Untapped ~ Chapter Five!

“While we’re waiting for the Grandmaster, why not let me take a peek at your ability with Magical Matrices?” one of the Master Ritualists excitedly interjected before anyone else had the opportunity to speak. “I'm Master Cosmo Hollows, founder of our math club!”

Joe's gaze dropped to the exuberant Wolfman's hip, but he didn't see a club anywhere. Upon self-reflection, he realized he’d taken a concerningly long time to realize that the man was speaking about a group of math enthusiasts. “A club? As in, an extracurricular activity? That's a thing here?”

“We all need to have hobbies!” Cosmo cheerfully stepped forward and clapped Joe on the shoulder, giving the bald Ritualist a close-up view of his well-manicured paw of a hand. “You have an interesting energetic field around you. In fact, I nearly mistook you for a member of the Blood Rites tower. Don't look so concerned, you'll see how this all works soon enough. Essentially, they’re our direct rival right now; everyone knows they've been jealous of our tower for centuries.”

“Only recently have they had the stones to step up and challenge us for Honor, though.” A lady stepped close, and as he recognized her Elven features, Joe froze a moment longer than he had even when seeing a Wolfman rush at him. “Gabrielle Syme, Master of Alchemical Rituals. I'd love to see your capabilities in my field; with Ritualist as your base class, you must have had an immense amount of time to practice this craft. Maybe you could even teach me a thing or two, ha! Err… I don’t suppose you actually can?” 

“Unfortunately, Alchemical Rituals is the part of my magic I’m least competent in-” Joe tried to explain, watching as her face fell—though another person stepped forward with their hand outstretched as soon as they saw their chance.

“Ritualistic Forging!” the first human Ritualist Joe had met shouted near-desperately, “Stabilizing, Amplifying, harmonizing! You name it, I can do it. How do you feel about a sub-sponsorship from me, even if the Grandmaster-”

“Sub-sponsorships aren't a thing!” Gabrielle finally found her voice once more. “Anything other than sponsorship is just… bribing!”

“Are you mad that I'm doing it or that you didn't think of it first?” came the cheeky response from the man, who seemed to have slightly canine features, now that Joe was looking closer. “Levi Dren Redips, metalsmith extraordinaire! I can see by the light in your eyes that you’re familiar with my craft. It's a true rarity. Believe it or not, there are more mathematicians joining than there are smiths. I wouldn't say this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… but you might!”

“I'd love to learn some of the ins and outs of forging specific to Ritualists! If you'd get in trouble with helping me out like that, I have a Grandmaster Dwarf on Jotunheim who owes me forging classes, if you’d like to trade tips.” The handshaking ramped up in intensity, even as others clamored for his attention. Seeing Gabrielle start to move away, Joe addressed her once more. “I also know a Sage of Alchemy there who owes me years of dedicated tutelage, if you'd like to make the same deal.”

“There’s a Sage on a lower world?” Gabrielle's startled exclamation cut through the hubbub, and the attention of the crowd was focused entirely on her next words. “It can’t be… a Sage of Alchemical Rituals?”

Suddenly the weight of their collective attention turned sharper, and Joe felt like he had to force out his next words through syrup caught in his throat. “No, Alchemy as a whole. As far as I'm aware, he has nothing to do with rituals at all.”

“Celestial feces, I almost had a heart attack!”

“Can you imagine how devastating that would’ve been to the Grandmaster?”

“Centuries of effort, down the drain.”

Gabrielle now seemed far more enthusiastic at the news. “As soon as we can get clearance to descend to Jotunheim, I would absolutely love to meet them! I wonder which specialty they took the Sage position of? They've been having nearly as much trouble raising Sages as we have, though they were the last tower to raise a Sage, if I remember correctly.”

“Released a World Boss somewhere, you mean,” Cosmo chimed in darkly, though he tried to hide his frown as Joe's eyes turned back to him. “Ah, sorry. You may not know this, but there are a limited number of World Bosses that can spawn on any of the worlds. The Mythic core drawn from them is the only material required to go from peak Grandmaster to the Sage rank. Many hope to be able to make the leap the instant the option becomes available, so they hold on to a core. Wars are fought over them for this exact reason. Until the core is used, the World Boss it’s taken from won’t respawn-”

“Thereby artificially limiting the number of Sages that can be raised even more.” Another voice finished the explanation, this one causing everyone to go silent out of respect as they turned and inclined their heads at the man walking toward them.

 Joe studied the person, who must have been a Grandmaster of the tower, noting the humble air about him—the only thing that set him apart were a few circles embroidered into the sleeves of his robes. Even so, the power and authority that seemed to flow off of him was the likely reason he didn't need any garish accessories. Joe politely nodded as he was studied in turn, patiently waiting for the elderly man to speak.

“I’m glad to hear that my efforts were not in vain.” There was a faint smile on the elderly man's face as he stroked his long, white beard. “It would be quite the shock to the system to put in all this work to reach the highest heights in Alchemical Rituals, only for someone else to have swooped in and snagged the position.”

The group let out a collective chuckle, though there was a clear sense of unease as they looked at each other. It was then that Joe realized, no matter how friendly each of these people were with one another, each of them was in an extremely long-term competition with the others. If only five people in total could become Skill Sages, and only one could become a Class Sage, at least a dozen of the people standing in this cluster alone would never be able to ascend beyond Grandmaster.

“I hear you are bringing us exciting news.” The elderly man folded his hands behind his back, rocking back and forward on his toes. “Someone with Ritualist as a base class? Two specializations on top of it and leading the way here from the lower worlds. Well, to me, it sounds to me like you have been doing our class proud. We gained a much-needed influx of Honor when the bifrost opened… now I know why.”

Appreciative murmurs filled the air, and Joe felt multiple people clap their hands on his shoulders. “As Tower Master, it falls to me to reward you for the benefits you have brought us.”

Something gleamed around the Grandmaster’s head, causing Joe to blink several times as he focused in, trying to understand what he was seeing. A golden wheel slowly appeared in the air behind the Tower Master, becoming clearer as Joe concentrated. A thin line extended from the wheel, connecting to Joe’s chest.

“Is this… Karmic Perception?” Before the elderly man could issue his rewards, something *clicked* in Joe's mind, and he blurted out, “Oh! It’s you!”

“I hereby award you-” The Grandmaster stammered to silence, blinking in shock as he realized he’d just been interrupted. “You… would you like to share your thoughts with the rest of us? I was only going to give you rewards and accolades; I'm certain those can wait.”

Joe winced at the spicy tone, but seeing as he had already put his foot in his mouth, he decided to explain himself. “My apologies, Grandmaster! It's just that, when I was down on Jotunheim, I encountered a Master-rank ritual which sealed a vault. Back then, I swore to myself I would find the original designer of that ritual and exchange pointers with them if they were still around.”

“A vault… you say?” the words came slowly, as though the old man wasn't sure whether he believed Joe or not.

“If I recall correctly, it was the ‘Vault of Winter’s Life’.”

Silence filled the area as the old man closed his eyes, taking a long breath and slowly letting it go. “How very interesting indeed. I was not the designer of that ritual. However, the previous Tower Master, my sponsor and my grandfather, was. It seems we have some fate together, young Ritualist. Hmm. I don't mean to take opportunities from the others here, but… this may be the best way to solve our quandary. How about this? Instead of the rewards I was going to give you… I instead offer a full sponsorship?”

Soft protests came from everyone in the area who’d been hoping to be the one to sponsor him, for whatever reason. The Grandmaster waved his hands at them, “Let me finish! I will offer sponsorship, providing above-standard rooms, as well as funding your first thousand hours of training with each of the core skills under a sub-sponsor of your choosing. Yes, Gabrielle, I understand sponsorships like this are not the norm, but I don't need the merits, now do I?”

Joe glanced at the Elven woman, who had a small grin on her face. “I should hope not, Grandmaster. Thank you for this opportunity.”

“As for what I’d like in return…” the Grandmaster paused, stroking his beard as he looked around the group. “Well, let's get you settled first, then talk business. You're going to catch your death of cold if we don't get you out of those rags. When you’re wearing something more comfortable, I think all of us will be more comfortable.”

“-Do all humans have five toes like that?” Joe heard someone in the crowd whispering, and he felt himself deflate slightly as he glanced down and noticed his shoes had deteriorated even further from the continuous walking around the planet since he arrived.

“Yes, I think that would be for the best,” he murmured in thanks, nodding at his new sponsor. “Thank you for your consideration. As you might imagine, Jotunheim was a difficult place to be for an extended period of time.” 

“Excellent. Once you’re properly equipped, have someone show you to my study.” A token clipped to the Grandmaster’s belt flashed with a green light, and for a split second, the air around the man did so as well. Then he was gone, and Joe was left salivating over the idea of gaining access to what was some sort of stable, local teleportation ritual. In fact, as his new hopeful sub-sponsors led him away, Joe couldn't stop asking about it.

“Does everyone get to use that teleportation function? Are there various levels of access someone can get, based on an access token? That's what that was, right?” 

The others only laughed his inquiries off, not commenting on how the Grandmaster had vanished. Instead, he was led into the tower itself—though Joe did pause as they crossed the threshold, reaching out and brushing his fingers against the strange material the structure was made of. It was hard, yet still yielded slightly to his fingers, as though made from some form of fossilized organic chitin.

This set off yet another round of questioning, though this time he only got shrugs in return. “Are there truly no monsters remaining on this world? Is this what happened to all of them? A Mythic core, when pulled from a World Boss, keeps the monster from respawning, so did the leadership on this planet figure out how to extrapolate that out to the monster population in general?”

“There’re monsters here, don't worry about that.” Cosmo gestured for Joe to follow him after the newcomer had spent a long few moments studying the wall. “It's just that they’re raised under controlled circumstances, either in the animal husbandry, tamer, or various farming towers. Anyone can go in and hunt, after paying the entry fee, and bring back whatever they can gather as resources for our tower. It's one of the ways we distribute resources and such. Don’t worry, there are plenty of tower missions to go and bring back materials; it’s what keeps the place running.”

Gabrielle pulled open a door, revealing a large supply closet filled with dozens of robes. Each of them appeared exactly the same, except for small artistry embroidered along the sleeves. “You can take any of these with blank sleeves. The embroidered versions are modifiers to the standardized Ritualist garments, and you have to earn them by bringing Honor to our tower or completing tower quests.”

“Right, I'm still not clear on what ‘Honor’ is or how it's accounted for?” Joe pulled the robe off a hanger, realizing that, though the outer portion opened as standard robes would, the inner part was buttoned up, creating a combination of a cassock and robe that ensured his modesty would be preserved. “Oh, these are nice.”

“You'll be happy to know we have matching slippers that go with them.” Levi chortled as he grabbed a pair and tossed them to Joe. “This first set is free, as a welcoming package for getting into the tower. After that, your sponsor is charged, or you can pay in either cheese or Honor.”

“Again, about that-” Joe started, only for Cosmo to spare him a struggle with words, jumping in to fill in the blanks.

“Honor is how we determine what class is able to control which tower. You may have noticed that we not only have a tower much larger than the standard ones around us, we also control a large portion of open land. We are able to use it for practicing large-scale rituals and effects, and obviously most towers don't have such a large, open training area. They need to pay rather hefty fees to the Enchanter’s Tower to have spatial enchantments maintained in their space, if they want it. As I’m sure you can imagine, when you earn major accolades that can have an impact across Vanaheim as a whole, you can earn large amounts of Honor for your tower.”

“Which is why you earned us quite a windfall of Honor, according to the Tower Master,” Levi chimed in happily. “Since you were one of the first arrivals to the planet, and had a hand in opening the path to lower worlds, well, that's a pretty major impact on the planet, isn't it?”

“Right,” Cosmo took over once more. “You can also earn Honor for your tower by challenging someone of equal rank from another tower to a duel—or of a higher rank if you really feel confident. If you win, your tower earns Honor, and theirs loses some. If our total Honor drops far enough, a more ‘honorable class’ can challenge us for control of the tower directly. As I'm sure you can understand, once you lose control, it's very difficult to wrest it back, as the other maintenance fees and such quickly pile up.”

Joe nodded along as things started to fall in place. “So, Honor is literally how we maintain our position in this tower and isn't really a… let's say spendable currency, whereas cheese is used for personal purchases and bartering?”

“Got it in one,” Gabrielle cheerfully acknowledged, handing over a pair of gloves embroidered with six perfect circles. “There you go, the gloves of an Expert Ritualist!”

Taking the offered items, Joe paused and looked at them in confusion. “But I'm… a Master Ritualist?”

Each of the trio who had been walking along to get him settled froze in place, their cheerful expressions dropping away into a slight desperate stare. Gabrielle swallowed hard, “You’re a Master already? In… all your core skills?”

“No, sorry. I guess I may have misinterpreted what these represented?” Joe looked around at the others, who were now looking at him with their eyes practically shining as they waited for more information. “I'm a Master in Ritual Magic and Ritual Circles.”

“Feces, don't scare me like that.” Levi let out a sharp breath, “I thought we had just offered to sponsor you without being able to gain any merits in return. Not that I wouldn't help out, but being able to earn something definitely makes it easier.”

“Another type of currency?” Joe inquired as politely as possible, though he was starting to get annoyed with all the variations they were bringing up.

“No, skill merits are…” Gabrielle paused, pursing her lips as though looking for the right words. “There's three requirements for breaking through the Master ranks into the Grandmaster ranks. Merits are gained by-”

*Boo~oop.*

Everyone paused as a loud tone rang through the tower, followed by a slightly distorted, nasally voice which drowned out all other conversation. “Joe ‘Monarch of Mana’, please report to the Grandmaster's office.”

“Ah, you better get going. Definitely don't want to keep him waiting. You never know when he'll have time for you again.” Levi snagged a different pair of gloves, pushing them into Joe's hands. These ones were embroidered with golden thread and had seven circles instead of six. “Here you go! Master of Ritual Circles gloves. I'd tell you what all of this does, but you should just put it on real quick and take a look for yourself. A little reading material as you start climbing the stairs.”

“Stairs?” A flash of premonition made Joe’s eyes narrow. “Where exactly is the Grandmaster’s office?”

“Top floor.” Cosmo snickered as Joe gave a weary shake of his head.

“O~of course it is.”