by Dakota Krout
“I think that this section is…” Alexis leaned in and they went over what they were seeing. “But I can’t imagine that the coastline would have changed so drastically in the last couple hundred years.”
“Could be anything!” Jaxon joined in happily. “Imagine a powerful earth or water Mage that came through and was angry, or just wanted to test out what they could do! I bet Joe could make some really area-altering effects if he wanted, right? He’s only been doing this for a short while! Think about someone that had trained at this for their entire lives!”
“He has a point.” Joe nodded along, getting an arched brow in return from Alexis. “We ran into the same issue with the forest. It was hundreds of miles closer than it should have been.”
“What do you think we should do, then?” Poppy looked to Joe for leadership, and Joe straightened up at the realization that his team still relied on him.
“I think… that we need someone who knows maps better than I do.” Joe started walking along the dirt road back toward the shrine. “Let’s go get Jess. It's time for her to earn her pay.”
Even though the trip was mostly uphill, it was swift. On a positive note, it turned out that Jess was spoiling for a change of scenery. She came along without fuss, and by evening, they had their bearings with the map. Jess slapped Joe on the shoulder, hard, and smiled widely. “You were close, but it seems that the water has moved in closer over the last few decades. That’s why you have such a steep hill to get down to the waterline; all the gradual sloping land is now underwater.”
“If I’m correct, the temple should be right… there.” A glowing orb erupted from the water and shined purple light down in a perfect circle on the water. “That’s only visible to you guys, by the way! It's a new skill! I can ‘ping’ a location that I want you all to approach.”
“We jus’ gonna slog our way down ta it, then?” Bard tightened his chest plate and took a step into the surf.
“Better idea.” Jess pulled out a sack full of dead snakes and animated them. “I’ll send these out to make sure that we can get there without a boat, and that we’ll be able to breath and such in there.”
“Good call.” Joe and the others sat down with Jess as she pulled out a paper and began mapping the ground along the coast.
“Pretty shallow… there’s a drop-off, but if we go a few feet to the left…” Joe left her to her muttering as a small map took shape. “Oh, that’s not good. Evasive maneuvers, snakes! Go, go, go!”
“Found the building. Lots and lots of creatures in the area!” Jess was frantically drawing out her map, and it was getting less detailed as a result. “They’re all carnivorous, and they apparently don't mind if their food is fresh or not. Ah, down to one snake. Slithering around the building…”
“Yes! Got an entrance, looks like they expected this to go underwater… following inside… it goes all the way to the top of the building.” Jess was back to sketching details on her map, but suddenly swapped the paper with a fresh one. “It’s a dungeon, alright. A big one too, if the top floor is anything to go by. Found a monster… what is that?”
She sighed and handed the papers over to Joe. “They got my last snake. That’s the best I could do.”
“You did a great job, Jess.” Joe looked at the maps and bound them to his own personal map. The paper in his hand crumbled into ash. “Any details you want to share?”
“Sure.” Jess stood and brushed the sand off her legs. “You can walk almost all the way there, but there are a few drop-offs that have monsters living in them. You fall in, and at best, you have to fight a monster on its home turf. Otherwise, the ground is pretty even. If there’s a strong tide, that will clear most of the way and leave dry-ish land to walk on.”
“We were here all day and the tide didn't go very far out.” Poppy denied after a moment’s thought.
“The moon’s gonna pass us pretty soon.” Jaxon pointed up, drawing everyone’s attention to the oddly empty sky. Poppy gained a soft smile as he gazed at the place where his daughter was growing up, “Maybe a close and full moon means that the tides will shift?”
“Good catch… Jaxon.” Everyone was keeping an eye on Jaxon, who had been shockingly normal and helpful the last few days. Joe cleared his throat and looked up at the moon. “I think that the time the moon will be closest will be tomorrow, so that gives us only a day to prepare. Let’s get back to the guild and get everything that we might need.”
Poppy looked up the hill at the heavily-armored, giant weapon-wielding woman that was currently watching them. “Alexis, I’m gonna need some potent poison.”
Alexis followed his gaze and showed a sinister smile. “I think that I have exactly what you need, Poppy. Exactly what you will need.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I need anything you’ve all been working on that might be helpful in water.” Joe explained to his Coven as he shifted the room around slightly. He was in the Grand Ritual Hall, inspecting rituals for flaws or to assist with issues that his Coven had been having.
Big_Mo handed over some loose-leaf parchment. “I’ve been working on an interesting concept, but I think that it's at a higher level than I can manage.”
“What… is this?” Joe looked at the variables, his eyes growing larger as he went through it. “Modified containment, but on a micro level?”
“Exactly!” Big_Mo excitedly pointed out his math. “This was something that I remember being a big deal back on earth. What should happen is that all hydrogen and oxygen molecules are pulled away from each other for the duration of the effect. In essence, low cost hydrogen and oxygen separation!”
“Which is great in theory,” Taka interjected in exasperation, “but in practice, unless you can figure out a way to hold those gasses in a container, all it takes is a single spark added to the system, and you just made a massive hydrogen bomb.”
“Which is why I’m bringing it to Joe for help!” Big_Mo turned and grinned at Joe. “He’s just a little salty because the first try on this killed both of us. But it also cleared an entire dungeon!”
“All it did was kill everything and destroy all the loot before we got a chance to grab it! And we got no experience!” Taka argued vehemently. “I told you we should learn a light spell, but no~o~o, torches are so much cooler.”
“Celestial Feces, dude, you already made a working model of this? What happened to it being outside of your ability?” Joe looked at the ritual and saw a few small changes that could be made. “Alright… two options for ease, unless you wanna rework this into a better ritual. Either add a point of capture here and add some tanks that can handle the pressure… or add an air-pressure directional here, and make the world’s largest flamethrower!”
Joe and Big_Mo high-fived, and the conversation started to devolve into various ritual aspects. Hannah got them back on track with a simple, “Didn’t you need to do something?”
“Oh, right. Drat.” Joe sighed and looked at the new-model flamethrower longingly. “I need to go underwater for an unknown amount of time, clear a dungeon down there, while staving off a hostile party that will likely be trying to clear the same dungeon at the same time. Any ideas?”
“Water isn’t my specialty, but I’ve been wanting to get to the bottom of a lake recently, so I’ve been working on this for a while.” Kirby pulled out a sheet and handed it over. “It’s the Ritual of Leaden Boots from that book you loaned us on beginner rituals. It’ll pull you down right to the ground and will make it feel like you are walking on normal ground. None of that overly buoyant nonsense like you’re on the moon.”
“Nice! You mind if I make a copy of this?” Joe’s eyes scanned the document and he found a few small mistakes. Once more, he thanked the system that dumped knowledge into his head whenever he leveled up a skill. “Just so you know, your math is wrong here, here, and here. As it is currently… this would be a ritual of feet crushing. Anyone below, let’s see… thirty-two constitution would be very unhappy with you.”
; “Thanks!” Kirby smiled brightly. “I’ll take a copy of both the original and the new one, if possible. I know a few people that I want to nail to the ground!”
Joe winced as he remembered that Kirby wanted to be an evil overlord. To each their own, he supposed. “Alright, if anyone can come up with a solution for the other factors I mentioned, please let me know. We are going to leave tomorrow and hopefully get where we need to be by moonrise, so please work fast if you plan to help.”
They nodded and got to work. Joe immediately set to ironing out the issues in the leaden feet ritual, then modified it to work on a group. It was still a minor ritual, fit for a Beginner, so the cost was almost negligible. Not quite free, but he had gained several Trash-ranked Synthetic Cores on his frequent forays into the test dungeon, so the Core cost was something that he could manage easily.
A few hours into his work, Hannah came over with a design for him. “This is an interesting anti-personnel concept I came up with. Unlike the standard targeting mechanism, I used the blood added as a kind of access list. Anyone that approaches that isn't allowed will get a series of molecule-thin wind blades sent at them. Thoughts?”
Joe looked it over and winced. It was the magical equivalent of a claymore. “Potent booby-trap. This is kind of a ruthless effect, though.”
She didn’t understand what he was trying to say, so Joe pushed further, “If you power this up a little more, you could hurt a lot of people unintentionally. Also, there are no safeties built into it. Once it sends a wind blade, even people on the access list could be hit. All in all, great trap to leave behind in a dungeon or other enclosed area, terrible idea to leave out in the open.”
“Who cares if it is ‘ruthless’? Think of the applications for guild defense!” Hannah countered, obviously having put thought into her argument before coming over.
“Would you want to be the one to activate this?” Joe leaned in to hold her gaze. “Because that’s the same as a Mage attacking a crowd of people with a fireball. You get a non-hostile caught in this, you’re an instant player killer. If you devoted enough mana to it, you could get dozens of people cut down, and then your murderer aura lasts for days. Even if you don't care about other people, make sure to care about yourself.”
“I-I do care about other people…”
Hannah looked down, so Joe decided to lighten up. “Now, to be fair, in this situation, this is exactly what I need. The only people that’d be in the area of effect are going to be trying to grab what I’m after, and a few days with a red aura is the least of my worries if they get it first. Good work.”
“What?” Hannah looked up in shock. “But you…!”
“I am just making sure you know the dangers. I had a talk with Big_Mo about that water-powered flamethrower, too.” Joe shook his head, smiling the whole time. “You guys are going a far more lethal route than I took when I was first starting out, but I guess the average person is all sorts of strong compared to then. ‘Suppression’ doesn't work if someone can just ignore what you toss at them.”
“Thanks, Joe.” Hannah grimaced and admitted, “I thought you were gonna yell at me or something.”
“Nah, all of this is useful.” Joe shook his head and sat down on a chair that formed with a thought. He loved this room. “Y’all just need to be careful when and where you use it, and my job is to point out the danger before you create something that hurts people you don’t want to target. Want some coffee?”
Mate swirled up Joe’s arm and burbled happily as Joe pulled out some espresso cups. “Double shot please, little buddy.”
“Brrb!” Mate poured itself into the cups, then formed murky brown eyes and looked at Hannah. “Drink me! I’m delicious!”
“You sure are, Mate!” Joe coated his hand with mana and petted the elemental, who bubbled and preened. The dark mana was sucked into its fluid surface as it sighed happily, swirled, and vanished. All that was left was a large coffee stain on Joe’s sleeve. “I have a theory that my mana will eventually make his coffee a permanent dark roast. We’ll see what happens.”
“Looks like it isn't housebroken.” Hannah gestured at his sleeve and chuckled as she took the drink. She tossed it back and opened her eyes wide. “Holy moley, that is delicious.”
“Right?” Joe waved at his arm, “That’s not a mess, that’s just where Mate lives when he isn't fully… um… summoned? Otherwise, the cleaning spell I have would wash that away.”
Observing the odd look he was getting, Joe offered more in-context information. “Yes, my familiar is a coffee elemental that lives in a coffee stain on my sleeve. This place is magic, and this is what makes you doubt that? Please. How else can I help you?”
“We need crafting items.” Hanna waved at the rest of the group, who all looked up from what they were doing to nod along. “There’s just no way that we can get access to the items that we need, even though the guild recently devoted an entire wing of the greenhouse to magical herbs and stuff like that.”
Joe was torn. On one hand, he needed most of the items for himself. On the other hand, giving the Coven access to some of his gear would allow them to make progress at a speed that he could have only dreamt about at their level. Reluctantly, Joe started pulling items out of his Codpiece and holding them in the air. The room swirled, and a new area formed; a storehouse for the items that could be kept in the open. He quickly parsed through anything that needed to stay with him to remain fresh.
Knowing that they had money, or they should, thanks to what he was paying them, Joe used one of his Guild abilities for the very first time: setting a price for the items. “Alright, to take these items out of here, you need to pay for them. Free ride is over, unless it is a ritual that is needed either by myself or the guild. You can pay with money, barter, or… ugh… contribution points. Since only you guys can get in here, this is officially a shop for Ritualists only. If I find that you’ve been reselling these to others, I’ll ban you immediately.”
“That's fair.” Taka stated while coming to look at what was available. “You’re… this is all at cost!”
“That’s right; I’m not going to make a profit off of you, unless the item you’re buying is something really rare that I earned. If I bought it, I’ll sell it to you at the same cost I was able to get it for.” Joe took a deep breath and pulled out an ornate jar that he had purchased from Jake the Alchemist. “Now. Everyone see this?”
He held up the crystal jar, letting it catch the light and cast red sparkles across the ground. “This holds the blood of a stupidly overpowered endgame-style boss monster. First off, I’m going to set just unlocking the door to this at the price of two million gold, or five million contribution points. Taking out the blood costs an additional million, so that there are two transactions. Kind of an ‘are you sure’ thing.”
There were exclamations of shock and outrage at the proclamation. Joe flat didn't care. “The price is there because I know that no one can pay it. The only time this will be free is when you are taking this to use in a ritual that helps contain the creature. If it gets free, it will permanently delete anyone it kills. Actual death at that point, folks. This jar is a preserver that will keep the contents fresh pretty much indefinitely. Even so, I don't like having this available at all.”
“What’s the big deal?” Kirby questioned bluntly.
“It can be used to twist rituals into something really nasty. Come here and look. There are massive penalties for using this in a ritual.” Joe grimaced as he held out the jar, uncomfortable with allowing them so close to it. They all took a look, their curiosity shifting to pale-faced horror as they backed away from the container. “You all understand that this is a weapon against the creature itself, and not to be used in anything except that, correct? Swear that you will abide by that, or I’ll take my chances with keeping it to myself.”
Each of them swore, and Joe felt better at the notifications that they would gain hefty warlock titles if they broke the oath. “Good. Thank you all, and good w
ork today. I didn't get everything I needed, but I’m hoping that my team did. We’ll be back in a few days. Use what you have here to train yourselves up, and have questions ready when I get back.”
Joe placed the jar on a shelf, placing a paywall in front of it. No one he didn't trust could access it, and now a backup was in place if there was some reason that he couldn't be the one to fight off that monster in the event that it ever got free.
Chapter Eighteen
“Let’s do a quick inspection before we go.” Joe regarded the others, unable to see anything different. “I was able to make a few anti-personnel rituals, and I figured out a way to get to the bottom of the lake, but I wasn't able to find a way for us to breathe down there.”
“I got that!” Alexis pulled out a vial that seemed to contain a tiny storm. “This is called a Fish-Flop Flask. It's a pretty common poison that makes anyone breathing it only able to breathe water for about ten minutes. Normally, you use this in dry areas so that people suffocate, but it can also be used just like a water-breathing potion, while being far less expensive.”
“The downside being…?” Bard motioned leadingly.
Alexis rolled her eyes, “Well, clearly you need to stay underwater until it wears off. Unlike a potion, it is one or the other. Also, if you aren't in water, your body will start drying out badly enough that all of your skin will crack and bleed. Oh, and it is technically a debuff, so Joe will need to cancel his aura.”
Joe winced at that; he had wanted to keep his aura active at all times so that he could get another bonus when he ranked up the skill. He nodded once to show his willingness, and only once to show that he still didn't want to do it. Jess coughed lightly, and handed a paper to all of them. “I made a copy of the map for everyone, so if you get separated, you will still be able to find your way around.”