[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 74: Pizza Party

A gentle, but insistent, paw prodded his face until Sam woke up. For a moment, he thought he had fallen asleep in the apartment’s communal hot tub beside the dinky little pool again.

Komachi always made sure to wake him up before the Super came around and kicked him out. There were some days his back was so sore from working that he could hardly move.

“Sam, I’m high enough level that I’ve unlocked a bunch of Second Order Jobs! I like one of ‘em a lot, but what do you think I should pick? I gotta be useful.”

Sam didn’t hesitate in answering. There was no way he was going to force Komachi to pick a Job she didn’t want. “Pick the one you want.”

He stretched and yawned, taking in the scenery and the words Komachi had just said to him.

“But what if it’s not good?” Komachi asked. “I want to support you. I ain’t no filthy solo leveler.”

Raiko glared at his cat.

Komachi, naturally, glared right back.

“How many stats does it give?” Sam asked with a chuckle.

The sheer number of stats earned per level up always seemed to be a good indicator of the Job’s strength. And if what his Voidknight Legend suggested was true, then the number of total stats it gave was a judge of its rarity.

“Uhh….” He could see his cat slowly adding numbers together.

“Komachi?” Sam prompted.

“27.”

“What!?” That was worlds above his Swordsman Job. There was no way that was correct. And yet, he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Er, I mean, 14 stats?”

“Are you sure?”

“…No,” she admitted.

“Okay, Komachi,” Sam said patiently. He felt refreshed after that nap. While his HP and MP were not yet full, they were well on their way. “How about you tell me each of the stats it gives?”

Komachi screwed up her fluffy face, looking more and more like the kitten that showed up on his doorstep years ago and let herself into his life.

She rattled off the numbers until finally getting to the bonus points at the end. Just to be sure though, Sam asked, “Is that everything it gives?” Knowing Komachi, she might have read that out of order.

“Yep! No. Wait. Yes.” She looked up adoringly at Sam, her tail swaying happily back and forth like a charmed snake. “Yis. How many is that?”

“That’s 14, Komachi.”

“That is a large improvement,” Kai said, leaning back in the warm waters and twitching his fingers.

Sam had seen some of the others doing that. He guessed it was a holdover from Earth where everything you did would require a screen for this sort of information.

For some reason, it just came naturally to Sam to do everything mentally. There was no need to make gestures or tell the Shard to show him something else when he could think it.

“It is,” Sam agreed. “Well done, Komachi. You got a fairly rare type of Job I’d imagine. What’s it called?”

“Bard! It can heal and buff in tons of ways, using music and instruments.”

“Bard as a Healer?” Sam asked curiously. “Make sure it doesn’t say anything about morphing your current abilities or skills. I had an Assassin Job offered to me that did that. You don’t want to lose access to your [Regen].”

“The Shardscript says it upgrades my [Regen], expanding muh spells into… ‘adjustable areas of effect’ and opening up somethin’ called ‘overhealing’. The Health Growth is still real bad though.”

“Sounds like it’s changing them,” Sam said. “But at the same time, it sounds like that change is in line with healing still. And I know you like singing.”

Sam could remember on more than one occasion when Komachi had woken him up with her musical yowling. It was cute the first few times.

Sam was still in need of some lengthy downtime, but his beleaguered mind finally caught onto something she had said. “Wait. What is overhealing? Is that what I think it is?”

“I dunno,” Komachi said, scratching her ear with her back paw. “What do you think it is?”

“Allowing you to cure a person over their maximum HP. Maybe by granting temporary HP like my [Rally] ability does?”

“It might, yis.”

“If you like it, I suggest you choose it.”

Komachi fussed with her paws. Her eyes flicked to Raiko, seeking reassurance, then her ears flattened when the woman hardly recognized the cat.

“Komachi, if you don’t want it, then don’t pick it. Otherwise, Bard seems like it’s a good evolution of your current Job and significantly less… holy-ish. And a lot more fun.”

Sam couldn’t see Komachi attaching herself to any god, let alone actually being the typical Cleric that extolled the virtues of their chosen deity.

“There’s Acolyte, but Machi doesn’t wanna serve anyone.”

Giving her some reassuring pets, Sam smiled at his cat. “Then don’t. You know, back on Earth, I never would have been able to follow the path that’s taken me to where I am now. But here, almost anything is possible. Why restrict yourself? Do what makes you happy, Komachi. If not for yourself, then for me, yeah?”

Komachi looked up with wide kittenish eyes and gave a soft, tremulous mew.

Sam felt the change come over her more than saw it. There was a sensation of Komachi expanding somehow, becoming something more than she was just a few moments ago.

He gave her a few more pets for good measure.

Nearby, Raiko sifted through her Inventory. Since her memory was still on the mend, she couldn’t recall what was in there.

Of all things, pizza boxes from a legendary Hawaiian local pizza parlor dropped onto the ground next to the hot spring. Some were hot and sealed in their fancy delivery packaging, others were grease soaked through cardboard and straight up in a terrible state.

“Why though?” Raiko seemed at a loss for words.

“Miraculous,” Kai whispered in awe.

She opened one of the pizza boxes, and the mouth-watering aroma wafted over the group. Matt’s face turned dour, though.

“I don’t remember ever eating food like this, certainly no cuisine like this on Islegard, but it smells good.”

Raiko offered a whole pie to every person there. Everyone but Matt devoured theirs. Even Komachi was particularly excited, now being able to taste all flavors.

“I feel kind of bad,” Matt said, eating a slice of cold pizza. He seemed relieved he could eat it. “I never got the scholar’s name, but it feels kinda… dickish not to invite him to eat with us.”

“I do not believe Raiko would enjoy his company at present,” Kai pointed out.

“Yeah, what are we going to do about him?” Sam asked. “I know you’ve got a grudge against demons, but… huh. You wouldn’t remember the conversation, would you, Raiko?”

She shrugged. “I remember some things, but not recent events, it appears. Even then, I’m still recovering from a soul affliction.”

“Don’t freak out, but there’s a demon on your Skyshard. A… I don’t want to say friendly, but neutral perhaps? He didn’t join in the fighting, threw up this big purple barrier that the other demons didn’t like so much and so they attacked him.”

“He’s a NERD,” Komachi said with a snorting giggle.

“There’s that,” Sam said. “He seems to really like books. Apparently, he brought over a library that he wants to protect at all costs. You tried to… get him to swear loyalty, and he declined despite the very obvious danger to his life. So that proves he has at least a moderate sense of values. Even if those values are difficult to understand.”

“Strange. Why would I demand a librarian’s loyalty?” Raiko asked. “Typically, they’ve above such worldly concerns.”

“He is a demon,” Sam felt he needed to mention that again since Raiko lacked the bloodthirsty response she had previously.

“Yes, you keep saying that, but what sort of demon?”

“A… horned one?” Matt ventured. “Black eyes, orange irises, red skin.”

“I keep bringing it up,” Sam said, “because you nearly killed me trying to kill him.”

You did get a pretty interesting Legend out of it, but no reason to share that just yet. It might go away. Though Sam really hoped it wouldn’t.

Her piercing violet gaze fell on Sam. Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to tell her. “I’m not going to act on anything until I’ve recovered, unless it’s dire. I can only hope there’s more context around your statement that you were my enemy.”

“Well, do you have another pizza box in there?” Sam asked.

“An unnerving amount, yes.”

“Give me another one and I’ll go offer some to our guest.” Sam looked at the others. “Anybody know his name?”

Kai and Matt both shook their heads. Raiko opened her Inventory and dropped a fresh box near Sam.

“Of course not. Silly me.” He picked up the pizza box. “Mahalo.”

He shrugged and took another bite of his cold pizza as he started to pull himself out of the waters, but he stopped and eased himself back down.

The pizza wasn’t great cold, but it was better than nothing, and shockingly tasted as if it had been delivered only a few hours ago.

Besides, he didn’t have to go right now. He could finish a few slices, then go and be closer to max HP and MP.

Not that he thought the demonic scholar would actually attack him. He had the impression that the man was rather weak, but better not to take any chances.

He took another bite of pizza, disturbed by how much it tasted like he was sneaking one last slice before putting the box into the fridge for the night.

Sam couldn’t believe it. How was the food still in a fresh state? Not all of it was, but that seemed more down to packing than anything else. Did Raiko’s Inventory keep things preserved?

On second thought, does my Inventory do that too? I haven’t had enough spare food or stuff that can spoil to check lately. But if it could… hell, that’d solve world hunger, wouldn’t it? There’s more than enough food for everybody, but the logistics of it are usually the issue.

Was there a Skyshard-wide storage system that worked like the Inventory system? Sam hadn’t seen anything to suggest that there was, but now that he thought of it, he wanted one.

Badly.

Maybe if I pick up a really good Profession, I’ll be able to do that. Something that can bind magic, so I can take my Inventory and put it into a mundane item like a chest or something.

That was when he made it his mission to find a Profession ASAP.

Not only because it seemed to be one of the missing pieces of progression—his Legend grew every 3 levels, but if he had a Job, Path, and a Profession, then a single level in each would grow his Legend level as well, eventually having them all at the same level—but because he always wanted to try making things with his hands.

What little carpentry he did back on Earth he hated. But here? He could do anything. And with so many options open to him, it was hard to decide what he wanted to pursue.

Not that he’d seen any signs that he could just pick up a Profession by banging a hammer against some nails. There was something that he was missing.

His Path had been chosen for him the moment he decided to consume the Void mana attacking him instead of destroying it, and his Job had been basically given to him. That didn’t bode well for Professions.

Even though the Incarnates were the only two to have a Path among their group, Sam had confirmed that everybody had all three types of progression available on their [Status].

That must mean people were meant to have one of each, otherwise why show them as possible and tie a Legend to their levels?

It also meant that leveling solo would be all but impossible.

Sure you could probably get a lot of Path and Job levels on your own, but gathering raw materials to fuel a Profession would take time better spent elsewhere.

Sam couldn’t see how it would be possible to do everything by yourself. The danger alone would be tremendous.

More than likely the odd moss-covered skeletons he saw as they trekked through the forest had been people from ages past who thought “I’ll just solo everything and not have to share anything!” and paid for their hubris.

At least he had Komachi with him.