But for a Slime

Chapter One Hundred Seventeen

Joe shifted in his makeshift cloak bed, a quick glance at the sleeping healer to his side. Still asleep! Joe stifled to sigh of relief before returning to his efforts. He looked up his status and decided to look at the white elephant in the room: his insanity job. So… available jobs and available skills... just skills… I can check out the job level there, too. Joe flipped open his available skills and searched down the list of jobs till he found the insanity job then eagerly turned to the skills. At least I could get something useful. But as he looked at it, he grew ever more disappointed as he scrolled the screen to the right and looked at the skills. Every ten or twenty levels, he did gain a skill, but it was an identical skill: insanity increased. It wasn't until he got to the last listed skill that he found something different. While a different skill interested him, what he was more shocked by was how far to the right he scrolled. His eyes widened in stunned shock as he scrolled to the right almost double the distance he'd ever done before.

He quickly scrolled back and looked at the job level and found his shock reinforced and proven. Level one hundred? I thought… fifty?! Joe stared in shock and glanced back and forth between his insanity job and a couple of his level fifty jobs. Why did this one hit a hundred but… I remember fifty was max. Is there… something else? More?

Joe allowed himself to excitedly ponder the implications of a max level of one hundred. Or maybe… is it some jobs that have different max levels? That would be interesting. Joe's thoughts wandered again with that. Have I not found other jobs that can go to a hundred? Hmm… another gateway job? How…

He once again found his mind racing with possibilities but again found no solutions despite his efforts. Finally, he sighed softly, not wanting to wake the healer and turned to the last skill on the list. The last skill was called Deadly Choice. Huh… Deadly Choice? Guess it makes sense. Help, explain Deadly Choice please?

Joe smiled, grateful for whatever bonus he got. It seemed like it wasn't actually a skill, but some kind of permanent bonus as he saw that the will stat was greatly increased and he didn't have the insanity job equipped. A boost against illusion as well… maybe that's why I was able to burn through the obsession illusion protection so fast? Or… something else? Interesting.

Joe considered it for a time then looked through the rest of the jobs and didn't really find anything new. Several of his jobs had increased a couple levels, which made sense considering he remembered heading into the rat dungeon more than once. But there was really nothing different but a couple more levels. Joe grit his teeth and then sighed before moving on. Uh… well… guess I should check my titles now… maybe see if I got a blessing as well?

Joe turned to his titles, less interested in them as they continued to pile up but also understanding their unique nature in some of what was offered. There weren't that many changes, although he got a couple more copies to dungeon destroyer and dungeon conqueror as well as dungeon walker. The biggest change was to disobedient slave, where he now had a hundred thirty two iterations. He grinned to see that, actually finding some relief in his efforts to fight. The futility of it shown through next and Joe struggled to dismiss that factor as well, breathing deeply and closing his eyes before turning to his other uniquely new titles.

He had several new ones and given his last six months of suffering, it made sense. He had gained a lot of titles: No Pain No Gain, A Torturer's Toy, I Ain't No Sheep, Guard Dog, Insane in the Membrane, Brilliance of Insanity, and Manaless Development. Huh. Help, show me all these titles.

Joe smiled, finding some of them interesting and exciting but the few that highlighted his recent pain quickly soured that smile and he sighed and turned away. He almost dismissed his titles but then paused, realizing that there was one that would be very useful. Huh… ok… let's look at the amount of pain I can reduce. Got a base ten percent… so… is the no pain no gain additive? Or is it a percent… naw… that wouldn't make sense. But, a maximum ninety nine… ninety nine point nine nine nine nine percent reduction in pain… heh… nice… Joe felt relief wash through him and quickly tried to calculate what his current pain reduction was. Please… let it be lots!

He took a look at his blessings and titles and found he had forty three iterations of No Pain No Gain, which was much more than he thought he would have gotten, but insanity had left his mind rather broken, so he only felt relief that he had what he did have. So, forty three iterations so that's ten plus nine plus eight plus seven plus… uh… so… I get point nine per title for the second ten so for the last three points after forty give point six each so … two point four. OK, so thirty four plus two point four is thirty six point four. That… a third of pain just… gone… And is the point four lost? Or does it round up to thirty seven? But how do I tell… But… half again… Joe chuckled in relief and joy. Especially because torture is the definition of seeking to cause pain! So already close to forty five percent… plus the ten from Torturer's Toy! Already… half reduced. Gonna be nice! Although… I guess I'm going to have to keep playing to the pain… a bit? Joe's thoughts dug back into his memory and struggled to remember how he reacted to the pain, then carefully evaluated so as to continue to match the pain given for any future torture sessions.

The one oddity that stood out was the synergistic gain he got with Manaless Development and Manaless. It made complete sense to be incomprehensible, seeming to track, given the quality of the title as inconceivable. Although that did make him wonder why Manaless and Manaless Development both gave him special abilities as titles, even synergistic gains for both, but it was still odd that they could be quantified. Although… multiplying two unknowns together… maybe that's the confict?

Huh… any other titles? Or… maybe some new synergies for old titles? Joe went through the painstaking process of checking title after title, stepping past the low hanging fruit of new titles and found one new interesting synergy. Erudite had a new synergy that was interesting, seemingly linked to opening The Jack as a new job. The synergy text basically read 'The Jack - Skills gain synergy with one another with greater ease and the ability to meld skills comes more easily. Now able to change jobs ten times a day.'

Ten times a day… ok… that's… maybe don't really need a priest job soon? He considered then dismissed with a soft shake of his head. Still changing jobs quite a bit more than that… just swapping once per job and subjob I have kills four changes… But… maybe soon? Joe enjoyed the immediate perk of more job changes but was more intrigued by how skills 'gain synergy' or 'meld.' He understood the meaning behind both the words, but was uncertain how that would play out. Something definitely interesting and with his base stats well above his Earthly ones, he found it a much more intriguing option to pursue. Although... his hand slid up to the collar instinctually before cramping and pulling back when the collar reacted. He sighed and turned back to his other titles.

Joe's thoughts turned towards his status. OK. Then show it on my status. Show me my pain status, please? Joe stared for a time but nothing changed in his status and Joe frowned. He thought for a time before sighing and moving on. Nope… that didn't work, but… I don't think… is this a good idea? No pain … can get me in real big trouble real fast. Can I turn it off? Or… Turn off this title please? Don't use it… Joe felt no real difference, even after a few minutes of efforts and turned to other things, although he did feel immense relief for his new protection against pain. It would make it much easier for what was to come.

Before moving on, he took a last glance down his skills and found many of them growing slightly, something that he found a bit surprising but was grateful for. However, the one thing that really caused him wonder was how high his healing skill in his healing adept job had gotten. Wow… my heal limb stab is already over two. That… will be nice! I can use that heal anytime, now. Hmm… But I'll still definitely want to get that leveled up, so… gonna have to job swap… and I'll want to work on my personal HP as well… Joe sighed at his ever increasing list of tasks although he put it to the side for now recognizing he would have to really set his priorities straight. He'd been lucky the last several months. He'd floated through the city of Coushar and been unconcerned about his decisions and actions and, by a great deal of luck, it seemed like he'd gotten away with a lot of things that normally should have gotten him in massive amounts of trouble. He wasn't even sure how many things he'd done that got him on the radar of powerful people, but the lack of any meaningful response and the fact that things kept working out made him relax way too much. Now… He grit his teeth and stifled his bitter moan. Gonna have to evaluate… might as well do it now!

So.. definitely the saga priests… if I remember right… that's who came just a while ago. Definitely looking for me. Those second priests… don't even know who they are but… yup… lost my first Loki faithful job… so likely some kind of police force dealing with and suppressing Loki jobs. That's… How'd they even find me? Seems… Anyway, I think I'm off their radar now. Woulda killed me or taken me in if I wasn't. And … definitely know that they only know about the faithful line of jobs… nothing after. Don't think I would still be here if they knew I was a pope! Gonna have to be careful with any friends, then, if they take Loki priest jobs… Is that regional? Maybe? Or something else… What if… His mind began theory crafting about helping others level the Loki line of jobs on other moons or locations but then quickly shut his wandering mind off and focused back on those he knew were after him.

So Saga is still after me. Loki… anti-Loki police kinda done… Not sure, but the guy who did all the dungeon breaks… but… seemed more to do with the … Gwenvair's brother… yeah… Gunlan, but Gunlan's going to be taken care of when I'm done with this collar… two for one package. Zilnek's done… don't want to see or talk with him again… and he's not really a threat or after me. That last thought took on an extra heat, anger grasping and twisting his face to a bitter hardness.

Oh! The insanity curse… whoever that was. Not sure where to even start with that. Or who? Definitely linked to those two guys who were pushing it… faking it behind the inn's backyard. Don't know… anyone else… think that's all. So… just… really gotta deal with the slave collar then the Saga priests, and maybe the curse … guy… whoever they are.

Joe sat back with that, his thoughts ending with a muddy swirl of uncertainty before he turned back to consider his plan again. So… immediate plan to free myself… does this change anything? He still wasn't happy with his situation, but the grim despair that had settled upon him was lightened a lot by the knowledge that he'd gained significant benefits that would help him withstand much of the trauma he would now be going through. A third reduction to pain would be significant, although if he had to continue going through amputations, Joe knew the simple act of it and seeing it would be traumatizing at a level that would be visceral. Maybe it would be possible that the people here would be less traumatized growing up knowing that it was possible to regrow limbs, but his visceral knowledge of the deadly finality of delimbing left him struggling to see amputation as anything but terrifyingly permanent.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself, glancing at the healer to see him still sleeping and lying facing away. Does this change things? Should I try to be… more aggressive? Joe considered his options, thinking about how he would push through or how he could affect his timeline before finally deciding he would remain with his current plan. He still had no idea how to deal with the collars so his newest gains were simply a wonderful buffer against the continued cruelty of the slave system and not necessarily a secret weapon that could get him free any faster. Except… maybe the system admin stuff!

His firmed resolve did not lift his despair so much as it strengthened his ability to bear on. The possibility of a system administrative solution, however, offered him a much stronger bump to his hope. So… give me system administrative functions!

Joe waited with baited breath for a few moments, expectant and excited, then waited a bit more. Well… gotta be rare… so some lag might be expected? Can't be a normal situation… not sure how anyone could get through the insanity job to the administrative jobs… gotta be insane! He controlled his upset at the delay, believing he'd found an obvious explanation for the slow response, but when the couple moments stretched to inconceivable lengths, any expectation that something was still happening quickly evaporated and a bitter frown came to his face. Huh… OK? Uuuuuhhhh… Joe found himself at a loss, then tried again.

Administration. System administration. Administrator. Administrative display. Administrative status. System administrative display. System administrative status. Joe quickly ran through dozens and dozens of variations on what might be something that would reveal the administrative access he'd somehow unlocked but nothing happened at all. The air before him remained stubbornly clear of blue boxes. His excitement slowly died out and was replaced by frustrated bitterness. What's going on? Maybe…

Joe glanced over at the healer, still hearing his soft snores so was not too worried, verifying that the healer was still asleep. He stared at the man for a time, chewing on his lips, cheek, and tongue before repeating all the ideas he'd run through in his mind in a soft quiet mumble. His expectant hope died rather quickly as he went through his list and was soon grimacing as he growled out the last of the options. Nothing happened, the air in front of his eyes stubbornly empty.

Then… what am I going to do? Noth… uh… Help, how do you access the system administrative functions? He resorted to seeking out help but as he stared on, he found his anger spiking rather sharply as no blue box of any kind formed before him. He frowned in consternation. Help, what is system administration? Nothing happened. His eyebrows danced, flickering up and down with confusion as, again, nothing happened. Help, what is the title No Pain No Gain.

Relief and anger in equal measure flooded through him when the blue box popped up in front of him immediately then his lips curled in disgust. Security through obscurity… Joe sighed and wondered for a bit then turned back trying everything again, but nothing he did seemed to trigger any response. The system was absolutely unresponsive to anything about system administration functions except for the first pop up that showed. He grimaced and turned to his logs, digging back through them carefully until he found the entry revealing the language of the pop up. Yup… remembered it right. System Administrative functions accessed. But… how do I access them? Help, how do I access system administrative functions. Joe paused, waiting, and again, nothing happened.

He spent another good ten minutes or so thinking of everything he could do to get to the administrative functions but everything proved futile. And by the time he was done, his calm had shattered to a deep annoyance. This… so sucks. Then… new jobs, I guess. With great reluctance, he moved on.

He flipped opened his available jobs tab and began exploring it, not believing he'd find much new since he hadn't really leveled any jobs at all in his couple months of insanity. Still, diligence was wise and he quickly went to that page and began scrolling down through the list of jobs. It took him a bit longer, the two month hiatus of insanity having made his memory a bit spotty but his notebook proved invaluable and he found nothing really new in the Citizen, Metropolitan, Commoner, Crafting, or Education line of jobs, although he did see that his 'physicist engineer' job had changed names to now be called insanity. He actually shivered in response at seeing it, while simultaneously noticing the itch growing stronger. He evaluated, feeling out the itch until he realized it really was getting a bit unbearable and swapped his job back to insanity before clicking the 'no' button and finding his main job once again as commoner.

Joe sighed and turned back to looking at the job list and found his first hint at something new. In the same column as the 'nobility' tree, he found a new tree below it in brilliant orange. He grinned, looking at a new open tree then put it on hold to explore everything else first. Cool… cool cool cool! But just double check everything else first! His eyes machine gunned through this list in rabid excitement then paused again in shock. Another job under gifted?! This… Joe found his eyebrows rising and now he wasn't certain what to look at first. The gifted job had maxed out at fifty, having been using it for a while now to help level other jobs a bit faster to higher levels, but another job called 'The Jack' had appeared beneath it. He almost wanted to explore it but also fought against it and turned to looking at the rest of the jobs first. Heh… this… ooooh! A new tree; administrator… and a new gifted job… the jack! So… focus! Focus! Double check the rest!

Turning his eyes back to the list of available jobs, he returned to a diligent overview. Nothing new showed up in Grouping, his eyes having to go back and double check as he'd found himself distracted easily by the immediate nearness of the new 'jack' job under the gifted tree. The magic tree remained basically the same as did the faith line of jobs. So, too, were combat and criminal jobs unchanged, although he did find two new jobs under the criminal line of jobs that had opened up: major criminal and murderer. Joe felt his eyebrows vibrate in rapid confusion even as his heart shuddered and he struggled to figure out what had happened when the memory of the young kid he'd killed with a slice of his dagger came back unbidden to his memory.

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His calm shattered even as his entire ego suddenly found itself ungrounded, everything he was certain of fracturing before the knowledge that his hand had slid a dagger across the throat of a child and let him bleed out in his arms. He knew with everything in his being that it wasn't his fault. He'd had no control over himself in that moment nor did he even have any real cognizance, his insanity overwhelming all his thought. He knew that insanity absolutely would have been a valid defense; that he was more than blackmailed into it, but even more so actually robotically puppetted to kill the boy.

However, that didn't change the wild horror that shook his mind. He took deep breaths, struggling to calm himself and completely uncaring of any noise he made. His surroundings faded from reality, disappearing into the nothingness as Joe wrestled with what he'd done and struggled to convince himself that he still was innocent. It wasn't my fault.

Even as his logical mind recognized the reality, the lack of control, and where the true blame lay, his heart echoed horrific pain at the idea of holding the knife. He could still feel the easy slide of metal parting flesh under his hand and shuddered at the simplicity and ease of death. Vomit welled up and touched the back of his throat even as he clamped down on his torso, muscles violently halting the upset and swallowing. He was able to stop it, but the burn and acrid smell wafted up the back of his throat and into his nose and mouth. He heaved a few more times, but this time easily controlled it until he finally flopped on his back and stared at the ceiling.

Not your fault. Not your fault. Not your… no… NO! Not MY fault. Not MY fault… Joe chanted repetitively in his mind and while his thoughts calmed and his upset faded from his mind along with the memory of the child dying in his arms, he still didn't believe what he was chanting. And finally, towards the end once he'd calmed down, he closed his eyes and breathed deep while confronting his claim. Not my fault… maybe… but definitely manslaughter, righ... Aaah!

Pain ripped through him and Joe hunched over again, this time with a sharp mental pain, grimacing and huffing rhythmically to reduce the pain. It took him a bit, glancing around and searching for the source of pain but finding nothing so once again falling on his back, he glanced up at his status page again. Wait, what!? Joe looked at it in shock, seeing a deep dark black replacing the commoner blue. That… Joe flipped to his current job and found the commoner job replaced with 'major criminal.' Joe stared at it for a time then narrowed his eyebrows. Wouldn't murder be… well… no… uh… I'm a murderer. Joe waited with baited breath but no change occurred and Joe chewed his bottom lip before realization hit him. I don't believe I'm a murderer! Huh! Then… why… oh… still manslaughter.

Realization seemed to crystalize at that, understanding that he had become a criminal because he thought himself one but not a murderer because he rejected that claim. Huh… I wonder… I'm a thief. Nothing happened and Joe frowned, then thought back on some candy he'd once stolen from a dojo and its master when he'd been quite young. I really did steal that… oooh… ok… Ouch! His job changed and a new minor criminal job flickered on screen then his job reverted back to Major criminal but thief was now an available job in his criminal tree. Joe stared at it for a bit, then back to the major criminal job and frowned. Why is it still major criminal? All the other times it forced me to swap, but… maybe can't go from something bigger to lesser? The bigger ones take precedence? Hmm… maybe… I'm a thief! This time, nothing happened, and he didn't find it too surprising. One shot type of deal, I guess. Or… maybe I really don't see myself as a thief?

Soon, Joe began to seek calm by shying away from thoughts of the kid that had died in his arms and by his hands, shuddering every time it came up. Instead, he distracted himself by diving into understanding the criminal system for a time until he had regained his equilibrium and calmed. He knew ignoring it was a terrible idea, but dealing with it right now in the middle of a slave camp while he had to fake insanity to save himself also seemed to be a rather poor idea. He escaped into his musing of the criminal job system for a time but didn't really find anything new so turned to another topic to distract him.

The Jack. Sounds like such a cool job! Wonder what it does? Joe forced himself to turn to other things, his thoughts running wild with possibilities but in the end, like all jobs, he had to actually equip it to know what it could do. But he allowed his mind to fantasize simply to escape reality for a bit. There wasn't much to consider about 'the jack' but considering it came from Gifted or as a response to Gifted, Joe wondered at what it would do. More concurrent jobs? Like Gifted? Would be nice… kinda taking up half my slots right now with a job change class and my storage class… so a couple more would be nice… or is it something else? Joe knew the opening of 'The Jack' had nothing to do with the Gifted job reaching level fifty, but he was rather confused at what it could be. He had gained new titles, new blessings, some more dao seeds, more jobs, lots more stats, and either a new curse or revealed an old one. He was uncertain what had brought about the opening of 'The Jack' as a job. Easy enough to do… just need to find another person who doesn't have it try to change to that job… should be good enough.

Joe put off that line of thought but noted it for when he might get free. If I get free… If… no! When! Joe ground his teeth and closed his eyes then took a deep breath to calm himself as despair welled and roiled through him for a bit before he brought it under control. Another deep sigh and he finally opened up his eyes and continued his perusal.

Below the gifted line of jobs, Joe found another job he already knew about but hadn't really put effort into exploring due to having been kidnapped, enslaved, and shoved into a literal insane fantasy: justicar of mercy. He remembered it, knowing it was due to his response to Zilnek, forgiving him, but he'd never gotten the chance to use the job. On the list! So…

Joe then finally turned his eyes to the left, the brilliant orange title calling to him and he smiled to see it. So… that's where you were hiding … heh! In a brilliant orange heading, this tree of jobs was called administrator. When he looked at the jobs available under them, Joe grew both excited and a bit underwhelmed with bitter concern. There were five jobs, the first one seeming to have five jobs under it while the next three only had three. The last one, given that it had no bounding job below it, gave no hints to how many, if any, jobs extended from its initial entry. The five new jobs were junior user support, junior system administration, junior network engineer, junior analyst, and junior GUI programmer. The split and differentiation of the jobs, Joe found, was quite telling. Joe wasn't certain what he was looking at or what it would mean when he took the jobs. But, it was very odd to see the titles and names. Feels like I'm looking at the IT department of a typical corporation! Joe found the whole thing very odd.

So… can any of these help me get out of here? Don't think user support or GUI programmer is going to be useful… although if I'm the user? What do you think, help? Can I self-help using the junior user support job? Joe waited, half serious with the question, but no reply or blue box was shown and Joe huffed with amusement and turned to the other jobs. So… last three… system admin, network engineer, and analyst. Joe quickly dismissed the last two, not finding how network engineer and analyst would be a help with his slave collar, but the first piqued his interest. System administrator… that's … the guy who has complete control of the network, right? The entire system! Joe grew more excited with the thought and began to evaluate between diving deep into the various faith jobs, randomly searching for the last two gods or goddesses he needed to free himself from the curse or to turn to system administrator with the hope of being able to remove his collar. So, what do you think, help? Think you could help me deal with this slave collar? Joe asked with deep sarcasm, expecting nothing, then blinking in surprise when it actually came. A blue box with only a single line blinked into existence, snapping into being with a violent punch and a simple response.

OK. I wasn't expecting that at all! Joe stared at it for a time, thoughtful, before sighing and moving on and dismissing it. Welp… administrator goes to back seat… So… collar or curse? Which one do I want to deal with first? Right now, I could go either way. Curse… I have a way forward on. Collar… still screwed and no plans right now… So… more exploration on collar for now, but focus on the curse to get rid of it? Joe accepted the choice and dove into his understanding of the collar, what little of it he had, but soon found himself frustrated at any lack of progress and turned his thoughts back to his initial question. Curse it is… then. Not really any other options… for now. I can deal with the curse, but not with the collar yet. And… administrator job… cool, but not useful if I'm still a slave… same with 'The Jack.' If whoever owns me finds even more use for me… Joe grimaced at the thought. Yeah… bad idea… And… Joe looked over at the sleeping healer at his side and grimaced before looking down at his missing limbs, both legs cut off half way between his knees and waist. Seeing his missing limbs brought a certain punch to reality and he had to close his eyes, sighing with a juddering breath as he laid his head back down again. Right… no legs… it happened!

His breathing calmed with time and then he finally turned to action. Let's load up on job change jobs first… but… Joe grimaced as he realized he'd a lot of his job slots since his transporter job and job change class remained a requirement. Don't wanna lose anything if I swap jobs… but… he thought on it for a time then grimaced. He glanced out the open tent entrance and found the night still quite young and he grit his teeth a few times before he finally decided. Right… might as well test it now… I can pile up my stuff on the wall here… the healer won't even see it and I can suck stuff in so fast…

He began pulling out all the stuff he had in his magic bag and in his magic space. The space was pretty much empty as he kept it all in the much more convenient bag. The magic bag opened up an interface listing his loot much like a game did and a simple choice brought it into his hand, if never in a really useful way for immediate use as he had to rearrange it in hand to grip it correctly. That was a huge issue with weapons, requiring him to rearrange them in hand to grip the weapon correctly.

Oddly, food in bowls or plates seemed to at least settle in his hand so as to not be upset, although there were a couple times where he had to scrabble to catch them when they settled in poorly. They luckily, or not so luckily, Joe wasn't certain of the magic involved, did not appear upside down or tilted in a way that he would lose food or drop them on the floor.

The magic space, as always, opened with a silent tall doorway into an unlit yet perfectly visible very small closet sized room. It was essentially empty. He'd tested before if things stayed safe after closing it, but still hadn't tested dropping and reequipping the job. Once everything was out of both magical spaces, especially the advanced dungeon core, he grabbed two wooden arrows and put them into the magical spaces, one in the closet sized room and one in the inventory set. Then, pausing for a moment, decided to put a few sets of his hot food back in as well, willing to lose that as well and willing to test if it functioned the same while the job was unequipped. He then swapped out the subjob with another. He waited a few moments before reequipping the job and then opened up the inventory. He breathed a sigh of relief to see the arrow just fine and in perfect shape. There was no change to the object.

He then opened up his magical space and blinked with some shock and no little worry. Empty! Right… so… lose everything in the closet but not the bag… or did I not wait long enough? Joe closed everything again and swapped out the subjob again, cautious to not touch his major criminal job that now occupied his main job slot for fear of turning his priest job dark. He turned to look at the healer and found him still zonked out, sleeping away. Joe laid his hands on his pile of stuff, prepared to zap it all back into the space just to be cautious. But… gotta have the job swap ready pretty quick though… so… uh… ok! He then picked out the job he was going to swap and the skill he needed to do it, prepping himself before turning to other thoughts. Gotta give this some time. But… not too long... Joe glanced at the advanced dungeon core resting against his side and fought a grimace. He knew that time appeared to be greatly slowed in his inventory space, so would rather have it there, but he'd made sure to pump the advanced dungeon full of mana before compressing it down to its core for transporting purposes.

Joe then took the next twenty or thirty minutes just to rest. His mind had been racing with so many details and thoughts, he could hardly think on it. The itch returned and he almost changed his job once again but then froze with some trepidation when he remembered that his main job was currently a major criminal job. If I change it… my priest job gets turned dark, right? That's… Joe grimaced with frustration and decided to ignore the itch for as long as he could until it became a mind numbing worm twisting through his thoughts. He huffed and found himself almost changing his job subconsciously. OK… pushing it now!

Joe quickly swapped back to his transporter job to check out the arrow and hot food in the inventory space and found both still in perfect shape, as best as he could tell. He took that as sign enough and popped everything back into the inventory, especially the stuff he cared little for, keeping out only his tonfa, spear, and the dungeon cores. He then swapped out all three of his subjobs for various Loki priest jobs that allowed him to change his jobs before mentally choosing the job he wanted to use to change his major criminal job to insanity.

By now, the itch was getting overbearing and Joe grit his teeth as he fumbled through these last steps setting up his three subjobs before swapping over to insanity with a relief. The relief was short lived as pain shuddered through him and watched as the priest job he'd used blackened and his priest became a black priest job. The pain subsided and the insanity job and its popup took a back seat to his curiosity as he stared at the job new priest job. Wait… black Loki Cardinal? I thought it was dark… Joe blinked a few times and dug back into his history as well as his available jobs and quickly found what he was looking for and Joe settled back with some shock. Huh… so when I fixed Zilnek's thief job... I got a dark priest job… and… Joe paused a moment to look at his available jobs and quickly noticed that the thief criminal job was lumped in with the minor criminal job and was a dark grey. But… murderer and major criminal are pretty much black… same black as this new priest job! That's… interesting.

When he turned his thoughts back to shifting his job back from insanity to anything else, he realized he didn't have to. Rejecting the prompt automatically allowed him to 'escape' the insanity job by dumping him back to commoner. Wonder… could you give me another job besides commoner? His mind focused and he tried to narrow down his options of what he wanted, settling on another priest job with a job change skill. That's what I want… give me that job! Give it to me… I want that… Joe chanted in his mind as he pushed the 'no' button for supposedly completing the insanity job. And his job changed back into major criminal. A subtle chill shivered down his spine. Wait… that's not good! If that's… Joe thought carefully, wrestling with what was going on before coming to the conclusion that he couldn't change his job from major criminal. Worry slithered through his thoughts and he looked at his dark priest and major criminal job now both black and occupying his two top job slots. Curiosity warred with worry and he put curiosity very low on the list to be explored, a deeper concern worming through his thoughts. I'm… gonna turn every priest job to black priest at this rate… that's… His thoughts were happy for the distraction and leapt to figure out what he could do, but everything pointed him to being stuck. Every attempt to change his job from a major criminal job would poison one of his priest jobs and soon he would have a full slate of only criminal jobs. Can't use a job… do I have someth… Joe blinked.

My title bonus… I can… Joe opened up his blessings and titles and glanced at his Erudite title before grinning. OK… that's… nice… Relief settled through him as he looked at the title once again and sighed with some hope. He quickly initiated his Erudite blessing and changed his main job from criminal to another priestly job. Once done, he stared at it with bated breath, but no other changes occurred and he soon breathed a sigh of relief. So… can't touch … don't touch any of the major criminal jobs… good way to poison everything with major criminal, looks like… donno why Erudite doesn't, but I'll take it. Seems like… touch a criminal job with another job and it becomes… well… major criminal jobs anyway… the thief and minor criminal job was a one time thing… or is it like a three time thing? Poisons the job slot for a time? Or a number of job swaps? Or…

Joe lost himself in the problem for a time, wondering at the possibility of it but unwilling to fully explore it at this time due to the precarious nature of his current position. Instead, he swapped back to his transporter job after another half hour and found everything perfectly fine and the hot food he'd bought to 'test' still just as hot as when he'd put it back in. Over the next several hours, he continued this test and found things still showing pretty good, so began to relax more and more until he felt comfortable enough to return his tonfa, spear, and the dungeon cores back to the inventory as well. Not going to leave this, though. Once I get this criminal job sorted out, I'll pop my transporter job back in as well.

The insanity itch returned a couple more times during all that and he'd successfully popped into and out of insanity easily enough, returning to the commoner job each time without becoming a major criminal. Joe sighed with some relief, now certain that he could solve all this rather simply by tomorrow, initiating the Erudite job change tomorrow to swap out his last criminal black priest job. Just ignore it for now… so…

Joe's thoughts finally turned back to his main predicament, and he dove back into struggling to find how to escape magically enforced slavery and how to maintain a modicum of freedom until he figured it out. His thoughts ran far and wide, but didn't find anything and he soon fell asleep, exhausted.

* * *

Aelthron blinked with some surprise when the sudden request appeared before him. He turned his thoughts from the system administrative capabilities that had revealed themselves to this new request as it played out before him. He'd long prepared his dumb spirit to take over running the system when he slowly succumbed to the despair of being alone after millions upon millions of years. There was only so much watching he could do to fight against the insanity.

Guilt itched at him for what he did, but there was little else he could have done; insanity and despair would have soon left him mindless. He knew that and had seen it happened to other spirits before. The never ending grind of time beat down any not well prepared for it, and he'd not been well prepared at all. His desperate gamble to put himself in a self-induced fantasy saved him but also became a deadly temptation and escape from the utter monotonous horror of his current existence, and it seems that he'd succumbed to it for quite some time.

That being said, it seemed that the dumb spirit he'd carved off from his own had functioned quite well, if rather arbitrarily and narrowly, for the past hundreds of millions of years. I've lost… so much time… If he had teeth, he would have ground them in frustration and self-castigation. Turning from the unproductive, but making certain to evaluate at a later date, Aelthron turned towards his newest request with surprise.

The dumb spirit should have taken care of this, and if it couldn't, it was forwarded to Aelthron. His surprise came in the fact that he hadn't gotten a request from his dumb spirit in quite some time. To receive another now only pointed to the uniqueness of the current times and Aelthron felt a thrill he hadn't felt in a long, long time. So… why wasn't it able to resolve this? Aelthron listened to the request as it played out.

"So, what do you think, help? Think you could help me deal with this slave collar?"

Aelthron felt a soft smirk come to his face, the anthropomorphized spiritual body he'd created to try to feel more himself actually working a bit, and made him feel a bit more himself. He chuckled at the odd tone of the request, the statement made with obvious frustration at the futility of the request and the uselessness of the help system. You and me both. You and me both! Not sure which is more frustrating, my friend. I am uncertain of which is worse. Having a helpful system that is useless to you or being expected to help without having anyway to communicate it.

His thoughts turned quite bitter towards the end and Aelthron quickly replied despite knowing it would be meaningless. His initial effort was a polite and informative response which he found himself floundering in until after a few moments he turned to a bitter blunt response. There is no point to even say anything. The person cannot understand anything I say…

"Offer this response: The collars of slavery and its purpose is none of my doing or my responsibility so the system is not connected to such a thing."

Aelthron collapsed back in his faux chair and a desk formed before him, mental constructs that formed to accommodate his mental expectation of sitting at a desk in his study. He ground his teeth but froze when he felt nothing. Right… no body… Whenever he tried to do a physical action that returned some sense feedback such as touch, taste, or temperature, he felt nothing and it was always a jarring interruption to his thoughts. Although… seeing and sound… why? He turned his thoughts away from such futility, long exhausted of such things and turned back to his dumb spirit and modified the spirit to be able to respond to the question. There was some frustration at the user who'd requested help; the person should have known the collars had nothing to do with his cradle or the system put in place by the emperor. Spending a few moments, he drafted the response with a bit of a more polite tone and just a few more details then offered the spirit parameters for how this response should be used. It didn't take long, the dumb spirit, despite its moniker, was more than intelligent enough to know which answers and questions were connected and how to reply, if not quite capable of formulating entirely new answers for odd or strange questions.

Once done, Aelthron settled back and scratched a spiritual head with a spiritual hand for a spiritual itch that did not exist. The lack of physical sensation jarred him, and he sighed and put his hand down. Still, the act calmed him and he turned to wonder that there were any responders left. Don't think I've seen one… in a long time! And… the dumb spirit doesn't even… how many has it gotten lately? Don't think even the dumb spirit was getting that much by the time I got it mostly done… wonder if…

"Spirit… bring up the history of the interactions."

"Of course, master," the spirit responded while fading into existence like it had always been there directly in front of him, showing a slightly off and modified version of himself from his youth. The spirit almost looked like a brother, if he'd had a brother.

Aelthron continued before the spirit could begin, "Tell me the frequency of the requests over the last … uh… ten thousand years. Only describe any major change in numbers of requests or any other significance you have noticed. Combine inconsequential years into single sentence responses but give me the duration of time in years. Use today as a referent and count back to ten thousand years in the past."

"Ten thousand years ago until four thousand one hundred and thirty one years ago, no requests. Four thousand one hundred and thirty years ago, one request. The request, with great confidence, appeared to be an instinctual cry of shock and not an actual attempt at interaction with the help system. Four thousand one hundred and twenty nine years ago until one year ago, no requests. Within the last year, there have been eight thousand nine hundred and eighteen help requests. All requests but for a minor few appear to have been deliberate requests for help. Anomalously, this user has requested further information. Anomalously, this user has requested further information obviously informed from previous information presented. Anomalously, this user has also made requests of system derived knowledge skills and data skills another five thousand and twenty times using the visual interface. Anomalously, this user has refined and furthered requests based on data presented with the system skill. Anomalously, all these anomalies are the result of the same user."

Aelthron had listened in boredom until the spirit began reporting on the last year, and he began leaning forward with eager shock and no little trepidation. Is it? Truly? Maybe?! Hope is a dangerous thing. A truly malicious and vile worm that can eat away at any steady resolve, yet Aelthron, despite his galactic cycles of age, found himself unable to resist it. Please… please… someone to talk to! Please!

Aelthron found himself lost for quite some time plumbing the depths of the histories, seeking out more information with avid greed.