Chapter 91: Chapter 91: Preparing For Battle

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

About 2 months have passed since we came to this city.

We broke through the thirties floors and only have one more floor left in the fourties.

The Intra-Labyrinth Adventurer Transport Golems, commonly called “The Train,” which was (supposedly) developed by the guild, played a huge part behind our rapid conquests.

These golems, which can run a 10 floor round-trip in a day, were created by a newly hired magician who was proficient in earth magic.

Furthermore, the “limited express” golems, which run through 50 floors at once, and the “express” golems, which make runs through 10 floors at a time made their appearances too. Thanks to them, the front lines just got a whole lot closer.

And although they’re cheap, they still take a fee, so they might even be laughing it up over in the guild’s finance department.

“With that being the case, we’d like this one to be on you, Miss Remy.”

“Isn’t that why I’m here helping you with the cooking, as thanks, in the first place?”

I knead the wheat, strike it, stretch it out, ball it up, knead it again…

At my side is Miss Remy, wrapping the kneaded wheat in a cloth and stepping on it.

Tonight’s dinner is udon.

My body is too light to do the stomping part well.

“But is it really okay to be stepping on this if we’re gonna eat it?”

“That’s part of how this is cooked. It has to be stepped on, or it won’t stretch out as much as it’s supposed to.”

We’re planning on fighting our way up to the 50th floor tomorrow. So in anticipatory celebration, I’m tackling a dish I haven’t had in a while.

I jumped over to Cornus for some fish to be dried and smoked for some simple bonito(ish) flakes, and used the kelp-like creeping vines to make dashi. Then in place of citron I used the skin of a citrus fruit, and some soy sauce-ish stuff to make the soup base.

Unfortunately there was no fried tofu to be had, but I used a bunch of mushrooms and wild vegetables in its place.

Well then, this is the house we just moved in to, but… The house is actually in more critical condition than I imagined.

Though I figured the root was just going over the roof, there were also little cilia spreading inside the rooms.

And even though they’re cilia, they’re from the World Tree. They’re 5 centimeters thick. Normally this probably wouldn’t be a good place to live.

I hastily applied [Toughness] to the walls and the pillars, and prevented the structure’s collapse.

And then there’s the World Tree’s root… There was actually a way to put it to good use.

Since it’s a root, there’s water running through it, and actually at quite a pace too… So I turned my attention to that.

Once I put a cut into the root, and put a tap in it… Suddenly we had a water supply.

Now there’s no need to draw water every day, and there’s no water bill either!

“Well, I did always use magic to draw the water anyway, y’know?”

“What?”

“What? Nothing.”

“But really, this water supply? It sure is convenient. I want one in my room too.”

“If you’re fine with Miss Levy’s room, then have at it.”

The room itself is more than we need anyway. Though we did make the basement off-limits.

After closing off the spigot, the fire was lit, and the chopped noodles were set to boiling.

Miss Remy and I mixed up way more than 2 kilograms of noodles altogether.

Haster and Alec… And Miss Levy is actually a pretty big eater too. And then one more person…

“Heeey, is the food ready yeeet?”

“Hold your horses, it’ll be ready in just a minute, Bahamut.”

“Uhh… Hey, that’s… Really?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Keep it a secret?”

Should we have made 3 kilograms perhaps? That thing pretty much eats as much as we put out there.

“Maybe we should have had Miss Levy help us out too?”

“You really shouldn’t have her do the cooking. I’m pretty sure she has a “Poison Creation” gift.”

“I said I don’t got anythin’ like that! Ya’ll coulda at least let me help with the stomping…”

“With your legs, you probably would have splattered it everywhere.”

Is she really that senseless? Yes, she is, isn’t she.

Well, if it’s not enough we can just cook up some pasta from the store. That has at least spread throughout this world.

~*~

“Fwoh, fwiff am hwewwy fwaffy…”

“Ha… Al, try speaking after you’re done chewing.”

Miss Remy is here, so we’re in alias mode.

But then again, Bahamut is here too, so is there any real purpose in using them at this point…?

“Gulp, mm, cough. Sorry, if I don’t hurry and eat, then my share is going to disappear at this rate.”

“And while Al is talking, the rest is mine!”

“Not so fast!”

I give Haster and Bahamut a side-eye at their pointlessly high-level display of sword (knife) skills, while I let out a sigh.

I’m ever so slightly jealous of Marle, who’s letting Alec feed her next to me.

The meeting about tomorrow isn’t going to happen until after dinner, is it?

~*~

“So, once again, about tomorrow…”

While enjoying our after dinner tea, we talk about the bosses up to the 50th floor.

We’re defeating the bosses every five floors, so Miss Levy will only be able to participate part-way through tomorrow.

If we use the limited express, then we could just jump right on through, but we decided we may as well kill them all off while we’re at it.

“I think we’ll need to start thinking about our equipment now.”

“Our equipment? I am pretty sure we all have pretty much the strongest weapons we could get, right?”

Haster has Cleaver, Alec has Sentinel, and I have Third Eye.

After their production, I’ve been making some slight adjustments too, so they should practically hold mythical-class abilities at this point.

“Not the weapons; our armor. Alec and I are fine, but all you’ve got right now is cloth, Yuuri.”

“Ooh, now that I think about it? But attacks hardly even come my way most of the time.”

And I’ll be fine even if they do. Since I’ll just come back if I die.

“You have “I’ll just come back if I die” written on your face, but do you realize that if you die, then the degree of danger suddenly jumps up?”

“Do you have any awareness of what it means to be the rear guard, sis?”

“Urk?!”

When Haster is stuck on the front line, I’m left being the only rear guard.

If magic support is required, then my death leading to the collapse of the whole party is, well, not a complete exaggeration, so…

“But doesn’t my lack of strength actually makes heavy armor more dangerous though?”

“That’s the real issue…”

Forget how restricted I would feel in metal armor, even tanned leather armor makes it feel like I’m over my weight limit.

Haster is typically the one carrying all my baggage for me.

Third Eye, a short bow, 10 iron arrows, and 12 normal arrows. Just all that is practically my limit.

“I thought about this on the 45th floor, but it feels like it’s about time for the enemies to come up with ways to attack long distance. I really want to find some way for your safety to be guaranteed Yuuri.”

“But when taking my strength into consideration, not putting any extra armor on is like, better, or…”

“What about something like that mantle you made for Bella before?”

“I guess I could manage with something like that.”

Hearing that, he starts rummaging around in a luggage bag.

“We’ve delved into the labyrinth a good number of times, so a reasonable number of items have piled up… Ah, there it is.”

He pulled an old fashioned mantle out.

Leaves are stuck to it here and there… No, I think they’re growing on the mantle?

“It would appear this is a rather unique item made from ivy in the World Tree.”

“Oh, that…”

“Marle, you know what this thing is?”

“Yes, it’s an item that appeared during the classroom visit the other day. It doesn’t have much defensive power, so everyone said they didn’t need it.”

Hm? Let’s take a quick “Appraisal” of it.

—Water Vine Mantle

Special Ability: Flame Resistance

Enchant Slots: 3 remaining

A mantle created from vines filled with moisture. Has a strong resistance to flames, but its defensive power is normal.

“This thing’s performance is just plain broken, isn’t it?”

“Really? It’s not like it has any defensive power, and it’s not strong enough to negate flames. I think it’s pretty average, isn’t it?”

“…? Haster, how do you see this mantle? Or rather, can you see it?”

To me, “Enchant slots: 3 remaining” means it has got some amazing potential to it.

If I put [Strength] and [Reinforcement] on here, wouldn’t it gain the defensive power of normal metallic armor?

“Hm, ummmm… A water vine mantle. Defensive powers of a normal mantle, and some flame resistance.”

“You can’t see the remaining enchant slots?”

“I’ve never tried seeing that kind of thing?”

Which means this bit of data is thanks to “Appraisal”.

Should an item this good really be appearing in the lower floors?

“Sure, why not? Adventurers who can place persistent enchantments don’t normally exist. The reason you see it as a “good item” is because you were the first to establish such a craft.”

“You can’t do it, Bahamut?”

“I never have. Actually, I’ve never had a need to. At the very least, there was no such technique back when I was human.”

I guess it really wouldn’t be that good of an item without my ability to add enchantments.

But does this mean more of these, in a sense, unfinished items are just lying around somewhere?

“There are three enchant slots open on this thing. After reinforcing it, having Marle wear it would be better than giving it to me.”

“… Eh?”

“Marle has been delving into the labyrinth for practical training lately. She needs heavier equipment more than me right now, don’t you think?”

“B-but…”

“Haster, what do you think?”

I looked at him with slightly upturned eyes, added in some cajolery, and tried “asking” him.

“Urk, no, but… That doesn’t change anything with your safety, so…”

“I already wear my extra magic capacity mantle anyway. How am I going to wear two of them?”

Though I hardly use it unless I’m firing Third Eye off at full power.

That mantle doesn’t have any defensive type [Enchant] cast on it, and my defensive strength is certainly a point of concern, but… Her safety comes way before mine in ranking.

For me, Haster’s safety takes top priority. Next come Alec and Marle.

Unfortunately for Miss Levy, she comes after them, and I guess I’m last in the list?

To be honest, Haster’s priority rank would probably be fine lower on the list, since he can come back to life, but this is one of those “those are two different things” moments.

“Well fine, then this buckler…”

“You want me to equip a shield when I use a bow?”

A bow uses both hands, so I can’t equip a standard shield.

“Then at least take these shoes…”

“I don’t really like having my feet weighed down though…”

What he took out were more like greaves than shoes.

They were sorta red and kinda like a bug’s carapace?

When I tried them on, they were surprisingly light.

“What are these?”

“They’re greaves made from the shell of a Wood Crab. Wood crabs are… Almost like coconut crabs, I guess?”

“Huh…”

Just in case, I checked their abilities with “Appraisal”.

They weren’t magically enchanted, and they didn’t have enchant slots either, but they were light, and solid enough to be similar to metallic armor.

“If it’s something like this… Yeah, this isn’t bad.”

With the greaves equipped, I lightly lifted my skirt and twirled around a bit to check how well I could move in them.

“Yeah, not bad at all.”

Haster nodded emphatically. I had a bad premonition, so I removed the hands lifting my skirt up.

When I glared at him, he averted his gaze. Can never be too careful around him.

Anyway, our preparations are complete now.

Tomorrow we’ll be joining the sunny companionship of middle rankers!