Invent ~ 36!

Two weeks went by in a flash, if a flash consisted of sleepless nights, intense training, and a relentless instructor. After those two weeks, Havoc finally said that enough was enough. Apparently, there was only so much that could be trained before Joe needed to go out and get real world experience. According to the Dwarf, until he had a long break, the tutelage he received from that point forward would be less than half as effective.

On the fifteenth day after they had begun, Joe slept for a solid eleven hours. When he finally managed to pry his crusty eyelids apart, he pulled up his characteristic sheet and skills, condensing all the changes as much as possible before reading through them. A single glance was enough to let him know that the crash course had all been worth it.

During the training, Joe had reached the threshold in Constitution, Wisdom, and Perception, allowing him to last longer in training each day, notice more details, and  better understand the knowledge that saturated nearly every word Havoc spoke.

Name: Joe ‘Major-General Pyrrhic, Noble Candidate for Baron’ Class: Reductionist

Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (1/20)

Profession III: Grandmaster’s Apprentice I (14/25)

Profession IV: None.

Characteristic: Raw score: (Changes since previous marker)

Strength: 158 (+7)

Dexterity: 161 (+9)

Constitution: 152 (+6)

Intelligence (bound): 169 (+10)

Wisdom: 153 (+9)

Dark Charisma: 102 (-1)

Perception: 155 (+13)

Luck: 85

Karmic Luck: 3

Skill increase: Acid Spray, Words of Power (Written), Magical Matrices, Hidden Sense, Polearm Mastery, Natural Magical Material Creation, Ritualistic Forging, Spellbinding, Somatic Ritual Casting , Alchemical Lore, Enchanting Lore, Knowledge and Ritual Lore have reached (Student 0)!

Enchanted Ritual Circles, Enchanting (General) have reached Beginner V!

Battle Meditation has reached Apprentice 0!

Battle Meditation has reached Student 0!

As these skills have been increased using the Grandmaster’s Apprentice profession, no additional bonuses can be applied or granted.

Joe had never seen such a massive increase in such a short amount of time. There were only a few reasons it was even possible. First, a Grandmaster had taken him as his direct Apprentice. Apparently, a Grandmaster could only have one designated Apprentice every decade.

The Reductionist shook his head as he remembered how he hadn’t even thought that being called an Apprentice was a ‘big deal’. It had felt like a nickname; abyss, the crotchety old Dwarf alternated between a half-dozen ways of referring to him, and most were less than complimentary!

Second, the Grandmaster needed to spend nearly the entire day directly training a single Apprentice rank skill with him. It didn’t matter if the skill itself was at level zero or level nine; after one full day of training the skill or spell, it would increase directly to ’Student’ rank. Joe had insisted on spending one of the days on his Enchanting and Enchanted Ritual Circles skills, and found himself deeply regretting what he now considered to be a waste of his potential Profession benefits.

They had originally planned to stop after thirteen days, but it just so happened that the constant stress Havoc kept Joe under had put the human in a semi-permanent state of flight or fight mode. His Battle Meditation skill had increased just enough to cross into Apprentice rank, and the Dwarf had decided it was worth boosting to Student rank.

Stretching out on his bed, luxuriating in the fact that he had nothing that he needed to do today, Joe suddenly went perfectly still as he felt ten tiny blades dig into his chest. His eyes slowly trailed from the ceiling down to his own body, where his blue eyes met with a pair of yellow ones. He started sweating profusely as True Damage began reducing his health bar at a rapid rate. “Cleocatra…! I wasn't trying to get rid of you, or hide from you, I swear! I even have—look over there—I have food and drinks ready for you! I just had no idea how to-”

“Meow.” The queen of the Nyandrathals slowly retracted her claws, not bothering to acknowledge the blood that was beading up on his chest. She leaped away from him, transforming into a diminutive, if strikingly beautiful, human. “I saw all of that, and of course you would not know where to find me. The pain was because you only bothered to think of me once in the last several weeks; nearly a month! I know this because we have already bonded somewhat. Whenever you think of me, I get a notification. No, I simply didn’t bother to come here before because it wasn’t worth traveling to this backwater you own. Now that there are some amenities, however…”

Her voice trailed off with a purr, and Joe realized that she was once more a cat. Just then, there was a knock on the door and Major Cleave barged in. “I heard voices! Is there someone here? Are you under attack? I swear, the second I step out to get some fresh avocado-”

“Just talking to my… cat.” Joe explained lamely as he gestured at Cleocatra.

Cleave looked between the human and the cat on the floor, slowly shaking her head. “No. I refuse to allow this. You are nowhere near responsible enough to be trusted with a pet. That elemental you’ve got would’ve died of neglect if it were a living being that didn’t subsist off of the dregs of mana pouring off of you.”

“Thank you, Major Cleave.” Joe directed three of his Ritual Orbs in front of the Dwarf, catching her by surprise and shoving her out the door. He reached over and locked it just before she could push her way back in. “Is there anything I can do for you, um, kitty?”

There was a note on his bed that simply stated: Don't worry about me; I'll just be following you around and helping whenever I feel you need my assistance.

PS: Some of your guild members are waiting for you but are detained at your Guildhall.

PPS: Find a way to bring me some fresh fish.

PSPS…

“Psps? What else did you want to-” Joe was knocked over as the cat went sprinting around the room because of the sound he made. “This is why I'm a dog person, you weird cat! You creatures make no sense at all! Cleave, I’m leaving!”

“Help me, the cat says it’ll do. More like blow my face off at every turn and wreck my stuff.” Joe opened the door and strode boldly through the halls of the Uncommon apartment building. He reached the exit and stepped into the open, then lurched to a halt. “Cleave, why is there a wall standing in the middle of my town?”

“I believe that is where anyone unaffiliated with the Dwarves is allowed to go,” the Major stated calmly. “There are signs posted inside informing all… visitors… that if they go outside of that section, they will be subject to the laws of the Oligarchy. The current laws state that anyone found to be Elven-affiliated will be slain on the spot.”

“How charming.” Joe shivered as he started to realize why there may have never been a chance for diplomacy before. “I'm assuming Stan set that up?”

There was no need for an answer, so the human simply hurried along to the newly erected building. As soon as he stepped inside and saw familiar faces, a large grin couldn’t be held back. “Aten! You’re here! How have you—wait, why are you under guard? I know you joined the Dwarves…?”

“I did.” The Guild Commander reached out for a handshake. “I'm just here to make sure none of the others get attacked. I know the Dwarves can be a little over-enthusiastic when there’s a chance to get, ah, ‘preemptive revenge’. You remember Sub-Commander Mike, of course? We made a plan when we were getting on the Bifrost to make sure to join in on opposite sides of this conflict.”

“Good to see you, Joe!” Mike waved at him, and for some reason, Joe felt a little sick to his stomach, slightly disgusted with the man in front of him. It must have shown on his face, because Mike appeared slightly crestfallen. “I had hoped… well, now we know. It's like that for everyone, as far as I can tell. If everyone is sickened just being in the room with each other, I have no idea how peace talks are going to break out all over the place.”

“I told you, Mike, I have a plan.” Aten waved Joe over and they all sat down at the table together. “I'm not sure about you guys, but after our Guild played an instrumental role in taking down the Wolfman King, the way their people were treated after the fact disgusted me to no end.”

“You mean how they lost all protection for their young, and people were given massive bounties to hunt them all down like feral dogs?” Joe snorted at the memory. “Yeah, I was just talking to someone about that the other day. I have no interest in seeing that happen here. Elves, Dwarves; they are both fantasy creatures to me, even now. I want to be able to learn from both of them. It sucks that we needed to choose sides.”

“I don't know what you have been up to that allows you to own a town like this, Joe,” Mike chimed in, waving around at the clearly magical town that was somehow surviving within an active volcano. “Even more, I have no idea how they allowed you to get away with trying to make a neutral town. But I have really good news: I already have the king and queen of the Elves ready to come to negotiations. All we need to do is find a way to ensure that they are protected while we parley, and that they will be respected properly.”

“That's going to be pretty hard to pull off.” Aten tapped at the marble table as he softly muttered, “We can easily make both sides sign a magically-binding Armistice order, but treating each other with respect? It is literally a racial trait for both of them to see the other side as the most disgusting beings they can imagine. I'm told it actually gets worse as you get to a higher level.”

*Tap. Tap. Tap.* The Guild Commander’s finger bouncing off the polished stone surface was starting to get annoying, but it also drew Joe’s eye down onto the furnishing itself. He already had planned to place an enchantment on the table, specifically the enchantment he had received from Occultatum for reaching ‘Cleric’ level twelve on Midgard: Zone of Circumlocution. He just had not realized how important it would be to actually succeed at inscribing it.

“I may have a solution, but I'm going to need some time.” Joe shared the information on one of the only enchantments he was guaranteed to know, sending the summary directly to their notifications. “All the way back then, I thought it was a bad reward, that I squandered that improvement. At the time, it was going to be nearly impossible to create this enchantment. Some of the requirements for it, materials such as culturally important items, would have needed to be stolen from museums or private collections.”

Mike read a portion of the information aloud. “You create a thirty-foot-radius zone. Beings within the zone that attempt to say something rude, vulgar, or hostile are compelled to say something positive instead. This effect extends to any text which includes rude, vulgar, or hostile language.”

“This is perfect!” Aten was already chuckling with gleeful anticipation as he took over. “Looks like creatures who attempt to make rude gestures end up making a similar but friendly gesture. Paintings and drawings which would be considered vulgar change to become wholesome. Oh, this part is going to be important. Since this enchantment doesn’t prevent hostile actions, we’ll need to figure out private security and such so that people don't attempt to take matters into their own hands outside of official attempts at reconciliation.”

“This is… I guess I’m not an enchanter, but to me this looks really advanced.” Mike tapped on the strange diagram that was hovering in front of his face. “Do you think you can figure this out in a reasonable amount of time?”

“It's not about figuring it out.” Joe cracked his knuckles and rolled his head back and forth. “It's all about sitting down and doing the work. I can make it happen, but since you are correct that it is a pretty advanced enchantment, I'm going to need a solid few weeks to knock it out.”

“Take a month,” Aten ordered him easily, a glint of reflected light coming from his mouth. “It's not going to be easy to get the heads of the Oligarchy and the King and Queen of the Theocracy in the same spot. You’ve got time.”

“We know you can do it. You literally have a silver tongue.” Mike slapped the Guild Commander on the shoulder, making all the Dwarves in the room tense up. “Even if you have to buy, beg, or steal, I know you can invent a reason for them to be here if you gotta.”

The tension in the room started increasing rapidly. Joe leaned forward and whispered, “Mike… move your hand away. Slowly.”