Preparing for their inevitable fight, Joe took out his spoon spear and a small bundle of the parachute rope he’d brought with him out of caution, although he had another couple dozen other items that seemed to be meaningless for what they were seeking today. Joe tied the parachute cord to the end of his spoon spear and tied the other end to his good spear. He now had a ridiculously oversized pair of nunchuks. He held both of them by the shaft while letting the ropes dangle freely until there was a spark ready to use it on. After less than a minute of walking, they came upon another one and Joe quickly dangled the spoon spear out in front of him and walked towards it. The spoon spear swung freely above the dungeon floor, and when Joe got close enough to begin attacking, he dipped the spear down so that the blade of the spoon spear began dragging on the ground even as he dragged the spoon spear shaft into the body of the lightning monster.

As soon as the lightning hit the shaft of the spoon spear, it almost seemed to be locked on to it, even as a quavering electrical cry came from it. Just like the previous monsters did when they touched the ground, this one began to spasm and flicker, although it took quite a bit longer for it to ultimately die. The end of this one did not come with a fading flicker as the other monsters did that fought the adventurers Joe had followed. This one came to its end with a compression, then explosion, of light before a muffled explosion rang out through the long hallways and chambers. A piece fell from the body, and Joe bent to pick it up. Huh… another gem, like the slime! Seems pretty easy to come by! Joe picked it up and examined it closely, noticing that it looked very similar to the slime gems, although this one seemed a bit whitish purple in color. There even seemed to be hints of flickering light almost like lightning inside it. Hmm… a lightning gem? What were the slime gems then?

Joe pocketed the lightning gem and flipped open his log and took a look at his gains but found that it was simply a single experience point. Makes sense. The gem was a single gem. Seems like a pattern! Joe also found the name of the creature, which turned out to be pretty obvious: spark. Sparks… not a bad name. It’s what they are, although maybe ball lightning would be better… too long though. Joe carefully checked the parachute cord and sighed with some relief when he found it completely undamaged. He’d made sure to keep the rope tied quite high up the spear shaft so that the monster only intersected with his spear quite a bit lower on the shaft and not near where the rope was tied. Huh… seems like I’m ready for taking these things on! The shaft of the spoon spear, however, had warmed slightly but only barely enough for Joe to notice. Still, Joe made sure to cool the spear by swinging it through the air while they walked.

Joe spent the rest of the day wandering the rooms and hallways, quickly and effortlessly killing the sparks. It turned out that they were encountering them even faster than the slimes back at the village, so Joe felt that his growth was a bit faster than the norm. He’d already figured out that he would likely be able to get a new job to level ten, now, in about a single day. A significant gain and one that excited him. The only thing holding me back is unlocking enough jobs!

Status

Blessings

Current Job

Available Jobs

Current Skills

Available Skills

Log

Joe McConnell

Status

Physical Resistances

Magical Resistances

HP

1.00

Physical:

MP

1.00

Piercing

0.00

Attack

1.00

Crushing

0.00

Defense

1.00

Slashing

0.00

Magic

1.00

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Magic Defense

1.00

Strength

1.00

Dexterity

1.00

Agility

1.00

Citizen

1

Speed

1.00

Endurance

1.00

IQ

1.00

Wisdom

1.00

Learning

1.00

Luck

0.00

He didn’t have high hopes for the new job of citizen, but he figured it would have been a bit better than the other things he’d got, but it turned out to be a pretty terrible job. Level one of this job literally only gave him one point per stat, the same as commoner and metropolitan, and he was seeing a pattern. It seemed like many of the ‘gateway’ jobs were ultimately worthless jobs, only there to be used as a categorization or even a method to slow down or block the growth of people, which didn’t really make a lot of sense! Unless the system was designed to be punitive! It’s … like they WANT to keep people weak.

Joe wandered the hallway, killing quickly, and by midmorning, had reached level five. When the growth rate slowed down, Joe decided to see if he could increase his leveling the same way he’d done with the slimes, and pulled out another electrical gem and tossed it into the sparks center, just like the slimes. Unlike the slimes, Joe was not able to see into the center of the spark to see how the merging process was going, but because of his significant amount of practice doing so against the slimes, Joe guesstimated the time and when he felt the spark had completed its metamorphosis, he shoved the spear into the spark's center and grounded it. As before, it screamed, flickered, and shuddered under the grounding effect. And Joe waited for the creature to die. And he waited and waited and waited! It took almost thirty minutes, maybe more, for the creature to finally die and Joe decided that it was certainly not worth it. In that amount of time, he was able to kill a good five, almost ten, single core sparks, which gave him significantly more experience than a single kill that gave him double the experience.

Joe picked up the dual gem that dropped from the spark and returned to hunting single gem sparks, no longer artificially creating greater sparks. Or, actually, they’re called great sparks… and they’re only worth two experience! Seriously! Worthless. The day continued until Joe hit level ten, and he then took his loot and left the dungeon to return home. When they exited the dungeon, they were stopped by the guards and questioned. Joe found himself lost as all the language turned out to be new words with only a few he understood sprinkled in, but when Garnedell took over the process by taking out five lightning cores and showing it to the guards, the guards became incredibly excited and began demanding a price of some kind. Oh! It seems like taxes. I wonder how much?

Garnedell continued his conversation with the guards before handing over four of the lightning gems. Huh… doesn’t seem so bad! Only about two or three percent tax. We got about a hundred fifty of them. Which reminds me! Why do people think these are so rare? Really? They seem… too easy to get! Garnedell then received a significant pile of money from the guards and he dumped it back into the coin pouch before they returned home.

Joe and Garnedell took their meal in the common room of the inn and when Joe tried to ask what was happening when they paid their dungeon tax, Garnedell quieted him and the two turned to language learning instead. After an intense meal of mediocre food and exhausting language learning, Joe and Garnedell retreated to their room and Joe once again tried to ask Garnedell about the dungeon tax problem.

“Garnedell. Pay money. Why?”

Garnedell pondered for a moment then continued, “Zhoe kill monster. Zhoe pay money city … mulkan… master!”

Joe nodded in easy understanding, “Ahh! I see. How much tax?”

Garnedell considered, wrestling with how to say it then looked to Joe with clarity, “Joe kill monster. Joe get monster gem. Joe get five gems. Joe pay one gem city master.”

“OK! That was … steep! Twenty percent is…,” Joe then stopped and then questioned Garnedell, “Garnedell! We got many, many, many gems! Not only twenty! Why only pay four?!”

“I pay only one! Five is many gem! Too many gem! Twenty is many, many too many! One hundred,” Garnedell shook his head emphatically while slitting his throat with his thumb!

“Zhoe crazy! Too many gem,” Garnedell continued.

Joe blinked a few times and realized Garnedell had actually saved them a bit! Too many and they would attract very unwanted attention! Joe nodded a few times and accepted Garnedell’s actions.

“OK, Garnedell! I understand. No more gems!”

Joe now understood the guard’s exaggerated and excited mood at seeing so many gems. If five is too many, I should probably not find any! Maybe I’ll have to just leave it behind or… well… can’t leave it behind! Other monsters eat them and grow… then… Destroy them? Can I destroy them? Hmm.

Joe considered his options for tomorrow as he prepared for bed, letting Garnedell know that their conversation was done and bed time was approaching. Joe didn’t find or know any bathhouse in the area, and he figured he would try to ask Garnedell in the morning, a bit frustrated that they had missed a good bath now for two straight days and had to settle for a sponge bath. Alright! Need to find a way to bath tomorrow, and change my job to another. And figure out the names of my other available jobs! Oh… and practice my new hair ties! With that reminder, he began practicing tying his hair while sitting on the bed until he found himself too tired to remain seated. Need… sleep…