Chapter Thirty One

Wake up, clothes, breakfast, and language practice; the major order each morning almost without rest or use. Mornings are so boringly repetitive. Joe fussed a bit as they sat at breakfast. Joe was too excited really to focus on anything, only wanting to get on with it. It’ll be so nice to be able to speak again! Ha! I never realized how much I miss being able to have a conversation, at least a meaningful one! Breakfast found Garnedell in a much better mood than yesterday but Joe too distracted by the chance of an eloquent conversation. Joe cut breakfast short and they were on their way to the temple district with the sun only partially above the city walls. Their walk over, Joe asked for and learned the name of the next job in the native language. Joe was quite certain it was going to be linguist and so taught that word to Garnedell. The job change at the temple proved Joe right and he was now a linguist.

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

Magic Defense

1.00

Strength

1.00

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Dexterity

1.00

Agility

1.00

Linguist

1

Speed

1.00

Endurance

1.00

IQ

12.00

Wisdom

8.00

Learning

10.00

Luck

0.00

Joe ignored everything around him as he made his way to the dungeon, everything a blur as his only thought was to raise the job level and get his conversation capabilities back. The first kill in the dungeon showed him what he would gain, and linguist proved to be similar to the other scholastic jobs with a decent boost in the two intelligence stats and a boost in learning that shocked him. Ten points per level for learning! Nice! HA!

Within thirty minutes, Joe had hit level five and two hours later he hit ten. A boost of a hundred fifty learning just from this job alone made his learning speed insane: a hundred from the job and a boost of fifty on those hundred learning points from his skill boost to learning. Things went so quickly that he’d reached fifteen by late afternoon and there were still a few hours left to their day. When they decided to head on out, Joe was surprised to see that he was almost finished with fifteen and close to sixteen. Maybe another two kills or so! Joe’s shock overwhelmed him and he almost considered trying to finish it off but decided that another kill or two tomorrow would be fine and they were already at the entrance dealing with the guards. Huh! I should be done in another two days, right? Ha!

By the time they made it back to the inn, Joe had calmed down and was able to focus on the language study for the night. Garnedell was still in a pretty good mood and so the language learning went pretty well. Huh? Did linguist help with that? They retired to their room and Joe took his notes for the day, although nothing of interest really popped up. The only real interesting thing was his level ten skill but he ended up quite disappointed.

Read all Heart Family of Languages: Capable of reading all languages, both modern and ancient, within the same family of languages as any language you speak fluently.

Well, that’s really cool and absolutely useless at the same time! It’s great that I can read any germanic language fluently. Probably some of the Latin and Greek as well, maybe… But what use is that here? Joe sighed at the skill description, simultaneously excited and depressed. This is the most useless useful skill ever! Huh… I wonder if I know Mandarin and Korean enough to read all Chinese and Korean family languages as well?

Joe jotted down his notes regarding all the information and prepped for the evening. Falling asleep turned out to be a bit difficult only because Garnedell zonked out almost immediately and soon was snoring louder than Joe had ever heard him snore. The volume was quite incredible. Joe felt a bit of a headache coming on, tension sliding through his temples, and the combination reinforced each other, leaving Joe ill rested, sleep a slippery wisp impossible to grasp. Joe woke the next morning with the tension climbing, although now his tension was not from Garnedell’s incredible snores. His headache still grew and the lack of sleep only exacerbated the tension.

Breakfast was terse and this time Joe was the one on the silent side while Garnedell seemed chipper. Despite the depressed nature of the morning breakfast, Joe found himself learning the language much faster. The ease of catching the new words surprised him and he soon turned his mood around and drowned himself in the process. They spent their hour at breakfast and headed on into the dungeon, wiping out and clearing both of the largest dead end mazes and Joe found himself reaching level eighteen by the end of the day.

Despite Joe’s excellent progress, his tension headache only increased and soon he was feeling downright jittery. By the afternoon, Joe found himself nervously circling his sparks looking in every direction and Joe suddenly blinked with some shocked realization. I’m freaking out again! Something’s coming for us again! Is it in the dungeon… no! I felt it last night? So it can’t be from the dungeon? I would have felt it only in the dungeon, right? Or… Hm…

Joe quickly considered his options, and realized that there wasn’t much he could do. If he put off his leveling, he’d be in danger of running out of his year. He couldn’t really do anything about the actual problem because he had no idea where it was coming from. Maybe it’s those three guys again? It … it’s gotta be? Even if he knew who they were, their location wasn’t something he could find and he was stuck with something coming from a direction and time he didn’t know. By the end of the day, his paranoia had started getting to him again and he realized his only really option was to make some plans and setup some kind of surveillance.

They made it back to the surface and Joe, now realizing what was happening, actually felt the difference in his instinctual tension and worry of an incoming attack. It’s somehow… more distant, less… insistent? Maybe not as… deadly now? It’s more like an itch… like… I’m being watched! Joe realized with startled realization. I’m being watched right now! Before, they… whoever they are, were planning to attack maybe? Now they can’t… they’re only watching!

The realization didn’t settle the itchy feeling he had, but it seemed to settle him in a way that took away his paranoia and replaced it with a simple hyperawareness of someone watching. I’m going to have to learn how to understand these feelings. Figure out what they mean. Joe began to go through his emotions, trying to figure out what each meant. His return to surface settled him, so he was able to more carefully consider and think over what had been going on. He dove back into his mental state just an hour ago and began to parse it. Careful thought left him some clues and he thought he’d come up with a way to parse the meaning behind what he was feeling.

Joe put his thoughts on hold and was finally able to relax, settling into supper and language learning with some enjoyment. They made it to their room and Joe took his notes, writing down what he’d learned about his instinctual blessing in his notebook. That night, he was finally able to sleep, understanding the slow burn of the feeling in the back of his mind. It was something coming, but not something important for now. As he fell asleep, it was a strange awareness of something but not necessarily quite so important as to disrupt his sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, he realized that he had been, somehow, aware the whole night long. It was a feeling of knowing his surroundings and knowing what was there. He somehow knew, the whole night long, that he had been safe and there was no danger to him or Garnedell the whole night long. This even includes Garnedell? Wow?! This awareness shocked him, but also gave him a sense of peace. Huh… nice!

Joe and Garnedell headed down for breakfast and now he was much more relaxed, easily able join in with the language learning and he found that his learning capabilities had greatly increased. Man! Even if all else fails, I could learn it just by keeping this job equipped, I guess?

The low level itching burn in the back of his head was now just a friendly reminder letting him know he was being watched, but nothing dangerous was really aimed at them. The meal was mediocre, as always, and the itch didn’t change much until they had made it to the dungeon protective wall entrance. The itch suddenly grew, and Joe pegged this feeling as people actually watching them. Someone was there, physically able to see them. Is there a magical way to see? Maybe? Gotta figure out this magic stuff!

Joe glanced around furtively, trying to keep his attempts at surveillance hidden, but wasn’t able to really get anything at all. Never learned the spy stuff anyway. Not my forte. There was just too many people around and it was impossible for Joe to pick up who was watching. He’d never had any form of training in espionage and struggled to filter through all the imagery around him. When it came to their turn to head into the dungeon, the feeling shifted to the tense fear of being stalked. Someone… something?... is now trying to hurt us! Joe stopped from entering the dungeon, even considering cancelling the day’s dive. In that moment, the tense fear of attack suddenly disappeared and he could only feel the itch of someone planning for them. The feeling of being watched was gone. Huh! Good to know. This ‘instinctual’ is way too over the top. But I can guess and make plans on this. It’ll help some. Joe then made up his mind to head back into the dungeon, and the feeling of fear spiked again.

Joe took Garnedell over to the side of the dungeon entrance, just to the right, and waved in the people following after. He took the time to play with changing intentions, and realized that he was able to figure out some basic information. He no longer felt like he was being watched. Either they were outside the dungeon protective wall or they’d gone in ahead of them. Joe waited outside for another ten minutes, but nothing else occurred with no change to his feeling. It was simply the low itch of something about to happen. He stayed another ten minutes, wondering if the watcher had been outside and was running to grab the people and they would come in later, but there was still no change.

Thirty minutes of waiting left Joe pretty sure that the people targeting him were already in the dungeon, and when he started heading back towards the dungeon entrance, the feeling of being prey was more muted and discordant. Does that mean they’re confused? Not sure where we are or what’s happening? Joe led Garnedell down the dungeon steps and came into the main hallway of the dungeon. He immediately stopped because the itch of being watched and the sudden spike of being prey returned. They’re here, and they see us!