CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Twenty-Two!

Joe stood before not only the members of the council, but also a large number of assembled residents of Novusheim. He had called for an urgent meeting to address the matter of accepting the recently rescued prisoners of war. Even though they’d obviously been on the Dwarves’ side in the previous world, this was going to be a delicate situation.

“They deserve a chance to get their lives going again without having to cycle through the camps around Town. Haven't they suffered enough under the Elven Theocracy? They risked their lives and were captured by the enemy. They should be welcomed as heroes with open arms!”

“You know the real problem, Joe.” Someone called out. The press of people was so thick that Joe couldn't quite see who was speaking, but going by the voice, he knew it was someone on the council. “They were prisoners, but they were also under the thumb of the Elves for who knows how long! There's no way to tell just by looking at them if they’ll betray us. Put ‘em in the walls!”

There was a resounding cheer of agreement at this, and it seemed that Joe was on the verge of losing his argument. The meeting had been raging for over an hour already, and he needed to find a new way to attack this issue. Going silent for a moment, he tried to think of how he’d want to be treated… his head snapped up and a smile bloomed on his face. “Fine! I will let this go… so long as we codify it into law that anyone who’s captured by enemy forces for any reason will need to undergo the trials to prove their allegiance once more! That would be the only fair way to do this.”

At first, people seemed to be on board with his words, but the excitement stopped after what he was saying sunk in. That was an extremely broad statement, and no one present wanted to be forced to linger in the cold, monster-infested area outside of the safety of Town just because they may have been seen with someone unsavory. Soon the air was filled with murmurs of uncertainty and skepticism, and Joe knew that he had won.

Luckily, the trials that they’d set up were fairly new, not some form of long-standing tradition for newcomers. After the initial surge of fear had passed, creating two paths for admittance to the Town would be easy: one for Elven sympathizers, and one for their wayward prisoners of war. All Joe needed to do was get people on board with that plan, and he’d be able to step back and let them hash out the details.

Driving his point home, he continued, “These people have suffered by demonstrating their loyalty to the Dwarven cause. They fought alongside us, but were unlucky enough to be captured. By accepting them back without subjecting them to trials, we are sending a message to the Elves, to our people, and to each other, that we will stand united and not abandon our own.”

Even as the words left his mouth, he knew it had been the wrong thing to say—at least with the alignment of his Charisma. Quickly, Joe amended his words. “Besides! Now we have the opportunity to tap into their skills and learn from them! They survived in the worst conditions on Jotunheim, and have a first person-understanding of what the Elves are doing out there! If we can get great information on them, we can take the fight to those pointy-eared whiners and drive them off of this planet for good!”

That earned him a round of cheering and much more consideration from the Town as a whole. He let out a sigh of relief that he’d remembered to phrase things in such a way that his Dark Charisma came into play on his behalf. Eventually, the area quieted down once more as the council debated with soft, thoughtful words.

Finally, Grandmaster Snow stood up, and spoke, her voice filled with authority. “You’ve earned our trust, Joe, proving yourself time and again. Please don’t think we don't understand the importance of unity, and let it be known that we’ll accept these lost brothers directly into the Town without trials… but still under the guidance of mentors that will help them adjust to the area, the Town, as well as keeping an eye on them to ensure the Theocracy hasn’t planted spies among us.”

It was already more than Joe had hoped for, so he merely nodded and took a seat as other issues were brought up. Relief flooded him now that the decision was made: finally he could stop worrying about individuals, and start thinking about the things he needed to do to protect the entire community. As the impromptu meeting wrapped up, he barely noticed people congratulating him and spreading out to return to their typical tasks.

When about half of the area had cleared out, Joe wandered toward his workshop, and spent a short time finishing the newest iteration of the Ritual of Infernal Conflagration. He had spent dozens of hours refining the spell diagrams, making them more stable, cohesive, and—he hoped—powerful. When he was finished, he sought out Master Stu, and had the Dwarf look it over just so that he would then have an excuse to take the final product to Grandmaster Snow and have her scan it for issues.

It took her a bit longer to confirm that his changes should be effective, and Joe went over to the tower creation workyard with a smile on his face. “Now I just need to make sure the tower can withstand the energy these will be throwing out. I don't have to worry so much about the kick of the spell, like I would with a rifle, since it’s created and launched in midair. Still, since it’s going to be a ritual of a higher rarity-rank than the tower itself, I need to make sure it won't degrade the materials it’s placed on.”

The first step was completing the ritual itself, so Joe had a blank tower sent out to the entrance of the walls, then went out to draw out the ritual well away from the population center. Aspects and mana mingled as one, and he was able to complete the Expert-ranked ritual without issue; specifically, without it exploding in his face and taking out a chunk of the tower or the wall.

“Good…” Joe muttered to himself as he pulled out Mana Batteries and fiddled with the placement of every part of his setup. Triple checking the whitelist of the ritual to ensure he wasn't going to blast himself or his people, Joe activated the ritual and held his breath as it spun up.

The colorful circles made of aspects were consumed, replaced by activated mana as the ritual stabilized. That was the first hurdle they had to pass, and Joe let himself relax fractionally as everything else clicked into place without giving him any further cause for concern. Finally, the ritual tower was armed with the potent magic, ready to unleash unholy fire on his foes.

“Al-right!” He still needed to set up the clone of this ritual on the tower across the gap between walls, but in his mind that was practically a done deal. He was already envisioning his next task—adjusting and implementing a new version of the Ritual of the Crawling Storm.

Whenever he couldn't bear to work on Infernal Conflagration, he had switched over to the next in line and researched it extensively, making detailed plans and fiddling with every portion of the ritual that would impact its final state. “I'm definitely ready to finish that one up as well.”

Just as he was finishing the second ritual for the entrance towers—almost as if answering his dedication and desire to test the efficiency of the magic in battle—a Beast Wave descended upon Novusheim. Shouts of alarm went up, and Joe could see the people trapped in the outermost camp rushing to their defensive bunker. He was so caught up in watching how everyone was reacting that he barely managed to throw himself out of the path of an infernal fireball as it was generated in the air and launched toward the leading ranks of camouflaged monsters.

He got back to his feet, laughing from the sheer adrenaline of it, and watched as the fireball hit a pack of Salamanders and exploded across their ranks. It wasn't often that he got to hear lizards screech in agony, but at the moment it wasn’t an unwelcome sound.

For the next several seconds, the entrance to the walls around Town shifted into a blazing inferno as the ritual towers alternated in attacking with their unique style of magic. The lingering flames lasted a shorter length of time than Joe would’ve liked, but managed to wash over dozens of the creatures at a time. The Ritualist observed in satisfaction as his magic worked with apparent glee, spewing flames and consuming enemies a handful at a time.

“Next time I rework this, I need to do it with a higher rank in the spell so that I can get more damage output.” As per usual, he was already planning out how he could make these rituals better and more effective over time. Still, he had plenty of other things to do. Slightly unwillingly, he turned away from the battle and headed toward Town once more, with only a minor pause to make sure that the people at ground level had all been able to find safety. “Everything’s looking good… it’s bubble time.”

When he got to the shrine, Joe had a small, unexpected, but pleasant surprise waiting for him. The shrine that he had created and left behind in the enemy occupied Hamlet was still there. It was still devoted to Tatum, so it hadn’t been found and converted, but it was unavailable as a destination for teleportation. All of this added up to a single conclusion, “The shrine got completely buried, and nobody bothered to clean out the Trash-rank building and search through the wreckage. At least, that's the most likely thing that happened… if I ever see it available to teleport to, I'll know that they found it and have a trap prepared for me.”

He lost some of the ground he’d covered in his previous travels, meaning he’d have to add another three hours to his time traveling through the sky. That was acceptable to him, and frankly he was surprised that he hadn’t had more of his slowly-growing network found and destroyed by the denizens of this world already.

Joe transported himself, hopped in his bubble, and took off. “I'm more than halfway to you, Daniella. Hold on, help is coming!”