CC 9: Tenacity ~ Nine

“There you are! I've been looking around for you everywhere, do you have any idea how out of alignment all of the spines of these Penguins are?” Jaxon cheerfully called out to Joe as he shattered the back of the enormous monster he was riding on. “Ooh! Crunchy one, aren't you?”

Joe watched as his friend somersaulted off of the creature’s back as it fell forward, landing heavily on the ground only to be slain with a single strike from an oversized ax. The Ritualist had seemingly joined in on the final wave that had yet to be cleared, making him wonder exactly how long he'd actually slept for. The assumption was that it was only a few hours, but between his work and his sleep, he realized that he must have been out for nearly a day and a half. “Any issues out here, Jaxon? I like what they've done with the walls so far.”

“I heard that was your idea? Why wouldn't you like it?” The anti-Charismatic chiropractor chuckled. “Have you seen the other monsters yet? These Penguins are great, good eatin’ too, but the Hoardlings are something else, you know?”

That captured his attention, and Joe looked around with great interest to see if he could pick the creatures out of the battlefield. His gaze roved around the area drinking in the site of the casual wall design he had offered, and even now it was slowly expanding outward as a multitude of Dwarven Engineers, Geomancers, and Earth Mages worked to build them up. It took him a few moments to notice the creatures, even though they were at least as large as the Penguins, if not slightly bigger.

The Hoardlings looked like a bipedal cross between some kind of draconic creature and a silverback gorilla. Its muscular, four-limbed stature exuded an aura of primal strength, and each of the creatures had numerous scars across their body, hinting at countless battles against not only the unforgiving cold, but the other powerful creatures that roamed this planet. Although they had somewhat lizard-like features, they were covered in a thick, shaggy coat of icy white fur, which likely provided protection from the biting chill, as well as allowing it to have a near perfect camouflage as it roamed this frozen tundra.

One major standout were its eyes, the piercing, keen eyes stood out from their fur like frozen sapphires dropped in the snow, and were locked on the warm blooded creatures in front of them with a hungry stare. Its powerful limbs ended in razor-sharp icicle-like claws that protruded from its padded paws, once more seeming to have a  strangely flawed combination of both lizard and ape. As they ran along, their feet would clench, allowing them to hurl themselves forward powerfully, but clearly not giving them the dexterity afforded a true primate.

Based on what Joe could see of it, it was an imposing creature that seemed to max out at approximately twelve feet tall. It was much wider than the Penguins, being nearly eight feet wide at their largest point, but that wasn’t what concerned Joe. No, that prize went to the fact that if they hadn't been pointed out carefully, and moving at a continuous rapid pace through the gaps that had been intentionally left in the walls, he wouldn't have been able to see them. The Ritualist shivered and muttered softly to himself, “Looks like I'm going to need another big boost in my perception for this world.”

“Now, their name isn't what it sounds like.” Jaxon winked at Joe with a broad smile on his face as he blindly lashed out at a passing Penguin, punching it perfectly in the paunch. “I know how your mind works, and when I say ‘Hoardling’-”

“Please don’t.” Joe tried to cut his friend off, only for Jaxon to barrel on with his thoughts.

“-You probably guessed that they go around carrying a bunch of loot, but they don't. I think the ‘Hoar’ part means ‘Hoarfrost’, as every attack they make deals some kind of cold damage. Even when I hit them, they give me a ‘chilled’ debuff.” Jaxon cocked his head to the side and looked at Joe quizzically. “What did you think I was going to say?”

Joe shook his head and refused to answer, instead changing the subject. “I should start collecting a few of them and see if they're worth breaking down. You’d mentioned that the Penguins are a good source of food, has anyone tried the meat off of these?”

“Nah, it’s bad dragon meat.” Jaxon’s face contorted into a disgusted expression, “It's not just a little poisonous, it’s ‘you'd rather go to respawn than finish out the debuff’ poison. Yet, initial tests show that it's useless as a weapon enhancer. It doesn't even make us sick if it gets in our blood. Must have something to do with breaking it down and trying to feed it to our system? Don't worry, I'm sure there will be at least ten academic papers on this in the next year or so. We'll figure it out for sure by then.”

“Well, maybe the skin and bones will be useful for crafting, I’m sure the fur will be useful in this-” Joe's head snapped to the side and his eyes zeroed in on a blurry monster in the distance that had just screamed. “What was that?”

Notice! Every five Beast waves contains at least one elite, or boss monster! As this is the first time this message has been shown, you have been given this information in advance of the monster reaching your walls. Good luck, and stay warm!

As far as Joe could tell, this monster was an oversized version of the Penguins. Unlike all of the others that had come before it, this one was sliding on its stomach at high speed from the moment that it came into view. If he had to make a comparison, Joe was almost certain that this bird was approaching highway speed limit speeds, and was tossing up snow and packed earth in a huge wake, like a shark speeding through the ocean. It didn't seem to care if it slammed into allies or enemies, it was on a mission: the destruction of this offensive town.

“There was quite the change in how the monsters behaved after the guildhall went down.” Jaxon offered the information to Joe offhandedly. “When the guildhall was there, they mostly ignored people and stuff in their way. Now as soon as they get someone in their sights, they try to take them out. Frankly, I prefer this version more! Makes everything more exciting!”

Before Joe could say another word to him, the chiropractor launched himself into a mid-air somersault, landing on a passing Penguin's back. Then he rode it like a surfboard deeper into the Hamlet, shouting in glee the whole time. “Alright… I guess he had places to be.”

The Ritualist watched as the elite monster got closer, only to be met with a wall of Dwarves that reduced it to ribbons in only a few moments. Knowing that he didn't have much to do here, Joe simply started walking back toward the city as the final remnants of the wave were fully cleaned up. They got a notification informing them that the Beast wave had been cleared, but no rewards or other data beyond that. Knowing that it was time for him to return to the guildhall and rebuild it, Joe moved with a cheerfulness that only having a purpose in life can bring.

He was met at the location of the demolished building by a small cadre of Dwarves, including one who was carrying a rolled case. That Dwarf stepped forward and gave a respectful salute, pounding his fist into his chest. “Mr. Joe, it’s been requested that you use this blueprint for a town hall. As the building you had made before was a guildhall, it's equipped more for… shall we say comfort. This’ll be a small, squat building with nearly triple the durability of your guildhall, and should only become more durable as it increases along with the town rank. It’ll be nowhere near as luxurious, but we shouldn't lose it to a couple of Penguins on their first attack.”

The Dwarf ended his small speech with a chuckle as he looked at the rubble. Joe took the package, though he stared at it for a few long seconds to work through his thoughts on the matter. “This won't be a guild town, if it isn't started as such. I suppose that makes sense… we’re attempting to create a fortified city. Tell me this, can a town hall and a guildhall exist in the same city?”

“Very much so.” The Dwarf replied with a firm nod. “A city can have a large number of guildhalls, in fact. So long as the main governmental building began as a town hall. Otherwise, it can't support both.”

Joe had no way to test the truth of that matter, but he didn't see any reason why he would be lied to. He took out the blueprints and went over them, making small, cursory notes as he adapted a Ritual of the Architect to fit the plans. Finally, he nodded at the small contingent of Dwarves, though he did idly wonder why the Masters weren't the ones to meet him here. They came with him, spreading out to fill the role of providing mana as Joe set up his stabilization formation. It was strange to him how much that impacted the area around him, as though a tornado had been churning the air only to be replaced with a cool breeze.

It was futile to try and keep idle thoughts from moving through his mind, so he simply accepted them and finished his setup. Over the next several minutes, he got everyone into position, then activated the ritual.

The city planner then stepped in and moved them to a slightly different location, which he insisted would help with the flow of the city when it had finally been completed in the future. That was the last straw for Joe, and he savagely looked over his aspects  and decided that he would, in fact, be testing out his recently acquired Special aspects. Along with all of the other resources, the Rituarchitect silently imbued fifty of his Phoenix aspects into the design.

From his previous testing, that seemed to be a nice, even number that would be effective for a Common tier building like this. Joe hoped that as the building grew, so would the magic inside of it, and he'd eventually learn what the aspects did. Under his breath, he muttered quietly enough that the Dwarves around him couldn't hear over the strange electrical discharges of the Town Hall being built in front of them, “Then again, if the building comes out covered in feathers, I think they’ll notice. Meh, at least I'll have answers.”

The Special aspects were accepted by the blueprint without question. Joe had been expecting that there’d be a notification if he'd put in too many, and he had seen what happened when he went outside of the upper bound of a safe range. Since this building was not self-destructing immediately, he figured that he'd made the correct call. As the last of the crown molding had materialized onto the building, and the ritual slowly spun to a halt, Joe couldn't tell if anything was different than what he'd expected, based on the blueprints alone.

Building completed: Aspected Town Hall (Common). Congratulations on building a Town Hall for the first time! +50 Rituarchitect experience.

Class Quest updated: Apprentice Rituarchitect III. Meaningful monument-class structures created 1/3.

Joe considered the information he'd just gained. Until now, he had never guessed that the Town Hall would be considered a monument. He supposed it did make sense; monuments were structures that could increase in power over time as they became more meaningful to the community, as well as typically only being able to be created when it made sense to make them. Even if he had a monument that would automatically record the names of friends killed in battle, it’d be impossible for him to actually create the structure and have it work if all of his friends were healthy and hale.

“I'm not going to lie to myself, I think that I've been feeling stifled by Grandmaster Snow ever since I lost my title.” Joe took a deep breath and continued on with his moment of self realization. “I fully recognized that this was just another power play, meant to ever-so-slowly make me lose influence over the area. If I'm unable to play a meaningful part in combat, and am relegated to background tasks where the credit can easily be taken by the leadership of the Dwarves… yeah, I can see how I'd rapidly fade into obscurity.”

His searching glance swept over the building that he'd just created. “But I might be okay with that. If they did it openly, and asked me to stay out of the limelight, I'd probably jump on the chance. You know what? That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm just going to quietly do my work, and let my success be my noise.”

With a sharp inhale, Joe threw his shoulders back and straightened out his pose, standing in the strong, domineering posture that Jaxon always recommended for correct spinal alignment. Slapping a wide smile on his face, he turned on his heel and walked away from the Town Hall without even bothering to go in and inspect his work.

As always, he knew that it would be perfect.