But for a Slime

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He then made sure to change his sub jobs first as his main job was what was currently allowing him to change jobs, and shifted crafter into his first sub job spot. The change was smooth, even easy. But when Joe tried to set groom as his second sub job, he felt a resistance that was unpleasant and he grunted to push it through. The job change seemed to flutter between complete and incomplete for a few moments before he finally felt it shift into place and he gasped when it settled, incredibly tired. He took a few moments to catch his breath before attempting the same with the staff warrior and found the effort much worse, but he still was able to get it done, even if it was exhausting. Joe lay gasping against the wall for several minutes before he was able to get his breath back. Then, he flipped open his status.

Joe looked at his current job window and blinked in some surprise when he saw that groom was already level ten. He looked back through his job listing and then remembered that it had been one of the first jobs he'd ever leveled back when he was still at the village and working on getting his commoner up enough to open up the other jobs. He then considered the fact that all his stats were at zero and frowned a bit as he realized that the groom stats were being applied to this status screen. So… only the main job stats are shown? Which would be nice, I guess? Then I can verify the job's stats.

Joe then stood and began the afternoon wiping out the goblin population of the floor until evening fell and he left the dungeon to head home. He did stay for a good time, but made sure to be home back at the inn a bit early so that he could talk to Garnedell as promised. The walk home was easy enough with the sun still a good chunk above the horizon. When he made it back to the inn, he found no one waiting for him and wandered up to the room thinking Garnedell and Zilnek might be waiting there. However, when he made it to the room, he found it empty and frowned.

He went back to the bottom of the stairs and looked around the main cafeteria but found no one he recognized so found himself a bit lost before deciding to take a look at his status, so he went back up to the room. He hadn't seen his finalized stats yet, so wanted to take a look at what he had gained. He flipped open the current job page and grinned at seeing his newest faith job at level thirty once again but then found himself trying to figure out what the other three jobs stats were. They also had made it to level thirty as well, although they were, from the experience bar he was looking at, a bit slower, each job lower down the list receiving ever less experience from the job immediately above it. Well… good to know, then. The lowest jobs get the least experience. Must not be shared, though, cause I still hit level thirty in half a day the same as when I got thirty with only one job, so something else is happening… a penalty of some kind.

Joe frowned a bit. Then how do I see the stats of the other jobs? He stared at the current job page then grinned a bit, reaching up to tap the screen where each of the jobs were listed, and the screen flipped over, the color of the screen and the stats changing to the job he'd click on. Joe grinned and flipped between the other jobs as well, smiling brightly before frowning a bit when he realized that there was something off. He went over to grab his notebook he'd kept, writing down the data he was getting when he'd first arrived here, before he had the status window keeping track of things for him. He flipped through the pages until he found the stats he'd written down for the groom job. It was as he'd remembered it, most of the stats had given him one point each, although his stamina had been three and strength, endurance, and wisdom at two.

However, what the window was showing him now was much more than should be. In fact, his stamina had… huh… what is it? I should have sixty stamina, but right now I have ninety so… uh… I got thirty more than I shoud. Huh. Joe looked at a few of the other numbers and also found that others didn't match his stats he'd written down. As he began to carefully check out every number listed, the door opened and Garnedell came in. Joe glanced up at that and smiled, glad to see him back.

"Hey. Everything OK?"

Garnedell smiled and nodded, "All is well. We have maybe ten minutes. Zilnek is busy downstairs but he eats quickly."

Joe glanced at his status and frowned, sighing a bit as the discrepancy ate at the back of his mind but he set it aside and turned to Garnedell.

"OK. Monster tides. Anything more you can tell me?"

Garnedell frowned as he shook his head, "Only more detail on what I already spoke. There really isn't much more than that. The monsters all attack the closest city or town regularly. The cities defend themselves and the villages usually escape to the city."

"How often do they happen?"

"There is no set time, but they are fairly regular, happening every couple months to couple years, depending on how tame the mana is or not."

"Wild mana makes lots of monster tides?"

Garnedell shook his head, "What the priests teach is that wild mana creates lots of monsters, but they grow jealous of the tame mana and attack the nearest gathering of tame mana to free the mana to wildness."

"Oh… Kilniara said they're mist monsters?"

Garnedell nodded, "Yes. They are mist monsters that come and steal people often. Even children can be stolen from their bed. They are incredibly dangerous."

Joe thought on that for a bit, curious, before he asked, "Have you ever seen it?"

"A mist monster?"

"A monster tide."

He quickly shook his head, "No. the citizens and crafters are poor defenders against the monster tide. We must hide within our home while the fighters defend us."

"Huh."

"Yes."

Joe was a bit nonplused by that, and fell silent, leaving the theological implications alone as he did not want to argue faith with a young kid. He turned the conversation back to the hard facts of the monster tide and the two spoke for another ten minutes or so but ultimately Joe really didn't learn anything new. He could find out about hard numbers and types of monsters from the city defenders and clansmen, but Garnedell seemed to know very little, having simply hidden through the events when they did happen. Joe grimaced at the end and decided to let the discussion go, as by the end, the two were talking in circles.

Garnedell, with the end of the conversation, jumped up rather quickly, "Can we eat now?"

<continued>