Ruthless ~ 17!

~ 17 ~

“I need anything you’ve all been working on that might be helpful in water.” Joe explained to his coven as he shifted the room slightly. He was in the Grand Ritual Hall inspecting rituals for flaws or to help figure out issues that his Coven had been having.

Big_Mo handed over some loose-leaf parchment. “I’ve been working on an interesting concept, but I think that it's at a higher level than I can manage.”

“What… is this?” Joe looked at the variables, his eyes growing larger as he went through it. “Modified containment, but on a micro level?”

“Exactly!” Big_Mo excitedly pointed out his math. “This was something that I remember being a big deal back on earth. What should happen is that all hydrogen and oxygen molecules are pulled away from each other for the duration of the effect. In essence, low cost hydrogen and oxygen separation!”

“Which is great in theory,” Taka interjected, “but in practice, unless you can figure out a way to hold those gasses in a container, all it takes is a single spark added to the system and you just made a massive hydrogen bomb.”

“Which is why I’m bringing it to Joe for help!” Big_Mo turned and grinned at Joe. “He’s just a little salty because the first try on this killed both of us. But it also cleared an entire dungeon!”

“All it did was kill everything and destroy all the loot before we got a chance to grab it! And we got no experience!” Taka argued vehemently.

“Holy abyss, dude, you already made a working model of this?” Joe looked at the ritual and saw a few small changes that could be made. “Alright… two options for ease unless you wanna rework this into a better ritual. Either add a point of capture here and add some tanks that can handle the pressure… or add a directional here, and make the world’s largest flamethrower!”

Joe and Big_Mo high-fived, and the conversation started to devolve into various ritual aspects. Hannah got them back on track with a simple, “Didn’t you need to do something?”

“Oh, right. Drat.” Joe sighed and looked at the new-model flamethrower longingly. “I need to go underwater for an unknown amount of time, fight in a dungeon there, while staving off a hostile party that will likely be trying to clear the dungeon at the same time. Any ideas?”

“Water isn’t my specialty, but I’ve been wanting to get to the bottom of a lake recently, so I’ve been working on this for a while.” Kirby pulled out a sheet and handed it over. “I call it the Ritual of Leaden Boots. It’ll pull you down right to the ground, and will make it feel like you are walking on normal ground. None of that overly buoyant nonsense like you’re on the moon.”

“Nice! You mind if you make a copy of this?” Joe’s eyes scanned the document and he found a few small mistakes. Once more he thanked the system that dumped knowledge into his head whenever he leveled up a skill. “Just so you know, your math is wrong here, here, and here. As it is… this would be a ritual of feet crushing. Anyone below, let’s see… thirty-two constitution would be very unhappy with you.”

“Thanks!” Kirby brightly smiled. “I’ll take a copy of the original and the new one if possible, I know a few people that I want to nail to the ground!”

Joe winced as he remembered that Kirby wanted to be an evil overlord. To each their own, he supposed. “Alright, if anyone can come up with a solution for the other factors I mentioned, please let me know. We are going to leave tomorrow and hopefully get where we need to be by moonrise, so please work fast if you plan to help.”

They nodded and got to work. The first thing Joe did was iron out the issues in the leaden feet ritual, then modify it to work on a group. It was still a minor ritual, fit for a Beginner, so the cost was almost negligible. Not quite free, but he had gained several trash-to-damaged Synthetic Cores on his frequent forays into the test dungeon, so the Core cost was something that he could manage easily.

A few hours into his work, Hannah came over with a design for him. “This is an interesting anti-personnel concept I came up with. Unlike the standard targeting mechanism, I used the blood added as a kind of access list. Anyone that approaches that isn't allowed will get a series of molecule-thin wind blades sent at them. Thoughts?”

Joe looked it over and winced, it was the magical equivalent of a claymore. “Potent booby-trap. This is kind of a ruthless effect though… if you power this up a little more, you could hurt a lot of people unintentionally. Also, there are no safeties in it. Once it sends a wind blade, even people on the access list could be hit. All in all, great trap to leave behind in a dungeon or other enclosed area, terrible idea to leave out in the open.”

“Who cares if it is ruthless? Think of the applications for guild defense!” Hannah argued easily, obviously having put thought into this before coming over.

“Would you want to be the one to activate this?” Joe leaned in to hold her gaze. “Because that’s the same as a Mage attacking a crowd of people with a fireball. You get a non-hostile caught in this, you’re an instant player killer. If you devoted enough mana to it, you could get dozens of people cut down, and then your murderer aura lasts for days. Even if you don't care about the people, make sure to care about yourself.”

Hannah looked down, so Joe decided to lighten up. “Now, to be fair, in this situation this is exactly what I need. The only people that’d be in this area are going to be trying to grab what I’m after, and a few days with a red aura is the least of my worries if they get it first. Good work.”

“What?” Hannah looked up in shock. “But you…!”

“Just letting you know the dangers. I had a talk with Big_Mo about that water-powered flamethrower too.” Joe shook his head, smiling the whole time. “You guys are going a way more lethal route than I took when I was first starting out, but I guess the average person is all sorts of strong compared to then. ‘Suppression’ doesn't work if someone can just ignore what you toss at them.”

“Thanks, Joe.” Hannah grimaced. “I thought you were gonna yell at me or something.”

“Nah, all of this is useful.” Joe shook his head and sat down on a chair that formed with a thought. He loved this room. “Y’all just need to be careful when and where you use it. Want some coffee?”

Mate swirled up Joe’s arm and burbled happily as Joe pulled out some espresso cups. “Double shot please, little buddy.”

“Brrb!” Mate poured itself into the cups, then formed murky brown eyes and looked at Hannah. “Drink me! I’m delicious!”

“You sure are, Mate!” Joe coated his hand with mana and pet the elemental, who bubbled and preened. The dark mana was sucked into the elemental, who sighed happily and swirled and vanished; all that was left was a large coffee stain on Joe’s sleeve. “I have a theory that my mana makes his coffee a dark roast. We’ll see what happens.”

“Looks like it isn't housebroken.” Hannah chuckled as she took the drink. She tossed it back and opened her eyes wide. “Holy moley, that is delicious.”

“Right?” Joe waved at his arm, “That’s not a mess, that’s just where Mate goes when he isn't fully… um… summoned? Otherwise the cleaning function I have would clean that away.”

Seeing the odd look he was getting, Joe waved the information away. “Yes, my familiar is a coffee elemental that lives in a coffee stain on my sleeve. This place is magic, and there is a ton that we have to learn. How else can I help you?”

“We need crafting items.” Hanna waved at the rest of the group, who looked up from what they were doing to nod along. “There’s just no way that we can get access to the items that we need, even though the guild recently devoted an entire wing of the greenhouse to magical herbs and stuff like that.”

Joe was torn. On one hand, he needed most of the items for himself. On the other hand, giving them access to some of his gear would allow his Coven to make progress at a speed that he could have only dreamt about at their level. Reluctantly, Joe started pulling gear out of his Codpiece and setting them in the air. The room swirled, and a new area formed. It was a storehouse for the items that could be stored in the open, and he quickly formed notes of what he had that needed to stay with him to be fresh. 

Knowing that they had money, or they should thanks to what he was paying them, Joe used one of his Guild abilities for the very first time, setting a price for the items. “Alright, to take these items out of here, you need to pay. That can be money, acts of service, or… ugh… contribution points. Since only you guys can get in here, this is a shop for Ritualists only. If I find that you’ve been selling this on to others, I’ll ban you immediately.”

“That's fair.” Taka stated, coming to look at what was available. “You’re… this is all at cost!”

“That’s right, I’m not going to make a profit off of you, unless the item you’re buying is something really rare that I earned. If I bought it, I’ll sell it to you at the cost I was able to get it.” Joe took a deep breath and pulled out an ornate jar that he had purchased from Jake the Alchemist. “Now. Everyone see this?”

He held up the crystal jar, letting it catch the light and cast red sparkles across the ground. “This holds the blood of a stupidly overpowered endgame-style boss monster. First off, I’m going to set the price of this at two million gold, or five million contribution points.”

There were exclamations of shock and outrage at the proclamation. Joe didn't care. “The price is there because I know that no one can pay it. The only time this will be free is when you are taking this to use in a ritual that helps contain the creature. If it gets free, it will permanently delete anyone it kills. Actual death at that point, folks. This jar is a preserver that will keep the contents fresh pretty much indefinitely. Even so, I don't like having this available at all.”

“What’s the big deal?” Kirby questioned bluntly.

“It can be used to twist rituals into something really nasty. Come here and look. There are massive penalties for using this in a ritual.” Joe grimaced as he held out the jar, not liking that they were so close to it. They all took a look, their curiosity shifting to pale-faced backing away from the container. “You all understand that this is a weapon against the creature itself, and not to be used in anything except that, correct? Swear that you will abide by that, or I’ll take my chances with keeping it to myself.”

Each of them swore, and Joe felt better at the notifications that they would gain hefty warlock titles if they broke the oath. “Good. Thank you all, and good work today. I didn't get everything I needed, but I’m hoping that my team did. We’ll be back in a few days, use what you have here to train up and have questions ready when I get back.”

Joe placed the jar on a shelf, placing a paywall in front of it. No one he didn't trust could get at it, and now there was a backup in place if there was some reason that he couldn't be the one to fight off that monster if it ever got free.