"Okay, I think that should be good enough, it looks like it’s cooked through...alright, then, here I go," I muttered warily, as I bit into one of the Kappas’ arms, having roasted it with flames.

"So, uh...how is it?" Inquired Rosary, as I cautiously munched on it.

"Well...it’s not great. But it’s not terrible either. It doesn’t have much of a taste, it’s kind of a mellow flavor. The meat is a bit rubbery and chewy, but the texture is definitely a lot better than the Slime. Like, I wouldn’t eat this if I had a choice, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve tasted either," I surmised, as I continued eating it, before glancing at the others, "So, any of you want to give this a try?"

"Uh...I think I’m good. Maybe if we come across a stronger Monster," Ilex shook his head after a brief pause.

"Same here, I’m gonna pass on this," Added Rosary apprehensively.

"Hm...I’ll give it a taste. I’m kinda curious about it," Chimed in Prysm, stepping forward hesitantly.

I handed her a bone with some meat at the end of it, before she tentatively took a bite from it, warily chewing on it as she tore the meat off the bone.

"How is it?" Rosary asked her curiously.

"It’s just like Larrk said...not great but not terrible either. Yeah, it’s alright...though it does still feel really weird to be eating Monster meat like this," She replied wryly.

"True, but I can get used to it...only because it’ll make me stronger though, I definitely wouldn’t be eating this if there wasn’t anything to gain. Well, unless I’m completely starving and have no other options, I guess," I remarked, as I cooked up more of the meat.

"Well, hurry up and finish it off, we should get moving again soon," Pointed out Rosary.

"If you stop to eat every strong Monster you come across, we won’t make much progress," Added Ilex with a nod.

"Hm...yeah, that’s a fair point, I guess. Well, in that case, from here on I’ll just put the Monster corpses in my Pocket Dimension and eat them later. Might as well finish this one though, since I’ve already eaten most of it," I replied after mulling it over.

I wolfed down a good bit more of the meat before stopping after a while as I felt a bit full. Don’t want to overstuff myself, or I’ll struggle to fight at my best, it’ll be tough to move freely if I overeat.

We then continued making our way down the Labyrinth, running into more Disastrous Grade Monsters at fairly regular intervals. This is going well, I can feel it...slowly but surely, all of us are unconsciously sharpening our abilities, with there being less margin for error against these more powerful Monsters.

We’d already discussed what to do if we come across a Monster that’s too powerful for us to handle...if such a situation arises, I’ll toss the others into my Pocket Dimension before I myself drop down into the shadows and wait till the Monster leaves.

So far though, while we have encountered a number of tough Monsters, they’ve all been Disastrous Grades, and we’ve been able to handle them without too much trouble. I’ve tossed quite a number of them into my Pocket Dimension, filling it with ice to keep them fresh and avoiding rotting.

Not gonna lie, this feels pretty daunting...to think that I’ll have to do this every single day for potentially a couple of years, it’s gonna be rough. Of course, there are some Monsters that I definitely don’t plan on eating...

"So, uh...you’re not gonna eat that one, are you?" Inquired Ilex in bemusement, as we came across a large Monster.

"Yeah, absolutely not...," I replied with a wry laugh.

It’s a Giant Taratect, a Disastrous Grade. We were down to the thirty-third floor now, which is the deepest I’ve been so far in the Labyrinth...we’re gonna teleport back out shortly, this might be the last Monster we face.

I’m a little disappointed that this isn’t one I’d be willing to eat...yeah, bug Monsters are a major nope in that regard. Though I might consider it if it were a Catastrophic Grade. But since I’m not planning to eat this one, I don’t have to worry about destroying its body...which means I can finally use this...

"It’ll shoot out its webs if we get any closer, we’ll have to attack from a distance with attacks powerful enough to kill it right away...now’s our best chance, while it’s still sizing us up and being wary," Frowned Rosary, as the Monster stared down at us from the ceiling.

"Let me handle this, you guys hang back...I’ve got just the thing," I smirked, before unleashing a wave of blue flames in front of me as I shot forward.

Sure enough, the large spider Monster immediately fired out several streaks of webs at me, but they all got burnt up instantly by the flames. Just a little closer...almost there...

As it then fired out a burst of its thick venom, a lot of the viscous liquid getting evaporated but some of it putting out a significant amount of my flames, I sprang up and raised my hand towards it...here goes, Heretic Spell: Black Hole!

Using my other hand, I swiftly swung my whip across towards a pillar, which struck and firmly wrapped around it, to keep me from getting pulled in towards the black hole too.

The Monster let out an alarmed, agonized screech as its body got sucked into the imploding sphere, firing out its webs to the ceiling to try and pull itself away, but it was too late, with more than half its body already gone.

It was helpless to resist as it got fully drawn into the black hole, before I swiftly undid the Spell and dropped down towards the ground, landing with a sigh.

"Hey, a little warning the next time you use that!" Suddenly came Rosary’s voice, before I glanced back to see her and Ilex on the floor.

Rosary had her claws dug into the ground while Ilex had done the same with his Soul Weapon, forming a Mana blade and piercing it into the ground.

Prysm was the only one still standing, looks like she went behind a pillar, she must’ve done so as soon as she realized what I was going to do...well, she’s the only one who’s already seen this Spell, so she knows what it can do and was able to react in time.

If I’d created a smaller black hole, the force probably wouldn’t have reached them, but I had to make it large in order to account for the Monster’s size.

It’s definitely highly effective, but I should probably avoid using it unless I’m alone. Yeah, it might be just a little bit too effective...

"Oops, my bad. So, anyway, should we keep going a bit further or call it a day?" I asked them, as I stretched my arms up.

"I think we should wrap things up here and head back out. It’s gotten pretty late, we’ve been down here for over ten hours at this point," Responded Rosary, after checking the time.

"Huh, has it really been that long?" I mused in reply.

With the Deatrio party, we spent eight hours in the Labyrinth each day, and it felt way longer than this felt today.

"Alright, I’ve set a Teleportation Point in this spot, so we can come right back here tomorrow or whenever we’re planning to go down the Labyrinth next," Prysm informed us.

"That’s really convenient, um...otherwise it’d take us about half a day at least to get all the way back up on foot," Remarked Ilex with a sigh of relief.

He seems to have gotten more comfortable around these two, that’s good...he still gets a bit nervous and stutters when they talk to him sometimes, but it’s not as bad as before.

"Gotta say, you really caught me off guard when your personality completely switched while fighting some of those Monsters. Never would’ve guessed you had such a dark side to you," Grinned Rosary, as she walked over.

"H-huh? P-please forget about that, I-I can’t help it," He muttered as he turned red with embarrassment and buried his face in his hands.

"Yeah, that’s gonna be impossible," She laughed in response.

"Definitely, you really startled me when you started laughing all crazy and stuff," Nodded Prysm in agreement, as Ilex let out a muffled groan.

"Come on, stop picking on him, you two. You’re gonna end up scaring him away," I smiled wryly.

"Heh, if he does that, we’ll just tell everyone about his hidden persona," Smirked Rosary mischievously.

"L-let’s just go back out, okay?" He groaned in dismay.

"Yeah, sounds good, I’m pretty worn out. Plus, uh...that Slime really did digest fast, I need to use the bathroom," I grinned sheepishly.

I’ve been holding it for a while now, but too much longer and I’m gonna be in trouble. Really need to get back to the hotel ASAP...

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