Implode ~ 1!

“I don't know what to tell you, Joe. We’re focusing on turtling up, and I’m actively against doing anything else.” Havoc tapped his cigar on on ashtray, sending the burning cinders to land in the porcelain dish with a too-loud *clunk*—as though rocks had been dropped into the dish. “The Shoe is closed tighter than an Elf's grip on one of their holy books. You’re just going to have to stay here and train like I’ve been pushing ya to do.”

“I'm telling you that I need to travel to one of the other cities and convince another Grandmaster to come here.” Joe’s voice was as calm as he could keep it, but several days had already passed, and they’d had this conversation time and again. He practically threw the information from the quest at Havoc, who waved it to the side to read later. “Look at that, Havoc. I have a quest that will turn this place into a hidden Hamlet. If we combine that with your obfuscation and defensive measures, we’ll have a solid position to strike back against the Elves after we build up our forces and prepare. But we need that time, which means I need to get moving!”

“You can’t just be thinking about yourself, being all nice and calm as you go about your business. If I open a door for you, everyone is going to run out of it.” Havoc nodded into the distance, highlighting various groups that were forming up and preparing to attempt breaking out of the volcano. “All they want to do is get outside and throw themselves into the meat grinder. They want revenge; they want to get straight into combat. Every single one of them is going to get turned into Elves If I let them walk away.”

Shouting reached them as someone ran out of a building holding a communication device. “This just in! The Elven armies have invaded en masse! Without cohesive leadership, our people are being slaughtered if they haven’t retreated to a city! Storm the walls of The Shoe!”

“See?” Havoc shook his head and sighed as he twisted a dial on a board, sending a bolt of lightning to strike the hysterical Dwarf. The ground shifted as the Dwarf was carted away, though there didn’t seem to be anything under him. The Ritualist shuddered as he wondered how much of this place had been replaced by golems. “Look, Joe. You don't get to be my age without seeing some crazy things. You also don't get here without an unhealthy dose of paranoia. I locked down the volcano. Sure, this is your town, but I entirely control the space around it. No one gets in, no one gets out. That's the best way that I can guarantee our safety.”

“Temperature has risen by three heat units!” Lord Checkoff’s voice was accusatory and stiff. “This is unacceptable, and must be rectified. Even so, this lapse will most certainly be going in my report as a negative mark on the potential Lord’s record.”

“To whom, Lord Checkoff? To whom do you plan to hand over that report?” The familiar voice of Bauen increased as he called into the open. “Has anyone seen Joe? With the volcano sealed, the temperature is increasing too rapidly for the current system to keep up. Joe! Where are you? We need to get the new ritual in place or-”

“Look at that, it seems that you’re needed! Maybe you can go do some actual work or training, instead of bothering me.” Havoc turned away, only pausing as Joe’s retort reached his ears.

“The new Guildhall is already built, and the teleporter should be active by the end of the day. I’m telling you this as a courtesy. We either make a deal soon, or everyone is going to leave anyway.” Deciding that he wanted the last word, Joe turned and ran to help the Dwarf with the failing heat containment and redirection system.

He departed too quickly to see Havoc pause and look into the air at the quest information the human had sent along, his eyes flashing blue in the process. The Dwarf stroked his beard as his frown twisted into something ugly. “Yeah… looks like we might need to go after this quest. That’s a serious buff…”

Joe was sweating as he hurried over to the center of the town, his eyes fixed on the white-hot ceiling of the solidified bubble they lived in. Luckily, the Reductionist had been ready for this task and had prepared a Student-rank heat sink system in advance. It was far more refined than the current version, and most importantly, it was ready to be put into place immediately.

There were several critical systems that Joe had been redesigning ever since he had gained deeper insight into his class, specifically since his knowledge of Ritual Lore had reached the Student ranks. He dodged a dollop of molten stone as it *hissed* through the air, landing on the ground to form the start of what was doomed to be a short-lived stalagmite. “I need two high-mana capacity people with me, five in a secondary ring around me, seven in the third, and eleven people at the outermost edge! This is going down faster than we thought, but we can stave off disaster—together! Bauen, get someone working on protection detail to intercept those drops of slag!”

He deployed the ritual without another word. Four spell circles sprang into being, and people rushed into the indicated positions without any issues; by now, they were used to jumping into giant magical designs. The ritual began once the last one stepped into place, the first ring spinning like a windmill as it began siphoning off heat and redistributing it into previously-selected locations such as smithies. There were a few moments of great concern, specifically when the previous ritual failed and the ceiling began to sag inward, but luckily everything was already starting to rapidly cool.

Within a few hours, the old ritual had been removed and fully replaced, the ceiling had been reshaped, and the timer on the new ritual was counting down at a normal pace instead of multiple seconds at a time as the failed one had been. Joe understood that this was a sign that the ritual was properly designed to counteract the natural forces degrading it, and announced that the installation had been a success.

Quest update: Student Ritualist. Student rituals designed and deployed: 9/20.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the spiking temperature began lowering to a normal level throughout The Shoe once more, and a cool breeze was released from the vent system. Bauen turned to Joe and waved his hand around the area. “You know, I’ve been hearing about your shouting matches with Havoc. Being trapped in The Shoe might be a blessing in disguise for you, if you want it to be. I'm only a simple engineer, but if you cared to learn… I could teach you some basic thermodynamics. If you have any kind of fire affinity at all, it's useful for reaching Expert level in new flame spells at an increased pace.”

“You know, I just might take you up on that.” Joe reached up to wipe away some sweat from his face, only for his Neutrality Aura to take care of it for him. “I’ll only be here until the teleport is open, but I’m thinking I should start filling out my repertoire of spells, and if you can help with-”

“I've changed my mind.” Havoc barreled into the conversation as though a giant gorilla had thrown him. “I didn't have all of the facts previously, and now that I do, I recognize that you need to get yourself some real life experience. Also, you. Get out. There’s a matter that my Apprentice and I need to discuss in private.”

“Havoc, Bauen makes a good point… you should know better than anyone that I am severely lacking in terms of offensive and defensive spells. Even worse, my rituals are solely based on spell work to which I have access.” Joe found himself in the surprising position of having to argue to stay after he had just been fighting to leave. “Maybe I should take a few weeks to brush up on my spells and such. I have a whole affinity that I haven't even touched-”

“Like I said.” Havoc glowered at Joe, tapping at a screen and sending it to Joe. “I didn't have all of the facts. Expand on that quest you have for saving this place, and keep it quiet.”

Deciding to humor the Dwarf, seeing as he had never provided any evidence that he was a jokester, Joe pulled up the quest and took a look.

Quest: Not Lost, but Hidden. Convince at least one more Grandmaster of the Dwarven Society to join your burgeoning settlement. Reward: the location of ‘The Shoe’ will be lost to the Elves and anyone with positive ties to them. This will greatly aid your efforts to return the Dwarven Oligarchy to its position as a Unified race. Failure: The destruction of this settlement.

“Expand? Additional details?” Joe tried a verbal expansion, earning a chuckle from Bauen, though it did work.

Additional details: Because you are the owner of the settlement, as well as considered to be its main defender, a temporary Divine Ward will be placed on the settlement. Until 75% of Dwarven territory has been lost to the Elves, or until the capital city falls, anyone with negative designs on ‘The Shoe’ will be unable to remember the location. This will not stop people from finding the location by physical means, nor will it cause someone to lose memory of the location once they have rediscovered it.

“Oh. So, no real time limit, but it does have an expiration.” Joe considered this new data, rubbing his chin as he eyed his suddenly-shifty mentor with a dawning realization. “Did you think that your defenses were just so scary that no one was going to bother coming here anymore or something?”

“You watch your mouth, kid. You got lucky. The reality is… it's less luck, and more ticking time bomb. We’re already a Shattered race.” Havoc shook his head sadly. “The Dwarves are going to fall. Our cities are going to be torn down brick by brick, and our lands turned into something… way too natural. Probably a forest or—ugh—flowing plains. The point is, as soon as our cities do fall, if you haven’t completed this quest, pretty much every Elf in the entire Zone is suddenly going to remember where you are, and they’ll seek revenge for what you did to the Royal Family.”

“Me? What are you saying?” Joe’s heart started to race as Havoc’s stare bored into him.

“What I'm saying should be pretty obvious.” Havoc’s exhaustion was evident in his tone. “What happens to the Dwarves will be very straightforward—as soon as we die, we join them. Why would they do anything other than kill us immediately? You, though? A human scapegoat they can pin all of their people’s crimes on? They’ll likely toss you in the deepest, darkest pit they can find and make sure there is no escape. You need to either get this city hidden properly by completing this quest, or sneak onto the Bifrost and get out of here as soon as the Dwarves are properly routed.”

Joe tried to think of an answer, something that would allow him to finally plant his roots and stay in one spot for a while. He was tired of running. Even so, he knew that his mentor was correct. Right now, escaping from Alfenheim or hiding were the only real options. “I’m just so… tired of escaping one bad situation only to sprint to the next problem. Are you going to help me?”

“Absolutely, I am!” The Grandmaster Dwarf smiled, showing far too many teeth. “I'm going to stay here and keep building this pretty little town up. I’m also gonna stay away from the other Grandmasters, so that you actually have a chance at convincing them to join us in our little social experiment.”

“I’ll help by joining you on the quest directly!” Jaxon called as he walked in on the intense discussion. “Are we going to hunt down some Elves?”

“No, we’re doing a recurring fetch quest,” Joe grumbled as he turned toward the rebuilt Guildhall, and soon his bald head was reflecting the green lights that the building had been raised under. “Sure, we're fetching Grandmasters, but that doesn't help. Let’s get this teleporter online and get out of here.”