Chapter Sixty Seven
Joe woke that morning, similar as any other, quite a bit earlier than he’d wanted and found himself awake early in the morning. It seemed that he was soon going to be waking in the middle of the night before being able to fall asleep once again; a habit that appeared to be an ancient one hinted at in older stories and histories before electricity and the easy late nights available with the overwhelming entertainment and easy light it afforded. He sighed, rolling over and looking out of the window but found no hint of what time it was, although the gas giant was well below the horizon with the sun, no glow of the gas giant visible anywhere, which put him very, very late at night.
Huh… I wonder how days or nights are going to be when the gas giant and sun are on opposite sides. Will it be daylight the whole time? Or a dimmer kind of twilight twenty four seven? Or… how dark will the night be when the gas giant eclipses the sun… Joe’s thought’s wandered a bit before he took a deep breath, sighed, and turned check his status, considering everything carefully. His status remained pretty much unchanged and his current job was set to zero so no point to checking it. But… maybe available jobs? Check out the two new ones… two new trees!
Citizen
Crafting
Education
Nobility
Grouping
Faith
Combat
Commoner
30
Crafter
Educated
20
Groom
10
Partier
Believer
30
Adventurer
31
Villager
10
Scholar
20
Priest Growth Order
Explorer
Farmer
10
Philosopher
30
God Faithful
Waiter
10
Theologian
31
God Acolyte
Bartender
10
Believer
30
Chief
10
Theorist
29
Day Laborer
10
Citizen Theorist
26
Inn Keeper
10
Criminal Theorist
30
Reeve
10
Party Theorist
30
Forester
10
Education Theorist
31
Trapper
10
Crafter Theorist
31
Fisherman
10
Virtus Theorist
31
Hunter
15
Magus Theorist
30
Miner
10
Combat Theorist
30
Baker
10
Faith Theorist
32
Cook
10
Epistemologist
Othen Faithful
Metropolitan
20
Burgher
10
Sigyn Faithful
Cartographer
Waiter
10
Bartender
10
Freya Faithful
Day Laborer
10
Teacher
30
Cook
10
Professor
Plutus Faithful
Mana-ologist
29
Mana Manipulator
30
Gifted
Frer Faithful
Humanities
Gifted
35
Eros Faithful
Fenrir Faithful
Frigg Faithful
Baker
10
Tyr Faithful
Groom
10
Butcher
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
10
Engineer
Sors Faithful
Inn Keeper
10
Medic
30
Merchant
10
Doctor
Baldur Faithful
Idunn Faithful
Linguist
26
Spell Caster
30
Polyglot
20
Angrboda Faithful
Chemist
Mathmetician
Mimir Faithful
30
Mimir Acolyte
Citizen
20
Bragi Faithful
Gypsy
Beggar
Gambler
Saga Faithful
30
Saga Acolyte
Enki Faithful
Falconer
Thur Faithful
Loki Faithful
Joro Faithful
Specialist
20
After seeing his available jobs, his status now offered little and he turned to his training. The dark room and quiet snores of the other sleeping guys narrowed his options and he ended up defaulting to magical training. He alternated his practice between exhausting his MP and manipulating his points while his MP recovered.
The new mana point he’d gotten before was still there with him, but still as weird as ever, seemingly rather ghost like. Joe played with it, and found it unchanged, emitting mana easily enough but simply unable to move or react to his commands as quickly as his other points could. Its oddity made Joe uncomfortable, incredibly so, and he finally put it to the side in a quarantine of its own, assigning a simple command to it: stay away from all his other points. It proved sufficient, and Joe soon found himself simply playing with that idea, locking points into position or commands in relation to others. He played with that for some time until he exhausted all the ideas he had about it and moved back to emission and manipulation.
Joe wasn’t sure how long he lay awake, alternating between mana exhaustion and point manipulation but woke again in the twilight of the morning. Joe jerked awake, surprised to find he’d fallen asleep and surprised again when he found how long he’d slept, the twilight still dim but proof he’d fallen asleep for another few hours. He stretched, well rested and ready for the day to begin, although a bit frustrated at the realization that he would soon be stuck spending a good chunk of each night laying in bed with nothing to do as well as the early mornings. He returned to his magical exercises again, although he spent some time allowing his mind to consider possible resolutions which Joe could only think of would involve buying his own home and an inordinate amount of candles or whatever lighting options were available… which means I might have to invent candles… Joe sighed at that and dropped his thoughts, returning to his mana training. Kilniara came in while he was lost in playing with his mana points and when he shifted over to mana emission and was surprised to find Kilniara already nestled into his arms.
“Oh. Hey? When’d you get here?”
Kilniara rolled over and looked up at him over her shoulder, “Hi! You were so out of it you didn’t even notice me come in.”
Joe smiled and shrugged, “A bit focused.”
Kilniara smiled, “And I didn’t mind. Figured some things out?”
“Hmm… not much new, but still learning things and getting better.”
“That’s good. Anything you need?”
Joe smiled at her, then began grinning a bit more, “You?”
Kilniara didn’t reply, staring at him before she began shrinking a bit into herself while her skin flushed red and her lips fluttered between a brilliant grin and an embarrassed quivering grimace. Joe watched her, saying nothing but leaned forward to kiss her on her lips to calm her.
“Too much?”
She said nothing for several moments, glancing away before shaking her head slightly but with much more calm and smiling brightly. Her reply was barely above a whisper, “No.”
Joe kissed her again, wrapping and arm around her waist before pulling her into the little spoon and hugging her from behind.
“Let’s just practice.”
She said nothing for a bit before turning back to him looking up at him with a heated gaze, “Are you sure?”
Joe looked and chuckled, “You know my answer on this. We can wait and we will. You’re… pushing a bit.”
Kilniara’s face dropped quickly, concern coming to her face, “Are… am I? I’m … sorry. I didn’t… I’m sorry. Just… trying to joke.”
Joe sighed and shook his head and pulled her in more tightly, “I know it is a joke. Please just… tone jokes about that down… uh… well… a caveat. You can do that all you want after we are committed to each other, but for now, please… be kind?”
“Be kind?”
Joe smiled, “Yes… please.”
“This is… you think this is unkind?”
Joe nodded, paused, then continued, “What if I had your favorite sweet. You know I had it and I wa… oh, wait! The baker of your favorite sweet… do they have a child you are friends with?”
Kilniara thought at that, then nodded, “Hmm… yes. We are not close, but we do have some time to be with each other on holidays. We live quite far from each other so it is difficult outside holidays.”
“OK. So… this friend… they can probably have this sweet anytime they wish when their parents make it, right?”
“Oh… uh… yeah? Probably.”
“Right now, are you upset thinking of this?”
“Not… really… maybe a bit jealous, but … yeah… I’m fine.”
“Then… how would you feel if every day when you meet with her, she would bring one with her, then eat it in front of you slowly while very obviously moaning in appreciation of the snack or that she had it often, or … it was easy for her to get one… things like this.”
Kilniara growled at that, “We wouldn’t be friends long.”
Joe snorted, laughing slightly at that, “Yeah… kinda doing that to me right now.”
Her eyes shot up to his, blinked, then blushed and turned away before she looked back up at him with embarrassed shame and a hint of lust, “I’m… I do that to you? I… don’t know how to feel. I… I am sorry to …” guilt fully slammed in and she dropped her head, “Sorry.”
Joe kissed the back of her neck and interjected, “You didn’t know. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. For you, it was an honest attempt at humor and just… to make me happy, I think… I hope?”
She growled at that and slammed an elbow back into his chest lightly, “Yes… of course.”
“See? You didn’t know. I’m not going to hold it against you, “Joe replied while spooning comfortably against her, “But… yeah… it’s a bit tough for me… for guys.”
Kilniara returned to her good mood a bit quicker then sighed, “I’m… sorry. I really didn’t know.”
“Yup. I know. It’s fine, but now you do.”
She looked back up at him then smiled and nodded, “Thank you… for your patience.”
Joe’s answering grin was just as light, “Well… I’m asking you to be pretty patient for me, too. So it’s only fair.”
She giggled at that, smiling brightly and Joe simply stared back at her with a soft smirk, Her blush returned but only a hint as her own smile was quite knowing and in agreement with his statement.
“Just… let’s make sure we are right for each other. And keep… being patient with each other. No need to push so hard. It will come slowly as we get to know each other. Let … just let it happen, OK?”
Kilinara’s embarrassment melted almost immediately into a subtle relief and she chuckled before snuggling back into him. Joe shifted himself to make it more comfortable for himself and chuckled in relief that he’d been able to explain himself well enough.
Joe didn’t really have anything else to say and simply chose to hold her. Her embarrassment quickly faded once again as her happiness returned with strength and she flipped in his arms to wrap herself around him in a full body hug. The hug was a joyful happiness of each other’s presence and the two remained like that for a while until Kilniara pulled her head back and looked deeply into his eyes for several moments before slipping forward slowly, cautiously as fear of rejection still seemed to teem behind her eyes. Seeing her come in for a kiss, Joe’s smile grew a bit and he leaned forward as well, the two loosing themselves in each other’s lips.
Their kiss was slow, embracing the joy they experienced with one another until the joy began to heat under their passion. She slithered more firmly on to his chest as their kiss grew in fervency and energy but Joe quickly pulled back, not wanting to get lost in the moment and smiled.
“Feeling better?”
Kilniara blinked when she lost his lips but quickly realized the situation they were in and dropped her head on his chest, hiding her burning cheeks away while Joe calmed himself with deep breaths. The two lay like that for several moments before Joe noticed Kilnara’s dropped head and he moved a hand to brush away her hair, thinking that her face was simply hidden. However, when he began caressing her hair back, he realized that she was burying her face in his chest and he tried to raise her face towards him. She resisted and Joe tried a bit more firmly, but added encouragement as he did so.
“I liked it… very much when you… want me like that… when you want me so passionately. Please, don’t hide that from me and please do it … lots more.”
Her face snapped up at that, eyes searching his for honesty and finding it quickly before she began smiling brightly even through the burning embarrassment that still painted her cheeks red.
“It’s… enjoyable?”
“How does it feel to know I want you … so much… in every way you could think of.”