CC 11: Thunderplump ~ Six!

Joe began placing the final lines of the ritual, splitting his attention for a bare moment to ensure that his Exquisite Shell was running at full capacity.

Just in case.

He’d managed to split the bar of alloy into six slices, each of them slightly more than four millimeters thick. Since the deepest inscription that would be etched would only be three millimeters, the Ritualist was confident that this would work perfectly for rituals of this strength and complexity. Still, there was no reason to walk into a potential cataclysm face first and unprotected.

The energy in the room started becoming agitated to his magical senses as the final aspect and last point of mana was invested into the creation of the dense circles of power. He had never before noticed a change in environment, though to be fair he’d always made more powerful rituals out in the open to dissipate their effects in the ambient area; or in structures designed specifically to contain them such as the Grand Ritual Hall. Joe grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled it back and forth to get some air flow as the ritual flashed seven times, almost as though it were deciding whether it should accept its new home or violently detonate itself.

As it turned out, Jotunheim Alloy was extremely enchantable, and that conductivity had been boosted even further thanks to his new ingot hammer. The metal accepted all forms of energy as a superconductor, and arcane energy seemed to be no exception. As the ritual settled, Joe reached out and lifted the metal plate reverently. “Let's go activate you, and see how amazing of a benefit you are for the Town.”

The Ritualist could barely take his eyes off of his new diagram, and was incredibly pleased with himself. This was the first time that he’d be activating a ritual that would have a hopefully permanent effect on a massive swath of land. In his mind, this was as impressive as making a ritual to change the weather, or shift around the landscape. “Oh! After it's active, I should insert it into the ziggurat and finish filling all of the slots. That should boost its range even further, and even give it some bonus functions. But… let's see what it does on its own, first.”

Seeing as the Ritual of Cleansing was going to be a massive benefit for the Town, he had no issues appropriating dozens and dozens of paid volunteers to help him activate it. That way, the cost of their work wasn’t going to come out of his pocket directly, and he was able to double the minimum number of people that he thought he’d need. Joe was intimately familiar with every part of the diagram, and he knew that this wasn’t going to be as simple to get running as his other single-use rituals were.

Only after he reached two hundred and twenty-seven payees did he stop his Town-funded hiring spree. Such a large crowd moving with a singular purpose drew many eyes, especially as they walked away from the buildings and out into the open areas within the wall; which were still waiting on construction crews or Joe's efforts to fill.

Almost forty-five minutes later, Joe had finally positioned the last person in the place that they needed to stand, then had to make a few adjustments from people that had been fidgeting as they waited. Finally confident, he stepped to the very center of the group and held the ritual up in the air, investing a single point of mana to begin the activation sequence.

Six illusory circles erupted out of the ritual, expanding to fill the space where everyone was standing. Clusters of people stood atop sigils, dozens of them in perfect position to form the concentric rings. The most nervous of them seemed as if they would cut and run as more mana began flowing into the ritual, and they were lifted fractions of an inch off of the ground. Joe saw one person twitch, and roared, “I already told you all, nobody move! If you hop off, all of your mana will be ripped out of you in one go, as well as most of your health! Probably!”

He tried to keep his face straight as everyone froze; if they called his bluff, there could be quite a bit of imbalance. The circles began to move faster as more mana was pulled out of him and a whirlpool of power began draining into the ritual from all of the people actively participating. Moments later, strings of mana wrapped around each person's feet, and everyone was lifted smoothly into the air.

“Get ready for it! There's a good chance that the world itself tries to fight back against us! Tanks, get ready! Mages, start preparing barriers!” Joe had gone all out with preparations this time around, not trusting that an outside agent—such as an Elven sympathizer—wouldn't take the opportunity to attack during a massive event like this. He hadn't been lying when he said that the world itself might fight them. They were attempting to adjust the flow of energy in the area, and the chaotic energy of Jotunheim itself might resist being smoothed out.

Only a few months ago, Joe would’ve looked at someone with pure annoyance if they had told him that ‘ambient energy’ might have its own desires, but many painful lessons had taught him the truth. Almost all power had some form of intent in it, and given the concentrated energy on this planet, he knew that there had to be something with underlying control.

The Novice circle, the innermost one, began to spin and flip, acting as a gyroscope around Joe, who was still holding the ritual tile in position. Though a few people seemed surprised, he knew that it was unlikely anyone would get sick; their Constitution would be plenty powerful to get through this event. As the second circle—Beginner rank—activated, the air around them was blasted with an expanding sphere of power. Much of the mana that had been collected so far moved around the furthest point of the ritual, collecting like a thin eggshell before vanishing from normal vision.

As Joe took his next breath, air rushed into his lungs so powerfully that he got a head rush from the amount of oxygen he’d just sucked in. He blew it out, then took a much shallower breath and found that it was what his body had gotten used to. The Ritualist nodded, letting his lips curl but otherwise remaining entirely focused on channeling, splitting, and enhancing the mana that was rushing into his ritual tile. “Third circle will be activating momentarily! Hold on tight!”

Of course, most people were flopping around completely uncontrolled, only the mana wrapped around their feet holding them from being thrown off, like a roller coaster with the worst seat belts ever. Only Joe was completely stationary at this point, but he didn't feel too bad. After all, they were getting paid for this. He wasn’t.

Each subsequent activation of a ritual circle caused a nova of smooth power to flow out further and further from the center of the ritual. Things were moving extraordinarily smoothly until the Journeyman-rank circle activated—at which point Joe was extremely happy that he’d made contingency plans for defense while he was otherwise occupied.

Your efforts to defy the will of the world by bringing order to chaos have turned the eyes of the World Boss upon you! Calculating! You are activating an Expert-ranked ritual, which authorizes the Jotunn to test you with a Unique-ranked Tribulation!

Lightning Tribulation not selected! Heart demon Tribulation not selected! Elite Combat Tribulation… selected!

The space outside of the twirling ritual was suddenly filled with twelve foot tall whirlwinds of ice crystals and fog. Shrieking wind pummeled the area, and in the next moment hundreds of monsters appeared with an cataclysmic *bang* as they were teleported from wherever they had been moments before. For several long moments, the unprepared monsters stared at the dug-in defenses, as surprised to be there as the defenders were to see them.

There was nothing Joe could do to help fend off the beasts, and he could barely split his focus enough to even see that there were a half dozen types of creatures he didn't recognize. It didn't take a genius to understand that a Unique-ranked Tribulation meant that the monsters around them were going to likely be that rank themselves. The enormous cyclops that had nearly destroyed their Town, and their hopes, was only one rank above these creatures. While they were a lower rank than that monstrosity, the Ritualist literally couldn't count how many creatures had appeared out of nothing.

Combat began with a massive fireball engulfing the head of a creature that looked like an oversized bear. The impacted beast screamed in fury, retaliating with a web of lightning that erupted from its flaming maw. Whatever the energy touched had enormous electrical discharges move along it, followed by pulses of ice energy that raced along the freshly created tracks.

Joe tried not to panic too much, even though he’d hired only a dozen or so defenders. The arrival of the creatures had drawn lots of attention. Even if there hadn't already been a huge crowd gathered to see what was going on, the air displacement of their teleportation had long since drawn the eyes of the guards stoically defending the walls. Already, horns were being blown, and the expanded audience of onlookers was rushing in with weapons drawn. Strikes that could shatter boulders landed on shields and fur, the two sides fiercely defending themselves, and their homes, in their own way.

Not only were the monsters high-ranked, they were the elites of their groups. Every single one of them was a force to be reckoned with while alone, but together their synergistic powers wreaked havoc on the front lines of combat. Nearly thirty seconds passed before a proper platoon of Legionnaires arrived, driving into the battle like a hot knife through a gentle breeze.

Then the Expert-ranked circle activated, and Joe had no time or attention to give to other events. One last thought lingered in his mind just before his talents were tested: he had a feeling that the people fighting on his behalf were going to have some harsh words for him. No one had expected the sudden invasion, or that the walls and towers might be completely avoided like this.

A fresh wave of mana, over two hundred thousand points that had been collected since the start of the ritual, blasted outward with enough force that the monsters caught just on the outside were shoved away, albeit gently. The Dwarves took advantage of that instant of the monsters being on the off foot perfectly, felling dozens of the beasts in mere moments. However, Joe was focused on how the eggshell of mana formed by his ritual had esoteric patterns and bright sigils, as though he’d written a dense lectures’ worth of magic on the air itself.

The ritual settled, and Joe noted that it had formed into a dome, or at least that was what he could see of it. There was a good chance that it extended underground, but checking would require digging—also known as inviting burrowing monsters to assault them during future Beast Waves. Still, the dome covered half of the Town, even displaced from a central position as they were now.

A quick check on his living batteries revealed that nearly a quarter of the short-term employees had passed out. Joe winced as the ritual continued draining them, but couldn’t do anything to stop it. The spell diagram was in its final stages; only having a few minor cleanups to complete, such as settling formulas after a last-moment checkup. As the very last of the magical instructions were written on the world around them, the eggshell quality in the air vanished.

Everyone involved, conscious or not, was gently placed onto the ground.

Class quest updated: Student Reductionist II. Create at least five Unique crafts using aspects: 1/5.

Elite Combat Tribulation cleared successfully! You are now able to impact the world around you at the Expert rank without needing to undergo further tribulations!

“Well, all that tells me is if I try to do something higher, I have to get ready for another ‘Tribulation’. Abyss, at least it worked.” Joe looked around at the blood-soaked field, featuring hundreds of bodies, and prepared himself to have no mana for the next full day. Standing tall, he marched forward, bellowing instructions.

“Get those monsters out of here! Collect all the fallen, we’ve only got a short window to bring them back! Anyone with grievous injuries, find a healer! Anyone who's not going to make it, try and position yourself near the other dead folk before you go into the light! Make it easy on us to bring you back, people!”