But for a Slime

Chapter Ninety One

He lay on his bed, happy to have a day off as a Dungeon Guardian while he lazily tossed a core into the air before consuming it. Its power burrowed into his being and increased his strength, if only by an absolutely miniscule amount. Another seven or eight dozen lay on the bed beside him as he lazily grabbed another and tossed it into the air before catching it and immediately consuming it. The core melted into his skin, liquefying before simply fading into the depths of his being, going wherever it did. He’d explored it deeply, hoping to understand and cheat the system himself, but had never figured it out.

By now, he needed hundreds of thousands, even millions of cores to gain a single growth but each gain increased his vitality and only empowered him further. He’d done well by himself for a time, but now the amount of cores needed became daunting. So, he’d turned to one of the few elite organizations available to him which could supply him with the amount of cores he would need: the Dungeon Guardians and the Dragon’s Spear. He could only hope that he could develop quickly enough to gain entrance to the Dragon’s Spear and thus ever greater cores.

He sighed and grabbed another core, consuming it instantly before picking up a handful and consuming them all at once. It was faster, but still took longer than the time to consume a single one, the liquefied cores somehow needed more time to imbue him. Or whatever the things do… He sighed and allowed the consuming to continue but his hand was empty so he grabbed another core and played with it, rolling it through his hand a bit before spitting out some mana through it, absent mindedly. He continued emitting mana but then suddenly became aware of something odd. He glanced around his surroundings, first checking for some form of ambush or attack, incredibly cautious even as he pulled all his cores back into a small pouch he owned. He dropped the core he was playing with into his pouch as well then blinked in surprise. Huh… the odd … He paused. The core? He pulled all the cores out again and frowned with some annoyance as they all spilled out. Which one was it?

He sighed again, this time at the annoyance of multiplying his work. Gotta check them all now… was a yellowish one… right? Maybe more orange? Or… He frowned and began, picking up the first core. Nope… He picked up another and then frowned. Yup… that… ooh! Shock hit him when he realized what he’d felt. He tested it another few dozen times as his breathing increased. Perfect core! He stared at it and then frowned. Not… It’s a different one… isn’t it?

For the next bell or two, he tested and found dozens of perfect cores in his possession and felt his greed quickly shift to terror. Is this… are they testing me? But… have I consumed some without… Not… I can’t…

He gathered up all the perfect cores and quickly prepared to head back to his boss before pausing. Probably bring the other cores… just to be safe? Yeah. He quickly ran back and gathered up all the cores but made sure to keep them separate. He sprinted to the office of his boss with some alacrity and came in panting, having pushed past his stamina a bit. His boss seemed surprised when he came in, but listened easily enough. His polite attention quickly grew to intense grave concern then to instant action. By the end of the day, the Dungeon Guardians and the Dragon’s Spear had been called to action, both compounds bustling into activity like a kicked bee’s hive.

* * *

A soft ding echoed through the small room as a crystal chunked into the tray and the librarian sighed in frustration. Her supervisor had insisted that a chime be added to the whole affair when a previous job only a few weeks ago had been forgotten and left over night. She turned to the tray and begged it was only one. She cursed when fifty or so combat job core crystals in red tumbled to the tray. Another … maybe five sets of combat jobs… The sigh was deep and she began cataloging the new jobs into a perfect memory core at her side. With one hand on the memory core, ready to record the information, she placed one of the combat jobs into the irreplaceable name extractor and prepared to capture the data to be passed to the memory core. Even with its exquisite design, the name extractor still caused micro-stress fractures to the memory core so she also very carefully memorized each name. Soft and rather alien names echoed in her mind and she made sure to remember them carefully. Archer… Crossbowman… Squire Crossbowman…. Seasoned Crossbowman… Hardened Crossbowman... She kept the sigh from her lips for she was a professional, and dropped crystal after crystal into the reader, memorizing each one while she spoke each name to her partner aloud. They continued until all were completed before passing the name into a perfect memory core. All memories of the names were lost to her, but her partner reiterated the names, and she memorized them easily enough.

“So many.”

“And you said this job would be easy.”

The librarian snorted at her friend and they both busied themselves with passing the job cores on to the main library. Maybe… I should seek another job. This time, the sigh escaped her lips.

* * *

The Saga priesthood of Coushar gathered together under the leadership of the Coushar abbot. The abbot called the meeting to order and while it did come to order, the topic in discussion quickly taking over although order didn’t seem to return with any reasonableness as the shouting and conversation increased. They didn’t actually get much done at all, finally turning the ultimate decision over to higher authorities by sending a message to the pope of Saga once the Coushar gate was opened once more.

* * *

Joe woke again in the middle of the night and began his exercises as normal, working on mana and his skills. However, his irritation levels were high and kept rising. He didn’t let it stop him from practicing his various skills but soon found himself agitated, so agitated that he roused himself out of bed and was wandering his room. It didn’t last and he was soon outside circling the villa, still practicing his mana and skills. After a while, his agitation grew even worse and he was no longer able to focus on any of his practice, whether mana or skills.

His agitation grew and quickly flooded over into anger until he was almost stomping around the villa. He was moving just trying to exhaust himself. Finally, it proved too much for him and he sought escape, not wishing to focus on his anger. He knew its source. It was rather obvious. He was still angry at what had happened to Kilniara and for the rest of the girls.

He finally found an escape that worked a little, flipping open his status window. He flipped through the various windows in boredom then remembered the new tab, flipping open the curses tab. It was empty, Joe not really expecting to find anything, but still relieved to notice that it was empty. He flipped through the various tabs rather quickly, however, and quickly reached the end of his distraction. He turned to seeking other distractions when he suddenly had a moment of enlightenment. Ooh. Change job to Knight to become a noble.

Your attempt to change your job to Nobility Knight has ended in failure. You have not reached the necessary requirements.

· You must gain Merit

o Military

o Leadership

o Political

o Economic

o Societal

· Be appointed by Nobility

· Gain an Imperial or a Monarch’s Favor

Or

· Found your own nation.

Wow… that’s … OK… That’ll take a while. Joe sighed, but found his anger settling a bit more when exhaustion finally began to overwhelm him. He lasted a bit longer until he headed back to bed.

He woke early again and started practicing his skills and mana, much calmer than before. He practiced for quite some time until the sunlight began to glow on the horizon and decided it might be nice if he were there for Kilniara in the morning. He rose, dressed, and headed out in the dark morning down the hallway towards his room. He slipped in and pulled a chair up next to the bed before settling in it and practicing some more. He got another good half an hour of practice in again before Kilniara finally shifted, beginning to stir. Joe sighed softly and leaned forward. Kilniara’s movement seemed to connect with Gwenvair and she also shuffled, stretching as she yawned and stretched very widely. When they became aware of where they were, Kilniara glanced up and looked at Joe.

Joe and Kilniara smiled then Kilniara reached over to grab his hand while she looked up at him. Gwenvair smiled, however quickly froze as shock thundered through her and she became aware of where she was. Joe’s tension quickly grew when he saw Gwenvair suddenly squeeze her eyes shut even as her body grew stiff from worry. Joe frowned a bit with his own concern.

“I’m sorry. Did I not… should I leave? I did not mean to bother you. I just wanted to be there for Kilnaira.”

Joe waited, giving Gwenvair some time, but she still remained curled up, tense. Joe glanced at Kilniara, searching her face carefully but she simply smiled up at him, nodding. Joe found himself in a quandary, uncertain whether to be polite to Gwenvair or be concerned with Kilniara. Kilniara, however, simply smiled brightly before nodding her head toward Gwenvair once again. Joe barely withheld rolling his eyes.

“Gwenvair?”

She shivered, embarrassed and ducked her head down. Joe struggled to hide his shock, finding her shy embarrassment opposite of what he knew of her. She remained silent for a bit before finally responding.

“Good morning, Joe. I… do not be concerned with me. I’m … fine.”

Joe calmed but quickly responded, “I’m so sorry. I’ll leave. I did not mean…”

Kilniara reached a hand out to stop him and even Gwenvair quickly opened up her eyes, looking at him while grasping onto his hand, “No! No… I’m… no. It’s fine. I… please stay.”

Joe found himself at a loss for words now, no longer certain of how to continue so he finally turned to Kilniara and began questioning her while hinting towards Gwenvair. Kilniara seemed clueless, simply snuggling into him so he finally returned to Kilniara with a soft sigh.

“How are you?”

Kilniara smiled, her body thoroughly relaxed, “I’m… really good. It really helps me to be with you.”

Joe smiled, “I’m glad. Any nightmares?”

Kilniara quickly shook her head, “No. It was a nice sleep last night.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

“Everything was… good?”

Kilniara nodded, “Yes… it was. I’m feeling much better.”

Joe breathed deeply, “Uh… she helped you sleep?”

Kilniara nodded, “She did.”

Joe paused again, turning to look at Gwenvair. Gwenvair had pulled away when he had spoken of her being there and Joe ground his teeth, his fear over offending Kilniara conflicting directly with his efforts to help Gwenvair be comfortable in an obviously uncomfortable situation. He tried to extract his hand politely, but Gwenvair seemed to catch his hand tighter and Joe relented.

“Are you OK, Gwenvair?”

Her tension fled at that, and she looked up at him carefully, “Yes, Joe. Thank you for asking.”

Joe chuckled, “Its fine. I’m just… worried.”

Gwenvair nodded but remained silent so Joe turned back to Kilniara, concerned.

“Are you OK?”

“Yes.”

Joe quickly recognized that Kilniara hadn’t understood his intent and glanced down at his hand being held by Gwenvair meaningfully, “No. I mean… are you OK with… this?”