CC 10: Thesaurize ~ Two!

The Ritualist stumbled out of the council meeting, rubbing at his eyes, greatly annoyed that the Dwarven constituent allowed them to sit for nearly twenty hours at a time and make plans. “Seriously, they could just meet for an hour or two a day. It's not like we’ve a whole lot of other things to do.”

Still, he’d been able to create a full plan of action for building up the Town. With the area considered somewhat secure, everyone was fighting for the opportunity to have their own workshops set up in a favorable location, and determining build order and priority placement had taken what would’ve been considered a full work day on Earth. “I can’t believe how resistant they were to having a greenhouse. Why wouldn't they want vegetables, herbs, and so forth? How are they even planning to supply half the other buildings if they can't grow anything?”

Certainly, there was minor concern over creating a hunting ground within their own city that would turn feral if the plants weren't harvested frequently enough. Yet, Joe didn’t think that was going to be an issue with their population having soared back into the high sixty thousands. They’d lost a quarter of their people when Master Dreamstrider had led them off into the wilderness to create their own, Dwarf-exclusive society, but a good number of them had trickled back when they recognized the challenges inherent in creating a new settlement from scratch.

He tried not to let it get to his head, but Joe was certainly proud of the fact that without the interference of Master Stu, his value was recognized and lauded. “As always, being really great at your job always begets more work.”

Staying productive was a good problem to have, but it was still a problem. Scanning over his list of workshops and supply depots, Joe kept to himself as he casually evaded the ‘Novusheim is secure’ party that was still raging. A glance upward told him that someone had been messing with his new ritual, a replacement false sky that was now in a secure location instead of buried a couple inches below the surface. “Lasers and strobe lights. Who knew Dwarves were into raves? Wait… how’d someone even get access to that?”

Each of the rituals that he deemed necessary for the Town were locked up in his workshop. Even though it had worked out once, Joe knew that hoping his enemies would blow their toes off as they ran at him was foolhardy. Hurrying over to his workshop, the Ritualist threw the door open and watched with open shock as Havoc played with his ritual title like he was a dj, his fingers swishing back and forth as his head bobbed to the music that was blasting in the area. Each movement corresponded with the lights shifting in the sky.

They were interesting illusions with no substance, but they represented knowledge that Joe didn’t understand, so he simply watched carefully and studied the movements of, not only the Dwarf, but the mana that he was releasing into the ritual itself. More than the party, this was what he wanted to be involved in.

Magic.

Not just for the sake of survival; but for fun. For interesting and exciting ways of bending the world to his will.

Eventually, the Grandmaster turned, his cigar hanging out of the left corner of his mouth as he offered Joe a half-grin. “I hear you’re looking to learn some fire magic. I think I can help you out.”

“Yeah…” Joe was barely able to hold himself back from asking about altering active rituals on the fly, as he was planning on working that out himself after studying what Havoc was doing. “You’re a Grandmaster Enchanter, right? I don't particularly care about throwing fire around myself, but I want to be able to add it to the towers out there. It seems pretty effective against monsters here.”

“That it is.” The Dwarf lifted his hand, adjusting his oversized cigar. For one long moment, as Havoc took a deep pull on the alchemical creation, Joe could see that the burning, glowing end was far more than a simple flame. It was constantly swirling and compressing, and while it was pointed at the human, he could see that its heat was trapped within some kind of magical field.

The Ritualist stared at the burning object, trying to figure out how to ask the question on the tip of his tongue. “Havoc… is that a miniature star on the end of your cigar?”

“No, no… it only looks and acts like a cigar.” With that evasive answer, the Dwarf’s grin expanded out to show far too many teeth. “If you want the power of man's red flower, I’ll make a deal with you. The rituals you have right now are already working just fine for the wandering beasts of this world, so-”

“Changed my mind.” Joe interrupted the Grandmaster, whose bright smile dimmed significantly. “Don't get me wrong, I still need to learn something very important from you, in fact, I want to learn about fire too, but this definitely takes priority. I have the schematics to create a mana condenser, and I need to figure out the rest of the ritual, or enchantment, that I need in order to refill batteries autonomously.”

Havoc went silent for a few moments, then made a ‘gimme’ motion with his hand. The Ritualist passed over the diagram he’d earned as a quest reward, and the Dwarf inspected it for a few long minutes, his fingers tracing over the lines and iridescent three-dimensional imagery that was imbued in the blueprint.

“This is… interesting. I like interesting. Tell you what, I was going to make you seek out five Elven settlements and destroy them but since you're giving me something interesting in exchange to look at and work on, let’s call it three. I would’ve still made it four, but you gave me the diagram for the condenser, which was the only thing I haven’t ever seen before. The rest is fairly common thanks to our ability to craft War Golems.”

Quest gained: This planet isn't big enough for both of us. Grandmaster Havoc has decided that this planet, Jotunheim which is as large as the surface of Sol, Earth’s sun, simply doesn't have the capacity to sustain both Dwarves and Elves. Yeah. Anyway, you are to venture into the frozen, treacherous lands of Jotunheim and destroy three Elven settlements. The settlements can be at any rank, but you will get a bonus for each settlement tier above ‘Camp’. As this planet is vast beyond your comprehension, there is no time limit for completion.

Reward: Blueprints for a Mana Battery Recharge Station. This will be a combined enchantment of a:

1) Mana Collector: gather ambient magical energy.

2) Mana Condenser: store and concentrate mana for later use.

3) Mana Transfer Output: channel mana into devices or storage items.

“How am I supposed to find an Elven settlement?” Joe's aghast question was simply waved off by the Dwarf.

“Did you not see that there isn’t a time requirement?” Havoc walked out of the door, shaking his head. “Some people just don't know how to read.”

The Ritualist shook his head and shoved the notification to the side. “Got it, I'll need to find a completely different method than relying on Havoc for this. Abyss, I’d refuse the quest outright if I didn't think he’d come back here and taunt me for it until I accepted.”

With a sigh of regret and a longing look at the ritual towers that he would nownot need to fill by hand or pay a hundred Dwarves and humans to refill for him, Joe turned his attention back to the list of buildings in his hand. “All right… let's see what we've got here. Priority number one—thank you, me—the Evergrowth Greenhouse. That’s a special Rare, I'll have to figure out how to set that up here without the plants immediately turning into monsters. What did the O’Baba tell me? Too much mana density makes the building go from a greenhouse to a dungeon?”

He swiped his hand through the air, practically pushing against the dense, chaotic energy that was suffusing the atmosphere of this planet. “Yep, this is basically monster soup. Gonna need to figure that one out.”

The list was fairly exhaustive, but he’d cut them off at ten buildings. “Millinery for hats and headwear, pretty important with the weather. Tannery or leatherworking workshop to supply them, so that goes first. I need shoes, that means tannery goes second.”

Joe wiggled his sock-clad toes, glad that his Exquisite Shell was keeping them from getting frostbitten. He had taken off his remaining shoe, as walking around with only one on was less comfortable than just going without. “Herbalism shop, but that needs the Greenhouse to matter, as does a brewing station and a carpenter. Hard to do carpentry without access to wood.”

The last several were outside of his areas of specialization, including masonry, pottery, and glass blowing workshops. Down at the very bottom was a forge, as he already had created one version of it, no matter how subpar it ended up being. “Hmm… I feel like there should be a dedicated workshop for enchanting, but I haven't had any requests for that. Why?”

No answers were forthcoming, especially when he wasn't having an actual conversation with anyone, so the Ritualist could only shrug and set off to work on the Greenhouse. As the building itself was fragile, it was slated to be built as far away from the entrance to Novusheim as possible, not quite against the South wall, but extremely close. They were going to put another several sturdy buildings around that, just in case some walls got smashed and sent rubble inward. Joe knew that it would eventually be indispensable to the Town, and planned to treat it that way from the start.

Finally having more free time than he had since being on this world, Joe took his time leisurely strolling toward what would soon become the foundation for all of their plant matter. As he arrived, he found a man with a shovel digging out the space. “Hey! It's shovel guy! Still dig snow, bro?”

“You know it.” The human that Joe only knew as ‘shovel guy’ stretched and wiped some already-freezing sweat off of his forehead. “I do more than just dig though. I've got a shovel for every occasion. Snow removal, dirt, bailing out sinking boats, even juggling. I'm the world's greatest shovel whisperer, able to communicate with snowflakes and convince them to make safe paths.”

The Ritualist considered the man in front of him for a few long moments, finally deciding how he’d respond. “I feel like you’re messing with me?”

“Yeah,” the man chuckled as he finished clearing off the area Joe would be building. “Here you go, one council-approved plot of land for a greenhouse. They sent me the specifications so that you could move a little faster. Have a good one.”

“Wait, what’s your-” Joe didn't ask his question fast enough, as the shovel guy hopped in the air, swung his shovel up and under him like a skateboard, and shot into the distance as he landed. The bald magic user watched him go, utterly nonplussed. “What even was that? This is the first time I’m really annoyed that I destroyed my Intrusive Scan skill.”

Blinking rapidly in confusion, Joe decided to turn his mind toward things that he was good at. Stabilization cubes went down, ritual diagrams were set out, and the Rituarchitect survey tool ensured that everything was where it was meant to be. “Good. Now I just need to decide how to make this so that it doesn’t break or go feral.”