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

Wait here until my customers arrive, please. When we detect any form of movement downstairs, my combat-capable slaves and I will immediately go downstairs to meet with the Bandits. When that happens, your job will be to protect the stairs so as to not allow any of them to reach the higher floors, since that is where the shops staff and the slaves who cannot fight have been told to hide. And do not worry with the possibility of the Bandits coming into the shop from above. The only points of entry to the shop are the main entrance and the back exit, and as you know, they are both located on the ground floor.

As we followed Alan-san into the shop and then upstairs, he briefly explained the entire operation to us. When we nodded at him, signaling that we know knew everything we needed to know, he turned off the light in his lantern, but even with its light gone, the surroundings didnt turn completely dark, because apparently the lights in the other parts of the corridors were still on, so the area under the stairs and its surroundings were still fairly visible. For now, all I could do was to hold my breath and wait for how the situation was going to develop, allowing the time to pass.

In addition to Alan-san, Roxanne and I, there are several other people around. They most likely were the members of Alan-sans Party that would normally go to the Labyrinth before dawn, but this time stayed behind specifically to take care of this Bandit situation. All of the were of mixed Jobs, such as Fighters, Warriors, Monks and Adventurers, and their levels also varied from person to person, but I think it is safe to say that if they fight alongside us, the eventual battle should be a piece of cake.

After some time Roxanne suddenly stood up, and the rest of the people around us followed suit. Whats going on, I thought to myself.

Theres movement downstairs.

Roxanne said to me, noticing my puzzled gaze.

Wait, seriously? I didnt notice anything at all until she told me just now. But seeing how all of the other guys also stood up, there can be no mistake that something was definitely going on down there. One by one, they descended down the stairs without making any noise at all.

We will leave the defense of this position to you then.

So Alan-san is going to go with the rest after all. Is he going to fight the Bandits as well? Or is he just going to issue commands from a safe distance?

Beside me and Roxanne, only a few of the low-leveled slaves stayed behind while Alan and the others, probably the most elite of his team, went downstairs, and then everything was silent for a good while, until eventually, we started hearing noises coming from the shops first floor. They were mostly human voices and screams.

Looks like the party started for good.

With my hands clenched tightly on Durandals handle, I stepped a few steps down and assumed a defensive stance with Roxanne following closely behind my back. Alan-san said that the Bandits cannot come at us from above, so if they can only approach from the lower floors, Roxanne and I should be able to handle anyone that comes near the stairs to the second floor.

I took another few steps and looked downstairs. It was too dark for me to see if anyone was coming from the other side of the corridor, so I had to rely on Roxannes hearing and keen sense of smell.

Somebodys coming.

Roxanne murmured in a whisper that only I could hear. And just as she said, little by little, a shadow of a man came into my view. A Lv.3 Bandit, the one we saw eyeing the shop! Did he survived Alan-sans groups interception? Or perhaps hes a scum who ran at the first sign of danger? Probably the latter, because with how strong his group was, I had a hard time imagining someone like that low-life slipping past those armed slaves and their boss, especially with how busy the first floor sounded now.

Running past us, the guy took refuge in one of the rooms down the hallway. He didnt even seem to be paying any attention if someone was already there or not. If he really did so blindly, his mind must be in a pretty big disarray, and that is a chance I can definitely take advantage of.

Wait right here, Roxanne.

I slowly went down the stairs into the dimly lit part of the hallway while carefully surveying if anyone else was coming. Confirming that I was the only one here, I quickened my pace and went towards the room the Bandit has holed himself in. I placed my back against the wall and my right foot against the door, and then opened them with a powerful kick. But I didnt immediately jump inside. For you see, normally, after hiding in a room, the villain would hide just behind them so he could pull a sneak attack on whoever tried to follow him inside.

The inside of the room was pretty damn dark. If the hallway was dim enough for me to at least see where I was placing my feet, I dont think I can see anything that it inside there, especially while I still had my back against the wall next to the door. Since I opened the door, the bandit didnt show his face, so in order to find him, I used Identify.

Bingo! He was standing right in the middle of the room, sticking to the shadows where no one could spot him, with his weapon pointed towards the door, weapon ready to strike. It would be another story if I could see him clearly, but if he is camouflaged like that, it means I have no choice but to test the thing that I wanted to try out on him.

Up until now, Bonus Spells have been largely unreliable, if not borderline useless due to the fact that I was unable to use most of them, probably as a result of my extreme shortage of MP, Warp being the only exception to that rule. But the spell I wanted to use right now might be different, and it might just work.

Equivalent Exchange. A spell that I was scared to use because I had no idea how exactly it was going to work. Will it decrease the HP of both myself and the target? Or maybe it will decrease my HP in exchange for sapping the targets MP? Or perhaps it will flat out deal damage based on the difference in our HP pools? As with every spell, I wont know how it works until I try it, but I was scared of using it on monsters because I couldnt see their stats, but this guy here is just a regular human, and a Lv.3 Bandit at that, so with the stark difference in our levels, checking out what exactly does Equivalent Exchange exchanges might not end up in disaster after all I have more HP and MP than him so it should be safe

Swallowing my saliva, I focused my eyes on the general direction that the Lv.3 Bandit should be, and I prepared to cast the spell. All right, here goes nothing.

Equivalent EXCHANGE!!!