But for a Slime

* * *

Joe spent the rest of the afternoon on the knoll, enjoying the lake breeze and periodically correcting Garnedell’s training movements, although Joe decided he really needed a break; the last couple of days had been a bit overwhelming with surprises. Joe finally called the boy off, telling him to relax as well, and the two settled into the knoll to look out over the lake. As they sat there, Joe’s mind returned to the recent events and his mind quickly latched on to the sight of the thief somehow absorbing the monster gems. Oh! Right… I gotta figure that out! Joe turned to Garnedell and pulled out a gem.

“Hey, kid. How did that thief do the whole disappearing gem thing?”

Joe mimed the gem disappearing and then shrugged his shoulders in confusion, “So, what is it?”

Garnedell seemed to understand immediately, and began explaining but then stopped with some frustration, most of the words completely beyond Joe’s understanding. He struggled for several more minutes then began again, slower and with broken English.

“Good. Grow.”

“Good for growth?”

“Good! Grow!”

“Got. OK! Got it. But I don’t really understand. Um… hmm…”

Joe stopped in frustration, considering the gems but couldn’t figure it out. His mind wallowed through his options for a bit until he finally decided that the easiest thing he could do would be to just ask for a demonstration. He flipped through his coin pouch… it’s a coin pouch from now on… fanny pack never again… and pulled out some gems before handing him to Garnedell.

“Here, kid. You do. Show me?”

Garnedell blinked up at him with some caution, fear reflecting in his eyes as he looked at Joe. Joe quickly caught the fear and worried quickly.

‘Hey, kid! Don’t do it if it’s dangerous… Danger! NO!”

Garnedell looked up at him, smiled broadly and laughed while shaking his head, “Danger no! Danger no…”

Garnedell grabbed the gems from his hands and then placed on in his hand. He thought for a moment then stopped himself and brought up his status, showing him his status screen. Joe blinked a bit and saw Garnedell pointing at his status screen. Joe glanced between Garnedell and his status for a few moments before looking toward status screen carefully. Garnedell saw him focusing and he nodded his head as he held up the gem in his hand. Joe’s look flickered from the status screen to the gem in his hand and finally up to his face as he watched Garnedell squint his eyes in concentration. He quickly looked back towards the status screen and kept the gem in Garnedell’s hand in his peripheral vision. Soon, he saw a telltale glow in Garnedell’s palm and his eye reflexively flickered to the gem as it melted into the boy’s palm. He glanced back quickly at the status but saw no change. He squinted his eyes a bit in concentration but found nothing new. He looked up at Garnedell and saw that he was once again squinting in concentration, another gem already in his hand. Joe turned his eyes once again and carefully focused on the status, ignoring the gem. Again, the gem melted to nothing and Joe’s wide eyed stare showed no difference on his status.

When Joe saw Garnedell slip another gem into his hand, face still screwed up in concentration, he stopped Garnedell and had him swap his status screen to the current job status screen. Once the current job screen was up, Garnedell went back to concentrating on the gem in his palm and Joe focused on his status screen again. As his eyes flickered over the various aspects on the screen, he realized that the only thing on this screen that was different was the experience line. Since none of the numbers had changed with the last gem, he focused on the line and when the gem oozed into Garnedell’s hand, Joe’s eyes jumped even more than the line did. Joe gasped in shock.

“What… Holy…”

Joe sat back and simply considered in shock. No wonder these things are worth their weight in gold! Man! I could level much better! Kill during the day and use the gems at night! Joe soon found himself staring out over the lake as he considered the ramifications. Excitement started to course through his body. I could boost myself significantly with this! Even as he considered his options, he decided to see what would happen, and handed Garnedell another couple of gems.

“Go ahead. I want to see what happens.”

Garnedell grinned and used the next three gems. After the last gem, he beamed and looked towards Joe. His status showed he was now level seven and all the stats leveled up as if he had actually fought for the level. Joe grinned back and looked at Garnedell’s status screen again. Everything seemed to level up as normal except for Garnedell’s learning. Huh… must be his curse? Joe considered it and almost dismissed it as exactly that but then reconsidered. This almost seems too easy? Or maybe… Joe shook his head. I really need to double check it! I can’t take the chance. Besides… it’ll only cost me a couple gems.

“Garnedell!”

“Yes, Mulkan Zhoe.”

“Bring another kid here.”

“Wat Mulkan Zhoe?”

“Uh… Bring! Boy!”

“Yes, Mulkan!”

Garnedell took off, running into the town before returning with another kid behind him. Joe had continued his private musings about what it would mean if he could use the gems to level up. When Garnedell had made it back, Joe took five gems and held them up to the new boy, then began the tedious process of trying to explain.

“Garnedell!”

“Yes, Mulkan!”

“Boy. Status.”

Garnedell nodded in understanding before turning to the boy and rattling off a quick command. The boy nodded with a bit of trepidation and opened up his status. Joe looked over the kids stats and noticed that he was just a level one commoner, with a single point in each major stat. There were no curses that he could see and Joe discounted the resistances. After considering, he decided that it would be a bit more beneficial if he could look at the current job page instead. It took another few moments before Joe was able to get the kid to switch to the current job tab so he could keep an eye on the experience as well as the stat growth. He then handed the five gems to the boy.

“Boy. Eat. Gems.”

Garnedell cocked his head with some confusion, grasping one of the gems to put it in his mouth, miming eating it. Joe quickly shook his head and then mimed melting it into the palm of his hand.

“Boy. Uh… Use. Gems.”

Garnedell’s look of understanding was rapid, and he nodded his head before handing the five gems to the kid and rattling off another rapid command. The boy’s eyes grew large, round in surprise, before a great excited smile came to him and he excitedly took the gems. This kid concentrated by closing his eyes to take in the gem, and the telltale glow faded into existence as it melted into the boy’s palm. Immediately, the boy hit level two, and Joe’s eye’s shot up in a bit of surprise. Woah… these gems are worth a hundred experience each? I need to double check it with Garndell. Maybe see if I can see it on his log?

Dismissing his mental meanderings, Joe returned to the kid’s status and noticed that the boy was already level three. Huh… already used two gems, huh? Joe glanced down the stats and smiled, seeing three points for each stat as expected, but then blinked in concerned surprise when he noticed that the boy’s learning was still only at one point. Wait… was he cursed, too? Why isn’t his learning growing up, too? Joe looked more carefully, eyes scanning for the curse symbol but found nothing. In the time he was looking for the curse, they kid had already consumed another couple gems. Now level five, every stat had the expected growth to level five with five points in every stat except learning. That's... really bad! Let's... end this now. The boy reached out for another gem and Joe quickly cut him off, despite his desire for another. Joe frowned, unsure how to explain. He tried, but no matter what he said, both Garnedell and the boy were not exactly pleased. Joe then dismissed the attempt, not wanting to irritate the kid anymore and looked at his status one last time, checking over things. When he looked at the current job tab, he noticed the experience bar was a fifth complete. With that, Joe made the connection and realized that to make it to six, it cost five hundred experience. Huh… seems like it’s a constant one hundred experience per gem.

Joe asked Garnedell and the boy to bring up their logs, and found a basic entry: experienced gained: 100. Well, that solves that, but what’s going on with the learning? Huh… I’ll need to figure this out! But I’m not going to take the chance then. No wonder the gems were too easy! It cripples you!

* * *

Xylarnae settled into her small barred room with a subtle sigh. Her room wasn’t poor, being decently prepared with a nice enough bed, but it was a room barred and locked from the outside. Her circumstances were much better than most other slaves, especially those captured by force. She had control of most of her own day, although she was prepared and trained in the ways of a courtesan whether she liked it or not. Despite that unpleasantness, she was quite grateful for having been chosen to be a courtesan. She was kept within the confines of the slave merchant’s property and trained for her eventual sale. Luckily, her value included her purity and with that she had no fear as some of the other young women did. Still, her training was decidedly less pleasant as it was focused entirely on her future career.

About a few months into her new life, Fate pinged softly and she found a glowing vision blasting across up from the depths of the merchants home. She sat in her room on the fourth floor of the building, focusing on her ‘studies’ as was demanded of her, but with her fate bursting so brilliantly before her eyes, she stood to head down to meet her Fate. Fate had other plans, however, and she was hit hard by a shrill warning and she sat back down. Over the next several weeks, she found herself incredibly distracted, her Fate glowing brightly below her constantly such that she barely was able to focus with her classes.

Finally, her Fate came to meet her, her focus before her teachers almost broken once again as the glow of her Fate slowly climbed the stairs of the tower to reach her room. Her distraction at that immediately got her in trouble, and she found herself forced to groan through another set of a variety of exercises that left her torso quivering in pain. The exercises were pointless for her, but she had no intention of explaining that to the slave merchant. To do so would… she shivered at the thought even as her Fate immediately darkened around her, descending into a black depths that warned of one of the direst futures she’d ever envisioned.

Despite the multiple interruptions of the day, she found herself excitedly returning to her room to see her roommate. She opened her door, excited to see what Fate had in store for her. The beautiful golden glow became much more apparent without intervening walls and her smile grew ever more ecstatic. Fate… an even greater Fate! This… Her joy had her focus on the Fate and it took her time to finally change her focus from Fate to see an ethereal beauty almost seeming to float before her. She stood a good head taller than her, which wasn’t a shock as she was short for even her kind, but her beauty was eye catching. There were no other words to describe her. And it was not surprising in the least, for before her stood a legendary fae.