Ruthless ~ 14!

~ 14 ~

“To arms! Towney McTownface is under attack!”

The klaxon sounding throughout the guild made Joe spring upright, and he ran to the wall as he shook off his grogginess. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone shadowy leaping at him. “Dark Lightning Strike!”

The strange-sounding lightning hit him just as the apparent assassin did, but the thin daggers dealt far more damage than the spell. Still, as the daggers bounced off his Exquisite Shell, the unexpected pain made his attacker flinch. Joe used that time to coat them with a thick layer of acid, though he no longer had the ability to channel the spell. A shriek filled the air as the skin of the apparent man started to melt.

“My gear!” Then again, he might not care so much about a measly sixty-five points of damage. The armor durability-destroying effect on the other hand… “I’m gonna wreck you!”

“No thanks!” Joe called over his shoulder. While the assassin was distracted, Joe was running toward a clump of fighters. They saw what was happening, and sent the assassin to respawn after a swift battle. Since the guy’s gear was ruined, his stealth was a joke and the fighters had no issue taking him down. “Thanks, guys.”

“Mages shouldn't be alone during an attack, you get hunted first. Come with us till you find your party.” Joe didn't recognize anyone here, but stayed with them and committed their faces to memory. He’d find a way to thank them later. 

In a strangely short amount of time, the fighting was over and the town was secured. Most of the attackers hadn't gotten into the town itself, content to attack the walls themselves. Joe was pulled into yet another emergency meeting, where the guild explained that this was the other Noble Guilds and possibly other groups testing their defenses.

After the quick meeting ended, Mike pulled Joe aside. “We have no answers for this, Joe. Is there anything that you can do?”

“No, there’s…” Joe hesitated as he thought over the various effects that he had discovered with his rituals. “Maybe. I might be able to set up some rituals that can be activated if they absolutely need to be. Still, I need time, both to research and to make them. No promises.”

“We have time.” Mike nodded at him. “Tell me what you need, and I’ll see what can be done.”

They discussed for a short while, and came to an agreement. Just before walking away, Joe remembered that the shop had opened. “Hey, are there any Cores for sale in the shop?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” A sly smile appeared on Mike’s face, “They are one of the most expensive items, and can only be bought with contribution points. Some of the other stuff can be purchased with coin, but those… well, you’ll be very happy when you see that our deals have been working in your favor.”

After parting ways, Joe decided that he should check in and see if more building material had been collected. It had been happening more and more rarely, but he was glad to see that there was enough for a full building again. “Hey guys, I know it’s early, but since everyone is awake… any of you know where the town planner is?”

A rumpled man wearing pajamas arrived a few minutes later, and they went through the new plans that Joe had been able to collect. Upon seeing the Trophy Hall, the man almost shouted for joy. “This! This one! We needed a building that only gives an overall morale boost, and if we build this one we should hit town rank one right away!”

“Then let’s do it!” Joe high-fived the guy, his enthusiasm was infectious. “I’ll get my people together, where do we need to meet?”

After getting everything in motion, Joe raced off and dragged his Coven out of the beds they had just re-crawled into. They hurried to the town center and found that a good chunk of the upper-echelon had also been pulled out to see what would happen. Joe rustled around for a few long minutes, examining details, making the outline of the building appear with his tool, and kept people moving for a good half hour before he was finally satisfied with the layout. 

Then it was time for the actual building to be put into place. With a quick chant and a few drops of blood, Joe and his Coven were pulled into the air. In under a minute, the building had been completed. He turned to the town planner and shrugged. “Well, that’s my part. I don't know what else to expect, but if-”

Class experience gained: 120.

Guild alert! The Guild’s base of operations, Towney McTownface-

Joe chuckled as he heard Aten groan as if he were being cut apart.

-has reached town level 1: Actual Town. All offensive and defensive actions taken on behalf of the Wanderer’s Guild while in Towney McTownface are increased by 5%! All resources collected and items crafted on guild property have their quality increased by 1%!

Guild quest updated: The making of an Elder. Current town level: 1/5.

“Man that’s a long-term quest.” Joe shuddered as he looked around and saw all that had gone into making this town level. Then again, a few of the buildings were incredibly rare, so perhaps those weren't so far away after all?

As an additional reward for being the first Noble Guild to increase their town level to one, The Guildhall will now be upgraded to an ‘Uncommon’ ranked Guildhall!

There were a few screams as people were chucked out of the building. The Guildhall shuddered and blazed with light, coming back into view about twenty percent larger and an extra story higher. Four new additions were clearly visible, large ballistas on each corner.

Amongst all the other hubbub, Joe went unheard. “Oh look… a new building to scan.”

The remainder of the day went as normal, the major highlight for Joe being when he finished the test dungeon again and reached the threshold for dexterity. Just outside of the dungeon, he collapsed as his nervous system was upgraded. When he came around, he was faster, more accurate, and could feel the utter nimbleness of his body. The best part was when he checked his debuffs… and ‘Risk Assessment’ was gone, hopefully forever.

A week went by with Joe working with his team, practicing his spells, and raising buildings. Between the monster fights and buildings, he had gained eight thousand experience and fourteen hundred class experience. In short, he worked his butt off to raise his characteristics and skills. At the end of the week, Joe had raised all of his stats except for luck above fifty points. Each of these had a differing effect on his body, and after comparing with his team and a few others in the guild, Joe started to see a pattern for how threshold rewards developed.

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

Profession I: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist

Character Level: 16 Exp: 144,123 Exp to next level: 8,877

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

Hit Points: 350/350 -> 534/534

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

Mana regen: 33.89/sec 

Stamina: 485/485 -> 528.5/528.5

Stamina regen: 5.68/sec -> 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: 0

All of Joe’s physical attributes had given him the exact same thing: a ten percent boost across the board to all things that were considered ‘bodily resources’. Instead of a point of constitution giving him ten health, now it was worth eleven. Instead of five points of stamina, strength and constitution were worth five point five. This had been a wild change from when he had crossed thresholds for intelligence and wisdom. 

What he found was that both your class as well as how you gained the characteristic points played a role. If, like Joe, you crossed the threshold for strength by mostly doing characteristic training each day, you got a flat bonus. If you were a fighter and gained your points by fighting and training that way, you got the option to play a kind of inner mini-game for higher rewards, like Joe had done when increasing his wisdom.

Class had an impact mainly because you tended to do class related things with greater regularity. For instance, Joe had asked several ‘tank’ classers what they got at the threshold for constitution, and most of them had doubled the amount of health they gained per point. Some had even tripled it, and further discussion revealed that they had managed to pull through really tough situations, keeping their party alive for the great majority. After learning this, it was almost too easy to point them out. As could be expected, they tended to have impressive dents in their armor.

Charisma had a different effect, and Joe wasn't sure if he liked what had happened. He had increased charisma fairly naturally, and only since getting the new ability from the Queen that let him see energy flows had he been actively training it.

Charisma has reached the fifty point threshold! New effect added: Dark Charisma.

Dark Charisma is a characteristic shift, neither a skill nor title. Looking into the deep dark has fundamentally changed how you look at the world, and how the world looks at you. All active effects now contain a hint of the deeper aspects of existence. Those who are looking to solve a mystery or find a dark companion will gravitate toward you, but there will always be some that cannot handle what your existence gives rise to in their own mind. Tall, dark, and… something like handsome; since you do have solid charisma now. Still bald though.

Joe had also been working on his skills, managing to get Acid Spray to Beginner five, Dark Lightning Strike and Knowledge to Novice nine, Architectural Lore to Novice three, Alchemical Lore and Ritualistic Alchemy to Beginner one, Exquisite Shell to Beginner four, Corify to Novice six, and after one unlucky encounter where Poppy got crushed between two Neigh-Bears; Resurrection to Novice four.

He was exhausted. Between all the training, studying, mana draining, and research into protective rituals for the town, he was barely sleeping at all. But, all of his outstanding debuffs had been cleared except for luck. He had been managing a few games of chance, but certainly not enough to make up for the low stat. Also… the ‘luck’ trial in the test dungeon apparently had the highest mortality rate of all the tests, and he couldn't risk losing a bunch of experience right now. Which… the lack of risk taking perhaps explained why his luck stat was so low.

Something needed to change, or Joe was going to be locked into a cycle of repetition until he started to lose his mind. Then… something did change. On the eight day of his intense training cycle, a letter arrived.