* * *
Joe made it back to the inn after stopping by the temple square, swapping his job out to a new one. Combat theorist, the job he’d raised today, made it only to level thirty, likely because of the time training the three in their staff combat. He’d been excited by it, considering that was mostly what he was best prepared for by his parents back home, but found them disappointingly similar to all the other theorist jobs, with skills identical but specific to combat jobs and the weird garbled skill at level twenty. While the skills were lacking, his stats proved to be quite a bit more exciting, with quite a bit of a boost to his physical skills, which made sense considering the physical nature of combat jobs.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
Available Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
90.00
Physical:
MP
60.00
Piercing
90.00
Attack
120.00
Crushing
90.00
Defense
120.00
Slashing
90.00
Magic
60.00
Magic Defense
60.00
Strength
120.00
Dexterity
120.00
Agility
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120.00
Combat Theorist
30
Speed
120.00
Endurance
120.00
IQ
240.00
Wisdom
300.00
Learning
3000.00
Luck
0.00
Joe grinned at the great boosts to all the physical stats and could only smile. Another twelve points for all my physical stats! Nice! Although… nothing on magical resistances… hmm..
The next job, and the last one in the list of theorist jobs he had, was the faith theorist, which also made him a bit excited as he was really looking for something on changing jobs, but given how every other theorist job seemed incredibly disappointing, he didn’t let himself become too excited as he walked into the inn. He’d asked the other three to set up the bath and hoped that a couple of the other three had already bathed, and he nodded to the innkeeper in passing and headed straight up the stairs towards his room.
Joe walked up to the room and knocked on the door, pausing for a second before opening the door but panicked, flinging a hand out to grasp door knob as he saw the bathtub start to appear in the doorway.
He fumbled for the doorknob even as he turned his back, giving up on the doorknob when he heard a quiet feminine yelp and just grabbed the edge of the door to pull it back closed, whipping his fingers out of the way just as it screeched shut, the door wailing sharply as it rubbed against the door frame.
“I’m sorry, Kilniara! I’m so sorry!”
He heard a soft call through the door, “It’s OK, Mast…Joe. I was only surprised.”
Joe breathed a sigh of relief and pressed his body against the door before sliding down to sit on the floor. A few moments later, he heard Kilniara cry out once again, this time angrily shouting at her brother, their voices muffled through the door, but the emotion obvious.
The conversation was short lived and soon it was quiet once again, and Joe felt his tension lessen, realizing that the boys must have gone back into her room. Things calmed down after, and Joe dropped his head against the door, a hollow thump echoing down the hallway and into the room. Joe heard a soft sound from inside, and cringed, realizing he’d might have surprised her again.
“Sorry!” Joe called out before following more softly with sigh, “again.”
Kilniara’s reply sounded much more relaxed as she called back with a bright giggle, “It’s OK, Joe.”
Joe felt relief flood him and a smile blossom on his face as he rested, feeling much more comfortable now.
“So, how’s your day been!” Joe asked with a bit of a sarcastic tone.
Kilniara replied with a giggle of her own, laughing brightly, “It’s been quite good, although I’ve had several perverted men trying to sneak in on me whilst uncovered. Can you believe it!?”
Joe allowed faux anger to surface in his tone, “Who would dare! Tell me! I’ll make short work of them!”
“Some perverted master and his apprentices. Can you believe it?”
“Sounds horrid! Give me a name.”
Kilniara finally broke down in giggles and then ended the charade, “I’m almost finished and then you will be able to come in.”
“It’s no problem. Baths feel wonderful. Take your time and enjoy it. I have a very comfortable seat here,” Joe replied with a smile.
Kilniara didn’t say anything, silent, and Joe then grunted in frustration under his breath, realizing that she might take his comment as some kind of hint to speed up, and not as the joke he meant it to be.
“It really is OK, Kilniara. Take your time.”
There was a silence for a moment then a quiet reply, “Thank you, Joe.”
Joe smiled and settled into wait, allowing silence to reign to give Kilniara comfort. Despite his offer for her to take her time, she seemed to finish speedily, only taking another ten minutes before pulling open the door with a shy smile.
“Hello, Joe. I hope I was not too long.”
“I think you were too short. You should have taken longer and enjoyed it,” Joe replied with a complacent smile, “You feel good and clean?”
Kilniara cocked her head to the side, “I feel good, yes?” She replied with a slight question.
Joe didn’t understand why she would be questioning but always knew how sacrosanct bathing and personal hygiene were to women so decided to not explore it, not wishing to cause her discomfort. He stood instead and entered the door, Kilniara holding it for him as he came in, the inside of the room hotter and steamed with the hot bath water. Joe smiled and moved to his bed.
“Who’s taking the bath next?”
“I think you are. The other two don’t really want to.”
Joe rolled his eyes, “Boys! Seriously. Cleanliness is so important. They’ll understand and come to enjoy it when they grow older.”
Kilniara did not respond, simply standing and looking at Joe. Joe found her silent attention a bit unsettling and cleared his throat before trying to start a conversation again.
“So, what happened after… uh… I… yeah… did the boys bother you?”
“No, only my brother came in, although he covered his eyes. I had to yell at him to leave. I told him it was only you, and he left. I think he was only worried that someone was attacking our room.”
Joe nodded and smiled, “Good. He’s a good brother.”
Kilniara smiled in reply, “He is.”
Joe opened his mouth, almost about to ask if he should ask Zilnek for permission to date her… uh… court, probably, right?... but he refrained, not wanting to put pressure on her. And I’m chickening out a little, I guess. Joe snorted to himself, changing the conversation to another direction.
“Did everything go OK today? How did you do learning the new staff form?”
Kilniara instantly brightened glancing at the ring on her finger as she spoke, “It was wonderful! Thank you so much for trusting us with such artifacts! To be able to wield a true weapon… thank you so much!”
Joe grinned but said nothing, “Your welcome. I’ll see if I can’t teach you other weapons after you learn the staff, OK?”
Kilniara’s bright smile grew, adding in a hint of excitement and awe, hope undergirding it all, but she said nothing, only smiling brightly. Joe cleared his throat, uncertain where to take the conversation further until he finally decided to just be a bit blunt.
“So, I think I’ll take my bath now. OK?”
“Oh, sure! OK. I’ll go to my room.”
Joe smiled and nodded his head, “Then after, we’ll go down and order supper for all four of us.”
Kilniara smiled and slipped back into her room and Joe breathed a sigh of relief as he stripped and slipped into his tub, the water still reasonably warm, “Man, a shower would be so nice right now!”
Joe didn’t let his loss slow him, and he quickly bathed himself and wiped himself off quickly before standing and drying. After he was finished, he stood and went into Kilniara’s bedroom and let everyone know he was done.
“You two can take a bath now. Kilniara and I will head down to the common room to get our food ready, OK?”
Garnedell, and Zilnek a bit delayed, both agreed immediately and Garnedell called out for the bath, leaping into the room first.
“Wait till Kilniara leaves before you get naked!” Joe called out loudly as he ran out, “You better head out first so you don’t get trapped in here,” Joe turned to Kilniara, smiling broadly, “I need to talk to your brother really quick.”
“Sure,” Kilniara nodded, the bright smile still on her face as she seemed to bounce out of the room.
As soon as Kilniara turned to leave the room, Joe felt quite a bit more nervous, his breathing increasing as his heart pounded harder. Taking a deep breath, he ignored it and turned to look out the door, seeing Kilniara leave the main door and Garnedell already stripping without any concern. Joe sighed, reminding himself to talk to Garnedell about making other people uncomfortable with his stripping before sliding the door shut and turning to face Zilnek, although he found himself urgently seeking any excuse to delay.
Refocusing his mind and forcing himself to calm, he faced Zilnek.
“Zilnek. For my people, it is often considered polite if a man who seeks to date… uh… maybe your word would be court, a woman, they are to ask her father for permission. Well… uh… you … your father, yeah… so … then… if we can’t ask the father, we speak to the eldest brother, so I don’t know if your people have something similar, but I do not wish to offend. If you do not, then I think it is still polite and would like to ask if I could court your sister, Kilniara.”
After Joe finished, he began to fidget as Zilnek seemed to take his sweet time to respond, until Joe remembered that Zilnek couldn’t respond quickly, his mind working at a much slower pace than it should. Ironically, knowing this did nothing for his nerves, and they continued to ratchet up as he waited for Zilnek to respond.
Despite Joe’s nerves, he did find it interesting to watch Zilnek’s face as he seemed to parse the information easily enough, but more slowly, and he could almost hear his own words as they created understanding in Zilnek’s mind, confusion first before his eyes widening in shock at the realization of what Joe was doing before a bright smile seemed to blossom across his face. The smile reassured Joe more than anything else, but he still waited patiently despite not being able to keep his own smile off his face.
“It is not an unusual tradition, although you are certainly strange to be willing to grace us with such a tradition. Thank you, and yes, you have my blessing.”
Joe actually released a sigh of relief, his smile firming more completely with the reassuring words before Joe nodded and turned to head out, stopping Zilnek briefly, asking him to wait as he wanted to ask Garnedell one private question before he headed down for supper.
He then slipped up next to Garnedell and spoke to him quietly, not wishing for Zilnek to hear.
“Hey, Garnedell.”
Garnedell seemed to jump a bit, water sloshing from the barrel and Joe stepped back to keep his shoes dry, “Hey, it’s just me. Calm down.”
“Oh. Sorry, Joe.”
“It’s fine. I have a question, if you don’t mind,” Joe returned to a whisper.
Garnedell quickly glanced behind him towards the room where Zilnek was resting and quickly slithered forward, body hunching as he prepared for Joe’s secret.
“Do you remember Kukurnal talking about the twenty gods this morning? Well, nineteen left.”
“Yeah.”
“I asked what was the name of the twentieth, he said no one knows, but… do you know?”
Garnedell nodded slowly, although he glanced around the room even more, paying particular attention to Kilniara’s room where Zilnek hid, “There are always rumors, but all the other priests will criminalize you if you speak it. You must be cautious.”
Joe’s eyes shot up at that, but he nodded and gestured for Garnedell to continue.
Garnedell leaned even more forward, stretching from the tub to put his lips next to his ear before whispering very quietly, so quietly that Joe had to ask him to repeat a few times until he finally caught the name, “Loki.”
Joe jumped back, eyes widening in serious shock before he nodded, mouthing a thank you before heading out the door. His mind whirled a million miles an hour, but he didn’t forget to shout back to Zilnek, “Alright, Zilnek! You can come in. I’ll meet you guys down below for the meal, OK?”
Garnedell immediately replied with an OK, and Zilnek replied later, coming into the room at the same time, waving as Joe left.
Joe closed the door behind him and found himself lost in thought, his body walking down the stairs on autopilot. The other gods and goddesses names seemed familiar to me, but … this one… is way too… Loki! Is it…. It can’t be coincidence, can it?