* * *

Joe smiled in reply, “You gotta get ticked off at your brother sometimes, even if he is your brother. Ticked enough to really stick it to him!”

Kilniara giggled at that and nodded, “Yeah! One time I put itching ants in his bed!”

“Itching ants?”

Kilniara nodded and giggled, “Yeah. They are not very painful when they bite, but after… the itching is unstoppable.”

As Kilniara stopped speaking, Zilnek shouted angrily from the corner and the two turned to see Zilnek stalking towards them, “YOU put the itching ants in my bed! I though they just… You! Really! I’m going to so…”

Kilniara interrupted him with some anger, “You will do what! Especially after you told father about Gilneer!”

Zilnek abruptly stopped at that, his anger snuffed out and embarrassment quickly replacing his anger, “Well… he… you… it was not… He was not a good match for you.”

Kilniara snorted in anger, “I will then make sure to shoo off any woman who is not a good match for you, either. It would only seem my duty as your sister!”

Zilnek widened his eyes in shock, worry rapidly overwhelming him, “Hey, now… that is not …”

Joe watched them devolve into a shouting match that had the two gesticulating at one another quite wildly and Joe decided that it was good enough for lunch time, and herded the two screeching Acokzau into the corner.

It proved as difficult as he feared it was but left the two to their angry fight as it had quickly evolved into playful banter and Garnedell joined in a little later as he felt free enough to do so, and Zilnek soon found himself ganged up on by both his sister and Garnedell, both promising to keep him safe from any inappropriate or unworthy women. Zilnek’s defense rapidly fell apart after that and Joe found himself laughing at the three’s antics but did nothing to step in as Zilnek looked pleadingly at him but he simply said he’d be a fool to take him over his sister.

Joe handed around some food at that point and the comments shifted from protecting Zilnek’s long lost virginity for the perfect wife to playful banter over Kilniara and Joe’s rather intimate moment in combat just before. Kilnaira found herself on the back foot at this point and she rapidly called on her sibling to side with her against Garnedell and the lunch rapidly passed with each quickly changing sides in their mutual political combat.

Joe said little through it all but all three really enjoyed Joe’s subtle barbs and relational upsets. The meal ended and all four returned to their goblin extermination duties, rotating through the three others through the rest of the day and calling and end when he made it to level thirty for mana manipulator. They finished a bit later in the afternoon than normal, but Joe was unconcerned as they still had a good chunk of afternoon left, so suggested they finish for the day. As they were leaving the dungeon, Joe was much more aware than normal of just how unpleasant he was feeling. I’m just so… grimy. While the inn was good enough, the sponge baths were just not enough. Joe looked to the other three.

“Oh, hey! Do you want to go to the bath? I’m feeling really gross right now.”

The other three looked towards Joe, thinking carefully before nodding in agreement, although Kilniara shouted with enthusiasm.

“Yes! Please!”

After Kilniara’s shout of agreement, Zilnek brightened considerably as well, offering his own quick agreement, “Yes! That would be wonderful.”

Garnedell agreed out of camaraderie but seemed a bit unhappy about heading to the bath and Joe really didn’t want to let Garnedell escape from bathing as he shared a room with all of them. Ignoring Garnedell’s apparent discomfort, Joe led them all on to the bath grateful for the power disparity at least for this moment.

They arrived at the bath and split, Kilniara setting off into the woman’s section while Joe led the guys into the guys section. The bath proved rather average for a public bath and similar to many found around Asia. The water appeared to be manually brought in and Joe could only assume the heating was from fires stoked under the appropriate baths. Although he wasn’t sure, the raised areas for the heated bathing pools and the smoking chimney’s visible outside seem to make it obvious that someone was in the basement stoking fires.

In any case, Joe wasn’t concerned about the mechanics of the system and was shown by Zilnek how to take his clothing to a corner set aside for some clothes washing. All three disrobed and washed their clothing vigorously before Zilnek led them once again into another very dry and hot room. There, they draped their clothing over some strange angled hot plates. Zilnek showed them how to place them flat, without wrinkles, onto the plates where they were then pressed between another hot plate and left stacked with dozens of other hot plate pressed clothing. Joe found this more interesting, and spent some time speaking to the helper there running the dry press before heading back into the baths and settling into the heated bath to enjoy a warm bath. His body ached then melted and he groaned softly under the sudden relaxation, the muscles melting and he felt so much better, the aches of the day evaporating.

Zilnek eagerly joined in as well, with Garnedell at first being unwilling before he, too, quickly came to enjoy the hot bath and all three sat near each other in the large bath and simply zoned out, no one speaking for some time. Joe sat there for a good chunk of time before soaping up and cleaning himself. He insisted the other two do so as well before leaning back into the heated bath to relax a bit more.

While in the bath, he looked over his new skills gained form the mana manipulator and found three new ones: mana efficiency, mana power, and mana control. The first two proved exactly as the sounded, which Joe was grateful for and assumed he would really wish to utilize them more effectively in the future if mana proved to be a meaningful addition, but he’d not seen anyone using any meaningful magic in his entire time of being here except for the some of the things the priests did. Although… maybe that’s more an admin thing than actual magic. The priest’s are literally just giving access to the next job. Is that really magic? Joe pondered on it before shrugging it off. Maybe it would be meaningful in the future, but at this point in time, it had nothing to do with his current goal, regardless, which was to make him as independent as possible from the constrictions the current job system placed on the people living here. As he was close to meeting or exceeding his own basic Earth stats, exceeding it before he was trapped completely seemed like a smart idea.

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He dismissed the three skills listed, although mana control proved useful to him right now in his struggle to figure out mana expression and the various ways he could control it, it was ultimately not really worth it as he needed to be able to do it regularly and he saw no reason or meaningful purpose that he would keep the mana-ologist or mana manipulator jobs. They were too specific and constraining and ultimately rather useless in a fight, if combat jobs were any indication. He would have to figure all that out later. Maybe magic is more about preparation? Have it all prepped before hand? Not middle of the fight chants and stuff. Joe considered that possible detail, but once again dismissed it as he had no clue and could only leave it for later. Another question for Garnedell, I guess?

Joe finally called an end to their bathing and all three meandered out of the bath to dress, picking up their washed clothes and dressing before heading to the common area and wait for Kilniara. The clothing was very warm and felt like it had just been ironed. It was a strange feeling, but the clothing was clean and the delicious feeling of clean clothing on clean skin actually made him shiver in satisfaction. This reminded him that they’d already purchased several changes of clothing for everybody so as to have clean clothing each day. Right… the tailor said over ten days… it’s… been over ten days, right? So…

Joe turned to look at Garnedell and actually asked this, “Garnedell… we bought a bunch of changes of clothing while back… the tailor said to pick them up in about a week’s time. Has it been a week? Should we go pick it up now? Or… can we?”

Garnedell cocked his head and quickly replied, “Yeah. We bought it about fourteen days ago? It should be ready by now.”

“Oh… its ready then? Is it alright if we head out and pick them up? Would be nice to have some changes of clothing.

Both grinned at the thought and quickly nodded agreement while Garnedell quickly replied, “It … would be nice!”

Joe smiled and turned to look at Zilnek, then remembered that the two siblings were tailors, of a kind. Well… crap… did I bother them by not asking them? Or… something like that?

Joe quickly asked, “Do you… want to make some clothing, Zilnek?”

“My sister and I could tailor some clothing for you. It would take us some days and we could make some comfortable and excellent clothing for you. It should be…,” Zilnek quickly trailed off before continuing with bitter chagrin, “Actually, my sister could…”

Joe cut him off and shook his head, “This is not to … force you to choose to tailor or not. I just… don’t know what you would enjoy or prefer. Do you think Kilniara would like to do so? Would you like to do so?”

Zilnek took some time to reply, considering carefully, “If you do not wish us to do so…” Zilnek trailed off at the end while looking down.

“It is not that I wish or do not wish to you to do so. If you wish, I will give both of you the time and space you need to do so, but I thought you would rather wish to go with us to the dungeon. Which would you prefer?”

Zilnek again considered carefully before nodding, “I enjoy making clothing, but I think I would prefer to continue with you.”

Joe took a moment to parse Zilnek’s desires before replying, “You like making clothing?”

“Yes.”

“Do you wish to become a tailor? Permanently?”

Zilnek took a moment to consider it before shrugging a bit, “I enjoy it but… I … I still want to grow… and prefer to be a great adventurer, if possible.”

Joe nodded a bit before he offered a suggestion, “Then maybe you could do so as a hobby?”

Zilnek considered it for a bit, mouthing the word ‘hobby’ a few times even as Joe felt the pressure of mana build up around them then explode out in a sphere. A few moments later, Zilnek nodded with a brighter smile, “I think… that would be a good thing for me.”

“Then, if you would like to make some clothing for us, then that would be wonderful. You could do it over the next several weeks or months as you want? But for now, just the clothing from the tailor? Not good clothing, only comfortable and useful to wear each day as we go into the dungeon.

Zilnek considered Joe’s suggestion this time before nodding, “For festival clothing, I believe Kilniara and I could do so, although, I would…” Zilnek trailed off again.

“Want to talk with your sister a little bit?”

Zilnek nodded quickly, seeming a bit relieved.

“Then we will wait until you have talked with your sister.”

Zilnek smiled brightly, nodding his head.

Another much more excited nod at this and then the three passed through the door out into the common area. When they arrived in the common area, Kilniara was already out there and Joe simply headed for the exit, calling out to Kilniara so they could head on out.

“Hey, Kilniara. Ready to head out?”

Kilniara nodded quickly before sliding in with the others. Joe smiled as she joined them but also worried about how long she’d waited for them.

“Were you out here long? Sorry, if you were. Just relax as long as you want next time. We’ll send someone in to let you know.”

Kilniara smiled and shook her head, “I came out just before you did, actually. I was worried I stayed too long.”

Joe laughed at that and shook his head, “Nah! I love baths.”

Kilniara smiled happily in reply, “I’m glad you do! They feel wonderful.”

Zilnek readily agreed, “Really! They’re the best.”

Garnedell offered his grudging approval, “The warm bath wasn’t… too bad, I guess.”

Joe glanced over at Garnedell with a smirk, “Come on! It was pretty awesome!”

Garnedell smiled and then nodded in agreement, “Yeah, it was pretty good.”

They headed out from the bath house and Zilnek took over leading them on to the tailor shop, informing Kilniara of where they were going. Her excitement quickly rocketed up and the practically buzzed through the streets until they reached the tailor, grabbing their pile of clothing and trying them all on before heading out and back home. Luckily, the tailor seemed quite competent, even magically so. The three quickly shifted from chattering about baths to considering their new clothing as they left the shop.

Joe removed himself from the conversation slowly over the next few minutes as the other three continued to babble happily about their clothes before moving on to other conversations and they soon found themselves at the inn. Feeling clean for the first time in more than half a year, Joe exhilarated in an evening meal followed by relaxation in the room. Well, sitting in a room doing nothing wasn’t exactly the most exciting evening. Joe laughed to himself as he sat on his bed as he spoke with the other three before finally Kilniara claimed exhaustion waved goodbye before leaving the room, heading to her new home. Garnedell quickly volunteered walking her home and while Kilniara tried to dismiss his offer, Joe thanked him for it and Garnedell left with her. Joe followed shortly after and the two guys climbed into their own beds but chatted to each other while Joe spent some time going over his options for his next job.

Joe’s thoughts went over the job options he had before he finally decided he would be able to try taking another priest job. With that decided, he spent the rest of the night trying to decide which god or goddess he wanted to become a priest in, at least temporarily. He was left floundering a bit before he finally spent some time simply asking the help about the gods and goddesses to help him make his choice. He fell asleep while going through the list and details for each of the various temples.