Part 11
Of course, she would think like that. After all, she heard something that
clearly pointed to me being dissatisfied with her lack of the Master Smith
Job, even though I was only mumbling it to myself under my breath without
any intention to be heard by others at all, and it hurts even more since Sherry
seems to be thinking that I am going to be searching for other Master Smiths
who would craft items and equipment for me, while in truth my plan is to
have Sherry become a Master Smith so that she could be the one providing
those services for us. I never wanted to taunt her with my words or anything.
. . . . . . . . Once again, this just goes to show that as the leader of the Party
and someone who has been put in charge of others, I should make sure to
pick literally every word I say with the utmost care and carefulness.
「Do not worry about that, Sherry! Trust me, giving it your all while helping
master explore the Labyrinths is more than enough, and no one is never going
to demand more than that from you!」
「R-Right, I will make sure to always do my best.」
Ohhh, what a nice follow-up, Roxanne! Those words are bound to cheer
Sherry back up! Man how glad I am that you are here!
「By the way, Sherry.」
「Yes, master?」
In order to make the atmosphere between the three of us lighter again, I
decided to change the subject to something more pleasant to talk about.
「Earlier you mentioned that there are actually people who managed to
become Master Smiths even after they have reached Explorer Lv.10.」
「Hmm. . . . . . yes, I have indeed said that.」
「So I was just curious. . . . how exactly do they do that, because I thought the
level requirement is something of an absolute that cannot be circumvented in
any way?」
「Normally it is, but there is one alternative. The ones who want to become
Master Smiths even after already achieving Lv.10 as Master Smiths have to
use the services provided by the temple of Elen.」
「Temple of. . . . . . . . . Elen? What is that?」
「The Temple of Elen is not like any other Guild Temple that offers only a
specific Job, but the place where you go to leave which Job you are going to
end up with up in the hands of Fate. Rumors have it that it is not strictly
randomized though, but rather that the blessing of the Temple of Elen is
going to bestow upon you the Job that you are the most suited for.」
Roxanne explained that to me.
According to one of the general rules of this world, once you become a
member of one Guild in order to obtain a Job that is associated with that
Guild, you cannot change your Guild membership to another one, or at least
doing so is not that simple, because while you can change your Job if you
pray at the temple of the other Guild you wish to join, Roxanne told me that
the process itself can be a rather pricey one. To put it all simply, if you
become a Merchant associated with Merchant's Guild, you either stay a
Merchant, or you can possibly pay a hefty sum of money in order to become,
let us say. . . . . . . . . . . . an Explorer associated with the Explorer's Guild as
long as you pray for a Job Change in the Explorer's Guild's Temple. That is
what I already knew after talking about it with Roxanne a while back, but
hearing that there are actually temples that offer you a random Job Change
was definitely a first for me. Then again, I guess that is one of the staples of
the RPG and MMORPG genre of games: some temples have a lot of
restrictions, some of them have less of them, or in the rare cases, there are
even the ones that do not have any kind of restrictions placed upon the at all,
but these are among the rarest of the rare ones.
「I see. Thank you for the explanation, Roxanne.」
「You are welcome, master.」
However, the most important question here, and the one that has yet to be
answered, is what kind of 「random」 the Job Change at the Temple Of Elen
is? Can it offer to randomly give you a new Job by selecting one from the
pool of the ones that you have already unlocked, or is it actually that it can
offer to give you an entirely random new Job, even if you do not meet the
requirements for obtaining it in a normal way? Because If I had to guess, if
getting a Job that you do not meet the requirements for is impossible in the
normal temples, then why would this Temple of Elen be any different? Then
again, maybe it is an exception to the rule, so it might be worth my time to
imply about it a little bit more.
「Are there any legends or rumors about famous people from the empire who
were using the services of the Temple of Elen?」
In this case, my fake backstory of being from a country far, far away to the
east and thus not knowing much about the empire's history and customs can
actually prove to be quite useful.
「There actually is. As luck would have it, the empire's first Emperor was the
one who received his Hero Job from the Temple of Elen.」
Huh? Well now, would you look at that! Talk about a lucky coincidence!
Since I already know that much, then maybe I should try inquiring about the
persona of the first Emperor a bit more to see if I can learn something more
about the Hero Job?
「Hmm. . . . . . . . . . . then, do the mythos that surround the first Emperor, are
there any that mention him singlehandedly exterminating a band of Bandits?」
That was the situation in which I have obtained that Job when I was first
spirited away into this world, so maybe it is going to have something to do
with one of the legends describing the first Emperor's heroics, assuming that
there will even be any that are going to match the criteria that I have just
specified.
「There are. Supposedly, one of the first heroic deeds attributed to the first
Emperor of this empire was that he has repelled a group of Bandits that have
ambushed his Party after nightfall all by himself.」
Sherry continued to deliver the good news to me. The exact circumstances
differ slightly from what I have been through, bit otherwise. . . bingo, I
guess? Looks like the condition that has to be fulfilled in order to obtain the
Job of a Hero is to singlehandedly exterminate a group of Bandits, or at least
everything seems to be pointing towards it. But is that all there is to it? No, it
cannot be. If the condition for obtaining a Job that is supposed to be so rare
that there was only one person in the recorded history of the empire who
managed to get it would be to simply dispatch a group of brigands, then the
world would be literally breaming with Heroes, because that feature could be
easily achieved by powerful Adventurers who would target a group of weak,
low-level enough Bandits. Then maybe the condition is that you have to
defeat a group of Bandits during your first ever battle? Nah, I am only
thinking like that because that is how it was in my case, which might have
been nothing more but a sheer coincidence. Besides, even if we assume that
the First Emperor had encountered this Bandit night ambush situation at a
relatively young age, the chances of that particular encounter being his first
ever battle in the world that is filled with Labyrinths and monsters are pretty
slim, and if he was not trained enough in combat at that time, he would have
probably not survived that ambush, much less defeated all of the enemies by
himself. No matter what the exact conditions are, it remains a fact that that
battle with the Bandits was the trigger that gave the first Emperor his Hero
Job, and since he got it at that time, then it means that he did not get it, an
entirely new Job, when he went to pray at the Temple of Elen, but instead,
that means that his visit to the temple simply assigned him a Job that he had
already unlocked, much in the same way as my Party Job Settings work.
Chapter 3: Never Give Up, Part 12
So, even if we were to take Sherry, who does not have the Master Smith Job
unlocked, to the Temple of Elen and she were to offer a prayer there, she
would not get the Master Smith Job anyway, making such a trip one giant
waste of our time, money and resources. I have to say, when I first heard her
mention that temple I thought that this might be a good alternative route to
killing monsters with random weapons while having various weapons
equipped on her, but now I see that relying on the Temple of Elen to give
Sherry what she wanted would not be a good idea either.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wait, what she wanted?
「Sherry, if you do not mind me asking, would you be happy if you managed
to become a Master Smith after all?」
Come to think of it, that is one of the things that I have never confirmed with
her: does she want to get that Master Smith Job or not?
「N-No, I. . . I do not think so.」
Huh? Say what?
「You do not think so? Why is that? Is becoming a Master Smith not an
aspiration of every Dwarf?」
I was wondering why she would say something like that, but Sherry simply
hanged her head down and continued to stare at the tips of her boots in
silence. And then, after a while of not saying anything. . .
「I guess. . . I guess I have simply given up on it.」
She said those words quietly, as if she was afraid of speaking them out loud.
Hey, what do you mean, you gave up? You cannot give up! You just cannot!
You hear me, Sherry?! Never give up! Just look at me! Back on earth I was a
worthless nobody who was so fed up with his own life that I wanted to kill
myself without even trying to change anything for the better, and look at me
now, I am here, living and giving it my all here in this new, strange and
unfamiliar world, so if even a coward like could turn his shitty luck around,
then a hard-working and smart person like Sherry should be able to achieve
pretty much anything she is going to set her mind onto, so I am choosing to
believe in you and that you are definitely going to become a Master Smith!
So please, Sherry, whatever you do, do not let goof your dreams and
aspiration and keep trying to make them come true!
「Now that I have become a slave, becoming a Master Smith would only end
up causing a whole lot of unwanted problems, and I do not want to be a cause
for concern for master and Miss Roxanne.」
Well, I guess that is technically true, but even so, I do not think that this
should mean that she should put pursuing her own ambitions on the
backburner simply because it would be more convenient for Roxanne and I.
That being said, I can definitely see why she would think that a Master Smith
who has become someone's slave might be perceived as troublesome. Master
Smith's services are probably among one of the most valuable for
Adventurers, since they are the only ones capable of fusing Skill Crystals
with the equipment, but as a result, these services probably cost a ton of
money, and they have no guarantee if that investment is going to be worth it,
since the failure rate on the fusion process is also relatively high. But if you
have a Master Smith as your slave, then the biggest concern you might have,
the financial one, is swiftly eliminated. That is why if Sherry ever manages to
finally obtain the Master Smith Job, it might be more beneficial for us to keep
that fact a secret from everyone else around us in order to avoid any
unnecessary attention, or perhaps even becoming a target of grudges of those
jealous of how big of a jackpot I managed to land with Sherry's purchase.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. When I mentioned becoming a Master
Smith, Sherry looked quite dejected and dispirited. . . . . . . . but I think that
deep down in her heart she still wishes to become a full-fledged Master
Smith, even if she is trying not to show it and says that she has given up on it.
In which case, I have to offer her some words of encouragement and as much
positive reinforcement as I possibly can in order not to drive her any deeper
into depression due to her situation than she already is.
「Do not worry, Sherry. No matter what happens, I am sure that everything is
going to be all right and that things are going to work themselves out pretty
soon.」
I realize that these words might sound pretty irresponsible, but this is the best
that I can do for her at the current moment.
「Y-Yes, I guess you are right, master.」
Sherry did sound like my words managed to convince her, but probably only
a little bit. Well, it does not matter. All that we have to do to improve her
self-esteem is to find out the condition required for becoming a Master Smith
and then make her into one, which should cause all of her problems to go
away as if they were never there. And of course, I am not even considering
the eventuality that we will not find a way to make her a Master Smith,
because we would have a big problem if that was how the events would have
turned out in the end, because her being a Dwarven Master Smith was the
main reason why I have chosen her as my second slave to begin with.
「If master says that everything is going to be all right, then it definitely will,
Sherry. So you do not have to worry about anything, and just continue to live
they way you are doing it now.」
「O-Of course, Miss Roxanne! I will be sure to try and do exactly that!」
Roxanne offered Sherry some words of encouragement as well. But really
now, Roxanne, just where is that unwavering faith in me of yours coming
from? I honestly do not know. But she is absolutely right. Sherry is not alone
anymore. She has me and Roxanne by her side, and she can be damn sure that
we are going to do all in our power to help her out of her Master Smith pinch.
「All right then you two, since we are done with our warp-up, then I am going
to be using magic to fight any enemies we might be encountering from now
on. I will make sure to annihilate any monsters that might be coming our
way, so Sherry, I want you to focus on evasion and defense. Other than that,
just make sure that you will listen to any instructions Roxanne might be
giving you and be sure to cooperate with her well at all times.」
I declared my intention to switch onto using magic and gave instructions on
how to act for both Sherry and Roxanne. Thankfully, it looks like even with
just the Villager Lv.3 equipped as her main Job Sherry is not going to be
brought down to critically low HP with just one or two blows so I will
probably do not have to worry about her as much as I thought I would have
to, but just to be on the safe side we should get more used to fighting as a
team here on the lower floors of the Labyrinths before advancing onto the
higher ones.
「I never entered a Labyrinth while having a Mage in a Party before, but from
what I can see you seem to be even more powerful than what I have imagined
and what the stories about magic users were telling, master. Your usage and
expertise of the Attack Magic might be on par with that of an expert mage, or
perhaps even better than that still.」
So that is Sherry's impression of my magic, huh? Well, I do not know if this
is what can be called magic on a professional level, but it is certainly
something that a Lv.32 Mage is capable of. If I were to remove Mage from
the list of my active Jobs, then I would not be able to cast but a single
Fireball, much less the more impressive and effective spells.
「Really? That is what you think, Sherry? Well well well, I have to say that
your flattery makes me really happy.」
「This is not flattery, master. I am merely stating the fact. The stronger you
are as a leader, the easier it will be for us in the vanguard, after all.」
Part 13
And Sherry bowed her head to me lightly, thanking me for being such a
competent Party leader with a simple 「Thank you very much」, which made
me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Based on all the encounters we had on the fourth floor, I can tell that Sherry
is going to have no problems with fighting here, and I can only assume that
the fifth, sixth and seventh floors will be no problem to her as well. However,
the real problem, as well as the test of not only Sherry's, but also mine and
Roxanne's skills is going to be waiting for us when we finally decide to leave
the seventh floor and move on to the eighth floor, which is going to be a
totally uncharted territory for us, and that is why today we have started all the
way down from the first floor and slowly made our way up: so that I could
how Sherry was going to perform on the battlefield and how well she would
be cooperating with Roxanne. Thankfully, there seemed to be no problems in
that regard, because the girls not only became friends with each other
extremely quickly, but that have also adapted to each other's fighting styles
so well that now they could support each other with their eyes closed and
instead focus on their friendly chatter, like the one they were having right
now:
「Sherry, I know you might have some reservations, but trust me, it is really
okay for you to be fighting a little bit closer to the wall.」
「Okay, I will try to do it during the next battle. By the way, Miss Roxanne,
would it be better for me to swing my Club vertically instead of horizontally
so that it would not get in your way as much.」
「You can keep fighting however you see fit, because it makes no difference
to me. If I ever see that your Club is getting closer to me, I will simply evade
it, that is all there is to it.」
See? If this is not a sign of a good cooperation, then I do not know what it
can be. With that, I think that there is no need for us to be staying here at the
fourth floor, so we can probably move up to the next floor.
「All right girls, if you have nothing against it, then we will be making our
way to the fifth floor now. And remember: the higher the floor, the stronger
the monsters, so do be careful at all times, okay?」
「「All right, master!」」
The fifth floor is the one where the number of enemies per encounter started
to increase from two to three, so we agreed that the division will be such that
Roxanne is going to be taking on two of the monsters, and Sherry is going to
focus on the remaining one. Before I have obtained Sherry, this was the spot
where the monsters began to get stronger to the point of me being forced to
start using Durandal in order to swiftly dispatch them, but now that my Party
consists of not just two members but three, I think I should be able to
continue to rely on only using magic, which is already a huge improvement
over our previous forays into the fifth floor and above. The strategy for
handling multiple enemies is as I described above, but for the times when
there was only one enemy present, Roxanne was focusing its attention on
herself in the front so that Sherry could go for a surprise attack to its sides.
Watching them go at it, I felt like it would be better if she was using the
Copper Spear in such a situation, but for the time being a Club will have to
make due, since there is no methods that would allow us to quickly switch
between two or more weapons on the fly or in the middle of the battle. But all
things considered, for most of the time I could relax a bit more than usual and
just hang out a few meters away from the battles Roxanne and Sherry were
waging, far enough not to draw any of the monster's aggro upon myself, but
still close enough to either rush in with my sword or use magic to save the
girls from a tight spot if they ever wound up getting themselves into one.
「Starting to get more into the flow of things on this floor as well?」
I asked when our current encounter has been swiftly finished.
「Yes, I think that our cooperation could still use some improvements, but at
the pace that we are currently going with, we should be all right as long as we
continue to polish and improve our skills. Sherry, thank you for being such a
quick learner, and I look forward to working with you from here on out as
well.」
「And I look forward to working with and learning more things from you,
Miss Roxanne!」
In terms of how practical it is, staying in the rear guard is a lot more
comfortable than staying in the vanguard all the time, if only because that
chance of being targeted by a monster is much, much smaller there. Those
who stay in the vanguard have no choice but to get up close and personal
with the enemies if they want to dispatch them quickly and protect the other
members of the Party, and in the case of making a mistake or just an
unfortunate slip-up, the members of the vanguard are the ones who are going
to get hurt, or if they will be really unlucky, perhaps they could even die. But
when you are in the rearguard, you do not really have to concern yourself
with such things, because your Job is not to be all up in the monster's faces,
but to support the rest of your team from the safety of the distance, making it
much less stressful, but just as important of a position, because your actions
might have a deciding impact on the well-being of your comrades. But
overall, vanguard is a much harder position than the rearguard, even if both
of these positions have their different sets of benefits and drawbacks. If I can
just stay in the safety of the rearguard where I will not have to worry about
getting myself killed during every battle, then I feel that even someone like
me could easily make it all the way to the top floor of the Labyrinth and then
clear it.
Buuut. . . . . I feel like thinking about what is going to happen when we
arrive at the last floors of the Labyrinths is still something that I should not be
bothering myself with all that much for quite some time. For now, I should
just allow the girls to do their thing in the vanguard, and once the monsters
start getting stronger, I will also lend them my aid in the form of bombarding
the enemies with a barrage of Attack Magic. . . . . . . . . Ahh, I see. Now I get
it. That is exactly why Alan the Slave Merchant offered to show me the male
slaves he had in his inventory for sale when I mentioned that I was looking
specifically for someone to be serving in the vanguard.
Right now, Roxanne is standing in front of me, acting as both a sword that is
going to strike down my enemies, and a shield that will protect me from harm
should the need for that ever arise. . . . . . . . . . and I will never be able to
thank her enough for it, will I?
「Roxanne. . . . . . . . . thank you.」
「Yes? You are. . . . welcome, master?」
「Oh, and by the way, Sherry, since I am going to be using a lot of magic
from here on out, I just want to make sure. . . do you know what the types of
magic are?」
Since Roxanne seemed to not know what I was grateful to her for, I left that
matter alone and asked Sherry my next question.
「Hmm. . . . . . . I am not all that familiar with magic, but I do know that
generally speaking there are three basic types of it: Area of Effect Magic,
Single Target Magic and Defensive Magic.」
That seems about right. Storm-type spells are Area of Effect Magic, Ball is a
Single Target Magic, and Wall-type spells are Defensive Magic. I wonder if
those are all the types of magic that exist in this world, or is there also a
fourth, unknown or lost type of magic that has yet to be discovered?
Part 14
「Ow. . . . . khhhhh! ! ! !」
When we arrived on the fifth floor and had to fight against three Cheap Sheep
at once, Sherry was once again attacked a few times across the duration of a
single battle. It is a good thing that I expected something like that to happen,
because otherwise I might have been pretty shocked at the difference in her
performance with just one floor of a difference. Cheap Sheep are definitely
trickier to fight than the Minos of the fourth floor and I myself had more than
my fair share of trouble while dealing with them, so I could definitely
emphasize with her struggle.
「Are you all right, Sherry?」
「Hnnh. . . Y-Yes, I am fine, master. I used to fight against the monsters on
the eight floors of the Labyrinths before. . . so the enemies from the fifth
floor. . . are going to be no problem for me at all. . . . . .」
I immediately went up to Sherry and cured her wounds and used Plating on
her when the battle was over, and then told her with a patient, but also
decisive tone:
「That might be true, but you have to remember that your situation in the past
and right now are drastically different from one another, because back then
you had a different Party and probably a different equipment as well, so it
would be better for you to not think about dungeon crawling in the
Labyrinths of today with your past mindset. If you feel like the things are
getting too difficult for you to handle, do not hesitate to inform me about it
immediately, got it?」
「Master, I am grateful for your concern about my well-being, but I am all
right, trust me.」
No Sherry, it is not all right. You might think that you are doing fine, but that
is only because you think that you still have your Explorer Lv.10 Job
equipped, while in reality the one you have equipped right now is not
Explorer Lv.10, but Villager. She managed to level it up from Villager Lv.3
to Villager Lv.4 just now and should be able to hit Lv.5 after a few more
battles since when the levels are low they tend to go up a bit faster, but it
does not change the fact that her Stats are still lower than those of a Lv.10
Explorer. I am partially to blame for this situation here, because I did not
inform her that I changed her Job, but even if I did tell her that, it would not
change a thing, because the main problem, her not shifting her attitude in
battle to take on a safer approach to every encounter, would still persist. I
want to tell her about the fact that as a Party leader I can change her Job
without asking her for her permission to do so, but I think that doing so now
would do more harm than good, so I have no choice but to wait until I see
that she is trusting me a bit more.
「Roxanne, is it safe to continue onward?」
「I do not sense any monsters nearby for now, but if the need arises I can draw
the attention of three of them to myself, so I think it should be fine for us to
proceed fro the time being.」
I asked for Roxanne's opinion on whether we could continue our trek through
the fifth floor, and once she informed me that we could safely go forward, I
nodded back at her strongly. I still had my reservations about whether or not
Sherry is going to be able to handle the monsters from the sixth and seventh
floors with Villager as her main Job, but if Sherry herself is going to be hellbent on continuing onwards, then I guess I have no choice but to respect her
wishes and simply pay extra attention to her ever time we are going to be
engaging groups of enemies from now on.
Like that, we moved on to the sixth floor of Vale's Labyrinth, where I
decided that now might be a good time to test out the Skill of the Sex Maniac
Job in practice, but since I was still afraid of letting Sherry fight without the
protection of the Alchemist's Plating, I had to add myself a Sixth Job during
the Character Reset in order t fit those two Jobs together along with the rest
of the ones that I absolutely needed. There, all set.
「Roxanne, Sherry. Continuing our talk from yesterday. . . . . . . . . . . . do
either of you know what exactly do the Skills of the Sex Maniac Job do?」
「I am sorry to disappoint you, master, but I have no idea. How about you,
Sherry?」
I felt a little bad for Sherry, because ever since she became a member of my
group we were just asking her about a lot of stuff that neither Roxanne or I
had any knowledge of, but in times like these she was our only remaining
option, since unlike the two of us, she was an intellectual, so maybe I should
just make it a habit to ask her about any lore or Jobs related stuff from now
on?
「I am afraid that I do not know anything about it either. The only things that I
do hear about it is that due to its nature it is not a Job that can be discussed
about openly in public, and humans tend to pass down the knowledge about it
between themselves in a strictly verbal manner.」
But it looks like not even Sherry knows a whole lot about Sex Maniac Job,
and honestly, I am not that surprised about it, considering the very nature of
this Job and its method of acquisition. After all, only the biggest, most
egotistic of braggards(TL Note: or someone who thinks themselves a
Gigachad) would go around telling other people that they have slept with
two or more girls at once, and while I believe that there are people like that
out there, the majority belongs to the category that is going to be keeping
such sensitive information to themselves so that others would not brand them
as hopeless perverts.
Okay, let me see what does the Sex Maniac Job do once more, just for
reference.
{Sex Maniac}
Effects: Increase SPI (Medium), Increase INT (Medium) Increase MP
(Small)
Skills: Enhanced Vigor, Abstinence Attack
So yeah, these are all the Skills and effects that the Sex Maniac Job offers
me. I presume that the Enhanced Vigor is a Passive Skill that should increase
my overall vigor, sexual or otherwise, and Abstinence Attack must be an
Active Skill. I was more than a little afraid that equipping that Job might have
some unwanted side-effects like being overwhelmed by the desire to violate
every female in your nearest proximity, but now that I have it as one of my
set Jobs, I do not feel any such urges, which sets my heart at ease. Looks like
I can use that Job without having to worry about doing something that I
would not be able to undo later. I mean, let me be honest here, whenever I
look at Roxanne and those enormous boobs of her, I always feel the urge to
jump at her and to various naughty things to her even when I do not have Sex
Maniac equipped, but since that is always the case I learned to control those
urges to the point where I can stop myself from groping her up throughout
the day and only let myself run wild when we are taking baths and go to bed
afterwards. If I were unable to do at least that much, then surely, even
without the Sex Maniac Job I would have ended up in prison for good if all I
did was to act like constantly horny bastard. So with the level of self-restraint
that I am currently exercising, I should still be okay and not end up on the
wrong side of the law charged with sexual assault. And if I could not, then
what other alternative would there be for me? My guesses are either
castration, which is absolutely out of the question, or retreating myself to live
an ascetic life of a hermit deep in the mountains, where no earthly temptation
would be able to lead me astray from the path of righteousness. Well, that
being said, people like that are probably quite rare in this world, because
throughout the entire time I have spent in this world so far, I have never
Identified another human being who would be labeled with that Job. But then
again, if it is something that cannot be talked about openly, then maybe
humans found a way to keep it hidden from others?
Part 15
Well, whatever the case might be, the most important thing right now is that
neither Roxanne nor Sherry know anything that could be of use to me, so
there is no point mulling over this subject anymore. I will simply have to test
the Skills that Sex Maniac Job has to offer throughout the practical usage of
them! And I think that I am going to start with abstinence attack.
Now, how is it going to work, I wondered as I instructed Sherry and Roxanne
to fall back for a bit and then I ran forward to challenge a single Cheap Sheep
Lv.6 that was about ready to challenge us.
(Here it goes. . . . . . . Abstinence Attack!)
I shouted that in my mind as I swung Durandal down onto the monster when
it was withing my melee range. Durandal's edge made its way through the
Cheap Sheep's body. . . . . . . and that was it, nothing else happened. I mean,
something had to have happened, because I definitely felt the hit connect as
well as the slight resistance of the monster's flesh when the attack continued
to go through it thanks to the momentum and the power of gravity from my
overhead slash. . . . but it did not look like that attack did any kind of
noticeable damage to it. Like, at all.
Oi, what the hell, dude?! Why is this attack not working? Did I mess
something up? I do not know. Maybe somehow this first attack turned out to
be a fluke? Maybe it is going to work properly if I attack the Cheap Sheep
again? At the very least, it should be worth a try.
(Abstinence. . . . . . . . . Attack!)
I tried repeating the attack with the Skill, this time by slashing the Cheap
Sheep normally with it. . . . but once more, it did not work out.
(Damn it! Fuck! Abstinence Attack! Abstinence Attack, Abstinence Attack,
Abstinence Attack!)
I tried the same thing over, and over, and over again, but the result was
exactly the same each time. Could it be. . . . . . . . . . . could it be that
Abstinence Attack is not an Active Skill? Because there is absolutely no way
for an Active Skill to be literally weaker than a regular physical attack! No,
wait, I definitely felt the sensation of the Skill activating itself, so it definitely
is an Active Skill, but then why is it so weak? Hmm. . . . . . . hmmmmm. . . . .
. maybe. . . .. maybe. . . . . no, no no no no no no no, please, let it be not what
I think it is! Abstinence Attack. Abstinence. A Skill granted by the Sex
Maniac Job, so in this context, Abstinence attack can only mean one thing. . .
. . . . that you can use that Skill to its full potential only if you maintain sexual
abstinence!
WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER WANT TO TORTURE
THEMSELVES LIKE THAT JUST SO THEY COULD USE SUCH A
WEAK-ASS ATTACK?!!!!
I mean, let us be real right now! You want to tell me that if I want to be using
that Skill, I would have to purposefully decline having sex with Roxanne and
Sherry? Because if anyone thought that I would accept such a trade offer,
then they can think again! There is no chance in hell I will ever willingly let
go of something so awesome just so that I could use one Skill attack that is
not guaranteed to be any stronger than the regular attack! What kind of sadist
even designed it in such a way? Is this some kind of sick joke the developers
of this game designed to make fun of the people who would use this game as
the means to go on a sexual adventures spree?!
Now, instead of trying to use Abstinence Attack again, I slashed the Cheap
Sheep with a regular attack, and it still did not fall. Seriously, in its current
state, this skill really is much, much weaker than a normal attack, because if
it was on par with it or just slightly weaker, this second attack should have
finished the enemy off, but since it survived, it got the perfect opportunity to
ram itself into me, which it did. The physical damage that I sustained from
that attack was pretty negligible at my current level, but the mental shock
from realizing how useless Abstinence Attack is to someone like me was far
greater. I cannot believe that for a moment I was hoping that this Skill might
actually be something helpful, something that maybe could have allowed me
to finish the enemies on the sixth floor off with one strike instead of two, but
no, of course my hopes had to be brutally crushed before they were even
allowed to blossom! Or maybe there is something that I am not seeing here?
Some kind of hidden condition that has to be met in order for this Skill to
work the way it should be working? Maybe I have to sacrifice something in
addition to expending MP and chanting the Skill's name? Or perhaps it is a
Skill meant for capturing the monsters while they are still alive?
Anyway, since here on the sixth floor the enemies start to be so tough that I
need two strikes from Durandal instead of one in order to finish them off,
then I think it is safe to assume that Abstinence Attack is a useless dud of a
Skill that is not worth using in the slightest, so let me just forget that I have
ever tried to use it and let us proceed forward. We have already wasted
enough of our precious time with this stupid experiment. . . . . . . . . . after I
try testing it out on the other monsters on this floor, just to be absolutely sure.
The next opponent was a lone Needlewood, so I tried to use four consecutive
Abstinence Attacks to see if it was going to make an difference, but the result
was exactly the same as before, ore perhaps even worse, because I do not
know if it was just my imagination playing tricks on me or what, but I could
have sworn that these four attacks that I have performed just now were even
more pathetic than the ones I tried to use against the Cheap Sheep? Welp, I
guess that settles it then. If neither Abstinence Attack nor the Enhanced END
Skills are going to make the slaying of the monsters easier for me, then I
really have no choice but to go and seal that joke of a Job away due to how
wasteful and useless it is. Even if it has some hidden effects, like maybe. . . . .
. . well, I do not know, maybe increase in the amount of EXP obtained at the
cost of the reduced attack power, it is far too late for me to be thinking about
such "what ifs" and possibilities. That Job had its chance with me, and it
ended up wasting that chance spectacularly.
「We are going to be staying here on the sixth floor for a while longer. When
Sherry gets used to fighting the enemies here to such a degree that she will
not be hit by them anymore, only then we are going to move on to the
seventh floor, okay?」
「Okay.」
「Understood!」
Getting sherry accustomed to fighting the enemies of the sixth floor without
getting hit by each and every one of their attacks too about an hour or so of
our time, during which she slowly but surely improved both her dodges and
the ability to predict what the enemy was going to do next. I guess that in the
end, this is what really matters: the knowledge of the attacks patterns of the
enemies and the readiness that it gives you, which makes all the difference
between being attacked because you were not expecting the attack what
suddenly came your way and being able to dodge it in time because you read
all the telegraphed signs properly. Now, if only sherry could learn to do that a
little quicker or after a fewer number of encounters, that would be pretty
great, but I should probably not get my hopes up in regards to her being the
same kind of dodging expert as Roxanne is. I have to accept that eventually
some of the enemy's attacks are going to reach Sherry no matter how ready
she is going to be for them, and simply have the Medical Treatment Skill
ready to mend her wounds when the battle is over. For the time being,
however, she is as ready as she can be, so there is no point in dilly-dallying
here any longer.
Part 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 Vale's 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 master's 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 monster's
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 this「Demon 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 Floor」is 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. Sherry's 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 Sherry's 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
Alchemist's Plating and switch from the 「Playing It Safe Mode」to 「Active
Leveling Mode」.
Part 17
However. . . . . . it might be worth my while to keep Alchemist and its Plating
for a while longer, but I definitely do not need Sex Maniac anymore, so I
might as well get rid of it now. With the Sex Maniac removed in the process
of Character Reset, I did not need to have Sixth Job for now, which means
that I have some more Bonus Points that I can reallocate. Okay, now let me
see what can I do to tweak my current build a little? Since we gained a new
Party member, then maybe I should prioritize getting EXP faster for the time
being? Yeah, that sounds like a reasonable thing to do, given my current goal
and Sherry's eagerness to fight on the front lines.
Since Explorer Lv.33 is set as my First Job, them means thirty two Bonus
Points, and then my original ninety nine Bonus Points are added to it. And
now for the Skills that I am going to choose: One Tenth of Required EXP
Value worth thirty one Bonus Points, EXP Gain Times Twenty worth sixty
three Bonus Points, Crystal Growth Times Sixteen worth fifteen Bonus
Points, Fifth Job worth fifteen Bonus Points, Chant Omission worth three
Bonus Points and the rest of the Bonus Points that I had left have been
allocated between MP Recovery Speed Increase, Identify, Job Settings along
with Party Job Settings and Character Reset. Yeah, this setting should work
particularly good for the purpose of raising Sherry's Villager level as fast as
possible. Also, I feel like it is going to be a good decision on my part to put
fewer points into Crystal Growth's speed of filling the Magic Stone with
magic energy, because now that the purchase of Sherry and all of the daily
necessities that she is going to need has been completed, we have no urgent
need for having a large sum of money on us. As long as we are going to have
enough money on us to be able to buy ingredients for making breakfasts and
dinners, we are going to get by just fine.
「Master, the sun is about to set.」
Roxanne told me that sometime later while we finished another bout of
combat with the monsters of the seventh floor.
「Really? Already? How did you know?」
I knew that we have already spent a lot of time in the Vale's Labyrinth today,
but I never would have guessed that we actually took so long that the sun was
about to set. And how was Roxanne able to tell that while being here
anyway? Is it due to some kind of Skill of hers typical to the Wolfkin people,
or perhaps it is something else entire. . . . . . .
*Rumble Rumble!* *Rumble Rumble!*
. . . . . ly? Ahh, now I see. It is not that Roxanne could tell that the sun was
setting even though we have been inside of the Labyrinth the entire day, but
she knew that because my stomach started rumbling pretty audibly without
me even noticing it. I guess there is the truth in the old saying that you cannot
deceive the internal clock that is your stomach, huh? Not to mention that it
was pretty amazing how Roxanne's own internal clock managed to
synchronize with my own, but I guess that should not be all that surprising,
since the two of us eat our meals at exactly the same times, which is early in
the morning and in the evening, so it would stand to reason that our stomach
would start demanding their sustenance at about the same time as well. As far
as I am aware, it does not look like watches have been invented in the world
of this game just yet, so I wonder how exactly are other people able to tell the
exact passage of time? Is there some kind of special training that can teach
you how to do it, like maybe reading the trajectory of the sun or something of
the similar sort? I wonder if Sherry can do that as well, but I do not think I
would be able to master such an ability, even if I were to receive the most
extensive of trainings with it, most likely because I have already grown too
accustomed to living my life with a watch, be it analog or digital one, at my
side, and I will be damned if a watch was
not useful when going through the maze-like structures of the Labyrinths for
hours without stopping.
「I guess that is true. So. . . . wanna stop for today and head back home to
grab a bite to eat?」
「Yes, let us do that.」
And that brings our exploration of the Vale's Labyrinth, which started early
in the morning and lasted well until just now, to a close. Before we go back
home though, let me just have a quick look at Sherry's Jobs one more time to
see what Jobs she managed to unlock after all this time and levels she
acquired:
Villager Lv.5, Explorer Lv.10, Herbalist Lv.1, Warrior Lv.1, Merchant
Lv.1, Shrine Maiden Lv.1, Swordsman Lv.1, Monk Lv.1
I can see that the Villager Job managed to reach Lv.5 exactly as intended, but
even though Monk and Swordsman Jobs were unlocked, Master Smith was
still missing, which means that reaching Lv.5 as a Villager was not one of the
conditions needed for its acquisition, which is a damn shame, if I am to be
honest. But there was a silver lining to this situation as well, in the form of
the Job that I did not recognize: Shrine Maiden Lv.1.
「Shrine Maiden, huh? I wonder what kind of Job is that, exactly?」
「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !!!!!!」
Oh crap, did I let that one slip out loud again?! I had to, because all of a
sudden, Sherry's expression turned incredibly sad, and she looked as if a
shadow had fallen over her pretty face. I must have said something that really
got to her now. I quickly glanced at Roxanne to see if she was upset by what
I said just now as well, but thankfully her expression remained as warm and
bright as always, meaning that whatever offense I just committed, it was
strictly limited to Sherry this time. Ugh, god damn it, why is this keep
happening to me? Why do I have to keep mumbling things that no one else
but me seems to understand like a dumb idiot? Saying them out loud is not
going to help me in any way, and it will only make those around me think
that I am a weirdo.
「Ah, uhm. . . . we are going to be getting back home now, but before we
head home, we are going to make a quick stop to buy some bread for dinner,
okay?」
「Okay.」
「Okay. . . . I guess. . . . . 」
With both of the girls expressing their agreement (although Sherry did that in
an incredibly half-hearted manner) we left the Labyrinth of Vale and emerged
back in the Quratar's Adventurer's guild. From there, we went to buy bread
for breakfast, but the air between the three of us has been noticeably heavier
than usual throughout the entire trip, and when we got back home and I was
receiving the girl's equipment back from them . . . . . . .
「Oh? Sherry, is it just me, or does something about your hair seems to be
different than usual?」
When I took sherry's Leather Helmet off, I noticed that something was
definitely different about them in comparison to yesterday. It is like they
were somehow. . . softer? Or lighter, perhaps? Or like there is not as much of
them as there was yesterday?'
「Let me see . . . . . . . . hmm, I think that they might have been a bit more
voluminous yesterday?」
Roxanne reached out with her hand and touched Sherry's hair directly.
「You. . . . . . . you really think so, Miss Roxanne?」
「Yes. . . . . . . . ah, I was right! They are so soft and fluffy to the touch!」
「Thank you very much.」
「Come and see for yourself, master. They are so soft that this is
unbelievable!」
「Oh really? Then, is it all right for me to touch them as well?」
Not like this is anything new to me, since I already noticed that yesterday
when I was washing Sherry's hair for her.
「Sure, go right ahead!」
「Well, do not mind if I do then.」
Part 18
Now that I had Sherry's consent to touch her hair, I reached out with my own
hand and. . . Ah, no, wait, I almost made the same kind of blunder like I did
yesterday, but no more! Before touching Sherry's hair, I gently stroked
Roxanne's hair first. That is right, order in which I am doing these things is
extremely important here, and if I want to avoid any unnecessary conflicts
between the three of us I have to make sure not to repeat any careless
mistakes like the one I made yesterday when I kissed Sherry before Roxanne.
「Ahh. . . . . . . . . . .」
See, Roxanne seems to be pretty delighted that I managed t do this properly
this time, because she smiled happily when I put my hand on her head and
started petting it. Such a cute reaction! And that smile of hers. . . .! Ahh, if
only I knew that being careful would give me such magnificent rewards, I
would have done that way sooner!
While stroking Roxanne's doggy ears with my right hand, I used my left to
caress Sherry's head. Since she is so small, then stroking it is pretty easy
because I do not even need to be stretching myself out to do it. And I have to
say, Roxanne was right in what she said. In comparison to yesterday's
Sherry's hair really did seem to be fluffier and softer to the touch than usual.
Could it be that this is a difference that just a single bath and washing of the
hair can bring?
「Wow, your hair really soft and fluffy, Sherry. This is such a nice sensation.」
「T-Thank you very much.」
But really now, if that is how soft her hair really are, then how much dust did
she have in them? Or maybe. . . . . maybe Sherry was actually one of those
people who have never washed their hair since they were born until
yesterday? If that would be tha case, then that would be. . . . . a pretty
terrifying concept, I am not going to lie. And thinking about that made me all
the more appreciative of how fluffy-wuffy and puffy Roxanne's doggy ears
are. They are really good, and feel nice to the touch no matter when I am
trying to pet them. Hooray for doggy ears, may they continue to reign
supreme until the end of time! And just like that, I got to enjoy both
Roxanne's fluffy ears and Sherry's fluffy hair before we get to eat breakfast,
and since I am the girl's owner, then I get to enjoy this wondrous sensation
whenever I want.
「By the way. . . . . . 」
I started the conversation during breakfast.
「. . . . . there is such a Job as Shrine Maiden, right? What does it do?」
I had no idea that such a Job even existed, so I was genuinely curious if it
was even remotely similar to the kind of shrine maidens that existed on earth,
and now that we are back home and we do not need to hurry anywhere else or
be on the lookout for being attacked by monsters, we might have some time
to actually talk about this. . . . . . or at least that was what I thought, but for
some reason, Sherry looked like she got incredibly depressed as soon as the
words 「Shrine Maiden」 left my mouth. I thought that if I give this subject
some time then it would be safe to talk about it, but apparently that is such a
sore subject for Sherry that simply hearing those words triggered such a
negative reaction in her.
「Uhm, well if. . . if you do not want to talk about it, Sherry, then that is
perfectly fine, I simply wanted to. . . . . . 」
「Did. . . . . . . . . did you hear about my past from somewhere?」
Huh? Her past? What is she talking about?
「Eh? No no no no, it is nothing like that.」
「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .」
(Oh no. . . . . . . no, no, no no, no, no, no, no! No, God, please, no!)
Please, do not tell me that the deal with the Shrine Maiden Job is serious to
such an extent! Have I done it again? Have I stepped on yet another landmine
without meaning to?! Sherry, please, I beg you! Start talking! It does not
matter what you are going to say, just go and say it! Right now, everything is
going to be better than that dreadful silence!
「. . . . . . . I. . . . . . . when I failed to become a Master Smith. . . . . . . . . . I
tried to become a Shrine Maiden instead.」
Sherry explained that with a voice so quiet and trembling that I could barely
make out what she was saying. She then raised her face up, but whenever
Roxanne or I tried to establish eye contact with her, she tried to avoid us, as
If she was embarrassed about the words that she barely managed to squeeze
out of her throat.
I see. So that is how it is. I cannot say that with one hundred percent
certainty, but I think I know what she was trying to say by that, or at least
what her words were implying.
Based on her words, I can deduce that she did not have the Shrine Maiden
Job before now, so that must mean that not only did she fail to become a
Master Smith, but the same story must have happened when she wanted to
become a Shrine Maiden as well. I cannot even imagine how big of a shock it
must have been to her, but the closest equivalent that I am capable of thinking
of would be like getting rejected by both your first and second-choice
university once you have graduated high school. If that is really how it was
for her, then I can definitely see it doing a real number on her confidence.
「W-Well, that might not mean much right now, but. . . . . try not to beat
yourself up over it too much, okay? I know how easy it is to remain
pessimistic when life kicks you bellow the belt, but you cannot allow this
pessimism to rule over you.」
Fuck, this is just like that previous time where I have inadvertently
commented that her level as a Villager was not high enough. I t seems like no
matter what I say around Sherry or what I am trying to talk about with her,
literally everything is turning into a conversational landmine. . . . . . no, not
landmine, a conversational atomic bomb sooner or later.
「Yes, you are right master! I am going to work hard as an Explorer to make
up for my many shortcomings, so please do not worry! I should be okay from
now on!」
Sherry says so while raising her face even higher while the sad look in her
eyes got blown away as if it was never there in the first place, replaced by the
one filled with strong determination. Well, she is not an Explorer right now,
but nevertheless, I appreciate her enthusiasm and readiness to continue giving
it her best all the same. If she is really going to maintain such a positive
attitude at all times, that would be great, because that would be one less thing
for me to worry about.
「That is right! That is the spirit, Sherry! Never give up!」
「Yes, Miss Roxanne!」
Now that she decided that she will not allow her past failures to drag her
down in the present, should I change her active Job to Shrine Maiden? Yeah,
I think I can do that for a bit, even if only to see what Skills and Bonuses it
has to offer. Party Job Settings = = > Sherry = = > Jobs = = > Shrine Maiden
= = > Set. Okay, let me see what we are working with here.
『Shrine Maiden Lv.1』
Effects: Increase MP (Small), Increase INT (Tiny)
Skills: Group Medical Treatment
「Huh? The Skill of the Shrine Maiden Job. . . . . . . .」
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
, Part 19
(Fuck! I blurted that out loud again! Quickly! I have to find some way to
cover my ass or else the situation is going to turn into an even more
depressing shitfest than it already was!)
「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . do you girls know what that is?」
Fuck my life, that was too close for comfort once more! Seriously, what the
hell is wrong with me and my constant habit of saying things out loud?! Is it
an unwanted remnant of my previous life where I had no social life
whatsoever which resulted in me often talking to myself out loud when there
was no one around? Because of that, I was this close to stepping on another
landmine again! And how many of them would that make just today? Three?!
Anyway, the Skill of the Shrine Maiden seems awfully familiar to me, and
rightfully so, because it looks like it is similar to the Monk's Medical
Treatment Skill, the only difference being that Monk's Medical Treatment
works on one person only, and Shrine Maiden has 「Group」 in its name,
which means that it is most probably an AoE Healing Magic, so instead of
healing only one person, it is going to apply healing effects to all the people
within a given radius. Or at least that is how I think it would work.
「To put it simply, Shrine Maiden Job's Skill is Recovery Magic.」
Yeah, that sounds about right. So my own guess was right on the money here.
「Since it is called a Shrine Maiden, then would it be all right to think about
this Job as the Female equivalent of a Monk?」
If Shrine Maidens of this world follow the same kind of rules that the ones
from old world did, then that would mean that a Shrine Maiden would be a
female-exclusive Job. And if they have the same attire in both worlds, then
that would reinforce that assumption even further, since I have never seen a
man who would go around in shrine maiden's outfit while claiming to be one
(aside from perverts, but that is a whole other can of worms that I do not wish
to open).
But wait a minute, speaking of the Monk Job. . . I have it, but Roxanne has
that Job as well, even though she is a girl. And in Sherry's case, she has both
Monk and Shrine Maiden Jobs, but that is probably because a monk is not a
gender exclusive profession and it has nothing to do with the fact that one of
the conditions for its acquisition is to defeat a monster while fighting barehanded, which is its own special kind of madness that any ordinary
Adventurer who has their wits about them would never dared to do.
「No, master. Actually, Shrine Maiden's male counterpart would be a Priest.」
Okay, a Priest then. So to sum up: Monks have Skills that grant HP Recovery
to a single target, while Priests and Shrine Maidens have Skills that grant HP
Recovery to multiple targets. Got it. Now, the question is: are there any
differences or disadvantages to being a Priest or a Shrine Maiden? I mean,
logically speaking, there have to be some, like high MP consumption or
perhaps low values of the healing received per individual since they have to
be distributed between everyone within range, because if these Jobs were all
sunshine and rainbows without any noticeable downsides, then everyone
would end up choosing these two and no one would even want to become a
Monk. Well, even if these Jobs are better than Monk, for the time being none
of us ended up in a situation where we would need a lot of healing in rapid
succession, so the healing provided by Monk's Medical Treatment is more
than enough to cover our healing needs.
「So, how can people become Priests and Shrine Maidens?」
「I… . . . . . . I really do not know. After all, I failed to become one.」
Well, duh. I felt awful for opening up Sherry's old wounds like that, but since
I am curious to learn as much as I possibly can about this Job there is nothing
I can do about it but to keep asking questions while hoping that she will be
willing to answer them and will not end up hating me for being so inquisitive.
「Okay, then let us try it this way: was there anything in particular that you
had to do when you were trying to become a Shrine Maiden?」
「Well, when I went to the Sacred Professions Guild, they had all of the
candidates who wanted to become priests and Shrine Maidens sit beneath the
waterfall located in the Guild's sanctuary.」
「A waterfall, you say?」
So, my initial guess about gaining a Job by means of the training under a
waterfall was right after all, but instead of a Monk, it applied to Priests and
Shrine Maidens.
「They told us that once we stay under the waterfall long enough, we are
going to feel a flash of inspiration when our minds connect with the spirits
within us. But even though I felt like I experienced something exactly like
that, it was still not enough. . . 」
Sherry looked away from me when she stopped talking for a moment there.
No Sherry, since you have obtained that Job, you were not mistaken and your
method was certainly the correct one.
「It is all right, Sherry. I heard that over half of the applicants cannot become
Shrine Maidens, so do not let that discourage you. Even if you did not
manage to become one, that will not matter at all in the Labyrinth.」
「R-Right. . . 」
Roxanne comforted Sherry once more. It is good that she can have someone
like her to cheer her up.
So from her words it seems that becoming a Priest or a Shrine Maiden
requires you to unite with the spirit inside of you, which sounds like it would
be quite difficult. I wonder if I would be able to pull that off? And if now, I
then I would like Roxanne and Sherry to comfort me. In bed.
「However, that. . . Sacred Professions Guild or whatever should really work
on informing their candidates better, because in order to become a Shrine
Maiden or Priest you have to be a Villager Lv.5 or above as well.」
「. . . . . . . .」
「. . . . . . . . . Huh? What did you say, master?」
「W-Well, I mean. . . . 」
Sherry was unable to become a Shrine Maiden even though she did the
waterfall training because her Villager Level was insufficient, but once she
gained enough levels she got that Job right away, because all of the
conditions necessary for obtaining it, a flash of spiritual inspiration and high
enough level, have been satisfied. If only she knew about that one additional
restriction, then perhaps she could have avoided much of the tragedies that
have befallen her in her life.
「Master. You may have not known this because you are an Explorer yourself,
but only Explorers have Levels. Other Jobs do not have them.」
Sherry was keeping quiet without saying a word, so Roxanne looked at me
seriously and then dropped the bomb on me.
「Eh? Wait, what? Really?」
「Yes.」
「As the explorer gains experience, the Item Box available to them will grow
larger and larger. That is what we call their level. But other Jobs do not have
that indicator. In truth, master, I cannot even imagine that you would even
have a Level before becoming an Explorer. . .. . . 」
In my case, even when I was just a Villager, I was a Villager Lv.1. . . . . . no,
wait!
Come to think of it, I can only see the Levels of my Jobs when Using Identify
or during Job settings and Character Reset, and those Bonus Skills cannot be
used by others. The name of the First Job is also displayed on the Intelligence
Card, but not the Job's level. Does. . . does that mean that the people of this
world do not know that everything has a level?!
「I see. So that is how it was this entire time?」
「It is okay, master. Even if you don't know about a lot of things, that lack of
common knowledge will not be a problem in the Labyrinths!」
「That's right! No problem at all!」
All this time, I have been going around like 「Level this」 and 「Level that」, so
Roxanne was probably just playing along with my crazy antics.
I must have looked like such a fool up until now.
「Even if you don't know some things, you are still yourself, master!」
「Yeah, when you are too smart, it is a given that you may not be understood
by others. In fact, the smartest minds are always guaranteed to be surrounded
by the people who are not going to understand them!」
Is that supposed to be comforting?
「W-We should head out again. Let us go back to the seventh floor of the
Labyrinth and explore it some more until evening.」
Looks like I really was a damn fool this entire time.