Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 4 - Ch 3.16

We are pressing onward to the seventh floor! And there:

Here we are, the seventh floor. Sherry, this floor is our current hunting grounds, or to put it in other words, this is the last floor we cleared before I decided to add you to our Party. The monsters here are even stronger than the ones you encountered on the sixth floor, so I advise you to keep your guard up and remain cautious at all times.

I gave Sherry a warning when we emerged from the Portal that brought us to the seventh floor of the Vales Labyrinth.

All right, I will be sure to do just that. . . . . . but, since I was doing okay even if I got hit by the monsters we were fighting on the lower floors earlier, so I think that it should be okay for us to proceed even further and at a faster pace than the one we are currently going with. I. . . I know that it might sound like I am being selfish, but I do not want to drag Miss Roxanne and Master down just because I am the newest member of masters Party.

Yes, Sherry, I am perfectly aware of that. However, you say that you were doing okay, but that okay of yours was partially due to my Plating Skill that was reducing the damage that you were sustaining from the monsters attacks, so I would hazard a guess that your own damage resistance is lower than what you might think it is.

I see what you are getting at, Sherry, but I need you to remember that this is the Labyrinth, a truly dangerous place where we can be attacked at any time and we are putting our lives on the line with every encounter here, so because of that, I think it definitely will not hurt us to be that much more cautious, would you not agree? That is exactly the reason for why we have been taking things slowly by moving from the first floor upwards: to be safe and avoid getting ourselves hurt. Also. . . . I have told this to Roxanne before, and now I am going to say exactly the same thing to you. No matter what happens, I do not want to lose you either, Sherry.

Is that so? I. . . thank you very much, master. I promise that I am going to be more careful with how I act from now on.

Great. As long as you understand that I am not saying all of this to impede you and stall our progress, that is all that matters to me.

Yes, of course!

Nice, somehow I managed to sweet-talk her out of doing anything irresponsible that would only end up causing us the unnecessary amount of trouble. . . . . . . no, on second thought, scratch that. It is not that I sweet talked Sherry into being more careful. I really meant what I said to her. Now that she has become my slave, she is another one of my precious companions in this strange and unfamiliar world, and I really do not want to lose her, both as a potential asset to my Party and as a friend.

I am glad that you are being so rationally cautious despite being so powerful, master. Sixth and seventh floors of the Labyrinths are said to be the ones where the mortality rate among Adventurers begins to go up in comparison to the lower floors due to how tricky and strong the Floor Bosses of these floors are. . . . . ah, and there is also the talk about The Demon of the Seventh Floor, so that makes me all the more at ease knowing that you think about the safety of the entire Party so much.

The Demon of the Seventh Floor, huh? That is the first time I am hearing about such a thing, but just its name alone sounds so dangerous that I think steering clear of that thing, whatever it might be, will be the best possible course of action. That being said, I am a little bit curious about it though.

Do you know something more about thisDemon of the Seventh Floor? I mean, whatever it is, there has to be a reason as to why it is called like that, right?

I am not sure about the specifics, but the most common talks among the people state that this is probably because the seventh floors of the Labyrinths are the ones around which all of the beginner-level Adventurers and Explorers start getting more comfortable with the exploration and fighting monsters, which in turn makes them significantly less cautious and wary because they are convinced that nothing on this floor will be able to threaten them since all the previous ones were manageable for them, and they think that the seventh floor is going to be the same, only to have a pretty rude awakening. It seems that it has become quite a common pitfall that more and more people are falling into these days.

(Ah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .!!!!)

Supposedly, the majority of the people who are falling into this pitfall are the ones who were fighting their way up to the seventh floor without any issues only to become increasingly more frustrated at how big of a difficulty spike the seventh floor really is and how long it is taking them to get stronger while being here, so the common occurrence is them becoming obsessed with getting to the eight floor as soon as possible, which causes them to become quite reckless in their pursuit of single-minded strength.

I see. . . . . .

So The Demon of the Seventh Flooris not a creature, but more of a concept, huh? Shit, this reminds me of that guy whom we met outside of the Rapid Rabbit Boss Room the other day. His story was exactly like the one Sherry talked about just now. He told us that he has already been on the seventh floor for two whole years now, so I guess it was to be expected that he would get impatient at some point and try to make a break for it because, as the guy himself said it he felt that fortune was on his side that day. Fortune on his side? Yeah, right, on his side it was. So much in fact that he got killed in the battle with the Rapid Rabbit moments later. Maybe things would have turned out differently for him if only he had Party members or slaves with him, but unfortunately, he said that he was too poor to afford them, his daily earnings barely being enough for him to pay for the renting of the room and the food for himself. So in the end, it was exactly what Sherry said: the thing that doomed him was his own impatience and the obsessive desire to leave the seventh floor. I guess I should be happy that neither I nor Roxanne got seriously injured or worse when it was finally our turn to fight the Rapid Rabbit, but we should keep it in mind that we absolutely cannot allow ourselves to become overconfident, because whatever happens to other people today might very well happen to us tomorrow. Sherrys words were a good cautionary tale, as well as a reminder that sometimes being hasty is not necessarily the right thing to do. At times, what really ends up being the right choice is a slow and steady approach where the rewards might not be as good, but at least we are going to be sure that we will not be losing our lives over some easily avoidable mistakes.

After that talk of ours, we ended up fighting the monsters on the seventh floor for a good while, moving forward at our usual pace without trying to force ourselves too much. It is also here that I made some additional observations in regards to Sherrys behavior on the battlefield. While it might not be a fair comparison due to how different the two of them are, I have no choice but to compare her to Roxanne, and the result of that comparison is that Sherry is much less confident in her movements, but even so, these movements of hers are still much better than my own, unrefined ones. I feel like it still might be a little risky, but I think that it is high time to stop babysitting her with Alchemists Plating and switch from the Playing It Safe Modeto Active Leveling Mode.