Invent ~ 41!

“They agreed! The Oligarchy and Theocracy will be traveling to the Shoe to begin initial peace discussions! A treaty for mutual aid and open commerce is on the table!” The runner that was speaking had burst into a meeting occuring in the Guildhall, where Joe was speaking with his guild members and support staff about which buildings were the most important to construct, and if he should be the one to raise them.

A deal had just been struck, where Joe would own a subset of the buildings that he raised, receive direct payment for raising a few different ones, and finally set a flat tax for several buildings that were being customized by patrons who didn’t want anyone else to see the blueprints or design of the interior. No one was overly happy with the deal so far—which helped everyone agree that it was the best they were getting—but this sudden good news trumped everything else.

Congratulations were given all around, and a new meeting was started right away, in which the defense of the delegations was the only thing that mattered. Joe was tasked with creating several variations of a ritual to restrain hostile people, specifically to teach them the ways of peace as forcefully as possible. Some of the methods offered up were so novel that Joe wrote them down and promised himself he would find a way to make a ritual out of them.

Within the day, orders had come down from the Legion. An elite unit from both the Elves and the Dwarves was on the way to secure the meeting area. Havoc was ordered under no uncertain terms to leave the area before the first strand of golden Elven hair fluttered into the area. Most low-leveled people were confined to the outer confines of the Shoe’s Hamlet, as Joe would have been, were he not the owner of the town.

Joe perused his class quest progress, which had seen a jump in the last weeks’ worth of effort.

Class Quests: Student Ritualist. Personally draw out and activate twenty Student rituals you have never used before. 8/20 drawn out, 1/20 rituals activated.

Apprentice Rituarchitect II. Scan five Uncommon structures that you do not have the blueprints for currently. 4/5 scanned!

“I should make time to get that last building scanned before people start showing up. Don’t want to be giving out too many secrets if I don’t need to, and what’s more secret than my ability to raise buildings?” Joe stretched and rolled his shoulders, which felt lighter than they had in weeks. “Heh. Probably almost everything is more secret than that, but at least maybe the Elves don’t know it. Let's see… Havoc had to go, and I can’t tell if I’m happy or sad about that. I’m more relaxed, that’s for certain.”

He mulled over the rituals that he had created before running low on Rare aspects, feeling pleased though slightly off-put by the fact that they were merely upgrades of his current rituals. One was a variation that had come to mind after he’d accidentally killed a zombie in the landfill. He had combined Acid Spray and barriers to deadly effect, named it ‘Ritual of Acid Bubble’, and placed one at each entrance to the Shoe.

He had made a second version that he was in love with, which produced the same bubble… but launched it. Anything that got caught in its radius would be stuck inside until they either broke free or their form dissolved. The bubble itself only stopped moving upon striking something too large to suck into its confines.

That had spawned a new method of transportation that he wanted to try out: the bubble launcher, sans acid. It was supposed to travel in a parabolic arc and burst after stopping completely, leaving the inhabitants safe and protected the entire time. He was sure it would work, but he hadn’t found any volunteers to test it, and he didn’t have the time to try it out on his own.

Another variant was an Oversized Ritual of Stasis, which was designed to take a whole building into stasis if needed; this one, he had set it up around the Guildhall. That way, if an attack occurred, Joe could use the ritual to keep everything preserved for a few minutes. Hopefully, that would render any ‘surprises’ against the delegations useless.

There had been one surprise for him as well, as he had mostly forgotten that creating anything with aspects gave him experience for his class. He proudly and obsessively read over the notification he had gained, as though it were a trophy announcing his hard work to the world.

Class ‘Reductionist’ has reached level 3! The benefits of mental strength and mana compression will be 30% more effective when crafting.

He wasn’t exactly sure how to quantify that reward, but he had a feeling that the next time he went to make a layer in his aspect array, he’d be able to reach a loftier height. Reluctantly pulling his mind back from plans for the future, he continued to pore over what else he had accomplished.

Joe’s other rituals had mainly ended up being quality of life things, such as a more efficient heat sink that took the volcano’s warmth and redistributed it to the smithy forge stations, as well as back into the magma proper. He was waiting to set that up, as he was sure some fine-tuning would be required, so as to not blow the smithy to cinders.

Finally, the one that he was really proud of was already contained in his Ritual Orbs.

It wasn’t a ‘Student’ ritual, but an Apprentice ritual that he was almost certain he could reuse with his Orbs… though he only had a single target in mind. His largest problem with Herr Trigger was that the man was wily. He was more than willing to wait in ambush until the perfect moment to strike, as well as being swift and agile enough to escape if things started to go badly. Finally… Joe was prepared. There would be no escape for the gunslinger the next time they met. “No escape… hmm. I guess if I use them correctly, these Orbs are basically the Ritualist version of an ultimate attack.”

“The advance units are arriving!” someone called out, pulling Joe from his thoughts and forcing him into the moment. Frankly, he was highly surprised that he had been able to relax at all. The room held a good mix of humans that were aligned with Dwarves, as well as those on the side of the Elves. The close proximity created a strangely uncomfortable feeling in all of them, which only compounded over time. Tempers had been flaring, especially as trade goods had begun flowing through their Hamlet.

On the plus side, they had run extensive testing on his table enchanted with the Zone of Circumlocution. Whenever someone had gone slightly over the edge and opened their mouth to start a fight or attempt passive-aggressive bickering, what came out instead was a polite redirection of whatever was going on. Sometimes it was even a clear explanation of how they were feeling, and why. That allowed for a level of honesty and openness rarely seen anywhere near such a polarized group of people.

“Places, everyone!” Joe called out as well as clapping his hands. “We've been practicing for this. If you are aligned with the Elves, please make sure to demonstrate all the necessary formalities! Everyone else, buckle up; hopefully this will be anything but a wild ride!”

The Elves arrived first, strolling in with haughty attitudes and sneers gracing their fine features as they took in the building around them. One, the apparent leader of the unit, spoke to the room as a whole. “What a… fine example of architecture. It nearly appears grown, as though it is a unique combination of Elvish and Dwarven engineering.”

Joe surreptitiously studied the walls, a pit appearing in his stomach. He had no idea why he hadn’t realized that particular detail beforehand, but it was clearly the truth. He swept his gaze around the structure, suddenly noticing how the stone and wood building had melded together layer by layer, as though it had indeed been grown or perfectly printed. It displayed neither the meticulous specifications commonly seen in Dwarven architecture, nor the organic traits of a building grown using natural Elven methods. “Huh.”

The Elf blinked a single time in surprise. It seemed that he had not been attempting to say something nearly half as polite as what had ended up coming out of his mouth. “Is this a Zone of Truth? I guarantee to you at this moment, my people will refuse all attempts to make us negotiate within a Zone of Truth!”

Several attendees attempted to make snide comments after hearing that, but each time, their remarks came out as something to the effect of, ‘yes, that is understandable’. Joe kept his mouth closed and his thoughts to himself. He wouldn’t have any active role in the negotiations, beyond checking in intermittently to ensure everything was moving along smoothly.

His part in this play was over.

The town was built as well as he could manage, every protection he could think of was in place, and dozens of plans and counter-attack strategies had been enacted by actual experts in that field. Everything from small strike groups to a massive assault by an army was accounted for: they were as ready as possible.

After being reassured that the hall was not a Zone of Truth and testing it out for himself, the Elf demanded to inspect the area and set out to create his own defensive perimeter after scanning the building for threats and issues. Joe decided he had seen enough and strolled away to go scan the final building he needed to complete his quest.

He passed by the Dwarven Elite unit, nodding as they saluted him. It was strange to be an officer in the military. One oddity that struck him after his time as an enlisted man on Earth was that he had expected to be way more annoyed with being saluted than he actually was. “No reason not to get respect, I guess.”

Since he had been planning to finish scanning the structure earlier but had been pulled into a meeting, the ritual was already set up and waiting for him. All Joe needed to do was activate it and collect the new blueprint. He set it to run, and as the ritual did the heavy lifting, he finished reading over a template for a metal coffee cup. Satisfied that it was what he wanted, he presented it to his sleeve. “Mate, what do you think about this one? It’s a Rare coffee mug, and I should be able to make it, but do you think I should hold off longer in order to start with a better one?”

*Burble!* came the excited reply. That sealed it for Joe; he wanted the source of his caffeine to be joyful at all times.

“Happy coffee means life is frothy and good. We’ll start right after we’re done here,” Joe promised, getting excited non-words in response. The ritual finished, and he stored the lightly glowing blueprint for safekeeping as he waited a moment for the impending notification.

Class quest complete: Apprentice Rituarchitect II. Uncommon structures scanned: 5/5 scanned! Reward: 5 peak Uncommon cores! Record-breaker reward: access to Apprentice Rituarchitect III.

Item gained: Uncommon core x5. Usable exp available: 4,000/4,000.

“Got it. ‘Peak’ means ‘as much in there as possible without getting to the next rank’,” Joe muttered to himself as he hurried to the smithy. “Now let’s get this all taken care of… oh, the next quest?”

Class quest gained: Apprentice Rituarchitect III. Create three meaningful monuments in your Hamlet. Reward: access to Apprentice Rituarchitect VI.

“I’ll get access to the sixth quest in this chain?” Joe sputtered as he looked over the message. “What about the other steps-”

Class quest updated: Apprentice Rituarchitect III. Reward: access to Apprentice Rituarchitect IV. How about you just remember that nobody is perfect, Mr. I-forgot-to-make-a-cup-for-over-three-months.

“Right… the system here is alive.” Joe chuckled nervously as his stomach knotted into a bundle. He really didn’t want another random curse. “Look! A task I need to focus on!”

He fled into the smithy as though the omnipresent system couldn’t follow him there, diving into his work with a furious and focused vengeance.