Invent ~ 37!

Joe was still a Beginner at Enchanting, which made it highly unlikely that he would be able to figure out all of the intricacies of a Journeyman-level enchantment designed to force people to act a certain way in time for a meeting of heads of state. At best, the power of the enchantment would push them to be cordial, though not as overtly friendly as it would force people that were at a lower power level.

On the plus side, there were still a few options available to him: Joe could hire someone to do it, he could get Havoc to do it, or he could figure out how to translate the diagram over to a ritual that could make the enchantment for him. All of these options had certain drawbacks. The first option was out for sure; hiring someone to create a Journeyman-level enchantment as a rush order, let alone on a large object, was astoundingly and impossibly expensive.

“Apparently I should be charging way more for my services than I currently am.” Joe scoffed as he perused the various options available to him from the Crafters that had come to live in the area. “Probably not a good idea to ask Havoc to do the work either; I don't think a single person would feel safe sitting down at that table. Certainly not the Elves, so that option is no longer… on the table.”

Joe wiped away a tear of mirth as he chuckled at his own joke. “Ahh… so anyway, that leaves me with only one real option. I've got to figure out a way to do this work myself. I'm twenty-five skill levels away from being able to perform the enchantment directly, but I figure that a mid-level Expert in ritual circles with experience converting enchantments into ritual diagrams should have no trouble with this at all, right?”

“Yoo-hoo!” Jaxon started pounding on the door to Joe's workshop, not letting up until Joe met his eyes through the tiny window. “All work and no play makes you boring to interact with! Come kill things with me; I have new stuff to show you!”

“But I am having fun, I'm playing with magic! This is what fun looks like to me.” Joe gestured to his finally-completed ritual that was working on converting cores to Mana Batteries. “Besides, I'm not going anywhere until my weapons are working again.”

“Joe, buddy, friend… open the door so I can convince you in person!” Jaxon demanded, his fingernails scratching at the wooden obstacle hard enough to deal damage. “I found a super fun nest of two-headed turkeys that I’m itching to get at. I figure we tear them up until only a few are left, capture some breeding pairs after they are properly tamed, and then I can practice and teach my beast-taming skills when I don't have to work on Chiropractic things!”

“What kind of Chiropractic things do you work on?” Joe called in reply, wincing as the ritual behind him completed and a brand-new fully-operational Mana Battery *thunked* to the table. He tried to stealthily move in front of it, but Jaxon was not having any of that.

“Mostly my days are filled with twisting people that tried to get out of having fun with me!” Jaxon roared as he scrabbled at the door even harder. Even knowing that it was just his Charisma acting up, Joe still flinched away as though he were facing the zombies in the landfill again. “Looks like you are ready, so come on! Turkeys!”

“Ugh… fine!” Joe grabbed the glowing stone and checked it for any flaws. Finding no issues, he popped open his icicle Ritual Orb and switched the mostly-empty core for the full battery. “Give me just a minute!”

Ritual Orb of Intelligence. Spell trapped within: Cone of Cold. Bound Core Power remaining: 20,000/20,000 Cost per spell use: 195.

“Now let’s see if I run out of power in the middle of a fight.” Joe tossed the Orb into the air, where it gracefully floated next to two others. He rubbed at his wrists, which felt fairly naked without the control cuffs that he had worn since he had first gotten his Ritual Orbs. With his Battle Meditation at the Student ranks, he had earned a sixty percent bonus to controlling his exotic weapons.

By taking off the control cuffs, Assisted Ritual Orb Usage had automatically upgraded to Combat Ritual Orbs; but the skill level had fallen to Beginner zero. Even so, it was worth it to start empowering the skills that he needed for long-term combat.

Combat Ritual Orbs (Exotic)(Beginner 0): This skill dictates the ease of use for the weapon ‘Ritual Orbs’. Each skill rank allows for the skillful use of one Ritual Orb. Each skill level increases damage dealt by 2n%. Damage dealt by non-skillfully used Ritual Orbs is set at 75%.

Even with the reduction in total combat power, Joe was still happy to know that his skills were increasing in a way that seemed consistent and gave him concrete goals. It was also nice to be able to have his wrists free again and still be able to use his weapons. Frankly, he had been somewhat worried that as soon as he took off the control cuffs, it was going to be nigh impossible for him to induce the exotic weapons to work properly.

“Fine, buddy. Let's go out and hunt some turkeys.” Joe longingly eyed his workshop and equipment, remembering at the last moment to drop another core into the ritual so that it could begin the next conversion process. “These are birds, right? You are not using some kind of slang for Elves or gullible people, are you?”

“It's kind of hard to use beast taming on something that isn’t a beast, Joe!” Jaxon was clapping his hands and dancing in place as he watched his friend gear up to join him. “I don't think I've ever had the chance to fight side-by-side with Major Cleave before! Sure, we have been in the same combat, even the same battle, but I don't think we've ever tried out our personal teamwork! It should be fun to see which one of us can take down or capture more of the small creatures! Personally, I like to rip them apart!”

“Want to try that last sentence again?” Joe offered without missing a beat, smirking as Major Cleave’s eyes widened fractionally; her version of absolute shock and horror.

“What do you mean?” Jaxon’s brow furrowed as he looked between the pair. “I said ‘my preference would be to capture as many as possible’, so how much clearer do you need me to be? I can't even think of how I would say that differently? Really, Joe, if I'm going to learn their anatomy and how best to adjust them for rapid growth and usage in various ways for the betterment of this town, outright killing them is… counterproductive.”

“Totally understood!” Joe glanced at his Dwarven babysitter and smiled politely. “Are you also interested in attending? I know you’ll feel like you need to go, but I kinda feel like you might like to be asked?”

“It’s fine,” Cleave stated shortly, her eyes slowly traveling over the mad Chiropractor. “You trust this… human?”

“I most definitely do; he’s been on my team and in my life for longer than anyone else in Eternium besides my mother; and she’s not much of a fighter.” Joe smiled at the wildly grinning man. “I can admit after much shamefaced self-reflection that one of my worst characteristics is that I tend to leave people behind when they want to slow down and live an easier life.”

“Don’t be down, Joe! It’s only hard to join in on someone else’s marriage.” Jaxon offered it as a consolation, but it came out disturbingly inveigling. “Maybe you could talk to Alexis and Bard and see if they—oh, you don’t seem interested in listening to me, but I was going to say—have a spare room at their house. A room which you could live in to be close to them? Other than that, they aren’t even really fighting creatures anymore. Alexis started a small shop, and Bard got a job as a class trainer and performs freelance storytelling.”

As Jaxon finished speaking, the small group was joined by the hulking muscleman that was Private Kettlebell. Cleave tensed up once more and reached for her axe, but Jaxon simply continued speaking as though nothing had changed. “Poppy is working on building up an estate and looking into schooling options for his daughter. He wants to get her into an advanced class as soon as possible, and he has a few years until that really matters, but apparently every child needs to start in Midgard. So, unless you want to sit on your thumbs while I keep doing amazing things, you kinda need to move on when people slow down around you.”

“Jaxon.” Joe jerked a thumb at Kettlebell. “Is he coming with us?”

“Oh. Yes!” The limber man practically slithered over to Kettlebell’s side. “My trainee is going to be learning how to do adjustments on creatures without snapping their necks! It’ll be a big and very important step for him. A new experience, even!”

“Yo.” Kettlebell nodded at Joe, then much more warmly at Cleave, who was trying to stare the huge man down unsuccessfully as he flexed his muscles at her.

Eventually, she relented and decided to try to make conversation with the huge man that she had been forced to spend time with while locked out of Joe’s workshop. “I like your beard, even with as short as it is. I appreciate your attempt to fit into our culture.”

“Is that why he keeps having to fend off the ladies!” Jaxon slapped his knee as he made the realization. “I should have learned my lesson with the Wolfmen! They’re all about body language; here, it’s all about hair! I’m betting I can stimulate my hair follicles to match your society better.”

Seeing Jaxon start to vigorously poke and rub at his face made Joe laugh. “Come on, let’s go. Jaxon. Jaxon! You can’t just grow a beard on command. It takes-”

“Adjust!” Jaxon snapped his fingers, and a quarter inch of hair burst from his face in the same pattern that most of the male Dwarves wore. “How’s that? Ooh! I gained a ‘Cultural Understanding’ Skill! It lets me learn about other cultures and how to blend in better!”

Joe’s jaw dropped, and he shook his head in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I see no goats around here, Joe.” Jaxon reached over and gently pushed Joe’s chin up until his mouth was fully closed. “If that’s true, then how can I be kid-ding you? Enough jibber-jabber. Let’s go fight Pointed Turkeys.”

Kettlebell nodded enthusiastically, and Cleave smiled at Jaxon. Joe had to rub his eyes just to check that he wasn’t seeing things. “Maybe she’s uncomfortable around me for reasons I hadn’t ever considered…? Maybe it’s not because I have trouble remembering that she’s around?”

He had spoken his thoughts aloud, even if he had been fairly quiet. Cleave leaned toward him and whispered into his ear, “Be honest with yourself. You know it’s all of those reasons.”