31 30. Labyrinth re-dive.txt (1/2)

A crustacean the size of a bear comes at me with the speed of a wolf.

The crayfish-shaped red monster swings its scissor-shaped hand at me.

I flicked it with my sword and tried to slash its joints.

--but it misses.

The enemy twisted his body just in time, and I was caught in the hard part.

''Tch--!

I cluck my tongue at the amount of bad conditions at the battle site.

It's muddy underfoot, which makes it uncomfortable to do anything. In contrast, the crayfish monster ignores the muddy conditions and moves with great agility, so it's not worth it.

I thought I was lacking in a decisive move and was about to choose a retreat, when Maria's voice rang out.

''-- 《Firefly》!

A thin film of fire clung to the monster's head.

Against the blindness of the flames, the monster involuntarily brings both hands to its face.

It's not me who misses that opening.

I close in on the monster, succeeding in my joint aim that I failed to do earlier, and slash off both of its arms.

It was easy to aim at the confused monster's joints.

The monster screams as it loses both arms.

I then attack the monster's kryptonite, a vital point, with my sword. Other joints, thin parts of the limbs, sensory organs, I don't know the clear weaknesses, so I crush all of them.

''--Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa!

At last, the monster becomes light with the demise of the dead.

I look away from the disappearing monster and laugh with a sense of accomplishment as I breathe on my shoulder.

[I've acquired the title 'The One Lurking in the Swamp'

Magical power is corrected by +0.05

'...... was a pain in the ass.'

Congratulations to you, Master.

So don't be a master: ......

Maria, who had been assisting us in the distance, blessed us as she approached us.

Having learned magic, we had been re-entering the labyrinth since then.

Since Maria's level has risen, we are in the middle of advancing deeper and deeper without any worries, and since we are planning to try setting up the Connection at the 10th level, the 10th level is our target for now.

And right now, I've just defeated the 8th level boss with Maria.

As I picked up the monster's drop items, I accused Maria of calling me master. However, Maria doesn't care and continues to talk.

'It was quite a hassle, though. What's going on?

'No, I didn't think it would be so hard to get a foothold. So that was a big help. Good timing.

'No, no, I've heard that I'm only that useful in boss fights.

Saying that, Maria shows a sulking gesture.

She wasn't happy that I instructed her to stay in the rear to provide cover right before this fight.

It seems that Maria has had her dagger defeating the miscellaneous monsters until she reached the 8th level, so she has gained extra confidence. I'm sure she thinks that she could be of help even against this boss monster.

After all, a sudden level up seems to rob any human being of his or her normalcy.

Even Maria, who has a thoughtful personality, feels excited and ungrounded. Gaining more than double the muscle strength and stamina within a few hours seems to come with a lot of problems.

I'm worried about letting such a Maria participate in a battle against a higher-ranked opponent. Even though I'm using my magic ”Dimension” to watch the monster's every move, there's a possibility that I won't be able to protect Maria from her first-look special ability.

''No, the boss right now could have done it with Maria. But you never know what the boss will do to you. It's better to wait for him to level up a bit more.

Isn't that the time to make me an expendable slave, like this?

I'm not a slave. And I don't like that.

I treat Maria like a friend, but inevitably she treats herself as a slave.

She doesn't understand that if I do what Maria says and she dies like a discarded slave, I will die of self-hatred.

...... No, no.

Maybe you know, and you're saying .......

'Huh, you're still sweet.'

'I'm not naive. I'm just trying to get the right people in the right places, and I'm just trying to get Maria to work elsewhere more.

'All lies. You're just being overprotective.

As she says this, Maria plays with the knife in her hand.

She spins it around in her hand and throws it around like a juggling act.

Her skills must have increased since she reached level 7. In order to feel that increased ability, Maria started moving her body impatiently from a while ago.

Not being able to see Maria's attitude, I try to nail her.

It's not overprotective. It's simply that Maria seems to me to be lacking in composure at the moment. If you ask her to die easily, it will be my loss. It's a good idea to have a good workout for at least four gold coins.

That's exactly what you're doing. You say so many things that you don't think you can say. You used to say it was okay to run away.

............

Come to think of it, I think I said something like that: .......

I have an idea, so I can't argue with you.

Thus, while exploring the labyrinth, I talk to Maria to a reasonable degree, but I've never won an argument.

It's partly because Maria is the glib one and I'm the poor talker, but more than anything else it's the skill 'penetrating eyes' that's the problem. She makes so many sharp points that I think she can hear my heart.

When I'm depressed after losing an argument, she senses the monster with her magic 《Dimension》 search.

''Ah, there's a monster in the right bend ahead. Would this one work with Maria?

You're here. I'll take care of it.

It's a common beast-type monster that walks on four legs.

Knowing that an 8th layer beast type monster doesn't have any special abilities, I assigned it to Maria's training partner.

A rank 8 monster, a bound dog.

A level 7 explorer would have to surround it with a few people to defeat it, a monster that would be difficult to defeat.

''I'm going--!

In contrast, Maria attacks with one dagger and one body.

In order to follow it, I follow from behind.

The bound dog reacts agilely to the human who has taken me by surprise from the corner. With a movement characteristic of the beast, it retreats significantly and dodges Maria's initial attack.

Then, it absorbs the momentum of the retreat with its four legs and tries to charge at Maria's empty body.

I observe this without being in a hurry.

Maria, too (・・・・), understands that Bound Dog's rush is in sight.

Maria jumps against Bound Dog as he rushes at her.

She puts her hands on Bound Dog's back and jumps over it. She even slashes at his back as he leaps over.

Bound Dog is not me, who is keeping his distance, but the enemy (Maria) who is nearby, and he repeatedly lunges at me.

It's a speedy rush that an ordinary human would not be able to catch. Of course, it's definitely faster than Maria's current speed.

But even so, he still couldn't catch Maria.

Maria's physical ability is only average or below level 7. Even so, the reason why she was able to counter this bound dog's speed was due to her skills.

The skill 'Penetrating Eyes' can see through Bound Dog's mind and does not miss its behavior.

The ”Hunt” skill guides you to an efficient way to carry your body and attack.

The two skills combined to accurately strike the monster's weak points.

By the end of several thrusts, Bound Dog's body was in tatters.

Its vaunted speed had fallen to the ground in the face of Maria's fighting style, which was aimed only at the tendons of its precious muscles.

In the end, Maria burned him with fire magic, severing his tendons, crushing his eyes, and stabbing him in the heart as he died.

Maria was strong for her status.

It would be pitiful to compare her to me and Dia, but she seemed to be far better than the average explorer.

Without my help, Maria is able to defeat the monsters on the 8th layer without me having to deal with them.

''...... hahaha. Sorry, I was fiddly.

No, this is great for the first day.

''No, I'm good at dealing with these kinds of beasts. However, we only had to deal with small animals in the village. ......

Oh, yeah. No wonder.

No wonder you have 'hunting' in your skills.

'In the past, you could see it, but your body couldn't keep up with it. But now it's different. I feel lighter and more powerful. It's amazing. I can fight even against such a fearsome beast.

Maria happily wields her bloody dagger, dropping blood.

She seems to feel a sense of accomplishment in defeating monsters.

I guess she was originally suited to the act of 'hunting'. With the benefit of level 7, and having obtained a body that can move as it wishes, that talent seems to be blossoming.

After that, leaving the exploration to Maria didn't cause any problems either.

Even if you are dealing with special enemies where physical attacks don't work, there is no problem as she uses the skill 'penetrating eyes' to assess them before attacking them with magic. Rather, the more special the enemy, the more Maria's ability is demonstrated. The way she uses her insight to select an effective attack is similar to my tactics.

This is how our new party gets past the 8th layer and reaches the 9th layer.

However, when it comes to the monsters of the 9th layer, there are more and more enemies that Maria can't deal with.

If the attacks themselves can't get through, Maria, who has only good eyesight, can't do anything about it. In such a case, I would have Maria cover her with Firefly and I would fight her.

I hunt monsters at random, make sure that Maria's support is working, and proceed to the 10th layer.

The layer that Arti is protecting.

It's a room of blazing fire.

Making sure there is no one around, I approach the flames for an experiment.

”Arti, do you read me? Alty, do you read me?

I talk to the flames as if I were on the phone.

I feel Maria looking at me like I'm looking at a crazy person, but I don't care.

'Hey, Arti. Really hear me--

'Yeah, I can hear you. It's my house, you know.

The fire that spoke to me takes the form of a mouth and responds.

I can see Maria behind me, surprised, ”What?

'I was skeptical, but you really do respond.'