Editor: Merry Christmas! We're back! But for this holiday season, our schedules will be erratic. If nothing particularly troublesome happens, then we'll be back to our regular schedule by the start of 2018.

Translator: Merry X’mas for the people who celebrate it! So sorry, I was busy for the final a.s.signment to be graduated next year. So I will try my best again this year and also next year too!

Enjoy!

———-

By challenging the labyrinth repeatedly, I feel that I'm gradually getting used to handling monsters.

Well, to be specific, for someone who's spent so much time playing games in my original world, encountering monsters didn't shock me as much as it would have. As such, the idea of fighting monsters to survive was something open to me from the beginning.

It doesn't matter what they look like; they're all pretty much the same to me.

Ah, but sometimes, I do still get surprised by something. I mean, it's not like every monster I encounter here also exists in some form in the games I've played.

While I spent my time leisurely by being nostalgic about video games, we managed to travel to the 19th floor without much difficulty. Well it's because of Lastiara's prodigious talent of laying waste to the enemies violently, though. I warned Lastiara to not get carried away, but she didn't pay me any heed and just kept on fighting monsters on her own pace.

Then, as Lastiara was cheerfully trotting down the path, it appeared.

A ma.s.sive monster in the middle of the road.

A monster that stands on two legs and resembles a cow. The body is extremely flexible with brownish, hairy skin. Its eyes look very intimidating, and it stood there threateningly with a giant axe held with both hands.

Minotaur? Yeah, gotta be.

「Woah, what is that? A weird monster appeared!」

「Di, disgusting! And it’s enormous…」

Unlike me, Lastiara and Maria don’t have gaming experience, so it was their first time encountering a minotaur.

Then I use 『Display』on the Minotaur to see its details.

【Monster】Carmine Minotaur: Rank 20

As I thought, its Minotaur!

… I sometimes feel that it's strange how the displayed names are in the language I'm familiar with. The language and culture of this world is supposed to be different from my world, right? Somehow I feel a bit disappointed.

Anyway, after confirming its attributes, I inform Lastiara.

「The name of the monster is Carmine Minotaur. This beast is a power type. Do you want to face it?」

「Mmmー Maybe this time I will protect Maria from behind? I feel like Maria's feeling down anyway」

That's a surprise. Lastiara isn't willing to fight this one and is leaving it to us. Is it because this is her first time encountering this kind of monster?

But I do realize what she's trying to achieve after seeing Maria's reaction…

「No, I’m fine. I prefer to be alone!」

「Wow! Since when did you start hating me? I thought yesterday was the start of our beautiful relations.h.i.+p!」

「You forced me to!」

「Hmmmーa nice, cold reaction! As they say, haste makes waste!」

While talking, Lastiara continues to make moves Maria until she was able to pull her into an unwilling hug.

「Hey! Please think the time and place for doing this!」

「I'm fully charged!ーSieg! Leave the rear to me!」

It looks like Lastiara really will just be a rearguard this time.

Well, it's obvious why she's doing this. She just wants to play with Maria. I kind of envy her, since she can have fun even within a dungeon.

Lastiara continues to hug Maria like a close friend. But Maria shouldn't be weak to the point where she couldn't just forcefully release herself. Though it might just be possible that the gap between their stats are just that big.

No matter. Feel calm, I step forward to face the minotaur.

The minotaur also walks closer while breathing roughly.

Rank 20. This is the first time I’m dealing with a monster that high in rank.

Based on experience, rank indicates quality. From information I’ve heard in the bar and with what I’ve seen with 『Display』a monster's rank is usually low. In other words, this Minotaur is a monster that needs someone of level 20 and above to face.

Just yesterday my level rose to level 11. It's hard to say what'll happen. However, my attributes aren't inferior against someone of level 20. I mean, this should be a good fight.

「ーMagic《Dimensional Gladiate》Magic 《Foam》」

At a distance of around 3 meters, the minotaur suddenly swings its axe down at me. It was a simple attack though, and I managed to avoid it relatively easily.

I'm not a piece of paper you can cut down with one attack, you know… Though with his strength, I feel that the words "the deeper you are, the stronger they get" rings true. Well, if I ever try to grind alone, I'll try to look for a safer path then.

Well if things go really wrong, there's always Lastiara, who has the same parameters as me, who I can depend on. More importantly, she can use healing magic, although she rarely uses it herself. But she did say she's not against using it, so it'll probably be fine.

I had been severely injured before, but with Lastiara at my side, I won't have to feel insecure about getting injured again. As long as I don't get killed, there's no problem. (ED: That's a horrible mindset)

While avoiding attacks from the minotaur, I use magic《Foam》on its body.

Because of that, the minotaur's moves became sluggish and it couldn't keep up with me anymore. I'm convinced about the effects of my magic with my fight with Radiant last time.

I make sure the minotaur's movements are sufficiently crippled, and then I proceed with experimenting.

「ーMagic 《Foam》Magic《Freeze》ー」

I cover the minotaur's entire body with foam, I then use the magic, Freeze. Previously, this magic can only lower the temperature, but now, it can go even lower.

I let the foam endowed with freezing magic cover the ground. Because the minotaur can't see where it was, it started walking blindly. Because it didn’t pay attention, the foam exploded at its feet when it set foot on it.

Its feet instantly froze. Because of how sudden it was, the minotaur was shocked and lost its balance.

With a combination of Magic Foam and Freeze. I’m naming it…

「Magic 《Dimesnsional Day Snow》」 (ED: Why? Isn't it something like a freeze trap?)

I was relieved.

In the past, I realized that I couldn't learn《Little Snow》, but with this I managed to create something with similar effects, Taking advantage of the opportunity, I quickly rushed over to it and slit its neck. Or at least I tried to. My sword's being blocked by something that felt like bone on its neck. At first, I was worried that it was because my stats weren't enough to penetrate its skin, but well, my mistake. Maybe I'm just cutting in the wrong place.

I gave up trying to cut its neck and just stabbed it instead. The blood coming from the neck covered the ground with red. (TL: Cow’s slaughterhouse?)

However, it's still not dead. The minotaur, after sustaining severe injuries, started swinging its axe wildly. However, aimlessly flailing isn't threatening at all. Not only is there no skill with its swings, it's slower now as well.

I aimed my next attack at its eyes.

Checkmate!

The minotaur has lost a lot of blood. I merely just dragged time by focusing on dodging. Because its eyes were damaged, its accuracy became quite horrible. The only difficult part is trying to avoid getting hit by all the blood splattering around. A few moments later, the minotaur finally fell. It's body turned into particles of light and left behind a magic stone.

Although I cannot win quickly like Lastiara did, I am quite proud of being able to defeat a rank 20 monster creatively.

【Experience points】 7122/25000

Hundreds of experience points are possible by beating one opponent as we go to deeper floors.

I picked up the magic stone and checked its quality.

【Third rate, Fire Stone】

High concentration magic stone with flame power. This stone can be dropped from a monster that has a fire attribute.

It contains 『Anger』 (ED: Probably because it's p.i.s.sed off that you beat it with bubbles)

The quality of the devil stone rose, and the sentence of the details got longer, too.

It seems like learning a new magic spell is possible by swallowing this is possible, but the idea of that is…

Lastiara and Maria, who had been watching from a distance, approached me and glanced at the stone on my hand.

「Good job, Sieg! You said it was hard on the 20th floor, but you beat that monster nicely!」

「That wasn’t easy! It was a good fight, but I don’t want to fight in a battle that I'm not absolutely sure I can win」

「Eh, certainty? You could win easily if you try…」

「That one was more than enough」

「Ehhー」

I want to get to the deepest part of this Labyrinth without any losses. That’s my goal.

Though I doubt the reckless Lastiara would understand.

「I know you don’t understand, but let it go. It's fine if only me and Maria understood.」

「Nooooo! I want to understand too!」

「Will you? Let's put it this way; there will be a balance in how we do things. If dangerous, you'll be the vanguard. If it’s safe, let me go ahead. That way, we're all happy. Not a bad deal, right? 」 (ED: What a jacka.s.s)

「Mmm, well, if you say so. I don't think that was the point of our previous discussion, but well that’s okay!」 (ED: Lastiara's so simple lol)

「Reality is always different from what you think」

「Ehhhhー!?」

While arguing lightheartedly with Lastiara, we continued heading deeper.

———-

Editor Note: I'll be graduating next year, but I won't have much to do besides reviewing for my board exam, so I should be able to stuff these things regularly in 2018. Next chapter should be up before the New Year's eve. As a side note, Release That Witch's approaching a climax. I won't spoil, but it seems like Qidian's past delays were planned to make New Year's Eve special XD