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

Its nice to have enemies that wont give us any trouble, but I think we should get a little more hang on fighting against Minos, since the Floor Boss of the fourth floor is going to be a bigger, stronger version of them if the pattern that has repeated itself up until now is to be believed.

Alright. Where is the next group of enemies?

Its over this way, master.

Steeling my resolve to fix the problem f the lacking vanguard members as soon as the opportunity for doing so arises, I proceeded to go deeper into the fourth floor under the guidance of Roxannes nose. Anytime when there was only one Mino in the group of monsters we had to fight, we generally agreed that Roxanne is going to be the one who will be taking care of it. Anytime I see her avoiding its charge attack and not having a single scratch on her no matter how tough or rough the battles seemed to be getting, I couldnt stop myself from being amazed at how skilled she actually was. It seemed to me like for her, every opponent who relied on physical attacks as their main offensive tool was trivial to fight. That being said, every time a pair of Minos appeared, there was now a part of me that was instinctively scared of engaging them, but nevertheless, as long as I kept myself calm, I could fight them. As long as this subconscious fear of getting hurt does not develop into something more serious, I am sure I will get used to it as long as I continue to work hard and get stronger.

Now that we have conquered the third floor of the Labyrinth in Veil, we concluded that the most sensible thing will be to do the same with the third floor of the one in Quratar, and that is where we decided to go on the morning of the following day.

Is it just me, or do there seem to be more people here on the third floor than they were back on the second floor?

This can be potentially problematic, since I would rather not be seen fighting with Durandal here, and with the increased number of people, there is no telling what might happen or who might catch a glimpse of it purely by accident or when they will be passing by.

Thats right. It is because the number of Kobolds on this floor is decreased, making it a better place for hunting monsters than the previous floor, where the possibility of happening upon them was still relatively high. Because of that, either this floor or the next one should have the biggest number of people on it so far, but after that, I am positive that it should start to gradually decrease again the further up we go.

Ah, I see.

I guess that makes sense since no one wants to fight weaklings that wont give them good drop items or much EXP, but I just hope it wont come back to bite us in the asses somehow.

While going through this floor, we passed by a number of people, though thankfully not as many of them as back on the first floor. I dont wan any of them to see that I am fighting with or even carrying Durandal with me, so while we are passing by other Parties, I try to do everything I can to keep it out of sight while also trying not to look suss to them.

The enemies native to the fourth floor of the Quratars Labyrinth are called Spi Spiders, and just as the name implies, they are spiders. However, they are not your ordinary, small-ass spiders that crawl on the floor and walls looking all gross but nothing else besides that, oh no. You see, the smallest Spi Spider is actually the size of a large dog. Yeah, now let that thought sink in. Having your skin crawl yet? Do not worry, I also feel extremely unpleasant while fighting them, especially with all those eyes of theirs darting in all directions as they try to jump up on us and attack with those creepily-thin legs of theirs. The only saving grace with them is that, just like pretty much everything so far, they are defeated by only a single blow from Durandal, so at the very least I do not have to look at their monstrous physiques for too long before they disappear. On tha account, I guess even Minos should not be all that scary since they also should go down in one strike of Durandal. Moreover, when it comes to Spi Spiders, they are just uncomfortable to look at but nothing else. Unlike with Minos, I do not have that dreadful feeling that I will be killed if their attacks manage to reach me. Maybe its because I am slowly adapting to the way of life and doing battles typical for the inhabitants of this world? After all, I have spent quite a number of days here now, so I guess it would be about time for me to start getting accustomed to it, right?

As for Roxanne, ever since she became my slave and a member of my Party she was fighting whatever the Labyrinths threw at her without saying as much as a single complaint, and and she even looks like she is happy to be risking her life on the frontlines like she is now. Doesnt she feel repulsed by having to do battle against such disgusting creepy-crawlies? I though that since she is a girl she will have at least some reservations about doing it, but it does not seem to be bothering her one bit.

The Floor Boss on the third floor here in Quratar is Spy Spider Lv.3. Although it is one size larger than the regular Spi Spider, Roxanne took the position in front of the boss, just like always. My role in this battle was once again to go to the bosss behind and wait for the right moment to strike it with Durandal.

Surprising nobody, Spy Spider collapsed onto the ground after one hit. So even a Floor Boss of the third floor thats Lv.3 was still no match for the 1HKO power Durandal has, huh? In this particular case, since the said Floor Boss was a giant spider, I am perfectly okay with that.

When the Spy Spider disappeared in a puff of smoke, the item it left behind was a bunch of small, round objects. I went and picked one of them up and used Identify on it, revealing that it was pepper. Black pepper. Kind of a strange thing for a Spy Spider to drop, dont you think? I always assumed that an enemy named Spy Spider would drop something well, I dont know, spy related?

Ah, its black pepper! I am sure that it must be worth a pretty hefty sum in gold, right?

I am afraid not. Black pepper is a pretty ordinary spice, and therefore it is not all that expensive.

So, it would seem that black pepper being a costly spice was nothing but my own selfish wishful thinking. But now that I think about it and recall the taste of the dishes I have eaten here so far then yeah, I guess black pepper is being used quite a bit in meat-based dishes, and since its not a special item, but a common one that drops after you kill the Floor Boss of the third floor here, then it would stand to reason that the local shops would have an overaboundance of it.

With the Floor Boss out of the way, we moved on onto the fourth floor.

How crowded is this floor?

Let me check *sniff sniff* hmm, it seems to be a little less crowded than the third floor, but we wont find any monsters to fight unless we go further in.

In that case, should we halt our progress here and switch to Veils Labyrinth instead?

Personally, I would like to see what monsters live on the fourth floor of Quratars Labyrinth, but its an undeniable truth that fighting in a crowded place where we might bump into someone at any given moment is not an ideal scenario for us, so we should not try to bite off more than we can chew. Making progress is important, but not overdoing things just for the sake of overdoing them is even more important in my book.

We moved to the Labyrinth of Veil and explored its fourth floor next. This time our goal was to explore while also getting me more used to fighting Minos, and I think that little by little, such an approach began to bear fruit, since after an hour or two of fighting them I noticed that I am not finding fighting them as big of a deal as I did during my first few encounters with them. I just have to fight them calmly and without panicking, and everything is going to be okay.