Joe smiled as well although was uncertain about what to say about breathing glass or crystal particles and almost decided to leave it before asking a question.
“Do many people die or become hurt from using job crystals?”
The librarian actually seemed a bit confused by Joe’s question before he quickly shook his head, “No. Nothing I have ever heard.”
Joe nodded but hesitantly before continuing, “OK. Then… well, maybe, if you cough up any blood or have problems breathing or … yeah, find a healer for your lungs, OK?”
The librarian seemed a bit confused and miffed but nodded, “OK? I do not know why you would think this, but thank you for your concern.”
Joe saw the librarians repressed anger and quickly smiled, dropping the conversation, “Ah. OK. Then congratulations! You are now a novelist.”
At this, the man’s smile turned absolutely brilliant before he laughed excitedly, “Yes! I am!”
“Great! Then let’s change your job!”
The man laughed, excitement turning him quickly and driving him deeper into the temple. They made a bee line for the temple priest and the librarian quickly asked for a job change to novelist. The priest seemed interested, and congratulated the librarian on his good luck.
“Congratulations. I saw,” offered the priest in greeting.
“Yup! I’m now a novelist!”
“Excellent. I’m assuming you wish a job change to it now?”
“Yes!”
“Would you like me to do a check for the change?”
“No. I’m certain.”
The priest chuckled at that before nodding, “I know but you know the rules. I have to ask. Would you like the contingency?”
The librarian smiled and nodded, “I understand. As for the contingency, merchant.”
“The normal sign?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. Are you ready then? Novelist, yes?”
The librarian didn’t reply, but quickly nodded.
The priest smiled and disappeared into his skill, pulling up the new job for the librarian. The librarian took the job change rather quickly, accepting it verbally with whatever prompt appeared to him which made Joe begin to wonder how other’s interacted with their prompts with the system as all of them were written language. Something to ask Garnedell later?!
With the job change, the priest then looked at the librarian and asked a question then raised his hand up with a strange gesture, raising up a fist then opening his thumb and pinky outwards before closing them again. He did this gesture immediately as he finished asking the question and the librarian replied quickly, rapidly shaking his head no before the priest could even finish the gesture.
“No. I understand perfectly. The crystal is a good one.”
“Excellent. I’m glad you were able to do your job change successfully.”
The librarian grinned hugely then bowed his head slightly before turning and leaving. Joe nodded to the priest as well before all three exited the temple. The librarian had stopped on the temple portico, walking to the side where few people were and Joe joined him there.
The man then excitedly pulled out his job memory crystal and preformed his ritual again, almost exactly in reverse. He placed the crystal to his head, shooting out the barest of mana streams at it again, before carefully and slowly dropping it to his chest. This time, he was able to do it the first try, the mana stream staying on the crystal with more ease until he pulled it hard into his chest just over his heart. Again, the pulse reacted with the crystal and it poofed out into a sphere of mana before rapidly piercing back into the man, this time his chest. It was subtly different however, as the mana seemed to boomerang, entering and remaining in the chest for a time until he pulled back out. It seemed to be pulling something with it, but Joe couldn’t really see it. It only looked like the mana was straining against something until it pulled into the job memory crystal. The crystal glowed, then died down. The man grinned brightly at that, then turned to look up at Joe with excitement.
“Thank you so much! This… it’s my dream. I never thought… thank you!”
Joe smiled and shook his head, “You're welcome. It was easy enough for me, and you have no need to thank me. It was a fair exchange.”
“Ah… yes… true, but still. The exchange seemed heavily in my favor.”
Joe laughed and shook his head, “No! Knowledge has a value all its own.”
The man smiled and said nothing to that, but acted in some surprise, “Oh! Right. You wished to see my new stats.”
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Garneslin
Status
Physical Resistances
HP
30.00
Physical:
SP
30.00
Piercing
0.00
MP
30.00
Crushing
0.00
Attack
30.00
Slashing
0.00
Defense
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30.00
Magic
30.00
Magic Defense
30.00
Strength
30.00
Dexterity
30.00
Agility
30.00
Speed
30.00
Endurance
30.00
IQ
120.00
Wisdom
180.00
Learning
1.00
Luck
60.00
The man opened up his stat window, displaying his new stats. Joe’s eyes lasered in on learning and frowned, seeing exactly what he feared. These things are honey traps, like everything else! Joe had expected the nerf to learning, so dismissed it quickly and looked at the rest. The three major stat differences that he remembered that the librarian originally had in his merchant job was twenty four points for each stat except IQ, wisdom, and luck. IQ and wisdom had forty eight points and luck six. Learning, as always, was permanently at one point. Seems it always is one point even with new jobs. It should be one point one, with ten percent from the merchant job’s one point. No! Wait! If he really lost his merchant job… gotta check that out… and… Maybe learning is permanently one regardless unless you get your levels the hard way? Or is something else? He should have … wait… this isn’t his current job screen! That…
He looked at the stats again and grimaced, noticing that it seemed he’d lost all his base stat bonuses from the merchant job. And… so… he probably really did lose it. To be certain, he asked the man to flip between his current job tab and status tab, which surprised him a bit, but Joe found no difference. It seems he really does only have a single job!
Joe stared at the man’s stats for a good chunk of time, noticing the crystal gave thirty levels immediately, which was certainly tempting, but ultimately trapped this man forever at this level. Does he still get the bonus levels every couple years like everyone else? Hmm… another question for Garnedell? Would he know? Hmm. Regardless, this guy’s screwed. Joe ran the numbers quickly through his head, and came up to just about two million experience just to get from level thirty to level thirty one. I’m averaging a hundred kills a day, and I’m pretty well trained. But assuming a hundred a day, he’s going to be stuck at level thirty for… fifty years! Shock hit Joe hard enough to knock him out of his musing and he looked at the man before smiling and bringing his experiment to an end.
“Ah. Right. Apologies. I sometimes get lost in my own head.”
When he said this, Kilniara immediately began giggling and turned her head away. Joe grimaced, a half smirk half smile lifting up the left side of his lips as he looked at her, “I know. I know. My head’s lost in the clouds!”
Kilniara stopped at that before giggling even louder, “That’s a perfect description for you. I’ve never heard it before, but you truly do lose your head.”
Joe smiled while Kilniara continued giggling and the librarian watched on with his own bemused smile, “You two get along well with each other.”
“Yes. She’s an amazing woman.”
Kilniara’s laughter abruptly ended at that, as a blush raced up her cheeks. Joe laughed at this then turned back to the librarian.
“One last thing. Could you press here?”
He pointed to the available jobs tab, and the man did so, this time only murmuring slightly to himself in surprise. Joe found the page depressingly empty, looking carefully where merchant should be and found nothing. He even opened up his own status to verify, looking at his own available jobs page. That’s… really bad… but… maybe?
“Have you lost your merchant job permanently?”
The man smiled ruefully, “You really do not have to worry, but yes, I have.”
Joe sighed, “Well, thank you for entertaining my curiosity. I apologize for the time I’ve taken from you.”
“It is no problem. What you have given me is so much greater than anything I could ever hope for. Thank you, truly, so much!” the librarian ended profusely while bowing.
Joe waved it away, “It really was nothing. A fair exchange of knowledge for your experience.”
The man smiled as he stood back up, his exuberance returning. Joe smiled then remembered the man had been a merchant and asked, “So, you were a merchant before. Why weren’t you a librarian for the librarian job?”
“Librarian? There is a librarian job?”
Joe smiled, “Yes? There are many librarians amongst my people.”
“Truly? I have never heard of such. I will certainly check the library or the original Library for it. It may simply be a job that the nobles or wealthy have taken for themselves.”
“Huh. Maybe. Well, if you wish to return to being a librarian, then maybe the library job would be good for you.”
The librarian laughed and shook his head, “I think not! I love my new job! This is an incredible gift for me. I’ll never forget this.”
Joe smiled, “I’m glad I was able to help you as well.”
“You did. Truly!”
“Then enjoy your day!”
The librarian bowed again, “Thank you. Good bye.”
Kilniara waved to him, “Good bye to you as well.”
“Farewell,” the man replied to Kilniara.
“To you as well. Oh! Could I ask you one more thing?” Joe added a bit late.
“Ah, certainly!”
“What did you mean about the contingency?”
“What… oh! With the priest?”
“Yes.”
“Ah… that is simply in case the job proves to be poor for the person and they are unable to speak quickly to be able to change their jobs back to their original job.”
“Huh. Then, how does it work?”
“When the priest finishes speaking, he makes a sign and begins counting. The person changing their job can evaluate how poorly the job has affected them by how quickly or slowly they can understand the priest’s words in relation to how quickly they count with their hands,” the librarian explained while holding up his hand. He flashed the same symbol, holding a fist up, flipping out thumb and pinky, before returning his hand to a fist form. Then, he flipped up a finger every few seconds starting with the pinky until finally the thumb raised. The entire time from pinky to thumb took about fifteen to twenty seconds and Joe immediately understood.
“Oh! I get it. With this, you can see how slowly or quickly you are able to understand the words spoken by others and be able to respond. If the fingers go up but you still do not understand, you know that you are taking a long time to hear, understand, and respond.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Huh. Smart idea. I wonder why the priests in the temple plaza do not do it?”
“They do not? They should! It is required!”
Joe shrugged his shoulders, “Really. Huh. Well, thanks for everything. Enjoy your new career!”
The man smiled cheerily at that again, nodding quickly, “I certainly will. Bye!”
“Bye.”
“Good bye,” Kilniara offered a bit more formally and the two then walked away, heading back towards the library before backtracking from there back to the inner city gate. Joe didn’t want to spend any more time in the inner city, and only felt relieved once he was able to get back to the outer city.
He sighed deeply once he was away, smiling towards Kilniara, “Finally!”
Kilniara smiled and shook her head, “You are strange, Joe.”
Joe shrugged before replying, “Hobnobbing with the rich just isn’t my thing. They tend to piss me off more than anything anyway, so…”