“It’s a lot of meat. I miss fruits and vegetables.”
She cocked her head in thought and nodded, “We might be able to ask?”
“Ask for something else?”
“Probably.”
“Hmm… lets…” Joe trailed off as their waiter came up.
“What would you like for your meal today?” the waiter asked after they turned towards him.
Kilniara spoke up, “Excuse me, but do you have any dishes with fruits and vegetables. My boyfriend is missing it.”
Joe interjected, “I still want some meat.”
The waiter paused then nodded and rattled off some dishes and sides that were vegetable or fruit dishes. Joe took the time to question him and ended up choosing a mixed Chinese style vegetable meat dish, or he at least hoped it was something like that. He also ordered a fruit dish for desert. Kilniara still chose a primarily meat dish. After the waiter left, Joe turned his attention back to Kilniara and both returned to their conversation.
“So… not much of a meat eater?”
“No. I actually like meat a lot. I probably eat a bit more meat than I should compared to others on my plane.”
“You eat too much meat?” Kilniara asked with some consternation.
Joe smiled and nodded, “Yeah, basically. It’s not really healthy for my people to eat so much meat.”
Kilniara’s face registered some surprise and worry tinged her voice, “You will die or be harmed if you do not?”
Joe smiled and nodded, “Yes, but I should be fine for quite some time if I don’t eat a healthy diet. The harm from an unhealthy diet is very bad for children as they will not live long or be as strong. Sometimes, even their mind uhh… intellect will be affected. For an adult like me, I would have to eat unhealthy for many years for my health to be harmed very badly. If I keep eating healthily regularly, I’ll be pretty good.”
Kilniara thought for a bit, then asked cautiously, “Do I need to eat… do my brother and I need to eat more vegetables and fruits?”
Joe frowned a bit at seeing her concern. We’ve already talked about this… but she seems… a bit worried… reassure her…
“You have carnivore teeth, so you probably should eat mostly or even all meat. You should be fine with that, although…” Joe trailed off and peered into her mouth, “you do have some weird hybrid molars. Have you been to a mostly Acokzau city or clan?”
Kilniara flushed a bit at his search but thought about his question carefully before shaking her head, “No. We haven’t been to one.”
Joe pursed his lips in thought, “Then we should probably go to an Acokzau city and ask. I don’t know, but there probably is a healthy diet. There usually is. Most people know it basically on what tastes delicious to them. But, there are some desserts that usually are unhealthy if eaten too much. But I do not know your body or the food you would need.”
Kilniara thoughtfully considered Joe’s reply before accepting it, “So then we would have to go to an Acokzau place.”
“Yes. You may be eating many human… base human foods because you live in a city with so many peoples, many of them are base humans.”
Kilniara’s eyes went up with that, nodding carefully, “I hadn’t thought of that before.”
Joe nodded, “That’s why we would need to go to an Acokzau place. That said, you and your family have grown up here eating a lot of these foods, so you’re probably fine and will enjoy these foods even as you grow older. Now, some of these may be unhealthy if you eat too much or for too long, but I really could not tell you. Your body is very different than mine.”
Kilniara nodded, “That seems understandable.”
Joe nodded, “I would go with mostly meat, though. Your body seems to lean towards that, especially your natural form. Even your rest form is predominately designed for meat as well. But when it comes with the differences between your base and natural form, I don’t even know what to tell you anymore.”
Kilniara giggled a bit at that, although she blushed a bit in embarrassment. Joe saw her embarrassment and offered her some comfort.
“Hey. Relax. Your natural form is beautiful as well.”
Kilniara blushed even more brightly and the two fell into silences, staring at one another. It was during this moment that the waiter showed up with their meal and Joe found a vegetable meat dish slathered in some form of sauce that was a bit greenish, which did cause Joe to feel a bit concerned. Green wasn’t a common color for a sauce, but he’d experienced a great variety of foods all over Asia and back home in the States so was willing to give it a try.
Kilniara’s was a mostly steak dish, and she almost appeared to salivate when it was set before her. She fell silent when her meal was set before her, and Joe allowed her the time to eat. Joe took a bite of his green sauced meat and vege meal and found himself digging into his meal with gusto. He found the flavor an almost perfect twinning of sour and heat and ended up emptying his plate rather quickly but not as fast as Kilniara.
Stolen story; please report.
She was looking at him with a smile, a look of satisfaction pulling at her lips. Joe looked up and saw her smile and laughed.
“That was pretty good, huh.”
“Very.”
Joe nodded but said nothing and pulled over his vegetable dish. He’d eaten about half of it, and he found it incredibly delicious. He offered some to Kiliniara, who took his offer but ended up only taking a few desultory bites before passing the rest on to Joe. Joe took the offer and enjoyed the rest of it.
Their waiter was excellent and noticed that their last dish was emptying and he brought their final fruit dish to them, sliding it in for them almost perfectly timed. Kilniara proved her enjoyment of the fruit dish by demolishing her half of the dish quickly. Joe chuckled at her rabid enjoyment but found himself just about as enthralled and rushed through his half of the fruit quickly.
Despite their enjoyment, the meal went quickly, and they then enjoyed a relaxing moment after their meal. They spoke some more, getting to know one another’s background some more before leaving to enjoy the afternoon.
Their afternoon was spent walking the city, stopping by some small pastry and meat shops, and finally wandering the closest park to their inn. When the sun was close to setting, the late afternoon tinging a very light red, Kilniara pulled him from the inn but took him on a slight tangent. Joe was curious but didn’t reject the tangent and soon found themselves in the temple plaza again. Joe looked at her in confusion and she leaned up to whisper in his ear.
“Do you need to... for tomorrow?”
Joe smiled at that and shook his head, laughing before nodding and walking away, heading towards the next temple on his list while pulling out his next cloak. He ended up taking a quick turn inside the door before stopping as he’d not considered his next job. He looked through the list of his available jobs but found himself pressured by the fact that Kilniara was waiting outside for him. He did look through the list quickly but ultimately found himself lost on his options. As he was considering his choices, he finally decided to just go for the new unique job of gifted. Teacher had only … Wait… I never saw what teacher did!
Joe quickly flipped over to his stats and looked at what they were and found them as expected. The skills, however, excited him greatly until he realized that they were essentially only useful if he kept this job. One was labeled as a bonus to skill growth for everyone in his party and the other was a bonus to the learning stat for everyone in his party. Jackpot! He sighed and then frowned as he realized that the skills were ultimately useless. Neither were ‘char’ - or growth - skills but both were very useful.
He currently only had two assignable ‘char’ skills and one of them was rather vitally attached to his language skill. The other was also quite crucial in that it doubled his learning, but that doubling was doubling what was already multiplied by his titles and other skills. Essentially, he was getting more than eight times his current learning stat and removing this would drop learning stat by almost 17,000 points. He ran the math in his head, grimacing a bit, and realized that he could, possibly, still reach level thirty in his jobs as long as they had significant amounts of learning and also incredibly long days that would see them leaving the dungeon quite a while after dark.
While that didn’t bother him, it would end up being difficult for the others and essentially, their future was ultimately dependent on him. All four of their ability to grow would be based on his ability to keep them alive and dive into dungeons regularly and fighting. If the others were too tired, overwhelmed, or hurt, he could fight and kill solo. If he was weakened, he wouldn’t be able to keep them alive or help them level easily either. It would, ultimately, slow them drastically.
Joe grimaced as he thought about his argument but couldn’t shake the feeling that he was seeking any excuse to keep his own learning rather than helping the others. He considered carefully, thinking it over, but felt he couldn’t make a decision without seeing the results. Maybe I can do it… no… if I change my job now, I can’t do it toni… wait… I can, right? I’ll just change the skill to a char skill and see how it affects Kilniara and Garnedell. Then, I can change in the morning, again, right?
Wait! Can I… just… change char skills as I need? I can do the learning job in the morning, then flip it over to language at night and back again in the morning? Or maybe flip between the language and bonus to learning skills? Then I can use them both. Have it on to speak during the evenings, but have the bonus to learning when we go into the dungeons!
Joe began grinning a bit evilly, happy with his possibility before he made sure of his choice and went to get his job changed. He’d spent a bit longer here than he wanted and headed straight for the job change area, flipping his job to gifted. When he did so, the priest seemed a bit surprised. It wasn’t a bad surprise so much as confusion but they nodded and accepted his request. The surprise turned into a bit of shock when it became obvious that it had worked, but Joe kept his head down and deeply shadowed in the cowl of his cloak and slipped quickly from the temple to meet Kilniara, feeling a bit happier.
They walked side by side for a bit as they headed back, both happy but silent in their moment together until Kilniara opened up the conversation.
“Were you able to do what you needed?”
Joe glanced down at her, “Yes.”
Kilniara smiled brightly and nodded, but said nothing.
Joe considered a bit before cautiously questioning her on her thoughts about coming to the temples so regularly, “Why… do you… How are you so calm about me going to the temple?”
Kilniara shivered as she looked at him quickly, an intense and penetrative stare digging deep into his eyes, “Of course you must check for your job change… I am surprised you are doing it every day… so often… to make sure you can become a priest! You… are very kind to my brother.”
Joe remained silent, but the pieces clicked in place rather quickly. She thinks I’m checking to see if I can change to priest every day! They walked in silence and Joe didn’t noticed Kilniara growing more nervous until she interjected.
“If it is… too costly, you can change to once a week. You have spent… so much for my brother.”
Joe laughed at that and shook his head, “No. No… it’s fine. I really don’t mind.”
Joe’s easy reply calmed Kilniara but only increased Joe’s discomfort as he really didn’t feel comfortable with the misunderstanding Kilniara currently had. He wanted to speak the truth, but he still remembered Garnedell and Darnua’s very avid and fearful demand he remain quiet about his rapid and many job changes. He took a moment, waffling before putting it off. I’ll tell her later. She needs to know…
They arrived back at the inn, neither hungry enough to begin supper, but now too dark to wander the streets. They decided to sit at the table in the dining area, but didn’t order a meal. Joe did try to ask for some snacks, but that seemed to be an unusual and unknown request, so Joe calmed the concerned waitress before sending her away. Both then sat at the table and continued their moment of intimacy, learning more of each other. They did take a moment every once and a while to take a look around the room looking for Garnedell or Zilnek, but both proved absent, although neither were concerned. Both regularly came home late on their weekend excursions so Joe said nothing, and Kilniara didn’t see to really care.
They had enjoyed one another’s presence for almost an hour when the entire room suddenly went silent and both looked up to find the Matriarch and her daughter waiting beside his table. Joe looked up, surprised, and quickly stood.