CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Twenty-Seven!

Half a dozen people worked on clearing the floor, starting by taking off the top layer of sleet from the slowly-melting ice that had covered nearly every surface. As fast as they could manage, they scraped away enough buildup to find seams in the floor, eventually resolving into a large square. Once the larger tools had been put away, out came buckets, mops, and various other scrubbing implements so that they could push through the millennia of dust and gunk that had accumulated.

When the final cleaner stepped away—a process Joe knew would’ve been much faster if he had access to his Neutrality Aura—there was a four hundred square foot area of the floor that was shining with a near-mirror polish. A vast magical diagram was contained within the space; which Joe and everyone else that could push into the area began examining. Excitement surged through the bald man as he recognized the intricate magic that had been laid out on the floor. He had only seen something like this once before, but it was unmistakable.

“This is a ritual key. Just like the one at the Grand Ritual Hall that the Dwarves had hidden away.” Joe's words were breathed in a whisper, reverence for the literal masterwork of magic subconsciously causing him to be as quiet as possible. His eyes roved the space, taking in all of the swooping swirls, whirling formulas, and various sigils in another language that likely described the intent of the ritual itself.

Filled with determination and an eagerness to learn more, Joe whipped out a notebook and began working to start deciphering the weathered, inactive sections of the ritual. This design had clearly suffered the effects of time and neglect, but he was nearly certain that he’d be able to draw out the essence of these circles and reactivate it in the near future.

It helped that he didn’t have to decode the entire design, although he most certainly would need to meticulously restore each of the missing elements piece by piece. “Before I reactivate it, I have to scrub the ownership and put in my own. Otherwise all I'm going to do is lock myself out until the ritual itself fails again, and who knows how long it took the first time?”

Ever so slowly, the gathered crowd began to realize that the next part of this puzzle was going to involve a mountain of research and fiddling. People left in droves, knowing they’d be able to eventually collect their quest reward in the future. Some people stayed on to offer protection until the work was finally completed, hoping to increase their own share when all was said and done.

Yet, Joe knew this wasn’t likely going to be a quick process. After copying down each of the sections that he needed to work on, he closed his notes and stood up. “I guess we might as well head back to Novusheim, huh? Maybe we leave a small guard just to make sure nothing takes up residence in here while we’re gone, but otherwise I think there isn't much point in sticking around.”

With this final confirmation, most of the people scrambled toward the shrine to exit the area. Only a few staunch guards sneered at those trying to avoid work, and settled in at the doorway to defend against outside threats.

Joe eventually got in line, nearly the last person that would be able to leave. When it was his turn, he placed his hand on the shrine, selected Novusheim as his destination, and stood there for a half dozen seconds waiting to be teleported. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Right. It costs mana to teleport.”

Dramatically, he threw his head back and marched back to the entrance of the huge building like a child being sent to their room. Walking past the guards, who gave him a confused glance, only convinced Joe not to explain what had just happened. He was perfectly fine with them thinking that he wanted to stay and keep working, instead of having forgotten that he couldn't leave. “Nothing to do but keep decoding this, I suppose.”

The Ritualist sat in the center of the intricate design, his eyes focused and his mind concentrated. “At this level of ritual, every single detail is going to be important to the final effect. Let's think this through… it's etched directly onto the surface. First of all, at this rank, the circles have to spin when they’re active. That means this entire section is likely a gyroscope when it’s going; in other words, don’t be sitting where I’m sitting when it’s started.”

That thought made him chuckle: he could do all of the work, fix up the ritual, own it, then still turn himself into mincemeat by accident when he tried to get it going. Joe let his fingers trace along the etched symbology, noting each point where the carving was deep or light compared to its standard etch depth. Before he knew it, he was tracing out the entire ritual circle into his notes, something that he’d decided against doing originally.

Dozens of sections were labeled with depth, positioning, questions on how it would relate to the constellations and movement of the planet and moons. Joe was still learning how the movement of celestial bodies would affect his magics, and he thought it would be important to do additional research into it while he was looking at a masterwork like this.

Slowly he traced the intricate lines, memorized patterns, and began deciphering the cryptic symbols while attempting to discern the meaning of the archaic words. Joe hoped that the language used wasn’t absolutely imperative to preserve, as he liked to understand what he was doing before he followed through on it. Still, every intersection of lines was a piece of the puzzle that would eventually unlock the ritual, and whatever it was protecting.

“This is… old.” Joe suddenly became acutely aware of the dense mathematical sequences that had been put into play on this design. None of the ‘newer’ concepts in mathematics had been used, such as a sine or cosine wave that would allow for rapid transitions between directionality of the design. Instead, every angle shift had a corresponding numerical value that would give directions on how the curve should move, and for how far, in sequence. “No wonder this is a Master-rank ritual. I can't imagine how much time went into the creation of this.”

Idly, he went over a section in his notes and made his own annotations with a far simpler and more elegant equation to handle the shifts that were shown. When he’d finished, Joe realized that this entire ritual could likely be minimized into a mid-level Expert ritual, instead of a mid-level Master ritual. The design made him wince, even as his respect for whoever had created this in the first place was rapidly raised. Even with as meticulous as he was, Joe knew that he would’ve probably lost his mind trying to manage all of the finicky details required. Twice.

“Then again… I suppose if I actually am able to achieve immortality, spending a few months or even years on a single circle for a ritual wouldn't be all that big of a deal.” With that thought bringing him hope, Joe kept at his translations. As he continued to parse the diagram, he could practically feel a connection between himself, the ritual, and its original designer. It was unlikely that the person who’d made this was still around, but if they could be found someday, Joe promised himself that he’d seek them out and exchange pointers.

Then, out of nowhere, a line of golden light flashed between himself, the ritual, then at an oblique angle that shot into the sky. It was gone so quickly that it could’ve been his imagination, but some deep part of him that had been opened up when he’d gained his Karmic King trait whispered that he would indeed have some fate with the designer of this ritual. Whether it was the original person, or their successors, Joe didn't know for sure.

He half expected a quest to appear, but… there was nothing. The Ritualist felt slightly shaken, and it took him nearly half an hour to return to the flow state that he’d been working in previously. Time seemed to lose meaning for him as he slowly immersed himself in the magics that he could see, adjust, but not touch with his current restriction. Even so, with study came wisdom, and his mind worked to absorb, expand upon, and adjust the knowledge to make it his own as well as improving upon it.

His unwavering focus wasn’t enough to solve the issue at hand in a single fell swoop, but it brought him further than he’d expected by the time he finally had to close his eyes and step away from the intricate patterns. He wasn't tired, exactly, thanks to his Constitution, but he still needed a solid mental break. Casting around for something to take his mind off of this for the moment, he saw the off-duty guards dealing out a hand of cards, and he hurried over to join them.

If nothing else, he could bet his luxury soaps in order to eventually boost his Luck while he waited for his mana to be accessible once more. He had a feeling that he was going to need as much of the fickle fortune as he could get.

The remainder of his timer seemed to tick by with a near-insulting slowness, but as it reached its end, his eyes were on the clock as the countdown finally reached ten seconds, nine…

Mana Unlocked!

Joe heaved in a breath of air as his power bloomed in his chest like a lotus blossom emerging from a muddy pool. The power began to trickle through him, and he started to relax into it as the familiar feeling filled him once more. Then his eyes went wide, and he realized that he had a rare opportunity to push his mana to a more condensed state at the moment. Usually, he had so much infusing every part of his body that attempting to condense it was futile. But now?

He folded his cards and stepped away, dropping into a seated position and focused on constricting the power that was already starting to rampage through him. Joe didn’t exactly want to keep it contained to one single area, as his traits wouldn’t allow for that. Instead, he wanted each strand of power to be more cohesive, stronger, thinner, so that more of them could exist in the same area at once.

Perhaps it was the state he was in, perhaps it was the fact that he’d been using so much of his mana recently, but the skill level came easily.

Skill Increase: Coalescence (Journeyman II).

With hopeful eyes, he checked on his Mana Manipulation skill, which almost always seemed to gain a level alongside Coalescence. He wasn’t too disappointed to see that it hadn't increased, though he was slightly frustrated at how slow the progress was for such common-seeming skills. Putting that aside, he returned to the task he had been working on for nearly a full day.

“I've got two sections completed, and the third one is going much faster than they did.” Joe grit his teeth, trying to decide if he should finish here, return to Novusheim to make sure everything was moving smoothly, or collect his team and get back in his bubble. Daniella needed help… but would another day or two really matter?

Ever so slowly, his eyes turned back to the ritual diagram, and Joe sank to the floor. His quill came out, and began moving faster and faster as his eyes lit up with the simple joy of the magic he was getting to work with.

“I'm sure whatever is in here will help with all of the other situations. There. Perfect. I justified my choice to myself.”