Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)

by Dakota Krout

  Joe laid the buildings out in his mind as a hexagon that surrounded the inner walled-off area. They would be halfway between the inner and outer wall, and should be good places to live while being protected from anything coming in over the walls; such as combat mages’ artillery spells. “Hmm… I wonder if there is such a thing as a force field that I could build? Or a stationary mana shield? It has to exist, right?”

  Joe moved over to the Pathfinder’s Hall and accessed the secret path down into the Grand Ritual Hall. Most of his Coven members were present and working on their own projects, including Big_Mo, who was once again coated in dried blood for no reason that Joe could discern. Joe walked over and allowed his Neutrality Aura to clean the man up as they all discussed various matters.

  As the talk wound down, Joe waved Hannah over and gave her a guild quest. “I need you to design four large rituals that I made a long time ago, called ‘Quarantine Area’. The four rituals will need to be modified into arcs that connect to make a large circle facing out of the town, and we’ll use a remote activation so that they can all be activated at the same time.”

  “Nice! This will drive off attackers, then? How deadly are the results?” Hannah took the ritual diagram and started looking at it intently.

  “Not deadly, unless they’re pretty dehydrated, I suppose.” Joe shook his head. “This is a deterrent. It’ll make people feel ill, and people don’t like to climb a wall with, um, messy pants. Try to make it as effective as possible, but remember that we need to power everything. Again, this is going to be something that helps us push people back, so the worst they feel, the better for our defenders.”

  “Got it.” Hannah didn't hide her disappointment, looking over longingly at the flamethrower that a couple of the others were working to perfect. She looked pleadingly at Joe, who chuckled and shook his head.

  “This is going to be way more effective in the long run than those are. Trust me. People see fire and avoid it, but it is really hard to avoid a magical field that makes you sicker the closer you come to the epicenter of the effect. This is more important.” Joe looked over at the other project, then tossed them a diagram as well. “Guys, try to find a way to get those two to line up with each other. What I just gave you was a chunk of another ritual called ‘Ghostly Army’. I used that to create a fog bank that was thousands of feet wide. The chunk I tore out of it should create a simplified ritual that absorbs the same amount of water, then releases it as a continuous high-powered stream.”

  Big_Mo considered the new ritual. “So… this is going to turn into the ammo for Ze Flammenwerfer? Is that what you are trying to get at?”

  “If you can make it happen.” Joe paused as he registered what had just been said. “Hey, that was what you put on the forms you had given me to request items, too. Caught me off guard when Mike brought it up; why are you calling it-”

  “Ze Flammenwerfer?” Big_Mo chuckled at that. “It’s a thing from the internet. When someone was doing something really stupid, you would call someone to bring ‘Ze Flammenwerfer’. Just go with it.”

  “Um. Fair enough.” Joe had no idea what they were talking about. “Any improvements? I need to get these in place near the walls soon. We don't know exactly when we will be under attack.”

  “So many improvements!” Kirby chirped, her excitement getting away from her. “Not only did we find a way to make stable ritual traps, Big_Mo found a way to collect blood from-”

  “Hey!” Big_Mo glared at her, and she sheepishly covered her mouth with her hand. “Let me try that again! Based on the wind blade ritual, and using our research on the flamethrowers, we are able to make ritual circles that create either wind, frost, or fire novae centered on a single point. So, if we put them on large rocks or something, we can start using the terrain to our advantage.”

  “What’s the downside?” Joe’s question caused Kirby to shrug.

  “The area-of-effect is pretty small, and once they know that the trap is there, it won’t be hard to avoid it. Using it in the open means that people are only going to be impacted by the damage a single time. Then, it’ll be pretty obvious that the giant rocks are traps.” Kirby helplessly explained.

  “No, wait.” Joe’s bald brow furrowed. “We can use that to our advantage. If we scatter rocks all over out there, people will be really cautious about moving near them. We can either funnel enemies where we want them to go, or trick them into thinking that they are safe. Good, I want fifty of those on my desk by tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, no.” Big_Mo shook his head instantly. “Too high of a skill level required, we can do twenty at best, especially if Hannah is working on something else.”

  “Fair enough.” Joe nodded easily. He had been joking about getting fifty anyway. Mostly. Partly. “Since all of you are getting pretty busy here, let me offer an additional incentive. When you hit Journeyman in ritual magic, I’m going to have all of you build your own Covens and be in charge of them. You’ll get squad leader pay, and essentially become salaried. Also, I’m going up top to build apartment buildings that squad leaders get first dibs on. Work hard, y’all. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and the rewards are in sight.”

  With that, Joe walked over to another part of the huge room and started creating a ritual around the blueprints Mike had entrusted him with.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Sunset was approaching by the time Joe completed his diagrams. He looked over the shifting surface of the diagram, pleased that he was finally going to have a room to sleep in where he wouldn't be awoken by a drunk barfly shouting from the common room. It had taken so long to formulate the diagrams only because these buildings were Uncommon ranked, right at the edge of Rare buildings. Luckily, his Architectural Lore skill had helped him fix a few of the issues on the blueprint, but that had also added to the time requirement.

  “Oh… I can even furnish my room by myself if I grab a few beds out of storage.” With rosy thoughts leading him, Joe left the Pathfinder’s Hall with the intent of finding all the people in the guild that were construction workers. He got some names from the guild, and started his search. At this time of the day, they were either eating a late dinner or on their way to the tavern, so Joe tried the dining area first. He had a plan to start getting the workers onto his side, but he knew that the initial effort was going to suck.

  “Excuse me, are you Emjay?” Joe vaguely recognized her, as he had watched the construction workers to try to build up his lore skill. It hadn't worked, but it had made them look at him less favorably, as he had simply stood there watching while they worked.

  “I am. You’re… Joe.” Emjay turned back to her meal without another word. Joe winced, wondering what his reputation score would be with this lady. Probably pretty low.

  Joe sat next to the woman at the long table, and the atmosphere turned tense. All the people eating here were part of the same crew. “I am. I think there have been some issues between us because we haven’t had a chance to communicate. I’d like to take all of you over to the location where I am going to be building a new apartment building, and we can discuss any issues that I’ve caused for all of you. Would all of your team mind joining me for a short explanation?”

  Emjay’s jaw was clenched, though Joe knew she didn’t have anything in her mouth. The last bite she had taken had been before Joe had arrived. “You taking us over there to show off, then? Teach us all how little we are needed here? That’s already pretty clear.”

  “Exactly the opposite.” Joe’s sincere words made Emjay look at him in confusion. “Please? It’ll all make sense soon.”

  “You have interesting timing.” Emjay stood up, and Joe realized that the bench designed to hold ten people shifted upward significantly when she did so. This lady was solid. “C’mon, boys. We’re gonna go learn how to put up a building the right way.”

  The knuckles cracking around the table did not make Joe any less concerned. He really hoped that he hadn’t made a huge mistake, but there was nothing to do
but follow through. The group of around twenty people followed Joe to the southern location and looked on as he instructed various guild members to arrange the pallets of material in the correct order. When everything was situated, Joe started talking to Emjay directly, as he didn't know the names of the other people.

  “I’m here to show you all exactly why what you are doing is so important to the guild. The fact of the matter is that what I am doing is only going to be available for a short time. I’ll be leaving on the bifrost as soon as possible.” Joe pulled out the three Mana Batteries that he still had and arranged them in a balanced formation around him. “Even so, for as long as I am here, there is a reason I can't do this sort of thing alone.”

  “Oh, now it all makes sense. You’re leaving, so we’ll suddenly have job security.” Emjay spat out the caustic words and turned to speak to her people.

  “Please just watch. You’ll understand soon.” Joe softly implored. With that, he injected mana into the ritual and activated it. In the twilight, the glowing ritual circles that expanded were incredibly eye-catching. Joe and his batteries were lifted into the air, and soon the building materials started floating into position.

  As much as Emjay didn’t want to admit it, this was an impressive sight. The entire process, aside from Joe chanting, was almost entirely soundless. The boards and beams came together, the nails and screws sank into them. It was like watching a movie of a house being built on fast-forward. Something splattered on Emjay’s face, interrupting her show. She wiped the liquid off with a hint of disgust. “Wha…? Blood? Where…”

  She turned her attention to Joe, who was spasming every few seconds. Now that Emjay looked closely, she could see that the shining orbs that Joe had put on the ground were dark now. What did that mean? Ten seconds later, the building finished and Joe was set back on the ground. As soon as his feet were on soil, he collapsed into a heap, gasping for air and bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

  The construction crew ran over to help him up, recoiling in horror at the bloody mess they found. Joe was bleeding from every orifice, his eyes were shut, and every breath created a short-lived dark-red bubble. Emjay, as the foreman on the crew, had one of the highest-level inspection abilities in the group. She looked at Joe with the skill active, wincing at the blinking health bar that appeared. “Celestial, kid! You practically kill yourself getting one of these things up?”

  They all knew what happened when you got injured. Returning to full health couldn't happen without magical healing or coming back to life, so there was a chance that Joe would be out of commision for a few days… or he might die right here. He had lost a lot of blood. Emjay was trying to figure out how to help when Joe’s hand weakly reached up to his own face. “Lay on Hands.”

  Joe’s health bar soared upward in an instant, and the accumulated blood somehow started vanishing shortly after that. If she hadn't been there to see it herself, Emjay wouldn’t have believed it. She swallowed at what she saw, and spoke. “Kid… you go through that every time you get a building up? Even if you can bring your health back, that’s… you're torturing yourself. Losing so much health… that kinda pain… this isn't right. Is the guild making you do this, somehow? We can get you outta here.”

  “No.” Joe sat up and steadied himself. He hurt all over, though it was fading fast. “Normally, I have a team of six that helps me, and we are able to share that pain across all of us. If we do things right, we usually don’t get hurt, either. But even beyond all of that, every time we build a house, we need to use one of these.”

  Joe tossed over a Core, which was something that Emjay had never seen before. She caught it, and her face went white. “This… this is worth twenty-five hundred experience! We only get a thousand total for building a building!”

  “Right.” Joe took the Core back. “Now you can see why what I am doing is unsustainable. If we didn't need to build everything like crazy people, we would never be so incredibly wasteful with our resources. But the fact of the matter is… the other guilds have started a war with us. We are going to be attacked in the near future, and we need every advantage we can get. I just wanted to explain everything to you guys.”

  “Well…” Emjay looked at the others, then turned to face Joe once more. “I told you earlier that you had interesting timing. Reason for that is, we were going to leave the guild in the morning. Already voted on it. But… now that we know this… we’ll just suck it up and keep working. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m jealous of your ability to make buildings, but there’s no chance of me putting my crew through that to make it happen. Now this at least makes sense.”

  Joe took Emjay’s hand and was pulled to his feet. “I do hope you stay. There are great things coming for the guild, I know it. I’ll also see what I can do to help you guys out every once in a while, if you want that.”

  “Same to you, kid. No, sorry. Joe.” Emjay shook Joe’s hand, then turned to her crew and nodded. They started moving off toward the tavern, all of them pretty quiet. They had a lot to think about.

  Joe stayed where he was, looking at the building. It was a nice-looking apartment building, but that wasn't the reason he remained. He looked over his notifications again, just to be sure that he hadn't misread the information. This was a classic good news, bad news situation; it seemed that the bonus he gained for advancing his Rituarchitect class to level seven had come into effect.

  Structure ‘Uncommon Apartment Building’ has transformed into ‘Hungry Apartment Building (Rare)’, and absorbed a portion of the mana invested in the ritual, combining with the lifeblood of the builder to impart an additional effect! Upon sleeping in an apartment for at least five hours, experience gain will increase by 50% for 18 hours. Every five nights, there is a 5% chance that one of the occupants will suddenly die, whereupon the walls will bleed lightly for thirty minutes. All traces of blood will vanish after that thirty minutes have passed. Each day that the effect does not trigger, the chances increase by three percent.

  Class experience gained: 1000. You succeeded in upgrading an Uncommon-ranked building into a Rare building, experience gains for a Rare-ranked building have been doubled as a bonus.

  “Now… do I tear it down, or just go to bed?” Joe shrugged and went in, taking a room on the ground floor for himself.

  “I’ll let Mike figure that out… tomorrow.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  “No way am I letting you tear it down!” Mike told Joe as he looked at the hungry new building with shining eyes. “Our guild members would eat you alive!”

  “I don’t understand,” Joe admitted after staring at Mike long enough to make both of them uncomfortable. “Did I not just tell you that once every five days or so… someone will die in there?”

  “Exactly!” Mike’s eyes were practically releasing a light of their own. “Only once a week or so, and only one person! You know how often people die out there? How many party wipes? It's constant. Everyone will fight to stay in here for that experience bonus, and they’ll train their luck to not be the person that dies! Can I name the building?”

  “Technically, it is called ‘Hungry Apartment Building’.” Joe was shaking his head at all of this; the situation seemed odd.

  “I’m gonna market it as ‘Gamble Hall’.” Mike was rubbing his hands together. “When people see the blood coming out of the walls, they won’t be freaked out or scared… no. They’ll cheer, knowing that they survived!”

  Joe started to reluctantly nod. “Alright… I can see the appeal.”

  “Can you make more of these?” Mike bluntly wondered. “I want ten.”

  “I can’t right now, and I personally think it is more important that people can sleep safely?” Joe didn't want to have to scan and figure out how to make the newly Rarified building. The scouts estimated the battle to be a day away, if the enemy continued their slow progression down the road. This meant that only a single day remained before the blatant attack, and there were still many things that required hi
s attention. “Do you agree?”

  “I mean… yes, of course.” Mike coughed into his hand and had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed. Only slightly. “Anyway, if you can get the other four set up as planned, our teams should be in high spirits for the battle tomorrow. Other than that… any updates?”

  “Not particularly.” Joe thought for a long moment. “I’ve had a few members of my Coven doing research at the library, as well as the Mage’s College. They might be able to come back with something interesting. Oh, and I completed five scrolls for the guild this morning, though I’m gonna need payment for them.”

  “Oh? What are the spells?” Mike took the scrolls that Joe handed over, his eyes going wide when he saw them. “Cone of Cold, Dale’s Shattered Earth? The first one is understandable, but what is the second?”

  “First off, what do you know about scrolls?” Joe prodded him.

  “Lets you cast a spell from it even if you don’t know the spell, correct?” Mike raised an eyebrow at the question. This was gaming one-oh-one.

  “Yes, you can cast the spell directly. If you cast these as-is, they will be as powerful as an upper-Apprentice casting it. But… you also could use these as study material. If someone manages to do it, they will learn the spell somewhere between Novice one and Novice nine; if they are both intelligent and lucky.” Joe’s words made Mike look at the scrolls in a new light. Even with the discount they got at the Mage’s College, learning a spell from them took a large chunk of gold. But the spell would usually start in the Beginner ranks, so there was still some trade-off. “I’d also trade directly for some Cores.”