NOVEL NEXT 094.5 - A Representative Comes
* * *
“Joe, you don’t have to …” Kilniara sighed as Joe fled the room and turned to Gwenvair, “He is too honorable.”
Gwenvair’s blush remained but she sighed and nodded, “However, I prefer an honorable man.”
Kilniara smiled and nodded, “Truly.”
Gwenvair and Kilniara climbed into the tub, both sighing simultaneously in enjoyment over the heat as it suffused into them. They remained silent for a time before Kilniara stirred with a different sigh; one of disappointment.
“Let us finish quickly for Joe.”
Gwenvair nodded but didn’t sigh, but smiled softly and nodded, “Of course.”
The two began bathing with efficient speed although Kilniara continued their conversation, “Shall we return to your mother and continue planning for our family?”
Gwenvair shook her head, “No. I must stay here beside Joe as I am now bound to him and his family.”
Kilniara glanced up at her with some consternation, “You cannot return home?”
Gwenvair looked up at that, staring cautiously, “We have a … guest who is quite curious. The Matriarch called us to ask on his behalf.”
Kilniara took some time to parse the hint, Gwenvair’s speech odd to her ears before she quickly understood, “Ah, the clan repre…”
Gwenvair cut her off quickly, “Just so, sister.”
Kilniara took the hint although she did find herself floundering a bit before understanding. She then turned to inane conversation and Gwenvair smiled at her with a nod of approval and Kilniara struggled to hide her blush although she did find a glow of pride suffusing through her. Gwenvair has much to teach me, but… she is so kind to do so for me…
* * *
Joe opened the door and shut it behind him, fleeing from the two girls before settling against the door with a relieved sigh, if also with a hint of regret. OK… yeah… let’s… focus. Joe struggled to calm himself and turn his thoughts to other things, although he did find it a struggle. The memory of their beauty had been seared into his mind’s eye, and he still remembered the incredible slimness of Kilniara, her body lithe and trim, almost elfin. Gwenvair proved an interesting contrast to Kilniara and followed the more traditional voluptuous shape. However, Gwenvair’s hips were slimmer which gave her less an hour glass shape and more the trim hips of a sleek swimmer but were still slightly wider than Kilniara’s.
Joe shook his head, attempting to clear his thoughts and soon was able to calm his thoughts, although the memory of the image still returned to him every once in awhile. That remembrance interrupted his thoughts regularly and he found himself unable to easily take advantage of the time to accomplish anything. His struggles continued for a time until he finally settled himself to look at his gains for the day.
His next priest job was still locked, unable to open up the next priest job although he did gain a new skill. It was called debuff immunity, which was an exciting skill to have. Nice! Immunity from any debuffs, and I can give it to others… but… not really useful right now? He turned to his combat job skills next but found them a bit disappointing. He wasn’t able to go to his next duelist job, and kept it for another day, reaching level forty five with it and unlocking the next job which he would take tomorrow. There was no new duelist skill and the new warrior job gave him four new skills: bow, thrown, large shield, and discipline. The first three were easy enough to understand, and the last gave him a ten percent increase in experience gain. Huh… worthless. He turned to his last job with excitement but ended up quite disappointed. The last skill he gained was from his gifted job and was something called basic mob stats and it lowered all monster stats by ten percent, something quite nice, but ultimately not anything so overpowering as to have Joe willing to pursue it. There were many other skills much more useful and powerful. Joe frowned but paused when he noticed a note attached with his skill. What’s this… why… ooh! Huh… not so… Wait… current maximum?
The job Gifted has reached maximum growth.
Joe’s thoughts whirled with what it could mean and while he understood the implications easily enough, he ultimately found himself unable to gain any other understanding from it. A max level... huh... hmm... He thought on it for a time before ultimately sighing and turning to look at the stat gains of his jobs. That, at least, was something he could gauge and understand. Despite that, there was little to be truly excited by as three of the jobs had only grown by a level or two. Still, he made sure to see them, checking over all four of his jobs sheets with diligence as well as making sure to study his other tabs carefully.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Curses
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
135.00
Physical:
Wind
90
SP
45.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
90
MP
45.00
Crushing
0.00
Earth
90
Attack
135.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
90
Defense
135.00
Ice
90
Magic
45.00
Gravity
90
Magic Defense
45.00
Loki Patriarch
45
Magnetic
90
Strength
45.00
Epic
45
Light
90
Dexterity
45.00
Bruiser
44
Shadow
90
Agility
45.00
Gifted
50
Space
90
Speed
45.00
Spirit
225
Endurance
45.00
Mental
225
IQ
360.00
Sound
90
Wisdom
675.00
Electricity
90
Will
427.50
Learning
13500.00
Luck
45.00
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Curses
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
360.00
Physical:
Wind
0
SP
225.00
Piercing
180.00
Water
0
MP
90.00
Crushing
0.00
Earth
0
Attack
675.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
0
Defense
225.00
Ice
0
Magic
45.00
Gravity
0
Magic Defense
45.00
Epic
45
Magnetic
0
Strength
270.00
Light
0
Dexterity
360.00
Bruiser
44
Shadow
0
Agility
675.00
Loki Patriarch
45
Space
0
Speed
270.00
Spirit
0
Endurance
180.00
Mental
0
IQ
90.00
Sound
0
Wisdom
45.00
Electricity
0
Will
45.00
Learning
90.00
Luck
0.00
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Curses
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
176.00
Physical:
Wind
0
SP
176.00
Piercing
132.00
Water
0
MP
44.00
Crushing
132.00
Earth
0
Attack
220.00
Slashing
132.00
Fire
0
Defense
132.00
Ice
0
Magic
132.00
Gravity
0
Magic Defense
132.00
Bruiser
44
Magnetic
0
Strength
220.00
Light
0
Dexterity
132.00
Shadow
0
Agility
132.00
Loki Patriarch
45
Space
0
Speed
88.00
Spirit
0
Endurance
220.00
Mental
0
IQ
44.00
Sound
0
Wisdom
44.00
Electricity
0
Will
33.00
Learning
44.00
Luck
0.00
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Curses
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
500.00
Physical:
Wind
50
SP
500.00
Piercing
150.00
Water
50
MP
500.00
Crushing
150.00
Earth
50
Attack
250.00
Slashing
150.00
Fire
50
Defense
250.00
Ice
50
Magic
200.00
Gravity
50
Magic Defense
200.00
Gifted
50
Magnetic
50
Strength
250.00
Light
50
Dexterity
250.00
Shadow
50
Agility
250.00
Loke Patriarch
45
Space
50
Speed
150.00
Spirit
50
Endurance
150.00
Mental
50
IQ
500.00
Sound
50
Wisdom
500.00
Electricity
50
Will
375.00
Learning
50000.00
Luck
250.00
Joe looked over the various windows, still quite surprised by just how much learning the gifted job gave, especially with its boost to learning and experience gain. Is it worth it to maybe even keep this? I’ll level two jobs faster, then I can maybe do four jobs in a day instead of just three? Swap out two of them half way through the day? He ran the numbers and realized that he would not have enough time to have all four jobs leveled up to forty. He could get the first two jobs up to forty, but the second two would stall out at around thirty or thirty five, if his math was right. He considered for a bit before finally deciding to simply continue what he was doing. Three jobs a day was still impressive so he turned to looking at what jobs he would take tomorrow when he was interrupted by the door opening behind him.
Since the door opened inward, he fell backward, rolling back into the room and looked up to see Kilniara staring down at him with Gwenvair standing beside her. The two giggled, laughing at him and Joe sighed with a smirk while he stared back up at them. He shook his head then sat up.
“Alright. You’ve had your fun. Let me wash and I’ll join you downstairs after.”
Kilniara nodded with a bright smile while Gwenvair shook her head with a smirk, “Don’t take too long. We’re hungry.”
“And you don’t think I’m not?”
They didn’t say anything, only laughing at him in friendly mockery as they slipped out and went down stairs. Joe shook his head again then chuckled to himself. He headed back to his bed to strip himself, dropping his clothing on his bed then settled into the tub with a deep groan of satisfaction as the warm water soaked in around him. The tub was a bit small, and he had to keep his knees bent but he was still able to stretch out his arms around the rim and sides so that he could cover almost everything below his chest. Not as comfortable as the baths, but… still.
He found his mind drifting and even though he tried to spend some time considering his next jobs, he soon drifted off into a haze of lost thoughts until the water cooled and suddenly he was mindful of the current situation, the shivering bringing awareness back to him. With this, he stood from the tub, shivering, and stepped out. The water dripped from his body onto the floor and Joe frowned. Well… crap… towel next to the tub next time. Joe skittered to his bed quickly, his steps and movement interrupted by his shivering until he finally wrapped the towel around himself and dried himself of.
When his shivering came under control, he began allowing his mind to ponder other things and he turned to what jobs he would have for the next day. He’d been unhappy with a couple of his choices today, so he considered his job choices and then set out to change his jobs before he stopped in thought. Hm… let’s… not rush this. Need to make wise choices, and today wasn’t… really a good one. Hmm… I should really consider the theorist jobs again, right? That… seems like a good idea… Let me think about it. He went back to his choices again, reevaluating them carefully but didn’t actually change any of his jobs, although he was fairly certain of his new choices: a new duelist job called luminary, a new warrior job called conqueror, his Loki patriarch job was still his highest available priest job, and for the last job, he decided to open up the horseman line of jobs with horseman. He had the rest of the afternoon to think about them and to force himself to do so, so he left them unchanged. Despite that, theorist bounced around in his thoughts for reasons Joe couldn’t quite understand, but there was an attraction to them that Joe found himself turning towards.
He’d been going over his choices, even after he’d dressed and turned to head down the stairs to the common room, a whistle on his lips and a slight hop in his step as he was feeling pretty good. That changed rather rapidly when he got do the common room, the entire area absolutely silent as all looked on at a rather unusual slightly effeminate man dressed very well and standing in an odd pose that seemed to have some kind of meaning to the room. The odd man kept his weight all on a single foot while his other foot was held bent at the knee resting on toes. He couldn’t really see it as he wore some kind of robe covering his entire torso, but the slight bulge in the robe and the tip of his toes were visible enough for him to catch the stance. His right arm was held in a stylized way, angled to hold in front of him horizontal to the ground palm up as if he were holding something right in front of his chest. His left arm was held out to the left of him holding some form of cigarette held on a long foot long hollow tube through which he smoked. The left arm wasn’t angled down by his side and instead was held such that the elbow was held out directly to his side making his arm perpendicular to the floor. It was a very… odd stance.
To his side, an obsequious man stood in perpetual hunchback crouch-like bow where he would hold himself still before bowing once or twice whenever he was addressed or whenever he spoke to his boss. The room was frozen in silence because of his presence, and all eyes had turned towards him. Joe flickered his gaze around at everyone, taking in the tense stance of his four apprentices and making sure they were all safe before glancing at everyone. His eyes stalled on the barkeep as the man seemed very tense and the realization hit him. Right… don’t blow up his bar! But… who… ?
Suddenly, Joe’s eyes narrowed slightly when he noticed an amorphous transparent almost invisible blob that seemed to be centered on the strange man. It wasn’t well defined, its edge fading in and out of nothingness as well as being poorly delimited as the sphere was more of a shapeless blob. He looked at it for a bit before turning his attention back to the two odd people commanding the room.
“Hello? Who are you?”
The man who had been casually smoking on his cigarette suddenly froze and stared at Joe, his right eye twitching slightly and Joe stifled his frown. Ah… crap… pissed off powerful dude of some kind!
“You will show respect to his greatness, representative of Clan Bunarl, dungeon diver, once dungeon clearer, and single handed killer of Great monsters,” the bowing sycophant of the Bunarl representative scowled as he loudly cried out the man’s introduction. Joe found the affair rather surprising but then the last statement both excited and gave Joe pause.
“Oh… killing Great monster’s single handedly… that’s… three core? Four core?” Joe glanced towards the other four in curiosity but Garnedell stepped forward, a small smile on his face.
“No, master. That is only two core. If I may introduce you, master?”
Joe blinked. OK. Master two times… hmm… something big, obviously? Sure… yeah. “Sure. Why not.”
“I would like to introduce my master, Joe McConnell. Dungeon diver, dungeon clearer many times, killer of Great monsters, Master monsters, Guardian monsters, and Boss monsters. Slayer of a six core, a boss, city killer, single handedly. Of his earlier accomplishments, I know not. These are only the accomplishments that my master accomplished in the time I have been his apprentice for four months. Joe, this is the Bunarl clan representative.”