Ruthless ~ 55!

~ 55 ~

Joe held back his fury and read onward, hoping that the benefits would be worth it. In fact, they seemed to be more of an explanation than anything else.

Benefit one: You now have the ability to process all materials down to basic components. All raw materials, processed materials, and items are able to be ‘reduced’. You are able to reduce all materials by using mana alone. There is a ritual engraved upon your being now, a ritual that only requires the empowerment of mana to function. 

Benefit two: Any sensory abilities now also inform you of the value of anything that can be reduced, as well as the amount of material you will attain by reducing it.

Benefit three: You can use the reduced material in any form of crafting, as a replacement for all components, ingredients, or other required material.

After reading through everything one more time, Joe was… nonplussed. There was nothing in here that offered him or his guild salvation at this critical juncture, and nothing that looked useful in the near future. He would be able to craft more efficiently… maybe? Joe’s hands started to shake as he realized that he might have just failed to save his guild.

He looked at the other item he had gained, and found that it was a type of mana circulation designed to grind away at the Mana Manipulation and Coalescence skills. “Breaking the mortal limit?”

Either way, it was a system of ebbs and flows that appeared to be designed with his current mana system in mind. It also looked like it would take a very, very long time to learn and put in place. The world around him started to fade away, and Joe realized that he was returning now that he had gained his reward. 

Tatum appeared, and though it seemed that he couldn’t say anything, his face showed a brilliant smile. Tears of joy had welled up in the deity’s eyes, and Joe relaxed as he suddenly knew that he had made the absolute best choice. 

Then Joe blinked, and found himself surrounded by smoke. Not a mystical smoke, but black, greasy smoke that only came from burning oily things such as pitch. There was movement all around him, and Joe looked around in confusion at the rubble that surrounded him. “This… the outer wall?”

There was no golden coloration shining through the smoke, no Aegis protecting him from getting attacked. In fact, it appeared that the only thing that was keeping him safe right now was the smoke hiding his face and body from the tide of humanity. In an odd moment of deja vu, he realized that once again he was surrounded by the huge mob of people that were attacking the town.

A gust of wind cleared the area he was in for a brief moment, and his heart lurched as he saw the charred, burnt-out buildings that used to be housing for his guild members. They were buildings that he had built, now collapsing under their own weight. He let himself be carried along with the crowd, and soon found himself at the inner wall that protected the core of the guild buildings.

“You all need to surrender!” A man was shouting up to the top of the wall.

“Your face needs to surrender!” Jaxon called down with an instant reply. Joe beamed at that; at least some of his people had survived!

“Are you qualified to speak for your guild?” The man shouting up was getting exasperated; having been shouting for nearly an hour already only to get this kind of reply was hard to bear.

“Are you qualified to speak for yourself?” Jaxon taunted him easily. “You appear sleep deprived, and you seem to have an ashen complexion. Go get some food, a proper rest, and for the love of elderberries, take a shower! This is Towney McTownface, and you are Stinky McStinkface!”

“You have all the food!” The man self-righteously screeched. “We are here to give it to the people, and you can’t stop us! It's only a matter of time - peh!”

A tomato splattered against his face, and Jaxon called down again, “There you go! Fresh salsa!”

“I’m going to make sure you die slowly.” The man called calmly, hopping off his pedestal and vanishing into the crowd. Joe took this moment to make a plan. The inner wall was only twenty feet high, he was certain that he could jump that. On the other hand, the wall was bristling with people ready to fire at any moment. He didn’t like his chances of getting over the wall without getting fragged by his own teammates.

He turned his eyes to the other place he could go. The Pathfinder’s Hall. Joe made his way over there, and found that a hole had been knocked into the wall and that the inner area was swarmed by hundreds of people. However, no one was entering the building. It was easy to see why; the entrance had a sea of blood in front of it. Tapping someone on the arm, Joe motioned at the doors. “What happened?”

Seeing the purple robes, the man’s eyes shone with vigor. “Mr. Silence wizard! There are huge golems that kill anyone that enters. They stepped out and shouted ‘no admittance, no warnings’, then vanished. Not sure what else is happening, but I think leadership is planning to figure this out after we own the place.”

“No one has gone in?” Joe got a head shake in reply. “No one has come out either? Then I’m going in to clear out the rat nest!”

With a small crowd cheering him on, Joe ran at the building and crossed the threshold. “Hold! Don’t attack me.”

A blade was at his neck just as the word ‘hold’ passed his lips. “Yeesh. Carry on with guarding the area, slay any that enter.”

“Understood. Thus far, five hundred and twenty-two deaths.”

“If you weren’t so effective, I’d never want you around me.” Joe breathed the words very softly. He went into the huge room that was just past the entryway, and found hundreds of people waiting for him.

“No! They’ve broken through!”

“Kill them before they have room to maneuver!”

Joe blanched as all eyes turned hostile. “Hold on! I’m Joe! Wanderer’s Guild, First Elder!”

There was a long pause as people waffled back and forth on if they should attack, but Everard the Weaponmaster stepped forward and looked Joe over carefully. “I know him! He’s guild!”

There was a collective sigh of relief, and the room descended into questions. “What’s happening out there?”

“Has the guild fallen?”

“Did we win?”

“How did you get in here?”

Everard waved his arms, then locked eyes with Joe. “I’m glad you came here, but where have you been for the last few days? You missed one abyss of a battle after the Aegis fell.”

“Days?” Joe shook his head and looked at his status, trying to use the time to think of a proper answer.

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

Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (1/20)

Character Level: 18 Exp: 175,220 Exp to next level: 14,780

Rituarchitect Level: 10 Exp: 45,000 Exp debt: 14,714

Reductionist Level: 0 Exp: 0 Exp to next level: 1,000

Hit Points: 732/732

Mana: 1,039/2,137 (983 Reserved)

Mana regen: 42.28/sec 

Stamina: 726.5/726.5

Stamina regen: 5.94/sec

Characteristic: Raw score

Strength: 71

Dexterity: 93

Constitution: 72 

Intelligence: 137

Wisdom: 112

Charisma: 79 

Perception: 87 

Luck: 59

Karmic Luck: +18

Joe was pleased by his increases, though he knew that from now on, all stat increases would be based on hard work and not level. In fact, he was starting to think that level might not matter as much as… Joe paused as he remembered a line that he had appeared when he had bound the tablet. ‘New Prestige Classes’ had become available. All game logic told him that prestige classes had the prerequisite of being high leveled… perhaps there was still a benefit to leveling up.

“Aten took a chance, and sent me to reach my second specialization. I just finished ranking up, but to me it was only a few hours, not days. How long has it been?” Joe’s words were met with a sharp inhalation. The people in the area knew how difficult it was to reach the first specialization, and so far there had only been rumors of people reaching the second. Yet, here was a person claiming to have reached the third?

“It’s been four days total, three since the Aegis failed.” Everard’s voice was raspy as he tried to wrap his head around this information. The outer wall fell yesterday, and there was a general retreat ordered to the inner area. We didn’t make it over there, obviously. We got cut off, and forced in here. Also, anyone that didn’t have their guild sigil showing was cut down by those crazy metal golems.”

“Aten must have requested emergency lockdown.” Joe muttered, his brow furrowing. “But why would he have taken the time to come here and give that order? He would have needed to come here in person?”

“He brought this.” Crim stepped forward, pushing his way through the crowd. He handed Joe a small box, “Sorry it took me so long to get here, I started crossing the room as soon as I heard you were here. Aten left this in the temple area, with instructions to get it to you right away. He figured you would go there first, I think he thought you died.”

“Thanks, Crim.” Joe opened the box, and narrowed his eyes. He pulled out a note, and a large gold ingot that was three-quarters full of intricate magical glyphs. “A remote activation? Where’s Hannah?”

There was no reply past a few shrugs. Joe unfolded the note and read through it as quickly as his combined intelligence and perception would allow.

Joe, as soon as you get this, we need your help. I don’t know how long it will take for the rank up to complete, and I feel like a fool for thinking that it would be quick. Your Coven members got caught and killed. I’m sure of it. Not only that, but our fast-travel and respawn in the temple stopped working, something about a war order. Anyone coming back would need to break the encirclement and come back from Ardania. One of your people made it to me in time, but she died after handing me that ingot. Good luck saving us all, First Elder. I don’t know what this means, because she and Mike died when the wall dropped, but here is all she was able to tell me before she went to respawn:

Southeast side unlinked. Standing stone #16. No whitelist. Mike demanded and authorized extreme measures.

Joe read over the message once more, and realized a few things. One, it seemed that the Coven had managed to set up most of the outward-facing Ritual of Quarantine. Two, he needed to finish it, and he now knew where it was set up and waiting to be linked. Three, if he activated it prematurely, he would get hit by the effects. That was what it meant not to have a whitelist: no exceptions. Lastly… what extreme measures? Mike barely understood what Joe’s group was capable of doing, how would he be able to do anything extreme?

He looked up from the paper, and met the gazes of all the people that were looking at him as their last hope. “Well… looks like I have some work to do. Anyone want to come with me?”

Silence filled the room, and Joe snorted softly. “That’s just fine, but I’m still gonna need some help. Everard, you’ll enjoy this next bit.”