Continued from before

* * *

Joe stopped by the smith in the morning before diving back into the dungeon and ordered another two spoon spears. He'd though of just buying two staffs or two normal spears, but then remembered Garnedell's inability to hold the things. And I know a staff can be seen as a weapon, too. So I better not take the chance. Paying the smith half, the smith promised completion in about a week; or, as I found out, eight days to a week here! Heh. This frustrated Joe to no end but the smith left him little choice and so Joe capitulated. He corralled Garnedell and headed back into the dungeon.

Two days of constant diving had him at fifteen, and the next bottleneck reared its ugly head, although he was able to hit fifteen in the early afternoon of the second day. It now took two days per level to make the next, and it would be another ten days before Joe made it to level twenty. When he'd hit seventeen, he picked up the two new spoon spears for Garnedell the next morning, and with another length of parachute cord, had another giant nunchuk spark killer. Joe taught him again, urgently reminding him of the caution he would need to take to make sure he kept the spoon spear grounded so that Garnedell could kill the spark.

Joe followed behind him for two or three kills, and when the boy showed excitement at the ease he was killing the sparks, Joe let him off the nanny cam and turned to take out the kills in the room himself. The two stayed close together and they shared the kills in the rooms but Joe took all the kills in the hallway. At the end of that day, Joe still hadn't leveled; he needed two days per level now; but Garnedell had made his next level, and Joe asked for him to bring up his status. Joe smiled with excitement, then frowned a little but then decided to let it pass. Shoot! I shouldn't have let Garnedell use that gem to level before… of course, I didn't know, and it looks like it only cost him one learning point, but still… At least he regained his lost learning from his curse.