CH 45

Chapter 45 If the Quality Is Low, Just Make Up for It with Quantity

「Everyone is so energetic, huh~」

「Yes…. Even though it’s still four o’clock….」

Nina… I’m sorry for waking you up even though you’re still sleepy.

It seems that the entrance to the labyrinth is most crowded around 7 o’clock.

I wanted to come early today because it seems that the entrance procedure will take time when it’s crowded.

「The ones who have been loudly advertising themselves since a while ago are stray adventurers. They are adventurers who don’t join a party or clan for some reason, and they explore the labyrinth with different people every day.」

Yeah….

They are shouting something like, 「Don’t you need a porter who can carry 3 sacks~?」 or 「I’ve been using a shield for 10 ten years, so leave the tank role to me!」.

「Are those people strong?」

「…… They are weak, Nina. If they were strong adventurers, they would have already been scouted by someone. …… Adventurers are putting their lives on the line when exploring the labyrinth. It’s much better to form a party with someone you’re accustomed to working together with, but since they are not doing so… than means there’s something wrong with them.」

Some of them have strong status, but… the fact that they weren’t scouted means that they have problematic personalities, or they are greedy and want rewards that exceed their abilities… or something like that.

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「We can consider hiring them depending on the situation. For example, this party doesn’t have a scout, so when diving into the lower floors where there is no information, we will have to team up with someone to take countermeasures against traps. But if we can’t find the right person at that time, hiring them――」

「――I would rather buy slaves and raise them rather than hire those people…. As for countermeasures against traps… setting aside the lower floors where there’s no map, I have a plan that might work in the area where there’s a map….」

That’s why I learned earth magic.

Ian also has wind magic, so I hope he can handle it to some extent.

「My scouting skills are at the level of an ordinary person, so it’s probably impossible to inflate them with buffs. Well, at worst, we can do something about it with recovery magic and potions as long as it’s not instant death, so there’s no need to worry so much about traps.」

It’s a bit of a brute force method, but… no matter how you look at it, it’s more efficient to brute force the exploration with the recovery cheats.

「…… A serious injury would be painful, so I and Ian will stand in the front as tankers. …… Ian, if you get seriously injured, I’ll give you a bonus later, so just give up.」

「…… It’s part of the job, and slaves don’t need bonuses.」

「Fufu, Ian-kun smiled~!」

Nina must have been worried about Ian.

But, Nina… don’t poke his bruised cheek.

It must be painful….

「Hmm… it’s crowded, especially near the entrance.」

After waiting in line for a while at the entrance, I showed my adventurer card and paid the entrance fee (9 copper coins for 3 people), and we went inside, but… there were adventurers everywhere, and we couldn’t find any prey….

「What should we do?」

「For now, let’s hurry up to the 3rd floor. After that, we’ll go off the route to the lower floors and hunt.」

「We hurriedly went to the 3rd floor, and it was about an hour, huh?」

When I checked it with the magic item clock, it was just an hour and a little more….

Since there were a lot of people, we avoided hunting monsters and walked fast to the 3rd floor… considering that, the time taken was reasonable.

We’re not tired at all thanks to the body strengthening… and with this much burden, I guess we can come here every day even if it’s just a day trip.

「There are still a lot of adventurers, but it’s better than the first floor….」

「Yeah. For now, let’s go to the opposite side of the route to the lower floor.」

「I hope we can hunt a lot!」

「Nina, three on the right are coming to you! Kill them all!」

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「Yes!」

「Ian, use wind magic to reduce their numbers!」

「Understood!」

「Don’t break the formation!」

After that, we searched for a place to hunt, but we couldn’t find a hunting ground with a good encounter rate.

Since there was no other choice, we responded to Nina’s request of wanting to hunt a lot and went to the <Monster Room>, a dangerous area on the map that says, 「Dangerous! Other than B rank magicians or above aren’t allowed to hunt here!」.

It’s the 3rd floor where only slimes appear, so I thought we could still run away even if it got dangerous, but… it was a mistake.

The slime room is far from the regular route and not worth much money, so it is fortunate that there’s no one else in the room, but… the number of slimes is too many!

「Water Arrow!」

No matter how many slimes we defeat, they keep appearing one after another.

Each one is weak, but there are too many of them that we’ll be covered in slimes if we don’t go all out even for a few seconds.

We got tired this much, so ordinary adventurers would have already been digested by the slimes….

No wonder we don’t see people around….

「Nina, Ian, fall back! …… Water Cyclone!」

I seriously shot advanced magic.

This advanced magic is my trump card that I can’t use without enchanted equipment.

「Amazing…. All slimes went down easily….」

Well, it’s true that I was able to wipe them out in one blow, but it’s not something to be proud of, Nina.

After all, I’m completely relying on enchanted equipment….

「Anyway, let’s quickly collect the magic stones and drop items and leave the room. I used too much MP, so it’ll be bad if they respawned….」

「Phew….」

I was seriously panicked….

No wonder this area is prohibited for anyone other than B rank magicians or above.

Actually, it’s dangerous even for A rank magicians if they can’t use wide-are attack magic….

「I didn’t expect this on the third floor….」

「Sorry, I made a bad judgment.」

I thought that with I and Ian, who are good at magic, we would be able to manage somehow, so I got carried away and charged there.

「It’s okay! Besides, I was able to kill a lot of slimes ♪」

「That’s right. If we use this place as a hunting ground, we can level up efficiently. If things get tough, we can escape with Master’s Water Cyclone….」

「Well… I was thinking about it just now, but… you guys are battle junkies, huh….」