Raze ~ chapter 4!

~ Four ~

“You want me to participate in making the building?” Mike didn’t even look up from the forms he was signing rapid-fire, getting through a massive stack of documents in only a few minutes. “Why?”

“Multiple reasons, one of which is to allow people to see one of their top guys going out to help them directly. It’s a public relations win, you know it would be.”Joe smiled winningly, but Mike just waved his hand for the next reason. “Allright, the other reason I want this so much is so that you realize exactly what’s going on when I make this sort of thing happen. It’s really cool, but very draining. I want you to see why I won’t do this sort of thing all the time. Also, here is a list of extra components I need. Also, what are the contribution points I’ll get for this?”

“Two thousand points, the same amount that will be given to a logistics group that supplies raids on dungeons in the near future. We can negotiate future rates after this first building goes up.“ Mike took the list, looked it over, and looked up at Joe with raised brows. “Why do you need some of these things? Termite spoor, for instance?”

“That’ll do for now. Now, the list. Lots of reasons. But that one specifically because this area has a huge termite problem, and this will automatically add anti-infestation protections to the building. The rest of it is the cost of making a Common-ranked barracks in a day from the ground up. Also, I added in extra room to each building so that they can be upgraded if we ever find better designs for them.”

Mike looked over the list once more, signed it, and handed it to one of his aides. “How important is it that I participate?”

“You join in or I won’t.” Joe’s smile showed teeth.

Mike nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing a fraction. “I see. Let’s make it happen. Where should we deliver all these goods?”

“Wherever you want the building.” Joe paused and raised a hand to his chin, “Also, it might be better to do this on a spot already cleared and prepared. The mana cost especially will jump if we need to tear up the ground and knock over trees. Having a foundation in place would be best, but it won’t work for my modified plans.”

“Alright, when are we doing this?”

“As soon as you can get all the supplies in place.” Joe turned toward the door. “Everything else is already built into this scroll. Since I made it, I can use it freely, but there is a base twenty percent chance that someone else could use it to learn how to do this themselves.”

“Is it reusable?” Mike leaned forward interestedly.

“Nope. One chance, then I have to make the whole thing again. Also, anyone else using it would need to pay the full cost of all materials and mana.” Joe smiled at Mike and opened the door. “Let me know when you are ready, I’ll be working on my skills over at the training grounds.”

Joe went over to the mid-range spell range and worked to familiarize himself with his newest powers. Effortless shaping, contrary to its name, required an exact picture in mind when working to make something out of darkness. It was intense mental work, but was such an insignificant drain on mana that Joe had to assume that was where the ‘effortless’ portion of the skill came from. Beyond that, getting details too close to each other tended to make them blend, which could really only be fixed by gaining skill levels. Sadly, the lack of needed mana was quickly made up for when Joe solidified the shadows into… anything.

He could invest ten points of mana per skill level, and had found that larger amounts of mana would let him do more damage, or stabilize the structure for long periods of time. Right now, shadows would ‘bleed’ when they were exposed to bright light, and slowly vanish. Joe had found this out when he was running mana through a ritual and one of the lines snapped. If he had been doing anything important with it, he would have been in a lot of trouble. Joe had gotten very lucky in the past, especially during battle when his ritual was stuffed under a tent. That could have gone very badly.

So, training. Perfecting his shadowy shapes and holding them under the sun to find ways to make them last longer and hold more detail was the only thing he could think to do for training himself in this regard. Also, solidifying the shadows required him to pour mana into the shape, and he wanted to be able to do that faster. Over the course of a few hours - and thanks to the boost from proximity to the Pathfinder’s Hall - he gained a few skill levels.

Skill increase: Effortless (Darkness) Shaping (Apprentice VII). Boo! Did I scare you?

Skill increase: Solidified Shadows. (Apprentice VII).

Skill increase: Cleanse (Apprentice VII). Strange that you increased three skills and they all became the same rank and level. +1 Luck.

“Alright. I’ll take it.” Multiple hours of hydrating people around him upon request had also paid off, it seemed. Joe looked at the shadow skills almost greedily.they were the only Legendary and Mythical skills he had, and he couldn’t wait to see what kind of bonuses he would gain from them as they ranked up.

“Joe, ready to get this over with?” Mike came trotting up, a few of his aides in tow. “Let’s get some people housed before darkness sets in. Whoa, what happened here?”

The ground was torn up all over the place, and a few of the targets had brutal scarring on them. Joe looked at his handywork and wince, he hadn’t been thinking about what others would see when they watched his spells going off, or what they would think when they saw the torn up landscape.

“Miss a lot, don’t ya?” Mike commented dryly as he took a look around. He smirked and started walking away, Joe following after with a bright red face.

“No, I don’t miss a lot, I was trying new spell effects!” Joe’s defensiveness caused the small group to snicker, and he realized that he was being intentionally baited. “Laugh it up, big guy.”

Mike’s lips twitched, but Joe couldn’t see it happening. By the time they got to a cleared lot, he had his face under control once again. “Here we are. All of the normal material needed for building this barracks is here, and here are the items you… requested.”

“Great!” Joe grabbed the bag, looking through it and inspecting the quality of each of the items in it. “Alright… good. Yeah, we should be all set. Let me place this… how do you want the building oriented?”

“Lengthwise like this,” one of the aides spoke up, gesturing with his hands, “with the door’s here and here.”

“Right.” Joe took a deep breath so that he didn’t say anything he would regret. “So, Mike, you wanted the doors shifted around? Different than what was on the blueprint?”

“It was more of a last minute judgement call.” The aide waved his hands flippantly. “It isn’t that important… if you can’t do it.”

“Good, because it isn’t happening.” Joe responded bluntly. “I told you, Mike, whatever is on the blueprint is what is made. There are no alterations that I can make right now unless you want to wait for tomorrow. I would need to make this ritual diagram from scratch, from blueprints that are correct, and that took me… oh, about five-ish hours today?”

“As he mentioned, it wasn’t that important.” Mike stared at the wilting aide. “Frankly, I’m not sure why it came up.”

“Because you are trying to test me, Mike.” Joe sighed and cracked his neck. “Stupid power games and attempts to mess with me to see how far you can push me. Standard military fare, and it doesn’t bother me much. But it does bother me a little. Add on twenty-five percent to the contribution points we agreed on, or I’m out. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

The group around him went quiet at the direct challenge to Mike. The man in question sighed and nodded, “You drive a hard bargain, Joe.”

“It’s okay, Mike, the currency is worthless right now.” Joe didn’t break eye contact.

“So was bitcoin a decade ago.” Mike grumbled halfheartedly. “You got it, Joe. My bad, it is just something pretty deeply ingrained in me.”

“I’ve had my fill of military, Mike. As much as I respect all the people in it, my time there is done and I’m very happy with that arrangement.” Joe looked at the aides, and made a motion at the edges of the property. “Can someone grab a stick and rough out where the building should be going? Gonna have to destroy it by hand if we get it wrong, and I don’t know if a lot of people will be on board for that.”

When all the preparations were complete, and a drop of blood from each of them had been added to the silver focus chalice, Joe looked over at Mike and smiled darkly. “Ready? Here we go!”

With those words, the Rituarchitect poured mana into the ritual blueprint he had created, and a holographic double ring expanded away from the two of the men and eclipsed the entire lot. “In structuram, pulchra placent?”

The two men running the ritual were lifted off their feet as wood, nails, and pipes began flying toward them and assembling themselves into building form. The ritual turned sideways, and as it passed over and area it acted like a printer and left behind completed building. Mike got a beautiful view of the entire process, and really seemed to be enjoying himself. Then Joe got down to twenty percent of his mana, and the dra switched over to Mike.

“Son of a…!” Mike exclaimed in sudden shock. Joe chuckled, his body was literally designed to move around massive flows of power like this, but he didn’t need to let other people know that. Let them think that he got mana-sick like they did, and his work would be even more respected.

The ritual drained Mike down to ten mana before switching back to Joe. The Rituarchitect had been able to regenerate two-hundred and eighty mana over the intervening fourteen seconds, That, coupled with the almost two-hundred mana he had remaining from the first round let him last another ten seconds before it switched back to Mike. The man lasted three seconds,then the drain was back to Joe, but luckily the ritual only lasted another second before finishing.

Class Experience gained: 100.

They settled on the ground, both heaving great gulps of air and staring at the bright sky. Within a few moments, they were able to sit up and look at the building they had just erected in under a minute. Mike was the first to speak, “It looks excellent. I… can see why you would attach a high price for your work, though.”

“I’d get a carpenter to look at it, but it should be perfectly safe for people to sleep in there tonight.” Joe informed the Vice-Guildleader.

“Good show.” Mike looked at the building once more. “No shingles on the roof?”

Joe stood up and shrugged. “No shingles on the blueprint.”