The next day, I stopped putting up a futile fight and headed for the thirty-first-floor boss room. Was there no one left to stop Roxanne?
"Sherry, what are we facing here?"
"The boss of the thirty-first floor of the Quratar Labyrinth is the Rem Golem," Sherry explained in the waiting room. "It has no elemental weaknesses, making it a difficult opponent for Mages. Like the Non-rem Golem, it’s a rock doll with a high resistance to Earth-based attacks, but parts of its body are reinforced with metal. Its attack power and durability are significantly higher than the Non-rem version. While it can use Earth Magic, its primary method of attack is simply striking with its arms. They are said to be incredibly powerful, so we must be careful."
The regular monsters on this floor were Non-rem Golems. Since this was the boss, the Rem Golem was clearly just an upgraded version. I couldn't help but wonder if the names "Rem" and "Non-rem" actually meant anything in this world.
"A Rem Golem, huh?"
"It is said that when you enter the boss room, the golems are sometimes found sleeping. In those cases, a strategy of leaving them for last is quite effective."
So the names did have a point. They actually slept. As expected of a Rem Golem—though I had no idea if it was specifically experiencing REM sleep.
"If they’re just sleeping, that means they’ll wake up if we attack them. Understood. If any of them are out cold, we’ll avoid using all-target magic."
When we entered the boss room, the smoke coalesced to reveal the monsters. There were two Non-rem Golems and one Rem Golem. Both types were yellowish-brown dolls made of stone. There wasn't much of a visual difference between them, though the Rem Golem looked perhaps one size larger. Even so, the difference was so slight that you could only tell when they were standing side-by-side. If you encountered one alone, you'd probably need Appraisal to be certain.
One of the Non-rem Golems and the Rem Golem itself had their heads slumped and their shoulders dropped. They were dead to the world.
"Vesta and I will wait," Roxanne said.
"Milia and I will handle the one that's awake," I replied.
"I’m on it, yes," Milia added.
Milia and I intercepted the single Non-rem Golem that had its head up and was looking at us. These rock dolls had eyes, a nose, and a mouth that looked like they had been drawn on with a marker—simple lines, but clear enough. Because the sleeping ones had their heads down, I couldn't tell if their line-drawn eyes were twitching.
In my old world, there were two types of sleep: REM sleep, where the eyes moved, and non-REM sleep, where they stayed still. The distinction was literally the presence of Rapid Eye Movement. I assumed the Non-rem Golems practiced non-REM sleep, while the Rem Golem was currently in REM sleep. Probably. It made sense, even if it was absurd to think about eyeballs moving inside solid rock eyes that were just painted lines.
"It's waking up!" Roxanne called out.
The boss had finally stirred, and Roxanne moved to intercept it with visible delight.
"I did it, yes!" Milia chirped.
"The other one is waking up, too."
Milia petrified the first golem, and almost exactly at that moment, the final sleeper woke up. The frequency of her petrification procs had definitely increased since she became an Assassin. It was even more noticeable today than it had been yesterday evening. It was likely because her Assassin level was rising. It was only logical to assume the success rate of status ailments was level-dependent—or perhaps dependent on the level gap between her and the monster.
Now that every monster was awake, I began unleashing Fire Storms while attacking the Non-rem Golem Vesta was holding from behind. Milia moved toward the boss.
"I did it, yes!"
A few moments later, the boss was turned to stone. The frequency was definitely up. With the boss out of commission, the rest of us surrounded the remaining golems and started a one-sided beatdown. It was an easy victory.
"Roxanne, how was the boss?" I asked while finishing off the last golem with magic.
"Let’s see. Its attacks are certainly powerful, but its motions are so telegraphed that you'd have to be looking the other way to get hit. Besides, when it swings, the air vibrates so much that I could dodge it with my eyes closed."
What a terrifying thing to say. I had noticed the air vibrating during the Rem Golem’s punches, too. To me, an attack that vibrates the air meant an absolute crisis. To her, it just meant the attack was so loud and obvious that it was easy to avoid. I really wondered what Roxanne’s neural pathways were made of.
Sherry and I caught each other’s eyes, but neither of us could find the words to respond. We simply focused on cleaning up the rest of the battle in silence.
"Just rocks, then."
Once the smoke cleared, three rocks remained on the floor. Rocks were the standard drop for Non-rem Golems, and it seemed the Rem Golem followed suit. Not very useful.
"Rem Golems drop Rocks and Damascus Steel. We were unlucky this time," Sherry said as she gathered the items.
So they did drop Damascus Steel. I suppose they couldn't be exactly the same as the regular golems. This must have been the metal part of the body she mentioned earlier.
"Damascus Steel, huh? If it drops, will you be able to forge with it, Sherry?"
"I still need much more experience for that."
I guess we didn't need it immediately anyway. Sherry was adamant that a Master Smith had to work their way up from simple materials. I suspected it might just be a matter of her level, but I didn't object. I left those decisions entirely to her. I wasn't the type to buy up materials and force her to grind out gear, anyway. To get equipment with empty skill slots, you had to forge a massive amount of items. It was better to wait until we could reliably harvest the materials ourselves.
"We’ve still got a long way to go. Let's take it slow."
"Yes. Thank you very much."
I didn't want to put too much pressure on her. She was already doing more than enough for the party.
"I smell a monster I haven't encountered before nearby," Roxanne announced as we stepped onto the thirty-second floor.
"Sherry, what are we looking for on thirty-two?"
"The monster of Quratar’s thirty-second floor is the Rock Bird. Their bodies are made of stone, and they can hurl rocks at us from a distance. They use Earth Magic and possess a resistance to Earth-attribute attacks. They have no elemental weaknesses."
So, a literal rock bird. And just like the golems, they had no weaknesses. This floor was going to be a slog. On the plus side, I wouldn't have to overthink which spells to use. I’d just call that a win and move on.
"They sound tough."
"They are. Because they have no weaknesses, they are considered one of the more difficult enemies to deal with until the thirty-third floor."
"Well, let's give it a try and see how we do."
Sherry didn't try to stop me. Roxanne was looking at me as if it was a foregone conclusion that we would keep going.
"Yes, right this way!" Roxanne led us forward with an excited expression.
We ran into a pair of Rock Birds. It was a good starting number. Roxanne was getting better at not throwing us into a five-monster ambush right off the bat. The Rock Birds were quite large—about the size of a swan, I guessed. I hadn't seen a swan since a school trip in my early childhood, and back then everything looked bigger, but these were definitely larger than any pigeon or crow. They were brownish and looked, as advertised, like they were carved from stone.
They didn't flap their wings much, instead choosing to glide through the air with their wings spread wide. As the girls dashed forward, I followed behind, casting Fire Storm. Roxanne and Vesta took the front, while Milia and Sherry moved to the flanks. The Rock Birds didn't try to fly away; they dove straight into the melee. Most monsters were aggressive to a fault—just like Roxanne. Which meant Roxanne was...
"I did it, yes!"
Before I could finish that line of thought, one of the birds petrified and crashed to the floor. With only two enemies, Milia had an easy time circling around. We swarmed the remaining bird. With Roxanne in front of it, its attacks stood no chance of landing.
"Hmm. Is this all? How disappointing," Roxanne muttered.
Even the Rock Bird's physical attacks failed to impress her. I really did wonder about her sometimes. The fight was taking longer than usual, but given the difficulty, I was satisfied. Of course, when a fight drags on...
"I did it, yes!"
Milia finished the second one off. Two at a time was no problem. We’d just have to see how we fared when the numbers grew. I finished off the petrified bird with magic, and it vanished into a cloud of smoke.
Only a single feather remained. I checked it with Appraisal: "Down."
"Down feathers, huh? What are these for?" I asked as I took the loot from Roxanne and Vesta.
"If you dip them in ink, you can use them to write on papyrus," Sherry explained.
So they were used as pens. "A quill, then?"
"You can also remove the shafts, stuff them into cloth, and use them for bedding."
"A down duvet?"
"Because they require expensive materials and the labor of removing the shafts is quite intensive, down duvets are considered extremely high-end luxury items. I’ve heard there are many fraudulent products on the market where the shafts are still attached or the down is mixed with cheaper materials."
"A classic scam, then."
It seemed crooked businessmen existed in every world. I doubted there was any consumer protection or "lemon laws" here. Still, a down duvet... I really wanted to try making one. It sounded so soft.
Sleeping in a soft, fluffy, rustling down duvet with Roxanne and Vesta by my side... The warmth of the feathers, the smoothness of Roxanne’s skin, the silky fur of her tail, and the cool touch of Vesta’s skin.
It would be absolute heaven. The ultimate luxury.