continued - 4/6

Joe sighed and ended up going back to his original plan, safely, and quietly killing basic monsters while raising his various jobs. Well, crap! I almost screwed up big time! This isn't quiet, and it isn't even really safe either! Why did I… Joe's realization flushed through him and he suddenly felt the cold wash of fear settle in his heart as he'd completely disregarded his original plans and the need for safety. He hadn't seen anything of hospitals or doctors here, and although he'd seen magic and heard of healers of some kind, he didn't know if there was magical healing or how effective it was. Something else I need to figure out, definitely, but why did I … Joe felt the fear ease away but settle deep in his bones to simmer, a problem to requiring time to consider but terrifying enough to burrow its way into the back of his thoughts, forever pulsing and shifting as only a living thing good, never dormant, never allowing his mind to rest.

Joe looked up when he heard some shouting and cheers and realized he'd been out of it, missing the whole fight for the three apprentices. He stood and joined them, asking them how they'd done. All three bounced with excited energy, going over how they'd fought and critiquing their performance well.

"I'm not sure exactly how well you fought," Joe smiled at that comment sheepishly, "but, you guys really did very well with your critiques. You keep doing this, and you'll only improve. Nicely done!"

The three smiled brightly and Joe waved them on to another goblin, "Alright. You guys seem to be doing well and you know how to fight these. Keep going, and I'll fight my own. OK?"

All three responded excitedly and quickly turned to another goblin and Joe turned to fight his first after changing to his new job. He came upon the goblin quickly and took out his new spear, using it for the first time. He spun it in his hands and felt himself settle for his fight. He'd been in real combat now for over six months and was finding it easier and easier to settle into his warrior persona. All else faded around him and Joe found the goblin his sole focus.

He settled the spear in a two handed grip, wanting to try it out first without a shield to distract him. The goblin, of course, picked up the first thing it could find for a weapon, a small stick which was more like a switch, and Joe actually smiled a bit at seeing it before blocking a single hit from that switch before bringing the spear down sharply across the chest of the goblin, upper right to lower left. It wasn't enough to kill, as the spear had a very weak cutting edge, but it was enough to stagger it and Joe stepped forward with a sharp thrust that finished the goblin, killing it.

Joe smiled as he felt the pulse of experience flood him even as the goblin faded to blue dusty sparkles that dissolved upward. He quickly opened up his status to see what citizen theorist gave him then almost gaped in shock. What he saw almost overwhelmed him as the stat gains he was getting from it. True, the physical stats gave him nothing at only one point each, but there was a bump to the magic stats, just a minor one.

What was truly exciting was the boost to the intelligence stats and, gaining sixteen and twenty to wisdom. The shock came from the learning stat, one hundred points per level!

Joe actually stopped in shock looking at his current stats. He couldn't believe how much he was gaining from just this job and now understood why his job guidance skill had literally sung to him when he asked about the amount of learning he would gain from the theorist line of classes. Joe quickly swapped to look at his available jobs and almost drooled at the list of jobs available to him: nine jobs including his current theorist job. That would give him a total of one thousand eight hundred learning before any of the boosts he got from titles or skills! If he had is math right, he was getting more than eight times boost to learning because of his titles and skills, which meant an added base to his learning stat of almost fifteen thousand! OK! Might be worth it to level these jobs at least. I'll be able to learn a lot from them, at least!