CC 9: Tenacity ~ Eighteen

“If you’ve come to complain about the new laws-”

Joe brushed past the smirking Dwarven receptionist trying to block him from getting further into the building. However, the Ritualist was intimately familiar with this place, having been the person to build it. Simply Omnivaulting off the walls twice at odd angles was enough to put him past the fleshy blockade, allowing him to gracefully stride into the main meeting hall.

He was met by a group of wary-eyed Dwarven Masters, and gave a respectful salute before outlining the issue that he’d run into with the miners. The looks being sent his way shifted away from concern and directly into incredulousness. Having explained the issue, Joe turned on his heel and started walking out of the building.

“Wait! Where are you going?” This question was startled out of Grandmaster McPoundy, who went silent as Joe turned around with a slightly annoyed demeanor.

“Grandmaster, with all due respect, it's been made clear to me that I need to work around you all, not with you. I'm confused by the sudden lack of trust and graciousness that was granted when my services were absolutely required for the survival of your people.” Joe shrugged, but it wasn’t a helpless gesture: it was pure resignation. “Seems strange to me that I've been silently ostracized, but what do you expect me to do? Come here and beg for attention? I've found my niche, and I'm going to run with it.”

Prepared messages sent!

You have new mail!

Eyes flicking to the notifications, he realized that the letters he had written to his mother, a few friends, and even the tentative agreement to remain friends with Daniella had been sent off as soon as he had service; which he assumed was a function tied to the teleporter in the building. With a smile on his face, Joe gave another salute and walked out of the building, ignoring any feeble protests sent his way.

When he was alone, the Ritualist shook his head and voiced his true inner thoughts, “They’re old and afraid. Just need to stay off their radar until they get their feet under them again, or I'm going to be turned into a scapegoat.”

*Oof!*

Joe was sent tumbling to the ground as Havoc suddenly rammed into him from the side. Then the terrain was flashing by underneath him as he was swept up and carried along by the Dwarf, who sprinted into the distance as if his legs were pistons. “Found someone you gotta meet! This is too exciting to let you walk there at the speed of a child!”

“Havoc! What-!” Joe cut off as the momentum roughly shifted, and they came to a stop. Trying not to let the vertigo turn into nausea, he pulled himself upright and looked around at the small group he ‘had to’ meet. At first glance, he was completely unimpressed. He already knew Bauen, the engineer, which was his first clue to take the initial meeting of the others seriously.

The first new face was a human, who was currently dressed in a wrinkled, filthy robe, only somewhat covered by a large coat obviously meant for a much shorter, stockier body. Although the man was standing there shivering, Joe could see a fierce intelligence in his eyes. Havoc began introductions, “This is Sucker-”

“Socar.” The man retorted instantly, clearly used to this joke. “Hello, Joe. We've heard a lot about you, and we think that you're going to be instrumental to our project.”

Havoc interjected immediately, “Yes, yes, we're all very excited. Introductions first. How do you ever expect to build up your Charisma if you cut straight to the heart of every matter?”

The Mage looked like he’d been slapped with an astounding truth, and bowed at the waist as the words percolated in his skull. “Thank you for your guidance, Grandmaster!”

“You know Bauen, so we'll skip talking about him.” The engineer mockingly shook his fist at Havoc for those words, but the Grandmaster was already on to the final introduction. “Lastly, this is Heartpiercer Mcshootypants-”

“Before you ask, I didn't know names would be locked in.” She interrupted with a long-suffering sigh. Joe looked at the heavily customized visage of the bow-carrying twenty-something-year-old lady: everything from the bleached-white hair flowing around her in the wind, to the eyes as pale as the snow that capped the highest mountains of Jotunheim, practically screamed that she’d started in Eternia with a mouse and keyboard. Her complaint finished with a low growl, a reminder that even those with the most enchanted, customized appearances were still beholden to frustration and impatience. “Or that they would say the entire name every time they talk to me.”

Frankly, Joe was surprised that Heartpiercer hadn’t decided to side with the Elves when she got to the second world. Between her unrealistic appearance and clear disposition toward archery, he assumed she’d have fit right in. Joe rubbed at his own bald head ruefully, reminding himself that perhaps he shouldn’t be one to instantly judge people by their appearance.

“Heartpiercer Mcshootypants is an expert on targeting sequences and has been studying the field of overlapping fire with a Dwarven Master. Socar has been studying Formations and variant architecture, and as you know Bauen is an expert in engineering and logistics.” Havoc took a breath, waiting to see if Joe would be able to use the incomplete information to understand the project at hand. Joe, having gotten used to the Grandmaster, simply waited patiently. “Pah! Fine, I'll spoon feed you just this once. Together, you can set up some designs for rituals that can assist in the annihilation of the Beast Waves that are coming in.”

“You can figure out a ritual and tell them what sort of range it has.” Havoc pointed at Socar, Heartpiercer Mcshootypants, and Bauen in order. “Then this one can tell you the best placement of each ritual in sequence, to assist in destroying the enemy without damaging our defenses or defenders. She can help you fine tune your range and account for the movement speed and dodging abilities of monsters. Then my Dwarven minion here can assist you in getting whatever you need to set all of this up, and ensure that you've access to what might otherwise be restricted areas. Figure the rest out yourselves, I've got my own issues.”

A crater appeared where Havoc had been standing; the snow underneath him shot into the air as though an artillery shell had landed next to the group. Each of them was sent stumbling away, slight concern in their eyes as they tried to see if the Dwarf had just taken a spell directly to the face. After a moment of careful examination, Joe rolled his eyes. “I'm not seeing any blood… or oil. I guess if there's something out there that could disintegrate him from a distance, without any warning, there's nothing we could do anyway. Most likely, he just ran off at his top speed so that we couldn't ask him any questions. He does that.”

“Dude pulled a batman without even waiting for us to turn around!” Socar shook his head in amazement, a wide smile on his face. “I can't wait until I can do something like that!”

The Mage’s enthusiasm was infectious, and broke the ice enough for the group to start getting to know each other. After pleasantries were exchanged, Joe realized that each of them was getting fairly chilled, but Socar especially looked like he was about to die on the spot. Cursing himself for missing out on that fairly clear issue, Joe pulled out a Ritual Tile and erected a bubble around them. As mana converted to heat and filled the enclosed space, each of them was soon able to loosen their outermost garments.

That led to a moment of great confusion as the Mage took off his overcoat, revealing that what Joe had assumed was a fur scarf was actually a cat wrapped loosely around the man's neck. He leaned closer, studying the animal closely for a moment, before subvocalizing, “Nyanderthal.”

He could see the cat’s eyes widen, then the ‘pet’ winked at him a single time. Joe assumed that meant they would speak privately another time. He knew better than to expose the cat, as members of the Hidden Race were very touchy about their status. Heartpiercer took over the conversation, pointing at the ritual that had given them a small workspace. “I didn't know these things could generate heat! I thought they were just for blocking the wind.”

That put a frown on Joe's face, and made him wonder how many of his other creations were being underutilized. Before he could dive into that thought process any further, the bright-eyed archer started picking out portions of his ritual diagram and talking about vectors. Deciding to humor the archer-not-a-mage, he let her ramble for a few moments, but his smile dropped off as her terminology took a turn for the eloquent.

“-then if I'm not mistaken, this section is what you're using to create the bubble. I’d looked at the one in the bubble I'm sleeping in, and I see the same issue hasn’t yet been addressed on this one. This is clearly intended to create a full dome, but streamlined energy usage is contraindicated by the full sphere—as it constantly tries to form even while impacting the ground. Adjusting this to one point two radians should decrease mana consumption enough to be a significant improvement.” Finally finishing her thought, she looked up to see each of the other members of this strange group watching her with admiration. “What?”

“I’d never thought to look at this section in terms of radians. I've only been using degrees and parabolic arcs.” Joe started laughing at himself, “Just by adding in that much, you've probably saved me hundreds of thousands of mana over this upcoming year alone. I was watching in shock because I didn’t think someone in such a different field of study would be able to pick apart my formulas like that.”

“Archery is math.” She stated with an easy shrug, “Adjusting for the curvature of the earth, wind speed, penetration necessary for damaging your target, applied force and vectors. It takes people a long time to realize this, that's why you're not going to see very many human archers on Jotunheim.”

Socar jumped into the conversation at that point, eager to prove that he was equally as valuable to the group. “Joe, this isn't an official assignment, Havoc just told us to try and figure something out. I've a bunch of ideas for what we can do to not only boost the power of your rituals, but also to grab a bunch of resources for ourselves. Before I get into that, I need a few guarantees. One, all of the blueprints or patents for devices I help create become open source. In a world like this, we don't need to bottleneck ourselves by gatekeeping information. We need as many people creating our defenses as possible if we are going to survive and thrive. Two, I want a quarter of whatever monsters we take down.”

The entire group dove into negotiations, with Joe pointing out that the two requests were mutually exclusive. “I'm just saying, if you say that everything we design is going to be open source… as soon as it's public, why would I give you a portion of whatever I'm killing? Royalties come from exclusivity.”

Eventually, they agreed on a much more limited scope, but so long as each of them was working their hardest to make their defensive project a success, they agreed to split everything evenly. With that agreement hashed out, Socar finally started explaining what he was bringing to the table.

“Do all of you know what I mean when I say that I've been studying Formations?” The Mage smirked slightly as he got the exact answer he’d been expecting, although Bauen rolled his eyes as though it were a question meant specifically for children.

“It's where you put stuff, for maximum effect, right?” Joe offered his thoughts, thinking back to his time in the military, both on Earth and working with the Legion. “For instance, a Delta formation is used for specific types of attacks, specifically aggressive ones where you're trying to punch through an enemy-held location. I know there’s a magical variant that you’re referencing, but I’m not familiar with it.”

“You are correct, that is called a formation.” Socar languidly stated as the Dwarf in their group chuckled softly. “But I think the closest analog from Earth would be feng shui; using the environmental, ambient energy of the world around us to enhance what we are attempting to do. When we combine that with Heartpiercer Mcshootypants’ expertise in overlapping fields of fire, we will be able to see a massive increase in everything from accuracy to destructive potential.”

Not completely convinced, Joe leaned back and tried it to keep the disbelief out of his voice, even as he reconsidered the deal they’d just struck, “I don't mean to sound too skeptical, but how much of a boost are we talking? If you're going to tell me that we're going to get a one to three percent boost, I’m going to ask if your studies involved burning a lot of ‘incense’.”

“They did. In fact, I can name one hundred and seventeen different types of incense that are useful for the practical application of Formations.” Socar chuckled as Joe’s face distorted, “But no, following the principles of the Dragon’s Nest Formation, and going by the sheer space that we will be setting up, we should be seeing one to two hundred percent at the low end. If we build with expansion in mind, by the time this place is a city, that should be in the low thousands of percentage increases.”

There was silence for only a moment, before Joe leaned forward and offered a hand. “I’m in.”