CC5 ~ 32!

~ 32 ~

The Princess Priestess had a surprisingly large pool of mana, which Joe realized was likely due to her lifestyle as a Noble since birth. Between political intrigue and her life's mission of becoming a priestess, she had likely focused all of her spare time on increasing her intelligence and wisdom.

Even still, the two of them alone did not have the power to convert the entire Grand Temple. As their power swirled out of them, other Dwarves stepped forward from the audience and lent their own energies. Soon, the entire structure had been converted. As an unexpected bonus, as soon as the temple was complete, the entire Pantheon that Joe had formed in the previous Zone became represented here.

One of the altars blazed with red fire, representing Tommulus, Greater Deity of Fire and Berserkers. One of the altars sprouted into a woman-shaped tree, as Spriggan, the Minor Deity of Nature and Fertility, took shape. Finally, an off-tune bugle blast heralded the arrival of Hansel, the Greater Deity of Bards, Teachers, and Political Assassins.

A stunned silence fell as hundreds of Dwarves saw the choices that were suddenly before them. All sounds had ceased, beyond Joe and Princess Embertank’s labored breathing.

“Wait a blasted minute… we wanted one, and four pop in! These deities are multiplying like cockroaches!” A typical Dwarven grumble eased the tension and made the group chuckle. Joe sat down and listened to the conversations around him as he skimmed through the notifications that had appeared.

You have earned a reward from the continuous quest: Reclamation of the lost.

Critical success! You have captured the only Grand Temple in the Dwarven territories, and your Pantheon currently has the majority of all Dwarven parishioners!

Buff applied: Faction Lead I. As you are the champion of the dominant faction in this Zone, you have been granted additional power to fulfill your duties! Total mana +1,000! This buff can increase in power. Please note that the current Zone is considered as two separate Zones until the war has been decided!

Joe groaned in pain as his body swelled up like an over-inflated balloon. For a long moment, it appeared as if he was having a body-wide allergic reaction. Then the new influx of mana found the proper channels within his body and seamlessly integrated. He glanced over at Princess Embertank—no, High Priestess Embertank—and knew that she was undergoing some changes as well. “Increased stats, or a direct addition to your power?”

“Stats.” She groaned as she held her head. “And so many quests! I’m also back to level one.”

“What? Why would that happen?” Joe scrambled to his feet just in case he needed to make a quick getaway. “I've never heard of that-”

“Oh, calm down. It was my choice.” She stood on shaky legs as she held her head. “It's not like I lost all of my stats or anything, but I had to give up all of my previous class skills and abilities in order to become the High Priestess. It's going to take a lot of work to become powerful again, but at least I am not really starting from zero. I've never heard of a level one person having over a hundred and fifty points in each of their characteristics.”

“That’s something, I suppose,” Joe carefully stated, still uncertain of what to do next.

“I also inherited the ‘Paying a Great Debt’ quest. I'm sure you'll be happy to know that we should be able to finish that quest off in about one-and-a-half to two weeks.” The High Priestess’ assertion made Joe freeze once more, and he hurriedly pulled up the quest.

Paying a Great Debt. By choosing to remain faithful to your chosen deity, you have agreed to take on their debt. Find a way to pay off 13,000,000 Divine Energy. Current DE generated: 1,536,750/13,000,000.

Altar: 11

Shrine: 22

Temple(small): 1

Temple(mid-sized): 3

Temple(grand): 2

Champion defeated: 3

Followers: 310

Joe confirmed that he had only gained roughly eleven percent of the total Divine Energy he needed, then looked at the Dwarf for an explanation. She waved around the room, and smiled brightly. “I have roughly a quarter of a million followers that will be joining this pantheon over the next few weeks. After they have all converted, since followers generate twenty-five DE per day, we are looking at six and a quarter million DE per day. Expect this quest to be completed likely earlier than I even mentioned.”

“So many…” Joe whispered in a shaky voice. “I had expected it to be years.”

“This will be me doing my duty, but you are always welcome to grant me bonuses for a job well done.” She winked at him, her charming disposition slightly offset by the glorious mustache she was sporting. “Now, if you don't mind, I have so very much work to do.”

Joe nodded and walked away as she began to open the altars for conversion. The Dwarves that had been waiting passed along information they found, and soon there were four lines for each altar. Unsurprisingly, the longest line was for Tatum, and the shortest was for the Spriggan. There were not many Dwarves that wanted to empower nature when their opponents were followers of Gaia. Before he left, he swung by the altar just to double-check that there wasn’t anything waiting for him.

Laying his hands on the altar, the Reductionist felt only a warm glow of happiness and acceptance. He had quite a while to go before he was able to get a new cleric ability or spell, since he had only just regained access to level twenty. Joe patted the book-shaped altar, looked around at the newly-made Juggernauts and small Tree Ents that would protect this place, and decided to leave.

He trekked along the pristine new road until he found his way back to the main street, and further into the Tradesman District. Entering the forge, Joe found most of the Dwarves staring at him with absolutely gloomy smiles pasted on their faces. A few started walking toward him, and one held out a hand. “Candidate! It would be a true joy for me to be able to teach you about seniority and-”

Grandmaster McPoundy’s door popped into existence and the Dwarf himself stepped out. “Joe, it is good that you are here! Today, you choose the item that you receive as a Candidate, and our next encounter will only be in order for me to hand over that item after it is made. Get in here so that we can get this over with.”

Joe heard what he was saying, but it sounded like a prepared speech, stilted and wrong. Before he said anything, he joined the Grandmaster in his small pocket dimension, then let his words fly. “What was that all about?”

McPoundy wiped his forehead with a cloth and frowned at Joe disdainfully. “Didn't I tell you that there would be blowback from allowing you access to this place? Those brats out there want to know if I am training you secretly, instead of them. They have worked—and paid—for the privilege. At this level, that can't be negated just because a Candidate has arrived.”

“Hence the clear explanation of how many more times I would be able to come here without causing an issue.” Even though Joe understood the logic, he was disappointed. He had been hoping that he would be able to train his ritualistic forging with the Grandmaster, perhaps becoming awesome at it. “I see.”

“Well, I told you not to come back until you were ready for me to make you a weapon. What did you decide on?” The Dwarf got straight to the point, either not understanding or not caring that Joe was disappointed. Probably the latter. “Something like what I mentioned before, or did you-”

The Dwarf paused as the weapon template appeared in Joe’s hands. He took it and started examining it, his own fingers beginning to tremble as he unfolded the paper over and over. He shook it once, and the paper transformed into a three-dimensional diagram of a complexity that reminded Joe of a step-by-step guide for making a nuclear missile from earth. “Where did you get this? This is…”

McPoundy ran his hands over the shimmering document. “You have no idea, do you?”

“Not a clue,” Joe admitted cheerfully. “Didn’t even know it unfolded; I thought it was a single page of paper.”

The Grandmaster chuckled, high-pitched like the start of a panic attack. “You… hahaha… you’re holding a Sage-ranked template, and you calmly hand it over, thinking it’s just a neat piece of paper.”

“Sage-ranked?” Joe nodded with purposefully calm interest, pretending that he wasn’t screaming internally. “That means that this will become a… Mythical weapon?”

“It does, lad.” McPoundy shook his head at the thought. “I know that you don’t know what that means here, Joe. Let me be the one to broaden your horizons. Whenever you are crafting, you always have a chance of creating something of a higher tier. A Grandmaster trying to create a Sage item? That usually falls into about a one-in-four million chance. That’s a point zero zero zero zero two five chance. Having a template? That brings it up to one percent. One in one hundred.”

“In fact, the only way to step out of the Grandmaster ranks and into the Sage ranks is to craft a Sage item.” McPoundy clapped Joe on the shoulder. “This is my ticket into the Sage ranks!”

Joe looked at the smith, then at the diagram, and extended a hand. The diagram vanished into his spatial ring, and McPoundy started sputtering and grasping at him, his strong hands bouncing off Joe’s Exquisite Shell. “Human! What are you doing?”

“I’m now opening negotiations.” Joe chose his words very carefully. “I’m not just going to let you have a Sage ranked diagram to use for free.”

“It’s a weapon I’m making for you!” McPoundy roared in exasperation, staring at Joe’s ring hungrily.

“No, we already have a deal that you would make a weapon for me.” Joe shook his head and waved at the table containing all of the ‘trash’ that the Grandmaster had previously made. “Frankly, any of those ‘edgy’ ones would be fine with me. What are you willing to do so that the path of a Sage can be held in your hands?”

“Human… you could squeeze blood from a stone, couldn’t ya?” A long silence stretched between the two, until finally McPoundy started laughing. “Fine; what do you want?”

“I want to be able to make this,” the diagram appeared again between the two, though Joe didn’t break eye contact with the Grandmaster, “on my own. I want you to teach me.”