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

Really? Well in that case, we should definitely take it with us and bring it to the kitchen back home. Think you will be able to do something tasty with it, Roxanne?

I will most certainly try.

Great. And while we are still on somewhat on the subject of Kobolds It might have been just a slightly stronger version of a normal Kobold, but it doesnt change the fact that this sword of his could have been pretty dangerous if it ended up hitting you. Knowing that, werent you afraid of exchanging blows with it?

There wasnt anything for me to be afraid of there. He was only using slow, straightforward, telegraphed, easy to predict attacks without attempting to use any tricks or feints. When faced with something like that, you dont have to worry about exchanging blows. I daresay that against Kobolds, anyone could have done it with their eyes closed.

So she says, and if she says that so confidently then it has to be true.

For now, I materialized my Item Box and placed the Kobold Flour inside. After a brief inspection, I think we can safely put some more items in there before we run out of space and be forced to start putting the drop items directly into our backpacks. With everything done here in the Boss Room and the items securely in our possession, it was about time for us to go through the door at the other side of the room and proceed into the second floor of Quratars Labyrinth.

*Sniff Sniff* Looks like there are no people here on the second floor, or at least not in our nearest vicinity. If you want, I think it will be safe for you to switch back into using magic to fight, master.

Roxanne informed me after she sniffed around when we emerged at the entrance room on the second floor. Certainly, she was right. As far as I could see, there was nobody else around but us.

Its nice that there wont be anybody around to interrupt us, but isnt it strange? There were so many people on the first floor, and now there is literally no one here. Why is that?

I think its only natural. Half of the enemies that can be encountered on this floor are Kobolds, after all.

Ahh, I see. Since Kobolds are such pathetic weaklings, no one probably wants to waste any more time on them than it is absolutely necessary, and I cannot say that I do not understand where they are coming from.

So essentially people gather on the first floor when they are novices who want to fight some easy battles to get used to the Labyrinth and how it operates, but starting from the second floor and upwards, they will essentially avoid the encounters that wont give them good items or experience in favor of the one on the higher floors that will do just that?

That might be oversimplifying things a little, but overall I think its safe to say that its mostly right.

Kobolds are suitable enemies for beginners, so the first floor of the Labyrinth, the one which they are occupying, is popular among them. However, once you gain a few levels, the Kobolds stop being an appealing enemy, because fighting them no longer yields the same great results like those from a few levels ago. As a result, people will want to advance to the higher floors, the ones where there wont be any Kobolds that could hinder the process of their leveling

I think we should call it a day when it comes to Quratars Labyrinth for today, dont you think? Conquering it all in one sitting would not be fun at all.

All right, I understand.

Yeah, now that we reached the second floor, lets just go back to our house for a moment to drop all the things we have in my Item Box so that we wont run into the risk of running out of space when we continue to explore today. I mean, we could go some more without freeing the space in the Item Box, but if we want to go to Veils Labyrinth (and we do), then it would be best to assume that our haul from there is going to be bigger than the one from Quratars Labyrinth by the virtue of Veils Labyrinth being mostly empty most of the time. Thats why it will be important to have as much free space both in the Item Box and in our backpacks as possible. So we went back to our Quratar home, dropped the map booklet and Kobold Flour there, after which we proceeded to go to our next destination: Veil Labyrinths third floor.

Here we are, the third floor. I wish I could be more excited about returning here, but lets be honest, it only means that we are going to be fighting more Kobolds.

It would seem so. In that case, should we ask the Explorer at the Labyrinths entrance to take us to one of the higher floors?

Now that she mentions it I remember that one Party we saw that decided to go to the fourth floor because they could easily handle the Kobolds of the third floor. Maybe we should do the same and skip the third one entirely?

No. We should continue to climb one floor at a time the way we were going up until this point. A slow and steady approach like that is much safer than jumping into the deep water without even preparing for what might be awaiting us there, dont you think?

Bold behavior goes hand in hand with higher risk, and higher risk means the bigger probability of getting needlessly hurt or even dying, and since I hate the idea of getting hurt or dying equally, I will of course choose the best possible option for us: choosing the safest approach with the least amount of danger involved. If proceeding carefully throughout each and every level of this Labyrinth means that it will take us longer to conquer it, but neither of us is going to get hurt because of that, then I will always choose that approach over charging ahead blindly thinking that things will somehow work them selves out as long as we continue running ahead. That is why I suggested finishing this floor and going to the fourth one normally, but it is not the only reason. The other one, but just as important as the first is the total capacity of my Item box.

When we go to the Labyrinths fourth floor, we will be bound to run into battles with numerous monsters, and since part of the enemies will once again be Kobolds, the weaklings who always drop items behind them when they die, then my Item Box and our backpacks will run out of their carrying capacity before we realize it. That is why it is imperative for me to raise my levels as much as I can while we are still here on the third floor so that it wont grow up into a huge problem once we move on to the higher floors. If I remember correctly from what I evesdropped from the conversation of that one Party, the main enemies on the fourth floor are Minotaurs, and there will probably also be Kobolds from the third floor. I dont know about Green Caterpillars from the second floor and Needlewoods from the first floor, but if we assume that they wont appear anymore or appear in very limited amounts, then Kobolds, who should give more EXP here since they are native to the first floor instead of the third should give me enough EXP points to level my explorer Job, the one responsible for the capacity of the Item Box, enough to have ample space in it once we hit the fourth floor. In the meantime, it would be great if we could sell all of the drop items that can be sold and use the money from them to buy all of the things we want, but if we start leaving the Labyrinth in order to do it frequently its going to hinder the speed of our progress, so more space in the Item Box is absolutely crucial in if we want to achieve the perfect balance.

For the next few hours we went around the third floor, exploring it until it was time to also call it quits and return home. I approached the Labyrinths wall and created a Warp portal, connecting it to the wall of the Quratars Adventurers Guild. Even though the main door was open and the lights were on, there was no one inside, even behind the counters. Maybe the guild building was opened twenty four hours a day because of the people who were going to the Labyrinth in the middle of the night?