CC5 ~ 50!!

~ 50 ~

Joe jumped off the column of stone, exhausted from having to constantly direct his ritual orbs into the patterns that he wanted. It was good training for future battle, and he had been able to safely destroy a full score of the Hammer Beasts, but it was frustrating that he needed to constantly visualize every aspect of the attack that he wanted to use. Even with a spell, he was able to visualize the spell form and put it out into the world; he did not need to maintain the shape in his mind after the initial usage.

“Although, now that I think about it, would that be useful?” Joe muttered to himself as he went from beast to beast, collecting their Core if they had one, and otherwise reducing the creature for aspects. “I already know that mana manipulation has leveled up a few times because I was working on controlling threads of mana outside of my body… is this an aspect of spellcasting that I have ignored?”

A few tests casting Acid Spray at the rocks in the area showed him that no, he had not been using spells incorrectly. “At least… I suppose it shows that only doing it a few times is not enough to change anything. Another thing to practice?”

Joe looked over his haul; three Uncommon Synthetic and five Common Cores. Shaking his head ruefully, he chuckled and murmured to himself, “Something about having an ability tied to a Ritual Orb really makes it easy to remember to use it.”

Experience earned: 2,370 (Hammer Beast x20)

Level up! Welcome back to level 19! Again!

“No light show or feelings of euphoria for getting back to this level?” He shrugged, although he was slightly saddened that he didn't get to experience that rush again. Just another reason to get to level twenty-two for the first time.

Battle Meditation (Novice VI).

Assisted Ritual Orb Usage (Beginner 0). Congratulations on reaching the Beginner ranks for this skill!

“Nice! That means that I can use two orbs skillfully, and another one fifty percent as easily, right?” Joe immediately pulled out a third orb and tossed it into the air alongside the other two. There was a remarkable difference in the ease of use, and he felt confident that he could control all three fairly easily in combat. As soon as he had collected all of the available loot, Joe turned and started running back toward the city. He needed aspects, lots of aspects, then even more aspects, and he needed them quickly. There was really only one place that he could go to make that happen, and luckily he had a permanent pass.

As he rushed toward the city to hop headfirst into the sewers, he felt like his body was on autopilot. Since his mind was free, he decided to open up his character sheet and see how things were going.

Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend’ Class: Reductionist

Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (1/20)

Profession III: None

Character Level: 19 Exp: 190,559 Exp to next level: 19,441

Rituarchitect Level: 10 Exp: 45,000 Exp debt: 9,590

Reductionist Level: 0 Exp: 936 Exp to next level: 64

Hit Points: 1,813/1,813

Mana: 6,662/6,662

Mana regen: 49.18/sec

Stamina: 1,491/1,491

Stamina regen: 6.45/sec

Characteristic: Raw score

Strength: 143

Dexterity: 143

Constitution: 139

Intelligence: 148

Wisdom: 129

Dark Charisma: 100

Perception: 132

Luck: 72

Karmic Luck: -1

Joe screeched to a halt as he saw the drastic shift on his character sheet. “That's not right. None of that is right. What happened to…? Everything jumped, everything jumped way too high! Tatum, is this something you did? Dude. I just got you back, don’t mess with the system.”

Activate Query?

“Yes, activate query, send a message to the admins, anything so that I do not get slapped with another penalty!” The Reductionist rubbed his bald head nervously. “I just got rid of that curse; I’m not going back to it! Every basic score went up a full ten points, and all of my experience went up an additional ten as well!”

Your concerns have been passed on! Occultatum sees your plight, and has elevated your error report! Expect a full audit shortly!

Joe winced the word ‘audit’, but waited patiently for an answer. Five minutes passed, ten, but nothing changed. He took a few hesitant steps, expecting that he would be whisked away as soon as he started moving. Still, nothing. Trying to put it out of his mind, he started running, feeling slow for some reason. “Right… lost my shoes.”

He burst into the city, running past a confused guard, who had expected him to be gone for several days, before he ran into his first real issue. “Where is the entrance to the landfill? I came out of it… I think it was… no, I died in there. Never got out by walking.”

He knew another way to get into the sewers, but there was only one way to do it fast. This time, however, he wasn’t going to be jumping into the outskirts of the pile. No, he was going right for the expensive stuff. That meant that there would be a hard landing and monsters to contend with. That was fine. This time, he knew what he was getting into, and he had an oversized mana pool so that he could be his own backup. “Already have food packed, and I don’t need water. Let’s go.”

With that, he raced toward the only high-end shop in the city that he knew would let him use their garbage chute: McPoundy’s forge. Joe ran in, barely sparing a glance for the many exasperated stares he started to collect as soon as the door opened. “Pardon me; where do you all dump failures? Your access point into the landfill?”

“Center of the room,” one of the Journeymen stated, getting ‘cheerful’ grins from his contemporaries. “What? What’s he gonna do with that information? Get more training and cheat into a higher rank?”

Joe saw an opportunity and decided to run with it. “Hey, listen up, everyone. I know you don’t really like the fact that I’ve been able to get special treatment. Let me make it up to you.”

“I’ll leave here like all other failures.” He walked over to the chute and threw it open, getting a few laughs as he reeled back from the sudden wash of foulness that wafted out. He waved at them, double-checked his buffs, and jumped in headfirst. “Goodbye, cruel forge!”

The shouts of alarm that followed him in were more than enough to make up for the awkward entry.

“He’s lost it!”

“Throw a rope in! That nutter bro is gonna get us all banned from the forge!”

“Stop him! McPoundy’s gonna eat us for lunch if Candidate bro’s death is traced back here!”

Joe chuckled the whole way down the slimy tube, his breath catching as he entered the open air above the landfill. The sight was magnificent, since he was approaching from far above and much nearer the center of the hollow mountain. “Oh, right; that’s why Havoc dropped me at the edge. To get a soft landing.”

The human was dropping directly toward a massive hillock of weapons and metals that had been deemed ‘not good enough to distribute’. He twisted and got his feet under him, landing almost gently among the stalagmites of slag and shambles of rusting steel.

Exquisite Shell: 8,657/9,260

“Six hundred and three damage?” Joe looked at the treasure trove that he had literally fallen into, then back at the small dent in his protections. “Totally worth it.”

A rope slapped into the side of his head, startling him. He looked up just in time to see it get cut in half as the protective shielding of the landfill recognized it as something attempting to ‘climb up and out’. “Well, feces. Good thing I wanted to be here… nice of them to try, at least. First thing; set a perimeter.”

He hadn’t forgotten that the entire place was infested by zombie Dwarves stumbling around, and Joe didn’t want to stay focused all the way up to getting munched on. Luckily, he had something perfectly suited for this sort of situation. “Quarantine area should almost guarantee me some peace and quiet.”

Since the ritual was so simple and easy to set up, in less than twenty minutes, he was able to activate the two circles.

Class experience gained: 50 (Reductionist).

The soft sound of materials rotting was covered by a sudden rush of clawed feet skittering away from him, and Joe shuddered as he realized that he was hearing literally thousands of small things moving. Rodents? Perhaps, but what level did they need to be to survive in an area like this? “Well… at least I know they are all under level twenty-nine, or they’d be all over me right now.”

“Oh… I’m at only fourteen experience from the first level as a Reductionist.” Joe looked around, then at his status screen, then around again. “Alright. It can only help me to have a higher class level, right?”

He found a tower shield that was almost perfectly flat, and decided to use it as a base for an Apprentice-ranked Ritual of Acid Spray. That would let him get the level up in an instant, wouldn’t take too long or cost too much, and would still be useful in getting through the muck that filled the area. Barring usefulness for unearthing high aspect-rarity goods, he could always toss it in a space beneath residential areas and use it to clear food and trash waste.

Ten minutes for the first circle, fifteen for the next, and twenty-five for the third. Almost an hour used, but hopefully not wasted. Joe lugged the shield to the edge of the area defined by the Quarantine Area, then swung it around in a wide arc, releasing it like a discus just after activating it. The shield flew like a frisbee, its weight ensuring that it was going slow enough not to activate the boundary shields.

A rain of acid fell from it as it travelled, but Joe wasn’t following it. He was staring gleefully at the message waiting for him. A shock of silvery energy pulsed through him, not as potent as a character level increase, but still very welcome. His fatigue vanished in a haze of delight, and he sighed happily as he read the notification.

Class experience gained: 100.

You have reached Reductionist class level 1! Congratulations! Your understanding of reduction has increased. Bonus: you are now able to expend mana with a greater throughput so as to reduce within an area of effect. The area must be within an Aspect Array. (i.e. Field Array).

“Level one, just like that.” Joe stretched his neck, rolling his head from side to side. “Sure, I need to figure out what that bonus means, but I have plenty of things to test it on.”