Slowly but surely, the requirements to level up do rise. It takes five slimes to reach level 6, and then closer to twenty to reach 7. Plus, in all that time, Jojo's Swordplay skill stays firmly stuck at 5. It hits 6 soon after, but it isn't until late in the afternoon, when Jojo is deep into level 9, that Swordplay finally makes it to 7.

  Jojo takes that as an opportunity for a break. She wipes the sweat from her forehead, pockets the monster whistle, and wanders over to where Frankie is watching her from the shade of a tree.

  "Finally got swordplay to 7," she sighs out as she slumps down against the tree. Frankie hands her some water, and she chugs it down. "Certainly doesn't go up fast."

  Frankie snorts out a laugh. "Seriously? You're complaining about it being slow? That would be a good skill level for an adventurer after a year on the job."

  "Seriously?"

  "Well, assuming their Job doesn't give them any bonuses," Frankie adds.

  "What a pain."

  Frankie rolls her eyes. "Just don't go whining back at the guild, or you're liable to get in a fight, even if they don't know you're cheating. Anyway, I've got a question."

  "Go ahead," Jojo says.

  "What's with the space magic?"

  Jojo looks at her blankly. "The what now?"

  "C'mon," Frankie says plainly, "don't act all coy at this point."

  "I seriously don't know what you mean," Jojo tells her.

  "I've been watching you pretend to put slimestones in the same tiny pocket all day," Frankie says. "You're using space magic, and you're really bad at hiding it."

  "Oh." Jojo flushes red. "I, um... I guess I wasn't thinking of it as magic? The angel called it a 'dimensional storage' or something. It's... Another cheat."

  "Lucky you," Frankie says sarcastically. "Well, be careful with it. It's pretty obvious you're using it, and it looks like some pretty high level space magic. Things could get bad if you're caught, so... Yeah, just be careful, alright?"

  "Okay, okay, I'll be careful!" Jojo puts her hands up in mock surrender and chuckles. She leans back against the tree, sighs, and stares up through the leaves overhead. "So, magic, huh? How's that work?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, we didn't have magic back in my old world," Jojo says. "Like, at all. So I guess the idea of it is exciting! I wanna know more about it."

  "Alright. Hmm..." Frankie makes herself comfortable in the grass and leans forward to explain. "Well, I can't exactly tell you what magic is or why we have it, because I don't know, but I can explain the basics."

  "Please!"

  Frankie nods. "So, to start, there's Basic and Advanced magic. Basic magic comes packaged with Jobs, so you'll probably see some of it when you hit level 10. It's got seven different types: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, Dark, and Life."

  "Life is Basic?"

  "Yup. Good thing it is, too, because otherwise adventurers wouldn't get healers for their parties until they started upgrading their Jobs at level 25. I mean, a level 10 cleric can't do much, but they can be the difference between a week of bed rest and a day, and in the grand scheme of things that helps a lot."

  "That's lucky."

  Frankie laughs. "Yeah. Whoever set the whole thing up probably did it on purpose, but that's getting into theology, and I don't really know anything about that."

  Jojo nods. "So, what about Advanced magic?"

  "That's where things get complicated," Frankie says. "Advanced magic can be basically anything. You get Advanced magic skills by thinking up a combination of Basic magics and getting the world to agree with you that it makes sense. So, you take Earth and Water magic, and you can make, like, Mud magic, as long as you get just the right amount of Earth and Water in there."

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  "How do you know what makes what?" Jojo asks.

  "Honestly?" Frankie shrugs. "I've got no clue. You'd have to go to a magic school to learn that."

  "I guess that makes sense," Jojo says. "How many kinds of Advanced magic are there?"

  "As far as I'm aware? It's infinite."

  "Woah... That's awesome!"

  "If you think so, you should consider taking a magic Job when you level up," Frankie says. "Healers are always in high demand, and it'd be a lot easier for you to pick and choose people you really trust to work with."

  "That makes sense," Jojo agrees. "If I become a healer, can I team up with you?"

  Frankie snorts. "I'm no adventurer."

  "You seem so good at this stuff, though!" Jojo argues.

  "I just know a lot of basic stuff because I work for the guild," Frankie says. "I'm no good in a fight. I'm only even up to level 8 because, unlike you, I actually lived my whole life in this world."

  "Wait, you're only level 8?" Jojo gasps. "Isn't that dangerous?"

  "Not really. Nobody really seeks out levels unless they're gonna be fighting or doing some kind of specialized magic work. Or they're nobles, I guess."

  "But a bad adventurer could, like, rob you and there would be nothing you could do!"

  Frankie laughs. "If I spent my whole life worrying about what thieves in the night could do, I'd never get any sleep. If you're that worried, then why don't you just get strong enough to protect me, huh?"

  "I- uh-" Jojo flushes red and turns away to hide her face. She quickly gathers up the sword and springs to her feet. "I have been on break too long. Don't wanna be out here too late, after all!"

  Jojo runs off to fight more slimes, and Frankie laughs, taking her spot up against the tree and settling in to watch her train.

  About an hour later, it finally happens. Jojo puts down the umpteenth slime—she's lost count by this point—and a notification fills her vision.

  "Yes! Finally, I get a Job!" Jojo cheers, jumping and dancing in place as a huge new box pops up in front of her.

  "Ooh, that one sounds awesome! Jack of All Trades, please!"

  Grinning, Jojo skips back over to Frankie, singing to herself, "I did it, I did it!"

  Frankie chuckles under her breath and stands up to greet Jojo. "Good job. Now, let's talk about what kind of a Job you actually want. I know you probably didn't get many options, but that's just because we focused on levels today. We can get you some skills next, and that'll really open up your options."

  "Oh, I already took one!" Jojo says excitedly.

  Frankie's smile drops. "You... You what?"

  "Yeah, there was a really cool looking one called Jack of All Trades, so I took that!"

  Frankie slaps her forehead. "You idiot! Jojo! That's a joke Job! It's useless!"

  Jojo gasps, taken aback. "What? But it sounded so good!"

  "Did you not see that it cuts your experience in half!?"

  "But that still leaves me getting fifty times what everyone else does," Jojo argues. "Plus, it lets me use every magic type!"

  "Barely! It—you—ugh! If you had actually come and talked to me, I could have warned you!"

  "Warned me of what?" Jojo frowns.

  "Try it! Try to summon up a fireball! Any fresh Elementalist can conjure up a fireball the size of their fist, so why don't you see what you get?"

  "Okay..."

  Jojo looks into the difference, points out a finger, and concentrates. She can feel the power well up inside of her, swirling around through her blood and concentrating at the tip of her finger. It swells, heats up, and then bursts out into...

  A single spark. A little, tiny spark flies forward and winks out of existence before it can even hit the ground.

  "...Novice Fire Magic?"

  Frankie sighs. "Yeah. Novice."

  "I'm... Guessing the other magic Jobs don't get 'novice' versions?"

  "No, Jojo. They do not."

  "Oh."