Ruthless ~ 48!

~ 48 ~

“That’s the last of the spare buildings.” Joe wiped his face with a towel as he landed on the ground with the rest of the members of his coven. “All that we have to do now is wait until we have a higher-grade Core, and we can get the main bathhouse up and running.”

“Can I say, that sounds super out of place?” Hannah offered seriously. “You said that it's an open air Japanese-style bathhouse, right? That makes no sense with the rest of our architecture being… I don’t know, modern-medieval?”

“I don't think the guild cares about making everything look the same, Hannah.” Kirby joined in. “Everyone that’s at the top of the rankings was a gamer at some point, and all they care about is having the best stats and functionality. That’s why you see people dressed in patchwork gear. It’s the best that they have to offer at that point in time.”

“There’s a word for that, right?” Big_Mo seemed to be wracking his memory.

“Hobo?” Hannah scoffed at the thought. Joe hadn’t realized until just then, but her outfit was perfectly coordinated in function and form. Set equipment?

“That’s it!” Big_Mo snapped his fingers and beamed. “Murderhobo! Because they show up looking like a hobo, but they are way stronger than anything they are killing because of it.”

Mike interrupted their conversation by strutting over with a huge smile on his face. A stack of papers appeared in his hand, and they vanished into Joe’s ring as soon as they were handed over. “Payment for goods, it’s all there. But, that’s not what I’m excited about!”

It was what Joe was excited about. Wearing only a cloak and codpiece was getting a little… drafty. Especially when he was floating in the air and being spun around. He was far too pale to be showing off his thighs to the general population. Mike reached into a bag and handed over a small lock box. “We got the Core. The bathhouse can go up.”

“That’ll push us over the edge, won’t it?” Joe gulped and stared at the box in Mike’s hand. There had to be at least a ‘Special’ Core in there, and that meant it would be worth at least ten thousand experience to absorb. He couldn’t imagine how much this was worth in the city. Even though he could earn the same amount by grinding challenging monsters for a couple days, there were many people who would rather purchase than fight; and everyone was trying to get a leg up on the competition.

“I think so.” Mike took a deep breath and looked at the box. “The town will reach tier three, and there should be one abyss of a benefit waiting for us. Remember, tier five is all we can get before we switch to a city, and we need permission from the Royal family to do so.”

“I think I know someone who can get you the chance to ask permission.” Joe winked at Mike, who returned a wan smile.

“Mmm. Sorry, I’m excited, but can we go and make this building? If it doesn't seem to be worth the wait and the money…” Mike swallowed deeply while nodding nervously, “then a whole lot of risks that I’ve taken are going to come back to bite me in the butt.”

“You’re really that concerned?” Joe waved to his coven, and they all started walking excitedly toward the center of town. Today was a great day for experience and skill gain.

Mike was quiet for a long minute. “I have made town development my main issue as Vice Leader. I have spent so much of our money, and slowed down the progress of so much else… if we don’t see a good return, I’m almost guaranteed to be voted out.”

“It’s not that easy to vote someone out though, right? I know Aten was able to retain his position pretty easily.” They had only another few minutes, so Joe tried to push for as much information as possible.

“His position is determined by the guild at large. Any guild member in the game at the time of a vote gets their chance to speak up. Sorry, in the world; not a game.” Mike stood straighter, “Until we make the transition to a Sect and Aten has more power than this current model allows him, my position is at the leisure of the council and Guild… Commander Aten. They can try to fire me, he can veto it, they can overrule him if they vote unanimously. After we are a Sect, only Aten can give me the boot, and I’ve proven too indispensable for that to ever happen.”

The picture was starting to become clear to Joe. “So, if this doesn't pay off in a big way, they are going to see all of your actions as self-serving to the extreme. They will think that you are just trying to solidify your position, and are willing to put the guild at risk to make it happen.”

“Pretty much.” Aten didn't sigh, but he did let out a long, low breath. The clear risk that this man was taking made Joe want to do something nice for him, but he had only managed to get his ritual subskills to the Beginner ranks. Even though he wanted to do something special for this building as it went up, it was going to be ‘Unique’ ranked. Joe had no potions, stabilizers, enchantments, or activateable effects that he could use to guarantee anything extra.

“Well, the ritual is ready.” Joe didn't pull it out of his ring yet, that would be a waste of time. He did get his Rituarchitect Survey Grid out, and started inputting the measurements. Tehn he did pull out the ritual, because he remembered that he could just link the two and he would get an exact illusion of the building. Joe was glad he hadn’t said anything out loud; he could have embarrassed himself there.

The illusion filled the southeast courtyard almost entirely, and there should have been plenty of room for it. Still, no matter how he twisted or refined the shape, it remained red. Joe looked at the ritual again, trying to figure out the issue. “Hmm.”

“What’s the matter?” Mike questioned him anxiously.

“Ya know, I just don’t know?” Joe walked away from the area, and the illusion went with him. When he was about twenty yards further south, but not yet at the wall, the illusion turned green indicating that the building could be built there. “What’s different about that spot?”

Taka called over just before Joe was about to ask for soil samples or something, “What about these water wells and stuff?”

Joe facepalmed hard enough that his Exquisite Shell shimmered more than usual. “That would do it. Rituals are designed to do a certain thing at a time: this can’t raze and raise at the same time. “Yeah, good catch, Taka. Mike can we get those knocked down, please?”

Joe spent the next short while playing poker with the coven members as a few strongmen were called over to knock down and walk away with the previous simple structures. Normally, it was considered bad form to gamble with people that worked for you, but all of them took the opportunity to work on their luck characteristic after Kirby pulled out the cards. By the time things were ready to progress, Robert had quietly won nearly a gold from the others. 

Finally, they were ready to get the bathhouse in place. Joe checked with his Rituarchitect Survey Grid once more, and this time everything flashed green. “Excellent… now all we need is about thirty more people to participate.”

“What?” Mike shook his head, “Joe, that’s really short notice. I thought you said you had everything you needed.”

“I do, I already know where we are going to get all the people that we need to fill this ritual.” Joe pointed sharply at the Guildhall. “Most of the people in there are working with really high intelligence, which means big mana pool. You need to evacuate the building anyway, because the last time the town went up a level, it chucked everyone out of there. Pretty violently, too.”

“You planned this?” Mike’s eyes narrowed as it clicked in his head. “I see… you didn't remind us to evac, because then there wouldn’t be a high enough number of people that stayed around. Since they are all so clustered, we can grab them and put them to work. Sneaky. I like it, but I’m sure the highly intelligent people that are working the office jobs for the guild will not approve, and will figure out what you’re up to.”

“Not a problem, just have them come on out!” Joe enthusiastically promised Mike. The older man looked at Joe over the top of his glasses, but still did as he asked. Soon, people were flooding out of the main building and gathering in the courtyard. After ten minutes, no one else was coming out. Joe lifted his hands and shouted to get their attention. “Hello, everyone! I’m Joe, In case we haven’t met, and these are my… coworkers! Taka, Robert, Big_Mo, Hannah, and Kirby! We are going to be doing some work, and I need some volunteers.”

There was no reply, beyond scathing or confused looks, so Joe pressed on. “We are going to build a giant bathhouse right here, and it should take under ten minutes to finish. If you volunteer, here are the benefits. Your mana resource will unlock if it hasn’t already. You may get a benefit for doing it this way, though it does hurt a little. Next, I’ll make sure you get priority access to the bathhouse. It is going to be a combo of a giant pool, baths, and soaking areas. Very relaxing, and close to work for you!”

A few people stood forward right away, smiling at the offer. Not enough. “Anyone else? I need twenty at least, no… twenty-three, I need a prime number and only have six right now.”

No more people stepped out. Mike took over for Joe, “You will also get contribution points, as many as working a full day.”

More people joined the group: an extra day’s worth of pay was a good motivator. Mike sighed and waved his hand. “If you participate, and the Guildhall gets larger, you get to choose your new seat, within reason. After that, you get the day off with full pay, or extra contribution points. Everyone else goes back to work.”

Joe couldn't allow all the people to join him now. Almost everyone had jumped at the chance to get a day off. He had to decline a large amount of people, but still ended up with a total of thirty-seven participants including himself. Getting them all arranged was like herding cats, but soon everything was ready. The ritual unfurled, and Joe took a deep breath to begin the needed chanting.

“Enemy sighted!” The bellow rang through the area as Jay the guard ran into the area at top speed. “There’s a huge army coming through the woods!”

Mike took charge. “How far out?”

“Thirty minutes… tops.” Jay heaved the reply as he bent over to catch his breath.

“How did they get so close? Where are our scouts?” Mike demanded as his fists clenched.

“Dead, all dead. They have some really high-powered assassins with them.” Jay coughed and stood tall as his stamina reached an acceptable level. “Only reason we have this much warning is someone used a voice transmission spell. They said that the army was sneaking through the woods and avoiding the roads, then screamed something about clowns attacking them.”

“Clowns?” Mike reeled backward with his hands in the air. “What kind of malarkey is… Joe?”

“Not clowns.” Joe was as white as fresh snow. “Jesters. It must be. High-powered assassins that look like clowns? It's gotta be… but how?”

“There’s no time for this.” Mike started snapping orders, but Joe stopped him with a shout.

“Mike, we need to build this now. We need whatever the reward is before they get here.” Joe locked eyes with Mike. “The only reason for them to be attacking us now, is that they had someone watching the progress. It’s too quiet otherwise, someone would have known about it.”

There was silence as Mike thought over his words, before reaching a snap decision. “Do it.”

Joe collected mana around his hand, and slapped his palm on the ritual diagram before anyone could leave their position. “Relinquo sordes!”