Gwenvair quickly shook her head, “Not escaped. The peasantry were … originally required to remain with their clan and nobility but there was a great rebellion and the peasantry demanded freedom. They were granted freedom by no longer being bound to their lands. This was… a very long time ago. I do not know how long… but very long ago. Most do not remember or know when, although if you wish to know, some of our clan or Mimir historians and scholars may know.
“In any case, this allowed the peasantry to move as they wished. Because of this, the clans fell to pure clan members only, allowing the peasants and outer cities control as they wished. It greatly enhanced trade and wealth, but now the nobility only truly have authority for the clan members themselves. Any outside of a clan … their ancestry is too lost to time to know who or where they are from. Likely, as Acokzau, they are of the lineage of an Acokzau clan. I will likely become fallen if I try.”
“OK. That’s,” Joe lost himself in thought over the ramifications of what Gwenvair was describing before turning back to the moment, “… right. Never mind. So… basically, if a priest does it, they will turn to a dark priest and if a noble does it, they will likely become a fallen noble. Could a dark priest do it?”
Gwenvair nodded, “That would be for the best, but that would also … reveal Zilnek to an untrustworthy individual.”
Joe sat back, again, ramifications connecting dots in his head and he slowly began to nod, “OK. Then… we should change him now and then call a dark priest after.”
Gwenvair nodded again, “Yup.”
Gwenvair then took a deep breath, sighing and seeming to grow concerned and Joe reached out, laying a hand on her shoulder, “I didn’t ask for you to do it. I’ll do it. OK?”
Gwenvair blinked, “What?”
Joe grinned at Gwenvair then turned to look at Zilnek, “You ready, Zilnek?”
Zilnek looked to Joe, outright quivering in excitement and he nodded, unable to speak. Joe smiled and then turned to his jobs, planning.
“Give me a second.”
Right… should at least have two priest jobs… the one I use to change jobs is going to turn to a dark priest, if what they said was true. Probably would be the main job, right? So… I’ll lose the job change ability… so… wait… I don’t see any dark priests jobs in the available jobs. Joe quickly flipped open his available jobs tab to double check. He spent a good amount of time checking but didn’t find anything he thought could lead to a dark priest line. So… ok, then I’ll get the dark priest line that way… oh… wait? What’s going to unlock? Are the dark priests lined up similar to the regular priests? So… we have monk then chaplain then cleric… so on… so… if I use my Loki Cardinal, the latest Loki job, will it become Dark Loki Cardinal? Or is it going to put me all the way back to the first Loki priesthood at … what was it… oh, Loki faithful, so… Or will it go all the way back to believer? Or… if it does unlock only the same job but in the dark variant… is it unlock the other ‘base’ jobs… sorta like how Kilniara and Zilnek became cloth armorers because of their parents but they still had commoner and crafter opened… the base line job and the base line crafter job. Huh… Or something else?
Joe found his thoughts stymied at that and he began to consider all the possible ramifications. Huh… is there another option? What else could I … Joe went through his status one more time, carefully going through each tab one at a time. He even went through it one more time before he suddenly stopped while glancing over his available skills page. Huh… I didn’t know it was so close! His face lit up, a satisfied grin forming on his face. His satisfaction stemmed from seeing his change main job skill now at ninety eight percent. Huh… just shy of one… get it to one… then I can swap out the ‘char:’ skill on the double experience and put it on change the main job change skill. Let’s do that now so I don’t forget, just in case… ooh… then I would have to make sure the priest job is the main job otherwise I won’t be able to change the priest job if it’s not the main job… so… just to be safe… four priest jobs? Just to make sure? After I get the skill up?
Joe swapped out all of his jobs for the weakest priest lines first then began rapidly swapping out main job after main job. After doing about thirty or forty main job swaps, he lost count of how many times he’d done it and simply focused on his skill level. He sighed with relief when the skill finally hit level one. Then, Joe frowned. That’s… a lot of grinding! Despite the realization of the amount of effort needed to raise skills, Joe still smiled to see it done. He then swapped out all his jobs for a variety of priest jobs, one at the highest and a couple at the middle levels. For the main job slot, he chose the weakest priest job that was capable of changing jobs at least.
Sighing deeply, he turned back to the others and smiled. They had all been in quiet conversation so as to not bother him, but with his turn, they all looked on with expectation. Gwenvair interrupted.
“Are you certain you wish to do this, Joe? You will… become a dark priest.”
Joe nodded, “I know, but I should be able to remove it after.”
Gwenvair frowned, “I do not think… it should not be possible.”
Joe frowned as well, “Can you explain?”
Gwenvair shook her head, “Not truly. I only know that priests who become dark priests lose their ability to change jobs.”
“But, dark priests can change jobs?”
Gwenvair paused at that, “Yes, if they are high enough level.”
Joe nodded, “That makes sense… it’s just a forcible job change then. And since the person changes his job, it is set back at the original level. If the person never leveled that job, then it must be leveled again as it will be a level zero job. That’s what happened with Zilnek. His cloth armor job was uh… twenty… two? But when he became a thief, it was a level one thief.”
Gwenvair nodded slowly, “I have heard this. Becoming a criminal removes your stats.”
Joe nodded, “Yes, but it is only because you become a low level job again. The same thing happens if you were to change to any job, not only criminal.”
Gwenvair paused at that, then grew a bit excited, “Truly?”
Joe shrugged, “I think so. That’s what I saw with Zilnek. But I won’t know for certain until I try as well, or if we test the other criminal jobs as well.”
Gwenvair sat back at that, nodding and Joe turned to Zilnek.
“You ready, Zilnek?”
Zilnek was breathing heavily in excitement and nodded, “Yes, Joe!”
Joe smiled, “Right. Let’s try this.”
Joe took a deep breath and steadied himself. Right, chang… wait… set double experience ‘char:’ to change main job. He checked his status again to make sure the change had occurred, took a few moments to prepare, and then finally did it. Loki chaplain job change Zilnek to cloth armorer.
The person you are changing the job for is a criminal. You will be criminalized yourself. Are you sure you wish to proceed?
A pop up appeared before him, and Joe frowned as he read it, then grimaced as he realized the ramifications. Well… so… probably not going to be able to convince any priest with something like this popping up! They’ll freak out too much and just shut you down. Probably call the guards, hunt you down… maybe even report… nah… probably definitely report you to all the other temples. Don’t want any of their own being duped… yeah… this is bad. He frowned and accepted the prompt. Whelp… let’s see what happens! Joe took a deep breath with some trepidation and tensed, taking in any and all sensations and happenings around him.
Zilnek immediately reacted, breathing a massive sigh of relief before accepting the request. At the same time, Joe felt a sharp tingle, not so much as any pain, but a forced change upon him. He flipped open his status and found it the same grey of Zilnek’s thief job.
Status
Blessings
Current Job
Available Jobs
Current Skills
All Skills
Log
Joe McConnell
Status
Physical Resistances
Magical Resistances
HP
0.00
Physical:
Wind
0
SP
0.00
Piercing
0.00
Water
0
MP
0.00
Crushing
0.00
Earth
0 Attack
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0.00
Slashing
0.00
Fire
0
Defense
0.00
Ice
0
Magic
0.00
Gravity
0
Magic Defense
0.00
Dark Loki Chap.
Magnetic
0
Strength
0.00
Loki Abbot
40
Light
0
Dexterity
0.00
Loki Primate
41
Shadow
0
Agility
0.00
Loki Cardinal
42
Space
0
Speed
0.00
Spirit
0
Endurance
0.00
Mental
0
IQ
0.00
Sound
0
Wisdom
0.00
Electricity
0
Will
0.00
Learning
0.00
Luck
0.00
OK… that’s a … what happens. Kind of unpleasant and obvious when it does. Wow… that is certainly one way to do things. Huh… so forced job changes are a thing… didn’t even ask me… didn’t feel like I could resist it either… guess it swaps the job straight over to the dark variant, too. That’s… that’s very… interesting! Joe swapped open his available jobs skills and found that he had now unlocked the criminal and minor criminal jobs, a new job tree opening up in a new column after the combat column. So… then… dark priests are minor criminals? Then… there are major? Or more? Hmm… He took a look at the available jobs list again and quickly noticed that his priest line of jobs, all of them, now had a highlighted box with the same dark grey of his minor criminal dark Loki chaplain job. Cool… so… another job but is it basically the same… or still a new job? Or is it a new… nope… My current jobs tab still shows that I have the regular Loki abbot, primate… So… another unlock then? Unlocked an entire LINE of jobs?
Ooh! Awesome. So… Are the stats basically the same? And the skills? So… just kill a couple of goblins and see … no… bad idea… probably bad idea. Yeah… Probably dumb. I really want to but I really… don’t think… don’t wanna be stuck with a dark priest right now… yeah… can’t show that to anyone… and if they have a way to see… Right… let’s get rid of it for now. So… How much trouble am I… No, I’m fine. I still have the three other jobs, so… OK… nice… ha! Um… but…
Joe pondered for a bit and thought of his Loki abbot job changing his main job back to Loki chaplain. He again felt the twinge and grimaced when he noticed that his display had returned to the mustard yellow of the priestly jobs and that his dark Loki chaplain was now just a Loki chaplain. However, his abbot was now a dark one with no levels, and Joe frowned. So… how am I supposed to… or? Alright… verify… one more time. Change sub job dark Loki abbot to Loki abbot using dark Loki abbot. He waited, focusing on his display for a moment before he began to frown but not in disappointment as it made sense. His dark Loki abbot had zero levels, so how could it have a skill. Right… kinda hoped… but dark priests can change jobs, obviously… Gwenvair kinda pointed that out… so… now…
Joe frowned. Right… so… then should use the skill … swap out a ‘char:’ skill and make it… oooh… Joe withheld his cursing as he noticed that the skill he’d level to one was to change his main job, but his current dark priest job was actually the first sub job. What … can I change it. OK… what to do… swap back my dark loki priest to the first slot, remove it from my sub job, then use the job skill to swap it out, right? So… hmm… Loki chaplain, change subjob dark Loki abbot to… Gifted!
<Chapter 90 Continued>