continued - 5/14

Joe chuckled and shook his head, "That is decent exercise, but not really that great for our age and strength. We need more."

Kilniara pulled back from him in shock at that and stared at him, "More?!"

Joe laughed and nodded, "Probably running around the city on the outside of the city walls once a day would be really good."

"Run around the city?!"

"Yup. Once a day… maybe for about a year. Then you'll be at pretty decent health."

Kilniara stared at him for a bit before leaning back against him, "You're a monster."

"Nah. Many of my people do this all the time. Children all must do this, to a more or less degree, in school."

"Truly?"

"Yup. Your body is as important as your mind. Same for other aspects; relationally, spiritually… or I guess you might call it philosophically. I'm not sure."

Kilniara didn't reply to this and he looked down to see her stumbling along in exhaustion. Joe smiled and laughed before he reached down and picked her up.

"Here. Let me."

She squealed a bit, shaking her head but not rejecting his offer, settling for burying her head in the crook of his arm as they walked through the city to the baths. Joe normally wouldn't have offered, but she was quite exhausted and they were less than a small block away from the baths. She was truly exhausted.

Joe headed into the bathhouse and Joe set Kilniara down carefully.

"You OK?"

She kept her head down but nodded quickly and spoke well enough, "Yes. Thank you."

Joe smiled and waved her on, "Go rest in the shower. I'll stay in mine until we need to leave or until you send a runner, OK?"

She nodded then stood, fidgeting for a bit. Joe looked at her, confused as he was uncertain why she was staying.

"Do you need something?"

"No, I…" Kilniara took a deep breath then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him and Joe looked down at her in surprise before he chuckled and reached his arms around her, pulling her in for a tight hug.

"Thanks. That… I needed that. And today was fun."

"Yeah, it was."

"OK. Now go take a bath!"

Kilniara looked up at him at that, smiling as brightly as she blushed. She waved then turned and escaped into the woman's side of the baths and Joe turned, chuckling as he walk into the men's side.

The bath proved exactly what he needed and he settled in, melting into the hot water. Joe made sure to ask for a warning to exit for dinner time, and spent the rest of the bath simply relaxing in the water. He did take the time to flip open his skills and stats. He wasn't as concerned for his stats since he'd taken medic for the skills but found it a bit disappointing.

He was excited, at first, as the level thirty skill was called heal, but when he delved into it, he realized what he had was considered a rather basic junior high or high school understanding of how to treat, clean, and care for a basic wound. He did pull out a bladed weapon and tested it by slashing his skin, a small slice along the back of his forearm. It immediately healed and he frowned. Why… ooh! HP! He flipped open his status and began slicing at his arm and legs again and again, watching his HP carefully until it bottomed out. He then cautiously sliced what was essentially a small, if long, scratch into his forearm once again. He used heal, and the skill told him to wash and clean it before wrapping it in a clean dry cloth. Joe sighed, annoyed.

The other skill, at level twenty, was called diagnose, and he ended up playing around with that more than the heal skill. He used it on his wound and it told him the size and depth of the wound, and also of any complications, which, for his wound, were none. He then diagnosed his arms, legs, and torso, but didn't learn anything beyond being told that he appeared healthy.

A surprise came when one of the boys working the baths came in to drop some more hot water in the bath and he diagnosed the boy. The boy was hot, red faced, and sweating. The diagnoses was that the boy was strained, exhausted, and a bit overheated. The skill then told him how to treat the boy optimally.