Volume 2 - CH 2.06

「I hate to be the one to calm your enthusiasm, but I can pretty much one-shot everything on this floor, so you’ll have to put up with it for a while longer.」

「I do not mind, because that just proves how strong you are, master. The monsters here are clearly no match for you. That being said, are we not heading up to the next floor?」

「Up? I thought this thing will be going down.」

「No, it actually goes up. And if you pay a small fee to one of the Explorers at the Labyrinth’s entrance, they will take you to any floor that you have previously been to, and higher than the level that you’re currently exploring.」

「Duly noted, but since that would be my first time in there, I think it would be best if we didn’t get too ahead of ourselves. Let’s fully explore this floor first before we go advancing to a higher one.」

The prospect of getting my hands on some nice treasure from the upper floors is certainly appealing, but I prefer to play at a steady pace for now. That being said, I’m quite surprised that the Labyrinth actually goes upwards instead of extending further underground like in most video games that I encountered in my life. And then there’s also that stuff about the Explorers at the entrance taking you to the higher floors. I’m learning quite a lot of things that I previously had no idea about today.

「Of course. If that is your wish, master, then I will do my best to follow it to the utmost of my abilities.」

It’s great that she’s so eager, but it would be foolish of us to think that we will be able to clear the entire Labyrinth in just a few short days, and it’s halls are bound to hide dangerous monsters that we won’t be able to defeat just yet or floors that we will not be able to access right now. And let’s not forget that running into a room filled to the brim with monsters like that last one I had encountered is the last thing that I wanna do right now, so in order to avoid plunging head-first into such dreadful traps, the best approach is to proceed carefully.

「Now then, allow me to lead the way.」

「Please do.」

For the next part of our current Labyrinth excursion I allowed Roxanne to take the lead and we proceeded along with her guidance. Having her around was a huge improvement, because due to her keen sense of smell we were able to go from one monster-filled spot to the next in a matter of a few minutes, making the exploration process at least twice as effective. And we managed to get so many items while prioritizing not combat, but exploration! No monster group was able to harm us, and soon we covered pretty much the entirety of the first floor. Towards the end of the exploration, both our backpacks were filled with so many branches that I began to worry that they might end up bursting from being overfilled.

「Amazing.」

「And it’s all thanks to you, Roxanne. Your ability to detect monsters with nothing but your nose is nothing to sneeze at. Are you able to tell their types apart as well, by any chance?」

「I can recognize them if they are of the species that I have fought before, and I can sort of tell how many of them there are, but not perfectly. Also, if the enemies will be hiding behind hidden doors then I might not be able to detect them, and there’s no guarantee that my nose is going to lead us down the shortest path to get to them.」

「Be that as it may, your ability is amazing enough as it is.」

Since our backpacks weren’t able to hold anymore items even if we tried to stuff them there, we decided to go back through the Warp portal and head straight to the Adventurer’s Guild to sell the entirety of today’s haul. Even though it was already bright outside, it was still too early for the reception counters to be manned by the guild’s employees, so we just returned to the inn for the time being. Once we hit the room to drop our luggage off, we went down to the dining area to have breakfast. When we finished our meal, we returned to the room to have some well-deserved rest.

「Thank you for taking me to breakfast together with you again, master. But, do we really have to eat so much?」

「Well, since they are serving meals here anyway, then I say why not go all-out once in a while, especially since today we definitely had a reason to celebrate. Seriously, if it wasn’t for you then I would have never been able to accomplish so much in a single day.」

I thanked Roxanne and sat down on the bed. In fact, her help was invaluable to me. Her ability to detect monsters is going to be a huge asset to me, and I intend to utilize it to its full extent to make the Labyrinth bouts as easy as possible for us.

「Yes, thank you very much. That was the first time I saw someone single handedly defeating so many monsters. This just goes to show how incredible you are.」

「That was my first time killing so many of them as well. After all, I am still relatively new to this whole Adventuring business. I also had your guidance and expertise to rely on, so the success of today’s foray into the Labyrinth was largely possible thanks to you, so I’ll be looking forward to our expeditions to the Labyrinth from now on, Roxanne.」

「Not at all. The deciding factor was still your overwhelming strength and abilities. Therefore, I’m looking forward to continuing working with you as well, master.」

Roxanne bowed to me as she continued to stand near the entrance to the room. Looks like that habit of hers still needs some working on. And here I thought that all those compliments and praises might have helped her to loosen up with her servant-like behaviors.

「Well, what are you standing there for? Come here.」

「Y-Yes, of course!」

I invited Roxanne to come sit next to me. If I work on it hard enough, then maybe the day will come when she will start doing so without specifically being told to?

「Listen up, because what I’m about to say will be really important, okay? From now on, whenever we’ll be coming back here, feel free to sit wherever you want without waiting for me to order you to do so… or you know what, scratch that. I want you to sit as close to me as possible. I know that you might feel somewhat uncomfortable because of what happened last night… but it’s not like I will always push you down and do that sort of thing to you, you know?」

Roxanne came to the bed and awkwardly sat next to me, so in order to prove to her that I was telling the truth, I gave her a hug that had no ulterior motives behind it; just a friendly embrace to ease her tension. That being said, I’m going to have to work on my own restraint as well, because right now, just a glimpse of her white skin peeking from under her tunic was enough to tempt me with a myriad of lewd thoughts going through my head.

「I-It’s… alright with me. I didn’t really mind that, so…」

I could only respond to such a declaration by hugging her more tightly. This is bad. Whenever she’s saying things like that with such an innocent expression, she doesn’t even realize how dangerous she is to me!

But then… does that mean that she really wouldn’t mind if I pushed her down again? Ahh, I want to do it again so badly! But I can’t! I have to stay true to my own words and grab a hold of myself! So in order to calm myself down, there is only one option left for me!

I gently grabbed her doggy ears and started playing with them. Ahhh, so soft and elastic, a true ointment for my tormented soul. Touching them feels so good no matter how many times I do it. So maybe…

「May I have a taste of your ears?」

「Eh? But I don’t really think they are going to be all that tasty, given how furry they are.」

「Just kidding, I’m not really going to eat them. Just wanted to try saying that at least once. If it hurts or makes you feel uncomfortable be sure to tell me right away and I’ll stop immediately.」

「Alright, but I’m really fine with it, as long as it’s not anything too strange. Also, uhm… it, it feels really good… when you touch me like that…」

Oh my God I want to gobble that angelic creature right away!