Volume 2 - CH 2.03

「Roxanne, when we’ll go to the Labyrinth, make sure you’ll be wearing the Leather Armor, okay?」

「Yes, I will definitely do so, thank you very much.」

I grabbed my socks and put on my Leather Shoes, and then I glanced at the water basin on the floor. Last night we used it to clean ourselves up afterwards, so the remaining water was tinged with slight traces of both red and white. If I just leave it lying around as it is, the Innkeeper or the cleaning crew will surely connect the dots when they comes around to clean the room, figuring out what we were doing last night, and I don’t want that to happen under any circumstances, so I did the only sensible thing I could do: grabbed the basin, headed to the toilet on the corridor and dumped all of the water there. We definitely could have saved that water for later, but it’ll be better that way. Now that the evidence has been disposed of, I don’t have to worry about anyone finding out.

When I got back to the room, the light of the lamps hanging in the corridor illuminated Roxanne. She was now fully clad in the Leather Armor, just as I instructed her to be. And I have to say… I didn’t expect it to look quite like… that. Roxanne herself informed me that every piece of armor is magically enchanted to fit itself to whoever is wearing it, but in Roxanne’s case it looked less like an armor and more like a corset, visibly exposing the chest area. Well, of course it did. It had to do so to fit itself to Roxanne’s figure after all.

This… this might be dangerous for me. For all kinds of reasons. Really, really bad.

「Uhm…  just a suggestion, but maybe you should try wearing a jacket over it?」

「I’m sorry. Usually, Leather Armor is not something worn by women.」

Roxanne apologized, but I really don’t think there was any need for her to do so. If anything, I should be the one apologizing for not realizing something like that sooner. In fact, I will just do it right now!

「No, you don’t have to apologize for anything, since me and my lack of common sense are clearly at fault here, so from now on, if I’m about to make another blunder like that, feel free to stop me, alright?」

「U-Understood! If that is your wish, then I shall do exactly that!」

And so I helped Roxanne put on the jacket. Now her curves will be hidden from the eyes of everybody else on the streets, and I will no longer be at risk of getting distracted by her boobs in the Labyrinth. Two birds killed with one stone. Now I just have to get the backpack on my back and the Copper Sword at my waist and I’m all geared up and ready to go.

Ah, but wait! There’s one thing I have forgotten! We haven’t formed a Party yet!

I believe it should be here in the menu under the Party Organization section. But how do I even use this? I have no idea because I haven’t teamed up with anyone up to this point. Literally.

When I tapped on the Party Organization, I was asked to specify a target, so I specified Roxanne.

「Oh.」

Roxanne twitched a little all of a sudden. It would seem that she has been successfully added to the Party. Am I assigned to it by default? I tried selecting myself and assigning myself to the Party formation.

「Ah…」

「Oh…」

…. I found out that the Party has been disbanded.

I guess that was to be expected. I am a Party Leader, so it would stand to reason that if the Leader leaves the Party it’s going to get disbanded.

Party Organization is a feature that allows the formation of the Parties between the Leader and the members that have to be selected. If the Leader leaves the Party, then the entire thing will be disbanded. Note for the future taken.

With that in mind, let’s try that again. Once again I formed a Party with me as the Leader, and then chose Roxanne, praying that this time everything will be as it should be and our Party will be formed properly, without Roxanne being kicked out of my Party.

「Uhm…」

「Sorry. I’m experimenting a little, so please give me a moment.」

「I see.」

I have to select her as a Party member without kicking myself out of it at the same time. I’m a little worried if I’ll be able to do it properly this time, but let’s be positive here. Alright, here goes: Party Organization, select target, Roxanne. Okay, looks like this time I was able to successfully add Roxanne to the Party. Now that it was done, I also saw some curious words in the corner of my eye.

「What is this Party Effect?」

「If you have more than one person in your Party, then Movement Magic will transport all the members, not just the caster himself. Even if you lose sight of your Party members, you will be able to locate them without issues. I was also told that the Experience gained from defeating monsters is being shared between all the Party members.」

「Shared experience, huh?」

Does that mean that earning EXP points will be that much easier when you are in a Party? And also, I wonder if the EXP will be distributed evenly between all the Party members?

「Yes. Since the gained experience is shared between the Party members, the nobles have adopted a certain strategy: They form a six-man Party with the newborn child as the Leader and they enter the Labyrinth with it so that it could effortlessly gain experience since its early days to ensure its growth.」

Now that’s what I would call foul play. As expected of nobles, forcing others to do all of the heavy lifting for them so that they could hog the profits all for themselves.

「Huh? But then, when such a child grows up, there won’t be any need for it to go into the Labyrinth anymore…」

「Most of the nobles continue to utilize that strategy by making use of the multiple of their vassals, but there are also people who never entered the Labyrinth even once in their entire lives.」

Really? But then, if they won’t even go to the Labyrinth themselves, then what’s the point… unless…

「Is it possible… to continue sending only your vassals or servants to the Labyrinth and live by leeching the profits they have made in there, without as much as lifting a finger yourself?」

「Uhm… I, well…」

「Ah! No, please, do not get the wrong idea. I’m not asking about it because I want to send you to the Labyrinth by yourself. I would never do something as scummy as that!」

I fully grasped the gravity of my words only after I have spoken them out loud.

What would happen if you could just send your slave to the Labyrinth and then just take the money they earned there and the valuables they found for yourself? That would be, from a lack of a better word, quite a lifehack, but not of the good kind.

「Such a strategy could theoretically be used to increase your Explorer level, but you don’t hear about people utilizing it in such a way all that much. You must have heard what happens when someone finds anything valuable in the Labyrinth, right? They are being disposed of then and there, so as you can see, sending someone to go there…」

Is less than an ideal scenario. I guess that’s true enough. But at least now I know a lot more about it.

「All right then. Shall we go?」

「Yes, let’s go.」

We left the room, after which I closed it shut and we made our way down the stairs. As usual, I left the key with the Innkeeper at the front desk. Yes, just like usual. It might have been only a few days since I have arrived in this world, but this process has already become a part of my new daily routine.

「Careful now.」

We went outside of the Veil Pavilion. It was still pitch-black.

「Come with me for a second.」

I grabbed Roxanne’s hand and dragged her along with me. I took her to an alley behind the inn, hoping that there will be no one there at the moment. Once I confirmed that the coast was indeed clear, I used Warp. The visibility was rather poor here, but I managed to place it on the inn’s wall without any major difficulties.

「There, all set.」

「Huh?! U, Uhm…」

Roxanne looked like she wanted to say something, but before she could voice her concerns properly I simply dragged her with me to the other side of the Warp portal, into the Labyrinth.