Chapter Sixty One

Joe woke in the morning and for one of the first times since arriving at this new planet, he decided to actually lay in bed for a while. He simply enjoyed his time in bed but found himself bored and unwilling to let the time pass without doing anything and begin to put effort into emitting mana, sending it upwards through the ceiling of the room. He didn’t really do anything else, and just spend the time emitting mana are relaxing in bed. After emptying all his mana, Joe played with his mana points but was a bit concerned about emptying their mana, and instead manipulated them in various waves. After this back and forth between his mana and mana points, Joe spent some time looking at his jobs and chose his next job, picking out his next job for today as well as looking at what his next Saga priest line job would be. Like Mimir, it was also called acolyte, and Joe simply set it to memory as he went through the list of available education jobs. While they wouldn’t be exactly useful, there were a few left that, if they were like the rest of the education jobs and the learning stat, would be very useful for increased growth in the future.

His quick overview of the educator line gave him just a few more available: epistemologist, cartographer, teacher, humanities, engineer, medic, chemist, and finally mathematician. The only two that really appealed to him in the immediate was medic and teacher simply because medic might be useful for emergency medical work and teacher might help the other three gain better experience if teacher trained others. Hmm… might be related to skills though? Joe wrestled with the two jobs available to him for several moments before finally deciding that it would be wise to have emergency medical capabilities and chose to work on the medic job next.

With his choice, Joe settled back into his routine, shifting between emitting his personal mana and playing with his mana points. He did emit a small amount of the mana his points held, but did so cautiously. He also spent some time trying to figure out any biofeedback, if possible, related to his mana and mana points, but found himself stymied. He didn’t let the failure frustrate him into quitting and continued seeking for any feeling that would link him to his mana or mana points.

Joe smiled when he felt the bed shift and opened his eyes to see Kilniara sitting on the bed next to him. He glanced at the door and stifled his chagrin. How is she getting in so quietly? They stared at each other in silence for a few moments before Joe’s smile erupted into a large grin and he scooted towards the wall and pulled back the covers. He happened to be shirtless as he preferred to sleep in shorts or underwear. However, he had no shorts and only the poorly made tied pants so slept in them with his shirt off.

Seeing his bare chest, Kilniara’s cheeks flushed red and she turned her head away but seemed eager to join him, laying down and dropping her head on his arm before sliding her feet under the blankets. She lay a bit stiffly next to him but Joe leaned in and kissed her quickly on the cheek before pulling his head back and speaking calmly.

“Nothing will happen. Just rest and relax.”

Kilniara sighed, her tension lessening but she still sat next to him for a few moments before she reached a hand out and slid it up his to just brush across his side. She froze when she touched him, and Joe didn’t move. After waiting for a few moments, her hand slid more freely over his belly and chest before she turned to him with a moan.

“You’re so warm!”

“Yeah. Probably seem that way to you. I’m warm blooded.”

“You generate your own heat. I’m jealous.”

Joe smiled at that before replying, “Well, it’s yours now, too.”

Kilniara looked up at him with some confusion, implying her question with a look but said nothing.

Joe took her implied question and replied, “You can enjoy all my warmth as much as you want to. Just lean into me.”

Kilniara blushed once again with that but then took his offer and pressed herself into his side and groaned as his warmth flooded in, “It’s so nice, like laying in the sun!”

Joe chuckled but replied in approval as well, “Your coolness feels really good to me as well.”

Kilniara smiled shyly at that before offering a simple reply, “Thank you.”

Joe chuckled once again, “I should be thanking you. A beautiful woman is laying against me!”

Kilniara blushed but laughed herself and the two fell into comfortable silence simply resting under the covers and enjoying one another’s presence. Joe did not move, but Kilniara shuffled after another few moments and shifted till she was comfortably laying sideways on his chest, her upper leg soon slipping over his thigh to rest with him. Joe leaned forward to brush his lips through her feathery hair right at the hairline on her forehead. Kilniara sighed with contentment and brushed her hand across his chest.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Joe allowed them to rest for a few moments before he decided to return to his mana manipulation and emission, “You mind if I go back to my mana practice?”

Kilniara quickly pulled back from him before looking at him with a wild and wary fear. She said nothing but simply looked at him. Joe stared at her with some confusion, “I’m… not going to shoot the mana at you.”

Kilniara stared at him for a few moments longer then took a deep breath of relief, “Good… thank you. I’m uncertain that I could… control… myself.”

Joe’s eye’s smiled a bit, “I’m not exactly the best at remembering everything, but I’ll try to remember this a bit more carefully from now on. I hadn’t meant it like that, before. I just wanted to practice my mana emission and I was going to send it away from you, anyways.”

Kilniara completely relaxed, her whole body melting into his as her smile returned, “Oh. Well, are you certain you can control yourself?”

“Yes. I can easily send the mana emission away from you completely.”

“No. I mean my own emission. I cannot control it very well.”

“Oh. No, you don’t need to emit mana if you cannot control it well. I just want to practice myself.”

Kilniara nodded, resting quietly beside him before responding, “But will I bother you?”

Joe chuckled, “I’ve had worse distractions, although I’ll have to admit you are a much more beautiful and distracting… uh… distraction,” Joe ended a bit lamely but Kilniara still laughed in appreciation.

“Then enjoy your practice,” Kilniara replied with a flirty smirk.

“Really, now!” Joe replied with raised eyebrows, “I can always accidently send some mana at you?”

Kilniara actually jerked in surprise at this and pulled away slightly to look up at him. She saw his mocking smile and relaxed back into him although he could feel that she was still a bit tense and he calmed her, “Don’t worry. I won’t do that to you.”

Kilniara looked into his face for several moments before nodding and fully relaxing back into his embrace laying on his chest. She soon began to breath more evenly and Joe realized she’d fallen back to sleep. Joe returned to his mana practice and allowed Kilniara to continue sleeping against his chest. He wasn’t sure how long they continued like this but it had to have been more than an hour before the boys began to stir in their beds and Joe quickly woke Kilniara from her sleep.

He pressed a finger against her lips firmly before kissing, whispering, and shaking her awake. After calling her name a few times, she came to with a bit of confusion before she tried to pull away from him in surprise. He held her loosely and didn’t allow her to fall off the bed although he did kept his finger pressed firmly against her lips while shushing her.

She remembered where she was rather quickly before she blushed deeply and Joe smiled at her before leaning forward quickly to steal her lips. The kiss was deep, but finished quickly before Joe nodded towards the bunk bed holding the two boys. Her eyes widened quickly before she sat up quickly. She got out of bed but then turned back to him to lean down and kiss him once again, this time a bit longer. Joe enjoyed the kiss and chuckled when they broke apart.

Hearing his laughter, she suppressed her own giggle and escaped out to the common room. Joe didn’t get out of bed after that, and instead continued laying quietly in bed and practicing his mana. After Kilniara left, the boys quieted again although Joe didn’t understand why, and Joe was able to rest for another ten minutes or so. Joe was a bit disappointed that Kilniara had ended up leaving so soon but then, the morning was just upon them in any case.

With the sun shining a bit more brightly into the room, the boys awoke with grumbling stretches and movements before rising to prepare for the day. When Joe saw them up as well, he arose and cleaned his face, dressed, and prepared as well. They’d awoken quiet late today, and breakfast was already on the table.

“We’re late, boys, and I don’t want to miss breakfast. Let’s get going,” Joe spoke as he sat up and sighed deeply, very happy to awaken with ease. He still stretched his one shoulder, a small crick in the back of his shoulder and neck, the bed much firmer than he was used to. Still, he washed his face and prepared for the day. He was done by the time the boys rolled out of bed.

“Kilniara is probably already down in the dining room. Come on down quick.”

Zilnek groaned slightly, still groggy from waking. Garnedell, however, nodded quickly and replied.

“We will come quickly, Joe.”

Joe nodded, “Good, but don’t stay too long.”

Joe left, finding Kilniara downstairs at their customary table. She looked up when Joe came into the dining room with expectation that quickly broke into joy, a soft smile on her face when she saw he’d come down.

“Hi.”

Joe grinned, “Hi. We’ve not been apart that long.”

Kilniara’s grin grew greater, “No, but it was boring.”

“Oh… then you only want me to entertain you.”

Kilniara frowned at that, confused, “I… no?”

Joe’s face flushed a bit and he waved off the comment, “Sorry, it was only a joke.”

Kilniara’s smile returned, “Ah…”

Joe settled into the seat and while it was awkward for a moment, the two quickly began speaking with each other easily. They ordered breakfast quickly after that, Kilniara also ordering for Zilnek and Garnedell. The timing proved perfect, the boys arriving at the table at the same time as the food, everyone in pretty good moods and ready to enjoy a delicious breakfast. They took a long leisurely breakfast, Kilniara seeming to take much longer, really enjoying her meal. The conversation was enjoyable but rather meaningless and with the food finally cleared and Kilniara done, Joe began their day.

“So. It’s the weekend. What do you guys want to do?”

All three seemed to stare at him in confusion and Joe took a moment to remember that weekends weren’t really a thing here, “Ah. Right. No weekends. Well… we’re going to have weekends as a group, so... Amongst my people, we have weeks where we work five days and rest two. The rest days are called weekends. With ten day weeks here, we’ll take three days of rest and work seven days. So today we have a rest day, although we should have done a rest day yesterday… I just forgot about it. Sorry.”

The other three reflexively denied Joe’s apology but seemed more curious and confused about what Joe was presenting. Garnedell was the first to reply, although Joe felt that he likely knew what Joe was offering, “Then… what is a weekend? What do we do on such days?”

“It’s a free day. Anything you want!” Joe smiled.

Garnedell smiled, a bit subdued, but Zilnek immediately jumped and cried in excitement, “Yes! Yes, yes, yes! We can go?”