Implode ~ 3!

“That’s why we have a completely unknown amount of time to get this taken care of.” Joe was wrapping up his mission briefing to Major Cleave and Jaxon, just as Daniella arrived wearing a travel pack. “Off to… somewhere, Daniella?”

“I’m coming with you. I want to get out of this… whatever it is that you want to call it. I’m thinking you should name this Hamlet ‘The Gilded Cage’?” Her words soured Joe’s mood slightly, and he was a little less receptive than he normally would have been as she stated, “I feel like I was helpful back in the fight against the guardian, so-”

“Not particularly!” Jaxon informed her cheerfully, causing the room to go still. “Though you were excellent moral support, you were—in actuality—a large burden on the team. Your combat abilities are geared toward non-lethal, and your survival instincts are questionable at best.”

Silence met Daniella as she looked to the others to back her up; both Cleave and Joe had busied themselves with something else as the completely unexpected verbal beatdown sent the young woman reeling. The Dwarf started sharpening an axe completely unnecessarily, and Joe willed AutoMate’s huge ebonsteel coffee mug—which he totally needed both hands to hold—to appear in his hands. He took a long, slow sip, savoring the flavor of the perfect roast in lieu of paying attention to the conversation.

She cleared her throat and looked to the chiropractor. “Do you not want me to come along and be a member of this party?”

“I have no issue with you coming along! Whatever would give you that idea?” Jaxon’s head cocked to the side as he regarded her quizzically. “I was merely mentioning that your previous statement was incorrect, as far as I could tell. Would you mind informing me as to how I am wrong?”

“I…!” Daniella thought back on the fight, then slowly shrugged and offered a sheepish smile. “It was a lot of fun to go out and try new things, even though it was scary a few times. Do you guys mind if I come?”

“Keeping yourself alive is your responsibility. Long as you realize that, I don’t care what you do.” Cleave nonchalantly shrugged and motioned for the Architect to sit down. Her deep voice made Joe’s chest vibrate as she patted the human on the arm. “It’ll actually be nice to have another lady along for the trip.”

Joe merely smiled hesitantly, still unsure of his thoughts regarding Daniella. Being around her always made him doubt himself, and he wasn’t sure why. That alone was enough reason for him to feel uncertain whether he wanted her around for the long haul, but before he could say a word, she started speaking in her own defense. “I’ll be a lot more useful in cities, that’s for sure. I think that I'll even be able to point out buildings with unique features and special prowess and see if I can manage to convince the owners to give us access to them. Maybe that’s what I can do while you’re all running around doing whatever it is you need to? I can convince landowners to let you make blueprints out of their structures?”

That settled it for Joe. He knew for a fact that she was an expert in convincing people to let him scan buildings, and that was certainly something he wanted, even if he didn’t currently need it. He’d eventually want to rebuild a Dwarven city for his friends, if nothing else. “Daniella, of course you’re welcome to come along. Like Cleave said, you have to watch out for yourself in combat, but I’m sure your skills will come in handy outside of that.”

“Absolutely,” was Daniella’s only reply, knowing better than to keep trying to sell him on it: any salesman worth their pay knew when to shut their mouth.

“Then, even though I think we’re completely unprepared for this, I guess it’s time to go.” Joe activated the teleporter, choosing to travel to the only available location: the Dwarven Capital.

“A quick question for you, Joe!” Jaxon waved at the energized dais of stone that housed the teleporter. “If we had access to this the last time we went to the capital, why did we travel by bubble?”

“I wanted to test it out.” Joe smiled at the fond memory, which had only been slightly spoiled by breaking his neck upon landing. “Never know when we won’t have access to this sort of system, so it’s good to have everything set and ready for when feces hits the fan.”

“How’s your trainee chiropractor doing?” Daniella questioned Jaxon just as Joe stepped through to the capital, making him miss the assuredly enthusiastic answer.

The Ritualist looked around the area, gulping as he took in dozens of Dwarven guards pointing their weapons at him, suspicion hot in their eyes. “Major General Pyrrhic here, passing through on a mission for the enrichment of the Oligarchy!”

It seemed that his enthusiasm allowed the Dwarves to trust him a small fraction more than they had upon his arrival, and a few of the weapons waved as they scanned him and found that the information matched up. Even so, it was not until Major Cleave appeared that they fully relaxed their ready stance. Joe grumbled about that for a while as they made their way to Grandmaster McPoundy’s workshop and delivered the linked teleportation pad.

Knowing that time had been short, Havoc had deigned to assist in the production of the schematic. Joe wanted to think that there was another reason, perhaps familial love, but… that didn’t seem to play into the Grandmaster’s plans at all. He shook his head at the abrasive Dwarf’s scoffed assertion: ‘These need to be able to expand to allow for large groups of refugees to escape all at once. If I left you to do this, I just know you’d figure out a way to accidentally kill everyone that steps through it. Sit back and pay attention. Maybe try to learn something without having it spoonfed to you?’

Even though he knew that Havoc was correct, it still irked Joe that he wasn't even allowed to have a minor part in the creation of such an awesome item. Teleportation had been the dream of humanity for as long as he could remember—same as flight—and he wanted to be one of the pioneers of this kind of magical technology for humanity. He understood, logically, that having someone else do it correctly the first time was going to be the best use of time and resources… still, he wanted his work and expertise to matter.

One of the smiths carried off the large metal-and-jewel encrusted platform, refusing to allow them in to see the Grandmaster. The Ritualist wasn't sure if it was on orders, or because he just was not well-liked as a member of humanity at this moment. Either way, Joe was fully immersed in a foul mood as they walked away and into town. It didn't help that most shops wouldn’t sell to them as soon as the vendors noted their height, claiming that the goods and services were needed for people they knew for certain would not use them in ‘unsavory ways’.

Eventually, Joe simply gave up on trying to complete anything else in the capital and transferred a large amount of reputation over to Cleave. “I hate to ask this, but would you mind getting the supplies that we are going to need for our trip? I have no idea where we are supposed to go or how to get there. So... maybe a map would be an order?”

“I understand. I'll make it happen.” Cleave seemed to be in a much better mood, ever since she had managed to take care of the Elven subversive group that had been creating zombies in the sewer. Perhaps it was just the fact that she knew for certain that he was not going to betray them, or maybe it was that she had achieved some hands-on catharsis against their sworn enemy. No matter what it was, Joe was just glad that she was acting more normally toward him. “What are you going to do while I’m-”

She stopped short as Joe held up one of his Ritual Orbs and a bottle that Jake had given him. “I'm going to try binding another attribute to my weapon. I figure I’ll just do it in a park or something, then swing over to Tatum's Temple and see if there's anything he can offer for the trip. Advice, spells, you know the drill.”

“Havoc really knows drills,” Jaxon piped up. “How does one go about making a drill into their main weapon?”

“Practice,” Cleave answered with a grunt as she walked away.

Knowing that the Dwarf would get better deals if she went on her own, all three humans adjourned to the park nearby and waited as Joe set up his ritual. “Really, the only thing that I need to do now is figure out which attribute to bind. I did Intelligence, so perhaps I should add its counterpart in the physical characteristics and bond Strength next?”

“Make sense to me! Just like when you are tightening screws, you want to do one side, then the other, so that everything is sturdy and well-maintained,” Jaxon opined as Joe pulled out an inscribing tool and started etching the Ritual Circle on a large section of nearby stonework. “It's always interesting to see you use that stuff; it looks like you’re drawing with fire.”

“Thanks, Jaxon,” Joe muttered as he turned his focus to the Ritual Circle. It was fairly basic, even if it was a Student-ranked ritual. The difficult and dangerous part was the fact that he was assigning something to it—as though the orb was a voodoo doll that controlled his physical strength. As he had learned the first time, it wasn’t a pleasant experience; certainly not something to do lightly. Still, he had gained enough control over his weapons that he felt confident using them long-term.

Extremely long-term.

After the circles were complete, he began etching directly on the orb. He had to put down his understanding of Strength in the equivalent equation form, shaping the resultant calculus to have a sympathetic link to his body. In essence, that meant drawing out his body and highlighting muscles that may or may not really be there. “Now all I need is the Alchemical solution, thank you Jake, and I’ll… activate!”

His bright white robe fluttered in an artificial breeze as the ritual spun up. The orb he had chosen, which was currently bonded with the spell ‘Corify’, was pulled into the center of the ritual. The fluid from the mixture was sucked directly out of the bottle, spreading evenly over the surface of the ritual before the entire thing collapsed around it as though it were a person who had watched through a spiderweb. As soon as the ritual moved, Joe was completely immobilized as the orb and his body fell into sync.

Quest updated: Student Ritualist. 10/20 rituals activated.

The orb dropped out of the air and into his hand, which moved almost entirely on its own to catch what now felt like an extension of his own body. He let out a deep sigh of relief that he had not messed up and damaged himself in a way that he could not yet fix. “Whoo. Oh man, is that nerve-wracking. Let's see what you can do…”

Ritual Orb of Strength (Masterwork). This Ritual Orb has gone through an Alchemic treatment as well as an extra round of enchanting via rituals.

Base Damage: 100 blunt -> shifting in progress.

Characteristic assigned: Strength. Any spell assigned to this Orb will have the primary damage effect slightly altered. Base damage will shift over time to become a damage type associated with the Characteristic.

Automatically grants Orb the ‘recall’ ability; it will return to you after five minutes if left behind, forgotten, or stolen.

Core assigned: 902/1,112

Spell assigned: Corify (Beginner V, awaiting unbinding for skill upgrade).

Ritual Diagram captured: None.

“It's strange that finding this characteristic has such a different effect, although... is it really? It makes sense that Intelligence would enhance a spell. Or… is something happening each time that makes the effects different? Some small alteration in the ritual itself?” Joe rubbed at his bald head, wanting to do nothing more than study this strange phenomenon and its effects. “Let's just do the next one and find out.”

A slew of messages popped up at that moment, startling him enough to make him drop the inscriber that he had just picked up.

Alchemical Rituals has reached Beginner 0! Alchemical side effects created will be 70% easier to understand. This will make it possible to recreate or mitigate them in future rituals!

Ritualistic Alchemy has reached Beginner V!

Caution! You have two characteristics bound to Ritual Orbs. The strain on your being is reaching a breaking point. To continue binding additional weapons, you will need to provide higher-quality energy sources. Recommendation: get a full assessment from a high-ranked Cleric or Alchemist before your next attempt.

“Need a higher-tier ritual and better Alchemical concoctions, but now I’m better at making them. Neat.” Joe translated after he had taken in that information for a moment. He could only be thankful that the system had given him a warning instead of just letting him blow parts of his body off unnecessarily by attempting to do the same thing a third time. He packed up his tools, then looked around at his friends and whispered to himself, “Speaking of damaging me unnecessarily… Cleocatra, I'm thinking of you all the time nowadays. Please don’t randomly attack me.”

With that out of the way, all they could do was wait until Major Cleave showed up with their supplies. As soon as she located them and they divided up their gear, they started their trek toward the next major Dwarven city, a third of the Zone away.