Invent (The Completionist Chronicles Book 7), page 9
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“It’s not like Dwarves are known for their stealth and subtlety. When she’s practically invisible, how am I supposed to know if she's there or not?” Joe grumbled to himself as he calculated his defensive rituals once more. He was using the remainder of his rigid tiles, stone that didn’t need any special qualities beyond ‘flatness’. He amended that thought, remembering that they also required the special property ‘no bendiness’. Though he understood that there were proper terms for these things, like malleability or some such, he was currently too grumpy to search his memory properly.
Major Cleave had released him from his bandages after letting him know that Jaxon had been the one to find him—thanks in part to recognizing that the blast wave associated with Joe’s failed invention was not an attack on the town. When he hadn’t seen the Reductionist around anywhere, Jaxon had been quoted as saying, ‘I’m betting that Joe blew himself up again. I need to go’.
“Note to self: Set up Mend as a ritual, and do something really nice for Jaxon. He’s a good friend.” Apparently, the man had rushed to what remained of Joe’s side and had used acupuncture to stop his bleeding debuffs, giving himself enough time to rush the mangled Ritualist to a combat medic. Sure, Joe wasn’t exactly happy that the first assumption when there was an explosion was that it was his fault, but this time… well, it usually was, if he were being honest.
“A Ritual of Mending. Hmm. Not sure if healing would be categorized as a defensive ritual or a utility one, but I’m gonna figure it out. It’s a good idea.” This time around, Joe hadn’t bothered with pausing to test things. He had simply made a single set of five linked Exquisite Shell rituals, then dived into making three linked sets of Dark Lightning Strike and two Acid Spray linked rituals. He finished the last set, noting the vibrating stone with worry. “Making a smithy next. I bet if I make a few spell stabilizers and embed them in the stone here and here… yeah, that would work. Maybe I should take up sculpting with Havoc?”
There were always new things to do and test, but for the first time in a long time, the growing list didn’t feel overwhelming. He was back to doing what he loved, and there was a difference between scrambling and tinkering. There should have been far less of a chance to blow himself up as well, but he had figured out a solid way to test out his new rituals without getting injured. He could only do it once a day, for now, but whenever he put together a new design, he was going to Query Tatum and get his advice on whether the thing was going to blow up in his face.
Otherwise, he’d need to hook it up to a Ritual of Remote Activation to determine if it worked properly. That would be a waste, but only if he didn’t have a target to test it out on.
Quest complete: Beginner Ritualist II. Offensive rituals: 25/25. Defensive rituals: 25/25. Congratulations! You made yourself into a better-protected individual! Reward: Access to Beginner Ritualist III! Record breaker reward: Reward for Beginner Ritualist III increased.
He was still making good progress toward being the speediest Ritualist Class Quester in history. Maybe he should recommend to other people that they should front load all the hard work of their entire class, with very little direction… for an unknown reward. “Eh. Never mind. They probably wouldn’t go for it.”
Class Quest gained: Beginner Ritualist III. This is a timed, optional reward quest! There are benefits to finding success quickly, and those benefits are more success, faster! You’ve made your rituals; now use them in combat! Strike a blow with your offensive rituals against at least fifty different hostile creatures. Dying before this quest is complete will automatically fail the quest. 0/50 creatures impacted by your offensive rituals. Time limit: 10 days. Reward: For each creature impacted, if killed within one minute, you will gain a core at their same tier.
Note: They do not need to be killed by the ritual for you to gain the reward. You are allowed to work with a team!
Class Quest gained: Student Ritualist. Congratulations! You are a Student of the path of rituals! Students must learn: For you, this means plenty of fun things to do! Personally draw out and activate twenty Student rituals which you have never used before. 0/20 rituals activated.
“A reward quest…? A core for all of them? Two quests at once?” Joe gasped as he realized he was wasting time with the opportunity. “Havoc!”
He started running, knowing that the ten-day time limit was deceptive. He could go out and beat down a ton of monsters without too much difficulty, but he would earn a core of their same tier. That meant that going against weak creatures would be near worthless. But if he went against creatures that might be too strong, and died, he got nothing. That meant he needed to join an expedition and find that fine line between challenging and deadly.
It only took Joe a short while to locate Havoc, but the high-powered Dwarf initially had very little interest in speaking with him. As he came running up, Havoc literally flipped over the table that he was working on so that Joe could not see what he was doing. The crowd of Dwarves and humans around the table were tossed across the room in some cases, but not a single one of them uttered a word of complaint. Joe glanced around, highly concerned by the guilty looks on multiple faces. “What's going on?”
“Nothing you need to concern your bald little face with,” Havoc informed him coolly as his cigar burrowed its way out of the mess, climbed up his pant leg, and jumped into his hand. “Something I can help you with, Apprentice?”
The Grandmaster Dwarf directly calling him ‘Apprentice’ garnered a few gasps and reactions that literally chucking a table had not; making Joe wonder if there was something more to the term which was more important than he currently knew. Joe shook off his concerns and opened his mouth to tell Havoc about his quest, then paused as he registered all the other people in the space. “Can I have a private moment?”
“Yes, absolutely; how about you and I step away from here right now and have a chat?” Havoc’s rapid reaction and movement only increased Joe's curiosity about what they were working on, but that conspiracy would just have to wait until he was caught up with his own concerns. They hurried away from the large group, soon finding a much more secluded area. It wasn't hard, as the interior of the volcano was practically a ghost town at this point. “What's got your knickers in a bowtie, kid?”
Joe took a moment to mentally translate the query to ‘what has your undies in a knot’ before he could answer the Dwarf. “I need your advice and help. I just got access to a new quest, a ‘reward’ class quest.”
“You’re joking.” Havoc’s slightly-less-ragged-than-usual beard caught the breeze as he turned his head to stare at Joe in utter shock. “Why, the last time I heard about a reward quest was… I can't even tell you how many centuries ago at this point. I thought those pansy deities had written that out of classes already; that's how long it's been. What do you need, and what is the reward?”
Before Joe could respond, Havoc shook his head and muttered, “Never mind, I have direct access. I’ll just look for myself… oh. Oh, my.”
“Exactly why I came running.” Joe smirked at his ‘master’, who simply nodded slowly in return. “What should I do?”
“Here is exactly what you should do.” Havoc’s eyes were practically dancing in delight as he twirled his ever-present cigar over his knuckles. “You go back to your little workshop, make the biggest, most powerful, most numerous area-of-effect rituals you possibly can… and in three days, get ready to ride the Lord of Slaughter wagon. I'm going to take your work to the most dangerous areas in all of Svaltarheim, point your rituals at creatures I want to attack, and then immediately destroy them. I'll be taking a quarter of your reward for my part in this, and you are going to be fine with that.”
“Um. Yes, I sure am.” Joe gulped as he took in the flames that were swirling in Havoc’s eyes. They did not look like the reflection of lava. They looked like the promise of death and dismemberment. “I guess I’ll… go get to work?”
A long stream of smoke curled out of Havoc’s mouth, even though he hadn’t even had his cigar in his mouth since they first started speaking. “Yeah. You do that.”
The Ritualist rushed off toward his workshop, stopping only a single time—to grab a ring-full of stones that would serve well as ritual slates. He would need to take a few minutes to set up a Field Array and make some precise slices, but he needed to restock anyway. Once he had accomplished that, the next several days were a blur of creating rituals both to hit other things, as well as to keep himself alive.
When Havoc pounded on the door to his building, Joe took a swift glance at his stock of rituals, nodded in acceptance, and hurried to join the Lord of Slaughter on his quest.
Ritual of Dark Lightning Strike (Beginner) x30.
Ritual of Dark Lightning Strike (Beginner) (Linked) x6.
Ritual of Mending (Student) x5.
Ritual of Exquisite Shell (Beginner) (Linked) x10.
Ritual of Spraying Acid (Beginner) x10.
“You’re ready?” Havoc questioned him with a wild gleam in his eyes. “You’d better be; teleportation ain’t cheap. Next one won’t be ready for another week.”
“I’m good to go. All my attacking rituals are set as an area-of-effect, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine,” Joe confirmed with equal excitement. “I also made sure to put together plenty of things that’ll keep me alive as we-”
“Hold on tight to your horse’s hat. Let me explain how this is gonna work.” Havoc chuckled darkly. “You’re going to activate the Rituals, hand them to me, and then I’m going to teleport away to the most dangerous monster-infested territory on this plane. Your quest will complete, and you won’t be dead. I’ll be back in a week to pick up my share of the Cores. Savvy?”
“What? No!” Joe nearly stamped his foot in indignation. “I need to be there to… to… feces, it never said I needed to be there. Just that I needed to activate the rituals and damage hostile creatures.”
“Now you’re getting it.” Havoc laughed as he hurried Joe along to the Caves of Solitude and their apparently overpriced teleport array.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Joe looked on wistfully as Havoc was struck by lightning and acid sprayed away from him in a nova. The Dwarf vanished, and the people maintaining the area swore heartily as they moaned about the damage the Dwarf had done to their spell diagrams and teleportation hall on the way out.
“I swear, if he was anyone except the Lord of Slaughter, I wouldn't go through the trouble of fixing this and bringing him back,” The Dwarven mage that had activated the teleport enchantment grumbled heartily. “Why would someone even go to the Deathyards? What was with all those active effects? His entire ticket price is going to have to go back into making this functional again!”
Not wanting to get caught up in Havoc's monetary issues—or get charged on his behalf—Joe hurriedly made himself scarce and went back to his hole in the ground that would one day grow up into a full-fledged town. Before he got halfway home, he was already getting spammed with quest updates informing him that his rituals had hit ‘hostile creatures’.
By the time he was back to his workshop, the quest had been completed.
Class Quest completed: Beginner Ritualist III. Congratulations! I’d call you a dirty cheater if it wasn’t likely the most intelligent choice you could have possibly made. Here’s your reward; don’t expect to get off so easily ever again! Reward: Unique Core x49. Artifact Core x1.
Joe stared at the vast amount of wealth that had literally just appeared in his Codpiece of Holding in total shock. This quantity of Cores would let him either create weapons at the Expert rank in the form of war rituals, or simply generate massive long-term investments by raising a swarm of Unique buildings. “Not even gonna think about that Artifact one… there’s no way that one is gonna stay with me. Sure, I could use it for a Master-ranked ritual, but I’d never survive the experience. Havoc must have gone to a dungeon and cleared it or something. That’s a Boss Core, if I’ve ever seen one.”
He desperately wanted to know what had happened in the ‘Deathyard’. Yet, currently, time wasn’t his friend. Joe knew precisely what he wanted as soon as he saw the tally of all of the Unique Cores. There was one long-term investment that he could make immediately. “Aspect Jars… specifically Natural Aspect Jars. From the looks of these, even though they’re all ‘Unique’, they’re all identical and right at the cusp of stepping into becoming Artifacts themselves, with each of them being worth a whopping ten thousand experience to absorb.”
He shook his head at that thought. It was one thing to know that Havoc was practically a force of nature, and another to see the results of it in action. “Set up a Field Array, ensure I have the required aspects… a thousand each to make their Natural Aspect Jars? A worthy investment, but ouch. Start small; I’m not gonna bother with a Trash or Damaged Jar… so an upgrade for Common, it is.”
Joe’s Field Array was altered to match the exact of the Core, and then he started flooding the blazing ball of light with aspects. The radiant daylight emitted constantly by the Core slowly and subtly shifted to a pure white emanation, swallowing down a thousand aspects in an instant.
Item created: Natural Common Aspect Jar. 0/10,000 Common aspects. This jar can be used to store and retrieve Common aspects. As it is a naturally formed aspect jar, it will collect Common aspects from its surroundings over time. Current rate of collection: 7 Common aspects per hour.
“Six days until I get a return on my initial investment.” Joe shook his head in dumbfounded glee. “If only I had enough Artifact, Mythical, or Legendary… no, I need to just see where I am now and be happy. Okay, I don’t have enough Rare, but I do have the rest.”
Using the same Field Array, he slotted a new Core and set up an Aspect Jar for both Uncommon as well as Unique aspects. “Just like that, now I’ll be ready when I go to set up my secret building in the dumpster of the capital. No one will expect a secret landfill building. But getting there… and going up against the monsters that live in there… abyss. Havoc took all my attack rituals.”
He seethed for a moment, frustrated that he hadn’t been able to see his last several days’ worth of work in use. Joe acknowledged that frustration and moved on, knowing logically that he had made the correct call. Still, he wanted to watch magic streak through the air and reduce his enemies to slag. “Slag… ahh, I should perhaps practice summoning or… no, I need to do more with my Ritual Orbs. Having only one that can use a spell against Elves or humans is getting tiresome.”
Joe pulled out the Orb assigned with Cone of Cold, and a quick glance at it made him wince.
Ritual Orb 1: Spell trapped within: Cone of Cold. Bound Core Power remaining: 375/1,545. Cost per spell use: 195.
“Glad I checked.” Joe called up his memory of how to remove the Core and place in a new one, happy to remember that he could just slot a new Core as needed. “That’s inefficient, though… Mana Batteries work just as well and are much more highly stabilized. Oh, and they’re rechargeable. I guess I know what I need to do next.”
Joe stepped out of his workshop and paused, ensured Neutrality Aura was active so that he wouldn’t offend anyone’s senses, then started looking around to see if Major Cleave was nearby. He found her a foot and a half to his left and smiled at her instead of squealing like a stuck pig. Improvement! “Hello, Major. I’m on my way to bring a Smithy up; would you care to join me?”
“Huh. Polite today, aintcha. Do you want something from me…? Anyway, the Legion says I go where you go, so you’re stuck with me until that changes.” There was a long pause, so Joe started walking, almost missing the quiet follow up of, “Still, nice to be invited for once. You should know, Stan’s here, and he brought a wagonload of goods that you need to go pay for.”
“Stan… Stan… oh! The newly-hired administrator who roleplays a certain purple depressed donkey from a children’s show.” Joe nodded sagely, rubbing at a non-existent beard. “I hope he brought along a few cores and other such essentials; I have no idea how I’m gonna get these other buildings up otherwise.”
He certainly wasn’t going to be spending Unique cores on raising Common buildings. On that note, he hurried over to the clearly visible wagon in the distance and waved at Stan, who was vigorously—for him—shooing off overexcited engineers. “No. Stop. Go away. This is for the town. I am an official of this place.”
Joe wobbled as though he had been hit with a sleep spell when he heard the Dwarf speaking, managing to put on his professional face just as the new hire saw him. “Hello, Stan! I’m so glad you made such good time! Can I help with anything right away?”
“Need a place to store all this stuff.” Stan scowled around at the crowd of Dwarves, who were trying to catch a glimpse of what he was hauling. “Perhaps you could send off the vultures?”
“I need a core; Uncommon should be fine. Used my last one making an apartment building.” Joe chuckled softly as Stan blinked slowly at him. “I can use just one to bring up six individual structures, including a warehouse and apartment building. So, got one on you?”
“Oh, I get it. Hard to get rid of the vultures when you are one. Fifty reputation each. Discount applied, as you’re using it for the direct improvement of the town,” Stan told him a moment later. He reached into the wagon, dug around, then handed over a Core. “Did I hear you made an ‘apartment building’? What level of rent have you specified?”
As soon as that question left the merchant’s lips, the clustering engineers all let out loud groans, except one that directly shouted at Stan, “Why would you do that?”
Stan looked around at all the freeloaders, and his eyes narrowed slightly. “How are we going to increase the reputation of the town if we don’t have the funding to improve it? Are you fine with this being an unranked Camp with a poor reputation? I’m not. Joe?”
