Ruthless ~ 49!

~ 49 ~

There was an almost unbroken circle of vomit around the sparkling new bathhouse. The office workers that had been on the outermost ring had been spun so quickly that a few had passed out from the g-forces that they had been subjected to; not to mention that most of them were the people that had their mana forcibly opened. Joe was watching and hoping… if his characteristic was going to be applied to the building it would be any second now. 

Structure ‘Bathhouse (Unique)’ absorbed a portion of the mana and spare materials invested in the ritual and has transformed into ‘Filthy Bathhouse (Unique)’. All accumulated filth in the bathhouse will be evenly applied to all water in the soaking and bathing areas. Without a powerful filtration system, keeping this building clean will be a monumental task.

Class experience gained: 3000.

The ritual diagram turned to ash in Joe’s hands, and he cursed darkly. No second chances on this building, and any new scan of it would simply give him a copy of the ‘filthy’ version. He felt like his class ‘bonus’ had just critically failed him, and he was starting to resent that he couldn’t turn it off. So far it only made things more dangerous or far worse. Still, he had achieved what he was after.

Rituarchitect has reached level 8! Congratulations, make sure to follow your chosen path until the end!

Joe didn't even get a chance to look over the positive bonuses the bathhouse gave before he was knocked off his feet by one small but powerful shockwave, followed by another, and again. Everyone within fifty yards of the Guild Hall was continuously knocked away as a tremendous amount of power gathered above the Hall.

Zone alert! Towney McTownface, the town of the Noble Guild ‘The Wanderer’s’ has reached town rank three! The guild has gained 1,000 reputation with Ardania, for doing their part to take care of the land and the people in it!

Guild notification: Towney McTownface has reached town rank three! As this town has been built from scratch by the guild ‘The Wanderer’s’, the town and guild have earned a symbiotic bonus. Calculating bonuses based upon the buildings that have been added into the town… Calculating… Cal… culating.

Buildings scanned. Current buildings: 1 Artifact. 3 Unique. 2 Special Rare. 5 Rare. 21 Uncommon. 4 Common. 0 Trash. Normalizing… analyzing weighted bell curve. Weighted bell curve results: Special Rare. 

Towney McTownface has earned a Special Rare reward building for all of the hard work that has gone into making an exceptional town. Attempting to apply to the highest graded building… failed. Artifact too potent to apply substandard reward. Applying to a secondary target. Success. Interfacing with guild bonus ‘Ruthless Defenders’. Guild Hall is gaining an additional bonus: Town Aegis.

Town Aegis: once a month, the owner of the town can activate a defensive formation that makes all buildings within town limits immune to damage for 24 hours. 

Secondary effect: any damage dealt to members of the guild ‘The Wanderer’s’ within town limits will not be applied, instead rebounding upon the attacker for double the damage dealt.

Joe alone was also shown another small message, and frankly it seemed overly passive-aggressive.

This effect is not part of the Guild Hall, it is an added bonus that is not recreatable without significant knowledge of enchanting or related fields of work.

Mike’s eyes were roving across text that was invisible to Joe, though he assumed that it would be something similar to what he had just read. “Well now, that is certainly going to make this place easier to defend during an attack. A siege will still hurt, but at a time of our choosing, we could all just go to bed and have a luxurious day off.”

“Or we could launch a counter-offensive, knowing that even if it fails we will come back to our home intact.” Aten had joined them just in time to hear Mike’s declaration. “Now that we have a trump card, we need to determine our next step. I think that I-”

Joe’s attention slipped as Aten continued speaking. As much as he loved strategy and to be a part of things, there was a reason that Joe had never gone the officer route during his military career. He pulled out the path advancement pamphlet and eyed it, then decided not to waste any time. Joe activated the booklet, and chose to rank up his Rituarchitect class. Instantly, there was a shockwave similar to the Guild Hall, but originating from him, that knocked down the people in his immediate vicinity. 

Then his eyes rolled back in his head, and knowledge of a new ritual filled his brain. This was a doozy: a Grandmaster-ranked ritual called ‘Ritual of the Traveling Civilization’. Details filled every line. Every arc had meaning, every blank space acted like a barcode which gave spatial coordinates. The material cost was massive, and the mana requirements would make what the Accords used to absorb in a day seem paltry.

But the effects… the effects alone would make it worth creating. Joe’s eyes snapped open, and for a bare moment… a library’s worth of information could be seen spinning in his sclera and irises, like galaxies drifting through the night sky.

Ritual of the Traveling Civilization (Grandmaster). There are times where building a building, a town, or a city would take an inordinate amount of time, effort, or otherwise be an excruciating task. This ritual allows any building below the Mythical rank to be transported to another location, irrespective of said location. This ritual allows you to link up to one hundred buildings; either at once or over time. So long as the proper mana debt is paid, the building and all of its non-fauna contents will be scanned, atomized, and reconstituted at the new demarcated location. Time needed to transport buildings is variable, and based on structural rarity.

Note: does not allow dimensional transport without an established, permanent link. Yes, the bifrost counts.

The massive load of information seemed to shrink away from his surface thoughts, and fell behind a barrier in Joe’s mind that kept it contained and neatly packaged in one location. That was good. The prerequisites to understand that information… Joe blinked away the tears that had been unknowingly streaming down his face. It had been like staring into the face of a beautiful horror. 

Joe had been unable, unwilling, to look away from the pure, mind-rending information. It had been like writing Java code for a dozen years without once looking up an answer online or pressing backspace, then having it compile and run perfectly on the first attempt: simply not possible with his current brainpower and understanding. Still on his back, Joe pulled up his status and looked himself over.

Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend’ Class: Mage (Actual: Rituarchitect)

Profession I: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist

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

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

Hit Points: 677/677

Mana: 1,167/2,059 (762 Reserved)

Mana regen: 40.39/sec 

Stamina: 671.5/671.5

Stamina regen: 5.92/sec

Characteristic: Raw score

Strength: 66 

Dexterity: 88

Constitution: 67 

Intelligence: 132

Wisdom: 107

Charisma: 74 

Perception: 82 

Luck: 49

Karmic Luck: +30

Joe saw a few major differences on his sheet, and he tried to think through them. His mind was moving so slowly though. The… ‘experience till next level’ on his class had turned into ‘exp debt’, his Karmic Luck had jumped again and he still had no idea what it meant, and the ‘modifier’ had vanished from after his characteristics. “My characteristic modifier is gone…?”

“He’s awake! Give him some air!” Mike’s shout literally forced people away from Joe, since he was using his ability as Guild Commander to make it happen. “Joe, you keep passing out when I’m around. Should I start wearing less revealing clothes or something?”

“He said something about his modifier?” Mike spoke into the silence as it began to stretch. “Didn’t you turn that off?”

“I did, set that as the default for the guild, too. Maybe he hasn’t looked at his stat sheet in a few days?” Aten helped Joe get into a seated position and handed him a glass of water. “Joe, the modifier was only a way to look at your characterics and see where you improved from the human baseline. People were trying to use their modifier as math, thinking that it impacted skills, or success rates somehow. The fact is: it doesn't. It is only another way of looking at stats, so I set the default for the guild view as ‘off’. You can turn it back on if you want.”

“Wait…” Joe blinked rapidly and got to his feet. “It means nothing? I left it on because I figured it meant… something! It should do…”

Aten was shaking his head. “Does nothing. It's been proven. It was even a part of the tooltips that appeared when we first came to Eternium, we all just seemed to gloss over it. Listen, there is an attack coming, and we are unprepared. I need to know what just happened to you.”

“I got my… specialization to level ten.” Joe smiled as he realized what that meant. “I did it! Yes! I can get a second specialization now, I just need the raw stats to make it happen!”

Aten blinked, and looked over at Mike. “You could specialize right now?”

Joe slumped slightly. “Yes and no. I have everything I need to make it happen, but my raw stats are too far away for a long time.”

“Let me see your characteristics.” Aten ordered, though he amended that into a polite request when he realized how rude and invasive that was. He looked over all the stats, “Hmm. I see that your luck is right at forty-nine… too bad. What do you need in order to go for specialization?”

“One-fifty in intelligence, wisdom, and perception.” Joe replied instantly.

Aten looked at the numbers again. “You’re a whole tier below what you need for perception. What… I have an idea, but you need to get your luck up to fifty at least. My idea requires you to have a lot of luck.”

“Sky Eye seven-three reporting, the army stopped moving!” A voice projection shouted in the area. “It appears that the Zone announcement bothered them, we believe they are waiting for orders.”

The voice cut off, and Aten snapped his gaze to Joe. “Is there any way for you to get that last point in luck?”

“I already trained my luck today, so not until tomorrow.” Joe’s eyes widened. “Wait, no! How much time do I have?”

“Who knows?” Aten shrugged and turned. “Too bad. I need to go get the guild ready for the attack.”

“I can get that luck, if I’m lucky enough!” Joe started running, and Aten had to jog to catch up to him. “I’ll be back!”

“Where are you…? Joe! If you go out there, we might not be able to let you back in!” Aten grabbed at Joe and tried to stop him, but Joe pushed mana into his feet and shot forward faster than Aten was expecting. “Joe, I’m ordering the gates sealed!”

“I don't need the gates!” Joe’s voice barely made it back to Aten. “Wish me luck!”

“Abyss it, Joe, that’s what started this mess!” Aten shouted after the running, possibly skipping, man. “Joe! Joe! Son of… what if I need someone to get those rituals activated?”

Aten watched as Joe slipped out of town, just before all the gates were finished closing. A resounding *boom* filled the area as huge stones were rolled behind the gates to make it impossible to open from the outside. Unless Joe had a special way to get in that Aten didn't know about, he was going to be trapped outside with thousands of people that wanted to kill him. All Aten could do now was act as any good leader should. He went back to the Guild Hall and opened the door. There were commands to give, and people to protect.

“Son of a gun…” Just before he closed the door, Aten hesitated and looked off into the distance. “Good luck, buddy.”