Invent ~ 34!

Finally returning to the Shoe after… Joe wasn't actually sure how long he had been down in the landfill. It felt like a long time? He had done a lot of things, but the lack of day-night cycles had really messed with him. He ogled his own lights, vowing to alter them when he had the opportunity.

“Joe! There you are!” Stan the despondent administrator ran up to him with the most aggrieved expression that Joe had ever seen. “Do you know what he did? Where have you been? That person doesn't just get to come in here and make decisions on your behalf; that’s my job!”

“I know, Havoc is extremely hard to handle. He is also dangerous. Rude. Kind of smells bad-” Joe's attempt at calming his city manager down flopped spectacularly as the Dwarf clamped a hand over the human's mouth.

“Not him. Havoc has been nothing but a delight! In fact, he’s been working on the sly to create structural supports throughout the entire Shoe, in addition to crafting a ventilation system that will keep the air purified down here even in the worst-case scenario!” Stan stomped on the ground, creating a miniature localized earthquake. Once more, Joe wondered if he should attempt to figure out his right-hand person's actual level and abilities. “The problem is Checkoff!”

“Chekhov? Like the gun? Is Herr Trigger back again?” Joe was ready to fight, and the Orbs that began floating around his head in the same moment proved it. “Let's go get that son of a-”

“Who, are you, supposed… to be?” A new Dwarf appeared, someone Joe had never seen or spoken to before. His voice was broken up in a way that reminded Joe of a too-dramatic space captain from an old television show. “City manager, Stan, I thought I told you, that your responsibility, was to ensure, that this settlement, had a beast enclosure. An enclosure, that could breed Beefs, up to level fifteen, for meat.”

“I already told you, there's no need for that right now!” Stan managed to grind out through clenched teeth, “What we actually need is this man right here, the City Lord, to-”

“You? You are, the City Lord? Finally! Perhaps we can, finally get some, actual work done.” There was an oversized clipboard in the strange Dwarf’s hand, and he flipped a page over, tapped the top of the list, and ran his finger down until he found what he was looking for. “The first step, in the standard operating procedure, when meeting a new City Lord, is to give him a handshake—then congratulate him, on attaining, the city lordship position.”

“With that in mind, congratulations, on attaining, the city lordship position.” The Dwarf shot his hand out and waited for Joe to shake it. Joe waited, and waited, but the hand didn’t move, nor did the Dwarf speak again until he took the proffered limb. As soon as he did, Checkoff pumped down once, dropped Joe’s hand like it was a snake, and pointed at the list once again. “Step number two, is to introduce myself, and what my job is. Hello, City Lord Joe, I am Lord Checkoff, and I'm here—to assess your city readiness.”

“Nice to meet-”

“As I'm sure you know, there is a clear-cut set of rules, and regulations, that you will need to follow, if you desire to advance, your current Hamlet of a settlement to a Village, then to a Town, then to a proper City. If I find, that you are unwilling, or unable, to perform the duties, at a comprehensive level, I will reject your application for lordship, though you may remain, in the Legion, indefinitely. Often, those who pursue military matters, are not well prepared for the maintenance, and duties, required of someone, who is leading people, who are not marching to war.”

Joe had his hackles up, but the man spoke in such a clinical, overdramatized tone that there was simply no way to take his words as anything other than base truth. Trying to buy himself some time to get a handle on the situation, the Reductionist studied the Dwarf more carefully. Checkoff was clearly an oddity, based simply upon the manner in which he interacted with the people around him. There was more to it, though: physically, he was unlike most other Dwarves that Joe had met.

First of all, the man was clearly of high Nobility, simply based on the fact that he had a full head of hair in addition to a well-kempt beard. Unlike what Joe considered natural colors, his hair was a surprising shade of green. It could have been due to some kind of dye, but that was unlikely, as it was not only his facial and head hair, but also his eyebrows and eyelashes. Finally, something that truly grabbed his attention was that the Dwarf was wearing square-framed glasses.

Ever since he had entered this world, Joe had only ever seen one group of people that wore glasses. “Lord Checkoff, is there any chance that you have a… Scholar profession?”

Checkoff looked Joe directly in the eyes and nodded firmly. “Indeed I do, and yes, I have received notice, that we are supposed, to work against you, at every juncture. That I am supposed to go, out of my way, to ensure you fail, no matter what your task is.”

“So…?” Joe gestured to the town around them while Stan’s jaw dropped.

“Oh. No, you do not need to worry, right now.” Checkoff shook his head in frustration. “You see, Mister Occultist, petty revenge against you, on behalf of the Society of Scholars, is so far down the list, that it would take until the end of two, or three, of your human natural life spans, for me to get around to it. I have my doubts, that you will be anywhere, under my power at that time. Yet, unless the Society, fills out the proper forms, to replace their edict against you, when I do get to that point, on the list… my assault against you, will be vicious, and sudden.”

Joe stared at the clipboard that the Dwarf was wielding as though it were a sword and shield in one. For all he knew, it very well could have been an artifact that was even more deadly than the bureaucracy that the Dwarf was trying to drown him in. Before the human could think of a rebuttal, Checkoff continued, “Before any further, construction happens, you must build a town hall: a City Center. Without that, you will not, be able to properly regulate trade, showcase your trade goods, or resurrect fallen civilians.”

“That was my plan-” Joe was cut off as Checkoff continued barreling down his list of talking points.

“One of the things, that I am quite impressed by, is the sheer number of people, which you have managed to draw, to the area. I do not think, I have ever seen, so many crafters practically sprint, to a new location, such as this.” The Dwarf peered over the top of his glasses. “Perhaps it has something to do, with every single building being, at least, Uncommon? Do you know, what you have done, to the Legion? They are always very careful, to keep the barracks they have, as Common at the maximum. The troops in this area, have already ignored a request, for them to return to their standard positions.”

“Ah.” Joe was not going to apologize for improving someone's quality of life, so he decided to go for the nostalgia play. “I remember all too well how different it was when civilian contractors were in charge of creating lodging. There was actual comfort involved. Well then, please make sure to inform Stan of anything you need to tell us about, otherwise I will be off in the distance building a… town hall.”

Joe hurried away from the incredibly efficient and simultaneously hostile Dwarf that was going to be… grading his performance? He knew if he stayed any longer, he would be pulled down into the sea of red tape and likely forced to go see this world's version of a PowerPoint. On his way to the location which the map helpfully indicated that he would be constructing his Guildhall, Joe glanced to the side and saw his table… except it was a beautiful sculpture of a table, instead of the blocky monstrosity he had left behind.

“Hey! Who set my table?” Joe pinched his nose as he rethought his wording. “Who finished crafting my table?”

“What do you expect to happen when you are gone for days at a time and just leave sad little projects like this behind?” Havoc's gruff voice reached Joe's ears as a cloud of purple cigar smoke engulfed his face. “I walked by that pitiful disaster at least a half-dozen times every couple hours. Every single pass, it was a reminder that someone had just started a project out in the open and expected no one to mess with it. Well, I messed with it! Finish what you start!”

“I was going to, but then you threw me in the garbage!” Joe growled at the Grandmaster Sculptor. “Aren't you supposed to be teaching me, not messing with my projects, my town, and me?”

“Just taught you.” Havoc’s right eye twitched as he searched for any severe wounds on his Apprentice. “Finish what you start, make sure you have enough resources before you start a project, and stay on task. That’s three life lessons. It's not my fault if you don't understand what I'm trying to teach. If I just tell you the information in a clear, accessible way, any random passerby would be getting the same information, as well as the bonuses from having a Grandmaster as their teacher. They didn't pay for it! You paid for the full service by saving my daughter and myself!”

“How do I get a refund?” Joe muttered softly enough it may as well have been internal dialogue. He didn’t actually want that. Speaking in a normal tone of voice, he addressed his mentor slightly more respectfully, albeit grudgingly. “I thought up some plans for the city, and I was hoping to run them by someone I trusted. Would you mind-”

“I’m too busy to-”

“-finding Jaxon for me?” As Joe finished his question, Havoc slowly crossed his arms and gave his human the evil eye. The Reductionist chuckled nervously and waved his hands. “Joking, I'm just joking! Do you want to take a look at this? I thought you might be interested to watch the town hall go up.”

“Why not? I'll just be checking your status sheet to make sure that you have been making the gains that you need. If you haven't, I've devised some excellent… training… both for your characteristics, and your skills.” The Dwarf's next statement confirmed that Joe had not gotten off the hook for his little ‘joke’. “In fact, I’m thinking you have psionic potential, which means that if we can raise your Mana Manipulation and Coalescence to a high enough level, you might be able to lift a three-ton boulder with your mind. Of course, we need to run a baseline control test. What we’re gonna do is see how much you can slow it down as I drop it on-”

Joe hurried to interrupt before the vindictive Dwarf could finish his thought and cement his Apprentice’s destruction in his own mind. “Those two skills! Yes! I have questions for you about both of them. I was creating an array with the aspects that I've collected, and I noticed that as Mental Manipulation increased in skill level, I was able to fill in the requisite areas much easier, which was especially noticeable going around curves and tricky movements. For Coalescence, I only earned one increase to the skill while I was working, but it seemed to become easier to move the aspects. Do you have any idea why that would be?”

“You don't even have a basic education when it comes to mana, do you?” Havoc started chewing on his cigar, something that Joe had learned to associate with a bad time incoming. “Do you know why any mage with any kind of mentor, teacher, or book to learn from must learn those two skills?”

“I'm assuming it’s because higher-level skills cost more mana?” Joe offered up with a weak grin, getting a head shake as a reply. “But there must be more to it?”

“Mana cost factors in.” Havoc started walking, and Joe hurried to keep up, even though his legs were nearly twice the length of the Dwarfs. “Let me put it like this. You can be an Expert spellcaster with the deepest of mana pools. You could generate amazing spells, send the masses running from you in terror at your capabilities… but you wouldn’t even be able to deal a single point of damage to a Master.”

That sounded fairly suspect, and Joe called him out on it. “Are the differences between the ranks really that different?”

“Yes. They are. The difference between the two is easy to quantify: a Master can do ten times as much with half of the mana. They can alter spell diagrams on the fly and are able to precisely customize the way they want to destroy or elevate the entirety of the Zone they are living on, if they so desire. Abyssal cheese has done it in the past, but it was…” Havoc paused, and a strange look crossed his face before he shook it off and hid behind a fresh cigar. “Ignore that last part. Look, kid. You can control mana all you want with Mana Manipulation, but without enough density behind your power, you won't be able to make energy flow in sufficient quantities to cast a Master spell or alter an Expert’s attack.”

“If there's a single thing you need to take away from this conversation,” Havoc reached over and tried to burn Joe with his cigar to make sure that he was listening. Joe dodged the scorching stub, glaring as the Dwarf shrugged and finished his thought, “Those skills aren't just about earning a higher number on your mana bar. In the higher ranks, they are literally the two factors that determine whether you have the mental strength and focus to be able to cast high-tier spells. They need to be a major focus for you.”

“In that case… can you help me with these skills?”

Havoc perused Joe's status sheet. “You've got one at Student, and one just reached Journeyman. Impressive, and good work. Journeyman is the benchmark for  truly starting your training, even though usually it would just be under a Master, not a Grandmaster like myself. You got the mindset; all you need is the tools—and I’ve got the tools you need. In fact, many people even call me the sharpest tool on the Christmas tree!”

Joe swallowed his rebuttal and simply gave the Dwarf a thumbs-up.