Ruthless ~ 52!

~ 52 ~

Joe jogged toward the Grand Ritual Hall, not even slightly bothered by all the smoke in the air. One of the benefits of having a higher constitution was that he was able to shrug off things such as smoke or weak poisons. Besides that, smoke inhalation was a stacking debuff, and his Neutrality Aura made sure it never had a chance to overwhelm him.

When he had left to try his luck, Joe had left the others in his Coven in charge of the defences. As far as he could tell, they were doing a great job. However, he was certain that they hadn’t had to kill a bunch of people before, and so was worried about what effects this battle might be having on their minds. He opened the path to the Grand Ritual Hall, and solemnly strode down the winding ramp.

“Cheers!” 

Only to walk in as the Coven slammed together large mugs of ale. Joe paused in shock, then started to chuckle. Soon, he broke down into full-bellied laughter, and the others were looking at him in concern.

“You… ha ha… I thought you’d all be miserable! You’re having a party!” Joe was wheezing; he had finally realized that people were hardy, and they didn't need him to tell them that they were doing the right thing. They knew it already. “I need to learn to trust people! Ha, ha!”

Joe’s mood lightened considerably, and the stress that had been causing his shoulders to knot up started to vanish. He sat down with the others and started discussing the rituals that were in use. Not only the massive flames, but there were dozens of minor rituals in use that he hadn’t been expecting. Kirby gloomily informed him of the rainbows and peaceful music ritual she had accidentally meshed together, then activated in the staging area where guild members were resting until called to the walls to fight. Apparently, it boosted fatigue recovery by a huge amount.

There were reinforcement rituals set up that added armor to the buildings they were activated on; this was a ritual Joe was very interested in learning, as he hadn't seen anything similar before. Of course, there were rituals meant for assault as well, and Big_Mo and Hannah had been working on a special combination of their rituals. Big_Mo explained it carefully. “So, we take the combined Ritual of Quarantine, and add it to the ritual I designed that I call ‘Blood amplification’.”

“All it does is absorb any blood in the area and use it to amplify the range that the quarantine impacts!” Hannah burst in enthusiastically to clarify certain points. “If we use this in conjunction with a large-scale attack, we might be able to get the entire army out there to need to swim through a layer of sewage to come after us!”

“How many people are going to want to do that, knowing that they’ll get sicker the closer they come?” Big_Mo laughed and *clinked* his mug against Hannah’s.

“This is ready? Why haven’t you activated it?” Joe was pleased with this development. “I like this a lot. Non-lethal, really inconvenient, and the entire attacking force will help us fertilize the fields they ruined on their way in!”

That got a laugh from the people in the room, and Hannah explained that she was still working on boosting the efficiency of the ritual, as the combination made it an Expert-ranked ritual, and she knew that she could get it down to Journeyman with enough time. Joe nodded at that, “Let me take a look, I’m sure that together we could-”

“Time!” Taka called, and a few of the people got to their feet. “Sorry Joe, gotta set a shattering, spinning, and gravity ritual on a boulder that the guild is sending over the wall via trebuchet. I call this one ‘Stone Blender’ for… obvious reasons.”

“Less happy with that use of our abilities.” Joe sighed as they walked out of the room, their hurried footsteps and swishing cloaks stirring up dust as they moved. “I don't think anyone remembers that rituals were once banned here, considered taboo by the Mage’s College. How are we supposed to break the image that rituals are evil if we keep using them to destroy things?”

“Is that why I only ever see you using them defensively or to build things?” Hannah pulled over a few pages with spell formulae on them as she questioned him.

“I… guess so?” Joe thought about it. He really didn’t use many of the more potent, darker rituals to which he had access. “I guess I’m afraid that if I use my full abilities like that, I’ll be feared. I don’t want our class to have to slink through the shadows. I want us to be the wise old magicians that Kings go to for ways to save their people.”

“Well, I’m not a King, but I’d sure like my home saved.” Big_Mo snorted at Joe’s words even as he missed a flask he was pouring blood into and got it all over his hands. “Crap, that’s acidic! Ow, shoot. Joe, can I ask that you go out there and do something scary so that we have time to set up more rituals?”

“No, I need to help Hannah with-”

“We got this.” Hannah interrupted Joe firmly. “All I need is time to make it happen, you could be finding things to do that are more useful.”

Joe looked between the two, seeing that they weren’t trying to get rid of him; they really believed that he could do something. He stood straight, nodded, and marched from the room; determined to do… something! Something that would justify their faith in him. As he walked out into the Pathfinder’s Hall Joe went straight for the door, but paused as a whisper reached his ear.

Joe.

“Who’s there?” Joe looked in the direction of the whisper, but only heard soft music and the crackling of a fire. Seeing as the building was nearly empty, that might not be a great thing. There was a buzzing in his ears, and Joe followed his instincts toward the Temple. Looking around the lively room, Joe didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Just before he left, there was a flash of darkness that shifted the look of Tatum’s altar. He went over, and placed a hand on the stone book.

Greetings, Champion of Tatum! Your Cleric class level is considered equal to your character level, as you started as a hidden class! As a Cleric, you gain an ability or spell every third level. Calculating… level is eighteen! You are owed an ability from level eighteen!

As you are a Champion, and not a standard Cleric, you get to choose the school that your cleric abilities come from! As Occultatum is a ‘Neutral’ deity, you can choose ‘neutral’, ‘good’, or ‘evil’ aligned abilities from the school of your choice. Would you like to choose your level eighteen ability? Yes / No.

“Yes.” Joe looked at the options that were available; abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation. His mind reached for illusion, but he stopped himself. The conversation Joe had with the Coven made him look seriously at necromancy. If there was something ‘scary’ when it came to spells, the undead usually topped the list. He took a deep breath, reached out… then stopped, shaking his head. Joe wasn't cut out for that type of spell. Although he could pick from ‘evil’ spells, he just… couldn’t.

Joe looked at the options available, and selected ‘Evocation’.

Evocation is the act of calling upon or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent through the power of your will, mana, and potentially various sacrifices. Choose a spell.

“Yes, that’s what I need…” There were only two spells that appeared, and both were decent.

Mystical Infusion: Perform a rite that pulls power from an outside source and infuses your body and mind with power and knowledge. Unlike possession-style spells, there is no chance of losing yourself to an outside being, as you are taking their power only. Effect and time limit vary.

Planar Shift: Directly summon a being from behind the veil, and use them to accomplish your goals. Binding and directing are very important, as it is unlikely that you and the summon have goals that align. Effect and time limit vary.

Joe wanted Mystical Infusion, but the practical part of him knew that if he were using that power… he would become a front-line fighter. Then, when the spell ran out, he would be at the front of combat. It made far more sense to summon something that he could use to aid him, or be a meatshield at worst. “I choose Planar Shift.”

He fell to the ground as information hit him right in the brain. Joe writhed in agony as darkness poured from the altar and into him. As he lay there panting, a book materialized and dropped onto his chest; a book so thick that it knocked the wind out of him.

Spell gained: Planar Shift (Student 0). Directly summon a being from behind the veil, and use them to accomplish your goals. You have been granted a book that will allow you to know what you are summoning, how to control it, and how to unsummon it if needed. Effect and time limit of the summoned beings vary. As this is a spell granted directly by a deity and fits within your skillset, it has been increased to the Student ranks. Effect: Comparatively easy control of anything summoned below the Student rank. To increase skill level, summon and control a being that you intended to summon for one hour per skill current skill level. 

Current skill progress: 0/30 hours of control.

Mind still buzzing, Joe looked at the swirling pages of the book, also handily named ‘Planar Shift’, and saw what appeared to be variant ritual diagrams. “I suppose I can see why I got boosted all the way to Student…”

“There he is!” Joe heard the pounding of feet just before being pulled up to his own. Two guards were holding him upright, and they started running out of the room together. “Joe, the wall was breached. We held off three teams of bombers, but the fourth managed to take down a section of wall to the north.”

“Why are we running toward headquarters?” Joe spat out a huge ball of blood and phlegm that had caught in his throat for unknown reasons.

“Aten sent for you. This… this wasn’t supposed to happen.” The guard on Joe’s left seemed to be choking on something as well. “We were supposed to be safe here!”

“He has a plan.” The other guard seemed far more calm. “Aten always has a plan.”