But for a Slime

Chapter Thirty Four

Joe and Garnedell had awoken early this morning and quickly prepared for the day, remembering to bring another colored cloak. Joe knew he was going to miss some time exiting and reentering the dungeon to swap his job out to hunter to raise up his bow, but felt that it would be worth it. True, he was being a bit obsessive trying to round out his job to twenty, but if he really wanted to keep track of his stats and make sure things were growing as he expected they should, keeping the numbers easy to track was going to be vital, especially if the kid’s assertion of ‘thousands’ of jobs was true. He had no calculator and no computer to help him keep track. He already had thirty three jobs leveled and things were only going to get worse, especially since he was hoping to get about a hundred jobs unlocked and leveled to a minimum of ten so that he could have the average stats a little over a hundred. I hope!

Joe had repurposed breakfast from language learning to information gathering. He’d asked Garnedell to teach him things but the boy struggled to choose appropriate topics, obviously never placed in such a position before. Joe finally had to drop the effort and began simply asking questions in hopes that he could get some information. The boy had been quite apologetic at his apparent failure and Joe had to calm him, letting him know that his attempt was fine. It took a good ten or so minutes to calm him down before Joe could continue with his information gathering.

“You’ve helped a lot, Garnedell. Do not worry.”

“I wish I could help you more!”

Joe smiled, “You can answer my questions. If I or you ask the questions, what does it matter since the only one who can answer is you!”

Garnedell smiled and dropped his head in embarrassed acceptance of Joe’s compliment, “I.. uh… thank you.”

“OK, Garnedell. What was the guild we were at yesterday? You said it was a guild, yes?”

“It is the dungeoneering guild.”

“Ahh. Then what is it for?”

“For all things related to and of the dungeon.”

“The guardians and help for the adventurers who go into the dungeons?”

“Yes.”

“Anything else?”

“Um. They offer a way for the common people and merchant folk to seek help and materials from the dungeons through the dungeon guild.”

“Quests, then?”

“Quests?”

“Uh… my people called them quests. They would be requests of adventurers to kill certain monsters or find certain materials from dungeons.”

“Those are tasks. Quests are things that heroes do, right? Great long epic journeys to save the world, or at least great lands?”

Joe chuckled, “You are probably… no… You are definitely right! Our people probably called them quests to make them seem more than they are!”

Garnedell smiled, taking Joe’s statement as a joke but said nothing.

Joe waited for Garnedell’s reply but found nothing forthcoming and started another line of questioning, “The tasks for killing monsters and such comes from the dungeon guild. Is it OK to use monster parts from outside the dungeons?”

“Ah. Well, you could use the monster parts from the fields, but people likely ask for dungeon monsters for specific reasons and would likely not accept field monsters as they are looking for monster parts from dungeons. Besides, if they wished for field monsters, they would post their task at the adventurer’s guild or at both if either monster was OK.”

“There are two guilds? Dungeon guild and adventure guild?”

“Yes.”

“Why … that seems… Why do they need two of the same thing?”

“It isn’t the same thing. The have two very different and important roles. Of course they aren’t the same thing!”

“How are they different,” Joe asked with some confusion?

“One is focused on dungeons and protecting the people from dungeons. The other seeks to protect the cities and fields from roving monsters,” Garnedell defended vigorously.

Garnedell’s passionate defense stunned Joe a bit and he quickly backed off, not wishing to offend, “Ah, I see. That makes sense.” Joe offered Garnedell a placating gesture and once again change the topic. “Ah. I’m assuming that most adventurers that go into dungeons are combat jobs?”

“Yes. Basic jobs like swordsman, bowman or sometimes magicians.”

“Magicians?”

“Yes, but they are pretty rare. Not many are able to be magicians.”

“Then, how do you become a combat job? Most of the jobs I seem to have are about scholars, common workers, or craftsmen.”

“I have heard that my job, adventurer, is the gateway to combat jobs.”

“Oh! Do you know of a basic map to all the jobs?”

“How do you mean?”

“A book… ah, right, no books… um a memory crystal? Or a place I can go to learn about which jobs open other jobs or how certain jobs work together?”

“The priest of knowledge?”

“How about the guild… either of the guilds…?

“No. They seek to help adventurers and dungeoneers in exploring dungeons or protecting the wilderness. Their growth and development is not the duty of the guilds.”

“How about a basic way the jobs work?”

“Hmm. OK. Well, you seem to know of the way of the commoner, citizen and specialist. I am uncertain of others. I know only of adventurer simply because my parents spoke of it. Others… are unknown to me. Combat comes from adventurer. Priests come…”

“How do you get adventurer?”

“I believe it is from commoner. I’m not certain, though.”

“Hmm… How about priest then?”

“It is said that priests come from faith in the gods and magicians come for those who can touch mana.”

“Those last two… seem difficult?”

“Yes, very few can. They are known as difficult jobs to achieve. This is why they are so rare.”

“Hmm.” That seems … unusual? None of the other jobs seem to have unique conditions like this. Everything has, so far, been preconditioned by other jobs. Joe turned the topic to the mundane for the rest of the meal.

Their meal ended shortly after and the two headed out to the dungeon once again. They made the first floor early and Joe was able to finish out his polyglot to twenty. Joe called a halt and led Garnedell out to the temple district where he chose the next temple to change his job. The change was simple enough with Joe’s knowledge of the language but he felt the distinct lack as soon as he’d returned to being a hunter, the language slipping from his hands like sand through fingers. Well, this sucks!

After they’d left the temple and headed back out into the streets, Joe turned to Garnedell and spoke, “Joe no speak, Garnedell. Ha!”

Garnedell looked at Joe, some confusion on his face as he replied, a long string of fluent native language that Joe didn’t understand. Joe shook his head in reply, “Joe new job. Joe no speak.”

Garnedell’s eye’s flickered in understanding and Joe smiled with a shrug. The two looked at each other and laughed a bit, the nostalgic feeling of lost communication returning.

“Joe no happy?”

“No. Joe no happy, Garnedell. No happy!”

The two walked in companionable silence for a bit until Joe remembered to ask about the job’s name. He really wanted to get back to polyglot if he needed to. Questioning Garnedell gave Joe the name quickly enough and Joe repeated it several dozen times before verifying with Garnedell once again. However, Joe’s pronunciation proved good enough and they settled into silence that much more poignant for the sudden and shocking loss of communication they’d recently enjoyed quite well.

Their return to the dungeon was noted this time and though they tried to be low key, several of the Dungeon Guardians spoke for several minutes with Garnedell, and though Garnedell interacted with them well, he didn’t translate anything for Joe. Must not be really asking anything important. Maybe just curious? The conversation continued for another few moments while the line wound down and soon they were heading into the dungeon, although they had stood in line a good thirty minutes more than before because of the longer line.

They made it to the first floor, Joe feeling tension ease from his shoulders as he felt that he’d returned to his primary task, to gain stats as quickly as possible. They walked past their normal turn offs, heading deeper into the first floor. The light gray worked blocks of stone reminded him of Machu Picchu’s stone walls with odd shaped stonework somehow all melding despite their extremely irregular shapes. From what Joe had seen, the entire floor was worked this way and Joe wondered if this was typical of. They actually ended up wandering through the dungeon for a bit, getting lost and killing sparks in their way until they came upon another group heading deeper in. Joe decided to discreetly follow behind them as well as he could and soon saw them reach a set of stairs that seemed to go down.

However, as soon as they arrived at stairway heading down, the three man team turned to face Joe and Garnedell, bristling and holding their weapons at the ready. Their anger was readily apparent as well as a hint of fear. Both Joe and Garnedell stopped and held up their hands, backing away.

“Garnedell, say only go. Only go. No kill.”

Garnedell called out to them and they seemed to tense up even more. Joe saw their fear grow and Joe quickly pulled off his weaponry and laid it to the side, leaning it on the dungeon wall. “I Joe. I go. No kill!”

Joe’s shout seemed to bother the other group more than help, and the two just stood there without moving, although Garnedell and the other group still shouted back and forth towards each other for another few moments. Finally, Garnedell waved to Joe as the conversation seemed to have ended.

“Joe. We go.”

“Go?”

“Yes. No stay.”

Joe sighed and picked up the weapons before they all turned and walked away. Garnedell led him back down the corridor until they reached a turn in the main pathway then took the first side path but found it was a short dead end and they looked for another. They took the next and found it had another couple turns in it and made sure they were around a corner from the main path. Joe had tried to find out what was happening, using English so as not to allow the others to understand them, but Garnedell’s English skills proved inadequate and Joe only knew they had to leave. When they made a corner to hide them from the main path, Garnedell shooshed him and sent him further down the path and around another corner before returning to the first corner to glance around it and spy at the main path.

Joe stood by the second corner, but completely visible to Garnedell as he watched the kid’s strange behavior. Trying to hide from them? Why? They seemed more afraid of us than we of them. So... Joe waited for a bit and then saw Garnedell suddenly tense before turning and running in an exaggerated sneak towards Joe. Garnedell saw him when he started his sneak run and waved Joe back, although he said nothing. Joe quickly understood and rapidly turned to walk deeper into their path, passing another corner before he turned once more and looked towards Garnedell. He once again saw him sneaking quickly towards him and dove deeper into the side path, again stopping to look back. This time, he found Garnedell perching at the corner and looking around the corner carefully. Joe waited with baited breath for several moments and when he saw Garnedell sag in relief, Joe knew they’d headed back. Garnedell stayed where he was and Joe moved up to join him. Joe sat down across the hallway from him and Garnedell kept his face peering around the corner they were guarding. Despite waiting another twenty minutes, Joe trusted Garnedell’s instincts and calmly sat.