I wished Sherry would make up her mind about whether she wanted to reassure me or make me anxious.
Ordinarily, it would likely take years of training for someone to reach the twenty-third floor. Thanks to the 20x XP Gain, we had managed to progress much faster, which shouldn't have been a problem. Even Vesta had already reached Dragon Knight Level 28. Considering she had only been exploring the Labyrinth for half a month, I thought she could afford to have a bit more of a sense of danger, but she had been showered with attacks back on the twenty-second floor. She had come out of it perfectly fine, which was probably why she assumed the twenty-third floor would be just as manageable.
"Alright, let's move out. Roxanne, can you pick up the scent of the Gumi Slimes?"
"I have never encountered one before, but I can smell something I haven’t identified yet. It is likely them."
"Is there a group nearby we can fight? Somewhere with small numbers."
"The closest group consists entirely of that unknown scent, but their numbers are a bit high. It would be better to head this way."
As expected, Roxanne was indispensable. Since these monsters supposedly used all-target attack magic, a large group would be dangerous right from the start. A group of five Gumi Slimes all unleashing area-of-effect spells at once would be a total disaster. Sherry would likely be able to cancel some of them, but stopping them all would be impossible. There had been times before when skills were fired in such rapid succession that her cancellations couldn't keep up. If that happened here, it would be horrific.
Just imagining it was terrifying. Whatever we did, we had to avoid groups of five right off the bat. The stress alone was going to shorten my lifespan at Mach speed.
"Thanks, Roxanne. Let's try that other direction then."
We followed Roxanne’s lead. Along the way, I unequipped Gambler and swapped to Alchemist. I applied Plating to everyone’s equipment as a precaution. With this, even the slim chance of a mishap should be negated.
"When we encounter monsters, I believe it would be better to run toward them rather than waiting for them to close the distance as we usually do," Sherry advised.
"Hm? Oh, I see."
"Because of this," Sherry said, gesturing to her Steel Spear of Authority.
If an enemy tried to cast all-target magic, Sherry could cancel the spell by thrusting her spear. To do that, however, she had to get the monsters within her reach. So, rather than waiting for them, we needed to close the gap ourselves.
"That makes sense. Even so, I intend to take at least one hit to test the damage. If the spell doesn't come out too quickly, you don't have to cancel it."
"Understood. However, I cannot distinguish between all-target magic and single-target magic beforehand. On the twenty-third floor, I suspect they will cast single-target magic more frequently. While I believe the potency is the same for both types, it will be difficult to test whether we can recover everyone's health in time if we wait for an all-target spell."
I couldn't stay afraid forever, and I knew we’d eventually have to experience an all-target attack, but I supposed she was right about the difficulty of testing it. I conveyed my preference to Sherry anyway. What happened next would depend on the enemy. If I intended to take one hit and they ended up firing a rapid-fire sequence, it would be a nightmare. I trusted Sherry to make the right call in the moment.
I briefly considered that if I wanted to take a hit, running toward them might be unnecessary, but there was a possibility they’d fire a second shot while I was just standing there waiting. It was better to get close.
A monster appeared. It was a single Gumi Slime accompanied by a Clamshell. Roxanne was as reliable as ever; this was exactly the kind of group I had hoped for. Once you reached the twenty-third floor, finding a lone Gumi Slime was a rare occurrence.
The four girls broke into a run. I unleashed a Sand Storm. Earth magic was the Clamshell's weakness. We would fight the Gumi Slime as a test and focus on taking down the Clamshell first. Despite the Gumi Slime having many elemental weaknesses, Earth was not one of them. Conversely, the Clamshells of the twenty-second floor and the Kettle Mermaids of the twenty-first floor were both weak to Earth. It seemed the twenty-third floor of Quratar wasn't going to be a very efficient hunting ground for me.
After firing off the Earth magic, I followed the others. Once the sandstorm subsided, I came to a halt to cast again. It was difficult to cast while running; I needed to concentrate my mind. I fired, then started running again.
Roxanne and the others collided with the monsters before any all-target magic could be cast. The Gumi Slime was a familiar-looking, gelatinous creature. Roxanne took it head-on while Miria slashed at it from the side. Vesta handled the Clamshell. Sherry stood slightly behind the two monsters, thrusting her spear into the Gumi Slime.
Since this was supposed to be a test for the Gumi Slime, I wondered if this was the right approach. Should we have focused everything on the Clamshell first, then evaluated the slime's combat strength at our leisure? No, maybe not. Ideally, I would have liked to fight a single Gumi Slime. If the opponent were alone, everyone would surround it. Miria and Sherry would be right on top of it. This time, there was just an extra Clamshell. Since it was just one extra monster, they had assigned only one person—the bare minimum—to manage it.
I see. This actually felt like the better strategy. In other words, I was the one in the wrong for trying to kill the Clamshell first with my Earth magic.
The Clamshell collapsed first.
"I did it!" Miria cheered.
Almost simultaneously, the Gumi Slime petrified. Its bouncy body froze in a strange, gravity-defying shape. It was definitely petrified. It didn't really matter which one had happened first. I was just glad to know that petrification worked on the Gumi Slimes. Even if it was only once, it was a good sign. Back on the twenty-second floor, I’d sometimes petrify Marbrims before they died and sometimes I wouldn't, so this felt about right.
"It certainly felt like the spear wasn't doing much damage," Sherry noted.
"Against Gumi Slimes, Vesta and I should probably focus on defense and evasion rather than trying to attack," Roxanne suggested.
"Yes. I believe that will work," Vesta agreed.
While I was clearing away the petrified monster, the others were already holding a strategy meeting. Vesta nodded along with Roxanne's proposal. I suspected Roxanne could evade everything even without focusing on it, but it was a sound plan.
Among the front line, Roxanne and Vesta would stop attacking. Since Miria had the Estoc of Rigidity, it was better for her to keep swinging. Even if her damage wasn't getting through, we had just proven that her status effect would.
As I listened to the meeting, the Gumi Slime vanished into smoke, leaving behind Slime Starch.
"Starch!" Miria said as she picked it up.
She probably remembered the name because it was used for deep-frying fish. She was always focused when fish was involved. Since it had dropped both times now, it likely wasn't a rare drop.
"The monster combinations here aren't great, but do you think we can keep fighting on this floor?" I asked.
"Yes. That level of opposition is barely a problem," Roxanne replied.
"Looking at the results, it was an easy victory," Vesta added.
"I can do it!" Miria chimed in.
"I believe we'll be fine," Sherry concluded.
I wondered if there was even a point in asking. Still, as we moved up a floor, I felt it was important to hear everyone's opinion. If we were going up one floor at a time, the safest way was to have someone speak up if it became too difficult. There was no harm in just going back down to the previous floor to train more. Eventually, we would reach a floor where we simply couldn't fight. I didn't want to blindly step into that situation. Detecting the danger beforehand was essential.
To be honest, I couldn't imagine Roxanne ever admitting to a struggle. Still, there was a chance she would notice if someone else was pushing too hard. I held out hope for that. I thought Miria and Vesta might be the first to complain, but looking at them now, they didn't seem to have a care in the world. They were probably operating on a "don't think, feel" philosophy, which might help them sense a crisis. I wasn't banking on it, though.
The one I truly relied on was Sherry. She would make a proper, logical judgment. And since even Sherry said it was an easy win, the twenty-third floor was clearly not an issue.
"Alright, let's stick to the twenty-third floor of Quratar for today, even if the combinations are a bit annoying."
"In that case, the boss room is this way," Roxanne said.
"Wait, what?"
Hold on a second.
"You mean we're going to do a boss battle here today?"
How did we get to that? Roxanne's thought process was moving way too fast for me.
"It’s true that the combinations here are poor," Sherry explained. "The Gumi Slime is weak to many elements but not Earth, while the Clamshells and Kettle Mermaids that appear with it are specifically weak to Earth."
I wanted to tell Sherry that I already knew that. The issue wasn't the elemental weaknesses; it was why we were jumping straight to the boss. Was it just because the regular battles were tedious? No way.
"That may be true, but..."
"Actually, I'm against heading to the boss immediately," Sherry said, cutting in. "We should fight a bit more and confirm that everything is fine first."
"Exactly," I agreed.
Thank goodness for Sherry and her rational thinking. This is what the mind of a cool-headed warrior looks like, Roxanne.
"You're right," Roxanne said easily. "In fact, there's a group with many Gumi Slimes just over there. Let's go try it."
Roxanne started walking.
Wait. I felt like I was being handled. We were supposed to be gradually increasing the difficulty. Then again, it wasn't like I had ever intentionally hunted specific numbers of monsters to "level up" slowly before. Maybe I was overthinking it. But monsters from the twenty-third floor and up were a tier stronger and used all-target magic. Surely a gradual approach was warranted?
Well, it wasn't like I could just find a perfectly sized group on command. I supposed this was fine.
Worrying as I followed Roxanne, we eventually came across a group of Gumi Slimes. There were five of them. All five were Gumi Slimes. Five monsters, all from the twenty-third floor. Was Roxanne a demon? This was going to be incredibly difficult. Surely this was just a coincidence, right? I really wanted Roxanne to understand that the jump to the twenty-third floor was a serious matter.
The four girls charged, and I activated Fire Storm. I followed up with a second one immediately. The reason I preferred Fire magic was that it was easy to tell when the spell ended. While Fire Storm was active, sparks would dance through the air, and as soon as they vanished, I knew the magic had subsided. It allowed me to time my next cast perfectly. Breeze Storm didn't work like that because it was essentially invisible.
The difference was probably only a fraction of a second, but it felt more efficient. It was definitely not because seeing the sparks made me feel more like a powerful mage. No. Absolutely not.
The Gumi Slimes split up, with three staying in the front and two moving to the rear. Once they moved to the back, they were going to use magic. This was exactly why I didn't want to fight five of them at once. Still, as long as our front line handled their opponents one-on-one, we were safe. Ah, one of the slimes delayed before moving to the front. Maybe the monsters realized they couldn't win one-on-one? Probably not.
I kept up the magic as I moved closer to the front. Suddenly, a magic circle appeared beneath one of the slimes in the back.
"It's coming!"
Just as the warning left my lips, a clump of earth went flying past Roxanne. It was a single-target spell. Since it was our first time seeing magic on this floor, I thought about taking the hit, but the danger of a follow-up was too great. Dodging was the right call. This was why I said we shouldn't have taken on five of them.
Ultimately, the Gumi Slime in the back fired another single-target spell, but it didn't hit anyone before the battle ended.
"They didn't use any all-target magic," I noted.
"I've heard they use it more often the higher up you go," Sherry said calmly. "It would be a nightmare if they were firing it constantly starting from the twenty-third floor."
"I guess so."
Sherry was certainly composed. It was a shame from a testing perspective, but if they weren't going to use it, that was fine by me. I wondered what Roxanne would think if I said we should stay here until we actually got hit by an area-of-effect spell.
"Even with five Gumi Slimes, it wasn't much of a struggle since they didn't use all-target magic," Roxanne said.
See? She was still dead set on the boss room.
"Oh, by the way, I did promise to check out the Labyrinth in the Harz Duchy, didn't I? We should probably see what the monster combinations are like on the twenty-third floor over there."
"I will look into that soon," Sherry said, cutting off my escape route. "However, since we're already here, we might as well stay for a bit longer, don't you think?"
I didn't remember ever explicitly stating I wanted to stay away from the Harz Labyrinth. Had I been that easy to read? It’s not a good sign when your party starts over-interpreting your inner thoughts. There’s a story about Yang Xiu, who was executed by Cao Cao during the Hanzhong campaign. When Cao Cao said the word "chicken ribs," Yang Xiu decided that because chicken ribs have little meat, it meant the campaign was a waste of time and started preparing for a retreat on his own. One should not presume to know their master's mind so casually.
"Yeah, you're right. But there's no need to check the Labyrinth in Tale. Just Bode is fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't have very many good memories of that place."
The residents of Tale had been incredibly arrogant. I wasn't running a charity, so I had no intention of entering the Labyrinth there. It was just an invitation for trouble. I was indebted to Duke Harz and had to honor his request to use the Labyrinths in his duchy, but it didn't have to be Tale.
"That's true," Roxanne agreed.
Now that I thought about it, Roxanne had been with me in Tale, while Sherry hadn't. I had accidentally gained an ally in my quest to avoid the place.
"There's no rush to go back to Bode right now, but we'll probably head there eventually. Just look into it for me."
"Understood."
My plan to escape to a different Labyrinth had failed.
"Well, let's fight a few more rounds on the twenty-third floor."
"Yes. Next is this way."
Roxanne nodded obediently, which was a surprise.
"Lead the way."
We followed her to the next group: three Gumi Slimes, one Clamshell, and one Kettle Mermaid. A total of five monsters. Maybe she was being obedient because she had spotted this group and just really wanted to fight them.
The girls ran forward, and I met the enemies with Breeze Storm. Clamshells were resistant to Fire, so I couldn't use Fire Storm here. Even if there were only three slimes, I needed to target their weaknesses to ensure the fight ended before they could use all-target magic.
While I provided cover with Wind magic, the front line clashed with the monsters. Only one Gumi Slime moved to the rear.
"Miria, take that one!"
"Okay!"
Miria moved to engage one of the two slimes in the front. With the chance of petrification, I wanted the most dangerous monsters neutralized first.
"It's coming!"
A clump of earth magic whistled past Roxanne. Even though the slime was in the back, it had opted for a single-target spell again.
"I did it!"
"Step back!" I commanded.
Just as I caught up to them, Miria petrified one of the slimes. We hurriedly moved back a few paces. As we retreated, the monsters surged forward. The petrified Gumi Slime was left behind, and the one that had been in the rear rushed into the gap. Now they were all in the front line.
Well, since we were actively trying to test an all-target spell, it would have been better if the slime stayed in the back to cast, but if we kept fighting, we’d eventually get hit whether we wanted to or not. There was no need to deliberately create openings.
Sherry held her spear ready, and I unleashed another Breeze Storm. Vesta was hammering her two-handed swords into the Kettle Mermaid in front of her. Since it wasn't a slime, she was attacking with everything she had. Watching the monster get battered like that actually made me feel a little sorry for it.
As for the Gumi Slimes... ah, the petrified one left behind turned into smoke. It vanished, scattered by the wind magic. Almost simultaneously, one of the slimes in the front began to vibrate violently before lunging at Roxanne. She swayed back, dodging it by a hair. Immediately after, the remaining monsters were wiped out by my magic.
"Roxanne, did that Gumi Slime just try to attach itself to you?" Sherry asked once the battle was over.
"It seems so."
So that violent shaking was the tell. That’s how they tried to grab you.
"We’ll have to be careful about that. I'm glad we stayed on the twenty-third floor to practice."
"No, the preparatory movement is far too large," Roxanne said dismissively. "Unless one is looking elsewhere, it is impossible to be hit by such an attack."
I suspected that was only true because she was Roxanne.
"I-I see. Miria, Vesta, you two be careful just in case."
"I can do it!"
"I think I'll be fine."
Had these two been completely brainwashed by Roxanne's confidence? It had been vibrating quite clearly, so maybe it was easy to see. When I asked Miria and Vesta as they brought me the Slime Starch, they didn't seem concerned at all.
As for me? When I was in the front, I had Durandal equipped. I was more than willing to trade hits. Whether I was grabbed or not, as long as I kept swinging Durandal, I’d be draining the enemy's life and healing myself at the same time. If being grabbed meant I couldn't move at all, that would be a problem, but I didn't think the attack was that debilitating. It was likely just a slightly more annoying version of the Green Caterpillar’s silk.
Was I the one being brainwashed by Roxanne? Maybe. But the fact remained that with Durandal, I could fight and heal simultaneously. I wasn't going to lose easily.
"Since there aren't many challenging groups left nearby, let's move closer to the boss room," Roxanne said, turning on her heel.
She was already leading us to the next spot. She clearly hadn't given up on the boss. Once she felt we were used to the slimes, she was going to drag us straight there. In the worst-case scenario, she might just lead us right to the door and claim it was an accident. Giving Roxanne the map had been a mistake. It was like giving a knife to a madman—or a Labyrinth map to Roxanne.
"Oh."
We came across a group consisting of one Gumi Slime and one Clamshell. It was a small group. I wondered if the only reason I thought it was small was because Roxanne’s influence was rubbing off on me.
Actually, no. I had told her to find large groups from the start. If I was going to wipe them out with area-of-effect magic anyway, more monsters were better. Feeling like this group was small didn't mean I was being brainwashed. It was just logic.
Since there were only two of them, Roxanne and Vesta handled the front. Roxanne took the slime while Vesta faced the Clamshell. No matter what the Gumi Slime tried, there was no way it was going to hit Roxanne from the front. I couldn't even sense a threat.
Well, maybe there was a hint of one. Roxanne always dodged by the narrowest of margins. To an outsider, it looked like she was constantly on the verge of being hit. They wouldn't realize it was a trap she was setting for the monster.
Vesta was busy parrying the Clamshell's attacks. She used her two-handed swords to knock the monster back with raw power—a style of defense that only the large, powerful Vesta could pull off. Behind the Gumi Slime, Miria was relentlessly striking with the Estoc of Rigidity. It was only a matter of time before it petrified.
I wondered if I should have used Sand Storm instead of Water Storm. Petrification was never a guarantee, so until the monster was actually neutralized, it made more sense to use Water magic for the slime rather than Earth magic for the Clamshell.
"I did it!"
And there it was. The petrification triggered. I guess that's what happened when you hit something that many times. I switched to Sand Storm, and the Clamshell fell shortly after.
"Hmm. Using Water magic first wasn't a mistake, was it?"
"No," Sherry agreed. "I believe it's only natural to try and shorten the combat time against the stronger monster."
If the rational Sherry said it was fine, then it was fine. You shouldn't rely on things that aren't certain.
"Alright, find the next one."
"Yes. There is a large group in a perfect spot just ahead."
"That way, then."
Roxanne led us to a group of three Gumi Slimes and one Kettle Mermaid. I met them with a Fire Storm. Since Kettle Mermaids were only resistant to Water, I could use Fire magic without worry, unlike with the Clamshells. It felt good, even if it was just a matter of preference.
The four monsters lined up to face Roxanne and the others. Even with four opponents, our front line didn't waver. The only difference was that Miria couldn't swing her estoc quite as freely. We were steadily pushing them back.
Suddenly, a magic circle appeared beneath one of the Gumi Slimes.
"Don't cancel it," Roxanne said.
"Understood," Sherry replied.
Roxanne had stopped Sherry's cancellation. Did she intend to take the hit? The battle was almost over, so I supposed it was okay. The magic circle vanished, and the Gumi Slime fired a clump of earth.
Another single-target spell. It seemed we still weren't going to see any all-target magic. Roxanne could have easily dodged... but instead, she stood her ground and took the hit.