* * *

Joe woke the next morning with the sunrise and was quickly out of the inn and into the fields. Over the next nine days, he was out the door and into the fields before the sun was fully over the horizon. Every morning he ran through the fields, he saw the boy and waved at him on the way by, and every evening saw the boy waiting on his return. He took supper with the boy each night as well and the boy was always gone before he came back down with his bathing equipment.

Over those nine days, he was able to make it to level fifteen, taking a total of almost twelve days to make it to level fifteen. Almost three days for level eleven, a little over two for twelve, another two days to thirteen, just under two for fourteen, and just under two to make it to level fifteen. On that last day after he had made it to level fifteen, he was able to come back a bit earlier than normal and found himself back at the village fields with the sun still well up. He once again saw the young boy and invited him back to the inn for the meal again, the boy quite happy to see him.

The meal and Joe’s trip to his room happened the same as before and he found the table empty when he came back down to wash himself. Today, however, he came out and found the sun still quite high in the sky and was able to see the back of the young boy in front of him heading towards the stream. Joe said nothing as he saw the boy stop by the small bridge arching over the stream and scramble down the back beside the river. Joe was a bit confused but said nothing as he turned up stream a bit closer towards the lake. He took his bath at the same location, cleaning himself thoroughly before once again drying off and changing into clean clothing. Today found him cleaning in the brighter late afternoon and he looked up to find a small crowd watching him. He waved jauntily and smiled before packing his materials in his arms to head back.

As he came back down the stream side towards the main road, he noticed an odd nest-like construction under the bridge and stopped. I didn’t see the boy come back up… is he…? Joe stopped and slid back down the stream side to look under the bridge and saw that the nest now looked like nothing more than a pile of trash. He looked in it but found nothing much and looking around didn’t reveal the boy anywhere so thought nothing of it before turning and heading back home. The kids gotta have a home, right? They wouldn’t just leave him hiding out under a bridge? Right? That evening, he had more time before the sunset and decided take a look at his status before he headed to bed.

He lay in his bed as he flipped open his status but found what he expected to find. Each of the values of the initial stats had been multiplied by his level. At level one, all his stats were one point each, except for luck. Fifteen times one, simple math to reach his current stats of fifteen. Still a long, long way to go until he was at a comfortable one hundred, which would still put him at a significant disadvantage compared to everything he had back home on Earth. Granted, he would break even on the magical stuff, although he still wasn’t sure what that meant. He hadn’t seen anything magical yet, except for maybe the shadow creature. But he wasn’t sure how he had appeared since he hadn’t seen it arrive, nor did he know how he flew since he couldn’t see it.

The main status page and the current job page both were as expected, showing fifteen points for the basic stats and one point five for the three resistances he had gotten for the commoner job. Why does a commoner get resistance for wind, water, and ice. It’s not like they… oh… right. They are usually out working in the fields or in the elements: wind, rain, and snow. HA! Clever! Ah, well… looks like my Earth stats didn’t change either. Exercising doesn’t help? Hmm…

Joe had been working hard for the past three weeks, and while it wasn’t near the overwhelming effort that he had been subjected to in his youth; his parents had been quite extensive in his physical education, it certainly had trained several muscle groups he’d never put much effort into before. Fighting slimes is a really unique experience, heh. He felt the soreness in them, but saw no growth in his stats to reflect this.

On a whim, he flipped to the available jobs page and found it empty as usual, but when he punched up current skills, he was very surprised to see a listing. He flipped back and forth between current and available skills quickly, and saw it on both pages, so he wasn’t sure what that exactly meant but then settled on a single page and ‘clicked’ on the skill.

Char: Cudgel – Commoner Skill

User can wield a cudgel.

Joe blinked at the skill description, a bit of shock overwhelming him. Seriously? That is ALL it can do? Literally? I’m allowed to hold a cudgel now! Wow, awesome! Man…. This job sucks. I gotta get out of this job. Joe sighed and glanced towards his tiny window. The sun was still up and he decided that he would test it out, although he was a bit annoyed because he had already gotten ready for bed, lying comfortably in his underwear on top of his sleeping bag. But what does ‘char:’ mean? Would the help system be useful for that? Um.. I need help with what ‘char:’ means? Almost immediately, another pop up occurred and Joe perused what he saw.

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A skill that is designated as ‘char’ can be used regardless of what job is equipped. Also, when the skill is unlocked, it is permanently available to a person with or without that job equipped.

The skill becomes unlocked when the skill becomes perfected.

Char: becomes available once it’s related skill is perfected, thus becoming unlocked. This allows the person to use char: on any other skill. A perfected skill cannot grow without char: and its job equipped. Perfection only allows the associated char: skill to be made available for use on any other skill of the user's choice.

Well, that’s nice! I wonder how I perfect a skill? And almost immediately, another popup appeared, clearing the first.

Perfecting a Skill: To perfect a skill, one must use the skill until it has reached level one while using the job giving the skill. A skill cannot be perfected while being used with a different job. Skills only grow while ‘char:’ is attached.

Then… so… a skill grows with ‘char:,’ right help?

A skill grows if ‘Char:’ is attached and the job is equipped.

Joe frowned. But then… why ‘char:’ and perfection. I thought perfection meant … oooh! Perfection makes the char available… gives me versatility? Then I can use it on another skill… but… hmm… seems unnecessarily convoluted…

Joe thought about it a bit more, seeking clarification. Help. Perfect allows me to use the skill without the job, the same as ‘char:,’ yes?

Yes

But … right… can’t level it up though… so… only partially replaces ‘char:’ OK… so char is still… the only way to level up skills… right.

Well, that was very interesting! Something for later. Joe considered as he slipped his clothing and weapon harness back on and went out to the back of the inn, into its small yard. He looked around the yard, and finally found a small stick that could almost be counted a cudgel and hefted in his hand. He swung it around for a few times before he felt confused. Why is this a skill? I was able to do this before, wasn’t I?

He pulled out his spear and flipped it around in his hand with practiced ease as he had always done after his almost two decades of training but still grunted in annoyance at the seeming resistance that his hands seemed to have while using the spear. Suddenly, a horrific idea came to mind. He quickly sheathed his spear and picked up the cudgel, flipping it through his fingers and hands with practiced ease and felt no resistance of any kind. He picked a target, struck it, feeling the cudgel almost guided to the exact spot he aimed for; a sense of ease in his combat. He took out his spear and once again felt the resistance as the spear almost seemed to vibrate in his hands, desperately feeling like it was trying to leap from his hands. He aimed for a specific leaf and thrust, feeling the spear suddenly twist in his hands and slip away as his thrust just slightly missed the mark despite the quick tensing of his forearms as he quickly tried to grip his spear back on target.

He pulled out each of his weapons and noticed the same resistance. Only when he held the cudgel did he feel like he had complete control of the weapon. In fact, the weapon seemed to almost even guide him in its use. Joe snorted in disgust and tossed the cudgel on the ground as he returned to his room. No wonder I was having a tough time with my shots and attacks. But seriously!? I can only use the weapons that my class lets me?

Joe made it back to his room and angrily prepared once again for bed. He calmed himself and once again explored his status, then considered when he had received the skill. He wasn’t sure if he had gotten it at level fifteen, or level ten, although it could have been anything from level two or three. He hadn’t really explored the skills since then, but the system seemed to be pretty simplistic, and he didn’t really understand why. It’s the real world, isn’t it? Why would there be a need to make such limitations?

Joe decided to table the thought for now as useless philosophical exploration simply because he really needed to wisely use his time in the one year he had, and the data was proving that this was going to be much more difficult, if not downright impossible. The learning stat greatly increased his speed at the beginning, but what he was gaining was greatly outweighed by what he was losing. He was cutting his time in half for each doubling of his learning stat. But he had only doubled it three times until level ten, and was just shy of doubling it again now, when he reached level sixteen. But, in that time, he had increased the cost of leveling by five times each five levels. Five times at level five, five times at level ten, and five times at level fifteen. He had increased his cost to level by one hundred and twenty five times, but only lowered it by sixteen times.

Running the numbers showed him needing a total of forty days to make level twenty, if his learning stat stayed at fifteen. Granted, his learning, thus his experience gain, would increase by each level, but it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Even if he had twenty learning, or basically he had level twenty stats, it would still take him thirty two days to level the five levels from fifteen to twenty. His gains we too low, and his costs were too high. Once he hit level twenty, the next five levels would take five times longer; or almost half a year! He would have spent two thirds of his time to make it to level twenty five! He couldn’t understand how anyone could succeed in this system. There has to be some kind of secret!

Joe considered his options and finally decided the scientific method needed to be applied, and he needed a subject for his experimentation. His plan for tomorrow decided, Joe fell to a fitful sleep plagued with dreams where he found himself completing his year with only thirty points in his various stats and struggling to accomplish anything afterwards.