Earth's SSS Pornstar to SSS Combat God in Another World-Chapter 47: Rewarded for Saving Walter
In the morning, Joji and his party were invited to breakfast, a long table laid with hot bread, salted fish, and stewed roots that smelled richer than anything they had eaten on the road.
Only Joji and Alaric were offered maids to attend them.
The kobolds, Lilina, and even Rizz were simply also offered the same room, but no such service was offered to them.
Jonas and Martin kept stealing glances at Rizz all through the first plates.
Not at Alaric’s splinted arm. At the donkey in pants who ate politely and wore meme shades like a lord at a masquerade.
At last Jonas set his cutlery down and wiped his hands. His voice stayed even, careful.
"Adventurer Desmond, was it? I must reward you. Clearly, there is something you need?"
Joji nodded. He liked a man who cut to the point.
"I would like different ores and metals," Joji said. "Not a large amount. A turkey leg worth is fine."
Jonas blinked at that, then glanced at Martin as if asking whether this was a joke he was missing.
"And?" Jonas said, pressing, "clearly there is more."
Joji did not rush. He let the silence sit just long enough to feel sharp.
"I know your house keeps practice books for trades," Joji said. "I would like to see them. Even incomplete ones."
The dining hall went quiet. Forks paused halfway to mouths. A servant near the wall stopped breathing for a heartbeat.
Jonas’s smile came fast, too loud, too smooth.
"Hahaha. You jest. You truly jest."
His eyes did not match the laugh. They slid back to Martin, a silent question and a silent decision passing between them.
"We do have a merchanting practice," Jonas said instead, polite denial wrapped in an offer. "Would you like to see that?"
"That is what I was after," Joji said at once, bowing his large body as if he had misspoken. "I apologize if I did not make it clear."
He grabbed a ham hock and ate with gusto, giving Jonas an easy excuse to end the topic without losing face.
A few minutes later, when Joji finished, Martin approached from behind with the quiet authority of a man used to leading people into rooms they did not know existed.
"Young friend," Martin said. "Come with me."
They walked Cutler corridors lit by steady lamps, past locked doors and sleeping guards.
Martin led him into a study that smelled of ink and oil.
Books sat in ordered rows, too neat for a house that hauled caravans through mud.
Martin began shifting books from a shelf, moving them with practiced speed.
The shelf slid. Behind it was stone.
"Help me move them," Martin said.
Joji complied. They dragged heavy stones out one by one, each one over a hundred pounds, stacked into place like a wall meant to keep the wrong eyes out.
Neither man broke a sweat. After they cleared enough stone, a narrow stair revealed itself, tight and steep.
Joji had to duck and squeeze down sideways, shoulders brushing damp rock. Martin went first.
At the bottom was a small shelf. Only a few books. Joji’s eyes found one title and his pulse kicked.
The Wildlands Berserker.
He flipped it open and skimmed. Rank four. Clean structure.
The kind of manual that could get a merchant family accused of treason if the wrong man saw it.
He set it back carefully and reached for another.
The Shadow Guardian.
He read the first page and understood at once. Assassin work, but built on aura flow like a knight’s.
Not crude poison tricks. Not only hiding in dark corners. A method. A discipline.
A way to move power through the body without announcing it to the world.
Joji got engrossed.
The Everhart Tempest Arts were good, but far from perfect. Since he could integrate other arts, other approaches, then walking away from this would be foolish.
He read fast, then slower, then read the key passages again, three times, until the shapes of the techniques sat in his mind like new muscles.
When he finally returned the book to the shelf, he felt the change settle into him, small but real.
He called the status window without speaking.
{Ferryman Shadow Guardian Series: 2/10} {Rank: S} (Incomplete)
{Into the Shadow Arts}
{Measure of Proficiency: 1.3%}
{Blade of Deceit Arts}
{Measure of Proficiency: 1.1%}
Joji was surprised the arts here sat on the same level as what Everhart kept locked away.
’The Ferryman might have been old nobles who fell,’ he thought. ’Or this is a copy that leaked.’
Either way, the skills within the book was in his hand now.
Joji did not let a single one go unread. It was only reading, and the system made it into skill.
Passing this up would be self sabotage dressed as manners. He took each manual in turn, eyes moving fast, memory biting down hard.
The system began to ring without pause, one notice after another, as new jobs and new techniques stacked up behind his eyes.
{New Job Acquired!!!}
{New Job Acquired!!!}
{New Job Acquired!!!}
He finished the last of the books with his head buzzing and his throat dry. The hidden room had no real ventilation.
Heat gathered in the stone like breath trapped in a fist. Sweat ran down his back and stuck his shirt to his skin.
Joji wiped his face and was about to stand when he noticed a thin book clinging to the back of the shelf, half hidden, like it had tried to disappear.
He pried it free. The cover peeled a little as it came away, a dry layer lifting like old skin. Clearly it had not been opened in a long time.
He flipped through it. At first it looked plain, almost nothing.
Then the lines began to show their shape. He finished the last page and the system rang again.
This time the notice did not feel like another skill. This time it felt like a door opening in his head.
That thin book overturned every choice he thought he had already made.
Joji began fiddling with the interface, eyes flicking up and around the room.
He was not sure if Martin was still watching, and if he was, then staring at empty air would look like madness or secrecy.
Still, he had to check, so he hid the motion by wiping sweat from his face.
The system’s light reflected faintly in his eyes as the window hovered where only he could see it.
{Name: Joji of Sins Crossroad}
{Constitution: Embryonic Storm Bringer}
{Age: 21}
{First Job: Knight}
{Second Job: See Available}
He discreetly clicked on Second Job. A list burst into view.
{Druid}
{Berserker}
{Mage}
{Archer}
{Alchemist}
{Hunter}
{Priest}
{Dungeon Master}
There it was. The job he had wanted as a first choice, the one that could turn travel into something cleaner and safer.
Dungeon Master.
Joji did not know if Duchess Rosalind kept anything like it, but if she did not, then this alone was worth more than gold.
It would make every trip smoother, every crossing less exposed, every escape more possible.
He swiped the status window away and started up the narrow stairs.
Martin was waiting behind him at the top, exactly where a careful man would stand.
He had his blades drawn, plain and unashamed about it. Not a threat. A reminder.
Joji did not react. He only kept climbing until he stood level with Martin again.
"How was it?" Martin asked. "Were you able to gain something?"
Joji nodded. Then he let his face take on a pondering look, as shameless as Martin’s drawn steel.
"Do you keep notes on the Ferryman Shadow Guardian?" Joji asked. "I would like to read them."
For a heartbeat, Martin stared at him. Then his guard eased and he chuckled, the sound of a man admitting he had been played without resenting it.
He reached behind his back and produced a small leather booklet from his pocket, a tickler full of tight writing.
"Lad," Martin said, patting Joji’s shoulder even though Joji stood a head taller. "You got me good."
Joji took the booklet with care, already reading the first line with his eyes while his hand pretended not to shake.
By the time dinner came, he had finished.
He opened his status window again and stared at it, almost amused by how large it had become.
{Ferryman Shadow Guardian Series: 2/10} {Rank: S} (Incomplete)
{Into the Shadow Arts}
{Measure of Proficiency: 5.1%} (⇧ 3.8)
{Blade of Deceit Arts}
{Measure of Proficiency: 5.4%} (⇧ 4.3)
