Joe jotted down another ntal note to figure out his mana point refilling data and returned to using his mana points, manipulating them both spatially and materially. To that, he'd added expressing mana as well, shooting it out of the mana points as he wanted. Annoying as it ever was, he had almost perfect control over how much his mana points ejected and even how they ejected their mana, being able to send out the exact amount as he wanted. But in frustrating contrast, he still couldn't do the sa with his personal mana. His mana points responded with alacrity. His personal mana responded like an overburdened vehicle, sloshing around corners wildly barely in control. It was deeply frustrating. The mana points almost felt completely natural to him. Almost… instinctual, I guess? I an… so is my personal and system mana… but… that feels like I haven't… practiced it… like a muscle mory lost, so why is mana point manipulation instinctual, but my direct mana control is… lacking exercise? What's…going on with that?
Joe continued to play with his magic in every possible way he could think of, alternating between his mana points, system MP, and personal MP. It was… very odd. He pulled up his mana points, finding all seventeen bouncing in front of him. He evaluated each one carefully, and did find changes between the ones he was manipulating the structure of and the control group, but other than that, their movent and usage seed just as responsive for all of them. The more he played with them, the more he was certain that actual movent in space had little effect on them, but playing with their pliability and structure was making so pretty obvious differences. He'd have to keep playing with it, but it was interesting to notice.
In any case, he kept manipulating his points while watching them carefully, causing the points that he'd assigned to the 'movent' group to simply revolve rapidly directly in front of him. Every once in a while, he'd pull out a control point and have it revolve on a similar path as the others, but it moved as quickly and as controlled as the orbiting points did. Not much of a difference… then, so… should I just… quit? Or… oooh!
Joe put the control point back in the control group and pulled out a material manipulation point and had it orbit similarly. It didn't show any difference either, and Joe frowned, putting it back into its manipulation group as well. He looked at all his points, and continued his practice, emitting mana in the desired direction from all his points simultaneously while also still orbiting his movent points and working on his various manipulations of the material manipulation group. Granted, he couldn't manipulate them all simultaneously like he did the other practices. He was able to move or emit all simultaneously or individually as he wanted, but the manipulation seed more limited. He could only stretch all, one, or a group of points. Or he could do the sa with compressing, expanding, overloading with mana, or any of the other ten or so ideas he had to play with the points. He could do one of these exercises to all points at once, but it seed he wasn't able to overload one and compress another. Or do both to one or a group of points. He could only overload both or compress both. He couldn't even overload and compress a single point. He really could only do one thing at a ti. The sa wasn't true for emitting and movent. He could emit from any or all while moving any or all while doing one of his manipulation exercises to any or all. It was a strange limit he didn't quite understand.
He'd at first thought it was just his own limit of 'three' things. But even if he stopped emitting and moving them, he still was only able to do one of the manipulation exercises. It seed that emitting and movent were uniquely different than the manipulations.
In any case, he ended up dropping his mana points to about sixty percent again and returned to his system, then personal MP. This continued for another couple hours, and Kilniara never woke up the entire morning until the call for breakfast was made. Joe looked down to find her still exhaustedly sleeping, and he quietly woke her, nudging her awake having decided to end his practice session when breakfast was called.
"Hey… heeeyy! Wake up! Ti to wake up!"
"No… is not! Still sleep … ti…"
"Breakfast is ready."
"Wha..?"
"Breakfast… it's ready."
"What?!" she woke with a bit more poise.
"Breakfast… it's ready."
Kilniara leapt to her feet from the bed, head turning rapidly even as her eyes darted everywhere, "What? It's ready? Why didn't you wake earlier? What… how could you! I have to leave here quickly! I can't be here if…"
"Hey! Hey! Calm down. It's OK. Get ready. I'll help you get out quietly, OK?"
Kilniara stopped and looked up at him, still a bit upset, but Joe stood from bed and pulled her into a hug. It was a bit difficult, as Joe stood only in his boxers and Kilniara's pajamas, while not skimpy, were thin and made the hug quite enjoyable. Joe kept the hug controlled and stepped back.
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"Give a second. Let make sure no one is outside, OK?"
Kilniara bobbed her head, thankful, and Joe quickly dressed before stepping to the door. He found the way empty, the door to the room for Garnedell and Zilnek still closed. Joe went up and knocked on it.
"You guys up?"
Inside, several groans were heard, and Joe smiled, "Breakfast!"
Knowing the two were still struggling to get out of the bed, he quickly slipped around the corner to where Kilniara's bedroom was and opened the door. It stood dark and cold and Joe turned back quickly. He stopped by the boy's door, pressing an ear to hear the muffled movent of waking and he quickly ran back to his room to usher Kilniara to her room. He did look at the hallway and around the next corner to make sure it was clear before opening the door.
"Co. Quick," Joe whispered before turning and walking down the hall quickly. He glanced left first, finding it empty. He beckoned Kilniara and rounded the corner to the right when he saw it was empty as well. Kilniara seed incredibly relieved and slipped into her room where she stopped and turned to him.
"Thank you!" Kilniara whispered back, before leaping up to wrap her arms around him tightly and kiss him. Her kiss was passionate, her cheeks flushed with excitent which had Joe struggling to not simply push her into the room. Joe allowed the kiss to go on a few monts before he pushed them apart.
"Right. If you want to keep this secret, we need to stop this now!"
Kilniara laughed, "See you at breakfast soon!"
Joe smiled, the door swinging shut in his face before he pulled in a deep breath and sighed softly, returning to a slow relaxed pacing back and forth in the hallway. So… her staying is a bigger deal than I thought… let's… yeah… have her stay in her own place for now… from now on, I think. Just, if it's this bad, I really don't want to make things hard on her… so. Joe grimaced with so thought, grinning with chagrin as he continued. 'Sides… its… getting a lot harder for to say no. Would be a really, really dumb idea, especially if she gets pregnant. Joe sighed and shook his head. So… sothing to talk about later… after the tide, I think.
Joe nodded his head, decision made and more comfortable for it as he turned back to his room, to pick up his weaponry and bags but found them gone. He panicked a bit, then rembered that Garnedell had picked everything up, and his worry softened. Right… need to tell him thank you! Joe's thoughts turned, his eyebrows knitting slightly as he frowned, going deeper in thought. He's… been doing that a lot lately… didn't even notice. That… really helped! Gotta say thank you. Joe resolved to do so and stepped out of the room. So then… breakfast! Let's head to the dining room. Ti to head back to work!
Joe made it out to the two boys already seated, preparing to eat and Joe took the ti to fervently thank and praise Garnedell's help as he sat down, and Garnedell took it well enough, if a bit shyly with so embarrassnt. They then fell into a conversation after that as he joined them and the three ate quite quickly, scarfing down food as fast as they could, which made them quieter than normal but Joe was happy to be able to eat easily enough. After, they soon fell into silence, focusing on their als. The silence was companionable because they were all too hungry to really continue talking. Gwenvair joining them, and soon after Kilniara, destroyed that silence and soon all four were chatting away while Joe continued to eat.
Joe didn't join the conversation, turning instead to choosing his next set of jobs, although he figured it would be pretty fast. The rcenary line was proving very useful with its physical resistances, so he imdiately went to the next job in line nad… hired man, really? What is it with these… Joe cut his thoughts and laughed. It really was a stupid na, but Joe took it anyway. The next choice, however, wasn't quite so obvious. Keep going with tai chi? It's really not looking very… useful, however. Joe's thoughts ramd into a wall, unable to continue. He really wasn't sure exactly what to do.
He flipped open his available jobs tab and decided to peruse his options. The faith line of jobs was out as the only thing available to him was the Loki line and he was stuck at the primate job for at the mont. He really wasn't interested the citizen jobs… at least at the mont. Nobility was interesting, but did not seem aningfully pertinent to his current situation. The only three groups of jobs that seed really important at this ti were jobs in education, grouping, or combat. So… utility for groups, more learning stat, or keep working on my physical resistances. Joe mulled over the idea for a bit until finally deciding that it was best to really get his base line of stats up. Tai chi doesn't seem to really be giving good physical resistances, so then should I look at so other… Joe perused the other combat jobs he had available, although there was a massive list, even by now. He skimd them quickly when he noticed sothing he'd forgotten. Soldier… huh… so, the next in line is… private… guess that makes sense.
Joe flipped through his notes, looking at what he'd written down for the level one stats for soldier. He grinned when he saw the one stat per physical resistances. Whelp, that makes the choice easy! Private it is! Joe quickly set his second job to private and then relaxed, comfortable with the choices he'd made for that day. The other two guys had finished as well, by that ti, and were simply speaking with one another, Joe joining in a bit. The two girls were just starting their als because they'd been chatting the whole ti when Gwenvair's mother joined them. She didn't join them for breakfast, simply joining the table for the conversation, and soon Joe and her were in deep conversation talking about the last couple of days.
Kilniara and Gwenvair, seeing Gwenvair's mother co in, slowed their conversation and quickened their eating, soon having their als co to an end. They stood shortly after and the six headed back out to start the day at the wall. Joe was a bit worried when he ca out, thinking he would find Telnia outside once again, but sighed in relief when he found the front yard empty. They turned to the wall and headed towards it, ready for the day.
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