Show me forwards spin defense. This time, as before, a holographic display showed proper positioning and stance and Joe followed through, easily setting himself in the proper stance until the spinning of the spear began. That, too, proved easy enough, and Joe began rapidly spinning his spear but found that he was very much doing it at the typical, if amazing, speeds of a well-trained spearman. He tried a couple more times, but found he couldn’t imitate the rapid windstorm rotations of the skill. Huh… how about.. show me forwards spin defense… in slowmo… uh… and let me walk around it and see.
This time, the holographic display seemed to stutter a bit, seeming to struggle with the request before pulling itself away from Joe’s body and then once again did the skill, this time with Joe able to walk around and see what the hologram was doing. He paid special attention to the hand movements, but found nothing unusual as they seemed to work as he normally would carry out the skill back on earth. He looked a bit more closely and soon realized that what he was seeing was the spear rotating and several times the speed of what should be possible. The hands were grasping and turning the spear, as would be expected, but when the hands released the spear to ‘throw’ it to the other hand, the spear rapidly rotated through several rotations, accelerating to incredible speeds and the hands soon were simply bouncing the spear back and forth without actually grasping it and being the main force of the spin. Something else was causing the spear to rotate incredibly rapidly and the hands were only maintaining the position of the spear. Joe found it very incredible and intriguing. How… is he doing that?
As soon as Joe said that, the hologram, which was still starting and stopping the skill, began to highlight a glowing line of something emanating from the torso, up into the arms, and down into the hands before it exited the hands and wrapped around the spear, driving the spear to spin so quickly. What is… ooh! Mana! I bet!
Joe quickly set himself again, and prepared to do the skill himself, looking at the hologram carefully before once again enacting the skill, but this time paying close attention to any mana movements from his core into his arms. Forwards spin defense! Joe ignored the movement of the body, instead focusing on his mana and core. His body moved to the stance, arms pressed outwards, and then his hands began to spin the spear. As soon as his hands began spinning the spear, his core warmed and mana erupted from his core up into his arms and rapidly twisted down his arms into his hands where the twisting continued, wrapping around the spear and driving the spear to insane speeds. Joe held the skill, willing it to continue and watched the mana flow from him into his arms onto the spear and, with a bit more time of careful introspection, he noticed some of the mana intertwining with the spear to trail off into the wind and appear to forcibly blow the wind out from the spear. Joe watched all this and studied it carefully for another few moments before ending the skill and standing back to rest. Huh… so…
Joe looked over at the hologram enacting the skill and now noticed the twisting form of the mana. It moved fast, much faster than Joe thought was possible as he’d never gotten his mana to move so quickly from his core out to wherever he was emitting it. But… now I know it’s possible.
Joe grinned and set his stance once again, then began spinning the spear while tracing mana from his core up into his arms. Over the next twenty or so minutes, Joe was able to get the mana to finally flow up and around the spear, although it added little to the effect, it’s rotation hardly affected. It took quite a bit longer for his mana to start twisting in his arms, but when he did so, the speed picked up slightly, but the emission rate dropped. Joe practiced for another half an hour on the skill before ending. He wasn’t satisfied, but he was happy with what he’d gotten done. There was a lot of work to do to even understand the skill, let alone duplicate it, but he’d been able to grasp the twisting mana a bit and even emit his mana a bit faster than before. Still haven’t even figured out how they make the wind blowing from the spear yet anyway, but… Joe grinned, happy with the new knowledge and excited about his options. Gotta add mana speed to my training in the mornings!
Joe then began going through the rest of the skills, finding them all quite basic, but also all included some form of mana manipulation and use, which Joe found quite interesting. The skills he had gained were poke, head crack, and forwards spin defense. It seemed each upgrade of the spearman job simply lowered the level at which a skill was made available. Basically, the first skill for all the spearman were basically the same, just the lower class spearman got the skill at a higher level and obviously got fewer skills, whereas higher class spearman got the skills sooner and ultimately would likely get more once into higher levels.
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Joe spent the afternoon playing with the skills, both studying the holographic help and having it use his body to play out the skill so he could feel it. The exercise was relaxing and enjoyable, and he lost himself in it for a time. It was a good day.
* * *
Spymaster for Gunlan, Second in Line for Patriarch, settled on the roof overlooking the courtyard of the eccentric’s inn, watching the eccentric practice in strange and odd ways. He didn’t understand the eccentric and he’d spent the last week carefully following his movements. The spymaster grew excited when he saw the eccentric practice in the courtyard alone. This was the first time in weeks that he’d been able to find the eccentric alone and in a place he could take advantage of it. He feared that the eccentric would spend his entire time in the dungeon or with his apprentices. When he saw the eccentric at the bath alone, he immediately instigated his plan, bringing in his patsies but found the eccentric already leaving by the time they were in place.
They ended up following him to the inn, and the spymaster almost dismissed his underlings. However, when he found that the apprentices hadn’t returned yet, hope remained and the eccentric soon exited into the inn courtyard. The spymaster had ended up waiting for some time, thinking the eccentric would return and head to his room where his underlings would play out their farce outside his door. As time stretched on, he ended up slipping around the back and used the back alleys and the roof of another building to see into the inn courtyard, where he found the eccentric practicing.
When he saw this, he found himself intrigued, having never seen this style of cultivation before and lost himself in the Dao, carefully watching the eccentric express his Dao. His movements were simple, yet they seemed to exhibit some form of power that the spymaster could not grasp. His movements seemed to follow several different Daos, each distinct and unique enough that the spymaster was able to grasp that they were separate. After the third or fourth exhibit of a Dao, the spymaster became more and more awed as the eccentric cultivated yet another and another. The spymaster found himself lost in the throes of inspiration when the eccentric finally stopped and began to pace the courtyard. Seeing this, the spymaster cursed and feared that he’d lost his chance to continue, but the eccentric then cultivated a Skill, its movements precise, powerful, and dangerous.
Maybe there is enough time! He quickly slithered down from the peak and towards the alleyway, looking over the edge, seeing his two henchman below.
“Go! He is ready! Make it believable.”
The spymaster then found himself hesitating. Wisdom recommended that he flee the area immediately, but the chances to see an eccentric cultivate was a temptation that almost overwhelmed him. He waffled uncertainly until he heard the actors begin their play, and with that, the decision was made. He dropped quietly into the alley and fled into the depths of the dirt and dark.
* * *
Joe had finished off testing his various physical skills and had turned to experimenting with them in various ways when he heard the shuffling of footsteps on the other side of the wall. He thought little of it, but the footsteps were met by another and the two began talking to each other quietly, but loud enough that he was able to hear them. Their conversation proved interesting enough that he began to listen. That interest only grew, quite rapidly.
“Hey! Did you find out?”
“I was able to get the information. But you can’t tell anyone else about this job! It is a unique and powerful one with skills to match!”
“Why do you think I have been searching for it? Did you find it, or not!”
Joe’s practice slowed when he heard the discussion of a new job.
“Is it?”
“Yes! A Greater job of the Greater Clans. If you are caught with this, you will be executed! I will not hang for this by your side.”
“You will not. No one will know. But is it?”
There was no response, and Joe realized that it must have been a nod, because the same man continued, much more excited.
“It is? Truly?”
“Yes. A Greater job unlocking the increased level skill!”
Joe hid his snort at hearing the job, certain that it came with the penalty of losing any gains in the learning stat, but still listened carefully while continuing his practice.
“Do you know of its purpose? I could never find it.”
“It frees you beyond the maximum level!”
The rushed breath of excitement on the other side of the wall barely covered Joe’s stumble and his own gasp, his practice now completely forgotten as he listened in. Something that lets you go beyond max level? What is the max level? Does anyone know? I don’t know how anyone would know… but… probably Gwenvair would know, right?
Joe had frozen at that, and listened carefully. The conversation continued and Joe stifled his sigh of relief and continued listening carefully.
“How?”
“It is very difficult. It will require… many cores. In the scholarly jobs, there is a job for understanding jobs. A job called theorist. Beyond this job are nine other jobs to understand each of the major areas of the other jobs. Each are also theorists, but are theorists for understanding only specific jobs, such as combat jobs, or scholarly jobs, or magic jobs! Once you have raised all these jobs to incredibly high levels; you must raise ALL of these jobs; all nine! Once you have raised all these jobs, another theorist becomes available, specifically to understand skills! This job is the gatekeeper. The skill theorist will open the job you seek. It is the…” sound crackled like static then suddenly cleared “&$*(# physicist engineer!”
* * *