Volume 3 - CH 5.07

Now that I have delivered so many blows to it that it could not have survived that even if it possessed zombie mode, all I have to do is to retreat a safe distance away just to be on the safe side, and wait for Overwhelming’s effect to end while being out of the harm’s way. Now, just be a good little Rabbit and turn into my meat so that I can finish the quest for that dude in the clothing store, and don’t you dare make me use Overwhelming more than I have to!

As soon as Overwhelming’s duration ended, time has begun to move at a normal pace again. Because of that, it looked as if Rapid Rabbit has been suspended in the air by some invisible force that begun to slash away at it at the same time. It was a gruesome spectacle, but of an incredibly satisfying kind. Just like I ordered it to, the boss, or rather what was now left of it, fell onto the floor and rolled over to the side. Thanks to Overwhelming, the victory was now ours. Subsequently, Rapid Rabbit disappeared in a cloud of green smoke, leaving behind its Drop Item: a piece of Rabbit Meat.

Rabbit Meat. I guess this is the item we were asked to bring to that male clerk at the clothing store back in Imperial City. He asked for at least two pieces of it, so that means we are halfway through fulfilling his request. But first, we will have to wash it thoroughly once we get back home, since I do not believe that laying on the ground would be good for the meat’s sanitary values, and the last thing we need would be the client declining to accept it because it is dirty or aht it possibly caught some nasty bacteria from being on the ground too long.

「Amazing, master! That was amazing! Simply amazing! I have never seen you ove in such a way before!」

While I was carefully picking the Rabbit Meat up from the ground, Roxanne spared me no amount of praises.

「W-Well thank you.」

「Your movements just now were so amazingly fast that I have nearly lost sight of you for a moment!」

“Nearly lost sight of you for a moment”, huh? So Roxanne was able to see my movements after I activated Overwhelming after all? It’s actually pretty amazing of her that she only “nearly” lost sight of me instead of losing it completely. But don’t get too excited about it, Michio! She is only impressed because of Overwhelming’s speed, although for me instead of giving me an increase in my own speed it simply looked like everything around me slowed down almost to a standstill.

「Anyway, there is something that I want to check out.」

「Yes, what is it, master?」

「While we were fighting the Rapid Rabbit, I think I saw some equipment in one of the corners in this room, so I would like to check out what it was. I think it was right around… here.」

In addition to the Leather Armor, the equipment that we found in the room included a pair of Leather Gloves and Leather Shoes. I also picked up a Single Copper Sword. Overall, we will not be able to sell all of those items for that much money, but an extra income is an extra income, so you will not find me complaining about it. I simply took all of them and placed them in my Item Box.

「You said that sometimes equipment is dropped in the Boss Room as well as the Floor Boss’ Drop Item, right?」

「Umu. To be more exact, I think the equipment drops every time that the previous Party that challenged the Floor Boss gets defeated by it.」

「Is that so?」

「Yes. It should be even more apparent since the Floor Boss was already in the room when we entered it.」

I thought that it was pretty strange that the Floor Boss was already here when we entered, since it was the first time something like that ever happened to us. Up until now, every Floor Boss we have encountered appeared in the room only after we reached the center of it by materializing from a gathering cloud of green smoke. At first I thought that this was some kind of rare encounter pattern occurring, but thinking about it carefully… Roxanne did say that whenever the Floor Boss defeats the Party that tried to challenge it, it would be waiting for the next one to arrive, but I always assume that they will despawn first and then spawn again between encounters and not literally stand there waiting for their next opponents to arrive. But since it was already here… then… then that means that the equipment I just took must have belonged to the Explorer dude who went to fight Rapid Rabbit before us, right?! I… I see. So he got killed by the Rapid Rabbit after all that talk about feeling like Lady Luck was on his side today, huh?

I stood up and took another look at the room to see if there was anything else worthy of interest left here, and just when I thought that there was nothing…

*Blink*

(Huh? What’s that?)

After examining the ground where I found the equipment once more, I noticed something shining laying amidst the dust. It was a Black Magic Crystal. Could it be another one of that Explorer’s possessions? If so, then he really must have no idea how to handle it properly if it was still black after two years of him staying on the seventh floor of the Quratar’s Labyrinth alone. The order of colors, depending on how much magic power they have stored within them goes black = = > red = = > purple = = > blue = = > green = = > yellow = = > white, so if I were to take a guess I would say that he must have been keeping that one is his Item Box the entire time believing that it would still be gathering magical energy from defeated monsters, while in reality it is the exact opposite. In order to gather energy and change colors, Magic Crystals have to be present somewhere on their owner’s body or else the only thing they will gather is jack shit. If he understood that, he would have had at least red, or maybe even a purple one on him. Or maybe he already sold the one that was filled and obtained a new, empty one. In that case all of the money he got for it were probably stored in his Item Box, and after an Explorer dies, I do not think there is any way of retrieving the contents of the Item Box that belonged to him. Shame.

Last time when I checked it, the Magic Crystal I had on me had already turned green, so maybe it is about time to go and sell it to the Adventurers Guild. Based on what Roxanne told me about them, turning a Yellow Magic Crystal into White Magic Crystal would take too much time, so usually people sell their Magic Crystals when they turn green or yellow. Maybe I should also do the same sometime soon?

「Ah, master! You found a Black Magic Crystal! As expected of you, your luck never stops to amaze me!」

「Yeah… except it just happen to be laying here…」

「Black Magic Crystals are usually harder to find if they are on the ground because they do not shine as bright as the other ones, which makes them harder to spot, so even if it was just sheer luck, it is still amazing that you were able to spot it. You should be proud of yourself, master!」

「Yeah… certainly, you are right…」

So that’s how it is, huh? Certainly, that Black Magic Crystal did not shine in the same way that my own Magic Crystals did. Compared to them, it looked almost matte and lifeless, so I would not be surprised if someone were to mistake it for just another ordinary pebble in the Labyrinth’s corridors, that’s how difficult to spot it was. If not for that one weak accidental blink, I would have probably missed it entirely as well, and I would never have even noticed it. The same goes for the equipment of that Explorer who walked here before us. Without Identify, I would have probably dismissed all those pieces of equipment in the corner of the room as just another element of the background to be glossed over. Maybe I should make it a habit to scan my surroundings with Identify even if there is seemingly nothing to be found around me? That way, I will have absolute certainty that I am not missing any potential loot.
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