Ruthless ~ 4!

~ Four ~ 

“I have a good idea for a dungeon I’d like to have the group run through.” Jess handed Joe a sheet of paper. “Since you are a Guild Officer, I sent a couple people to secure it for us.”

“Oh, nice!” Joe looked at the information on the paper, then frowned. “Oh. Totally unknown?”

“Yeah, I want to use it to train up my new class.” Jess grinned at Joe, taunting him with the fact that he had no idea what her class actually was.

“Are you seriously going to ask me to help you train your class, but not tell me what it is? Nah. Tell me or you can work on it without my help.” Joe leveled a stare at her, and she pouted at him. 

“Boo! Spoilsport. Fine… I’m a Necromantic Logistion.” Jess waited for a reaction, but only got a blank stare in return. “Alright… so I guess you have no idea what that means, so I didn't need to be so secretive. Basically I am a support class necromancer, and I get experience for setting up trips. I can also use my raised creatures to scout out a dungeon or unknown area, and draw up a map. After the area is cleared, I get experience for how accurate my map was.”

“Oh.” Joe searched for something to say, but came up empty. “Neat. Yeah, we’ll go ahead and do this dungeon in a little while. I am just on my way to meet with Aten. Can we go to the dungeon tomorrow?”

“Sure can.” Jess gave a thumbs up, “That’ll give me more time to set up the trip, which means more experience in the long run.”

“Silver linings everywhere.” Joe walked toward the Guildhall again. He had no idea why Aten had waited till he left to call him back. It was either a power play, or something else was going on. He was brought directly to Aten’s office, which was now an actual enclosed room with only him in it. “Hi, Aten. What’s going on?”

“Close the door?” Aten waited for the door to latch before waving at a seat in front of him. “Alright man… we need to talk about the direction of the guild and what you want to see going forward. I probably don't need to tell you this, but you really upset a few people earlier when you basically told them that their ideas were outdated and useless in this new world.”

Joe stared at Aten for a long moment. “Abyss those debuffs! I wasn't trying to say anything like that, I was trying to point out that we needed to look at things in game terms!”

“Debuff…? Oh… you have ‘Hammerwords’?” Aten shook his head. “You need to work on your charisma score. Take that skeleton man with you when you do, will ya?”

“Where is there training for charisma?” Joe leaned forward eagerly. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but the only thing I can think of is the Bard’s College.”

Aten nodded. “They have a good program, but you can raise charisma by doing anything non-combat that is used to bring joy to others. Even if it isn't very good. Dancing, singing, art, carving, sculpting, pleasant conversations… stuff like that. Anyway, that isn't why I brought you here.”

“Do tell.”

“Alright, I’ll get right to it.” Aten took a deep breath and leaned back. “I need you to really focus on getting your next Specialization. We need to get ahead of the crazy amounts of people on… ah… Midgard… and start making a base of operations in the next Zone.”

“I had planned on getting stronger as fast as possible, but what’s the deal here?” Joe narrowed his eyes. This was sounding suspiciously like Aten was trying to get rid of him. “Getting pressured to keep only the extra-friendly folk around?”

“Nothing like that, Joe.” Aten arched a brow at him, clearly understanding where Joe was coming from. “We know exactly how useful it is to have you around, and we certainly aren't going to throw you away for personal politics. No, what I am worried about is the absolute lack of resources that I am sure is going to be hitting the area. We have a food source secured, but when was the last time that you tried to buy up a Core?”

“I haven't needed to in a while.” Joe thought about that for a moment and checked his storage ring and codpiece mentally. “I still have a half dozen standard Cores, and one that is worth about five thousand experience. I forget the name, and I don’t want to pull it out and check it.” 

“That was about what I was thinking.” Aten nodded again, “Everyone has a small personal stock, but the cost of Cores has doubled in the last few days due to the sheer demand for them. It isn't just the Cores. Most resources have skyrocketed in price, which reminds me; thanks for the heads up on that a while back. We were able to buy up a lot of stock while it was relatively low-priced, so we’re not suffering like some other people we know.”

Joe bobbed his head. “Happy to do it, but what are you getting at?”

“I need to give you an order, Joe. As Guild Commander, I need you to gain your next Specialization, get to the next Zone, and prepare a safe haven for the Wanderer’s Guild. If possible, I need you to start sending resources down to us so that we can get more people to their second Specialization.” Aten looked Joe in the eye. “I would go myself, but my next Specialization is tied to the ability of my Guild and… ugh… Towny McTownface.”

“What of the other Guild Officers?” Joe pointedly asked. “I want to spend a good deal of time consolidating power here and making this town into an amazing city.”

“The Officers that I think can manage it? They are getting the same task.” Aten leaned close and lowered his voice. “You know as well as I do that of all the people in the Guild… only a small percentage of them will use this opportunity as it should be used. Most will squander it, and resent us as we become powerful. Luckily… they will be in no position to affect us. The bankers, the lawyers, the trust fund kids that were out investors? They’re likely staying on Midgard forever. So, this is an order, but also a massive show of faith in your ability to make it happen. Get out of here and get to the next Zone. I’ll follow as soon as I can.”

Joe left the Guildhall with his mind weirdly whirling. Aten was giving him a secret task to competent people? Should he trust that? Believe it? Or should he look into guild politics more deeply? No… if Aten thought he needed to go, he would take it as the compliment it looked like.

Joe decided to take this as a turning point in his development, and realized that he needed to answer a major question. Essentially, “What do I need for my next rank up? Status.”

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: 1,590/1,590

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: 77 (2.27)

Charisma: 31 (1.31)

Perception: 60 (2.10)

Luck: 30 (1.30)

Karmic Luck: 0

“Alright… looking good… but I have a long way to go before I can rank up. Sheesh. I need a total of forty-five thousand class experience, and I have only five thousand nine hundred and forty. I need to figure out how to boost that a lot.”  Joe looked at his skill list, and his eyes landed on Knowledge. He shivered in anticipation, pulled out one of his two Mana batteries and held it to his chest. “Knowledge.”

You have activated ‘Knowledge’. Which Lore skill would you like to use Knowledge on?

“Ritual Lore.”

Invalid target. Skill Ritual Lore is at Apprentice II, and skill Knowledge can only affect skills up to Novice IX.

“At least I know what it looks like.” Joe muttered, putting away his Mana Battery. “Gotta go get myself some lore skills.”

He tried to think of what to do next, and shrugged. When in doubt, head to the library. As he walked toward the Pathfinder’s Hall, he closed his eyes and listened to the magic in the air around him. His destination tolled in his ears like soft thunder as his Magical Synesthesia skill kicked in. All around him were quieter, sharp sounds of enchanted equipment, but none of the screeching that he had started to associate with spells being cast.

“Mmm…” Joe opened his eyes, and they were filled with determination as well as excitement. “Time to do some research. I need to get to class level ten, start looking into new buildings, find material and Cores, and get some lore skills. Aten… you may have given me the kick I needed, man. I’ll just have to hope that you are as genuine as you seem.”

A flash of light took him from the Temple portion of the Pathfinder’s Hall into the main square of Ardania. After about ten minutes of pushing through the crowd, he found himself in the library. There was a new man at the main desk, who seemed to recognize Joe. At least, he waved Joe through without stopping him, which Boris had almost always done. 

“Common book area…” Joe walked into the largest room of the library and started toward the leftmost section. One of the benefits of setting up the organization for the area was that he knew where things should be. “Architecture… let’s brush up on history, types of buildings, and anything else that might be useful.”

He spent the rest of the day going through books and reading everything that was publically available about the subject. He took meticulous notes, and at the end of the day he had a thin stack of paper that he had devoted to the process. Mate, his coffee elemental, had spent most of the day on his lap. Joe found that it had habits similar to a house cat, and enjoyed sleeping in warm spaces and happily bubbling.

Joe very much enjoyed the creature. Not only was it giving him life-saving coffee, but as a non-combat familiar, it seemed that this thing was essentially a pet! He decided to look into how to take better care of it. Did it eat or drink, did it need anything beyond mana? All of this was information he would look for, but for now he eyed his new skill with glee.

Skill gained: Architectural Lore (Novice II). Allows you to fine tune Architectural blueprints that you find or create. Can increase the quality of structures or decrease the cost of building them.

“Knowledge, Architectural Lore.” Joe felt his mana start moving instantly, but this was a… strange feeling. Normally when he used a skill, the mana would flow through and out of him. Right now… it was flowing in and up. Mana was pulled out of his battery, and a rush of power entered Joe’s brain. Suddenly, he knew more about Architecture.

Skill increase: Architectural Lore (Novice III).

Skill increase: Knowledge (Novice II).

“What in blazes is going on in here? The library is closing, get out!”

Joe blinked away his notifications as Boris barrelled into the room to find out why mana was surging in his precious library. “Oh. Hey there, Boris. Did you have the day off?”