CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Five!

As they strolled into the mining camp, Joe looked at his team with a smile that chattered even as he maintained it. “I think that was approximately fifty miles, how do we all feel?”

“Cold.” Heartpiercer grumbled at the two of them as she rubbed her arms. “The chilled debuff is way worse outside of the walls. Jotunheim is insane; how are we supposed to get anything done? Building and expanding in the ice and snow would’ve been incredibly difficult and tedious without your help.”

Jaxon spoke up, “I have a few suggestions! Joe, firstly I think you should upgrade your wardrobe. Running around in leather shoes, a blanket, and a metal codpiece probably aren’t the best options in a world that slowly freezes you to death. Think of touching your tongue to a metal post, then extrapolate that elsewhere. Secondly, each of us should be holding an emergency ritual bubble that will allow us to create a temporary camp wherever we are. Lastly, let's be done with all of this running and travel through the air in bubbles, please.”

“What kind of supplies do we need, rations, water, thank you for the mention of gear.” Joe firmly ignored the whining as he tried to extract the information he was after.

“No. Hear me out!” Jaxon slithered over to stand next to Joe, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and pulling him close. “Here's what we do. Fly all day in a bubble, keeping an eye out for anything interesting. When we’re at the maximum range that they can connect to each other, you drop one of your little shrines that lets us fast travel between them. Then, that way, we can still go back to the city for any supplies or housing as needed. Less to carry; home by dinner.”

Joe went silent for a few minutes as he contemplated what his ever-more-serpentine friend was telling him, going pale as he realized how much time he’d been wasting by not doing exactly what Jaxon had just said. “Wow, yeah, that makes… really good sense. I guess sometimes I forget that we don't have to walk everywhere. We’re not playing with the same physics we used to be subject to, and every once in a while I completely forget that fact.”

Heartpiercer let out a long sigh of annoyance, “Did we seriously just run fifty miles so that you could have an epiphany? It's cold out here, Joe, and now my legs are tired. Add that to the fact that my fingers are freezing, meaning I’ll likely have less damage output and accuracy if we get attacked by monsters.”

“You can't rush art.” Joe tossed his head back as though he had a long mane of flowing hair. “The muse arrives whenever she decides, not when I need a breakthrough.”

Jaxon nudged Heartpiercer, “Hear that? I’m his muse.”

The grumbles coming out of the Archer on the team took on a much more dark, calculative air. The Ritualist did his best to ignore them, even when they became very specific, such as how she’d be able to use his hamstring as an impressive new bow string. The bald man looked around, taking in the bustling mining camp and the odd looks being thrown their way. “While we're here, might as well look around, right?”

“That's a great idea, Joe! Why don't we interrupt everyone's schedule so we can, with our inexperienced eyes, judge how they are doing.” Jaxon didn't wait for any further words, walking directly toward the entrance to the mine. Just before he entered, a Dwarf with the frizziest beard and most barrel-shaped chest stepped out, legs shaking as he moved forward one foot at a time.

“Get outta the way, ya half-pint giant!” The Dwarf bellowed at the Chiropractor, who slid to the side with a simple sway of his hips, his feet not moving whatsoever. “Stay away from my shaft!”

“I beg your pardon!” Jaxon gasped sharply, recoiling in horror.

“There's no room in my mineshaft for someone of your height! You're going to block the flow of traffic, and get in the way of every swinging pick in the room.” Throughout his tirade, the Dwarf had never stopped walking forward ever so slowly.

Joe looked at where the Dwarf was going, his eyes picking out the shimmer of a ritual circle hanging in the air. “Hey, this is where that got off to? That's not good… this ritual is designed for personal transport. Hang on there, something tells me you’re not heading back to Novusheim.”

“Do I… look like… I need walls around me all the time?” the straining Dwarf grunted out between each laborious step.

“No, you look constipated.” Heartpiercer snarked back at the Dwarf, who finally came to a standstill.

A deep grunt of frustration escaped from deep in his chest, and Joe could see him straining to lift one of his legs back into the air. “Do you need a hand there?”

The Dwarf stopped straining, sucking in a few deep breaths before turning his head to glare at the trio. “Do ye have any idea how difficult it is to walk when over encumbered with three tons of Uncommon metals? Every time I stop, it takes twice the amount of effort to get going again!”

“Perhaps you should wear lighter gear?” Jaxon offered gently, reaching over and knocking on the thick metal plate armor that the Dwarf was decked out in. “I can't imagine being this slow is useful in combat.”

The Dwarf considered them for a few minutes, apparently coming to the realization that he was talking with absolute imbeciles. “Let me guess, you have big, fancy storage devices that reduce the weight of the things inside of them? Unbelievable.”

“I don't have a storage device.” Heartpiercer called out, mirrored a moment later by Jaxon simply nodding to agree with her. Joe decided against informing those that didn't already know that he was wearing a Legendary spatial storage codpiece; simply focusing on the ritual. Somehow, he just figured the information on his gear wouldn’t be met with a cheerful smile at the moment, especially when the Archer continued thinking aloud, “You know what, I should actually go get one. If I remember correctly, they aren't nearly as hard to get.”

“Pah.” The Dwarf shook his head in disgust at her attitude. “Maybe they weren't so hard to get back when the city that focused on building them was still standing. Now you’re going to have to murder someone to get one of these, even the basic Uncommon porters pack I’m wearing. Abyss, all this one does is let you put everything inside without adjusting its weight or how quickly it degrades.”

He paused for a moment, realizing exactly what he’d just said. Now a teeny bit nervous, the Dwarf licked his lips as his eyes darted between Jaxon and Heartpiercer. “Of course, my bag is registered with the council, and easily traceable. Actually murdering someone for their device is highly not recommended.”

“There we go, I knew I had a couple of spares on hand.” Joe dusted his hands off in a clapping motion, then reached forward and tapped the shimmer in the air with a single finger. The ritual popped like a soap bubble, particles of mana floating out before dissipating. Joe turned as the Dwarf let out a strangled scream of fury, confusion in his eyes. “What? What's the matter?”

“Do you have any idea how difficult it is going to be to walk my heavy rear all the way to the Town to drop these off? Get over here so I can sit on you!” The Dwarf took a mightily struggling step forward, then continued building his momentum, ever so gradually reaching a slow walking pace.

Joe brushed off the Dwarf’s concerns, turning and setting down the ritual tile he had in his codpiece. “I knew I had a couple of practice ones from when we were getting ready to set up the escape plan from Town, and I bet if I adjust the power output to be single bubbles at a time instead of a stream of them… here we go. There! Now this should better handle the transport of the metals or stone that you’re all putting in here.”

Dropping his hand onto the tile, the Ritualist pumped some mana into the diagram and allowed the rituals to swirl out and around him. By the time the Dwarf was halfway to him, Joe was already standing up and studying the dense, cycling power; the rings of the ritual now substantial enough to be mistaken for wood or metal at first glance. “Wait, wait. Let me adjust the heading a little bit… there we go. That should match up with where the last one was depositing the goods you were sending. Go ahead and drop your stuff anywhere within the outer ring, and it’ll all be collected.”

“You…” the Dwarf didn't slow down, but the expression on his face was nearly comical as his attitude adjusted itself at top speed. “You made it better? Ah… then you must be Councilman Joe. sorry, I didn't recognize your title, I was… distracted.”

“No problem! I hope this does better for you, I take my responsibility to better the lives of our citizens extremely seriously. Also, now you won't have to worry about getting caught up in the bubble, it’ll only take cargo.”

“That’s more helpful than you might know.” The Dwarf was picking up speed again, and a rueful smile was showing above his beard. “As you can imagine, it can be hard to slow down without falling and having to dig myself out of the resulting crater. I always get chewed out when I need to run back for the next load.”

As he got closer to the outer ring, the Dwarf lifted his hands out in front of him as if in supplication. As soon as his palms crossed the energetic line, stone began spewing out of empty air like a landslide. With every second that passed, the Dwarf was clearly under less strain, though he was still working to push his feet into the ground to stop himself from stumbling forward. When the last bit of unrefined ore had dropped to the ground, a massive bubble encapsulated the space, lifting into the air and *slurping* all of the loose material into the air before rolling through the air off into the distance.

“Looks a little slower than usual.” the Dwarf commented offhandedly.

Joe had to agree with that, but was able to offer up an easy explanation. “It is, but now the likelihood of the ritual failing and dropping all of that across the landscape for you to go and play hide and seek with is a lot lower. It’ll also be able to fly higher, keeping it out of range of jumping monsters and… I was going to say archers, but I'm pretty sure Heartpiercer here could still get it at its maximum altitude.”

“You bet your frigid butt I could.” She’d clearly still not forgiven Joe for making them run all the way out here.

The Ritualist rolled his eyes and offered a hand to the Dwarf. “With introductions and pleasantries out of the way, would you mind pointing me to a space that’d be good for a small shrine?”

“Yea.” the Dwarf waved a hand at Joe in a let's go motion. “Let's introduce religion to this world. It's always worked out for everyone in the past.”

Joe let out a soft sigh at how poorly all of the interactions with this Dwarf had gone, and apparently would continue to go. “You weren't in Dawnesha’s faction about the Deities, huh? Oh, abyss… I haven’t seen her since we got to Jotunheim-”

“No, I was not on her side of the issue. Yes, she’s fine, her guards have been keeping her away from danger and… ah, people of interest, I’m told. I’m sure she’ll seek ya out as soon as a shrine appears in a nice, comfy, safe Town like Novusheim.” The Dwarf grumped as he plodded along. Then a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “But if we have to be in this godforsaken frozen wasteland, we may as well put them to work. Then it’ll only be a frozen wasteland.”

Only Jaxon laughed along at the odd joke, Joe and Heartpiercer exchanging droll glances and rolling their eyes.