Volume 5 - Ch 4.2
No, Sherry, wait! On second thought, you do not need to be so hasty about it oh crap you are already doing it, are you? Is it too late to stop the fusion process now? Yeah? You sure? Are you definitely, absolutely sure that there is nothing that can be done to stop it now? Oh, o-okay, I see, I understand. In that case, keep doing what you were doing. Yes, go ahead and fuse it.
Unfortunately, it seems that it is too late to stop the Item Fusion process, so I have no other choice but to allow Sherry t continue on with it, it would seem. But this is quite troubling for me. What am I going to do if this fusion really fails, and more importantly, what is Sherry going to do? As I was thinking about all the possibilities of how this fusion might proceed, I started looking at Sherrys hands and the items that she was holding in them with a suspicious look.
I do not know if this fusion is definitely going to succeed, but on the other hand, there has been nothing so far that would point to the possibility that the fusion is definitely going to turn out a failure as well. Maybe it is going to be all right, or maybe it will not be all right. At this point, I really do not know what it is that I should be believing and what is right or what is wrong.
The only thing that I do know that Sherry is an intellectual and rational type of person, so even if the fusion does end up in failure, she is probably going to accept it and simply move on forward. After all, she must have already seen her fair share of Master Smiths who tried to fuse something only for that fusion to end up in failure, so she probably knows that a single failure does not mean that your life or career are going to be over, and that this is going to be just a minor setback on the road to her success.
Yes, this is nothing but yet another trial presented to her by God that she simply has to overcome, and she will only be able to obtain true happiness for herself after triumphing over such challenges. If she passes it, happiness and joy will await her. If she fails, the thing waiting for her will be sorrow instead. So go ahead, God, let Sherry partake of your trial, and if she succeeds, open the gates of your kingdom for her.
Oh crescent moon, take her through The Seven Misfortunes and Eight Hardships(TL Note: Seven Misfortunes: fire, wind, floods, wars, punishments, demons and thieves, all of which humans can escape by reciting the name of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, according to the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. Eight Hardships: Eight places, states, or circumstances wherein one is unable to see a Buddha or to listen to his teaching. They are (1) hell; (2) the realm of hungry spirits; (3) the realm of animals; (4) the heaven of long life (any of the eighteen heavens in the world of form or the four heavens in the world of formlessness where beings live long; or, by another account, the Heaven of No Thought in the fourth meditation heaven in the world of form); (5) Uttarakuru, the continent north of Mount Sumeru where pleasures dominate; (6) obstructions of the sense organs, such as blindness; (7) attachment to and satisfaction with secular knowledge; and (8) the period before a Buddhas birth or after his death. Man, why does Buddhism have to get so weirdly fucked up at times and filled to the brim with so many esoteric themes?)
As I prayed to the God and the moon, Sherry finally began the fusion process.
She holds the Misanaga with an Empty Skill Slot in her one hand, and the Green Caterpillar Skill Crystal in her other hand until both of them began to emit a bright light and gets stronger and stronger, until it finally subsides and fades into nothingness, almost as if it was never there in the first place. I held my breath and used Identify on the item that Sherry created, looking at it with an even bigger anticipation than usual. And the result of Sherrys latest fusion is.
Sacrificial Misanga, Accessory
Skill:Sacrifice
Ahhh, what a relief! It is yet another success from her!
I I did it!
A wonderful result as always, but I will be damned if that was not insanely bad for my poor heart.
As expected of Sherry. I knew Sherry is going to turn out to be a successful and capable Master Smith, because there was no way for master to make a mistake while judging your character and potential. Since he was not worried about your fusion, I knew there was nothing to be worried about as well. See, I told you that master is a really good judge of character and that he is going to help you realize exactly how talented you are.
Roxanne says all of these things cheerfully, with a beaming smile on her face. However, she is only half right about what she said just now, because while it is true that I knew that Sherry was going to succeed with her fusion once more, doubts began to set in my mind at the last possible moment, hurling my brain into panic and causing me to start overthinking things that I should never have been dwelling on. I guess you can say that Sherrys stress rubbed off on me, causing me to tense up as well.
But now that I know that everything has ended well, exactly like it was supposed to from the very beginning, that means that all three of us can breathe a sigh of relief.
Thank you, Miss Roxanne. Thank you, master. I honestly do not know if I would have been able to do anything without your support and words of encouragement.
Do not mention it, Sherry. What is important is that you managed to succeed once again, and while proving just how amazingly talented you are at the same time. As expected of you.
Yes, exactly what Roxanne said just now, Sherry. You did a great job, like always.
Roxanne and I continued to shower Sherry down with praises.
Yes! Once again, thank you both so very much!
Even though it cost me way more stress than it was actually necessary, I guess I can say that as long as the original goal of Having Sherry fuse a Sacrificial Misanga has been accomplished, then alls well that ends well, and it is going to be for the better if I stop talking about this topic even further so that could avoid slipping up on mown words so that neither of the girls could catch up onto my little web of lies.
All right, I guess I will be wearing this then.
I said while I immediately put on the Sacrificial Misanga that Sherry just created a soon as humanly possible. Oh yeah, now the lovely effect that Sacrificial Misanga has if well within my reach, I absolutely cannot allow anyone other than me, Even Roxanne and Sherry, to be wearing that item. I am their master as well as their Party leader, and because of that I am going to need the appropriate level of protection that I can get myself from all of the Skills and equipment that I am going to need to keep myself alive through the most harsh and unexpected of the enemy attacks.
Yes, that is going to be the best possible outcome to this situation. And while we are still on the subject of Misangas and Sacrificial Misangas, I tried to do a little experiment with the two of them, which I have conducted in the Labyrinth of Vale. I wanted to see which one of the two Misangas would be listed as active and effective if I would be wearing two of them at once, but no matter what I did or what combination of items I have tried, the result was always one and the same: the result in which only the Item that has been equipped at the first one was the one that was actually being displayed effective, and the end result was pretty much always the same no matter how many times I have repeated it.