But for a Slime

Chapter Twenty Seven

Joe woke refreshed, if unsatisfied. I don't think I'll ever get used to these annoying beds! Joe took a moment to stretch out his back, the ache in his back unkinking as he worked his back. As always, Garnedell woke with his movement and the two were out the door a bit more quickly than yesterday, another routine settling in modified only slightly from the village inn routine although he made sure to pick up his language notebook and a different cloak from yesterday. Need to figure out bathing, though… His hair proved frustratingly difficult, and while he spent a good amount of time practicing once again, he needed Garendell's help to finally tie it correctly and tight enough. Stuffing his embarrassment down, Joe sighed and stood, choosing to ignore the situation as he headed out the room door.

Joe took the lead in ordering the breakfast, and was able to do decently well, albeit in an obviously halting simplistic way. The young woman taking the order actually smirked with some humor and seemed to hide her chuckle and smile behind a hand covered fake cough. The meal came out as Joe wanted, though, and he felt a bit relieved to know that he was at learning the language well enough, although it was still at the three word sentence phase. They enjoyed their meal and Joe spent a bit longer at breakfast to focus on language learning, especially considering that reaching level ten took just a bit less than a day now. Joe focused on learning more vocab but struggled to find the words he was looking for in regards to forming some kind of party. I really need to start Garnedell growing, but it's so… ridiculous when we can't work together very well…

When they headed outside, Joe made sure to stop by the inn's stable and took Garnedell inside. He looked around for someone but only found a young boy in there. Obviously a stable boy… I need the groom! Joe looked around, then grimaced and tried to see what he could do without the groom present.

"Garnedell. What this…," Joe asked poorly in the local language while pointing at the horse.

"Horse," Garnedell responded with practiced and bored ease.

Joe flipped open his notebook and jotted the word down while continuing, "Man clean horse. Man help horse. Man watch horse."

Garnedell nodded his head and smiled with understanding, "Yes?"

"What man job name?"

Garnedell cocked his head and seemed a bit confused, so Joe flipped open his status page and pointed at it while simultaneously repeating himself, "What man job name?"

Garnedell's eyes opened wide in understanding and he said the name. Joe listened carefully and wrote the word down in his book.

"So, horse man job name… groom?"

"Yes, groom!"

Joe smiled with some satisfaction as he sighed in some relief. One job name down, one done, and two to go. Joe closed his notebook and carefully put away his pencil before turning back to Garnedell, ready to start their day.

"Garnedell. Joe new job."

"OK. Zhoe."

"Go market first."

Garnedell blinked a bit, a bit confused and Joe tried again. I must have said 'market' wrong, "Go market first!"

Understanding flooded his eyes and Garnedell nodded in understanding before turning to lead Joe through the streets back to the market area where they'd been yesterday. When they reached it, Joe began looking around for the three jobs he'd need names for and searched for a butcher first.

They came upon a butcher and Joe stopped Garnedell excitedly, once again going through a similar set of mimes and questioning as he had back at the inn's stable to learn the job name for the groom. Garnedell seemed to quickly understand Joe was writing down the job name of the butcher within a few moments, repeating it carefully with Garnedell since the word seemed particularly tricky to catch. Huh… some kind of new letter or sound I've never learned? Kind of a 'g' of some kind… but different. Can't really hear it. Joe worked the word a few times, but was never really able to quite catch it and could only hope that Garnedell would be able to understand what Joe wanted when he tried to change jobs later at the temple square.

The last job name came a bit quicker as Joe pointed out all the markets in the square, making sure Garnedell understood that it wasn't a specific kind of job. But with the repetition, Garnedell quickly understood what Joe was doing and was able to give Joe the appropriate word for merchant. With the three jobs now known, Joe redirected to the temple square with his new cloak now pulled over his head.

Garnedell turned to Joe on their way to the temple square, "What job, Zhoe?"

Joe considered for a moment then replied with a question, "What job priest say for speak?"

Garnedell nodded and replied quickly with a word that was not in Joe's vocabulary. Joe considered for a moment before replying, "OK! Garnedell say job one time!"

Garnedell nodded in understanding and when they reached the temple square, Joe led them to the next temple in line. The layout was different, but followed enough similiarities that Joe was able to find the information slash help desk easily enough. Joe asked for his job change quite excellently in the local language and the priest initiated the hand waving before Garnedell gave the job name for the one recommended by their old friend, the drunken priest back at the village. The local priest attendant waved his hand and then frowned, a sad look of commiseration on his face when Joe suddenly saw a popup in front of him.