Implode ~ 7!

As he waited for his death timer to count down, Joe decided that this would be a good opportunity to go over his messages and stats, and plan out what he needed to do to get the situation in his favor once again.

Name: Joe ‘Excommunicated’ Class: Reductionist

Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (1/20)

Profession III: Grandmaster’s Apprentice (14/25)

Profession IV: None.

Character Level: 22 Exp: 274,424 Exp to next level: 1,576

Rituarchitect Level: 10 Exp: 53,700 Exp to next level: 1,300

Reductionist Level: 3 Exp: 8,836 Exp to next level: 1,164

Hit Points: 2,139/2,139

Mana: 7,585/7,585

Mana regen: 63.2/sec

Stamina:1,711/1,711

Stamina regen: 6.57/sec

Characteristic: Raw score

Strength (bound): 164

Dexterity: 166

Constitution: 158

Intelligence (bound): 174

Wisdom: 158

Dark Charisma: 111

Perception: 161

Luck: 96

Karmic Luck: 18

There hadn’t been any drastic changes since the last time he had gone over everything, but it was always good to get a baseline for when he wanted to see how much he had grown. “Need to get luck over a hundred; that’s likely making things harder for me than they need to be. As always, that and charisma are the most needed stats.”

He sighed and turned his attention to his skill pages, trying to consider what he could use more effectively. He was leery of adding his Dark Lightning Strike to an orb, same with his Acid Spray, as that would leave him effectively empty of immediate spell-casting. Resurrection and Retaliation of Shadows both carried such rare and complex requirements that he assumed would make it nearly impossible to translate them over. Wither Plant was a spell that he wanted to get rid of, due to its niche applications, and his healing spells… “Could I channel Lay on Hands through an orb? It’s a divine spell, but I feel like it's natural, so I should be able to do it, right?”

Then his attention landed on Planar Shift, and his eyes lit up. “Now there’s an idea… it requires Ritual Circles, but I’m currently vastly underutilizing all of my orbs—or I’m using them for gimmicks. Makes me wonder how Herr Trigger managed to throw off that Ritual of Insanity.”

Joe made a note to look through his book on summoning to find a combat-capable creature. “First one down. The second attempt is going to be Lay on Hands, so I’ll research the underpinning spell usage when I get a chance. Any other skills? My body and mind skills all require senses, so no… wait.”

Essence Cycle practically jumped off the skill list, and he remembered one of the main issues with actually using that skill: namely getting lost in the beauty of all the energies that created the framework of this universe. “If I could put that in the orb, all I would need to do is let the mana battery die instead of tasking someone with shaking me out of it.”

That would do for now, at least for the orbs, but he was glad that he had a direction for each of them. “Speaking of orbs, didn’t Corify change on this?”

He quickly scanned the information panel that appeared when he held the Ritual Orb of Strength, searching for any new details to the spell.

Corify Deadlift: Add 1n% chance that any target creature which dies within five seconds of spell cast will solidify a Core upon dying. Cost: 100 mana. Cooldown: five seconds.

Upgrade (Only usable while assigned to Ritual Orb of Strength): When this spell is cast on a target below 3% of their maximum health, there is a 2% chance that the Core will instantly solidify and be pulled toward the caster, simultaneously killing the affected target.

“Now that has some serious potential.” Joe grasped the dumbbell-shaped Ritual Orb and curled it a few times, just for old time’s sake. He wasn’t expecting a notice to appear.

Alert! You cannot train your characteristics while you are dead. You are welcome to practice your form, of course!

“Now that I think about it, using my orbs would be excellent training, wouldn’t it?” The Rituarchitect pondered the possibility for a moment as he tested how well he could press the orb away with his mind while simultaneously attempting to lift it. As far as he could tell, his mental strength outclassed his physical by a wide margin, and his stats backed that up. “I can use this for resistance training to boost skills and characteristics at the same time? I bet I can.”

*Ding!* An unread message appeared on what he was fairly certain was a computer screen, where all his mail accrued while he was alive and not bothering to look over it in safe areas like taverns. He strolled over, welcoming the notice; it was always good to know that someone out there was thinking about him.

Message from Aten: Joe, I’m in the Dwarven Capital, and you should get over here as soon as you can. There’s someone that I think you should meet; he has some great information that could be helpful for us. If you can get to the Sticky Chicken eatery by five in the evening tomorrow, it’ll be worth your time.

A glance at the clock and some rapid finger-math left Joe nodding, so he sent back a message affirming his planned attendance. Without anything else to do, he sent a few messages to friends, as well as his mother, then decided to start reading through his book on summoning creatures. He slowly paged through it, forced to maintain the reduced pace due to a buildup of pressure as he progressed.

Any Novice summon was easy to read about, and Beginner was fine, but at Apprentice, things became slightly harder. He had started as a Student in this skill, which allowed him to read those pages as well. However, when he reached a fresh chapter of the book, which detailed upper-Student and low Journeyman summons, he started to get a serious headache.

There was a definitive point where he simply couldn’t push on, the words becoming blurry figures that hurt his head with each attempt to focus, and he knew that he had reached his limit for his current skill level. “Ugh… I know I can’t die here, but what’s with this feedback? I never had to worry about that out there; the words would just become illegible!”

Some system functions—such as mental pain mitigation—are not available during respawn. Please note that your mind is a fragile construct, and severe pain during a respawn session should be a great time to stop doing whatever you are doing before you break it.

Thoroughly freaked out by the discovery that he actually could damage himself in respawn, Joe hurriedly paged back to the low-Student-ranked summons and tried to narrow down what he should be bringing with him. “Jaxon and Major Cleave are melee fighters, Daniella is… not something to take into consideration currently, and I’m mid-range.”

His mind went back to the fight against the Hidden Guardian, and he remembered the way that the bird form it had shifted into had been able to firebomb massive sections of the area with barely any fear of retaliation. “I need a long-range creature, but not something that flies. At least not something large and easily spotted… Herr Trigger has a nasty new weapon, and those Elves are surprisingly effective at taking things down in midair.”

The Rituarchitect rubbed at his chest, which had taken the brunt of the exploding glass beads. That attack had been crafted by Elves on the move—he didn’t even want to think about what they could do to someone when they were attacking from a fortified position. “Fire Elementals can toss fireballs… too likely to hit allies. What’s this? Is this a bad idea? I feel like it’ll give people the wrong idea about me if nothing else.”

He was staring at a creature that was apparently only ever summoned to defend stationary positions, as it had no way of getting around on its own. It resembled a human skull, though it had long fangs instead of upper and lower canines. The Ritualist decided to go over the information once more, just to make sure he didn’t want it. “Pseudo-Lich skull. This creature is the result of a failed union between a corrupted mage seeking immortality and a powerful entity that tried and failed to take control of the mage. The mage’s skull becomes immortal, and a small portion of their memories are retained. Pros: it has True Sight, which renders illusions and disguises useless. It can also cast dark-mana bolts of various power levels, reaching the Student Ranks at a maximum.”

Curious, Joe read over the cons, then winced. “Cannot move on its own, highly likely to attempt to kill its summoner unless they have good compatibility as well as an offer that excites the Pseudo-Lich. Makes for an excellent guard of an area that you expect to be attacked frequently, but if it gets too bored, it will attack anyone, including the summoner. Phew… I don’t know, it seems like a bad idea.”

Even so, something about the image in his head felt right. Being a powerful Mage with a skull-topped staff or something, living in a magical tower, and scaring off random thrill-seekers appealed to him. “Wait, why would I put that on a staff… instead of an orb? Then I could make it fly around. I bet that would get a Pseudo-Lich excited to sign a contract.”

*Ding!* Joe walked over to read the new message, noting that he only had a few more minutes to wait before he could leave this place.

Message from Jaxon: Joe, Daniella is here, she respawned just after I did. You don’t need to worry that she got captured. She let us know that they killed her when she was struggling and the Legion was closing in! Just thought I’d put your mind at ease!

The portal popped open as Joe frowned in contemplation. “I thought I saw her getting hauled away… how did she get back there before I did?”