CC5 ~ 48!

~ 48 ~

Havoc was shockingly lavish with the quest rewards. Joe stared at the small pile of Cores that glowed so brightly that his eyes were taking damage. Even so, he couldn’t look away. “One Unique, five Rare, ten Uncommon…”

He took a deep gulp, unsure about the other item that he had been given. Joe picked up the metal pass and turned it over in his hands. “One permanent access pass to enter and leave the landfill at will. I guess I was given an exit pass the last time?”

At least he wouldn’t need to drop down the garbage tubes again. Joe remembered all too clearly what it was like landing on broken glass and seeing the sheet of debuffs appear. Doors were nice. You could just go in them, or out of them. Very few surprises. Joe stared at the Unique Core and steeled himself against using it right away. It was a powerful Core, worth nine thousand, five hundred and fifty-eight experience, if he wanted to waste it by absorbing the power.

“Ten percent of its capacity… add on another ten percent of that to account for any wastage… a minimum of a thousand and fifty-one Unique aspects. That’s enough to build… create… I can’t even imagine.” Joe sighed and inspected the others. Two of the Rare Cores were potent ones worth above five thousand experience, while the other three were in the four thousand range. “Assume roughly five hundred aspects each to use these. I could do Common or below, but what’s the point? I need Rare or better.”

“I should set up a powerful mana battery ritual, though. I’ve only got the ‘overmorrow’ before the troops are mustered, whatever that means. The best way to support the assault is going to be by making sure my side doesn’t blow itself up.” Joe pulled out his notes on the ritual and started reviewing what he needed to do. “First off, I need to increase the efficiency of this diagram. I did a decent job when I first got going with this, but my lore skills have all increased fairly… knowledge! Architectural Lore!”

His mana drained away, and Joe grimaced as Architectural Lore reached Beginner two. He needed to set a timer or something; that skill needed to be used. “My understanding is higher than it used to be, and the components needed are different. I need to translate it over.”

Joe lay on his bed, poring over the formulae to differentiate what was a good idea, and what was a necessary detail. “I can pull this component, but this needs another decimal…”

Three hours later, he had pulled apart the data and condensed it down into a sleeker design. The next step was putting it back together and ensuring that it ran with the same power and efficiency. What he needed was not something that could be run on higher power Cores, but something he could mass produce without going insane or broke. It took a few more hours, but then Joe was ready to test the new design.

Congratulations! Your dedication to perfecting your craft has resulted in a successful revamped ritual, lowering the requirements to create it without sacrificing the potency!

Ritual efficiency increased! Ritual of Enchanting (Mana Battery) (Expert) has been converted to Ritual of Enchanting (Mana Battery) (Journeyman).

Skill increase: Ritual Magic (Expert IV).

Skill increase: Ritual Circles (Expert IV).

Skill increase: Magical Matrices (Apprentice V).

“Oh.” Joe stared at the notifications, suddenly overcome by a deep-rooted need to improve everything he could possibly get his hands on. “Sometime soon, I am going to sit my happy rear down and run experiments for a year.”

That wasn’t today, sadly. Today, he needed to make this ritual and determine what all was needed in terms of aspects. The ritual itself would be embedded within metal, the best that he could replicate at his current rank, but for that… “Time to go see McPoundy.”

He stopped himself before he could rush out the door. “No… need to make sure everything works correctly first. I can use this. Step one: make a low-powered mana battery. Step two: convince McPoundy to help me, at least if I can get in contact with him. Make a battery, use it and my position as a Candidate to make him help me, mass produce new, non-damaging power sources for the Legion. Step three? No idea, but step four is profit.”

Joe reached into himself and began pulling mana out and shaping it into the strings that represented the Field Array. The size increased until it covered the entire area he would need for the ritual, settling into place after he strained for a few long minutes. Then his inscription tool was in his hand, a light blue which calmed his nerves. Journeyman aspects weren’t a thing, which was just lovely. That position was used for ‘Special’ aspects, meaning he was able to use Rare aspects for the outer ring… he hoped. He wasn’t entirely certain. It might mean he needed to use Expert aspects, and that would suck. “That’s what tests are for!”

He started drawing out the outermost ring, holding his breath as he completed it with Rare aspects. There was no reaction, which was unsurprising, as he hadn’t applied mana yet. Even so, if it had been done wrong… it might have exploded. Joe had died a lot during his time in this Zone, and he wasn’t eager to replicate the experience. The next ring went faster, the two rings costing a total of sixty-two Rare aspects. “Not terrible… please don’t explode?”

He swapped out his inscription tool, and the next three rings went fast. The moment of truth was upon him. Joe placed a Core in the center of the ritual, another to the side to activate it, and let his mana flow into the rings. “I have a fifty-eight percent bonus to spell stability, and I can easily make Expert ranked circles and below. Gotta believe in myself!”

The circle started up, and Joe relaxed as the familiar feeling of losing all his mana progressed. The ghostly circles lifted and started to swirl around the Core, an Uncommon one that should only take a short while to turn into a battery. The mana drain halted as the ritual became fully powered, actually giving Joe pause. “That was… I shouldn’t have been able to do that so easily.”

He opened his status, checking on his mana level. What he saw made him scream in excitement.

Current Mana: 402/6,347

“Tatum! Tatum’s free!” Joe practically slapped the menu over to his unread notifications. There was a quest complete! It had to be!

Quest complete: Paying a Great Debt. Your rights to casual interactions and bonuses from and with Ocultatum have been restored. Stop breaking things. Consider this a warning. Rewards: Ocultatum has been returned to his proper position in the pantheon. Exp gained: 10.

“Ten… ten experience gained?” Joe stared at the notification uncomprehendingly. “That’s it? I-”

The system would like to remind you that the main reward was the reason for the penalty. King Henry is currently alive on Midgard.

“Oh look, something I will never question again.” Joe nervously turned off the notifications and waited for the ritual to finish. He recalled that he now had a ton of mana to play with, so he let go of his protections and re-activated them. “That puts me at… over ten thousand effective health.”

Health: 1,642/1,642

Exquisite Shell: 8,822/8,822

“I forgot how much I like having absolutely unfair gobs of mana to toss at things.” He sighed happily. Just then, the ritual process completed, and Joe reached out to catch the newly-made mana battery. As he stored it away, motion caught his eye. He turned to stare at CleoCatra, who was perched imperiously on his nightstand; her paw nudged a large chipped mug of cold coffee that had been sitting there for… who knew how long.

“Cat… what are you doing?” Joe watched as the cat slid the cup closer to the edge. “Why are you doing that?”

He knew cats liked to knock things over, but this was an intelligent race. “I haven’t even seen you in days; leave the coffee alone. Oh, abyss. I haven’t seen you in days… I was supposed to feed you.”

The cat hissed at him, slapping the mug to the floor. Joe groaned and stood up to clean the mess as the cat flashed away and out of the room. “Hey! You can’t just-”

Joe’s gaze landed on the spreading coffee, fixating on a singular point just as the liquid coated the outermost ring of the ritual circles. He couldn’t even remember what happened after that, simply blinking blurrily as dust rained down on his blood-soaked face.

Health: 736/1,642

Exquisite Shell: 0/8,822

You are severely concussed! -42 intelligence until effect is healed!

Charisma has reached a new threshold! Current Charisma is: 100.

Skill gained: Message (Novice I). You are now able to talk to anyone on your friend list, anywhere within line of sight! Cost: 1 mana per word. Cooldown: none.

“Stupid. Cat. Stupid system, probably telling me that I look better injured than I do normally.” Joe slapped himself with a Lay on Hands, healing himself up and removing the debuff. He looked to the side, finding himself in a house where a Dwarven couple were frozen in the act of eating their dinner. “Hi there. I’m a… Candidate. Send the bill to the Legion.”

They nodded, and Joe stepped out of the hole he had created… only to fall two stories to the ground. Though he landed on his feet, it hurt. “Maybe I'm still concussed?”

“Is that message skill actually useful? Maybe in a party…? At higher levels, what then?” A thought crossed Joe’s mind. “Wait a moment… the cat told me that she was going to help me fail. Did she mean she was going to point out my mistakes? Was this an attack or a learning opportunity? The Elf destroyed my ritual so easily… so did Cleo. I need to find a way to shield my rituals from getting damaged? Is that the lesson to be learned?”

“Either way, I think I’m becoming more of a dog person.” He pondered on that as his Neutrality Aura cleaned the blood and dust from his clothes. Joe shook himself out of the fugue and started toward McPoundy’s, thinking about the mana battery he needed to replicate, and one other, very important lesson.

“Don’t forget to feed the cat.”