172-166 Everyone's growth and unexpected situations

I've fought various demons, defeated them to death, increased my level and increased my status.

It's all good, I guess, but it's a tricky one for me.

It's been fifteen days of training in the blind, and forty days since I came to this labyrinth of intrigue.

I should be growing up, but I feel like I'm regressing.

I'm sure I was able to fight better and more accurately before, but perhaps it's the damage of rising to a higher level so quickly, but the balance of my torso has become less balanced and my range of motion has become narrower. Most importantly, his sword muscles are dirty.

It wasn't until my magic power and presence detection skill level reached V before I knew it that I began to experience these symptoms.

If I was the vanguard, I would have been causing trouble for those around me, so I'm really glad I'm a healer.

Whenever I had a mock battle with my mentor, I always felt deflated by my lack of skill.

If I were to compare the relationship between me and my mentor to a mountain, it would be at the foot and top of a high mountain.

I climb to the top of the mountain, but when I try to follow Master's back, he is already at the top of the mountain, so I can't see him at all.

People tell me that I've become stronger, but that's because my status has risen and my skill level in swordsmanship, manipulation, and body arts has risen just right, not because of my training.

Well, I think this is also the fate of my choice to be a healer, but I only keep trying because I'm frustrated.

Because if you think of it as a self-defense martial art for survival, you can at least buy yourself some time if you're not as inter-dimensional strong as your masters.

My masters aren't followers, but with everyone else around, I'll be able to get through most of it without any problems.

If we can create an environment where we can live a peaceful life, build a family, build a village or town where the squires and their families can live in peace, and gradually develop it, I feel like I can be proud of my efforts, including my previous life.

That's what I'm trying to do.

Even if I traverse this labyrinth of intrigue and learn offensive magic in the magical independent city of Nerdal, I will stay away from the Illimassia Empire and the Duchy of Brange.

The Kingdom of Rubruk is in conflict with the Illimassia Empire, so even if you do visit, you'll probably have to wait until things settle down.

''Yosh.''

After putting together my brain schedule, I slapped my face and got fired up and started to prepare breakfast.

Once everyone was up in turn and finished eating as usual, Master called out to me.

''You will traverse this labyrinth today, but you have become very strong. You can have confidence in yourselves. If the war demon's story is true, we will be able to easily defeat the Holy Knight Squad at the church headquarters. But don't let your guard down. It may be contradictory, but you never know what will happen in a battle. Even if something unusual happens, as long as we handle it calmly, we'll be fine. We'll trust our comrades and step through.

" " " " " " "

Everyone's senses were aligned, and we started off with a good feeling.

However, the labyrinth's irregularities were immediately apparent.

There was a demon in the labyrinth.

It may sound obvious, but it shouldn't normally appear, so why? That's the question that comes to mind.

Since I was still going to traverse through it, I would only proceed with caution to the traps, but there was one point that bothered me.

''These are the demons that appear in this labyrinth, but since this is the labyrinth where the lightning dragons were, I expected to see demons of the lightning attribute or its anti-attribute, but it's not lawful and it's scattered, and I don't think the demons are that strong.''

That's not to say that the demons that come out are weak.

There are some demons that are intimidating, such as ogres and minotaurs, and they are usually a threat, but after fighting demons such as chimera and cyclops, they weren't that shocking, and even more so, they would rush into you without thinking, triggering a trap and blowing themselves up.

There was also a variety of other fire-breathing demons that looked very similar to crocodiles and a big frog that flew acid, but they didn't skip their master's slashes and never touched him.

''That's right. It's odd that they didn't drop more demon stones than that. This demon might have been summoned.''

A summons?　In such large quantities?

''Summoning requires magic stones, blood, and magic power as compensation, but you can also summon them with magic stones alone. Well, you can't control it at all, so it will only be able to stall you.

"...that slaver?　I could have summoned him.

'I don't know, but I don't know what he intended to summon the demon for.

''Can't you think of raising your own level and the level of the demons you've used?''

'Letting the demons you summon fight each other is something a broken mind would do. It's of worse quality than playing with dolls.

Master says so, but the fact that he's summoning it means that his skill level may have increased.

But I suddenly think about it. We spent more than a month in the main room on the forty levels, but the slavers didn't get through.

When I think about it, it was quite conceivable that we'd be out there, as long as we didn't have a magic bag, we wouldn't be alive.

'I might as well be thinking about it.

'Yeah. When this is over, I'm going back to Meratni and Luciel is going to learn some magic, right?

'I'll do my best to surprise my master.

I laughed at that.

Many of the traps in the labyrinth of intrigue were vicious and difficult to disarm.

At such times, the demons would catch me first, so I felt like Gouun Sensei hadn't shown his face in a long time.

Then we came to the front of the fifty level boss room, but the door was closed and I couldn't hear any noise from inside.

''I'll open this door for you, okay?''

It was going to be a blue-red-yellow dragon festival if Master and Lionel opened the last boss room for the quicksilver, because it was going to be a blue-red-yellow dragon festival.

Master was amused when I told him that, but he was reluctant to give it up, though he was reluctant to meet the objections from everyone else, but he agreed and gave it to me.

After I put area barriers on everyone, I opened the door to the boss room and entered, and there was a single shadow of a person present.

But its presence was extraordinary, and I felt more scared than when it was there before.

The shadow was that slaver.

''Oh?　Were you the curious ones who came to traverse this labyrinth?

"Slaver, did you traverse this labyrinth all by yourself?

'I have a name, Blood. This blood attracts demons who will become my family.

The slaver who called himself Brad, who looked a bit tripped up, didn't seem to have touched the core of the labyrinth.

However, there was one point that bothered me.

'What did you do with the magic circle of the return?　If we defeat the Lord, it wouldn't be surprising if a magic circle appeared!

Apparently, you can't defeat him because he's an errand boy. Now that we've met, I'll smash your dream to pieces and your sister will be the material for the slaughter of Duchy Brange.

As Brad declared that, a magic circle emerged from every magic place.

Using a boss, that's too substandard.

The moment I tsked in my mind, a high-speed slash flew to Brad!

Everything was catching up to Brad, but it didn't reach him as he tore through the giant ogre that had appeared from the magic circle in front of him a step earlier.

However, the mental damage done to Brad was significant.

''Bah, isn't it a monster? Even back then, his level was unusually high, but he wasn't that strong!

The demons that appear from the magic circle were crushed one after another by the master, the pair of Keti and Kefin, and the pair of Estia and Nadia, while Lionel defended me and Lydia with his large shield, sending fireballs and slashes flying, and Lydia attacking with her spirit magic.

I was activating fine heals, activating Aura Coat when fighting demons that were leaking miasma depending on the battle situation, and activating Recover if the enemy was likely to be poisonous or paralyzed to cover them.

''Bah, silly, why is your level suddenly so high? What the hell kind of cheat did you use? Shit, shit, shit, shitty people gah!

Brad retreated backwards, unable to believe that one after another his prized demons were being erased.

And when things didn't go his way, he finally threw a tantrum.

He took out a large amount of magic stones and scattered them on the ground, then cut his palms with his sword and dripped blood onto the magic stones, and began to build a huge magic circle.

I'm going to crush the magic circle with the sanctuary circle just like I did, and Lionel will be waiting for me.

'Luciel-sama, since the magic circle of return hasn't come out, I'm sure that person should be the master here to bring out now. You're going to have to be able to summon them and then cut them down, including that one.

I heard Lionel's voice, and after looking at my mentor, I decided to agree with his decision.

'Alright. I'll defend it for sure.

Ha!

I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.

And from the huge magic circle that everyone was looking at, a chimera emerged.

Brad, who may be on the verge of depleting his magic power, looks very pale and laughs at us for not reacting to the chimera.

''Huh, huh, huh. How's that!　This chimera is my best trump card. Now that I see this thing, all of you are going to take the bait and die!

Immediately after Brad proclaimed his victory, the chimera jumped to take aim at Esquire and Nadia.

Esquire swung her sword and began to struggle as the black light hit the lioness's face, and Nadia rushed in to cut into her leg while holding her shield at the ready.

The chimera doesn't seem to be willing to let her approach easily either, and the goat fires a blitz at Nadia.

Nadia blocked it firmly with her dragon shield and managed to slash her front leg.

But the chimera didn't miss that opening either.

The viper in the tail attacked and attacked Nadia, whose stance was broken.

Keti and Kefin appeared there.

Keti, in a run that would have been won by her master and straight-line speed, struck the snake's head as hard as she could with the flat of her sword, whereupon Kefin fell free and cut off the defenseless snake.

So the lion, whose face was covered with darkness, tried to breathe out a breath of fire, but Esther was quicker to stick her sword into the lion's mouth.

The goat knew that the snake had been cut off and that the lion had been hurt, but the fact that he hadn't been able to do any damage with his vaunted blitzes was disturbing, and he relentlessly planted his blitzes on Nadia.

Keti and Kefin slashed their hind legs and lost their balance, then plunged their swords into the chimera's body and attacked the goat's head, causing the chimera to fall with a yelp.

Without letting his guard down, he dropped the goat's head and won a complete victory over the chimera.

'Bah, silly. It's a chimera, a high class A demon... why?

Brad muttered as he looked at the four men who had defeated the chimera, trembling, as if he couldn't see the reality.

''It's because I spent morning to night training in an environment with excellent leaders, excellent healers, and strong demons (that's right)(nya).''

The four of them breathed together and told him so, and the chimera disappeared, leaving behind a magic stone that sucked the four of them in as soon as the magic circle of return appeared.

''Ah.''

As expected of us, we didn't even expect that the magicians of the return would suddenly suck in Kefin and the others.

What was even more unexpected was that the core of the labyrinth had unexpectedly appeared in front of Blood.

I don't know if Dr. Gounounen wanted to do his job and keep me away from the evil one or if he had abandoned his duties, but the next thing I knew I was shouting.

'Retreat!'

We ran to the magic circle and Master tried to kill Brad with a flying slash before he touched the core of the labyrinth, but the slash was blocked by something.

And we were only a few steps away from reaching the magic circle, when the magic circle disappeared.