But for a Slime

* * *

Joe stopped by the smith in the morning before diving back into the dungeon and ordered another two spoon spears. He’d though of just buying two staffs or two normal spears, but then remembered Garnedell’s inability to hold the things. And I know a staff can be seen as a weapon, too. So I better not take the chance. Paying the smith half, the smith promised completion in about a week; or, as I found out, eight days to a week here! Heh. This frustrated Joe to no end but the smith left him little choice and so Joe capitulated. He corralled Garnedell and headed back into the dungeon.

Two days of constant diving had him at fifteen, and the next bottleneck reared its ugly head, although he was able to hit fifteen in the early afternoon of the second day. It now took two days per level to make the next, and it would be another ten days before Joe made it to level twenty. When he’d hit seventeen, he picked up the two new spoon spears for Garnedell the next morning, and with another length of parachute cord, had another giant nunchuk spark killer. Joe taught him again, urgently reminding him of the caution he would need to take to make sure he kept the spoon spear grounded so that Garnedell could kill the spark.

Joe followed behind him for two or three kills, and when the boy showed excitement at the ease he was killing the sparks, Joe let him off the nanny cam and turned to take out the kills in the room himself. The two stayed close together and they shared the kills in the rooms but Joe took all the kills in the hallway. At the end of that day, Joe still hadn’t leveled; he needed two days per level now; but Garnedell had made his next level, and Joe asked for him to bring up his status. Joe smiled with excitement, then frowned a little but then decided to let it pass. Shoot! I shouldn’t have let Garnedell use that gem to level before… of course, I didn’t know, and it looks like it only cost him one learning point, but still… At least he regained his lost learning from his curse.

Status

Blessings

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

Available Skills

Log

Garnedell

Status

Physical Resistances

Magical Resistances

HP

21

Physical:

Wind

7.00

MP

7

Piercing

7

Water

7.00

Attack

14

Crushing

7

Fire

7.00

Defense

14

Slashing

7

Ice

7.00

Magic

7

Magic Defense

7

Strength

21

Dexterity

14

Agility

14

Speed

14

Endurance

28

IQ

7

Wisdom

7

Learning

6

Luck

0

HA! I know his name now! I can read it! Joe chuckled a bit, then turned his humor into congratulations for the boy. The boy was now level seven and Joe felt some considerable joy for him. According to his numbers, Garnedell should take about one day per level to hit ten. Joe would be taking another seven days, since he still had half a day to get his job to eighteen from seventeen.

Three days later saw Garnedell hitting level ten, and his growth took a nose dive, as usual, and Joe had no way to help him change his job because he didn’t know the word for commoner. The only job Garnedell had available besides adventurer was commoner. It was going to take him about fourteen days to make fifteen, and another forty five days after that to hit twenty. It was going to be a long slog for Garnedell.

Four days after that had Joe reaching twenty, and he felt some relief. He’d originally felt a bit of despair over the whole job, fearing it would be as bad as the other gateway jobs since in many ways it was. His despair turned slightly when he noticed the learning gain he was getting, along with his IQ. But it was the level ten skill that really shook him, and despair turned to a bit of giddy excitement as he wondered what skill he might get next at fifteen or twenty, for the level ten skill was a base fifty percent increase to agility! Joe didn’t notice anything, of course, because his original earth agility was almost double. When he hit twenty, he saw the skill he gained and simply fell to the ground, giddy with relief and excitement: Char: Fifty percent increase to learning.

Joe sat stunned in the middle of the dungeon for quite some time. After his shock wore off, he quickly swapped over to his basic stats page and found his learning now over a hundred. He ran the math, trying to figure it out, which proved a bit trickier than he liked, and came up with an original learning of about seventy. Maybe seventy one or so? I’m going to be flying through my levels now, right! Right! Running the numbers showed that He could grow from level one to twenty in a little over seven days! And I can keep this bonus even if I change jobs! I wonder what happens to the skill when I perfect it!

Joe gave a hardy laugh, his bellowing guffaws echoing throughout the dungeon rooms and hallways and Garnedell looked over at him with some concern, his arm unwavering as he continued to keep his grounding metal spike in the body of the spark. Joe stood and waited for Garnedell to finish killing his spark. It was late afternoon and they still had some time but Joe figured it was a good time to head home, but then he remembered that his bonus to learning was a character skill. Huh… maybe I should try to perfect it! I can only perfect it while I’m a specialist!

He then flipped open his available jobs, now that he’d hit the magic level twenty, and hoped to see quite a few more new jobs, but when he scrolled down, he found nothing new under specialist. He was getting a bit worried when he scrolled back up and noticed something that was quite a bit more shocking than he realized. I’ve opened up three new groups! Joe’s laughter erupted once more, and he simply leaned back against the wall laughing and enjoying the whole experience. Three whole new groups of jobs! Ha! Although, they all seem to have their own gateway jobs…

Status

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

Available Skills

Log

Citizen

Crafting

Education

Nobility

Commoner

20

Crafter

Educated

Groom

10

Villager

10

Farmer

10

Waiter

10

Bartender

10

Chief

10

Day Laborer

10

Inn Keeper

10

Reeve

10

Forester

10

Trapper

10

Fisherman

10

Hunter

10

Miner

10

Baker

10

Cook

10

Metropolitan

20

Burgher

10

Waiter

10

Bartender

10

Day Laborer

10

Cook

10

Baker

10

Groom

10

Butcher

10

Inn Keeper

10

Merchant

10

Citizen

20

Gypsy

Beggar

Gambler

Animal Tamer

Specialist

20

If I were to guess, my next job is going to be educated. A language job would definitely fall under that. Maybe nobility…. Nah! Definitely educated. Joe’s excitement only grew more, but considering they still had half a day and Joe’s new boost to learning made him excited. Maybe I can put some time into perfecting it. Wonder what happens when it is perfected? Still got a half a day, right? Huh. I’ve got time! Let’s see how much I can get this skill perfected! I mean, I got bow up a lot with just a couple shots on a bear!

Joe turned back to his killing spree and went the rest of the day killing as quickly as possible while grinding the spark’s gems under foot into powder. At first, Joe was checking his skills after each kill to see if his bonus was growing, but there was, sadly, no growth. It wasn’t until just before they headed out that Joe found the skill had risen by a single percent. Well, that’ll take a while! Is it one percent per day? Why did I get such huge gains on my bow but not now? Joe took a moment to flip back through his log, but as he was going, he remembered it had even included a special, popup. Something about … ah… that’s right! I shot an enemy much stronger than myself, right? Huh… so normally I have to grind it. That sucks! But, it doesn’t matter for now! It’s a character skill so I have it permanently! And if I take a hundred days to get this guy up and it does nothing, I’m screwed! Besides, I’ve got three new job lines available! I’ll focus on what I was doing before! Get as many jobs from zero to ten as possible! I’ll have time to play with this stuff after the first year is over! Joe gathered Garnedell and the two headed out, keeping only two spark gems this time for hand in and ended up selling both to the guards there. Joe had no desire to fight over them.

The meal was bland, as always, although Joe enjoyed the language learning now that he was more easily able to grasp a lot of the basics. There were still a lot of nuances that escaped his grasp, but he was now able to hold a basic conversation… as long as the sentences didn’t get longer than three or four words!

They had finally convinced, and bribed, the inn to bring in a basin of water for them daily, which required Joe to pay for the more expensive room, but he didn’t care. Fresh semi hot water at the end of every day for even a towel bath was a luxury he was more than willing to pay for. He also had Garnedell bathe as well before the two of them would wash their clothes in the left over bathwater. The dungeon wasn’t exactly a horrible climate, but the sparks heated things well enough and they tended to dampen their shirts with sweat. With the meal done, bathed, and clothes washed and hung, the two crawled into bed after a day where Joe finally felt he’d accomplished significant gains. Joe fell asleep that night with excitement, looking forward to what he could get with this new job.

* * *

The sergeant made the city as planned early evening the day before. They had lost quite a bit more time than he had hoped because of the replacement horse: a poor breed poorly kept and poorly grown. It had barely been able to walk the whole way, proving to be weak of endurance and incapable of trotting for any significant periods of time. Their late arrival proved detrimental to any investigation but the sergeant had half the men wandering the inner city looking for the adventurer. An adventurer of such renown would surely live in the inner city. The other half he sent to seek out information amongst the various dungeons and adventure guilds while he himself went to the lord’s manor seeking out the city guard’s entry records. It would take him quite a while to seek out any information, but he expected his men would find him long before the records proved any use.