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

If two monsters show up, then they are no problem for us since we can just take them on in a one-on -one combat, and as long as we (or in this case, I) wont panic, we can deal with them in a minute or so, but if one of them is a Mino, then I have to allow Roxanne to take care of it while I go for the other one. In any other case, they were all steadily defeated.

The next trio of enemies appeared a solid while later. It was a combo of two Minos and a Kobold. Naturally, the Kobold got obliterated into a puff of green smoke by a Fire Storm before it could even begin to run towards us. Now that this loser was out of the picture, all we had to deal with were two Minos, who promptly began to charge towards us.

The first blow from the Fire Storm reached them, but did not stop them exactly the same as last time. Roxanne jumped towards the one in front and stopped it from advancing by slashing her Scimitar at it, but the second one got past her and continued to approach me with its head lowered and horns in front. I launched a second and third Fire Storm at it, but again, three shots were not enough to bring it down. I need one more spell to finish it off for good.

But before I could fire another spell, Mino, who got in my melee range lifted its head and attacked me with its horns during the downtime between one spell and the other where I could do nothing to defend myself. I tried to hastily twist my body to avoid it, but my left arm got caught up by its horn, resulting it a much sharper pain than during the previous battle where I was just barely grazed by it. It was un unpleasant kind of pain, but luckily not strong enough to make me faint on the spot.

Uooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Danger. My life is in danger!

Fire Storm activated, and emitted a series of sparks.

Buooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

The Mino got struck by most of them, which caused it to fall sideways as it was being burned to cinders. With that final blow, the battle was over.

Dangerous.

Dangerous. That right now was too much of a close call! One wrong move and I would have probably been done for! How could I allow this monster to get so close to me so causally?! How could I allow it to happen?!

These guys are extremely dangerous! Even if Roxanne says they are easy to evade if you pay close attention, it does not change the fact that Minos are still dangerous as hell! Until now, I have been smacked by Needlewood branches and both slammed into and spat on by Green Caterpillars so I more or less know how to deal with them and how much of them I can basically facetank before getting worried about my HP, but I have yet to be exposed to a direct hit from a Mino, so its exact power is a complete mystery to me. However, there is no doubt in my mind that a day when I will get attacked by a Mino directly will surely come sooner or later. The question is: will I be able to live through that attack to learn my lesson and draw the appropriate conclusions?

No, I should not think negatively like that when I am not affected by the loss of MP. Just stay calm and think, Michio, think! Ever since I came to this world I have been attacked by a variety of monsters, and each time I was panicking and thinking that just one of their attacks will be enough to kill me, only to discover that it was not the case and I was simply paranoid about the entire thing. If even the attacks from the Floor Bosses were not enough to kill me in one shot, then there will probably be no problems with me receiving an attack or two from a Mino, even if it were to be a direct hit from its horns. I mean sure, they look like they are as sharp as a sword, but would they really be fatal? Surely they cannot be. If they were, then that would be too much of a power spike in comparison to how easy the third floor was when it came to its monsters and Floor Boss.

Except that little unfortunate incident, the exploration is going relatively smoothly so far, but that does not mean that we can relax. We have to stay vigilant at all times, since even with my Chant Omission Skill, my defensive options while using my magic-focused build are still limited in comparison to my Durandal-focused build. Swinging a sword is so simple that pretty much anyone can do it, but with magic, a significantly bigger effort has to be made in order to use it. Not only does it require the caster to concentrate his consciousness to properly formulate the spells name or the chant (not needed in my case), but there is also a few seconds gap between each consecutively fired spell that leaves the user potentially vulnerable to enemy attacks. That is what happened in that battle against the group of those three Minos just now, and it almost cost me an injury.

I wonder what are the other magic casters and wizards doing in order to protect themselves in the periods of the brief pauses between spells? They have to do something to keep themselves from harms way, but since fighting the monsters requires their concentration to remain fully geared towards casting offensive spells, then what could that method of prevention be? Do they have some kind of special defensive spells in effect? Or maybe their robes and elements of clothing are enchanted in such a way that they protect them from hostile attacks?

Well, the most logical choice for them is to stay in the rearguard and shoot their spells from a safe distance where no enemy will reach them. If only we had more members in our Party, then I could do the same without having to constantly pay attention to every enemy and their distance from me and leave the fighting up close and personal to the avant-garde. If we continue to go on the way we are now, then the burden placed on Roxanne, our only vanguard member, will only keep increasing, putting her in more and more needless danger.

That being said, should we find more vanguard members as soon as possible? And then, should we opt for someone whom we could hire for a relatively cheap price, or maybe go for increasing the number of my slaves instead? However, if I were to give my honest opinion, then I would like not to get someone whos easily disposable if I can help it, and switching old Party members for the more talented or better equipped ones will be inevitable even without grinding excessively in the Labyrinths to get money. The thing is, I have too many secrets that absolutely cannot be allowed to be made public, so it will be better to collect a certain amount of money first and then find ourselves some trustworthy, long-term Party members that will stay with us for a long time instead.

What should we do in the meantime though? Strengthen our existing equipment? Or perhaps try and get our hands on a new one? I guess that would not be a bad thing to do, considering the fact that things will only get tougher from here on out.

With every floor that goes up, the levels of the enemies we are going to encounter there will go up as well, meaning that they will only get harder to defeat with a Party that has only two members in it, so increasing the number of allies among our ranks, and no, I am totally not saying that just so that I could have an excuse for adding more members into my harem. That development is still a prospect located somewhere in the future, because for now, we should focus on what we should do when we will reach the fifth and the sixth floor here in Veils Labyrinth, and worry about increasing the strength of our equipment only when it will be absolutely necessary to do so.

Here on the fourth floor, the number of monsters that appear with each encounter is still relatively small, and they are all enemies that can be defeated with relative ease with both magic and Durandal, especially Kobolds that go down with one hit from literally anything, be it sword or magic. These guys appear more often than Needlewoods and Green Caterpillars, most likely because we are only a floor above the one that is their natural habitat here in Veils Labyrinth.