2-10. Labyrinth of Demon (3)
Satou's here. The weak person who yearn for the sun so much, Satou.
Although dungeon is fine if it's in a game.
Fighting insect, insect, frog, insect, snake in a wet, damp basement is getting tiring.
◇
We've passed 6 rooms since then, but we didn't encounter any more living human. We came across several corpses though...
"Master, the magic core recovery is complete."
"Alright, let's take a break."
Liza and the other are passing the water bottle around after drinking for a mouthful.
Before I knew it, they way they call me have changed from [Danna-sama (Mister)] to [Goshujin-sama (Master)]. Since it seems easier for them to use that, I leave it alone.
Liza drops the water bottle.
Water is spilling from the fallen bottle...
"I, I'm very sorry! Master!!!"
Liza desperately picks up the water bottle. Her hands seems to be unsteady.
Come to think of it, Pochi's and Tama's throwing accuracies were bad on the battle earlier too...
"Are you tired?"
"I'm very sorry! I wasted the important water. Please punish me in any way."
...You're exaggerating. No, Liza seems to seriously think that.
"Liza, we can just obtain more water. Rather than that, is your body okay?"
"I'm sorry... I feel heavy since earlier, I've tried to move my limbs, but they won't budge."
Pochi and Tama drink the water while lying on the ground looking lifeless.
Confirming their status, there doesn't seem to be any abnormality. They're probably tired.
"The break is canceled, let's take a full rest instead."
I lift Pochi and Tama in my arm and drink them the water.
I distribute sweet potato fries to the three. The three look very sleepy, but maybe because they're hungry, they have some vigor left to keep eating.
"After you finish your meal, sleep for 3 hours."
Pochi and Tama sleep with my legs as pillows. Liza shyly curled up into a ball a bit away.
When the three fast asleep, I observe their status.
The attribute values are increasing by 1 every 10 minutes, getting back to its original values. 2 hours after the rest, the grayed out skills turn white.
Speaking of skills, if the three leveled up then their skills would increase right?
They don't get skill just by doing something?
Apparently the improvement from level up is applied after you sleep.
...this is totally like like the masterpiece from the labyrinth's classic. It's scary to age if you're not on the stable.
◇
We broke through more rooms after that. The limit before we need to rest was about 3 level up based on earlier, we should rest after breaking through two more rooms...
"Stop!"
It's rare to see Tama warns without being sluggish.
But there's no enemy on the front?
"What's wrong?"
"The ground is~ strange?"
She answers with a question. There's something wrong on it, but she doesn't know what kind, is it? I watch the ground carefully, the ground texture do looks different. Although the color doesn't differ...
Before I can understand what's the discrepancy is, an AR display with [Trap: Life Drain] written, pops up.
That's right, this is a labyrinth, there should be traps.
Since there wasn't any until now, I forgot about it.
"Well done, Tama. There's a trap there."
"Ay!"
I stroke Tama's head and cat ears.
I let the three withdraw and try throwing stone at the trap, but it doesn't active. From the name of the trap, it probably only reacts to living things.
Since I don't know the range of the trap, I can't be sure if we can safely walk through the edge of the passage either. I won't even consider making the beastkin girls step through it.
There are rat monsters on the room after this, maybe I'll try to lure them here with stones.
I throw 3 stones in a row.
"Rats are coming."
In response to Pochi's report, I make the three fall back. The rats here are only level 10 and weak, but they act in group. Since I can't be sure if they can break through trap or not, let's take some distance.
The rats are caught in black spark far from the trap's location. In the end, the 3 rats are all caught up in separate location. It seems that traps are scattered around in this passage.
>[Trap Release Skill Acquired]
>[Trap Usage Skill Acquired]
>[Trap Discovery Skill Acquired]
Since the trap might be the type that can reactivate, we leave the magic cores behind.
I immediately allocate skill point to just Trap Discovery skill and activate it.
◇
Liza stab at the giant frog's mout with all her might. Pochi and Tama then jump from each opposite side to deliver the finishing strike to the frog's head with their daggers.
"Alright! You did well!"
"Yes!"
"Ay!"
"Nano desu!"
I praise them for the first monster kill they did by themselves. Since the opponent was only a simple level 10 with just tongue restrain as a special skill, I tried to let them to do it, and do it well they did. The fighting power of beastkin is higher than human of the same level after all.
This room is 3 times wider than any other room before. There are possibilities of more enemies with this much space, but I can't sense any sign of them.
There's a house on the edge of the room. The roof is cleanly cut in two. It was probably swallowed up with the creation of the labyrinth. Unfortunately, there are no human signs on the radar...
Liza is dismantling the frog, Pochi and Tama are keeping guard of the entrances. This time, it's Liza's turn to dismantle huh. Since there's that skill things, I've assigned a rotation for the duty.
"Pochi, Tama, let's check out that house. Follow me."
I go toward the house with the two.
There aren't any corpse from casualties in the house but various things instead. Apparently it was the house of a wealthy person.
Two ornamental short swords surprisingly have decent attack power when I checked it with appraisal skill. In a stereotypical fashion, there's a hidden safe behind a wall painting. I blow the lock with magic gun and check the inside. In addition with a bag of golds and jewels, there's also a magic material called Dragon Powder in a small vial. Was the owner an alchemist?
We collect the small amount of jewelries, but leave the big things, like statues or other work or arts, behind.
Among the work of arts, there are a couple of stuffed animals on pedestals. Though I don't really care, I wonder if they were in the process of being repaired? I sort of want to see the stuffing process of fantasy animals.
>[Excavation Skill Acquired]
>[Treasure Discovery Skill Acquired]
>[Treasure Chest Unlock Skill Acquired]
There's an ignition magic tool (Tinder Rod) in the kitchen. That's the only magic tool here, but we put a frying pan, a pot, and tablewares for 4 people in the bag.
Since I can get water anytime from the water jug, and there are a lot of small water bottles there, so I put oils inside them to make improvised molotov bombs and put them inside the Storage.
"Here, cheeses and dried meats! Nano desu~♪"
On a collapsed furniture there are big breads, 3 lump of cheeses and some smoked meats inside. After confirming that they're not rotten with the AR, I slice some pieces for Pochi and Tama.
"Let's eat the remainder together with Liza."
"Ay!"
"Yes! Delicious no desu~."
I give the bag with the food to Tama, and bag with accessories and weapons to Pochi, while I'm holding the water jug and tub, we get out.
When we get out, the recovery of magic core is complete.
"Master, I have a request... Is it alright for me to light fire?"
"Fire in underground? What is your reason?"
Liza falters for a bit,
"U, um well, I want to eat the frog's meat... I'm sorry."
"You don't need to apologize, but is that safe to eat?"
"Yes, it's fine. I've dismantled and eat frog from the same family a long time ago. There are internal organs with poison but if we avoid it, it's alright. But if it's not baked there are a danger of poisoning..."
Well, even if this is in underground there's an airflow, and we already climbed up for quite a bit so there's no worry of lack of oxygen.
"Alright, I permit it."
Liza instructs Pochi and Tama to cut the frog's legs, while she herself is taking out wood blocks and chip from the bag and prepare it. I see, it was for this reason that she was collecting woods in every room.
I stop Liza from using flint to light fire, and use the ignition magic tool (Tinder Rod) from earlier to ignite fire... Chakka○n?
I give the cookwares and the tablewares gotten from the house to Liza.
Before long, Tama and Pochi hold the leg meat high up their head.
"Meat~"
"Nano desu~"
...I wonder, they look even happier than with the smoked meat earlier.
Liza cuts the meat into pieces, and lines it up on the frying pan.
She pierces the baked meats with skewers and presents it to me.
...Do I have to eat it?
"Thank you Liza."
I prepare myself and eat it... It taste a bit like chicken but honestly, it's a bit light. I guess it can't be helped since we don't have seasonings like salt though. It's a hassle to go back to that house just to search for seasoning.
The three people stare at me eating.
Oh right, they're waiting for permission.
"Stop looking and eat. If you don't properly eat and rest, we can't get out of the labyrinth!"
After getting the permission, Pochi and Tama start eating the meat on the frying pan. Liza isn't only frying the meat, she also properly eats it.
I glances at them while lightly toasting the black bread, cheese and the smoked meat to eat it.
After that, a cycle of dismantling, baking and eating repeat for about 30 minutes, the banquet only finish after the fuel run out.
Per the suggestion of Liza, I wrap a lump of meat in cloth and put it in the bag just in case.
If the condition is the same like before, they will get tired after 2,3 battles, so we'll make use of this time to rest to its fullest.
I let the three to bath in the tub, give them new clothes to change, and let them sleep with a blanket.
Although they'll soon get dirty in battle, Don't you feel better to go sleep with clean clothes?