34 - Friendly Advice

Entering the cool lobby of the Adventurer's Guild, Joe spotted the person he had been hoping for behind the front desk. Kendell had had her back to him, but she was turning around in response to the opening of the front door. She was wearing her typical bright smile, the one she seemed to have for everyone. Yet when her eye fell on Joe, there was a change to her expression. Her facial expression warmed even further, and a flush crept into her cheeks. Joe could swear he and the wildness could hear her heartbeat increasing.

"Joe! You're back! Congrats! Ears came in an hour or so ago. She told me about your quest together. Nice work!"

"Thanks, Kenda. Earcellwen is great. We made a great team," Joe stammered a bit flustered. He looked around, noting that the two of them were alone in the lobby. Stepping up to the desk, he lowered his voice. "Hey. Just so you know, she hates that nickname."

Kendell gasped, and the red flushed in her cheeks vanished. She clapped her hand to her mouth and spoke through her concealing fingers. "She … I …. Why didn't she …. I didn't know. Oh no. I called her that this morning. I always call her that. Everyone does."

"I got lucky. Tezeno told me. Somehow, he knew, but she confirmed it with me."

"Like really hates it?" she asked plaintively, looking pale.

"Yeah. Sorry," Joe consoled, knowing how embarrassing it could be to make a gaffe that offends someone without meaning to. "Hey, it's ok. She says everyone does it. Just start calling her by her real name, and it will be fine."

"I'm going to kill, Tezeno," the guild-trainer fumed, clapping her hand onto her desk. "He is so good with people, usually. How did he let this go on?"

"Sorry about that. Maybe I shouldn't …"

"You damn well should have," Kendell exclaimed, rounding on him. "I'm mad but not at you. You did the right thing, unlike a certain square-jawed co-worker of mine." She came around the desk and placed a hand on his upper arm. "Really, thank you. Sorry about the temper there. I get that from my family. We Bracey's tend to wear our hearts on the pier."

"All good. Just as long …," he started before being interrupted by her.

"Oh, speaking of which, I should apologize to you, too. I ran off on you like a crazy lady the other night. I realized the next day I never explained, but by then I was trapped at home."

"No worries, Kenda. I guessed you had a good reason," Joe lied.

"Wait. Please let me explain. My family are crafters. We are glassmakers and glassblowers. My father, brother, and uncle are glassblowers. My mother, grandmother, and I work with molded glass. This town goes through a lot of glass, even after we enchant it against breakage. With Founders Day coming up, everyone wants their shops and houses in ship-shape, so it has been all hands on deck." She stopped and took a breath. "That afternoon with you, I was supposed to be in the shop as soon as my shift here at the guild ended. But I was having such a good time with you." She let her voice trail off. The implication of why she had lost track of time was both flattering and reciprocal.

"Thanks. So was I … with you."

A bit of worry left her features. "Well, my mom was spitting nails. She just doesn't get that I don't want to be a glasssmith. She thinks the whole trainer idea is just a phase. When I didn't show up that afternoon … well, let's just say that she almost started throwing the product. I've been grounded to my workbench ever since. I've been wanting to apologize for bugging out on you ever since, but I was under serious shop-arrest."

"Whew," Joe sighed. "I thought I might have messed up."

"No. No. It wasn't you. I'm so sorry I made you feel that way. I really liked spending time with you. So much so that I missed how late it had gotten." A tear ran down her cheek. Kendell spun around, wiping it away. "Damn it. Sorry. I hate that. I cry. Even at stupid stuff."

Joe felt like a heel, even though he knew he had done nothing wrong. He placed his hand on her shoulder. She tensed for a second but then relaxed and even leaned into his grip a little. "Don't worry about it, Kenda," he continued. "I had a good cry when I got here. Completely out of the blue. I get it."

The girl sniffed once and turned back to him. "Thanks. I needed … WHAT!?"

Mojo had been at Joe's heel, looking around the room. The fact that Kenda only had eyes for him and hadn't even noticed the little dog-ape was telling. When she started to cry, Joe went to comfort her, and he decided to help. The changeling clambered up Joe's side and jumped onto Kenda, wrapping its arms around her neck, using its whole small, furry body to hug her.

"Is this Mojo? Oh my gods, he is adorable!" She reached under his arms and eased him back far enough to see his shaggy face, which split into a happy grin, and then proceeded to kiss her soundly. "He is way more dog-like than I expected from Earcellwen's description."

"Yeah. I think he changes mostly into whatever species he is adapting to, only keeping just a trait or two from his last form. When I found him, he had some feathers, a more beak-like mouth, and I think a lighter-boned build, but he was mostly ape-like. Now, he is almost all dog with just that tail and the arms left from his simian phase."

He watched her lavish affection on the little broodling for another minute before he interjected his request, asking if she had time to help him work on his skill selection.

"Of course!" she beamed. "That is what I'm here for. Skill work takes precedence over inventory, so you are saving me from more bookwork." Kenda swept a hand toward the front desk, which was littered with ledgers. She puffed out a happy breath before pointing down the hall. "Let's head to the study. The chalkboard helps keep track of ideas."

Over the next half hour, Joe read off all the options he had for Healer and Baleful Warder. They both lamented several times over the need to have Joe read the skills out loud, instead of being able to share his screen. The Healer skills were pretty standard, and Kenda's amazing memory for character abilities recalled almost all of them by name alone. Baleful Warder, on the other hand, was something completely new to her, and she wanted those word for word.

As Joe was reading out a hex description, Earcellwen stuck her head in the door. "Have you guys tried forming a party? I noticed yesterday that I could see Joe's actual secondary class name when we were in a party. Today, it's back to Hexer. Maybe that's what's different."

Joe was up at the blackboard, chalk in hand, correcting a word he had misspoken, when he heard the familiar voice. "Morning, Wen," he acknowledged as he finished the correction.

The nickname felt much more natural to him than RC ever did. Coincidentally, the name of one of Joe's best friends in high school was Joy. He found it funny that both Wen and Joy had pretty much the same meaning. Funnily enough, Earcellwen strongly reminded Joe of his classmate. They both had that same driven vibe about them.

"I think you mean afternoon, Joe," the elf countered. "Did you and Mojo sleep in this morning?"

"Is it really that late? Yeah, we did. Also, did a bit of shopping. Mojo needed ammo storage."

"Good idea. Did you tell Kendell about the attribute points from the trait?" the elven archer asked.

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"He did, and I'm jealous," Kenda affirmed, taking back the stick of chalk. "That [Anyone] trait is very good. I'm pretty sure The One Above wouldn't have given that to a native child of Illuminaria, which is why I've never heard of it before.. Giving it to a Newcomer allowed Joe to catch up to traits we pick up over the years, but he also missed a bunch, due to his accelerated leveling. I'm guessing The Giver of Fates expected Joe to miss some opportunities, making the trait less unbalanced."

"As for the party idea, I feel like an idiot. I should have thought of that myself," the skill savant admitted. "Let's try it both ways. First, you initiate the party, then we drop the group, and let me make one. I can see if either method differs."

At Kenda's go-ahead gesture, Joe invited her and Wen into a party. When they accepted, he opened the party screen and was surprised to note that Mojo was already there.

P

A

R

T

Y

Name

Level

Classes - Roles

Joseph Morris

14

Healer / Baleful Warder

Earcellwen Rhuival

14

Ranger / Wildbow

Kendell Bracey

16

Seeker / Savant

Mojo

2

Artillery

After disbanding the group and accepting the party Kendell immediately initiated, Joe didn't see anything different, but he doubted any of them, except maybe Mojo, had any deception ability that would hide their info the way [No one] did for them. Curious, Joe focused on the changeling's name and tried to see if he could discern any more info about the little man. The table responded by providing more information, though not just specifically about Mojo.

P

A

R

T

Y

Name

Lvl

Health

(Current/Max - %)

Stamina

(Current/Max - %)

Mana

(Current/Max - %)

Joe

14

1481 / 1481 - 100%

2379 / 2379 - 100%

5170 / 5170 - 100%

Wen

14

417 / 417 - 100%

1287 / 1287 - 100%

774 / 774 - 100%

Kenda

16

745 / 745 - 100%

1885 / 1885 - 100%

882 / 882 - 100%

Mojo

2

41 / 41 - 100%

117 / 117 - 100%

30 / 30 - 100%

'This could be useful in combat,' he thought. Given that the information on Hawking's screens was instantaneously comprehended, it would not be like he had to read those numbers. Playing around a bit further, he discovered he could turn the digits into bars for even faster status checks. The names could be shortened, too.

When Joe was done playing around with the interface, he realized he was not built like either of the women. Both of them were stronger and more agile than he was, but his two high attributes were what allocated the three resources: health and stamina from Vigor and mana from Spirit. This meant that while both of them would be more effective in a fight, Joe might be able to outlast them.

It also implied that Joe would have to watch their resource pools more carefully than his own if they partnered up. They must have learned how to be more circumspect with their pool usage, as they had a fraction of the resources he had. Joe just burned through mana and stamina without care since he had plenty of both and could refill them. That clearly was not the way these two functioned.

"Ok, Joe. Share your skill screen with me, please. Let's see if Earcellwen's guess is right." As soon as Joe opened his skills descriptions for her, he knew it worked. Her face lit up into a wide smile. "Oh, this is great. We also learned more about [No one]. It will share your info with those you trust in a party."

She read through Joe's lists, scowling a few times, before heading to the board to correct the text of some skills that Joe must have misread to her.

Kenda had him open Traits too before announcing, "Now we can get somewhere. The very first thing we should tackle is your [Signature Skill]. Just having a signature skill is a big deal. Let's get [Forceful Fist] to rare. The obvious next power-up for that spell would almost surely be making the digit a casting focus. This would mean you could use [Healer's Touch] at range. I'm almost positive the proximity of the [Wellspring] trait is based on where the spell is cast, so that means you could cast a splash healing onto a bunch of people at a distance."

"So the question is, what skill do we add to synergize with [Forceful Fist]? The divine skill that makes the most sense is [Celestial Weapon], which would be great. It allows paladins and clerics to manifest a force weapon and smite through it. I'm sure that would turn from smites to general casting for you. The only issue is that you lack a divine connection. You might not get a good synergy without one."

Kendell stepped to the board and wrote out the skill's name, and then she began to add other names below it.

"[Arcane Arms] is the arcane version and probably the closest to your [Forceful Fist], but it's much weaker than [Celestial Weapon]. [Spirit Paw] is druidical, which might suit you. Your healing style is more druid-like than clerical.

"The biggest gamble would be [Angelic Armaments], which is already rare. You have the points for it since you already have two in Perception. We'd just have to hope The One Above refunds the extra point, or you'll be dumping a third attribute point into Perception, which isn't too bad since you now are aiming spells.

She finished with a frown, stating, "There is [Phantom Fist], but that has a heavy necrotic component to it that would probably conflict with your healing." She rubbed that last name out even before she finished writing it.

"Let's try these first," she suggested, tapping her finger down the list of [Celestial Weapon], [Arcane Arms], [Spirit Paw], and [Angelic Armaments]. "Be right back," the guild-trainer stated. Joe gave her a nod, trusting she would know better than he. Kendell stepped out and returned a minute later with a handful of skill shards. "Alright, which one feels best?"

Joe picked up each of the four small crystal shards, starting with the one with the silver band around it, before running through the three with copper rings. He summoned [Forceful Fist] and then held each shard and tried to feel a connection between the two. There was a clear winner in his mind. Actually, the winner was the one both he and the wildness felt the greatest affinity for. That was the druidical [Spirit Paw]. There was zero doubt in Joe's mind that the two skills would merge.

"This one, for sure," he announced, and Kenda pumped a fist.

"I was right!" she blurted. "Your Baleful Warder class is almost surely an Occult magic class, like an oracle, witch, or soulblade, but your Healer class is not Arcane or Spiritual, which are the two most common varieties. For you, it's Primal, like a druid or shaman. Maybe you were always a Primal Healer, or it flipped when you absorbed those cursed abilities. Doesn't matter. Now that I know, we can tailor your spells better."

Joe sent his awareness towards his healing skills. Unlike the abilities he had created by transforming the lycanthropic skills, they were not at all connected to the wildness inside him. Yet as he pondered both his wild id and his primary class skills, he could see how very similar the two sets of skills were. There was something very organic about both.

Most of the skills he had learned from crystals had a rigidity about them, as if they were based on formulas or training regimens. He could bring them to mind without any effort, yet both [Hunter's Pursuit] and [Healer's Touch] felt like they were part of him. Using these skills was more like instinctively moving an arm, rather than recalling a thought or process, as when he pushed on [Steadfast].

Intrigued, Joe was about to start poking at some of the skills he had learned from other people to see what they felt like. He started with one of his favorites [Crystal Mind], which was unlike any of the others. There was something more within the skill, a pulse of something. Just as he was about to dive deeper, Joe was brought out of his self-inspection and reverie by Kenda clearing her throat and giving the crystal in his hand a pointed look.

"Sorry, but you are the one who got me thinking about skill types," he countered her impatient look. "Let's give this a go," he added, sending his focus into the stone shard.

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