CC 9: Tenacity ~ Twenty-Four

With each tower that they put into place, Joe realized that the energy in the area was truly being impacted at an astounding rate. As the decuple of structures completed their creation, Joe felt a sharp static tingle along his skin; almost as though he were standing in a place where lightning was about to strike.

“Excellent!” Socar called out with barely-contained excitement as he watched the tip of the tower briefly glow with energy. “I see that the Formation is in place. Unfortunately it’s only a basic Formation, meaning it would only qualify as a Novice rank. That's not going to do much in this world, but we could still see a few percentage points of increase.”

That made sense to Joe, as none of his Novice rank abilities were useful or easily forced into being on this world. Deciding against getting into a long-winded conversation—the Beast wave was imminent—Joe hurried to the top and set up a Ritual of Dark Lightning Strike. When it was finished, he took the opportunity to watch the flow of essence in the area, noting that there was now a clear outline of a decagon between each of the buildings. The energy passed along the scoops moved back and forth in waves, creating a two-dimensional film of power in the air between them.

“Amazing…” Joe pulled his hand away from the orb, having finally got the knack of how to actually force the skill to release him. Shaking off the odd lethargic feeling that always seemed to settle over him after using that ability, he climbed down from the tower and began his trek back to the start. The Ritualist was excited to see if his rituals would have as much effect on the hundreds of monsters as he hoped it would, and he also wanted to be present to see how rapidly the towers would degrade over time.

Getting into position next to the first that he'd created, Joe scanned the building and realized that it had lost about six percent durability already. “What’s that… two percent per hour? Yikes, until we get these up to at least the Apprentice rank, keeping them from falling apart is going to be practically a part-time job. Which… I can hire out.”

Letting out a cackle that barely qualified as maniacal, Joe silently tried to determine how many bars of luxury soap it would take to hire someone to walk the walls once a day and use the Ritual of Repair to keep the towers in good form. “It's not quite like a banana for measurement, but currency is getting weird.”

Scrutinizing the monsters in the distance, Joe calmly watched as they went from the size of an ant, to the enormous creatures that he knew they actually were. The ground was rumbling from the synchronized sprinting, and dust began falling from the walls below him. As he wasn't the owner of the walls, he had to trust that someone was keeping them in good shape, and lamented the fact that he didn't have a way to assess the durability of them at the moment. “If they made Common walls, these suckers are going to fall just from the creatures coming toward them. “Maybe I should found a company that's focused on repairing low-ranked buildings…?”

*Shhzzz… splash!*

The first of his acid-filled bubbles erupted away from the tower at subsonic speed, spinning through the air and distorting from the resistance. It hit the front ranks of the monsters, erupting into a geyser of acid that dropped down and splattered scores of creatures at a time. The Penguins that had been directly impacted by the bubble had their momentum broken, generating a pileup of monsters that stumbled and fell all over each other.

Four seconds after the first of the bubbles had been sent, another one was approaching full. On the fifth second, the attack repeated itself. With so many monsters moving around the slower ones, when the bubble hit this time, it drenched nearly double the amount of beasts.

“Oh, yeah. It’s all coming together.” Joe quietly patted himself on the back as the front ranks of monsters got too close to the ritual for it to target them. That was fine with the Ritualist, as he knew there were nine more opportunities for his towers to deal some damage. This first one was only really intended to break their speed, start damaging the group as a whole, and make them more susceptible to the effects further in.

Acid wasn't an ideal choice if he wanted to preserve the pelts of the monsters, but it allowed him to break through the first barrier that would otherwise block some of the damage potential. The corrosive fluid was already causing patches of feathers to fall out, and skin to show. This would allow for the human and Dwarven defenders to strike deadlier blows, and his magical effect to better compound with each other.

Lastly, as the Penguins met with the forces defending against them, Joe realized why he wouldn't be earning a higher percentage of rewards from these creatures.

A Defeatist Fluttering Penguin has been slain! You earn 3 exp for your contribution to its death!

“I… I completely forgot to account for earning experience off of these!” Joe looked at his towers with even greater happiness filling him. “It's not much, but I am damaging every single one of those beasts. This’ll add up over time, and there's only a little over ten thousand experience to go!”

He couldn't even remember the last time he'd gained a Character level, but with these rituals and an endless number of enemies to slay, he finally had a chance. With nothing else to do for the moment, Joe decided that he should be working on his weapon control, and started sending his Ritual Orbs into the fray.

Morsum soon made an appearance. Since the summoned creature did more damage to creatures that were low on health, Joe sent the Pseudo-Lich skull flying after them as a finisher. The orb that summoned his creature wasn't bound to him via a Characteristic, which meant that if Joe lost track of the orb, it could be permanently lost. He resolved to bind that orb as soon as he was done here, but for now he simply retracted it whenever it was about to go out of range—much to Morsum’s annoyance.

The Beast wave only consisted of approximately eight hundred total monsters this time around, and upon defeating the last of them, Joe got a notification that another would be attacking anytime within the next forty-eight hours. As the bodies were collected, Joe saw how slow and inefficient the process was, adding a note to his to-do list.

Happily for the people collecting the corpses, any blood that flowed out of open wounds was drained away and sent washing across the ground, no longer staining clothes, armor, or skin as it was sucked in by his original, inefficient ritual and converted into water and powder.

A standard Beast wave was crushed with no casualties or loss of structure! Your Village’s morale modifier gains a temporary 2X boost! Current morale modifier: 1110/500.

“Ahh… so that’s how it works.” Joe watched that number hungrily, knowing that because it had touched five hundred, he would get access to another Rare building slot. “I guess it makes sense. Do things that make people feel happy and secure, and they'll have better morale. I wonder, if we’re able to have a flawless upgrade from Village to Town, would a temporary boost like that become permanent? Wait…! Forget a Rare structure,  the morale is over a thousand with that boost! That means there’s a Unique slot up for grabs!”

Before he could panic and rush off to create a new building, Joe calmed himself with the realization that there was no possible way someone else in town could create such a strong building before he had taken the opportunity. It would take weeks on the low end to create a potent edifice, whereas he could do it in under an hour with proper preparations. Resolving to take the time to do some research, as well as make sure they had a flawless upgrade when they went to make a Town, Joe decided that he should follow through on his plans and go back to his workshop.

He had a Ritual Orb to bind, and the collection and division of resources from the slain monsters was going to take quite a while. Three minutes and a half dozen Omnivaults later, Joe stepped into his workshop and gently closed the door behind him. Ensuring that he was alone in the room, Joe started laying out the ritual that he would be using to bind his weapons to his Characteristics.

Every part of this process was going to be different than what he had done before, both the ritual as well as the alchemical components. The ritual, at the Journeyman rank, was most certainly going to be the easiest portion for him to control and properly utilize. However, the alchemical components, the binding agents, were at the Student rank; he couldn’t think of a single instance where he had used such a potent component from a different magical field in his rituals. He was sure that it was going to be fun, but trying a new thing was always at least a little bit nerve-wracking.

“The main stabilization items are going to be the candles, although that will only provide additional stabilization up to the Rare circle.” Joe fretted over whether he should try and push for higher-ranked candles, eventually deciding that the powerful outer layer would be sturdy enough on its own—so long as he managed the instability of the lower circles. With that thought in mind, he placed each of his candles… then, after a moment of hesitation, placed stabilization cubes in the open spaces between the already-melting unscented wax.

“If my cubes work on blacksmithing and rituals, and my candles work on Alchemy and rituals… it would make sense to use them to greatly stabilize where they overlap. Right?” Joe was hoping that this was what Jake meant when he said that he should play to his strengths with these items. Just before he lit the candles, the Ritualist paused and decided that he could make it even better.

“Technically, putting them in circles like this had some kind of mathematical reasoning, right? Even if I don't have the skill for Formations, I can calculate what their position should be by using Calculus and Number Theory, then cross-referencing that with my Ritual Lore.”

Thanks to already having a near-perfect understanding of where they should be placed for best effect, it took merely half an hour to design what he thought would be the ideal placement of the differing stabilization items. After shifting them slightly, mostly a simple twist instead of an entirely new spot on the floor, Joe took a moment to look at the design using his Essence Cycle.

Congratulations! Calculus and Number Theory has reached Apprentice 0! Item gained: Local area topographical map.

“That’s promising.” As soon as Essence Cycle was active, he sucked a breath in shock at what he saw.

Energy was running back and forth between the candles, between the cubes, and then finally commingling and creating an umbrella effect as the distinct items harmonized with each other. “It's beautiful. I can even already see how I can improve it! If I were to adjust this entire setup to be in alignment with the patterns of the constellations, thereby bringing my Ritualist class effects into play, I don't think there would be anything that could disrupt this.”

Feeling confident and powerful, Joe took a moment to pull out the map he had just gained as a reward. He unrolled it excitedly, his smile falling as he took in the  information the map provided. As far as he could tell, it was a plain sheet of white paper. “I don't know what I was expecting from a topographical map when we can see hundreds of miles in the distance and know there isn't a single landmark or terrain feature. Does this update if I move around? No? Perfect. Back to it then.”

Unfortunately, without the ritual either being outside with a view of the night sky, or in a Grand Ritual Hall that directly showed him the positioning of the stars around himself, there was no way to safely set up a better version of this ritual. Still, Joe was extremely happy with the current placement, and so activated it immediately. “I've already used the opposing Characteristics of Strength and Intelligence. What do I need to grow to a higher height?”

Silently, he was asking himself another question: which Characteristic could he afford to sacrifice if it was destroyed? As this orb was the one he summoned Morsum around, it had the highest chances of being singled out for destruction by a powerful monster. To Joe, countering that danger took priority, so he wanted to boost the capabilities of his summon and his orb to their maximum potential. With that in mind, he chose to bind the orb to his Constitution.

Ritual prepared, alchemical binding agent at the ready, Joe tossed the orb forward and let the magical effects resonate with the images, diagrams, words, numbers, and intent that he'd etched into the ritual itself. Binding a Characteristic was extra difficult because he needed to align all of those concepts with his own physical being, as well as what his conscious and subconscious understanding of Constitution truly was. The instructions had warned that the more he left to the magic to fill, the weaker the result of the binding would be.

This process went smoothly, and was so comparatively gentle that Joe almost didn't realize when it was over—he'd been braced for pain. Unlike the previous binding, this time Joe didn’t get a message informing him that he would need stronger rituals or binding agents. That meant he could do another one in the near future without having to increase his skills to crazy heights, and he resolved to do so in short order.

Whether it was true or not, Joe credited the maximized stability of the ritual for his well-being and comfort. The first thing he did after his successful ritual, even before reading the final effects, was write down exactly how the ritual had been stabilized, noting the positions, even drawing pictures to accurately capture exactly how everything had been placed. Finally, with that out of the way, he looked at the notification he'd received.

Ritual Orb of Constitution (Masterwork). This Ritual Orb has gone through an Alchemic treatment as well as an extra round of enchanting via rituals.

Characteristic assigned: Constitution. Any spell assigned to this Orb will have the primary durability or duration effect greatly enhanced. Base durability of this orb is increased by 50%.

Automatically grants Orb the ‘recall’ ability; it will return to you after five minutes if left behind, forgotten, or stolen.

Core assigned: 890/20,000

Spell assigned: Planar shift (Student IV, awaiting unbinding for skill upgrade).

Ritual Diagram captured: Planar shift (Focus).

“Exactly what I was hoping for.” Joe exalted as he recalled the orb to his bandelier. It was already slightly shifting its shape, and if he was correct, it would end up looking similar to a heart. Not a perfect anatomical mirroring, but more like what a child would draw on a paper to portray love. His eyes looked over the statistics on the orb, and a small frown appeared. “I need to replace the Mana Batteries in these, and adjust the bound spells.”

Since there was no time like the present, Joe started laying out the next ritual diagrams immediately, a wide smile on his face.