CC 9: Tenacity ~ Twenty-Three

“There's only a couple of hours until the next Beast wave commences.” Socar alerted the group with a hint of trepidation in his voice. “Are you certain that we can't wait until afterward to begin production of our defenses?”

“You’re the one that said you had something for us.” Heartpiercer scoffed lightly at the fear the Mage was expressing. She wouldn't admit it, but as the cat rubbed its face against his, obviously an attempt to calm its human down, she was slightly jealous. “Plus, if we miss this opportunity, it could be up to forty-eight hours before we get another chance at earning a decent chunk of supplies. I don't know about you, but I'm running real low.”

“One of the downsides of coming here with only what we could carry with us.” Joe demurred as she looked to him for support. “I was able to make a few solid trades, but I'm still too low on supplies to really be useful or get ahead of the Dwarves that might want to make houses or apartments.”

“Get ahead of them? What do you mean?” Bauen had known Joe for a while now, and he was correct to be suspicious. The Ritualist wasn't about to explain to him that his plan was to block any and all attempts at making living spaces. To that end, the human merely stared at Socar and relied on the cool temperature and his magic to keep any sweat from appearing on his forehead.

The cat-clad Mage didn't need much in the way of stimulus in order to produce his plans. “Here's what I was thinking. We have walls, we know that most of the creatures are going to follow set patterns moving through those walls. If we're going to be playing a tower defense, clearly we need towers.”

From there, the Mage produced several different options, which would have corresponding differences and difficulties in creation. “Joe, I'm going to need to rely on you to figure out what you want to build, as well as what’s going to be the best for your magics and such. These are base templates, and I drew them up pretty quickly. If you and I spend a little bit of effort, we can incorporate your ideas fairly quickly. But these ones, and this one, have edifices similar to the talons on the Phoenix World Boss that would hold each cube. I noticed that you're using a prime number for each ring of them, so I incorporated that in the design all the way up to the Journeyman rank.”

“You did this quickly?” Joe was suitably impressed, although his eyes did land on a few dates on the page that were quite a bit older than the last twenty-four hours. “You sure you haven’t been working on these for a while?”

“Ahem.” Socar blushed slightly and rolled one of the papers up. “You see, ever since I saw the Mage’s Tower, I've wanted to make something like it. What’s more magical than a spire that reaches to the sky surrounded by magical defenses? It's not going to be exactly that, but… with your help, I think we can get close.”

Joe threw an arm around the man’s shoulders, “I knew we were going to be best friends as soon as I heard you were an expert in ‘variant architecture’. I'm going to have to pick your brain on all of this.”

“What about these ones? You excluded them from your earlier explanation.” Bauen was looking at the squat structures with great interest. “I see doors, and… is this a bunker? I’ve seen many bunkers in my day, and that’s one for certain.”

Socar leaned forward and tapped the paper. “Yes, that’s what I'm calling a melee tower. Since these monsters are so huge, I essentially went with a design that’s more turtle shell than turret. We can set these up along the walls, using them as places for Dwarven warriors to fall back if the monsters are too strong for them, then they'll offer them extreme defense while still providing the opportunity to attack. Obviously, if they have a ranged option, that’d be for the best.”

“I like it.” The Dwarf started tapping the paper excitedly. “Getting my people to abandon a battle is not… easy. But we could sell this as a way to take down more and larger enemies instead of as a hidey-hole. Perfect.”

“Why are they listed as ‘Special or Unique’?” Joe questioned as he compared the magical and melee towers. “The ones that you’ve set up for me are only up to Special towers. That's Journeyman level, but two of the three melee towers are rated as Expert?”

Socar hurriedly nodded, “That’s just for the sheer durability and protection values. If there are people in the buildings, I care about them a lot more than I care about the autonomous structures. Technically, I think you can set up your rituals on any surface, so there shouldn't be any conflict here. The reason that these ones for you are Rare is so that I can add a modular component, in case we think of something to add to the towers in the future.”

He made a fair point, so Joe simply focused on the actual structure's design. “I'm guessing that their surfaces are shaped like this for your formation plans? Otherwise, this one that looks like a needle with a spoon at the top doesn't make any sense.”

“Correct!” Socar’s eyes lit up as he began talking about one of his favorite subjects, his nervousness over being so close to the front lines of the Beast waves dissolving like a morning mist under the sun. “Each of them has to be placed correctly, and carefully, so that I can ensure that the energy flows of this area are moving smoothly and without turbulence. That’s a zero-point scoop… or I want it to be. We’ll see what actually happens.”

The Ritualist silently decided to use his Essence Cycle skill before and after placing the towers and rituals, just to see how much this actually would impact the world around them. In a land of magic and giants, he certainly wasn't about to discount the notion that it truly mattered.

The conversation ground to a halt as each person expectantly looked over at the Ritualist. Joe cracked his knuckles and let his smile spread. It was finally time to shine.

He internally praised himself for his decision to create only Uncommon or better buildings in the village, and resolved to use only Common-ranked towers for the moment. While they’d have the option to upgrade these in the future, currently he didn’t want to give up any of his higher-ranked building slots, knowing that it would impact the village and his plans too much. “I can make fifty Common towers in total right now if I want to save the morale bonus for Uncommons, but if I'm reading these plans correctly, right now I only have enough materials to make about ten of them. Let's get further away from the village, so that we can maximize our contribution against the monsters.”

Because they were going to be making towers instead of simply placing the rituals on the walls as had originally been decided upon, Socar tagged along and slightly adjusted each placement of what he called the ‘feng shui flags’. Thanks to Joe's Rituarchitect Survey Grid, they were able to shift the final product into the exact position Socar demanded with perfect accuracy; sending Socar into ecstatic outbursts each time they perfectly placed one.

As the tower itself was going to sit on the wall, and was a very simple, Common building, it was the work of only a few minutes for it to be fully formed. Joe watched as his aspects dwindled further, but knew that this was a worthwhile investment. “I'm glad that you included a ladder in the design, otherwise I'm not sure how I’d get up there to place these cubes and the ritual.”

“I tried to think of everything.” Socar humbly deflected, even as he smiled happily at the ease with which his design had been brought into reality. “I'm sure I missed a few things, but these are early designs, so… I guess I'm fine with that. Please feel free to offer guidance on how I can improve in the future.”

Extremely pleased with the start of their business partnership, Joe rapidly scaled the tower and placed the cubes in the edifices that had been designed for this express purpose. Looking closely, he realized that there was quite a bit of detail on the metal talons that would close around the cubes as soon as they were placed. “Huh. Those really do look like an accurate representation of the talons of the Lava Phoenix. He has a good eye for this stuff.”

Before he placed his ritual, Joe lightly brushed his finger against the orb containing Essence Cycle, and found that even with one building, there was a noticeable, if slight change in how power flowed through the area. Similar to placing a spoon in a sink and turning the water on, the energy would strike the top of the tower and be deflected in what seemed like random patterns. However, as he looked deeper, comparing the flowing power with his knowledge of the area, and the map that Socar had already adjusted, Joe realized that those deflections would be caught by the other towers, likely creating a laminar stream of flowing, ambient energy.

Just like that, he started to understand what Formations were all about.

You have met the qualifications for earning the skill Basic Formations at the Novice level. Unfortunately, the disruption in the area makes it impossible for the skill to be quantized. Seek instruction from a higher-ranked Formation trainer in order to gain this skill.

“Hold on, I earned it and I didn't earn it at the same time? Lame.” Joe shook his head as he was pulled out of Essence Cycle by the intrusive notification. He didn't mind missing out on the Formations skill for now, since he knew that as his insights into the use of Formations became deeper he'd likely gain the skill at a higher rank. Perhaps it would even have a positive effect on the skill growth that he knew more before actually earning it.

There was still plenty for him to do, so he tried not to linger on the missed opportunity. With the cubes in place, Joe was able to set up his ritual. Since this was going to be the ritual closest to the exit and the monsters would be bunched into a large group as they tried to enter, he went with his highest damage, largest area-of-effect ritual. “Hard to go wrong with acid-filled bubbles that home in on your enemies.”

The downside was, if any Dwarves came in range of the effect, they would take damage as well. He could only hope they would remain in a better, safer position. With that in mind, he also adjusted the whitelist of the ritual, ensuring it wouldn't target humans or Dwarves. That was the best protection he could put in place with the materials on hand, and this particular ritual. Once it was complete, he slid down the ladder and took a look at the final product.

“Is it just me, or does that look like a scoop of ice cream about to be launched to start a food fight?” Socar chuckled quietly as he examined the building, though he shrugged and started walking away immediately. “I suppose if it works, it's not stupid.”

“I promise you… both can be true.” Joe laughed as well, though he choked slightly as he realized that the small tower had already taken durability damage. Looking closer, he could see that the chaotic energies of this world were essentially working to dissolve the tower. “Abyss, look at that. Entropy at its finest. I'm going to need to point that out to someone, I bet these walls are starting to melt from the inside out.”

Shaking his head, the Ritualist realized that the towers weren't going to be quite as low-maintenance as he'd hoped. If he wanted them to last for any real length of time, he was going to have to swing by on the regular with a Ritual of Repair. Otherwise, just by existing, the towers would slowly collapse. “I think I'm going to have to renegotiate my portion of the gains from this…”

“We already have a deal!” Heartpiercer Mcshootypants called before Joe could start bringing any other issues to light. “No take-backsies!”