Joe grimaced, looking around carefully before turning and heading to one of the many stalls that happened to edge the streets and temple square. Well… that was a smart response! Joe absent mindedly looked at the objects, picking them up and putting them down, pantomiming an interested shopper, but spent the time rapidly trying to figure out what his options were. Despite spending a good chunk of time in thought, he found himself unable to find a good response and turned away from the square with resolve, but utterly stumped as he couldn’t see a real way around this.
I just need another two job changes, then… but… Joe glanced back at the temple square, watching the Saga priests badly try to blend in and appear nonchalant as they stared at the variety of people walking through the square. Joe shook his head and turned away. I’m screwed. I’m totally screwed… all the priests are in those temples and… no!
Joe’s eyes widened as a smirk quickly slipped onto his face. Nope… not all priests and temples were here! It would add another good half an hour to his trip, which annoyed him greatly… so don’t screw up my char: changes anymore… but would still allow him to keep his anonymity.
So, he turned towards the inner city gates, pausing to swap cloaks to a nicer one, and headed through them. He knew where one of the temples were, so headed directly for it. As he’d been very focused on keeping his distance from the temples and priests of Saga, he was easily able to identify Saga’s symbolism, so knew that the temple in the inner city wasn’t one dedicated to Saga. He wasn’t sure which temple it was, but it wasn’t one to Saga, so comfortably headed into the temple when he arrived.
There was a different priest than he was used to waiting at the front desk when he arrived, and so thought to ask about which god or goddess this temple was dedicated to.
“Apologies. I wasn’t careful coming in. I was a bit distracted. Could you tell me who this temple is dedicated to?”
“Ah! This is an undedicated temple, sir.”
“Oh, then it serves for all worshippers of any god or goddess?’
The man seemed to be taken aback by the description before nodding his head cautiously, “I believe… you could describe this temple as such.”
“That is… pretty interesting. Then who are the priests that care for this temple and its adherents?”
The man smiled at that before bowing a bit, “Undedicated temples are served by all priests and priestesses of all gods and goddesses.”
Joe blinked at that, concern rippling through him, “Huh! Then one of each priest?”
“For this temple. Larger undedicated temples may have two or three… some even more.”
Joe found such a thing a bit confusing, wondering what the purpose could be, considering that the temples were uniquely dedicated in the common city. He didn’t allow himself to be distracted and continued the conversation.
“Then, which god or goddess do you serve?” Joe asked cautiously, as he did not wish to be with a priest of Saga, but then hit himself as he realized it was a pretty dumb concern as the man already knew him and likely found this conversation unusual. Knowledge of temples would likely be quite common amongst the people here, and he’d now very bluntly made himself memorable. He could only hope he had a bit of dumb luck.
“Ah. I am a priest of Frigg.”
“Huh,” Joe hid his relief with faux interest and nodded, “Then, how do you handle serving individuals who worship other gods or goddesses?”
He smiled at that, “If you seek another, I may call them, but I am on duty today.”
“Ah! No. It’s fine. I was only curious. I’m always curious, it seems. Apologies. Then, you alternate with other priests and priestesses daily?”
“Half-daily.”
“Oh! That’s pretty nice! Then which god or goddesses’ priest is after you?”
The man nodded, considering carefully before replying, but not seeming concerned at all by the question, “I believe that the priestess of Tyr will be serving the temple tomorrow morning.”
“Huh. Do you have a sche…” Joe stopped himself, realizing that they wouldn’t. Writing didn’t exist and so no schedule would be made. Unless… maybe a pictographic one using the symbols for the gods and goddesses?
Regardless, it didn’t seem to be a wise question and ultimately a meaningless one. If he had to come back later, things likely would have gone very wrong, so it didn’t matter.
“Apologies. Never mind. Could I simply ask for a job change?”
The man bowed at that his interest quickly replaced by boredom at that, “Of course. Which job do you wish to attempt?”
Attempt? Interesting… huh… maybe… “I would like to attempt Saga Chaplain, please.”
The man’s interest perked once again at that, “Ah, a fellow priest! Excellent. Allow me to perform the ritual.”
The man then enacted the job change skill and Joe smiled, grateful for getting it done and began regretting that he hadn’t come to the inner city before for his job change. It seemed to be a lot less of a hassle due to the interfaith temples. However, a quick frown came to his face. But… that means a lot more chatter across temples since they’re working together. Crap. Glad this was the last time!
“Is all well, brother? You succeeded.”
“Ah. Apologies. I was lost in thought with other problems, brother.”
The priest frowned and replied, “It must be a very great problem. It is a happy day. At least for today, praise Saga for growth of your family line!”
Why wou… ooh… crap! His mind raced as he tried to figure a way out of this“Ah… yes! You are very right. Thank you! I should remember the blessings I receive and praise Saga when I receive them. I’m certain Saga will bless me through my struggles,” Joe ended with as sincere a smile as he could offer.
The man nodded back, seeming relieved and smiling in return, “See. You have been greatly blessed today. Find satisfaction in that and trust Saga’s will. As she Wills, so will the day! May Saga’s wisdom ever guide your thoughts, my brother.”
Joe didn’t know if there was any proper response so opted for a silent bow with a brilliant smile at that and turned to leave, playing up his joy in hopes of covering a failure to respond if there was one.
In any case, when Joe made it out of the temple, his walk of joy shifted into one of purpose as he headed directly back to the beginner’s dungeon as his thoughts turned to the differences between the inner and outer city. He could only wonder at the extreme difference in service between the temples. The temples of the outer court weren’t really that rude, or impolite, but they certainly were quite a bit blunter and task oriented, moving through the job changers rather quickly.
Granted, he’d put on his ‘nice’ cloak that he’d gotten with his new sets of clothing from the inner city tailor, keeping it wrapped tightly around him to hide the fact that he still had his ‘peasant’ clothing on, but it was still quite a bit different. He kept the cloak on until he left the inner city before discarding it with relief as the heat had started to build, and he slipped it into the back pack and picked up speed to make it to the dungeon as quickly as possible. As he traveled through the city, he used his renewed job change skill as a Saga chaplain to change himself to the Loki priest job then went directly into the dungeon and disappeared into the depths, turning his powerful drive towards massacring the goblins in the dungeon first floor from his favorite corner office.
He plowed through the afternoon into the early evening without even really paying attention, simply pulling and killing goblins as quickly as possible, even switching to using both spear and blade in tandem when he found he was able to more quickly kill the goblins this way, using the spear in his off hand at first to gut them then drawing his sword to take of their heads while they floundered forward on the spear desperate to reach him and cause any damage they could.
He quickly lost track of time, simply pulling and killing as rapidly as possible until a commotion out on the floor captured his attention. He looked up to find a large squad of soldiers that typically guarded the dungeon walls tromping through the middle of the floor, killing goblins left and right and opening a wide path towards the second floor. Behind them, several others, obviously not soldiers, followed in their wake and onto the path towards the second floor.
He found the situation odd enough that he took a moment to try to understand what was happening. His speed dropped as he pulled another couple of goblins and fought them, but found his thoughts still preoccupied by what he’d seen. Just when he was going to dismiss the whole event, they came back through, the guards working in pairs to kill goblins off as they cut a great swathe through the middle of the floor. Behind them, a great horde of adventurers followed, using the path created by the guards to freely escape to the entrance. Joe blinked at that, then realized he was looking at something that seemed the norm, not unusual. The people in the safe zone on the first floor were watching without any concern. Most even seemed a bit frustrated as the goblin population on the floor took a precipitous dive. The adventures coming in from the second floor on their way out were also simply chatting and following behind without any concern or urgency. This… is a daily thing? It must be! But… why didn’t I notice it yesterday? Maybe not daily? Something special about yesterday? Or today?
Joe wasn’t sure what he was looking at but then took a look around the floor and found the goblins almost completely gone. He sighed, frustrated, believing that he was now going to have to wait for the goblins to return and opened up his status to look at how much further he had to go. He was pleasantly surprised when he found that he’d made it to level thirty three. With excitement, he turned to his skills page and grinned excitedly. Change main job!! Yes!! Joe kept his excitement in check, but couldn’t keep his joy tamped and leapt up with a fist bump in joy. His wild grin remained as he saw that the Loki priest line truly did appear to have everything to do with experience and learning as he once again had the two typical bonuses to learning and experience, but this time with four +’s attached, whatever that actually translated to. To be honest, there was so much to learn about this system that Joe decided to leave the exploration of what it all exactly meant to others to research. He would simply accept them as ‘better versions’ and trust that it was so. Time to head home. As he did so, he made sure to take a look at the stats that were available to him with this new job as well as carefully studying the three skills. As he had come to expect, the descriptions proved useless.
Learning ++++: Gain a minor boost to your learning capabilities and stat.
Double Exp ++++: A minor periodical gain of double the experience for an experience source.
Change Main Job: Change the main jobs of people very few times per day.
The change job skill, however, gave some hints that there were daily limits, and he would have to explore how many that actually meant, as well as if leveling the skill had any affect. Would have been nice if I could just … change the jobs hundreds of times and get it maxed out to level one at least. Or at least be able to change my job as much as I wanted or needed. Wait! Maybe I can… ha! Use all my change jobs for the chaplain class but save the last job change of the day to swap to another job with a change job skill! That would give me… quite a lot of job changes I could do… especially if each of the priest jobs after chaplain also can do it! Although… would the Saga priesthood see me again since I changed jobs again? Or… well… shoot! I didn’t ask… but… how could I… kind of a suspicious question… hmm…
Joe’s worry changed to a grin, enjoying the ability to game the system a bit. He then turned to look at his stats before bathing at the bathhouse then heading back to the inn for the night. Today had been a very good and productive day.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
33.00
Physical:
Wind
33
SP
33.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
33
MP
33.00
Crushing
0.00
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Earth
33
Attack
33.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
33
Defense
33.00
Ice
33
Magic
33.00
Gravity
33
Magic Defense
33.00
Loki Chaplain
33
Magnetic
33
Strength
33.00
Unselected
0
Light
33
Dexterity
33.00
Unselected
0
Shadow
33
Agility
33.00
Unselected
0
Space
33
Speed
33.00
Spirit
66
Endurance
33.00
Mental
66
IQ
99.00
Sound
33
Wisdom
132.00
Electricity
33
Will
90.75
Learning
660.00
Luck
0.00
* * *
Dranua, heretic priest, refugee, and desperate fugitive grumbled as he stumbled down the road seeking a new place to hide. The village of Lakeside had been perfect and allowed him to loose himself to mediocrity and drink. The Eccentric’s arrival at Lakeside had shocked him, raising great fear in him, but when he saw how Joe had been both innocent and unknowledgeable in the ways of this world, the fear had subsided, quickly replaced by surprise then awe at the Eccentric’s incredible growth. After his great ritual to cure the Garnedell boy’s curse of Simpleton, he’d had to flee as his working would have called the inquisition upon him almost immediately.
He’d been quite upset at having to leave the village, but having the ire of an Eccentric was even worse than any inquisition or the loss of such a good home as the village. He could only hope that he could find another obscure and safe village but doubted such a thing was possible. Lakeside proved to be a most unusual village with almost no monster attacks or tides, which allowed the peaceful village prosperity and peace in unusual measure. A peace that Dranua had taken great advantage of.
Despite having lost his home, the Eccentric had reignited a passion in Dranua that he’d long lost, and while he was certainly no joyful man, he’d lost his will to drown himself in drink or lose his will to pursue the path. This morning, however, he’d received news of a much rarer type. His god spoke to him of new believers, and believers that brought such joy to Dranua he could only laugh. The Eccentric had become a Loki faithful and acolyte in a single day. He’d never heard of such a thing before, to find such grace with the gods to grow so quickly through the ranks. He spent the whole day with a wild grin on his face as with an Eccentric, he might be able to save his faith before it was lost to time forever.
His joy was short lived, however, when he woke quite late the next morning to find the Eccentric having already progressed from acolyte to monk, on to chaplain, and thence to cleric! The joy, while still evident, was overwhelmed with a terror that Dranua never knew he could feel. Three growths in one day! The terror faded for a bit, tinging over with some small amount of hope.
* * *
Not far from the capital city library, deep underground behind steel doors, magic shields, and enhanced and strengthened guards, hundreds of terrifying, incriminating, and useful prisoners were kept. Deep in the depths of this dungeon, far below even some of the greatest and most terrifying of prisoners, a rather weak and sniveling specimen lay trapped in an unusual dungeon cell. It was not the wealthiest or most opulent, but it was one of the cleanest, brightest, and most protected cells with guards specifically chosen for their trust with protections so extreme that guards took almost three bells to complete their enhancements each day to be prepared to stand guard over this prisoner. Few ever came to visit, they did not have to. The prisoner was under geas to always report. Yesterday, a report had been called. The first in many, many years. While the lack of activity was reassuring, the fact such a report was coming after so long was also concerning.
The priestess of Bragi arrived as expected but said nothing, only sitting and silently waiting for the prisoner to begin his report. The prisoner, long used to the expectation, quickly began his duty, describing the face of a young man, almost a boy. The young man was healthy, physically strong, and appeared to be quite handsome with almost perfect teeth. Such teeth would be very hard for a commoner, painting the man as likely to be a clanner. There was little else to gain from the description as the rest was in the simple garb of a faithful or acolyte.
The prisoner obeyed his geas, and described the boy as best he good, and the priestess of Bragi called upon her god’s blessing to paint a likeness that always surprised the prisoner in how well it captured the likeness he described. As before, the priestess’s painting was excellent, matching boy’s likeness almost perfectly.
After the priestess of Bragi left, the prisoner allowed his grin its freedom, reveling in the small rebellion he was able to enact. The prisoner knew very little of his condition or situation. He was nothing more than a simple and petty thief, captured in a failed theft and subsequently ‘lost’ in the bowels of justice and in the grips of some great political work of the gods and goddesses. He’d been forced to take on a new job; several of them. It had been arduous, but rapidly done after which he’d been locked up in this cell and never allowed freedom since.
It had only been by happenstance that he’d overheard some priests and priestesses speaking and in that conversation he’d learned he had some form of priest job. He knew not what or even which god or goddess he was bound to, but their description of the message windows of the god’s displaying new adherents to the god or goddesses exactly matched his. He’d learned very little else beyond that, except that the geas had been a bit too specific. He had to report any new individual of any kind to the temples. And he had. Always. And in this situation, he’d done the same, reporting that someone new had joined the god or goddess. He had, however, withheld a single piece of information. He’d failed to point out that this young man’s face had appeared two times yesterday, and three times by this afternoon. He couldn’t keep the grin off his face at his successful rebellion, nor the subtle hope that a god’s five times divine call may mean this man was of great importance to the gods. He could only hope the man could royally screw over his captors in his stead. He lay back on his bed and stared up at the picture of a young strong muscular man, smiling softly back at the observer with perfect white teeth.