Implode ~ 21!

Happily, the presence of Major Cleave made the welcoming party actually welcoming, instead of an angry mob out for their blood. It was with a collective sigh of relief that they were welcomed into the city, which apparently had been expecting to be besieged, rather than visited. Even with their story checking out, their Dwarven companion vouching for them, and Joe’s high rank in the Legion, they were still assigned a high-level guard as their escort-slash-executioner.

The guard had been told to play nice with them, and happily, he seemed to take that aspect of the job seriously. No matter what question they threw at him, he did his best to answer it in a clear and concise manner. If he was allowed to speak on the subject, that is. The magical city, as it turned out, was governed by a Council of Masters, with a Grandmaster acting as the tiebreaker in any instances when it was required. Technically, the Grandmaster was in charge of the city as a whole and had the right to veto anything the Masters proposed.

That gave Joe the feeling that the entire mountaintop was one giant university, similar to the Mage’s College, though with a tremendous difference in scale. Thanks to spatially enhanced buildings, as well as what had previously been easy access to the city with any teleporter, the municipality was brimming with highly specialized Dwarves. There were very few merchants, farmers, or laborers of any kind. Any of such classes that were present tended to be instructors in their field, instead of actively practicing their class skills.

All together, this meant that the city was soon going to be facing a resource crisis, and the Council was exceedingly busy. According to the guard, it would be practically impossible to meet the Grandmaster directly, and even getting an audience with one of the Masters would be a huge undertaking. Joe found the restriction completely unacceptable, as he knew that his settlement had only a short amount of time remaining before it would be discovered. The invasion was moving faster than any of them had expected, and as soon as seventy-five percent of the land was claimed by the Elves, the location of The Shoe would return to the memory of his enemies and be in danger.

“Please tell me if there is a way to expedite the process? Can I bribe someone? I have a ton of Reputation that I am willing to fork over.” The Ritualist groaned as he rubbed at his bald head. The guard was utterly shocked at the blatant violation of the law that this human had just casually offered, and was reaching for his weapon by the time Joe started to wave him down. “I'm joking, joking! I meant that as a symbol of the lengths that I am willing to go to, not as something that should happen. Funny, right? Right?”

The guard didn’t seem to think so. “There are multiple options for meeting with the Council. All of them must be good, valid reasons. Wanting to have a talk with the ruler of our city for personal gain is not a good, valid reason.”

“Can you believe they say I get snippy during conversations!” Jaxon stage-whispered to Daniella, elbowing her in the side in a joking manner but sending her tumbling across the street from using too much force. “Whoops! I forget I’m in such a young, virile body every once in a while.”

“Right…” The guard motioned to the center of the city. “You could either meet one of them by chance in public, as all of them enjoy tea houses—”

Joe shuddered and made a face at the mention of hot leaf juice.

“—or perhaps you could contribute to the safety or overall well-being of the city so much that you will be brought forward to be honored.” He was about to say something else, but the Dwarven guard paused, seemingly biting his tongue.

That was enough to clue Joe in that there was a third—likely more viable—option for him. “What were you going to say? Spit it out. You've already started, so now you've got to tell us.”

“I… fine, I suppose there is no harm in you knowing about it.” The guard regarded the human with a small smirk. “You could always attempt to join the Council of Masters by challenging one of them to a display of Mastery. Of course, you would need to have your own Mastered skill or spell, and be able to teach it to more people, faster, than the current Masters can. This would give you automatic rights to enter the Council, and I'm sure you would be able to figure out a method of speaking to the Grandmaster from there.”

Charisma +2!

“Well, that settles it.” Jaxon shook his head at the guard knowingly. “You laid down a challenge after a slight hesitation. That means that we must take that option and follow it to the bitter end, succeeding beyond your wildest dreams and proving that we have what it takes to be better than anyone else. Because that is what we do.”

Joe didn't want to admit that Jaxon had his number and tried to accept one of the other options. “No, we don't… that's not something we have to do. Come on.”

“My friend, you have a lot to learn about the hero's journey.” Jaxon shook his head knowingly. “Something like that is an obvious Chekhov's gun. Someone can't just bring it up so pseudo-casually and expect us not to do it. At this point, everyone is expecting you to do it. So why flail around and try all those other things, when we know what you are going to do?”

At that moment, Joe wanted to strangle the man he had been traveling with for far too long. He reached out with both hands, making the motion in the air, before forcibly relaxing and setting his palms to his sides. The Ritualist then turned to the guard with as broad of a smile as he could manage, “Is there any detriment to challenging a Master? If I fail to prove my ability, are we going to get chucked out of the city or anything?”

“No, nothing like that.” The Dwarf was smirking over the interplay between party members. “Although whichever Master you challenge may have a lower opinion of you, as every Master who is challenged is called out specifically. That means if you put it forward, it is the same as telling them that you think they are the least skilled among their peers. It's a surefire recipe to get someone mad at you, but it is part of the regulations of the city, and they will honor that.”

“Fair enough.” Joe sent a side-eye glare at his team, who were all snickering at him. “How does one make a challenge to one of the Masters?”

“You speak with someone of high enough rank to get the ball rolling.” The guard was beaming with anticipation. “That would be me. Thanks for doing this; we've all been aching for some entertainment. Do you mind if I choose which Master you are going to go up against?”

“That is a hard no from me.” Joe scowled at the guard, who was clearly trying to set him up.

“Perfect! I will make the arrangements right away.” The guard vanished, and Joe realized too late exactly what he had just agreed to.

“I meant that I don't want you to pick for me!” Joe howled into the empty air, but the Dwarf was either too far away or ignoring him for the sake of entertainment. “I meant no, I didn't want you to choose for me!”

“I was surprised when you allowed him to make the choice.” Major Cleave ushered them along, pushing the group closer to the center of the city.

“I said no!”

“Right, when he asked you if you would mind if he did it.” The Dwarf looked at him without a trace of humor in her eyes. “You clearly said you didn't mind; a ‘hard no,’ in fact. That’s on you.”

Joe internally lamented the fact that the Dwarven race regarded a few things so differently. “We can almost always get along and understand each other, but as soon as it really matters, they make a joke out of it. I swear…”

“What would you all like to do while we wait for the challenge to go through?” Daniella was gazing around longingly. “Any chance someone would want to go and take a look at that sewage treatment plant? It is put together in a way I’ve never seen before, and I think that-”

“Pass.” Jaxon and Major Cleave both held up a hand to forestall any further details at the same moment.

Daniella turned to Joe pleadingly, but he was so sick of dumps and sewers that the thought of going to a new one made him physically tired. “I can't do it right now. If you want to go talk to them, I would be happy to make you a blueprint later, if they allow it.”

“That's fair, and more than I can normally ask for. Where will I be able to find you?” The young lady was barely in the moment with them, her eyes traveling the boxy structure of the distant building, her nose twitching as if to see if she could get a whiff of stench in the air. “Do you think it is magically contained? It must be, right? Oh… sorry, did you say something?”

“I didn't, and I guess you can go ahead? Our escort left us, not the other way around, so… I assume it's fine for us to do whatever it is we want to do?” Joe pointed at a uniquely shaped structure in the distance. “We can meet up under that, or just look for the largest crowd you can find. We’ll either be at one, or the center of the commotion.”

“Plan to look for commotion.” Jaxon winked at the Architect, and she nodded in return. As she ran off to investigate the rustic, yet charming architecture, the Chiropractor turned his attention on Joe. “I've got to know, when are you going to make your move?”

“Right away,” Joe told him firmly, receiving a tiny smattering of applause from his remaining companions. “After all, he said that another path forward would be meeting a Master by random chance or contributing to the city. What if I contribute to the city in such a way that it draws as many people as possible? If they are in imminent danger of having a food crisis, I know a building that would be extremely beneficial to the city.”

“He's pretty thick, isn't he?” Major Cleave nudged Jaxon as she shook her head in disgust at Joe's obliviousness.

Jaxon couldn't help but agree with her assessment. “I feel like Daniella is interested in his thickness. It’s too bad he can’t see that.”

“What?” Cleave frowned at the Chiropractor in confusion.

“Hmm?” Jaxon met her eyes innocently and extended a hand. “Did you say something? Hello, I’m Jaxon. And you are?”

“Get out of my way. I already warned you that I’d cut off any hand you tried to touch me with.”

“Now that doesn’t sound familiar at all.”