Volume 4 - CH 4.22

「Yes! X X the God’s will, born of the shadow of heaven and earth.」

Sherry slowly uttered the chant for the Skill.

「Think you will be able to pull that off?.」

「Yes, or at least I think so.」

「By the way, what was that word at the beginning? Because I could not hear it all that well.」

I asked to know what was the word that was not translated in my head.

「Did I mess something up? I thought that I articulated the word 「Celebrate」pretty clearly.」

「「Celebrate」, huh?」

「Celebrate the God’s will, born of the shadow of heaven and earth. Yes, that is it.」

Sherry confirmed the chant again.

Now that she knows the right words to say, everything is going to be left in her hands. Whatever comes next, it is an unknown territory for me, so I will not be able to help her or give her instructions other from the ones that I have already given her.

Gazing at me once more, Sherry seemed to have made her decision.

Nodding silently, she held the Copper Sword and the Skill Crystal in her hands, Copper Sword in the right, and Rabbit Skill Crystal in the left. Next, she placed the hand with the Skill Crystal over the sword, and continued to hold it centimeters above it.

「Celebrate the God’s will, born of the shadow of heaven and earth. 「Skill Crystal Fusion」!」

Sherry chanted the「Skill Crystal Fusion」 chant for real this time . For a brief moment, her hand that held the Copper Sword shined with a bright, white light, and then it faded away. The thing that remained was a sword, so I looked at it and used 「Identify」on it.

『Two-handed Copper Sword of Obstruction』

Two-handed Weapon

Skill: 「Chant Delay」

There it is. Two-handed Copper Sword of Obstruction with「Chant Delay」Skill. So the fusion process was a success!

Instead of getting dismantled, the ordinary Copper Sword became Two-Handed Copper Sword of Obstruction, and 「Chant Delay」replaced the empty Skill Slot. In that case, I guess it means that the hypothesis that the fusion of the Skill Crystals with equipment is a surefire way to a guaranteed successful fusion is probably a correct one.

「Well done, Sherry. I knew you could do it.」

Taking the finished product from her, I examined it in my hands. It looked exactly the same as the other Two-handed Copper Sword of Obstruction that we took from that Party that Pan slayed before us on the seventh floor of Vale’s Labyrinth.

「Have I. . . . . . . .  have I succeeded, master?」

「Oh yeah, you have succeeded, there is no doubt about it.」

「Yes, you definitely did it, Sherry!」

Following after my example, Roxanne also congratulated Sherry.

「「Congratulations on your first successful fusion, Sherry.」」

「. . . . . . . . . .  rry.」

However, there was something strange going on with Sherry, because she did not look happy at all. Instead, she was crying while lying down on the table.

「W-What?」

「. . . . . . . . . sorry.」

「W-What’s wrong, Sherry?!」

「I am sorry! I am sorry for succeeding! I am sorry for not giving up on becoming a Master Smith! I am sorry for being born such a failure!」

Instead of being happy, she just continued to apologize. And refused to look me or Roxanne in the eyes when we were trying to reach out to her.

Ah. I see what is going on here.

Is she also suffering from MP deficit? Because her behavior is very much the same as mine whenever I was running low on MP.

When you run low on MP or ended up using it all completely, you enter a state where your head is filled with nothing more but negative thoughts. So apparently, even though she became a Master Smith capable of performing fusion, since that Job starts at Lv.1 it probably means that it does not have all that much MP, and because of that the MP cost of fusion ended up draining Sherry out of her MP completely.

I handed the sword to Roxanne and moved to the other side of the table, and procured the MP Recovery Medicine from my Item Box. I ended up buying a few of those just in case, but I never would have thought that I would be forced to use it in such a way.

「It is okay, Sherry. You are great. You are amazing. Now here, take this medicine, and you will feel better right away.」

「No, it is fine, there is no need to be using your precious items on someone like me, really, just leave me like I am now! I am sorry for being the cause of item wasting! I am sorry! I am so, so very sorry!」

Sherry shook her head while trying to convince me not to waste the MP Recovery Medicine on her. Is she in a state where her condition was so bad that she will not even accept medicine?! Good God, I hope she is not going to try to kill herself if this goes on, but in order to not find out about that, I have to make her take the medicine, even if I have to feed it to her by force!

「Sherry, believe me! Your successful fusion was amazing! I would have never been able to do something amazing like that, not even in a million years!」

「That’s not the case, because a living failure like myself could never be successful at anything!」

Was she now stuck in a mental loop where she literally perceives everything related to her in a negative light?

「Uhm. . . . . . . . . Sherry, I also think that your successful fusion of the Skill Crystal and that sword was quite amazing.」

While having Roxanne act as a distraction, I poured the contents of the MP Recovery Medicine’s bottle into my mouth.

The condition that Sherry has causes an unbelievable amount of mental damage, so it should be dealt with as quickly as possible.

I hold Sherry down and turn her towards me. Her small, pale reddish lips are so pretty.

I stuck my mouth to hers and then pried it open with my tongue as I inserted it inside of her while her own tongue entwined around mine and clung onto me as if it was clinging for dear life.

This is the first time where I have seen her being so passionate. Initially she was resisting for a bit, but gradually she loosened up and entrusted herself to me. I also moved my tongue and entwined it around hers and allowed them to dance around each other until she has sufficiently calmed down.

After securing the safe passage, I poured the liquid medicine directly into Sherry’s mouth.After that, I pulled out my tongue and held her lips sealed until I made sure that she swallowed it all. Only when I was sure that she did that did I decide let go of her.

「Well, how about now? Feeling better?」

「Yes, much better. Uhm, I . . . . . . .  I am sorry for how I acted just now.」

「You don’t have to apologize. It is okay, really. Trust me, if there is anyone who knows what you just been through, it is definitely me.」

I placed my hand on her fluffy hair and stroked her head.

Now that she managed to calm down, Sherry took a deep breath.

「That reminds me. There was an old superstition about how those who have just became Master Smiths should not attempt to fuse items right from the get-go, because for most of them the weight of failure is so great that it pushes them into committing suicide.」

Should have told us about such a crucial detail earlier damn it! But now I know. That no matter if the fusion was a success or failure, the loss of MP might push the young Dwarves into committing suicide. So, if Sherry was all alone with no one to stop her, it would be more than likely that she would have died today.

「For the time being I am just glad that we managed to calm you down without you hurting yourself, so do not worry about it for now.」

「Yes, of course.」

Serry took a slow and deep breath to calm herself for good. What matters the most now is the fact that she knows that she became a Master Smith, or in other words, that she was just as talented as everyone else to do so.