S*ave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World - Volume 3

Then again, being overly cautious like that will probably make me look like some sort of idiot who does so because he has nothing better to do with his time, not to mention that keeping an eye on literally everything around me also seem like something quite impossible to do.

Now, the question is: what should I do with this Black Magic Crystal? Hmm…

「Well, this Magic Crystal is black, so it means that it is pretty much useless to us right now, right? All we can do with it now is to either sell it or keep it with us until it accumulates more magic power within it.」

「Uhm… or we could just fuse master’s Magic Crystal together with this one…」

Roxanne told that to me.

「Fuse them… together?」

「Yes. If you press two Magic Crystals together, they will be combined into one Magic Crystal.」

「But won’t the magic power stored in the Magic Crystal with less magic power stored get lost in this way?」

「It is okay, master, magic power will not get wasted, so you do not have to worry about that. As I said, when fusing two Magic Crystals together, you combine two of them into one, but it works not just for their physical shell, but for the magic power stored within them as well.」

I was thinking it would be nice to have a spare Magic Crystal on me, but since Roxanne recommends fusing them together so much, then I guess there is no harm in trying it out. And besides, even if it somehow ends up in failure, it will be all right, because a Black Magic Crystal is only worth ten Nars at best, so it is not like losing it is going to impact me in any particular way.

I took out a Green Magic Crystal from my backpack. Even in the dim light of the Labyrinth, it was still shining beautifully in comparison to the Black Magic Crystal in my other hand. I would definitely be able to spot something like that even if it was on the ground, because that shine is pretty distinct.

「Eh? Master’s Magic Crystal is already green? But was it not red not that long ago?!」

「It was, but now it has become like that. Pretty shocking, huh?」

I tried to play it off as casually as I could.

「Yes, that is amazing! How did you do it, master?!」

「That’s a secret.」

I cannot tell her that my Magic Crystal has already become green because I have a Bonus Skill called Crystal Acceleration which drastically increases the speed of gathering the magic power form defeated monsters by multiplying its obtained amount, right? Roxanne would definitely freak out even more if she found that out. But while we are still on the subject of Magic Crystals and how they shine… since the last stage of filling the Magic Crystal is the White Magic Crystal, I wonder how brightly that would shine in the dark? Maybe in the same way like a flashlight, or perhaps a streetlight? Anyway, I bet that finding it is going to be so much easier if it ever happens.

I then placed my own Green Magic Crystal in the palm of my right hand, and the newly-found Black Magic Crystal in my left hand, and then I pressed the two of them together, just like Roxanne showed me. As a result, the Black Magic Crystal sunk into the Green Magic Crystal without any kind of resistance. It was a strange feeling, combining the two solid objects like they were neither hard nor soft like that, but it was also kinda addicting, like popping each individual bubble on a roll of bubble wrap. I think I could get used to doing this, that’s how oddly satisfying it felt.

「So, will this do?」

「Yes, that is literally all there is to the entire process of fusing Magic Crystals together.」

「So they can become one just like that, huh?」

When the entire process has been completed, the only thing that remained was my Green Magic Crystal. Since its color did not change even after fusing it together with that Black Magic Crystal, I guess it means that it did not have all that much magical energy stored within it, and it does not surprise me, since the requirement for changing the color of the Magic Crystal from green to yellow was to accumulate the magical energy of a total of ten thousand monsters. With my Crystal Acceleration Bonus Skill it will definitely go faster than that, but I have no doubt that the amount needed will still be quite big.

I placed the Green Magic Crystal back in my backpack, and with that business concluded, there was no more reasons for us to be staying in this Boss Room anymore, so we moved on unto the eight floor.

「Roxanne, can you smell if there are any monsters nearby?」

「As you wish, master… *Sniff Sniff* *Sniff Sniff* … hmm, I smell a single Needlewood nearby, but that is it. I do not sense any other monsters in our near vicinity. Do you want me to guide you to that monster now?」

「There’s no need for you to do that now. I was not planning on fighting anything on the eight floor, even if we managed to get here. That battle against the Rapid Rabbit was pretty tough, so there is no need to be pushing ourselves too far just for the sake of going a little further ahead.」

I stopped Roxanne from going in the direction where she sensed the presence of the monster. Looks like the eighth floor of the Quratar Labyrinth is occupied by Needlewoods, but even though I already know them and their attack patterns like the back of my own hand, I have not felt like fighting them right now at all.

「I see. In that case, should we go back and face the Floor Boss of the seventh floor again?」

「No, since we know that there might be other Parties waiting to face the Rapid Rabbit, going back to the seventh floor and waiting in queue to the Boss Room would only bring us more unwanted trouble. Instead of proceeding with the eight floor here, let us go to the Veil’s Labyrinth, since we have yet to break through the seventh floor there. We can always come back here tomorrow if we won’t have luck with the seventh floor’s Waiting Room being empty.」

「Understood.」

I don’t know why, but somehow I do not feel like going for a rematch with the Rapid Rabbit just now, so I came up with whatever reason for postponing the second battle with it until tomorrow. Could it be that the death of that friendly Explorer guy has shaken me more than I realizing it? Probably so, because with each step I took, I felt more and more like I didn’t want to do anything at all, falling deeper into the embrace of apathy.

Needless to say, even though we went to Veil’s Labyrinth to do some exploration and monster hunting, this particular bout there did not go very well and we haven’t gotten much further, because everything I did was done mechanically, without me actually putting my backbone into it like I was supposed to be doing. I just lost all the motivation, like a tire that has been deflated after being pierced with a sharp piece of glass lying on the road. The only thing that kept me from collapsing under my own weight which was crushing down upon was the knowledge that Roxanne was right next to me, so I could not allow myself to show any weakness in order not to make her worry any more than she already was.

That night, I did it with Roxanne… over, and over, and over again. And unlike all the other times we did it with each other, this time… it was pretty rough and violent. I probably did that in order to slip away from the grasp of death that I felt around me stronger than ever (TL Note: Curious words coming from someone who literally wanted to off himself two volumes ago) and in order to prove to myself that I am here and I am alive, and to find a reason to keep on living.

Yes, now I can say that for sure. The death of that random Explorer hit me pretty hard. It’s not that I grew fond of him, because that would be strange after only meeting once and exchanging like, what, only a few sentences? No, it was not about that. The death of that guy came as such a shock to me most likely because if the events went differently, then we might have as well switched places.