Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Even if we were to happen upon a larger group of monsters, their smell will be so strong that my nose will catch on to them in no time, so we wont have to worry about getting ambushed.

Yes, youre right.

Shes absolutely right. As long as I have Roxannes keen sense of smell on my side, all ambushes, except maybe for those very elaborate ones, will become meaningless against us. I myself am nothing more but a muscle head, so I wouldnt even bothered with any precautions and just charged ahead, slaughtering everything in my sights. But now that I am no longer alone, such loner strategies are no longer necessary for me to employ.

There it is!

In the back of the new cave we have entered, a lone Needlewood could be seen. I ran over to it and slashed it in half with Durandal, felling it instantly. Heh, as long as there is only one enemy, I dont have to worry about anything else other than taking it on an express train to poundtown.

There, done in a flash.

Another enemy defeated with just one hit. As expected of you, master!

Roxanne catches up to me and expresses her amazement as she picks up the branches left by the lone Needlewood and packs them into her backpack.

Its true that as long as there are not too many enemies I can pretty much take all of them on myself, Im worried what would happen if we suddenly had to fight a large number of enemies all at once. Therefore, I think it is high time that I secure some means of attacking many enemies across a large area at once, or in other words, the means of inflicting AoE (Area of Effect) damage.

My Skill associated with the Hero Job, Overwhelming, is a Skill that inflicts slow onto enemies to the point where they basically get frozen in place. If used continuously, I guess it would allow me to attack greater number of enemies, but that is not a genuine AoE that Im looking for. I dont want multiple attacks on single targets, but preferably something that would hit a large number of them at once.

Warrior Jobs Rush and Swordsman Jobs Slash are strong attacks as well, but they too are not multi-target abilities. Well, if we were to examine this problem from a practical perspective, hitting multiple enemies at once is almost impossible with a melee weapon, even the likes of two-handed swords, spears or greathammers. Normally, this would mean that I am done for since there is seemingly no solution to my particular problem.

But, there is one more possibility available for me. If the sword and swordsmanship cannot give me what I want, then maybe I should try learning magic? Since this is technically a game world, then there is bound to be at least a few magic spells capable of inflicting AoE damage. Every fantasy game worth its salt has some, so this one should be no different.

Is there a type of magic that would allow me to attack multiple enemies at once?

I asked Roxane while we were once again on the move.

Magic? I have heard that there is, but to be honest, I dont know much about magic and mages. Im sorry. The only things that I know for certain is that you need to be child of a nobleman or a very rich person and consume a special kind of medicine before turning five years old.

Special medicine and age restriction, huh?

When I came to Vale, the merchant from the Somara village, Picker-san, told me more or less the same story. That medicine that is supposedly needed to be able to use magic is probably some kind of special item. But even if I somehow managed to obtain it

I took a sarcastic look at myself. Yup, theres no sugarcoating it: my seventeen years old-looking ass stopped being five years old ages ago, and that means that the only way left for me to get a Job that would allow me to use magic was to actually use magic.

If nothing else, I have to admire how straightforward the system of obtaining most of the Jobs is in this game. Steal something and you get the Thief Job, save the village from bandit attack and become a Hero, get an Explorer Job by entering the Labyrinth. This simple reasoning stays true for the Jobs such as Warrior, Swordsman and Merchant, although those have an additional condition of having your Villager Job at Lv.5. Going by that logic, I should obtain the Mage Job as soon as I use any magic spell.

At first I also thought that it was strange that I didnt get the Mage Job when I used Item Box or Warp multiple times, since both of those are technically magic spells, but if that was the case then pretty much every explorer could easily become a Mage, so I guess that makes at least some sense.

The solution is obvious here: if you want to be a Mage, you cannot do so by using Space Magic or Movement Magic. What you need is specifically Attack Magic. Use a spell belonging to that category, and you will become a Mage capable of casting Attack Magic.

Buy and sell items to become a Merchant, fight to become a Warrior, and swing your sword to become a Swordsman. I did all od those things, and they were pretty effective so far Then, if I will use Attack Magic, I will definitely become a Mage.

It might sound weird, but this is a typical egg or chicken dilemma, and thats probably why that special item is necessary. But, as I mentioned earlier, there is a way for me to bypass off of that crap.

Bonus Spells.

Thats right. Even though I am not a Mage, as long as I perform another Character Reset and invest enough of my Bonus Points into Bonus Spells, I should still be able to pull that off.

Master, do you know someone whos a Mage and who we could add to our Party?

Roxanne asks after we defeated the next Needlewood. Since were on the subject of magic, I guess having another person capable of using it might not be a bad idea, but since I have no aquaintences, much less those who can use magic, then I guess that particular alley is as much of a dead end as it gets.

I do not, unfortunately. Not a single one. Which is a shame, since well have to bolster our ranks eventually.

As long as slaves are concerned, I think finding a one who is also a mage might be pretty difficult, but if you somehow managed to do that, that would be a great help, especially on the Labyrinths upper floors.

I think its still a little bit too early to be thinking that far into the future, but when that time comes I will be counting on you.

Yes, of course!

She seems eager to welcome another member into our Party, even though it will mean an increase in the members of my harem as well.

Now that my declaration of increasing the number of my harem members have been accepted, I performed another Character Reset, focusing on getting the first Bonus Spell, Meteor Crash, the spell that I was unable to use due to a severe shortage of MP back when my Hero Job was only Lv.1. Now that it has grown all the way up to Lv.6, will I be able to use it properly?

If using this spell will get me the Mage Job then thats fine. Well, even if it doesnt, my goal of obtaining an AoE magic attack will be achieved either way, so Im going to test it out on the next enemy thats going to come around which is. This guy over here!

Eat this! METEOR CRASH!!!

I shouted the name of the spell in my mind, but nothing happened. The Needlewood just stood there, and I could swear I saw it looking at me as if I was some kinda idiot.

FUUUUUUUUUU

I ran towards it and slashed it with Durandal.

*Sigh* another failure, huh? And I even went as far as omitting the spell chant to avoid embarrassing myself in front of Roxanne is it didnt work. In my defense, Meteor Crashs MP cost is pretty hefty, so I guess it just means that I still dont have enough of it. But if I dont have enough MP at Hero Lv.6, then I wonder how much MP does it need? Okay, alright, so my first attempt didnt exactly go as planned, big deal. Not yet! Im not done yet! There are other spells that I can try!

Alright, next!