But for a Slime

Chapter Ninety Two

Joe woke and looked around in surprise, finding himself alone. He frowned, struggling to keep his disappointment silenced but actually feeling a bit relieved as well. The two emotions wrestled with one another and he realized he was really growing to love the sensation of being held and of holding a beautiful woman. He sighed, grinding his teeth. Right… this is what you wanted… don’t whine now.

He turned away, almost in an attempt to hide from the source of his loneliness, and turned to his mana and skill exercises. With that, he was able to distract himself enough to fall into the practice. Not much had changed from his various practice sessions, each of the exercises he did essentially unchanged. The practice had become so autonomous that his mind wandered on its own, and he began to consider his jobs, although he’d already made a decision on the general direction. He didn’t know why, but his memory of the theorist jobs came back to the forefront of his thoughts and he considered them before finally dismissing them. Not too important right now…

He threw himself into his practice until the two guys woke, and then they all prepared to head down to breakfast. He took the time to knock on Kilniara’s door, shouting out that they were going to eat but heard nothing back. He paused and knocked louder, calling out her name several times. After waiting and calling out a half dozen times, then warning that he was entering, Joe finally cracked open her door cautiously to find it empty. He frowned, then shrugged, heading downstairs.

The boys had gone on ahead at that point, so he easily joined them at their table and even found his meal already warm and sitting awaiting him. He smiled and settled in, saying little, even as the two boys also mainly ignored him and piled into their food. It was a silent time where all three were able to enjoy their meal without conversation. About half way through there meal, a guard entered and came to Joe’s side before bowing.

“Eccentric Joe?”

Joe hid his sigh and grimace, nodding in acknowledgment, “Yes?”

“Your wife, Kilniara, and Queen, First in Line for Matriarch, Gwenvair, wish to inform you that they will not be able to join you today. They wish to know if this is acceptable?”

“I… uh… are they OK?”

The guard seemed nonplussed, uncertain how to respond, “I… believe so? They offered no distressing news.”

“Oh… then, sure. It’s fine.”

The guard quickly bowed and turned, stepping away and out of the inn. Joe turned back to see the two boys looking up at Joe, a look of shock on both faces and pride on Zilnek’s. Joe glanced back and forth between the two of them.

After a moment, Zilnek replied with a grin, “So Gwenvair is a Queen?”

Joe frowned at that, “She would be soon, so that makes sense, I guess.” Is the Matriarch stepping down soon? Hmm… Wondering what’s going on.

Zilnek’s smile bloomed and he turned back to his meal, but nodded as he grinned, “Good. That’s good!”

Garnedell smiled, glancing at Zilnek before returning his gaze to Joe, “It is good.”

Joe nodded, “She seems like she would be a very good Queen.”

Garnedell looked back to his meal, “I think so as well.”

They all returned to their meal, although Joe found the two boys’ grins a bit disconcerting and just as Joe was going to ask about it, they both simply began eating and their grins dropped. After a bit, the two began talking smack with one another softly, although Joe couldn’t hear any of it. The two boys would joke quietly, snicker, and punch one another in camaraderie while Joe finished his meal. He then stood and had them all out in the courtyard to exercise before soon finding themselves out at the beginner’s dungeon once again.

They arrived at the dungeon entrance pretty early, but still had to wait in line for about ten minutes until they could enter, and during that time, Joe chose his next jobs quickly. Three proved simple enough, just choosing the next job in line, which included his priest job, as another higher level priest job had opened up in the Loki priesthood. The other two were once again just quick extensions of warrior and duelist, although he was a bit worried that he was getting to the end of the duelist line if the other combat jobs were any indication.

The last job had him pausing with consideration. He’d tried to get the gifted job up and see if it gave any new meaningful job skills, such as another sub job. But he found the skills that he had gotten, while very powerful, were not useful currently, especially if he wanted to keep opening up other jobs, which seemed to be the path to the greatest growth. He ended up now uncertain. The next skill would likely be available at level fifty, if everything remained consistent. While he was about ready to swap to another job, he took a moment to consider everything about the job and realized that the biggest gains for this job were still the learning. He was getting a hundred learning a level from the job, while all the combat jobs were giving him three or four learning total. There really was no comparison. Joe frowned and decided to crunch some numbers and quickly noticed that, even at level forty five, he would be able to get this job up one level per day. That gave him pause. Another five hundred learning for all my jobs… in just five days of work! That’s… Joe’s thoughts pondered before looking through his available jobs once again. As he looked through the list, the only really interesting jobs that he found were in the party line of jobs which seemed focused on utility, for the most part. While this was very interesting to Joe, it amounted to the same problem; skills that he couldn’t use unless he had that job equipped. He dithered until they made it to the dungeon and began climbing down the stairs and finally decided he would at least aim for level fifty in the gifted job. More learning, at least… and maybe another very powerful skill later! His job choices set, he flipped in his last one, making sure it was the main job to get the most from the job’s stats, and prepared for another day.

With just the guys, Joe found the time enjoyable as all three began to work as a team grinding through the goblins quickly and easily while enjoying the freedom to be a bit crass with their jokes and with one another. The morning went quickly and they actually relaxed a bit after their midmorning break and they all simply began joking around killing the goblins and Joe began becoming quite ridiculous in his fights and by the time lunch came around, all three were laughing uproariously.

When they took a break, Joe noticed that they’d actually wasted a bit of time in their humor, and he’d only made it to just over level forty in the various jobs, but the day had gone well and Joe decided to end the day until he noticed that Garnedell was at level nineteen citizen and just a few kills away from twenty. OK… that… we can swap him to specialist and then to educational jobs after that! Then he’ll really start doing well. Joe pulled them back out into action until Garnedell hit twenty and his happy joy was enough to let Joe know they’d made it. Joe quickly swapped Garnedell back to adventurer so he could feel relaxed and ended for the day, happy with the progress they’d made. He did have one unpleasant surprise when he saw his gifted job only grew by half a job and he grimaced with realization. Well… crap! It’s a level per day if I work the whole day… only do half a day… get half a level… He stifled a sigh then shrugged and let it go.

“Well… let’s go to lunch? I’m hungry!”

Garnedell leapt at the chance, “Yes!”

Zilnek smiled with more restraint but was still pretty eager, “I’m … really hungry, too!”

“Good, cause it’s time to eat!”

They all leapt up from their resting spot with energy and Joe dropped his bag onto his back and they all walked out of the dungeon before crossing the couple streets to the dungeoneer guild. They enjoyed the meal, a different form of companionship without the girls then were soon headed out the door. With the meal finished, they made it out to the street and Joe planned for the day to be over.

“So, let’s take the day off? Do what you want?”

Zilnek replied eagerly, “Afternoon off? Again?”

Joe smiled, “We always need to rest. We’ve been up over ten hours and working over eight, if I were to guess the time right. Amongst my people, that’s already a full day of work. Maybe for this plane, we should stretch it to about ten hours… something like that, I guess? But… I’m still not used to how long the hours are here.”

Zilnek grinned at that, “I’m not going to complain.”

Joe chuckled, “I’m glad.”

Zilnek smirked and turned to Garnedell, “Come on! Let’s go, Garnedell!”

Garnedell, however, proved recalcitrant and Joe noticed quickly enough. He waited to let Garnedell express himself, though. It took a couple seconds, but Zilnek’s prodding to leave pushed him.

“Hey, Garnedell! Let’s go!” Zilnek turned from his headlong flight into the city.

Garnedell jolted and turned to Zilnek, “I… I want to speak with master for a bit.”

Zilnek paused at that, thinking. He paused in his flight and returned to their side, “About what?”

Garnedell squirmed a bit before he began speaking, “I wish to learn more.”

Zilnek paused at that, a soft excitement coming through, “You are gaining extra training?”

Garnedell shrugged, “Yes. Master offers it some times.”

Joe sighed through a smirk, “Master?”

Garnedell huffed in laughter, “Joe. Joe offers training.”

Zilnek looked up at Joe, with pleading eyes, “And I?”

Joe quirked an eyebrow at seeing Zilnek growing so serious, “Do you want it?”

Zilnek’s immediate and eager reply surprised Joe, “Yes! Yes! Of course I wou… if you would be willing, Master… Joe.”

Zilnek went from eager joy to barely constrained effortful respect and Joe’s felt his smile rise. Nice to see more respect.

Joe stared at him with a soft uncommitted smile but then nodded, “Sure.”

Zilnek whooped in joy then quickly settled quietly and Joe turned to head into the city as both of the guys scrambled up to his side. They walked for a good block or so in silence before Zilnek began.

“May I … speak with you, master?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Your… weapon. Could… I … uh, I’m… I wish to learn about… your bow?”

Joe quirked an eyebrow and smiled down at Zilnek, “My bow?”

“Your bow. The weapon with a string that throw’s mini spears. You used it in the monster tide.”

“Yeah. It’s called a bow.”

“Bow. Bow. Interesting name.”

“You’ve… you don’t know what it is?”

Zilnek shook his head, “No. I have never seen such a weapon before.”

Joe raised an eyebrow, “It’s a weapon of the hunter job.”