Untapped ~ Chapter Six!

After adjusting the collar of his new clothing, Joe pulled on his new gloves and slipped his feet into the well-designed slippers. Immediately, he felt a sense of rightness and let out a sigh of relief. A small notification popped up, grabbing his attention and causing his lips to form into a small ‘o’ of surprise.

Set bonus activated!

Garments of the Master of Circles.

These garments are more than mere clothing. They are a representation of Mastery. Those who are able to don the full set find themselves circling ever higher as they draw out the essence of the universe into a beginning and an end, only to begin again. 3/3 pieces equipped.

• 1 set piece equipped: Your Mana infuses the threads of your apparel, traveling out and around then back to you. You gain an intrinsic understanding of how to unravel inefficiencies, reducing the cost of creating ritual circles by 7%. 3.5% of your total mana pool is reserved in your garments and will automatically repair them.

• 2 set pieces equipped: The cohesive fabric of intention amplifies your purpose, enhancing ritual effects by 7%. An additional 1.75% of your total mana is reserved.

• 3 set pieces equipped: The mental burden in complexity of creation is reduced by 7%, increasing the speed and accuracy of drawing out ritual circles by the same amount. An additional 1% of your total mana is reserved.

Requirements: Ritualist Class. Master Rank in Ritual Circles. 

For those who achieve Mastery in a broader spectrum of core disciplines, additional sets of apparel await.

“I'm glad this all fits over my codpiece. For the low price of six and a quarter percent of my mana pool, I can create ritual circles faster, more accurately and efficiently, and with additional power. Absolutely worth it,” Joe murmured to himself as he looked up the enormous spiral staircase situated in the exact center of the otherwise hollow central chamber of the tower. He looked higher and higher, his neck creaking as he stepped back to absorb the sheer enormity of the stairwell. “What is not worth it, would be me trudging up these stairs.”

Cosmo had off-handedly informed him that the highest floor was approximately thirteen hundred feet above them, and the spiral staircase wrapping around the tower’s inner walls like the coiled body of an ancient serpent contained exactly two thousand, four hundred, and ninety-nine stairs. Wide balconies jetted out intermittently, serving as anything from a lecture platform to an open-air meditation station for the hundreds of total Ritualists which called the place home.

Joe had already met a couple dozen of the Masters, but each of them had other Experts they were teaching, who were in turn in charge of Journeymen, Students, Apprentices, Beginners, and Novices. Frankly, he hadn't expected this place to be nearly as populated as it truly was, especially since entering the tower from the outside required at least an Expert-ranked ability to interact with the challenges. “I guess it makes sense… a Ritualist joins, brings their family, and has kids. Those kids marry other people, have more kids. Maybe Vanaheim should be called the world of nepotism instead of-?”

Pausing, the Ritualist realized he was simply procrastinating because he didn't want to begin the climb. Pushing his discontent to the side, he rolled his shoulders in his extremely comfortable new robes that actually covered everything they were supposed to, crouched, and kept his eyes on his goal far above: the penthouse of the tower where the Grandmaster had called him. “This is probably some form of rite of passage, maybe a little bit of hazing? That's just fine with me.”

Flexing his legs, he activated Omnivault, jumping nearly fifty-six feet straight upward in an instant. For the briefest of moments, his feet landed on one of the balconies. Then he reactivated the skill, allowing a surge of mana and stamina to flood through his muscles. With another explosive leap, he blasted upward, wind rushing around his aerodynamic Exquisite Shell. Reactivating the skill each time he landed on a solid surface, Joe quickly ascended the tower, leaving behind a shimmering streak in the air as his expended mana dissipated into the ambient energetic field.

Through his entire climb, Joe carefully studied the floors he was zipping past, his eyes easily able to distinguish the storage areas, bedrooms for low-Characteristic Ritualists who still needed sleep, practice and lecture platforms, and dozens of other unmarked rooms with intricate designs on their doors. By his fifth jump, he was beginning to breathe heavily. By his seventh, his mana was pouring out of him in massive quantities. As he pushed off for his ninth jump, his mana well sputtered in his chest, warning him that he didn't have a tenth in him.

Joe did a flip, twisting to the side and landing with his feet flat on a balcony, breathing heavily and panting. He glanced over the edge, looking at the ground far, far below him. “What was that, five hundred feet up? Almost halfway there… just need a… minute or two.”

“Sir.” A firm, unhappy voice came from behind him. “You are sweating on my ritual. Do you have any idea what kind of magical mishaps may occur if your bodily fluids interact with my enchantments?”

“I am absolutely not sweating on your ritual, I would never let such prime targeting material be handed out willy-nilly-” Joe rounded on the person complaining, pausing as he came face-to-face with a studious-looking human woman holding what appeared to be some form of advanced inscriber. Freezing in place, he slowly looked down, realizing that he was indeed currently standing in the middle of a six-circle ritual diagram. Before he could even begin to apologize, he was captivated by the collection of tokens placed in the circles themselves, placed where the standard runes he used would have gone.

Crouching slightly, Joe's eyes went wide as he realized each of the individual, perfectly circular tokens were, in fact, high-grade enchanted items. Peeking at her gloves, he saw a similar design to his own on the back of them, though instead of the seven circles being drawn in gold, they instead sparkled like gemstones catching the light. “Don't tell me you’re making Enchanted Ritual Circles?”

“If you have the talent to recognize them, you certainly should have a modicum of respect for the difficulty and expense of this particular craft,” the unknown Ritualist explained to Joe in a calm tone—no, not a calm tone… she was speaking in the same soothing voice someone would use to walk someone through which wire to cut when defusing a bomb. “Not to mention the danger that comes from disruption.”

“But… you're just out here in the open?” Joe waved his arms to the sides to indicate the open air all around them. “Couldn't anyone just walk out here and accidentally scuff a line?”

She blinked at him owlishly, shaking her head and waving to indicate he should carefully walk around the edges of the circles. “No, not just anyone can or would randomly walk over here. This area is reserved for Masters and above, the only way to get here is to leave the stairwell over there, go through two sets of locked doors, then come out onto this balcony. At least… that was thought to be the only way, unless someone could fly.” 

Finally remembering his manners, Joe carefully sidled along the platform. “So sorry! Truly, I didn't mean to interrupt here, and I hope I didn't mess anything up. I was just so surprised to see you that I forgot to act properly.”

There was a momentary pause as the lady he had interrupted processed his words, and a faint smile appeared on her lips. “I suppose I can understand that, at least. I'll admit I wasn't exactly expecting to see you here either. Now, who are you, and why are you bouncing off the walls? I understand you're excited to be here, but…?”

“Ah! Yes, my name is Joe. I'm on my way up to see the Grandmaster right now.” Extending his hand, he held it in the air for a long few seconds as he waited for her to shake it. To his dismay, she simply looked at the outstretched limb, shaking her head and glancing at the implements she was gripping.

“Well, Mr. Joe.” Her words faltered briefly as she glanced at his hands, and she started again. “Master Joe, my name is Hilda Darling, Master of Enchanted Ritual Circles.”

“Right, sorry, not used to introducing myself with my skills.” Joe sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with his gloved hand. “Master of Ritual Circles. I've got to ask, how does one become a Master of Enchanted Ritual Circles without first mastering Ritual Circles themselves?”

“This sounds like a delightful, scholarly conversation to have another time,” Hilda stated firmly. “Suffice it to say, I came here as a Master of Enchanting, and my skills transferred over. Now, don't you have somewhere to be that isn't in the active effect of the ritual I am attempting to create?”

“I do.” At that moment, Joe felt his mana pool reach max capacity, which meant he’d been standing there gawping at his new peer for just over a minute and a half already. Before leaping away, he paused as his eye caught on a slight irregularity. “Err… not to be a pain, but you have a misaligned conduit on the third ring. Right, uh, there. It's meant to direct the energy flow outward, but the way it's angled will force it to curve point eight-three percent on the z-axis, creating resistance and impacting the duration of the ritual. Probably not enough to make it fail, but it'll degrade faster than it should. Shift it three degrees counterclockwise on the x-axis, and the mana should distribute evenly instead of feeding back into the matrix.”

Hilda looked at the space he was indicating, but it was clear she didn't see the issue the way he did. Carefully reaching forward, and glancing at her to double check that she wouldn’t stop him, Joe shifted the positioning of the enchanted token ever so slightly. “There you go, that should do it.”

“You could just… see that.” She looked between her diagram and the newcomer, “I know you've never seen my design before, so unless someone snuck it out to you so you could play a prank on me, that means you truly do have some skill.”

“I suppose it's just what it means to be a Master of Ritual Circles?” Joe chuckled uncomfortably. “I can see what the diagram is meant to do and where you have things correct and incorrect. It's even easy for me to know what those tokens are supposed to do, but for some reason, the idea of creating them? The actual purpose of the tokens themselves? I have no idea.”

“Hmm.” Hilda bit her lip before slowly inquiring, “You must be extremely busy, especially if you are being called upon by the Grandmaster already. Still, if you find time in your schedule, I'd love to exchange pointers. Perhaps some tutelage in Ritual Circles, in exchange for teaching you what I know about Enchanted Ritual Circles?”

“I'm only at the Student-tier in that skill, so it would be extremely helpful, if you wouldn't mind.” Joe flashed her a grin, then crouched down to leap away. “Until next time, Darling.”

“That's Master Darling.”

Joe flushed completely red, sputtering slightly as he nodded vigorously. 

“Ahh, yeah. Bye… sorry about-” Feeling like he should go and bury himself in a hole, Joe instead decided to shut his mouth with a *click* and leaped upward. “What’s wrong with me today?”

A few minutes later, he was standing outside the door on the top floor, trying to compose himself before his meeting. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and lifted his hand to knock, only for the man on the other side to call out.

“Just get in here, newbie.”

Entering the room, Joe was completely stunned to see the Grandmaster sitting in a soft chair with his feet up on his desk. The old man flashed Joe a grin and motioned for him to take a seat. Thrown off by the shift in attitude, as the representative of the tower had been stately and refined the last time he had seen him, Joe cautiously grabbed a chair, wondering if he was meeting with the Grandmaster’s twin.

“I'm going to get straight to business, if you don't mind.” The old man twirled a loop of his beard with a finger. “Your arrival here is extremely well-timed. Frankly, we are facing a crisis.”

That made Joe perk up, and he sat forward to listen more intently as the Grandmaster casually laid out the plight of the people in the tower. “You see, Joe. Our tower has no Sage. It has never had a Sage. Our influence is waning, and challenges are coming more frequently. I don't often lose, certainly not within our own territory, but we still need resources. When our members go out and about, I'd say eighty-five percent of the time, they are challenged to a duel before they can return with whatever they left for. As I'm sure you understand, our class is most effective when we have had time to prepare.” 

“Absolutely.” Joe nodded along to show he was listening.

“Then it should also make perfect sense that most of our people only carry around a few prepared rituals. Once those are exhausted by endless duels, it almost always means a net loss in Honor.” The Grandmaster let loose a heavy sigh. “It used to be that no one wanted to antagonize us, for fear of not being accepted if they ever wanted to take Ritualist as a prestige class. Now? Now the class itself might be at risk. I'll be brutally honest with you. We need a Sage. In other words, I need a Mythic core.”

“Got it.” Joe continued to bob his head. “Well, the path to Jotunheim is open? I’m sure you can-”

“I can't do anything, Joe.” There was a soft *thump* as the Grandmaster's feet dropped to the floor, and he turned to face his guest directly. “If I were to leave the area directly around the tower, I would immediately be challenged by combat class Grandmasters from all across the planet. We were already dangerously close to losing the tower before you arrived, but even so… that merely bought us more time.”

*Clap!*

The bright sound startled Joe, as the old man clapped his hands and beamed. “Luckily, I have a solution! Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to take a direct mentee? I'd like to not only sponsor your stay in the tower, but give you advanced training, and I am willing to give you direct guidance in your skills when you get stuck learning from your other sponsors. You're at the level cap?” 

“Yes…?” Joe slowly replied, glancing at his character sheet. “At least, my Ritualist base class is capped at level thirty.”

Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend' Class: Reductionist

Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (7/20)

Profession III: Grandmaster’s Apprentice (15/25)

Profession IV: None

Character Level: 30 Exp: 465,000 Exp to next level: 31,000

Rituarchitect Level: 13 Exp: 87,450 Exp to next level: 3,550

Reductionist Level: 10 Exp: 59,900 Exp to next level: 6,100

Hit Points: 4,171/4,171

Mana: 9,223/12,018 (2,794 reserved)

Mana regen: 115.09/sec

Stamina: 2,992.5/2,992.5

Stamina regen: 7.27/sec

Characteristic: Raw score

Strength (Bound): 278

Dexterity: 277

Constitution (Bound): 277

Light Intelligence (Bound): 283

Wisdom: 270

Dark Charisma: 229

Karmic Perception: 280

Luck: 222

Karmic Luck: 99

Doing a double take as he saw the enormous jump in his Karmic Luck, Joe refocused on what his counterpart was saying. 

“The only way to become uncapped is to advance your base class.” The Grandmaster patted his own chest proudly. “Even if my time is rather stretched, and my main focus is going to be my evolution into Sagehood, I can help you become a Grandmaster. That will come with a class evolution, uncapping your growth. Now, my personal attention and time does not come cheaply. As I said, I'll make you a deal. I'll sponsor you with whatever you need and make sure to give you as much time as I can spare to direct your training. In return, I need you to bring me a Mythic core.”

Quest gained-

“Nope. Absolutely not.” Joe shook his head, and the notification died before it even finished writing itself out. “I'm not going to trade a Mythic core for training. Not when I can do the same by going and starting a dairy farm on… celestial feces, I just realized how I'm going to pay for things here. Anyway, being able to advance slightly faster just… isn't worth it to me. I have just as many uses for a Mythic core as you do, plus I eventually want to become a Sage as well. So… get your own?” 

He licked suddenly dry lips as he trailed off, the air in the room becoming oppressive and stifling as the Grandmaster glared at him. Just as he worried that he may have made a serious mistake, a peal of laughter came from behind Joe, and the tense atmosphere instantly shattered.

“Ha! I can’t believe you’d even try that as a joke, Pete.” Shifting around, Joe stared at the newcomer, jaw dropping slightly as he took in the intense, focused power that wafted off the man like heat off pavement—he had no idea how he had missed this person until now. “He's going to think you're serious if you try to suppress him like that.”

“Haaa… just had to make sure he wasn't actually a plant from another tower.” The Grandmaster, apparently ‘Pete’, offered an apologetic grin as Joe looked back at him. “Anyone willing to make that kind of trade would definitely only be here to spy on us. All right, Joe. You pass. Now, I truly do want you to get me a Mythic core, but here's the real offer…”