continued - 3/13

* * *

Gunlan Galgandar, second son of clan Galgandar, lounged on his bed as he waited for Hoular, the mind mage, to acquire the information he was paid for. Gunlan cared little for the peasants of his city, but when his carefully laid plans were so easily interrupted by a peasant displaying shocking amounts of wealth, he found himself unwilling to forgive the peasant. He was not, however, foolish. Such wealth did not spring from nothing, and he had no desire to acquire another enemy. Thus, Hoular, the mind mage, had been employed and brought here at great expense. His planned ascension to clan Patriarch would not be hindered. His mother had been Matriarch for long enough and his elder sister would soon no longer be in succession for clan leadership. He'd made sure of that, and things were traveling apace, but this Joe had greatly upset his plans. He needed to know who his enemies were.

Sighing in boredom, he took another fruit available to him and laid back on his bed tiredly. He had little need of sleep, but still enjoyed it, especially in the company of his concubines. This evening, however, extended quite a bit longer than he'd expected and his poorly leveled concubines proved incapable of matching his stamina and endurance. It bothered him little, as he could simply bring another, but it was tiresome that his favorites could not keep up with him so easily.

Not for the first time, he toyed with growing them, but, once again, discarded it. Having them with power was always a danger and it made them stronger, which took away their delicious weakness he so enjoyed. Glancing behind him, he stared at the other three exhaustedly sleeping before he turned back to stare at Hoular with mounting frustration. It was almost morning, and still the man played his games. Always pleading difficulties for greater pay. Gunlan understood the temptation as he himself had done so with his own clan as he sought out whatever gain he could get. But to think a peasant would believe they could do the same to a clan member?

Gunlan shook his head and hid his anger. The man would receive his punishment soon enough, as soon as he had… Gunlan's thoughts trailed off as he noticed a red droplet form on Hoular's upper lip. Intrigued, he stepped forward, curious. His curiosity did not last long, quickly turning to disgust and anger as Hoular rapidly began shaking violently even as blood began seeping, then erupting from his eyes, nose, and ears. Gunlan quickly stepped back from Hoular even as his bleeding grew ever more profuse.

"Truly? You claimed to be a great mind mage! I certainly paid enough for one! Bah!" Gunlan growled angrily as he turned back and began slapping the women on his bed.

"Wake up! Wake up! Go get my butler! I need a new mind mage! This one is a failure," Gunlan waved wildly at Hoular before turning back to look at the man in disgust.

Suddenly, Hoular's eyes opened wide even as a gasp exploded from his lips, "Impos…"

"No. Not impossible. You are just… horrible! How much did you reveal," Gunlan grimaced as he watched with disdain until Hoular toppled over on to his side, still stiffly sitting in his meditation pose. Gunlan watched on for a few moments before growling loudly when he felt the heart beat end and kicked the man as hard as he could in the gut, sending the dead mind mage skipping across the room to smash against the wall near the entrance. Gunlan did not fear, but he was not a fool.

"Get this garbage cleaned up! And where is my butler! Bring my entourage and inform them we will be traveling. We leave without delay!"

The room exploded into activity, the women on his bed fleeing to their rooms to prepare for the day while guards and servants secreted in the room immediately flowed in. The room was a bustle of activity with Gunlan standing motionless in the middle, servants bathing, cleaning, and preparing him for the day while others packed and still others took the body of the dead mind mage away. It was only a few moments before the butler glided into the room, another center of calm in the middle of otherwise chaotic madness.

"There you are! Prepare for travel. We leave immediately. Seek an appropriate destination and purpose, but we must leave now."

"Yes. Immediately, master."

"Inform those in need of our whereabouts."

"Yes, master."

"And," here Gunlan actually paused, a hint of uncertainty playing across his face, "inform those who remain; ten steel to those who can gain the measure of this Joe McConnell. I have need to know of his strength… and patience."

* * *

Joe recovered from his meditation much more slowly today, taking longer to deal with his nightmares, but as his nightmares had awakened him quite a bit earlier than normal, Joe found himself basically on time and only a bit exhausted. He glanced around the room and quickly noted everyone was still sleeping.

Joe turned to his status as he always did, verifying his gains from before. He'd not really seriously looked at his new faith line believer job, so he turned to it, curious about whether it had leveled with the first. Flipping up his status window, he raised an eyebrow in surprise at the new color, although he found the burnt mustard to be rather unpleasant. However, he was happy to see that he had been right, it didn't matter that he'd leveled the scholarly believer job since the faith believer job also leveled as well, 'magically' leveling with his scholarly believer job. The stats were completely different, which shocked Joe. What he did find even more surprising, however, were the skills which were all completely different. Huh… weren't the waiter and cook the same… like… copy and paste with their other jobs? I thought this would be the same… but… guess I was wrong… well, obviously I was wrong, but.. doesn't that mean it's technically a different job? Why are they linked in leveling? It seems… weird.