Chapter Seventy One
Joe slept through midnight this time, the late night before having exhausted him quite a bit more and he was restless with sleeplessness as normal. He sighed and rolled in his bed, looking over to check the boys. He found them both asleep and felt a bit of tension leave him. Last night had been the first night he’d come in after everyone else had come home and he’d never realized the stress involved in being responsible for others and being concerned for their well-being. He took a deep sigh and then frowned, now feeling concern over whether Kilniara had returned, but found himself rather stuck in how to find out. He didn’t even know where she was staying now, and frowned. Maybe ask? Or… hmm… let her keep her privacy, maybe… How does she get here in the morning, though… He sighed, tossing a bit before distracting himself by flipping open his status and taking a look at his latest job and its skills. He expected pretty much something similar to what had happened with the Saga line of jobs with each successive job only slightly better. That said, the first Loki job gave insane bonuses to experience gains, and he could only excitedly check out what he was getting now.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
35.00
Physical:
Wind
35
SP
35.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
35
MP
35.00
Crushing
0.00
Earth
35
Attack
35.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
35
Defense
35.00
Ice
35
Magic
35.00
Gravity
35
Magic Defense
35.00
Loki Acolyte
35
Magnetic
35
Strength
35.00
Unselected
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0
Light
35
Dexterity
35.00
Unselected
0
Shadow
35
Agility
35.00
Unselected
0
Space
35
Speed
35.00
Spirit
35
Endurance
35.00
Mental
35
IQ
70.00
Sound
35
Wisdom
105.00
Electricity
35
Will
70.00
Learning
350.00
Luck
0.00
The stats he found weren’t that surprising in comparison to the Loki faithful. Pretty much everything was the same. There were literally no differences between any of the stats. Joe sighed a bit and flipped open his skills page to take a look at what he now had. He was a bit happy by what he found, then a bit disappointed when he realized that there really were no differences that he could see, or that several of the job skills were so esoteric as to be difficult to understand. The only difference to them was the added ‘+’ symbol that was appended to the end. He could only guess and hope that it made it somehow better, but he really couldn’t understand what it really meant.
Learning +++: Gain a small boost to your learning capabilities and stat.
Double Exp +++: A small random chance to gain double the experience for some experience source.
Cure Disease: Capable of curing most diseases related to the god Loki.
Joe found himself curious of the idea of diseases specific to a god, or goddess, and wondered what it would ultimately mean. The gods and goddesses obviously have some theme… some… thing they rule over as their main control, so is the disease related to mitigating or ruining the area under the god’s or goddess’s control? Huh… would that make the knowledge god… goddess?? Who is Kukurnal’s god… uh… not Saga… oh! Right, Mimir. Would that mean diseases related to Mimir would be diseases that affect knowledge somehow… so… is it literally a disease that attacks memes? Or would it be brain diseases.
Joe spent some time considering the idea, perusing the idea before dismissing it as something outside his current knowledge or ability to discover and focused back on the other skills. The other two skills did seem related, even identical to the previous jobs skills, but he couldn’t get what the ‘+’ was. It was obviously different. The previous job had only one ‘+’ and even two identical skills with the only difference being that one had one plus and the other had two. The description did seem to paint a subtly different benefit, so the plus seemed to represent a minor boost of some kind. The learning bonus was the one that gave the biggest hint, with three levels of the skills showing the only difference being in the boost size. The lowest level gave a ‘miniscule’ boost, the second gave a ‘tiny’ and this one gave a ‘small’ boost. He could only guess that small meant a bit more than tiny.
Deciding to push the issue as he wasn’t tired at all and wanted to figure it out, he decided to use the help system, as much as he could.
Help. What is Learning +++? There was no response but silence.
Help. Explain Learning +++, please. This time a response came slowly
Learning +++ is a skill of the Loki Acolyte job.
Well, that was one hundred percent correct and utterly useless! Joe pondered a bit before attempting again.
Help. What does Learning +++ do?
It helps learning.
Joe growled, but withheld any curses and pondered a bit, trying to carefully formulate a meaningful question.
Help. What does Learning +++ affect?
Learning.
Joe’s growl was much more pronounced and less forgiving as he began mumbling under his breath quietly so as to not bother the boys. His grumbling continued for a few moments before he calmed himself and tried one more time.
Help. Does Learning +++ affect my learning stat?
Yes.
Joe nodded, finding the answer he expected and yet still frustrated for receiving it. Wait... that was stupid. It's just the last question as a yes no... I'm an idiot...
Help. Does it affect the Learning stat positively or negatively?
Positively.
Having wrestled a relatively useless answer out of the system since he was rather certain of the answer, Joe took a deep breath and relaxed, focusing on the next question. He stared for a bit more then decided he could ask one last question, hopefully getting something a bit more meaningful.
Help. What does the ‘+’ symbol mean when it is added to a skill?
The skill is slightly improved.
Joe nodded again, trying to remain positive. Makes sense! Right. Then how? Joe waited a minute before he grimaced and shook his head, realizing he hadn’t engaged the help system.
Help. How does it improve the skill?
Joe waited. And he waited quite a bit more before realizing he wasn’t getting any response. Another several questions returned nothing, and he even worried that he’d asked poorly, but a cautious and deliberate request still returned nothing. Joe sighed and wondered if he took on the theorist job if he would get something a bit more, and put that on his to do list, then grinned.
Assign gladiator all weapons char: to Faith theorist faith guidance. A quick glance at the available skills page showed it transferred and he began, asking questions using the faith guidance. As he asked questions, he didn’t get any popups and he frowned. Didn’t it… tell me before? He tried a couple more times but nothing came back and he began to frown, growing frustrated himself. Did I get blacklisted? Why would… Joe paused and considered before finally sighing and moving on. Whatever was happening, it was too late to figure it out as there was no more response. He’d have to check with time and… ooh… wait.
Joe opened up his status and picked a random title, click on it. It popped up with its explanation easy enough, and click on the titles returned their normal explanations. He paused at that then we back to the skills and clicked on his Loki acolyte skills and found them responding normally as well. He thought back to his previous questions and tried again, attempting one of his previous questions again, worded as identically as he could remember. This time, the system did not respond and Joe frowned. So… normal stuff is ok… but unique queries are shut down? Or… maybe… a limited daily amount? Or… something? Check tomorrow and… oooh… Hopefully it is a daily limit and not a lifetime one… that would… suck! Or… maybe weekly… monthly… yearly. Joe grew more depressed the more he thought about it. With a sigh, he turned to happier thoughts.
His grin returned when he looked back at his current growth in the Loki priest line. Seeing that he was already half way to getting the Loki job change skill, he was excited, especially if he would be able to fight double today again. It had been quite productive and he was even able to fight the goblin king one more time and get two more weapons rings, although they weren’t that important anymore. At least… not for me…
He now had enough for everyone to have one, and he was almost considering to shift both Kilniara and Zilnek over to the staff, a much more useful weapon than the ridiculous half staff. Pulling his thoughts back to productivity, Joe dismissed his status windows and flopped back onto the bed. He simply lay there for several moments before finally diving back into practicing his various mana skills, mana point skills, and mana point manipulation. He almost forgot to add on mana manipulation as well, but remember quickly enough when he tried fiddling with some of the mana he was emitting and realized that he’d forgotten to practice manipulating the mana he was emitting.
The practice went on for several hours until Joe found himself slowly drifting asleep again and lost himself in dreams for about a half an hour, not even realizing he’d fallen asleep until he woke to the shifting of his bed and the touch of cool scales on his skin as Kilniara slipped under the covers next to him.
“Hi, beautiful,” Joe whispered, turning towards her without opening his eyes. She shivered against him and pressed into his side even further.
“Shu naaaaaaaaa gulanan warm!”
Joe frowned. Wha? Oh! Assign Faith Theorist faith guidance char: to Polyglot language expertise. Joe grinned.
“Sorry. Missed that. What did you say?”
“You feel sooooo warm!”
“Hmm,” Joe chuckled, nodding as he nuzzled his cheek into her feather like hair, “Makes sense, I’m warm blooded. I’m your own personal heater.”
“Heate… Heater? Huh… interesting. I like it.”
“You like me being your personal heater?”
“That, too,” Kilniara giggled quietly.
Joe smiled and turned, pulling her into his arms and against his chest. She sighed contentedly, snuggling even deeper. They lay like this for a good ten minutes before Kilniara sighed again, this time one of duty, and began emitting mana, obviously beginning her magic. Joe chuckled at her unhappy slog into duty but joined her as well, working on his mana.
The morning continued as before, the two diving into their magic training until the boys woke and drove Kilniara out to the common room where she awaited the boys. Joe actually went out with her, the two chatting enjoyably with one another in the common room as they waited for the others to come down; Zilnek first and Garnedell last, obviously taking time to remember his dead family.
Before they began their day, Joe took Garnedell’s spoon spear with some fear and held it out to Garnedell.
“Take it carefully. I think things have changed.”
Garnedell’s easy reach towards the spear paused at that and he grew a bit more concerned, grasping it with a much lighter touch. When the spear began vibrating, Garnedell’s calm face twisted to despair and Joe sighed, frustrated.
“Well… yeah… but, we still have the rings, OK?”
Garnedell calmed at that, nodding at Joe, “It was bound to happen soon.”