Joe stopped in some surprise then sighed. Debt? Or something else? Joe considered for a few moments before he beckoned the couple to follow him, “Tell them to follow us, Garnedell. Uh… Say them… follow. OK?”
Garnedell nodded and translated for Joe before turning to follow Joe. Joe headed back down the hallway towards the entrance and turned off towards the side maze that Joe and Garnedell had been on their way to when they’d run into the mess in the first place. Joe stopped at the corner and looked back to the couple to find them looking towards them with a bit of uncertainty. Joe waited for a bit before gesturing them towards them, frustration evident on his face. He beckoned them forward again before telling Garnedell to wait for them and direct them towards the first room later. Joe then moved on and cleared out the sparks on the path until the way to the first room was cleared.
It seemed the two had been quite uncertain over Joe’s actions and had followed very cautiously. Joe came back from the room to find them coming around the last corner and Joe had them stop and wait in the corner, unable to see into the room where he was going to ground the sparks.
“Garnedell. Stay here. They stay here. Wait.”
Garnedell nodded in understanding and turned to the couple, asking them to wait here as he sat down, back leaning against the wall. Joe waved to the three before heading back into the room and taking both his and Garnedell’s grounding spoon spear sets so he could ground two sparks at once. About twenty minutes later, he’d killed six sparks only using the grounding method so that each of the six dropped their gems. That should be more than enough to help them, right? Joe headed back to the resting group, although they had moved well past resting on into restless. Joe’s returned calmed Garnedell and the couple down. Joe gestured to the man, asking him to open his hand and he dropped the six spark gems into his hand.
“So. OK? Go home! Rest. Money!”
Garnedell blinked with some surprise, a bit of shock but quickly translated for Joe, even though Joe had now spoken in the native language, poorly. The man stared at him in absolute shock and the girl blinked, jaw gaping as well. The stared back and forth between the gems, each other, and Joe. Garnedell finished explaining and it took another round of exaggerated miming from Joe and intensive explanations and arguments from Garnedell for the two to accept the six spark gems. After the couple accepted, Garnedell then began speaking to them again but too quickly and with words Joe hadn’t learned yet. A small and subtle sigh of frustration slipped his lips as he realized he wasn’t catching the language as well as he’d hoped. Man! I still have so much to learn. Joe didn’t let his smile slip his lips, his façade of happiness maintained so as to not offend or cause fear to the young couple. A little more conversation and Joe was ready to get back to his killing but Garnedell interrupted him, taking him to the side.
“Zhoe go they. They leave. Zhoe go they.”
He wants me to go with them? “Why?”
“Bad men come they. Bad men kill they!”
Understanding came to Joe and he nodded, leading the two back to the entrance to the dungeon and even up to where the guards were standing, making sure they’d been seen. It seemed that Garnedell had been right to advise the escort for on the way back to the entrance, they’d heard some scuffling coming from one of the short dead ends of the maze and Joe saw a leg flash around the corner to hide. Joe’d stayed behind, sending the others on the way with Garnedell before jogging to catch up once they’d gotten a good dozen or so meters away from the intersection.
After dropping off the couple at the entrance, Joe and Garnedell went back to the last room to finish off the rest of the sparks, clearing the room and that side of the maze. Joe did take turns with the boy that day, choosing to have one on watch at all times with the other killing two at a time using double spoon spears dangled to ground two sparks at once. This let them keep their original speed but allowed at least one to keep an eye on any possible intruders. Joe did find them popping up around the corner of the hallway that led to the room Joe and Garnedell were clearing out, and his sudden bow and notched arrow had them backing away and leaving rather quickly.
Other than that single time, they continued wiping out this side of the maze just as they had done to the opposite side that morning. Other than the single unusual event of saving the couple from death, that is how they spent each day for the next four days, killing one dead end side of the maze in the morning before clearing out the other side in the afternoons and evening. Garnedell made fourteen at the end of the fourth day and was able to fill in a good chunk of the fourteenth on the next day, although he was still only half complete by the end of the fifth day. Noon on the fifth day had Joe make level twenty, and he felt an almost vibrating excitement at how quickly his growth speed was increasing. Joe’s gains in all the mental stats had been significant this time.
Joe called the day early so they could head to the temple before heading home and the two wandered out of the dungeon and slipped out through the dungeon guards. Their exit was simple and they left behind a single spark gem as their loot for the day, receiving change in return for their paid tax. They had the option to keep the spark gem, but the cost would have been exorbitant as the tax was raised to almost forty percent. Huh… seems the lords and ladies want to keep the good stuff for themselves! The sharp increase in the tax to force the adventures to accept a poor exchange raised Joe’s ire a bit, but he didn’t really feel like making this a hill to stand on nor did he want to raise any suspicions amongst the leadership of the city or nation. After their escape from the dungeon bureaucracy guarding its entrance, Joe headed back to the temple district and headed to the next temple for another Job change.
On the way, Joe took the moment to look at his skills from educated as he hadn’t really checked before and since he planned to change his job before heading home, he wouldn’t be able to check it as he normally did while jotting down his notes in the evening, or at least verify the level twenty skill and stats he’d gained was from his current job. He also took a quick look at Garnedell's status as well. For skills, what he found, though, was a garbled mess. It was a strange combination of nonsense letters. What’s going on here? Why? Hmm… Maybe there’s a prerequisite necessary? But then…
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
Available Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
20.00
Physical:
MP
20.00
Piercing
0.00
Attack
20.00
Crushing
0.00
Defense
20.00
Slashing
0.00
Magic
20.00
Magic Defense
20.00
Strength
20.00
Dexterity
20.00
Agility
20.00
Educated
20
Speed
20.00
Endurance
20.00
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
IQ
100.00
Wisdom
100.00
Learning
80.00
Luck
0.00
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Garnedell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
42
Physical:
Wind
14.00
MP
14
Piercing
14.00
Water
14.00
Attack
28
Crushing
14.00
Fire
14.00
Defense
28
Slashing
14.00
Ice
14.00
Magic
14
Magic Defense
14
Strength
42
Dexterity
28
Agility
28
Adventurer
14
Speed
28
Endurance
56
IQ
14
Wisdom
14
Learning
13
Luck
0
Joe flipped open his log book and read through his entries until he found the entry for his gaining level twenty. He looked at any entries after it, but didn’t really find anything useful. Why? Is it a bugged skill? This looks like a bug. Why would there … if it was because of prerequisites, then usually it would be just a series of question marks, right? Bugged skills should look broken and unusable. Is this broken and unusable or not available yet? Joe flipped back to his current skills page then blinked in shock as the garbled mess had changed to a series of question marks.
“Seriously! What is going on! This is just… Really… just bad customer service here, man! This can’t keep…,” Joe sighed and stopped his rant, allowing his frustration to flow away.
Returning to the original problem, he attempted to use the help system as much as possible but found nothing useful, and ultimately decided to drop it and go back to what he was seeing. The question marks were still there, and when he clicked on it, he got a popup box of more question marks. More fiddling revealed nothing else and there were no other buttons left to push, so Joe decided to leave it. There was nothing he could do about the mystery. Well, at least I learned that it just not available yet. Not a bug. The system did the same thing when it changed intelligence to IQ, so… this is likely the same thing. But it’s a bit freaky that it’s responding to my thoughts! Wait!
Help system, do others have access to this system?
A popup came up and Joe read the answer with growing anxiety: All sapients have access to the system.
Joe grimaced, realizing that his query hadn’t been specific enough and tried again. Can other sapients have access to my thoughts through my system?
The reply was quick, blunt, and relieving: No.
Do others have access to my system data?
The popup for this was a bit more disconcerting: Plane rulers have access to general data as you do. Those who have identification skills have access to your data as you do. Those who use specific tools to identify have access to your data as you do.
Huh… OK. So basically they can just see what I’m seeing. Relief flooded through his system and he felt a bit better about the whole situation and relaxed. They’d been making their way through the streets while Joe had been querying the system and Joe decided to let Garnedell know what they were doing.
He turned to Garnedell and said, “Joe change job. Job for talking!”
Garnedell nodded at Joe’s statement but showed a bit of shocked surprise, “OK. Job change gadnadel.”
“Gadnadel?”
Garnedell nodded in affirmation, repeating the word, “Gadnadel.”
“Huh… gadnadel, gadnadel, gadnadel…,” Joe repeated the word a dozen times or so to memorize it, although he wasn’t quite sure what it actually … Wait? Let’s check the available jobs?
Joe flipped open his status page and looked at the available jobs, and soon learned what it meant: scholar. Huh… it only opened a single job? Not that I mind! This learning boost is insane!
“Gadnadel. Scholar.”
Garnedell looked towards Joe with some confusion and Joe had to repeat, “Gadnadel is scholar! Scholar means gadnadel.”
Garnedell’s face cleared with recognition and he nodded, copying Joe as he repeated the new word to learn. Joe smiled and the two released a few chuckles. They came into the temple district and found the next temple to change his job. The change went as Joe expected and the day ended back at the inn with a meal, language instruction, and the necessary cleaning before heading to bed. Although, Joe’s job notebook had a bit more entries regarding the strange unknown skill. Still, Joe’s thoughts were still quite focused on the future. Wonder what scholar will give me tomorrow?