Chapter 38: ProgressI left Selmer’s Castle and walked into the nearby forest. After checking my surroundings, I warped to the capital to check on Sherry. Didn’t see her waiting in the library lobby, not that I expected to, so I found a good spot to warp home.
The others were rebuilding a door frame when I got there. Oddly, they didn’t know about plumb tools so I made a sloppy version out of a bit of metal and string. After finding a good pce to stop, we went to Nordselm’s Labyrinth to finish the 11th floor against the ants. Decided against checking on the vilgers this time and just went back home.
Thanking everyone for the diversion, I went back to the library to fetch Sherry. Sherry was near the entrance and reeked of alcohol — right, I remember this from the manga, as well as other stories about dwarves. They are said to drink alcohol like water. Not so strange, considering that tolerance levels vary even amongst human poputions on Earth.
“Hello, Sherry, hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“No, David, I just got out and was worried that I was te.”
Back home, Marcus was cleaning up the construction project while Theo and Alina prepared dinner. The others might be interested in the hearing procedures so I had Sherry start with the skill crystals. She handed me a wax tablet full of nicely written text. I handed it back to her and pulled out my own tablet.
“Please read it to me.”
With some hesitation, Sherry read slowly enough for me to copy the most important information. It wasn’t perfect since I had to guess how to spell the names of the unknown monsters.
“Um, is my handwriting hard to read?”
“Yes, for me at least, since I can’t read Brahim.”
“… um, what? Then what are you writing?”
I showed Sherry my tablet.
“Is that your native nguage?”
“Yes, it’s called English and sounds just like Brahim.”
“Oh, then I can help you make a character table.”
“I’ve already done that and it works for town names. Unfortunately, most normal words are incomprehensible. There are certainly some simirities, but it’s clearly a different nguage.”
Sherry reached for one of my extra wax tablets and scribbles something.
“David, can you read this?”
“Um, that looks like my name and there’s Curatar. Oh, is that your name?”
“Yes, that’s right. Can you see the word live in?”
“No, and that’s two words.”
“What is?”
“To me, the words live and in are separate words even when I say live in.”
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“It does if you accept what I said about my native nguage — it only sounds like Brahim. Being able to speak and understand spoken Brahim seems to be one of my skills. So, I don’t actually know Brahim, I can just fake it really well.”
“I’ve never heard of transtion magic, though it almost makes sense, like so many other things about you. Um, no offense, David.”
“None taken. When we have some spare time, I’d like to find a way around this problem. Maybe we could use a different nguage as an intermediate. Well, that’s for ter. Looks like dinner is ready.”
–
After dinner, Sherry shared what she learned at the library. She emphasized that hearings involving a commoner and a noble were rare.
“Yep, I’m being used in a political battle.”
“I knew that elf couldn’t be trusted.”
“Sherry, it’s not because he’s an elf or even just because he’s a noble, though that’s closer to the truth. I know I’m being used because the duke told me directly. The alternative would have been to throw me to the count without a trial.”
Sherry apologized and then continued with her summary.
“Thanks for checking all this. Your description was certainly better. The duke spoke more about my tone and how to avoid offending. Alina, do you have any comments regarding how the count might act?”
“According to his closest servants, he compins about pretty much everything, especially the duke. He seems to be unreasonable and petty.”
“That’s certainly good news. Sounds like the count will destroy himself with little attention brought to me.”
After the politics, we talked about monsters types and strategies in broad terms. We agreed that Sherry would be responsible for that information.
That night, Sherry performed yet another successful crystal fusion.
“David, did you pick me because there’s something special about me?”
“I asked An to find someone strong and who could also do library research. That’s certainly not common.”
“I meant, as a dwarf.”
“Actually, I didn’t ask An for a dwarf though I hoped to eventually find someone who could do crafting. Sherry, you can do everything I was looking for and more. It’s fair to say that you are special.”
“Thank you, David.”
That answer didn’t seem to fully satisfy her. Maybe she could tell that I wasn’t being completely open. Of course, everything I said was true but I’m not ready to admit that I’d read about her in a manga.
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Day 36
I woke up enthusiastic about making use of Sherry’s knowledge of the next league of monsters. Immediately after breakfast, we suited up and went to Curatar’s 13th floor. I warned Sherry about the Sarracenia on the 12th and she confirmed that they were reported to be sensitive to fire. We soon saw that the new monster is a fly trap.
Sherry announced, “Fly Traps are also sensitive to fire but resistant to water. They attack with water magic and can poison.”
I had everyone keep a tight formation while I repeatedly bsted the monsters with firestorms and fireballs. The occasional slug was generally left for me to whack with Durandal to recover MP. I’m acting a bit greedy, but this really is the safest strategy right now. Besides, I really do need them to block for me. Alina generally stayed back with me as a rear guard since I didn’t have time to keep checking behind me and she’s fast enough to check both directions. Alina also held the map and called off directions.
With Curatar being so popur, we could tell that there were a few other parties in the vicinity. Couldn’t see them directly since it seems we were given a rather wide berth, though maybe that’s just normal. I didn’t hear any other Mages so maybe the sound of my spell spamming kept the other parties away. Hmm, I’d better be careful not to get too big of a head, assuming I haven’t already.
When we reached the crowded waiting room, I decided that we should take a break rather than just wait patiently.
“I’m going to take a quick trip to the merchants guild. Go ahead and eat and rest without me — I’ll just be sitting and talking in there anyway.”
I got to the guild just as Gosr was leaving. This happened in the manga too — fate or just chance?
“Hello, Lord Captain.”
“Ah, Lord Moreau. What brings you here?”
“Looking for bargains. I managed to get this armor here recently.”
“That is indeed very nice, though rather unusual for a Mage.”
“Well, it’s the best I could find.”
“Lord Moreau, I feel that I must apologize for upsetting yesterday.”
“Thank you, Lord Captain. I do hope we can learn to trust each other some day.”
“It is my responsibility to be cautious.”
“Of course, Lord Captain, though that caution makes me cautious. See you at the hearing.”
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I no longer felt like talking to Luke and decided to rejoin my party.
Sherry had evidently dragged the rest of the party to the explorers guild so she could record the order of the monsters for Curatar’s Labyrinth. That’ll be a bit of a spoiler and imply that we should pn in advance, but I guess the extra work will be worth increasing our survivability. I guess this will also help everyone participate in the decision making.
We returned to the 13th floor, just outside the waiting room. This time, the line was even longer, but that just gave us some time to discuss our pns. Sherry tells us that the next floor introduces ‘Hat Bat’. These are fast, hard to hit and weak to magic.
When it was our turn, we quickly defeated the boss and its attendant to progress to the 14th floor. Fire wasn’t one of the bat’s weaknesses so I used wind spells depending on the group’s composition. Alina ended up casting Group Heal a few times due to the many minor injuries we received from the nasty, little bats. At this point, I’m starting to doubt my assertion that it’d be wasteful to have two Mages.
We made it through most of the 14th before heading home. Long day so we had a light dinner. Still restless but not reckless, I took us for a short pass on the sixth floor of Vale. Here, we fought olive trees with ease.
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Back home, I rexed with Sherry at my side.
“David, what do you think about the byrinths?”
“I think that byrinths use space magic like an Explorer’s Item Box, where each floor is a different ‘storage slot’.”
“What?”
“Which reminds me, since my warp skill can cross a byrinth, maybe there’s a Thief skill that can grab items from an Item Box.”
“David, I just meant, ah, never mind. Anyway, would you like me to attempt another crystal fusion?”
Success, as expected. Rather than pleased, Sherry looked a bit grumpy.
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Day 37
“Folks, we’re making great progress and I want to continue with Curatar again today. We still need to finish the bats and pnts of the 14th floor. Sherry, what will we encounter on the 15th?”
“The new monster is called ‘Grass Bee’. It flies, shoots poison darts, and is sensitive to wind magic.”
“Well, we have antidote pills and I’ll hit them with magic. Sorry for another boring floor.”
Alina commented, “Not really sure if poison darts will be boring.”
We finished the bat floor with no one in the waiting room. The boss was simple so we started the 15th. The bad part about this floor was the ck of monsters I could use to replenish my mana. Before running too low, we stopped for a break so I wouldn’t have to take a pill.
Since I missed meeting Luke yesterday, I decided to try again today. He was free so we met in one of the little rooms.
“Hello, Mr. Moreau. Nice to see you again. I won a bid on a very popur item, a Shrub skill crystal, for 6200 Nars.”
Sherry told me about that one though I still needed to check my notes to see that it grants the Stun skill.[1]
“That’s pretty expensive.”
“Yes, Sir. Its popurity is said to be due to its ease of activation in battle, though I have no personal experience.”
“Of course I’ll take it and I’ll order some more, though I haven’t decided yet. How about Coral? How much do those typically cost?”
“Coral skill crystals are much less popur and can often be obtained for 2500 Nars.”
“Hmm, how about sheep?”
“Yes, Sheep skill crystals are a reasonable intermediate. They most recently sold for 4300 Nars.”
“OK, I’ll take two more Shrub, two Rabbit, two Sheep, three Kobold and one Goat. Try to get the Goat crystal within the next few days. For everything else, just set reasonable limits to get most in 10 days or so.”
“Yes, very good, Sir.”
I may have gone a bit overboard, but may as well improve our stuff sooner than ter. Even if we repce our equipment, the enchantments are much more valuable than the crystals.
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I rejoined the resting party and we went back inside.
Marcus says, “I feel bad that you have to do all of the work.”
“I’m fine with it as long as someone is willing to save me if I get poisoned.”
Following the map, I bsted everything in sight with wind magic and popped MP pills as needed. A bit te, we managed to complete the floor before going home for dinner.
Sherry completed her fifth successful fusion so now everyone could have a Cord of Substitution. After passing the st to Marcus, Sherry sat me down for a serious conversation. Almost looks like I’m in trouble.
“David, please expin why all my crystal fusions work. I’m not supposed to do any fusions this soon and it’s completely unheard of for it to work five times in a row.”
“OK, Sherry, there are several parts to this. Most important involves open skill slots. Are you familiar with the theory?”
“Yes, it says that the success of fusion depends only on the presence of these open slots. Of course, it’s unprovable since no one can see them. Right?”
“Well, I can. It’s part of my Identification skill.”
“Even if that were possible, why you?”
“My guess is that the person who came up with the theory could see them too. Maybe it’s a very rare skill so it’s a closely guarded secret. Regardless, I see something that allows my picks to be much, much better than random. Of course, fusion might fail for a different reason, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong in general.”
“As unsettling as it feels, I can’t deny that it makes sense.”
“Good. Since we already have plenty of Cords with empty slots, it’s time for you to start crafting with other materials.”
“David, can we leave that discussion till tomorrow?”
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[1] The LN calls this skill Paralysis but that sounds too severe in English. Calling it Temporary Paralysis would crify that the effect isn’t permanent but that’s too long and clinical.
