But for a Slime

Joe sighed and dismissed the oddity and turned to other things. He was now lying in bed and he needed to choose his next job for tomorrow, and he was leaning towards trying to follow what the drunk priest back home had advised him to do: get the language job so he could speak! I guess I gotta go for specialist!

Joe sighed and went through the numbers more carefully this time, and learned that he would need to take less than twenty days, and the extra couple of points in learning hadn’t done much but shave off a single day. His original math he’d done quickly in his head had turned out to be flawed, rounded up a bit too high and giving numbers skewed towards thirty days instead of twenty. In all likelihood, it would probably be even less as his learning stats would increase with each level, thus decreasing his learning time. Ah, well. It doesn’t matter. I need to do it this way anyway.

The next day found them back at another temple in another robe in front of another priest and Joe began to panic. He’d never learned the name of the job he needed to change to! How do I explain citizen to Garnedell! Joe was panicking slightly when he came up with an idea and quickly began going through it with Garnedell. But even as he began, the priest became frustrated with the interruption and amount of time the two were taking, even though no one was behind them in line, and sent them away.

Joe decided to leave the temple and simply move on to the next one, but stopped in the temple square first to discuss what Joe needed for his next job change.

“Garnedell! Joe change job! Joe… job name… no,” Joe showed confusion and shook his head no, trying to explain his lack of knowledge.

Garnedell nodded, seeming to understand, and Joe continued, “OK. Priest say job … talk job!’

Garnedell nodded and responded again with the job name.

“OK! OK! …” Joe stopped for a few moments to think, then came up with a possible option, “Joe go city!”

“Yes!”

“First day,” Joe said in English, never having learned the word first or day, but pointing at the first temple they went to, hoping Garnedell would understand.

Garnedell’s eye’s narrowed a bit, but nodded tentatively while pointing at the first temple.

“Joe new job! Garnedell say job name! Joe no change job. Bad job change!”

Garnedell nodded much more certainly this time, “Yes, Zhoe.”

“OK,” Joe held up his hand and then began with his ring finger and worked his way across his hand towards his thumb with the mention of each new job, “Job no change! Next job, next job, next job, next job, talk job!”

Garnedell’s eye’s narrowed again with some confusion and Joe tried again, more carefully to explain that each finger represented the jobs in the chain to reach the final language job.

Pointing to his ring finger, Joe began, “Priest say job. Job no change. Bad change,” Joe waited for Garnedell’s understanding before he continued, “Job name?”

Garnedell’s eyebrows rose and then he rattled off a name. Joe nodded in thanks and quickly wrote the name of the job down before he moved to the next finger, his middle finger, “New job. Job change. Job name?”

Garnedell tentatively said a name that was different than the first, and Joe nodded with a bit more relief. Maybe he understands! He pointed to his pointer finger and asked for that jobs name, and heard another name which he diligently wrote down. His thumb elicited another name, also written down carefully, and Joe went to his next hand and another finger. Garnedell gave another name, again written down carefully. When Joe pointed to his next finger, Garnedell shook his head now and pointed back to the most recent finger.

“Talk job,” Garnedell spoke while pointing at the last finger in the chain.

Huh… ok… five jobs to get to the language one. If all need me to hit twenty! Joe gasped a whoosh at the numbers. Twenty days each for five jobs would hit him at one hundred days to make it. It was going to take too much from him, especially since he was getting such small IQ numbers. Maybe I’ll unlock enough jobs on each of those five on the way up, I’ll be able to still make it? Besides, if I was going to choose anything, specialists are most likely to have higher IQ stats, especially as this doesn’t seem to be in a combat line.

Joe ruminated over the chain of jobs he needed before holding up his fingers and starting at the last, going in reverse, repeating each of the names carefully to Garnedell who nodded in affirmation each time Joe said it correctly. Joe now had a chain and hopefully Garnedell understood his line of thought. When he made it back to his ring finger, the one he hoped represented the next job he needed, which according to the failed job change was called specialist, he felt himself tense with a bit of apprehension.

“Bad job change. Job name specialist,” Joe spoke with some tension in the local language while pointing at his ring finger.

Garnedell nodded with assurance, “Yes, specialist.”

Joe then shifted his finger back one more, pointing to his pinky. “Joe job now! Job name?”

Garnedell cocked his head, considering carefully, then gave a name with some surety.

Joe narrowed his eyes and stared with some intensity as he questioned Garnedell, “Yes? Job name is citizen! Yes,” Joe could only hope that the word Garnedell was saying actually was the local language’s name for his job.

Garnedell nodded quite firmly, “Yes, citizen.”

Joe breathed a sigh of relief and then led Garnedell to the next temple, pulling the cloak a bit tighter around him as it had loosened during the intense communication process. The two entered the temple and came upon another job changing priest who stood at another shop like counter. Joe was too flustered to easily speak and Garnedell finally had to come forward to speak for him. The priest seemed to be more of a bored and tired government worker and could care less, only wiggling his fingers with some boredom, waiting for his payment. Joe absentmindedly paid, much more concerned if he’d explained himself well enough, but the relief that he felt when he confirmed his job had changed to citizen was palpable. He turned to Garnedell with some excited release as he clapped happy hands on the boy’s shoulders. Whew! That’ll teach me not to plan more carefully!

The next seventeen days, despite the activity and determined dungeon diving filled with countless sparks’ deaths turned into a mind numbing blur of similarity and Joe finally found himself staring at his citizen job of level twenty and five new job options: gypsy, beggar, gambler, animal tamer, and specialist. The data he’d gotten on citizen was average at best, and he received two new useless skills at ten and twenty: basic self-defense and basic attack.

As for the new jobs, he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to explain any of these job names to Garnedell, and felt a bit of despair. Maybe I should head back to the drunk priest, but what if he’s not back! Garnedell seemed to hint at a pretty long hiatus… A deep sigh came from him as he lay in his bed, sponge bath complete… man! I really need to find a good place for a bath! It’s getting downright ripe in here!

Joe found himself not quite able to sleep and he decided to head down to the common area. Garnedell got up with him, almost as if he had a string tied to him whenever Joe got up, but Joe tried to wave him back to sleep. Garnedell proved resistant to the idea, and Joe finally got the impression that Garnedell really didn’t want to go to bed. He wanted to get out a bit himself.

The common room proved as boisterous as it sounded, and the two soon found themselves hugging a poor drink and some kind of snack while enjoying their loud and happy neighbors. Joe simply watched the activities of the people but then suddenly realized something when he saw a couple people playing some kind of game with dice and coin. Huh… a gambling game of some… !

The idea came suddenly and Joe quickly walked over to watch the gamblers playing their dice game and Joe turned to Garnedell, completely uncaring of the game or the men they were crowding a bit too impolitely than they should. Joe pointed to the group of men playing their dice game while flipping up his status.

“Garnedell! Job name! Job name,” Joe excitedly pointed between his status and the group of men playing dice, several now looking up at Joe with a bit of displeasure.

Garnedell nodded quickly, but pulled Joe away from the dice players and back to their seats while hushing Joe’s frantic desire to know the job name. Garnedell settled them down and shushed Joe a bit, and when Joe saw this, he quickly quieted while glancing around the room, uncertain caution coming to his face. Garnedell gave him the name of the job, and Joe wrote it down in his notebook and then returned his focus to Garnedell.

“Joe change job! Joe change job gambler!”

Garnedell’s eyes opened wide and he quickly shushed Joe, glancing around frantically before looking back with some relief as it seemed no one had heard. Joe seemed confused at Garnedell’s reaction, but respected his knowledge of the local culture and quickly quieted himself when he realized Garnedell had switched to English.

“Joe no change job! No! No! Gambler bad job! Bad bad bad job! City… city…” Garnedell stopped as he tried to remember the English word, then started again, “City guard come. Guard come. Joe go bad bad… Joe go bad!”

Huh… is the gambler job illegal? I know it is in some countries… but still… why? Garnedell seemed to be a bit frantic and Joe finally realized that Garnedell was extremely worried, and he tried to calm his worries.

“Joe no change job gambler. Shh… OK Garnedell? Joe no change!”

Garnedell visibly relaxed, actually slouching back in his chair and Joe realized it had been quite a bit more serious than he realized. Whelp… I guess I don’t have any other options! The only thing I can do is go for the specialist!