Invent ~ 28!

The fortunate thing about having an excess of mana, or perhaps an unfortunate side effect depending on how Joe thought of it, was that he could continuously work for extreme lengths of time when he was providing a simple trickle of mana such as converting garbage to aspects. With his bonuses, everything under Common aspects took only a single point of mana per second to convert. Frankly, he would not even notice the Mana loss unless what he was reducing touched on the Uncommon ranks at twenty-two mana per second.

Even so, it took time to reduce all of the garbage as it shifted and swirled down into his Field Array. “I am fairly certain that I’m starting to learn all the rules here. Novice rituals have a single effect that they can create and output into the world. It is almost always a single, physical effect.”

Joe looked up, even though all he could see was slowly slumping rotten things trying to plop onto his face. He knew that Predators Territory was up there, a two-circle ritual at the Beginner rank. “The next up has an effect on the world, though it can have additional functions that are not physical in effect. This ritual gives off an… emotion? Is that the best way to describe that feeling of bloodlust?”

After thinking it over, he slowly shook his head. “No, being an emotion would make it mental manipulation of some kind, and that’s just too powerful. What else could I use to compare the differences between a Beginner and a Novice? My… attack and defense rituals that I had to make for class quests? Yes. Leave off proximity, as that is an add on, and you have a ritual that can select a target and then create a physical effect or an illusion of an effect.”

Ritual Lore (Apprentice II -> Apprentice III).

“Got it in one, then. Thanks for the confirmation, system.” Joe set that as a mental note to write down, as he would eventually need to teach this to someone. “Uncommon. That’s where things turn… murky. Planar Shift uses an Uncommon ritual as a focus, but I don’t know enough about summoning to make a good comparison. I know I’ve made a few of these, and the easy answer would be that it can target a person, create an illusory or physical effect, as well as a third thing. What the third thing is… that’s the real question.”

Leaning back into the heap of filth, Joe let all of his weight settle in and continued pouring mana out of himself thoughtlessly. “Or… am I looking at this incorrectly? It isn’t about the rarity, it’s about the circles themselves? First circle allows the effect to manifest in the world, the second circle takes that effect and enhances it with the ability to target things more directly or at a larger distance? Then how would that third circle… oh! It allows for the targeting of something other than a being directly, or it makes it powerful enough to get past whatever initial defenses?”

He remembered fighting a Smith in the cursed instant dungeon on Midgard, specifically using a Ritual of Poisoned Vitality to target the powerful boss monster. That ritual had both created a physical effect, sinking the Smith, as well as a secondary effect that went after the creature’s stamina. “Now is that target penetration, or is it the ability to impact non-physical things, concepts or stats?”

At that moment, light filtered through and landed on Joe’s face. He blinked in surprise and looked up, seeing his rituals hanging in the air far above. “Hmm. Maybe I should have chosen an area closer to the center of this place? Going by all the rotting fruit and vegetables when I landed, Havoc probably stuffed me in at the outskirts. Nowhere near shops or crafters that would have been dropping high-aspect-value items.”

Shadows flickered above him, and Joe flinched as he saw something get smacked from the air by a whistling wind blade. “What in the…?”

Moments later, the form—moving at a speed a bullet train would feel intimidated by—tried attacking again, this time managing to avoid the wind blade and setting off the proximity barrier. For just a moment, Joe saw a Dwarven body highlighted against the electric blue of the barrier, then another wind blade scraped it off and sent it tumbling away. “Yup, that’s a high-level zombie. Time for me to go.”

After collecting the now-water-packed Ritual of the Ghostly Army, but before he made his escape, Joe had a sudden bright idea. He took a minute and created an alarm ritual that was keyed to his Orb’s activation ritual, then left it in place and let his Field Array fade away. As stealthily as possible, he crawled up the steep, slippery slope he had created by draining all the garbage.

Nearing the top, he froze in abject terror as the zombie impacted and sank into the filth not even five feet away from him. Joe held perfectly still, not looking at it directly as it moaned and got to its feet; leaping at the rituals above once more, and somehow punching his way through the first barrier.

It flickered, just long enough for the zombie to get inside. Then the failsafe went off. The barriers all activated, and the entirety of the Ritual of Acid released its contents at once. The barriers made a seamless sphere around the zombie as the space filled entirely with acid in an instant, looking as though the undead Dwarf were trapped in a fishbowl. It struggled mightily, but without proper leverage or the force from jumping, it was only able to make the barriers flicker and release some acid to splash with a *hiss* in the area below.

Joe never once stopped moving away. He remembered vividly what had happened the last time he had met a high-level zombie in here, and how rapidly it had taken down his protections. Then it had called for all its friends, and he had needed to skedaddle at high speed just to survive.

“I’m only here until I have what I need. That meant not letting the zombies know I’m around if possible, and setting up a fort that could keep them out… or… making them ignore it!” Joe’s eyes brightened, and he breathily whispered, “That could work.”

You have slain a Dwarven Zombie (Level 28). +700 experience. Drowning in acid? Nice. Classic. Resource intensive, but what do you care?

“No idea why a zombie that level could come after the ritual I had there. That is… oh no. I guess it would make sense that they’re immune to fear.” Joe growled at that thought. That was yet another ritual he couldn’t use down here now, and his list of options was growing thin. “I’m not saying I’m upset that I don’t have access to the magic Elves do, but it would be nice.”

His trek across the miles-wide landfill was too eventful for him, and by the time he had put down the eighth two-headed rabid raccoon, tenth low-level zombie, and third swarm of rats, he was ready to start bunkering down again. Luckily, on his third hour of hiking, his Exquisite Shell informed him that it had failed. Joe hadn’t needed the notice, as he could clearly see the blood dripping from around the shining nail that he had stepped on.

The one that was sticking out the top of his foot.

He managed to hold his screaming to only be internal for a long moment, just long enough to turn, toss his Ritual Orb into the air, and activate the alarm that he had set up in his first location. The klaxon call was intense even from this distance—likely a mile away—and  loud enough to cover his shriek of agony as he yanked the two inches of metal out. He inspected it with a glare as he healed his punctured flesh.

Radiant nail (Rare). Building material for energy-attuned projects. This nail is designed to move through potent materials with ease. Caution: sharp.

“Yeah, no joke.” Joe growled at the ‘helpful’ message. “I’m gonna enjoy reducing this thing.”

Now that he was looking for them, Joe could clearly see various broken tools and material that had been tossed down here by accident or to hide their existence. “Here’s as good of a place as any, then. Not too close to that damaged city defender, not too far from the good stuff.”

Once again, it was time to put his protections in place. But this time, he knew better than to put out anything that would act as a beacon for creatures; even when it was supposed to drive them off. He started with his barriers, breathing a sigh of relief as he finished fully encircling the area that he wanted to work in. He knew that wouldn’t keep anything truly powerful out, but it gave him the security that he needed to get the next layers set. The next set of rituals was once again barriers, but this time Joe adjusted the design slightly.

“If I can make it so that one side is blindingly bright, but doesn’t impact the other side, it stands to reason that I can make them so dark that it looks like nothing is here… right?” It took some tinkering with the design, but Joe was able to learn for certain that no, it was not possible. “Can’t make it put out no light, got it. What if I set light as another thing to absorb as an ‘attack’? Eh, I don’t know how to do that. Make it reflective? Bounce the light back? That shouldn’t make it too expensive to maintain.”

He went with that, managing to make a tiny version on his third try. He expanded it out, and soon was able to make a second ring of protections. From the outside, since the light down here was already dim, walking toward his setup looked as though there was just a large pile of trash on the ground. He had angled the rituals slightly so that they wouldn’t show a reflection of whatever was looking around, instead showing the ground right under them.

With that done, and feeling far better about his safety, Joe pulled out his Aspect Jars, set up a Field Array, and started to ‘dig’. “Can’t shimmy down through this… I just know I’d get a nail stuck somewhere unpleasant.”