CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Seven!

“Well, this is rather unfortunate.” Joe grumbled as he looked over all of his various options for seeking out Daniella. After asking around, he hadn’t found anyone willing to put their own expertise on the line to chase the Architect down. The Ritualist had truly thought that he could convince some bored scout or tracker to work with him on this project, but as soon as he mentioned he was going out into the frozen wastes, any flickers of interest in their eyes cooled immediately.

The fact of the matter was: he had no ability to create rituals that would gently show him where to find her; like a nice ritual-based compass that always pointed at her without a terrible side effect. To Joe's great chagrin, he did have one ritual that would last long enough to be useful. The only issue with the magical diagram was that it was found within the book of slightly twisted rituals he’d gained long ago.

“Let's see… Ritual of the Ghostly Army, Ritual of the Lonely Tree, Ritual of Argus…” Joe leafed through the dark grimoire, carefully only reading the names of the rituals and not studying the components necessary to use most of them. “Here it is. Ritual of the Insomniac Stalker. This ritual requires two targets, the first creature will target the second.”

Confirming that he’d need to target himself first, Joe grimaced and took a deep breath before continuing. “The first creature will no longer receive the benefits of sleeping, beyond the absolute minimum to maintain health. Great, I didn't like to sleep anyway. Instead, that creature now has an intense animosity for the second target. Less great, kind of makes it hard to want to save someone when you have a deep hatred for them.”

His eyes moved on to the next descriptor of the ritual, which was the only reason he was considering using this in the first place. “They will know the direction and distance to the target at all times. There it is. That's exactly what I needed. Then… when the first target encounters the second target, they must attack the target unless able to resist the compulsion. Maybe I can build a failsafe into this to turn this bad boy off? They must resist every minute the target is in sight; which will grow harder over time. Yep, a failsafe is going to be pretty important. This effect lasts until one of the two targets die. Requirements: blood-stained pillow-”

Glancing over at the vial of blood, Joe realized he had more than enough of the sanguine liquid available for that portion of the ritual. From there, he took his time to convert all of the other components over to aspects, finding himself somewhat amused that this was a Journeyman-rank ritual. “Makes sense to me, because I'm a man that’ll have to go on a journey. Ahh… yeah. I'll need to activate this only when I’m sure I'm ready to go. Otherwise, with this ritual, I’ll put the ‘fun’ in ‘nonfunctioning’. Or maybe ‘dysfunctional’.”

Now that he had an initial plan, Joe knew there were many things he was going to need to do before actually setting out into the world and seeking out Daniella. The first among them was going to be taking advantage of the increased skill gain and growth making a shrine had afforded him.

It was time to seek Havoc.

Joe exited his workshop after spending… frankly, he wasn’t certain how long he’d been holed up. He couldn't even give himself the ol’ sniff test, as his Neutrality Aura only came off in the most dire of circumstances.

From the screams of monsters, bellowing of Dwarves, and rampant wagering going on, there was a Beast Wave currently testing their defenses. For the time being, the Ritualist ignored that fact and went over to the Town Hall to try and get a bead on the Grandmaster's location.

Surprisingly enough, the Dwarf was thought to be somewhere on the walls, watching the onslaught. Before Joe could escape and go search for his mentor, he was handed a thick stack of papers that detailed the overall state of the Town. Politely glancing at the sheave of paper, Joe nearly choked as he saw what the first line detailed. “Population requirement? That’s what’s estimated to be the largest hold up on moving from a Town to a City? Abyss, we need one hundred thousand people? That's absolutely ridiculous. It's not like we can reproduce!”

The Ritualist paused for a moment as he considered his outburst, then shook his head. “Nope, sure can't. Dwarves are locked as a Shattered race, and I’m about ninety percent certain that humans traveling between planes can't have kids.”

Now his plans to go out into the world and seek population centers had taken on a new flavor. Whereas originally he’d planned to do so only to bring Daniella back, now Joe was extremely pleased that his friends had brought up the idea of setting up a fast travel shrine system. “There's gotta be people out there willing to convert their allegiance over to the Dwarves in order to get out of here.”

After storing the remainder of the papers in his codpiece, Joe hurried out to the walls and began looking for  Havoc. It wasn't terribly difficult to find the Dwarf, as most people left a respectful distance around the powerful, unstable Grandmaster. He was also one of the very few Dwarves not actively attacking the onrushing beasts, simply content to observe and take notes on what was happening.

Havoc's head snapped to the side, his eyes locking with Joe's. The human didn’t even get a word in before the Dwarf laid into him. “You! Just the human and I needed to see. Take a look at this mess. A single glance and I can see fourteen areas I could waltz through to avoid every attack your towers can throw out. I want this rectified!”

“Oh. Yeah, I’ll get on that.” The Grandmaster was kind enough to hand over a hand-drawn map of the area, detailing the weak points he’d noted. Joe gave it a cursory glance before storing that away as well. “I was wondering if you can make time to teach me a fire spell or three? With the bonuses we’re currently getting offered, I think now is the time to get them in my magical repertoire.”

“You sure about that?” Havoc questioned him coyly. “I know you’re seeking other answers that I know I have as well. A little bit of fire might be useful here, but who knows what it’ll look like in a year or three.”

“Better something than nothing.” Joe shrugged without giving it much thought. “Who knows where we’ll be in a few years? We might not even be able to see each other, or even be on the same planet. Fire is primordial. It always has been useful, it always will be useful.”

“Fair enough. Do you want a basic fire manipulation spell, or do you have something more… specific in mind?” At Havoc's question, Joe went silent. It was likely that this was some kind of a test, but he didn’t particularly care at the moment.

Making his choice, Joe firmly replied, “I want some kind of a fireball spell or a variation thereof. Something that you think would be great to add to these towers and will help me kill the greatest number of monsters possible.”

“But you still want to be able to harvest them?” Havoc's nonchalant question made the Ritualist realize that he had forgotten that aspect of things. “That rules out clouds of burning phosphorus, napalm hot enough to destroy the entire body… maybe a combination spell? How do you feel about dropping small meteors on your enemies?”

“Yes, please!” Joe replied with no hesitation.

“Well, too bad! That's a high-level spell, you can't handle it right now.” The Dwarf scoffed as Joe's pleased expression faded away. “Did you actually think you could go straight to a meteor spell when you have no proper foundation in fire, nor earth magics? Don't put the forge before the anvil. Hammer out your spells in the right order, or you'll end up with sparks in your beard. Theoretically speaking.”

The Dwarf waved at Joe's general facial shininess, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a thin strip of paper. “Here's how this is going to work, kid. I'm going to teach you a really dark spell, and you're not going to tell anyone where you got it. Even if you do, I’ll deny it.”

“Uh-” before Joe could say anything further, Havoc looked him in the eyes and Joe's body froze in instant paralysis. Then the Dwarf held up a book, moving it in front of the Ritualist’s frozen stare, line by line until he was certain that the human had read every word. Then the book burst into flames for a long moment, releasing a high-pitched scream as it reduced itself to ash.

“Perfect.” Havoc grinned triumphantly as he shook the last bit of powder off his hands. “That's how you know it's working.”

Profession 3: Grandmaster's Apprentice. 15/25.

Spell learned: Infernal Conflagration (Novice VII). This is a super intense infernal fire spell that inflicts damage upon multiple enemies while preserving their corpses for processing. When unleashed, this spell creates a devastating blaze of flames with unique properties. Despite its overwhelming power, the spell's arcane nature ensures that it consumes only flesh and vital essence of enemies, leaving behind intact corpses suitable for processing or rituals.

This spell deals 30n damage, where n = skill level. Cooldown: 10-.5n seconds. Range: .5+n meters.

Caution! Do not consume any part of a corpse that has been damaged by infernal energy.

“I've been waiting to find someone I could pass that on to. It's a Unique-rank spell, so it’ll start with fairly high damage compared to the other basic garbage you’ve been showing off. It's also real hard to level, so take advantage of the target-rich environment you have going on here. Oh… don't let any people aligned with Light deities see you using that, or they’ll probably attack without warning.” Havoc then attached the thin strip of paper he had pulled out to Joe's wrist, where it sank into his skin like a temporary tattoo.

“Actually, you shouldn't think of this as an evil spell. Instead, try and think of it as… steam damage. Yeah. You ever see someone get steam burns? How their flesh boils under their skin without seeming to do too much damage to the surface? It's kind of like that.” The Dwarf lifted Joe and tossed him over the wall. “As payment, you're going to have to learn how to use this spell properly. Hope you figure it out.”

All spells beyond ‘Infernal Conflagration’ have been locked for 3 hours!

As Joe approached the ground, dozens of rampaging, enormous monsters looked up to see him falling toward them like chum being tossed to sharks.