But for a Slime

Chapter Thirty Six

Joe woke incredibly late for the first time since planet fall and found Garnedell already up. He was quiet but was working through the forms that Joe had showed him. Joe watched a bit before stretching, his whole body expanding in the morning stretch of complete contentment and satisfaction as he settled back into his blankets. Joe continued to watch, satisfied that Garnedell discarded Joe’s distracting wake up, continueing to go through the forms softly and quietly. Joe was a bit surprised seeing as Garnedell seemed to be going through the forms almost in the same way as Tai Chi. Huh! Good idea, kid! Joe smiled and let Garnedell continue, not interrupting him. But Garnedell turned during his forms and quickly pulled up, realizing that Joe was awake.

“Ah! Hello, Joe.”

“Hey! Nice job. How long have you been up?”

“Ah. Only a short time.”

“Well, don’t feel like you have to wait here or stay here. You can head out any time you want.”

“It’s still dark.”

“Ah. Well, then you can do it here. It’s fine.”

“Thank you.”

“Well, do what you have to. I’m getting ready for the day and heading down for breakfast.”

“OK, Joe,” Garnedell replied before returning to his forms, although he began to practice his forms more vigorously, his feet still coming down on the floor softly despite his increased speed.

Joe changed into his morning clothing, settled his weaponry into his harnesses, and then picked up his next alternate cloak for their trip through temple square. Joe stood and Garnedell quickly brought his forms to an end to join him leaving the room. Breakfast, as always, was disappointing, but Joe had long become used to the bland and poorly prepared food. The only food that he seemed to remember that was even remotely close to his memories of food back home was what he had bribed from the small village inn keeper. The meal went quickly and they headed out, heading for the temple district.

When they made it to their next temple, Joe stepped inside and ended up coming to a halt. He paused a moment, flipping open his status as he looked through his available jobs. He felt a bit of a pull towards spell caster or mana-ologist, but he wanted to be able to focus on what would allow him grow his stats up to the minimum he needed. He’d reached his intelligence and wisdom minimums much faster than he’d expected, and he was left uncertain where to go next. He was feeling a bit conflicted, wondering if it was worth spending a bit more time trying to unlock some more of his learning stat with his scholarly jobs, or to try to pursue unlocking the combat oriented jobs. But I don’t even know how to unlock the combat jobs! Maybe I can ask the priests? Maybe they would know?

Joe took a moment and ran some numbers, trying to see what would happen if he decided to focus on the scholar jobs and the learning they provided. Huh… if I take the ten scholar jobs to twenty, assuming each job gave fifteen points of learning per level… that would be three hundred learning, ten jobs. That’s three thousand learning and gives me another three hundred on what I’ve got; wait… it’s actually about seven hundred fifty, right? I get another double learning plus another fifty percent. Joe blinked a bit in shock, his mind whirling. He tried to remember what his base learning was and thought he remembered it at about three hundred or so. Woah! That would triple my learning! More than worth it. That should cut my learning time by almost a quarter!

Now feeling a bit better over his decision, Joe decided to consider which scholarly job to choose first. Joe almost pulled out a coin to flip between the two choices he was most interested in but then remembered the possibility of asking one of the temple priests. Joe paused for a few moments before turning to Garnedell.

“Uh. Garnedell? How well do the priests know about jobs? Could I ask them about which jobs to take to get to other jobs?”

Garnedell turned to Joe, considering carefully before nodding, “Yes, Joe. There are certain priests who can help.”

“This priest?”

“No, Joe. This is the temple of Bragi. The priests of Bragi are excellent in the ways of the crafters and artisans, but it would be wise for you to seek the temple of Mimir, the god of knowledge. The priests of Mimir are most likely to know such questions, but they will charge.”

“Great, lets head there. We just gotta remember to come back here for the next job change and restart the temple job change circuit.”

“Once again, please?”

“Ah, sorry. I just meant that we would need to remember to begin our next job change here again.”

“Ah, right.”

“Anyway, lead on to the temple of Mimir.”

“Yes, Joe.”

Garnedell led Joe out of the current temple and the one next door, as luck would have it. It would have been the next temple in their circuit anyway, Joe figured he would just swap the two for this circuit before they returned one their next round through the temples. Joe had already been to five temples, but from what he was seeing, there were a good fifteen or so more to go, plus any minor temples in the various alleys that snaked off the main temple square. They entered the temple of knowledge, and Joe felt there was little difference between all the temples. Similar granite grey stone made up all the temple buildings, although the temple square and facades of all the buildings were a white marble like stone. Inside, the grey stone was polished but unpainted and bare. Unlike the cathedrals back on Earth, there were no paintings, statues, or pews. It was simply a cavernous empty space offering services around the edges of the temple. It almost seemed like a cross between a cathedral and some form of a mall. Joe turned to Garnedell and asked for his help.

“So, where should I go?”

“Ah, I believe this way, mas… Joe,” Garnedell led Joe to the right where there was a counter with some priests and priestesses servicing the counter. Garnedell spoke to one, “Excuse me. We seek knowledge.”

“A knowledge seeker. Please speak to the cleric of knowledge. You will find the clerics in the sacristies. Please speak to the priestess of knowledge to seek out the cleric of knowledge worthy of the knowledge you seek.”

“Thank you, priest.”

“You are welcome, seeker.”

Garnedell turned away and led their way across the temple to a series of small rooms that were lining up against the wall across from where they had been. They came upon another priestess staffing a small booth guarding the way to the small rooms. Garnedell came up to the priestess and sought her help. “Priestess. My master seeks knowledge.”

“What do you seek, master…?”

“Please, simply call me Joe.”

“Master Joe. What do you seek?”

“Ah… um. Just call me Joe. No need for master.”

“Ah, yes, Joe.”

“Thank you. I seek knowledge of various jobs.”

“Which jobs do you seek knowledge of?”

“I want to know about combat jobs, jobs best for learning, and any job that might help me seek or know about jobs, if that is possible. Also, uh, anything about a job that would help me grow or develop.”

The priestess actually flickered her eyebrows up with his questions, but nodded in acceptance, “I am uncertain of how I may help you, but I know of one who may help you with your question on combat. I do not know of the other questions, but I will suggest one of our more esoteric clerics. Please move to the second room, sir. Your servant can wait here.”

“What? No. Garnedell can come with me. Ah, the second room, yes?”

“Yes, the second room.”

Joe pointed at what he thought was the second room, tilting a head while offering a questioning look.

“No, sir. Here,” the priestess pointed to the opposite direction to the correct room.

“Thank you,” Joe nodded in thanks and headed to the second room with Garnedell behind. When the two came into the room, they found a small table with two chairs on opposite sides of the table. Joe looked around but found no other seat. Joe looked up at Garnedell and then around at the room before finally shrugging and grabbing the chair on the other side. He set the two chairs on the one side of the table before sitting down in one and pointed to the other, offering it to Garnedell.

“Go ahead. Sit.”

“Mas… Joe?”

“Sit. They can bring in another chair for the clerics. Anyway, what’s the difference between a cleric and a priest?”

“I… huh. I don’t know…”

“Well, I won’t be asking that question, then. I don’t want to pay more money for just curiosity. I’ll figure it out later, anyway.”

“Yes, Joe.”

The two sat for a few moments, Joe waiting with some expectation, but when nothing really happened, Joe turned to Garnedell and continued the small talk, “So. What happens next? We just sit here and wait?”

“Ah. Yes. The clerics assigned for us will come to us soon.”

“Where are the clerics? On the other side of town?”

“No, Joe. They live here in the temple.”

“Yeah, but they seem to be taking their sweet time.”

“Sweet time?”

“Ah… it means to take a long time to come or do something. It usually means that the person who is taking a long time is being lazy or not being diligent…”

“Shh! Shh! Joe!”

“What?”

“Just… you mustn’t say such things.”

“Truly?”

“Yes.”

“This is the temple of knowledge? Should they value knowledge and truth?”

Garnedell boggled at him, thrown and uncertain of how to respond, “But…”

Joe steamrolled him a bit, continuing, “Garnedell, if these priests really honor knowledge, they would accept all knowledge regardless of its source, as long as the knowledge is truth. Knowledge is only fact. And some of the greatest and most important knowledge is that about one’s self. If you know and understand yourself, then you are able to improve yourself, be proactive about any weaknesses you have, or … well… anything! Knowledge is a friend to those who seek it, but knowledge is worthless unless it is known, even personal knowledge.

“Amongst my people, there is a famous saying from long ago, Garnedell. It is: ‘Know thyself.’ It basically means to know yourself, everything about yourself. Know your weaknesses, strengths, abilities, skills… everything. Accept that about yourself so you can change or take steps to mitigate or accentuate those aspects, as are important.”

Garnedell sat, a bit shell-shocked, “But master, you… you shouldn’t say such things here.”

“If I cannot speak truth and knowledge at the temple of knowledge then Mimir is not the god of knowledge or this temple is corrupt,” Joe said with a simple shrug, completely unconcerned.

Garnedell began to grow a bit flustered, panicking. “Joe, even if what you say is true, saying such things will … it will only harm you or offend the wrong…. person!”

Joe had already opened his mouth to rebuttal but then quickly stopped, realizing that he’d completely misunderstood the situation, pausing. I can’t… Must be something like the old cultures back on Earth. It’s not what you know, but who you know. Accomplishing anything in cultures like that means not offending anyone in power. Shit! I hope they can’t hear me in here! Joe quickly calmed, “You’re right, Garnedell. I forgot this. I gotta remember that people do not always accept knowledge well. I have to be careful with that.”

Garnedell nodded, about to respond when he was interrupted by an older man, dressed in a smart outfit that reminded Joe almost of like a modern western suit, although there were significant alterations to it. The pants didn’t seem too much different, although he could only see from the knee down as the jacket itself seemed more like a long shirt than a suit, although the shape of the suit followed the basic form. The long V at the neck stretched almost to the belly button, but was formed by overlapping flaps of the vest with the side going under pulled all the way to the other side of the body under his arm and fastened in some way so that it kept the chest covered and didn’t fall open to reveal chest and upper abdomen. The outside flap didn’t get pulled over all the way under his other arm, but only rested on his chest and belly tied with a simple button on the left side of his abdomen. It seemed an odd contrast as it wasn’t symmetrical at all, with the under flap pulled hard and angled sharply towards his armpit, while the outside flap of his vest was angled down towards his hip before it fell sharply straight down to his knees. These differing angles gave the V at his neck an odd off kilter asymmetrical angle where one side was closer to horizontal with the ground and the other plunged almost directly down the line of his body. The suit jacket almost seemed like a long bath robe, or maybe a bathrobe made to look like a formal suit jacket. Joe found the whole getup a bit disconcerting.

The man’s entrance was subdued and the smile he showed was quite genuine as he nodded and joined the conversation, “Your master is very knowledgeable, young Garnedell. He is right in his understanding of knowledge, although you are very wise in your understanding of people.”