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The Unforgiving Labyrinth 

Satou here. In the dungeon-crawler games I used to play, you sometimes had to survive without eating meat from monsters. I distinctly remember getting so focused on finding food that I forgot about trying to beat the game. 

“Hopping potatoooes?” 

“There are walking beans over here, sir.” 

Tama and Pochi were defeating the monsters that roamed the passageway. 

Both types were weak level-1 monsters whose only means of attack was a body slam. The pair made pretty quick work of them. 

After we wiped out the nest of the maze ants who’d been chasing the Lovely Wings, we found a shortcut to the next area inside. 

We’d initially planned to come back the same day, but once we made that discovery, there was a change of plans. 

Competing for monsters was a pain, and fighting while trying to conceal from other explorers our fancy equipment and my support abilities was stressful, so we decided to go to the less populated area we found instead. 

When we reached area 9, we found endless traps as well as slimes and small insect monsters with “Poison,” “Plague,” and “Paralysis” attacks, but we used the Everyday Magic spell Bug Wiper to breeze right past them. 

Our current location, area 9-4-1—which is a pain to say, so let’s just stick with 9-1—could be accessed only by the aforementioned maze of connections. Naturally, we were the only explorers there. 

There was a fair amount of explorers near the regular entrance to area 9, but it seemed like people rarely came in this far. 

As evidence of that, there was only around a fifth of the amount of sign stones that there had been in the other areas. 

Not that it mattered to us, since we could return to area 1 in an instant using the seal slate we had placed there. 

“These monster cores are white.” 

“They’re very small, too.” 

Liza and Lulu broke down the walking beans and hopping potatoes, producing white cores that were only around the size of a pill. 

“White ones like that aren’t really useful, so you don’t need to go out of your way to collect them.” 

With that, I put the monster corpses away in Storage. 

These guys must be the real source of the incredibly gross beans and potatoes we ate before we entered the labyrinth. There were many more of them in area 2, from what I could tell. 

Incidentally, if you used Treespirit Pearls to remove the dark-red sinews that caused the gross bitterness, they would taste like normal potatoes and beans. 

“It’s shiniiing?” 

“Tama, if you could.” 

“Aaaye!” 

Being careful of traps, Tama went up ahead to scout out a moss-filled cavern. 

Beyond this point was the large space that contained the areamaster of area 9-1. 

“There’s a foreeest?” 

…A forest? 

Curious, I followed Tama’s beckoning. 

“It certainly is a forest.” 

The cavern was big enough that you could fit three Tokyo Domes inside and entirely full of trees and shrubs, with light cascading down from above. 

The source of the light was the plants dangling from the ceiling. 

When I’d cut one of these roots in the room before this one, it had looked like optical fiber on the inside. No doubt the roots and stalks absorbed natural light and gave it off like optical fibers. 

There was grass growing from the earth below our feet, too, so it didn’t feel like we were underground at all. 

“This is so much bigger than the room we beat before,” Arisa murmured, gazing around. 

The path we’d been on led to the top of the large room, and we could look down at the forest from here. 

“There’s even a river.” 

There had been water trickling from the walls in one of the earlier rooms, but this room had a small river and even a lake. 

“Mrrr. Freakish,” Mia grumbled, brow furrowed as she stared down at the forest. 

Mostly plant-type monsters roamed this area. It was no wonder she didn’t like it. 

“The flowers in the center are pretty, I declare.” 

“They look like orchids. The glowing flowers are moving around, though. Is that a monster, too?” 

Nana and Arisa were gazing at an enormous plant monster in the center of the room. 

“That’s right. It even has the areamaster title.” 

The creature was a crazy dendrobium; it was level 53 and used Light Magic. 

On the hill it was growing on, there were also ten or so related monsters called “mayhem dendrobiums,” which were around level 40. 

Attracted by the smell of the flowers, bug-type monsters were flying around the plants, only to occasionally be brought down by bullets of light from the flowers. 

Once the monsters hit the ground, the dendrobium monsters grabbed them with vines and dragged them down to their roots. 

“Maybe I should thin those out a little.” 

These monsters were too strong to use for leveling up the rest of my group. 

“I’ll be right back.” 

“Don’t get hurt!” 

I waved reassuringly at my concerned comrades and took off into the air. 

When I approached closely, the crazy dendrobium’s flowers glowed, and each of them fired a light bullet at me. Its spawn, the mayhem dendrobiums, made an annoying noise as they sprayed more light bullets everywhere. 

Huh, that’s pretty. 

Enjoying the light show, I changed direction in midair just in time to avoid getting hit. 

But as they started to fly past me, the light bullets quickly zipped around to follow me instead. 

“Ah, they’re the homing kind, huh?” 

Because the light bullets created a beautiful arc of light as they changed trajectories, I wound up playing a bit of tag with them. 

When the rest of my group started applauding, I gave them a wave. 

“…Is this the face?” 

Near the roots of the treelike creature was a knot that resembled a face. 

It looked like a weak point to me, so I dispersed the light bullets chasing me with the Practical Magic spell Dispel Magic and used “Flashrunning” to close the distance between the face knot and me. 

YWOWNLLEUAAAAAMN. 

Sensing danger, the crazy dendrobium started gathering light in its flowers, but it was too late. 

I created “Spellblade” on the end of my fairy sword and sliced right through its one-hundred-foot-wide trunk. 

The monster’s health went down at a remarkable rate. 

YWGOWNLLBUEAMN. 

In its final struggle, it unleashed a bunch of red vines from its face knot, but they were blocked by the Practical Magic Flexible Shields in front of me, so they had no effect beyond creating a bit of noise. 

Finally, the crazy dendrobium’s health ran out, and the vines fell lifeless to the ground. 

> Title Acquired: Areamaster Slayer 

“Better grab the loot,” I muttered, putting the monster’s upper half into Storage before it could hit the ground. 

“Wait, what’s that?” 

I saw something shining inside the face knot. 

According to my AR display, it was a Brightlight Pearl soul. 

“Looks like a pretty rare material.” 

With this, I could probably even make a light rod that shot lasers. 

Grinning smugly, I collected the item, then used the Earth Magic spell Pitfall to expose the roots so I could collect the monster’s lower half, too. 

Normally, Earth Magic didn’t work inside the labyrinth, but fortunately, it seemed to be fine when the ground was bare dirt. 

“…Is that a treasure chest?” 

At the bottom of the pit, near the center of the roots, there was a giant treasure chest. 

I didn’t think the crazy dendrobium would bother hiding a treasure chest, so either it was always there to begin with or a mischievous labyrinth master put it there. 

When my trap senses reacted suddenly, I touched it with Magic Hand to put it in Storage, then took out the contents without the chest. 

There was one lesser elixir and five cure-alls, as well as several intermediate potions, but all the latter had deteriorated and lost their effects. 

According to the materials I’d gathered in the elf village, a cure-all was like a lesser version of an elixir. 

Despite being “lesser,” it was an excellent item that could cure poison, illness, petrification, paralysis, and other such status effects, as well as even helping to restore lost limbs. 

The lesser elixir could heal things that the cure-alls couldn’t, like curses and severe status conditions. 

Aside from all the potions, there was also a large Magic Sword with the light attribute, but its stats weren’t as good as the Magic Swords Tama and Pochi used, making it of no use in combat. 

The Magic Light Sword looked a little old-fashioned, but it was the kind of elegant design that nobles would enjoy, so I decided to stash it as a possible gift. 

“All right, inspection complete.” 

The mayhem dendrobiums couldn’t move. I simply destroyed them at my leisure, collected the light stone souls from their face knots, and went back to the others. 

Unfortunately, there were no treasure boxes under the mayhem dendrobiums. 

“That was kind of like watching the PV for a sci-fi anime or a bullet hell game.” 

Once I got back, Arisa gave me a strange review of my fight against the areamaster. 

The other kids all gave me normal praise, of course. 

“Okay, I’ll pick up the first round of enemies and bring them out here.” 

In the area right after the large cavern, there was a lot of conveniently level ground, so I used Earth Magic and Practical Magic to create a simple encampment. 

It wasn’t nearly as sturdy as the built-in defenses on the flying ship that we traveled the southern seas with, but it should be fine for dealing with normal monsters. 

Besides, even if it did break, I could just rebuild it with magic. 

“Let’s do this thing! Same-strength enemies for now, plz!” 

Acknowledging Arisa’s somewhat dated gaming lingo with a wave of the hand, I aggroed some monsters with Magic Hand and led them over to where my group was waiting. 

“Let’s start with these vanilla stalkers. ‘Biting’ and ‘Vine-grabbing’ are their only attacks, but they’re level twenty-three. Don’t let your guards down.” 

The first enemies I led over were leafy creatures with vanilla-scented flowers that had fanged mouths inside. 

Some of them had the special ability Charm Person, despite not looking any different from the others, so we had to proceed with caution. 

“… ? Paralyze Mis t Mahimu.” 

“You are quite impudent for mere shrubs, I declare.” 

Mia’s Water Magic hindered the plants’ movements, Nana drew their attention with “Taunt,” and the beastfolk girls closed in for the kill. 

…Oh? 

It was only for a moment, but I saw the red light of “Spellblade” appear on Pochi’s sword. 

As I continued watching the girls battle, I saw the same thing happen with Tama’s Magic Swords, too. 

At this rate, if they kept leveling up, the two of them might get the “Spellblade” skill like Liza pretty soon. 

That day, we continued fighting monsters until evening, then spent the night in a safe house I made inside the labyrinth. 

 

After that, we spent days battling and sleeping in the labyrinth, until it was the day before our scheduled return. 

“Preeey?” 

Tama came up to the rest of the group encamped on the hill, leading a monster. 

True to its name, walking corn, the monster looked like a cornstalk with insect legs. It was surprisingly fast. 

Not only that… 

“Tama, behind you! Sir!” 

…it turned its kernels into cone shapes and started shooting them at Tama like machine guns. 

“Whoosh, whoooosh?” 

Tama used “Blink” to dodge the barrage of corn, but the monster stood in place and continued shooting at her. 

“Plants should not move, I declare!” 

Nana shouted via “Taunt,” attracting the walking corn’s attention. 

The corn went flying toward the encampment, but Nana blocked it with her buckler and Flexible Shields. 

The onslaught pushed Nana back, the spikes on her shoes digging into the ground. 

Next to her, I saw a rock get hit by the corn and break into pieces. 

If anyone got hit, that could actually cause a serious injury. 

Meanwhile, I was using Magic Hand to catch every piece of corn that flew past the encampment and put it away in Storage. 

While the shell of the walking corn’s kernels was hard enough to break a rock, the inside was perfectly edible. 

It was almost snack time, so I figured I could make something with the corn. 

Using my “Parallel Thoughts” skill, I kept watching over my group’s fight as I started getting ready to cook. 

“This walking corn is level twenty-seven! It’s just a normal one with no magic! We’ll hold on until it runs out of corn, then counterattack!” 

Arisa called out the information she’d found with Status Check to the rest of the crew. 

Even if they looked the same, monsters with levels in the high 20s could have special variations, like magic attacks or a barrier. 

I wished they were at least a different color or something, like in games. 

“Take this!” 

From behind Nana, Lulu fired with her Fireburst Gun, the Flame Bullets hitting the corn and causing it to explode with a pop. 

The Fireburst Gun was a new weapon I’d created, a kind of flame rod using one of the Firelight Pearls I found on the fire-breathing island where I fought the Flame Lord. 

A normal Thunder Rod Gun or Fire Rod Gun wouldn’t be strong enough to fight an enemy of this level, which was why I prepared this upgrade. 

It had a similar level of power to the kind of Magic Cannon that might be at a fort, though, so it couldn’t be used in front of others. 

“Let’s bring this sucker down! Mia, Paralyze Water Hold, plz!” 

“Mm. ? …” 

Arisa was keeping a close eye on things, giving the group orders. 

“Nana! I’m going to make a barrier so you can set up some new Flexible Shields, okay?” 

“Understood, I report.” 

The transparent barrier Arisa made blocked the walking corn’s barrage. 

Once Nana had finished resetting her Flexible Shields, Arisa immediately took down her barrier. The Barrier Magic’s defense power was high, but it cost a great deal of magic power, so it wasn’t practical for regular use. 

Finally, when the monster ran out of corn to shoot, its tip split into four and grew fangs, creating a giant mouth. 

The walking corn charged forward, trying to swallow Nana whole. 

“Yah!” 

As soon as it opened its mouth and exposed its weak point, Lulu fired her Fireburst Gun, shooting right into the monster’s gullet. 

“… ? Paralyze Water Hold Mahi Mizu Shibaru.” 

Then Mia’s Water Magic activated, destroying the corn monster’s momentum and slamming it onto the ground. 

This spell was an intermediate Water Magic spell with the effects of both Paralyze Mist and Water Hold. It didn’t have wide range like Paralyze Mist, but it was useful for lone enemies, since there was no risk of your allies getting caught up in the mix. 

“‘Super Dimensional Ultra Attack’!” 

Arisa shouted some nonsensical phrase as she fired a Dimension Cutter spell at the immobilized walking corn. 

Invisible blades slashed away at the walking corn, but they were so sharp that it actually didn’t do much damage. 

Plant monsters tended to be particularly tough. 

“Tama, Pochi, time to attack! Let’s finish it off.” 

“‘Spellblaaaade’?” 

“Gooo, sir!” 

Activating “Spellblade” on their Magic Swords, Tama and Pochi jumped out from behind Nana along with Liza, leaping into close combat with the walking corn. 

In these past few days, Tama had learned how to use “Spellblade” first, followed by Pochi when she leveled up earlier that day and finally gained the skill. 

Their blades flashing red, the two of them cut through the walking corn’s legs. 

Since they were still new to “Spellblade,” the light was unstable, and it consumed a lot of MP. 

The walking corn lashed its vines around like whips, which the vanguard quickly blocked. 

For a while, the battle seemed evenly matched, but soon the balance tipped in my group’s favor. 

“This is the end of the line!” 

Liza readied her spear with a steady red light at the end. 

“‘Helix Spear Attack’!” 

The “Spellblade” spun sharply as she jabbed it into the walking corn, stabbing through it. 

CWUOOOORWNN. 

A strange death cry unleashed itself from the corn monster’s fanged mouth. 

The “Spellblade” around the spear spun in a helix shape, shredding the creature’s body. 

Liza’s “Helix Spear Attack” was a simplified version of the “Triple Helix Spear Attack” I learned in my battle against the Golden Boar Lord. 

These special move–type skills tended to cost a lot of skill points, so they seemed kind of wasteful, but they were far stronger than a normal attack, making it worth having a few. 

At the minimum, I wanted each of my kids to have at least one. 

CWUOOOORWNN. 

With another dying cry, the creature whipped its vines around. 

Plant-type monsters were tough, all right. 

“Sleep, I declare.” 

Nana’s “Body Strengthening”–enhanced shield bash hit the gigantic walking corn, sending it flying backward. 

“And just to be sure, here’s a Dimension Pile, max strength!” 

Arisa’s Space Magic closed in on the unmoving walking corn, finally finishing off the stubborn creature. 

“We wiiin?” 

“Sir!” 

As everyone let out a cheer of triumph, I sanitized their injuries with Everyday Magic before using the intermediate Water Magic spell Healing: Water to restore all of them. 

During battle, Mia was in charge of healing, but I took care of it when the fight was over. 

“Yesss! Awesome! I just hit level twenty-nine!” Arisa cheered. 

“Greeeat?” 

“Hooray, sir!” 

“Don’t get too full of yourselves. We were only able to come this far because of master, remember.” 

“Affirmative. Thank you, master, I report.” 

“Well, of course I’m grateful. Tama does the monster pulling now, but master was doing all of it up until yesterday.” 

That was uncharacteristically big of Arisa— 

“It was pretty amazing. He didn’t pull any other monsters, and there was always an ideal enemy right after a break—really, nerds are so efficient.” 

Ah. I should’ve known there would be a punch line. 

“Look who’s talking,” I said blandly, bopping Arisa on the head and looking around at the others. 

They’d all used up quite a bit of magic power, so I used Mana Transfer to restore each of them in turn. 

Tama had already gone off to find a new enemy. I’d have to heal her once she got back. 

“At this rate, I might hit level thirty before the end of the day.” 

Because area 9-1 had a lot of strong enemies, the girls had been leveling up pretty effectively. 

This part of the area had a lot of plant monsters, which was why I mistook it for a forest at first. 

“Sorryyy?” 

“No worries!” 

Tama was being followed by two monsters this time: a thornfoot, an annoying ivy monster that could sap magic power, and a capture slime, an insect-eating plant monster that crawled along with sticky tentacles. She must have accidentally pulled both when trying to grab only one. 

“Nana, deal with the capture slime for a while, please!” 

“You should try being cute like a snail, I declare!” 

Nana’s “Taunt” skill had leveled up so that she could now use it on specific targets. 

“Let’s bring down the thornfoot first! Make sure you don’t get caught in its ivy, or it’ll suck up your magic!” 

“Understood!” 

“Yes, sir.” 

Liza and Tama kept the thornfoot in check while Pochi served as a secondary tank. 

My Enchant: Physical Protection spell hadn’t worn off, but magic was being stolen from the beastfolk girls’ weapons. 

“Emergencyyy?” 

“Geh, a third one! It’s a fire maple!” 

Waving its burning branches around, the fire maple came along on wriggling roots. 

“I’ll use Mazemaker to buy some time. Thornfoot first, then the capture slime, then the fire maple last!” 

Arisa used Space Magic to create a maze of invisible Deracinator walls around the fire maple. 

Some of its branches jutted out from the maze, flinging flaming leaves like shuriken. 

There was a bit too much going on for the group to fend them all off, so I used my Magic Hand to catch the leaves and put them in Storage. 

“Thanks, master!” 

I waved at Arisa, then took out one of the still-burning leaves and looked at it. 

Oh, I know. 

I decided to use the flaming leaf to continue what I’d been working on this whole time. 

“The thornfoot’s down to forty percent of its health!” 

“Mm. Got it.” 

“Let’s bring it down!” 

Quickly defeating the thornfoot, the rest of the group went to help Nana, who’d been fighting the capture slime alone. 

“Arisa, the fire maple’s almost out.” 

“Uh-oh! Thank you, master.” 

Arisa hurriedly recast her Space Magic spell. 

This seemed to use up the last of her magic, so she pulled a vial out of the pouch at her waist to throw back a Mana Recovery Potion. 

Before long, my group had overcome the emergency and defeated all three enemies. 

“Smells gooood?” 

“What’re you making, sir?” 

Once the battle was over, Pochi came running up to me, her tail wagging. Tama rushed over, too, her eyes narrowing as she sniffed the air. 

“Hmm? Well, the walking corn’s kernels reminded me of something, so I decided to make pancakes.” 

I’d used the Everyday Magic spell Dry to suck all the moisture out of the corn, ground it down with a mortar using my own original spell Multitool, then used the resulting flour to make pancakes. 

This was a recipe a classmate who was allergic to wheat flour had taught me in my school days. 

“Geez, I wish you’d stop cooking near us while we’re in the middle of a fight. I thought my stomach was gonna start growling.” 

“Mm, it did.” 

“Good work.” 

Ignoring Arisa’s complaints, I transferred the freshly made pancakes to a board. 

Then I cut them into smaller pieces and put some maple syrup on top before giving them to everyone as a little snack. 

I’d harvested the maple syrup from a monster similar to the fire maple the group just fought. 

“Yummyyy.” 

“It melts in my mouth, sir!” 

Tama and Pochi rejoiced at the sweetness. 

“More maple syrup, please.” 

“Mm, more.” 

“Don’t blame me if you put on weight, you two.” 

Lulu shook her head as Arisa and Mia demanded more syrup, then looked to me uncertainly. 

I nodded permission. Maple syrup wasn’t too high in calories anyway, if I remembered right. 

“Master, did you make these with the yellow grains from that monster?” Lulu asked. 

“That’s right. I broke them down into powder, then mixed them with eggs, sugar, and so on.” 

To be honest, these pancakes were made entirely with ingredients from inside the labyrinth. Tama had collected the eggs the day before, and the sugar was called “ugi sugar,” created from the bamboo of a deer-shaped plant creature. 

Watching contentedly as the girls enjoyed their pancakes, I took a bite for myself. 

Since I didn’t have any baking powder or baking soda, they weren’t quite as fluffy as I would have liked, but the taste was perfectly good. 

Hmm? 

Nana was staring intently at the baby chick design I’d imprinted on her pancake. 

“Master, this design is wonderful, I report. We must protect it, I recommend.” 

I’d burned the design onto the pancake in a fit of playfulness, but she seemed to like it, maybe a little too much. 

“I can make it again for you anytime, so please eat that one before it gets cold.” 

“Yes, master.” 

I’d made the mark using the Multitool spell and a leaf from the fire maple. It really wasn’t much work at all. 

For the other kids, I also made paw print marks, rabbit marks, and so on. 

Tama and Pochi still looked hungry, so I cut the rest of mine in half to give to them. 

When I beckoned, they trotted over and opened their mouths wide like baby birds. I popped the big pancake slices into their mouths. 

“Tastyyy?” 

“Delicious, sir.” 

Mia and Arisa opened their mouths, too, but because my plate was empty, I gave them candy instead. 

If I had known these were going to be so popular, I would’ve made a bit more corn flour. 

Incidentally, this candy was a by-product of making the nectar of the mayhem dendrobiums into orchid mead. 

I’d gotten these recipes from Trazayuya’s materials, too. 

Clearly he had been a gourmet-loving elf. 

“Once we’ve rested for a bit, we should move on.” 

“Yeah, the only monsters left around here are trash,” Arisa agreed. 

The reason we were able to have such a carefree time cooking and eating in the labyrinth was because there weren’t many enemies around. 

We’d hunted just about all of them over the past few days, so the fire maple from earlier was the last one left in the large cavern that might randomly attack us. 

I know it sounds like the kind of thing that could get us into trouble with environmental conservation groups, but the monsters in a labyrinth are apparently made by the labyrinth master using a Labyrinth Core, so there was no danger of any species going extinct. 

Still, I made sure not to lay a hand on creatures like the heat haze dendrobium, which seemed to be crazy dendrobium saplings. 

Once we’d wiped out all the monsters in the huge cavern, we went through each of the small rooms attached to the cavern in turn. 

“That last spore attack was rather dangerous.” 

“I never imagined that capsaicin bird symbiote would use its ‘Fire Magic’ to set the spores on fire.” 

Standing in front of the large corpse of a dungeon fungus, Arisa and Liza wiped their brows. 

The capsaicin bird was a fairly weak bird-type monster made up of red leaves, which lived on the heads of dungeon fungi. Once in a while, they would have the “Fire Magic” skill. 

“That’s a pretty large dungeon fungus. Mia, would you like that for dinner again tonight?” 

“Mm, please.” 

Mia gazed hungrily at the dead dungeon fungus, her eyes sparkling. 

“Fungus, tasty.” 

Dungeon fungus steak had been Mia’s main dish for the past few days. 

There were plenty of vegetables in this plant-based area, so Mia was in a better mood than usual. 

“Treasure box over there…” 

Tama pointed at a hollow in the corner of the fungus room. 

This room was full of giant mushrooms that grew like trees. When I tried cutting one, I found that the inside past the first few inches was hard as rock. They were a kind of monster, but they showed no signs of moving. 

“Ooh, finally!” 

Over the past few days, we had found only three treasure boxes. 

Aside from the areamaster one on the first day, the other two boxes were both duds, containing five bronze swords that looked like ancient ornaments and one big bronze mirror. 

Everyone’s hopes were high as we approached this one, but… 

“Bronze swords again? And they’re all the same kind!” 

“They’re well-balanced, so they might be useful to newbie explorers for training.” 

As I attempted to console the grumbling Arisa, I put the five swords away in Storage. 

“It’s starting to get dark.” 

“Yeah. Maybe we should head back to the vacation house.” 

When nobody seemed to have any complaints, we left the danger area behind. 

The group looked like they still wanted to fight more, but aside from Mia (who required a high amount of experience), the others had all reached level 30 and acquired new skills, so I figured our first labyrinth expedition was already plenty successful. 

Most importantly, Liza gained the special attack skill “Helix Spear Attack,” Tama and Pochi gained “Spellblade,” and Lulu gained Practical Magic and Everyday Magic. 

The only Practical Magic spell she could use so far was the beginner spell Mana Light, but she was already on her way to mastering Everyday Magic. 

Lulu said she was hoping to learn to use the Practical Magic spells Cube and Floating Board soon, too. 

She wanted to use the former as a hygienic cutting board and the latter for transporting ingredients. How very like Lulu. 

Mia and Nana hadn’t gained any particularly notable skills, but Mia’s Spirit Magic abilities had improved: She could now make spirits of all four major elements. 

As for Arisa… 

“I’m definitely picking up ‘Fire Magic’! The elves said that ‘Fire Magic: Body Strengthening’ burns body fat to create energy, so it’d be perfect for dieting.” 

…she had recently acquired the “Fire Magic” skill. 

The night before, she’d been moaning about how she was heartbroken because it cost way too many skill points to raise Space Magic’s skill level from 8 to 9. Right now, she was having a little affair with Fire Magic. 

I’d better not mention that it only cost me one point to raise my skill levels. 

At present, Arisa was just about able to use advanced Space Magic, so she decided to pick up Fire Magic, since it was effective in battle and safe to use in front of people. 

Incidentally, from my analysis, Fire Magic seemed to use normal magic power as fuel. The thing about body fat was probably a joke by the elves. 

She seemed so excited that I didn’t have the heart to tell her, but I should probably warn her about it before she went on a binge-eating spree. 

As far as my worries about her low stamina, she said the cause was that she was greatly limited by her magic-based stats. 

In Arisa’s case, she could decide which points went to which stats when she leveled up, so I had her raise her physical stats like strength and stamina to the point where it wouldn’t be a problem. 

 

“We’re heeere?” 

“Ooopen sesameee, sir.” 

When Tama and Pochi spoke these words in front of the dirt wall, a passageway appeared with a low rumble. 

A penguin statue arrived on a pedestal to greet us. 

“We’re back,” Mia greeted. 

“Pen!” the penguin responded. 

I had made this penguin statue during the course of our stay in the dungeon; it contained the core parts of the figurehead golem that had controlled the flying ship. 

The penguin golem was the doorman and maintainer of this little area. 

It wouldn’t open the wall for anyone but our group, so it was the perfect security. 

On the small chance that anyone did manage to break in, the golem would alert me with a similar mechanism to the Practical Magic spell Signal. 

Beyond the penguin was a single log cabin that we were using as our base here. 

Made from tree-type monster parts, it initially consisted only of a living-slash-bedroom, but I’d been slowly expanding and improving it over the past few days. 

Now it contained a living-slash-dining room, a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a workshop, making it feel more like a vacation house than a base. 

“Let’s wash up and go inside.” 

We stopped at the little washing area just outside the cabin, cleaning the dirt off our hands and feet, then trading our shoes for indoor slippers. 

“I haven’t used much magic power, so I probably don’t need to restock…” 

Muttering to myself, I supplied more magic to the backup magic power storage tool on the penguin’s pedestal. 

I had designed the system so that it could supply itself with magic from the labyrinth’s mana source, but I didn’t want to risk any meddling from the labyrinth master, so I usually just left it as a stand-alone device. 

It could also be switched out with the figurehead golem. 

“There, all done.” 

With that, I looked around the cavern containing the cabin. 

Next to the cabin was a field cultivated by living dolls, where we were growing tomatoes, herbs, and so on. 

These living dolls were the same ones we’d used as a dummy crew on the flying ship. 

The reason I chose to make this cavern the site of our base was that it had a water source, ventilation holes, and no nearby monster passages that could create a spawnhole. 

There were three passages leading in and out of the cavern, but I’d blocked both ends of each passage with an earth-wall door like the one we’d just entered through. 

I’d also put adamantite alloy wire mesh from one of the sunken ships across the air vents, and the walls, ceiling, and floor were all protected with purification Barrier Magic circles like the ones I set up around the city-rock island in the Seadragon Islands. 

This barrier was to keep out any physical- and small bug-type monsters. 

That was mostly because the first time we slept here, small bug monsters called “bite worms” came up from the ground to attack us, attracted by our body heat. 

Luckily, I was able to ward them off easily with the Everyday Magic spell Bug Wiper, but I’d decided to come up with certain precautions to prevent it from happening again. 

It might be overkill, but it was all for the sake of my friends’ safety and my own sound sleep, so I decided to pull out all the stops. 

“Master, the bath is all heated up.” 

“All right, I’m coming.” 

Since Arisa called me, I closed the lid to the magic storage device and headed over to the bath. 

The kids who couldn’t cook were in charge of heating up the bathwater. 

Pochi had a hard time controlling the magic tool for water heating at first, but now she was able to get it to a steady level. 

“Hurry up and strip—everyone’s waiting…” 

As soon as I entered the changing room, Arisa wiggled her fingers at me to urge me to hurry. 

If I took too long, she’d start trying to do it herself, so I used my “Quick Change” skill to switch to only a towel wrapped around my waist. 

“Grrr, you can’t cheat at bathing!” 

Arisa grumbled about not getting to see me change, but I ignored her easily. 

Everyone was waiting outside the large wooden bath, all clad in bathing robes. I’d made the bath by cutting up the trunk of a gigantic tree with a Holy Sword, then carving it out with the help of Arisa’s Space Magic. 

They could’ve just started without me, but Liza and Nana insisted that “master must be the one to enter the bath first,” so they’d gotten into the habit of waiting for me to go in. 

“Your bath awaits, master.” 

“I shall rinse you first, I report.” 

Liza and Nana, who had clearly taken a liking to the ritual, poured hot water over me from either side before I stepped into the hot bath. 

Then I slowly lowered myself into the bathwater, allowing the perfect temperature to relax my very soul. 

Aaaah, baths are the best. 

Activating Spirit Vision, I raised my hand partway out of the water and examined my palm. 

Spirits danced along the water that flowed through my fingers, slipping in and out. 

Supposedly, spirits didn’t have personalities or feelings, but the spirits in this bath seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

“Lots of spirits,” Mia commented. 

“Are there?” Arisa asked, tilting her head. 

There were, indeed, many spirits in the watering hole in this cavern. I wasn’t sure if they were there to feed the monsters or if it was just a natural opening in the underground mana vein. 

Either way, it might be thanks to the spirits that just submerging oneself in this water made it feel like one was getting a full-body massage. 

“Okay, now that we’re all warmed up, time to wash our hair.” 

“Aaaye.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

Tama, Pochi, and Mia stood up in the bath cheerfully. 

At first, I’d been washing the other kids’ hair, too, but Lulu turned so red, she looked ready to pass out, and Arisa got overexcited and nearly had a nosebleed. I had them do it themselves. 

“Mm. First.” 

Because Mia had won the round of rock-paper-scissors, she put on a little headband to keep the shampoo out of her eyes and sat down on the little chair in the wooden bath. 

I didn’t want her to get a cold, so I promptly started lathering her hair with the shampooing soap and hot water. This was a recipe I’d learned from Tutoreiya, an alchemist elf in Bolenan Forest. 

It wasn’t quite as good as the shampoo in my old world, but it formed a better lather and was gentler on the scalp than most normal soap. 

I’d made the headband for Tama and Pochi, but Mia and Nana had taken a liking to it, too. 

After I washed the younger girls’ hair for them, I had them warm themselves back up by counting to a hundred before getting out of the bath. 

We’d been bathing together every day in the elf village. At this point, I wasn’t even fazed by the sight of Nana’s bathing robe when the water turned it slightly transparent. 

If anything, that made me feel like I’d lost my edge a little, so I decided I would visit a red-light district sometime to get a bit of that spark back. 

“Tomorrow morning, I think we should go back up to the surface for a bit.” 

When I said this after the bath, everyone’s faces fell a little. 

“Awww, let’s stay until we hit level fifty!” 

“I’d like to, but we’re at the end of the exploration period we registered for at the labyrinth entrance, and our payment at the inn is going to run out soon, too.” 

I didn’t think they’d suddenly sell our horses and carriages and all, but I still wanted to be safe. 

“Besides, the horses will be lonely if we don’t check on them once in a while, right?” 

At that, Tama and Pochi exchanged looks of alarm. 

They must have forgotten about their beloved horses during our days in the labyrinth. 

“Let’s go baaack?” 

“We’d better hurry, sir!” 

Tama and Pochi hopped up in a hurry, so I patted their heads and gently sat them back down. 

“Oh, all right.” 

“Mm. Fair.” 

Fortunately, everyone else seemed to accept the decision. 

“Besides, I’ll set a seal slate here so we can come back anytime.” 

The group seemed to want to keep fighting, but that statement was enough to cheer them all up for now. 

I guess they’d taken a liking to life in our labyrinth vacation home. 

 

“Master, I’m heeeere— Wait, Mia?” 

Arisa opened the door and flounced into my workshop adjacent to the labyrinth vacation home. 

For some reason, she was wearing a sheer negligee. 

“Mrrr. Lewd.” 

Mia wasn’t wrong, so I produced a cardigan from Storage and had her put it on. 

“Aw, man, I thought for sure you were finally requesting my nighttime services,” Arisa grumbled. 

Sorry, but I’m not interested in little girls. 

“I called both of you here to help me with some work.” I looked at each of them in turn, making sure they understood before I continued. “Did you memorize the chants I gave you?” 

“Mm. Got it.” 

“Yeah, but all I can tell is that it’s teleportation-related and that it’s way too long.” 

Mia puffed up her chest, but Arisa just furrowed her brow. 

She was probably frustrated that she couldn’t understand the chant. 

“Don’t worry—you’ll find out soon.” 

I used Magic Mold to make two pedestals. 

Then I produced a jar from Storage marked with a triangle, filled with molten magic liquid, and placed it on one pedestal. On the other, I placed one of the bronze swords we’d gotten in a treasure box in the labyrinth. 

“All right. First, Mia, please focus on the triangle and start your chant.” 

“Mm, okay. ? ? ? …” 

Maybe right around now? 

Judging the timing, I called on Arisa next. 

“Arisa, start yours, please.” 

“Okey-dokey! ? …” 

Finally, both long chants started to come to their ends. 

“… ? ? Create Circuit 001 Kairo Zero Zero Ichi Souzou.” 

When Mia finished her chant, the magic liquid rose up out of the jar like a snake and began to create a circuit of its own. 

The circuits formed smaller and smaller branches, taking the form of a complex network of red lines that interwove in the shape of a sword. 

“Pretty,” Mia murmured. 

“… ? Import Circuit 00 1 Kairo Zero Zero Ichi Tensou.” 

When Arisa’s spell finished, the red circuits disappeared, replaced by bronze lines on the sword. 

“…It’s finished.” 

My AR display confirmed that the bronze sword had turned into a Magic Sword. 

Unexpectedly, the sword’s creator still read Celivera Labyrinth. That was perfect—now I wouldn’t have to falsify a name. 

“Hey, did we just…?” 

“Yep. The chants I gave you two were for creating a Magic Sword.” 

“M-Magic Sword?” 

“Wow.” 

The two of them jumped up in surprise, and I grinned. 

I’d made these spells for a very particular reason. 

The method I’d used so far, involving alchemy and the Liquid Control spell, could make Magic Swords with simple circuits like the kind sold in the old capital black market easily enough, but for more complicated circuits, swords like the ones I’d made Tama and Pochi were pretty much the limit. 

If I tried to do it with swords that had been cast in a mold, the heat would warp the metal, and if I used a pre-forged sword, I had to take into account changes in the circuits that were already carved into it. 

With this method, I didn’t think I could make a sword as good as the divine gift Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis no matter what degree of mastery I achieved, so I decided to change my approach. 

First, I thought about using Water Magic to make the circuits while molding the sword, but it was too difficult to control to make any improvements on the old method. 

So this was my next thought: to use that Water Magic method to make the circuits on their own, then transfer them onto a sword using Space Magic. 

I explained all this to Mia and Arisa. 

“But that doesn’t seem right.” 

“Mrrr?” 

Arisa frowned, looking down at her written chant. 

Smiling at her, I returned to my own thoughts. 

At first, I wanted to make a single Create Magic Sword spell that would create the circuits and carve them into a Magic Sword, but the chant came out extremely long and several times more complicated than even an advanced spell. 

It would be no use to make a spell that no one could use, so I shelved that idea and went in a direction that even an ordinary person would be able to handle. 

“Mia, let me see your spell.” 

“Mm.” 

Arisa took Mia’s chant paper and skimmed it quickly. 

I knew she was accustomed to my original spells, but it was still impressive that she could read it just as quickly as I could. 

“I knew it. It’s just like mine.” 

I nodded at Arisa, pleased she’d figured it out on her own. 

“So these were just to make this Magic Sword, right?” 

“That’s right.” 

There were no variations between the spells I’d given them. 

Technically, the difference was that the position of the triangle being used as the focus changed between them, but that was an exception, since it wasn’t part of the chant itself. 

“These two spells were just to put this specific magic circuit onto this specific bronze sword.” 

The sword could be a different one as long as it was about the same shape, but the magic circuit was very fixed. 

I’d set the coordinates for the teleport spell within the chant, so if the magic circuit changed at all, the teleportation wouldn’t work, either. 

“That’s so over-the-top.” 

“I know, but otherwise there would be too many settings related to the circuit shape and the teleport location.” 

A computer was one thing, but asking a person to set thousands of digits precisely in their heads would be impossible. 

“I wanna try.” 

“Go ahead. The blade makes fire, though. Be careful.” 

“Mm.” 

Mia put magic power into the newly made Magic Sword and lifted it, and a protective barrier similar to the Shelter spell formed around the blade, emitting fire from the outside. 

Mia swung the now-flaming sword around with one hand. 

“Pretty.” 

“I guess it’d be good for a fire dance or something.” 

Mia looked gleeful, while Arisa made a rather rude remark. 

True, it mostly functioned only as a torch unless you were fighting monsters that were weak to fire or impervious to normal attacks, but I thought it was a fittingly fantasy-like Magic Sword. 

“Looks like its magic use is pretty efficient, too.” 

I accepted the sword from Mia, examining it. 

“Oh right—if you can control your magic well, you can even do things like this.” 

I manipulated my magic as I swung the sword, and a fireball shot out of the tip of the sword like a Fire Rod. 

“Whoa, now that’s the kind of sword you’d see in a manga!” 

Arisa clapped gleefully for a second, then turned serious again. 

“But is this really all that different from the swords you made for Pochi and the others?” 

“On the surface, no. But it has other features, like ‘Body Strengthening,’ ‘Sharpblade,’ and even the ability to restore the user’s stamina.” 

Otherwise, Mia wouldn’t be able to swing such a heavy-looking sword around in one hand. 

It even circulated magic power between itself and the wielder, meaning it didn’t consume too much energy. 

“Thanks, you two. Now I can get started on the next step.” 

“Mrrr?” 

“What’s the next step?” 

Mia and Arisa tilted their heads. 

“Making a Holy Sword with a legendary-class metal sword as a base, like orichalcum or crimson ore.” 

Blue liquid could make much finer and more detailed circuits than regular magic liquid, and it would create a more power-efficient sword. 

“Could you learn these ones next? No rush.” 

Taking a single look at the huge sheaf of paper in my hands, Arisa and Mia fled as if on cue. 

“I guess maybe a hundred kinds was too many?” 

Muttering to myself, I chased after the two of them and eventually convinced them to help again on the condition that I prioritize making personal weapons for them. 

Eventually, I’d like to make things like autonomous shields and floating guns, too. 

Yep, crafting in a parallel world really got the blood pumping. 





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