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

Since the Fireball always forms over my head whenever I cast it, the delay between casting consecutive spells must also include the period needed for each Fireball to form. After shooting another Fireball at that Needlewood it entered my melee range, so Roxanne slashed it with her Scimitar. It shook its branches at her, and she lightly dodged them. Using that opening she created for me, I casted another Fireball, shot it towards the Needlewood, hit it, and subsequently defeated it. It takes more work than I would have liked, but as long as Roxanne and I coordinate our actions and compensate for our weaknesses, it is definitely possible to fight with using just magic.

Sorry for putting you in the vanguard like that.

Not at all. Protecting you is my duty, therefore I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, both as this Partys magic caster and my master!

As much as I hate always putting her on the front lines, she is right. Normally Mages and Wizards have little to no melee capabilities, so it is only natural for them to be sticking to the backlines, where they can focus on casting their devastating spells without having to worry about being interrupted. And as far as I can see, Roxanne is more suited for the vanguard position than I am. If she herself is fine with it, then I guess there is no need for me to forcefully remove her from the position she feels the most at home at.

Okay, now that I have learned a lot about fighting with magic here on the first floor, I think its high time for us to go hit the second floor, since there is another thing that I want to experiment with.

Yes!

But before we go to the second floor, theres one more thing that I have to check: something that has to do with Leveling Up Jobs.

When I previously leveled Monk to Lv.2 I was using three Jobs at the same time and defeated about fourteen monsters. Now, since I have gone through the trouble of getting myself the Herbalist Job, I have no choice but to use it, even though it is totally not my style. Now, what would happen if I had only one Job set up? If the EXP is divided equally between all the Jobs you have set up, then with only one Job, it should earn that much more EXP with killing fewer monsters, right? Of course, I have no guarantee whether or not putting it at my First Job will give it a different levelling rate compared to the others, but nevertheless it should be worth a shot. Even if the EXP Im gaining is divided between my Jobs and Roxannes Job, they should still Level Up at about half the normal speed. Also, the amount of EXP needed to increase the levels of both Monk and Herbalist to Lv.2 will most likely be different, but that difference shouldnt be all that big.

Lets give it a try.

?

Hmm? I cant set Herbalist as my First Job. Why? I have more tha enough Bonus Points to do so, so why cant I do it? Maybe there are some additional restrictions to the process of Job changing? Bonus Points can be earned when you level up your First Job. That is why you cannot change your First Job to the one with a higher level if you ae using all of them. That much I understand. What I cannot understand though, is why cant I switch the First Job even though I have enough Bonus Points to do so?

Think about it, Michio! Think! There must be something you have missed!

Maybe its an Item Box?

My currently equipped First Job, the Explorer, has an Item Box Skill, and said Item Box contains pretty much all of my items withing it. What happens to all the items stored in there if the Explorer id removed from the position of the First Job? That is something that I have honestly never even thought about, and if I dont want to find out about it the painful way, it would be best not to change the First Job at all. I see. Good job for noticing such a crucial fact before it was too late, me.

While I was lost in thoughts, we happened upon another Needlewood. I slashed him with Durandal, turning him into green smoke in an instant.

Wait a minute maybe thats what this is all about?

I frowned and muttered to myself as I looked at Roxanne as she took the branches left by the Needlewood and packed them into her backpack. So far what I have in mind is just a hypothesis, and I dont know how to explain it well, so maybe I should just straight up try and do it?

Uhm, is something wrong, master?

No, no, everythings fine. We will continue the experiment for now. I still need some more time to get the results I am looking for. By the way, can you hold onto these for a moment?

I asked, giving her the items from my Item Box.

Yes, of course.

I took all of my items out of the Item Box and allowed Roxanne to pack them into her own backpack. Now, how about trying to set Herbalist as the First Job one more time now that the storage space in the Item Box has been freed?

Sure enough, it worked like a charm. So it was about the Item Box after all. It is an item exclusive to the Explorer Job, so as long as I had items stored in there removing it was not possible, but once you emptied it, nothing was preventing you from switching Jobs to whichever one you wanted. I had no idea its contents actually mattered for things like this, but now I know, and will be all the wiser for it in the future.

Thinking about it that way, thats a really balanced system.

???

Now I can challenge the next monster we encounter while having only the Herbalist Job set up. I wonder how it is going to go?

To my surprise, I wasnt able to defeat the next enemy with just one hit.

Eh?!

Huh?

It made the both of us very concerned, but thankfully a few more hits later it finally died.

Uhm

Do not worry, Roxanne. That was a part of my experiment as well. Such a thing happening was well within my scope of expectations.

It was? Well, okay then.

Up until now I always one-shotted everything that came close to the business end of my weapons and Roxanne knows that, so I had no choice but to play it off as a part of the experiment I was conducting so that she wouldnt get hella suss of me. Ever since the first time I entered the Labyrinth, I was always able to defeat the Needlewoods with one attack from Durandal, but I never really knew why exactly was I able to do that? OP stats and effects are one thing, but what about other factors? For example, when I defeated my first ever Needlewood with a single attack, my First Job was nothing more than a Lv.2 Villager if I remember correctly. Maybe the fact that I had more than one Job equipped had something to do with it? Like, you know, the more Jobs and their passive effects you have equipped the stronger your weapons get kinda thing?

Okay, that should do it for this floor. Now, let us be on our way to the second floor, and we will continue the experiment there.

I declared to Roxanne, and with that, we moved to the Labyrinths second floor. The experiment itself can be summarized in the following way: Even though it took more hits than usual, I was able to defeat enough Needlewoods to raise the Herbalist Job to Lv.2. It also seems like whether or not you have one Job or multiple Jobs set up, the amount of EXP you will get will always be the same. What that means for me is that I can have as many Jobs at once as I want, and I wont be suffering any penalties or negative effects for it.

I increased the number of my active Jobs back to four, and placed all of my items back into the Item Box.

This way, master.

Right behind you.

Finally back on the second floor, I made preparations for the continuation of my experiments.