Ruthless ~ 22!

~ 22 ~

“He broke his oath?” Joe's bald head furrowed as he worked to understand what that message meant. His eyes flew open, then narrowed in rage as it became clear. “That overly hair-conditioned peacock took one of the dungeon items with him! Come on everyone, use whatever you have to utterly destroy him as soon as we find him!”

“Calm down, Joe.” Jess walked into the area with a smile on her face. She winked at him teasingly, “I think I have what you are looking for.”

Moonlight was reflecting from the top of Joe's head, seeming to match the light of his eyes as he debated whether or not to hunt down Sam anyway. before he could give the order to set out after him, a snake slithered up, its tail coiled around a Crystal orb that was glowing a soft red.

Cursed Quest item. Cannot be stored in any container until the curse is removed.

“You used your thievery skill?” Joe sighed as he tossed the Crystal a few times. he came to a decision; if he were to set out now, there was a high likelihood that he could end up losing the fight that he raced into. Joe was going to have to let this go… for now.

“Sure did!” Jess cheerfully admitted. “I saw your entire fight, I figured I would be more useful to you by stealing this item back from him than by joining into a fight that it looks like you were winning. Apparently, it is pretty difficult to notice a snake swimming through the water toward you when you are swinging around a sword and chucking spells at people.”

“Thank you, Jess. please let me know if there is a suitable reward that I can give you for this.” Joe turned back to the other two surviving members of his party and motioned at the glowing platform. “Are you guys ready to go and turn this quest in?”

“We are just going to go back there without the rest of our team?” Alexis shook her head. “that seems like a pretty terrible thing to do to them.”

“they should get the quest completion Rewards!” Joe defensively rebutted. “besides, there is no way for us to put these things somewhere safe. If we have to wait a long time for them to come back to life and travel to us, there is a good chance that someone else will come along or that other group will come back and try to take these. We need to go now.”

with reluctance from Alexis, and only excitement about getting back on the glowing platform from Jaxon, they were soon sailing across the sea at speed. the platform is started to lift, and soon they were back in a watertight Cube. Soon they were sinking into the water, passing through the Swarms of monsters, and approaching the underwater dungeon. as the glass elevator settled into place and the door opened, a small platform rose from the ground. on the platform where three outlines, one for a sphere, one for a rectangular block, and one for a ring.

Beyond being happy that he would be completing the quest, Joe was cheerful about getting all of the items back from the other team. He slotted the items in their spaces, and watched as the plinth sunk back into the floor.

Quest complete: Destroy Them. objects retrieved: 3/3. enemies slain: 2/5. Objectives completed: 5/8. Calculating… the objects retrieved were of far greater importance than slaying the thieves who stole them in the first place. Rewards shall be granted based on performance and suitability. due to the circumstances of the quest, this dungeon will be considered completed 100%.

Experience gained: 6,000. Item received: Enhanced Class Advancement Tablet (can be used by anyone with the base class of Energetic Bibliophile, Bibliomancer, Ritualist, or Urban Druid. the standard class advancement tablet offers three choices, the enhanced version will offer a fourth option upon use.

Seeing all of the different classes that could use his newly-acquired tablet, Joe decided to waste no time and activated it on the spot.

Scanning… Base Class found: Ritualist. First prerequisite for usage met.

Scanning… Specialized class found: Rituarchitect. Second prerequisite for usage met.

Generating class selection options one through four… generated.

Scanning… Caution! Third prerequisite for usage not met. Base class ‘Ritualist’ requires that Characteristics ‘intelligence’ and ‘wisdom’ be at the Mortal characteristic limit before second specialization can be applied. please try again after you have raised at a minimum these two characteristics to the Mortal limit of one hundred and fifty.

Enhanced Class Advancement Tablet (Soulbound). This tablet has been bound to you! You may now safely store it with the full knowledge that it will work for no one but you!

Joe stared at the message, Full of conflicting emotions. On one hand, he now knew that he could safely work to achieve the new goal that had been set for him. It was good to have a set goal. On the other hand… he had a long way to go. He pulled up his character sheet and looked at it despairingly.

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

Profession I: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist

Character Level: 16 Exp: 150,343 Exp to next level: 2,657

Rituarchitect Level: 5 Exp: 10,456 Exp to next level: 4,544

Hit Points: 534/534

Mana: 1,381/1,650 (115 Reserved)

Mana regen: 33.89/sec

Stamina: 528.5/528.5

Stamina regen: 5.84/sec

Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

Strength: 53 (2.03)

Dexterity: 54 (2.04)

Constitution: 54 (2.04)

Intelligence: 110 (3.1)

Wisdom: 85 (2.35)

Charisma: 52 (2.02)

Perception: 63 (2.13)

Luck: 38 (1.38)

Karmic Luck: +6

His stats had not changed during his time in the dungeon, but that was not unexpected. what was unexpected… was that he would need nearly seventy points of wisdom in order to reach the next class advancement. Also, a lesser but still difficult challenge was going to be getting forty points in his intelligence. remembering the potion he had drank that's gave him a full fifteen points in his intelligence characteristic, Joe now really understood why items such as that were so highly sought-after and expensive. he had understood intellectually that they were going to be hard to get, but when this information got out it was going to be absolutely impossible to get his hands on anything similar.

“The dungeon is considered as complete, should we just… head home?” Joe wanted to go curl into a corner and fall asleep for a week, but he knew that was an Impossible Dream at this point. between the probing attacks on the guild, and the deep-seated need to improve enough to get to the next area, Joe knew that he would be spending every waking moment on becoming more powerful or knowledgeable. “Would anyone like some coffee?”

Mate appeared in Joe's hand, and he solidified a few small espresso cups Out of the Shadows in the area. Mate bubbled and whistled cheerfully, putting a smile on Alexis's face and widening the ever-present grin on Jaxon's. They took turns giving Mate a gentle petting on his surprisingly dry - if somewhat squishy - head.

Your care and attention to your pet has increased its loyalty and affection toward you! ‘Mate’ Has taken on some of the characteristics of the mana you have been feeding it with. Abilities removed: light roast blend, medium roast blend. Abilities enhanced: dark roast blend, espresso blend. ability gained: Over-caffeinate.

Over-caffeinate: Similar to a traditional Haste spell, Over-caffeinate increases all effects of physical and mental characteristics by 10% for 10 minutes. after the spell ends, all physical and mental characteristics are reduced by 30% for 5 minutes and the user will suffer the effects of debuff ‘Hammerwords’ for 2 minutes or until the resultant headache has cleared.

“That is some excellent coffee, Mate.” Joe crooned to the small Elemental as he allowed it to return to his sleeve as a large stain. He was already thinking about how he could use this buff to its maximum effect, and he hoped that the effects of his Neutrality Aura would mitigate the detriments of using it.

In just a few minutes, the small party was back with Jess and walking toward the shrine that would bring them home. Contrary to his expectations, the group began a lively debate. They were talking about the best ways to increase their characteristics, and Joe was pleased to be able to offer the knowledge he had gained about how the way you gained the characteristics impacted your future growth. when they heard that there were tanks that had trained their Constitution purely by taking damage, and realized that it gave double or more of a bonus to total health pool, each of them revised their training plans at least a little.

Joe was completely fine with the flat bonuses he would get for training his body with the daily characteristic allotment, but he needed to find the most effective ways to train his mind if he wanted to see powerful options in the future.

Jess interrupted his thoughts by clearing her throat and shyly looking at the three surviving members of the party. “I just wanted to say thank you for whatever you did in there. For some reason after you went back out, I was able to get a class level up. I also got a new ability, and it is all because you were able to explore the Dungeon to one hundred percent with my map. I know that my map was not actually that good, so there must be something else at play, but still. I know it sucked to lose two of our people, so thank you for trusting me.”

“It wasn't the intent, but I am glad you got something out of it. Your skills are lacking and you have no decent combat skills to speak of.” Jaxon nodded knowingly, folding his arms behind his back like a mysterious elderly master. “I know that you took the path of an assassin because you do not like to hear things beg for their life, and you did not want to give them the option. I think the path of a cartographer was a good one for you, and-”

Jaxon dodged two throwing knives and a chucked snake, shaking his head sadly. “Meager skills, indeed. I already know this, Jess!”

“First off, that is not why I became an assassin!” Jess heatedly began. They stepped into the shrine, and Joe activated the fast travel option. The distance that they needed to travel was so great, and the cost in mana and stamina so high, that all of them collapsed to the floor of the Temple in Towny McTownface upon arrival. Jess wheezed as she attempted to finish her statement, “Secondly… I can… take you anytime, old man! you have no idea who I am-”

“I am sorry to break up this lively debate… but I do need to speak with you, young man.” Joe had heard this voice before, but it had been a very long time. He turned and faced the wizened old man wearing white robes with black Arcane symbols stitched all along it.

“What in the world could I have done to bring the Mage College’s most powerful Master Enchanter all this way?”