"Yes, Joe! I grew!" He bounced excitedly and Joe just chuckled as Garnedell and Kilniara excitedly congratulated him as they hadn't pulled their second goblin yet, either. He almost asked to see his stats, excited for more data but then realized there was no point. I already know his stats, they don't change much just with one level. He's only level ten… wait, skills? Joe almost grew excited to see what he might have but then stopped, realizing it would have to wait until tonight. Joe frowned with a bit of annoyance but let it go and decided to see what he'd gained instead. He whistled slightly while Zilnek continued to bounce in excitent and Joe glanced at his current job, wondering about its stats before frowning. Why? I didn't gain a lev… He's not in my party! Joe grimaced at that but didn't say anything. He wasn't concerned about it too much, although now he was really regretting being in such a small town where he wasn't able to have a party of six. Well, I'll make sure I get so of the kills with Kilniara and Zilnek. Ooh… should I put them in a party together?
Joe pondered the idea before tossing out a pebble to smack another goblin upside the head and then caught Zilnek's attention so the two once again prepared for the goblin. This ti, Joe let Zilnek struggle with it at the beginning before stepping in and utterly destroying it quickly. Joe then quickly whipped out another projectile.
Joe then called a third goblin but this ti fought it first, grinding it down quickly until Zilnek would be pretty safe on his own and he backed off to let Zilnek fight it and win on his own. Zilnek took a good minute or two to deal with it and Joe waited carefully for a few monts until he was certain that Zilnek was fine and he popped up his status to look at what his current job could offer him. He flipped the page over to his current job display then cursed silently under his breath before stepping forward to parry a strike that Zilnek looked like he wasn't going to be able to protect himself. Zilnek took advantage of Joe's interruption and was this ti able to knock the goblin out easily.
"Careful, there. You just let him co at you and didn't protect yourself. You need to always be ready to protect yourself."
Zilnek took a bit to reply, his intelligence once again hobbling his reply, "But you are my partner. You would block him."
"Of course I would, but if I was dead or hurt?"
Zilnek seed to grow a bit sullen at this and Joe stifled his sigh before continuing, "And you are being trained right now. You need to be able to fight on your own. Killing sothing or soone is easy if soone else protects you for everything."
Zilnek nodded, sobered, but still not very respectful and Joe felt a flash of anger slither through his thoughts a bit but let it go, "OK. This ti, you find a goblin and catch its attention."
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Curses
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
20.00
Physical:
Wind
40
SP
20.00
Piercing
20.00
Water
40
MP
60.00
Crushing
20.00
Earth
40
Attack
20.00
Slashing
20.00
Fire
40
Defense
20.00
Ice
40
Magic
40.00
Gravity
40
Magic Defense
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60.00
Magnetic
40
Strength
20.00
Light
40
Dexterity
20.00
Believer
20
Shadow
40
Agility
20.00
Space
40
Speed
20.00
Spirit
100
Endurance
20.00
ntal
80
IQ
300.00
Sound
40
Wisdom
300.00
Electricity
40
Will
225.00
Learning
160.00
Luck
0.00
Zilnek nodded and then turned, scanning around while picking up so detritus from the floor. While he was doing so, Joe finally took the ti to glance at his job, and found his eyes rising in a bit of shock. Really! Level twenty in two kills. Nice! Joe couldn't hid the grin as he looked over what he had, finding most of the stats rather depressing except for the intellect stats until he saw that his resistances had gained a major boost. OOoh!
That's… that's really nice! Even got so strong physical resistance boost as well! And… huh… shadow's new! Joe's eyes andered through all the new info he was getting before suddenly snapping back to the rapidly approaching goblin.
As the goblin Zilnek had annoyed ca in, Joe prepared and they both went through the goblin as easily as the others, with Zilnek taking so ti to carefully combat the goblin before Joe stepped in and finished it off quickly after he'd gotten so experiencing fighting the goblin.
They continued this until Zilnek tired, with Joe taking two thirds of the kills and Joe making sure that Zilnek got the other third. Joe was supposed to swap to Kilniara at that point, but told all the others to rest. Both the two boys took up Joe's offer, but Kilniara seed to bubble with an odd energy as she bounced up to him and denied his suggestion to rest.
"I'm fine! Let's keep going!"
Joe snorted then shook his head before nodding, "Sure. Let's go."
As with Zilnek, Joe took two thirds of the kills and gave Kilniara one third after he confird he wasn't getting any experience with her either. He knew he was getting experience with Garnedell, as they had joined a party, but he … This whole thing is just too weird. All experience he'd gained on Earth for his combat ca from repetitive practice and experience in actual combat. Well… sparring, anyway… Joe thought, but didn't pursue the matter as it seed so strange to gain experience and strength so arbitrarily.
The morning went quickly, as Joe racked up his levels, rapidly hitting level twenty five just about an hour into their day, then slowing to take the rest of the morning to claw his way up to level twenty nine by the ti they hit lunch. He wasn't too concerned to push on to level thirty as he had the rest of the afternoon to do it, especially in the half hour or hour of practicing the forms where he could let loose and decimate the local goblin crowd.
Only one unusual event occurred before lunch, and that was a rather loud shout of joy that caught all of them by surprise when one group began excitedly dancing and waving around a goblin core as they circled its corpse. Joe found the situation actually a bit macabre, dancing around the corpse of their enemy, but recognized that it was actually the joy of gaining a core rather than defeating the goblin. It was shortly after that when Joe called for lunch.
They took a leisurely lunch, enjoying each other's company until Joe whipped them into a line and began training them with their forms. Once again, he began their session with so verbal hints and physical corrections before leaving them to their forms and slaughtering his way through another couple dozen goblins until he felt the surge of experience wash through him, finally reaching level thirty. Joe felt tension he didn't know he had fall out of him, collapsing down through his feet as he turned to find the three just finishing their second to last iteration.
Joe smiled at the timing and andered back, releasing tension and preparing to return to his training persona, offering advice once again, but mostly remaining silent and simply physically correcting the placent of their limbs as he wanted them to remain in their ditative thoughts. He wasn't sure if it was for everyone, but after going through his forms and settling, he was always able to slowly ld into the movents themselves, feeling a form of oneness with them and gaining subtle tells on how each movent or placent could be effectively used.
It was always a subtle and fragile state, so he very rarely interrupted them after they'd been in their forms for longer than ten minutes. It was almost an unconscious reaction and that thought made him consciously consider its source before starting smiling, happy in reminiscing on so of his ti amongst the various martial arts monasteries of China and South East Asia. Huh! I've beco my teachers! Joe stifled the giggle coming up, not wanting to interrupt them, and now simply stood behind them, watching carefully and noting, no longer even offering subtle brushes to push a hand higher or widen a stance as all three had fallen into a rhythm that they all silently followed.
When they finished their last form, all three seed to deflate before looking to one another with a look of surprise and undertones of excitent. It had taken awhile, but it seed that today was the day, and Joe allowed them their mont to bask, laughing at their excitent even as he rembered his own mont. Although… it's… fast for the siblings… maybe they were inspired by Garnedell. Joe hid his chagrin, a bit annoyed at how easily the Acokzau seed to catch on, but didn't let it bother him. Probably an Acokzau skill or thing.
He continued his silence as three began to babble excitedly before stepping in and offering the corrections he'd noticed at the end. After correcting them, he took a mont to think carefully, bringing in a natural break in the conversation, then taking the ti to elaborate on what they'd experienced.
"So, you noticed."
The three glanced at each other before slowly grinning and nodding excitedly.
"We don't really know or understand much about it, but we call it oneness. Lots of martial art's philosophies talk about it and I'm a bit surprised that you ... enjoyed… it so early, but I'm not going to complain."
The three smiled even brighter at this and eagerly listened, leaning forward in greater excitent.
"Oneness, as best as I can explain, is simply a mont where you are sohow more fully aware of both your body and your surroundings, allowing an incredibly deep understanding and connection with what you're doing. It's a really good ti to try and really catch on to every little thing if you're in training, and it's pretty helpful in combat to be able to quickly react and respond to your enemies. It's also very rare, so don't get your hopes up!" Joe laughed at the end, as they grew ever more excited.
The last comnt seed to drain so of their eagerness but not all, as all three nodded eagerly and Joe turned them out towards the goblins.
"Right. Let's get so practical experience, now. Rotate, like yesterday, and the one with will go one on one with the goblin. The other two will keep practicing in pairs. I'll stand between both and make sure to keep you safe if sothing terrible happens. Alright?"
All three bobbed their heads, "Yes!"
"Right. We'll do a couple of goblins, maybe give each of you couple to practice on each, then head down to the mukfrogs and just do a couple there as well, before going to the snows. That OK?"
All three rapidly nodded excitedly again, and Joe shook his head in amusent before setting up the first teams. They split as Joe recomnded and they were soon in combat. After a good five or ten minutes, Joe realized they were doing quite well, and he began to step back a bit more to allow them more freedom.
After rotating through each of them in singles and pairs, he let them get into a party of three, and they easily showed their ttle as they confidently took down the goblins. After two or three, Joe actually began to grow a bit bored and found himself glancing around the room, taking in the other combatants and soon noticed that the others, both teams and singles, were destroying the goblins quite a bit faster than his three apprentices were.
Joe beca pretty interested, intrigued by how quickly the other groups seed to be able to kill their goblins. He soon began to notice that there was a subtle difference where his group fought. While both groups all struck at the goblin's core, his group tended to aim for obvious weaknesses, as he'd taught them. The other groups, however, all seed to strike at the almost exact center, directly in the chest. Different creatures, so … maybe there is a different weakness?
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