Implode ~ 29!

“To get the most out of my Lore, I need to bring my Magical Matrices to a higher tier. If I can bring it to the Journeyman rank, I will gain at least a forty percent bonus to putting concepts into actual practice.” Joe was doing a quick rundown of his class abilities and trying to figure out ways to improve them as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately for him, the only way that he could think to train this particular skill was by utter grinding. It was unfortunately imperative for all applications of magical crafting, from Alchemy to Zombification, and thus could not be neglected.

“How did enchanted Ritual Circles and Ritualistic Alchemy fall so far behind?” Joe knew the answer, even if he wanted to grumble about it. They were entire professions, as well as classes, on their own. Some of the best smiths that he had encountered in the Dwarven Capital had been some of the most reluctant to teach someone else their craft. He would eventually be able to convince Grandmaster McPoundy to teach him, but that would occur after the fall of his entire race, and Joe was not entirely certain how willing he would be to help someone from the race that had made it happen.

He also had ten years during which he could receive training from Jake, the Alchemist, but that came with its own set of concerns. Havoc had not called Jake a person, a human, an Elf, or anything like it. He had warned Joe about making deals with entities like Jake, and that did not bode well for the future. Still, they had a deal, and he knew that as soon as he was able to make it back to The Shoe, he would experience a crash course in the skill that would make the things Havoc put him through seem like fun little games. Abyss, the first time he had met the Alchemist, the man had blasted him with the equivalent of magical bear mace and tried to entice him into creating a human zombie apocalypse.

“Whatever. Eventually, I will have teachers and a secure way to increase these skills. So what can I tackle on my own? What can I boost without outside influence?” He already knew the answer, and that was why he was procrastinating. It was down to either Magical Matrices or Ritual Circles. Even then, he was almost certain that he would gain boosts to his Ritual Circles as soon as he got better at using alchemy and enchanting when he was creating them. That meant, to his chagrin, it was all back to skill grinding.

He was fine with that, in no small part because he keenly felt the need to replace his arsenal. Almost everything that he had been able to use against the Elven Theocracy when they were coming after him had been utility rituals, whose main usefulness had been to help him escape. The main present obstacle was the fact that an entire race of people was too much to plan against. He did have one particular group of enemies that he knew was going to be after him, and decided to begin working to counter them.

“Herr Trigger wants to use something as unsportsmanlike as guns in a magical world?” Joe scoffed at that thought, thinking back to the self-righteous, entitled Bounty Hunter that was hunting him. “I have no idea why a Luddite like that would be good at enchanting, but it is clear that he is never going to adapt to this world properly unless he is forced to do it. That works for me; makes him easy to counter. If I plan properly and keep what I need on hand.”

The Ritualist ultimately decided to design a set of protective rituals that should allow him to practically ignore normal caliber bullets. “He is always blasting with his revolvers, hitting me at a distance with his rifles, and focusing on heavy penetration of shields and the like. What if I don't even bother to set something up to stop bullets? What if I set something up to stop stinging flies?”

A hint of dark mana seeped from his eyes as he smiled wildly, his Dark Charisma goading him towards violence. “Bullets that he is using in regular combat are small, single-target, but fast. I will need a triple layer of protection in order to make this viable. The first will be a field that extends as far as possible, sensing anything passing through it extremely rapidly. The second will be activated by the first, sensing if the incoming item is biological or not. The third will create a series of tiny shields, almost a cylinder of panels, that will each fractionally deflect the projectile until it hits the ground. It's going to be really difficult to test it out, but on the plus side, I probably won't have to wait long.”

He got to work, and soon had a basic concept idea drawn up. Without the knowledge he had gained from the conditional ritual, there was no way he would have been able to put something like this into practice. Even so, it seemed that it was going to end up being a Journeyman ritual at the minimum, because there was just no way he could calculate each of the triggers without the additional supporting framework. It was inefficient and clunky, but he was fairly certain it would do the job.

Joe spent several hours squeezing as much as possible out of his Lore skill, as well as simplifying as many equations as possible with his Magical Matrices, but in the end, he only managed to reduce it from the equivalent of a Journeyman level eight ritual to a Journeyman level three ritual. It didn't sound like much, but that small adjustment allowed him to save hundreds of Unique-rank aspects. Finally, he was ready to create the first prototype.

Back when he had still been allowed to use ink in order to create rituals, he would have simply used the room to create the overall circle, then filled it with ink or slapped it onto a paper. Unfortunately, that would no longer work for… Joe paused, remembering how he had created each layer in his A.S.P.E.C.T. tower. He recalled his ability to use Somatic Ritual Casting and decided to go for it. Pulling out his inscribing tool, he set the ritual up by using the strange material provided by the building itself.

Mentally willing it to slowly rotate, he began at the innermost circle, the Novice circle, and accustomed himself with feeling how the strange fire would hang in the air. Thanks to Somatic Ritual Casting, he was able to force the drawn-out aspects to also spin, keeping them rotating in tandem with the goo. As he wrote, the goo faded away, allowing him to trace without fear of destroying the building's precious resources. It took a little bit of doing, but it eliminated the need to maintain a mental image of the entire Ritual Circle, which made the proposition all the more doable.

He continued on, completing the Beginner, Apprentice, and Student Circles without issue. Then, for the first time, he crafted a Journeyman-rank ritual while using the skill that allowed him to draw in midair. He had initiated a large barrier around himself, but there was still a good chance that he was going to fry.

Somehow, he didn't.

Joe pressed on, driven nearly to distraction as he constantly braced for the imminent explosion, but a few hours after starting, the Circle was completed. He stared at it, completely dumbfounded, barely aware of the skill increase notifications that appeared. “How? How did that happen?”

You have created a triple condition ritual for the first time! Bonus experience gained: 500.

Ritual Magic has reached Expert VII!

Ritual Circles has reached Expert VI!

Enchanted Ritual Circles has reached Beginner VIII!

Magical Matrices has reached Student IX!

Somatic Ritual Casting has reached Apprentice III!

Quest update: Student Ritualist. 12/20.

Increasing his skills wasn't enough for him. He wanted to know why he had been able to succeed. “Come on, system. We both know that should have blown up in my face and left me with a single shoe, if I was lucky. The fact that I got through the Student Circle was already impressive. Speaking of, that was a Journeyman ritual; why did I get a quest update?”

He dug into it further, finally locating what he was looking for under the information about the building. Only now that he had somehow used the benefits that it provided without fully understanding them did it reveal what they were.

Grand Ritual Hall (Legendary) accessible benefits.

1) Ritual stability increased by 100% per tier under Legendary.

2) All rituals Legendary-tier or below may be created using materials one rank lower than required. The resulting ritual will be considered one rank lower than its design suggests.

3) Not yet discovered.

4) Access not granted.

5) Access not granted.

Joe stared at the new information, trying to decide how he should be reacting. On one hand, he was very grateful that the ritual was three hundred percent more stable than he had expected it to be, and that he was seeing progression for his class Quest. He clapped nervously and took in a breath through his nose, “On the other hand, there are complaints, so we will just wash that off and move on. I didn't explode, and the ritual was successful. The whole thing used Rare aspects; of course the building considered that I was trying to make it a tier lower than it actually was. The real question is… how can I exploit that?”

All at once, a major issue with his latest accomplishment clicked into place. Joe stared up at the swirling, entrancing ritual with a forlorn sigh. “Welp. I have no way to transport this. Probably should have burned it into a Ritual Tile instead of creating a giant eyesore in the middle of the room.”

Carefully not looking at the ritual that he was leaving in place, Joe stepped about twenty feet away and started his next project. “Prototype number two: something to fend off that wolf that has a chainsaw instead of a mouth. For some reason, bear mace is coming to mind, and I think I know how I can replicate it.”