Invent ~ 40!

“Good, now ease that line over.” Havoc’s voice was soft, working to not distract Joe as he set up the model for his enchantment. “You are not putting in an angle, you are listing lazily to the left. Languishing, long lines that you lazily lay down. Keep that imagery in your head; intent matters. These lines will help keep your enchantments steady, stable, and mentally sound as they grow in power. There is nothing like calm, quiet, and laziness to keep a ritual from going insane over the passage of time. That's why dragons sit on their treasure for centuries, straight up laziness so that they don't lose their minds and go on a killing spree.”

“Is that why it's such a bad idea to steal from their hoard?” This was the first time Joe had heard someone speak of dragons in a serious way, not just some kind of throw away comment.

“Focus! Do you have a wet-wipe for that empty bucket you call a brain?” Gone were the dulcet tones and cheerfully relaxed demeanor. “You want to have to kill this table when it goes on a rampage? Do you? It’s got four legs, so it’ll move pretty fast when it wants! If you give it your distractibility, maybe it’ll stay so confused that it’ll think it's a chair and won’t let people put food on it! List that line lazily to the left!”

They had been at it for hours, and Joe found that he couldn’t complete the process without making a serious blunder at some point. As soon as something started to go wrong, Havoc would grab the paper he was working on and chuck it into a pool of lava. The impact of the crumpled sheet would generate a miniature detonation, a series of cheering from the well-distanced audience, and the flying lava would illuminate the area behind the Dwarf—casting his face in shadow as he inhaled deeply on his cigar.

To Joe, his visage at those moments was absolutely terrifying, as if his figure was about to blossom out into his final golem form and rip Joe in half for his transgressions. The Dwarf exuded bloodlust. The fact that Joe knew his mentor would not let him rest until he got it right had been nearly as concerning to him… all the way until he listed the line lazily to the left. The diagram glowed golden to his vision for a bare instant, and he was delighted by the perfectionism.

“Thoughts, Havoc?” Joe gently handed over the enchantment paper, the most detailed and intricate enchantment he had ever created without direct assistance, which the Dwarf snatched uncaringly and glanced over.

“It looks like a child drew it with crayons during an earthquake… but it will serve its purpose.” Havoc tossed it back with a flick of his wrist and stood up. “Let me know when you are going to start working on the table enchantment itself, I will make sure you don't destroy that poor piece of furniture even if I need to destroy it first. Magma doesn’t only destroy paper.”

Skill increase: Enchanting (Beginner V -> Beginner IX). Direct instruction from a Grandmaster always has benefits!

Joe accepted the paper and nodded. He wasn’t going to attempt this behind the Dwarf’s back, but he was also not going to go into the Guildhall and try to put this enchantment on the table by hand. As soon as he was alone, or as alone as he could get with Major Cleave always around, the human got to work designing a modified Ritual of Enchantment. “Okay, my ritual that builds Mana Batteries is at the Expert rank, but the Zone of Circumlocution is only at the Journeyman rank. What I’ll do is keep the ritual itself at the Expert rank; that should let me power through any issues that crop up with the lower-ranked enchantment.”

Now that he had an effective—Grandmaster approved—diagram written out, all he needed to do was replace the enchantment that his ritual would be using. “These five-circle rituals are going to… hey, this will work for my class quest! Technically it’ll be a different ritual, since something I've never made before! Technicalities for the win!”

That got him over all of his hesitation, and he sat down to begin designing. The Novice, Beginner, Apprentice, and Student circles were all completed using Somatic Ritual Enchanting, etching directly over the surface of a large chunk of flat stone. When he approached the point where the ritual was too difficult for that newish skill to handle, Joe needed to give up on trying to use his skill and switched to his standard practices to draw the rest out. He was looking forward to the time when the details and symbology that were currently too complex for him to hold in his mind—much less in the air, without losing control and blowing his face off—became second nature and practically effortless to complete.

His Natural Aspect jar had been accruing Expert aspects at the rate of seven per hour, meaning that by now he had several hundred available for use. Yet another reason to find a way to create high-tier Aspect Jars. As always, the hardest part was going to be gathering enough materials at one time to make the initial container, but the return on investment should always be worth it.

Since he had all the resources that he needed to complete his work, Joe pushed through the rest of the night and managed to complete both the Journeyman and Expert-ranked circles perfectly. Even though he knew he could have created them faster, he also knew he only had one shot at getting them right.

If he destroyed the table, the building, or messed up the enchantment due to carelessness… in order: Havoc would tear him a new one, Stan and Lord Checkoff would come after him, and Joe would miss the opportunity to host the negotiations which his people were using every favor in their possession to make happen.

That meant he triple-checked every portion of his design at every step of the process. When he was absolutely certain that the ritual would work, he got to his feet, carefully lifted the tile he had been working on, and started walking toward the Guildhall at the slowest rate he could manage.

“I understand that I could move faster,” Joe quietly commented in response to Cleave’s annoyed sigh, “But this ritual is only mostly bonded. One part is hovering in the air, while the other part is physically attached to the tile. I need to move this with both my hands and my mind at the same time. You just go ahead and let me take all the time I need, and please keep the path clear of obstructions and people.”

"You're taking the destruction of our main training center very calmly." Cleave growled as she shifted in place. "Working on projects, trying new things, being all excited."

"You reported the attack, and people in a better position to do something about it than me are on top of things. They're already working on a new training center, and launching a counterattack. What else can I do, but work?" Cleave had nothing to say about that, but he could tell that her restless energy was nearly at the boiling-over stage.  When he eventually arrived at his destination, the human slowly sank to his knees and slid the ritual diagram underneath the table, then turned to address the message runners in the room. “Someone go find Havoc.”

One of the newly-hired humans stood up, saluted, and sprinted away. It took less than five minutes for Havoc to abruptly appear in the room next to them with  a blast of air pressure, as if he had suddenly teleported in. “You are not seriously considering creating an enchantment on this table right now, are you? I said that your example was passable! I sure as a horse’s mouth didn't announce that it was ready to go on a table that I made! You need way more practice before you can replicate those enchantments onto an actual item at the scale that it needs.”

“Havoc, there’s a reason I called you in to see this. I converted the completed enchantment diagram to a ritual. You are welcome to check it, and if you still say no, then I won’t do it. But, before we do that, a point of contention: you took my pet project and completed only part of what was needed. By your own logic, you can't be too upset if I come back in and actually finish the work on it.” Joe grinned as the Dwarf puffed on his cigar consideringly. “Look, I figured you would enjoy seeing this process. Not only do I think this will work perfectly, but I also finally no longer need a huge group of Dwarves to stand around for hours at a time to fuel a ritual like this!”

Joe had been working on converting cores into Mana Batteries ever since he had completed that ritual. He had prepared everything while he was waiting for his persnickety mentor, and only paused long enough for the Dwarf to grumpily nod after he looked at the ritual that was waiting to run. Without giving his mentor another chance to interrupt, the Ritualist activated the ritual. Six circles sprang into being, and the stone table was slowly lifted into the air. A gyroscope of lights began swirling around it, slowly at first, but increasing in speed until the room appeared to contain a twelve-foot-wide globe of light.

“Hope you didn’t just mess it up in such a terrible way that everything will go horribly wrong,” Havoc ominously warned his Apprentice while staring death at the lights above his head.

Joe waved him off and shook his head with confidence. “I'm not going to stop the ritual just because you’re trying to psych me out. Now that you’ve seen it begin and didn’t overtly disapprove, do you want to stay for the entire show? This should take about… oh, only thirty hours or so.”

That was the real reason Joe had taken the time to make a handful of overpowered batteries. Not only did he care about the other people that would have been forcibly drained the entire time, but he wasn't going to stand in the ritual for over a full day while he waited for the table to become fully Enchanted. Automation was key in attempting to create long-term success, and being able to complete multiple other projects while this one was running sounded fabulous.

The Dwarf stomped out of the room without another word, and Joe quietly gave the order to triple the guard around and in the building. “No reason to discount the idea that someone will try to sabotage this place before the peace talks.”

“You keep bringing up these peace talks as if they’re actually going to happen.” Major Cleave finally broke down and voiced what had been on her mind. “I think you’re truly underestimating how prideful the Elves are, and how long Dwarves can hold a grudge. Why are you so sure about it?”

Joe could only shrug and do his best to explain. “Humans just don't give up, I guess. When we set our minds to something, we will figure it out. Certainly, we might not get the Oligarchy and Theocracy to voluntarily sit down and sip tea together as soon as we want them to. Even so, I’ll tell you this. To me, it doesn't matter if humanity has to use every bit of influence or reputation we earn, or if we need to grind through quests until we are absolutely sick of this Zone. So long as we don't all kill each other first, there will be negotiations…”

“…and The Wanderers will be ready to be a major factor in their success.”