Volume 3 - Ch 5.05
Although there are fewer people here on the seventh floor, I should probably still use Durandal for most of this floor before switching to using magic, just to be sure that I will avoid any potential problems that might stem from me being seen by someone, even if by accident. After I recover my MP here for a bit, it really should be fine for me to use magic all the way to the end of this floor, where I will switch back to Durandal again to fight the Floor Boss.
Despite not being able to use magic until we were about halfway through it, this floor was overall not that bad. Since the Slow Rabbits were rather well, slow on the attack and were simply hopping around for most of the time, We had no difficulties with dispatching them, and soon we were a stones throw away from the Boss Room.
The Boss Room should be a little more up ahead. *Sniff Sniff* Looks like someone is already there.
Someones there? Well thats new.
Since there are people waiting outside of the Boss Room, then I would better put my wand away in the Item Box. Would not want anyone to see it and piece together that since I have it then I can probably use magic, which would be pretty strange for someone who has Explorer listed as his Main Job now, right? Yeah, taking Durandal out is definitely going to be the smart thing to do here.
Overall, there were six people waiting in the Waiting Room out side of the Boss Room. They were most likely here because that must have pretty much the same idea we had: that if they decide to come to the Labyrinth so early in the morning, there will be little to no competition for fighting monsters and finding potential treasure chests. All right, that means I have to keep Durandal out of sight until they will enter the Boss Room to fight the Floor Boss and we will be left alone. I am not risking anyone having as much as a glance at it and figuring out what it actually is.
Shortly after we arrived in the waiting room, the door to the Boss Room opened and five people entered. So it was not a full Party of six people? The only one left behind was a lone Explorer-looking dude and he had the audacity to go and stare at Roxannes chest! Look man, I know, okay? I know that Roxannes boobs are amazing but they are mine! Mine and mine alone, no one else! So you can stare at them all you want, but staring is all you can do. This magnificent rack shall forever remain out of your reach!
Just the two of you?
The guy talked to us while we were waiting in front of the Boss Room.
Thats right. What about you? You alone?
To be honest, I feel an overwhelming urge to punch this guy in the dick for oogling my Roxanne with his lecherous eyes, but it should be okay to talk to him and display that I am above such petty grievances.
Yeah. I am trying to save enough money so that I could buy myself more Party members, but so far things have just not been working out very well for me on that front. The thing is, no matter how much money I manage to save up one way or another, I just cant seem to save up enough, because after you take all the costs of buying food and daily necessities, it always ends up being not enough to buy even a single Party member.
Oh wow, he is talking so casually about something so shady as buying himself some slaves because he cannot afford to find regular people who would be willing to form a Party with him. I guess that pretty much solidifies my belief that in this world slaves are a perfectly normal thing and it is not taboo in any way to be talking about them or buying them for yourself. I dont know about you, but I certainly would not want to start a conversation with random guys met in a fucking dungeon with how much I want to get myself some slave pussy, but maybe that is just my prime and proper Japanese mentality speaking. Given enough time I should be able to adapt to how people in this world act and think, but for the time being some old mannerisms are bound to be still rubbing off on me, so I have to be careful not to do or say something unnecessary that might cause frictions between me and the people I talk to.
Also, I wonder what the slaves themselves would have to say about such a situation. I glanced back at Roxanne to see if she was uncomfortable with the subject of slaves being brought up so openly, but she was simply standing behind me with her eyes closed and a slight smile on her face. That makes sense, since even though I am her master and she is my slave, our relationship if quite a far cry from how it was usually portrayed in the history books and media from my old world. But if we do not look like a typical master and slave, then how are others seeing us? As a young couple, perhaps? Then again, that might not be the case, because pretty much everyone would definitely think that such a beautiful girl as Roxanne is way out of the league of a plain-ass boring guy like me.
Okay, I have to stop thinking about such distracting things so much, because right now it will lead me nowhere. Since we are waiting here though, might as well allow this guy to talk some more and get his worries out of his system. I am not particularly interested in his whining, but it is not like we have anything better to do to pass the time.
W-Well, I was in the same boat as you not that long ago, so I understand how you feel.
If I had not met Roxanne, I might have very well turned out like this guy here, having to go through the Labyrinths all by myself.
To be honest, I am afraid to be facing the Floor Boss since I am all by myself, but unfortunately, I just cannot afford to go exploring any other Labyrints.
You dont say.
I can say from my own experiences: if you stumble into a Trap Room filled with monsters all by yourself, you wont be in a big pinch, or royally screwed. You will be fucked, with a capital F. But here in Quratars Labyrinth there are always lots of people on most of the floors, so that risk is greatly reduced. On the other hand though, more people means less chances for monster encounters, and less monster encounters means less EXP needed to level your Jobs up. And to top it off, unless you have access to cheat-like Skills like my Warp that allows you to teleport to the Labyrinth from practically anywhere in the world as long as you have the MP to do it, you would have to pay the admission fee to even be allowed to enter Quratars Labyrinth every single time, and there is no way in hell that this would allow you to save money. It is unfortunate, but that is just how the business rolls in here.
It has been two years since I entered the seventh floor, and throughout all this time, I was unable to clear it. But now that my level and the capacity of my Item Box have finally increased, I think I finally have a chance to go to the next floor, so I am going to take that opportunity since it has presented itself to me.
Well, best of luck to you then. I hope you will be able to do it.
Thank you for your kind words. Even though I am all alone in this, I feel like I will be able to pull through one way or the other. Call it blind optimism if you want, but I feel like Lady Luck is on my side today.
The Explorer dude entered the Boss Room with a light smile on his face when the door opened a short while later. Two years spent on the seventh floor alone? How fucked up is that? He looked like he was around my age or perhaps a little older, so if he spent two years here, then how old was he when he started going to the Labyrinths alone? Looks like the world of Explorers is much more brutal and unforgiving to those who cannot find themselves a Party than I initially thought.