But for a Slime

Chapter One Hundred Six

"And he would likely… really be upset to have lost those pleasure slaves, yes?"

Gwenvaire's grin grew then soured, "It would… yes, he would truly be upset by the loss but he would likely… he will not take it lightly."

Joe's grin turned ferocious, "I do not want him to take it lightly. I…"

Joe's anger immediately cooled and he grew concerned, "I… Gwenvaire… I'm… going to be attacking your clan."

Gwenvaire's smile cooled and grew bitter, "I know. But… my brother has abandoned … betrayed his family and chosen to make you his enemy. I… if… just… one thing."

Joe smiled, "What?"

"Please do not destroy my clan."

Joe laughed at that, then grew relieved, "Your clan … some of them, have been rude to me, but being rude isn't evil. Not fun, or polite, but not evil either. As for your brother, he… he's the one who will be the target of my anger."

"I… understand, Joe," Gwenvaire grew somber at that, and a bit sad.

Joe frowned at that and he sighed, "Do you want me to leave him alone?"

Gwenvaire's eyes flickered, confusion warred with fear, "I… no. He cannot escape his fate."

"His… fate?"

Gwenvaire stared at him for a moment before turning away and hiding the coming tears, "I understand he's forfeit his life, but I … he's still my brother."

"Forfeit his life? You think I would kill him?"

Gwenvaire looked back up, confusion greater now, although her previous fears still left a few tears in her eyes, "Of course. He has insulted you."

Joe sighed and shook his head, "He has done… quite a bit, and I will hurt him immensely, where it hurts. But hmm… you may be right. Some of what he has done has been worthy of… yeah… I don't know… but to be honest. I never planned on killing him. He might fear death, but there is something much worse for him. He will live. I don't know that he will be happy that he lives."

Gwenvaire looked at Joe and wasn't quite sure how to take his statement. She was relieved that her brother would live, but found herself quite a bit terrified at what Joe would see was a greater punishment than death.

"Then, what do you plan?"

Joe smiled, "Hmm… nothing too terrible for most, but to him, it will be terrible."

Gwenvaire watched on and sighed before turning away. Her worry growing. Joe caught it easily and pulled her into a hug.

"Don't worry. I won't maim him or kill him. He will escape unscathed, but he's not going to live well after."

Gwenvaire felt her relief return and Joe smiled seeing it, hugging her once more before releasing her. The two fell silent in companionable silence until Joe finally sighed and shifted.

"So, we should probably head out and get to those slaves faster than he does."

Gwenvaire smiled at that, sighing softly, "You are probably correct."

"So, is it far?"

"No. Shall we?"

Joe smiled and nodded, but didn't offer any other response. Gwenvaire quickly stood and Joe rose to his feet as well now that she no longer occupied his lap. As they both prepared themselves, Joe looked over and saw Stephliquen then smiled and beckoned her over with a wave. Gotta remember that people crippled with lower intelligence can respond immediately to visual cues. Stephliquen nodded and came over. Joe then pantomimed leaving the room, pointing to Gwenvaire and himself before pointing out of the room. He then pointed to Stephliquen then pantomimed whether she would stay or come. She took a bit to understand before she nodded then pointed out the door. Joe nodded, beckoning her onward.

All three headed out of the inn where Gwenvaire took the lead and quickly had them at the local slave merchant who'd purchased the other two girls that had arrived with Gwenvaire.

Joe paused then and considered, "Then… I don't want the … him to find out. How would be the best way to do this?"

Gwenvaire thought for a moment, "You are correct. We need to be unknown after we purchase them."

Joe nodded, "I'm known pretty well. Should I enter with a cloak?"

Gwenvaire shook her head, "I think I should be the one to accomplish this."

"But… you are likely more known than I?"

"Stephliquen cannot speak to accomplish this. You and I are known, but everyone believes I am no longer here."

Joe frowned, "But… I don't …"

"Joe. Thank you for your concern, but I do not believe you would be able to … handle this well."

Joe grinned sardonically then shook his head, "In this, at least you seem to know me."

Gwenvaire chuckled and shook her head, "Allow me. In my cloak, I will be relatively unknown and completely unexpected."

Joe sighed, "I will wait here then."

Gwenvaire paused, "Maybe around the corner, but keep an eye?"

Joe nodded and turned to leave but Gwenvaire caught his sleeve, "I will need funds."

"Oh. Right," Joe nodded and pulled out some cores and broke or shattered them before he handed them to her after dropping them into a second empty pouch, "That should be enough, right?"

Gwenvaire smiled but didn't say anything, nodding firmly before turning to the entrance of the slave merchant. Joe watched her go then grew nervous as she entered the door. He didn't understand why he was nervous, but a slow building knot grew in his stomach as he grew concerned. His breathing grew deeper and slowly more ragged. When he began pacing, a hand fell on his shoulder and he jumped in surprise, turning to see Stephliquen standing beside him a look of concern on her face feathered by a bit of worry. Joe grinned ruefully and took a deep breath, nodding his head and saying thank you.

Stephliquen immediately responded, obviously ignoring his words and focusing on his gesture, nodding firmly and taking on a stoic firm cast to her face. Joe felt his eyebrow flinch at that, and a sudden feeling of déjà vu came over him. I've… what… why do I feel like … He calmed himself, shaking clear of his upset and putting the feeling of déjà vu aside. Can't really ignore her… Politeness drove him and he turned to her.

"Right. We haven't really met and don't know each other… and our language is rather a mess. So… let's see if we can work with that. Uh… can you show me your status? If that's OK?"

Joe spoke more to calm himself than to really expecting any answer as he knew she could not respond. He pulled up his hand slowly, however, and pointed at it. Then said 'status,' causing his box to flicker up and appear before her. Official source is NovєlFіre.net

She seemed surprised by this, and exclaimed in shock before leaning forward excitedly and poking at the screen. Huh… ok… so she knows about user interfaces… it seems. But… she really doesn't understand anything about the system? Why would she be… oh! He blinked and stared at her, shifting Stephliquen several notches up in his list of priorities. He returned his focus back to her actions, studying her carefully.

His status did not react to her prodding so she retrieved her hand and stared at it. Joe decided to up it a bit and poked at his screen, changing it over. She exclaimed again, some odd words or phrase Joe could not parse, and tried fiddling with it again, finding it nonresponsive. She grew frustrated and simply grabbed his hand and began poking around the screen. Joe hid a smile, finding the whole situation humorous, if a bit intrusive, and allowed her to play with it a bit. Finally, he pulled his hand back and got her attention. He pointed at her, then at her eyes, then at him several times. She quickly nodded, seeming to understand and Joe then closed his status screen before pointing at his mouth, then at his arm where his status tended to form when he wanted to show others.

"Status," Joe spoke slowly then pointing at his arm where the screen appeared.

He closed it again.

"Status," and again, lifted to show the screen appearing.

He closed it one last time.

"Status," and pointed again.

By the third time, she was already looked at his arm expectantly and then nodded.

Joe then didn't say anything, pointing at his ear instead, then miming speaking, pointing at his mouth, then at her ear several times. She seemed to get it and Joe stepped back to wait as she settled in for the long several minute wait for her hearing to catch up. The long wait caused him to grow nervous again, but this time he was able to calmly wait. The wait ended up turning out quite a bit longer than expected because Stephliquen suddenly spoke.

"Sa'us," she spoke, an odd accent and the lack of t's made understanding her hard.

"Sa'us," she tried again.

After a third time, she grew visibly frustrated and Joe considered a bit before raising a hand to her shoulder this time. He gripped it only to catch her attention and then had her focus, once again pointing to her ears and his mouth. She nodded this time, more serious and a bit piqued. Joe also was a bit irritated, although at himself as he'd spoken English. This time, he offered the word in Common.

"Status," he spoke slowly, his status flickering on.

The Common word for Status was quite different, and she frowned to hear it, but Joe had no way to explain so simply ignored it, repeating it a couple of times. The benefit of the common form was that it had no t's in it, since she seemed to struggle with that. It also had the benefit of being native to this land, so hopefully even if she didn't understand what she was doing, he hoped the correct word in the local language might prove enough to trigger her status. If it needs intent as well… understanding… she's… screwed! Not sure… Can I get her to say help? Or … hmm… how do I teach her to say status in her own language?

He stifled his sigh and repeated the word several more times then fell silent, waiting. This time, the wait was conclude quite a bit quicker as Gwenvaire exited with two women, one a rather short but quite beautiful human if he were to guess simply by looks, and another that was quite stunning in her beauty, if cold and aloof. There was an ephemeral look to her beauty that Joe found enticing, but was more interested by how odd it was. He couldn't quite place it, but there was something … off… about her beauty. It accentuated it, made her more beautiful, but was alien in a way that felt like it should leave a shiver of fear down his spine. Oddly enough, he felt no fear looking at her in spite of the fact that something about her made him certain he should fear. Some kind of… visual magic thing? Why am I so calm? Seems dumb to cause someone to fear then also make that fear not have any affect. Maybe the opposite? Make me think I should fear, then not fear, become complacent… something like that?

Joe stepped back around the corner, not wishing to remain in sight of the place and waited for the women to come join him. A few moments later, Gwenvaire walked around the corner and stepped up to his side, although she remained more distant and professional.

"Joe. This is Kalia and Xylarnae. Xylarnae? Kalia? This is Joe McConnell."

* * *

Xylarnae came out of the slave merchant's shop with shivering excitement. For so long she'd been bound to the slave life and even long before that, incredibly fearful. However, now she could feel Fate singing. She shivered, uncertain of what she would find, but her life held vibrancy for the first time in a very long time. She breathed deeply of the air and for the first time, fate twined through the air and deep into her lungs. She was so close to her fate and she finally felt free. Years had passed, trapping her within a nightmare where she'd been one of the lucky few to save herself, all four. And it was only due to how strongly fate twined around her.

Gwenvaire led her to Gwenvair's husband, as Xylarnae had hoped, and she came around the corner to see a base human, quite tall, standing before her. He was handsome, a rather moderate handsome for a base, and she felt a twinge of disappointment to see a base. He stood just over the height of the fae, about the only thing that was truly remarkable about him. She kept her disappointment hidden and smiled politely as Gwenvaire introduced them. He offered a polite bow in turn, which she found surprising as they were simple slaves, but it seemed he was a kind man. He would have to be for Fate to sing so strongly for her.

He offered his greetings then turned back to Gwenvaire and they quickly moved away, heading back towards their inn, it seemed. He did pull out two cloaks and asked both to wear them, fully covering their faces and forms. Huh… a cautious man. Seems… odd, given his strength.

Xylarnae dithered, cautious to delve Fate in his presence but seeing as how kind he was, she took the chance and hoped to lean on Gwenvaire's and Kilniara's friendship, if needed.

Fate swelled and her eyes opened and she stumbled, barely concealing her gasp as it erupted from her lungs. Kalia quickly caught her arm and asked after her, but Xylarnae ignored her, quickly scrambling up and after the man, her eyes glued to his fate and basking in its splendor. A silver glow permeated everything with gold radiating from the depths of his fate. And nothing else. She stared, awed, enraptured, jealous, and terrified. He's… he's untethered! I see… no chains!

She turned her eyes to Gwenvaire, then Kalia, the tethers obvious in their blunt strangulation. Her eyes turned to her own fate, then turned to the sky, staring into the heavens where the sun, stars, planes, and the cradle stood large. Untethered… how!? All… All are tethered… everything on this plane! But… he!

Her shock was immediately replaced by greed and an utmost desire to be absolutely, unbreakably, tied to this man who could break tethers. How?!

* * *

Kalia caught Xylarnae and quickly pulled her to her feet, "You OK? What's wrong?"

Xylarnae ignored her and stared after the base with awe, rapidly sprinting after him without any concern for her demure image. Kalia stood frozen in shock for a moment before quickly, but very gracefully, gliding back up to her side. She stared at Xylarnae with some concern, then alarm, as she saw Xylarnae rapidly progress through a series of emotions that the fae found troublesome. When Xylarnae showed naked greed, she quickly looked at the base and grew quite concerned.

"Xylarnae! If he's an eccentric! Control yourself! There is… little I could do, now!"

Xylarnae started after hearing Kalia's abrupt harsh whisper, then grew immensely embarrassed, her face flushing a brilliant red before she quickly calmed to a soft blank smile. Kalia still felt her heart racing. What… what has she seen?

* * *

Joe turned with Gwenvaire, making sure to point to the low intelligence Stephliquen so that Gwenvaire could get her attention and have her follow after. Stephliquen nodded when Gwenvaire softly touched her hand and Stephliquen began following after easily enough, although her face was screwed up in concentration, obviously still waiting to hear the word that would allow her to open up her status sheet. Joe nodded to her and received a nod back before Joe turned to lead the way.

He'd made sure to offer cloaks to hide the two women from sight, their beauty enough to really draw attention but figured it would be enough to make it home. They made it to the inn and he held the door for them all, whispering to Gwenvaire as she passed.

"Lead them on up."

Gwenvaire nodded and continued towards the stairs, stopping half way to beckon before continuing on. The others seemed more than inclined to follow, so Joe didn't have to herd them as he came up after.

Luckily, the inn was empty as it usually was during the morning and afternoon, with a single occupant so drunk and asleep in the corner Joe thought little of it. They climbed the stairs in relative silence and then entered the room before everyone seemed to relax, cloaks coming off heads and bodies quickly for all. Joe went to his bed and sat, Gwenvaire settling in beside him quickly before he waved at the other beds and single chair, offering seats to the other three. Joe struggled to hide his humorous smile at the disdain the tall ephemeral woman showed. Huh… used to the finer things in life. He turned his attention back to the others and found Stephliquen still crunched up in avid concentration awaiting his words. Man… that … th… was it always this long? The intervening journey added to the weight of just how bad intelligence could affect people and how long the conversation could take. He turned to the last and found himself taken aback, her stare was avid, almost greedy, and he shuffled a bit in discomfort until Stephliquen suddenly blurted out a phrase.

"Satutus!"

Nothing happened and she grimaced in anger before trying again, "Status."

Joe grinned to hear the word, easily understood and waited with baited breath but nothing happened and he frowned. She tried again with a slightly different pronunciation.

"Sutatu-us."

Joe shook his head and walked to her, catching her attention. He shook his head and made a large X symbol with his hands. Likely absolutely useless because what meant yes or no could be absolutely different in any language, especially one separated by light years and millions or billions of years. He tried anyway, and she struggled.

He finally attempted to tell her to go back a syllabus again, and she did so, too far, but it was enough to get the ball rolling as he had her go to the next before smiling brightly and nodding and acting quite happily for her when she said it correctly. Despite the encouragement, and her repetition, nothing occurred, her status stubbornly dormant. Joe sighed and then stepped back.

"What can I do… not sure if I can do anything. Can't really talk and no way to …" Joe sighed and groaned in despair at the realization that they'd likely have to go pretty deep into basic language development to even get to the point of discussing topics that could appropriately encompass the idea of 'status.' It was a long way from 'I am Joe' to 'status is the representation of an individual, system, or object in numerical values against a baseline or percentage.'

If I could just show her mine and mayb… ooh!

Joe beckoned Stephliquen to him and he sat down beside Gwenvaire before waving to the bed across the small aisle between them. Stephliquen took the seat quickly enough and Joe slithered forward, holding out a hand. He then began slowly and deliberately.

"Status," his word was carefully spoken but that wasn't the point for this attempted session.

His status flipped up and then he began showing his screen to her, not speaking, but simply pointing at each item on his status list and pantomiming their meaning, hoping that in describing the meaning, she would be able to grasp what she was looking at and find the appropriate word in her own language.

He looked at his own status and frowned. OK. This… is going to be a bit more difficult than I thought. How do you explain HP, SP, or MP? That's… He decided to skip them and move to his attack and defense, then magic attack and defense, finding himself struggling to find a way to pantomime magic. Heh… another person from Earth… sure… alien from light years upon light years away? Who just happens to look human… man… this is… Joe shook his head and let out a small huff of mocking laughter before he moved to his next attribute.

OK… strength… easy enough. He pointed to that listing on his status and began flexing, pointing to his muscles, then miming lifting heavy weights and doing hard work. She seemed to nod at this, although appeared a bit confused and Joe decided to be happy with her acceptance of what he could do so far. He then skipped dexterity and agility, not even being willing to try, and pointed to speed instead. Just need one or two to click… hopefully that should do it, right?

With speed, he mimed movement, using his fingers as a running man and contrasted fast and slow people while pointing at the stat. He quickly began coming to an end of low hanging fruit for easy mimes when the rest of the list left him stumped, unsure of how to mime endurance, intelligence, wisdom, will, learning, and luck. He frowned and looked back up at her, hoping something might stick, but she proved as lost as before and Joe sighed. Wish I could just… turn it to her language. That would make the most sense, but way too easy, right? Can't have something so eas…

Joe found his eyebrows shooting up through his hairline when the characters and words of his status began wiggling madly and quickly changed shaped to a very odd and boxy alphabet of mostly oddly shaped squares with relatively empty space with a small set of dense dots in the upper left corner. QR codes? Those look like… QR codes… sheesh! Really empty ones, but… Joe's surprise turned to consternation when he noticed that almost every letter there was some kind of box filled with dots in various positions and of various sizes and shapes. Despite his shock over such a uniform alphabet, Stephliquen exclaimed in shock then excitement as she leaned forward and took in the new display. Joe grinned to see a break through, then suddenly remembered that with this, his issues were solved. However, he thought carefully. Huh… so not a local… but definitely not from Earth… don't recognize the language at all… but… maybe? Some small local language I've never seen before? But it seems so weird … never ever heard of a language with QR code like alphabet.

In any case, he quickly turned his display back to English. Stephliquen pulled back and cried out in disappointment and disapproval. Joe ignored that and quickly pointed to the upper right corner which had the word 'status' written to display the main status page. He pointed at it eagerly, drawing Stephliquen's attention before turning it back to her language. She looked at it carefully, then back up at Joe with some confusion, and Joe quickly mimed speaking while pointing at the 'status' tab written in her language.

"Status. Status."

That seemed to do it, her confusion evaporating before an excited understanding, realization dawning as she quickly spoke up, calling out status in her own language.

"Shezar," her voice came with command and an experience with the word that resonated deeply, making it obvious she'd said the word often and regularly.

Joe smirked to have the realization, but laughed when she still jumped in surprise to see her status page show up. The smirk quickly turned to a groan of despair when he saw her stats of all single digits in the common blue background. Commoner… probably level one… or very low… only see a single digit… so.. hah! Now I know how the others feel… Joe grinned at the realization then sighed and had her push her current job tab and growled when he saw the same digits. No other jobs… This… is going to be hard!

He turned to Gwenvaire and she simply smiled at him with a small shrug, "They are all very weak…" her smile quickly turned to a bitter smile, "just like my brother likes them."

Joe's own happiness turned to bitterness with the realization and he sighed, "I will… try to help them…"

He turned from Gwenvaire to the other two, "I will try to help you as best as I can. Do not worry."

He nodded firmly but with slow deliberation as he spoke and held both their gazes for a time after he finished speaking before turning back to Gwenvaire.

"I'm going to have to work hard to get them up to a decent level. It'll take some time, but I'll be able to do it. When I do, they'll be able to rapidly grow after that."

Gwenvaire nodded and Joe found himself settling, tension receding from him and exhaustion quickly settling in. He looked up at Gwenvaire and smiled ruefully, "I'm so sorry, but I'm exhausted. I really need to sleep!"

Gwenvaire looked at him in surprise before nodding, "Sleep. Sleep! You look exhausted!"

Joe smiled, "Yes… but more… just… really lost and really happy to have you here."

Gwenvaire smiled at that, a small blush coming to her face and Joe stood, "I'll head to the other room. You guys need all the beds. Good night."

Gwenvaire giggled but replied as well, "Good night… in the middle of the afternoon."

Joe smirked and looked back over his shoulder with a chuckle, "Good to have that snark back."

Gwenvaire's smile softened again and the two stared at one another until Joe slipped into the other room. He fell asleep on the bed as soon as he fell into it. Exhausted.

* * *

Stephliquen's heart leapt with joy when she saw her alphabet on the strange alien human's page then almost groaned as she struggled to read. The implant has failed! I cannot … She struggled to remember from her own memory some of the words displayed on the odd male's page and when he pointed excitedly at the top left corner, it took an extraordinary effort to dredge up the symbol from meaning. Status! When it did come to her memory, she realized why it had looked so familiar; the word one she used instinctively on a daily basis to check the status of her own people and ship. It was likely the only reason she remembered it, her alphabet a dense and condensed form of reading that required SI implant assistance to parse some of the more difficult and lengthy forms. It was an advanced form of reading, given how the man's language seemed to still be based on meat memorization. Makes sense, given the apparent technology here, but… to also have an embedded personal holographic display!

She sighed at the odd disparity, finding the differences so odd. Luckily, it seemed that most of her display kept to single words or short phrases, and not the dense paragraphs of meaning that a single square could contain. Maybe… I will need to learn a meat written language… this… is difficult!

She sighed, turning back to exploring her personal status. Her eyes narrowed as she carefully counted the dots on the grid used for her language, attempting to place them correctly and struggling over the next word on her status display. At least… it shouldn't be a problem with speech… I might have to learn their language! She smiled softly in relief, grateful that the shift to dense speech hadn't quite occurred for her planet, yet.

* * *

Zilnek shivered, his back hard up against a brick wall deep in the alleyways not quite into the poorer sections of the town. He was cold and exhausted, but could not afford to sleep at all, fearful of pickpockets and worse. After he'd fled the inn with a pouch full of Joe's cores, he'd absorbed them all as rapidly as he could, exhilarating in gaining growth after growth, but grew despondent when he'd reached his thirtieth maybe… thirty first?... growth and all the cores fell into an empty void, bringing no more growth. He despaired, seeing only double digits but feared opening his status, the deep dark grey, almost black, of a criminal stared back at him. He shivered and wept. He had nowhere to go, no options, and no home. He could not return to his home again, as that would be the first place master… his previous master would look. He was a very intelligent man, and too powerful for Zilnek to ever defend himself from him. His head began to bob, exhaustion dragging him to sleep against his will. He quickly roused himself, fear spiking through him and rousing him for a time, a very short time before he returned to his cold and tears.

* * *

Joe rose with the sun and sighed, for the first time in over a month, he felt comforted, Kilniara lay in his arms and rested comfortably there. A status window called for his attention to the side, an odd one, but Joe quickly minimized it to enjoy the moment. Huh… a dream… but… He opened his eyes with joy and rolled his head to the side to gaze down on Kilniara then froze when her red feathery hair was replaced by a deep void black soft carpet of hair draped across his chest. His breath froze in his chest and he stared for a bit before realizing who was cuddled up against him.

Joe found himself conflicted. He was comfortable beyond what he could understand, a sense of home and rightness leaving him comfortable for the first time in a month. Despite the comfort, he felt a bit… distraught by the newness of the relationship and on top of that was the quickness with which his emotions seemed to have grown for Gwenvaire. It just… how'd I develop emotions so quickly… and… why … But…

Joe sighed deeply but softly and turned back to look at Gwenvaire again. He tried to pursue his thoughts on the issue but felt his heart soften and simply stared at her for a bit and then turned his head back to looking at the ceiling. It's … good… this is good… It's alright. Yeah… this solves the whole two wives thing. We're all good now… but… Tears welled up in Joe's eyes, his heart still quite irrevocably in pain over what had happened. So… choice is made… let it go… just… He breathed deeply and willed his heart to just let things go. That proved quite ineffective so he simply turned to his mind, firmly making the choice even if his heart seemed in fervent rejection. Suddenly, a soft wave traveled up his arm where Gwenair's head rested against his arm and his heart softened, the worry in his mind evaporated with relief coming to him and Joe leapt for it, happy to have it. Maybe… not as bad as I thought… maybe… Gwenvaire snored softly at his side and he let her sleep, turning to what he usually did when Kilniara rested … Joe felt the subtle pain of the loss of Kilniara, but for some reason, Gwenvaire's presence seemed to quickly shore up against the pain and Joe found the pain in his heart slowly healing. Joe leapt for that release from the pain and settled into his practice for the day, choosing escape.

OK… so… status first… He mentally brought back the message that popped up and found his eyebrows knitting in confusion. Before him was the typical message pop up he saw back when he was in one of the priest jobs for Saga and Mimir. It was then that he realized he'd never seen any messages in all the time he was pursuing the line of Loki jobs. So… they really suppressed the Loki line pretty hard, I guess?

He turned from his musing and saw a popup that was a bit unusual. Usually, the faith jobs had the picture of a person and their job reflected in a generic body figure in clothing representing their new job. This one was different. There were two people, both equally dressed in incredibly ornate robes, one of which was himself and the other was the old priest back at the village: Dunarl. Joe frowned to see the old priest in such ornate clothing then his eyes opened wide with some shock. Wait… Dunarl was a Loki priest? That… makes sense why he was stuck out there… maybe… then… why he's not there any… oh… the magic… was it too big? Is that why… he left?

He looked over the image and smiled then shook his head. Seems both of us are now… what… popes? Is that… wasn't the pope supposed to be the leader… then… Joe's eye's narrowed as he stared at popup once more and realized it looked a lot like a multiple choice, showing Joe and Dunarl side by side. Can I… choose? Then… Joe really didn't want anything to do with the leadership of any temple and stared at the popup for a bit. Right… so… uh… let's try it the easy way?

Whispering softly, he said, "I abdicate."

His smile shone when the image with his face pasted on the pope body faded both in color and in brightness before being crossed out with a large red slash. Joe nodded and then tried again.

"I vote for Dunarl."

A green odd shape almost like a square with an odd triangle inside it formed over Dunarl and Joe shrugged, glad to be done with it. He dismissed the popup and then turned back to his routine, finding peace and normalcy in it. He began working his mana, using both his personal mana and mana point mana as well as working on his mana points themselves. He had to expend all his system mana to get to his personal mana, as usual, but found the practice quite normal. Practice continued until Gwenvaire stirred, quite a bit later in the morning than Kilniara typically did, allowing him to practice for quite a bit longer. When she did stir, Joe stiffened and found himself in an odd double state. He felt home, and quite happy that she was there with him, but at the same time still feeling a distance that wasn't normal for those found laying next to one another in bed.

Gwenvaire woke then started, pulling back from Joe before looking up slowly, her head turning towards him even as she held her breath. Her concern tickled Joe's funny bone for some reason and a small smirk came to his lips as he watched her ever so cautiously glance up. When she did finally look up, her eyes shot open when she saw him looking at her and then she ducked down with an 'eep' and buried her head into Joe's chest. Joe chuckled slightly and brought his hand up to caress her back and comfort her while she remained buried in his chest.

Joe stopped his laughter and simply held her until she calmed and waited. After a time, she looked back up at him again, but blushed deep red as she did so. Joe smiled and then took a deep breath.

"You OK?"

Gwenvaire nodded, still very embarrassed, "Yes, but just a bit… hmm…"

Joe's smile fell a bit, "Yeah."

Gwenvaire looked up at him and her smile grew, "But … very happy here."

Joe felt his eyebrows jump a bit and his smile fell a bit more. Gwenvaire noticed and quickly grew serious.

"What's wrong?"

Joe sighed and looked back down at her, "I'm just… very concerned. This is … way too fast."

Gwenvaire nodded her head, "It is… not quite so. It is common for adventures, and the commoners to an extent, even more so among the nobility."

Joe grinned, "Not really a commoner versus nobility thing for my people, but certainly not normal amongst my people. In the old days of my people, maybe, I believe there were many who chose and married within months. Not so for us today…well… I forgot about Las Vegas."

"Las Vega?"

"Ah… oh… it's a city on my plane that is … famous for impetuous people marrying much faster than is wise."

Gwenvaire grinned in a bit of shock at that, "You have an entire city famous for it?"

Joe chuckled, "More… visitors to the city who do so than the people living in the city, but…"

Gwenvaire sighed, "Then… you would be amenable to taking some time?"

Joe sighed in relief and spoke back rather quickly, "Yes, please!"

Gwenvaire giggled at Joe's comment, "Your relief is similar to my own."

Joe smiled at that, "And that only comforts me."

"So… get to know one another with some time."

Joe's smile was much more relieved, "That seems perfect. I don't like how the circumstances seemed to have thrown us … into this situation."

Gwenvaire grinned and turned away, "I'll leave the room to you."

Joe frowned then grinned with a snort before nodding, "Thank you."

Gwenvaire smiled and then grew shy before suddenly darting forward to kiss him quickly and then fled the room as fast as she had stolen the kiss from him. He blinked in surprise and stared with some shock to see her gone. He grinned, chuckled. Well… time to start the day.

Right… I'm married. When… did I get married? This… Joe grit his teeth and dropped his head back with a groan. He grimaced, angry, feeling boxed in yet once again. And stood. He paced the room for a time as his thoughts wondered on his current predicament, but even as his thoughts gnawed at the situation, he felt a sense of calm wash over him and he relaxed into it, soon peaceful once again, the frustration and anger evaporating before some form of peace he couldn't quite grasp but deeply desired.. Deep in his mind, an idea formed and floated into his conscience. Right… just… relax. Gotta figure this out… just need time. We can get this done.

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Feeling relieved once more, he then flipped open his status and felt his peace shatter once more. He sat up then froze, staring in some shock. He'd leveled all his theorist jobs up above forty as well as a new special theorist that seemed to have unlocked after the other nine theorists called skill theorist. He also somehow unlocked the mage line and while he wasn't certain where that came from, it seemed like it was related to either mana-ologist or mana manipulater. Spell caster proved a dead end, but he'd gotten that to fifty, his navigator to fifty, and unlocked and gotten two Loki priest jobs to fifty: Patriarch and Pope. No other Loki priest job had opened up. On top of that, he'd unlocked some fifty combat jobs as well. He stared at them in shock.

He went through the jobs carefully, and found himself rather shocked by the learning stats that skill theorist gave at five hundred per level and the pope job gave him six hundred per level. All incredibly welcome as it only allowed him to develop ever faster. The fifty combat jobs proved quite disappointing, however their stats were all heavily in the physical stats and resistances and Joe found them quite comforting. And shockingly, he was quite a bit above all base stats. He had no fear of ever changing a job again. Even without any job, he would stand head and shoulders above almost any strong fighter back on Earth. What that might mean here on this planet, he wasn't sure, but he now seriously considered initiating his plan to change to local stats. That, however, he decided to wait upon, curious to look at what the rest of his status would show.

He quickly went to his available jobs page and stared with some pride at the insanity that was taking shape there. He grinned as he read over the list and began considering where he would like to go next. He spent time glancing curiously over the nobility line, checking out several of the new available jobs under the grouping line which appeared quite interesting, and then looking at the list of mage jobs made available.

He finally shifted over to the extensive combat listings and found himself quite proud of what he was seeing. He'd greatly expanded his combat capabilities, but then grew more and more concerned as his eyes traveled further down the list of jobs.

He began to see distinctly Earth based martial arts, and though they could possibly be the system's attempt at translation, he became ever more confused and weirded out as he began to see combative arts specifically created on Earth, some only within the last hundred or two hundred years.

His heart rate sped up and he began questioning what he was seeing, doubting the system and simultaneously growing a bit paranoid. Is there a connection between here and Earth? Maybe… Earth isn't as isolated as I thought? How do they have Earth martial arts? And… that might explain all the humans around? Kidnapped by aliens… maybe not quite so… crazy? Isn't that… no… but then they would know writing… there is no WAY they couldn't have heard of that… What is going on!?

Joe's fear ratcheted straight up into paranoia as he stared at the list of combat jobs, almost all of them martial art… No! I've studied ALL of these… then… to some extent… or know them pretty well… Joe's clenched his teeth and went through the list more carefully. After a bit, he grew calmer, seeing several combat jobs he hadn't personally studied but knew of that might be from Earth: boxer and wrestler. He also had never studied Tai Chi very much, so grew a bit calmer with his concern. Still, he was not very comfortable and quickly sought out more information by rapidly turning to his available skills page.

He quickly flipped over to his skills and scanned down the list of jobs to the combat listings. His paranoia was blunted when he came to traditional combat jobs such as swordsman and spearman and he found himself slowing to glance over the skills with curiosity.

His curiosity quickly turned to depression at what he saw in the combat line of jobs. Things seemed so… meaningless and generic that Joe wondered what exactly it all meant. He studied the combat line of skills carefully for some time before giving up with frustration.