Invent ~ 20!

One of the things that Joe had learned during his time in the military was that engineers were only ever a gentle push away from shifting into full-blown sappers. Anything that promised even the potential to step away from creation to beautiful, cascading destruction was a career path that all but the most satisfied were ready to step onto. Happily, there just so happened to be a large team of engineers in the volcano that were waiting on Havoc to return to begin on the next phase of whatever their current job was.

All he had needed to do was walk out of his workshop, find the nearest cluster of engineers, and tell them that he essentially wanted to set some devices up that would collapse all but five of the tunnels that led into the Shoe and take out any invading Elves. He had made no offer of payment, long-term contracts, or anything of the sort. Even so, without missing a beat, one of the Dwarves had whipped out a map that she had put together in her spare time. She offered six different areas that they could target that would accomplish Joe’s goals.

The only reason Joe did not take her up on the offer immediately was that every single other engineer in the group began offering an alternative at high volume. They all had good ideas, so Joe had needed to come up with a plan on his own. Using his authority over the area, he created a quest worth a hundred reputation for whatever engineer could return with the most detailed plan for collapsing as many tunnels as possible with the fewest ‘charges’; as well as not collapsing the volcano on the town.

The only stipulation the other Dwarves gave him was that Bauen was not allowed to participate, or even know what they were doing with their free time. A very confused Joe had agreed to this, and the engineers had scattered into the volcanic shafts like children on an easter egg hunt.

While they were out perfecting their maps, Joe took a few hours to go over his plan for collapsing the tunnels. What he eventually settled on was a variation on his gravedigging ritual. The main difference with this ritual being that it did not have any particular living target, it would simply begin intensely vibrating the earth and stone within its range. In essence, it was a very low powered earthquake ritual. He liked that idea so much that he scrawled it atop the paper he was designing the ritual diagram on. “You know what, I'm going to name it that. There’s no one around to stop me. Ritual of… Minor Earthquake. Done.”

+1 Wisdom.

“Well, that’s an ominous gain.” Joe’s brow furrowed as he tried to think about what earning the random stat meant, but he could only assume he got it for planning against an attack. “Hope I’m correct in thinking that this was just me planning an wise defense. Guess I’ll find out?”

Words were not enough at this point, so he walked over to the rubble pit, or landfill-to-be, and started smashing rocks with his Ritual Orbs while wondering if he was doing the right thing with his planning. When he eventually calmed down, he realized that he couldn’t remember the last time he had gained a characteristic point, and that worried him greatly.

He had already been behind where he should have been when he joined this plane, and if he was falling behind again, the next plane that he had access to would facetiously crush his spirit, and do the same much more literally to his entire body and mind.

“Add Characteristic training back to the ever-growing list, I suppose. What I really need to do is find a hobby that makes it fun.” Joe mumbled as he tried to put his game face back on. The first of the gleeful Dwarves were beginning to emerge from the tunnels, and they were clearly looking for him even if they were trying to do so subtly. “Also add ‘find out why they wouldn’t want their boss to know about my quests’.”

All too soon, Joe had a stack of maps pointing out the best areas to blast. In order to find the actual best one, he made everyone secretly vote on a map that they had not made. If that map won, they would get a small bonus for their vote. After tallying, there was a clear winner. Joe paid the celebrating mustachioed Dwarf, and had her guide him through the tunnels to each spot that would be getting a Ritual of Minor Earthquake added to it.

Soon enough, he was all alone once again, and preparing to… “Wait a moment. Major Cleave?”

“Need something?” She quizzed him in her curt, gruff voice. “Or just checking to see if I still exist… yet again?”

“No, I was, um, going to ask you something.” Joe’s mind whirled as he tried to come up with something, and his thoughts caught on a concept he had been thinking of only a short while previously. “I need to take some time before completing my next class quest, and I was thinking about how I needed to increase some of my characteristics. The issue is, I have so many things that I want to do, how am I supposed to increase my base characteristics as well as getting things done?”

There was a short pause as Major Cleave chewed on his words, “Well, if you are looking at a hobby… can I interest you instead in a profession?”

“Please, do tell.” Joe actually was interested, but the conversation had started as a way to avoid telling her that she had been correct. As she spoke, he began drawing out his ritual diagram at the same time. “I need to find a way to hide the inactive ritual, these aspects glow no matter if it is active or not…”

“I suppose my answer should be more than a simple ‘do this’.” Cleave stroked her mustache as she thought over how to give him proper instruction. “You understand, of course, that high-level crafters are some of the most revered people in the Oligarchy, yes? You should also know that it is very difficult to hold on to something if you do not have the ability to protect it properly.”

“Makes sense.” Joe answered her, only half listening as he started working on the second ritual circle.

“Let me ask you this, do you have any skills or spells in the Master ranks?” The question she postulated gave Joe pause, luckily not enough to interrupt his concentration on the ritual.

“Not… anymore.” He grimly informed her. “I used to, but I found some other skills with high synergy and combined them into better versions. At least, I think that it went up a rarity rank, but it also brought the skill down into the Expert ranks.”

“Had you ever increased in mastery rank with that skill while it was in the Master ranks?” Cleave pressed him, thankfully pausing and allowing him to collect his thoughts as he worked.

The fact was, while Joe was happy with his new skill, the loss of a Master rank skill was likely impacting his guild’s ability to work with the nobility, or recruit new members back on Midgard. The guilt about that was eating at him slightly, it was one of the reasons he had earned his rank in the guild in the first place. Since he was silent so long, Cleave took his answer as a ‘no’. “If you had a Master skill, you should have noticed that every so often when you are using that skill, you suddenly gained large increases in your characteristics even without increasing the skill level. Specifically, the main characteristics in use as you activate the skill.”

“I'm guessing that is why so many Dwarves are happy to apprentice themselves to Masters and Grandmasters for what is essentially a pittance?” Understanding was beginning to dawn on Joe. “If that is the case, bringing your skills in alignment with a profession would mean more rapid advancement, extra rewards as you progress, as well as interesting and new options for the profession?”

“Precisely.” Cleave looked at him with newfound respect. “No matter what everyone else is saying about you, every once in a while, it is nice to be around someone that can extrapolate from incomplete information.”

“Thanks. Wait…” Before he could follow that conversational landmine any further, the Major hurriedly pushed forward with her explanation.

“It should be obvious that combat gives the most consistent characteristic increases. However, constant combat also offers the opportunity to get injured, or slain. With crafting and gathering professions and skills, there is typically less immediate danger; which would allow for more rapid growth.” She held both of her hands in the air as if she were mimicking a set of scales. “For every benefit, there is a cost. Just like with all things in life, there are three major considerations. Time, talent, and cost.”

Joe took over at that point, having just put the finishing touches on the second circle. “If you have unlimited time to work on something, you'll get there eventually no matter what else happens. If you have greater talent for the task you are attempting to complete, it will take less time and money to make happen. If you have more money, you can… I'm thinking of delegating or hiring someone else to do the work?”

“Yes, but for our example, my meaning is: if you have the reputation to make it happen, hiring a Grandmaster as your instructor will allow you to fly through the early ranks of any skill or spell.” Major Cleave explained eagerly, clearly this was a topic she was invested in for some reason. “An average person has time, talent, and cost in balance. As an example: a warrior has to be good at fighting, take the time to learn their skills properly, and earn enough money to afford the gear they need. In that regard, there is a medium requirement for all three considerations.”

“Which means that as a crafter,” Joe stepped in once more after seeing where she was going with this, “typically what you need is a large monetary investment as well as… I'm thinking talent is the most important secondary?”

“Learning a full profession is almost entirely a matter of how many resources you can bring to bear. Let's take… table making, for our example.” Cleave’s words made Joe want to roll his eyes, but he simply stopped his break and started working on the third and final circle this ritual required. “If you wanted to make a table out of stone, but had no talent for it, you would waste much more stone than someone who had a talent for it.”

She paused for a moment, wanting to clarify a point before going further. “Of course, hiring an instructor would help mitigate some of the resource cost, but it would inversely alter the cost of learning. However, if you decided to make the table out of wood, and had a great talent for it, that would be a better way to reduce the cost of materials and learning that would be necessary to bring your vision to fruition.”

“Are you wanting to be a public speaker, or a teacher when you get out of the Legion?” Joe spoke aloud without thinking. When Cleave went silent, Joe risked a glance back at her. “Actually, I have no idea if you have any plans to ever leave the Legion.”

“No.” Her reply was as short as she had been with him over the last few days, informing Joe that he had messed up once again. “I plan to stay in long enough, and gain a high enough rank, that I will be able to inform policy decisions for training new recruits. You have gone through basic training… you should understand that all the Legion does for the first half a year or more is throw fresh recruits against monsters. It is the cheapest, most basic way to increase their skill levels. Yet, I feel we could do better as a society at large if we took the time to properly train each Legionnaire.”

“Interesting.” Joe put the finishing touches on his ritual, then stared at it in consternation. “I know that I certainly would have enjoyed having a trainer instead of… that hot mess. Let me know if I can help with that someday. Now… how in the world am I supposed to… I guess I could set up a Ritual of Remote Activation, but on what?”

“Do you actually mean that?” The earnestness in her voice pulled Joe's full attention back to the Dwarf. “You would actually help me push through my designs for the Legion?”

“I mean… yeah. You have good ideas. To be fair, I tend to be biased in favor of people that are keeping me alive, even if they are simply ordered to do so.” Joe shrugged at his own words as he turned back to his current issue and tapped it with his Inscriber. “Realistically, all of these could be bound to a single activation ritual, since I don't want to have to set them off in sequence or at different times. One single ritual… bound… carry with me.”

“I need to think about this.” Cleave muttered as she looked at Joe in a new light. Light that unfortunately reflected off his bald head and made her wince.

“Take all the time you need. I just had a breakthrough.” Joe floated one of his Ritual Orbs up in front of his face, smiling at it in a good approximation of the look Jaxon had on his face at all times. “Hello bound weapon that I always have on my person, and will return to me no matter what. My bright and shiny orbs of power that can each have reusable, reactivatable ritual circles held within them. Imma turn you into a detonator.”