'Huh I'm finally starting to get my senses back.

'Yeah!　Yes, once again, I'm grateful to have the Nolls around.

　After a break, we proceed through the labyrinth to meet up with Noor and the others. Along the way, we are also attacked by various goblins, but we defeat them without difficulty along with Sisha.
　Perhaps because she also doesn't have the increased abilities of Noor and Esther, her movements seem slower than usual. Still, her movements are far more refined than mine.

　I'm a pushover due to Excalibur's attack power and negative hardness time.
　You can't defeat a black goblin and a red goblin without attacking them twice, but the original attack speed is fast enough that you can stab them a second time without a pause after stabbing them once. The speed at which he holds the lid of the pot has also increased with the benefit of this, so it's not too late to block the attack after you see it.

　Even so, it's slower than when Esther's support magic is present, so I feel a little uncomfortable.
　Normally I would be able to move at least this much, but my body doesn't move as it should, even if I try to move. Because of this, Sisuha was also repeatedly jabbing straight at the goblin opponent, saying ah no, ah no, not this way, until just now.
　Relying too much on their increased abilities might be a problem, too. It's fatal to suddenly change your senses when you're divided like this. It's still fine because the other party is a goblin, but if it was a strong demon, it would have been awful.

''We've made a lot of progress, but have you found Nol-san and the others yet?

There's no response on the map... There doesn't seem to be any hierarchy or anything, and this place could be pretty big.

　I've been wandering around for almost an hour now and no response from Noll and the others appears on the map. I've told them to call me if they need anything, so if there's a way to get to the lower floor, they'll call me.
　So I think they're still on the same floor but there's no sign of meeting them at all.

''One goblin goblin after another.......is this a goblin labyrinth?''

'Yes--threatening!　You bastard!

　Goblins kept coming out one after another. While I was distracted by these goblins, a ball of fire flew toward me.
　I blocked it with the lid of the pot, ignored the goblins in front of me with their swords, and ran towards the direction they flew. Then I thrust Excalibur at the goblins in the back, who were holding wands.

''Haha, only goblins that use magic are in danger.

It's defense-penetrating, right?

　When I turned around after defeating the magic-using goblins, the goblins I ignored were already decimated by Sisha. Just the last one's head was pierced by her staff.
　The goblins that use magic are basically handled by me. It's because I have higher magic resistance than Sisha, so it's not a big deal if I get hit when I go to attack them. When I ignore the other goblins, I'm a defense-oriented guy, so my sword and other attacks don't do nearly as much damage.
　And I have her cast a support spell on me that increases my defense. It's easy to forget, but she's a priest, so she can use support magic in that area.

''You always seem to lack confidence, but Okura-san is getting more and more used to fighting, isn't she?

'Hmm?　Is that right?

　Are you getting used to it?　It's true that compared to before, I'm less likely to be hit by attacks from the enemy, and I'm able to judge which one to hit first.
　But compared to those girls I haven't even caught up with them at all yet.

''You already seem to lack confidence in that aspect. Oh, you're right. I'll protect you!　At least say that.

That's a bit of a stretch, but you're stronger than me.

　He holds up his index finger and leans forward with one hand on his hip and says that to me. He changes his tone of voice slightly and says "I'll protect you" in a masculine way. I'm getting into a really good groove with you.
　Well, I don't need you to tell me that. By the time you gain confidence, you are always causing trouble in some way.... Thanks to that, I don't feel confident at all.

''I'm a girl too, and I'd love to be told those lines!　Because of that, Okura-san is a--

Don't say more than that!

　What the hell was he just going to say?　You tried to say something like that, which seriously makes me doubt that you're a priest!
　Noll often calls herself a maiden too, but I wish Sisha would be ashamed of herself if she's going to call herself a girl too. She seemed so innocent and honest when I first met her... no, she's still honest in a bad way.

''Hmm, if the number of magic stones is increasing, it sounds like Nolle and the others are fighting somewhere right now.

'Oh really....wow!　Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Yeah, there's a lot of rare species out here. If it wasn't for this situation, I'd be honestly happy...

　More and more magic stones are being sent to the gift box on my phone. We also defeated quite a few black and red goblins, so we got quite a few magic stones. However, even when we weren't fighting, the number of stones was increasing rapidly.
　Noll and the others must have been killing goblins quite spectacularly as well.... Before I left home, I had 596 magic stones, but now I have 689.
　Even the current amount is a number of recoveries, which is significantly more than the amount of magic stones I've earned in a day so far.
　Normally, I would have screamed and screamed madly, but I can't rejoice somehow because of the situation. I feel like it's wise guy time.

'After we meet up, do you think we could use this place as a camping ground to hunt?

'Hmmm, I don't think we should do that, do you?　You never know when or where the demons will spring up, you know.

So that's it.

　I thought it would be good to set up a base here and hunt for a few days after we joined up, but Sisha easily dismissed me.
　We don't even know where or when the goblins will spring up, and when they're constantly attacking us day and night, it's hard to hunt them. It would be great if we could put a beacon here as well, but it doesn't work out so conveniently.

''Well we haven't even joined up and now we're back in a place that looks like it could be something else.

'Oh, this sounds like something.

　After that, as we continued on with the goblins attacking us, we arrived at a place that was quite spacious. It's about the same size as the room we were in when we were relocated.
　Sisha and I didn't go into it, but instead scurried around from the entrance of that space to look around inside. There are no enemies, and there is nothing conspicuous.
　But that's actually suspicious. It's such a large space. If you go in there, something is bound to happen.

Is that a passage at the back?

Maybe there's something in the back there.

　And at the back of that space, there was a vertical hole as wide as the passage we were in. There must be a path leading to that back.
　I wondered if we could run through and get to that place before something happened, but no matter what I thought about the distance, it was impossible.

'What do we do?'

'If we're going to be safe, I think it's better to go after we meet up with Nol-san and the others. But if we walk this far and don't meet up with them, it's possible that they could be at the end of that passage.

　If you look at the map map, you can see that a significant area is already shown on the map map map. Even so, Nol and the others' reactions were not shown on the map.
　I thought that if this happens, it's possible that they are not on this side as she said. When I thought about it, I was tempted to go to that depths quickly.
　But in order to get to that back there, I'd have to cross this room. I'm not going to be sent somewhere else...?　If there's a path to the back, it's more likely that there's a trap that isn't a transference system.

'Let's wait here. The gnolls might come from that way.

　I'd like to hurry up and join them, but it's not safe to force our way through here. We might hear from them, so let's wait and see what happens.

●

Well I guess we'll just have to go there.

'It doesn't look like there are any on this side, after all. Judging by the movement of the demons on the map map, I don't see any individuals heading elsewhere.

　I think a few minutes had passed since we started waiting. I was in front of the entrance, fighting back the occasional goblin that attacked me, but there was not the slightest sign of the girls coming.
　Looking at the movement of the demons in the range shown on the map app, I don't know what kind of mechanism they use to locate them, but for the most part they were coming towards us. Are they moving to eliminate the intruders?
　Well, at any rate, this reduced the chances of Nol and the others being over here.

'd*mn, I still can't get through to the Noles...'

I guess we'll just have to keep our heads down and move on.

I guess I'll just have to...

　I've been calling several times to try to reach him, but not once has Noll answered. The phone call you called was out of reception - and the familiar reply was that there was no signal.
　If you were able to make a call at first, but now you're in a place where you can't get a signal, have you moved?　But then they should have contacted me before that.
　I also checked the increase in magic stones, and right now, there is no increase at all. That means the girls aren't even fighting.
　I'm starting to get somewhat worried. I'm scared, but we have to move on.

All right, let's go. Stay with me, Sisha, I'll protect you.

Huh?

　With my spirits up, I decided to proceed into this creepy room. In doing so, I said the lines that Sisha had said she wanted to be told.
　It's just me and her now, I guess it's my job to protect her after all.
　Hey, what's that reaction? I had to endure the embarrassment of saying it, and yet that reaction was just too much, wasn't it?

'What........you said you wanted to be told earlier. You should at least give me a proper answer.

'Oh no, I didn't expect you to actually say that.

Oh, you...

　She's looking at me with a grin on her face with the corner of her mouth hanging up and one hand on her chin. She looks like she's having a great time.
　I've never seen such an annoying grin on her face in my entire life. What the hell kind of expression is that? It's not a good expression for a girl to have, rather than a priest.
　It's awful, it's too much. I shouldn't have taken it seriously....

''But it made my heart skip a bit. You're already trying to make me fall in love with you, what are you going to do?　You're going to pop, aren't you?

'I didn't mean to say that!　Huh ... don't tell Esther and the others about this. It's embarrassing.

　This time he put his hand on his cheek and looked embarrassed. He looks like he's pouting and joking around with his mouth, but his cheeks look slightly red.
　I'm embarrassed to let Nol and the others know about this. No, really, why did I say it?
　 I'm pretty embarrassed!

'Yes, of course. ........If I tell you, you're going to incur Esther's wrath.

I'm scared. Angry Esther.

'Yes I'm scared. It's going to make me unable to laugh or cry.

　I don't know what it is, but Sisha agreed not to say it, too.
　I don't know why Esther would be angry, but if you're going to be angry, don't say it. It's really scary when you get angry.

　We decided to go into the room, even though the tension was gone like that, we decided to go into the room.