Ruthless ~ 8!

Joe leaned over his book, staring down at words that were changing how he thought about his rituals. “Purifying flame under a Gorgonsteel cauldron can enhance the potency of both earth and flame aspected components up to the fifth degree. The delta factor of the…”

“I have no idea what any of this means.” He shook his head and sighed. After returning to the Guild, Joe had gone straight to his base in the Grand Ritual Hall and started reading. Unfortunately, the information was dense and multifaceted, going over concepts that seemed easy while containing many layers. He wanted ritual magic to be as mysterious and easy as it looked like, but that would only be the case if you were looking at it from the outside.

Reading this book, instead of twisting chants that would empower rituals through sheer magical language, he found graphs. Instead of searching for a mystical plant that would serve a panacea for his newfound potions, there was chapter-long exposition on plant growth charts and harvesting techniques that were skills in their own right. He wanted to parse this information and solve a riddle or minigame that allowed him to make a ritual potion; but instead, there were heating and preservation charts.

Joe’s attention slid, and he started thinking about the series that he had just learned about. If the titles were any indication, there was a book about ritual circles. He was good at those; on Midgard he was likely the subject matter expert. 

‘Matrices’ had a few meanings, and he hoped it was just another name for math. Specifically, the definition that said that they were arrays of quantities or expressions in rows and columns that is treated as a single entity and manipulated according to particular rules. If that were accurate, he was pretty good at matrices and should be able to learn the information on his own. But if it meant ‘an environment or material in which something develops, a surrounding medium or structure’, that could be anything from the placement of components to growing certain things for himself.

Enchanted circles sounded pretty straightforward: add enchantments to the rituals to create certain effects. It was likely that he would need to use enchantments to create linked rituals like the ones he had found when gaining the blueprints to the Grand Ritual Hall. Until he found that book, Joe just wouldn't know for certain. Since he had only one thick book of formulae and concepts, there was only one thing that he could think of to do.

“I need a teacher.” Joe sighed and flopped down into his seat. He thought about where he could go to get a teacher, and came up with only a few options. “I’m sure that I could go to the Mage’s College and take a course… but those are always stuffed with theory and bias. There’s no way I would get any good hands-on in a timely manner. I could try and go the self-taught way… but that’s gonna be really slow.”

He sat up and rubbed his bald head. “Best try and find a tutor. Who would have better practical knowledge than an Alchemist with a shop? Let’s go have a chat with Jake. Sure he’s creepy… but he seems to know his stuff.”

Joe crept through the Pathfinders hall, keeping an eye out for Mike. The man had been popping up at inopportune moments and asking Joe to either work or answer questions for him if it were at all possible. He got to the temple without issue, taking a deep breath as he looked around the admittedly nifty room. Along with the lighting and heat sources, the river and shrubbery really tied the whole thing together. The shrubbery were actually young Tree Ents that would some day protect the temple if attacked, but right now they were extra pretty thanks to the flowers blooming on them.

“What’s missing?” Joe spoke quietly, the area giving off a pervading sense of stillness that he didn’t want to break. “Why do I feel like there is something missing?”

His eyes swept across the room, coming to rest on the only altar that was bare, blank stone. That would do it, the pantheon was incomplete. Joe sighed, running a hand over his bald head in consternation. He didn't exactly want to go god shopping, but it might be better than waiting around for something to approach him. Joe took a deep breath, and ever so slowly released it.

“I have time.” He reminded himself. “I am digital now, and I can survive for hundreds or thousands of years. Let’s learn all of this stuff, everything that I want to learn, but seriously… I gotta take the time to enjoy doing it.”

Soul Forge complete! New skill acquired: Total Neutrality (Passive).

“Has it already been two days since I did that?” Joe furrowed his brow, then realized that he hadn’t yet read what the skill did!

Neutrality Aura (Passive) (Beginner IX):  Remove all negative debuffs at double the rate of decomposition. Remove positive debuffs on hostile entities in range at double the rate of decomposition. Heal all non-hostile entities for 1n health per second within five feet, where n =  skill level. Reduce incoming magical damage by .5n. Passive. This skill is doubly effective against poisons within a body, and will also pull moisture from the air to hydrate friendly targets over time. Range of aura is .25n feet. Reserves 8% of mana pool for use. Toggleable.

Instantly, Joe looked at his stained robes and sweaty skin. To his great relief, his ‘filthy’ debuff still counted! He started to lose a headache he hadn't even realized he had… noticing only then that he hadn't drank any water the entire time that Cleanse had been gone. Joe had been fully reliant on the skill to keep him hydrated. Whoops.

“This skill is amazing.” The best part was that it was a passive. He would be able to heal while focusing on other things, and eight percent of his mana pool to keep it always active was a sacrifice he was willing to make. It wouldn't work on distant targets, or as fast as the individual skills would have, but there were a huge amount of options that had opened up to him. The aura would work on anyone within four and three quarters feet of him, basically the size of his standard party grouping, and that would only grow over time.

Joe sat down and waited a few long moments, keeping his eye on his active effects tab. He had been at ‘Filthy III’, ‘Dehydrated IV’, and ‘Caffeinated V’. All but the last were slowly vanishing, and he could actually see his shriveled skin starting to become hydrated. “I really need to take better care of myself.”

Wisdom +1!

“Shoot!” Joe tried to relax, remembering that he needed to get his other stats up and over the next threshold. Yet another project that he needed to throw himself at. “Actually… what does my stat page look like right now?”

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

Profession: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

Character Level: 15 Exp: 134,813 Exp to next level: 1,187

Rituarchitect Level: 3 Exp: 5,940 Exp to next level: 60

Hit Points: 330/330

Mana: 1462/1,590 (127 Reserved)

Mana regen: 30.7/sec (Base 27.91/sec increased by gear)

Stamina: 295/295

Stamina regen: 5.67/sec

Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

Strength: 31 (1.31)

Dexterity: 40 (1.40)

Constitution: 38 (1.38)

Intelligence: 106 (3.06)

Wisdom: 78 (2.28)

Charisma: 31 (1.31)

Perception: 60 (2.10)

Luck: 31 (1.31)

Karmic Luck: -4

That looked good, except… there were two things to fix right now. Joe activated his Exquisite Shell, dumping his mana pool into it. That reserved an additional one hundred and forty-six mana. The other thing… how had his Karmic luck dropped into the negatives? That was a tough stat that no one really understood, but research showed that it was fairly straightforward to either increase or decrease it.

Do actions that were considered ‘good’, and it increased. The opposite held true, and the only thing that he could think that he had done recently was going through the dungeon. Oh… self-harm? That would at least make sense, but it was frustrating to lose Karmic Luck simply by playing the game according to the rules. Perhaps there was another way to complete that dungeon…? He was sure someone would find out. Until then, there was no way he was returning to the area.

“Took five whole minutes.” Joe stated as he watched his dehydrated debuff vanish. “Well… at least I don't have to worry about it again after this. Hooray for passives!”

He stood and walked over to the teleportation point, casting a glance at the empty altar just before moving to Ardania.  He took a breath, and nearly gagged as the scent of the city hit him. It had never been this bad before! The press of bodies had thinned over the last few days as people ventured out to find something to do with their lives, but there were still refugees from earth appearing regularly.

Unwashed bodies, cheap food rotting, and even the clear fact that some people either didn’t know where to find bathrooms - or didn't care to find them - hit Joe right in the olfactory organ. To his great delight, the smells reaching him dulled and eventually even vanished as his aura took care of the filth in the near vicinity. Apparently it even affected the air! 

That settled it for him. Most of these people simply didn't understand what was happening; they weren't bad people. Joe made his way slowly between various groups, trying to get close to the thickest groupings of people. He would stand there for a short while before moving on, leaving cleaner and healthier people behind. It wasn't much, but he knew that if he were in that position, he would hope for the same.

His slow pace made him arrive at the Alchemy shop just after midday. He walked in and moved to the counter, pleased that his aura was taking care of the astringents in the air that had made breathing a pain in the past. “Jake? You here?”

A voice behind him made Joe whirl around. “Sure am. What are you doing to my shop?”

“Oh… did I walk past you somehow?” Jake didn’t answer Joe’s question, so he simply moved on. “I was hoping to ask for a favor.”

“No favors. Coin up front, always.” Jake was feeling the edge of Joe’s robes, glaring at something that apparently only he could see. 

“Not that kind of favor.” Joe steeled himself, this would be as difficult as learning from a caffeinated alchemist version of Jaxon. “I was hoping that you could teach me the Alchemist profession.”

Jake’s eyes shot up to lock with Joe’s, “Trying to steal away my customers, are we? Hmm… tsk, tsk, Joe. That’s not very nice at all.”

“No, it's not that at all.” Joe insisted, pulling out the manual that he had recently acquired. The cat was out of the bag on his rituals already, so he was as up front as possible. “I recently found that my class is capable of far more than I’ve been I’ve been using it for, and I want to fix that. There is a subsection of my class that focuses on Alchemically Enhanced Components, and I can't make heads or tails of the information.”

“Book.” Jake held out a hand, and Jake opened and scanned through a few pages, nodding at certain areas and raising a brow at others. “Interesting. Very interesting… a ritualist, here in my shop. I do wonder if the old bounty is still active?”

Joe froze, making Jake snort at him. “Only playing. Now… I will do one thing for you for free. Information. You don't want the ‘Alchemist’ profession for those. It would work, but it would be like using a fireball to light a candle. The end result is similar, but one is incredibly wasteful. You need the ‘Ritualistic Alchemist’ profession.”

“That exists?”

“There are few things in this world that you can't find a specific, more focused or specialized form of.” Jake handed back the book. “If you are only planning on making components for rituals, and not trying to brew cauldrons worth of healing potions to save your guild a few coins, I can teach you. That is where I am going to need something from you, though.”

“If I can do it, I will.” Joe told the man carefully. It wouldn't be good to make a promise before he knew details.

“I’d like to align myself with your guild, and I am getting bored here. When you move to the next zone and make an outpost, you will build me a new workshop.” Jake held out a hand. “Do we have a deal?”

Joe shook on it, “As long as my guild agrees, I’m in.”

Quest received: Homebrew. Jake the Alchemist is looking to upgrade, get your guild to agree to align with him, and make him a new workshop in the next zone you make an outpost on. Reward: Profession (Instant), Variable. Failure: hostility with Jake and other organizations. You have accepted this quest!