Ritualist (The Completionist Chronicles Book 1)

by Dakota Krout

  “It should be difficult to avoid!” Joe chuckled with glee as he realized that having non-class skills wasn’t out of the ordinary. He could flaunt his abilities a bit more with this knowledge. “It uses the target’s shadow to attack them and seems to move at the speed of darkness.”

  “Speed of darkness? Faster or slower than the speed of light? Hey, looking at the bodies I don’t know if it did full damage to the wolves, but it might have.” Guess chimed in as she inspected the corpses. “It’s great, but remember that these are just animals with no magic resistances. Monsters and bosses will almost certainly be able to ignore some of that damage, so keep that in mind. Also, now that you have a damaging spell, I think we should have you go hunt foxes all on your lonesome soon.”

  “Will do. Thanks all, I’m glad you are so happy about this.” Realistically, Joe expected them to be a little miffed that he hadn’t told them about his spell earlier. He now saw that he would be pretty upset if one of them were doing his job; what if suddenly Chad had been able to magically heal without telling him? Bleh. As they walked, a notification popped up since combat was complete and his stress levels had decreased.

  Exp: 48 (Wolf x4)

  Skill increased: Mana Manipulation (Novice II).

  Not bad! Every little bit helps.

  ~ Chapter Nineteen ~

  Hunting ten Wolfmen was complete in under an hour. The number of Wolfmen in the area seemed to have increased dramatically now that they were being actively hunted. Was it a response from the game? Perhaps their tribes were just sending out more patrols? Regardless, after completing their daily hunting quest, the group wanted to head back to work on their individual projects. Tiona relented but informed Joe that his job was to hunt foxes until the sun began to drop and he needed to get behind city walls.

  Fairly pleased about this task, Joe readily agreed. He had gained six hundred and ten experience from the wolf hunt, a pretty solid haul for an hour of fighting. Sure, it took about two hours of walking to get there and back, but it wasn’t a waste. Joe needed just over three thousand experience to get to level five, which would unlock his profession. Then–according to Tatum–he would get massive bonuses from his research and could live in the library for a while. After assuring the others that he would be fine hunting alone, he waved them off and waited for them to leave his area. Then he smiled, opened his character sheet, and set his class as ‘mage’.

  Quest updated: Playing your fake role II. As a mage, your job is to output as much damage as possible in as short a time as you can manage. If you want to be a believable mage, your ambition needs to be even higher than an actual spell slinger! Learn three mage spells 1/3. Get one mage-type skill to the beginner ranks 0/1. Kill five enemies within ten seconds by using spells 0/1.

  Well, dang. This quest was going to take a while unless he was able to get an area of effect spell, but the reward was pretty great. How was he going to manage this? Somehow, he felt that a fireball spell was out of the question for him, with his affinity for water and darkness… well, at least it probably wouldn’t be very effective. Technically, he was able to learn any type of magic because of his class. Setting his combat notifications to be read at the end of his training, he decided to begin the hunt! Cracking his knuckles and smiling at his soon-to-be victims, he dove into his grisly business. Joe was here to kill foxes and chew bubblegum, and as far as he could tell, bubblegum didn’t exist in this world.

  Looking around with narrowed eyes, Joe tried to see any hint of fur in the area. The red fur stood out against the green grass pretty well if you paid enough attention, and his perception let him paint targets easily. Sighting one fox stalking an inattentive rabbit, Joe started the gestures needed to cast shadow spike. It took about two full seconds for the spell to be cast properly, and the difference between the hastily cast spell he used on the wolf and this proper cast was instantly noticeable. The spike formed under the animal faster, looked more solid, and was several degrees darker. The fox was lifted off the ground, impaled through its stomach. The spike vanished quickly, leaving the mewling fox to bleed to death over the next few seconds.

  Joe felt bad that he wasn’t able to finish off the fox in one blow, as he really didn’t want the poor thing to suffer. The next time he saw a fox, he specifically targeted its head with the spike. Unfortunately, right as the spell completed, the fox whipped its head in Joe’s direction, and the spike missed completely. It crouched down, growling at Joe but not moving to attack just yet. Joe glared at it as he finished his spell again, feeling the mana move through his body and form into a spike under the animal. The shadow punctured the small skull, and the fox thrashed only for a moment before expiring with a sigh.

  Joe spent the next few hours tracking down foxes, impaling them, and doing his best to boost his skills. With every cast, he tried to utilize his channels correctly while thinking through every aspect of his spell. On his twenty-first kill, the mana drain seemed a bit more intense than usual. As he was currently set as a mage class, the mana cost was negligible and replenished by the time he finished the next spell, so he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining things. He took a moment to read his newest notification, intentionally ignoring the others.

  Skill increase: Shadow spike (Novice II). Spell damage if perfectly executed: 20. Mana cost: 20.

  Perfect. His attempts to use specific portions of shadows so he would hit critical areas must be helping him to understand his spell a bit better. He kept on tracking and attacking, leaving all the bodies where they fell. Hopefully this small amount of bodies wouldn’t be enough to spawn a zone quest because he couldn’t pick the bodies up. He was only wearing clothes, a ring, and his robe while carrying a scepter, and he was already nearly overburdened. His strength modifier was a serious hindrance, and he swore to himself that he would get strength and constitution to a basic human level as soon as possible. Until then, he had to hope that he wouldn’t set off a zombie fox apocalypse.

  A few experience points later, he stopped to examine the wound that his shadow spike made in an animal. It tended to leave a large hole in the pelt, and as far as he could see, there was no way to know that the damage was caused by magic. It looked the same to him as if a spear had been thrust into the creature. Releasing a huff of air, Joe decided that he needed to see the spike more closely if he was going to understand how it worked. He stepped into the shadow of a tree and cast the spell, keeping a close eye on where the spike was intended to appear.

  *Thud*. The spike slammed into the tree, vanishing an instant later. Joe cast the spell again, getting a bit closer. *Thud*. It was really strange to watch this process; the shadow of the tree bunched up and rose from the ground while the remainder of the shadow… brightened wasn’t the correct word. There was no extra light, but… perhaps the colors in the area were easier to see? They penetrated the gloom under the tree as though the color saturation was higher, the hue more vivid than it should be. The effect only lasted a fraction of a second, so it was hard to study.

  Joe started to cast the spell again but this time tried to keep an active connection of mana to the spike. Nope. Again! Didn’t work. The third time though, the spike seemed to last just a tiny bit longer. Joe tried one more time, and the spike shot off the ground, and stayed impaled in the tree. Mana was flowing out of him, but the drain didn’t affect him too much since he had such a high regeneration rate. In the corner of his vision, a notification was blinking at him, so he focused on it even though the spike vanished as his attention wavered.

  Skill gained: Channeling (Novice I). Spray and pray? Fire and forget? Not this mage! At seventy-five percent spell cost per second, you can maintain a connection to a spell that would otherwise use up the mana allotted to it, increasing its effect over time. -.2% cost and +1% spell damage per second per skill level.

  Joe marveled at the potential this skill offered. If he maintained his shadow spike for ten seconds, it would gain an extra two points of damage. Or, was it one percent of the current total? T
hat would mean that after ten seconds it would do fifty-two points of damage. Not great when he was hiding his class, true, but… this was exactly what he needed in order to boost his mana manipulation and coalescence. Holding shadow spike active would burn through fifteen mana per second. Even with his mana regen, he could only hold the spell for roughly forty seconds before he was tapped out.

  Would holding the spell for that whole time cause the damage to be eight hundred per second? Or would that add four damage to the spike right now? He had to test this! What about even at the beginner level? Channeling would either add one damage per second or ten per second! He didn’t have the mental skills to add up the possible damage at the higher levels, but this was certainly an ability he would be working on. Finding a fresh fox to attack, he channeled his spell into it!

  His math had been really wrong. Joe had for some reason seen one percent - or ‘point one’ - as ‘ten percent’. It was one percent. That… it was fine. The results were good even if he would have been failing basic math right now. He just couldn’t kill a dragon over ten seconds as his dreams had foretold. It seemed that the damage accrued as the current total, and after checking the combat logs, he was again happy with the new skill. The first second did twenty damage, then twenty point two, all the way to his current maximum of twenty-nine point five. Altogether, this single spell did nine hundred and seventy-seven damage at full power! Now all he needed to do was figure out how to make a live enemy hold still for forty seconds as it took damage. Hmm.

  Too excited to spend more time grinding foxes for minor bits of experience, he started walking back to town. Though his class ability of darkvision meant that his sight wasn’t inhibited, it was just evening and the shadows were thickening; so he didn’t think Tiona would mind too much. Distracting himself from the boring travel, he looked at how much experience he had gained. He had killed thirty-two foxes, netting himself two hundred and fifty-six experience. Not bad at all. As the gates came into sight, Joe screeched to a halt and quickly set his class back to cleric. Whew! That was close, he almost…

  “Joe!” a guard called out to him, startling him enough that he almost dove to the ground to avoid an assumed attack. “Joe, got a job for ya. Captain wanted me to let you know that we have a couple people in the slammer. Cut each other up real good, but if they die, their families will start a blood feud. Head on over if you want to help prevent a civil war.” He sent a wink at Joe, implying that he was exaggerating a little bit.

  “Will do, thanks. Anything you gents need before I head on in?” Joe smiled at the guards, always on the lookout for reputation gains.

  “Sure!” the guard standing on the other side of the gate called. “I hear you are good at fixing up people who… err… celebrated a bit too much before duty?”

  Joe looked at the guard, and under his helmet he could see the poor guy squinting and sweating. Joe snorted, then cast cleanse on the hungover protector of the people. Just as he was about to call it good, a flash of inspiration caught Joe and he attempted to channel more mana into the spell. Was it only good for mage spells…? It worked! A stream of water connected the two men, rushing from Joe’s hand into the veins of the startled guard.

  The spell cut itself off after a short while, much to Joe’s surprise. The guard seemed to stare into the distance for a moment, then broke into a happy grin. “I’ve never seen this buff before! It allows me to have ten percent gain on strength and dexterity related skills for the next two hours!”

  “What?” the other guard yelped. “I want it too! What is the buff called?”

  “Looks like… ‘well-hydrated’.” The first guard had looked at his status to read the name off. “I feel really good.”

  “Can I have it too?” the second guard implored Joe.

  “Sure thing, but then I need to go heal those guys in jail.” Joe channeled water into him, then hurried to the jail. He was excited that he could now force people to have the proper amount of water in them. What his drill sergeant wouldn’t have given for this ability!

  “Joe!” Joe turned as he saw the captain approaching him across the training grounds. “I need you to heal-”

  “Lead the way, I heard they’re in a bad way,” Joe called back, not slowing his pace. The captain nodded, easily matching Joe’s jogging speed, which anyone else would have called a casual stroll. Joe’s stamina was dropping swiftly, but he wasn’t at the point of puking just yet.

  “This is a bad situation, Joe,” the captain explained seriously as he opened the door to one of the cells. “These two are from noble houses, and if they have killed each other, we will likely have a civil war on our hands.”

  “He was serious?” Joe muttered in shock as he remembered the cheeky wink the guard had sent his way. “He still made me hydrate him?”

  The captain pulled open the door. “Heal this one first, and we will move to the other right after.”

  There was a young man on the substandard bed, laying in a slowly growing pool of blood. Joe hurriedly moved over and cast lay on hands, channeling the spell so that he didn’t need to wait three seconds between casting it again. Joe had no idea how much health this man had and was surprised when he wasn’t at full health in eight seconds. By channeling, he had already restored… three hundred and thirty health, but the man’s wounds were still gruesome. At two hundred and fifty mana already spent, Joe was concerned that he may not be able to heal the other person at this rate.

  As the last wounds finally closed, Joe got a notification that mana manipulation had increased to Novice III. His distraction made him miss the moment when the man’s eyes snapped open, and a glowing fist sent Joe into the stone wall.

  Joe was stunned as the man roared and charged him, and two swift punches later Joe got a series of messages that made him groan in frustration.

  -30 health (Empowered strike)! -15 health (Impact damage)! -20 health (Basic attack)!

  Undying robes passive effect activated! Health set to 1!

  -20 health (Basic attack)!

  You have died! 800 Experience lost. Time till respawn: 8 hours. Maybe don’t hang out with violent prisoners.

  That was a huge loss of experience! Joe found himself back in the virtual reality loading room, and with a sigh, he decided that it would at least be a good chance to check in with his mom. Making lemonade out of lemons and whatnot.

  ~ Chapter Twenty ~

  Spending the remainder of his time doing research on the components for rituals he could use, Joe was unsurprised to gain a notification as he respawned.

  Ritual magic has reached Beginner 0! Congratulations on finally understanding the most rudimentary concepts of rituals! You are now able to substitute components with others without the ritual automatically failing. Make sure you choose what to replace carefully! Based on your usage of rituals to this point, you are able to use excessively expensive components 10% more efficiently!

  So the respawn room counted for abilities like this, huh? What did this notification mean by excessively expensive materials? Joe looked at his character sheet, spitting to the side when he noted that he now needed about thirty-six hundred experience to reach the next level. He had been gone for sixteen hours in game, so he walked back toward the jail in the predawn darkness. He hoped against hope that he would still be able to save the other person in the jail, but seeing the grievous wounds of the first… it was unlikely. Arriving at the jail, he was waved inside, but the captain walked over shaking his head.

  “Too late to save the other. I’m so sorry about this; I had no idea the prince would wake up swinging like that. I should have taken more care, had a couple guards in there with you. This shouldn’t have happened.” The captain seemed to be a defeated man. Black circles were slowly growing under his eyes, and it was obvious that he hadn’t slept at all since the last time Joe had seen him. “By the abyss, do I hate being the cause for casualties in good men.”

  “It isn’t your fault, Captain. I should have been on guard; he got that way beca
use of a fight, yeah?” Joe instantly tried to calm the man. “So that was the prince?”

  “Did I say that?” The Captain’s eyes bulged. “You didn’t hear that from me or my men, got that? Say nothing at all about the Baron dying.” He winced again and slapped a hand over his mouth.

  “Sure, sure,” Joe placated him cautiously. “I guess… nothing else for me to do here?”

  “No, not now. I’m sorry it turned out this way, but I’ll make sure you get some reparations from the royal family. You did save a prince, and he killed you for your troubles. That, and knowing what you know… and since they can’t keep you dead…”

  “Got it. Thanks, Cappy. I won’t be able to sit around and wait for gifts that may not be coming, but let me know if you need anything else.” Joe tried out a new nickname and getting no negative feedback, decided to keep using it.

  “After that travesty you are still willing to help us?” The captain’s head dipped down and he let out a deep breath. “On behalf of my men, I thank you again. We will be more dutiful in the future.”

  Reputation gained! +1000 with human guards. New reputation rank gained! You are now considered an ‘ally’ of human guards! New opportunities become available to you in the future, and guards will often look the other way if you need them to. Abusing this may have negative consequences!

  Guild reputation gained! +500 with human guards. New opportunities have opened for your guild!

  Joe nodded at the Captain and walked back to his guild. He walked into the barracks and was met with crying and sobs of pain. His eyes widened as he took in the seriously wounded people laying on the floor and tables. “What in the world happened in here?”