The other three moaned good naturedly, but obviously too happy to be relieved from the pain to really care. Joe stood and took them out to exercise in the small courtyard. As before, he had all of them exhaust their stamina then began their forms, going through them as best they could as well as spending time doing just straight up gym class exercises and yoga as well, although he made sure not to push them as far as yesterday.
This time, Zilnek seemed to do well, although he still struggled to control his rage. They ended their exercise and returned to the inn where the healer had already eaten breakfast and seemed determined to move on quickly as he didn’t wait for Joe and simply placed a hand on his head and began the process.
Joe found being the subject just as fascinating as watching, although seeing what the healer did was more difficult. Despite that, he easily felt the movement of mana and how it affected his body and struggled to hold back his own moans of relief as ten thousand tiny pains evaporated under the man’s touch. He shivered. Ooh… this… could easily become addicting! He marveled at his health when the man finished, ignoring all else around him. A soft touch from Garnedell on his forearm brought him back around and Joe blinked, looking up to see the healer waiting patiently, if with a bit of annoyance.
“Ah.. apologies!”
“Accepted,” the man said bluntly.
Joe nodded and dug into his pouch pulling out the coin. The man checked it quickly and immediately strode from the inn, not in any hurry but certainly not wanting to waste any time. Huh… a bit odd.
Joe let the man fall from his thoughts and turned his mind to how amazing he felt. Pains he didn’t even know he’d had were now gone and he felt amazing. He sighed deeply then looked at the other three.
“That… feels good!”
Garnedell laughed, “It is… wonderful.”
Kilniara nodded, “It truly is.”
The other three quickly elaborated on their own experiences and Joe left them to it, turning instead to his breakfast. Their breakfast had arrived when they sat down, interrupted only for a bit for the healer to do his work, and soon all were enjoying their breakfast, the mood a lot lighter than the day before as Zilnek hadn’t been as emotionally out of control as yesterday. They did spend their time relaxing for a bit before heading out and Joe sent them all ahead towards the dungeon, Joe promising to meet them there.
He split off at the corner, waving goodbye but the others ignored him as they didn’t notice. Joe actually smiled, happier that they hadn’t as they were no longer so concerned with him or seemed so hyper aware of him so as to appropriately respect him. He smiled to himself and continued on his way, making it to the temple plaza quickly. He didn’t frown at the arrival and berated himself. Well… that was dumb… shoulda done it when I was here earlier… but…
Joe shook of his frustration, acknowledging that he’d been focused on something else but still a bit annoyed at his forgetfulness. He turned his focus on the plaza and noticed that it appeared a bit busier today. Joe didn’t really notice anything unusual until he arrived at his next temple with his next cloak prepared. He arrived inside and found quite a long line in front of the job changing station. Not only was the line long, there were three lines of about the same length waiting for the job change station. He looked around a bit, surprised by the number of people waiting and dithered a bit before deciding to head to another temple and try a different place. As he turned, one of the people standing in the line next to him spoke without inflection or really any concern, just passing information along.
“There’s no point.”
Joe stopped and looked at the man, “Huh?”
“There’s no point in going to another temple. They’re all stuffed full of people trying their luck.”
Joe opened his mouth to reply immediately but then found himself uncertain of how to reply. He sat there, stuck for a bit, as he couldn’t really think of anything. Finally, the surprise of the event gave him a thread to pursue the conversation.
“Why?”
“Why the crowd?”
“Yeah?”
The woman looked at him, smirking a bit, “You haven’t heard?”
“Guess not?”
“There’s a new job.”
“A new job!? What do you mean?”
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“The Great Library reported a new job forming.”
Joe blinked, waving at all the people, “And?”
She looked up at him with some surprise, “And they’re here to try their luck!”
“They’re here to try to change their job to the new one.”
She looked at him carefully before nodding, “Yes.”
“Do you want the job?”
She smiled, “You don’t?”
“Nope, nor do I really care, but I am interested.”
“You want it?”
“Nah. I’m after a different job anyway, just curious.”
They fell into silence for a few moments before she spoke up again, “Librarian.”
Joe looked at her with some confusion, “Huh? Oh… you mean the new job?”
“Yeah. The new job is called librarian. I’m not sure… what it is though.”
Joe glanced at her, “Then let me repay your kind information. A librarian is in charge of running a library and helping people who need to use the library. Hence the name, librarian.”
As he spoke, several people who had been standing in front of them turned around and faced them, listening carefully. When he finished speaking, several of them grew excited and turned back around, facing the front while one grunted and cursed under his breath as he turned to leave the temple. Sadly, the man wasn’t in his line so it made no difference for his time to the front. Most of the others ignored him, but a couple of the listeners and the helpful lady all said thank you and turned back to face the front.
After a few moments, the silence became a bit awkward but Joe was too busy considering the fact that a new job had appeared and that somehow people seemed to be aware of it. He was lost in thought when the woman beside him interrupted him again, asking a few questions which he answered quickly in passing and soon the two fell into small talk. Their conversation continued, drifting to a close and restarting randomly as they drew ever closer to the front.
After awhile, it fell into silence for a time so Joe turned his thoughts to figuring out the sub job skill a bit more, now that he was here. So… recap. Gifted seemed to unlock the garbled skills from educated and believer. Seem to be paired skills… unlocking a sub job when both are available. I got three from the gifted job, but only found two amongst my other jobs. Hmm… anythi… oh, right… it might also be related to the opening job of a job tree… cause educated and believer both have one… although commoner doesn’t… maybe unique cause it’s the base of the entire job tree structure, so… but yeah… That… seems… good? Only thing now is to figure out how… right. Help. How do I change my sub job skill?
To unlock a sub job skill, seek out a priest with the appropriate skill.
Joe sighed. How’d I know that was going to be the answer… Despite his disappointment, his certainty of the answer insulated him a bit from it and dampened his frustration. At least it’s not a completely different job… like… noble… or something… but… oh… Help. How do I change my sub job skill and not the main job skill?
To unlock a sub job skill, seek out a priest with the appropriate skill.
OK… help is back… nice! The sarcasm actually stained his face with a grimace of anger, this response from help only adding to his frustration to the poorly implemented help system. OK. Then… lets dig into this… figure it out. Over the next ten minutes, Joe wrestled with how to word the question properly to gain the information he wanted. A few new tidbits showed up, but nothing new or really meaningful. The best he got from the system was asking the priest to change the sub job skill, which elicited a groan and a roll of the eyes. Woulda done that anyways… sheesh… Joe stifled his sigh with a frown. It made sense and was obvious, but he couldn’t ask, especially if second jobs were a nobility secret as Gwenvair seemed to persuasively argue. Wonder what would happen to me? Would I… die? Or am I not a part of the system? Gwenvair was safe enough telling me… did I trick myself into being a noble now? Maybe… that’s gonna suck! Joe grimaced, worry tinging his thoughts… Don’t want a curse … but… if I want a sub job… He sighed again. Gonna have to talk to a clan priest… aren’t I? Maybe? But…
Joe glanced towards the inner clan with that thought, realized what he was doing, and turned back to his surroundings. This… Joe’s frustration was now one of feeling trapped. He couldn’t ask any questions about the secrets of those who were in power except to those who were in power. And one thing he did know, asking about secrets of those with secrets, especially the powerful, was an unpleasant affair at best, and most likely a quick way to walking through a river with concrete shoes. He considered Gwenvair and her mother, now possibly friends, but he’d only known them about… Joe paused and thought back, counting the days then grimacing. Only been… wow… ten… twelve days? Yeah… not going to ask the city baronet about their secrets to power … that seems real dumb. Joe sighed and stretched at this.
His sigh must have caught the attention of his fellow customer in line as she turned to him, “Yup… annoyingly long, huh?”
Joe glanced at her and simply agreed, not wanting to explain his thoughts, “Yeah.”
They fell silent again for a time, then began their on again off again conversation as they waited, both too bored to remain silent, but too different to easily fall into a conversation or possibly unable to find a common hobby to make it for easy conversation. Their conversation finally ended when she got to the front of the line and left him with eager trepidation.
She quickly asked for her job change, taking a chance on librarian and that was when Joe realized he’d not picked a job to change to yet. The person in front of him still hadn’t been called, so he had a bit of time and quickly opened his list of jobs, trying to decide which job to choose. Being rushed, he looked through the list of jobs available, but quickly dismissed everything in the citizen line as it hadn’t proved useful at all, instead jumping directly to the educational line of jobs once again. He glanced down it and evaluated, but found himself uncertain. There were still some jobs available to him in the education line, but none were really useful, although he did find professor and doctor, both unlocked from the previous teacher and medic. He dismissed professor simply because he was still concerned about Zilnek and how he would react if Garnedell and Kilniara began rapidly leveling faster than him. Doctor concerned him as first aid was certainly useful, but not that useful when in the heat of the fight and medic proved that it wasn’t really like the fantasy healing that he’d read in books and played in games back home.