CC 11: Thunderplump ~ Seventeen!

“Gather round, gather round!” Joe started pacing in a circle as the crew of Ritualist aspirants shambled into position. He didn't miss the fact that they appeared jittery and somewhat nervous, eyes flicking to the ritual circle etched on the tile that he was casually carrying around. The princess especially seemed to be on edge, and he was glad that the lesson had sunk in so well. “Don't worry, this isn't active. Even if it breaks, it won't hurt you… too much.”

Now that he had a captive audience, Joe dove into why he placed everything in prime number positions, then used them as an example so they could feel the difference. Once the loose group had settled into a sequence that made his Magical Matrices skill purr in pleasure, he explained exactly what was going to happen.

He went over everything from how the ritual circles would appear under their feet, to how quickly it should pull mana from them. “That was why I asked how full your mana pools were. If you have a larger pool, you’re on an outer circle, as that’s where you’ll do the most good. If you’re in the inner circles, don't feel bad; you’ll be channeling their power, which will help your own power grow. Just… do your best to control it.”

A hand shot up, and Joe arched an eyebrow as he looked at the man waiting patiently to ask a question. “Is there any chance we explode from channeling their mana?”

“Very small chance,” Joe admitted after staring at the man for a long moment to show his displeasure with this line of questioning. “Much more likely, you’ll pass out or have other issues before then, so speak up if things are going sideways for you. No more questions; this is ritual magic, not rocket surgery!”

Half a dozen more hands had shot up, and he was beginning to sweat through his Neutrality Aura. Applying a light touch of mana to the ritual tile, Joe activated it and began filling the ritual diagram with power. “Remember to hold your athame! It should act as a conduit for your Mana Manipulation skill, and if you don't have that skill, it should help you get it! Probably! If not, I recommend that skill as one to spend your free skill point on, because getting it otherwise is a pain in the rear.”

He looked around, seeing a ton of confused faces, as though what he had just said came out garbled. Then Joe was hit by a wave of nerves at the fact that more than two dozen people were surrounding him holding knives all of a sudden. Then the ritual began drawing mana from everyone, and there was a collective, “Oof!”

“Yup, that'll happen! Breathe through it. Embrace it; you might even get a channeling skill! Who knows! Not me!” Joe let out a laugh, doing his best to imitate a combination of Havoc and Jaxon. Then, very softly, he muttered to himself, “If I can get rid of another half of this group, it'll be a lot easier to do small group training.”

Another scan told him that he was likely on the right path, as a quarter of the aspirants had turned green from the side effects of having their mana rapidly drained. Joe hummed lightly, his vast reservoir of mana practically untouched from a ritual of this strength. Moments later, a bubble of force came into being above his open palm, and he lifted the satchel of seeds above it. Very gently, very carefully, he inserted the opening of the storage device into the bubble and instructed the satchel to eject all of the seeds.

Thousands upon thousands of magical capsules poured into the contained space. Even with all of them out in the open, they took up less space than his closed fist. Joe shook his head at the thought that these were likely potent magical items, more powerful than he had the means to create on his own at the moment. “I still have so far to go. Awesome.”

With a flick of his fingers, the orb shot into the sky and vanished into the distance. He clapped his hands together and looked around brightly. “All done! That’ll travel seven miles from the center of the city, then start depositing seeds in a wide circle around us. Congratulations on activating your first successful, non-self-lethal ritual. Look at that! Not a single one of you passed out.”

Immediately following his declaration, everyone smiled or clamped their mouths closed—just in case. “Now, follow me up to the walls, so that we can get a good view of the… whatever is going to happen!”

He marched away, ensuring that everyone could keep up with him by maintaining a leisurely sprint toward the walls in the distance. Not wanting to individually grab and jump everyone to the top, Joe directed the aspirants to a ladder. They climbed up, finding an area that wasn't too busy with archers or various supply runners.

“Master Joe…” the soft voice caught Joe by surprise, and he looked over to see a hand half in the air. His eyes followed the limb down to come to rest on a lady. She stood just under five feet tall, had a pixie cut hairstyle, and was staring at him nervously. “I don't mean to… um. What was that ritual supposed to do?”

“I believe I told you?” Joe furrowed his brow and tried to think if he’d actually stated his thoughts out loud, or merely been thinking them extra loudly in his head. “No, I absolutely told you. It’s out there dropping seeds in a circle around the city. Any chance–”

The Ritualist paused, realizing that perhaps asking someone who was clearly a human if they were part Dwarf was a bad idea.

She nodded, but didn't lose the confused expression for some reason. “But why? Won't those seeds just die in the cold? There's no soil, no water?”

“Oh! Gotcha. They’re magical seeds.” That didn't seem to be enough of an explanation for anyone, so he expounded upon that slightly. “They’re a gift from the previous civilization that inhabited Jotunheim. They were a super weapon against creatures that thrived in the cold. Apparently, when planted in snow, or in super cold areas, they’re supposed to grow rapidly using an exothermic reaction. Somehow. Again, magic.”

That earned him a few nods, but Joe could only shrug. At this point, they officially knew as much as he did about the flora. “While we’re waiting, anyone have any questions?”

“Yeah!” The pixie-cut lady spoke up with much more enthusiasm. “Back to the constellations, I think I have an answer. Well, at least, I got a skill level for it. But I was hoping to get your answer now. That way I can adjust where I went wrong and learn more at the same time.”

“O-oh! Uh, yes, that's a great idea, but we wouldn't want to deprive everyone else of the chance to think on it, right?” Joe looked around at the group while nodding sagely.

“I'm good with it. I couldn't come up with anything.” One guy shrugged and motioned for Joe to go on. Multiple other people glommed on to this, and soon Joe was surrounded by expectant eyes twinkling as brightly as the constellations they were hoping to hear about.

Feeling like he had his hand caught in the cookie jar, Joe began speaking slowly, trying to put his own insights into an understandable format for other people. “Why would the constellations play into rituals? Anyone?”

There were no takers. Joe cleared his throat and spoke more firmly. “Well, the fact is, it's not just the stars way off in the distance. It’s the sun, the moon, the tides, the landscape, even the local alignment of ambient energy. That last one I’ve been learning from a wizard specializing in Formations. The yin energy of Jotunheim is apparently real rough on anyone trying to use fire-based attacks, yet the ‘yin alignment’ of the creatures we light up is also the reason the strikes are so effective.”

Now that he was on a roll, the words came easier. “The more in tune with our local nature we can become, the better. However, that’s much more important and effective for Formations, whereas we can think of constellations and the… celestial bodies, I suppose would be the phrase? Yes, if we think of the celestial bodies as powerful magical circuits and align our rituals up with them, we’re tapping into the mega-powerful magical circuits of the universe and applying them at a much more microscopic scale. The universe likes itself, and it likes patterns. Allow it to do something it’s done before, and it’ll do it far more easily.”

A notification appeared, but Joe waited to open it until he finished his thought. “When it comes to certain high-tier rituals, they can only be performed under specific constellations after ensuring that they’re perfectly aligned. Think back to Earth, for those of you that have lived there, and think about the pyramids in Egypt. They would be a great place to do a grand ritual, because at specific points of the year, they perfectly align with Orion's Belt. Being a Ritualist, and understanding what we do, is like having a backstage pass to the programming language of the universe. Which is Perl, if you were wondering.”

No one laughed at his joke, but he figured they would eventually figure it out and chuckle. During the thick silence that followed his lecture, Joe took a moment to look at the notifications that had appeared.

Skill Increase(s)

Teaching (Student I → Student II)

Calculus and number theory (Student III → Student IV)

Skill gained: Celestial-Arcane Interaction Lore (Novice VIII). Congratulations! You have taken a huge leap forward in understanding how the celestial bodies of the universe interact with the arcane energies that you are tapping into. Increasing your understanding will allow you to increase your understanding faster. +.5n% faster skill gain for Celestial-Arcane Interaction Lore, where n = skill level.

Current: 4% faster skill gain for Celestial-Arcane Interaction Lore.

“What?”Joe double-checked the skill he’d just gained, making sure he was reading it correctly. “The only thing the skill does as it gains levels… is allow itself to gain levels faster? Is it actually possible for skills to be narcissistic? I really hope that it gets some bonuses as it ranks up.”

Since his teaching skill had increased in level, Joe knew that at least some of the people around him had gained something from what he said. What confused him was why his Calculus and Number Theory skill had increased; as far as he could tell, he hadn’t said anything that should’ve had an impact on it. The Ritualist could only shrug and hope he would find answers to his questions in the future, and decided to simply bask in the warm breeze that was easing some of the stiffness of his chilled skin.

Joe's eyes popped open, a slight frown on his lips. “Warm breeze? What?”

“Master Joe! Look! The world is on fire!” The words just didn’t come from one of his aspirants, instead it came from a scout nearby that had acknowledged the Councilman when his group came up to view the horizon. “It must be an attack from an outside force, but… I don't understand what's going on!”

Alarms started going up all around the city, and Joe realized that the seeds were exactly as effective as advertised. Two major concerns popped into the Ritualist’s mind at that moment, and he very carefully kept them to himself. “Perhaps I should’ve informed the council of my plan. Hmm. Oh, well. Whatever happens there is fine. But… maybe I should have planned some walkways for us to get out of the ring?”

Joe could only hope that anyone looking at him only saw a serious-faced, powerful person considering a grave threat stoically. His eyes shifted to the side, reading over his status to ensure that his Neutrality Aura was in place, which should help him to cover the physical signs of his sudden anxiety. Clapping his hands lightly, the Ritualist looked around at his group with a smile and motioned toward the ladder.

“I think that's just about enough for today; why don't we all go into my workshop, shut the door, then, and only then, discuss today's work… and the excellent reward you’re getting for your efforts and for waiting to discuss those efforts until no one can hear us.”