* * *

Well, the kids seemed to have settled down now. Hopefully, tomorrow will see them better off, Joe thought to himself. He had been surprised to find Kukurnal, the priest of knowledge, waiting for them in the common area when he had come in. Kukurnal noticed them after the two others had had their reserved conversation with the inn keeper and were returning. He quickly came up to the group as the other two returned.

“You did not tell me that you would stay in the dungeon so late, I feared the calamity may have caused you harm.”

“Oh, we’re fine. No problem with the calamity, but… hey… you might be able to help us? These two… um…, they’re siblings but… I don’t know your race. What race are you?”

“Ah, we are Acokzau. You’ve never met Acokzau before?” Zilnek replied

“No. I come from a very provincial area. I’ve really only seen humans, for the most part. Not too many others around where I grew up.”

“You’re people do not know of the Acokzau, Joe? How about other races?” the priest of knowledge asked.

“Well, Kukurnal, my people have stories of other races, but almost all we know are human.”

“What a strange place.”

“Or small,” Joe countered.

“That seems unlikely given what your people have learned.”

Joe didn’t rise to the bait and changed the subject, “So, these kids have a bit of a problem. It seems a loan shark is on them looking to get the girl.”

“Loan shark?”

Joe was surprised by the non sequitur but then explained it and the Acokzau’s plight along with what had happened just that night. The priest asked excellent questions throughout the narrative and soon was understanding, although he did tsk a few times at Joe’s actions. In the end, the priest offered some advice for the future and then told Joe that Garnedell’s and the Acokzau’s advice had been correct.

“They were right. You could have done a few things differently, as I said, but the young ones were correct. Seek out a priest of Baldur and complete the debt before the priest. That will resolve the debt issue. But, I fear that it will not solve the problem,” the priest advised

“How do you mean?” asked Joe.

“If your idea is correct about this usurer’s scheme, then this will not stop him. He will simply seek another way.”

Joe looked to the two siblings with some gloom while trying to keep his despair in check, “You guys will have to be careful. The priest is right.”

The priest nodded at that point, adding, “You should look for protection, or join some association that might offer some protection.”

“We have no association who we could accept.”

Joe smiled, “You could stick around with me, if you want to… But I have my own agenda and plan. I don’t have time to spend it helping you on what you need to do if it’s something different.”

The sister looked at her brother before looking at him quickly, “What are you trying to do?”

“Right now, I need to get stronger as fast as possible. It’s only going to be for the next six or seven months… but I can’t afford to do anything else.”

“How would you… do this?”

“Mostly dungeon diving.”

“Would you allow us to join you?”

“Sure… why not. You could join our group. Garnedell and I have a group right now… we just have to figure out how to get you to join it, too.”

“You would allow…,” Zilnek trailed off with some surprise.

Garnedell quickly interjected, “He does. He’s helped me a lot. I have grown ten levels since I became his apprentice. I am certain you will grow quickly as well.”

Joe quickly interjected with some caution, “Well… it really depends on a lot of things. The big one is your current level or what you seek to gain. It could go fast, or very slow.”

Zilnek didn’t pay much attention to Joe’s caution and looked to Garnedell, “You truly gained ten levels!?”

“Well, I gained a level with cores, but we decided to stick to fighting monsters. Now I’m level sixteen.”

Zilnek gasped but didn’t reply because the priest interjected quickly, first, “Sixteen! Before your name day! You will truly grow to become a great adventurer!”

Kilniara and Zilnek also added affirming cries and Garnedell grinned with bashful pride. Joe watched this but said little, and the meal soon arrived. Conversation then drifted more to the priest’s favorite topics, and Joe found himself answering a variety of questions. Most proved mind boggling to Joe, as they assumed knowledge Joe knew nothing of while others were so strange he wasn’t quite certain how to respond. Joe did end up starting off an odd conversation on interspecies relationships when he asked about the usurer’s rather avid desire for Kilniara.

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“She is beautiful. Can you not see this?” the priest asked pointedly.

“Yeah, I can. But why would a human, or any other species for that matter, find something that is completely not them beautiful! Why do so many of the species look so human anyway?”

“It is the essence of magic.”

“What?”

“The essence of magic. Magic itself pulls on the souls of creatures and forms them into humans.”

“Seriously? That… doesn’t make any sense! Why would magic do that? Does magic have an intelligence? Does it have a goal in doing this?”

“No. Magic has no intelligence. Mana is simply power.”

“I guessed that. But then why would magic do that?”

“We don’t know. It just does.”

“All animals slowly become human?”

“No. Only those who have gained great mana.”

“That can’t… be true!”

“It is true!”

“No! It isn’t. If it was, then calamities would become human. They don’t!”

“No, they don’t, but… wait! You’ve seen calamities before?”

“I’ve… seen some, yes.”

Garnedell jumped in at this point, “My master can kill master monsters alone!”

“Garnedell! There’s no need to say that. Let’s…” Joe quickly interjected but it was too late. Kilniara and Zilnek looked to Joe with awestruck eyes but remained silent as the priest was still in conversation with Joe.

“Truly! You’ve killed master beasts alone?”

“It’s… not that big of a deal. Most died by my traps, easily killed by falling for my traps… but … that doesn’t matter. What you’re saying about magic forming beasts into humans… that seems … not quite right. If that were true, most calamities, or all of them, would become human quickly. Calamities have insane amounts of magic.”

“This is true, but calamities seem to be an exception to this rule.”

Joe shook his head, not buying the explanation, “If magic power formed humans or humanoids, magical creatures would be the most likely to be humanoid.”

The priest opened his mouth to counter but then hummed a bit, thoughtful.

“What?”

“There is one thing that is known. The greater the magical power or capability of a creature, the less humanoid it’s form. It is even possible for quite powerful creatures to maintain their original bestial form and instead gain the human form through some type of shape shifting.”

“Wait… so… that means the weakest and least magical of creatures gain the most human form, not the most. And the most magical creatures seem to resist the pull and somehow maintain their original animal forms or characteristics? See! It doesn’t make sense. Magic isn’t turning them… well, maybe. But magic doesn’t have anything to do with them turning. The most powerful are actually resisting the change.

“Wait! That means… I’m human… I’m … really weak!”

The priest chuckled at this, “You can defeat master monsters alone. You are no weakling. This does not mean that human form adventurers are weaker than others. Only that they tend to have less magic or magical defenses.”

“Huh… interesting. Oh… by the way, how about magic?”

“What about magic?”

“Where and how.”

“Where is simple. All mana flows from the Cradle. The Cradles are the source of life and mana. How… has been a discussion for millennia. Since you asked me, I guess I will not ask you.”

“Ah, yeah. I’ll not know much of anything about magic. Sorry.”

“This is fine. But that does bring up an intriguing question.”

“And that is?”

“For a human who knows little of magic and power, how are you so powerful?”

“Ah… well, that just because of the system. It’s pretty ridiculous, but… hey.”

“Would you be willing to share… this information?”

Joe smiled, his head bobbing left and right as he considered but soon felt his relaxed attitude shift when he noticed the look of fear in Garnedell’s eyes. He looked around surreptitiously, curious about what would cause him fear but soon realized that Garnedell was worried about the priest and this information. The memory of the old village priest’s warning to keep his multiple jobs and growth a secret flooded back to him and caution reared in his heart once again, “Possibly. As we have gained each other’s trust. It would likely take a while, though. But, personal power isn’t really worth too much, in any case.”

“Truly? You seek it with great fervor, yet claim it isn’t worth much?”

Joe smiled, wondering if he wanted to get into politics, economics of scale, distribution of knowledge, or other details but decided it might be a fun distraction. I almost got caught giving away something dangerous. Let’s see if I can take control of this conversation a bit more. “Well, think of it this way. One person can only do so much. One person can only build one thing at a time, think of one thing at a time, design one thing at a time, teach one thing, advise one person, and…well… the list is endless. Our people learned of this only a few hundred years ago when we decided that hoarding knowledge, or anything, was… unwise. We began, as a whole people, to study and reveal our studies to all who would seek them. We also began giving free universal education to all our people. We even required it.

“Now, consider this. Who amongst the people here, are scholars? Let’s make it easy: just the scholars in this city.”

“Scholars in this city? Great scholars?”

“Hmm… not great scholars, but scholars who have the means and time to study, develop, and learn or create new things.”

“In this city? Maybe there are ten… maybe twenty.”

“How many people live here?”

“About two hundred thousand.”

“Is this city… large? Or average?”

“It is a bit on the large side.”

“And the number of scholars?”

“Also average, I would say. Although the great city of Zilnashara is known for its great scholarly works and the home of hundreds of scholars.”

“Good to know. So, how many cities of this size on this plane?”

“Hundreds.”

“How many hundreds?”

“Are you trying to get free knowledge from me?”

“Have I rejected your questions?”

“You did one.”

“Out of how many?”

The priest of knowledge grumbled a bit before he finally responded, “Three hundred ninety three.”

“What?”

“Three hundred ninety three. That’s how many cities of this size.”

“You know the exact number?”

“Priest of knowledge!” Kukurnal replied sharply.

“OK… sorry…” Joe offered a quickly apology before continuing, “So, if what you say is right, this plane has, maybe, ten thousand scholars. If I go by the average of what you gave me, then this plane has between four thousand and eight thousand scholars or so. Now, if …”

“How … how did you know?”

“Well, you told me.”

“I told you?”

“Yeah… you gave me the average scholars for a city of this size and the number of cities on this plane. I just need to multiply from that.”

“Multiply? So you are a merchant class. That is certainly strange.”

Joe opened his mouth to correct the priest but clicked his teeth shut, not wanting to have to explain too much anyway. More math was coming and he didn’t want to get distracted from his point. “So, ah… right. Eight thousand scholars. The population of the plane should be a bit over eighty million, if my math is correct, so … even if we take the highest scholar count, we’re looking at a miserable percentage of the population actually adding to the development of huma… uh… sapients here. Ah…” Joe trailed off for a bit as he ran the numbers, certainty over his findings turning to genuine shock when he realized things were worse than he’d guessed. “Basically, you have a hundredth of a percent of the population putting effort towards developing your people. That’s… really bad!

“We actually have quite a few scholars on our plane. We are known as quite a scholarly plane.”

“Really? That only makes it even worse!”

“How can you say such a thing?”

“Because that means there are even fewer scholars across other planes. Fewer scholars offer less knowledge and breakthroughs. And considering the way the god of knowledge seems to hoard knowledge, and likely others as well; that means most of the scholars are lacking vital information to truly develop any significant breakthroughs.”

“Our people are doing well enough!”

“You… Amongst our people… I don’t even know, but if I were to guess, close to ten percent of our people are sch…”

“What is percent?”

“It’s… ah… hmm… how to explain… Oh! It’s a ratio!”

The priest looked back at Joe, unenlightened.