а∨天堂入口

Eighth floor.

We passed the seventh floor, and moved on to the eighth floor of Quratar’s labyrinth.

“Do you know which demon appears on the eighth floor here?”

I asked Sherry.

“Um, I’m not sure. I don’t know where we are.”

“Ah, we are in Quratar’s Labyrinth.”

“Quratar’s Labyrinth?”

“Didn’t I mention it?”

Is that so?

“He probably did. I saw that the demons were the same as Quratar’s Labyrinth, but we didn’t pay any money to get it. Is that because of the space-time magic? If that’s so, we don’t pay.”

Sherry mutters.

Though it’s required to pay money to enter Quratar’s Labyrinth, I don’t pay.

Is that why you didn’t think it was Quratar’s Labyrinth?

The genius didn’t notice?

“Is it bad that we didn’t pay?”

“No. It’s expected that the entrance fee is paid when you enter Quratar’s Labyrinth, but you aren’t using the entrance so it’s wise not to pay. That’s what I think.”

I don’t want the explorer there to notice me either.

It’s good.

“As expected of Master.”

Roxanne praises me, but Roxanne was the first to suggest it.

“So, do you know the demon on Quratar’s eighth floor?”

“Ah. Yes. The demon on the eighth floor of Quratar’s Labyrinth is the Needle Wood. It should be safe since we’ve fought them in Vale’s Labyrinth. It can rarely use water magic. Don’t use water magic on it because it has a high resistance to water.”

Sherry explained.

It seems I still shouldn’t use water magic against Needle Woods.

“I’ve never seen one use magic.”

“It’s because it’s on a low floor in Vale’s Labyrinth, it won’t use it on lower floors.”

“Is that so?”

“Demons start to practice magic and skills as you go up in floors. I think the Needle Wood might start to rarely use magic on the eighth floor.”

On higher floors, monster level is also higher.

Since level goes up, magic and skills also go up.

“I understand. You’ve been useful again Sherry.”

“Thank you.”

“I will continue to ask in the future. Roxanne, find a few demons.”

“Certainly.”

Should I equip Durandal to deal with the magic?

If I use it straight away, I won’t know which magic it is.

Should I wait and see?

For the time being, I’ll leave Sherry as Explorer Lv10.

It’s possible that magic might one-shot a Master Smith Lv1.

We hunt on the eighth floor.

However, the Needle Wood’s don’t use magic.

It seems to be quite uncommon.

I’m impatient, and change Sherry’s job to Master Smith Lv1.

Explorer has gone up to Lv11.

It would probably go up to Lv12 if I left it.

The first magic happens when a group of four Needle Woods appear.

Three Needle Woods come forward as I use [Fire Storm].

One slows down & turns around.

Needle Woods are plant demons that swing their branches around.

The cave in the Labyrinth might be too narrow for four to line up.

“Roxanne, handle two. Sherry, handle one.”

Three [Fire Storm] are used as they come forward.

A fourth is used as they face the vanguards.

“It’s coming.”

Roxanne gives a warning.

When I look, there’s a blue ball over the demon’s head.

It looks like a [Water Ball].

The Needle Wood launches the magic.

It’s fast.

It’s straight & fast like Water Polo.

Towards Roxanne.

Roxanne twists her upper body just a little.

The magic is avoided just by twisting.

It passes just beside her.

The magic hits the wall after doing nothing.

You can dodge it?

It seems that it’s not at a speed where it can’t be avoided.

I used a fifth [Fire Storm].

The sparks dance & attack the demons.

All four of the Needle Wood’s fall.

“As expected of Roxanne, you can dodge magic.”

“It’s because it was shot from the second row of demons. If you can see magic at that distance you can avoid it.”

No. It’s impossible.

There’s not enough room.

There’s not enough distance.

“Is that so?”

“It made use of the other demons as distractions, it probably didn’t think it would hit otherwise.”

I don’t think it’s possible.

As Sherry passes me the item she picked up I ask her what she thinks with my eyes. She silently shakes her head.

“That’s how it is.”

“That’s how what is?”

Roxanne asks.

“Ah. The branch. It’s needed for smithing. We’ll have to keep some instead of selling them.”

“Ah, yes. We need that.”

I managed to get through the conversation somehow.

The items dropped are one leaf, and three branches.

“That reminds me, how do you use the branch?”

I heard that a Master Smith uses branches when I was in Vale.

I was told it was a necessary item for them.

“When making the metal parts of weapons and armor, a branch is used along with the materials.”

It seems to be necessary for processing metals.

It’s a requirement.

“Do you need a furnace as well?”

“Everything is done by the skill. No special devices are necessary.”

If you get the items then the skill will do the rest.

After that, we didn’t encounter many Needle Woods that used magic.

I worried about the level of Sherry’s job, and before realized, it increased from Lv1 to Lv2.

We’ll continue as is for now.

It isn’t a requirement for a Needle Wood to be in the back row for it to use magic.

We encountered two Needle Wood’s and a Slow Rabbit, and one of them used it.

“It’s coming.”

Roxanne gives a warning as a blue magic formation appears below a Needle Wood.

The ball of water appears over the demons head and flies forward.

At me.

“Gah.”

I’m hit without a chance to avoid it.

Evasion is impossible.

It’s really impossible.

It’s absolutely impossible.

In my head I can understand when to avoid it, but do I dodge right or left? It hits me before I can think.

Enough time to evade it.

There isn’t.

Even though I have [Plating] and I don’t die in a single shot, it still feels quite strong.

It’s a feeling like I’ve had my leg torn off.

Also, I’m soaked because it was water.

It’s probably better than being hit by fire though.

Even though we killed the demon with the fifth [Fire Storm], the water didn’t disappear.

The Green Caterpillar thread disappeared, but this doesn’t.

Since I was struck in the leg, it looks like I wet myself.

It’s not very bright in the Labyrinth, so I’ll just try not to stand out.

The water dries before we leave the Labyrinth.

We finish up in a small room, and find a magic crystal.

The magic crystal is useful, so we put it in the rucksack.

“It’s finally dry.”

“Things that use magic will disappear when magic runs out, but things made with magic will remain even after the magic has ended. A demons body is conjured by magic, but it’s assumed that part of it is fully made since it drops items.”

Sherry explains.

It’s a little hard to understand.

“Hmm.”

“Oh.”

When I move a magic crystal over to the item box, Sherry lets out a noise.

“What?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just noticed the purple magic crystal became a blue magic crystal.”

Ah, because the crystal had progressed.

The blue magic crystal has the magic from 1000 demons stored in it.

“Mine is purple.”

Roxanne passes over a purple magic crystal.

We used this crystal for a test, and it’s become purple.

Sherry has one as well, and it’s become red.

“Wasn’t there a purple crystal and two black crystals yesterday?”

“Is that how it was?”

“If it’s Master, they’ll increase easily.”

Roxanne gives a nice follow-up.

Sherry looks a bit doubtful, but doesn’t have cold eyes.

After breakfast, we go to the Imperial Capital.

“Wow, It’s huge.”

When we leave the adventurers guild in the Imperial Capital, Sherry looks around at the nearby buildings.

It doesn’t seem that big to me.

“Is this your first time in the Imperial Capital, Sherry?”

“Yes.”

A country bumpkin.

“Roxanne and I came here recently for the first time as well.”

“We did.”

Roxanne nods as I turn to her.

“You won’t normally come here without some kind of business.”

“Is that so?”

There doesn’t seem to be the concept of sight seeing in this world yet.

As Sherry says, a commoner won’t need to come to the Imperial Capital.

Even though it’s so easy to travel around if you find an adventurer with [Field Walk].

Ordinary people just don’t have the spirit of adventure.

“I’ve wanted to come here for a long time.”

Sherry mutters quietly.

“Hmm?”

“Ah, oh, nothing.”

“What did you want to do?”

I was curious, so I tried to ask.

“Well, there’s a library in the Imperial Capital. I’ve wanted to go there for so long.”

“There’s a library?”

To want to visit the library. As expected of the smart one.

“We had ten books at our house growing up, but they were only dwarven books related to smithing.”

I’m not sure if ten is a large or small amount.

Paper is valuable in this world.

There’s probably not many houses with any books.

Is Sherry from a wealthy family?

Then I don’t know why she became a slave.

She said it was while growing up.

Perhaps the family fell into ruin.

I won’t touch that subject.

“It’s amazing that your house had books.”

Roxanne doesn’t think about it?

She’s just being herself.

“It’s an old story. We were quite prosperous when my grandfather was alive.”

“I see, and you became knowledgeable reading books?”

I try to return to the original story.

We shouldn’t continue on this topic.

“We had them in the house since long ago.”

“I always wanted to become a Master Smith.”

“I did my best and entered the Labyrinth when I became an explorer.”

I suspect she was a wealthy young lady that stayed indoors.

Is that why her villager level was so low?

“I’ve liked books since long ago, so I wanted to go to the Library.”

“Ahh.”

“Shall we go now?”

I don’t have any books either.

Well, if you can call the capture map of Quratar’s Labyrinth a book, then I have one.

“Eh? But I’m a slave now.”

“Well… I’d like to go…”

“But I can’t go.”

Is there a problem?

It might have been a wise choice not to mention it from the start.

“If you’re a slave, you can’t use the Library?”

“That’s not it. If you pay, you can go in. But it’s an extremely high price.”

“It’s high?”

“Aside from admission fees, there is also a deposit. You can get the deposit back if you don’t damage any books, but you need one gold coin.”

It’s to protect their valuable books.

It’s reasonable.

Strange people won’t go in because they don’t want to lose their deposit.

You can make up for problems with money.

“I see, well I’ll let Sherry go into the Library.”

“What?”

“Well, Sherry teaches things about demons. If you don’t know something, you can learn it. I’ll let you go to the Library that you’ve wanted to visit.”

If I don’t know something, Sherry can learn about it.

It’s a good idea.

Anyway, I’ve been skipping learning to read characters from Roxanne lately.

I wasn’t good at learning English either.

On top of my Japanese, I hope you’ll forgive me for not learning English or Brahim.

I really envy Schliemann TN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schliemann

“Ah, Thank you.”

“Oh, can you read Brahim Sherry?”

“Yes. I learnt to read it in the Slave Traders establishment because the characters are the same.”

I see.

If you understand the alphabet it’s possible to read English, German & French, even if you can’t understand it.

It must be something similar.

“The books that you had in your house weren’t written in Brahim?”

“They were written in the dwarven language because they were related to smithing.”

“Sherry is amazing, though I learnt the characters in the Slave Traders establishment as well.”

“Roxanne, was there anywhere you wanted to go?”

I looked to her side and asked.

“No, not really.”

“I see.”

“Oh, that. Can I go with you?”

Roxanne watches my eyes.

“To where I’d like to go?”

“Yes. Wherever Master wants to go, I want to go. Can you take me with you?”

She’s trying to be modest.

I pat her dog ears on reflex.

Roxanne is still the best.

“I understand. That’s fine.”

“Okay.”

“Ah, I want to come along as well.”

Sherry asks as well.

It feels like I’ve been pushed into it.