But for a Slime

Chapter 328 - 065.1 - New Options!

Chapter Sixty Five

Kukurnal left the inn in consternation, uncertain how to consider the situation. He'd long gotten used to the proclivity of any human, and it was only natural for them to do as they did. It wasn't so much that Joe had done so that was the problem, although if he was to be completely honest with himself, it had still been shocking to experience as he could not remember single time Joe had infringed. Every statement and lesson Joe had offered had been all the more shocking and powerful for it, as Joe had shown time and again he was absolutely certain of the claims he was making.

The fact that it was the first time was almost enough to break Kukurnal's control over his well-schooled face. Still, years of experience had taught him to keep his face tightly controlled and he hadn't revealed his troubles to the eccentric.

No, the true struggle Kukurnal had wasn't so much that the eccentric had proven to be as sapient as any other sapient, including all the foibles and failures that comes with sapience. It was even a relief to know he was a simple and normal being like any other. No, it wasn't not his failure that troubled Kukurnal so. It was the subject, and Kukurnal's emotions twisted in discomfort and deep concern. Joe had lied. And he had lied about the criminality of his Acokzau apprentice. Kukurnal took a deep shuddering breath and hustled down the streets to his temple home.

* * *

Joe woke early morning again. It was becoming quite annoying as he found himself unable to really sleep the entire night nor was he able to go to bed later in the evening so he could wake later in the morning. As best as he could figure out, the day and night cycle here was over thirty hours long but shorter than forty. With such a long day, he was up sixteen hours, which wasn't too difficult, but working so hard for a good ten to twelve hours and having another six to eight hours until the sunset. Then followed supper and the rest of the people who were used to the long days winding down and enjoying their evening. Of course, it was broaching eighteen or more hours up and long after he'd normally go to bed back home on Earth. But then he'd sleep for a good ten hours or more but still woke still almost five to six hours before sunrise. He was exhausted when he'd first come to the planet and slept through most of the night the first month or so, but after found himself waking so much earlier. Now, he found himself awake so early it was a struggle to stay awake until the evenings. Huh… what options… should I take a short nap right at sunrise? Joe pondered but gave up on it, uncertain how he'd be able to take a nap having just slept for almost ten hours. Besides, he needed to figure the time out, then he could make a plan. Possibly… but, how…

He'd have to run the numbers and take some time making a few hour glasses to figure it out. He thought he had a good measurement to use since he'd regularly kept track of his health and fitness levels and he knew what his average BPM was. Granted, it had been almost a year since he'd had a measurement, but he'd been in excellent physical shape before he came here and he had regained any health he might have lost in the travel here.

Since his last memory of Earth was pretty much sitting on the mountain tops of China and his very next memory was tumbling through the atmosphere of this planet, he had no idea of the kind of space travel whoever had taken him had, if they had. He almost sometimes thought that he'd magically appeared here, until he remember the reentry vehicle. Then it was trying to figure it all out. The reentry capsule had been surprisingly low tech although the production materials and value were obviously from a high tech society with machinery and likely robotics of some kind.

He wasn't sure how to take it all, to be honest, but what he did know was that he'd traveled through space. He had the titles to show for it. What he didn't know was the kind of travel. Was it FTL or was it slow travel with cryo-sleep. Given that he didn't have any memories, there must have been some sleep system to have kept him under unless the trip had been … well, even if the trip had been insanely fast, he still had to be moved to the reentry vehicle.

Bah! No point. I can't figure it out anyway… Joe ended his musing on how he'd come to this planet and returned to trying to figure out how long each day was. Which is easy! Joe figured out that he could guesstimate time counting out ten seconds and creating a poor man's hourglass. Then run the hourglass six times to get a minute. He could then check that against his BPM several times to make sure he had a good measurement. Then it would be just a matter of creating a ten minute hourglass then run the ten minute hourglass six times to make an hour long hourglass. He could even run the ten minute hourglass against his BPM one time just to make sure it was accurate. After that, it would be an annoying day of staring at and flipping hourglasses. Probably the hardest part would be just staring at the hour glass or making sure to remember to look at it regularly and often.

But that would require a good few days if not longer to prepare the hourglasses, test them, maybe even do a couple iterations to make sure that he had the timing correct and he could see this taking close to a week or more. If not longer? Joe sighed and put the idea away, definitely something he would do once he'd settled his stats and relieved himself of the crippling that occurred with job changes, although, at the rate he was going, he might level all his jobs enough to make it a nonissue. Although… Garnedell promised it was thousands… so… maybe not.

Joe let his musings drift away and found himself lost in thought, his mind wandering nowhere and time passed in a fugue of restlessness. He found himself lost for quite some time then came aware when there was a creak in the inn from somewhere. He took a deep breath and decided to start being more productive.

Right. My gifted job!

Joe flipped open his status and looked at what available skills he had. When he looked at his new job, he wasn't sure what to think at first, then became incredibly excited. The first three jobs skills at levels ten, twenty, and thirty all gave the same skill: sub job + 1. This skill excited him so much that he ignored everything else around him and sat up in his bed rapidly. He looked at the skill again, tapping it and found the useless description to almost exactly reiterate its name.

Really? Really? Seriously… this is what you think is helpful! What a stupid system. Joe sighed and dropped it since he could understand it just from the name itself. The problem was even if the name was obvious, he wasn't sure exactly what 'sub job' meant. If he had to guess, it meant he could have another secondary job, but with three sub job + 1s, he wasn't sure what that meant. He looked around his available skills screen some more but found nothing else that really let him know anything. He was excited, but a bit confused, as Gwenvair had said that there was one extra job within the nobility set of jobs. But this seemed to be something different. He looked carefully for anything new or useful, but couldn't find anything else except for the other skill but he was too excited looking for what this new skill meant that he didn't want to spend time on it and swapped to his other status tabs. The main status page showed nothing new or different, although he did take his time to scour the page.