Chapter Forty Five
Joe woke with a stretch, the dark of early morning well before sunrise. He'd long found himself going to bed quite a bit earlier than he was used to and having caught up with his lost sleep, found himself unable to sleep the night. Going to need another hobby to occupy myself at night. Joe's mind wandered a bit as he allowed himself to lounge on the bed, mind wandering for a bit without much thought until the reminder of the craziness of last night ca to him again and embarrassnt soured his face, dropping the corners of his lips down. All that about not taking advantage of Kilniara, and I pretty much do the sa thing, culturally as they see it, at least, to Zilnek. Joe shook his head clear and rallied to distract himself, turning to his status to check his gains from yesterday as he'd been too overwheld and exhausted at the end of yesterday.
Stats proved to be normal as expected for his level but the thing that surprised him was being able to hit level twenty six in less than a single day. Also, given how much learning he'd gained, it made it easy to choose the next job and he'd already swapped to criminal theorist the previous night. He'd taken a mont to glance at the job one the way ho but realized that he was still technically 'level zero' since he hadn't gotten a kill yet so had to leave it for the next day.
Since he hadn't explored the job skills from the citizen theorist job yet, he decided to flip open his skills to see anything new. He was quite disappointed. He gained a job skill called citizen guidance and when he checked it out, realized it was just a bit of a better version of job guidance but only worked for citizen jobs. Might have been nice to ask about so things, but… too late now, not like it really mattered though. Joe closed his status screens in disappointnt and found himself left to his thoughts and drifting back to sleep, his mind wandering and the darkness leaving him without any stimulation.
They sat around a firepit under the stars, Joe enjoying the mont of camaraderie as Garnedell, Zilnek, Kilniara and the family they'd befriended enjoyed an evening al in the trail. The moons were shining overhead, brightening the landscape by as about as much as the conversation. They crowded the flas of the fire and enjoyed their als. The perfect end to the day.
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, a Mona Lisa smile gracing his face. The smile dropped quickly when he saw the five intruders creeping close with blades bared. Joe frowned, concerned. The concern faded quickly and was replaced with tension and a subtle thread of fear. His arrow slid smoothly from his bow, streaking through the air and striking the first target cleanly, dropping it. The second arrow fled his bow with a third following close behind. Two more arrows streaked the night and the five intruders lay on the ground, sprawled in their death.
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, a Mona Lisa smile decorating his face. The smile dropped quickly when he saw the five intruders creeping close with blades readied. Joe frowned, concerned and unsettled. The concern faded quickly and was replaced with tension and a subtle thread of worry. His arrow slid smoothly from his bow, streaking through the air and striking the first target cleanly, dropping it. The second arrow fled his bow with a third following close behind. Two more arrows streaked the night and the five intruders lay on the ground, sprawled in their death.
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, a Mona Lisa smile stretching his face. The smile dropped quickly when he saw the five enemies slithering quickly across the field with weapons drawn. Joe frowned, concern spiked with fear thudding in his heart. The concern faded quickly, replaced by tension and a sharp tug of fear. His arrow slid smoothly from his bow but Joe did not even watch the strike, his second arrow already flying and third already nocked. Two more sped through the night before the five intruders lay on the ground, sprawled in their death. They're getting clos…
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, a wide unsettling smile pulling back his lips. The smile dropped quickly when he saw the five enemies skating across the field with weapons at the ready. Joe grimaced, worried concern hamring his heart. Arrows flew from his bow faster than he ever thought possible. Soon, five bodies lay sprawled across the ground.
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, a caricature of a smile stretched across panic gracing his face. The rabid smile dropped quickly when he saw the five enemies gliding across the ground, weapons already swinging downward at targets. Joe grimaced and released arrows, five streaking across the field and thudding into bodies.
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, a manic smile on his lips that didn't match the panic in his eyes as his bow appeared in front of him and arrows soared through the sky after the five enemies streaking towards the campfire. The five bodies thudded to the ground just behind his friends as they enjoyed their al arou…
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Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, manic fear painted his face as arrows peppered the five enemies. The five fell dead but Zilnek fell under the blade of one, Joe too late to save him.
Joe watched the camp while leaning against the lone tree in the field, panic giving wings to his shots as arrows flew to their targets. Five bodies fell, but Zilnek and the father were not saved.
Joe watched the camp as his bow flung arrows across the field. Arrows struck the five, downing them, but not before Zilnek, the father, and one child died.
Joe watched the camp in horror as his arrows arrived too late. The five died, but he lost half the group, including Zilnek and Kilniara.
Joe watched as his arrows failed, killing the five, but loosing everyone except the mother and small daughter.
Joe watched his arrows…
Joe woke with a start, his entire body sitting upright in bed as sweat rolled down his body and his lungs pumped rapidly. It took him a few monts to recognize his place, panic settling to fear, then finally relief as he fell back down on his bed. Well… that one sucked!
Joe's breathing idled as his heart settled and he soon found himself relaxing again, but shook himself away from sleep when the panic from the dream ca on him again. He took another couple heavy breaths and decided to not fall asleep again for that night.
His mind wandered, trying to find sothing to occupy himself and decided to go over how the day had gone. His mind considered his actions and how he had done in his combat. As he went over what had happened, Joe began to feel more and more disconcerted as he realized that he had taken risks that he wasn't really happy with or proud of. He could almost dismiss the actions he had taken while fighting the boss monsters, but he realized that he was taking greater and greater risks that were quite troubling. Fighting the legendary sparks, not once, but twice, even after he'd learned how the city had reacted when he fought the first of the legendaries. The way he'd fought with the goblin king was less disconcerting, but how he'd fought with everything else, he decided he would add that to the growing list of dangerous choices.
The one that really bothered him was how he had gone in and decided to take on the dual core monsters on the fourth floor, especially the ones he didn't know about and had never seen before. Joe wasn't one to shy away from a fight, a life ti with parents who pursued physical excellence and martial arts made him unconcerned with fighting, but his parents had also proven to be incredibly intelligent in the pursuit of their sport and had trained him the importance of preparing and studying one's opponents.
The sli and spark he knew, and one could even say that he knew sothing of the snow and mukfrog because of fighting them on the earlier floors, but that should have given him greater pause since he knew how much more difficult a dual core sli was. Despite how he had grown his stats, they weren't actually affecting him, he was still static, his abilities still identical to what he'd had when he showed up on this planet. Well… technically moon I guess since were orbiting… focus! Granted, he'd grown a bit in actual combat, much more comfortable now actually killing the various creatures, but he'd always been very cautious about everything he did, planning as much as he could.
His stupidity had gotten him hurt by the snow and his arm still ached from that fight. The biggest warning was when he stood outside the door to the fifth floor and looked at the five dallions embedded in the door. Joe had been absolutely certain that by adding the dallions to the door, he would be adding that sub-boss to the fight. Even as he thought of it now, he shuddered, fear coursing through him and actually making him shiver in rembrance of the chance he'd taken. But even now, Joe still felt the ghost of avid excitent and overwhelming greed to just… try; an almost addictive desire seed to curl through his gut, driving him to go back and do it again.
Joe took a shuddering breath and pushed aside that feeling and felt cold fear cut away the rembered desire to rush in and take on the dungeon boss with all its minions once again. Joe took a mont to collect himself and started thinking carefully about his actions since he'd co here. But as Joe went through his mories, nothing stood out until he'd co to the city. Is it the city? Sothing in the city? Joe thought carefully, trying to go over his actions as he went through the city but couldn't seem to find anything that really stood out. Although… there really isn't much combat going on in the city, but... Joe's mind turned to his conduct with the usurer and the Acokzau siblings.
He considered it carefully, but ultimately wasn't sure he could really say that was out of character. Although he was a bit more abrasive with the usurer than usual, Joe knew he'd been burning with rage by the ti the bastard had shown up because the siblings had explained enough to really get him going. While he wasn't one to often get angry, people taking advantage of the innocent was sothing that did really bother him. His strong sense of justice was sothing he'd gotten from his father and was an honest part of who he was. It had never really gotten him in trouble before, but it had certainly gotten him involved in so things that were really none of his business, even back on Earth.
Despite that, he couldn't quite dismiss it and decided he needed to pursue this with Kukurnal the next ti he t him. Joe put that to the side and felt he was quite wide awake as it was. He glanced to the window and saw the greying of false dawn lighting the landscape and stood to begin his morning stretches. After stretching a bit and still finding ti, Joe decided to push himself to stronger exercise, figuring that his nightmare sweats were enough to make him take another bath in the morning anyway and pushed himself much more than he normally would in the mornings, but kept to low impact movents to not wake the apprentices.
An hour later of Tai'Chi-esque performance of the various forms he knew, stressing perfection over speed, Joe found his body flowing with sweat, hair plastered to his body. He still had quite a few forms to practice and the boys woke to join him, practicing their forms as well, although Zilnek took the ti to wake his sister and had her co out to join.
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