Never give up (TL: t.i.tle originally in English)
When I wake up, I was hugging Roxanne like a pillow.
Our legs entwined. My hands around Roxanne’s back.
Waking up so early in the morning with beautiful women on both sides is really pleasant.
My mornings have never been so pleasant before.
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Lying like this between the two, I can’t move.
Both my hands and feet are completely clinging to Roxanne.
Have I really been longing for Roxanne’s back hair so much?
I wonder if Sherry is too small to be a body pillow.
Roxanne’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s are supple as ever.
Because I’m hugging her from front, I can savor this suppleness to my heart’s content.
I tighten my embrace a little to test it out.
Having gotten squeezed a little, they spring back out with incredible force.
This is irresistible.
“N~”
While I was having fun with her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Roxanne kisses me.
This is bad.
It seems she’s up.
I’m totally busted.
“Good morning, master.”
“G-Good morning.”
I greet her back in a constrained voice.
“Ah, good morning.”
Sherry too seems to be up.
For she greets from behind me.
Feeling guilty, I take my arms away from around Roxanne, turn around, and embrace Sherry.
“Good morning to you too, Sherry.”
I say that and place my lips on hers.
Sherry is still clumsy at kissing.
So it’s difficult to kiss her.
But I have come to love it somehow.
Although it feels a lot better how actively Roxanne responds to my kiss, it’s wrong to compare them, I think.
Sherry will get accustomed to it over time.
I can’t help but seek Roxanne’s lips again when I was changing into my clothes.
Roxanne’s tongue entwines with mine.
Our tongues entwined. Lips wriggling. Mouths slurping.
Because Roxanne said she loves it, there shouldn’t be any problem.
Because I haven’t selected s.e.x Maniac job yet, it shouldn’t be Enhanced Vigor skill at work.
Kaga Michio Male 17 years old
Explorer Lv33 Hero Lv30 Wizard Lv32 Monk Lv 31 Alchemist Lv 17
Equipment: Wand Leather Cap Hide Armor Hide Gloves Leather Boots
Roxanne Female 16 years old
Beast Warrior Lv19
Equipment: Scimitar Wooden s.h.i.+eld Hide Cap Hide Jacket Hide Gloves Hide Boots
Sherry Female 16 years old
Villager Lv3
Equipment: Hammer Hide Cap Hide Jacket Hide Mitten Sandal Boots
We check our stuff and get ready to go.
The more jobs I get, the more jobs I want to select.
Because Party Formation skill is necessary, I can not cancel Explorer job.
Effects of Hero and Wizard jobs are too great to cancel.
Taking emergency situations into consideration, I can not cancel Monk job either.
Now it all comes down to Alchemist, Cook and s.e.x Maniac. I can’t decide on one.
Other people can pick only one job at a time. Luxury of choice can be problematic sometimes.
Human greed knows no bounds after all.
By the way, it seems party will dissolve automatically, if I cancel Explorer job.
Also, to make use of Item Box skill of Cook job, Explorer job can alternatively be entrusted to another member of the party.
“All ready.”
“Let’s go then.”
Sherry reports and we Warp to the labyrinth.
Early morning. Vale town labyrinth floor 2.
“Master, why here?”
“Vale town labyrinth floor 2 is perfect for Sherry’s first time in our party.”
Roxanne can tell from the smell that it’s not Quratar town labyrinth floor 7
I shortly explain it to ease her doubts.
“I see. I understand.”
“First, I want to see Sherry’s fighting style. I will weaken the monsters with my magic, then Sherry will attack and finish off what’s left.”
“Y-Yes.”
“Roxanne will take the frontline and hold the monsters back.”
“Very well.”
I open up bonus points distribution interface, and allocate half of the points to Intelligence to be able to kill Lv2 monsters in one magic attack.
Surviving monsters shall be left for Sherry.
Sherry swings her hammer.
And hits a Green Caterpillar Lv2 in its guts.
That must have been quite an impact.
Enraged, the monster launches a counterattack. Roxanne easily sidesteps.
For Roxanne, dodging that was a piece of cake.
Sherry takes that opportunity to strike it with her hammer.
Good team work.
With that, Sherry takes out the monster.
“Oh well, that was no good.”
I immediately open up party job settings interface, but Master Smith job was not there.
So taking them out with hammer is not the condition.
Or perhaps it also needs Villager Lv5?
“Was it not good enough?”
“Ah, no, Sherry did well. Next time, please use this spear.”
Oops, a slip of tongue.
It was not completely in vain, I think.
After that, we tried copper spear, copper sword, and bare-handed attacks, but nothing resulted in a new job.
Most probably, Villager Lv5 is another condition for Swordsman and Monk.
To ascertain it, we will have to wait for Villager job to level up.
“Uh!”
As expected, Sherry is taking hits from monsters when she takes them on bare-handed.
It can’t be helped. I too received hits from monsters when I was fighting bare-handed.
But it’s not to the extent of causing concern, for Roxanne is engaging them from the front.
“How are the monster attacks? Is their level too high?”
I ask Sherry while healing her injuries.
“I-Is this Recovery magic?”
“That is so.”
“Like I thought, multiple jobs… Ah, no. One or two attacks of this extent are not a problem.”
Sherry answers me while fighting.
Even under attack, she looks composed.
To get Recovery magic, you have to understand pain, you have to receive damage.
It seems safe now to proceed.
Next, it will be I to take them out with hammer.
By acquiring a job from taking a monster out with hammer, it can be ascertained whether or not taking a monster out with hammer is the condition to acquire Master Smith job.
I raise my hammer up high and crash it down hard on a Green Caterpillar Lv2.
“Unfortunately, I’m not as skillful.”
“To swing that, it would be better to use centrifugal force more.”
Hammer is more difficult for me to use than swords because I’m not used to it.
Because it’s centre of gravity is located at the farther end, you use its weight to strike.
Each weapon has its own qualities.
The monster is somehow dead, and I immediately check out my jobs.
A moment of anxiety. Anxiety of antic.i.p.ation.
However, there is no new job.
I use spear next but the result remains same.
“What do I do now?”
“No, I have to keep trying.”
I now have Roxanne use spear and hammer to see if she gets a new job.
I use wand now to take out monsters, but nothing. That’s right, not all weapons have related jobs, it seems.
Or probably the conditions to acquire them are not yet met?
In the end, we were not able to acquire any new job, including Master Smith.
“Getting used to it is not difficult, but strength is necessary to wield it. I still like swords better, however.”
Roxanne comments as she takes out a monster with hammer.
Hammer seems to be exclusive to Sherry here.
Although she looks like she can use spear, I decide against it, for Roxanne is our vanguard. She confronts monsters from close distance, while spear needs you to maintain some distance.
Roxanne should continue to be our vanguard.
Having tried various things out, we move to Quratar town labyrinth to go further up the floors.
Sherry was not able to try out Kobolds on Vale town labyrinth floor 3, but it can’t be helped.
Even if we go up to higher floors, Sherry can fight the monsters without any difficulty.
Sherry might be small and cute, but when she is in battle, she looks dignified.
She might not be at Roxanne’s level, but she is closer to me.
In the world of Rakugo, I’m a Rakugo artist who fortunately got better plot, and now I’m competing with top Rakugo artists who got better skills than me. Take the plot away from me, and I’m hardly competing with those below me. (TL: Rakugo is traditional comic storytelling in j.a.pan.)
If I think about it, Sherry and I are probably competing with each other.
“Uh!”
We come across a group of 3 monsters on floor 5. Sherry receives an attack from a monster.
Facing a group of 3, I too receive attacks.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I have fought on floor 8 before. Floor 5 should not be a problem.”
I ask while healing her injuries. Sherry firmly replies.
“No, equipment and party members among other things are different this time. It’s better to use zero-based approach. Also, monsters attack aggressively every so often.”
“Thank you. Still, I’ll be fine.”
Real cause of my concern is the fact that I have leveled her down from Explorer Lv10 to Villager Lv3.
I have yet to tell her about her job change.
I had no choice but to postpone this.
With time, when Sherry comes to trust me more, she might accept her job change.
“I hope you will be.”
When I look at Roxanne for her opinion, she nods rea.s.suringly.
Although I’m not completely free of my worries, it seems fine for now.
We move to floor 6.
To test s.e.x Maniac job, I add one more job slot to make it 6 jobs.
Because it’s scary to suddenly go fight without Plating.
“Continuing on from where I left off last night, let’s see what kind of skill this s.e.x Maniac job has.”
“Sherry, do you know about it?”
Because it appears awkward to ask only Sherry about such a thing, I turn to Roxanne, who simply shrugs.
‘Why are you asking me?’ kind of expression.
Okay, from now on, I will direct all my questions to Sherry.
“I don’t know either. This job is not openly known, so not many rumors about it are pa.s.sed around.”
Yeah, it would be terrible to talk about such a thing.
Even if you successfully get s.e.x Maniac job, you won’t talk to your parents and siblings about it with your chest puffed with pride.
And on top of that, the condition for acquiring it.
s.e.x Maniac Lv1
Effects: Medium Increase in Spirit Small Increase in Intelligence Small Increase in MP
Skills: Enhanced Vigor Celibacy Strike
Presumably, Enhanced Vigor is a pa.s.sive skill and Celibacy Strike is an active skill.
Having selected s.e.x Maniac job, what I’m afraid of is getting turned on indiscriminately by anyone.
However, if it’s Roxanne, I would obviously not mind doing this and that.
It won’t be out of norm.
You can’t live long with s.e.x Maniac job, when you’re in heat all the time.
But there’s always prison.
So it’s probably gonna be alright.
Actually it might be possible to live in confinement.
In the whole town, I haven’t seen a single human with s.e.x Maniac job.
So it is indeed not a job that’s publicly known.
I try to test out Celibacy Strike.
Roxanne finds a Mino Lv6 as I take Durandal out.
Calling for Celibacy Strike in my mind, I slash at the Mino.
Relying on an attack I’m using for the first time, I hit that Mino Lv6.
What’s this?
Weak!
So weak!
Pathetically slow attack!
Perhaps Celibacy Strike is not an active skill, considering how weak that attack was? An active skill has to be better than that.
Is Celibacy Strike only for celibates to use?
That’s not fair!
Once again. This time I try normal attack.
The monster was still not down.
It takes two normal attacks of Durandal to take out monsters of floor 6.
Because my first strike was so weak, the monster was still not down after taking second attack.
Celibacy Strike is weaker than even a normal attack, it seems.
If you use a powerful skill, it might even be possible to one-hit monsters of floor 6. To think I added one more job slot and increased my jobs to 6 only to test out s.e.x Maniac job — Aweful.
Perhaps there are conditions of its use?
Perhaps you have to make a live sacrifice on 7th day every month to make it work?
I’ll try Celibacy Strike one more time. If it’s same as last time, it really is a pathetic skill.
I take my stance in the mean time.
For now, I’ll use a normal attack of Durandal to finish this Mino off.
The monster falls, turns into smoke, and disappears.
Leaving pelt behind.
“Come to think of it, Sherry must have picked up pelt before.”
I ask Sherry casually when I see pelt.
“I did not. In the labyrinth I entered before, Mino is a monster that appears on higher floors.”
Oh, that was unexpected.
Earlier, by picking up leaf – raw material used in making poison antidote pill – I acquired Herbalist job, which can produce poison antidote pills.
Perhaps Master Smith job can be acquired by picking up raw materials used in making equipment?
“Please pick it up.”
“Yes.”
Nervously, I take a peek at Roxanne’s face for her expression.
She might get angry for not asking her.
Well, it’s not like there’s a change in practice.
Until now, she has never picked up dropped items, nor she expressly asked for it.
I have all the dropped items in my Item Box.
When master and slave both have Item Box, it’s normal for master to use his Item Box.
It’s alright to use backpack though. Unlike Item Box, items can not be misappropriated from backpack.
If Sherry were to use her Item Box, she would find out that she’s not an Explorer.
I receive pelt from Sherry, put away my Durandal, and open up party job settings interface to check Sherry’s jobs out.
No luck.
Picking up pelt does not seem to be the condition for acquiring Master Smith job.
Picking up pelt is not recognized as an ability, it seems, unlike picking up medicinal plants.
“I haven’t sold any pelt I got so far. Let’s have someone make better equipment out of it later on.”
“Umm… I’m sorry. If that’s the case, I had a Master Smith teacher.”
I say that casually, but Sherry apologizes to me.
No, no, I didn’t mean it like that.
But it can be interpreted as such.
I can’t be careless about what I say.
It seems people who stand above others have limitations of their own.
“Speaking of which, there is an exception to the condition that you must not be over Lv10 Explorer to become a Master Smith. What is that exception?”
I try to gloss over what I said before.
“The Temple of Elen.”
“Elen?”
“Unlike guilds, that only a.s.sign corresponding jobs, the Temple of Elen can a.s.sign any job by way of oracle. The job is one in which the person is most apt at.”
Roxanne explains.
In this world, if you need to change your job, you have to visit guilds or the Temple. In a guild, you can change your job only to the profession that the guild belongs to.
Merchant guild for Merchant job, Explorer guild for Explorer job, and so on.
In the Temple, however, you can change to a random job.
“I see. Thank you.”
No, not random. The job a person is a.s.signed is based largely on merit.
My question is, can I only change to a job I have already acquired? or I can be a.s.signed a job I haven’t acquired yet?
Guilds can only change to those jobs that have already been acquired. Is the Temple of Elen the same?
“The first emperor’s job, Hero, was a.s.signed by the Temple of Elen.”
“Well, did the first emperor save some village from bandit attack at some point?”
“Yes, the first emperor’s first battle was to suppress bandits.”
Affirms Sherry.
Bingo!
Getting rid of thieves is the condition for obtaining Hero job.
It’s possible that it only needs you to repel them, not kill.
It was first battle for me as well.
In this world, you first undertake training by killing monsters, before attacking thieves. It is quite rare to go and attack thieves without any prior training.
For this reason, Hero job is extremely rare.
The first emperor, whose first battle was to suppress thieves, acquired Hero job.
It was not the Temple of Elen that a.s.signed Hero job to the first emperor. The Temple of Elen only changed the job to one that the first emperor had already acquired.
Even if I take Sherry to the Temple of Elen, it is highly unlikely for her to get a.s.signed Master Smith job, because she hasn’t acquired it yet.
“Would Sherry be happy if she becomes Master Smith?”
“N-No.”
“Is that so?”
I don’t think it is so.
Sherry is looking at the ground.
And then, she somehow manages to get these words out of her mouth.
“Because I have already given up.”
Don’t give up! You… Don’t you give up!