Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)

by Dakota Krout

  Facepalming hard enough that his Exquisite Shell shimmered more than usual, Joe groaned. “That would do it. Rituals are designed to do a certain thing at a time: this can’t raze and raise at the same time. “Yeah, good catch, Taka. Mike can we get those knocked down, please?”

  Joe spent the next short while playing poker with the Coven members as a few strongmen were called over to knock down and carry away with the previous simple structures. Normally, it was considered bad form to gamble with people that worked for you, but all of them took the opportunity to work on their luck characteristic after Kirby pulled out the cards. By the time things were ready to progress, Robert had quietly won nearly a gold from the others.

  Finally, they were ready to get the bathhouse in place. Joe checked his Rituarchitect Survey Grid once more, and this time, everything flashed green. “Excellent… now all we need is about thirty more people to participate.”

  “What?” Mike shook his head. “Joe, that’s really short notice. I thought you said you had everything you needed.”

  “I do. I already know where we are going to get all the people that we need to fill this ritual.” Joe pointed sharply at the Guildhall. “Most of the people in there are working with really high intelligence, which means big mana pools. You need to evacuate the building anyway, because the last time the town went up a level, it chucked everyone out of there. Pretty violently, too.”

  “You planned this?” Mike’s eyes narrowed as it clicked in his head. “I see… you didn't remind us to evac, because then there wouldn’t be a high enough number of people that stayed around. Since they are all so clustered, we can grab them and put them to work. Sneaky. I like it, but I’m sure the highly intelligent people that are working the guild’s office jobs will not approve, and will figure out what you’re up to.”

  “Not a problem, just have them come on out!” Joe enthusiastically promised Mike. The older man peered at Joe over the top of his glasses, but still did as he asked. Soon, people were flooding out of the main building and gathering in the courtyard. After ten minutes, no one else emerged. Joe lifted his hands and shouted to get their attention. “Hello, everyone! I’m Joe, in case we haven’t met, and these are my… coworkers! Taka, Robert, Big_Mo, Hannah, and Kirby! We are going to be doing some work, and I need some volunteers.”

  There was no reply beyond scathing or confused looks, so Joe pressed on. “We are going to build a giant bathhouse right here, and it should take under ten minutes to finish. If you volunteer, here are the benefits: your mana resource will unlock, if it hasn’t already. You may get an additional benefit for doing it this way, though it does hurt a little. Next, I’ll make sure you get priority access to the bathhouse. It is going to be a combo of a giant pool, baths, and soaking areas. Very relaxing, and close to work for you!”

  A few people stood forward right away, smiling at the offer. Not enough. “Anyone else? I need twenty at least, no… twenty-three, I need a prime number and only have six right now.”

  No more people stepped out. Mike took over for Joe, “You will also get contribution points, as many as working a full day.”

  More people joined the group: an extra day’s worth of pay was a good motivator. Mike sighed and waved his hand. “If you participate, and the Guildhall gets larger, you get to choose your new seat, within reason. After that, you get the day off with full pay, or extra contribution points. Everyone else goes back to work.”

  Joe couldn't allow all the people to join him now. Almost everyone had jumped at the chance to get a day off. He had to decline a large amount of people, but still ended up with a total of thirty-seven participants, including himself. Getting them all arranged was like herding cats, but soon everything was ready. The ritual unfurled, and Joe took a deep breath to begin the needed chanting.

  “Enemy sighted!” The bellow rang through the area as Jay the guard ran into the area at top speed. “There’s a huge army coming through the woods!”

  Mike took charge. “How far out?”

  “Thirty minutes… tops.” Jay heaved the reply as he bent over to catch his breath.

  “How did they get so close? Where are our scouts?” Mike demanded as his fists clenched.

  “Dead, all dead. They have some really high-powered assassins with them.” Jay coughed and stood tall as his stamina reached an acceptable level. “Only reason we have this much warning is because someone used a voice transmission spell. They said that the army was sneaking through the woods and avoiding the roads, then screamed something about clowns attacking them.”

  “Clowns?” Mike reeled backward with his hands in the air. “What kind of malarkey is… Joe?”

  “Not clowns.” Joe was as white as fresh snow. “Jesters. It must be. High-powered assassins that look like clowns? It's gotta be… but how?”

  “There’s no time for this.” Mike started snapping orders, but Joe stopped him with a shout.

  “Mike, we need to build this now. We need whatever the reward is before they get here.” Joe locked eyes with Mike. “The only reason for them to be attacking us now is that they had someone watching the progress. It’s too quiet otherwise; someone would have known about it.”

  There was silence as Mike thought over his words, before reaching a snap decision. “Do it.”

  Joe collected mana around his hand and slapped his palm on the ritual diagram before anyone could leave their position. “Relinquo sordes!”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  There was an almost unbroken circle of vomit around the sparkling new bathhouse. The office workers that had been on the outermost ring had been spun so quickly that a few had passed out from the g-forces that they had been subjected to; not to mention that most of them were the people that had their mana forcibly opened. Joe was watching and hoping… if his characteristic was going to be applied to the building it would be any second now.

  Structure ‘Bathhouse (Unique)’ absorbed a portion of the mana and spare materials invested in the ritual and has transformed into ‘Filthy Bathhouse (Unique)’. All accumulated filth in the bathhouse will be evenly applied to all water in the soaking and bathing areas. Without a powerful filtration system, keeping this building clean will be a monumental task.

  Class experience gained: 3000.

  The ritual diagram turned to ash in Joe’s hands, and he cursed darkly. No second chances on this building, and any new scan of it would simply give him a copy of the ‘filthy’ version. He felt like his class ‘bonus’ had just critically failed him, and he was starting to resent that he couldn’t turn it off. So far it only made things more dangerous or far worse. Still, he had achieved what he was after.

  Rituarchitect has reached level 8! Congratulations, make sure to follow your chosen path until the end!

  Joe didn't even get a chance to look over the positive bonuses the bathhouse gave before he was knocked off his feet by one small but powerful shockwave, followed by another, and again. Everyone within fifty yards of the Guild Hall was continuously toppled as a tremendous amount of power gathered above the Hall.

  Zone alert! Towny McTownface, the town of the Noble Guild ‘The Wanderer’s’ has reached town rank three! The guild has gained 1,000 reputation with Ardania for doing their part to take care of the land and the people in it!

  Guild notification: Towny McTownface has reached town rank three! As this town has been built from scratch by the guild ‘The Wanderer’s’, the town and guild have earned a symbiotic bonus. Calculating bonuses based upon the buildings that have been added into the town… Calculating… Cal… culating.

  Buildings scanned. Current buildings: 1 Artifact. 3 Unique. 2 Special Rare. 5 Rare. 21 Uncommon. 4 Common. 0 Trash. Normalizing… analyzing weighted bell curve. Weighted bell curve results: Special Rare.

  Towny McTownface has earned a Special Rare reward building for all of the hard work that has gone into making an exceptional town. Attempting to apply to the highest graded building… failed. Artifact too potent to apply substandard reward.
Applying to a secondary target. Success. Interfacing with guild bonus ‘Ruthless Defenders’. Guild Hall is gaining an additional bonus: Town Aegis.

  Town Aegis: once a month, the owner of the town can activate a defensive formation that makes all buildings within town limits immune to damage for 24 hours.

  Secondary effect: any damage dealt to members of the guild ‘The Wanderer’s’ within town limits will not be applied, instead rebounding upon the attacker for double the damage dealt.

  Joe alone was also shown another small message, and frankly it seemed overly passive-aggressive.

  This effect is not part of the Guild Hall, it is an added bonus that is not recreatable without significant knowledge of enchanting or related fields of work.

  Mike’s eyes were roving across text that was invisible to Joe, though he assumed that it would be something similar to his own notification. “Well now, that is certainly going to make this place easier to defend during an attack. A siege will still hurt, but at a time of our choosing, we could all just go to bed and have a luxurious day off.”

  “Or we could launch a counter-offensive, knowing that even if it fails, we will come back to our home intact.” Aten had joined them just in time to hear Mike’s declaration. “Now that we have a trump card, we need to determine our next step. I think that I-”

  Joe’s attention slipped as Aten continued speaking. As much as he loved strategy and being a part of things, there was a reason that Joe had never gone the officer route during his military career. He pulled out the path advancement pamphlet and eyed it, then decided not to waste any time. Joe activated the booklet, and chose to bring his Rituarchitect class to level ten. Instantly, a shockwave similar to the Guild Hall originated from him and knocked down the people in his immediate vicinity.

  Then his eyes rolled back in his head, and knowledge of a new ritual filled his brain. This one was a doozy: a Grandmaster-ranked ritual called ‘Ritual of the Traveling Civilization’. Details filled every line. Every arc had meaning, every blank space acted like a barcode which provided spatial coordinates. The material cost was massive, and the mana requirements would make the previous daily absorption of The Accords seem paltry.

  But the effects… the effects alone would make it worth creating. Joe’s eyes snapped open, and for a bare moment… a library’s worth of information could be seen spinning in his sclera and irises, like galaxies drifting through the night sky.

  Ritual of the Traveling Civilization (Grandmaster). There are times where constructing a building, a town, or a city would take an inordinate amount of time, effort, or otherwise be an excruciating task. This ritual allows any building below the Mythical rank to be transported to another location, irrespective of said location. This ritual allows you to link up to one hundred buildings, either at once or over time. So long as the proper mana debt is paid, the building and all of its non-fauna contents will be scanned, atomized, and reconstituted at the new demarcated location. Time needed to transport buildings is variable, and based on structural rarity.

  Note: does not allow dimensional transport without an established, permanent link. Yes, the bifrost counts.

  The massive load of information seemed to shrink away from his surface thoughts, and fell behind a barrier in Joe’s mind that kept it contained and neatly packaged in one location. That was good. The prerequisites to understand that information… Joe blinked away the involuntary tears that had been streaming down his face. It had been like staring into the face of a beautiful horror.

  Joe had been unable, unwilling, to look away from the pure, mind-rending information. It had been equivalent to writing Java code for a dozen years without once looking up an answer online or pressing backspace, then having it compile and run perfectly on the first attempt: simply not possible with his current brainpower and understanding. Still lying on his back, Joe pulled up his status and looked himself over.

  Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend’ Class: Mage (Actual: Rituarchitect)

  Profession I: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

  Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist

  Character Level: 18 Exp: 175,220 Exp to next level: 14,780

  Rituarchitect Level: 10 Exp: 45,000 Exp debt: 14,714

  Hit Points: 677/677

  Mana: 1,167/2,059 (762 Reserved)

  Mana regen: 40.39/sec

  Stamina: 671.5/671.5

  Stamina regen: 5.92/sec

  Characteristic: Raw score

  Strength: 66

  Dexterity: 88

  Constitution: 67

  Intelligence: 132

  Wisdom: 107

  Charisma: 74

  Perception: 82

  Luck: 49

  Karmic Luck: +30

  Joe saw a few major differences on his sheet, and he tried to puzzle through them. His mind was moving so slowly, though. The… ‘experience till next level’ on his class had turned into ‘exp debt’, his Karmic Luck had jumped again and he still had no idea what it meant, and the ‘modifier’ after his characteristics had vanished. “My characteristic modifier is gone…?”

  “He’s awake! Give him some air!” Aten’s shout literally forced people away from Joe, since he was using his ability as Guild Commander to make it happen. “Joe, you keep passing out when I’m around. Should I start wearing less revealing clothes or something?”

  “He said something about his modifier?” Mike broke the silence as it began to stretch. “Didn’t you turn that off?”

  “I did; set that as the default for the guild, too. Maybe he hasn’t looked at his stat sheet in a few days?” Aten helped Joe to a seated position and handed him a glass of water. “Joe, the modifier was only a way to look at your characterics and see where you had improved from the human baseline. People were trying to use their modifier as math, thinking that it impacted skills or success rates somehow. The fact is: it doesn't. It is only another way of looking at stats, so I set the default for the guild view as ‘off’. You can turn yours back on if you want.”

  “Wait…” Joe blinked rapidly and got to his feet. “It means nothing? I left it on because I figured it meant… something! It should do…”

  Aten was shaking his head. “Does nothing. It's been proven. It was even a part of the tooltips that appeared when we first came to Eternium; we all just seemed to gloss over it. Listen, there is an attack coming, and we are unprepared. I need to know what just happened to you.”

  “I got my… specialization to level ten.” Joe smiled as he realized what that meant. “I did it! Yes! I can get a second specialization now. I just need the raw stats to make it happen!”

  Aten blinked, and looked over at Mike. “You could specialize right now?”

  Joe slumped slightly. “Yes, and no. I have everything I need to make it happen, but my raw stats are still too far away for it to be possible anytime soon.”

  “Let me see your characteristics.” Aten ordered, though he amended that into a polite request when he realized how rude and invasive the demand was. He perused all the stats, muttering half to himself. “Hmm. I see that your luck is right at forty-nine… too bad. What do you need in order to go for specialization?”

  “One-fifty in intelligence, wisdom, and perception.” Joe replied instantly.

  Aten looked at the numbers again. “You’re a whole tier below what you need for perception. What… I have an idea, but you need to get your luck up to at least fifty. My idea requires you to have a lot of luck.”

  “Sky Eye seven-three reporting, the army stopped moving!” A voice projection shouted in the area. “It appears that the Zone announcement bothered them. We believe they are waiting for orders.”

  The voice cut off, and Aten snapped his gaze to Joe. “Is there any way for you to get that last point in luck?”

  “I already trained my luck today, so not until tomorrow.” Joe’s eyes widened. “Wait, no! How much time do I have?”

  “Who knows?” Aten shrugged and turned. “Too bad. I need to go get the guil
d ready for the attack.”

  “I can get that luck, if I’m lucky enough!” Joe started running, and Aten had to jog to catch up to him. “I’ll be back!”

  “Where are you…? Joe! If you go out there, we might not be able to let you back in!” Aten grabbed at Joe and tried to stop him, but Joe pushed mana into his feet and shot forward faster than Aten was expecting. “Joe, I’m ordering the gates sealed!”

  “I don't need the gates!” Joe’s voice barely made it back to Aten. “Wish me luck!”

  “Abyss it, Joe, that’s what started this mess!” Aten shouted after the running, possibly skipping, man. “Joe! Joe! Son of… what if I need someone to get those rituals activated?”

  Aten watched as Joe slipped out of town, just before all the gates were finished closing. A resounding *boom* filled the area as huge stones were rolled behind the gates to make it impossible to open from the outside. Unless Joe had a special way to get in that Aten didn't know about, he was going to be trapped outside with thousands of people that wanted to kill him. All Aten could do now was act as any good leader should. He went back to the Guild Hall and opened the door. There were commands to give, and people to protect.

  “Son of a gun…” Just before he closed the door, Aten hesitated and looked off into the distance. “Good luck, buddy.”

  Chapter Fifty

  Joe sprinted up to the test dungeon, only to find that the guards were being attacked by a swarm of low-level people. In a real way, the guards were more annoyed than anything else. They were holding interlocking shields and thus blocking the entrance to the tunnel as solidly as if they were a steel door.

  “Filthy enemies of humanity! Get out here!” One of the attackers shouted at the shields.

  The guards were having none of it. “Oh, yeah, sure. How about I pop out so that you can attack me for no reason? Oh, even better, why don’t I attack you so you can go crying to your swarm about how ‘unfair’ I was being toward you?”