Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 4 - Ch 1.13

Oh really? Well, how nice of you to be so eager.

I only asked her if she was comfortable with entering the Labyrinths as a kind of formality, but the level of eagerness she displayed with that one simple sentence has admittedly been quite admirable. There is no doubt that Roxanne and I will be able to hold our own against the monsters in there, but I wonder how Sherry herself is going to perform since she is only a Lv.10 Explorer, because when I look at her arms, which are currently placed on the table between us, they are pretty thin and unassuming. Also, even though she said that she id going to do her best, right now she had a pretty hesitant look on her face, as if she just remembered something unpleasant that she forgot to mention in the heat of the moment. So, are there some buts to her readiness to go to the Labyrinths, perhaps? Maybe she was only saying that she will eagerly go there to increase her own appeal in my eyes, but in reality she was scared after all?

Uhm. . .

Yes? What is it?

I, uhm. . . well. . .

Sherry was obviously gathering courage to tell me something, but just was not able to do it, so she looked back at Alan-san, as if she was waiting for him to encourage her. He simply closed his eyes and nodded quietly once again. She nodded back at him, took a few deep breathes, and. . .

Mr. Costumer, the thing is. . .

Go on, I am listening.

As I already said when I introduced myself, I am a Lv.10 Explorer.

That is right. And when I asked if you would be fine with going into the Labyrinths, you eagerly expressed your readiness to do so.

Besides, I already knew that she was a Lv.10 Explorer from the appraisal I did on her with Identify.

Right, I said that. But, you see. . .

Uh-huh, so there really is some kind of catch to it, huh? Well, might as well hear about it since she is willing to speak about it herself without any forceful prodding.

Do you have some sort of problem with it?

Maybe it is some kind of traumatic event from her past?

It is just that. . . I was unable to become a Master Smith.

Huh? Now that is curious.

Before you continue, let me make sure that I understand what you said just now. You said that you were unable to become a Master Smith? Why is that? Could you elaborate on that some more?

Yes, of course. Since Master Smith is a Job that is mutually exclusive to the Dwarven race, every Dwarf has a chance of obtaining that Job when they reach Lv.10 in the Explorer Job. However, not every Dwarf can have the aptitude to actually become one. Generally, it is believed that it can only happen to those Dwarves who are exceptionally talented at exploring the Labyrinths.

So she does have a problem, and I think that I can more or less guess what is it going to be about, but I am going to ask her about it directly anyway.

Hmm. . . so what you are trying to say is that you did not obtain the Job of a Master Smith when you aquired Lv.10 as an Explorer, is that right?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yes. That is right.

Sherrys face darkened and she lowered it down when I guessed what was the reason of her being so troubled. A belief that if you are talented enough of a Dwarf, you can become a Master Smith when you reach Lv.10as an Explorer, huh? What a curiously peculiar way of putting one of this worlds game mechanics into words.

She is a Lv.10 Explorer, and yet she is not a Master Smith. In other words, something must have happened to prevent her from obtaining that Job when she reached the appropriate level for obtaining it, and that must have caused both her and everyone around her to deem her as not talented enough, resulting in her not having the Job of a Master Smith right now. But is that really a reason for thinking that you will not be able to do any good in the Labyrinths? Normally I would say that I do not mind it all that much, but since I came here explicitly because I wanted a Dwarven Master Smith to join my Party, this can prove to be quite a serious issue. . .

But is that really the case? Not being able to become a Master Smith because you do not have enough innate talent, I mean?

When I first came to this world, I was able to aquire the Job of a Thief almost instantly because I took some old, worn-out sandals from a barn where I have woken up, and shortly after I obtained the Job of a Hero by helping the villagers of Somara village deal with the Bandit attack which happened shortly after I left the barn. So, if someone like me could obtain Jobs in such random ways, then why would it be any different for anyone else? In the first place Master Smith already has a restriction placed upon it, the one that says that only Dwarves can become them, so adding another one to it, and the one saying that you also need to be talented at that, would be just plain stupid and unreasonable. Also, another issue that I see here, but it actually can be applied to my old world as well: how in the glaring hell do you measure talent?!

Maybe it is just that Master Smith has some other requirements for unlocking it other than simply reaching Lv.10 as an Explorer? Like maybe, well I do not know, having the value of your INT stat at eighty points or higher? No, that is probably not what this is about. Since she was able to talk about the Dwarves and Master Smith Job in such a reasonably well-esteemed manner, I would hazard a guess that her INT stat must be pretty high. Then maybe it is about having your STR stat at eighty points or higher?

Whenever I use the Character Reset Bonus Skill in order to change my stat distribution, one Bonus Point can be used to increase the value of any given stat by one point, so theoretically the requirement of having a STR stat at eighty points or higher to unlock access to certain Jobs would not be all that far-fetched. For example, it would make more than enough sense if the conditions for unlocking the Master Smith Job were as follows: Have the STR stat of at least eighty points or higher and become a Lv.10 Explorer. But that is only my speculation, and nothing that has been firmly set in stone. Even if I wanted to ask Roxanne about it, it would not do me any good, since the inhabitants of this world do not know that Bonus Points even exist in the first place, and explaining to her that you can convert them to increase your stats would be too much work. But if my hypothesis turned out to be true after all, then it would serve as a nice explanation of Sherrys predicament, because if Dwarves really needed at least eighty points in the STR stat and a Lv.10 in the Job of an Explorer, then that would explain why they treated someone with STR below eighty as someone inferior and without innate talent.

I glanced at Sherrys face once more. It is definitely cute. It would be areal shame not to add someone as cute as her to my Party just because she does not have a Job that I am currently after. But if I were to nitpick a little bit, then I would have to say that her hair look like they are dirty, not to mention that the way she has them made is more than a little unappealing. She would definitely benefit from having them thoroughly washed and combed. Or maybe my impression of her is like that because Roxanne was practically perfect since the first moment the two of us met? From my first visit here, I always thought that she was too beautiful for her own good (even if back then I thought if was a trap that Alan-san set for me, but let us not talk about that anymore).

But you know, now that I think about it, it is a given that I would see the difference in the level of hygene between Roxanne and Sherry.