Volume 6 - CH 2.5

The next morning, we went and got the Kobold Skill Crystal from Luke and had it fused with my Rod by Sherry as soon as we got back home. Kobold’s Skill Crystal was priced down a bit and I also told Luke to be on the lookout for more Monster Skill Crystals as I continued to place orders with him. In my opinion, fifty four hundred Nars was still a little bit expensive for the price of a single Monster Skill Crystal, but on the other hand, as long as I continue to ask Luke to make the purchases that should not go above that set price, it would still be well within acceptable limits of expenses for us.

Sherry was about as nervous as ever when it comes to the process of fusing items together with the Skill Crystals, but nevertheless she proceeded with it as requested, psyching herself up as she held my Rod in one hand and the Goat Skill Crystal in one hand, and I was waiting for her with the newly-bought Kobold Skill Crystal on standby.

Sherry spoke the incantation, both of her hands began to shine with a magnificent, blindingly white light, and when it finally subsided and we confirmed that the first part of the fusion was a success, I handed her the Kobold Skill Crystal so that she could infuse it into the Rod next, and when that next part was done as well….

「T-There, it is finished.」

「Oooh, amazing! As expected of Sherry!」

「Th-Thank you….. very much.」

Sherry exhales a great of number of heavy breaths, but it seems to like these were the ones done out of stress rather than physical exhaustion. After all, she still seems to be uneasy about fusing Skill Crystals to the weapons and armor, and this time the stakes were much higher than usual, because there was not only my new weapon, but also two Skill Crystals at stake here, so it cannot be helped that she must have felt like she was under an immense amount of pressure, but nevertheless she once again managed to succeed with flying colors.

There were two monster cards at stake this time, so it cannot be helped. I think, however, that the result was well worth it, because what I managed to get out of it was the following weapon:

Rod of Offerings, Weapon

Skills: – 「2x lntelligence」, Empty, Empty

My ordinary Rod has been turned into a Rod of Offerings with the use of the two Skill Crystals, and it still has two Empty Skill Slots that could be used the next time when we manage to obtain them. But that is the less important matter right now. Since I got my hands on a new and upgraded Rod, we immediately, went to Haruba’s Labyrinth so that I could try it out.

First, I asked Roxanne to find us a group of enemies to fight, and the one that she guided us to was a group consisting of two NT Ants and a Mino, so I hit them all up with 「Water Storm」.

Water magic is the NT Ant’s weakness, meaning that using it against them is going to do even more damage than usual, so as soon as the effects of the first Spell ended, I prepared a second one and launched it at them as soon as it was ready. They were annihilated before they could even get to us, and so I used 「Fire Ball」 to dispose of the remaining Mino, but just that one shot was not enough, which is no big deal, since I was about to unleash yet another one after Roxanne finished dodging its charge and the attacks with its horns.

As expected, that second 「Fire Ball」was enough for the Mino to finally fall to the ground, never to stand back up from it again

Two Water Magic Spells on the NT Ant Lv.11, plus an additional two 「Fire Balls」

on the Mino, which makes four Spells in total to bring down three enemies in a relatively short time. Before I got myself this Rod of Offering, just killing a single Mino would require five Spells, while right now it took only four if we count in the damage done to it by the AoE from the two 「Water Storms」that obliterated the NT Ants.

The Rod of Offering has definitely increased the amount of damage that I am doing to the enemies, but there is one very important thing that I absolutely have to keep in mind as we continue to move forward across the eleventh floor: even if my Rod of Offering has a 「2x Intelligence」Skill added to it now, it means just that, that my INT stat essentially got doubled, and doubled INT stat does not automatically equall double damage, and it does not mean that the time required to do battles has been cut exactly in half.

But it definitely got shortened, which is a great improvement in and out of itself, since that is going to mean that every time when I am going to be using magic to fight the monsters instead of Durandal, our battles against them are going to be that much shorter, which is always a welcomed improvement. With this, even if the amount of monsters that we would have to fight on the twelfth floor doubles from four to eight, what I currently have should still be pretty much enough to get rid of the monsters relatively quickly.

Right now, we no longer have any problems battling the monsters on the eleventh floor so our hunts and battles are ending almost as fast as they are starting, and because we are making pretty much a short work of everything that we are coming across, we managed to arrive at the eleventh floor’s Boss Room relatively quickly. When I opened the door, there was just another empty room with a door at the other side of it. This is the Waiting Room before the Floor Boss, a room where all of the other Adventurers have to wait for their turn if it just so happens that there is already another Party taking on the Floor Boss.

「Should we try to go to the twelfth floor today?」

I asked the girls if they wanted to try challenging the Floor Boss and move onwards to the next floor, and once I got their approval, I brandished Durandal and we proceeded to enter the Boss Room right away, since there was no one else around.

Since Mino’s were the enemy native to Haruba’s Labyrinth’s eleventh floor, it means that the Floor Boss that we are going to be facing is going to be Hachinosu. It looked big end tough since it was even more beefed up version of the regular Mino, which was already like a moving mass of muscles, a factor that this Floor Boss seemed to be cranking up to eleven, but despite its size and undeniable mass, it was ultimately no match for my Durandal, which I used to slash at it and poke it full of holes.

It tried to use its Skills on more than one occasion, but with my speed and maneuverability, I was able to move fast enough to ensure that each and every one of its attempts at casting a Skill was going to end up in vain thanks to Durandal’s 「Chant Interruption」Skill, thanks to which it ended up falling onto the ground and dying rather quickly, because like with the most Floor Bosses that we have been facing before, all we had to do in order to achieve victory was to place Roxanne in the front of it so that she would evade all of its attacks while simultaneously focusing all of its aggro on herself while Sherry and I went for its sides and just hacked away until it was dead.

After the Floor Boss battle was over, we went forward and set foot in Haruba’s Labyrinth’s twelfth floor.

「The monsters of the twelfth floor are the Grass Bees. They have the ability to fly and shoot their stingers from a distance. We have to be especially careful of that ranged attack, because if it manages to hit us we might ger poisoned.」

Another enemy that is using poison attacks from a distance? Seriously?

「As expected, the monsters on the twelfth floor sure are strong.」

「Thankfully it does not have resistances to any type of magic, and it is especially weak to Wind Magic. And that fact is pretty well worth remembering, master, because that particular weakness is not Grass Bees’ alone. In fact, pretty much any monster that is capable of flight seems to be naturally weak to Wind Magic.」

Flying enemies are weak against Wind Magic? Okay, duly noted.