Labyrinth entrance.
After showing the medallion, the guards blocking the passage with their spears let them through.
...
After passing through the open area, they entered the same corridor area lit by green lamps on the sides.
Tomoya transformed the ring into a Magic Scepter.
The magic scepter had a simple but well-crafted appearance. The material was dark with a green spherical stone held by a three-pronged claw.
It slightly resembled Maleficent's magic scepter.
Aria commented when she noticed the scepter in his hand: "Is that your weapon? It's pretty cool."
"Thanks."
"By the way, what kind of magic can you use?" she asked.
"I mainly use ice magic." He replied. "I can also cast a few buffs."
He aimed the magic scepter at her and used 'Physical Strengthening'.
"Ohh, I feel my power growing!" she exclaimed.
Tomoya didn't stop there, he also used 'Magical Strengthening' and 'Magical Protection'.
A kind of aura surrounded Aria. It wasn't a vibrant color, or it would make her an easy target. It was only slightly noticeable that she had some kind of semi-transparent protection around her.
'Super Assistant, create a reticle for me to use while wielding a scepter or staff. And make it red.' Tomoya mentally requested.
{Done!}
At the sound of the Super Assistant's voice, he saw a red cross-shaped reticle.
When he lowered the magic scepter, the reticle disappeared. Only when he stood at attention with the magic scepter did the reticle appear.
'By the way, calling you Super Assistant all the time is annoying. Can I give you a name?' Tomoya asked.
{Yes, you can.}
'Alright then. From now on, your name will be Friday.' Tomoya shamelessly copied the name of Tony Stark's assistant.
Reasons? Because he thought it was cool.
{Accepted. From now on I will be Friday.}
Even the Super Assistant's voice—now Friday—changed. It became less robotic and took on a more feminine tone.
At first, he thought of Jarvis, but let's be honest—he felt uncomfortable imagining a man's voice in his head. But when he imagined it being a woman, he didn't mind as much. Even though he knew deep down it was just his own ability, he still felt a certain repulsion at using a masculine name.
Whereas Friday was a more neutral name. Suitable for an intelligent lifeform of sorts.
Friday's feminine voice slightly resembled a voice from a game. It was robotic, but still had a clearly defined gender tone.
He stopped thinking about it when the first group of goblins came into view.
Raising the magic scepter, the reticle locked onto a goblin's head.
"Fireball." He said out loud.
There was no need to say a single word, but there was no harm in doing so in this scenario.
When the skill activated, a fireball formed and launched toward the goblin.
The speed was incredible. Nothing compared to the ice arrows he tried to create at first. Whether due to the improvement in his stats or better mana control stability.
"Kyahhhh!"
"..."
When the fireball hit the goblin, Tomoya fell silent while Aria screamed.
The reason was simple. The attack was far more powerful than he could have imagined. What was supposed to be a simple fireball turned into something akin to a grenade. When it hit the goblin's face, it exploded violently, tearing apart not only the target but also the three nearby goblins.
"P-Powerful!" Aria exclaimed right after.
Even without saying anything, Tomoya had to agree. He still couldn't believe such damage came from a basic Mage class skill.
Part of the labyrinth's side wall was affected; chunks of the wall fell from the impact. When the dust settled, parts of goblins were visible everywhere, burned.
"It's still worth taking their ears, right?" Tomoya asked Aria, uncertain.
Swallowing dryly, she replied: "Yes, it's still valid."
Before starting, he waited a bit.
The scattered pieces of goblins caused revulsion.
He needed a few seconds to mentally prepare himself.
Not to mention... the thought of having to cut off ears, even if they were goblin ears, was quite disgusting.
Reluctantly, he walked over to the goblin parts with ears.
Initially, he intended to grab a knife from the Item Box, but changed his mind.
Standing in front of a severed goblin head, he pointed the magic scepter and with the reticle on the ear, he created an ice blade and fired.
A clean and precise cut. The goblin's ear was perfectly severed and fell to the side.
Having succeeded right away, he cut the second ear and continued.
Soon, he had cut all eight ears.
Aria came with a cloth bag and stored them.
"Here." She handed it to him.
Taking it, he stored it in the Item Box.
"So jealous..." she muttered.
"If you want something like this, I can get one for you. But I can't just give it to you for free. It'll cost 1,000 gold coins." He said.
"Really?" Aria grabbed his hand with shining eyes.
1,000 gold coins was an astronomical amount, but for a storage item, it was worth it. In fact, it was even cheap. Even if he asked for one hundred thousand gold coins, she would still want it.
"Yes." Tomoya agreed, saying: "Not only that, but if you team up with me and sell the monsters you defeat to me, I'll pay you a generous amount. For example. 5 goblins, I'll pay 1 gold coin."
The reason he made such an offer was simple: after selling the goblins' remains, he earned one gold coin. By his calculations, every 4–5 goblins would yield 1 gold coin. And he needed to consider that 1 of his gold coins was worth 10 gold coins from this planet.
In other words, he would still be profiting from her. However, before, she didn't take goblin corpses—only their ears—so she would be profiting off him too.
"So, I'd have to kill 5,000 goblins to get a storage item... If I manage to kill 20 per day, it'd take a little over 3 years. That's assuming I only kill goblins. If I hunt monsters that are worth more..." she muttered, then her eyes lit up even more. She agreed enthusiastically: "I accept!"
"Then, I hope we have a happy collaboration together." Tomoya smiled.
"Happy collaboration~!" she agreed cheerfully.
Her excitement was understandable. After all, a storage item was something valuable and very useful for an adventurer.
"By the way, the item I'm referring to is a ring with 10 cubic meters." Tomoya thought it was important to reveal the size from the start.
"That much?" Once again, Aria was surprised.
Seeing her reaction, he understood it was larger than she expected. In fact, there were storage artifacts with smaller space, but for the price of 990 gold coins, he could get one with 10 cubic meters.
He'd only be making a profit of 10 gold coins with her. But from the beginning, he didn't plan to exploit her.
And having her as a partner was better than exploring this labyrinth alone.
After walking a bit more, he actually saw five goblins around a campfire roasting something.
"I'll go!" Aria said, charging toward the goblins.
At five meters away, she murmured "Acceleration" and ran even faster with her two longswords.
However, instead of attacking with her sword, she dropkicked one goblin in the chest, sending him flying into a wall and bouncing off the ground.
Next, she spun her sword and sliced a goblin in half through the chest.
"Kigi!" With a dagger, a goblin attacked her.
"Gaki!" At the same time, another goblin attacked from behind.
Seeing this, Tomoya decided to help a bit. Striking the magic scepter on the ground, ice formed at the goblins' feet.
Quickly, Aria finished off the remaining goblins.
'She said she's been an adventurer for some time, but I must say her way of fighting is quite reckless.' he thought.
He knew about the existence of healing potions. From what he'd learned through her, Aria used at least one a day. And the cost wasn't that cheap. At minimum, half of her salary was spent on potions.
There was no problem with her strength and speed—it was more her fighting style that left something to be desired.
Using references from stories and games, he knew a thousand and one better ways to fight than she did.
'Maybe if I do this...' He formed a plan to help her.
As a long-term partner he wanted, he didn't mind making a small effort to help her improve.
He approached and used ice slash to cut the goblins' ears.
"Hehe, with you doing this, it's much easier." She stuck out her tongue and said: "I admit I hate the part where I have to cut goblin ears. Not only is it more work, it's also disgusting."
"In that case, leave it to me. You just need to collect the cut ears." he said.
"Deal!" she agreed cheerfully.
[+1 gold coin]
After selling the goblins, even their worn daggers, they continued on.
They turned a corner, and a few meters away, there were six goblins—one of them being a Goblin Mage.
"I'll go..."
"Wait, Aria!" Tomoya stopped her.
"Yes?"
"Can you lend me your swords for a moment? I want to test something." he requested.
Even confused, she agreed and handed both swords to him.
Holding her two swords, Tomoya closed his eyes, then opened them while mentally using 'Distortion Future'.
In this distorted scenario, he imagined having the same abilities as Aria.
When he saw he could even use Aria's 'Acceleration' skill, he smiled and moved forward.
Unlike her style of charging at goblins, he walked with the swords extended sideways.
"Giki?"
"Gaki?"
Goblin Mage: "Bukigi!"
What seemed to be a command, the five goblins moved when the Goblin Mage said something.
On the Goblin Mage's wooden staff, a fireball began to form.
Tomoya remained calm. He kept walking without losing sight of the Goblin Mage, even as the five goblins surrounded him.
When a fireball was shot toward him, Tomoya murmured aloud "Acceleration".
When he did this, he understood. The skill only accelerated his movements, but not time or reaction speed.
Still, it was a good skill. Taking small jumps, on the third, he leapt sideways over two meters high—but not before cutting off the heads of two goblins.
With his feet on the wall, his body bent, and then he propelled himself forward to the side while the fireball had already missed the target, hitting the ground.
When he shot forward to the side, the two swords in his hands cut like scissors, and soon three more heads flew off.
Spinning his body still in the air, he landed on the ground, sliding due to the speed.
After becoming unstable, he murmured again 'Acceleration' and shot straight toward the Goblin Mage who was forming a second fireball.
A disgusting little smile formed on the Goblin Mage's lips upon seeing this.
"Tomoya, watch out!" Aria shouted.
Tomoya smiled in response, fearlessly.
He slashed forward with his sword, hitting the forming fireball and making it explode in the air, and with the second sword, he stabbed toward the Goblin Mage's neck.
"Gukiiiiiiii!"
With a distorted, pitiful scream, the Goblin Mage died.
Pulling the sword back, Tomoya began to murmur: "Instead of doing that, I could've done it differently there, I did too many acrobatics, I didn't need to make such flashy moves, if I had done it like this, the result would be better, but it was good to find out that..."
Aria approached him.
"Tomoya?" she called out to him.
Looking at her, he still had a thoughtful expression. Coming back to himself, he gave an apologetic smile and said as he handed back the swords: "Here. Thanks for lending them to me."
"You're welcome..." She seemed a bit down.
It was understandable, since she saw Tomoya use her ability and felt that he did a better job than she did.
"Just now..." She didn't know how to ask about what she saw.
"It's one of my abilities. It allows me to copy someone's ability. That's why I was able to use your ability 'Accelerate.'" He replied, saying: "I just wanted to show that there are different ways for you to fight using your ability. I see a lot of potential in you, but what you lack is imaginative power."
"Imagination?" She seemed confused.
"Like this. Your fighting style is always the same," he said slowly. "You use your 'Acceleration' ability and charge straight in. That makes you predictable. Even with the advantage of using long swords, if you're surrounded by goblins, I see you being pressured to the point of getting hurt, even if you come out victorious. Do you understand what I mean?"
"So, what should I do?" she asked, seeking help.
"Don't rush in right away. Predict your opponent's fighting style. Do a mental battle. Like, if they do this, I'll do that, etc. Imagine how you would react in different scenarios," Tomoya advised. "If you do that—maybe I'm talking nonsense—but I believe you'll become stronger."
"No, I don't think you're talking nonsense." She shook her head and bowed toward him. "Thank you for the advice!"
"I'm glad if it helps you even a little." Tomoya smiled.
After cutting off the goblins' ears, even the Goblin Mage's, Tomoya sold them, excluding the wooden staff. That's because Aria had said: "If you bring the wooden staff from a Goblin Mage, you can complete a Rank D mission. You only need 2 wooden staffs from Goblin Mages."
Upon hearing that, he saw no reason to sell the staff. And, with the sale of the goblins, he got +3 gold coins.
--
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