Chapter 55: Too MuchDay 57

  I awaken to Roxanne’s smiling face.

  “Thank you so much, Sir, for accepting and protecting me. I long for the day I could be entrusted with protecting you.”

  “I understand, let’s depend on each other. We’ll both be stronger that way.”

  “Um, Sir, may I ask why we would be released if the worst happened to you?”

  “If I am killed, your mission, should you choose to accept it, [1] will be to avenge me. Anyone who wishes to harm me should know that they are unlikely to survive for long. That extra doubt might just serve to protect me.”

  “Oh, Sir, that is a wonderful strategy.”

  Roxanne is pcated and I feel better about not dragging everyone to the grave with me. If Roxanne becomes as fanatically loyal as I anticipate, potential enemies really should hesitate.

  “Good morning everybody. Nice to see you all awake and cheerful.”

  After breakfast, Marcus and Roxanne showed off the newly acquired equipment. First was the dragon-leather gear. The jacket and gloves don’t have enchantments or empty slots, but are better than Roxanne’s pin leather. Luckily, the boots do have an empty slot so those will be useful. It all goes to Roxanne since I sort of promised her that woman’s gear anyway.

  The old guy actually had Damascus-steel pte armor. Only his boots and gloves were normal steel. No enchantments or open slots on any of it. Pte is too heavy for Marcus and Sherry’s chainmail has an empty slot. Both of them have the fancy steel, not that iron crap, so the difference in material isn’t dramatic. We’ll probably sell all of Sabo’s armor. His two-handed sword is enchanted with Daze, the lighter version of Stun. I’ll keep it in storage for now.

  Lastly, the money. The recovered coins amounted to a whopping 345k — the people that hated Roxanne effectively paid for her. They both had green crystals. I pushed my blue into one and it turned yellow. I’ll sell the new yellow and keep the other green for regur use.

  With this donation, I have nearly 2 million Nars in cash. [2] Fortunately, I don’t have to carry this immense wealth in a cloth sack since the silver and gold coins easily fit into my Item Box with plenty of space to spare. For convenience, Sherry and Theo are holding around 20k each for emergencies while everyone else has around 2k for common expenses.

  Besides all this money, I have a full party and a rge house with a small annual rent. I’ll end up spending some of this on fancy gear and crystals for enchantments. But, after our gear is up to a certain standard, selling the old stuff will net a very good profit considering that all enchants are likely to succeed. Any other expenses are minimal except for taxes and I have that covered many times over.

  Coming down from my miserly state, I try to get my focus back on work.

  “Now that Roxanne has a good weapon and armor — curtesy of her former enemies — it’s time to move to the next floor of Curatar’s Labyrinth. Sherry, what will we face on the 24th floor?”

  “The new monster is the Tarturtle, which can use all types of magic, but favors water. It resists water magic and is sensitive to earth.”

  “As a reminder, and news to Roxanne, we’ll also face slimes and cms from the previous floors. Cms are fine, but stay away from slimes since they’ll try to capture you. Also, the monsters on these floors use multi-target magic, though it’s not all that strong. I’ll switch my heal from single back to party mode. I’ll use it periodically so you probably won’t even notice.”

  I got some odd looks at that st part — meh, they’ll figure it out.

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  We got dressed and warped directly to the 24th. Fortunately, this floor wasn’t crowded even early in the morning. I mainly used earth magic here and occasionally switched to wind to attack slimes. Cms resist fire and water, so wind was the best compromise. Of course, I checked my trusty wax pads to keep all this straight and also navigated with the maps I bought when we first came to this city.

  With my improved MP Recovery, it was a bit easier to spam storm spells. My bonuses were high enough to generally wipe out the monsters before I ran too low. As long as we moved at a moderate pace, I could recover some of it on the way to the next set. This way, only a few breaks were necessary and we usually stopped to drink water or whatever anyway.

  Around halfway through, I took us out for meat-skewers. Street food seemed to be unusual for Roxanne and Sherry. Maybe I was the one to introduce it to the others as well, not that it really matters.

  “So, does this pace feel alright? Yes, I know that sounds like a weird question, but I’m responsible for safety.”

  Alina responded, “I don’t like getting hit by magic, but getting healed right away sure does help.”

  Roxanne added. “I’ve never fought at this level before. I can’t wait to see what’s next!”

  Unlikely that anyone would compin after hearing from that battle-junkie so we return to the byrinth.

  We continued at a steady pace and only saw a couple parties along the way. Eventually, we reached the waiting room behind one party of six with a configuration simir to ours. One guy subtly gnced our way but was sharply reprimanded by one of the women. Gravity draws you in till another force is applied.

  Our turn came. Alina did her quick scan for free loot but was disappointed. The boss and two cms materialized so I bsted them with a sandstorm before running up for melee. As soon as the storm expired, I cast another and continued to pummel the boss. All three were destroyed or stoned within a few minutes. I finished off the petrified cm with a few sand balls, fetched the drop and we left the floor.

  Honestly, I wasn’t all that tired and could manage a bit more.

  “I’m thinking of starting the next floor. Any objections?”

  They all looked fine so we started the 25th. Sherry said it’ll be frogs, which will be simir to the turtles but sensitive to fire. That wasn’t great news, but at least the frogs won’t resist earth magic.

  With fewer slimes on this floor, we fought in a more traditional manner with the vanguard further forward. Roxanne moved up to an intermediate position next to Alina to leave me alone in the rear. I asked them to let monsters slip through occasionally to help feed my MP absorption needs — couldn’t just rely on my cheat skills. Theo spotted a treasure chest and we got a steel two-handed sword with an open skill slot — that’s certainly worth keeping.

  To avoid too much of a good thing, I took us home after an hour. That brilliant pn of an extra shift after dinner didn’t feel so practical anymore. A longer lunch and ter dinner would be more practical. OK, I really wanted to have nicer evenings with the gals. I never really tried to pal around with the guys so evenings with them weren’t very interesting. It always felt like they’d rather be alone, which was perfectly understandable.

  Dinnertime. Not sure who made what, but it was certainly good. I haven’t cooked for a while. Whenever I mentioned this, they assured me that it’s their responsibility — in other words, they hated my cooking. Nah, even if they did, I’d let it slide as long as their’s stayed this good. I asked them to favor good quality, simple ingredients, so that’s certainly a factor.

  Theo showed me the test drops that I might find interesting. We got some sort of shell from the turtle boss, which I changed into anti-petrification medicine. We already have some, but always good to have more. I bet the product would be valuable considering the source. I’ve barely touched my Herbalist job so am just at level 2. Would quality or quantity be improved at higher levels? On these floors, low-level jobs would rise quickly.

  Sherry confirmed that she didn’t want the pte armor so I asked her to enchant her own chainmail. Using a Lizard and a Kobold crystal, she now had a Fire Proof Steel Hauberk. Sherry wanted more elemental protection and has the clout to get it if a bit inefficient. My sacred Robe afforded me some magic protection so what would I know anyway.

  A moment ter, Alina walked in and nodded to Sherry. Without a word, Sherry got up and left the room. In the manga, I assumed that Roxanne’s strict enforcement of rank was just a personality quirk. Alina seems to do it too, but her rule is more subtle and thankfully doesn’t extend to table etiquette. Either way, it feels like mini-feudalism and just may be part of common sense. I hate to admit that it is quite practical.

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  Day 58

  Alina is here as expected and it looks like Roxanne snuck in te at night. I wouldn’t have minded for her or Sherry to have come here earlier. I’ll talk to Alina about making my social calendar a bit more flexible. I understand that we can’t just spoil Roxanne. Actually, why not? Well, she just barely got here so let’s just take it easy for now. I promised not to sell anyone when I got married, but I can’t really say that a wife wouldn’t have strong opinions regarding sleeping arrangements. I’ll try to be fair to everyone, especially myself.

  Alina wakes up and frowns at Roxanne’s sleeping form.

  “Alina, I want it to be permissible for others to sneak in after I fall asleep. Joining earlier is also fine as long as the girls agree. I’m happy if you just keep things reasonably fair. No need to be too strict.”

  “Do you have a preference?”

  “Yes, it’s harmony. Thanks for doing such a good job.”

  Down at breakfast, I announce that we’ll continue with Curatar’s Labyrinth today. We got dressed and warped to the spot we left off, surprising a nearby party. They were cool about it and we continued ahead at a quick pace to leave a little extra space. As long as Roxanne didn’t detect any slime, I could move forward to recover MP as needed.

  We hit the boss room without waiting and popped out for an early lunch once we finished. A little out of breath from the pace we rested comfortably while the guys were kind enough to fetch the meat skewers. This really is a nice, active occupation we have here. Great pay, great fun and quite a variety of monsters to sy.

  Once we recovered, Sherry briefed us on the next floor. We’ll fight carp on the 26th and they’re very simir to the frogs. Without slimes, we’ll face three water-based monsters. Sherry sure was happy about her water-resistant mittens and it made me feel a bit silly that I’d basically ignored the resistances for the others. Well, I still have Priest equipped so it’s not so bad.

  Diving back in, this floor was notably easier and faster. I had plenty of monsters to bash for recovery and only had to deal with physical fatigue. With a nice break around the middle, we managed to clear the floor before evening.

  Back home, we all just sat and rested. This pace was clearly a bit too much to do every day. While the others fixed dinner and chores, I filled the baths with water. As an experiment, I did the first with my current stats and the second after dropping my INT bonus. If anything, the second should have been a bit harder, regardless of stats, but it felt about the same. Maybe these few points just get lost in all the bonuses I get from my weapon, armor and jobs. Well, I still should have tried this earlier and then it might have made a notable difference.

  Dinner ingredients came mainly from Theo’s Item Box since we haven’t done a lot of normal shopping tely. Of course, it was great, as usual. Less great were today’s drops. Theo showed me what the HUD reported as Parasitic Worms. No problem with worms, but ‘parasitic’ didn’t quite sit right. Was this supposed to be a reward? Roxanne excitedly expined that these are used for farming.

  That was weird, and then it got weirder. The boss drop was liver, which seemed fine until Sherry expined that it transforms monsters into dragons. So, about as rewarding as a mimic treasure chest. Did I miss that part in the manga or have I slipped into an alternate universe of this alternate universe? Further expnation described it as a retively small (in dragon terms) floating monster at the end of this tier of Curatar’s Labyrinth. Maybe I should been reading ahead.

  With my MP already pretty much recovered and wanting to escape the madness, I went to heat up the baths by throwing fireballs into the water I had produced there. It felt nice to return to doing something ‘normal’. The three gals and I all managed to fit into the two-person tub since it was designed for two people around my size. Our new tub should arrive tomorrow.

  Sherry added Chant Interrupt to Alina’s sword. She’s still crafting with wood and estimates she might be able to progress to metal in a couple of weeks. We have plenty of iron, but no copper. Evidently, iron and copper are around the same difficulty anyway. Besides, a monster rumored to drop copper is coming up soon. She didn’t know which one dropped steel. One of the ter bosses was said to drop Damascus-steel. Maybe the corresponding normal monster will drop normal steel.

  That night, all three gals joined me so I elected to equip the unmentionable job to keep up. Yep, perfectly normal.

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  [1] Sometimes, he just can’t help using references that no one else understands. It helps to break the tension, or make him look unstable.[2] 1.97 million Nars, according to my spreadsheet. This includes what others are carrying and the current value of the charging crystals.