But for a Slime

That job change took hold, and his Loki chaplain once again changed back to dark Loki chaplain. He then quickly checked that his main job change skill still had a ‘char:’ skill attached. Once that was done, he made sure to remove all his other priest jobs, just to be safe, and set them to a couple random jobs temporarily since he would be adding the strongest Loki priest job back to his set of jobs and the others he was currently working once the dark priest lines were out. He now only had one priest job, the dark Loki chaplain. Right… let’s do this. ‘Char: change job,’ change dark Loki chaplain to uh… paragon!

The priest job disappeared, replaced by his paragon job which was the next job in line for duelist. Joe smiled with relief. He then added in the next warrior job, battler, and also returned his gifted job back to the list of jobs. Finally, he added the Loki cardinal job once again, with bated breath. He let his breath out in a sigh of relief when the job came back as the normal, non-‘dark’ version. He again fired off a monster sense, frowning almost instantly when it failed again then berated himself for having done so. Gotta… stop that. He sighed and continued on.

His thoughts turned back to the dark priest jobs, and his smile returned. Nice! This is… great… They were essentially another couple hundred jobs to level, which Joe would take any time simply for their stats. Right now, they were not especially necessary and had the added ‘benefit’ of a pretty negative cultural expectation. Still, he could barely hide his glee, although he did frown and wondered how the dark priest job unlocks would show up in the priest daily report which showed new priests being formed. Glad… I did Loki. Don’t know how the regular priests would take it… hmm…

Having settled the issue, he turned back to the others and found them all looking at him with both excitement and concern. Joe smiled and opened his status.

“See? All fine. Back to normal.”

Gwenvair gaped at that, although the other three seemed to simply beam with pride.

“How! How did you! Dark priests cannot remove their stain once enacted. They are … how!?”

Joe smiled, “Have to use the skill purely alone, not linked to your priest line of jobs.”

Gwenvair grew confused at that, “What does that mean?”

“Growth skills.”

Her eyes widened in shock, panic setting in, “The… job change skill… is a growth skill? No! It cannot be. It is not a growth skill! I am certain… is it? We… it can’t be! Our clan is … I am certain of this!” Her response was wild, fear rising up through her even as she spoke and it took a bit for Joe to remember and he quickly fell silent, before turning to the other three.

“I’m… sorry, could we have a moment, guys?’

The other’s seemed confused but stood and headed out easily enough, walking away for a good dozen or two steps while Joe turned back to Gwenvair and continued, “No, but there are other skills that can make any skill a growth skill, with effort.”

Gwenvair’s panic receded then quickly shifted to great excitement, “You know?!”

Joe nodded, “I know.”

Gwenvair vibrated with excitement and stared at Joe with puppy dog eyes and Joe chuckled in humor. Her open mouth clicked but she looked at him with dejection.

Joe laughed, “Alright, alright. What do you want to know?”

“What … what do you know about… those skills!?”

Joe shrugged, “Not much to know… uh, can you tell me about a growth skill so I can verify? Our last conversation was… a long time ago. I think I have an idea, but… I’m not certain if there are exceptions. Do you know a growth skill that is well known, especially in the scholar or the basic jobs… the commoner or metropolitan jobs?

Gwenvair stared at him, breathing deeply but seemed conflicted. Joe easily caught her conflicted look and frowned.

“You don’t know any?”

Gwenvair grimaced at that and shook her head, “It is… considered secret information by the clan. I cannot tell you.”

Joe sighed, “Then I can tell you of two that I know of. The hunter job under the commoner field has a skill to use the bow. It is a growth skill. For the other…”

Joe trailed off when he saw Gwenvair showing confusion, “Bow? What is a bow?”

Joe felt his eyebrows raise straight up through his hairline, “The weapon I used on the wall against the monster tide.”

Gwenvair breathed heavily, then grew shocked, “Oh! Yeah… I remember… I knew it was the commoner job hunter… but the bow skill is a growth skill!? Of a commoner job?”

“Yes,” Joe replied, a soft smile on his lips, “A commoner skill that is a growth skill as well.”

Gwenvair felt her breath leave her and she shuddered, “That’s… we …”

“You didn’t know?”

She quickly shook her head, “No!”

Joe smiled, “Well, now you do. Ha!”

She stared at him, “Such a terrifying weapon is also a growth skill!?”

Joe shrugged, “Well… It takes an immense amount of practice to make it terrifying and the skill is… difficult to learn in order to make it very effective. But, once you have that skill, yes. It can be a terrifying weapon in the hands of an expert.”

Gwenvair listened on but then quickly redirected her focus, “But skills? Growth skills.”

Joe shrugged, “I can’t know for certain. Maybe they are different than what I think, but the growth skills aren’t really growth skills. All skills can grow, if they have the ‘char:’ ability attached to it. So, a skill isn’t really a growth skill, but it can be a growth skill if the ‘char:’ ability is linked to it. But, if you grow that skill to level one, you can then move the ‘char:’ skill to any other skill and grow that skill as well. However, you can only grow a skill if it has a ‘char:’ skill attached to it and you have the job of that skill equipped.”

Let’s double check. Joe scrolled up his skills page to take a look at hunter and frowned. Bow skill didn’t change at all, even with all those kills during the monster tide… so… yeah… didn’t have the job equipped or the char: set… Joe’s teeth ground in anger as he snarled. I’m an idiot… moron… stupid! Why didn’t I… Joe sighed and released his anger, although he was still deeply annoyed at himself. Would have been smart… although… would have leveled one or two less jobs per day, so… but still. He sighed again, and turned back to what he was seeking. Right… ‘char:’ skills… uh… Joe paused his thoughts and questioned the system once again. Help, explain everything about ‘char:’?

A skill that has a ‘char:’ skill attached can be used by a person regardless of what job they have. The skill can also be perfected over time if it has a ‘char:’ skill attached and its related job is equipped. It is perfected when it reaches level one. When the skill is perfected, it is permanently available. If the connected ‘char:’ is initially bound to it, the ‘char:’ skill is unlocked.

After perfection, the skill becomes available regardless of the currently equipped job and can continue to develop after the skill becomes perfected, if the job and ‘char:’ are equipped.

Char: becomes available once its related skill is perfected and unlocked, allowing the person to use ‘char:’ on any other skill of a currently available job and allowing that skill to be perfected and unlocked. An unperfected and perfected skill cannot grow without ‘char’ and its job equipped. ‘Char:’ only allows availability regardless of current job.

Right… that’s what it is… from zero to one is ‘perfecting’ and unlocking the skill. Then, at level one, it can grow. So… that kinda cinches it…

“Well, yeah. That seems to be it. Attach a ‘char:’ to the skill, equip the job, use the skill. Now it’s a growth skill. But it will only grow with both. You cannot keep growing it if you take away either one of those. However, once they reach level one, you can use them anytime without the job or ‘char:’ equipped, but it will not grow. There you go… looks like that’s it.”

“That… easy? Truly?”

Joe shrugged, “Seems like it. Just that simple. But… hard to figure out. Since you guys can’t read and don’t know what a ‘char:’ skill is, you probably didn’t know about that, so… Yeah… figuring that out would be pretty tough.”

Gwenvair actually vibrated where she sat, “Could… I tell my mother?”

Joe nodded, “Of course! Just be careful, though, the ‘char:’ skill, if you swap it to another skill, will turn that skill into a growth skill but the old skill will no longer grow. It will keep its overall growth level, but it will no longer grow.”

Gwenvair breathed in awesome excitement, “I could turn my staff into a growth skill!”

Joe cocked his head, “Could I see your status?”

Gwenvair looked up at him then eagerly opened her status for him. He pointed to her available skills tab, “Could you click that?”

A welling of magic formed around them before the bubble erupted out and Joe felt his eyebrows knit but couldn’t figure out what word was being translated as Gwenvair immediately reached up and stabbed her status window, flipping open her available skills page. Joe’s eyebrows rose once again when he noticed her sword skill and what the current level of the sword skill was. His eyebrows rose when he saw the numbers.

Status

Blessings

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

All Skills

Log

Job

Skill

Skill

Skill

Skill

Skill

Skill

Noble - Ballroom

30

Inherit Dancer

0

Social +

0

Technique +

0

Leadership +

0

Knight

30

+1 Job

0

Char: Swords

12.38

Basic Skill Growth

Shields

0

Axe

0

Lancer

0

Baronet

17

Management

0

Wind Magician

32

Stff Wnd

0

Bolt

0

Bolt Speed +

0

Bolt Power +

0

S. Daggerman

30

In. #.$.@.^.^.@.*.% 0

Inherit: Dagger

0

Attack ++

Dexterity 6+

0

Strength ++

0

Well… someone’s been working hard! Wonder how long she’s been working on her sword skill. Is it a daily thing? Gotta be a daily thing, right? Interesting… That’s… wonder if it slows down, too, with higher levels… that might… ok… never mind. Focus.

“So, you’ve been working really hard!”

Gwenvair’s eyebrows quirked, “What do you mean?”

Joe chuckled, “Well, you have your sword skill over level twelve and well over perfection. Swords is your growth skill, so that makes sense.”

Gwenvair’s eyes widened and she breathed heavily. She stared at Joe and said nothing and Joe waited for a bit before she continued, “Even this… you can see what I have practiced?”

“To some extent. Did you practice shield and sword equally?”

Gwenvair nodded, “About.”

Joe frowned and nodded back, “Unfortunately, none of your other skills show any development. Your shield is still at zero, as is your lance and axe skill. Well… all your other skills are at zero. But, since your sword skill is over level one, you could move its ‘char:’ skill to another skill if you wish.”

Gwenvair stared at Joe with a bit of awed excitement, “Can I … can I change it? What will happen to my sword skill?”

“Well… if you equip your knight job and keep the ‘char:’ skill on it, it will grow, but it will not grow without your knight job anyway, so there is no point in keeping the ‘char:’ skill on it. You can grow your sword skill again if you equip it again. If you want your shield up, you will need to add the ‘char:’ skill to it and change back to your Knight job to get it to level up. The same for your other skills.”