Joe caught her distracted change of conversation and thought carefully, “I’m… what do you mean?”
Kilniara said nothing, embarrassment silencing her but Garnedell took up her thoughts, “She is wondering why you have chosen her.”
Joe nodded, understanding coming to him, before he continued, “Ah… well… my people do not see power or status are meaningful … as much. Well … that seems to be changing some, but I, at least, see little meaning in status or position. Who a person is is more important than any form of status or power. And you are good people: kind, considerate, hardworking. You seem like you treat others well with respect and consideration. This means much more to me than any other measure.”
Joe stopped to allow his words to sink in, the other three growing embarrassed by smiling brightly in pride as the squirmed under his praise. Joe allowed them there moment before he returned to Kilniara’s and his relationship.
“Are you sure? You will not be offended if I make decisions for us?”
Kilniara flushed brightly at that and took too long to reply and Zilnek had more than enough time to choke back some laughter before interjecting, “She will not care! You are strong. Stronger than she has any right to claim!”
Kilniara cut off a cry of indignation before leaping at her brother and shoving a hand over his mouth to quiet him, embarrassment coloring her cheeks a brilliant red. Joe watched on with some amusement before cutting them off, the conversation too important not to discuss.
“Zilnek, please let Kilniara talk,” Joe interjected before continuing, “Are you sure, Kilniara?”
She nodded quickly, “I am more than willing.”
“Well, I don’t think you have much to worry about, as my people have taken to separating decision making between both men and women, although men do have the final say. But recently, my people have taken to an equal discussion between the two before decisions are made.”
“I know,” she nodded, “You do the same for us.”
Realization drove Joe’s eyebrows up before he nodded, “OK. Yeah, I could see that. Although if we were to … grow closer together, you will take on more … equal position with me.”
“Equal?”
“Hmm. We attempt to be equal, for the most part.”
Kilniara flushed but said nothing as she listened intently. Joe continued.
“Usually, the couple will choose and make decisions together as a team. If there is a decision that causes a conflict, the two will try to choose the one that’s best for both. Maybe one has a better opportunity or job, and it will greatly help the family or make them more wealthy, then the other will choose to quit their job and follow their spouse and seek a new job at the new place; things like that. Sometimes, if it’s really bad, then you’ll get a fight and have to fight about who will be the final decision maker. In this case, in a patriarchy, the man will have the final say. In a matriarchy, the woman will. Today, in my culture, men still usually have the final say although they usually listen and hear their wives’ thoughts and do not often clash, if they work together well and communicate well. But, I would probably be used to make the final decision if one needed to be made.” Joe ended with some concern.
Kilniara nodded, then sighed before continuing, “I would be fine with such. You are stronger, and of higher status. It would be natural in my society for a woman to follow such a man.”
“But not usually in marriage?”
Kilniara stopped in thought for a moment before she began, “If the marriage was one of equals. But as I said, with status and strength differences, the stronger and higher status will lead.”
Garnedell quickly interjected while nodding his head in agreement, “Amongst all, gender is usually low in rank for who leads. Only if the marriage is equal, does matriarchy or patriarchy come in to play. Almost always, strength and status have much greater weight.”
Joe pondered that for a bit before he began to nod, “I guess I could see that.”
Joe’s thoughts drifted away after that as he considered a society developed around obviously defined strength from a system. Strength quantified would be easily another measure of success and power beyond wealth and political power. And since this strength was specifically personal, wealth and political power would likely pale in comparison. Political power can move armies and wealth could buy armies, but personal strength would ultimately become too great for political power or wealth to control. What powerful person would want to submit to a weaker person with political or economic power.
The other three began speaking amongst themselves, leaving Joe to his thoughts understanding how society would develop with such an obvious third avenue to success that was uniquely and permanently tied to an individual, which couldn’t be stolen, or even blackmailed. Who would try to blackmail someone with such power? It would take another of equal or greater power. And even if you are equal in power, a simple ambush would likely be easier. And if you are greater, why go through the trouble. Just walk through the front door of the other guy’s house and bully him around how you want.
Joe spent some time considering this before pulling himself from his thoughts and quickly called the other three to their purpose, power leveling. He split the teams in two, as usual, and found himself with Zilnek first today. The day went quickly especially with injecting his mana into his strikes. However, it proved more difficult than the last couple days because he no longer had the help of the jobs that would allow him easy access to mana emission. Despite that, the other three seemed to find it remarkably easy to emit mana and kill the goblins quickly and efficiently. Joe failed to emit mana regularly but when he did so, the monsters seemed to freeze, shuddering as if in electrical shock before immediately collapsing. Despite the slightly faster kills with emitting mana through their weapons, they still took until almost an hour after lunch for Joe to hit level thirty. Joe smiled when he did so and decided to call it a day. Joe eagerly flipped through his status windows and took a look at what his current job’s stats were as well as the newly available skills. The excitement died pretty quickly, as the stats proved absolutely useless, although he did get some decent gains in his magical resistances and learning. Which… yeah… goddess of wisdom… makes sense, I guess.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
30.00
Physical:
Wind
30
SP
30.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
30
MP
30.00
Crushing
0.00
Earth
30
Attack
30.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
30
Defense
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
30.00
Ice
30
Magic
30.00
Gravity
30
Magic Defense
30.00
Magnetic
30
Strength
30.00
Light
30
Dexterity
30.00
Saga Faithful
30
Shadow
30
Agility
30.00
Space
30
Speed
30.00
Spirit
30
Endurance
30.00
Mental
30
IQ
60.00
Sound
30
Wisdom
90.00
Electricity
30
Will
60.00
Learning
120.00
Luck
0.00
Even the skills proved boring, and all he got was some bonuses to magic; specifically to his MP. Two skills increased it by some amount which he was not certain of as it didn’t appear on his display at all and the other increased its recovery. This would be useful if he ever needed to really practice magic meaningfully, but as he was struggling to express magic, it wasn’t going to be really useful until he’d be able to do that on his own.
Which, of course, ended up making him reconsider what the purposes of skills actually were. Weaponry seemed to actively fight being used, leaping from the grasp, but he seemed to still be able to force his mana expression… wait!? Is that what’s happening? I can force myself to hold weaponry without a skill, but it takes effort. Am I doing something similar?
Joe’s thoughts derailed almost immediately, his thoughts whirling with the possibilities, but didn’t allow himself to be hindered, calling for the group to wrap up and head back home. They left the dungeon quickly enough, and Joe soon found himself basking in the warmth of an actual bath. His thoughts, however, were too focused on the idea of skills and their effect on using them meaningfully that he didn’t really spend much time on the others.
He rested in the hot waters for quite a long time, leaving the two boys to their conversation as he simply took the time to rest. They found themselves resting a good couple hours bouncing back and forth between the various warm and cold baths as well as the steam room until a young boy acting as a runner came in and told them that an Acokzau girl was waiting for them outside. Joe flushed a bit red when he realized he’d left Kilniara alone for quite a while and he called an end to their bath.
Joe didn’t exactly rush, but neither did he feel relaxed on his way out. The other two trailed after him and when he made it out to the main entrance area, he anxiously looked for Kilniara before immediately heading directly towards her.
“Hey Kilniara. I’m so sorry we weren’t really careful with the time.”
Kilinara stood quickly when she saw them, anxious worry obvious on her face, “There you are! You’re still … I was worried you forgot me.”
Joe laughed, shaking his head but said nothing. Garnedell also remained silent, as both were feeling a bit sheepish but Zilnek interjected a few moments later, “Ha! Like we could forget your irritating screeches!”
Kilniara immediately flipped out, worry whiplashing to anger as her slap came down on her brother’s arm, “You base jackass!”
Zilnek began roaring in laughter and Kilniara’s anger slipped to chagrin as she began slapping him even more but more in embarrassment. With Zilnek’s continuing laughter, Kilniara’s upset changed to angry humor and Garnedell and Joe joined in the laughter.
After their laughter settled, Joe apologized once more and the four headed out on their way back to the inn. Joe decided to figure out how to handle the timing of bathing as they traveled back to the inn.
“So. How about we figure out what to do at the baths so this doesn’t happen anymore?”
The other three nodded, but nobody said anything. Joe continued waiting.
“Any ideas?”
No one said anything, and Joe found himself at a bit of a loss as he was too used to cellphones, texting and instant long range communication. As the silence continued, Joe decided to try his own thoughts and offered them up to the other three as suggestions.
“Are there runners in the bath?”
The other three nodded, although Garnedell replied, “Yes. Usually they have such people.”
“How much should they be paid?”
“A few small tin; two or three.”
“Huh. Then… maybe what I’ll do, Kilniara, is send a runner about ten or twenty minutes before we plan to leave, so you may have time to prepare to leave as well. Is that enough time? Is that OK?”
Kilniara quickly nodded, smiling, “That is enough.”
Joe nodded with his own smile as well, “Then you’ll be able to just relax as long as you want in the baths as well.”
Kilniara’s smile turned brilliant at that and she nodded in appreciation, “Thank you.”
Joe simply nodded at that, “And if you need to leave early or need us then just send us a runner as well. Maybe send it a good ten or twenty minutes ahead of time for us, too, so we could prepare as well, OK?”
Kilniara agreed on that easily enough and they soon headed out. Joe and Kilniara separated, heading on to the temple of Freya where they met their counselors once more. It proved fruitful and the ending session with all four also turned a bit into a brain storming session as the two priests began to explore Joe’s knowledge as well, cautiously asking questions of him. Kilniara seemed to enjoy it as well, beaming at his side while they spoke. The session ended much faster this time, but seemed just as fruitful as before and Joe enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the inn with Kilniara.
“Will you join us for supper?”