CC5 ~ 43!

~ 43 ~

Joe sprinted to one of the many strange objects that were scattered through the room on the crystal slabs and small plinths, skidding to a halt and slapping his hands on the perfectly triangular crystal. A flash of mana seeped out of him, and information appeared in his mind.

Item: Illusion Prism Focus.

Reduction value: 99 Rare aspects, 129 Uncommon aspects, 910 Common aspects, 7,991 Trash aspects.

Reduction cost: 125 mana per second.

“Yes please, and thank you. I wonder if it has no damaged aspects because it’s in a perfect crystalline form? I really need to learn more about my abilities and what each aspect does.” Joe let his mana seep into it for one second, two, then intentionally let go. He didn’t want to fully destroy these, since that would be noticed. If he could weaken a bunch of them, then even if he were killed and his ritual was stopped, Joe would be able to feel secure in the knowledge that the illusions would break at some point. He hurried to the next one, then crossed the room after heavily damaging it. On the tenth, his reduction went too long and accidentally fully destroyed the prism.

The room strobed red as the beam of light that had been attached to the prism recoiled up into the mass of pulsating illumination. The lights that were attached to the other prisms thickened slightly, the surviving crystals needing to handle slightly more energy. Joe heard an Elf shout, “I don’t care what the orders were, if this goes down, we’re all abyssed! Just try not to kill him until it’s ready!”

“Oh, I don’t like the sound of that.” Joe rushed over to the next plinth, destroying the prism entirely. Then the next. They were going down, but the effort was hard and draining. The light was pulsing harder, and the beams were growing thicker with each crystal destroyed, but it wasn’t enough yet.

Capture field activated!

“What does that mean?” Joe’s answer was a burst of mana shooting into the corner where he had activated the ritual. In the next instant, the ritual ring under his feet vanished. The ritual had been deactivated, at the least, in an instant. “Oh snap-”

In the next moment, he was flying across the room, a mana-made hand having slapped him harder than a train could have. Joe impacted a plinth at speed, his Exquisite Shell fracturing into nothing as blood splattered from his mouth. Joe’s fuzzy thoughts reminded him that this was a good indication that his internal organs were damaged.

Damage taken: 4,308

Exquisite Shell: 0/3,586

Health: 920/1,642

“A human? Of course it was a human; a Dwarf would have been too obvious.” The voice reaching Joe’s ears was sharp and hateful. There was very little trace of an accent or strange dialect, making Joe nervous about the rank or power level of this particular individual. He turned his head and watched her as she walked toward him. “I am Lady Elfreeda, known as the Lady of Light, and you-”

A Dark Lightning Strike bounced off her, dealing no damage but managing to interrupt her train of thought. Elfreeda stared at the human in astonishment, and Joe let out a wet chuckle. “Mandatory quest. Need to try to kill you whenever I see you.”

“A follower of Havoc. I should have known it from the start.” Lady Elfreeda actually took a step away from Joe, for whatever reason. “Was this your great plan, human? An unguarded ritual? Breaking a few toys and diminishing the stability of the grand illusion an insignificant amount? What are you, a child? Let me explain to you what happens now. You go onto a small island surrounded by magma, unable to escape and tell anyone of the impending attack. Daily, you will be… pressed for information. Information that I know you’ll have, as a follower of that animal.”

Joe tried to use Dark Lightning strike on her again, but the spell failed. She smirked at him, “You think I can’t lock down magic in my area once I’ve seen you use it? You poor, simple-”

A stream of acid sloshed over her, doing nothing but making her flinch. Anger colored her features as much as the strobing light did. “Enough of this. Take him, and we’ll see how long he can last-”

As soon as she started giving orders, Joe reached up to the prism on the plinth that he had slammed into, reducing it and activating Essence Cycle at the same time. He stared at his uplifted arms and the ritual engraved upon them… and his head exploded, showering the area in gore.

Lady Elfreeda stared at the bloody mess left behind for a long moment, then shook her head and sighed. “Fool. All you did was save me a trip.”

She was about to go find the island that he had been placed upon and begin the interrogation herself, but the sound of a crystal shattering drew her attention. One of the plinths she had been standing near had gotten a full dose of Joe’s acid, as well as being greatly weakened beforehand. Another shattered on its own, the beam coming from the ceiling too intense for it to handle. A few more broke over the next few seconds, and the Lady paled as she whirled into action, attempting to stabilize the spell on her own. “Chain reaction of destruction? Follower of Havoc indeed. Get someone out to him, and get the Shapers growing new foci, now!”

***

Joe didn’t open his eyes to the respawn room like he had expected. Instead, he found himself on a large rock surrounded by molten… Joe still hadn’t decided for sure if it were magma or lava, no matter what the Elf had said. He checked his notifications, trying to learn where he had gone wrong.

You have been caught in a capture field! All major forts have the option of respawning a small number of the enemies killed into a ‘jail’ area instead of allowing them to actually die. Escape, be released, or be rescued if you want to get away!

Joe stood, almost gagging when he realized that his entire body hurt. Checking his health, he saw that it was only at one hundred, and an attempt to heal himself only resulted in a loss of mana. “Looks like I can still cast spells, at least. I didn't lose experience… so they must be paying the cost of my death instead of me? That must be one of the faults of something like this.”

He limped around the rock, searching for anything he could use to help himself. The surface which had  not actively melted was only about five feet in diameter, and the entire area was surrounded by a light illusion, creating a shifting wall that completely blocked his vision. He could be right next to more land, or surrounded by lava for hundreds of feet. There was no way to know without testing. Not giving himself a second option, he jumped as hard as he could, going higher and higher… then blinked, finding himself on the island once again. “Can’t go through the illusion, then? Or… did I even jump? That makes things difficult.”

Joe sat down and tried to think of a plan, but found that he could only groan and close his eyes. He was exhausted. He wanted a nap… he could plot his escape later. It would be better to just wait until—he jolted himself into motion as he realized that something was impacting his way of thinking. “That’s not good. That illusion was insidious. I need to do something at all times, or I’m gonna give up.”

There was only one thing that he could think to do while stuck on a rock with nothing else on it. He needed tools, and to prepare himself. When he escaped, Joe fully planned to be ready. “So… what should I make? Should I… can I reduce magma? I give up; it’s magma. I can’t exactly touch it, but maybe…”

Joe activated Field Array, the lines of mana arching out and dipping into the magma. He let his hand get close to the lava, but jerked it away with a hiss. An idea sparked to life as he activated Exquisite Shell, and he put his hand directly into the molten stuff.

-4 damage per second. (Bonus resistance to elemental effects.)

Joe flooded the small patch of magma with mana, finding that it was all rated as ‘Common’. With the array active, he started reducing the boiling earth; content to just pull in aspects until his mana ran out. The magma poured back into position as it was reduced, slower than water, but it was so hot that it was fully liquid. Joe checked his aspects after the third time his mana ran out, seeing only one thing that he hadn’t expected.

Special Aspect, Molten: 400.

“Molten?” Joe looked for more information, but just like with the other aspects, it seemed he was destined to use them to learn of their effects. “I want more of this… should I make a special aspect jar?”

After looking at his inventory, Joe found only a single Uncommon Core, four regular Common ones, one Synthetic Common Core, and a small sack of Damaged versions. “Let’s see… I have over eleven thousand Trash aspects. No real point in making a great container for them, since they’re… literally trash. Common is really the only type where it starts to matter, so how about we start with that? Common aspect jar, here we come.”

Using the Field Array that he still had active, Joe pushed the first Common Core into it and began the process of creating an aspect jar. It only took a few seconds and the low cost of two hundred and thirty Common aspects, and he was holding:

Natural Common Aspect Jar: 0/1,820 Common aspects. This jar can be used to store and retrieve Common aspects. As it is a naturally formed aspect jar, it will collect Common aspects from its surroundings over time. Current rate of collection: 3 Common aspects per hour.

Reductionist class experience gained: 50

“Wait.” Joe stared at the information. “Wait. This means I can create self-generating aspects? How many per hour would a Mythical Core generate? How would I even get one, though? Wait. Let’s say I get a Mythical Core, somehow. Then I get the bare minimum of aspects I would need, because I certainly wouldn’t waste that on Common… bare minimum would be two thousand. There would be a lot that goes right down the drain because I don’t currently have a Mythical aspect jar…”

Joe grabbed his head with both hands. “I miss having spreadsheets! I never thought I’d say that. Initial investment, bare minimum, probably three thousand Mythical aspects. However… let’s say I get just one extra aspect per hour per rarity level. The maximum would be… ten per hour? Two-forty per day, twenty-four hundred in ten days. Investment returned in two weeks, then a long-term supply after that. Still… I can’t imagine the effort that would need to go into getting a Core like that. Let alone how many Mythical things I would need to reduce? Best I even have right now is Artifact, but there’s no way I have enough to convert this Core into a Jar. Not a good one, at least. Unique, it is; let’s try that with my best Core.”

Joe set the Uncommon Core into the Field Array, then began pouring out every last Unique aspect he had into it. One hundred, two, two-fifty, two-ninety… and the Jar was complete.

Natural Unique Aspect (Uncommon) Jar: 0/2,150 Unique aspects. This jar can be used to store and retrieve Unique aspects. As it is a naturally formed aspect jar, it will collect Unique aspects from its surroundings over time. Current rate of collection: 4 Unique aspects per hour.

Reductionist class experience gained: 100.

Aspects gathered

Trash: 11,967

Damaged: 11,421

Common: 9,636

Uncommon: 6,789

Rare: 1,909

Special: 100 (Zombified). 100 (Anima). 400 (Molten).

Unique: 280

Artifact: 112

Legendary: 0

Mythical: 0

Core energy: 1,755.5/1,958 (Common)

Joe stared at the jar in his hand that had just given him hundreds of experience, trying to figure out how he could make fifty more of them. He needed Cores. Lots of Cores. Pondering the data, he nodded; he was going to raid a storehouse when he got back to the city.

“I was right, at least with this one. Looks like only one additional per hour. Four per hour means almost exactly three days until I have a return on aspects.” Joe looked at his other Cores greedily, “Hello my little investments. I can’t wait to—ow!”

Health: 64/1,652

Joe yanked his hand out of the magma it had been submerged in, hissing as he cast Mend on himself. His health topped out at one hundred, and Joe glared at the molten rock that his… hand had been… submerged in.

“Mate. Hey, Mate, I need someone to talk to here. I think I may have thought of an escape plan.” All he needed to do now was wait for his mana to return to full, and he was going to make a break for it. Mate bubbled up onto his arm and gurgled cheerfully; clearly, it agreed that diving into the magma was a good idea.