CC 9: Tenacity ~ Eight

The Ritualist started outlining his explanation to the people in the area that could actually get things done. “If this is what I think it is, a tower defense, having perfect walls is actually going to be a detriment. If there isn't a space where the enemy can come walking through, they’ll attack and destroy the walls instead.”

“I certainly hope you don't expect us to remain unprotected.” Snow spoke on behalf of the assembled Masters, who all nodded at her words.

Joe shook his head and waved his hand to have everyone hurry past that comment. “Not at all. Again, this is very easy to test, since they’re such low powered monsters right now. But you can't think of this world as exactly like the one we just left. The rules are different, even if it’s subtle. What we need to do is essentially build out an extraordinarily large maze around the city. The walls can't be fully blocked, because, again, they’ll just be smashed through. Instead, we need to wrap the walls around and find out what’ll keep the monsters moving along the path we set. We need multiple layers to make sure that, if they manage to get over one wall, there’s another one blocking them from pressing forward.”

He could tell with a single glance that his words weren't convincing them. That was fine with him… if they wanted to let everyone die. “Let's be realistic, people! We need to figure this out now. Do you actually think that the walls that you used to make to hold out wimpy little Elves are going to be effective against fifty foot tall behemoths? Or do you think it's more likely that there are hidden win conditions, and the reason this place has no population whatsoever is that no one tried a new way of battling with the monsters?”

Joe's argument made them begin to nod, as they slowly came around to his way of thinking. Havoc pulled on his singed beard a couple of times as he ordered his thoughts, then gestured at the rubble that was the guildhall before speaking. “At the very least, we can take a little chance. Pretty obvious that we need to figure out a new way of doing things, isn’t it? Failure to adapt is what killed off millions of our brothers and sisters in the last world, after all. I’m on board.”

“Thank you for the information, Joe. We’ll take it from here, and start putting these ideas into place. Once we have a layout determined, I hope you’ll be willing to build a Town Hall on our behalf.” The Grandmasters' words were polite, yet firm. Once more, Joe looked at her quizzically, uncertain why it seemed that she was pushing him away. “By chance, have you come up with a solution to the environmental factors?”

Nodding slowly, he pulled out a Ritual Tile and placed it on the ground. Quickly explaining how it worked, he activated the bubble, continuing to add mana to the system until a mental gauge *clicked* into place. Only a few moments later, the air warmed up enough that they could see their breath. Previously, it had been so cold that the vapor leaving their mouths instantly turned to frost crystals and either collected on facial hair, or dropped straight to the ground.

“It might take a while, possibly even another refill of mana, but pretty soon this bubble will be warm enough that you might mistake the area for a balmy coastal destination.” Joe's words were met with cautious smiles, as the layers of debuffs began ever so slowly being removed. Between the warmth, and Joe's Neutrality Aura, the people assembled inside of the bubble bowl were soon blinking rapidly and moving much less carefully.

“That cold is… insidious.” Stu Sarcasm still shivered slightly. “I think you should begin deploying these immediately, instead of waiting for your full quota to be complete.”

Joe looked over at Snow, who was still maintaining a neutral, pleasant expression as she stared at him. “I'm happy to distribute these for free, for now. But something seems to have changed between all of us. I hope it changes back, or if I need to figure out a different way of interacting.”

Snow’s pleasant smile faded into a slight frown at that, before she turned away without a word. Joe looked at Havoc, who merely shrugged and rolled his eyes. Having nothing else to say, Joe left the Ritual Tile where it was, as the bubble slowly heated up the ground and caused a thin layer of water to appear. “Oh! A new feature that I wasn't expecting! Great, now we can secure an easy water supply. I guess if people decide to sleep in these, the beds are going to end up being boat shaped.”

That got a few uneasy chuckles, as everyone was now aware of the strange dynamic that was evolving before their eyes. Deciding that it wasn't his problem, the human stalked away, slightly grumpy over how that interaction had gone. “Guess I'm off to make free housing for the last vestiges of this civilization.”

With the guildhall destroyed, and Jake still refusing access to the pyramid for anyone, Joe had only one other option if he didn’t just want to drop a bubble where he was standing and get to work. He trudged to the forge and plopped down onto the floor, ignoring the ringing blows of hammer on metal as Smitty and a few other, unfamiliar Dwarves, continued working on whatever their own projects were.

He pulled out his Aspect Inscriber, stared down at a Ritual Tile, and shook his head. “Nope, too sleepy to do free work right now.”

Joe stepped outside of the building, walked over to the back corner, behind the front door, where he should be hidden from casual view, and activated a Ritual Tile. A bubble appeared around him at once, barely distorting his view at all, even if he knew that no one else would be able to see in. Knowing that there was going to be quite a bit of water generated, Joe considered going off and finding some sort of tarp, chunk of wood, or other item that would allow him to float. Then he remembered that they were in a wasteland, and the only things that existed were whatever anyone could carry on their backs during their escape.

With a groan of frustration at his sleep being further delayed, he quickly set up a ritual to collect the water in the area. As it was a Novice ranked ritual, Joe was able to create it in mid-air, and instantly. One quarter of a second after the ritual was complete, it exploded in his face. The potential damage was completely mitigated by his Exquisite Shell, being mostly unstructured mana and wind. He blinked once, twice, then pulled out his stabilization cubes and set them up. Using a Field Array to dig a square well one meter wide by ten meters deep, Joe then recreated the ritual in mid-air above his makeshift cistern.

The ritual activated with little fanfare, though it flickered concerningly at first. Then, it did its job perfectly, running smoothly and without any issue. As the icy ground he was on began to melt, droplets of water collected in the center of the ritual, only to drop into the opening. It was designed to only collect water that was above the surface of that hole, so it wouldn't create any issues with grabbing the same water over and over. “I wonder if a Student ranked stabilization set up is overkill for a Novice ritual…”

Completely unable to make his curiosity quiet down, Joe took one of the cubes and tilted it a fraction of an inch to the side. There was no change in the ongoing ritual, so he took away the outer five cubes and waited to see if anything would change. Then he poked the first cube in the triangle, receiving a blast of mana, wind, and water for his trouble. “Noted. Don't mess with the ritual while it is in place and active.”

It was the work of a moment to replace the cubes and the ritual, so he settled in for a nap as the land he was laying on slowly shifted and warmed. Even though Joe was laying directly on the ground with only a spare piece of light armor for a pillow, he slept deeply and well. Hours later, his eyes fluttered open as the sound of bladed edges meeting flesh reached his ears. The squawk of enraged Penguins clarified what was happening. “Musta slept all the way to the next wave. Well, hope they can handle it.”

Joe realized that he must have been far more exhausted than he'd expected, as his mind was now spinning and whirling with its usual speed and efficiency. A quick glance in his makeshift cistern showed him that only a couple feet worth of water had been collected, and he had an oversized ice cube down there to show for it. Just for fun, and because he needed them, Joe pulled the cubes away and let the detonation of the Novice ritual wash over him. “Ah… probably the closest I’m getting to a shower for a long time.”

When he walked into the smithy, he had a bright smile on his face, and set about his work with gusto. “I forget sometimes that even though a high Constitution can let us delay getting sleep, that doesn't mean we need none. Let's see if I can get the creation of these Ritual Tiles down to ten minutes a piece.”

This time, instead of creating all of the circles by hand, Joe set up the stabilization cubes around himself and directly imprinted the first two circles onto the Ritual Tile in an instant. Then he only needed to draw out the Apprentice circle for maximum speed of creation. If Joe wanted, he could push to be able to create that third circle instantly as well, but he felt that he didn't have a good enough grasp on the intricacies to be able to hold it in his mind perfectly. “Maybe by the time I've finished the first hundred?”

Fun little challenge in mind, the stack of ritual bubble housing on his left began growing precipitously. He was wrong, it actually took until the one hundred fiftieth creation of the tiles before he was comfortable imprinting the ritual directly with his thoughts. Then he was able to make one of the bubbles each minute, though he needed to take a short break every fifth one. The mental strain and heavy focus on each individual detail was incredibly taxing, but he knew that the much enhanced speed made it worth it.

Working in the flow state, Joe only stopped when he reached for a fresh tile, only to have his hand touch the floor. His eyes focused on the ground, and he blinked a few times to moisten them. “Would you look at that? Went a little overboard I think, I now have four stacks of a hundred instead of only bare the minimum. Well, I'm sure there's going to be a few people out there that are interested in privacy. Doesn't hurt to be over prepared!”

Pleased with his progress, Joe looked over his notifications, specifically the experience notifications that he'd been ignoring in favor of completing each of the tiles as quickly as possible. “Sum up the experience gain as a single notification, please.”

The slew of messages rapidly condense, turning into a final, single message for him to stare at as his smile grew wider.

Reductionist class experience gained: 4,000!

Congratulations! Your class, Reductionist, has reached level five! To commemorate this momentous occasion, you have been granted a token. At any time, you can choose to exchange the token for the blueprints to a Monument! Hint: There will be times where exchanging the token will result in a better blueprint. Keep your eye out for monument worthy events!

“That’s… nice. Kind of underwhelming for a milestone level? I'm certainly not going to complain though, I could have gotten a simple notification that I'd reached level five!” Joe looked around the workspace that he was in, finding that Smitty was patiently waiting for his attention. He waved her over, noting the slightly guilty expression on her face. “Sorry to say, I don't know what to collect from the other smiths. They've been creating stuff, but I'm not sure if I should take a finished project as a tax, or if I should-”

“Don't worry about it for now.” The Reductionist firmly cut her off. “Until we have a system in place, all we can do is frantically work together without trying to squeeze blood from a stone. I know that most of us have a whole lot of nothing, so until we're all earning some income, I'm not going to hold your feet over the fire for something that’s not costing me anything.”

They exchanged a few other pleasantries, before Joe politely excused himself and went out to see what changes had been made while he'd been sleeping and working. There was a thick, black smoke rising in the distance, and he began trudging toward the landmark while shaking his head. “Seriously, what’re they doing out there? Burning Penguin blubber for heat? Did they somehow figure out how to light the walls they're making on fire?”

Omnivalting closer, Joe decided that he'd simply go and seek the answers out for himself, instead of waiting on a second or third hand account of the situation. That was when he realized that he wanted to be actively engaged in what was going on, instead of being a passive civilian. “I don't care that I’m no longer a Major General, and I've no idea what bug crawled into Snow’s nose, but the next time there's a monster wave, I'm going to get some practice!”