Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 5 - Ch 2.11

You said that you were playing with the Poison Needles on occasion, but how exactly did you do that since you could not buy them because they are expensive?

Uhm actually, near the place where I used to live there was a place that was essentially a nest of wild NT Ants, so I was going there to collect the Poison Needles from those who have died or were killed by other monsters, which always resulted in me being severely scolded by my family that I should not be going to dangerous places and should not be doing anything dangerous that might result in me getting hurt or even worse, and I always had to go to the forest nearby to throw the Poison Needles that I brought back with me away, but as I was getting older, I started taking those opportunities to go deeper into the forest where monsters lived so that I could throw the Poison Needles at them and kill them is such a way.

Hmm, certainly, for the standpoint of someone young who has never hunted monsters before in their lives, such an approach makes a lot of sense. However.

So. You hunted NT Ants outside of the Labyrinth when you were younger? Just like that?

Yes, that is right.

Even though you knew that you would probably get into a lot of serious trouble if your family ever found out?

I was not afraid of it at the time, or I guess it should be more accurate t say that I was going to face the eventual consequences when they happened without needlessly worrying myself over small things. That being said, when I was younger I was considerably weaker than I am right now, so when I took on a single NT Ant, defeating it took me as long as few hours of time.

I think that what I just heard were some pretty insane words, but Roxanne spoke them in a matter-of-factly fashion, almost as if it was not that big of a deal to her. Did I misheard what she said just now? Or maybe there is something wrong with my sense of time, or perhaps a few hours in this world are equivalent to only a few seconds of the time that I knew back on earth?

Uhm. Roxanne? Do not take this the wrong way, but I think that what you were doing back when you were younger was very dangerous, not to mention incredibly careless. Since NT Ants can poison you with their attacks, then what would you have done if you were attacked and poisoned by it without any option to quickly get rid of the poison from your system?

Dangerous? Why would that be dangerous, master? As long as you are able to dodge every single attack that comes your way, there is nothing that you could possibly be afraid of.

As long as you can dodge every single attack that comes your way, huh? Well, I am sorry to say this to you Roxanne, but what you are talking about is basically impossible for anyone else but you to pull of.

Miss Roxanne, you were fighting against monsters as fierce as the ones from the Labyrinths when you were younger, and you were doing this for hours?! That is amazing!

Is it, really? Because for me it was something perfectly normal, but nevertheless, thank you for your kind words, Sherry.

Well, I on the other hand, am going to go out on a limb and say that Sherry should not be digging into this matter too deep, because even though she means Roxanne no harm with her praises, I am afraid that they might cause her to act is a similarly hot-headed way just because she thinks that her godly dodging abilities are making her invincible and immune to the attacks of all the monsters out there.

So, like, what exactly were you doing, Miss Roxanne? You defeated the NT Ant, got its Poison Needle and used that Poison Needle to go hunt other monsters?

Yes.

And what was that like?! I assume that you were hunting some pretty strong monsters that could not be hunted through any ordinary means, right?!

Of course that I was aiming for the strong monsters, but at the same time I made sure that they were not too strong for me to handle at that time. It was tough replaceing a proper type of monster at first, but after some trial and error I found the one that I could take on without having to worry that I will not be able to dodge its attacks. And once I got that figured out, I could hunt them normally without any major issues.

And what exactly was that monster, if I may ask?

It was a Non-R.E.M Golem, another type of monster that happened to inhabit the area that was relatively near where my family lived. Due to their size and mass heir strikes could hurt you pretty badly if you allowed them to hit you, but because it was pretty slow with both its attacks and movements, I had no trouble dealing with it whatsoever.

This is the first time when I heard the name Non-R.E.M Golem, but just from the Golem Part I can already guess what kind of enemy that must have been, which brings me to my next question: Roxanne said that she could hunt it normally without any major issues, but can a strategy where you have to kill a giant, poisonous ant so that you could grab its Poison Needle and then stab a golem, a being made out of stone, with it considered something normal? Well, it might not be entirely normal, but from the perspective of someone who presumably did not have much experience with fighting monsters, such a strategy really makes sense. After all, if Poison Needle really poisons anything that it comes into contact with, then just think how devastating the poison damage is going to be if a single target is going to be attacked with it repeatedly, over and over again.

N-Non-R.E.M Golems?! I thought they were supposed to be one of the types of monsters that would never attack people outside of the Labyrinth! So you are telling me that they can really do that?!

Yes, they can definitely do that.

But then, would it not be pretty dangerous when that golem was finally able to spot you? I know that right now Miss Roxanne is superb at dodging the attacks of every monster that might try to attack you, but in the past surely you were not as good at dodging as you are now, so the risk of you getting hit by the Golems fists must have been that much greater, right?

It was dangerous all right, but the thing is: no matter if you attacked it normally, from a distance or through sneak attacks, when it finally notices that it is being attacked, you are going to have to dodge its attempts at attacking you anyway, meaning that the final outcome is going to be the same in every case, so why bother with it?

No Roxanne, this is where you are wrong. It is actually totally different. Poisoning a non-active monster and an active monster are completely different situation, because with inactive monster, you will always have the element of surprise in your favor and you will most definitely be able to poison such a monster when it is going to be not expecting any kind of attack to actually come its as it is just minding its own business, but poisoning an active monster that is presumably going to start charging right at you with the intent of killing you as soon as it sees you is on a whole other level of difficulty.

And what about other monsters? Can they also be found in places where the Non-R.E.M Golems usually roam?

I can always determine the position of other monsters by their smell, so if there will ever be a need for that, we will always be ready to launch a successful sneak attack.

Yeah, I understand that and I know tat sneaking up on them would not be the hard part. What I want to know the most right now is how hard would it be for us to actually poison such Golem. Would you say that it would be more on an easy side, or perhaps more on a hard side of the possibility scale?

Hmm, let me think. If we could hit it with approximately twenty or so Poison Needles, then we would definitely ended up poisoning the Non-R.E.M Golem for sure.