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When Arya finished explaining why I couldn't get the Mage class, I thanked her and confessed that this information was the main reason I had decided to buy her.
After that, I gave the elf the rest of the magic items related to external magic that I still had.
They were magic items I had bought for Alessia.
But she's probably in the same situation as me.
It may not be the case, but considering that testing it would put my first girlfriend's health at risk, I'm not going to take the chance.
I could give them to Delia, but she needs to reserve her mana for her healing skills.
I also gave Arya a magic item to obtain Archer breathing style, as she will make better use of it than my girls.
One would think that after all those gifts, Arya would have changed her usual attitude toward me a little.
But that's far from the reality.
To my irritation, after she finished her explanation and we were once again "even," she went back to treating me as coldly as ever and refusing to do anything I didn't directly order her to do.
However, it cannot be said that her attitude toward humans is unjustified.
Earlier today, before arriving at the labyrinth, I asked her to share her story so that I could learn more about her and find a way to change how she behaves towards me.
What I discovered is that she was one of the protectors of the small elven village where she lived.
That is precisely why she is so skilled with bows.
However, despite her outstanding physical and magical talent, her limited vision made it extremely difficult for her to keep up with the rest of her companions.
This was because the village where she lived was hidden in a vast, ancient forest.
In such a wild environment, wearing glasses makes it very difficult to move quickly and nimbly.
That was why the people of the Ephire kingdom were able to capture her so easily when they attacked the village.
She told me that she thinks some elf must have betrayed the village, because otherwise the attackers would not have been able to find them.
I offered to help her get revenge if the opportunity arose in the future, but she did not take my words seriously.
It's understandable that she doesn't trust me, after she witnessed how humans destroyed her village and slaughtered her loved ones in front of her.
In any case, she told me she has no idea where the rest of the enslaved elves were taken, nor does she particularly care.
Furthermore, she also said that she has no one to take revenge on, since it is human society in the kingdom of Ephire as a whole that allows such practices, and that she is not so naive as to think that a small group of people can do much against an entire kingdom.
Those are the reasons why her contempt is directed toward my entire race and why she refuses to do anything I ask her to do that she is not obligated to do.
However, if that annoying trait vanished, she would become an invaluable ally.
The elf has proven that she is not only very skilled with bows but also capable of skillfully using offensive magic in combat.
She can cast incredibly fast the new skills that she got from me.
She does it so fast that it almost seems like she is saying several words at the same time.
According to her, that ability is a characteristic of magicians.
Seeing her talent with magic, I asked her why she didn't use her magic to escape when she was captured, since that's not something her captors could take away from her.
Then Arya told me that slave traders drug their captives to keep them disoriented, and that prevented her from doing anything before they turned her into a slave.
All these discoveries about her made me rethink what I should do with Arya from now on.
I could free her now that I have obtained the information I bought her for.
But I'm no longer sure that's a good idea.
Right now, Arya is like a rabid dog, full of hatred and murderous intent.
If I free her from slavery, she will probably use all her talent to indiscriminately slaughter or insult every human she sees.
That, logically, will end terribly for her.
And for any unfortunate soul who has the misfortune to cross her path.
I can't blame her for her feelings, but I also can't ignore my responsibilities as her master.
So, for now, I think it's best for her to remain my slave.
At least until I see that it's safe to free her.
The last hours of our training day in the Altamira Labyrinth were spent in the no man's zone.
Melisa had quite a hard time dealing with the enemies on the 10th floor of the Altamira Labyrinth, but since she was now using my bow, she could fight from a safe distance.
In addition, Arya and I helped her whenever she needed it, either by impeding the enemies' mobility or by directly eliminating most of them.
While Arya took advantage of these opportunities to practice her new skills, I was limited to using my greatsword with Chain +.
It's not a bad sword, but it's a far cry from the offensive capabilities of the great sword I lost when I faced the zombie dragon.
In any case, I didn't give the matter much thought, since something curious happened when I equipped the sword: according to Arya and Melisa, my eyes began to glow with a slight dark reddish tint.
I think it has something to do with obtaining the Sword Demon class, as that is the only significant recent change in my status.
Every time I had to wield my weapon against a monster, Zariche would ask me to use him and tell me that I had no need to use such a weak weapon when I had him at my disposal.
After a few minutes, I decided to grant the cursed sword's requests.
That way, I could test my theory that the sword cannot control the user unless they touch the blade of the weapon.
Once Zariche was unsheathed, Melisa and Arya were very surprised by the sinister appearance of the weapon, but neither of them said anything about it.
However, I couldn't use Zariche for more than a few minutes.
Using the cursed sword is incredibly pleasurable, but I still don't know how to use it safely.
At first, I didn't notice anything strange when I unsheathed it, but eventually I began to notice that the sword was starting to play with my mind, randomly swapping the appearance of Melisa and Arya for that of the monsters we were fighting.
However, this time the illusions weren't as realistic as the first time, as I could somehow perceive the girls' real appearance beneath the illusion.
Also, unlike the first time, I now had the map on my interface to guide me.
Thanks to that, I could perfectly identify Arya and Melisa based on the positions of their blue dots on the map.
So I quickly put Zariche in my inventory and decided to leave him there for a while as a punishment.
As soon as I did, the illusions ceased, and the small wisps of dark mist that were creeping and curling around my arm disappeared as if they had never existed.
While we were training in the labyrinth, I would occasionally edit Melisa's and Arya's status to improve their abilities.
Thanks to this, Arya now has a 90% discount active on her status, as well as the Mage and the Adventurer classes activated.
[Arya] [Magic Archer Lvl 19] [Mage Lvl 13] [Adventurer Lvl 15]
HP=13 || MP=20
Agility=25 || Strength=14
Intelligence=10 || Luck=6
[Resistance]
Physical=5 || Magic=5
Poison=5 || Curse=0
When activating the Mage class, a new skill appeared in her status.
[Elemental Manipulation Lvl 3] [0|3] [Allows the mage to manipulate their environment in a variety of ways using mana. A mage's strength will largely depend on their creativity.]
The skill enhances the person's ability to manipulate the elements, so it appears to be a passive skill.
I could have reduced her resistances a little to get 12 stat points and thus activate Archer and Explorer, the last of her available classes, but I don't want to empower the elf too much yet.
I won't do that until I've spent enough time with her to be sure that she won't do anything crazy with the power she'll gain thanks to me.
Crazy things for which, as her master, I would be responsible.
Now, that's why I prefer Arya's status not to change too drastically.
On the other hand, Melisa's status has changed quite drastically today.
She already had a 90% experience discount active at the beginning of the day, so today has been absurdly beneficial for her.
Even more so when you consider that she has spent most of the day fighting monsters that, under normal conditions, she would not be able to defeat.
[Melisa] [Farmer Lvl 53] [Harem member Lvl 33] [Swordsman Lvl 7] [Lancer Lvl 5] [Archer Lvl 16] [Adventurer Lvl 19] [Explorer Lvl 7]
[(Exhibitionist Lvl 1)]
HP= 16 || MP=3
Agility=14 || Strength=13
Intelligence=16 || Luck=7
[Resistance]
Physical=2 || Magic=0
Poison=1 || Curse=0
During one of our breaks, Melisa was able to obtain the [Mage Lvl 1] class thanks to Arya.
However, she still does not have the stat points necessary to activate her ninth class.
It's true that she could replace the Farmer class with Mage, since Farmer is at such a high level that it requires a lot more effort to level up again.
But that class is very important to her, and for that reason I didn't want to deactivate it without consulting her first.
And it turned out to be the right decision, because she told me she prefers to keep the class.
The fact that she was able to get the Mage class makes me a little envious, but not much.
It's not really necessary for me to get the class.
And Melisa was thrilled to realize that she can now use her mana to manipulate the elements of her environment to a certain extent, although that control ability is greatly diminished as long as she doesn't have her new class activated.
Unlike the two of them, my status didn't change much at all.
But that's to be expected.
Today we were facing enemies far below the level of enemies that would pose a challenge for me.
However, curiously, I wasn't bored at any point.
Today's goal was to devote myself entirely to empowering Melisa.
And that's precisely what I did.
Seeing her gain more and more confidence in combat, to the point where she occasionally started smiling while fighting, was more than enough reward for me.