by Okina Baba
Knowing that my MP will soon run out, I summon more monsters to shield Master Ronandt.
The magic attacks come again and again.
Each time, I summon another monster.
I drink an MP recovery potion, then another.
I summon as I drink. My MP gradually recovers.
However, the amount consumed is higher than the amount recovered.
A spell, a summon, a spell, a summon.
After countless repetitions, I finally run out of beasts to summon.
And yet, the magic attacks don’t stop.
On the contrary, there are clearly even more than before.
As I look around for answers, I find that Ronandt and I are the only two left alive.
“Master Ronandt.”
“We have no choice. I will at least bring the two of us back alive.”
Ronandt tries to activate the Teleport spell, but the Ede Saine appears directly before him.
“Master Ronandt!”
“Eh?!”
A jet-black spear shoots toward him.
It’s full of a horrifying amount of magic power, making those Earth and Wind spells look like child’s play.
And it’s headed straight for Master Ronandt.
Ronandt is too focused on constructing his own spell to avoid it.
And I’ve used up all my summons, so I have nothing left to use as a shield.
The rest happens in the blink of an eye.
I use my own body to block the dark spear.
My body seems to burst open.
The black spear pierces right through me to attack Master Ronandt behind me.
Master Ronandt’s right arm and part of his flank are blown away.
Throwing myself in its path must have altered its trajectory just a little.
Master Ronandt looks anguished as he activates the Teleport spell.
The world around me warps. I close my eyes instinctively, and when I open them, we’re not inside the labyrinth anymore.
“Huh?”
People gather around us in shock.
“Someone, bring healing items or magic,” Master Ronandt commands, his face twisted with pain.
This must be the empire’s magic research lab, then. Immediately, there’s a clamor all around us.
“You must hold on a bit longer.”
Master Ronandt uses Recovery Magic on me.
“Nearly half your upper body’s been destroyed. I’m amazed you’re alive.”
“Guh…”
I try to say something, but all that comes out of my mouth is blood.
My body slowly begins to recover.
My HP creeps out of the red as well.
As Master Ronandt ignores his own wounds to heal me, other healers rush over to treat him.
I breathe a single sigh, completely exhausted.
There were a great deal of sacrifices, but we survived.
“What good is it being the ‘strongest human mage’? I couldn’t do anything, not a thing…”
As my consciousness fades, Ronandt’s bitter voice echoes unpleasantly in my ears.
I STILL DON’T KNOW THE STUPID NICKNAME OF “NIGHTMARE OF THE LABYRINTH” THAT I GOT THAT DAY
I’m currently conspiring to defeat Araba to rave reviews.
Today, I’ve returned to the place where I first encountered Araba, the bottom of the huge pit with bees buzzing around.
To do what, you ask? Why, to exterminate the bees, of course.
See, I’ve been thinking. If I set foot on the ground to fight Araba, I don’t stand a chance.
This isn’t a complicated metaphor or anything. I literally mean that if I touch the ground while fighting Araba, I’m going to lose.
Because the ground is one of Araba’s weapons.
Can you imagine earth spears and junk suddenly popping out of the ground underneath you?
Not only that, but it can also block attacks using walls of earth and stuff like that.
So I decided I wouldn’t feel safe unless I stay off the ground.
I know, I know, what are you gonna do then? Well, I’ll just stay in the air! Duh.
Lucky for me, I have the Dimensional Maneuvering skill, which lets me run around freely in the air.
With this skill, I can hold up a respectable air battle even without wings.
And what better place to engage in that sort of battle than in the center of a spacious area where I can keep my distance from the walls?
This pit is wide enough that I can keep a decent amount of space between the walls and me, effectively negating the threat of Araba’s Earth Magic.
It’s the perfect place for our fated battle.
However, there’s just one little problem.
Yep, you guessed it: those stupid buzzing bees.
The last thing I need is for these idiots to try to interfere while I’m focused on my battle with Araba.
So, with the double purpose of eliminating a nuisance and earning EXP, let’s start exterminating some bees!
JAB!
Uh, ow?!
I’ve been stabbed?!
In the back, I’ve been stabbed in the back?!
Excuse me, the starting bell didn’t ring yet, asshole!
Ow, ow! Thanks to Pain Mitigation, it actually doesn’t hurt that much, but it’s bringing back some real traumatic memories of the time I got stabbed like this before and almost died!
I tie up the bee on my back with thread and yank it off.
Ugh. What a pain.
Now you’ve gone and done it, pal.
Who would’ve thought a stupid bee would pull off a surprise attack on me, even with my Detection skill?
Although that being said, my HP barely went down, and it’s already healed back up with Auto-Recovery.
Pretty crazy that this almost killed me before, huh?
It opened up a nice big air hole in my back, and since I didn’t have HP Auto-Recovery back then, my only chance at survival was leveling up and molting. That brings me back…
JAB!
Again? Seriously?!
Since I have Pain Super-Mitigation, too, now, it hardly hurts at all, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying!
It’s a pain to keep throwing them around, so I just use Thread Control to slice it up this time.
Man, but if it happened twice, it’s totally gonna happen a third time, huh?
How are they even getting to my back without setting off my Danger Perception anyway?
Oh, maybe because they’re not actually registering as dangerous?
I guess it’s not technically doing any real damage, so I’d be hard-pressed to call it “danger.”
Ah, in that case, maybe the bees aren’t even registering as enemies to me anymore?
I mean, they really are just fodder to me now, so I guess that’s not wrong…
JAB!
Cut it out already!
Seriously, this is kinda weird, right?
How can they sneak up on me so easily without even having Stealth or anything?
Sure, I might be kind of an idiot, but this is still weird.
Come to think of it, aren’t bees the natural enemies of spiders or whatever?
Is there some kind of hidden advantage outside of the regular system at work here?
No, that can’t be… Right?
Anyway, damage or no, it’s still pissing me off.
Sure, I’ll admit it takes some guts to come at me like that in the face of my Intimidation-plus-Fearbringer combo, but still, this is on them.
So let’s get on with the extermination!
I hop through the air with Dimensional Maneuvering.
I fire magic at every bee in sight and use my scythes to slice up any that get too close.
Wow. I used to need a whole web setup to take these guys on, but now I’m taking them down like nothing.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Behold! These bees are like garbage before me!
Oh? I haven’t seen this kind of bee before.
; According to Appraisal, it’s called a general finjicote.
Oh-ho-ho. This must be the next rank above the captain bees.
Looks about as strong as a snake, maybe?
Well, it’s no match for me as I am now.
Thinking back, when I first fell into this hole, most of my stats were barely halfway into the double digits.
If this guy had shown up back then, I might’ve been in trouble, even with a home base set up.
But tough luck for you, pal! I’ve advanced light-years beyond the weakling I was before!
Specifically, my stats are about a hundred times stronger!
Seriously, just looking at my stats alone, it’s crazy how much stronger I’ve gotten.
If you take my skills into account, too, it might even be more than a hundred times.
Pretty impressive growth rate, if I do say so myself!
So, I’m sorry to ruin your dramatic entrance and all, but I’m gonna have to shut you down right there, Mr. General.
Oh, wait, here’s another one.
I guess I must be getting close to the hive now, huh?
I do see some kinda object up above me.
Actually, it’s more of a building than an object, huh?
I guess that makes sense, since the bees that live in it are almost ten feet long.
It’s waaay huge.
I wonder if there’s a queen bee–type of figure in there…
Well, I’m gonna knock down the whole damn nest anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.
Do your thing, Black Magic!
The beehive collapses, taking the surrounding bees with it.
As it goes down, I mercilessly rain more magic on it for good measure.
Boy, am I good or what?!
Now, all this destruction might draw Araba’s attention, so I better get outta here.
I’m not ready to fight it just yet.
I return home from the pit with Teleport.
And when I arrive, I find a bunch of humans milling around.
Excuse me?
Uh, where did all these guys come from?
Don’t tell me they knew I was going to teleport here and were lying in wait?!
No, apparently not.
They’re all totally freaking out now, after all.
Man, what’s the deal here?
Oh, they’re dressed sorta like those knight dudes I saw before, so these must be their friends or something.
Are they all knights from a certain country or something?
Huh?
Wait, how did they even get all the way here?
Didn’t I set things up so they’d have to get through my webs to reach this point?
When I dealt with the spider army, I took down my thread to lure them inside, but I know I put them back up after that.
Wait a sec.
I’m getting a bad feeling about this.
Activate Clairvoyance.
My home is… Aaaaah?!
It…it…it’s BURNED?!
Oh boy. Ohhhh boy.
It’s gone.
The home I worked so hard to build.
It’s been reduced to ashes.
I don’t believe it.
Even with Flame Resistance added to the thread, I guess it’s still weak to fire.
Damn it! These guys have a lot of nerve to do this to me!
I flash back to when I was still weak, when my home was burned down for the first time.
All the frustration comes rushing back.
At the time, I was weak.
My beloved home was taken from me, and I could only run away.
But things are different now.
I’ve gained enough strength to protect my pride.
And while I was out, these guys trampled all over it.
It’d be harder NOT to get angry in this situation, right?
Plus, after burning down my home and trespassing inside, now these guys are trying to oppose me.
The knights have drawn their swords, holding them out toward me.
Back in Japan, this would definitely constitute legitimate self-defense, right?
I could totally say these guys tried to attack me, and I just did what I had to do, right?
There is a total of thirty-four of them.
Their stats are higher than the knights I saw before, too.
On average, they’re around 400.
Some of the higher ones even go past 500.
And there are two individuals who are way stronger.
At a glance, I’d say one’s a warrior type and one’s a mage type.
Oh, but the warrior guy has the Summoning skill, huh?
It’s an advanced form of the Creature Training skill that makes monsters obey you.
The user can summon trained monsters from a long distance and even use Teleport to a limited extent.
He’s got Cooperation and Command and stuff, too, so he might be more of a monster tamer or a summoner than a warrior.
The mage-type guy is definitely a mage, though.
His skills and stats both totally scream, “I’m a wizard!”
However, his stats are much higher than the other humans’, and he’s got a pretty expansive skill set.
He kinda looks like he’s teetering on the verge between middle and old age, but I guess he might actually be pretty strong after all…
Hmm? What’s this unpleasant feeling?
Just as a strange sensation washes over me, I notice something in my status.
“Appraisal in Progress”?
The message suddenly appears above my stats.
Looking at it, even my skills are flashing red.
Ah, does this mean they’re being Appraised?
So the strange feeling I’ve been getting is what being Appraised feels like?
Wow, gross.
Quit peeping, you perv.
If the flashing red text indicates what’s being Appraised, the perpetrator must be pretty high level.
Hmph. Activate ruler’s authority. Appraisal rejected.
