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Chapter 54 : Black Tri-Stars
🕑 Added 2022-07-02 18:04:07 +0000 UTCTL:SummerPeanut
Three chapters this week!
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The next day, I, Ike, Clarice, and the Black Tri-stars headed for the Adventurer's Guild.
We went to the Adventurer’s Guild to register as adventurers and register our party.
Zeke, Maria, and Leena returned to Irgusia early in the morning.
They also registered the Black Tri-stars as E-class adventurers.
Normally, they would have started as G-class adventurers but Guildmaster Ralph made a special exception this time and registered them as E-class adventurers and the E-rank party ‘Black Tri-stars’.
They seemed to like the name Black Tri-stars and happy about it.
We wondered if we should register as a party too but decided not to since Ike would be leaving for the Confederacy of Lister in a few months.
"What would you have us to do in the Almeria Labyrinth, Master Ike?"
Guy, the eldest son, asked Ike and he replied.
"I initially hired you as a porter but there are things to be done in the future. I'd like to have you and the other Black Tri-Stars participate in a certain amount of fighting to gain experience.
If I’m being greedy, I would like you three to be able to dive the first floor of the Almeria Labyrinth just fine without us.”
"I believe there's no problem at all even with our current abilities, sir?”
"No, when I said just fine, I meant that you will be able to defeat all the magic beasts you encounter.
The first floor’s magic beasts are all at threat level D, so you will have a hard time.
Today, we're going to have the three of you fight alone as a test. Of course, we will join in if things get dangerous. Should we proceed with this arrangement, we will be able to find out a lot of things.”
Guy nodded, looking a little displeased.
"After seeing today's battle, we will also buy equipment for you. If you have some ideas on what you want, do think about it beforehand. We'll decide about it after we see you in action along with you all.”
So far Guy is equipped with a sword, Mac with a spear, and Owl with an axe and shield but they are all cheap equipment.
And they have no armor at all. Even slaves need proper equipment.
The six of us dived into the Almeria Labyrinth.
First, we decided to have the Black Tri-Stars fight.
When we arrived at the first room, there were six hard-scaled fishmen monsters called rock lizard.
The rock lizards were equipped with stone spears in their right hands.
I immediately asked the Black Tri-Stars to fight.
"Mack! Owl! Let's show them how strong we are!"
Guy announced and attacked the rock lizards by surprise.
Guy's surprise attack succeeded, and he slashed at the leftmost rock lizard's right hand, causing it to release his spear in pain.
Guy then proceeded to engage the rock lizard in melee. A spear is extremely strong when fighting in formation, but in a melee, its length prevents it from showing its full potential.*1
When the rock lizards' hate was directed toward Guy, Mack and Owl attacked him from outside of the rock lizards' radar.
While surrounded by the rock lizards, Guy took defensive and evasive actions, and when an opening arose, he counterattacked. Mack and Owl attacked the rock lizards from outside of the encirclement.
Although they certainly defeated the rock lizards, Guy was also speared several times and although not fatally wounded, he received considerable damage.
In the end, Guy was already deeply wounded by the time he made it out of the rock lizards' encirclement and there were two more rock lizards left.
One-on-one, Mack and Owl were more than just a match for them but they too had taken their fair share of damage.
The Black Tri-Stars took 20 minutes to defeat a swarm of six rock lizards with a threat level of D.
Then Guy, the eldest, said proudly to Ike.
“Master Ike, will you recognize our strength?”
"Do you always fight like that?”
“Yes! We beastmen fight without fear against multiple opponents and we always come out victorious!”
"So how long will it take before you are ready to fight again?”
"I can fight without a full recovery so I will be ready to fight in about three hours.”
"I see... Then, next time we... No. Can I have you watch me fight? Guy, are you able to move?”
"Yes, I can barely move. But, Master Ike, do you intend to fight alone?”
"Yes. If I'm in danger, I'll have Mars and Clarice cover me.”
As soon as Ike said that and left the room, he encountered six rock lizards in the passageway.
The rock lizards had already noticed us as they were heading this way.
Ike said to the Black Tri-Stars, "Watch me" and slowly walked toward the rock lizards with his Flame Lance at the ready.
As six rock lizards charged toward us in a horizontal line while letting out weird shrieks, Ike stopped to return fire.
Guy shouted, "Look out!” but Ike chanted Fire and stepped backward. The Fire landed on the leftmost rock lizard.
Although he was surprised by the Fire, the rock lizard that was hit was not fatally wounded.
However, it showed a quite averse reaction to fire. Ike held the Flame Lance in his right hand, and with his left hand, he shot Fire. Rather than aiming at the target, he shot Fire in rapid succession in a random direction to the left.
The three rock lizards on the left side from Ike did not come forward due to their aversion to fire.
The rock lizards on the right side formed a line to escape from the heat of Fire.
The rock lizards are about 150 cm tall, still taller than the 9-year-old Ike.
The rock lizard at the front of the line on the far right stabbed at Ike.
Ike dodged and stabbed back with his Flame Lance through the gap between the scales, extinguishing the foe’s strength.
He was making a one-on-one situation by paying attention to the three rock lizards on the left side as well as the two behind the leading rock lizard.
After repeatedly stabbing the leading rock lizard on the right side and thus blocking its movement, Ike suddenly attacked the rock lizards on the left side.
The rock lizards on the left side had been more focused on Ike’s fire than the person himself due to their dislike of fire.
Ike did not miss that point and attacked them abruptly. The rock lizards were slow to react.
Ike used his Flame Lance to reap the rock lizards in a horizontal line on the left side of the room.
He blasted all three of them against the wall and stopped their breath with a stab one by one.
He shot Fire at the one rock lizard in the front row on the right, which was nearly incapable of fighting, to prevent it from joining the battle in case it did, and then faced the other two in the back row.
Ike couldn’t be more comfortable with the one-on-two situation, and he repeatedly ducked and countered the two rock lizards' thrusts, finally defeating a total of six rock lizards in less than 10 minutes.
"Guy, this is the difference between you and me. If I had gone seriously, I could have enchanted this weapon to make it a little easier to beat them but there's already a difference in equipment and it wouldn't be fair anymore. In any case, I fought alone for that reason."
The three Black Tri-Stars were so surprised that they could not speak.
"Also, what you are about to see is a Bryant family ‘secret.’ You must keep it to yourselves. Mars, please heal Guy and the others.”
Ike said so, and I healed the three Black Tri-Stars.
"Could, could it be, holy magic? I thought he was a wind magician... No, there's no way it's holy magic...right?
Holy magic users are not supposed to be able to use other magic..."
The three members of the Black Tri-Stars were muttering to each other.
"You three at the very least have to be able to fight continuously to be our porter so do your best. We'll cover for you as much as we can.”
The six of us made our way around all the rooms except the one going down to the second floor, taking out enemies from one side to the other.
The reason we went to all the rooms was to raise the level of the Black Tri-Stars.
We also stepped on the traps. However, there was only one trap because I had already stepped on all of them last time.
I didn't participate in the battle too much and was devoted to the healing support role.
We decided to get into the last room of the first level, check out the second level, and then turn around.
In the last room leading to the second level, there were three bear-like magic beasts.
I appraised them.
Name: -
Title: -
Race: Grizzly Bear
Threat: C
Condition: Good
Age: 4 years old
Level: 5
HP: 58/58
MP: 4/4
Strength: 32
Agility: 22
Magic: 1
Dexterity: 1
Endurance: 40
This is a magic beast from the second floor that Zeke had told me about.
If this is a threat level C, so that means it is the same as the goblin lord?
Well, goblin lord's special ability to summon magic beasts is powerful, so it must be a threat level C.
"I'm going to join you here, Brother Ike. It has higher stats than the goblin king.”
"I see. I'll be counting on you, Mars. The three Black Tri-Stars, don't force yourself.”
"Affirmative. We will participate with hit-and-run.”
My original plan was to also use this as training for ‘Lightning Cloak’, the Lightning magic that previously was able to damage Barnes but I decided to be more prudent. Since I have not been able to control Lightning magic properly, it might endanger my allies instead.
First, Clarice used her Magic Arrow to inflict damage on the grizzly bears. I would join Clarice in cutting up the grizzly bears from a distance with Wind Cutter.
To be honest, I think we can win if we just keep doing this while running away but Ike and Black Tri-Stars went in to stall them.
The Black Tri-Stars almost got hit a few times but each time that happened I blasted the grizzly bears with a Wind Impulse, so there wasn't much damage received by our side.
In the end, the battle was over in a minute.
"So that's the end of the first floor. Now we just have to go ahead and get to the second floor."
Ike said.
"I think so. However, I’m not sure I should say if I’m uneasy or just disappointed that there hasn’t been a single treasure chest from Almeria Labyrinth…whereas in Irgusia and Grantham there were chests every day…"
Guy from the Black Tri-Stars said in response to my words.
101
"Isn’t the rate for treasure chest one out of ten dives in the labyrinth?”
I guess I've become quite spoiled from my previous extravagant experience.
At any rate, we decided to leave all the magic stones we had collected on the first floor in this room and go see what was on the second floor.
We had defeated more than 300 magic beasts of threat level D, so everyone's level had risen.
Name: Mars Bryant
Title: Thunder God / Wind King / Goblin Butcher
Status: Second son of Viscount Bryant
Condition: Good
Age: 6 years old
Level: 15
HP: 45/45
MP: 4512/6167
Strength: 37
Agility: 42
Magic: 53
Dexterity: 40
Endurance: 38
Luck: 30
Unique Ability: Innate Talent (LvMax)
Unique Ability: Clairvoyance (Lv8)
Unique Ability: Lightning Magic (Lv1/S)
Special Ability: Swordsmanship (Lv7/B)
Special Ability: Fire Magic (Lv2/F)
Special Ability: Water Magic(Lv1/G)
Special Ability: Earth Magic(Lv2/F)
Special Ability: Wind Magic(Lv8/A)
Special ability: Holy magic (Lv5/B)
Equipment: Mithril Silver Sword
Equipment: Sylph Dagger
Equipment: Disguise Bracelet
Finally, I'm level 15. Holy magic is now at level 5 too.
My status is becoming more like a magician yet again, but there’s no helping it.
Meanwhile Ike…
Name: Ike Bryant
Title: -
Status: Heir son of Viscount Bryant
Condition: Good
Age: 9 years old
Level: 18
HP: 54/54
MP: 702/922
Strength: 38
Agility: 36
Magic: 21
Dexterity: 23
Endurance: 33
Luck: 10
Special Ability: Swordsmanship(Lv4/C)
Special Ability: Spearmanship (Lv7/B)
Special Ability: Fire Magic (Lv4/C)
Equipment: Flame Lance
Equipment: Salamander Sword
Equipment: Ifrit’s Mail
Equipment: Flame Bracelet
Equipment: Disguise Bracelet
His skills’ level have not changed but his status is much higher now.
The muscle strength department is also higher for Ike again.
Name: Clarice Lampard
Title: -
Status: Human race, eldest daughter of Baron Lampard
Condition: Good
Age: 6 years old
Level: 18
HP: 36/36
MP: 201/310
Strength: 25
Agility: 25
Magic: 27
Dexterity: 25
Endurance: 23
Luck: 20
Unique Ability: Barrier Magic (Lv2/A)
Special Ability: Swordsmanship (Lv5/C)
Special Ability: Archery (Lv5/B)
Special ability: Holy magic (Lv4/A)
Equipment: Defender
Equipment: Mithril Silver Dagger
Equipment: Magic Arrow
Equipment: Saint's Robe
Equipment: Mysterious Anklet
Equipment: Disguise Bracelet
Clarice has somehow reached the same level as Ike.
Her status increased at an average pace, and her skills have also improved, except for her Holy magic.
“All right, let's go to the second floor! Stay on your toes!”
Ike shouted in loud voice.
We slowly and carefully descended the stairs to the second floor.
The second floor was completely different from what I had heard from Zeke, Maria, and the Almeria guild officials who had been involved in the Almeria labyrinth for many years.
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TL’s note:
- Might be confusing but the rock lizards are using stone spears, not Guy. The author suddenly talked about spears after writing about Guy using a sword.
