Invent ~ 13!

“It’s not like Dwarves are known for their stealth and subtlety. When she’s practically invisible, how am I supposed to know if she's there or not?” Joe grumbled to himself as he worked out his defensive rituals once more. He was using the remainder of his rigid tiles, stone that didn’t need any special preparations beyond ‘flatness’. He amended that thought, remembering that it also needed the special property ‘no bendiness’. Though he understood that there were proper terms for these things like malleability or some such, he was currently too grumpy to search his memory properly.

Major Cleave had released him from his bandages after letting him know that Jaxon had been the one to find him—thanks in part to recognizing that the blast wave associated with Joe’s failed invention was not an attack on the town. When he hadn’t seen the Reductionist around anywhere, Jaxon had been quoted as saying, ‘I’m betting like Joe blew himself up again, I need to go’.

“Note to self, set up Mend as a ritual, and do something really nice for Jaxon. He’s a good friend.” Apparently the man had rushed to what remained of Joe’s side and had used acupuncture to stop his bleeding debuffs; giving him enough time to rush him to a combat medic. Sure, Joe wasn’t exactly happy that the first assumption when there was an explosion was that it was his fault, but this time… well, it usually was, actually.

“A Ritual of Mending. Hmm. Not sure if healing would count as a defensive ritual or a utility one, but I’m gonna figure it out. It’s a good idea.” This time around, Joe hadn’t bothered with pausing to test things. He had simply made a single set of five linked Exquisite Shell rituals, then dived into making three linked sets of Dark Lightning Strike and two Acid Spray linked rituals. He finished the last set, noting the vibrating stone with worry. “Making a smithy next. I bet if I make a few spell stabilizers and embed them in the stone here and here… yeah, that would work. Maybe I should take up sculpting with Havoc?”

There were always new things to do and test, but for the first time in a long time, the growing list didn’t feel overwhelming. He was back to doing what he loved, and there was a difference between scrambling, and tinkering. There should have been far less chance to blow himself up as well, but he had figured out a solid way to test out his new rituals without getting injured. He could only do it once a day, for now, but whenever he put together a new design, he was going to Query Tatum and get his advice on if the thing was going to blow up in his face.

Otherwise, he’d need to hook it up to a Ritual of Remote Activation and see if it worked properly. That would be a waste, but only if he didn’t have a target to test it out on.

Quest complete: Beginner Ritualist II. Offensive rituals: 25/25. Defensive rituals: 25/25. Congratulations! You made yourself into a better protected individual! Reward: Access to Beginner Ritualist III! Record breaker reward: Reward for Beginner Ritualist III increased.

He was still making good progress toward being the speediest Ritualist Class Quester in history. Maybe he should recommend to other people that they should front load all the hard work of their entire class, with very little direction… for an unknown reward. “Eh. Never mind. They probably wouldn’t go for it.”

Class Quest gained: Beginner Ritualist III. This is a timed, optional reward quest! There are benefits to finding success quickly; and those benefits are more success, faster! You’ve made your rituals, now use them in combat! Strike a blow with your offensive rituals against at least fifty different hostile creatures. Dying before this quest is complete will automatically fail the quest. 0/50 creatures impacted by your offensive rituals. Time limit: 10 days. Reward: For each creature impacted, if killed, you will gain a core at their same Tier.

Note: they do not need to be killed by the ritual to get the reward. You are allowed to work with a team!

Class Quest gained: Student Ritualist. Congratulations! You are a Student of the path of rituals! Students must learn: for you, this means plenty of fun things to do! Personally draw out and activate twenty Student rituals you have never used before. 0/20 rituals activated.

“A reward quest…? A core for all of them? Two quests at once?” Joe gasped as he realized he was wasting time with the opportunity. “Havoc!”

Joe started running, knowing that the ten-day time limit was deceptive. He could go out and beat down a ton of monsters without too much issue, but he got a core of their same tier. That meant that going against weak creatures would be near worthless. But if he went against things too strong and died, he got nothing. That meant he needed to join an expedition and find that fine line between challenging and deadly.

It only took him a short while to find Havoc, but the high-powered Dwarf initially had very little interest in speaking with Joe. As he came running up, Havoc literally flipped over the table that he was working on so that Joe could not see what he was doing. The crowd of Dwarves and humans around the table were tossed across the room in some cases, but not a single one of them uttered a word of complaint. Joe looked around, highly concerned by the guilty looks on multiple faces. “What's going on?”

“Nothing you need to concern your bald little face with.” Havoc informed him coolly as his cigar burrowed its way out of the mess, climbed up his pant leg, and jumped into his hand. “Something I can help you with, Apprentice?”

The Grandmaster Dwarf directly calling him ‘Apprentice’ garnered a few gasps and reactions that literally chucking a table had not; making Joe wonder if there was something more to the term which was more important than he knew. Joe shook off his concerns and opened his mouth to tell Havoc about his quest, then paused as he noted all the people in the area. “Can I have a private moment?”

“Yes, absolutely, how about you and I step away from here right now and have a chat?” Havoc’s rapid reaction and movement only increased Joe's curiosity about what they were working on, but that conspiracy would just have to wait until he was caught up in what he was doing. They hurried away from the large group, soon finding a much more secluded area. It wasn't hard, as the interior of the volcano was practically a ghost town at this point. “What's got your knickers in a bowtie, kid?”

Joe translated that to ‘what has your undies in a knot’ in his head before he could answer the Dwarf. “I need your advice and help, I just got access to a new quest, a ‘reward’ class quest.”

“You’re joking.” Havoc’s slightly-less-than-usual ragged beard caught the breeze as he turned his head to stare at Joe in utter shock. “Why, the last time I heard about a reward quest was… I can't even tell you how many centuries ago at this point. I thought those pansy deities had written that out of classes already; that's how long it's been. What do you need, and what is the reward?”

Before Joe could respond, Havoc shook his head and muttered, “Never mind, I have direct access, I’ll just look for myself… oh. Oh, my.”

“Exactly why I came running.” Joe smirked at his ‘master’, who simply nodded slowly in return. “What should I do?”

“Here is exactly what you should do.” Havoc’s eyes were practically dancing in delight as he pulled a big puff from his ever-present cigar. “You go back to your little workshop, make the biggest, most powerful, most area-of-effect rituals you possibly can… and in three days get ready to ride the Lord of Slaughter wagon. I'm going to take your work to the most dangerous areas in all of Svaltarheim, point your rituals at creatures I want to attack, and then immediately destroy them. I'll be taking a quarter of your reward for my part in this, and you are going to be fine with that.”

“Um. Yes, I sure am.” Joe gulped as he took in the flames that were swirling in Havoc’s eyes. They did not look like the reflection of lava. They looked like the promise of death and dismemberment. “I guess I’ll… go get to work?”

A long stream of smoke came out of Havoc’s mouth, even though he hadn’t even had his cigar in his mouth since they first started speaking. “Yeah. You do that.”

The Ritualist rushed off toward his workshop, stopping only a single time—and that was to grab a ring full of stone that would serve well as a ritual slate. He would need to take a few minutes to set up a Field Array and make some precise slices, but he needed to restock anyway. Once he had that, the next several days were a blur of creating rituals both to hit other things, as well as keep himself alive.

When Havoc pounded on the door to his building, Joe took a swift glance at his stock of rituals, nodded in acceptance, and hurried to join the Lord of Slaughter on his quest.

Ritual of Dark Lightning Strike (Beginner) x30.

Ritual of Dark Lightning Strike (Beginner) (Linked) x6.

Ritual of Mending (Student) x5.

Ritual of Exquisite Shell (Beginner) (Linked) x10.

Ritual of Spraying Acid (Beginner) x10.

“You’re ready?” Havoc questioned him with a wild gleam in his eyes. “You’d better be, teleportation ain’t cheap. Next one won’t be ready for another week.”

“I’m good to go. All my attacking rituals are set as an area of effect, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine.” Joe confirmed with equal excitement. “I also made sure to put together plenty of things that’ll keep me alive as we-”

“Hold on tight to your horse’s hat. Let me explain how this is gonna work.” Havoc chuckled darkly. “You’re going to activate the Rituals, hand them to me, and then I’m going to teleport away to the most dangerous monster infested territory on this plane. Your quest will complete, you won’t be dead. I’ll be back in a week to pick up my share of the Cores. Savvy?”

“What? No!” Joe nearly stamped his foot in indignation. “I need to be there to… to… feces, it never said I needed to be there. Just that it needed me to activate them and damage hostile creatures.”

“Now you’re getting it.” Havoc laughed as he hurried Joe along to the Caves of Solitude, and their apparently overpriced teleport array.