But for a Slime

Brawler, the next job upgrade in the warrior line, also proved a bit disappointing. True, it functioned similar to the duelist in that each job seemed to inherit the warrior or fighter job, the initial two jobs of the line, so only got the skills of the first two jobs and no others. It also seemed like the warrior line was more of a brawling type of job line, which made much more sense in that light, especially with the name of this latest job as brawler. It also seemed that each job seemed to focus on a specific weapon, mastering it, unlike the duelist line which seemed to learn all of the weapons. Joe wasn’t quite certain yet, but it also seemed like the weapons available to the warrior line were much more brutal and damaging weapons with little focus on defense, for the most part, while the duelist line focused on the ‘elegant’ weapons of nobility. Kinda makes sense… If you look at the names… but still. That said, brawler seemed to be focused on pugilism, gaining pugilist at ten and a skill called ‘heavy punch’ and ‘take hits’ at levels twenty and thirty. Joe almost grimaced in disgust, but given the name, it made complete sense. The level forty skill only clenched his image of the job, being ‘no fear.’ Joe moved on, hopeful of a new sub job with gifted and scrolled down to look at his new skills for gifted.

When he got there, however, he sighed, very disappointed. There were no new sub jobs open, although there was one new skill called char: subjob percentage loss +1. Another char. Another! Hah! Joe allowed his elation for a time before calming himself and turning back to the actual skill. Percentage loss… What’s that even mean? Seems… am I losing something or…

Joe’s thoughts struggled to understand what he was reading and he kind of stared at it for a bit. It took him a bit to really chew on it, coming up with a few ideas until he hit on something that seemed a likely candidate. He quickly emptied all his jobs except his main job, knowing that would not be a problem since this skill was related specifically to subjobs.

Struggling for a bit, Joe was able to finally figure out what his base stats were, although he had to subtract the Loki priest job stats he had in the main job. Can’t take out all my jobs… otherwise not going to be able to chang… no! Ha! Still have change job skill with the ‘char:’ skill attached to it… gotta remember to move it back. With a bit of trepidation, Joe dropped his priest job as well, replacing it with a level zero job he hadn’t had the chance to level yet.

Joe flipped over to his main status page and grinned happily, seeing the hard reality of his hard work over the past seven or eight months. All of his stats had long passed a thousand points each, even without any other leveled jobs increasing them but even the jobs leveled today barely added anything to his massive stats, only another ten or fifteen points to each stat. His lowest stat was his MP, except for luck, and showed at just over a thousand points. Even his physical resistances, which had bothered him with how low they were before, were all over two or three hundred points; well above what he had had back on Earth. He stared at it a bit, struggling to understand what he was seeing before simply chuckling and smiling at his good fortune. The fear over not being able to function at his previous Earth levels had long left him before, but the feeling of content and comfort still washed over him, the relief now a minor part of his emotions.

Despite that, he was not feeling completely at rest. Concerns over skills were now rising up and he began to grow concerned about how skills or his lack of them, according to the system, would affect him. I’ve exceeded my plan… and I can naturalize now! Should I? Is it a goo… He’d just begun wondering whether or not he should accept the current stats, naturalizing and losing his Earth stats, but as soon as he thought this, a small blue box popped up before him.

Parity met. One hundred fifty eight days till year complete and forced parity. Accept cradle parity now?

Joe stared at it, now suddenly paralyzed. That… this is it… this… I’m… I can’t go back after this, right? It’s… Joe sighed deeply and wrestled with the thought before finally dismissing it and turning back to his original purpose. Right… go away. Subjob percentage loss… so… easiest… my current stats are… Joe quickly memorized a couple of his base stats quickly, before quickly adding the commoner job as his first subjob. Easy to remember… one point each stat… right? Joe quickly opened up his current job display then groaned when he saw that it only displayed a new level zero job which currently occupied his main job slot. A couple minutes later, he swapped his commoner to the main job again, doubling checking the stats listed and saw that every stat did just give a single point except for his SP, which gave five. Right… time to check it out!

He flipped his commoner job back to the first sub job only for the system to flip out. He grumbled, swapping his main job out for a basic level zero job once again then putting commoner as the first subjob. Opening up his main status page, he took a look at his the stats he was getting. So… HP… plus thirty now, so shou… wait.. that’s not plus thirty! Joe’s thought’s derailed and he took a look at the numbers and found he’d only gotten about twenty six points, not thirty. He took a look at SP as well, hoping for a helpful correlation and found that instead of the hundred and fifty he should have received, he only got a hundred thirty two points. Joe frowned, taking a look at the rest before sighing. Only getting… twenty six of thirty points for all stats… but only a hundred thirty two of one fifty for SP… so… not a flat four points. Joe paused for a bit, mind searching for a bit before he took a look at his SP. Joe set up a correlation, wondering if there was a percentage, which would make sense given the difference between SP and the other stats. After fiddling with the numbers a bit, he found the SP was eighty eight percent of its expected value. The other stats normally worth thirty also proved just around eighty eight percent… just under as eighty eight had his expected stats at twenty six point four. Joe frowned. Well… easy way to check. Joe swapped out another couple of sub jobs and found they all were only giving just under ninety percent of the stats they were supposed to give.

Joe then had a rather unhappy thought and put commoner into the second and third job slots and found that his stat gains dropped with each sub job slot. With that, Joe stood and dried himself, heading back to his room and his pencil and notepad. It took a bit of number crunching, but when he was finished, Joe sat back with a tired sigh. The subjobs were definitely a … strong boon, but they were not giving as much of a bonus as he’d thought. Definitely a boost, but they were hamstrung by what appeared to be a flat percentage. The first subjob, as he’d found out before, was only eighty eight percent effective. The second was eighty three percent effective, and the last subjob was seventy five percent effective. Their stats only added that percentage of the bonus ten percent to his overall stats. So… then… what was it before this boost… How much was I hamstrung before?

That said, Joe wasn’t too concerned as the primary boost he was getting was almost all from just the flat ten percent of every job he leveled, and he’d leveled so many that his stats were actually quite insane. But, essentially, he was getting ten percent of every job plus the full stats of his main job. The sub jobs were giving him only a portion of their full stats: eighty eight, eighty three, and seventy five percent, respectively. Still… a really nice boost! Then, if its…

Before he could continue, a knock came at the door, “Joe? Can we eat?”

Joe heard Kilniara and turned, “It’s time to eat?”

“Yes, Joe.”

Huh… that… was… “Right! I’m coming!”

Joe quickly closed his notebook and set his pencil down before standing and heading to the door, opening it to find Kilniara standing before him. Joe smiled.

“Let’s go eat.”

Kilniara smiled back. She grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hallway to the dining room where Gwenvair awaited. When he came around the corner, he stuttered in surprise to see the Matriarch there but then grinned, happy for her to join.

“Matriarch! You came. It is good to see you.”

The Matriarch bowed slightly, “I wish to offer thanks for what you have done for my daughter.”

“What did I do?”

The Matriarch opened her mouth to speak but froze. Her pause was short and she raised her hand holding a small artifact that Joe immediately recognized, “It… would be wise to sit and enjoy the meal while we did so.”

Joe nodded his head in understanding and agreement, “Ah, yes. I understand, Matriarch. Let’s enjoy our meal.”

“Thank you, eccentric.”

All four then turned to the table, although Joe found the seating a bit odd. Kilniara led him to a chair and Gwenvair came to sit beside him on his other side. Joe stared at the two girls sitting on the same side as him, then looked across the table at the Matriarch sitting alone. The Matriarch stared back, an amused smile on her face and she waved away the odd seating arrangements. Joe sighed and looked at the two girls but Kilinara only smiled joyfully and Gwenvair seemed a bit nervous. Joe hid his sigh and sat down happily.

They began their meal and the conversation, while simplistic, was quite enjoyable. After small talk that lasted about ten or twenty minutes, Joe noticed the Matriarch’s face firm and he knew the Matriarch had chosen to begin talking seriously. The Matriarch continued the small talk, so Joe made sure to join her. Gwenvair did quite well as well, although Kilniara seemed a bit confused. She watched on as the Matriarch laid the privacy artifact on the table, keeping up the inane talk until he saw and felt the bubble of power leap outward from the small artifact. Joe found himself staring with some fascination as, for the first time, he saw the mana field actually forming with the stream of mana linking the Matriarch and the artifact. It was actually quite easily seen, forming a lazy twisting trail of mana back to the Matriarch. He stared at the bubble of power that wavered around them, only covering him, Gwenvair, and the Matriarch. He stared a bit longer then had to quickly pull himself back to focus on the conversation, catching up in the middle of it.

“… anted to thank you, eccentric. What you have offered my daughter is a prize without price. I… cannot thank you enough.”

Joe smiled a bit before finally replying, “I’m not sure what prize I offered your daughter.”

The Matriarch smiled with a piteous look, “That you think such as no great thing leaves me in awe of you and your clan. And in pity of mine.”

Joe found himself uncertain how to respond and simply stared at her for a bit until he struggled for a response, “So, what did I offer?”

“You gave my daughter a growth skill as a mage.”

“Ah. Yeah, that. Your people seem to know about them?”

“Yes, but… only that which is already a growth. We do not know how to … create other skills as growth skills. Or how to accomplish it.”

“Ah… yeah. Did Gwenvair explain to you?

“Yes. It was amazing to hear. The gift is wonderful.”

The Matriarch fell silent at that, growing a bit uncomfortable, even embarrassed. Huh… wonder why… you know what. Just gonna ask.