CC 11: Thunderplump ~ Eight!

Joe had dusted himself off and retreated back to the innermost part of the Town with all the dignity he could recover. Part of him kept saying not to worry about it, that no one would have seen him fall. But… in a world of superhuman Characteristics, he knew there would be at least some scuttlebutt about it.

Finally returning to the core of the Town, the Ritualist walked into his workshop just as the countdown ended, and the barrier blocking his mana was removed. Like a cloud spinning up to become a full-fledged thunderstorm, he felt his mana pool begin to output tremendous energy. Joe paused on the spot, closing his eyes and focusing on condensing and smoothing out the flows of power through him. “Come on Coalescence, you can do it!”

The only time he had enough willpower to maintain the effort to increase the skill in the usual way, was when there was only a few drops of mana within him, compared to the ocean that he normally contained. The lattice of energy rapidly grew, quickly surpassing his ability to hold on to it, but he still felt that he had managed some-

Mana Manipulation (Journeyman I → Journeyman II).

“Okay. Not what I was trying for, but I'll take it.” A quick glance at his status sheet informed him that a single point in the skill had increased his maximum mana pool by sixty-one. With the energy suffusing him once more, Joe felt more energetic and focused than he had in the last twenty-four hours. He tapped on his table for a moment, trying to recall what he’d been up to, then his eyes went wide as he remembered that he was supposed to be finding and apologizing to Daniella for blowing off their meeting. “Celestial feces, that’s an insidious debuff.”

As he walked down the street, looking for the Architect—but assuming she’d be in the new Bowyer workshop—he spotted Jaxon in the distance. Just for fun, and to test out the new, peaceful feeling of the environment, Joe cast one of the only spells at the Novice rank that he still had. “Message, Jaxon. Hi there, buddy! Have you already picked out your new spell? If so, what was it and why’d you take it?”

A few moments later, a return message slithered into his brain, the mana flavored by the Chiropractor’s personality. Joe winced; it was almost the exact feeling he would expect if he were getting a relaxing massage and then someone started licking his ear. “I don't know who this is, but you sound like Joe smells. Has someone figured out how to send advertisements directly into my brain again?”

“Again?” Joe wondered softly, deciding that there was no point in pursuing that line of conversation further. His friend turned a corner, and the line of sight requirement of the spell was broken.

Congratulations! Message has reached Beginner 0! As you have managed to use a Novice skill perfectly on Jotunheim, your skill experience has drastically increased! Message can now reach any known entity within 3 miles! Cost in line of sight is 1 mana per word, but 5 times that outside of line of sight.

“That’s the reason the skill we get for having this zone of ordered energy is going to be so good!” Joe mused to himself, rubbing his chin as he thought about how his skill had just jumped three levels from a simple conversation. “Being able to use skills we shouldn't, and perfectly at that? Interesting opportunities for growth.”

Luckily, he’d kept his focus on his destination, and entered the Bowyer workshop for the first time since building it. As he stepped inside, the air seemed to be thick with a rich medley of scents—nearly as intoxicating as the Alchemy Hall after so long without being anywhere near a forest. The rich, earthly aroma of freshly cut yew and ash hit his nose, mingled with the resin-heavy fragrance of pine and cedar. For a long moment, he stopped stock still, practically transported to when he was a teenager looking for sticks in the woods behind his house to use in sword fights with his friends.

He kept his eyes closed. Joe told himself that he was simply basking in the new sensation, certainly not squeezing his eyes shut because they were prickling at the sudden nostalgia that hit him. As the woody overtones faded slightly, subtler fragrances filled his nostrils. The oily tang of leather, burning or at least melting beeswax, a hint of herbs that must have been put together as an upsell for anyone who wanted to buy a care kit for their weapon.

Finally, in control of himself once more, Joe took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Daniella was at the counter, waiting for him patiently. He stepped forward and started to speak, only for her to hold up a hand and shake her head.

“Joe. It's you. I get it. As soon as I heard about the monster swarm teleporting in, I knew you would be… occupied. I'm sure you came here as soon as you had your head on straight, right?”

“Yeah.” The word came out in a blast of air, the sigh of relief being completely overblown due to the power of his lungs and their ability to fill with vast quantities of compressed air thanks to his recent efforts. “What the-!”

“I've been seeing that happen a lot.” Daniella chuckled softly and motioned for Joe to take a seat. “Did you ever see the king and queen on Midgard? They had a similar thing going on. If they moved even a little, all sorts of terrible things happened to the papers that were strewn on tables. Anyway, I'm actually glad you waited before you came here, that way you can focus entirely on our conversation and not be distracted by the enormous task list you make for yourself.”

“Your patience and understanding is above Legendary, reaching Mythical.” Joe tried for a joke to get past his awkwardness, but she merely responded with a wan smile.

“We are already pumping out about thirty bows a day, with an order for approximately twenty-six thousand of them from the council to outfit the defenders along the walls. It's not like I was sitting here pining for you, I'm incredibly busy.” Daniella tapped the table, and a blueprint appeared on it; pulled from some storage device he couldn't see. “I'm sure you're wondering why I wanted some of your time. Here it is. Essentially I've been working on this design, and I can't figure out where I'm going wrong.”

Joe raised an eyebrow, leaning forward slightly to get a better view of what she was pointing at. He could practically feel his Architectural Lore skill spinning up as he swept his gaze across the document, as certain areas started highlighting in various colors. Structural integrity issues flashed red, small areas were a dead, black color indicating problems that would destroy the building. Conversely, areas that had enhancements or impressive options were in greens and golds, indicating a perfect state of production.

“Got it… well, if you look here, you can see that the doorway being placed in this spot cuts directly into the main mana matrices of-” For the next few hours, they went over the blueprint from top to bottom, with Daniella taking notes and redrawing sections on a separate document. Once they’d finished, she transferred those fixes over to the original, and soon the entire document was glowing mostly green, with gold accents at perfect sections to indicate that something was even better than strictly necessary.

It wasn't until she rolled up the document with a pleased expression on her face that Joe realized he hadn't even asked what the design was for. Of course, he had a very good idea thanks to his study of it, but reminded himself that asking questions ahead of time was usually a good idea. Before he could say another word, Daniella plopped an ingot of Jotunheim Alloy on to the table and pushed it over to him. “As thanks for the help and the teaching. I didn't know that you were already a Student in Architectural Lore. I gained two entire skill levels.”

“Student rank in my Teaching skill, too.” Joe nodded his head slowly. For some reason, he’d thought this meeting was… something else. But, it made sense that Daniella, someone as focused on their career as he was, could multitask at the minimum. He hesitated before taking the payment, but understood that she was likely making sure that he didn't feel taken advantage of. “You know I’d be happy to do all of this just for the pleasure of hanging out with my friends, right?”

“Oh, re~eally?” Daniella leaned closer, a mischievous smile playing across her lips. “Well, if you do that much for your friends, what would-”

Congratulations residents of Novusheim! You have fulfilled all requirements to upgrade your settlement rank from Town to City! All but one, that is. Beast Waves will begin arriving once per 8 hours for the first 24 waves. The time between waves will drop by 2 hours every 25th wave! Succeed where everyone else has failed. After you win, don’t forget to claim the light of the bifrost for your city, becoming the central hub for all Import and Export from other worlds.

The first wave begins… now!

Beast waves completed: 0/100.

“Daniella… I'm so sorry, I need to go.” Joe stood up decisively and started walking toward the door.

“Wait! Here, I commissioned a special weapon for your friend. Heartpiercer? She's really out-leveled the weapon that she's been using.” Daniella rushed over to a locked compartment, popping it open and pulling out a bow made of a dark wood decorated with various fragments of bone. “We used the sinew of the cyclops you defeated to make the string, it has a six hundred pound draw weight. That's six times harder to draw than the upper end of an English longbow, and it should last her at least a few more skill levels.”

Joe, slightly confused, took the weapon and stored it in his codpiece. “Uh. Thanks. I'm sure she’ll appreciate it?”

“I hope so!” Daniella stated brightly, gently shooting him toward the door so he remembered to get gone. “You guys seem to have some great chemistry, and this will help her keep you safe.”

“What? That’s-” The door closed behind him, cutting off the icy wind that had blown into the shop as soon as it was opened. At least, Joe hoped that was why the door had swung closed so rapidly. He wanted to go and clear up the misconception, but he could already hear his towers blasting monsters with various chemicals and spells.

The Ritualist could practically imagine the panicked defectors rushing to fill the bunker towers in time to survive the leading edge of the Beast Wave. With a growl of frustration, he started running toward the walls, mentally shuffling through his stack of rituals and wondering which ones he should prepare to save the most people possible. “I’ll absolutely be going back and talking to her about that. Later.”

Luck is two thresholds below Intelligence! 1% chance to make a terrible decision has come into effect!

“Quiet, you!”