Chapter 12 — 7th Floor and the Boss Room

Chapter 12: 7th Floor and the Boss Room.

In the end, I couldn’t say anything to Ruruka who had returned to her usual attitude, so I keep exploring the labyrinth with a dizzy feeling.

And then――

“He, hey, do I really have to do this?”

“It can’t be helped you know? It’s the best way to do it. Even if me or Yuel do it, our weapon will get damaged.”

―― And then now, a Giant Ant, a big ant-shaped monster, was knocked down in front of my eyes.

Yes, it was scattered. Its belly was facing upward, all the limbs were cut cleanly at the joints and were scattered by Yuel and Ruruka.

The special trait of a Giant Ant, a monster from the 6th floor, is their hard carapace. When fighting with a blade, it won’t be a problem to cut the thin limbs if you aim skillfully for the joints, but a sword could get damaged if you forcefully cut the torso.

That’s why, I was given a role to finish the Giant Ant as a wielder of a blunt weapon, a mace. Looking at the Giant Ant that was scattered on the ground, I noticed its big jaw first. It’s a big savage jaw with jagged teeth, which cut off Eight’s(エイト) leg earlier. (Yuz: Reminder- Eight was Man A from chapter 6)

clank-clank The Giant Ant opened and closed its jaw repeatedly, desperately trying to attack me who stood in front of its eyes yet it will never reach. It won’t reach because it can’t move. It will by no means reach me, but…

After looking at Eight’s grave injury, when I see the Giant Ant who was still retaining its fighting spirit even after losing all of its limbs, I get a little bit scared. No, it’s just being pretentious. It was all pretty scary.

I looked at its eyes that were filled with fighting spirit, the moment I went in close, it felt like it could jump like a freshly caught fish at any moment and bite me off. With its big jagged jaw. It makes me want to give the mace to Ruruka, and have her substitute the role to finish it instead.

“Hey, Ruruka……”

“And besides Shiki, you haven’t done anything since we came to the labyrinth rightー?”

“Kuh……”

Her words felt like a stab to the chest. If it was Yuel she wouldn’t have said such a thing. After all Yuel is a nice and gentle girl. Let’s pat her thoroughly later.

“I’m already relieved that Shiki who can use healing magic could stay with us, but I still want to see the cool parts of Shiki, I think?”

Ruruka said it in a light tone. Even after she said that, if you listened to her plain flattery tone, one could understand it. She doesn’t really mean that.

It was that right. “I want to see Shiki-kun’s good parts!” or something like that. But, I’m not that naive. I’m an adult man who won’t do things like leaving the role that was entrusted to him.

Like that time with Eight’s injury, when a lot of blood was gushing out, a cold sweat had broken out on my face that left me as pale as a dead man. Just by looking at the Giant Ant’s jaws makes my legs want to give in. (Yuz: He has a fetish for jaws) I’m probably going to end up hurt.

And so, I averted my gaze from the Giant Ant――

―― Yuel was looking at me.

She was looking at me, who stood still holding the mace in front of the Giant Ant, with sparkling eyes as if expecting something.

You too huh. You’re also telling me to do it huh. No, Yuel herself is just only looking at me.

This wasn’t like Ruruka who did it to make me move. Because it was the pure Yuel. She is really expecting to see her master’s cool, gallant figure when defeating monsters. I didn’t know that there was this much evil presence in front of Yuel until now.…… I don’t feel like stopping at all though.

Yuel gazing at me waiting for my move, her round pupils completely dyed with expectation. It seems she wants to burn her master’s gallant figure, my fighting stance, completely into her eyes. With those sparkling, shining eyes.

…… Ugh, I can’t betray those eyes……

―― I prepared myself

I try to remembering the kendo class I took at school, while as much as possible trying to not look at the Giant Ant’s jaw. I grip the heavy mace, take an overhead stance, and yell as I move my center of gravity and swing it down.

“HAAAAAH!”

A dull sensation.

The Giant Ant’s head cracked with a breaking sound, and its contents started rushing out from the crack.

Gu, gruesome (guro)……

But, I defeated it. For the first time, just now wasn’t that a good blow?

“As expected from Master!”

Yuel complimented me at the same time that the Giant Ant turns into light and disappears. For the time being, it’s good that I matched Yuel’s discernment. I succeed in protecting my dignity as her master. Let’s give her a pat in return.

“Shiki, that wasn’t bad!”

Without missing a beat, Ruruka also gave her compliment.

“Really?”

“Yup, it was a beautiful swing. Have you been doing some martial arts? It was really cool! Shiki is amazing~.”

“Ah, your muscles are so splendid, they’re hard!” she praised me while poking my arm that still held the mace.

Apparently I also suited Ruruka’s discernment.

“ ……Ah, so you did figure it out?”

All purpose school’s kendo. Since I could crush a Giant Ant’s head in one blow, perhaps it was truly a critical hit. Besides the amount of people who can learn fighting techniques in this world were probably quite limited. Especially for adventurers, most likely they are self-taught. Hooray for Compulsory education.

“I found it out I found it out~. Eh, erm, it was a full strength strike right! It was a charming blow even for a vanguard like me~.”

I see. I got found out huh. It makes you charmed huh.

“Master, you’re really cool!”

Yuel complimented me again after having been outdone by Ruruka. Well that’s true. Right now, I have a weapon. And also the opponent’s feet were severed so it couldn’t move. There isn’t anything to be feared. Besides, as far as I can see the Giant Ant’s movement were also slow. If it’s one-on-one, I also feel I could still do it.

“Yosh, next time I will try to start fighting from the beginning!”

“Ah, erm, I think it’s too intense for Shiki. Could you just do the finisher?”

“ …………Yes.”

Thanks to the thorough praises from Ruruka and Yuel, I could erase my fear towards Giant Ants, and I did a good job in swinging down the mace. Of course only to deliver the finisher. It’s important to know your own capabilities.

―― And then.

Finally. We made it.

To the 7th level.

The monsters at the 7th level were Slime. The drop is slime jelly. A slime’s jelly. With this, at last, I could replenish those unreliable slime jelly stocks.

The bar waitress’s miniskirt. The inn’s poster girl’s cleavage. The soup stall Onee-sans’ wet see-through. Various scenes pass through my mind.

Ahh, I want to fight soon. Well, the only ones who were fighting were Yuel and Ruruka though. Yuel and Ruruka are already fighting against several slimes. A slime is a gelatinous jelly-like monster with about the size of soccer ball. They have a nucleus in their center, and that is their weak point.

You have to carefully aim at that nucleus to beat it, but it seems Ruruka and Yuel can do it without a hitch. They easily evade the slime’s body slam, and their thrusts accurately penetrated its nucleus. Because it was the only means of attack.

But the slimes’ power was unexpectedly high. Slimes harden their body a moment before an attack, so it seems there are possibilities of bone fractures if you took a direct hit. However, that’s all.

A slime couldn’t always harden its body, and it was neither a poison nor a body made from strong acid. Yeah, the slime isn’t as strong as a 7th level monster. But, there seems to be a reason for that.

“So, is that the boss room?”

“It will be tough for our party composition~. Physical attacks are hardly effective for the Boss here.”

The Boss.

In the Mel Hearts labyrinth, on the 7th level floor, there is a room called the boss room in the middle of it.

It seems, there is a theory that the monsters in the level where the boss is located are weak because the boss took all the mana resource on that level. Actually, it is said that both of the 14th level and 21st level also have relatively weak monsters.

The boss in this level is a Huge slime. In terms of body structure and ways to defeat it, it isn’t that different from a normal slime, but its huge size is a different story. It is huge, with 3 meters in diameter. Even for a weak slime, with just by changing its size, its strength can jump considerably.

For the Huge slime, a normal sword won’t reach its nucleus, and on top of that because of its body’s viscous nature, even if you cut it with a sword, the wound would close soon. Moreover, the power that comes with its huge mass also poses a threat. It could easily crush people beneath it. Even the guild was urging people to not lessen their guard when going to the 7th level.

“It’ll be tough if we have no one with a high fire magic skill.”

“Exactlyー, it’s not impossible to beat it by scraping from the outside, but I don’t want to do that. Well sometimes it gives us a rare drop if we defeat it.”

While Ruruka said that, Yuel was staring intently towards the doors that lead to the boss room, but I’m not worried about that. I’m sure she was just distracted by the ornaments on the doors. I want to believe that Yuel isn’t a battle junkie that wants to fight strong enemies with bad compatibility.

“What is the rare drop?

“Etto, there is slime drop that used as material for recovery magic. If I’m not wrong it should have quite the good sale price right? Well, most of time I only get slime jelly as a drop thoughー.”

“Hee, but well, it doesn’t matter to us.”

It wasn’t Ruruka who told him that clearly, but the girl who had been staring intently at the boss room’s door.

“That’s rightー. Well, let’s just beat the slime in there and go home. We’ll start getting hungry soon.”

Oh right, it feels like it will be lunch time soon. It’ll be alright if we just follow the main route without detours later. I feel that I want to collect more slime jelly, but as I thought I can’t let Yuel get hungry.

“Ahh, you’re right.”

The place we went to after the exploring labyrinth, is the guild purchase counter. I have forgotten very important things up to now. That is, in labyrinth exploration this time, I was just looking at the battle behind Yuel and Ruruka. Though it’s just the usual.

However, there is a problem. When a monster was defeated, “in its place” it will give us a drop. In other words, inevitably the one who will pick it up is also the one who is closest to the monster, the one who fought it.

What I want to say is, I want to include the slime jelly we got in this exploration in my item box. And now, Ruruka and Yuel want to hand over the materials to the receptionist at the materials purchase counter.

I couldn’t find the right time to stop them from selling them off. No, I have thought about it, but I can’t bring it up in a way that won’t make my honor fall to the ground. Even while being troubled, the receptionist kept her smile, and indifferently informed them the total amount of Zeni from their sale.

And then.

Finally, two-thirds from the total amount, for Yuel and my portions ―― are transferred to my bank card.

Along with the receptionist’s natural smile.