Raze ~ 21!

Happy Treason Day, all of my glorious colonists! :P  

~ Twenty-one ~

Joe stepped out of the respawn room eight in-game hours later, appearing at the shrine he had most recently converted. “Ick, it’s a half day walk even to get back to the forest from here.”

His rumination didn't last long. His team would likely appear shortly, and he wanted to see how things were going with his current quest to free Tatum. Joe pulled open the quest log and looked it over, the hope in his eyes quickly simmering away.

Quest update: Paying a Great Debt. 8,075/13,000,000 divine energy. Current sources of divine energy: 131 Followers, 1 Altar, 4 Shrines, 1 Temple (Mid-sized).

“It’s not great, but it isn't nothing.” He sighed and sat to wait for a moment. There was a flash of white light, then another, and soon his entire team was around him. “Hey guys. You want to go back there right away, or run back to the guild and train up a little? Maybe get more specialized stuff?”

“Yeah, let’s take a couple days and train up.” Poppy seemed much happier today, and it didn't take long to figure out why. “I found that my girl will be in what amounts to a daycare, and I can go there any time. There is a second portal for me in my ‘logout’ room, it leads to an island in the sky where the kids get the best education, care, and food possible. A little paradise that gets harder for them as they grow up, until they need to go out into the world at sixteen. She will be more ready for this world than I ever was. Her Grandma chose to stay with her in that area as well.”

“I’m really glad to hear it.” Jaxon went in for a hug, and for the first time Poppy didn't dodge away from it. 

“Me too.” Poppy sighed softly. It was obvious that this had been a serious stressor for him.

“Joe, while we take a break, you should swing by the college and get some spells that are effective against plants. A classic fireball maybe?” Alexis nudged him into reacting, and Joe nodded right away. 

“Will do. I’ll see if I can find some other stuff for this specific area as well. Meet you all near the Pathfinder’s Hall for skill training?” The others agreed, flashing away using the fast travel function of the shrines. Joe prepared himself for a crowd, and in an instant appeared in Ardania. “Time to go get some spells!”

He started making his way through the crowd, and was annoyed to the point of nearly lashing out within a few minutes. His Exquisite Shell had kept him from being crushed twice, and had kept wandering hands out of his pockets at least three times that he could detect. Beyond that, he didn't have the raw physicality to push his way through the press of people milling about. In an attempt to work around this situation, Joe looked up, crouched, and jumped.

Joe left the ground like a bottle rocket, reaching the apex of his jump and flipping to land on the roof of a building. He laid there for a moment, gasping like a fish on land even though he had only lost about half his stamina in one go. “Okay. Effective and fun. But. Need. To boost. Constitution!”

After managing to get to his feet, Joe walked along the city-block-length rooftop and stood at the edge. For almost anyone else, the prospect of jumping to his next target would have been rejected; he needed to cross the street. Joe backed up a few feet, getting a running start, and jumped off the edge. His trajectory looked very unrealistic, almost against the laws of physics; because he jumped in a nearly straight line. At the apex of his leap he came down in another straight line to land on the building across the street; exactly where he had been aiming.

“Alright. I’m convinced.” Joe spoke aloud, ignoring his current position on the hot stone shingles of the roof. “Gonna do some Constitution and Strength training. This is way too cool to not use it more often.”

He looked over the edge, at the position he had started in. There was a man in orange monk robes that had been right in front of him when he started, and now that man was still only about halfway to Joe’s current position. “Looks like I am still making good time, even with the resting in between.”

Now back on his feet, he marched along the roof and hopped over to the next one; a much shorter distance. Joe continued this until he got near the merchant area and the crowd started to thin. The guard presence here was much higher, and no one wanted to jostle them or get too close if they didn’t need to do so. Now he was faced with another issue: how did he get down? If there were other buildings with handy ladders or roofing much closer to the ground, then this path would be more well-traveled. But he was twelve feet off the ground at the lowest point, and he needed to… 

“Hold up. Did I jump twelve feet straight up from a standstill?” Joe questioned his own feats, trying to remember if the… “No, wait. The roof on that building was lower. This area is more affluent. Maybe there are a lot of people that use this ‘skyway’. Still… ground…”

He looked down and decided to dangle off the edge to cut down the distance by about half. With twenty-three points in strength, he was about a fifth stronger than humans from earth had been, and was able to keep himself stable. He let go and landed well, the damage reduced to nothing thanks to his Jumping skill. “Now to the College, and I’ll - wait! No! To the library!”

The Mage’s college had given the Library a large collection of ‘useless’ spells. These were all sorts of spells that either were so inefficient or difficult to use that they were deemed to be trash, even if a good chunk of them would have been useful and powerful if they were used. Joe decided to go through the trash heap, it would be better for him if the College didn't know every spell he could bring to bear. Not that they had an issue currently, but it was better to be safe than sorry with massive organizations that had nearly unlimited funds.

Joe nodded to Boris as he walked through the doors, and the head librarian nodded back and got back to reading. It seemed everyone had goals they wanted to accomplish. He tromped up the stairs, getting to floor three and a half and entering the room that had been dedicated to the College’s donations. Just as the last time Joe had been here, he was surrounded by interesting titles. It really was too bad that most of these books shone a dull gray in his sight, he wanted to use all of them. Sadly, it would take hours to even get one of them to a useful state, and then he would still need to train that spell up to a point where it would be useful against the creatures he was now up against. So, he needed something specific.

“Instant Insect Repellant, no need. My shield already works for that.” Joe was muttering as he perused the unorganized shelves. “Party Decoration version three, no thanks. What does that even…? No, focus! Wildfire? Put you in the ‘maybe’ bin. Yeesh, that’s a dark book, though. Gonna take a lot of effort to make it work… Root Reducer? Sure, that might actually be something else, given that the title is dark. Plantomancy? Is this a primer on an entire field of magic?”

Joe looked at the most recent book he picked up; it was the size of a small one-year-old child. There were so many gradations of correct and false statements that the book almost gave him a seizure when he looked at it from the side. “Would this turn into a class granting book if I corrected it? Good lord, how long would that take? Put that in the ‘long term’ section.”

After a solid hour of selecting books, he narrowed his search to his top five. “Wildfire, Root Reducer, Weed-Be-Gone, Jack’s Tree-fell, Deadfall, Dale’s Shattered Earth.”

He looked at the strange, gimmicky names, and had to wonder if the College had a requirement of making a spell or something. He had no idea why a majority of these existed in the first place. “Let me think… Wildfire. I think you lose. My affinity is all about darkness and water, and you would be weaker than options I could get in that arena. Same deal with tree-fell, deadfall, and shattered earth. So, either Root Reducer or Weed-Be-Gone.”

After reading through both, he decided that Root reducer was his best bet. The other was used to remove dandelions at best, and it was an over-time sort of spell. Root Reducer looked like a solid answer to Ents, as it would remove a foot of roots per five seconds. If they needed to take the Ents down, they would be able to do so when their roots were completely shriveled and the Ent fell over. Maybe not a hugely useful spell outside of the forest, but who knew?

Joe decided that if this didn't look like it was going to work for him, he would come back and learn a spell from the College before they headed out. He left the library and Ardania entirely, getting back to this guild in a short half-hour thanks to his fast travel route. Joe went to the Pathfinder’s Hall right away, and descended into the truly potent area of this building. The building was actually a Grand Ritual Hall, but only a few people would ever be informed of this fact. In the deepest area was a room that allowed him to configure it to his needs on a whim. 

A desk was waiting for him, along with plenty of light. He had stocked the area with paper and ink, and he was glad that he had set everything up on his last visit. He got to work, writing out all the important and true areas, then looking into areas of the slim spell book that were gray but not black. Lots of ‘required motions’ went into the trash, but what really intrigued Joe was a small section of notes that detailed complaints the creator of the spell had. Apparently, the man felt that when he channeled the spell, he would feel invasive mana trying to enter him. 

Joe tapped his chin. Did this spell have a feedback mechanism? He hadn't seen anything in the world so far that hinted at vampirism or life steal, only effects like mana burn or extra damage. He was sure they existed somewhere, but there was a strong possibility that more potent spells were used and controlled by more magical races. If they ever found Elves, or Dwarves, and were able to work with them… he was certain they would have access to better abilities; and Joe wanted them.

Until then… it was time to see if he could turn this spell into a potent new ability.