But for a Slime

Turning the other direction, he led the others to the other corner which proved to be at an odd angle, much more acute than their old corner home, instinctually firing his monster sense skill. It didn’t go off, and his eyebrows knit before he understood what happened. He grimaced and continued their journey. They threaded through the goblins, Joe killing three or four to clear their path and when the made it to the corner, Joe settled their packs and things in the corner and prepared their base of operations.

The others, except for Gwenvair, also did so easily, moving with him as they were used to how to prepare for the day. After they had finished, they turned back and split into two groups almost automatically. Try to shift the groups? Let them practice with others? Might be a good idea… let’s ask?

“Right. Let’s start pulling. Let’s split … should we split guys and girls or should we keep the two siblings together and let Garnedell and Gwenvair be a pair?”

With that question, all four quickly joined the conversation although the girls were the quickest.

“I want to be with Gwenvair!”

“I choose Kilniara!”

Joe laughed at that and the two boys glanced at one another with a shrug before agreeing. Joe nodded and the girls took off by themselves while Joe settled in with Zilnek and Garnedell then froze with annoyance. Shoot! Need to change Garnedell’s job back… right? That… Forgot about that! Uh… let me…

“Zilnek, give me a moment? Need to talk to Garnedell quick.”

Zilnek nodded back and Joe led Garnedell out away a bit but kept an eye on the two girls as they’d already started fighting a goblin. That gave an idea to Joe and he shouted out to Zilnek.

“Hey. Join the two girl’s real quick so you don’t miss out, alright?”

Zilnek actually smiled at that and turned to run over and join them. Joe smiled, happy to see Zilnek happy and remembered to bring up Zilnek with Garnedell as well, which is exactly what he did before he forgot.

“How is Zilnek doing, by the way? Is… everything OK?”

Garnedell glanced up at Joe and searched his face before seeming to understand Joe’s question and Garnedell nodded with a smile, “He is doing well. I think seeing what you did on the wall and the epic… it has calmed him. He is much more considerate.”

“Oh, good,” Joe sighed with some relief while nodding before continuing, “then… are you ready to go through a LOT of jobs very quickly today?”

Garnedell seemed to freeze at that and Joe smiled, “Don’t worry. It should be fast. If my calculations are correct, you’ll go through ten or so jobs today, OK?”

Garnedell took a deep breath and then finally deeply sighed, tilting his head back before closing his eyes and finally breathing out the sigh before looking at Joe and nodding. Joe grinned with pride and concern for Garnedell.

“It’s hard. I can see that, but I don’t understand. But I still can see it takes a lot of bravery for you.”

Garnedell smiled with a bit of forlorn sorrow and nodded, “Thank you for understanding.”

Joe snorted, “Sadly, I don’t. But I can see your struggle. Maybe if it would help, all you have to do is go straight to the temple and ask to change back to adventurer. You don’t lose it at all.”

Garnedell grinned at that, a calm coming back before he nodded, “It does help… only a little, but thank you.”

“If it helps… ten jobs!”

Garnedell smiled and laughed, nodding. Joe grinned and char:ed his bonus to learning skill and then swapped Garnedell’s job.

“So, every once and awhile, show me your status so I’ll know when to swap your job out. We’ll see how fast we can level up your base jobs. Let me test something first, though, OK?”

Garnedell nodded and Joe then pulled a goblin. They killed it and Joe took a look at the experience gain Garnedell had gotten, then blinked with some shock to see how much had come in. Wow… almost seven hundred per kill… that’s… going to get him up fast. Nice!

Garnedell had leveled to five in a single kill, and was almost half way to level six. Joe nodded, ran the numbers, and came up with five kills to hit level ten. Seems… reasonable… ten jobs is only fifty kills… or… hmm… fifteen commoner jobs… ok, do the fifteen jobs in seventy five kills and swap to metropolitan. That will… hmm… at least to level sixteen! Nice. Finish up metropolitan tomorrow and do citizen, too. That will be… really fast!

“Think I’m wrong, Garnedell. I’ll be able to get you through sixteen jobs today.”

Garnedell stared at him with disbelief before nodding with excitement and Joe continued, “We’ll have to change the job every five kills. Can you count and remember?”

Garnedell nodded and Joe grinned, “Right. One down, four more to go. When you hit five, just remind me and I’ll change your job to the next one. I’ll remember the jobs for you if you remember the kill count. Even if I’m with the girls, I can still change your jobs. Just accept them when I do, OK?”

Garnedell nodded eagerly, and Joe then called Zilnek back over, all three falling back into combat with ease. After about ten or so kills, the two boys grew tired and called for a break, heading back to sit down, the girls already having done so about two or three goblins before them. Joe continued fighting, glad to get back into his forms and hand to hand combat after fighting on the wall. After a bit of time, he noticed the boys stand again, the girls joining them as well. The boys went off by themselves this time, heading off at a tangent while the two girls quickly grabbed Joe and claimed him for their combat session. They ended up fighting and swapping groups with Joe about once very half an hour. Every ten or twenty minutes, depending on how exhausted Garnedell was, he would call out to Joe and Joe ran down the list of jobs Garnedell was leveling up in the commoner line: villager, farmer, waiter, bartender, chief, day laborer, inn keeper, forester, trapper, fisherman, hunter, miner, baker, and cook. Oddly enough, when Garendell tried to take the reeve job, it didn’t take, and Joe had frowned with frustration, wondering what was going on. He feared running out of a job change skill charges or some other such thing, but when he finally just skipped it and went to forester, it worked, and Garendell became a forester easily enough. Weird… gonna have to think about that and … well… later.

When the time for a break came along, Joe let the others take a rest, but refused to take one of his own as they’d arrived so late. After the break, the others returned to the fight and they continued until well after lunch to make up for the late day. Joe pushed himself, but was only able to get the new jobs up to about level forty two and his gifted job only made it to forty three because it had started at thirty five. He continued fighting for another thirty minute round but when he saw how little the experience bar was moving, he sighed and accepted that he wasn’t going to see any meaningful progress without spending the rest of the day in the dungeon. It’s good enough. Got Garnedell up with all the jobs and metropolitan just hit fifteen for him! Nice. Besides… it’s time for lunch.

With that done, Joe swapped Garnedell immediately back to adventurer and Garnedell actually thanked him, the tension that Garnedell had was powerful enough to show as his body visibly relaxed under the unusual stiffness. Joe nodded, and added that to a small thing he could do for Garnedell to make it easy. Joe then called an end of the day.

“Alright. Let’s call it a day and head out to lunch.”

The others all actually sighed in relief when Joe said that and collapsed against the wall to rest. Joe saw that and frowned, annoyed at himself.

“I’m sorry. I pushed you a bit too hard today, didn’t I?’

All four nodded at that, groaning in agreement. Joe chuckled and leaned back against the wall, joining their rest for a few moments before continuing. Garnedell, however, was too excited, and revealed his explosive growth to the others. To say the others were shocked was an understatement, with all of them seemingly disbelieving. Joe ignored their consternation and eager questioning of Garnedell so he could have a moment to rest. After about five or ten minutes, he finally pushed himself to continue his day. He took a moment to check out his skills, nodding. Right… I can do this now… should be able to… I’ll need to level it just a bit more, but first… He turned his head to look at Gwenvair and interrupted their conversation as politely as he could.

“I’m sorry, but… Gwenvair, could I ask you a question?”

She looked at Joe, “Yes, Joe?”

“You have… contacts amongst the… underworld?”

Gwenvair leaned forward at that and looked at him with cautious questioning, “Yes, I do?”

“Do you know any… dark priests?”

Joe’s question brought a clamor to everyone, Gwenvair with concern, but the acokzau siblings shuffled with excited anticipation.

Gwenvair blinked at that, “I… can find one?”

Joe nodded, “I… may need one. I hope not, but I might. Could you get one … today?”

Gwenvair sat up straight at that and looked at Joe, “I believe I could, yes, but… why?”

Joe looked to Kilniara and Zilnek, and while Zilnek seemed concerned, Kilniara turned and whispered with him. A few short exchanges later, Kilniara turned to Gwenvair.

“My brother… his job is thief.”

That surprised Gwenvair and she looked over at Zilnek, “I thought… weren’t you both cloth armorers?”

Kilniara flushed at that before replying, “He was, but… yeah.”

Gwenvair’s look flattened, “He stole something.”

Kilniara didn’t say anything and looked away with a sigh. Joe reached a hand over and put it on Kilniara’s shoulder.

“It’s OK Gwenvair. I didn’t understand how… this plane worked with criminal jobs. I accidently made Zilnek become a thief. I wish to rectify that.”

Gwenvair looked over at Joe with his comment and came to an understanding, “He acted against you?”

Joe nodded, “Yes, although I believe it was mainly because he was … I hadn’t gained his trust yet.”

Gwenvair turned to look at Zilnek with dead judgmental eyes and Joe sighed, catching Gwenvair’s attention.

“It’s OK. Don’t worry.”

Gwenvair sighed at that then looked back to Joe, “Yes. I should be able to help remove Zilnek’s criminal status. It… Only once. But you are correct, it is better to use a dark priest.”

Joe smiled and nodded, then frowned, “I understand… wait, what do you mean? You can change … free criminals from their criminal jobs?”

Gwenvair shook her head, “I’ll likely need a dark priest for I will turn into a fallen noble.”

Joe frowned, then knit his eyebrows, “What do you mean?”

Gwenvair replied with some confusion, “It will likely cause me to fall.”

Joe’s frown deepened and cautiously asked for more, “No, I mean... can you explain more?”

Gwenvair sighed, “I do this for you… only because it is you. Nobles can free criminals from their criminal status if the criminal is their peasant. We… do not like telling people of this for people will begin clamoring for us to free them. As the First in Line for Matriarch, I can free criminals, as can my mother as Matriarch. But, we can only do so for our own peasants. But… Zilnek is Acokzau, so he is … most definitely not a peasant of the Coushar clan. So, if we attempt to free or claim them as our own peasants, we will become fallen, and criminals ourselves for stealing from or subverting the justice of our fellow nobles.”

“Oh… wow… OK. Yeah,” Joe felt the release of tension when the moment of elucidation hit. OK. That… makes a lot of sense…

“So, Zilnek’s family is likely an escaped family from another clan or noble?”