Chapter 37: Shinobi
『Roxanne』
Current Levels & Equipment:
Beast Warrior Lv.32
Equipment:
Estoc
Hardened Leather Jacket
Hardened Leather Helmet
Hardened Leather Gloves
Hardened Leather Boots of Willow
Sacrificial Misanga
When we got home in the evening, there was a message from Luke waiting at the usual place, on a note that was stuck onto our door.
Is it finally going to be the thing that I was being afraid of? If so, then it has arrived much quicker than I have originally thought, but even so, this day was bound to come sooner or later.
Some time has passed since our duels, and now, the Duke is probably going to finally summon me to Bode’s castle so that I could explain to him in person what exactly happened there.
「Master, message from Luke the Broker: it would seem that he managed to win a bid for the Bitch Butterfly Skill Crystal.」
Roxanne reads the contents of the memo left by Luke out loud.
Oh, so it was a message about obtaining another Monster Skill Crystal? And here I thought that it’s going to be about that other thing. Well, it seems that I am still safe from having to explain myself before the Duke, even though several days have passed already.
「Of course I am. Now as I said, don’t worry about it. If it doesn’t work, it will simply not work, nothing more to it than that.」
「Ah...」
That being said, it’s going to be hard to test if that is going to have an actual effect or not. It takes me back to my earlier days in this world when I have just obtained the Alchemist Job and its Skill, 「Plating」, which I had to test out by applying it to a monster just so that I could see what that Skill was doing since the name itself was not telling me much. But that approach could only work with Skills, since it would probably be exponentially difficult to force a monster to equip the Damascus Steel Forehead Protector.
I’d have to capture it, render it unable to move, and equip the item.... And that’s all under the assumption that monster can even equip pieces of human equipment in the first place, because I have a lingering suspicion that this is not going to be the case.
The only thing I can do in that case is to test it out on myself. Yes, that’s right: I have to become my very own guinnea pig for human experimentation.... Except that this concept is still not entirely appealing to me, because testing passive Skills that give you resistances is one thing, and testing the active ones like 「Fire Wall」where you’d have to put your hand into the fire to see whether or not it is working properly are two different things.
「That’s right, it would be hard to test the effects. I can understand your anxiety, Sherry. Nevertheless, I think that as long as you approach it the way that you always do, then everything should still be okay in the end.」
「That’s not it. Testing the effects of the Skills would certainly be difficult, but more importantly: what if the fusion fails after we’d want to add more than two Skills to a single piece of equipment?」
「As I said, I trust that you’ll do just fine, Sherry.」
「Ohhh... I see.」
Sherry looks at me with cold eyes, like I’m some kind of mad scientist. Sherry, listen to me. Things are different for a Party that doesn’t mind human experimentation for scientific progress and the one that does mind it.
If I were a heartless bastard, then I would either buy myself a slave for the express purpose of having my very own personal test subject, or I would turn a captured Bandit or a Thief into one, simply shooting my magic at them while they were defenseless and counting how many Spells does it take to kill them.
But something like that would be inhuman, and it would be going too far just to check something in order to satisfy my own curiosity.
If we could conjure a demon or a monster to act as our test subject, then that would immediately solve all of our problems, but I don’t even know if there is a magic based on summoning in this game. Without it, however, there is no other way for me but to test the magic and the effects of the Skills myself.
As much as I don’t like it, that’s just how it is, and I have no choice but to accept it.
However, those are the worries that we’re going to be worrying ourselves with later. For now, we have returned home where I put on the apron, which I bought from a clothing store in Quratar, and fried the Whole Fish.
It’s called apron, but not a shred of cuteness can be found in it. It is focused on practicality, and nothing else beside it. As long as it’s I who puts it on, it’s alright, but I don’t want the girls to be wearing things like that. I want them to wear cute aprons instead.
After I carry the dish to the table, we start eating.