CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Eleven!

“You’ve been taking meticulous control and efficient resource consumption in the place of going out of your way to strategically Thesaurize.” The session had devolved from working to a full-blown lecture, and Joe was listening raptly to everything Master Stu had to tell him. “The soul-searing flame of Infernal Conflagration engulfs a designated area in scorching, ethereal flames that burn hotter and fiercer than ordinary fire spells. Tell me, why is it that when you cast the spell, the flames linger? Your spell description says nothing of the sort. I can also tell you that this ritual you created to mimic the spell won’t have that effect.”

“It won't?” The more the Dwarf spoke, the more annoyed Joe became with his current rituals. “Did that have something to do with the intent I had when using the spell for the first time? I needed the monsters behind me to burn… not just the one I was attacking, but any of them that were hot on my heels.”

“You could easily recreate that effect in your ritual by placing your personal intent into the diagram.” Stu tapped a symbol in the spell framework that had been left intentionally blank on its interior. “Right here? If you were to get in there and carefully inscribe your spell intent, not just the spell intent, you’d probably be able to recreate the persistent effect.”

“But how do I do that?” Joe huffed in annoyance. “What am I supposed to do, copy over a paragraph of my diary in there?”

“Now there’s a book I want access to.” Stu chortled nastily. “No, that’d be too specific and ironclad. What you need to do is find a way to write something that’s open to interpretation, in a format that somehow allows for prime number sequencing. That seems to be something important to these rituals… at least the way you make them.”

“Prime number sequencing in a ritual.” Joe wrote that into his notes, then stared at the words that had appeared. “Like… a haiku? Is that why I kept finding those in-?”

“Five, seven, five.” Stu interrupted, deep in thought over what Joe had mumbled. “Yes, a haiku would work perfectly in this situation.”

Staring at the unempowered ritual, Joe allowed his thoughts to move in rhythmic beats as he tried to put his experience of casting Infernal Conflagration for the first time into words. After several iterations, he slowly wrote out the final product in the symbol Stu had indicated.

“Icy monsters prowl. Persistent flames claim their realm. Burning in their wake.” As soon as the last letter was inscribed on the ritual, the symbol flashed a bright gold and mana was drained out of the Ritualist; so fast that Joe slumped as his muscles went limp.

Skill(s) increased:

Words of Power (Written) (Student I).

Ritual Lore (Student IV).

“How?” Stu lunged forward, reaching across the table and wrapping his hand around Joe's throat. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was practically snarling the words as he started to squeeze. “How’d you manage to do that on the first try? That should have-”

*Thunk*.

The Dwarf toppled backward as a heart-shaped Ritual Orb zipped out of Joe's bandolier and smacked him between the eyes. The human sucked in a deep breath and glared at his stunned assailant. “Don’t worry. If something like that ever happens again, Stu, I'll still work with you. But you'll be manacled to the floor the entire time. Explain what you thought was going to happen, or I’ll find out what Grandmaster Snow thinks would happen.”

Breathing heavily, teeth grinding, the Dwarf spat out an answer. “Altering your ritual like that should’ve sapped your vitality to nothing. Imbuing a powerful working like this with your meager understanding of spell intent? In a place like Jotunheim? No one would’ve blamed me for your death; no respectable Master has ever achieved that status without a deep knowledge of what they’re doing. You wouldn't even have known what happened, and should’ve died at least five more times before you figured it out.”

Joe's hands were balled into tight fists as he barely refrained from physically attacking the Master. Taking a few deep breaths, he cursed himself for his naivete. He’d gone into this with the knowledge that the Dwarf loathed him, and would be seeking any form of work around that would take the blame off of himself if Joe was sent to respawn. The Ritualist resolved to interface with another Master at the bare minimum before putting any new practices into play in the future.

“Happily for me, my Words of Power for written magic was already at the Student rank. It seems my lack of knowledge in one area can be offset by my firm foundation with my dozens of skills.” Joe smiled coldly, pleasantly, at the Dwarf. “It seems that even though I love my precision and efficiency, I’ve got a knack for circumlocution. How wonderful is that? Many thanks for helping me figure out what's been holding my growth back. But I think you and I are done for the day. At the minimum. I hope the next time we work together you’re more interested in bettering those around you instead of tearing them down.”

Calling in the guards, Joe watched with no small pleasure as Stu was gagged and frog-marched back to his house arrest. With newfound determination, the Ritualist set out to revise his rituals; to infuse them with a hint of ambiguity. Ever so slowly—after all, he was directly working against his personal preference—the diagrams became less rigid, the instructions more open to interpretation. It was unnerving to Joe, a direct departure from his usual methods, but the potential for unchecked growth was exciting.

When he thought back, every time he'd experimented with something new, there’d been only three possible outcomes. The most common was that nothing changed. Following closely on the heels of that probability was the shift leading to catastrophic failure. But every once in a while, in the rare moment of brilliance or breakthrough, the experimentation had led to something far greater than he had intended.

“I think I need to start experimenting more with alchemical and enchanted ritual circles.” Joe stated aloud as he carefully redrew a diagram. “Adding Special aspects is great and all, but what am I missing by not seeking out the secrets of my class more intentionally?”

By the time he needed to stop for rest, the changes he'd made were individually minor, but represented a complete reversal in how he would be working to create new rituals in the future. Joe decided to sleep on the floor, knowing that when he awoke, he would be devoting himself to analyzing and revamping the Ritual of the Insomniac Stalker into something effective and not so dangerous for personal use.

Several hours later, his eyes popped open and Joe hopped to his feet. He got straight to work, getting an injection of caffeine directly into his veins thanks to Automate knowing what was required of it at all times. Excitement filled the Ritualist at this moment, for a multitude of reasons.

Above all else stood the fact that he was expanding his magical knowledge and insights, and he hoped that would lead to ever greater innovations in the future. This was what drove him: an unwavering determination to better his craft. Second to this, was his desire to help his friend, who he knew was in a situation she didn't want to be in. He firmly told himself that was all there was to the situation, so much so that he even started to believe it.

A little bit.

In his dimly lit workshop, surrounded by scraps of paper, broken tiles, and chaotic atmosphere, Joe meticulously began studying the diagram of the Ritual of the Insomniac Stalker. It was a dark ritual, meant for war, perhaps for revenge or an untraceable assassination. Each line that he drew out and perused made him thankful once more that he hadn’t gone down the path of a War Ritualist. To be shoehorned into using magics like this, gaining the most experience only when he was inflicting suffering on others, was a shudder-inducing thought.

Keeping his hands steady, Joe ever so meticulously began stripping all of the additional fluff out of the diagram itself, a process that he now knew was akin to ripping out its potential for growth and change over time. When he was done, and had separated out all the components, he wasn’t left with a simple tracking ritual. No, what he was looking at was various fragments of a ritual that individually were useless, and even put together would create a subpar, broken version of what was once a powerful piece of magic.

“Here comes the fun part.” Now, having figured out one of the basic steps that he'd been missing, Joe began to place his intent for the ritual on each individual subsection. The further he went into the alteration of the magic, the more exhilaration would surge through his veins. This was his version of transmuting lead into gold, and Joe wanted to make sure that he did it perfectly; while also allowing himself to experience the thrill of experimentation and eventual success.

The almost evil nature of the ritual, originally fueled by far darker intentions, ever so gradually transformed thanks to Joe's skillful touch. His Master rank in Ritual Circles wasn’t just for show, and now that he understood what he'd been missing, the process flowed like water off the side of a mountain. Each circle was remade as a standalone pattern before he began to weave the sympathetic threads between them to make a single, unified whole.

As he came closer to completing the project, the symbols on the specially prepared parchments shimmered with renewed brilliance—as if his mana was responding to Joe's excitement. As he made the final connection, light spilled from the pages, shining through the room in a dazzling display: the ritual itself seeming to rejoice that it had been brought back from darkness.

Elation coursed through Joe, a wide smile on his face as he took in the final, cohesive creation he'd made. He could already tell that the transformation was a success, even before notifications started scrawling across his vision.

Then, out of nowhere, something *snapped* in Joe's brain, and he toppled over backward, head bouncing off the stone of the floor. He was saved from a concussion only thanks to his ever-present Exquisite Shell, and his eyes went wide as he sucked wind and tried to figure out what had just happened.

Congratulations! You have created a brand-new ritual at the Journeyman rank. By removing the spite and contempt of the original creator of an original ritual, you have managed to complete an impressive feat of magic.

Quest gained: Redeeming Rituals. You have started on the path of making the world a better place through the removal of dark, or taboo rituals. Cleanse 5 rituals at the Journeyman rank or higher. Reward: Ritual of Cleansing (Expert). The Ritual of Cleansing can be set in any area to remove aspects of intent from ambient mana. There are many benefits to this process, including but not limited to a calmer, less chaotic atmosphere in the area.

Joe rubbed at his throbbing head, pleased for the new quest but still uncertain why he was in so much pain at the moment. It felt like he'd gotten his bell rung, but he knew he had been preserved from physical damage. “Close notification. What's this next one?”

Congratulations! By continually bending your thoughts toward how to make the world a better place for, not only yourself, but the people around you, your Intelligence has undergone a categorical shift! Your Intelligence is now aligned to the light.

Light-aligned Intelligence: when attempting to create or alter something with the intention to improve the lives of those around you, there is a 20% chance to be inspired by the light.

Alert! Your Intelligence has drastically shifted from its original bound state. Either undo what you have done, or rebind your Ritual Orb of Intelligence. Intelligence is at an effective -50% until this has been completed.

“Uuughh.” Joe groaned wordlessly, unable to think of a better descriptor of the situation he'd just created for himself.

Perhaps because he'd just lost an effective ninety-five points of Intelligence, dropping himself below the third threshold.