CC 11: Thunderplump ~ Ten!

Filled with a sense of purpose, Joe was rushing on his way to his workshop to start gathering resources, making plans, and ensure that the connections would be perfectly stable in conjunction with the Ritual of Cleansing. So laser-like was his focus that it was only when a hand reached out and grabbed him that the Ritualist realized that someone had been calling his name.

“Master Joe! Pardon me for laying my hands on you, but you’d requested someone to gather you once your prospective students had all arrived. The sign-up sheet was fully filled.” The Dwarf that Joe turned his gaze upon was wearing robes, an oddity among almost all Dwarves, except for one, small, specific group.

“Cleric? Oh! The new coven!” Joe took a few deep breaths, trying to decide what would be a more efficient use of his time. Diving into his work, or starting a coven as originally planned so he could start handing off the low level, less important tasks. The internal struggle resolved itself quickly, and the Ritualist nodded at his minder. “The observatory?”

“Indeed, Master Joe.” The two of them hurried over to the strangely esoteric facility, Omnivaulting or flash-stepping. With the current threat to the Town, mere walking wasn’t an option. Every single person in sight was moving at full speed the entire time they weren’t exactly where they needed to be.

Flinging the doors open before him, Joe strolled into the hall and scanned the large crowd that had gathered. To his surprise, more than two-thirds of the group was comprised of Dwarves. His surprise faded somewhat as he saw Princess Dawnesha calmly sitting at the forefront of the group, flanked on either side by high-ranking members of the Legion.

Aside from the staccato beats of his footfalls on the impressive flooring, the room was entirely silent, as if every person was holding their breath hopefully. He came to a halt, composed himself for a moment, then began speaking. “All of you want to change classes to become a Ritualist like me?”

Instantly amending his statement, Joe’s gaze firmed up as he stared into every eye that would meet his. “Well, perhaps not like me, but a Ritualist in your own way. Everyone here understands that this is going to be an expensive, long-term commitment before you have a vast amount of power, correct? If you want to leave, feel free to do so at any time. However, if you miss my classes, there are no do-overs. If you vanish after getting the Ritualist class, or do things that are against Novusheim’s laws, I’ll revoke your class, and you’ll be left classless.”

Seven humans started sideling toward the door, along with a few Dwarves. Joe pointed at one of them and barked, “You! It's fine if you leave, but why were you here?”

“Well… I've seen you work before, and I didn't want to do this just because it is easy. But, because I thought it would be easy.” The man chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, then powered on out the door without another word.

“Okay, good point. I should mention, this is a class for people that are ready for intense study, and a lot of effort. Not for… whatever the abyss that guy just told us. Need lots of rational thinkers here.” When no one else left, Joe clapped his hands and motioned for everyone to follow him. “Excellent, you’re all accepted. Come with me, we've got stuff to do. I'll lecture as we go, and we’re going to start learning by doing. Oh, I know that usually there are fees and such for class training, don't worry, I won't be making you pay… with money. Mu-hu-hahah.”

One more person left after he chuckled darkly, but Joe was fine with that. If they didn't have a sense of humor, they wouldn't make it in this field anyway.

“The fundamental requirement of the Ritualist class is a vast pool of mana, and the ability to channel it without destroying yourself. This can happen with burnout, passing out during a ritual and having it go supernova, or even just building the ritual circles incorrectly and causing it to draw on your health pool instead of your mana.” The Ritualist didn’t bother to look back at the group while he was speaking, knowing that anyone that had made it to Jotunheim had plenty of Perception, but he did pause every once in a while to see if everyone understood what he was saying.

He blinked a few times in surprise as he saw that roughly two score people remained, and all of them had a notebook out and were writing down what he had just said; with the exception of the princess. The Ritualist’s eyebrow began to twitch as he saw that she had a servant writing things down so she could focus on his words and actions directly. He held his tongue for the moment, just glad to see that everyone remaining was taking this seriously.

Joe felt a surge of hope that they’d actually follow through on gaining and progressing their class. The entire time that they were walking back to his workshop, he was giving a rapid-fire lecture. When they entered the facility, they filled the space to an almost uncomfortable level.

“That’s plenty of background information for you, for now. Time to put you to work. Everyone here is going to get a different Novice ritual design, and you’re not going to attempt creating or activating it. Now you know where the workshop is, and you know where the observatory is. Mage Socar has been put in charge of the observatory, so if you need anything in there for study material, speak with him.”

The hopefuls looked at him curiously, and Joe realized he hadn't explained himself very well. “Your task for the moment is to take the ritual I'm going to give you, and map the node points on it to different star clusters. It shouldn't take you too long, as the pattern should be exactly the same, and it’s only a Novice diagram. Once you’ve completed the task successfully, we’ll work to ensure that you have the Lore skills you need. After that, you’ll be joining me for some ritual activations to see what they look like, and how they feel. Princess, you are not allowed to have any servants do your tasks for you. Everyone may work together, but there is no offloading or paying. Exchanges of ritual-based favors only.”

He didn't miss the flash of annoyance that crossed the princesses' features, and was glad that he’d set this requirement. Joe quickly sketched out twenty different Novice rituals, everything from the Ritual of Glimmering to the Little Sister's Cleaning Service. There was one standout individual, a bearded Dwarf that had a near-fervent expression on his face. Before reaching for one of the ritual tiles that Joe had inscribed on, the Dwarf saluted him gratefully and tried to respectfully take the item.

The Ritualist liked that. Respect was nice. Holding up a hand, he pulled back the proffered tile and started going through his stack.

“Hold on. Do this one. If you find that it’s too easy, come back and I'll give you another one. If you complete three of these before I send a message to join me for practice pumping mana into a ritual circle, I’ll let you activate one before we do a bigger project. Actually, that goes for everyone.” Joe handed the Dwarf a Ritual of Glimmering, which he knew would be extra easy to complete thanks to the brightness of the star cluster.

The Dwarf let out a gasp, and his eyes unfocused. “It… it worked! I got a Class Change chain quest!”

“Mmm. Right, I'm a class trainer, gotta be careful about telling people what to do. All rewards are coming out of my pocket.” That realization put a different spin on why there were usually fees and other such nonsense with class trainers. Still, activating a Novice ritual required practically no time or attention for Joe at the moment, so he was fine with what he’d promised.

After almost everyone had been shooed out of his space, Joe offered a salute to the princess, who was standing less than patiently in the room. “Hello, Princess Dawnesha. For what reason do I have the honor of your extended presence?”

His demeanor toward her seemed to take the princess aback, and it was a few moments before she spoke. “I can't say I'm pleased with your attitude, I'm sure I've done nothing to deserve anything less than friendship with you.”

Joe put a polite, practiced smile on his face, as if it was his one thousand three hundred twenty-fifth day of working customer service. “Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've literally built almost an entire city, killed a World Boss, put down a silent coup… it's been a busy time. Frankly, the fact that I needed to find out that you were alive, let alone on Jotunheim, from a third party… what kind of friend lets their friend think they died? By the way, the Dwarf who told me about you let it be known in no uncertain terms that you were staying away from me because I was considered unsavory company. Now you’ve shown up only because I'm offering something that you want? I’m looking for the part of our relationship that tells me we’re on good terms.”

“Ah. I see.” She bobbed her head in understanding. “Fair enough. Thank you for the ritual, I will go and get to studying.”

The door closed behind her, and Joe could only shake his head slightly in amazement. “I guess, to be fair, she didn't make any excuses or deny what I was saying.”

Shaking off the odd encounter, Joe walked into the up-armored vault, enjoying the way his recently acquired vault door released a pneumatic *hiss* as it slid open in front of him. He sat at the small desk, and started tapping his quill on its surface. “I need to make these recharge stations, do I have any quests I can complete at the same time?”

It had been a while since he’d opened his quests, and Joe groaned in frustration as he saw that there were several quest complete notifications that he had ignored and forgotten to open later. There were even a few quests he’d gained and completed or made progress on without realizing he even had them; so that helped to mitigate his frustration a little.

Class quest complete: Student Rituarchitect I. Create 10 Rare-ranked buildings: 10/10. Reward: Ritual of Mass Repair (Student). Access to Student Rituarchitect II.

“Well, that one was kind of easy. I think I finished that in a couple of days just doing routine tower replacement.” Joe chuckled fondly as he happily accepted the new ritual. He didn't have very many multi-target utility rituals, so attaining them was always a treat. “I wonder if I can pull out the portion of this that lets it have multiple endpoints, then use it with my Rituals of Communication to make magical cell phone towers. You know what? That's going on the list.”

As he jotted down a note, he let the information from the other quests roll over him.

Class quest gained: Student Rituarchitect II. Create five separate buildings that function together well enough that they can be combined into a single building after they are built. Then, create walkways between them and turn them into a single facility. Buildings created: 0/5. Facility created 0/1.

Class quest updated: Apprentice Reductionist III. Reduce 10 tons’ worth of Rare-ranked materials to aspects: 9.35/10 tons reduced.

Class quest gained: Expert Ritualist. You have created a successful coven that has raised a Student Ritualist. The mark of an expert is being able to raise them to Journeyman. This is your task. Journeyman Ritualist promoted: 0/1. Reward: plus 10 to skill: Teaching. +1 to all Ritualist associated skills. Access to Expert Ritualist II.

If it were at all possible, Joe's jaw would’ve detached from his skull and fallen all the way to the floor. The rewards on the final quest or utterly insane to him. It took a few minutes before he realized what had happened. “This quest… is absolutely supposed to be for someone at the early Expert ranks as a Ritualist. I'm already a Master… Celestial feces, if I get more quest rewards like this, I’m gonna get cursed again for breaking the balance.”

He pondered that for a moment, cracked his knuckles, and nodded firmly.

“Worth it.”