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

Sherry

Current Character Levels & Equipment:

Job:

Master Smith Lv.20

Equipment:

Club

Leather Helmet

Leather Jacket

Leather Gloves

Leather shoes

So, the time has finally come.

I sat up while correcting my posture and declaring that in a solemn tone of voice.

Now that we have returned from our trip to Palmasque, we should finally be able to do it, by which I mean, Sherry should be able to do it. I took the Green Caterpillars Skill Crystal from my Item Box, then removed the Misanga with an Empty Skill Slot that I was wearing tied around my ankle and passed these two items to Sherry.

Misanga, Accessory

Skill Slot: Empty

But before I handed them over, I also secretly switched the Misanga that I was wearing, the one without an Empty Skill Slot, with the one that had an Empty Skill Slot on it. After all, this is too important of a matter to risk the Item Fusion ending up in failure just because of my own forgetfulness.

Ah, y-yes, of course! I promise to give it my all, like always!

Do not worry, Sherry. I am sure that you are going to show off your talent here, just like you have been doing with the rest of your fusions up until this point.

Uhm. I am grateful for all of your kind words, but I would like to say that I think that the saying that the Master Smith who is going to turn their first-ever made Misanga into a sacrificial Misanga is going to be an incredibly talented one is just one big superstition in my opinion.

Sherry is once again trying to brush things off with being rational, perhaps in an attempt to temper our expectations of her.

It is admirable to see that despite all of the successes that she had with fusing various items ever since she acquired the Job of a Master Smith she is still trying to keep a tight hold on her own reasoning, but even despite that, I could see that she was not completely calm, because her hands were shaking ever so slightly, so for her own comfort and mental safety, it might be a good idea not to tell her that the Misanga that I just handed to her was not the very first one that she has made, but one of the recent ones with Empty Skill Slots in it.

If I gave her the very first one that she has made, then the fusion process would definitely end up in failure, and both the Misanga and the Green Caterpillar Skill Crystal would have gone to waste, and being wasteful with precious resources is not something that I am ever going to allow.

Not to mention that it is going to be better for Sherrys self esteem, which she can still have some problems with, so by allowing her to believe that the Misanga that she is going to turn into a Sacrificial Misanga is the very same one that she fused as the first one, she should get that much-needed confidence boost that should be enough for her to stop worrying and constantly compare herself to other Master Smiths who have more experience in smithing and fusing items than her simply by virtue of them doing them for a longer period of time.

After all, miracles happen to those who believe in them. It might take quite a long while for them to come about, but as the old Japanese proverb says:You can worship even a sardines head if you believe in it enough. (TL Note: a Japanese proverb that can mean more or less the following thing: everything that you have deep faith in can make the thing feel all the more precious, or that even such a trivial thing as a sardines head can be precious to those who believe in it.and it comes from the Japanese belief that the heads of sardines had the power to ward off the households from the influences of evil spirits that would avoid the house with sardines head I it because of their smell during the time of Setsubun, a demon-warding festival held before the first day of spring).

And, as I think we are all perfectly aware, a drowning man will grab even onto a straw, a beggar who is impatient is not going to get much, and those who believe will eventually be saved. But even so, right now Sherry is probably thinking that even though she has been enjoying so much success with her fusions up until now, she should still be extremely careful not to make any mistakes, which makes her similar to a soldier who cannot declare that he has won the battle until he has successfully returned home from the battlefield, because even though she has managed to win all of her previous battles against the Item Fusions chance of failure, there can never be any guarantee that her next fusion is going to be a successful one again.

Or at least I think that is more or less what must be going on through her head right now, because unfortunately for me, I do not possess as Skill that would allow me to read the thoughts of the people around me. If only I had access to such a convenient ability, then I would know exactly what I should be saying to make Sherry feel better and more confident in herself instead of playing deception and guessing games.

Nevertheless, even if Sherry might still be wary and cautious of the fusion process and its outcomes, I at the very least know that she is definitely going to succeed, all because I managed to crack the code on exactly in what way are the Item Fusion and the Empty Skill Slots on equipment related. So the way I see it now, Sherrys way on the road to becoming an even better Master Smith should be relatively simple. Knock, and it shall be opened for you. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

Well, even if it is nothing more than just a folk tale or an urban legend, it would still be nice if you managed to succeed with the turning of your very first Misanga into a Sacrificial Misanga, because then you would have all the bragging rights in the world as well as the ability to promote yourself to others as a successful Master Smith who managed to accomplish a feat that not many other Master Smiths can accomplish even though you had way less experience in the fields of smithing and item fusion than your contemporaries. You think like that as well, right, Roxanne?

Right. I believe it is going to be exactly like master says. Sherry is going to succeed because you possess an immense amount of hidden talent. After all, you have been chosen by master, and he happens to have an excellent eye for the talented people.

I purposefully aske Roxanne what she thought about the matter of Sherrys attempt at creating a Sacrificial Misanga in order to use her as a source of further motivation for Sherry. It might seem like a cruel thing to be putting her under so much pressure, but on the other hand, exactly because we are placing her under so much pressure, the feeling of joy when she eventually succeeds is going to be that much greater, and it is my duty as her master to put her under as much pressure as needed in order for her to continue to challenge herself and rising into new heights as a result.

That being said, since Sherry has never failed in any fusion before, I have no idea how is she going to take her first ever failure at fusing an item when it eventually happens. Is she going to accept it gracefully, or is she going to throw a temper tantrum and start cursing at everything around her as a way of coping with her own failure? If I pressure her like I did just now, is she going to be really mad at me, or is she going to understand that I only wanted to give her some much needed positive reinforcement that every single one of us need at least at one point throughout our lives?

Sherry, you are going to be all right, right? You are going to succeed, just like you always did, right? There is no way that all of your successes up to this point were simply coincidences and flukes, right? Or maybe the chance to fail is still there, no matter how small, even if the item that is going to be infused with a Monster Skill Crystal does have an Empty Skill Slot in it?