Joe paused for a bit, realizing he wanted to get his job changed quickly and so he decided to go over some of his stats before he swapped his current job. OK. Another theorist job; the Magus Theorist. I hope there is some good magic here! Joe snorted at his optimism, disregarding it as he knew that every other theorist job had proven to be quite disappointing. He flipped open his skills sheet and began glancing through it and despite knowing exactly what skills he was going to have, he still found it hard to hide his disappointment as he found the same three skills; a guidance skill called magician guidance, the predict job skill, and the garbled skill at level twenty. He played with asking some questions of magician guidance and predict job, but since he could only ask yes no questions, and he didn’t know what questions to ask, he found himself quite stuck, although he did find out some interesting pieces of information.
Is there a fire mage? …Yes.
Ooh… ok… um… kind of cool, how about… uh.. what are they… air, water, fire, and earth, right? Are their air, water, fire, and earth mages? …Yes.
Hmm… classic western Greek philosophy? Or is it maybe based on… wait! Chinese… What are the Chinese ones… air, water, fire, earth, uh… hmm… metal! Right? Metal? No… wait… I know they have wood, too. So then… if they have all four then… screw it. Let me just ask.
Are there nature mages? …No.
Are there metal mages? …No.
Well… suck… there goes my Magneto hopes! Ooh… wait…
Are there magnetic mages? …Yes.
Wait a minute! Serious! Hmm… fire, air, water, earth. Greek; western philosophy. No metal mages, but wouldn’t a magnetic mage pretty much be a metal mage then? So… but no nature mage… uh… maybe a different name?
Are there mages that help grow plants faster? …No.
Ah… wait! Healing! Are there healing mages? …Yes.
OK! Seems to corroborate what the three said. Healing can come from priests or from mages. Um…
Is the healing from a priest the same as from a healing mage? … … … …
Not a no… but… hmm… What is it?
Joe wracked his mind for a few more minutes but was unable to figure anything out, taking a deep sigh before glancing around the street. He frowned and kicked himself a bit, realizing he’d come to a stop outside the dungeon in the street, staring at his status and lost in his thoughts while the others chatted quietly next to him. Oh! I’m an idiot. They’ve all been… man… looks like they’ve been waiting a while!
Joe put his meandering aside and quickly flipped open his current job status to take a look at what he’d gained for stats before turning to the others.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
Available Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
30.00
Physical:
Wind
30
MP
90.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
30
Attack
30.00
Crushing
0.00
Earth
30
Defense
30.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
30
Magic
150.00
Ice
30
Magic Defense
150.00
Gravity
30
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Strength
30.00
Magnetic
30
Dexterity
30.00
Light
30
Agility
30.00
Magus Theorist
30
Space
30
Speed
30.00
Spirit
30
Endurance
30.00
Mental
30
IQ
480.00
Sound
30
Wisdom
600.00
Electricity
30
Learning
3000.00
Luck
0.00
“Sorry guys. Got lost there. Let’s head out?”
The others smiled softly and offered polite nods that Joe quickly realized were given by people who were being polite but were a bit annoyed at having to hang around waiting and he kicked himself for doing it. He settled in behind the others and began following them while looking over his status quickly as he could.
He eyes slipped over the page then popped open in some surprise. OK! I was not expecting that! That’s… really cool! That’s a whole lot of new resistances! Joe’s eyes flipped across them, growing even more excited when he realized that it was also the biggest boost he’d ever received for any of his resistances. His smile soured a little when he realized that they would all drop to only three when he swapped out his job, but was frankly just grateful to have a basic level now across such a wide variety of resistances.
His eyes flickered over the basic stats and noticed a lot of thirties before he looked at Magus Theorist’s current level. Huh. Thirty. Must have spent too much time practicing this morning, but… meh. Joe shrugged it off, but then remembered that it was equivalent to one hundred points in learning which brought a grimace to his face. Not the full hundred. I’d only get ten percent when I swapped out this job, but still… But so many different magical resistances… interesting and terrifying at the same time! Anyway, need to let the others go. Head to the temple.
“Alright. I’ll see you all back at the inn. I need to stop by the temple.”
* * *
Kilniara hid her shock, once again surprised by her Master’s attitude towards the face of others. She couldn’t understand why he had no desire to grow closer to the Captain. She could only see benefits from such friendship, but then her Master could only see a close relationship with the Captain as a drain and not a benefit. Which means… Kilniara schooled her face, hiding her shock as the implication blossomed in her mind.
Her smile returned and she joined the chosen conversation Master had started and slid in easily enough. Her smile quickly became genuine enough when she began because of how easy it was to speak with him. His mannerisms and interactions were so relaxed and he had no pride in how he spoke with them or reacted to their questions and actions. While she and her brother were still quite reserved, she could easily see how Garnedell’s free conversation was certainly much freer than some of her friends’ masters. Of course, the longer relationship would make a big difference and his relationship with and the status of Garendell’s parents would likely mitigate some of his rudeness towards Master as well, which made her wonder what kind of person Garnedell was. Her thoughts quickly ground to a halt when the small talk came to end.
“Alright. I’ll see you all back at the inn. I need to stop by the temple.”
Garnedell nodded and turned, flicking a hand signal to Zilnek who nodded and followed after quickly enough. Kilniara paused, uncertain what to do or if she would impose, but Master noticed the stutter in her step and stopped to look at her.
“What’s wrong?”
Kilniara took a moment but she easily caught Master’s impatience and spoke quickly, “Um… I’m … could I follow you?”
Master… Joe smiled, “It’s OK. Sure. Hey. Garnedell!” Joe turned to call out to Garnedell.
Garnedell turned and looked back at Joe, “Yes, Joe?”
“Kilniara is going to come with me. We’ll meet you back at the inn.”
“OK! See you back there, Joe.”
Kilniara blushed a bit at Joe’s response and settled in behind him, waiting for him. Joe turned back to see her behind him and smiled gently, “Ready?”
“Yes,” Kilniara smiled and forced herself to look up and him and in his eyes. She’d noticed long ago that he preferred direct eye contact and made sure to maintain it till he turned away. She found herself struggling at the end, her desire to look away almost overwhelming, but seeing his gentle smile to the end was incredibly rewarding and the burning embarrassment turned to an excited satisfying heat that soothed into a deep warmth.
Joe walked ahead, but slowed down, expecting her to join her by her side, as he’d always seemed to do. Joe was an interesting Master and never was satisfied holding his status over his apprentices. Or even his lower women. Am I one of his … Kilniara’s thoughts spiraled away in embarrassed excitement, unwilling to dwell on the overwhelming possibility, despite desperately trying to push away hope and letting things take their natural course. In an attempt to do so, she returned her attention back to Joe.
Joe preferred to treat others as equals and seemed to actually even see them as equals, which was one of the strangest experiences that Kilniara had ever had. She quickly stepped forward to walk by his side and stood straight, bringing her head up and walked at his side, drowning the nervous flutter in her heart and belly as she struggled to force her mindset to see herself as his equal, or that he was just a normal boy courting her.
“You OK?”
“I’m fine, m… Joe.”
Joe smiled, saying nothing as they walked side by side for a few moments before asking again, “Did you have a question for me?”
“No.”
“Hmm. So you just wanted to walk with me?”
Kilniara felt her blush come back again and found herself unable to respond, only able to nod her head but was able to keep herself by his side and keep her head up.
Joe smiled back at her and the two simply walked side by side for a while before they made it to the temple square. Joe came to a stop and turned to Kilniara, looking at her and she soon found herself staring into his face, his eyes. Her initial embarrassment of staring at him quickly faded into a haze of timelessness.
She nodded her head and gave her agreement without actually speaking or understanding and suddenly he was gone. Kilniara became aware, surprised to see him gone before noticing he was heading into one of the temples. Kilniara looked around in embarrassment as she realized she’d been staring after him and cleared her throat as she shifted slightly and quickly came back to herself.
Her thoughts were jumbled and while she was unable to remember what was said, she was easily able to understand from previous occurrences, knowing he would return from the temple after he’d completed his business. Despite the embarrassment of the moment, she could only feel a surging of warmth flush through her and soon found herself once again allowing her thoughts to drift slightly into the memories of their recent tryst. Not much of a tryst though… we just walked. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, annoyed at herself but still unable to banish the smile on her lips.
Once again, she found herself lost in thought and was as surprised by his return as his exit, his greeting snapping her back to her surroundings. She replied quickly and enthusiastically, to hide her embarrassment and he came to a stop in front of her, smiling gently before nodding his head back to the inn.
“Let’s flee!”
Kilniara hid her confusion as she nodded with a brilliant smile and they turned to head their way back to the inn.
* * *
“Let’s get out of here!”
Kilniara smiled politely at his sad joke and Joe turned to lead her back to the inn. She seemed to struggle a bit at finding where she should walk. Joe had recognized this before, and while his traditional masters had always preferred the old ‘one step behind’ type of respect, Joe had never been one to really enjoy it. It never really chafed, and he had no problem playing the role while he was trained under them. But while it never chafed, it was never quite so comfortable to him, and he wanted to let his apprentices know they were more than willing to walk by his side. In fact, he actually preferred it as he was able to more easily see them and gain feedback from their body language to gauge how he should interact with them. It certainly made it easier for him to teach them when he could recognize their confusion as they seemed very frustratingly reluctant to ask questions.
When she stepped up beside him and began to walk at his side, he slightly increased the pace to a more comfortable and not so painfully obvious crawl. She seemed unaware, matching his stride while being quite childish in expressing her joy, her hands clasped at her waist while she didn’t quite hide the flouncing sway to her step. He smiled, watching her movements out of the corner of his eye when he saw her hand drop to her side. Is that… He almost dropped his hand to clasp it as well before he stopped, remembering he’d already gotten in trouble with some of the more traditional Chinese, Korean, and Polynesian girls he’d dated. Despite having experience, it was quite a bit more limited simply because while he had dated a variety of girls, the furthest he’d ever gotten was holding hands over the course of one or two dates. The other dates failed quite spectacularly after the first date because of the significant cultural differences between the East and West. Of course, the green carders weren’t pleasant either. As for dating back in the States, he never had any meaningful time to pursue relationships as he never lived there long.
Joe sighed and let his past worries go and turned to focus on Kilniara. He held his hand out to her and when she looked down to see him hold it out, she seemed to stare at him with some confusion. Right… holding hands is unusual for her.
“May I hold your hand?”
Kilniara’s confusion quickly flushed away in a blush and she held her hand out towards him and Joe smiled as he laced his fingers amongst hers. Oh… right… only three fingers. Feels… weird. Joe blinked as he didn’t find a finger to lace between his pinky and ring finger. Still… nice… very cool hands.
* * *