Novel Full 018 – Boss
Boss
It’s still pitch dark when I wake up.
I went to sleep quite early last night.
It was probably around 7:00pm when I went to sleep.
Yesterday I woke up extremely early at the chiefs house so I could travel to Vale, and I was busy all day so I became very tired.
When it gets dark there is nothing to do in this world.
There’s no consoles, no TVs, no PCs, no internet, no anime, there isn’t even any books.
Thinking about it, I could probably go to a bar for information gathering.
But that might be troublesome.
To begin with, I was a bullied child.
If I was good at speaking to other people I probably wouldn’t have been bullied.
Secondly, I should not be wandering around strange places with 33 gold coins.
With 500 gold coins one could live their whole life in this inn.
If I estimate the value of 500 gold coins is equivalent to 100 million yen then 33 gold coins in 6.6 million yen.
Even in Japan there would be few people drinking with that much cash on them.
Third, I’m not sure how much alcohol I can drink.
If I want to collect information in a bar, I need to drink.
It wouldn’t be information gathering if I was the one who got drunk first.
Getting drunk and talking about earth may cause some unwanted attention too.
How much alcohol can I drink?
Alcohol might not be the same as it was on earth, and my constitution may have changed after coming to this world as well. The intelligence card comes out of my hand now too.
Fourth, information on money-making is what I need at the moment.
Other information like what is common sense here I can just ask Roxanne about after I buy her.
Are there really money-making ideas in a bar?
More likely there would be honey traps and people trying to swindle me.
Someone like me who doesn’t know the common sense of this world would be an easy target, especially since I’m carrying 33 gold coins.
Gathering information might be too dangerous.
Maybe having an early night is much better.
I held the scimitar like a hug pillow as I slept.
There are stories in Japan of master swordsman who sleep holding their swords.
I don’t know if it’s safe though.
I feel quite refreshed.
But outside if it still dark.
If I slept for eight hours it is probably 3:00am now.
My room does not have a toilet, so I have to go down through the lobby to get to the toilet.
There is a lantern hanging on the stairs, but it’s light is very dim and it doesn’t light up much.
“Are you going to the Labyrinth?”
When I get to the lobby I hear a voice behind me.
“oh….er.”
I was startled, it felt like my heart nearly stopped.
When I turn around, the Lv28 Hotel man is standing at the front desk.
“Be careful.”
“Can I go out during the night?”
“Yes, there are plenty of guys who go to Labyrinths in the middle of the night. Maybe not in our Labyrinth though because it isn’t very crowded.”
I see.
There isn’t any difference between day & night in the Labyrinth.
Plenty of people would enter during the night, and an inn which caters towards people entering the Labyrinth would need to accommodate to that.
“You must be busy until midnight.”
“We are part of the Emaro tribe. The Emaro tribe is special. We don’t need much sleep, It’s always difficult to explain to people from other races but it’s possible for us to sleep in halves.”
“Half, like right and left side?”
I learnt about a different species.
I remember a type of dolphin has it’s right brain and left brain take turns sleeping. If both slept at the same time it would drown.
“Do you understand?”
“I have a bit of an idea.”
“Wow, that’s the first time someone’s understood.”
He is pleased.
The people who know there is a right and left side to the brain in this world are probably quite few.
Possibly the Emaro tribe evolved in the sea.
Maybe mermaids?
He has two legs though.
“Really?”
“People from the Emaro tribe dislike settling down. Most will take up strange jobs like working with hotels that the guild manages. The work suits us because it allows us to transfer all over the place.”
“I see.”
If they evolved in the sea, the custom of settling down would be quite strange to them.
I hand him the hotel key.
I go to the restroom with my rucksack over my shoulder.
There is nothing to do, so heading out to the Labyrinth now might be a good idea.
“Don’t you need a lantern?”
“I’ll be fine.”
I tried to look cool, and then went outside.
…
Damn.
It’s pitch-dark.
I can’t see even a meter in front of me.
It’s completely dark.
Isn’t there a moon in this world?
The whole sky is lit up with stars.
The light from the stars is too weak to light up where I’m walking.
Being from Tokyo, I find this darkness to be quite a shock.
Should I borrow the lantern now?
Because of the darkness it might be scary to head to the Labyrinth even with a lantern.
A ghost might blow it out.
I don’t really believe in ghosts, but I don’t yet know what mysteries there are in this world.
What should I do?
I don’t have the job of adventurer, so I can’t use field walk.
Oh, there was a warp incantation in the bonus skills.
Guessing from the name, it might be some kind of movement magic.
Meteor crash was beyond my abilities because I don’t have enough MP, but what about warp?
The amount of MP used for movement magic might be less than attack magic. Also, I’ve leveled up to Hero Lv3 now, and my MP is probably full because I had a good sleep.
I open the character settings and move the points from my bonus job skill and discount over to durandal and the warp incantation.
I face a wall of the Vale Pavilion, and think about warping. I imagine the small room with the doorway in the Labyrinth.
There should have been a wall in front of me, but when I reached out with my hand I didn’t hit it.
It’s a success.
Even though it’s a success, I start feeling depressed.
Instead of the joy of success I get the sorrow of success.
Thoughts of “why did I bother coming here?” enter my head when I walk into the small room.
It’s the small room with the doorway exiting the Labyrinth and the paths leading in three directions.
The small room was lit up, even though it’s night.
Here is fine, despite the pitch darkness outside.
I don’t want to use the warp ever again.
The MP it uses is probably even higher than Overwhelming.
Well, I should have expected this from a bonus incantation.
My mood feels like hell.
The only way I can get out of this depression is if I use the MP absorption from Durandal.
Suppressing feeling of not wanting to fight, I start heading down a path.
If I go right I can probably get to the second floor, but I head straight.
I don’t want to go to the second floor. I don’t really want to do anything.
Finally I see a Needle Wood.
I want to run away, but I hold back that desire and swing the Durandal.
A thought entered my head that I could never win, but of course I defeated it in a single blow.
When the smoke disappears a branch is left behind.
“Ah… that’s it.”
Feelings of relief go through my mind.
I let out a relieved sigh.
That was quite hard.
Using MP in large quantities is quite difficult.
I’d like to try to avoid it.
Kaga Michio. 17 year old male. Explorer Lv4, Hero Lv3, Soldier Lv1
Equipment: Durandal, Leather armor, Sandals.
After hunting another one, I checked my stats.
The jobs I had set are still shown even though I removed my bonus job skill.
The reason for having the third job as Soldier is because I might be able to get the Bounty Hunter job if I level it.
Also, after hunting two more demons I try the Soldiers skill Rush.
I’m not entirely sure what it did, but it felt like Durandal cut deeper.
It must be an attack skill.
It’s hard to know how useful it is since I defeat demons in one swing with Durandal.
Sometimes it feels like ten minutes before I find another demon.
Are all the Labyrinths in this world like this? Or is this just a characteristic of the first floor?
This is faster than hunting Slow Rabbit’s in the forest near the village though.
It’s fast, but it doesn’t feel like demons are appearing one after the other.
I probably came to the Labyrinth around 3:00am, so is sunrise in three hours?
Assuming I meet a demon once every ten minutes, I can hunt 18 of them in 180 minutes. I’m probably hunting more than that though.
Considering that, I decided to leave the Labyrinth after I found two leaves.
I didn’t want to use the warp skill, so I used dungeon walk and then went home on foot.
The sun had just come up, so the timing was perfect.
I returned to the inn and had breakfast, then went to my room.
I use the crude drug creation on the two remaining leaves from yesterday, and the two from today, then I climb into bed for a quick nap.
The sale price in the adventurers guild is 1,878 nars.
Sale price for the antidote is 25 nars, I leave some in the item box instead of selling them all off.
So the guilds purchase price is a quarter of the sale price?
After nearly buying antidotes yesterday, and then selling them today, I wonder what the sales woman must be thinking.
Even if she thought it was strange, she didn’t show it on her face.
She probably doesn’t specifically remember what each person buys.
After that, I go to the Labyrinth again during the morning, and again during the afternoon.
The amount of money I made in the morning is 487 nars. I didn’t sell any antidotes because I didn’t return to my room, so that’s just from selling branches.
I hunted until I got three leaves, and I had 25 branches to sell. It’s better than the early morning because that was just two leaves and 23 branches.
25 branches is 15 nars each, plus 30% sale bonus end up at 487 nars.
The calc skill is not wrong.
In the morning, and the afternoon, I start searching the right side of the Labyrinth.
The dungeon walk seems to not only go to the room with the doorway, but to similar rooms as well.
I was able to go to the room that had the knight party in it yesterday.
The small room that had the large number of demons looked similar, but I’m unable to dungeon walk to there.
I’m not sure what the difference is.
There is a small room that I discovered along the right hand path that I can dungeon walk too, so I use that in the afternoon to search deeper from there.
I continue on while defeating Needle Woods.
I got lost a bit, and then found the small room that the two leaves appeared in.
A wall slides down with a nice sound, and another small room appears.
There were two parties waiting inside.
It looks like they are waiting in line.
I sit down at the end of the line.
I’m not sure why they are lined up, or if it is actually a line.
After a while, another party comes in behind me.
Six people with explorers and soldiers of reasonably low level.
“Line up.”
The six people tried to pass and are shouted at by a man in the front.
It is.
I was right when I saw the arrangement.
It’s that kind of mood.
I’m glad I understood.
I wasn’t sure if I’d be fine reading the mood as a Japanese person in this world, but looks like I’m alright.
A door in the front opens up, and the party at the front head in.
Is this what you were waiting for?
“Is this your first time in the Labyrinth?”
“Yes.”
The female explorer sitting in front of me starts to speak.
“There’s a room ahead the leads to the second floor. There’s a boss there. If you defeat the boss you can get to the second floor.”
“Ah, Thank you.”
So that’s why we are lined up?
I listened well to what the kind woman was saying.
I will call her Nee-san. [TN: Older sister, I try to avoid these things where possible since they don’t translate well to English.]
“When the previous party is defeated, the equipment they had is left behind. That’s fate.”
Nee-san looked at me and grinned.
I take back my previous thought.
The kindness was a lie.
When I die in there, my equipment, Durandal, will go to the party behind me.
Oh, if Nee-san’s party is defeated, their gear will become mine.
“I see.”
“The bosses are a lot stronger than the Needle Woods. If your not confident then you should go back.”
“No, it’s fine.”
She’s an explorer Lv5, and she seems quite confident.
Despite being Lv5.
Before long the previous door opens, and Nee-san’s party enters.
The level of Nee-san’s party is higher than the party behind me, so I don’t think they’ll be annihilated.
Will I be alright?
Well, there’s Rush, and Overwhelming, as well as Durandal.
On the first floor I probably can’t earn one gold piece a day, so I need to make this decision.
I have to go down.
Did Nee-san win? The door opens again.
I hold Durandal and enter.
After I enter, the door closes.
It’s a normal square room of about 4-5 meters.
Nee-san, didn’t lose.
She seems to have passed by safely.
Smoke gathers in the back of the room, and a demon appears.
Udo Wood Lv1
It’s a demon that looks like a larger version of the Needle Wood.
It’s taller than me, it’s got a green trunk, and has long branches sticking out instead of hands and feet.
While observing the Udo Wood, a blue light appears near it’s feet.
A magic formation.
まずい。
That’s bad.
Seeing the blue shine, it looks like it will be effective.
It’s the first time I’ve seen it so I don’t know what it does, but it definitely seems dangerous.
Is it a magic attack?
There’s also the possibility of support magic or defense magic, though it’s better if they don’t use it.
There’s no time to watch it.
I raise Durandal as it charges in.
I drive the sword into it’s shoulder using Rush. Durandal stops several millimeters into it’s shoulder. Even if I use Rush it seems I can’t win in one blow.
However, the magic formation disappears.
Is this the incantation interruption skill that Durandal has?
The demon can’t speak, it can’t use incantations and has to instead use magic formations. The magic formation is taking the place of the incantation, so the interruption spell works on it?
The Udo Wood swings the branch that was on the magic formation.
Durandal is still stuck in the demons shoulder so I can’t block.
I manage to pull Durandal from his shoulder as he swings, but I’m struck by the attack.
The blow hits me, and causes some shock.
Udo Wood’s attack power seems to be higher than the Needle Wood and Slow Rabbit.
The Needle Wood’s attacks were already quite heavy.
He swings the branch again, and I hear the sound of it cutting through the air.
I blocked it with Durandal.
He continuously attacks with the right branch, and I avoid it by moving my body.
After the exchange I saw an opening and drove Durandal into it.
A return comes from the left, but I avoid it.
If I can clearly see his movement then it’s not an enemy I can’t fight.
Udo Wood cuts the distance between us.
I blocked a branch from the right with the sword.
A branch is swung from the left as well.
Crap.
Was the branch from the right a feint?
I can’t avoid it this time.
I use Overwhelming and charge into motion with Durandal.
The demons branches move slowly, there is little room for me to escape and I swing with Durandal as I dodge.
The branch whistles past a millimeter from me.
Udo Wood collapses to the ground.
Somehow I’ve managed to defeat it.
The body shakes wildly, becomes smoke, and disappears.
Wand Cane. [TN: Wand was in english, maybe I should have used Magic Cane to sound better.]
There is a branch remaining.
Should I call this a stick? It’s bigger than a branch.
It seems to be a cane, so it’s some kind of weapon.
There is nothing else.
Even though it’s a boss room there is no treasure chest.
So the only things left behind would be from the previous party?
A door on the far side opens up because the boss has been defeated.
I put the cane in the item box.
I double check the area for items, and then look for the way to the next floor.
TN: The author is alternating between calling it a wand and a cane.