floors meant for beginners, intermediate Adventurers struggle on the floors meant for intermediate Adventurers, and advanced ones are fighting to the death on the higher floors. It’s not like the upper floors are the only ones that are tough to break through. If you are a complete beginner, then you might as well die on the first or second floor of the Labyrinths.
However, if Sherry says that we’re fighting comfortably, then we are probably really fighting comfortably. That, and… maybe I’m really having a good time fighting here? It’s not like we’re struggling with anything, only that the battles are taking a little bit more time than before. Well, extended battle time does not necessarily mean higher battle difficulty though.
「Here it comes!」
During the battle on the way to the Boss Room of the twenty-eighth floor, I launched a magic attack against the Scissor Lizard that was in the rearguard.
If the time for battles gets longer, then the amount of attacks that the enemies will launch at us will increase as well. After Roxanne shouted her warning, I saw sparks flying around us. This looks like the effect of 「Fire Storm」.
This is going to be an area of effect magic attack! That also means that the area of effect magic used my monsters is the same as the one that I’m using.
For a moment, my entire body felt hot. It felt like my chest was squeezed, all of my toes felt sore and my limbs ached as if they were about to fall of. My skin was burned and all of my nerves were screaming out in pain.
Monsters in the vanguard attacked without missing that opportunity to attack.
Roxanne was shaking her body to dodge all of the incoming attacks, Miria took a big step back and Vesta was deflecting the incoming strikes with her weapon. I also managed to avoid the attacks that were targeted towards me, even if only barely. If I was a second late, I would end up eating all of them.
Thankfully, the pain of being burned only lasted for but a moment and the feeling of the fever engulfing my whole body soon subsided. It also doesn’t look like any of my clothes or backpack caught fire. The only thing that was seemingly affected by the magic attack was my body alone.
To tell you the truth, some parts of my body were still feeling hot. So this the area of effect magic when it is being used by monsters, huh? This is the first time when I’m receiving such an attack on the twenty-eighth floor, but even so, it doesn’t seem to be a fatal one. At this level, I think I won’t die even if I receive one or two direct hits with it. I also counterattacked them with 「Breeze Storm」.
「Did it, desu!」
Longer battle time can also be a good thing, since Miria’s petrification is going to have more time to proc itself. As long as she will manage to petrify one enemy, the rest is going to be easy.
「Let’s back away a little.」
If we leave the petrified Cape Carp behind and lure the rest of the monsters away from it, then the vanguard is going to be able to withstand it. The Cyclops raises its arms, but Roxanne didn’t panic at all. she simply stood there and waited. Sherry was also standing ready with her spear, observing the monsters to make sure that none of them were able to use their area of effect attacks.
After I shot another 「Breeze Storm」 at it, Cyclops finally fell to the ground and disappeared.
「Did it, desu!」
In the meantime, Miria managed to petrify another Scissor Lizard. We have almost won this battle. All that we need to do now is to clean up the remaining enemies.
「Was that the area of effect magic?」
「As I thought, it wasn’t that big of a deal.」
You imagined that it was not that big of a deal? Well, I do have to admit that this attack was not as deadly as I imagined it would be. With this, we are definitely not going to die in one or two shots of it. If we start taking double digits, then that might become a problem, but I think that magic is only going to be shot at us in such quantities at the higher floors.
Besides, right now I can properly calculate how many shots of it I can withstand before I would ultimately die from it. However, I don’t want to measure it so much that my Sacrificial Misanga would end up breaking from it.
「It’s definitely not unbearable. It’s getting tougher, but that cannot be helped. At this level, it should be evaluated as not giving us any problems.」
Sherry is once again sharing her reliable opinion with me. Well, even though I was attacked but that area of effect magic now, I at least know that getting hit once by it is not going to kill me. There might not be anything like this in this world.
「Let’s do it, desu!」 「You are right. If it’s this much, there’s nothing to be worried about. Ah, I don’t need healing anymore.」
Vesta declines my offer to heal her more after using it on her once. She’s pretty tough. Is she sturdy like that because of her Dragon Knight Job? By the way, during the battle, the 「Heal」Spell has been used on me, Roxanne and Miria in that order.
After the battle was over, I also did that to Sherry and myself. In other words, I’m casting 「Heal」on us again just in case.
「Even if it doesn’t look dangerous, tell me if there is any damage left.」
「Yes, I am fine, thank you.」
I don’t think that she’s hiding any injuries from me. The area of effect magic attacks were not particularly dangerous, so she should really be fine, even though we have already reached the twenty eighth floor.
Besides, until just now I haven’t been shot by the enemy’s magic even once, so I don’t think any of it is going to be able to threaten me anytime soon.
Maybe the enemies on the higher floors are going to be using their magic attacks more frequently, but right now, that is still a story of a distant future.
Is my way of thinking once again being poisoned by Roxanne? But if the enemies don’t actually start using their magic attacks instead of regular ones, then there’s pretty much nothing that I can do about it.
After that, we continued to fight without me getting hit by the area of effect magic.
「There is a monster whose smell I have never smelled before nearby. Let’s go closer.」
When we exited the Boss Room on the twenty-eighth floor and arrived at the twenty-ninth floor, Roxanne said something like that.
Usually we were only repeating the Boss battles, but if Roxanne detected some monsters nearby whenever we were going to the higher floors, we would still hunt them for their EXP and items.
I am completely at Roxanne’s mercy right now.
「The monster native to the twenty-ninth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth is Monotaurus. It can use magic, but it is basically a physical fighter relying on brute strength. Its specialty seem to be ramming attacks, so be careful of those when you see them. It is resistant to Fire Magic, and its weakness is Water Magic.」
Sherry offered us another explanation. 「Monotaurus, huh?」
It has a pretty strong-sounding name. I don’t know what it is, but its name sounds pretty cool.
As we proceeded further into that floor, we happened upon a group made out of two Monotauruses and two Cyclopses, so I unleashed a 「Water Storm」between them.
Appearance-wise, Monotaurus turned out to be a bull-headed monster. In other words, would it be more appropriate to call it a cowman, or perhaps a cow walking on two legs?
Since it’s a cow, it also has horns growing out of its head and a pretty rugged body. That being said, it doesn’t look all that scary…. Because its body has black and white patches, just like those of a regular milking cow.