Hearing that from Roxanne and Sherry made me very happy, and cemented my will and belief that I need to strengthen my resolve. Dignity, bravery, manliness, I need to utilize all of those things in order to put on that kind of appearance that is not going to bring me and my slaves any shame, allowing me to stand tall in comparison to other slave masters.
If you were a bad, annoying master, would that not be a cause for us to start looking for a new master behind your back?
Ahyes. Thinking about it that way, I guess it would have made sense, huh?
Uhm. Maybe I have actually become too dignified?
We will probably strengthen Roxannes weapon some time soon.
Thank you, but there is no need for that. My weapon is okay as it is at the moment.
Was the one handed sword hanging in the weapons store an Estoc? It looked like a good weapon.
I think that it was a good weapon as well.
Did my strict attitude work? Roxanne hesitated for a second. My resolve might have gotten through to her, and I think I was also able to show off my dignity properly.
Okay, we will think about it in the future, no need to make any hasty decisions right now.
Ah, y-yes.
And if Roxannes weapon becomes stronger, it is going to aid the whole Party, not just you alone.
Thank you.
Roxanne is also going to have her own opinions, so I cannot be so arrogant as to force my own opinions onto her without giving her even the slightest chance to express hers.
We returned to the Merchants Guild, and used the wall there to travel to Haruba Labyrinths eleventh floor in order to test out our new weapons. I hold my new Rod, and pass the Steel Spear to Sherry as she hands me over the Club that she was using up until now.
Just as I expected, the spear is not a kind of weapon you could carry around town freely, because the damn thing is over two meters long, which means that Sherry probably could not have used it in the vanguard as well, because the sheer length of this weapon would guarantee that she would be hitting not only enemies, but also her allies as well, not to mention that she would probably bounce the spears blade on the walls and the ceiling of the narrower corridors in the Labyrinths, and that pretty much checks itself out with what Sherry was saying: that generally speaking, spears are not the type of weapons that should be used in the vanguard, and that instead they are more fitting for the usage by the rearguard members so that they could harass the enemies with constant poking from a safe distance while their opponents would be utterly unable to do anything to reach them, because they would have to go through the vanguard first.
Since Sherry may need some time to get used to her new weapon, please guide us to somewhere with a small number of monsters for now, all right, Roxanne?
I understand, master.
Are you not a bit too calm about this?
I mean, that is just how it is on the thirteenth floor, so
But there are also Bandits lurking there, and as long as we go there, we will not be able to avoid eventually fighting them.
Sherry then said something that caught my interest.
Bandits?
Yes. Most of the people who come to the lower floors of the Labyrinths are beginners without good equipment on them, but from the twelfth floor onwards, the difficulty of the fights and the strength of monsters increases, so the idea there is that only experienced fighters who have prepared both themselves and their equipment should be coming there.
I see. So getting better equipment is pretty much a necessity in order to deal with stronger monsters.
Those who come to the twelfth floor and above need to have enough money to buy good, expensive equipment, and such people would make perfect targets for Bandits. It would be easier for them to attack the novices, but since they do not have the money on them, they are not worth their time and efforts. But on the higher floors, people are going to have better items and more money, but on the flipside, they are going to be harder to defeat, so the question here is whether on not they are going to be willing to take such a risk.
On the twelfth floor there might still be monsters from the lower floors, so the Bandits who are not satisfied with hunting them move to the thirteenth and fourteenth floors in hopes of better Drop Items, thus making life more difficult for all the other people who also go there.
Can they not just make money by selling the items from monsters like we do?
Maybe they could, but in their eyes, attacking unsuspecting people is way easier.
Well, I see the harsh point here.
That is the ugly truth, but the truth nonetheless.
Of course, Bandits do tend to pick their targets carefully rather than attacking anyone blindly. Their most frequent targets are the children of the aristocrats and wealthy people who enter the Labyrinths to earn experience while being surrounded by the members of their Parties who are going to do all of the heavy lifting for them.
So they are also selective about their targets. It is an unpleasant tactic, but when you really think about it, the pirates of my old world were doing largely the same thing, not to mention the burglars of the modern day. In that regard, the mentality of Bandits and Thieves has not changed much since the medieval times.
So what is going to happen if we will look like a strong Party.
We will most definitely not get attacked by them.
Well, that is to be expected. Thankfully though, my Identify is going to tell me if someone is a Bandit or not, so we will not be falling for their traps anytime soon.