Everyone Squirms
“Ellis, let"s go to the labyrinth!”
Claire was unusually excited.
“What"s wrong?”
At Ellis"s question, Claire held up the scroll from the other day and explained while chuckling to herself.
What was written in the scroll was apparently an ancient lost magic technique.
{Distraction Needle} – Invalidates the opponents magical resistance ability. Required MP: 7
The modest sounding effect confused the four girls, and they gave each other a strange look. Claire was the only one of them who was smiling.
“Oh, I get it!”
Then Ellis noticed what Claire meant.
“This will let magic affect even demon-based enemies with a high number of resistances!”
“That"s right Ellis. The combination of my {Distraction Needle} and your Silence will reign supreme!”
That"s right. If you were able to reliably silence an opponent"s magic one hundred percent of the time, then you could just leave it to the three muscle brains to finish up everything else afterwards.¹
“Do you mean we can afford to conquer the Demon Labyrinth with this?”
“We only ever received any real damage from that magic spell from the boss after all.”
“We beat it once, we can do it again nya.”
Ellis started to think.
Rather than erasing the Wight Labyrinth, it might be better to try and increase their strength in the Demon Labyrinth.
Besides, the stupid faces the Brave party would make if they erased the Wight Labyrinth themselves would probably be way more funny.
“Alright, let"s play in the Demon Labyrinth for awhile.”
Thus the five girls decided to kill some time in Warren"s highest ranking labyrinth.
Then the Brave party.
The party had returned to Wheat Grace in order to try and gather some information about the Demon Lord"s Mark, but so far the results have not been promising.
They had followed G.o.d"s revelation and cleared Warren"s Wight Labyrinth several times now, but they had still not yet found it.
They had returned to the city of Marsfield and went through several labyrinths there, but all they had gotten was another set of Resistance gauntlets and Resistance metal boots.
Therefore they decided to go around to other cities and explore their surrounding labyrinths.
There are no labyrinths around Wheat Grace though, so there is no Adventurer"s Guild. However, it is an agricultural city, and its food is quite tasty. Plus, due to visiting a number of cities and completing their labyrinths, the party"s equipment has improved, and their pockets have been lined.
“Gray, let"s spend some time here in this town.”
Dams put out this proposal, unwilling to move forward.
“Yeah, we are treated like heroes here.”
Peach chimed in and agreed.
“I have been working too hard recently.”
Cliff, who had done no work at all recently, followed behind them riding a horse.
There are no cities south of Wheat Grace. If they are traveling on foot, then their only option is to head east towards the autonomous city of Warren.
“We are heading east. We"ll perform an exploration and aim for the city of mages afterwards.”
Gray completely ignored what three of his party members wanted and told them what they would be doing. Gise silently nodded his approval.
“Are you serious?”
“Why are you pushing so hard?”
“This is rough on amateurs.”
These three people just end up following Gray and Gise inside labyrinths. It would be fine if the three of them just waited at an inn, but they are as stingy as they are lazy. They prefer to confirm the contents of treasure chests to make sure they aren"t being cheated and to take any magic items found that they could use.
“Leader, it"s me. Didn"t you hear what we said?”
“I heard what you said. We"re just not going to do it.”
Gray did not give in to Peach"s provocation.
*Fuun* He just laughed through his nose.
Peach was thinking that this att.i.tude was just a little bad luck for her.
“Everyone accidentally discharges every once in awhile, but you"re still my favorite Hero!”
Completely ignoring everything that Peach just said, Gray ventured further east.
Repeatedly searching Warren"s Wight labyrinth is indeed reasonable behavior for the Brave Party. But Gray wanted to avoid having his party stay in Warren as much as possible.
There was only one reason for this.
“After arriving at the city of mages, I"ll have to hurry and leap back to Warren to set up an appointment with Marilyn.”
Yes, if his party were to stay in Warren, it would be difficult for him to take a bath.
Peach has already completely fallen from the Hero"s sight.
The Brave Party continues to become stronger, but rather than for the sake of defeating the Demon Lord, it is more due to the Hero constantly dragging his party away from Warren so that he can see Marilyn.
Then here is the Demon Lord"s castle.
The Demon Lord"s imagination was joyfully filled with creative pin heels and horse riding whips.
“Margherita, would she become for my exclusive use?”
But then the Demon Lord thought about it.
“If I were to force her to submit, then it would be a dead fish all over again.”
Yes, it would be good to keep it as an occasional occurrence.
And so the Demon Lord began preparing to head out and make the next reservation.
“My Demon Lord.”
“What is it Berudeus?”
“Before you head out, I regret to inform you that one of the executive demons is currently taking some arbitrary actions.”
“What kind of actions?”
“He is currently collecting soldiers and planning on attacking one of the human cities.”
“Alright.”
“Is it really okay?”
“In short, their frustrations have built up, and they want to let loose. They"ve never seen the Hero, so they feel that victory will be easy. If they do attack, I"m sure the Hero will show up. We can use this opportunity to gauge the Hero"s strength, so no, there is no problem.”
“If so, should I supply them with some orders?”
“Leave it. If you say something they"ll say, ‘Please show us the overwhelming power of the Demon Lord," and I don"t want to move out until we find that last claw.”
“Sounds pretty irresponsible.”
“Isn"t that suitable for someone who will be leading the irresponsible ma.s.ses?”
“Certainly. I"ll leave them be.”
“If they fail, the punishment is execution.”
“Naturally.”
“By the way Berudeus, give me some money.”
“Again? Recently, our finances have been rough.”
“Don"t say such things to the Demon Lord. It"s not like I"m asking for 100 million ril or anything.”
“Well, okay. But by the way, if you keep going out like this, should I prepare a servant to regularly attend to you?”
“No, there"s fine. I mean, there"s fine.”²
“Is that so. I suppose if you ever need anything you can just buy it yourself. Yes, here is 1 million ril.”
“Thank you.”
And so the Demon Lord quickly changed into his farmer"s clothes and flew off to make an appointment at Warren.
And then we return once again to Warren.
The five girls in Ellis"s group are once again taking on the Demon labyrinth.
Unfortunately, this place still has many traps, and the difficulty and danger of them were really working on Ellis"s nerves.
“Hey, I wonder if it"s alright to make a mistake every once in awhile.”
“Please don"t say things like that.”
“I will make Ellis"s favorite risotto for dinner tonight, so please do your best.”
“Let"s move quickly and finish the last boss!”
“Nya.”
The battles have gone smoothly so far. The only thing that has been inside the treasure chests have been ril, but they did not mind that.
Against Zangel level normal demons, magic has already become unnecessary. Even if those demons do send out a spell, Ellis"s groups three advance guards are able to block up to 15 magic damage. As for physical damage, Frau can block 20 while Reeve and Katie both block 10. Of course, it"s not like Reeve and Katie ever get hit by a physical attack in the first place.
During the battle against the rotten giant, Claire tried out a combo of her {Distraction Needle} and Stupor. The end result was a paralyzed lump of meat that had to stand there and take Frau, Reeve, Katie, and Ellis"s beating. Too bad.
“For the Zabinas cla.s.s demons, how about Claire and I take them on together?”
Ellis made this suggestion after seeing how bored Claire was getting having nothing to do.
Once they arrived at a room containing those high cla.s.s demons, Claire started off with an {Explosion} right away. Afterwards, she used {Distraction Needle} to seal off their resistances.
Ellis immediately followed up with Silence to prevent the demons from countering with any spells.
Claire cast a second {Explosion} directly at the demon"s head. Like last time, the spell did not seem to do much damage, but the force of the explosion did stun it for a moment.
After that, Ellis shoved her Mad G.o.d estoc right up its crotch.
The end.
“It really is amazing.”
“As long as she can get in close, Ellis"s blade really is the strongest.”
“That last one looked fun nya.”
Now only the last boss was left. A demon executive grade great demon.
“How is the bondage effect?”
Claire thought for a moment before shaking her head.
“It"s effective, but the effect disappears quickly.”
This was the result Claire came up with after a.n.a.lyzing her {Explosion}.
{Distraction Needle} only affected the results of a magic spell such as status ailments. It was unable to eliminate the target"s damage resistance or extend the duration of those effects.
“That being the case, it is probably better for the two of us to remain in the back.”
“Yes, the moment either of you make contact with the enemy"s claws, your sacrificial dolls would surely shatter.”
“Leave the front to us.”
“Please don"t let it hit me.”
“I"ll scratch him with my claws nya.”
Ellis slowly released the trap on the final door while Claire loaded a {Distraction Needle} into her dress.
Reeve put her hand on the doork.n.o.b, and after sharing a look with everyone else, threw open the door!
Ellis was the first one to rush in. After confirming the position of the great demon, Claire released her spell with Ellis immediately using Silence while blending into the shadows.
And then the three vanguards rushed in with Frau taking up point.
Claire cast a follow-up {Bind} spell. The demon was able to shatter the spell through brute strength almost immediately, but it bought enough time for the three advance guards to get in close.
The demon swung down its claws on Frau, but she did not fall. On the contrary, she was able to repel its blow away.
A surprised expression spread across the demon"s face followed by a one of pain as a maul made direct contact with its knee.
The Brave Ripper sunk into the demon"s neck that had just lost its balance.
It tried swinging its arms around wildly to give it some room, but Reeve and Katie were both able to avoid being hit.
And then Frau slammed her maul into its head, dealing 6 times the normal amount of damage due to the effects of Flying Phoenix and Exorcism.
The demon collapsed and fell forward. Just in case, Ellis jumped on its back and stabbed her estoc directly into the demon"s heart.
The second fight with the demon executive cla.s.s boss ended without incident.
And so they moved on to the treasure chest.
Inside was a lightly shining golden stiletto.³
The stiletto had no mark on it, but its shine was the same as the Brave Ripper.
“Maybe, maybe it"s the same.”
Ellis hesitated to call it Dark Mithril.
But Claire was thinking the same thing.
“This might be Dark Mithril.”
The five girls all shared a look with each other.
And then a shared smile spread across their faces.
“Let"s keep this a secret from the guild.”
For this second time, the boss never resurrected, nor did he say anything.
They did not know the reason for this, but they a.s.sumed that he wouldn"t resurrect after being beaten anymore.
Today"s total earnings were 2 million ril, 400 thousand ril per person. Because there were no magic tools, at least none sold to the guild, there was nothing for Katie to declare and pay to the Thieve"s Guild.
Thank you for your hard work.
1. They do explain this later, but this means that the opponent can no longer resist status effects. It does not mean that their magic defense decreases at all.
2. So the word ‘あれ" spelled ‘are" in romaji usually just means the word ‘that" in English, but it can also mean ‘down there" as in someone"s genitals. So the first time he says “there"s fine” he misspoke and says that ‘down there" is fine, so he doesn"t need a servant to service him s.e.xually. The second time he corrects himself in saying that the place he is going to is fine, so he doesn"t need someone to accompany and just serve him.
3. A stiletto knife.