But for a Slime

No more low hanging fruit though... probably... Joe grunted in some anger. His frustration rose a bit since that didn’t bode well for gaining more jobs. He was able to reach level twenty with relative ease right now, only taking about two days. But making it to level twenty five would take almost two weeks. And if there were jobs that opened at thirty, that would take him three months! I can’t afford to waste so much time on a single job! Suddenly, Joe recognized a rather strange addition to the screen. Oh! Cool! It lets me know how many character skills I have and how many are in use. Nice! I guess since my commoner cudgel skill is still below one, it’s not counted. Make’s sense. I didn’t see this pop up until I leveled up my bow skill! Joe flipped to his basic status page.

Status

Blessings

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

Available Skills

Log

Joe McConnell

Status

Physical Resistances

Magical Resistances

HP

42.1 (138)

Physical:

Wind

3.80

MP

42.1 (100)

Piercing

2.5 (48)

Water

3.30

Attack

42.1 (181)

Crushing

3.25 (132)

Fire

0.50

Defense

42.1 (158)

Slashing

3.5 (39)

Ice

3.05

Magic

42.1 (100)

Magic Defense

42.1 (100)

Strength

54.1 (148)

Dexterity

49.6 (112)

Agility

45.6 (133)

Speed

43.1 (115)

Endurance

55.6 (193)

IQ

120.7 (132)

Wisdom

111.8 (105)

Learning

169.48

Luck

1.63

Joe turned his attention to his current stats, deciding to look at the worst, which were his attack and defense. Magic, at this point, was not something important to him; he just didn’t have enough understanding of it and he was more than capable of leveling with just the combat skills he’d trained back on Earth. Thanks, mom and dad! Although I don’t think you really even thought I would be using my skills this way, huh!? His weakest stats were at forty two, and if he wanted to get them to human norm, as he guessed it, he would need sixty new jobs to level ten, or forty at level fifteen. Huh… that’s doable. Forty days to make level fifteen and even if I do forty scholar jobs, I’ll still get my base combat to the norm of one hundred. Joe felt some happiness, but then scowled a bit as he looked at his original attack capabilities. One hundred eighty one! I’ll need another hundred and forty points. I’ll need another hundred jobs or so at level fifteen! If I do that, I’ll already be quite ahead of the average human here! From what I can see, I’m already pretty much stronger than most of the middle aged and younger! Joe put his thoughts out of mind when he came up on their first spark.

“Mind if I kill this one, Garnedell?”

“Yes, master.”

“Master?”

“Ah… sorry Joe.”

“No problem, Garnedell.”

Joe stalked up on the spark and dropped his grounding rod into it, quickly killing it. Well, as quick as is possible. These sparks must contain incredible amounts of charge as long as they take to discharge. Could I speed it up with water? Something? A good ten minutes later, the spark dropped and Joe felt his first level for philosopher. He cleaned up his kill and feeling a bit eager to find out what philosopher could offer him, he pulled up his status.

Status

Blessings

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

Available Skills

Log

Joe McConnell

Status

Physical Resistances

Magical Resistances

HP

1.00

Physical:

MP

2.00

Piercing

0.00

Attack

1.00

Crushing

0.00

Defense

1.00

Slashing

0.00

Magic

2.00

Magic Defense

2.00

Strength

1.00

Dexterity

1.00

Agility

1.00

Philosopher

1

Speed

1.00

Endurance

1.00

IQ

15.00

Wisdom

15.00

Learning

15.00

Luck

0.00

Ooh! Magic and magic defense! First time I’ve seen that! While Joe was excited to see the massive boost to his mental and learning stats, he was a bit surprised to see that philosophy would give magical stats. His smile was genuine and the two headed further into the dead end mazes, wiping out sparks, once again falling into a zen peace. I can hit my IQ minimum with this job! And it happened even sooner than Joe had expected, with Joe hitting level eight just barely out of the first room with a pop up that splashed across his face, identical to when he’d made his wisdom minimum.

You have achieved equivalency in your IQ statistic. Your base statistic has now reached or exceeded your current imported statistic. Would you like to have your life evaluated by your imported statistics or by your newly achieved local statistics?

The options were the same, asking if he wanted to swap to the new local stats, but he quickly dismissed it when he double checked once again, asking help for verification if he could only swap out specific stats. Help proved to be as unhelpful as ever, but did seem to verify that it was an all or nothing kind of thing. Knowing that he was still woefully under powered in his combat skills and stats, especially as he would likely be ‘gimped’ from using the variety of weapons he was capable of using, Joe quickly dismissed the notification, refusing to swap out his stats. Despite the lingering disappointment of not being able to use his new acquired stats gained from his hard effort, he felt a sense of overwhelming relief flood through him, tension he didn’t know he was under flushing from him. I made it!

He even took a quick mid morning break, celebrating achieving his next milestone, and much more relaxed about his capability of meeting his other minimums. Joe enjoyed a longer break, and when Garnedell started looking at him strangely, Joe realized he’d taken a bit longer on his break than normal. Come to think of, we never usually got breaks, did we? Huh… given Garnedell’s typical endurance compared to mine… Joe’s mind wandered off on a new thread as he stood to continue on, thinking about adding in appropriate rest breaks for the kid.

Lunch came and Joe had already reach level sixteen and a half, which had surprised him by quite a bit. Maybe I’ll make level eighteen by tonight!? The two settled to enjoy their meal while Joe glanced through stats, perusing more out of boredom than any real need. But Joe found something shockingly welcome on his blessings tab. He had a new title and an explanation for his exaggerated growth.

Killer of 10,000 (Title): You have killed more than ten thousand monsters. All experience gained doubled.

Haha! This is awesome! I might be able to make level twenty today! Joe’s reaction wasn’t quite hidden enough and Garnedell noticed, “Is all well, Joe?”

“Huh?”

“Are you well?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine. Just something good happened.”

“May… may I ask what?”

“Oh! Sure. I have a new title.”

Garnedell’s eyes rose in surprise as he gulped a few times, uncertain of what to do or say, “I … should not be so surprised. You are a great man.”

Joe grinned but said nothing, smiling a bit and shrugged, “It was a pretty easy one. You should be getting it soon as well, so.”

Garnedell’s surprise turned to tentative happiness, “What title is it?”

“Killer of ten thousand.”

“Killer of ten thousand?”

“Yeah. I guess it comes when you have killed ten thousand monsters.”

“Really!?”

“That’s what I would guess, going by the name.”

“Amazing.”

“It really is! It lets you grow at twice the speed.”

“Twice! Titles give such benefits?”

“Ah. I guess nobody could know because nobody can read. But yes, titles and blessings can give you special bonuses.”

“Oh. I have heard of blessing doing so. Everyone knows this. But I didn’t know titles could as well.”

“Huh. Good to know. I guess getting a blessing from a power would give you a hint that it does something special.”

Garnedell said nothing, uncertain how to reply to Joe’s small talk and quietly attended to him, waiting Joe’s pleasure. Joe let the conversation end, turning back to his meal. The two settled into silence and soon were back up hammering their way through the maze. And as Joe had predicted, he was able to hit twenty by the end of the day, although they needed to stay for just another half hour or so and Joe pushed to hit level twenty anyway. As he had hoped, Joe was able to unlock another job, although class theorist didn’t seem really that exciting. At least it’s a new job.

Joe headed back up, refreshed after a day of fighting, and the two were soon out of the dungeon and walking towards the inn. As they were going, Joe remembered one question that hadn’t really been to important but figured would certainly make his life easier. “Hey, Garnedell.”

“Yes, Joe.”

“The blacksmith, Kargallen, he told me about the currencies here. I never really learned the names and we just go with my names.”

“Ah, yes. What do your names for the money mean? I was wondering.”

“Joe smiled and laughed a bit, before replying, “I just named them after their shapes,” Joe began alternating between English and the local language, explaining his naming scheme, “Triangles are triangles. Triangle one holes are triangle one holes. Squares are squares. Like that. I just named it the shape and how many holes.”

Garnedell smirked a bit, an eyebrow rising slightly, “Well, I guess that’s as good a name as any.”

“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you.”

Garnedell’s grin broke out full force but refused to admit it, ‘Maybe.”

“Well, anyway, I need to learn the names, so can you give me the names?”

“Certainly. There are sixteen currencies: tin, bronze, nickel, copper, brass, iron, steel, silver, gold, platinum, titanium, adamantium, mythril, antathril, myntium, and palladium. Those are the names, same order as before with your strange names.”

“Hey! Not strange names. Quite informative,” Joe counter with great bluster tinged with humor.

“Of course, master.”

Joe laughed at Garnedell’s straight response, unable to think of a quick response, but then returned to his question about coinage, “So… um… The circle coins would be… um… silver and gold, right? And the circle hole coins are… What’s the two after gold?”

“Platinum and Titanium.”

“Right. Platinum would be the circle one hole and titanium is the two hole?”

Garnedell squinted in thought for a bit before nodding his head, “Yes. The circle coins are silver, gold, platinum and titanium. But don’t forget the circle square hole coin. That’s steel.”

“Ah! OK! Right. The transition coin between square and circle. OK. Good to know. Circle coins would be steel, silver, gold, platinum and titanium. Right?”

“Yes.”

“OK. I got that. Uh, then the triangle coins would be... Tin and… nickel, right?”

“No. Tin and bronze.”

“Right. OK. Tin and bronze are the triangle. Steel, silver, gold, platinum and titanium are the circle ones. Then the square ones would be, let’s see… there are four square ones so… I think I remember copper and iron. Um Nickel? I can’t remember the fourth.”

“Nickel, copper, brass, iron.”

“Nickel, copper, brass, iron!” Joe began chanting the four metals, focusing to apply them to memory so he wouldn’t forget. After another few moments, he added the two triangle coins and chanted six. For some reason, he didn’t seem to be worried about remembering the circle coins, as they reminded him of typical coinage from back on Earth; at least the old coins. Maybe not the steel, but the rest I know are valuable!

After figuring out the list, Joe realized he was going to have to memorize it a few more times, but let it rest. “How about the hex coins?”

“I can teach you, but no one has them. They are impossible.”

“Really? No one has any of them?”

“No one.”

“If no one has them, then why create the currency?”