Volume 7 - Ch 1.05
According to Sherry, high level Fly Traps may attack using their head. However, just like Roxanne said just now, we absolutely cannot allow ourselves to become careless, because the moment when we start being like that is going to be a moment where our doom is pretty much going to be sealed.
However, for the time being I think it is safe to say that as long as well keep a watchful eye on our opponents and do not let ourselves fall for the tricky attacks like Saracenias digestive fluid spill, then the four of us can fight the enemies on the thirteenth floors of the Labyrinths without any kind of major issues.
Before we move on further, Miria walks up to me and gives me the Drop Item from the Fly Trap: Polygala Tenuifolia root. Because my Herbalist Job is still active, I immediately tried to make another medicine with it as the base.. and with them, I was able to create three Strengthening Pills, much in the same way as the Nourishment Pills before.
Since we can fight against Fly Traps without much trouble, I think its time to search for groups of monsters and start hunting them in earnest, so could you do that for me, Roxanne?
When the creation of the medicine was completed, I asked Roxanne to search for a group of monsters this time. Now that I know that both Sarracenia and Fly Trap are weak against Fire Magic, fighting against either of them is not going to pose us any kind of trouble since all that it takes to kill them is five shots from either Fire Ballor Fire Storm. As long as I know that, I feel like I could fight a bunch of those enemies at once. After all, what good are their numbers going to do to them if they wont even be able to reach any of us before they drop dead on the ground, huh?
However, dealing with them wouldve been much more difficult if I still had only my old Wand with me instead of my current Rod of Offerings. But now that I have it in my possession, my Spells are much stronger in comparison to how they were before, and that is why I am capable of dispatching the enemies on the twelfth and thirteenth floors so quickly and rather efficiently.
Here they come, master!
Roxanne shouted her warning out to me in the middle of our next fight. And what she was warning me about was actually an incoming ranged attack from the Fly Trap that we were currently engaged in battle with. Thankfully, she was there in order to take it on, and by take it on, I of course mean that she baited the Fly Trap into focusing solely on her so that she could dodge it.
The Fly Trap conjured a magic circle below its body, reared its plant-like head backwards and then thrust it forward, unleashing a bullet of high-speed water that mustve been its own version of the Water Ballspell. It flew forward and splashed against the ground right in the place where Roxanne was standing just moments ago.
Ah, that was a rather close one!
I also somehow managed to evade the next ranged attack when it flew right past Roxanne and almost hit me directly in the chest. I knew it. It is exactly like I suspected: when it comes to the ranged attacks of the enemies from the higher floors, I am definitely not going to be safe if I just mindlessly stay behind Roxanne. Without thinking through what I am doing, I am just going to get hit with whatever Roxanne avoided.
Im sorry for putting you in danger like that, master! I shouldve deflected those ranged attacks with my shield.
Deflect the ranged attacks with your shield? You can actually do that?
Yes. You can deflect most of the force behind the attack if you decide to do that, but youre going to receive some of the damage as a result.
If it is really like that, then you shouldve informed me about it earlier, because that is some pretty important information; and you shouldve taught me how to do it, because I cannot imagine that deflecting could be any more difficult than dodging.
Now that I know that something like that can be done, I position myself slightly diagonally from where Roxanne was currently standing. Since she is the one person who is the center of our frontline, its obvious that Roxanne is going to be receiving the most attacks out of all of us
Or at least she is supposed to, because so far she managed to dodge her way out of everything that the enemies were throwing at her, but that is beside the point right now. What is the most important here is that I should not be standing directly behind her when she is fighting monsters who can use ranged attacks or Skills.
Dealing with the Water Magic used by the enemies can be a little bit troublesome, but other than that its nothing that we cannot handle; so we continue on with our hunting and exploration of the thirteenth floor of Quratars Labyrinth. As one might expect, the monsters in here also seem to be a little bit stronger in comparison to the ones on the twelfth floor, but there is nothing that we can do about that.
Over the next few battles I tried fighting against the monsters with Durandal; and because of that I borrowed the Ring of Determination from Sherry in order to see how big of an effect it was going to have on my overall performance in battle. Regrettably, there seemed to be no effects at all or at the very least, no effects that were immediately apparent. Maybe its because Durandal already has its own damage increasing Skill, 5x Damage Increase; and that is what is actually interfering with the Skills from the Ring of Determination and preventing them from activating properly?
Next, I also made a number of Strengthening Pills from the Drop Items that were being left by all of the Fly Traps that we have encountered, and when they were finished, I passed some of them to Sherry.
We have already acquired Strengthening Pills, so should we go for Nourishing Pills next or not? I asked.
I dont think that getting more of either is going to be a bad decision in the slightest.said Roxanne.
Keeping some additional medicines and other types of medicaments to be used in the case of emergencies is the most rational thing to do.said Sherry as she and Roxanne gave me their approval in making additional preparations as well as their go-ahead to go and challenge the Floor Boss of the thirteenth floor.
Because I have been exploring for quite some time now, I believe that for someone who is an outsider in this world, Ive obtained a pretty good understanding of how things work here.
Just like it was with floors one to eleven, the types of monsters that are appearing between floors twelve and twenty-two are generally the same, but in different Labyrinths theyre going to be showing up in different orders. For example, the monster that appears on the twelfth floor of the Labyrinth of Quratar may appear on the twenty-second floor of the Labyrinth of Haruba or the sixteenth floor of the Labyrinth of Tare, and so forth.
Because of the Floor Boss being a variant of the floors main monster, the very same thing can naturally be said about the Floor Bosses for each floor. Thus, if we manage to defeat the Floor Boss of the twelfth or thirteenth floors here in Quratars Labyrinth, then we are going to have one less thing to worry about when exploring the other Labyrinth. Were already going to know how to fight that type of Floor Boss, meaning that theyll not take us by surprise when we go visit the other Labyrinths.
That being said, we cannot allow ourselves to grow complacent just because we know how to fight a Floor Boss and what its strengths and weaknesses are. Monsters and Floor Bosses are going to continue to grow stronger with each floor were going to advance to, and that remains an indisputable fact. Just look at a Green Caterpillar, for instance.