CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Twenty!

*Bang!*

Joe had been standing before the ritual tower, his notes open in front of him as he worked to duplicate his newest version of the spell diagram for the Ritual of Infernal Conflagration. It was a complex spell diagram, designed to unleash a devastating infernal inferno on the packed ranks of enemies that would be swarming below, and with his changes it should work well to create lingering flames that would devastate enormous swathes of the enemy.

But as soon as he started channeling his mana, carefully tracing the intricate circles of his ritual, things went wrong just before it reached the final stages. The nearly complete ritual detonated in a cascade of fire, unleashed energies sparking off stone, and rebounded from his magical defenses as the ritual tower crumbled into rubble from the blast.

Joe was given exactly three and a half seconds to reassess his life choices as he zipped through the air like an arrow shot downward, impacting the packed snow and dirt of the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him even through his Exquisite Shell.

He bounced and rolled across the ground for a few dozen feet before coming to a painful stop. Dust settling around him, Joe slowly pushed himself up to his feet, wincing at the bruises and cuts that had appeared on his body from the sheer force of his own protections slapping against his flesh. He blankly surveyed the destruction around him, even as stones continued to rain down. Disappointment in himself flashed through his mind, but he grit his teeth and stood tall. “So… that one is too unstable for practical use, it seems. Back to the drawing board.”

Grumbling under his breath, the Ritualist realized that he would now need to spend even more time refining and perfecting his spell diagrams before attempting to ensconce it in the towers. “Abyss, I really thought I had it that time. Where’d it go wrong? I bet it was probably somewhere in the pigeon-holing problem set on the fourth circle…”

With a sigh, Joe shook his head and started back toward the center of Town. He’d need to move a different, functional tower out into that space until he could get a handle on this one. It was frustrating that the continued safety of Novusheim, and especially its newest residents, felt like it had been plopped directly on his shoulders as though a seagull had passed overhead and-

“No, don't think of your responsibilities as a metaphor for bird poop.” He chastised himself gently, working to put the failed attempt behind him. There was far too much at stake to get sucked down that rabbit hole at the moment, and he would work on revamping the spell diagram when he was once more traveling via bubble.

For a moment, he considered joining the workers in clearing away the debris and salvaging what materials they could from the destroyed tower, but just as he was about to offer, he noticed that luxury goods were exchanging hands at a rapid pace; nearly half of the people wearing smug grins while the others seemed sullen. When he realized that there were active bets on if he would succeed or not, Joe decided that they could handle the cleanup by themselves.

With that thought in mind, he hurried back to the enormous metal block imbued with his Master-rank Ritual of the Traveling Civilization. Seeing it used so casually by the townspeople to simply move the towers back and forth like a mana intensive shell game was a bit frustrating, but that was just his inner craftsman being insulted about how his current masterwork was being used. “We need a couple acid bubble towers at the entrance to the killing corridors. Also, if I find that our new residents are suffering in that space without magical support, I’ll fire everyone that’s on shift that day.”

Seeing as there were very few paying jobs in the town at the moment, Joe's words were taken with deadly seriousness. Instead of any back-talk, or snarking like he had originally expected from the Dwarves, they simply nodded at him with grave expressions. The annoyance on their faces reminded Joe that he had a scheduled meeting coming up with Master Stu, and he let out his own disgruntled sigh as he hurried over to his workshop.

The Dwarf was already sitting inside, and the guard raised an eyebrow at Joe before pulling the muzzle away and walking out the door. Stu spat on the floor and glared at the human, “Just because you aren't here doesn't mean I'm not doing my time.”

By now, Joe's Neutrality Aura had fixed up his minor scrapes and bruises while ensuring that he was clean and presentable. Unfortunately, it didn’t impact his mood. Already he was glaring at the Dwarf, and when he slapped his notes on the table and shoved them over to the Master, the ex-councilman started to grin. “Hard day, usurper?”

“I just had one of my rituals explode in my face.” Joe calmly announced, frustrated that he needed to say it out loud. “Your task today is to look at the highlighted areas and tell me why my alteration of intent on these circles caused it to short circuit and detonate.”

Then he did his utmost to ignore the Master of Sarcasm, who eventually realized he wasn’t being listened to and started inspecting the work. Both of them did their own tasks diligently, although if Joe had been holding a physical quill instead of his aspect inscriber, it would’ve snapped in his hand at least three times as he worked on a few backup ritual diagrams for use on new towers. Eventually, the Dwarf started chuckling, and Joe leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. “What, Stu?”

“Oh, not much. I'm just impressed by how you managed to butcher this section so badly. Seriously, your talent in rituals is greatly surpassed by your apparent affinity for butchery. I think you should be out cleaning carcasses, not-”

“Tell me or get out and forfeit your time.” Joe demanded impatiently, snatching the document out of the Dwarf’s hand. He looked over the section Stu had been indicating, seeing nothing wrong with the variables or immutable objects he’d set. Eventually, he slapped it down on the table and raised a brow at the Dwarf to show his impatience.

“Not even a casual attempt to better yourself by solving your own issues.” The Dwarf shook his head in mock sadness. “That's fine, I not only understand, I expected it. Look here, you wanted this to create a lingering wall of flames so badly that the main focus of the diagram shifted. You tried to give this two competing main functions. The wrong one is for it to leave a wall of infernal fire for enemies to flash fry in. Unfortunately for you, the purpose of this spell is to create an explosive burst of fire. When a spell is told to detonate, and told to linger, it won't do either. It’ll just hurt itself in its confusion.”

“I truly dislike how competent you are.” Joe let out a sigh as he confirmed what the Dwarf had been pointing out. “I feel like it’d be easier for both of us if your skills were as bad as your attitude.”

The Ritualist stuck with the rest of the session, glad at least that he had a starting point for his next attempts. When he was done supervising Stu’s community service for the day, he hurried over to his shrine and took a step that landed him thousands of miles away.

“I’d literally rather sit in a tiny enclosed space doing my homework for the next nine hours than anything else.” Joe had slightly shifted how he traveled. As the bubble appeared around him, a passable attempt at a bean bag chair made of monster hide and filled with shaved hoardling hair was pulled out of his storage device. He settled in with a sigh, and a small lap desk also appeared. Now traveling in comfort, Joe began attempting to fix his errors with the Ritual of Infernal Conflagration.

Hours passed in this manner, until a shift in light caught Joe's eyes. This far off the ground, he could see night approaching like a curtain being drawn ever so slowly across the surface of the world. He was heading directly into it, and would likely enter it within the next day or two.

Just as he was about to turn back to his diagram and put the finishing touches in, Joe saw something else that was extremely strange in the environment of Jotunheim. “Is that… smoke? If there's smoke, that means fire. If there’s fire, that means people! It makes me wonder… why am I finding so many towns as I move in this direction?”

A single strike from his dagger later, the Ritualist was falling through the air in a manner he’d gotten far too accustomed with. Before he reached the ground, Joe snapped his fingers as he realized the most likely culprit. “This must’ve been the path the bifrost took when moving away from our Town! It probably moves in a straight line for a set amount of distance, before turning or moving into a different direction. That means I’ll likely find all of the towns that I need for my quests just by chasing down Daniella.”

After landing and working to pull himself out of the snow, Joe couldn't help but feel a small amount of gratitude toward the person he was attempting to rescue. If she wasn't in trouble, and in need of his help, there's no way he would’ve been able to secure the opportunities that he was finding. “I should do something nice for her. Besides… rescuing her. Maybe I can get her an expedited path to citizenship?”

He raced through the snow as fast as he could, somewhat annoyed at sinking into it up to his knees with each step. In a moment of inspiration, Joe focused on his Exquisite Shell and directed it to ‘protect’ an area approximately three inches around each of his feet. It was an unnatural task for his spell, but he was able to make it work by reducing the amount of protection he gained for the rest of his body. After half a minute of wrestling with control of the mana, it stayed in place and Joe was able to run across the powdery surface as though he were wearing snowshoes.

“Yes!” Speed doubling in an instant, Joe rocketed across the frozen wasteland, the column of smoke reaching toward the cloud layer growing closer with each passing moment. Thanks to the frozen nature of the air, and the fact that he was running directly into the wind, he could already hear that the settlement was bustling with activity.

There were shouts, clanging, hammers driving nails into planks, all of the cacophony of life that happened as people went about their daily tasks. Soon the air was filled with the scent of productivity and too many people packed into one area, to the point where Joe double checked to ensure that his Neutrality Aura was running at maximum power. He was getting very close to the settlement at this point, and realized that what he was running on was no longer just snow. No, only the top layer was snow.

“Oh look, my first time here and I already found an open sewer!” Joe grunted in annoyance as he sprinted along, doing his very best not to look down. “Why is it that I always seem to find the worst places? At the very least, I need to promise myself that I won't set up a workshop in this cesspit. I'm finally better than that.”

He had a smirk on his face as he got close to the walls and started to slow down, well past the dump area. Quickly scanning the walls, he took note of the casual guard that had been set, and timed his entrance to make sure he would be going over the flimsy protection against monsters.

A single Omnivault took him over the wall, and he landed in a quiet section, ready to blend in with the locals. Cracking his neck, he calmly walked forward, pulling a bag of herb-scented soaps out of his codpiece. In his other hand, he lifted his coffee mug and had Mate fill it with a steaming medium-roast blend.

“There we go… no one looks twice at someone walking around with coffee and smiling.”