ch261-ch280 · 263-ch263

Chapter 263: Even if 【Thief】 Appears, Don't Tell Anyone

"Hey, Aikawa ran off. Shouldn't we go help her before the dance buff wears off?"

I said we were retreating, didn't I!

Why does she keep wandering off......

"Aikawa—get back here—"

Soushi goes to call her back.

"Gwa, gwawah! Guh!"

I hear something, but I have no idea what it means.

Couldn't she manage being human from the neck up......

And full-body transformation means her tail is out too, huh?

I look toward her backside, but the armor and pants make it hard to tell.

Her rear IS a bit bigger than usual, though?

Hmm......

She should be re-casting the dance about now......

"Gyoh!"

That startled me!

A spear plunged into the ground right in front of me with a shunk.

There'd been no Forest Ogre presence nearby, so I'd let my guard down......

Seems Kasumi-san threw it over, worried about me.

She's waving her hand at me.

I wave back and try to pull the spear out—but it's in quite deep, this one.

It's embedded at a nice clean angle, nearly flush with the ground—did she use 【Aiming】 and 【Javelin】 together?

Going so far as to spend MP just to deliver a spear to me—I am SO loved!

"Retreat!"

Kasumi-san comes running back, followed by Soushi and Aikawa.

Apparently they'd fought a little more, just until the dance buffs wore off.

"I'm innocent!"

Back at the warehouse, Shiraishi-san declares her innocence.

Because 【Wicked Woman】 showed up in her job selection, I suppose.

"......"

Too many things come to mind......

"Say something, anythiiing"

Even if you ask that......

"You had 【Gambler】 show up on Floor 20 too, remember?"

Aikawa.

That one.

What does she even do when there's no 【Healer】 work on?

"Three parfaits a day is too many, I think."

Soushi.

Three parfaits after work is her default.

She probably eats somewhere else at lunch too—and come to think of it, there's a chance she has them for breakfast and dinner as well.

"A woman who's bad for her health, therefore 【Wicked Woman】! —I don't think that's it, though?"

But her figure IS great, honestly......

"It may be that the dungeon judged taking money for 【Heal】s she does not cast to be 'evil.' In other words—the dungeon is watching."

Kasumi-san.

So that's the secret behind her being Japan's number one in healing numbers.

The neighborhood grandpas pay because they want to, so I figure it's fine, but......

The one pulling the strings behind it all is Hayashi-san, so there's a chance 【Wicked Woman】 shows up for Hayashi-san too......

"Ugh, eh, uh......"

She has no comeback at all.

Everyone's so mean!

All right, let me cover for her.

"Innocent or not, there's always the chance that was a born-with-it job on the list, you know."

Might be her talent, in other words.

In that case, 【Wicked Woman】 might be an upper-rank of 【Healer】—a recovery job.

Could be some ultra-powerful job standing opposite 【Saint】.

"Mean, mean, MEAN! That's it! I am never going to Floor 30 again!"

Everyone said such mean things that Shiraishi-san sulked and turned her back on us.

"Either way, 【Healing King】 is the safe choice. There's no ruling out that the 'last job' is a recovery one, but the risk of being wrong is far too great....... Come to think of it, perhaps jobs like this—unflattering ones, or wholly unknown ones—do show up for everyone now and then. But a job choice is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so few people would risk it just to take such a job."

"Right. If they didn't take it, they'd hardly go out of their way to tell people a negative job appeared either......"

I agree with Kasumi-san.

There's even an adventurer's proverb: 'Even if 【Thief】 appears, tell no one.'

So every now and then one of these surfaces on the net and gets passed around as an urban-legend job, huh......

"Which is why we shall keep the jobs from earlier tucked away in our hearts. Nothing happened—understood? Now then, Shiraishi-san, we have time until the boss respawns, so let us discuss the other jobs as well. Please decide: is 【Healing King】 truly all right with you?"

Kasumi-san picks Shiraishi-san up and flips her around.

"Really? This stays secret from everyone, okay?"

Shiraishi-san looks dejected.

Well, having 【Wicked Woman】 thrown in your face would hurt......

"Sorry. That was thoughtless of us."

We've got plenty of things we can't tell people either.

Once Soushi and Aikawa have apologized too, Kasumi-san finishes writing out the job list.

【Enhanced Warrior】

【Sage】

【Alchemist】

【Healer Mage】

【Healing King】

【Enchanter】

【Detector】

【Magic Medic】

【Patissier】

No 【Wicked Woman】 written there.

Yes. No such thing ever existed.

"【Enhanced Warrior】 and 【Enchanter】 are up there, but does 【Healer】 even have buffs?"

Soushi asks Shiraishi-san.

As a buffer-class man himself, it must be on his mind.

"There are a few that boost 【Heal】's effect. But using 【Heal】 twice turns out to be more efficient, so I stopped using them. Oh, and 【Natural Healing Up】—I suppose that counts as a buff too? Healing slowly mends you cleanly, and it doesn't hurt."

Fixing broken bones with 【Heal】 is apparently agonizing, after all.

A recovery-boosting buff might be useful mid-battle, but for treating the injured on Floor 1 it's evidently unnecessary.

"【Sage】 is the upper-rank of 【Mage】, so it's one of the not-very-strong ones, right? I heard magic jobs basically always show up, but isn't 【Alchemist】 rare?"

【Sage】 can learn tons of spells, but its MP efficiency is poor, if I recall.

Jobs specialized in a single attribute—like 【Storm Mage】—are generally said to be stronger.

【Alchemist】 is that rare job Mia-san said she only knew of one holder for.

How did Shiraishi-san manage to pull it out?

"Ah, you were casting 【Heal】 on golems a while back—bet that's why it showed up."

Aikawa's testimony comes flying out.

She was doing that, huh.

"That could well be it. And back when I was a brand-new 【Healer】, I tried 【Heal】 on rocks and trees lying around and all sorts of things. That might have something to do with it too, you know~"

She really did try everything, huh.

Shiraishi-san might be more curious-minded than she lets on.

"So did 【Heal】 actually have any effect on the golem?"

"Its HP recovered, yes. But no hands grew back or anything."

Huh.

Then if there were a skill like the 【Saint】's 【Miracle】, couldn't you regrow golem arms at will, multiply iron all you like......

Wait. HP?

"【Analyze・HP】 works on monsters too?"

"Of course it does, silly. It's 【Analyze・HP】, isn't it?"

I can't use it, so even if you tell me that's obvious......

Still, hearing that—I do seem to recall the Association's homepage listing the HP of some monsters.

Not for Floor 30 and beyond, though......

"So the 【Detector】 comes from that, then?"

She'd been using 【Analyze・HP】 on monsters and everything else, so the scout-type 【Detector】 presumably sprang from that.

"I'd say that's right. It's a job whose skills reach far away, you know? I might be able to tell when everyone's come back home without ever leaving the counter."

Oh, good point.

HP barely changes from person to person, so she could probably even identify individuals.

【Analyze・HP】 has a short range, so as long as I stay away from 'the Holy Maiden' I'm fine—but if someone took a job like this, my HP would be laid bare for all to see.

Well, no 【Healer】 holder would ever take a scout-type job, I suppose...... though there IS somebody who took 【Cook】......

"Last is 【Magic Medic】, then. From the name, I'd guess it arose from Shiraishi-san's day-to-day work—but Miyuki never mentioned it appearing for her....... It does interest me, but 【Healing King】 is beyond doubt the safer choice."

Besides 'the Holy Maiden'—Kuwashima Miyuki—there are other holders of upper-rank recovery jobs.

And yet no one, it seems, has ever heard of this 【Magic Medic】.

But as I said earlier—there's no need to gamble.

It appears in the general-class column, so the stats are probably low.

And with that, it's decided: 【Healing King】. Apparently nobody touches the 【Patissier】 topic.

Well, if we dug into it, she'd announce she's becoming one.

Kasumi-san really knows how to handle Shiraishi-san.

"The real question is whether she becomes 【Patissier】 or not......"

Guh, and I wasn't even going to bring it up......

And so, gently counseled by Kasumi-san, Shiraishi-san became 【Healing King】, and all was well.