Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)

by Dakota Krout

  “I think I can speak for everyone in the guild when I say that is not an option.” Aten stopped speaking when another hand went up and waved slightly to get his attention. “Yes, Mr. Johnson?”

  Joe inspected the speaking man with his Intrusive Scan, and his name popped up after a long moment, followed by his highest stat. Joe almost couldn't stop himself from speaking aloud, so he muttered too softly for anyone that mattered to hear, “His name is literally ‘Mr. Johnson’? Highest stat… charisma. Oh, this isn't gonna be good.”

  “I say… why not give them what they want?” Mr. Johnson smiled at the others in the room. “We have plenty of other projects, so why worry about getting the town as high as possible right now? Perhaps we skew toward more luxurious pursuits for a while? We just made a delightful new wine blend, and even the press wine had a lovely body and bouquet! Why risk losing all of our hard work because we haven't settled into our lifestyle properly?”

  There were murmurs of agreement from about half of the table, while the other half looked on with faint disgust. Aten swallowed and took a deep breath. “Mr. Johnson, I think that you may be disregarding some of the potential benefits of the buildings that we are bringing in. Even the grapes for the wine you are describing came from the greenhouse, which is one of the buildings that helped bring us to our current town level! Beyond that, you are talking about a business venture that could take years to mature. If we do not expand our Guild’s military might to acceptable levels, there's a good chance that we lose everything to someone who simply has the power to take it.”

  “Nonsense!” Mr. Johnson sputtered. “Who would do that? We would bring the Kingdom into-”

  “Mr. Johnson.” Aten had steel in his tone. “You ask that question while smoke is still rising from the buildings burning around us. Who would do that? These same people who are threatening us now, even though we have more military might than all of them individually! They would take it, and send us to respawn as thanks for all of our hard work!”

  “That is enough, Mr. Aten.” Mr. Banks stated coldly. “I appreciate your fervor, but I will take this opportunity to remind you that you serve at the convenience of the board of directors. You will not speak to-”

  “I am Guild Commander Aten.” The bass in Aten’s voice shook the room, and several wine glasses shattered with the reverberations of his low snarl. “You would do well to remember that your companies from earth no longer exist. You are acting with an outdated view of the world, and-”

  “I think that it may be high time for a change in leadership.” Mr. Banks darkly announced. “In fact, in light of recent events, I am hereby removing you from your position. I will negotiate with these Guilds myself.”

  “I was hoping you would say that.” Aten smirked just as a pop-up window appeared in front of Joe.

  The council of the Wanderer’s Guild has started a ‘No-confidence’ vote to remove Guild Commander Aten from his position! Should he be removed? All Guild members currently waiting on respawn automatically vote ‘abstain’. Yes / No / Abstain.

  Joe pressed ‘no’ without hesitation, barely taking the time to finish reading the prompt. Three bars appeared in the box; a red, green, and a gray bar all started moving. In just under a minute, the vote had ended. The result was clear, Aten was here to stay.

  “Now that this farce has ended,” Aten told the sputtering board members, “we will be working hard to boost our defensive capabilities to the maximum before bringing the town back to town level two and beyond. As per the no-confidence clause, I am implementing a new Guild policy. No one under level ten is allowed to call for the removal of Guild members in positions of power. They will also not sit on the council. Guards, remove these hangers-on from the war room.”

  It was clear that the board members did not know how to react to the sudden change, as not a single one of them was able to muster a defense before they had been whisked from the room. Just like that, the only people remaining were those who had a vested interest in increasing their Guild’s - and their own - power. Aten looked around at the silent people that remained and smiled.

  “I am sorry you needed to see that unpleasantness, but I think this will make for a much more successful future.” Aten motioned for some documents to be prepared, and sealed what he had just ordered. “Now, I would like to discuss my plans for the near future with all of you.”

  When Joe was finally able to leave the command tent, his head was spinning but he was beaming proudly. Following a strong leader had always given him a powerful surge of motivation. His role was clear: Joe was to salvage what he could of the damaged buildings, work with the guild and his Coven to design and implement defensive measures, and once that was all ready… bring the power of the guild to new heights.

  “I am so ready for this! Let’s fix up those bad boys!” Joe gathered up his Coven and filled them in over the next hour or so, after which they worked to assist Joe in creating a ritual of Structural Repair. Joe explained the steps that he was using to make everything, and it seemed to boost their spirits. Joe was pleased. As much as he loved learning, he also loved teaching. In fact, if things had gone differently for him, he would have loved to be a teacher.

  “What can you see from the diagram here?” Joe pointed at a small double helix that encircled everything else on the ritual, then looked around at the others.

  “Journeyman ranked ritual, since that’s the fourth circle. Boom!” Kirby gave a thumbs up and waited for confirmation.

  Joe blinked at the instant response, and looked at the ritual, then her again. “Well. Yes, that is technically correct, but I meant-”

  “Technically correct is the best kind of correct!” Kirby held up her other hand as well, displaying a double thumbs-up. After letting Joe sputter for a moment, she snorted and dropped her hands. “I’m totally kidding. Seriously though, that’s the only thing I can get off of this ritual diagram. Way too advanced for me.”

  “Right. Um. Anyone else?” Joe tried not to laugh, since it would only encourage further ridiculousness. Wait. That was a good thing! He let a soft chuckle slip out, and Kirby brightened right away.

  Hannah leaned in and made an educated guess. “Well… we already know what this ritual does, right? It repairs damaged buildings. So I’m guessing that this part of the ritual actually makes that happen?”

  “Correct! Fully correct, this time.” Joe winked at Kirby. “Look here. This section checks the building for damage. This one holds any resources or components needed, the third circle pulls off anything too damaged to salvage, and the DNA-looking part takes those resources and binds them - hopefully - flawlessly with the building materials already in place.”

  “I heard that you can just drop a building, regain everything used to make it, then put it together again flawlessly.” As Big_Mo paused, Joe nodded for him to continue. “It takes only a few minutes to do that after the ritual diagram is all drawn up, so why not do that instead?”

  “Great question! Mate, a coffee for him, please.” Joe gestured with his arm, and a significantly darker coffee elemental appeared, bubbled happily, and vanished after filling the cup Joe was holding out. Big_Mo took the drink gingerly, not sure what to say. “There are two issues with this plan, and one thing you don’t know. Any guesses?”

  “Time investment?” Taka grunted from his chair. He was the only one not standing and looking at the new plans.

  “That’s one.” Joe nodded at the seated Warrior-Ritualist. “Each ritual needs a blueprint, and each ritual itself is slightly different because of that. Mass-production is not possible, in other words, unless we are making a lot of the same building.”

  “I’m guessing… cost?” Robert asked after a moment of silence had passed.

  “Yes!” Joe pointed at the new ritual diagram. “Both Structural Repair, as well as Architect’s Fury, are Journeyman-ranked rituals. Just getting the blueprint of the building so that we can go to the next step costs as much as repairing the building directly. Now, her
e is the part you don’t know. This ritual needs to go onto an item that is at least four hundred pounds. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been seeing more restrictions like that recently.”

  “The other part is that it needs a constant mana supply, and all the materials need to be in a storage device that the ritual can pull from. In return, we can work on multiple buildings at the same time, and target new ones when each is fixed up.” Joe paused and nodded deeply, “So long as we have the materials required for the building, we can fix it.”

  The group left the Grand Ritual Hall and convinced some guards to bring a large slab of marble from the guild storehouse over to standing stone number three, which were a stand-in for street names. No one had been able to agree on them yet, as the common offerings were ‘Streety SuperPath’ or ‘Mr. GravelLine Road’. While the Coven were waiting for the guards to show up, they inspected the worst-damaged buildings and tried to decide what they would need most.

  “It’s an Uncommon-ranked barracks.” Hannah was pointing out, “It shouldn't have any unique requirements! Wood, nails. Done.”

  “Don’t forget shingles.” Joe quipped, though none of them understood the joke.

  “Doors!” Taka called.

  Hannah grimaced. “That’s still wood, Taka. Joe, does this need to be processed materials, or can it be just the raw material? Can we chuck a couple trees in a storage bag and have that fix things?”

  Joe considered that, “You know, I have no idea? It won’t hurt to try, though.”

  When the guards arrived and dropped the marble slab on the ground, Joe waved away the dust and asked them to bring raw wood and metal in a storage device. They looked a little miffed, but walked off to do as he asked. Nearly an hour later, Mike showed up with a bag.

  “You know that spatial storage devices are restricted items, correct? We can’t just give them out to a guard because he says you need it,” Mike grumped at Joe as he tossed the bag at him. “I’ll need that back when you are done here.”

  “So you’re staying to watch?” Joe looked into the bag and smirked when he saw that this clearly high-quality bag still only had a fraction of the storage space his codpiece did.

  “No real choice.” Mike sat on a bench and watched them as they worked to put the finishing touches on the marble.

  When they had finished, the previously pure white marble block was covered in black formulaic etchings. Joe had them gather around it, and started pouring mana into it. With six people powering it, the ritual was soon ready for use. “This is a strange ritual, in that it only takes very basic activation components. A core, then a pound of iron, water, wood, and coal. Why would that be the case… Kirby?”

  “I’m guessing because it will take components and resources to use, not just to activate?” Kirby replied easily.

  “I think that’s accurate.” Joe nodded at the fire damaged buildings in front of him. “Should we give it a try?”

  Activate Ritual of Structural Repair? Yes / No.

  “Yup.”

  Select target damaged structure.

  Joe pointed at the building in front of him. It was enough.

  Checking…

  A ring of light swept over the building for a long thirty seconds. Joe felt a pull at his mana and grunted, as did the others.

  Unable to repair structure. Structural integrity is under 50%. Please select a new target.

  Joe shared the news with the others and selected a new building. “Well… looks like we will need to take a few of them down, after all.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  It took a while to make their way through the damaged buildings, but Joe was pleased to see that those that didn’t need to be torn down looked shiny and new at the end. The main reason this process had taken so long was that the materials seemed to be torn apart and replaced into the structure bit by bit; so much so that it looked like the building was growing instead of being built.

  “Looks like non-processed materials are fine,” Joe nodded at Hannah, “but they need to be ready for processing. The green wood didn’t get touched, and iron ore that hadn't been purified wasn't used either. Good call on testing that.”

  The next portion went much faster, since the building that had been the main target of fire was razed in under a minute. The recollected materials went into the sack, which went to Mike. Mike took the bag reverently and thanked the Coven. “If we had needed to to do that manually, it would have taken days. Here’s a bonus from me.”

  You have gained 1,000 contribution points.

  Hannah looked at the message they had all gained, then back at Mike. “How many points do you have that you can give them out like this?”

  “I’m the vice guild leader.” Mike explained, seeing the understanding in her eyes, “I can give out whatever is needed for a job well done. Within reason, of course. I have to account for all of it with the guild, but the paperwork is pretty minimal. You all did a great thing for us, and I look forward to seeing what you can do in the days to come!”

  The group broke up, and Joe looked over the gains that he had gained for working on the buildings.

  Class experience gained: 420 (100 for razing a building, 320 for repairing 8 buildings).

  He was making good progress with his class, and was nearly halfway to level five. Deciding that he needed to work on more physical things, he went to train his strength and constitution. Joe walked to the training ground, got into position, and the hot coals started being shoveled onto the shield he held in the air.

  Ten minutes in, his arms were burning. Literally and figuratively. Twenty, and he was getting ready to move on with his day. Thirty, and the coals were getting much hotter. At forty-five, he almost tossed the shield to the side and moved on. His willpower refused to let that happen, which meant that he lasted for the entire time required, just about fifty-five minutes.

  Characteristic training completed! Strength and constitution +1! These cannot be increased through training for 24 hours!

  Skill increase: Artisan Body (Beginner 0). You have taken a solid step upon the path of refining your body and mind! Bonus: From this point forward, threshold bonuses for characteristics will give you a small percentage bonus to earned rewards.

  Joe sat on the grass, panting as he looked over his notifications. The trainer was glaring at him; Joe had earned a reputation as a quitter, and none of them liked to work with him on his training. “You had five more minutes before you were halfway there, man! Why are you doing double training if you can't handle it? Go pump some iron or settle into a vat of water over fire if you need to do one at a time!”

  Joe ignored the grumbling, though it was nice to know the options. Why had the training taken so long? Normally he was done in half that… right. He had gotten to the next threshold for both of those! The time required to train them had doubled! If he didn't have his four times boost, the training would have taken two hours apiece. With that bonus, coupled with his Artisan Body, each characteristic took… twenty-seven minutes? Obviously, since he was training two at a time, fifty-four minutes.

  Joe looked over his skill and was really tempted to start dumping skill points into it, but forced himself not to do so. Not yet, at least. He got dressed and walked away, pondering what he should be doing. His team had split up temporarily in the wake of the attack, each of them feeling the need to focus on their individual abilities and boost skill levels. Joe hadn't fought it in the slightest; he was feeling the same as they were.

  “You there!” A voice shook Joe from his thoughts. A dark-haired man confronted him with a serious face. He was wearing leathers and had an odd array of weapons with him. “You look like someone that could use some extra training! How would you like to join me, Weaponmaster Everard, for some demonstrations?”

  “No, that’s okay. Thanks, though.” Joe walked past the man, who clearly hadn't been expecting to be ignored.

  “What’s the matter? All I need is someone to use as an example, and all you need to do is learn!”
The man, likely ‘Weaponmaster Everard’, calmly called after him. “I need a chance to showcase my teaching ability. First lesson, no charge?”

  “Please find someone else to use as a punching bag.” Joe looked at Everard sourly. The man was walking with him now. “Oh, how exciting. I see that you seem to have decided upon me. Why?”

  “You are a well-known figure in this guild.” Everard told him without hesitation. “Not only are you known as a Mage, but no one that I have asked has seen you use a weapon as more than a spellcasting medium. You have access to the highest members of the guild and could help me start my own Training Stalle here. And…”

  “So you were looking for me specifically.” Joe stopped and faced the man. “Go on, what’s the last bit?”

  “Frankly, people are kinda excited to see you get beaten into submission.” Everard shrugged at the expression on Joe’s face. “I asked who they respected but wanted to see get whooped. Seventy percent of the time, that’s you.”

  “Oh, lovely. Let’s go and show my blood to the crowd.”

  “Excellent.”

  “No. I’m more likely to ban you from the town than join you right now.” Joe was exasperated by this conversation.

  “Five free lessons? Half price from there on?” Everard raised a brow. “I also heard you were a miser, so I have prepared various tempting discounts.”

  “Have you ever been hit by lightning?”

  Everard shook his head, still unsmiling. “Look. Have you ever needed to use a weapon, but didn't know how? Mana isn't endless, and fights can go a long time. Why don't you let me try to train you? If we do it publicly, it’ll even be free.”

  Everard’s words echoed what Joe’s thoughts had been not too long ago. Still, he was feeling like resisting the temptation. He pulled out his Mystic Theurge staff, and handed it to the Weaponmaster. “Could you teach me to use this in combat?”

  “Huh.” Everard flipped the staff a few times, then started swinging and swiping with it. Joe winced when it cracked against the ground, and took it back possibly faster than needed. “Sure can, but how specific do you want that training? That’s only gonna be good for a few more levels. The rarity is high, but the materials themselves are only… meh. If you do any dungeons, or go to any higher-scale custom shops, you could replace this with a snap. So… my recommendation would be ‘polearm’ training.”