continued

He paused to consider a bit before calling the two out, "Garnedell, Zilnek. Come here," accompanying the cry with a large come hither gesture.

Both stood up relatively quickly, although Garnedell reacted slightly more quickly, and Joe nodded his head in watching this. He had both come to stand beside him, giving Kilniara some rest before continuing the fights.

"OK. Let's do this. One person will fight one on one with me, but the other two will fight two on one while I train the other, OK?" Joe looked at the three, waiting for nods of agreement before continuing.

"Good. Then we will rotate through a bit faster, because I don't want you to be too tired to fight, Zilnek. Kilniara, be careful with your shorter weapons. Garnedell, you make sure to keep the two safe with your longer staff. Zilnek? Kilniara? While Garnedell is training solo fights with me, Kilniara will help with defenses. Got it everyone?"

All three quickly nodded and Joe sent Garnedell and Zilnek out to fight, standing to the side and watching them prepare. Joe did take a moment to reposition them a bit closer to him and the corner, instead of so far out, not wishing to be so far away, before allowing them to pull their first goblin.

After watching a few strikes with the pair, Joe nodded and pulled another goblin himself, using the poor half stick half club, enjoying the rather violent game of fetch as the goblin picked it up and brought it back as the weapon closest to it. Joe stepped back and kept Kilniara in focus, although he had Garnedell and Zilnek's fight in the right background, eyes maintaining focus on Kilniara's fight with some quick flickers towards the other two.

Fights continued for the rest of the day till lunch and Joe quickly brought all three back to the corner for a meal. Joe's mind picked at the question of intelligence for the beginning of the meal until he felt satisfied with a decent enough answer for now, although he wondered what Kukurnal could add to the discussion, shelving intelligence for the evening meal. When he focused back on the conversation, he found the three arguing about who was best and Joe smiled as he joined in with the conversation.

"Hmm… I'm pretty sure I'm the best," Joe offered with a smirk.

The other three stared at him until Garnedell replied with a grimace, rejecting Joe's claim, "You don't count. You aren't an apprentice!"

The other two both looked at Garnedell with some fear, worry flickering in their eyes as they glanced back and forth between Garnedell and Joe, although Zilnek's was delayed, as usual. Still too worried to relax around me, I guess?

"Really? Well, I still have a master, so I'm an apprentice as well, right?"

Garnedell opened his mouth quickly when he heard Joe start to counter but then found himself sputtering to a stop as he heard Joe's reply, "No, you don't… uh… well.. um…"

As Garnedell struggled to reply, Kilniara quickly realized the game and joined in, "Ah, but you are not an apprentice of our master!"

Joe found himself stumped, looked back and forth between the two as his mouth closed and opened a bit like a gaping fish before he shook his head and conceded, "Right. Looks like you got me, Kilniara. I don't count."

Joe's chuckle revealed his humor and Garnedell and Kilniara both started laughing, Garnedell crowing in triumph at their win, with Zilnek joining later.

Garnedell's joy, however, was cut short as Kilniara backstabbed him, "But, I'm still the best anyway, so it doesn't matter."

"Hey! No! That's… no! I never admitted… we still … I can use the full staff!"

"And I still can defeat more goblins!"

"And who keeps you alive to do that? Me!"

"Bah! I still kill more alone than you do alone."

Garnedell's sputtering reply was cut short as both stopped to politely listen to Zilnek's energetic reply, "I'm the best, obviously, as I'm still able to fight even with lower level than you both! And I gained five levels in only a couple days! Ha!"

Both Garnedell and Kilniara offered energetic faux angry responses to Zilnek before diving back into their own argument although both, including Joe, offered congratulations to Zilnek for reaching level five. Joe smiled, watching their antics, but also quite astounded at how both Garnedell and Kilniara seemed to be able to keep two conversations going simultaneously, one with each other, and one each with Zilnek. Zilnek also seemed to be able to keep dual conversations as well, easily responding to both Garnedell's and Kilniara's angry counter exclamations with decent rebuttals of his own, leaving the lunch conversation a convoluted messy triple conversation occurring simultaneously but at two very different speeds which soon had Joe dizzy and surprised that they seemed quite able to keep up with two different conversations simultaneously.

A special ability? But not … I don't see it in their titles or skills… maybe just … something that's become the norm on this planet because of such disparity between speaking speeds! You just got to get used to handling it? Maybe? People can do some pretty crazy stuff if they get used to it, I guess!

Joe's mind wandered as he considered the ramifications. But paid little mind to it and just enjoyed watching the developing relationships and conversations. The three continued their conversation with Joe interjecting frequently, and lunch passed with an easy joy.

The afternoon found them continuing their rotational training and Joe rapidly gaining levels in his Virtus Theorist job and the other three enjoying their private training under Joe. Afternoon faded into evening and Joe found the three flagging so shooed them all off to the corner before throwing himself into wiping out a great majority of the floor, slicing through dozens of the goblins easily before their evening was done and he led them all out, heading back to the inn a bit earlier today than the norm where they could spend the evening preparing for the next day. Joe planned to spend a good chunk of the evening also going over how the three had fared in combat today as well, but was simply exhausted and dirty, wishing to be clean and resting around a table topped with a good meal.

Virtus Theorist had grown well, and while he'd taken the time to glance at its stats when it level one, his excitement was dampened even further when he saw the stats were identical to all the other theorist jobs. He had managed to make it to level thirty one, although he barely made it as his time had been spent helping the others develop their skills. Joe was, at first, frustrated with that fact, but then quickly realized that it wasn't quite the disastrous detriment he feared it was as the one extra level, while adding a good chunk of learning, was minor since he only gained ten percent with the job unequipped. Still… ten learning is ten learning… Should I not? Well… I did well enough today, meeting my goal, although I should be about a quarter a way through level thirty one, not just barely into it… but still… It shouldn't make that much difference, right? As I gain more learning from other jobs and come back to burn through the thirties? Now? Maybe?

Joe glanced over what Virtus Theorist gave him at its current level before dismissing it again rapidly, finding it, like the others, identical in stats and skills, although specific to the 'Virtus' line of jobs. Whatever that means…