Chapter 64: AdvancedIt’s easy to regroup with my party since they were lurking nearby. The girls were watching my conversation with Mirabel, but they probably couldn’t hear us. The guys guarded the girls, who were too focused on us to pay attention to their surroundings. Since no one caused trouble, I won’t mention that they were just supposed to take a quick peek and go away.
Skipping the byrinth’s toll booth as usual, I opened a portal to Curatar’s 40th floor to resume our fight against the overly-energetic bunnies. I mainly used wind magic to help maintain visibility. It’s convenient that magic users aren’t locked to a specific element. Oh, I wonder if my new magic job has unlocked. Mid-battle obviously isn’t the right time to start fiddling with my settings. I’ll just wait patiently. Well, it won’t take long to check my levels.
[Mage: 50, Explorer: 50, Hero: 48, Priest: 49, Assassin: 47]
“Alright, everyone, that’s enough for today. Let’s go home.”
“Boss?”
I open a portal and wait just long enough for the drops to be collected before going home.
Alina asks, “David, are you alright?”
“Everything’s fine. I just have some new skills to check on.”
Three new jobs popped up: Adventurer, Wizard and Errant. [1] I should probably switch from Explorer to Adventurer and I don’t need the storage capacity of both.
It might use the same sort of Item Box but may as well empty it so I don’t lose anything.
“Can someone please fetch a few sacks. I need to empty my Item Box.”
It’s nice that Wizard got added rather than just repcing Mage. I’ll probably be able to overp spell casting like I do with Priest. I want to try it out immediately! Right now!
Wait. Just calm down a moment and consider the potential problems. Can I use it in the byrinths? Yes, nobody will care even if they could see it. How about outside? I don’t want Gosr to know. He will correctly assume that I’m too dangerous. The guys will soon go to the elves, which is near Gosr. Maybe I should hold off until they leave. Of course I trust them, but they don’t need to be burdened with another secret, especially one that’s believable.
Someone brought sacks so I start transferring my miserly piles of gold and silver coins into them. It’s a bit embarrassing to reveal so much money. I guess they already know from when we collected the rgest amounts. With an empty Item Box, I should clear my job list and basically do a full reset. Of course, I’ll keep my essential skills and one job is required.
Alright, now I just have my first position job, Mage. I don’t think I’ve ever dropped to a single job before. Even starting out as a Vilger, I had an extra job option that ter got filled with Hero.
That reminds me, the manga’s MC couldn’t set Hero to be his first job so I never even tried. According to the legends, the first emperor received the Hero job from the Temple of Helene. Is a temple visit necessary to allow Hero to move into first position? Seems unlikely since temples are just a way for normal people to switch jobs.
If the first emperor was a normal person, he would only have one job at a time. So, maybe all that’s really needed is to commit to the Hero job by having nothing else. Pretty weak reasoning, like trying to rationalize a bug as a feature. Well, at least it’s a simple test. [2]
[Hero: 48]
Well, that was easy. A new menu item popped up: Unlock Temple Options. That certainly sounds ominous. I’d better leave it alone. Nah.
click
Nothing happened. Well, maybe I need to be near a temple. Should I break into a guild building and take their temple? Nah, disrupting society can wait until I finish fiddling with my new jobs. For now, I’ll switch back to Mage — which fortunately worked. Actually, that Hero test was a bit reckless. Getting Hero stuck as my first job would be problematic. Losing access to magic by having Hero be my only job would really suck. I’ll just pretend I knew it’d work and keep going.
I’ll enable more jobs and load Adventurer. This is better than Explorer for the modest stat bonuses. It feels wasteful to keep either job just for Item Box since I already have warp for movement. I wish I could have a simple ring for that. Better would for it to be an isekai bonus. Well, in this world, I need a storage skill to hide my wealth and emergency weapons. As I’d heard, the Adventurer’s Item Box is 50 x 50.
I need Priest for healing and I want Hero for stats, and because it’s cool. It would be good to have Assassin, but it isn’t necessary. Instead, to help distract me from having to wait try Wizard, I’ll level some minor jobs. Merchant would be good so I could hopefully get Sve Merchant’s skills — not to become an actual sver, of course. So, how does it look?
[Mage: 50, Adventurer: 1, Hero: 48, Priest: 49, Merchant: 2]
OK, with my job list set, I’ll keep my EXP bonuses for now so I can unlock the advanced jobs for Hero and Priest. Basically, it looks almost the same as before my full reset. Maybe I overreacted. Well, this investigation solved the Hero issue so it was totally worth it. Since stat increases with bonus points had negligible effect, I’ll go back to throwing the leftover points into Crystal Acceleration.
Bonus Points: 148
Lvl
Cost
Skill
Note
2
3
Char/Job/ID
essential
2
3
Chant Omit
keep
5
31
EXP Needed
1/10
5
31
EXP Gained
10x
Weapon
rod
Accessory
Sherry
4
15
Extra Jobs
5 jobs
5
31
MP Recovery
20x
5
31
Crit Hits
+25%
2
3
Crystal Acc
4x
Closing the virtual screens, I slowly ease back into reality. I’m now sitting on the couch. My hat, gloves and boots have been removed. Sherry and Roxanne are calmly seated next to me. Theo and Alina are making dinner. OK, I’ll act casual and fill my new Item Box.
Sherry asks, “Feeling better now, David?”
“I was just, um, yes, I’m fine now. Thanks for taking care of me. I’m happy to have dependable support.”
We ate dinner a bit early. They were probably curious about what I was doing and I don’t even know how long I was like that. Too bothersome to go into details so I’ll try to answer a different question.
“As you might’ve seen, today’s visit with Mirabel went well.”
Alina asks, “Now her name is Mirabel?”
“Yes, she speaks a nguage close to my French. Hers sounds a bit Elvish and I evidently have a Brahim accent. The nguages are close enough for partial understanding and I could improve even without a Tutor.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful. Does this change the just friends pn?”
“Yes, indirectly. We’re now looking into the possibility of having a serious retionship.”
“Mirabel looks a bit old to be an unattached noble. What’s wrong with her?”
“That’s a bit harsh, though not exactly wrong. It’s her secret so it’d be wrong of me to expin beyond saying that I’m fine with it.”
“So, she’s damaged goods that you can fix into a real bargain. That’s the absolute best way to bag a noble. If Rutina hadn’t been the heir, she definitely would have jumped you after you changed her into a Mage. In fact, I don’t know how she managed to resist, despite you not being an elf.”
“I might be more resistible than you think and you should leave Rutina out of this discussion. Regardless, getting Mirabel to deal with noble issues could be convenient. Of course, having to be nice to her retives will probably be a pain.”
“Will Mirabel join the party or just be for breeding?”
“Alina!”
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
“Let’s just say it was a transtion glitch. In theory, Mirabel could live in a different house and stay away from the party. But, dropping down to commoner status and remaining isoted doesn’t sound like a good pn. I want Mirabel to be close and I think she will want that too. She has the Priest job so she might be able to join us in the byrinths, at least for some lower floors.”
“It’s good that she has a support job because a human with her moderate build would have trouble keeping up with us as a fighter.”
“Agreed, not that I pn to be so blunt when talking to her directly.”
“Yes, David. You’re so good at being diplomatic. He he.”
With that remark, I went out to prepare the baths — I really should remember to do the water before dinner. Afterwards, Sherry used a Shrub crystal on Roxanne’s leather cap. She said she’ll start crafting with metal next.
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Day 78
“Good morning everybody. We’ll continue with the 40th floor and probably complete it today. At the break, I’ll take the gals to a special clothing store in the capital. You guys are welcome to wander around the capital or be dropped off elsewhere.”
Theo quickly responded, “We’d like to go to the capital.”
Marcus just shrugged. After breakfast, we got dressed and then continued from where we left-off yesterday.
We seemed to be gradually getting better at dealing with the rabbits. On closer observation, they had a limited set of attack patterns, which could be predicted to some degree. This made me think of them as fake, though real animals might do the same. I never saw a great variation in my old world since a rifle doesn’t make for long battles against unarmed targets.
As pnned, we went to the capital for lunch. I told the guys that they could wander around freely as long as they stayed in the party or they should come back here after an hour.
Alina seemed happy to join in getting Roxanne’s special clothing, Sherry looked a bit skeptical. All three went in for Roxanne’s fitting. I assured them that it’d be better to show me ter. Still, we discussed comfort and she tried out some quick movements. The tailors made a few adjustments and showed how we could do the same at home.
“Alina, do you feel like you’d like to have something simir?”
“Yes, David, I really would like that, even if it’s less important for me.”
“Alright, go discuss the details with the clerk.”
“Sherry, this store has many options for female Knights, which is more like your role as a traditional vanguard. It’s quite possible that they have something in stock. Let’s take a look.”
“Oh, um, is that really necessary?”
“Yes, Sherry. Your thin undershirt certainly isn’t enough to protect your chest against that rough armor.”
The shopgirl beamed a smile even greater than Sherry’s. We ended up buying two standard sets for Sherry, ordering an extra for Roxanne and two for Alina. Roxanne’s were 2000 each, Alina’s 1500 each and Sherry’s were just 500 Nars each. The store was fancy enough that I shamefully decided to use my haggle skill to get everything for just 5600 Nars (including the deposit I had left for the first order).
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With everyone in a notably good mood, we reached the boss room before evening. In anticipation of what might be faster than rapid, I threw a Breeze Storm as soon as they materialized and jumped in for melee. My first swing hit nothing — not a near miss — simply nothing at all. Blink Rabbit is what the HUD said and that was a good description. [3] As soon as they see an incoming attack, they simply go somewhere else. As far as I could tell, they don’t really seem capable of deciding where to go since they sometimes appear facing the wrong way in a vulnerable spot.
“Everyone gather here in a circle. Let’s wait for them to attack.”
This worked well since their attack strategy seemed to depend on confusion. Eventually they were stunned and defeated with no significant injuries to us. We ended up getting a rabbit crystal.
After leaving, we brought a rge amount of rabbit meat to Nordselm Vilge. Since it was early enough in the day, it was suitable for dinner. We accepted their invitation and shared a nice, communal meal. As expected, they served us mead.
Out of her armor, I noticed that Roxanne’s chest actually looked a bit bigger with her new ‘bra’, for ck of a better word. I guess it didn’t really act much like the sports type. I could hear some of the vilge women specuting whether Roxanne had gotten pregnant. The men seemed to be trying to look away — so, no difference for them.
That night, Alina and Roxanne managed to tolerate the smell of alcohol on Sherry since they’d had a bit themselves. Sherry said she was fine to perform a fusion. I had her do a Cord of Substitution, just to keep the risk low. Of course, it worked as usual since Sherry was far from drunk.
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[1] In the LN, Adventurer sometimes means Explorer and Wizard sometimes means Mage. Here, I mean the advanced jobs. Errant will be expined ter.[2] The LN’s MC uses Herbalist as his only job for an EXP test (v2 c5). He doesn’t seem to try using Hero on its own.[3] Despite the LN progressing well beyond this floor, few of the bosses are described or even named. The WN names a few and I made up the rest, including this boss.