After defeating the 7th floor boss, a Rapid Mutant Hyena, we decided to settle down on the first chamber of the 8th floor to recuperate. We’re sitting in a line next to each other, with our backs resting against the wall. There’s no furniture present, so we have to be content with resting on the ground.
I’m not gonna lie, I need more mana. With so many amazing spells, I can’t help myself so I keep casting them.
A [Cyclone] here, a [Bubble Snare] there, and a few dozen more, and I’m already running on fumes. Thankfully my mana regenerates quite fast, as the rate increases with the Magic stat, of which I have 60. I regenerate 100 MP in approximately 10 minutes. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
The spells I have are in the basic tier, according to my Elemental Sovereign class, so while they don’t dish out insane amounts of damage, they also don’t cost much to cast.
With my 900 mana, I can cast about 30 spells until I start running out. It’s not bad at all, but I want more. I can’t even begin to imagine how good of a spammer I would be with 200 Magic stat under my belt.
“Daddy… Have I been doing well so far?” Aurora purrs while glancing at me with hope in her big, beautiful amber eyes, and it’s obvious for all of us that she isn’t looking for a comprehensive performance analysis from me, just endless praise and pampering.
“Come over here.” I pat my thighs, and she happily jumps into my embrace, where she receives a few gentle kisses. “You’ve been doing amazing. At first I was worried that you would be too much of a scaredy cat, but you show great battle IQ, as you are getting better and better at knowing when and who to support.”
Ayame chimes in; “I agree. Your shields have allowed me to ignore a few hits each time, thus letting me focus on killing instead of dodging.”
“Blossom agrees too! She loves the shield!”
“Maaaan. You useless fucks! I almost had to use my fifth high quality health potion because you keep messing up!” A sudden voice enters my ears, coming right from the boss room. The group that did it after us had entered the 8th floor’s first chamber. They were nowhere in sight when we entered the boss chamber.
At the floor we’re at, it’s rare to see a group once an hour, and much less attempt the boss itself, as that fight is significantly harder than the normal monster rooms.
“We’re sorry, master.” A muscular man replied somberly, followed by murmurs of the rest.
“My father will be so mad… We’ve wasted too much gold on potions already, and we’re nowhere near the 11th floor! We will reach it today even if I have to sacrifice the lot of you!” The first voice decrees with a cruel tone.
It’s some rich guy with his slave party. Unlike Kai and his adventurer slave harem team, this here seems to be a more functional group, with a clear division of frontliners and backliners.
The man himself is probably some noble, based on his extremely luxurious golden armor and gemstone decorated longsword. He has five slaves, three muscular frontliners and one archer, one mage. At least from the looks of things.
Now that I look better, the mage and one of the muscle guys don’t have collars, so he actually only has three slaves and two servants. Either the dude likes to participate in sausage parties or this is a pure business team, as every member is a man.
Actually a lot of combat groups strictly forbid romance and inner-party relationships, so it’s not a rare sight to see. It’s mostly us, the despicable slave owners who like to mix business and pleasure. Well, I would rather have a platinum haired girl sit in my lap and give me love-filled kisses while begging me to praise her during the time I’m resting than have smelly men sit next to me.
But that might just be a Quinlan problem.
No, it’s not a Quinlan problem. Blossom saw that Aurora was making use of the situation to flirt with me so now I’m getting licked and kissed from both sides. I simply can’t be wrong in my approach to life.
A lot of these adventurer, explorer and mercenary type people will risk their lives on their jobs just to go to a filthy brothel at the end of the day, so I don’t think that my way is wrong.
Also, having a cheerful wife wait for you at home might sound nice at first, but then you realize that she will die before you reach the physical age of thirty, so that prospect is no longer that alluring. No, I’m right. Badass women who happily engage in combat and thus can take a more brutal battle in bed are the way to go in this world.
“Master, I have no more mana.”
“I’m running low on stamina.”
“Need mana too… My apologies, master.”
The underlings speak up one after the other. Looks like the hyena monster got them good.
“Argh!” The noble punches the chamber wall frustratedly, but relaxes afterwards. “Alright… You useless fucks. Ten minutes.” They sit on the ground opposite of us.
I don’t see what’s the issue is of this angry loser. Isn’t one of the main advantages of the labyrinth is that you can take the challenge at your own pace? Why rush? Is there a speedrunning competition going on outside or what?
<Quinlan, I smell trouble.> Ayame notifies me.
<If there is, try not to damage that beautiful armor or sword. We barely have cash, you girls are way too high maintenance for this poor, innocent guy. We gotta pawn it off using the Consortium’s connections.>
<… Is this seriously your concern? Also, I’m not high maintenance. Hmph.>
“What the fuck?! Since when have these losers been here?” The noble guy shrieks once he sits down, facing us.
“Before we arrived, master.” The archer replied.
“Oh. Is that so… I guess I was too absorbed in reaching my goal to observe the present. Why didn’t you inform me?! Useless fucks!”
“…”
No one replied to his verbal outburst, they all just hung their heads low, examining their feet, accepting fault with the situation wordlessly. It seems they’ve been pretty well conditioned to his abuse.