But for a Slime

Chapter Eight

Garnedell woke the next morning feeling better than he had in a very long time. The cold had not seeped into his bones, and his sleep had been restful simply because of how soft the coarse hay bed had been. He woke with the sunlight shining in the room, and came to with a start when he realized he had woken up quite late. He struggled to his feet quickly, looking around surprised and scared when he found the great warrior laying against his bed looking over his status. Trembling in a bit of fear over his failure to rise and prepare before his master awoke drove him to quickly bow. He stayed like that for a bit, terror quivering through his limbs before he looked up and saw that his master wasn’t even looking at him or angry at him. He continued to stare at his status, and the boy sat down quietly, waiting for any command his master would be giving him. Time went on, and his master perused his status while working arcane sigils upon a small odd flat box at his side. Can he actually understand the status? I thought even Scholars could not do that?

Garnedell waited silently for almost ten minutes before his master came up from his study of his status and offered a garbled comment, a soft lyrical rising and falling language that almost sounded like he was singing to him. I wonder where he’s from. It is such a strange language, so melodic. His master smiled at him and patted him with a friendliness that always made him nervous. Such a friendly master would be amazing, but he had never heard of a master so friendly and worried that such friendliness hid cowardice, cruelty, or duplicity.

The man first stood over the water basin, staring down into it as he brushed his fingers through his quite short hair, only one of the many strange things he’d noticed of his master. His master’s hair did not even brush his shoulders, quite short on the sides and top. Garnedell pulled from his musing when he noticed the man strap on his weapons harness and his incredible variety of weapons before heading out the door and beckoning him to follow. Garnedell stepped outside, and his master locked the door behind them before settling in for the absolutely amazing breakfast amidst the astonishing smells of meat and fresh bread. The breakfast was eaten with a leisure that surprised Garnedell, a leisure that was the same for supper. How can any man be willing to take almost a half a bell to eat! Despite his surprise, Garnedell was more than grateful to meander through his breakfast and enjoy the morning repast.

After that, they returned to the forest and began their hunt of the slimes. As always, his master moved with a grace and speed that was astounding to him, almost faster than he could follow with his eyes. And a strength that was just as incredible, spiking the slime to the ground with ease before using his spear to eject the core from the slime, perfectly, without damaging it. The power and control his master had was astonishing. Could he even be a legendary master warrior? He is way too powerful and strong!

Garnedell spent the morning sprinting to core after core and whisking the bit of left over ooze off the core. Each whisk left him with steady growth. They once again spent the entire day and once again, Garnedell felt his power grow. He was astonished that he was able to grow so quickly and so well. All the stories he had been ever told described at least months, if not years, for any status growth. How is this possible? I was certain I was cursed with Simpleton! Did my master cure me? Does he have some secret?

Their return home through the forest was punctuated once again with killing slimes before they made it to the road and then jogged home, stopping only sometimes when he began to become winded. His master seemed to know just when it was too much for him, and would slow to allow him to catch his breath. They made it back to the fields quite late, with twilight almost gone, the darkness of night only a short time from being full upon them. The man entered the inn and took supper with him, enjoying the delicious meat filled stew and amazing bread that he used to soak up the leftover juices.

After the meal was done, his master lead him out to the river to once again take part in his strange worship of the river or lake, Garnedell was still uncertain which he worshipped. Maybe he worships the elements? Does he worship Enki, god of water and ocean? His master insisted that he followed his ablutions, and Garnedell had no problem following suit. I am his apprentice. It is only natural that I follow his gods. The soap and water cleansing him was actually quite refreshing, but the ceremonial cleansing with the large cloth after, drying them from the waters, was the most wonderful experience he’d felt. The softness of the cloth and the cleanliness that immediately followed was wondrous. As annoying as it is, this feeling almost makes up for the effort. Such soft cloth. Such extravagance.

After their evening worship, his master took him back to the room and once more prepared for bed. Still a bit nervous that his master might require other… services… of him, he lay awake in his bed, but soon fell asleep to dream and once again awake to an incredibly restful sleep without cold or sharp stones. He awoke late again, but this time only slightly after, as he saw his master awaking with a stretch and a yawn, the sun’s morning light only just coming in the window.

His master offered him a cheery wave and a smile that Garnedell slowly began to realize, and hoping in disbelief, was a genuine joy for life and Garnedell’s presence. As yesterday, the two enjoyed a meal taken with a luxury of time before setting off to the forest once again. For the next eight days, this schedule repeated without fail, and the first four days were days of joy and excitement for the boy. He leveled quickly, once per day, and was excited beyond belief to do so. The fifth day dampened him slightly, as he felt no growth update, and became a bit worried over his development.

Over the next four days, Garnedell began to feel an increasing panic as he realized that his growth was no longer developing. A panic that seemed to be slowly swelling in his heart. But at the end of the tenth day, the fifth from when he had stopped gaining, Garnedell smiled with relief as he felt his growth flow through him once more. Oh, thank the gods! For the last four days, his master had never come to him or even spoken to him, asking to see his status.

The first five days, his master had asked him to show his status each night, almost as if he knew that his growth had occurred. On his sixth day, master had asked once more, despite the lack of growth status. After that, he no longer asked for the next three days. It was only at the beginning of today that his master had asked to see his status, and then smiled at him, almost like he was pleased.

Almost as if his master could read fate, the happy encouragement that master had offered that morning came to fruition and Garnedell felt his growth status. For the previous ten days, Garnedell had grown an unprecedented five times. How is this possible!? I have never heard of growth this fast! What is happening? Even adventurers do not level this quickly!

That evening, their meal time was especially joyous as the two exuberantly enjoyed their time together, although their communication was quite lacking. Joe did seem to try to ask a question, something that seemed serious as Joe had leaned forward to speak quietly, but the only thing he understood was big, black, and maybe scary, although he could not see how anything could scare his master! Regardless, the master seemed to drop it after Garnedell failed to understand the topic and the two soon found themselves returned to their room and Garnedell long asleep, exhaustion from the hard work driving him to sleep quickly.

* * *

Joe lay on his sleeping bag in the early morning even as he heard the soft snores of the young boy on his floor mat beside him. He wished he could ask for another bed, but his language skills proved impossible for the task and the best he’d gotten was the poor mat for the young boy. However, Joe was excited despite being a bit frustrated because he was still stuck with his poor language skills. The boy didn’t seem to know what the big, black, shadow had been. Although, to be honest, he wasn’t sure the boy even understood him. Despite that, he was excited. He’d figured out some details about the system that gave him some hope. True, he was screwed right now if his year came up, but he had a concrete hope. The past ten days had offered him almost no growth, but the knowledge he had gained from the boy was significant. Every stat the boy had grew by a multiple of his level. The boy had just made level six, and his greatest stats, his health and strength, were now at 18 points; even higher than his own! The only attribute that bucked the trend was his learning stat, but that made complete sense with his curse of Simpleton. Simpleton effectively crippled the learning stat, which effectively crippled the boy! He could only hope that since there were curses, there would be a way to remove the curse.

The time he had extrapolated, or the experience required, was exactly as he had calculated. At a learning of one, the boy took one day per level from one to five, needing one hundred experience per level. To make it from five to six took five days in that alone, requiring five hundred experience for that single level. It seemed that he was right. Every five levels increased the cost by five times. With a learning stat of only one, it would take five days to level to five, twenty five days to level to ten, one hundred twenty five days to level to fifteen, almost one and a quarter years to level to twenty, and eight and a half years to level to twenty five. Making it to level thirty would take almost forty three years! And this time was cumulative. If he wanted to count the time to go from level one to thirty, he had to add all of it up together! Making it to level thirty with a learning of only one would cost more than fifty years of work!

His own quick growth to fifteen was only due to the fact that his learning was growing, if only at one point per level. But each doubling halved the cost. It wouldn’t be enough to get him to a high enough level though. His math had pointed to an insane amount of time to make it to level fifty, let alone the hundred he would need to get his stats to one hundred. Just making it to level forty would take forty years! If he wanted to make it to level forty five, it would take almost one hundred seventy five years! Each set of five levels increased the cost by five times, and the time by five times! To go just the five levels from forty five to fifty would take over six hundred years! Insanity!

Joe knew he couldn’t afford to continue this way. He had a deadline of one year! If he didn’t get to a point where he could decently keep his capabilities, any life after this year would be only a sad mockery of what he had on Earth. It already was, given the lack of amenities and the fact that he was bathing in a river.

But there was hope! If he could get a job with higher base stats, he would be OK. Of course, it worried him that he would be stuck with that job, but at this time, he didn’t really have much of a choice! He could worry over that later. Right now, he needed to find other jobs, but his available jobs tab was morosely empty, with only Commoner showing as available. Joe sighed, and could only hope that other jobs would open up at level twenty just like his new cudgel skill suddenly appearing. Still haven’t figured out if it’s at level ten or fifteen. He had still added the skill under his commoner listing in his notebook, putting a question mark next to it to show that it could have appeared at any time between level ten and fifteen. Technically, I should be showing it as a possibility even from level two or three. I think I stopped checking it out from there.

In any case, Joe had his plan and work cut out for him. According to his understanding and calculations, given a learning of fifteen, as he had with his current level, it would take almost forty two days to make it to level twenty. With his learning going up a single point each level, he might be able to shave the time down to about forty or thirty nine days. Regardless, it was going to be a long, long month of hard work and slime destruction. He was going to have to be the one to take the kills from now on. He could help the kid later.

Joe glanced up at the window, the light finally showing bright enough through the window to let him know the sun was just at the horizon or already risen. He slid from the bed carefully, not wanting to wake the boy. Time to head out for another day. He went to the water basin to splash his face off and comb his hair as best he could. It was getting a bit long now, but he wasn’t sure there was much he could do about it. He had no clue of where to find a barber. He sighed, fixed his hair, and prepared for another day.

* * *

Xylarnae had met her Fate’s end, and she struggled to continue forward, despite the promise of a future glowing in way she’d never seen before. It was a future of almost perfection. There were still dark shadows brushing its edges and that was the only reason she had any form of certainty in seeking such a Fate. Perfect Fates were… impossible. This was not a perfect Fate, simply an incredibly amazing one. She shuddered and paused again, looking up at the virulently colored building with lurid illusions of women in extremely strange and uncomfortable positions. She took a good bell to think, struggling to step into the establishment. It took Fate trilling in warning to force her forward. Her time was growing short. She stepped into the door, struggling to keep her fear under control. Still, she shivered. It would be a long, long time; almost a half a year, but then Fate would have her freed once again.

“I… I’m here … for myself.” I really… really don’t want to be a slave!