Volume 6 - CH 2.6

After the explanation from Sherry, Roxanne leads us to a place where a Grass Bee was located so that we could get a hang of how to fight it. Just like its name was suggesting, it was a giant bee that was flying in the middle of the corridor. All in all, it looked pretty much like a winged version of an NT Ant with a different color scheme, because its body was mostly black while its legs were yellow.

Since we were still a fair distance away from it, I used 「Breeze Storm」on it from a distance. If I used a single target magic from this distance it would have definitely been avoided, because if there is one thing that I know small flying monsters such as this one, it is that they are incredibly agile and it would have definitely dodged my attack if all that I would have tried to hit it with was a simple 「Breeze Ball」.

Perhaps I would have been able to hit it if I could get just a little bit closer to it, but it is my first time facing this type of monster,  so I want to attack as early as possible in order to inflict as much damage to it as I possibly can without giving it any opportunities for a counterattack.

When the 「Breeze storm」 hit it, the Grass Bee was tossed around, up, down, left and right very intensely, almost as if it has been caught inside of a violent torrent of air that denied it any freedom of movement that it might have possibly had. It looks like that attack was indeed very effective against it.

If it was a human, they would have surely gotten an intense concussion by now due to all the shaking that their brains would have been subjected to, but it might not have such an effect against the Grass Bee due to how differently their heads and that which is inside of them are shaped in comparison to humans.

The second shot this time is the 「Breeze Ball」, just to see how is it going to hit it, and the third one followed right after the second one. All, this time, the Grass Bee did not use any of its ranged attacks as it was being approached, and when it finally began moving on its own, it was doing so while emitting a strange, low buzzing sound. Was it trying to intimidate us in such a way? Or perhaps that was just a normal sound that it made while it was moving around?

Roxanne takes the lead, and dodges a sword like dash from the Grass Bee, while Sherry uses that opportunity to thrust her spear at it from the distance. Because of Roxanne’s distraction, I also get a pretty good, chance to use another 「Breeze Ball」.

It hits the Grass Bee directly, and when it does, its buzzing stops and the bee crashes into the ground with its twig-like yellow legs all curled up after thrashing about for a bit where it turns into a puff of green smoke and disappears. So, it took up to four spells to bring it down, huh?

It is exactly the same amount as with the monsters from the eleventh floor. Monsters on the twelfth floor are twice as strong as monsters on the lower floors, but since Wind Magic is Grass Bee’s weakness, it was twice as effective against it in comparison to other types of magic which enabled us to achieve a quick and decisive victory, which means that as long as we keep on encountering Grass Bees all that I have to do is to spam Wind Magic against it, and if NT Ants appear, I will just have to switch to Water Magic and defeat them in the exact same number of Spells since Water Magic is NT Ants’ weakness.

All things considered, it look like right now we are going to be able to hold our own against the monsters dwelling on the twelfth floor of the Labyrinths. Now that the Grass Bee was gone, the only thing that was left after its demise was the Drop Item that it left behind, which was a Beeswax.

「A Beeswax, huh? What is it used for, exactly? Can you make candles from it?」

「If you sell it to the Guild, craftsmen will turn it into candles, yes. It is not a very precious material, so the Guild is the only place that really buys it, and even then, the money that you can get from it is not really that much.」

Sherry tells us about Beeswax. There does not seem to be a Skill that would allow you to make candles from Beeswax, and yet they can still make them despite that, which means that they have to be preparing it from scratch, making them entirely by hand.

「It is  also useful for maintenance on the equipment made from Leather. If you do not mind, can I use some of it, master?」

「Sure, go right ahead.」

「Thank you very much.」

So she intends to use the Beeswax as a simple wax to keep our Leather and Hardened Leather equipment from getting out of shape? If so, then yes, giving the beeswax to Roxanne is going to be the best possible decision that could have been done here.

I put it in my Item Box for now, but soon I am going to have to do a bit of a spring cleaning in there, because I am pretty sure that I am slowly running out of storage space in there.

Now that I know we can fight here, that will do for today, at least when it comes to Haruba’s Labyrinth.

「Okay, now that our business here has been concluded, how about we go back home for today? Unless of course you want to go to the thirteenth floor of Tare’s Labyrinth and spend the rest of the day over there?」

「Yes, we should most definitely go there.」

「Since we are going to go to Quratar’s Labyrinth early in the morning tomorrow anyway, then I see why we should not be going to Tare’s Labyrinth now.」

My original intention was to really go back home and call it a day for today, but both Sherry and Roxanne opposed that idea, expressing their desire to go to the thirteenth floor of Tare’s Labyrinth instead. I could understand why Roxanne would be all eager to do it, but to be honest, Sherry’s desire to go has caught me pretty much off guard, because I thought that she was going to be in favor of doing some other things in the morning, like continuing to deliver the mirrors to the Duke’s place, but this time she is apparently raring to go to the Labyrinth both right now and tomorrow morning, so I guess that is that then.

「All right then. Just like you wanted, we are going to go to the thirteenth floor of Tare’s Labyrinth where I am going to test out how my new Rod is doing against the monsters of the thirteenth floor. Is that acceptable?」

「Yes, absolutely.」

「I am fine with that as well.」

And so, we warped to Tare’s Labyrinth’s thirteenth floor. We arrived at the small room that served as the starting area of the entire floor, because the last time when we were here we did nt have enough time to perform a thorough exploration of this floor, thanks to which we have yet to locate the thirteenth floor’s Boss Room and the Waiting Room in front of it that could serve as our anchor point. But now that we have arrived at the starting room, Roxanne proceeded to walk forward like always, but this time, there was something rather strange about her behavior, because the farther we went, the more cautious and silent her steps were becoming, almost as if she was alarmed by something….. or perhaps someone. As we continued to go forward, I went to the front to where Roxanne was and asked her in a quiet voice:

「What is wrong, Roxanne? You have been unusually cautious for a while now. Did something happened?」

「Ah, I am sorry to have worried you, master, but I think…. I think there is someone following behind us even as we speak.」

Roxanne whispered back to me without even turning her head backwards for even a millimeter, staying absolutely focused on looking at what was right in front of her, probably to deceive whoever it was that was following us in order to let them think that we have not caught wind of them just yet.

「Someone is….. following behind us?」

I replied to her short report with an even more hushed voice.