CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Six!

The creation of the shrine went smoothly, no issues arising as the book-shaped magical structure appeared on the flat, frozen landscape. As the ambient energies of the world settled into their usual chaotic format, Joe realized that the building was actually fairly well-hidden even if it were out in the open.

Coloration wise, it was a slate gray that blended well with the ice and snow. To his magical senses, unless he was extremely close to the shrine itself, he couldn’t locate it over the static ‘noise’ of mana Jotunheim constantly produced. Obviously it had no scent, so the only real way of finding it was to get close to the ground and look for anything that was above ‘perfectly level’.

“Finally, it's time to get the reward for the quest I turned in a while ago.” Joe placed his hands on the shrine, and offered a cheerful greeting to Tatum.

Zone notification! The deities have come to the World of Giants! Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend’ has created the first shrine to a Pantheon on Jotunheim! As a reward, for one full day, anyone aligned with this Pantheon will see a rapid boost in skill acquisition and growth. Caution! The denizens of this world may take great umbrage to this fact. While your reward is active, the time between Beast Waves is halved.

“All right, not exactly the notification I was here to get, Tatum.” Joe tried not to gulp nervously as he read over that message once more. “Pretty sure people are going to be a little grumpy with me now that I’m sending monsters at them… wait a second! I can find a diamond in this pigsty; if we have enhanced skill growth, having a ton more enemies to practice our skills on can be considered a second reward!”

As the Ritualist drew his hand back and away from the altar, black lightning flashed from the ever-present clouds in the sky, impacting him from eight directions at the same time. Instead of injuring him, Joe was suffused with power. He let out an unbridled cry of euphoria as the overabundant energy lashed out into the environment around him.

Delayed Quest reward granted!

Skill upgraded: Resurrection (Beginner 0) → Mass Resurrection Aura (Apprentice V)!

Mass Resurrection Aura: Once per standard week (168 hours) you can channel the divine energies of Occultatum, bringing back to life any slain entities within n+5 meters that are within n+class level levels of you, within n+class level minutes of being killed. This spell will last n seconds upon casting. Upon activation, you will lose access to all mana for 60-n minutes; where n = skill level.

Please note, Occultatum is a Neutral Deity, so this spell will not distinguish between friend or foe.

Breathing heavily, Joe looked over his upgraded skill in absolute awe. “Celestials, you weren't kidding when you told me you’d give me something overpowered. Oh no, does this remove my ability to resurrect individuals?”

Even with his hand on the altar directly, Joe didn’t get an answer to his question. He could only shrug and assume that was the case. Frankly, Joe was completely fine with that. He used this spell so irregularly that it had barely managed to move above Novice rank since he got it. Taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh of contentment, Joe hoped that he wouldn’t need to use this far more powerful version very often, if at all.

“That was neat!” Jaxon enthused, rushing over to touch the stone book. “What just happened? Can I be hit by lightning as well? It seemed fun when you did it!”

“I think my skill Rarity got upgraded? Or it got combined with other spells that Tatum was going to give me…? Really, I'm not a hundred percent certain. Normally, with such a massive jump in my levels, I would’ve gotten the option for some other spells. So… the latter is seeming more probable.” Joe quickly explained the spell that he had just gained, getting ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from his friend, as well as smiles tinged with envy from Heartpiercer.

As soon as his explanation was finished, the shivering Archer waved at the shrine. “Can we please get back to Novusheim now? We can even pretend it’s for some reason other than me freezing my phalanges off. Yeah, I got it! We’re only going back so you can make another one of these and test out the fast travel. Totally.”

Seeing no reason to argue, the group quickly set up a Ritual of Bubble Travel and flew into the air over the empty landscape. Even moving twice as quickly as they could run, it was still quite a while until the dot on the horizon expanded into Novusheim. They came down into the city, slightly off course from where Joe had expected them to land. Instead of nestling down onto the ground and gently popping, the bubble slammed into the side of the Pyramid of Panacea and sent the trio tumbling through the air into the snowdrifts below.

Heartpiercer shot to her feet out of the snow, charging off into the distance while rubbing her arms and cursing loudly. Joe pulled himself out of the drift with ease, but found that Jaxon had landed head first and was stuck with his feet flailing wildly above the drift. Grabbing his friend, Joe yanked the Chiropractor onto solid ground.

Jaxon gasped for air, shaking off the melting ice crystals. “Thank goodness! You know, I feel like I’m becoming cold-blooded; because that made me lethargic as all get out. I'm off to take a nap, hope your shrine travel works well for you!”

Moments later, Joe was alone and walking toward the Town Hall. Completely used to solitude, the Ritualist took the group splitting up in stride. It took less than ten minutes to get confirmation as to where he could place a shrine, with the expectation that it would be upgraded into a Grand Temple at some point. From there, it was only a matter of spending the mana and resources to have a secondary shrine appear on the edge of what would eventually be the town square.

Reaching under the stone book, Joe activated the sigils that allowed him to control who could use the travel function. Lastly, he placed his hand on top of the altar and changed his location—returning to the mine in an instant.

Joe's eyes roved the area, landing on a shocked Dwarf that had come out of the mine moments previously. Waving the miner over, the Ritualist explained how to use the fast travel functionality, and let him go off to spread the good news.

An instant later, the bald man was back in Town with a wide smile on his face. The rapid-fire transportation had drained his mana by a small amount, but it was already working to refill at a rapid pace. “I love it when things work out how I hope they would.”

With the issue of travel across the enormous planet solved, if not yet put into place, Joe decided to knock a few additional tasks off his list. Working with the volunteers sent by the council, he created the last few buildings that had been requested, then retreated into his workshop to make a plan to find and rescue Daniella.

He had thought about this issue for quite a while, eventually deciding that she’d done far more good for him than harm. Plus, the fact of the matter was, on the previous world, she was doing what she had to do to win the war between the unified and shattered races. Frankly, if he blamed her for making sure her side came out on top, he’d need to accept responsibility for all of the unfortunate things that had happened to anyone that aligned with the Wolfman on Midgard. “Can't have it both ways… either everyone is doing what they need to do, or the other side are evil, bad, no-good antagonists. I lost that battle, but Humanity needs each other for the war.”

Now having a logical, fully justified reason to go rescue his ex-teammate, the Ritualist began working on a method to actually find her.

He considered sending out letters, asking for help from people on different planets, creating new technologies or spells that could find her, even going so far as to toy with the idea of making a ritual that could create drones to map out the planet from the air. There were a multitude of problems with all of these ideas, ranging from having to completely invent brand-new magical technology, to having to deal with intense resistance from the Dwarves if he wanted them to participate in finding the lost Architect.

But above all else, there was one resounding fact: any tracking spell needed a focus. If he wanted to be able to magically find her on this enormous planet, he needed something of hers at the bare minimum. Seeing as there was no way to go back to the previous world and find a lost shoe, it seemed to be an impossibility. He let out a deep sigh as he collapsed in his chair, feeling as though the last several hours of contemplation were a complete waste.

“Haaa.” Joe pulled AutoMate’s cup off the carabiner that kept the mug attached to his belt, taking a sip of the daily special that his coffee elemental whipped up for him on the spot. “Thanks, Mate. It's always nice to have you by my side; you make my life better by leaps and bounds.”

The elemental appeared in the cup, wiggling back and forth happily at the praise being heaped on it. The Ritualist watched the tiny coffee bean eyes staring at him happily, finding himself relaxing as he did so. “I don't suppose you’d have any ideas on how to find Daniella, would you? I know you can't speak, sorry. It's just I'm so completely lost on-”

AutoMate took on a red blush, and Joe stopped speaking, wondering if he’d managed to make his elemental either embarrassed or furious. Then the coloration shifted even more, moving from red-tinted coffee, to coffee-tinted blood. Unsure of what was happening, the Ritualist amusedly held up a small glass vial as Mate waved at him to move.

The fluid poured out of the cup into the vial, and as soon as Joe corked it, a notification appeared.

Item gained: Vial of human blood (Daniella)

Staring at the item, Joe wasn't sure how to react at first. Finally, he tore his eyes away from the sight of the blood, looking over at the coffee cup where Mate was peeking out to make sure Joe was happy with the offering. “That's right… you’re able to capture and contain any liquids that get poured into your cup. When did you get this…? No, never mind, I remember her getting slashed next to you. What else is in there? Wait, no, again, I don't need to know. Just, thank you.”

*Burble!* the elemental cheerfully bubbled at him.

The Ritualist turned his eyes back to the vial of blood in his hand, his stare sharpening as he thought about how best to use it. “First things first, make a long-term tracking ritual with this. Then, we're going to start chasing her down. Hopefully she doesn't die too much and mess with our trajectory.”

He let out a huff of air, shaking his head in amazement. “Mate, I can't tell you how great this is. Sorry if I haven't been listening to you well enough recently. Any time I'm missing the point, feel free to smack me on the hand.”

*B-burble!* Mate’s head shook back and forth furiously.

“No, really! Please do. If I'm missing something, and I need to know, do it.” Joe smiled gently at his summon, “After all, as they always say, ‘in capulus, veritas’. I’d be more than happy to find my truth in the bottom of my coffee mug, partner.”

The elemental didn't make any further noises, but certainly seemed to enjoy the praise.