But for a Slime

Chapter Thirty Five

Joe woke the next morning and lay in bed, a deep breath filling his body before a long slow breath had him bonelessly oozing into the bed, relaxed and rising comfortably. This was one of the few days that he didn’t feel the subtle aches that came most mornings and he felt good. Must be because I feel like I’ve finally accomplished my plan. Joe lay there for a couple moments enjoying the moment before sighing and forcing himself to rise. Gotta figure out what I’m going to do next!

As always, Garnedell’s ‘Joe-radar’ was working at peak efficiency and he awoke even before Joe’s feet touched the ground. Joe stared at him for a few moments, quite surprised and realized he finally had both the time and ability to ask Garnedell about it.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what, Master Joe?”

“How do you know exactly when I wake up?”

Garnedell only cocked his head slightly to the side, uncertainty painting his face.

“I mean, every time I’ve woken up, you wake up just after. How do you do it?”

“You are very loud, Master Joe. I can hear you easily.”

“I wake you up?”

“Oh, no. I’m already awake.”

“You’re already awake? What do you mean?”

“I cannot sleep as long as you, master.”

“Then get up! You don’t have to stay there and pretend to sleep or something. Get up and read or study… oh… you can’t read… um… well, get up and do something you want, or… anything,” Joe replied with his voice muffled by the shirt he was putting on.

Garnedell didn’t say anything and Joe had already turned to his dressing so felt the conversation had dropped, his mind turning to other things. “So, Garnedell. What job do you think I should do next?”

“I am not certain, master.”

“Ah… Garnedell, remember… please just call me Joe.”

“Ah… yes, Joe.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course, Mas… Joe.”

“Anyway, I need to get the most abilities I can. I guess I’m most worried about intelligence, to be honest. As long as I can keep my intelligence high enough, I’ll be able to think my way through most things. I guess I’ll keep focusing on the scholar jobs. Makes sense since that’s where I’m going to get the most of my intelligence. Oh, hey, Garnedell, I’ve noticed that people seem to … speak and think… a bit slowly,” Joe finished his last question with a bit of trepidation, not wishing to offend.

“Yes. Some do so.”

“Is… is this normal?”

“Of course.”

“Can you explain a bit?”

“Ah, how so?”

“Why… what is happening?”

“They have low intelligence or their job has low intelligence, of course. We spoke of this before.”

“Does this make them… stupid?”

“No. Just very slow. They are able to think just as well but they take much longer to understand, think, and respond. You must simply be patient with them.”

“Huh… so intelligence isn’t really just IQ then.”

“Yes, Joe?”

“Ah, nothing,” Joe quickly replied and changed the subject, “Let’s head down for breakfast, but I’ll be a bit quiet. I’m going to spend it trying to figure out what my next job is going to be, OK?”

“Yes, Joe.”

They finished morning ablutions and headed down the stairs with minimal small talk as Joe went through his plan for his next job. Most of his thoughts were caught up in arriving at the common room and preparing for breakfast, but after he’d ordered his food and settled at his table, he was able to turn his thoughts to his next plan. Well, I was just trying to get my stats to a base of a hundred, but I now that I know about learning… Joe stopped and pondered for a moment, trying to decide between the two, then realized he didn’t have to. Scholarly jobs give me both intelligence, wisdom, and learning. If my main plan was to make sure I had my intelligence maxed out, there’s nothing better than the scholar jobs I’m already doing. Although, I think I’ve already reached my planned one hundred points minimum for intelligence and wisdom. Joe pondered a bit more as he considered his two options. If I’ve got my mental stats up where I need them, then I’ll need to focus on my combat next, right? As long as I have my mental and combat abilities at what I need them at, I can easily get the rest up, right? But I don’t know or have any combat jobs available, right? Joe flipped open his status and took a look at his available jobs.

Status

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

Available Skills

Log

Citizen

Crafting

Education

Nobility

Commoner

20

Crafter

Educated

20

Groom

10

Villager

10

Scholar

20

Farmer

10

Philosopher

Waiter

10

Bartender

10

Chief

10

Day Laborer

10

Inn Keeper

10

Reeve

10

Forester

10

Trapper

10

Fisherman

10

Hunter

15

Miner

10

Baker

10

Cook

10

Metropolitan

20

Burgher

10

Cartographer

Waiter

10

Bartender

10

Day Laborer

10

Teacher

Cook

10

Mana-ologist

Humanities

Baker

10

Groom

10

Butcher

10

Engineer

Inn Keeper

10

Physician

Merchant

10

Linguist

26

Spell Casting

Polyglot

20

Chemist

Mathematics

Citizen

20

Gypsy

Beggar

Gambler

Animal Tamer

Specialist

20

Nope… Don’t see any combat jobs at all! Lots and lots of jobs though, but no combat ones that I can see. Although there is something like … Joe quickly guesstimated the number of rows and came up with something just a little over a hundred in each column. So about four hundred jobs, if each cell has a job? So if I can unlock all these, I’ll get my minimum stats easy enough! Joe considered as he perused the job listing. So, what can I do?

Joe went through his options and figured he really only had three. He could continue pushing through the education line, he could try to open up the crafter line and all the jobs in that line, or he could try to explore to find the combat lines. He was tempted to aim for the combat lines, but struggling to find which jobs to open up the combat lines left him feeling a bit worried. He had a good fifty or sixty jobs available to explore even now, not considering even more jobs he might open up later and he had no good potential jobs that he thought would open up the combat job line. I can’t see how something in a crafting or education line would open the combat jobs. And what about the grouping, priest, and magic, if that’s real. I could see magic and priest lines opening up from the education line, maybe, if my assumptions about priests and magicians are right, but I’m guessing that they’ll be heavily focused on my mental stats. Joe’s thoughts ended up turning back around full circle. I guess what I could do best right now would be just to stick with the education line. I can’t find the combat lines and I can use the education line’s massive boost to learning to give me a step up when I start burning through my other jobs. If I end up not being able to open up the combat line, then I’ll have to get my combat stats up to snuff by spamming the other jobs till they can cumulatively make it up for me. It’s still my original plan, but hopefully a bit faster because of the learning buff! Joe glanced at the first scholar option and decided to just do the same as he did with the commoner jobs. Might as well just go through them in order: philosopher it is!

With his choice made, Joe was able to relax and enjoy the end of the meal, asking about where combat lines might come from. The discussion was pretty one sided as Garnedell spent a bit of time explaining common rumors but he ultimately ended up with the simple statement that most people just didn’t know. People who had combat jobs got them because their parents had them. Very, very few people were able to change jobs simply because of the high cost and the immense chance of failure. And it made sense to Joe. No one could read or understand the system, so they had no way of knowing what jobs they had to pick from. The system was literally stacked against them!

They headed out to the temple district since the blacksmith still needed another day to finish the star weaponry. Joe had pulled out one of his dozens of cloaks and slipped it over his shoulders. Today, it was quite an ugly puce. He liked red. He found it quite an appealing color, but the added brown made the color look more like something from a toilet bowl than from a Christmas tree. He found the name of the color matched well with its image. Switching to philosopher proved very easy, now that Joe’s language skills were up to the task. With the job change soon finished, Joe and Garnedell were headed towards the dungeon once more, although they did stop by to pick up their ID cards from the two guilds before they soon disappeared into the depths of the dungeons; or, at least the first floor.

Before Joe killed his first mob, he decided to check out his stats, wondering what his base stats were. Since he was literally a level zero philosopher, the philosophy job would give him no stat gains at all. The current stats he had would be purely his base stats that he gained from his ten percent bonus from each of the jobs he’d leveled. When he opened it up, he was a bit saddened to see that his physical stats were as bad as he’d expected. He wasn’t even half way to his base one hundred, let alone making it to what he’d gained back on earth. His mental stats, however, were already basically done. He’d exceeded his Earthly wisdom and was very close to matching the intelligence he had back on Earth. I only need another twelve basic jobs at level ten and I’ll have matched it. I’ll get that even if I decide to go to the combat jobs, right? The combat jobs have to give at least basic intelligence, right? Should I try? But they probably have very poor learning, and I’ll have to unlock a lot of jobs. It seems most unlock at twenty. Maybe there are even some that unlock at higher levels? Wait! The spell casting job unlocked when linguist was at twenty five or twenty six, right?! Then leveling up learning would probably be the way to go now if I’ve got most of the low hanging fruit.