Why?
"They don't seem to be much of a threat, really."
It appeared she had taken the hit on purpose. Roxanne lightly dodged the Gumi Slime's subsequent attacks while I layered my magic, eventually defeating all the monsters in the area.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
"There is no problem at all. At this level, I don't even think First Aid is necessary," Roxanne replied.
I applied First Aid anyway, but she really did seem fine. Even after I stopped after a single cast, she acted as if nothing had happened.
"I see."
"Since we've confirmed it's nothing to worry about, I believe we should switch to the Boss Battle."
So that was her goal in taking the hit. She wanted to prove to me that Gumi Slime magic wasn't anything special, and she had succeeded.
Wait. Even if the magic had been powerful, was there a chance she was just putting on a brave face so we could head to the Boss Battle? No, that seemed unlikely. She looked completely unfazed; it really must not have been a big deal. Besides, we couldn't just wait around forever for one of them to finally cast All-target Attack Magic.
"The real issue is the difference in power between that and All-target Attack Magic. Do you think we'll be okay?"
"At the very least, I believe we no longer have to worry about being taken out in a single hit. Even in the worst-case scenario, we should be able to withstand several strikes. It doesn't seem like they use magic all that frequently, either. I think we can safely say there are no problems on the 23rd Floor, and we've established that we can fight on higher floors as well."
I looked to Sherry for support, but she seemed to place her full trust in Roxanne's assessment. If Sherry said it was fine, then I suppose it was.
In the case of a Mage, there is almost no difference in power between Single-target Attack Magic and All-target Attack Magic. I wondered if the same held true for monsters. Roxanne had taken the single-target hit on purpose, but I wasn't sure how to judge the overall risk. Since it was a monster, there was always a possibility it possessed several types of magic, though that hadn't been the case with any monsters we'd met so far.
Gumi Slimes possessed at least two types: Single-target Attack Magic and All-target Attack Magic. All-target Attack Magic was a Sure-hit and affected every member of the party. If its power was also high, it would be a total cheat. It was probably safe to assume there wasn't much difference in power between the two types. Besides, the Gumi Slimes hadn't been using the all-target version very often—in fact, they hadn't used it once so far.
The 23rd Floor seemed safe enough, then.
"However, we've only fought Gumi Slimes with magic so far. Let's try fighting them with swords once. We'll head to the Boss Battle after that."
"That's true. I understand."
Roxanne was willing to listen when I explained my reasoning. Well, "reasoning" in this case just meant adding one more battle to the schedule.
"Find me a group with a small number of enemies—no, actually, somewhere with two or more Gumi Slimes would be better. Can you find them?"
"There are some just on the other side of the Boss Room."
I had Roxanne lead the way, and we soon engaged a group consisting of two Gumi Slimes and a Clamshell.
As for why I wanted two slimes...
"I did it!" Miria called out.
I had a feeling this might happen. I'd been worried that Miria might petrify them before I could test Durandal against them, and my fears were realized almost immediately.
"Still, you did a great job petrifying those troublesome Gumi Slimes, Miria."
"I did it!"
She beamed at the praise. Well, it wasn't a bad thing, even if it messed up my test. Miria had neutralized both Gumi Slimes, but it took a while to finish them off. Perhaps focusing on the Clamshell first was a mistake.
Hmm. Still, taking out the weak monsters to reduce the enemy's numbers was the correct tactical theory.
"It wasn't exactly a struggle, but fighting Gumi Slimes with swords certainly drags the battle out."
"It does. There is no mistake about that," Sherry agreed.
The Gumi Slimes clearly possessed Physical Attack Resistance. They were troublesome opponents for a vanguard.
"In that case... should we head to the Boss Battle?"
"With Master and our party, it is the natural next step," Roxanne said.
"Indeed, we haven't faced anything resembling a true struggle," Sherry added. "Looking at the data, like the number of days since we started exploring the Labyrinth, it might feel a bit fast, but realistically, there's no point in stalling here. I think it's best to head to the Boss Battle."
"I'll do it!" Miria chirped.
"I think we'll be fine," Vesta said.
Even Sherry, my usual voice of caution, had sided with the others. Roxanne didn't seem to think it was a good idea to keep avoiding the slimes, either. At this point, there was nothing left to do but proceed to the Boss Battle.