Volume 4 - CH 3.13
And Sherry bowed her head to me lightly, thanking me for being such a competent Party leader with a simple 「Thank you very much」, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Based on all the encounters we had on the fourth floor, I can tell that Sherry is going to have no problems with fighting here, and I can only assume that the fifth, sixth and seventh floors will be no problem to her as well. However, the real problem, as well as the test of not only Sherry’s, but also mine and Roxanne’s skills is going to be waiting for us when we finally decide to leave the seventh floor and move on to the eighth floor, which is going to be a totally uncharted territory for us, and that is why today we have started all the way down from the first floor and slowly made our way up: so that I could how Sherry was going to perform on the battlefield and how well she would be cooperating with Roxanne. Thankfully, there seemed to be no problems in that regard, because the girls not only became friends with each other extremely quickly, but that have also adapted to each other’s fighting styles so well that now they could support each other with their eyes closed and instead focus on their friendly chatter, like the one they were having right now:
「Sherry, I know you might have some reservations, but trust me, it is really okay for you to be fighting a little bit closer to the wall.」
「Okay, I will try to do it during the next battle. By the way, Miss Roxanne, would it be better for me to swing my Club vertically instead of horizontally so that it would not get in your way as much.」
「You can keep fighting however you see fit, because it makes no difference to me. If I ever see that your Club is getting closer to me, I will simply evade it, that is all there is to it.」
See? If this is not a sign of a good cooperation, then I do not know what it can be. With that, I think that there is no need for us to be staying here at the fourth floor, so we can probably move up to the next floor.
「All right girls, if you have nothing against it, then we will be making our way to the fifth floor now. And remember: the higher the floor, the stronger the monsters, so do be careful at all times, okay?」
「「All right, master!」」
The fifth floor is the one where the number of enemies per encounter started to increase from two to three, so we agreed that the division will be such that Roxanne is going to be taking on two of the monsters, and Sherry is going to focus on the remaining one. Before I have obtained Sherry, this was the spot where the monsters began to get stronger to the point of me being forced to start using Durandal in order to swiftly dispatch them, but now that my Party consists of not just two members but three, I think I should be able to continue to rely on only using magic, which is already a huge improvement over our previous forays into the fifth floor and above. The strategy for handling multiple enemies is as I described above, but for the times when there was only one enemy present, Roxanne was focusing its attention on herself in the front so that Sherry could go for a surprise attack to its sides. Watching them go at it, I felt like it would be better if she was using the Copper Spear in such a situation, but for the time being a Club will have to make due, since there is no methods that would allow us to quickly switch between two or more weapons on the fly or in the middle of the battle. But all things considered, for most of the time I could relax a bit more than usual and just hang out a few meters away from the battles Roxanne and Sherry were waging, far enough not to draw any of the monster’s aggro upon myself, but still close enough to either rush in with my sword or use magic to save the girls from a tight spot if they ever wound up getting themselves into one.
「Starting to get more into the flow of things on this floor as well?」
I asked when our current encounter has been swiftly finished.
「Yes, I think that our cooperation could still use some improvements, but at the pace that we are currently going with, we should be all right as long as we continue to polish and improve our skills. Sherry, thank you for being such a quick learner, and I look forward to working with you from here on out as well.」
「And I look forward to working with and learning more things from you, Miss Roxanne!」
In terms of how practical it is, staying in the rear guard is a lot more comfortable than staying in the vanguard all the time, if only because that chance of being targeted by a monster is much, much smaller there. Those who stay in the vanguard have no choice but to get up close and personal with the enemies if they want to dispatch them quickly and protect the other members of the Party, and in the case of making a mistake or just an unfortunate slip-up, the members of the vanguard are the ones who are going to get hurt, or if they will be really unlucky, perhaps they could even die. But when you are in the rearguard, you do not really have to concern yourself with such things, because your Job is not to be all up in the monster’s faces, but to support the rest of your team from the safety of the distance, making it much less stressful, but just as important of a position, because your actions might have a deciding impact on the well-being of your comrades. But overall, vanguard is a much harder position than the rearguard, even if both of these positions have their different sets of benefits and drawbacks. If I can just stay in the safety of the rearguard where I will not have to worry about getting myself killed during every battle, then I feel that even someone like me could easily make it all the way to the top floor of the Labyrinth and then clear it.
Buuut. . . . . I feel like thinking about what is going to happen when we arrive at the last floors of the Labyrinths is still something that I should not be bothering myself with all that much for quite some time. For now, I should just allow the girls to do their thing in the vanguard, and once the monsters start getting stronger, I will also lend them my aid in the form of bombarding the enemies with a barrage of Attack Magic. . . . . . . . . Ahh, I see. Now I get it. That is exactly why Alan the Slave Merchant offered to show me the male slaves he had in his inventory for sale when I mentioned that I was looking specifically for someone to be serving in the vanguard.
Right now, Roxanne is standing in front of me, acting as both a sword that is going to strike down my enemies, and a shield that will protect me from harm should the need for that ever arise. . . . . . . . . . and I will never be able to thank her enough for it, will I?
「Roxanne. . . . . . . . . thank you.」
「Yes? You are. . . . welcome, master?」
「Oh, and by the way, Sherry, since I am going to be using a lot of magic from here on out, I just want to make sure. . . do you know what the types of magic are?」
Since Roxanne seemed to not know what I was grateful to her for, I left that matter alone and asked Sherry my next question.
「Hmm. . . . . . . I am not all that familiar with magic, but I do know that generally speaking there are three basic types of it: Area of Effect Magic, Single Target Magic and Defensive Magic.」
That seems about right. Storm-type spells are Area of Effect Magic, Ball is a Single Target Magic, and Wall-type spells are Defensive Magic. I wonder if those are all the types of magic that exist in this world, or is there also a fourth, unknown or lost type of magic that has yet to be discovered?
Based on all the encounters we had on the fourth floor, I can tell that Sherry is going to have no problems with fighting here, and I can only assume that the fifth, sixth and seventh floors will be no problem to her as well. However, the real problem, as well as the test of not only Sherry’s, but also mine and Roxanne’s skills is going to be waiting for us when we finally decide to leave the seventh floor and move on to the eighth floor, which is going to be a totally uncharted territory for us, and that is why today we have started all the way down from the first floor and slowly made our way up: so that I could how Sherry was going to perform on the battlefield and how well she would be cooperating with Roxanne. Thankfully, there seemed to be no problems in that regard, because the girls not only became friends with each other extremely quickly, but that have also adapted to each other’s fighting styles so well that now they could support each other with their eyes closed and instead focus on their friendly chatter, like the one they were having right now:
「Sherry, I know you might have some reservations, but trust me, it is really okay for you to be fighting a little bit closer to the wall.」
「Okay, I will try to do it during the next battle. By the way, Miss Roxanne, would it be better for me to swing my Club vertically instead of horizontally so that it would not get in your way as much.」
「You can keep fighting however you see fit, because it makes no difference to me. If I ever see that your Club is getting closer to me, I will simply evade it, that is all there is to it.」
See? If this is not a sign of a good cooperation, then I do not know what it can be. With that, I think that there is no need for us to be staying here at the fourth floor, so we can probably move up to the next floor.
「All right girls, if you have nothing against it, then we will be making our way to the fifth floor now. And remember: the higher the floor, the stronger the monsters, so do be careful at all times, okay?」
「「All right, master!」」
The fifth floor is the one where the number of enemies per encounter started to increase from two to three, so we agreed that the division will be such that Roxanne is going to be taking on two of the monsters, and Sherry is going to focus on the remaining one. Before I have obtained Sherry, this was the spot where the monsters began to get stronger to the point of me being forced to start using Durandal in order to swiftly dispatch them, but now that my Party consists of not just two members but three, I think I should be able to continue to rely on only using magic, which is already a huge improvement over our previous forays into the fifth floor and above. The strategy for handling multiple enemies is as I described above, but for the times when there was only one enemy present, Roxanne was focusing its attention on herself in the front so that Sherry could go for a surprise attack to its sides. Watching them go at it, I felt like it would be better if she was using the Copper Spear in such a situation, but for the time being a Club will have to make due, since there is no methods that would allow us to quickly switch between two or more weapons on the fly or in the middle of the battle. But all things considered, for most of the time I could relax a bit more than usual and just hang out a few meters away from the battles Roxanne and Sherry were waging, far enough not to draw any of the monster’s aggro upon myself, but still close enough to either rush in with my sword or use magic to save the girls from a tight spot if they ever wound up getting themselves into one.
「Starting to get more into the flow of things on this floor as well?」
I asked when our current encounter has been swiftly finished.
「Yes, I think that our cooperation could still use some improvements, but at the pace that we are currently going with, we should be all right as long as we continue to polish and improve our skills. Sherry, thank you for being such a quick learner, and I look forward to working with you from here on out as well.」
「And I look forward to working with and learning more things from you, Miss Roxanne!」
In terms of how practical it is, staying in the rear guard is a lot more comfortable than staying in the vanguard all the time, if only because that chance of being targeted by a monster is much, much smaller there. Those who stay in the vanguard have no choice but to get up close and personal with the enemies if they want to dispatch them quickly and protect the other members of the Party, and in the case of making a mistake or just an unfortunate slip-up, the members of the vanguard are the ones who are going to get hurt, or if they will be really unlucky, perhaps they could even die. But when you are in the rearguard, you do not really have to concern yourself with such things, because your Job is not to be all up in the monster’s faces, but to support the rest of your team from the safety of the distance, making it much less stressful, but just as important of a position, because your actions might have a deciding impact on the well-being of your comrades. But overall, vanguard is a much harder position than the rearguard, even if both of these positions have their different sets of benefits and drawbacks. If I can just stay in the safety of the rearguard where I will not have to worry about getting myself killed during every battle, then I feel that even someone like me could easily make it all the way to the top floor of the Labyrinth and then clear it.
Buuut. . . . . I feel like thinking about what is going to happen when we arrive at the last floors of the Labyrinths is still something that I should not be bothering myself with all that much for quite some time. For now, I should just allow the girls to do their thing in the vanguard, and once the monsters start getting stronger, I will also lend them my aid in the form of bombarding the enemies with a barrage of Attack Magic. . . . . . . . . Ahh, I see. Now I get it. That is exactly why Alan the Slave Merchant offered to show me the male slaves he had in his inventory for sale when I mentioned that I was looking specifically for someone to be serving in the vanguard.
Right now, Roxanne is standing in front of me, acting as both a sword that is going to strike down my enemies, and a shield that will protect me from harm should the need for that ever arise. . . . . . . . . . and I will never be able to thank her enough for it, will I?
「Roxanne. . . . . . . . . thank you.」
「Yes? You are. . . . welcome, master?」
「Oh, and by the way, Sherry, since I am going to be using a lot of magic from here on out, I just want to make sure. . . do you know what the types of magic are?」
Since Roxanne seemed to not know what I was grateful to her for, I left that matter alone and asked Sherry my next question.
「Hmm. . . . . . . I am not all that familiar with magic, but I do know that generally speaking there are three basic types of it: Area of Effect Magic, Single Target Magic and Defensive Magic.」
That seems about right. Storm-type spells are Area of Effect Magic, Ball is a Single Target Magic, and Wall-type spells are Defensive Magic. I wonder if those are all the types of magic that exist in this world, or is there also a fourth, unknown or lost type of magic that has yet to be discovered?
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