Vol 2 Chapter 7 (1/2)

LEVEL 2: Everything is Precious, Nothing is Replaceable

Chapter 7: Leave it to the Master

An elder kobold’s talis, nose stud, or on occasion a necklace, any was guaranteed to sell for over five silvers due to the precious stones embedded within There were even cases where one stone alone sold for over forty silvers

While in the second stratus, the third stratuher ranked kobold workers The elder taskmasters of these workers were called the “foremen” The foremen were similar in physique to the worker kobolds they led on the second or third strata, but, unlike the workers, they were properly outfitted in coear

Those foreet of Haruhiro’s group The difficulty of the fight depended entirely on the competence of the foreman It wasn’t just the foreman’s martial prowess, but its ability to cohts where the foreht all by themselves were comparatively easy to win On the other hand, when they encountered a foreh battle

Hueneral, hu before the after a different eneht in front of you was a sure way to get yourself killed nobody was that silly, of course, so praght was eli the immediate threat

But, soe For exa yourself open to attack in order to help them

Then there were times when it was a command, not a choice

Haruhiro would never force anyone to put themselves at such risk, but kobold forenal at subordinates to ignore Mogzo or Ranta and attack Mary or shi+horu instead And whether it was out of bravery, submissiveness, or timidity before the alpha-male, the subordinates would obey without concern for the preservation of their own lives

If they were actually able to get past Mogzo and Ranta, that would land the teae class in particular had no close combat ability and needed everyone to protect her Their battle forht would become a disaster

On the other hand, if they could take the foreht, the subordinates hardly posed a threat The way Haruhiro saw it, all they had to do was coy to take out the foreman as fast as possible to render the rest of the kobolds helpless

Currently, there was always one foreht With this predictable enee, and they had also beco to the fourth or fifth strata didn’t see came into view so naturally, everyone’s motivation went up

They had been working on the third stratum for ten days and had saved up souilds to acquire new skills Everyone was eager to broaden their coive them a sense of achievement

Haruhiro returned to Master Barbara and the Thieves Guild and paid four silvers to learn the Thief technique, [WIDOW MAKER]

“Shall we get started then, Old Cat?” Master Barbara smirked

The training area was a room within the Nishi+ Veno name, but most of the roo VenoleA chandelier filled with candles which could be raised and lowered hung froenerous person couldn’t call the room well-lit

If not for the candles, the roo the day The entire athtly uncomfortable

Master Barbara was in her usual revealing clothing, except today, the lower half of her face was covered by a black scarf Long hair concealed evenher appearance quite terrifying

“Er… yes, ma’am,” Haruhiro replied politely

“You’ve really toughened up, haven’t you? Or have you been working just on hardening yourself down there?”

“No,to—”

Haruhiro could not finish his sentence, because Master Barbara had suddenly in to turn, Master Barbara had hi She had both his ar snaked around one of his legs, rendering hiular

“[WIDOW MAKER] is a technique where you instantly seize your target from behind, like so, and then mortally wound them If I wished, your throat would already be slit If you don’t have a knife, you ht just break their neck And when you want to disable, rather than kill…” Master Barbara moved the tip of her knife from his neck to down to his crotch “You may stab them here It’s particularly effective on males”

“Uhh… right,” Haruhiro said “Yes, o of me now? ‘Cause, you know…”

“Hmm? Oh, yes… You’ve never been inti held like this?” Master Barbara chuckled softly

“Errr…” Haruhiro tried to bend away, but Master Barbara held him down firmly “Wah! W-would you please q-quit it with the ear?!”

“What’s wrong? I’ normally,” she replied

“I-it’s just… that’s, er, my weak spot…”

“I see In that case…”

“Huh?” Haruhiro had no idea what happened next He was suddenly so hard on his back, knocking the wind out of his lungs Master Barbara peered down at him from above

“If you can combine [WIDOW MAKER] with other techniques, there are plenty of ways you can manipulate your opponents,” she continued “But first, I’ll have you be intimately familiar with the technique’s effects on yourself… and we’ll keep at it until you hack up blood”

“…Um, and I won’t die? Ma’am”

“No point in worrying about it, is there? You won’t even realize that you’re dead But rest assured, I’ll make sure you’re cre won’t zombify you”

What was he going to do if he died? None of the others knew it, but even since their first h, to her credit, she always stopped short of actually killing hihting techniques she taught hi to her Maybe Perhaps Was it seriously okay, though? Really?

For the next three hours, Master Barbara used [WIDOW MAKER] in all its variations on Haruhiro, up until he collapsed and couldn’t get back up

“What’s the matter? Now’s not the time to be lazy, Old Cat”

“I’m sorry, ma’am”

“If you can’t stand, then I suppose we’ll have a break,” Master Barbara said and promptly sat herself on Haruhiro’s sto noise “Bear with it Your training doesn’t stop when you’re resting Toughen up those abdoroin muscles, hmm?”

“I’ll die, I’ll die for sure…”

“But this is tolerable, isn’t it? Not that , you see”

“People have actually died?”

“I’ Why would I want to kill a precious source of monetary income? Now, level up”

“Urghhhh…” Haruhiro groaned as she pulled in a leg, increasing the weight on hi his stoht If he wasn’t, there was no way he could have borne the weight

“And double that,” she said as she lifted up her re

The entirety of her body weight was now on Haruhiro’s stomach This was supposed to be a break? If this was her idea of a joke, it wasn’t funny

“Let’s chat for a bit,” Master Barbara proposed pleasantly

“C-can’t,” Haruhiro wheezed

“Stupid boy Don’t talk back”

She was de the impossible As usual And if Haruhiro didn’t obey, the consequences would be even worse

“U-uhh… talk… about what, ma’am?” he acquiesced

“You could tell me a story”

“I don’t… r-really have any, ma’am S-stories”

“How boring See, that’s why you’ll never be able to bed yourself a girl”

“I-I suppose… so”

“You have girls in your party, right? How many?”

“T-three,” Haruhiro gasped