Chapter 77 Continued

Joe shook his head, "Our people do not… agree with controlling other clans. They are free to do as they wish, for the most part. That said, our people are not… perfect. There are some times that some corrupt or evil leaders and … rich people seek to control or take from other count… clans. There are many evil amongst my clan."

Joe sighed at that, shaking his head, "Our people have fallen far from who we once were, but many of us still struggle to be good people, even if some of our leadership has failed miserably."

"It is something… that would be wise to consider," Gwenvair spoke, looking at her mother.

Her mother looked to Gwenvair and nodded, "Possibly, but it would require great thought."

Joe nodded, "It really would. And I only offer my knowledge. I really need to remove my judgment. I apologize, but I am shaped by my people's thoughts and culture. And slavery is something that… is not acceptable."

"But to replace it would require wealth and ability our people do not have."

Joe nodded slightly, "Possibly, but our people when we abolished slavery were about equal in ability to what your people can do now, if not even a little behind."

At this, the Matriarch looked at Joe with a much more thoughtful look before nodding her head, "Something to consider carefully, then."

Joe nodded, then shrugged, "It is… certainly difficult as my people and their allies were able to fight to remove slavery across the world and not simply only in their clans, so… it would likely be very difficult for a single clan or city to do so."

She nodded much more firmly at that, but said nothing else. She sighed and then stood, "It is time to return to the wall."

Joe nodded, "They still attack?"

She nodded, "Yes. Please come as quickly as you may. Gwenvair will join you today as before."

Joe nodded, "I'm honored by your trust."

She smiled at that, saying nothing but nodding before turning to go. Joe watched her leave before turning to look back at the others, "Well! Guess we gotta head out soon, too. Did the arrows come in?"

Gwenvair quickly nodded at that, "There are many bundles outside, and we will acquire more for tomorrow as well."

Joe nodded, "Good. Give me a second, then we can head out."

Joe turned away from the group, and looked over his jobs. Time to get my jobs lined up, I guess. Maybe… check them out half way through today as well? Make sure they are growing as efficiently as possible… wasted a bit yesterday on some of them when they hit thirty plus… but… I can make sure…

Joe focused on his current task, thoughts fading as he began looking through what available jobs he had. Right, going to need the highest priest job and the navigator still… maybe I can drop the navigator? I don't want to waste a spot on it… but… Joe sighed, grimacing. I'll probably have to keep it just to be safe so I'll be able to aim for the monsters or notice when they're below my line of sight.

Joe glanced over the skills that navigator had, checking them out more carefully to see if there was anything else useful besides just monster sense. That's when he saw party locate and magic map again. Huh… what about… Joe activated magic map, party locate and monster sense at the same time and felt his grin grow. OK… definitely… way worth it! The map populated, showing the area he'd explored with green dots which became quickly obvious as the two members of his party: Garnedell and Kilniara. The rest of the map proved empty, although there were some grey dots, which Joe realized were people who were not in his party, Gwenvair showing up as well as a maid or two as they walked through the room. Huh… only seen when in sight… got it… but then, monster sense? Ooh! Maybe monster sense populates the map out of sight? Like party locate does? Too far to catch anything right now, though, but…

Joe was distracted a bit, but the chairs shuffling pulled Joe back to his thoughts and he quickly looked over what jobs were available. Right… need navigator for now, but don't really need to level it, so I'll drop it in the fourth slot. And then the priest job… hmm… still Loki Primate, so gotta keep that one… and it's not that important to level it up. I've got what I need. I'll swap it out when the next one becomes available, but I don't really need to worry about it. So… two more slots. What… hmm… so… I've got … not going to look at in the basic jobs… Rather focus on the others… Hmm… crafter, education, nobility, grouping, faith, or combat… gotta focus on combat for the physical stats, no… wait… I'm fine now so… but really should focus on my strengths, so… and the grouping stuff is very… useful, the education stuff, too… for more learning stats… and I've got time too… Hmm… Well, let's focus on taking a look at other combat jobs.

Joe settled on a couple of combat jobs and took his time looking through the options. So, I have the next in line for mercenary, duelist, gladiator, horseman, warrior, staff warrior, and a bunch of the spearman line unlocked… 1, 2, 3… 8… eight spearman unlocked, and I can unlock the spetum, voulge, guisarme, thrower, swordsman, axeman, war hammer, mace, and pugilist lines. Spearman would be a good… Joe trailed off when he saw that the next spearman in line wasn't available, still locked behind the latest one. Then… should I put more into the spearman line? Hmm… yeah… should I keep pushing for the spearman line? I'll have to keep the latest one… Uh… yeah… spearman it is. Then my last job is… Joe perused through the rest of his options and settled on a few what he felt were his two best. Hmm… duelist, swordsman, or pugilist… Probably a good idea to have some kind of combat good for fighting humans… duelist probably wins out against swordsman… so duelist and pugilist… I've got spearman so … I'm going to want something that will help in unarmed combat…although how much would it really be helpful… especially with all my training I already have… or… another world's training?

Joe's thoughts stuttered, the idea of getting access to another world's unarmed combat excited him quite a bit more than any armed combat. He was much better with unarmed combat anyway. Pugilist it is!