Ruthless ~ 26!

~ 26 ~

“They’re threatening to wipe out our base.” Aten began the meeting as soon as the last person had filtered in. “We’ve been number one for too long, and it's clearly attracted the notice of some unsavory people.”

A sharply-dressed man that Joe hadn't seen in a long time cleared his throat and lazily spoke from the relaxed position of his chair. “So, what do they want? I’m sure they demanded to be paid off or some such nonsense.”

“Mr. Banks, they wanted only that we stop progressing until they have had a chance to catch up.” Aten’s eyes flashed. “They said that we had an ‘unfair advantage’, and that we were somehow cheating. They said that if we get back to town level two, they are going to come after us with all of their allies and everyone they can think of that would participate in our destruction.”

“I think I can speak for everyone in the guild when I say that is not an option.” Aten stopped speaking when another hand went up and waved slightly to get his attention. “Yes, Mr. Johnson?”

Joe looked at the man speaking with his Intrusive Scan, and his name popped up after a long moment, followed by his highest stat. Joe almost couldn't stop himself from speaking aloud, so he muttered too softly for anyone that mattered to hear, “His name is literally ‘Mr. Johnson’? Highest stat… charisma. Oh, this isn't gonna be good.”

“I say… why not?” Mr. Johnson smiled at the others in the room. “We have plenty of other projects, why worry about getting the town as high as possible right now? Perhaps we skew toward more luxurious pursuits for a while? We just made a delightful new blend, and even the press wine had a lovely body and bouquet! Why risk losing all of our hard work because we haven't settled into our lifestyle properly?”

There were murmurs of agreement from about half of the table, while the other half looked on with faint disgust. Aten swallowed and took a deep breath, “Mr. Johnson, I think that you may be disregarding some of the potential benefits of the buildings that we are bringing in. Even the grapes for the wine you are describing came from the greenhouse! You are talking about a business venture that could take potentially years to mature. If we have not expanded our Guild’s  military might to acceptable levels, there's a good chance that we lose all of that to someone who simply has the power to take it.”

“Nonsense!” Mr. Johnson sputtered. “Who would do that? We would bring the Kingdom into-”

“Mr. Johnson.” Aten had steel in his tone. “You ask that question while smoke is still rising from the burning buildings around us. Who would do that? These same people who are threatening us even though we have more military might than them individually! They would take it, and  send us to respawn as thanks for all of our hard work!”

“That is enough, Mr. Aten.” Mr. Banks stated coldly. “I appreciate your fervor, but I will take this opportunity to remind you that you serve at the convenience of the board of directors. You will not speak to-”

“I am Guild Commander Aten.” Aten’s voice shook the room, and several wine glasses shattered with the reverberations of his low snarl. “You would do well to remember that your companies from earth no longer exist. You are playing with an outdated view of the world, and-”

“I think that it may be time for a change in leadership.” Mr. Banks stated darkly. “In fact, in light of recent events, I am hereby removing you from your position.  I will negotiate with these Guilds myself.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” Aten smirked just as a pop-up window appeared in front of Joe.

The council of the Wanderer’s Guild has started a ‘No Trust’ vote to remove Guild Commander Aten from his position! Should he be removed? All  Guild members currently waiting on respawn automatically vote ‘abstain’. Yes / No / Abstain.

Joe pressed ‘no’ without hesitation, barely taking the time to finish reading the prompt. Three bars appeared in the box; a red, green, and a gray bar all started moving. In just under a minute, the vote had ended. The result was clear, Aten was here to stay.

“Now that this farce has ended,” Aten told the sputtering board members, “we will be working hard to Boost our defensive capabilities to the maximum before bringing the town back to town level two, and beyond. Until then,  I am implementing a new Guild policy. No one under level ten is allowed to call for the removal of Guild members in positions of power. They will also not sit on the council. Guards, remove them from the war room.”

It was clear that the board members did not know how to react to this, as not a single one of them was able to muster a defense before they had been whisked from the room. Just like that, the only people remaining where those who had a vested interest in increasing their guild’s - and their own - power. Aten looked around at the silent people that remained, and smiled.

“I am sorry you needed to see that unpleasantness, but I think this will make for a much more successful future.” Aten motioned for some documents to be prepared, and sealed what he had just ordered. “Now, I would like to discuss with all of you my plans for the near future.”

When Joe was finally able to leave the command tent, his head was spinning but he was beaming proudly. Following a strong leader had always given him a powerful surge of motivation. His role was clear, Joe was to salvage what he could of the damaged buildings, work with the guild and his coven to design and implement defensive measures, and once that was all ready…  bring the power of the guild to new heights.

“I am so ready for this! Let’s fix up those bad boys!” Joe gathered up his Coven and told them a little bit about what was going on over the next hour or so, and then they worked to assist Joe in creating a ritual of Structural Repair. Joe explained the steps that he was using to make everything, and it seemed to boost their spirits. Joe was pleased, he also loved learning. In fact, if things had gone differently for him, he would have loved to be a teacher.

“What can you can see from the diagram here?” Joe pointed at a small double helix that encircled everything else on the ritual, then looked around at the others.

“Journeyman ranked ritual, since that’s the fourth circle. Boom!” Kirby gave a thumbs up and waited for confirmation.

Joe blinked at the instant response, and looked at the ritual, then her again. “Well. Yes, that is technically correct, but I meant-”

“Technically correct is the best kind of correct!” Kirby held up her other hand as well, now giving a double thumbs-up. After letting Joe sputter for a moment, she snorted and dropped her hands. “I’m totally kidding. Seriously though, that’s the only thing I can get off of this ritual diagram. Way too advanced for me.”

“Right. Um. Anyone else?” Joe tried not to laugh; it would only encourage being ridiculous. Wait. That was a good thing! He let a soft chuckle slip out, and Kirby brightened right away.

Hannah leaned in and made an educated guess. “Well… we already know what this ritual does, right? It repairs damaged buildings. So, I’m guessing that this part of the ritual actually makes that happen?”

“Correct! Fully correct, this time.” Joe winked at Kirby. “Look here. This section checks the building for damage. This one holds any resources or components needed, the third circle pulls off anything too damaged to salvage, and the DNA-looking part takes those resources and binds them hopefully flawlessly with the building materials already in place.”

“I heard that you can just drop a building, regain everything used to make it, then put it together again flawlessly.” As Big_Mo paused, Joe nodded for him to continue. “It takes only a few minutes to do that after the ritual diagram is all drawn up, why not do that instead?”

“Great question! Mate, a coffee for him, please.” Joe gestured with his arm, and a significantly darker coffee elemental appeared, bubbled happily, and vanished after filling the cup Joe was holding out. Big_Mo took the drink gingerly, not sure what to say. “There are two issues with this plan, and one thing you don’t know. Any guesses?”

“Time investment?” Taka grunted from his chair. He was the only one not standing and looking at the new plans.

“That’s one.” Joe nodded at the seated Warrior-Ritualist. “Each ritual needs a blueprint, and each ritual itself is slightly different because of that. Mass-production is not possible, in other words, unless we are making a lot of the same building.”

“I’m guessing… cost?” Robert asked after a moment of silence had passed.

“Yes!” Joe pointed at the new ritual diagram. “Both Structural Repair as well as Architects Fury are Journeyman-ranked rituals. Just getting the blueprint of the building so that we can go to the next step, costs as much as repairing the building directly. Now, here is the part you don’t know. This ritual needs to go onto an item that is at least four hundred pounds. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been seeing more restrictions like that recently.” 

“The other part is that it needs a constant mana supply, and all the materials need to be in a storage device that the ritual can pull from. In return, we can work on multiple buildings at the same time, and target new ones when each is fixed up.” Joe paused and nodded deeply, “So long as we have the materials required for the building, we can fix it.”

The group left the Grand Ritual Hall and convinced some guards to bring a large slab of marble from the guild storehouse. While they were waiting for the guards to show up, they inspected the worst damaged buildings and tried to decide what they would need most.

“It’s an uncommon-ranked barracks.” Hannah was pointing out, “It shouldn't have any unique requirements! Wood, nails. Done.”

“Don’t forget shingles.” Joe quipped, though none of them understood the joke.

“Doors!” Taka called.

Hannah grimaced. “That’s still wood, Taka. Joe, does this need to be processed materials, or can it be just the material? Can we chuck a couple trees in a storage bag and have that fix things?”

Joe considered that, “You know, I have no idea? It won’t hurt to try though.”

When the guards arrived and dropped the marble slab on the ground, Joe waved away the dust and asked them to bring raw wood and metal in a storage device. They looked a little miffed, but walked off to do as he asked. Nearly an hour later, Mike showed up with a bag.

“You know that spatial storage devices are restricted items, correct? We can’t just give them out to a guard because he says you need it.” Mike grumped at Joe as he tossed the bag at him. “I’ll need that back when you are done here.”

“So, you’re staying to watch?” Joe looked into the bag and smirked when he saw that this clearly high-quality bag still only had a fraction of the storage space his codpiece did.

“No real choice.” Mike sat on a bench and watched them as they worked to put the finishing touches on the marble.

When they had finished, the previously pure white marble was covered in black formulaic etchings. Joe had them gather around it, and started pouring mana into it. With six people powering it, the ritual was soon ready for use. “This is a strange ritual; in that it only takes very basic activation components. A core, then a pound of iron, water, wood, and coal. Why would that be the case… Kirby?”

“I’m guessing because it will take components and resources to use, not just to activate?” Kirby replied easily.

“I think that’s accurate.” Joe nodded at the fire damaged buildings in front of him. “Should we give it a try?”

Activate Ritual of Structural Repair? Yes / No.

“Yup.”

Select target damaged structure.

Joe pointed at the building in front of him. It was enough.

Checking… 

A ring of light swept over the building for a long thirty seconds. Joe felt a pull at his mana and grunted, as did the others.

Unable to repair structure. Structural integrity is under 50%. Please select a new target.

Joe shared the news with the others and selected a new building. “Well… looks like we will need to take a few of them down after all.”