Chapter 57: CruisingDay 60
Quite a different sensation having Sherry at my side compared to Roxanne or even Alina. Fairness to them is variation for me. It’s funny that Sherry’s hair already seems to be getting longer. Maybe she had those huge tufts just because it’s too hard to keep up with. I ended up waking Sherry by pying with it.
Last night, Sherry grumbled a bit about being restricted to barely half a jug. Since each holds about two liters, it didn’t feel strict. Sherry was happier when I assured her that this wouldn’t have to be a rare thing. Was it really right for me to restrict her like this? Absolutely. We have a job to do and sobriety when fighting monsters is a must. It seems that the smell of alcohol kept Roxanne away. Even Alina looked at us skeptically when we came downstairs for breakfast.
“A broker told me that someone wants to buy the armor we got from that big guy, Sabo. Unless one of you really wants it, I’ll sell it during the lunch break.”
Nobody cared, so I continued.
“For the next several days, I pn for us to do one floor a day in Curatar’s Labyrinth. Of course, if we run into anything too tough, we’ll back off and reevaluate.”
Alina asked, “No more trips to Nordselm?”
“We’ll go there once a week to do a floor and visit Bernhard. If he reports seeing monsters in the area, we can go more often. Otherwise, I’d rather not risk running into those nobles before Rutina becomes the next count.”
Sherry told us that our next target is called a Scissors Lizard. It’s sensitive to earth magic and resists fire. That’s a bit unfortunate since the leftovers are sensitive to fire. At least they don’t resist earth.
I took us to Curatar’s 27th and we fought the lizards and friends. We got hit with some uncomfortable fire spells, but it wasn’t particurly dangerous. Sometimes, when I saw several preparing their spells against us, I’d open a warp right behind them so we could stun, petrify or interrupt them. It was a bit awkward but effective.
At lunch, I took us home and I picked up Sabo’s armor which I’d forgotten in the morning. Considering the logistics, I asked Theo to come with me because I didn’t want to open an Item Box at the guild or have to drag that crap through the building. I brought Sabo’s sword in case they wanted it too.
We were right on time so I announced my name to a clerk and we were shown to the room where Luke was talking to several people, all wolf-kin. I don’t know if it was the same family or a rival. As long as they were calm, I didn’t really care.
“Welcome, Sir, gd you could come.”
One of the wolf-kin was startled when he saw me so I guess he was probably at the duel, or he’s normally like that. I had Theo take out the armor and the potential buyers looked very pleased. I sure am gd Marcus cleaned it. They spoke amongst each other for a couple minutes in something other than Brahim. Then, an elderly woman, apparently the leader of their group, turned to me.
“Greetings, I am Ilona Baradám, the current head of the family. Might you be Lord Moreau?”
“Yes, Lady Ilona. I am the one who answered the challenges and fought the duels.”
“Please accept my humblest apologies for the actions of our hot-headed ?■■■■■■■■■?. [1] Her feud with ?Roxána? went completely out of control. I hope that the duel will be accepted as the end of that dispute.”
“Yes, Lady Ilona, let’s consider that point settled.”
“As for my dear, foolish ?Szabó?. The man could only speak with his sword so a duel the best possible end for him. That said, this armor is significant to our family so we would very much like to purchase it.”
“Perfectly reasonable. Luke, what would you suggest to be a fair price on the open market?”
“As a set, I would value this at 85,000 Nars. If one were to consider sentimental value…”
“No, that’s fine. Lady Ilona, is this price acceptable to you?”
“Yes, Lord Moreau, that is very gracious of you.”
“Good that we could do this peacefully.”
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I got my money, Luke would get his commission from them and no one asked about the sword. Maybe he’d just gotten it from one of his many duels. I’m gd they didn’t ask about the woman’s gear. There’s no chance I’d take that stuff away from Roxanne since it’s probably even more meaningful than Simon’s sword. Anyway, the entire process didn’t take long so we were home in time to catch the tail end of lunch.
We went back in to finish the floor with no special surprises.
After we got back home, the thought struck me that maybe I haven’t been giving the gals enough individual attention during the day. I could even go out somewhere with the guys but they really don’t seem interested. Now that we’d be just concentrating on one byrinth for a while, it could be good to establish a regur schedule for our off-time as well as byrinth time. I decided to introduce the pn at dinner.
“I’m very happy that we work together so well. But sometimes, there are things that are hard to talk about in a group. As party leader, I’ll make myself avaible for longer, individual discussions or just time to walk around together. I pn to do this every few days. Easiest would be over lunch but other times are possible.”
The idea was well received and Alina made up a schedule. As expected, the guys gracefully bowed out. We kept regur work and social routines over the next several days.
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Day 61
On the 28th floor, we fought Cyclops. I used wind magic, not that understood why a cyclops would care about wind. The best part is that it dropped copper ingots for Sherry’s crafting. The boss, Silver Cyclops, dropped authentic silver coins. I guess this is why I can store them in my Item Box. Maybe other monsters drop gold and ptinum coins. Does this imply that copper coins are minted normally?
Alina took the first lunch date. She immediately got into the theme of the event and held my arm tightly. We went to the capital and did some casual shopping, mainly of the window variety. We were careful not to discuss work and simply enjoyed each other’s company. It’s easy to see that Alina enjoys our time together. Harder for me to understand is how much she seems to enjoy when I spend time with the other girls too.
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Day 62
The 29th floor introduced Mono-Taurus, which looked like a bull version of a Mino. Actually, this monster looked like the mythological minotaur. Anyway, it was sensitive to water magic and resisted fire, just like the remaining Cyclops and Scissor Lizards. Sherry and Marcus ended up taking some damage from its strong rushing attacks, but Sherry’s shield in particur did a great job. Maybe we should use a Slime crystal on Marcus’ shield — I should stop being so cheap and just go ahead and get their stuff enchanted as needed. In truth, even the most expensive crystals are quite affordable and there’s no need to wait when I have the money now.
The boss of the 29th was just called Boss Taurus. Maybe it’s a temporary name that never got updated. At the very least, it’s understandable. It was nice to get some meat from these monsters.
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Day 63
On Curatar’s 30th, we encountered Half Herb. Um, OK, I spoke too soon about simple names. Is the other half ‘spice’? As the silly name suggests, it’s pnt-based. Unfortunately, its fire sensitivity doesn’t work well with the fire resistance of the other monsters here. The good news is that it dropped something called ephedra for a cure-all pill.
It seems that the dates may have been scheduled according to seniority since today’s lunch date was with Sherry. We walked around our vilge of Callum while we discussed topics that resembled science, at least in a primitive way. I mainly let her talk, but still didn’t pcate her when she argued that movement magic involves time as well. I didn’t quite convince her to accept timezones but there really wasn’t any reason to.
That night, I saw that I now had enough bonus points to shift away from my INT stat to open Herbalist as my fifth job. This high in the byrinth, it shouldn’t take more than a couple days to shoot right up. I’ll save these drops till I can make more or better pills. Sherry said that the boss, Heart Herb, sometimes drops mung bean, which can make some sort of really special pill. We didn’t get the drop so I couldn’t confirm it. This will be worth trying once I can bring Herbalist to a higher level.
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Day 64
The 31st floor introduced Non-REM Golems. I very nearly told Roxanne’s story of how she fought these as a child before she had a chance to tell us for the very first time. This manga knowledge is wonderful but it would be even better if I could switch it off sometimes. Anyway, the child version of the battle junkie we call Roxanne used to run around throwing poison darts at these things in the wild. That’s how she’ll qualify for her Assassin job, but she never gave the details in this universe.
Roxanne’s Warrior job has reached level 30 [2] so she’s been switched to Assassin. Roxanne seemed proud to become more useful to the party (or just me). Alina sounded proud to have somehow guided Roxanne to this accomplishment.
Now that I think about it, I should equip Assassin once I’ve fed Herbalist enough levels. In spite of our defenses gging behind in elemental resistance, we have taken little damage thanks to being able to inflict stun or petrification so often. With the exception of Theo’s sword only having Chant Interruption, all of our weapons have some sort of status effect attack. [3]
Roxanne warned us that punches from the golems are very dangerous — with no irony that she fought them as a child. They have no resistances, use earth magic and leave rocks. As far as I could tell, they’re simply ordinary rocks. Of course we collected a few, but ignored the rest. To make up for the obvious insult, the boss, REM Golem, dropped Damascus-steel. Now we’re talking! We definitely need to come back here for boss fights.
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Day 65
On the 32nd floor, we had the privilege of fighting groups of up to six monsters. This increased number featured the new monster Rock Birds. These things actually threw rocks at us along with their earth magic. With everyone except me having a shield, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Flying and having no elemental weaknesses, they weren’t exactly easy. Oddly, the Rock Birds dropped rather nice feathers. According to Sherry, these could be used to make quill pens or even a duvet if enough are gathered (and prepared). This drop isn’t particurly exciting but at least it looked nice. The boss, Firebird, dropped ostrich hide — possibly an attempt to make the feather seem normal in comparison. As expected by the name, the Firebird used fire magic instead of earth.
On Roxanne’s day, she asked to spar at home. It wasn’t really a good way to rest but it made her happy. Roxanne was obsessed with getting stronger. She seemed to feel bad for gging behind the rest of us. I fully expect her to reach Alina’s level of proficiency within a couple weeks and eventually even Theo’s. Roxanne was especially affectionate when we rinsed off before returning to the others.
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Day 66
We’ve now reached the 33rd floor. This is the final floor of the third tier and the home of the Drive Dragon, at least in Curatar’s Labyrinth. As experienced ‘dragon syers’ we already knew that they used all four elemental magics, had no weaknesses, and could fly, charge and bite. But, most importantly, their drops tasted good in a soup. After fighting other monsters with no weaknesses and ability to deal serious damage, Drive Dragons didn’t really feel all that scary. Still, I’m really gd we had a test run on a level 1 dragon because the name alone is a bit worrisome.
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Day 67
After all that bravado, we didn’t manage to complete the 33rd floor in one day. On the second day, I switched my luxury Herbalist job to Assassin in the hope of scoring status effects more frequently. My strategy of combining melee in between spells helped a bit in this environment of elemental resistance. The boss, Land Dragon, was the nd-based version of the floating dragon. There was nothing particurly interesting here except that its drop was actually dragon meat. Not sure I’d want to repeat this fight just for the food but it certainly was tasty.
I ended up having a ‘lunch date’ with the guys today. We talked about the possibility that they might work for me again if I settle down and become a noble. I think the main appeal would be to help take care of the children I’ll be expected to have.
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During these hectic days of the third tier, we kept up the individual lunch dates and along with eating breakfast and lunch together and bathing about every other day.
Sherry made two Cords of Substitution, enchanted Marcus’ shield with a Slime crystal for physical damage reduction (Sturdy) and Theo’s shield with a Shrub crystal for partial protection against stun (Daze). Roxanne’s shield was enchanted to provide high level protection against both fire and earth, granting it the cool bel of Meteor Proof.
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[1] In the LN, Roxanne’s rival is only identified as ‘The Baradam Woman’. Her name is spoken here in her native nguage. David couldn’t understand it and didn’t particurly care.[2] Roxanne’s progression through the Warrior job is even faster than Alina’s since they’re on higher floors now. Roxanne may have qualified earlier but David wasn’t paying attention.[3] Rant: Why was the LN’s MC too cheap to upgrade their weapons? Despite the constant fretting, they were dependent on Miria’s petrification skill even on the upper floors (v13 c5).
