Arcadia’s Labyrinth

Chapter 4

2

To my sudden offer she laughed and tilted her head to the side.

"Eeh, are you inviting me to a date? It"s rather unexpected coming from you with your serious-looking face"

"Is it so? But, it"s my first time doing something like skirt chase"

"Lies~"

Elise laughs and gives out excuses.

"Well, but I"m sorry. I won"t be doing those kinds of things. And I don"t have time for it anyways"

She answers what I expected with a wry smile; so I should withdraw here.

"It"s a shame… It can"t be helped if you are busy. By the way, how busy are you?"

"It"s troubling if you ask me how busy I am, but I guess it"s to the point that I can"t date a boy. I have to help, so I hardly have any free time during the daytime until late at night when we have to close, and my holidays go to purchasing the goods"

"Shopping, huh. But, isn"t it hard to carry the heavy stuff with your slender arm?"

While complimenting Elise, I said so, and then she nodded to me. Due to that her b.o.o.bs shook too.

"My father buys the meat and vegetables, so I"m left with stocking other small things, still, it"s the shopping of an entire week. So when I go around the market for half a day and return, my arms hurt"

Who will take responsibility if you get a corpulent body like your father? With a bitter smile, I took a posture of a gentleman and try to keep a poker face to not let my thoughts out.

"Then let me help you on your shopping"

"Eh? But…"

"It"s not a date, it"s shopping. Is it still no good?"

"Well…"

Elise thinks with her arms folded. Inside her there is a balance weighting her policy of not going to dates with customers and the weight of the things she has to carry.

"I"m a country b.u.mpkin as you can see"

"That kind of thing…"

Elise says with a bitter smile.

"So, the market in this labyrinth city is new to me… If Elise could help me understand the market here"

"Aah, I see"

Elise nods convinced.

"Well, if that"s the case… You will carry the luggage while I guide you through the town, it"s not a date, this elder sister will show you around"

I would prefer if she thought of it as a favor owed to me, but, it"s not bad either.

(I got it…!)

While doing an internal guts pose I answer with a smile.

"Well then, just tell me when it"s time to go, I"ll have my weekends free"

"Yes, well then. Oh, right"

"Yes?"

Elise brought her mouth close to my ear while having a mischievous smile.

"This should be kept confidential to my father"

She said and went away.

"…………………"

My heart throbbed at such girly gesture and sweet smell.

Well, now that I have made a promise with Elise safely, I have a lot of things I have to do immediately.

One. To acquire fighting power to repel the thugs that will be attacking her. In the game, the hero cooperates with police members to search for her, and the battle is done between the police and the enemies, so their combat strength is unknown. Still, it"s highly probable that the police members are not capable of fighting the hero at that point in the game.

Two. In the unlikely event that a raid occurs in a day other than the shopping day; I will need the capital to buy her when she falls to being a slave. If it happens that I can"t defend her, and I can"t even buy her, it will be very bad. At the very least I should set a preventive line.

Well, my priority is getting stronger? Elise seems unlikely to leave other than to buy groceries, and the thugs can"t just attack her anytime but when she goes out every week. Besides, even if Elise won"t die as the plot is her becoming a slave, I can still die if the thugs defeat me.

That"s why, the next day I went to the labyrinth.

Today"s labyrinth is "Weak beast"s brutal battlefield"

.

The demons that come out here are the "Zakons", who are the weakest in the game.

Although the Zakons have poor attack power, weak defense and low HP, they are quite fast, always appear in groups of 5 or more, they give just 1 experience point, so it"s an unpopular demon.

As far as experimenting to acquire combat experience with demons goes, these are good enough even for kids, so adventurers don"t even bother with these.

However, these Zakons are the most suitable to obtain a strong t.i.tle and skill.

"Now then, let"s go?"

After preparing and checking my equipment I went inside the labyrinth.

Today my equipment is the same as yesterday with a short sword.

But, unlike yesterday, there is a good reason to have brought this simple equipment with me.

One, the Zakons can at most scratch someone with their low attack power.

Second, the purpose is to lighten my body even if slightly.

Today I have two objectives. First, kill one hundred Zakons in one day. And second, to not receive an attack.

Since my goal is to dodge everything, defensive gear is unnecessary. That is why.

(… Hmm, as expected, there are not that many alone)

Tens of seconds after entering the labyrinth I discovered a group of six Zakons.

A grown sphere of around 5cm in radius, with bizarre bat-like wings and sharp tusks is flying in the pa.s.sageway.

I doubt the Zakons have noticed me yet because of their poor eyesight.

I quickly approach the Zakons while gripping my short sword firmly, and ambush the Zakons.