Volume 4 - CH 4.21

It is great that Sherry can now be a Master Smith. . . .  but how am I going to explain that to her? Right now, that is my biggest point of concern. I have to inform her that she managed to obtain the Job that she was unable to get on her own before, but how can I do that if I did not even tell her or Roxanne that I have the ability to see all of the Jobs that they have unlocked and also have the ability to change their Jobs without them even realizing it? No, now is not the time for me to be worrying about such things. If I want to utilize Sherry’s services as a Master Smith, I have no other choice but to inform her about it right now. Because if I do not do it right now, then when? If I keep dialing it back because of all of my worries, I will never inform her. I have to give it to her straight without trying to be deceitful or roundabout about it, because the last thing I want right now is for her to think that I was trying to deceive her.

Steeling myself, I inhaled deeply and then exhaled, and declared after a brief pause while looking her straight in the eyes:

「Sherry. Starting from today, you are a Master Smith.」

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Huh?」

When she heard those sudden words coming from me, Sherry literally froze in place with her mouth wide open.

「It is understandable for you to be surprised, I get it. After all, you tried so hard to obtain that Job before, but no matter how hard you were trying, things were never going as you were expecting them to go, causing you to fail over and over again.」

「Ah. . . . . . . . 」

「Were you not the one who told me that you have already given up on trying to obtain the Master Smith Job? That you thought that you just could not become one, so you simply stopped trying? But now, you do not have to hold yourself back with those excuses anymore, right? You can finally be who you always wanted to be.」

「W-Well, I, uhh. . . . . . . . 」

Sherry was so confused by my words that she did not know how she should respond to me, and I cannot say that I blame her for it. After all, my words just now probably took her entire world and flipped it on its head in a single second.

「Remember what I told you before: that you can definitely become a Master Smith if you try hard to achieve that dream of yours. And remember. Remember the passion and drive towards becoming the Master Smith that you felt in the past! Because those feelings of yours are still there, right? They did not disappear, right?!」

「T-That might be true. .  . . . . . .  but even so. . . . . 」

「I know it might be hard for you after all this time, but try a little bit harder. Just for a little more.」

Then, I opened my Item Box and took out a Copper Sword and a Skill Crystal out of it.

「These are. . . . . . . . . ?」

「Like I said, Sherry. You are already a Master Smith, so do what a Master Smith does and fuse those two together for me.」

「B-But. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .」

I really wish there was another way of going about it here, but at present I have no choice but to be a bit forceful and capitalize on the momentum here to snap her out of her shock.

「Do your best, do your best, do your best, do your very best, and if you do not succeed, then just keep doing your best some more until you finally succeed!」

「N-No. . . . . .  . . . . .」

「You can do it. It is just a matter of  your feelings.」

「But. . . . . . . . . . 」

「No butts. Everything is going to be all right. You are among the people who understand you, and will not ridicule or condemn you if you fail. Now come on, and let us do it.」

I feel like I did a sufficiently good job with cheering Sherry on, so even if she is still confused about the whole thing, then I should at least be able to convince her to do as I say right now.

「Now come on and repeat after me: 「Skill Crystal Fusion」. Do not be shy and repeat after Michio: 「Skill Crystal Fusion」.」

I continuously repeated that sentence until she began repeating it after me, exactly like I told her to do.

「「Skill Crystal Fusion」?」

Roxanne also tried repeating it after me, probably thinking that this was going to help. No, no, no, Roxanne my dear, even if you keep repeating it countless times, it will not do anything because you are neither a Dwarf nor a Master Smith. However, I do have to admit that her appearance when she was trying so hard and was tilting her head in puzzlement looked helluva lot cute.

However, even though I thought that Roxanne will not be able to do anything to help here, then apparently I was mistaken, because it was not my forceful momentum that pushed her to try; when she saw Roxanne trying her best, Sherry became slightly more motivated to try saying the words I was trying to make her repeat as well

「「S-Skill Crystal Fusion」.」

It was done with a quiet and fearful voice, but Sherry finally managed to mutter the Skill’s name.

And as soon as she finished saying it, her eyes became wide open with disbelief and surprise.

Just now, I quickly opened the Party Job Settings menu and switched Sherry’s Job to Master Smith Lv.1, so what was going to happen if she were to recite the Skill’s name in such a state? If my assumption was correct, then a chant for the 「Skill Crystal Fusion」Skill should have revealed itself to her in her head, and apparently that is exactly what happened, because Sherry looked at her own hands, then at me, and then back at her hands like she was unable to comprehend what just happened now.

「See? So how about getting a bit more fired up now?」

I clenched my fist and stroke a gutsy victory pose.

「But why. . . . . . .   how? I do not understand. . . . 」

「I told you, right? That as long as you get serious and work towards it, then you will definitely be able to change. As long as you get serious, everything around you will be able to change. Now, fuse these two for me, please.」

I presented Sherry with a Copper Sword and Rabbit Skill Crystal once more. If would have probably been better to wait for a bit before making her attempt her very first fusion, but in this case, I feel like the better approach is to strike the iron while it is still hot.

「Would. . . . . . . . . . . . would that really be okay?」

「As long as you are okay with it.」

This is one of the Copper Swords in my possession that has an empty Skill Slot. If my hypothesis about it is correct, then the fusion of this sword with the Rabbit Skill Crystal should be a one hundred percent success. And if it ends up failing anyway, it will only mean that my hypothesis was wrong, and Sherry will not be the one to blame for it. But there is one possibility that I did not prepare for, unfortunately: the possibility that when the fusion will fail, the weapon and the Skill Crystal will be gone, broken down into their base materials. I have prepared no countermeasure against that (not that I myself know of any) but there is no time to be thinking about it now. I have to believe in Sherry’s success.

「W-Well, before I do that, would it be okay for me to check the chant for the Skill first?」

As expected of a really smart person. Can she remain calm no matter what kind of situation she is being thrown into?

「Sure, go right ahead.」