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

Volume 4 - Ch 3.10

Back where I came from, in the world of the Japanese rakugo plays, there was this one particular play where the plays hero who thought that he was better than those around him was actually inferior to them, and the other one, who thought himself to be inferior to others, was actually superior to those who constantly belittled him. This might be a strange metaphor that seemed to come out of nowhere, so allow me to provide a little bit more context here. All this time I am saying things like Sherry might actually be as good of a fighter as Roxanne and Iand I constantly comment on how people other than me cannot dispatch monsters with one or two blows, but all this time, I am forgetting about one very important thing: that the inhabitants of this world are doing all of that with just their strength alone while having basic equipment without any Skills and only one Job that they have to rely on, while I was able to achieve everything that I was able to achieve thanks to my insane luck/perseverance that allowed me to reroll my initial Stats when starting this game enough times to roll literally the best outcome possible and to the OP Bonus Skills and Bonus Equipment that I managed to obtain from them. If not for all of those things, I would probably be unable to fight with a normal sword effectively, and most of the enemies that I look down on for being too weak to do anything against me would have probably obliterated me twenty times over if I tried to take them on with an ordinary Copper Sword and without the abilities to use Attack Magic and replenish my HP and MP with every one of Durandals swings, so thinking about it that way, sherry might actually be a better fighter than me already, and with time she is only going to improve herself even further, because she is not relying on the godly equipment or Skills, but purely or the strength of her own two arms and nothing more beside it.

Okay, we are going to be moving to the fourth floor now. Once again, guide us towards all the monsters that are not Kobolds, Roxanne.

Roger that, master!

Roxanne nodded and guided us towards our first encounter on the fourth floor: a group of Minos. A part of me was worried if Sherry was going to be okay against them, since Minos are essentially a hulking mass of horned muscles, but she handled them just as well as the enemies on the previous three floors. Whereas Roxanne would dive right between them and dodge every last one of their attacks, Sherry was taking a slightly different approach: she was waiting for the enemies to come within the range of her Club, and then she would bash their heads in or swing towards their sides which would disrupt their movement, allowing her to go in for the finishing blow. The Minos collapsed to the ground and disappeared in a cloud of green smoke, leaving behind their Drop Item, which was simply described as Leather.

Oh look, they dropped something. I wonder if this is the Minos rare drop?

This is one of the raw materials that can drop from certain monsters. It can be sold, but it can also be used in the process of creating equipment.

Is it the same kind of equipment as the one that our equipment is made of?

I asked that because it got me genuinely interested in the possibility of using such raw materials to create our own equipment instead of having to buy new pieces of it all the time.

Uhm. . . it is. . . perhaps?

Unsure of how to answer, Roxanne gave a quick glance towards Sherry so that she could bail her out.

Yes, it is! In fact, this kind of leather is exactly the same kind that is being used to make the Leather equipment that we are wearing right now.

Hmm, is that so? Then perhaps. . .

Have you ever picked up this kind of Leather before, Sherry?

No, I cannot say that I did. There were Minos in the Labyrinth that I used to go to, but they appeared only on the higher floors of it.

Ah-hah! Could this be a hint that I can use? Maybe that is what we have been missing this entire time? After all, Roxanne and I have obtained the Job of a Herbalist, centered around the creation of various medicines, when we picked up the Drop Item that got left behind by the Udowood, the Floor Boss of the first floor of Vales Labyrinth, so maybe Sherry will obtain the Job of a Master Smith when she picks up one of the materials used to create equipment?

All right. . . Sherry, then please pick it up.

Okay.

Sherry got down on one knee and picked up the Leather from the ground. Now, I wonder if this is going to be enough? I glanced at Roxanne, who was looking at Sherry with gentle curiosity. It is a good thing that at this point she probably got so used to me making all sorts of experimentsso she did not ask any questions at this point, taking whatever I was coming up with in stride. When Sherrys hand touched the Leather, I waited for a few seconds before opening the Party Job settings. . . . . . . . but just as I have expected, there seemed to be no particular change and no new Jobs in Sherrys possession, meaning that it was another failure, because both Roxanne and I did not have to do anything else to obtain Herbalist Jobs other than picking up the item.

And by the way, all of the items that we have obtained from the marathon of slaying the monsters from the lower floors have been placed into my own Item Box. Even if both master and the slave were capable of using it, it would stand to reason that the slave should hand over all of the items that he or she gathered so that the master could place it in his Item Box, because no master would have allowed slaves to keep items in their own Item Boxes out of fear of getting deceived by them, or at least that is how Roxanne explained it to me when I asked her about it some time ago, and I have to say that this sounds like a fair precaution, because even without the Item Boxes, there would always be a risk that some of the slaves might have tried to cheat their masters by tucking some of the items they have obtained in the depths of their backpacks, but the need to hand over everything they have found to their masters Item Box eliminates such a possibility. And in my case, me collecting all of the items into my own Item Box has one additional merit. Since Sherry also has the Job of an Explorer, she can also use her own Item Box, but if she tried to use it now, she would immediately notice that she would be unable to do so, because currently the Job that she has equipped is not an Explorer, but a Villager, but as long as she will not try to access the Item Box herself then everything should be fine. After Sherry picked up the Leather and handed it off to me I checked her Job Settings one more time to be doubly sure if there was a change in her Jobs or not, but the only thing that I have received was double the disappointment when it was confirmed that picking the Leather up did jack shit in getting new Jobs for her. Then again, it getting the Master Smith Job was as easy as picking up a random item off the ground, then people would not be saying that you need to be a talented Dwarf for that to happen.

I wonder if we should keep this Leather for ourselves and save it for later so that we could try making some equipment out of it?

I mumbled to myself hoping that nobody would hear me, but apparently I said it loud enough for Sherry to hear, because her expression immediately got darker, and she hanged her head down dejectedly.

I am sorry, master. If only I was capable of becoming a Master Smith, then surely I could have. . . . . . .

She apologized as if she just committed a crime against me or something. Sherry, it is not like that. That is not what I means, but apparently that is how she interpreted my words again.