Ritualist (The Completionist Chronicles Book 1)

by Dakota Krout

  Terra was the only person he could see that was on her feet. She walked over, a thunderous expression on her face. “Where the hell have you been?” she hissed at him.

  “I got killed by a person I was healing. They woke up and slaughtered me,” Joe informed her, already healing the worst cases he could see. Almost all of the people were missing chunks of flesh, mainly fingers, hands, or feet. Their body parts were next to them, and his healing spell allowed him to reattach the tissue and nerves without issue, though the bones would need to heal naturally. He shuddered in remembrance of his own loss of limbs and was happy all over again that he could heal these people. “What happened?”

  “Monsters,” Terra grimly informed him. “They were some kind of leech-looking thing. They slithered in or were already here. We don’t know. For some reason, they couldn’t get very high off the ground… but they tore off anything that dangled off a bed. No one even noticed at first because they seemed to inject some kind of a painkiller. Then a couple members started to bleed to death, and since Tiona’s an officer, she noticed in the guild member’s tab that they were dying.”

  “The monster under the bed is real here?” Joe shook his head. “That’s disgusting.”

  “It’s called a Tenebris. Made for good experience since they don’t move very fast. They are mainly just effective against unaware people,” Tiona’s voice preceded her as she stomped into the room. “I saw that you died, care to explain?”

  “I really can’t, beyond telling you that a prisoner woke up after being healed and killed me. I was completing the ongoing quest with the guards. Got a ton of reputation for the guild, too,” Joe told her.

  Wisdom +2.

  The notification made him sweat; obviously he had just done something the system considered very wise. How badly could that have gone for him? Tiona grunted at his explanation, noting the lack of details for a private conversation later. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be able to finish up here.”

  Healing so many people in rapid succession brought him a level in lay on hands but not heal. There seemed to be some sort of block there that he wasn’t approaching correctly. He was very interested to notice that using lay on hands brought experience to the main skill and remembered that the notification when he first got the variant had told him it would do so. He supposed that could be true for many different skills where the skill variation was a branch of the main. Maybe smithing had specific subskills for things like weapons or armor. It would make sense that leveling those would level the main skill while making the variation more potent for the specialized skill. Master smiths usually focused only on either weapons or armor, right? Some even on just one or two types of weapon.

  Joe shrugged off these thoughts as he finished healing the last person in the room. They had waited very patiently, and he thanked the man before noticing that he had simply logged off while waiting. He snorted; must be nice to ignore pain and come back ready to play.

  “What's the plan for the day, Tiona?” Joe asked as he washed blood off of his hands and robe.

  “Eh, the others are at work. Monday in the real world. You know how it is.” Tiona shrugged and stretched. Obviously she hadn’t slept much. “Just go do whatever you need to get done. They’ll be back tomorrow from our perspective, late afternoon for them.”

  “Works for me.” Joe had plenty that he wanted to get done.

  “Joe…?” A tentative voice called warily from the front room. “There’s a royal guard outside looking for a Joe? Any ‘Joe’ in here?”

  A bit confused but assuming he knew why the man was here, Joe walked to the door and met the most intimidating man he had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He was bald, near six and a half feet tall, and had a series of scars on nearly every bit of exposed skin. His stare bore into Joe from a point two feet higher than the cleric’s perspective, and it seemed that the man was judging every aspect of Joe’s being. Releasing a grunt, the man reached into a spacial ring, pulled out a package, and tossed it at Joe. After ensuring that Joe had the package in hand, the man turned on his heel and marched away at a speed Joe couldn’t sprint at.

  There was nothing special about the box that he could see, but he still decided against opening it in the street. Shrugging off the curious looks from his guild mates, Joe went to the small room he was assigned, closing and locking the door before prying open the unassuming box. He was glad he had taken the precautions. A bright light shone throughout the room, and Joe had to look away, blinking. He squinted his eyes and touched the item within.

  Flawed Greater Core found! Would you like to convert this into experience points? Current worth: Five thousand experience points. Yes / No

  Joe’s mouth dropped open, and he could do nothing for a long moment but stare at the light coming from the palm-sized stone. The emitted radiance forced him to look away as his eyes teared up, but after a moment he was able to start thinking again. Should he use it? Or… should he save it? He could be at the next level now, or maybe he could find a better use for it… Joe considered his options, but as much as he wanted to save the Core, he knew that he would start getting the real benefits of his class at level five. If this was a gift, he knew it wasn’t unique. There would be other Cores out there. He grinned as he pressed the ‘yes’ button.

  Golden light flooded out of him as the stone vanished, and he was jerked into the air as his level increased. Feeling a rush of energy, Joe landed softly on his feet with a joyful smile. Already, there were people knocking on the door shouting questions at him; they had felt the relaxing shockwave of a level increasing, and wanted to see if there was something to fight in the room. He pushed the door open–a surprisingly difficult feat with so many people crowded into the area–and tried to explain the situation by saying that he had simply finished off a quest, and it had given him enough experience to level up. A few people pressed the issue, but he refused to say much more, telling them that one of the requirements of the quest was that he couldn’t discuss it. Since this was a surprisingly common theme in quests, all they could do was grumble and meander away.

  Joe sat down on his bed with a happy grin covering his face. He looked at his character sheet and noted with glee that his ‘profession’ was now unlocked. Focusing on that section, he brought up a small selection of the professions he already had available to him.

  You may choose one profession at the fifth level, and another at level ten. It is recommended that you choose a gathering profession first to gain the materials needed for the next profession you choose. Not all possible professions are shown here, only those you currently qualify for. Seek out a teacher or meet the requirements in order to unlock more options!

  Occultist: A seeker of the greatest truths, often scorned for their belief in what others believe to be conspiracies and fantastical tales. Ironically, many have spent their lives seeking out the knowledge that the occultist can readily access. For others of lesser professions, the terrible truth has sometimes been too much to bear. The occultist has no such qualms when it comes to knowledge. Nothing is forbidden, nothing is too horrific to turn them from their path. For better or for worse, the occultist will seek even a grain of truth in any matter which intrigues them.

  Profession benefits at first level: Can attain quests from non-quest related books if there is ‘truth’ hidden in the text. Lies and truth are visually discernible when in written form. Gains skills from ‘scholar’ profession unless true profession is discovered. Profession title appears to be ‘scholar’.

  Scholar: Devoting their lives to understanding the mysteries of the world, scholars apply the scientific method to all things. Often the very best at their field of study, the scholar is an asset to anyone seeking to become stronger. Though considered weak by others, scholars have been known to defend themselves in ways that none can explain, and in their sanctuaries, the prospect of fighting them borders on suicidal.

  Profession benefits at first level: Increases speed of reading and writing by 50%. Ab
ility to add ‘lore’ skill to any skill that could benefit from the area of study. (For example, a scholar who studies metallurgy could add their lore skill to the creation of a weapon, increasing the quality of the item.)

  Actor: This is the job for any who act in a way that is not true to their reality. While it does not offer many combat-related options, it is a profession used to great effect by bards, dancers, spies, assassins, thieves, and politicians.

  Profession benefits at first level: Increased reputation gain with non-aligned factions. Grants the ‘disguise’ and ‘persuasion’ skills. Can hide alignment 75% more effectively.

  Tracker: Steadily moving and searching for their target, trackers use their high perception of the world to great effect. Hunters, trappers, bounty hunters, and investigators rarely lose their quarry, and this job offers them the best starting benefits of any option.

  Profession benefits at first level: Grants the skill ‘tunnel vision’, which allows the tracker to see anything in the area that relates to their target 80% more effectively. Trackers move through rough terrain 50% easier than others.

  Herbalist: The study of botany and use of plants intended for medicinal purposes or for supplementing a diet. The herbalist can find rare and powerful ingredients needed by chefs, alchemists, and apothecaries. Whether to poison or heal, the herbalist can acquire the needed materials.

  Profession benefits at first level: Plants you harvest are 50% more potent for seven days. All useful herbs have a faint pillar of light above them. (Can be toggled on / off.)

  Joe was surprised at how many jobs he had available, he had thought that he would only have access to occultist. Some of the others were tempting, but he had been waiting to unlock his job since he started the game. For him, this was an easy choice. The fact that he was able to hijack the scholars’ skills was just an added bonus. He selected the occultist job and accepted it. Joe waited for anything to feel different, but nothing happened. “Hmm.”

  Checking his status sheet, he confirmed that he did indeed have the occultist profession. Joe felt a little let down, he thought that he would feel… stronger? Smarter, maybe? Regardless, this did change his original plans for the day. To the library! Joe walked toward the repository of knowledge, feeling light and free. He was an occultist now! As he walked into the library, he was humming and received a glare from Boris.

  Then Boris saw Joe’s level, and a flash of hope crossed his face. When he saw that Joe’s profession was set as “scholar” he released a strangled shout of joy. “You did it! The first new scholar in nearly a decade! My boy, thank you! Our profession was dying, losing out to the mages for their direct power! Let me be the first to welcome you to the Scholarly pursuits!”

  Experience held back from completing ‘Footsteps through history I’ has been awarded! +500 profession experience!

  “Oh, that’s right, you already earned these, use them well!” Boris handed over a small pair of spectacles, beaming all the while.

  Spectacles of the scholar. These half-moon lenses allow you to read for long periods of time without straining your eyes. They also help you to notice wear and tear in books and chase down anyone who damages a books’ binding by setting it down on the ground upside-down to hold their place. You’ll be a librarian yet! -25% eye strain from focusing on small details, +10% vision specific perception.

  Interesting, Joe had never seen an item that only enhanced one of his senses at a time. Usually a perception bonus was applied uniformly, but he had to admit he’d rather not feel ten percent more pain. So, the spectacles were very welcome. “Thank you! Is there anything else I can do in here, Boris? Any quests or texts I should read?”

  Boris scratched his chin. “Nope, not really. I don’t know what you don’t know after all. You do have access to the first floor uncommon section now, but I’m sorry to say that your job level needs to be higher before you can go to a floor with rare books.”

  “Thanks. Oh! Before I forget, how do I get the ‘lore’ skill?” Joe had half turned before asking this, but his attention had now returned to the librarian.

  “Lore?” Boris chuckled fondly. “Oh, it has been so long since I’ve needed to explain this skill. All you need to do is read up on a topic, think through how you can apply it to any given situation, and then do so. That’ll unlock the skill. To forewarn you, lore is one of the few skills I know of that cannot have skill points added to it. Not to mention, you have to level each lore skill individually; you can’t just apply a study of one facet of creation to another without both being at high lore ranks. Study water? You get a lore skill. Fire? Another lore skill. Try to combine them into a steam lore? Better have aerodynamics as a lore skill as well! You need to do actual learning, which is why people avoid that skill like the plague outside of our hallowed ranks.”

  “So lore isn’t about history? It’s a fancy way to say science?” Joe watched Boris’s eyes get wide, and he looked around swiftly.

  “Basically, but don’t go calling yourself a scientist.” Boris whispered, forcing Joe to lean toward him. “You will get laughed right out of the city or right into a jail cell. Scholars are scientists, founded by the first order of scientists in ancient times. Back when science was almost useless due to magic being able to bend natural laws to the breaking point. Now, with less people around able to use magic and magic becoming so specialized… well, we are coming into favor again. With the nobility at least. The common man… they tend to discredit science any chance they get, and the mage’s college isn’t helping.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Joe withered under the glare sent his way. “but I’ll just take your advice and get to work, then. Thanks again.”

  Joe stepped into the stacks of books, smiling as he saw a tome go flying through the air only to settle gently in its correct spot. Even just looking at the covers around him made him smile. Thanks to his new abilities, all of the books were glowing.

  ~ Chapter Twenty-one ~

  Joe pulled the brightest, shiniest book he could find from a shelf, excited to see what was inside of it. To his horror, it was a book on simple mathematics. So the glow was not about how important the book was? Joe flipped through the book until he noticed a single dark spot. It took him a moment to realize the significance of the dark spot, but by adding up the numbers, he found that the provided answer was incorrect. So… he was able to see at a glance how accurate the information contained in a book was? It made sense that a math book was almost perfectly true, even if you could craft a spell to crack a world in half, one plus one equals two.

  With a sigh, Joe put the book down and ignored it as it flew away. What would be the best use of his time then? If he wanted to get and level the lore skill, he should focus on the books that were shining with correct information. There were a surprising amount of books that were dim, outnumbering the books filled with truth by three to one at least. So, if he wanted to find magical artifacts, quests, and ways to get more powerful… his eyes jumped toward the fiction section. Myths, fairy tales, books others thought were just ‘fun’ reads. Joe wandered over and began pulling likely books from the shelves, stacking them on the nearby table.

  He was glad that there was a note-taking interface in his character screen; paper was fairly expensive to purchase in small amounts. He typed away at a keyboard which only he could see. Any onlooker would have found it very strange to see, since it seemed he was just wiggling his fingers in midair while flipping the pages of the book in front of him a few times.

  The data he could find was… disjointed. There were nuggets of truth in these fictional books, but they didn’t relate to each other in any real way. Before he could get frustrated after the fifth book, he found something interesting. This book had also reiterated some information that had been in the second book, and together they started to form a slightly clearer picture. He kept going, able to ignore large portions of the text as he continued to write down only the true parts.

  Grouping all of these chunks together wa
s similar to creating a jigsaw puzzle, and he found out more about his skill as he tried to piece the words together. When he put the information in an incorrect order, the words would dim. Placing them in the correct order would make them grow a bit brighter. He spent an hour trying to put a quest together with what he found, but his mind began to wander eventually. There simply wasn’t enough information here. After a short break, he began parsing a few books about people who had used rituals in the past. Unsurprisingly, he started to ascertain that most of the contents were false. With a jolt, he remembered his own book of rituals, and pulled out the upsettingly dark volume.

  Before he could continue going through other books for truth, Joe felt that he had no choice but to revamp his own grimoire. He opened to the page he had bookmarked, and winced as he saw the ritual. The words were so dim as to be almost black, and he was unsure why. This ritual was the ‘Little sister’s cleaning service’, and he knew it worked correctly. Then why…? Boris’s words came back to him then. ‘This is an exaggerated primer on rituals, designed to show how inefficient, wasteful, and useless they are!’ Of course. The ritual would work, but Joe was likely using much more than he needed to in terms of mana and components.

  With a sigh, Joe stood and left the library. He went over to the nearby shops, and placed a large gold piece on the counter as he bought a sheaf of paper. Joe grumbled a bit at the cost; a full gold had only garnered him one hundred pages of blank paper. Next he bought ink, quills, and finally a cup of coffee before returning to the library. Boris gave him the stink-eye when he saw the coffee, and made him drink it all before he was allowed near the precious books.

  Joe sat down again with a sigh, placing a single piece of paper on the table in front of him. The trader had explained all the uses of the items he had bought, and had thrown in some drying sand and a quill sharpener for him since he had purchased such high-valued items in bulk. Joe dipped his quill into the ink and began writing text as small as he could without letting the ink run together. Deciding to start with the ‘Predator’s territory’ ritual, he changed the values of the needed mana, components, and Core. As soon as all the information was together on the page, he compared the now-glowing information with his book. Several of the items were glowing brighter, some were certainly dimmer.