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With all said, since Aste said that’s how they were made, I had no right to veto it. If he wanted me to go and catch some caterpillar called Huge Crawler, I had to shut up and do it.

Maxwell quickly cast Light magic, and I equipped my piano wires and the spear with the vibrating blade at its tip. Aste also readied his combat gauntlets.

“Turns out, you are actually a vanguard?”
“I’m just good at hand-to-hand combat. Swords aren’t my specialty. It’s not like I can’t use them at all, though.”
“That’s not bad at all. Look at Maxwell. He’s lived so long but he sucks at close combat.”
“I simply dislike fights.”

We casually walked around the inner parts of the labyrinth as we cracked some jokes. We appeared to be lacking vigilance, but my eyes were constantly scanning the surroundings for traps.

This was a labyrinth of the myths. It was the symbol of fear even amongst Adventurers due to its difficulty. At the same time, it was one of their ultimate goals to challenge it one day.

Since it was such an extreme labyrinth, we weren’t allowed to lower our guards.

“And there we go, already a trap.”
“Oh, did you find something, Reid?”
“Yeah, you should be able to spot it too, Maxwell. There are traces of a hidden magic circle over there.”

The place I pointed at was a slightly lifted up part of the tree root that spread across the floor. I could see several black lines running right under it.

The World Trees roots… Or let me put it another way – some kind of cilia-like tubes were crawling above the magic circle and covering it.

Of course, it wasn’t likely that someone had done that intentionally. This trap was made according to the World Tree’s will itself, so to speak.

I approached those traces while making sure not to step on the circle itself. When I was about to look down on it… Something swooped down on me from above.

“Woaaaah!?”
“What in the-!?”
“Ohh, as expected of a famed assassin. Looks like you found one already.”

It was the Huge Crawler that we were looking for. It was a caterpillar of about 10 meters in length. It moved by winding its body and had tough, rubber-like skin. Something like that was about to fall on me.

Fortunately, I avoided the direct hit, but the shockwave from its landing spread through the wriggling cilia and got entangled with my feet.

“Being an assassin has nothing to do with this!”
“Come on, I was praising you.”
“I don’t need that praise!”

As I retorted to Aste, the shock sent the entangled me up into the air, and made me hang upside down. I had enough composure left to make that retort, however.

That was because my current attack methods were specialized for mid to long-range combat. My piano wires could extend up to 20 meters, while my spear to over 10. With that much at my disposal, hanging in the air wasn’t enough to stop me from retaliating.

That said, this time my goal was to capture it, not kill it.

“You *******… Wait, eeek!?”

I was about to swing my arm, but I noticed something. Because I was hanging upside down, my coat got turned up and exposed my chest area. I still didn’t have breasts big enough to require hiding them, but I still ended up reflexively covering them with my hand.

Previously, I would’ve ignored it and swung my thread, but Maxwell’s education about lady manners turned me this way. I didn’t feel happy about it in the least, however.

As I missed my timing to attack, Maxwell filled in for me and started chanting a spell to capture it.

As for Aste… He simply walked towards the Huge Crawler without hesitation.

“Wait, are you crazy!”

I wasn’t aware of how good of a fighter he was. Neither in my previous life, nor now. So when I saw him approach a dangerous creature like that, I instinctively yelled at him.

However, the Huge Crawler wasted no opportunity and rushed towards him…

“Hah!”

Along with that sharp sound, the Huge Crawler was the one to be blown to the side. Only Aste, in the hook stance, remained at the scene.

The Huge Crawler got slammed into the wall, then slid down and started convulsing on the floor.

Managing to send such a huge mass across the floor like that would require some crazy muscle strength… Isn’t he actually stronger than even Lyell?

“…You are actually that good?”
“I never said I wasn’t, did I?”
“Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“Because you never asked.”

He replied as unsociably as ever. But thinking about it, he probably came to capture one alone back when he made my gauntlets. Based on that, it wouldn’t be logical for him to be a bad fighter.

Also, he was the type of guy that did his work properly. Even now, he walked towards the Huge Crawler, lifted it up and inspected its jaw.

“This one’s no good.”
“Why not?”

I cut off the cilia with my dagger and somehow managed to land. But then I noticed Aste shaking his head.

“It’s a bit too big. The threads made by this one’s spinnerets would be too thick to do its job as Mythril threads.”
“So even that matters…”
“I’d like it to be smaller, but one mature enough to be able to make a cocoon.”
“I… Suppose I’m in no position to be whining here.”

This was all to make my weapon. If I started cutting corners here, it would leave me to fight with a half-a̲s̲s̲e̲d̲ weapon in the future.

Maxwell, on the other hand, was quite carefree about the whole thing.

“I see. That thought never occurred to me.”
“You tend to miss these little details unless you look at it from the craftsman’s perspective.”
“I see, this was a good experience for me.”
“Anyway. Sorry, but let’s go get another one.”

Aste muttered that over his shoulder and started walking ahead without waiting for the response. The previously mentioned trap got crushed under the Huge Crawler, so it was already harmless.

With a deep sigh, I followed after him.