by Dakota Krout
“Money first.” Jake held out a hand.
“Really? That was the holdup?” Joe chuckled and handed over the silver. Hadn’t he had plans to save money for a long time? Ah well. It needed to be done, and there was plenty more in the bank. Jake handed over a glass container with a brain in it, and Joe read the information that appeared when he tried to examine it.
Knowledge check failed! Failure overridden due to being in a shop, and the data has been provided by shop owner. Zombie brain (Human, perfectly preserved.) Spell component, ingredient, forcible race change item.
Not a lot of data, but at least it got the point across. Joe added it to the pile of items on the circle and braced himself. Taking a few calming breaths, he put his hand on the activation area and started to inject mana into the system. Once again, when his mana stopped flowing all of the items vanished, except for the jar and the Core.
Ritual ‘Little sisters cleaning service’ created! Area of effect, radius of four hundred and fifty feet. Components used, silver wire, low-grade monster Core (49.9%), perfectly preserved human zombie brain. Once active, this ritual will last sixteen years. The preserved brain has added fifteen years to the length. Due to the brain coming from a strong [zombie human] with excellent processing ability, organization will proceed at speed [very fast]. Activate now? Yes / No
Joe selected ‘no’ and looked up at a feverishly grinning Jake. Jake tried to act nonchalant, but Joe was instantly wary. “So… what kind of ritual was that? I haven’t heard of anyone creating a ritual since before the human territories were elevated away from the other races. The way your face contorted in agony as your mana was reduced to such a low amount… exquisite.” He shuddered and so did Joe, though for a different reason.
“It’s a spell that cleans a place for years at a time,” Joe forced himself to speak. “I found the ritual in the library; it said that anyone can create rituals. Is it really so strange?”
Jake cocked his head to the side. “Strange? No. Well… a bit strange. The real question is: how massive is your mana pool? To create a ritual takes vast reserves of power, and the load is usually split between multiple people, is it not? I won’t pry–for now–but I am very interested in seeing how your journey progresses. Have a good day! Mine has been… very interesting so far.”
Joe walked out of the shop feeling like he had somehow made a serious mistake.
~ Chapter Eleven ~
The library was just as he had left it; apparently it wasn’t an overly popular destination for the populace. Since travelers were barred from entering without a recommendation, it wasn’t particularly surprising that it remained empty for the majority of the day. Nodding at the head librarian, he walked into the book stacks and tried to determine where the center was. Deciding that a rough estimate was the best he could do, Joe placed the bookend on a shelf and selected the ‘activate’ option. As with the last ritual, a bright light filled the ritual before quickly dulling to obscurity.
Joe picked up the book of rituals, deciding to go through it a bit more carefully while he waited. He sat down and just so happened to look up as the ritual began to take effect. Books flew off the shelves, flying to various piles and waiting for their assigned area to be determined. As the area impacted by the ritual grew, the air became clogged with flying leather-bound books. Joe was glad he was sitting, because he would have surely been hit at least few times otherwise. For a few moments he was worried; the books were old and moving very quickly. Would they become damaged? The answer appeared to be ‘no’, luckily for his health and desire to stay out of prison.
Once all the books were off the shelves, a complex weave of moving knowledge was created. For nearly an hour, the books shuffled themselves and reorganized. At one point, the ritual tried to gently pull the ritual book out of Joe’s hands, but the simple act of holding it a bit tightly seemed to show that he wanted it to remain where it was so the ritual let him be. As more of the shelves were organized, the ritual was able to move faster. The last few books zipped to their new position so fast that they would have damaged his hit points if he were in the way. A strangled yell came from the entrance, and a few more books flew in.
Uh-oh. Joe recognized a few of those. They had been in a pile on the head librarian's desk. The man himself bustled into the room, face red. He was about to shout in rage, but instead, sputtered to a stop as he looked around at all of the neatly organized shelves. “B-but! How?” He turned on Joe, who did his best to look innocent.
“I found a very efficient way to sort and order the books is all. I made sure that nothing got damaged!” Joe smiled happily at Boris, who was grinding his teeth in fury.
“This quest was supposed to show me your determination and help boost your skill in reading,” Boris muttered unhappily. “No one has ever actually sorted the entire first floor; that should have taken years to do right!”
“So are you saying that I am actually the very first person to complete the quest correctly?” Joe watched the reaction of the librarian closely.
Boris’s face was squirming, his eyelid was twitching, and he looked like he had eaten something rotten. “Erm. Well, first, how did you arrange everything? I need to make sure you did a… satisfactory job.”
Rolling his eyes, Joe moved to a shelf. “The effect I created is based not only upon intent, but the actual formation of the spell pattern. Since this is a fairly specific job, I made sure to include instructions for the sorting and placement of the books. First, they are ordered by content and color. Then if they are a similar subject, they are grouped together. I had to do it that way since very few of them have an author name or title, which is why the color of the book is taken into account. At least that way we can always find the book in the same spot. Just look for where its color should appear on the gradient.”
“Always? You don’t mean to tell me that this is an… ongoing effect?” Boris pulled a book off the shelf and placed it on the table. It didn’t move, so he glanced up at Joe, then down at the book. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“Well, you are using the book.” Joe smiled at Boris, who looked a bit confused. “Are you done with it?”
“Sure.” Boris flinched as the book zipped back to its position on the shelves. He stared at it for a long moment. “How… remarkable. How long will this effect last?”
“Sixteen years.” Boris coughed dramatically at Joe’s words, collapsing into a chair and looking at Joe as if he had kicked his dog.
“...Years!” Boris grabbed his beard and pulled on it. “Well, I can certainly see that you don't do things with half measures. I… suppose this shows your dedication and determination; I can’t imagine this was easy to do. Your reading skill will likely stagnate unless you use your own time to enhance it, but that was simply a fringe benefit of this work. I judge your task… complete.” Boris had his eyes closed as he said words that no other librarian had ever needed to utter for this particular task before.
Quest complete: Footsteps through history I. Where others follow the footsteps of the old masters, you create your own legacy! Hidden requirement met! Quest completion above 100%. Calculating rewards… Reputation with scholars: +1000. Profession Exp: 500 (held until profession unlocked). Skill points +2! Intelligence +1! Spectacles of the scholar (held until profession unlocked). Exp: 1000! (500 from quest, 500 from completion of hidden requirement.)
“I’m going to be a laughingstock. People are going to think that I cheated to let you complete this quest,” Boris muttered darkly, tugging harder on his beard.
“Neither of us cheated, Mr. Boris.” Joe shook his head. “In fact, it is only due to the knowledge I acquired while sorting these book that I was able to complete the quest.”
“What? How?” Boris shot to his feet and looked like he was ready to grab Joe and shake the information out of him.
“I found a book on rituals while sorting and was able to complete one of them. It sorts and organizes items,” Joe explained carefully.
“T
here was a magic grimoire in here?” Boris seemed disturbed by this revelation. “Hmm. Can’t let the Mage’s College know about this. I have no plans to be ‘sanctioned’. Where is it now?”
“Here.” Joe handed over the book, and Boris grabbed it and flipped through the pages.
“You used these? That’s…” Boris took a deep breath, “ridiculous! This is an exaggerated primer on rituals, designed to show how inefficient, wasteful, and useless they are! I… I… here! Take it with you. I don’t want it in my library. Just don’t mention to any mages that this is where you got it. They have a strict monopoly on the sale of magical knowledge. Even that… drivel.”
Joe looked at the near-hyperventilating librarian who was running his hands through his hair. Joe cleared his throat, “Ahem. Well, I was wondering if you had another task for me?”
Boris looked up, nearly growling a reply, “I’ll tell you about it, but I warn you it will be very difficult without having your profession unlocked. You have been sorting through accumulated knowledge but in order for our profession to grow, so must our collection. Your task will be to return with a work of knowledge that is not already contained within our library. I can’t give you many hints because if I knew where some might be I would have already acquired them.”
Quest alert: Footsteps through history II (Ongoing). Bring lost knowledge to the head librarian. This can take the form of art, books, blueprints, or knowledge of any type. Quest rewards will depend on the type and importance of your findings. Accept? Yes / No
After accepting the quest, Joe decided that he was ready for bed. It had been a full day, and a good dinner followed by a long sleep sounded lovely right now. He stepped out of the library and started on his way to the tavern. He was surprised by how little his help was needed with the guild war. Joe was under the impression that he would be called upon constantly as this was supposed to be a war of attrition. Just as he opened the door, a notification appeared, and he was assaulted by a great roar of approval.
Every member of the Hardcores guild is currently logged off! As they are unavailable to complete jobs for the city, all of their contracts are up for grabs with a 20% bonus to rewards. The city has levied a report against them. The Hardcores have lost 200 guild reputation with Ardania.
“We won!” There was an excessively festive air in the tavern, and though a few groups were appearing with injuries, it seemed that the guild was in for an excellent few days. Joe made his rounds, healing people and making conversation. It was a fun night, but he had no plans to join the others in drinking two nights in a row. He eventually went to bed smiling; it had been a long, fun day.
The following morning, Joe met up with his party, and they set out to hunt wolves. Since they were leaving just as the gates were opening, they would have roughly sixteen hours of hunting before they needed to be back in the safety of town. They were able to set a quicker pace today because Joe found that as long as he walked with a spring in his step, he could spend a point of mana per step to allow himself to move faster. He laughed when the others looked at him strangely, but he didn’t bother telling them that the secret to moving further than he should be able to was due to the fact that he was skipping. It drained a bit of mana with each step, but it was better than draining his minimal stamina. Everyone was smiling, infected by his cheerful attitude and the fact that they didn’t need to worry about player killers for another few hours.
As they arrived in wolf territory, Joe decided that his goal today was to finish his quest to heal half of the damage done in battle. With that in mind, he made sure to stay out of the wolves’ line of sight. Tiona had taken a few minutes to explain how ‘aggro’ worked; apparently, it was a little different than other games. Pack animals such as wolves would try to take out the weakest link first, and that meant Joe almost exclusively in this case. If he were well protected, the attacks would usually focus on whoever did the most damage or generated the most ‘threat’. Healers were apparently still on this list since they were a triple whammy of delicious for wolves, physically weak, and each spell cast was flashy and caused the animal to focus its attention on him.
Tiona took to using Joe as bait, luring the animal in to attack before suddenly closing ranks and wailing on it from multiple sides at once. Feeling a bit put out that his best purpose in the group was to attract salivating killers, Joe stayed silent for most of the day and simply worked to heal people whenever they became injured. As the day of grinding was winding to a close, Joe finished his quest and looked over the messages he had been ignoring.
Exp: 420 (Wolf killed x35). You have spotted five potential ambushes before they were sprung! Perception +1.
Quest complete: Playing your fake role I. You have done well, the life of a chameleon may be exactly what you needed! Reward: Title ‘I’m a healer! I swear!’ gained. Gain 10% bonus Exp when you heal at least 50% of the damage done during combat. Exp: 600.
Quest alert: Playing your fake role II. Set another class as your active class. This quest will be updated after doing so, based on the class chosen.
Joe was bathed in golden light and lifted off the ground. His team gathered around him closely, able to receive some select benefits of Joe’s level up. Namely, becoming clean in an instant. The euphoria zipped through him, and a wash of light exploded outward like a supernova. Fully clean and cheerful once again, Joe decided to allocate his characteristic points immediately. As much as he wanted to boost his physical stats, he had to be realistic. He wouldn’t get more points to spend until level six, and if he tried to balance himself right now, he would fall behind where it was actually important. Joe placed two points into intelligence and wisdom, and spent only one of the precious points on constitution. He accepted the changes, and felt a slight spasm as his body adjusted to its new levels. Opening his character sheet, he looked over his new stats.
Name: Joe ‘I’m a healer! I swear!’ Class: Cleric (Actual: Ritualist) Profession: Locked
Level: 3 Exp: 3023 Exp to next level: 2977
Hit Points: 50/50 (50+10 per point of constitution over 10)
Mana: 500/500 (12.5 per point of intelligence, +100% from deity)
Mana regen: 5/sec (.25 per point of wisdom)
Stamina: 50/50 (50+(0)+(0))
Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)
Strength: 6 (0.06)
Dexterity: 7 (0.06)
Constitution: 7 (0.04)
Intelligence: 18 (1.16)
Wisdom: 18 (1.16)
Charisma: 10 (0.08)
Perception: 20 (1.16)
Luck: 12 (1.12)
Karmic Luck: 0
Joe almost started laughing maniacally when he saw how much mana he had. If only he had some attack spells! He could rain destruction upon his enemies for days at a time! The party started merrily on their way back to town. Joe was ecstatic to realize that his mana regen was now fast enough that it refilled just as quick as it was drained when adding his jump score to his walking speed. It wasn’t a fix for his terrible constitution, but it helped him to be less of a burden on the team as they strolled along.
The joyful attitude and good cheer of the group started to dissipate as they left the tree line and the city came into view. A thick column of black, oily smoke was rising into the sky. They increased their pace, which left Joe winded and lagging behind them. Passing through the gates, they skidded to a horrified stop. The tavern they had come to love and see as a home away from home was engulfed in an inferno.
Members of the guild were running around, trying to find a way to help while the guild leader was directing them and inquiring after the tavern owner. No one had seen him or his family, who lived in a room connected to the kitchen. Fearing the worst and unable to douse the flames… The Wanderers guild was forced to watch, wait, and do nothing.
~ Chapter Twelve ~
A somber mood had settled over the area, and The Wanderers guild was now scrambling to secure housing for the next few days. Joe wanted to help, but realistically, there
was nothing that he could do. Deciding that becoming more prepared was the way to move forward, he started his journey to the Odds and Ends store to get his rewards–as well as to get his robe returned. A short walk allowed him to reach the store’s entrance, where he had to wait a few minutes for the line to dissipate enough for him to enter.
As Joe stepped through the door, the shop owner’s eyes snapped to stare at him, and she pointed a wavering finger at him. “You! You did this! My days were nice, dull, and I didn’t have to interact with many people! Look at this place! There are people everywhere! I might need to restock! Restock! I haven’t had to order more goods for a full year! Get behind the counter and mind the till!”
Quest alert: Attack of the extroverts! The Odds and Ends store has had a 1000% increase in sales in the last hour alone! The shop owner demands your help in dealing with the customers! Rewards: variable. Refusing this quest will reduce reputation with the Odds and Ends store by 500.
Joe read over the quest notice, quickly accepting it and getting behind the counter to help with sales. People were going through all of the neatly organized items and finding prices better than anywhere else in the city. Clothes, bags, weapons, trade goods, specialized tools… all of it was labeled with a price that was a year old. Whereas most other stores had slowly increased the cost of goods as demand went up, this store had not needed to bother.
It took a few hours, but the store was nearly cleaned out; word had gotten out about the low price point. As night approached, even the people that had been out hunting cycled through. When the store eventually closed for the night, the owner looked around at the few scraps of goods that remained and sighed. “I’m just too old to deal with this. This may as well have been a going out of business sale because I really don’t have it in me to outfit the place again. You did good work today, thank you.”