Joe started trying to figure out his char skill and how to assign it to another skill while Garnedell started digging through the bodies of the bugbears. One thing that Joe did notice was that Garnedell was strikingly clean, very careful in his work as Joe hadn’t found any blood on him yet. Huh… another thing to ask when I finally get my language working again. Joe huffed a bit with annoyance. Seriously, how is this system so screwed up? Help. Tell me how to apply a ‘char’ skill to another skill? Joe waited for several moments but nothing happened, and Joe became a bit frustrated. A good couple minutes went by and nothing happened. Joe finally gave up and just as he was going to ask again, a blue pop up appeared in front of him.

Error: Incomprehensible question. Help unable to understand question: “Seriously, how is this system so screwed up, Help, tell me how to apply ‘char’ skill to another skill.”

Ha! OK. My own fault there. OK. Time to try again. Hel… Wait! Joe calmed himself for a few moments and thought nothing, not wishing to confuse the help system again with another stream of consciousness before he asked the question. Taking a deep breath and calming himself, Joe tried once again. Help, how do I apply a ‘char’ skill to another skill? Joe froze his thoughts for a few moments to allow the question to stand alone before relaxing, hoping his question was clear enough. Maybe there is a reason to try to do this verbally; less likely to screw things up! Seconds later, another pop up appear.

Simple say: “Apply Job name Skill Name char skill to Job Name Skill name. The first job name and skill name are where the current ‘char’ skill you wish to move currently is. The second job name and skill name is the skill you wish to apply or move the ‘char’ skill to.

Easy enough, right? Wait… do I need to say it or can I just think it? Hmm… Time to test a theory. Joe took a deep breath again and cleared his mind as he had done when asking help just a few moments before. He prepared for what he needed to say and then realized that he didn’t know what the polyglot skill was. He knew the hunter’s skill: bow. He quickly flipped open his status and looked at his available skills and ran his eye down the list till he found polyglot. Right. Language Expertise. Easy enough! Joe then turned to quiet, stilling his mind, then began. Apply hunter’s bow char skill to polyglot’s language expertise, please. Joe waited for a few moments but noticed nothing, not feeling any real difference. He flipped open his status again and looked at his log book, and saw that there was an entry stating that the char skill was now applied to language expertise. Joe’s grin split his face and he smiled. Nice! This is … nice.

“Hey Garnedell! I can talk again!”

Garnedell turned back to Joe with some surprise then grinned, “Really? That fast?”

“Yup! Let me see.. um… My bow skill is currently at 1.11. I can use it any time I want now. HA!”

“You have a growth skill now!”

“Yup. Bow. I’m thinking that I might want to work on getting my cudgel up, too? It might be a good idea to apply them to the jobs as I’m leveling up the job. Then I can level the job and the skill simultaneously! Well… not sure how useful…,” Joe glanced over some of his skills currently available and picked a couple random ones, “bread and grains are going to be while I’m fighting. Or even if I can level them while I’m fighting? I only leveled bow by actually using it! Hmm… Maybe I’ll need to make bread then? But… it would be useful for the combat jobs, right?” Joe mused to himself and Garnedell remained silent while he watched Joe talk to himself.

After a bit, Joe saw that Garnedell was done with digging through the guts of the bugbear and it reminded him of their current situation. Garnedell held a couple of cores in his hand and seven arrows. Joe accepted the arrows and glanced over them quickly but found that Garnedell had cleaned them quite well. He slipped the arrows back into his quiver then took the cores. Garnedell handed Joe four cores and he looked at them carefully.

“They’re only single cores though. Huh… why did I get double experience? Anyway, four cores again. They drop everywhere! We’re getting too many of these.”

“Actually, master. They are incredibly rare!”

“Really? We got one for every slime we killed! And we got one for every spark! They don’t seem that rare to me!”

“They are incredibly rare. You are… just strange, master.”

“Me… strange? How? And… please, use my name!”

“Ah… yes… sorry m.. Joe. As for you being strange. I have never heard of anyone gaining so many cores so easily.”

“Really?” Joe jerked his head back towards the second floor entrance, “By the way, lets head back up to the first floor.”

“Yes, ma.. Joe. And also, truly. You are the only man I know with so many cores. Even clan leaders and elders have few. Even entire clans… to have this many seems… extreme to me. But I know little of clans so…”

“Huh…,” Joe considered Garnedell’s statements then continued, “Hey, what about these four cores? Which four did you get these cores from?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“The first four. The last two did not have any cores.”

“Hmm…” Joe let his mind consider but shrugged. He didn’t really care about cores at the moment. They had so many, and he could care less. “Well. Let’s head back up to the second floor. Things down here are a bit too… risky. Sparks are easy. By the way, why didn’t you get the meat or skin? Wait… where are the bugbear corpses?” Joe glanced around the room, seeing it empty.

“The dungeon absorbs the bodies.”

“Huh. Is that why you are only taking the cores?”

“Only the cores remain behind. The dungeon monsters are not true or real monsters until or if they leave the dungeon. Very few leave dungeons, except for calamities, but they are very rare. Dungeon monsters are just magic created by the dungeon to protect itself.”

“Huh. Protect itself. Why?”

“Ah… master. I do not know. The temples may know, but…”

“Fair enough. Hmm... So what happens if you kill a monster and take it’s corpse outside?”

“It disappears.”

“Huh… so that’s why the adventurers guild.”

“Yes. Only monsters in the field will remain and give their corpse after their death. They are also much more dangerous.”

“Really? Why?”

“Field monsters are like normal animals, and they live much longer, flee if overwhelmed, and can grow, find mates, and have pups. Dungeon monsters are only… imitations. They have no feeling except overwhelming desire to kill. It can make them… easy and predictable.”

“Huh… interesting. So dungeons are the way to go for growth?”

“Maybe. But dungeons rarely give you a second chance. It’s easy to run and escape from field monsters. Dungeons are incredibly dangerous because it is very difficult to escape. It is easy to become trapped. And trying to run all the way to the surface, especially with monsters chasing you and monsters before you,” Garnedell didn’t finish the sentence but simply shrugged with a smirking glance.

“Right. Monsters behind you. Monsters in front of you. Got it.”

Garnedell grinned and nodded, “Yes.”

“Oh! That’s why you’re so clean!”

“Huh?”

“You have no blood on you from the bugbears!”

“Yes… everything of the corpse is reabsorbed into the dungeon.”

“Then why don’t you just wait for the body to be absorbed and pick up the left over core?”

Garnedell grinned, “Are you so certain that the core is not absorbed with the body if it is not extracted?”

Joe shrugged, “Let’s find out?”

Garnedell grimaced, “You waste cores too easily.”

Joe laughed, “Maybe, but… oh! Wait! What about adventurers dying or sleeping in here?”

“It, happens? Why do you ask?”

“You said that the monsters’ bodies are absorbed, what about adventurers, if they die or sleep?”

“As long as you have a life force, the dungeon cannot touch you. But once your life has ended…,” Garnedell once again shrugged and opened his hands in a ‘what-can-you-do’ gesture.

“That’s… not really cool!”

“No. This is why few are willing to be adventurers.”

“The lines for this dungeon aren’t short!”

“No. But adventurers are only a small part of most clans.”

“Interesting,” Joe and Garnedell made it back out to the main ‘T’ where the second floor entrance was and Garnedell pointed up the stairs. Joe nodded and offered Garnedell to go first and the two climbed the spiral staircase of strange stone work. I like the stonework motif better than the brick on the second floor… too much red!

When they made the first floor, Garnedell led and Joe reopened their conversation, “So! I’ve told you what I’m seeking to do. Are dungeons the best way to grow quickly? Remember, I only need to really grow my jobs for the first twenty levels or so!”

“My father and others have always believed that dungeons are the fastest and best way. But we also believed that focusing on a single job was also the best way!”

“Hah! Don’t worry about it too much. In this, you guys are probably right. Well… I wonder how many of you have really researched it. And even if you did, how did you keep track of it… Wait! Those memory crystals, they record everything, yes?”

“Yes.”

“So they could record how to develop as well,” Joe mused to himself a bit, but Garnedell answered his question anyway.

“Yes. There are many stories of lucky people finding a memory stone that teaches them how to develop a path that was lost or unknown, or to grow in an extreme way.”

“Huh. So then memory crystals would be a good way to pass on knowledge. Then where are the schools? Or where are the libraries of memory crystals one can simply learn from?”

“Memory crystals are incredibly expensive. And they only last for a single use.”

Joe grimaced, “Right… forgot that. They pass information on only once!”

“The memory crystal collapses after use one time.”

“That’s… worthless!”

“No! They are truly of great value.”

“But meaningless for passing on of knowledge. Knowledge would grow stagnate and locked within clans or a small group of people; maybe even in a single family line passed from father to eldest son or mother to eldest daughter!”

“Yes. This is the way of life!”

“This is worthless! Knowledge locked to a few is useless!”

Garnedell blinked in surprise at Joe’s vehement answer but said nothing, simply looking at Joe while they walked through the first floor maze back towards the entrance. The path was empty of sparks as many adventurers regularly passed through the first floor heading to the second. Joe fumed silently for a few moments before continuing.

“What about copying memory crystals. Can you copy it once one is formed?”

“If you have one of equal or greater capability. Even then, the original is often lost in any case.”

"But, sometimes it works."

"Yes."

“Then why not create a library. Fill it with memory crystals and allow others to bring in memory crystals of their own. They can then copy the memory crystal to their own, then use their own to learn it? If the original breaks, then they have the new copy.”

Garnedell’s eyes grew at this idea, nodding his head, “This would work, master. But who would offer such knowledge to others. Only a fool would do so!”

Joe’s reply was muffled and angry, “Only fools hoard knowledge! Hoarding knowledge is why I’m pissing in chamber pots and carrying water upstairs in buckets for my baths. It’s why I don’t have a shower!”

Garnedell said nothing and the conversation petered out as Joe stomped along in a cloud of frustration. They made it back to the entrance and disappeared into the side mazes and spent the rest of the day clearing out first floor sparks. Joe’s frustration cleared a bit and the mood lightened as they soon returned to a joking camaraderie as they cleared out the sparks on the first floor. The day ended quickly and Joe shambled back to the inn feeling a bit more exhausted than usual, today, a tiredness in his bones.

Supper was pleasant, but forgettable as Joe began shutting down. He fled to his room shortly after, washing, cleaning, journaling then collapsing into bed. Today had been a good day. He’d been able to get hunter from ten to fifteen and resolved one of his biggest handicaps: communication. I’ll be able to speak easily enough, from now on. Now what job should I get tomorrow? Although, I gotta think a bit about how to use my char skills from now on, too!