by Dakota Krout
The question was, were the dim values dim because they were not needed, had too small a value for the material, or were the wrong component entirely? He looked over the list of requirements, red pepper, wolfsbane, mint, crushed amethyst, pure salt, iron shavings, orange kyanite, three ounces of mercury, and silver wire. Nine hundred mana investment and an optional healing potion. Finally, blood and a Core. Looking at it like this, it almost seemed like a recipe. Realistically, a recipe is exactly what it was and how he decided to treat it. Looking at his notes, he eliminated all the items that he thought had nothing to do with protection.
Now the list only consisted of crushed amethyst, pure salt, iron shavings, orange kyanite, and silver wire. After writing that down, along with the symbol for the ritual, the information turned black. Obviously, this ritual would do nothing good if it was tried. He looked for more information on the other materials and found that mint was used to ward off rodents. Mercury was a symbol of change, and wolfsbane was a poisonous flower. He added these back in and the information began to glow again.
It took over an hour of replacing items, substituting in new material, and adjusting amounts before he got a recipe that glowed fairly brightly. It had taken six full pages of paper, and his hands shook with rage when he read the final formula.
Ritual: ‘Predator’s territory’ (80% maximum improvement). Uses: Wards against creatures, beasts, and monsters ten levels above the genetic material used in the ritual. Caution! The inherent bloodlust generated by this ritual draws in any creature above the ten level threshold. Components needed: One half ounce dried wolfsbane, one ounce mint, one quarter ounce crushed amethyst, one ounce pure salt, five grams of pure iron shavings, one quarter ounce orange kyanite, three ounces of mercury, one-tenth of an ounce silver wire per square foot of space, and one drop of blood. One hundred experience from a low grade Core and four hundred point mana investment required. Lasts eight hours.
Joe had to physically sit down and breathe deeply to keep from screaming like a furious pterodactyl. He had wasted hundreds of experience points, mana, and coins on materials because someone had written this primer on rituals to discourage people from using rituals. He looked at the six pages of paper he had used to create this new formula and felt that paper was suddenly not a terrible investment after all.
Skill gained: Ritual Lore (Novice IX). Your study of rituals combined with your occultist profession has allowed you to greatly enhance a ritual that you found! Since you are already a beginner in ritual magic, this starts at a higher level than normal. Make a study of more–and more powerful–rituals to increase this skill! Effect: Variable. Allows you to fine tune rituals that you find or create. Can increase potency of rituals and/or decrease cost of rituals.
Skill increased: Ritual magic (Beginner II).
Huh, that may be the shortest skill increase message he has seen thus far. Joe was glad to see that he had gained a lore skill, and he was always happy to see his ritual magic skill increasing. He flipped to the next page in his grimoire and groaned. It was going to be a long day of adjusting rituals at this pace.
When Joe wearily stumbled out of the library, he was exceedingly grumpy. It was already twilight and his fingers were cramping from the constant writing. He was hungry, had ink all over his hands… but the saving grace of the day was the fact that he had changed at least half of the rituals in the grimoire to be usable. Sure they were only the simplest rituals, but it was a start. He had also found that a few of the rituals were entirely bogus and were designed as traps to kill off anyone foolish enough to attempt them. He had found out that ritual magic was actually created by the symbols used, specifically the shape bounding it like the double circle for ‘Predator’s territory’. If the components weren’t properly in place… it would make the ritual spin out of control and place a mana-debt on the person they could not hope to pay. Joe had received a taste of this with the ritual around the guild’s barracks, but these symbols were on another level. A much higher level. Death was the most likely outcome from working outside of his capabilities.
He had also found that the ritual would use all of the materials you intended for it to use, which explained why it would eat an entire Core even if it only needed one-fifth of it. Dang greedy magic. Might as well call it Dijkstra magic instead of ritual magic. Joe chuckled at the tiny programming joke he had made. It was funny to think of programming while in a world created by a supercomputer. Kinda like the opposite of meta-programming. He shivered and tried to move past that thought spiral; this was his real world now.
As he crossed over the red chalk circle around the guild, he stopped himself and shrugged. No reason not to activate it; the ritual had just become cost-effective. The chalk seemed to glow brighter for a moment before a timer appeared in his vision. Seven hours and fifty-nine minutes remaining, plenty of time to sleep. Joe went to the dining area and gorged himself on the stew that seemed perpetually available, told Aten that the ritual was active, and collapsed into bed. Long day.
One dreamless sleep later, Joe popped out of bed with a smile on his face. The ritual had given everyone who slept here last night the well-rested bonus, and Joe was feeling it as total relaxation. Everyone he passed was chipper, and this was before the coffee was ready! Joe smiled as Aten sat down across from him. “Morning, boss-man. How did you sleep?”
“Better than I ever have since losing my thousand thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets.” Aten sniffed the aroma of fresh coffee wafting from the pot moving toward them. “That because of your spell last night?”
“Yeah, you can add in a health potion to get a well-rested bonus.” Joe poured his coffee slowly, letting the potent smell wash over his face.
“Does the potency of the potion matter? We have some apprentice alchemists that I’m sure would be willing to donate to the cause.” Aten snatched the coffee pot from Joe the second his hand was off the handle.
“I’m not sure.” Joe thought about it, nodding as he thought it over. “Most likely it’ll just increase how long the bonus lasts. If that means I can feel this relaxed for half the day though, I’ll take it.”
“Now, we did have a rotating guard last night but weren’t attacked or even looked at by the monsters that were running around out there. I’m real happy you had the forethought to activate your spell thingy last night; the city was attacked by… I think they were mutated bats? Nasty buggers. Sharp claws and a sonic attack.” Aten shuddered a bit at the thought. “I’m liking the thought of having your spell going pretty often, but the cost is just too-”
Joe waved his hand to cut off the flow of words, he finished his gulp of black ambrosia and let out a contented sigh. “Good stuff. The spell, it’s called a ritual actually, well, I made a huge breakthrough yesterday. Turns out that I can refine the recipe of the spell a lot. I’m now able to get the spell cost down to… not quite cheap, per se, but manageable. It went from a little over thirty gold to create, to…”
Doing a bit of mental math, Joe looked over the formula he had created. If the base ritual cost a hundred experience from a Core, for him it dropped to fifty experience. “Just over three gold per eight hours. Now it costs about a tenth of what it did. Turns out that whoever made the spell book was intentionally trying to destroy anyone using them.”
“Three gold?” Aten rubbed his stubble excitedly. “You say it so casually, but going from three hundred dollars per use to thirty dollars is pretty huge. These work anywhere? We could use them for overnight expeditions?”
“Theoretically, but… the big issue is creating a double ring of material to soak the magic into. I can’t picture someone carrying around a huge sheet of paper or concrete with them.” Joe shrugged uncomfortably, this was one of the major issues he was having–making his magic transportable.
“Does it matter what the rings are made of?” Aten thought for a moment after Joe shook his head. “Can we talk to a weaver or tailor? Could we get a double ring of string, then roll it up after it is ready?”
“Of course I do,” Aten scoffed. “I’ll talk to them today, see if I can’t get a few prototypes for you. Have a good day, I see Tiona coming this way. Ha! I made a rhyme.” Aten wandered off, and Tiona slid into the recently vacated space.
“Ready to go hunting, Mr. Level Five?” Tiona grinned at him mischievously. “Let’s see if that level was earned or bought!”
Joe was forced to eat quickly, Tiona’s stare not very conducive to a relaxing meal. They ambled over to the gate, discussing the plans for the day while the other members of their team caught up to them. Joe was heatedly explaining why he couldn’t just use shadow spike continuously to Tiona, “Look, it is a non-class skill! Right now, it’s only at novice two and it sucks almost a hundred mana per cast! I can use it four times before I’m wiped out.”
“Ya know, I hear mage is a fun class,” Tiona prodded him. “Why don’t you go get a mage license and switch classes? You’d keep your healing skills, right?”
“No idea! Also, I’m not going to go drop a thousand gold so that some random group is fine with me using my own spells!” Joe ground out. It turned out that the mage’s college would hunt down anyone using mage abilities if they weren’t a ‘certified’ mage. That way they were able to keep tabs on anyone growing in strength or, as they called it, ‘causing trouble’. Joe was almost positive that it was simply a way to stay in power and in control. Anyone who came to their attention and didn’t comply with their demands eventually gained the title ‘rogue mage’ from them. Thankfully, it was not an actual title that was on your character sheet, but it was basically a bounty. Then that person tended to vanish, either from a ‘natural’ accident or someone selling them to the college.
Joe shook the dark thoughts from his head, trying to pay attention to his surroundings; they were almost to fox territory now. Tiona was explaining some of her insights on leveling to the others. “Going from level nine to level ten is just… stupid hard. It is apparently going to be awesome at my next level though because ranking up, specializing, whatever you wanna call it… you know that euphoria from leveling? I was told it is that times fifty.”
“But gaining any levels at all after that point is going to be really hard, right?” Guess spoke up, still a rarity in the group. “I mean, going from level nine to ten costs, what? Fourteen thousand exp?”
“Yup,” Tiona replied cheerfully, “and it just goes up from there! But! Your new class starts at level one. So while your class is leveling up again, you are also gaining experience toward your overall level. Apparently, it isn’t uncommon to get to level twenty and get your fourth specialization at the same time. At least, that's what I’ve been able to learn from the trainers”
“Seriously, I’ve never played a game where it is so hard to get levels,” Dylan grumbled rhetorically.
Chad piped up, “Levels don’t matter as much as skills anyway! What’s the point in getting to level ten and ranking up if you are stuck with a lame class because you didn’t bother to get any skills?”
The others either shrugged or nodded, Joe included. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, right?”
Tiona changed the topic, “Joe, did you remember to get the Wolfman hunting daily quest? You are level five now.”
Joe froze in place, falling to the ground when Dylan stumbled into him with a curse. “No! Crap! My first chance to-”
“Relax, I’m messing with you.” Tiona giggled at his expression. “Here, I can share it with you.” Her eyes lost focus, and a moment later, Joe had a popup blocking his vision.
Quest alert: Hunting the hunters! (Daily) The Wolfman population has been rising beyond any projections, and the human Kingdom will be threatened by a horde of rampaging beasts if their population isn’t brought under control. Hunt 10 Wolfmen Scouts, 5 Wolfman Warriors, or one Wolfman Shaman! Recommended level: 8. Accept? Yes / No
Joe accepted the quest, and furrowed his brow as he thought about the meaning behind the prompt. “So, if we are only hunting Scouts every day, does that mean the population of Warriors and mages is shooting higher and higher?”
His words nearly made the others stop walking as they saw what he meant. This game had a way of twisting words to have multiple interpretations. Tiona was the first to speak, “Well, shoot. Probably? I bet other groups are doing the same thing we are.”
“I’ll mention it to the guards that give out this quest; they might want to break it up into three separate ones,” Dylan decided as they continued forward. “Doesn’t matter today though. We aren’t going to go hunt down an unknown enemy the first day that you get to gain experience from a daily, Joe.”
Joe nodded appreciatively, and the group quieted down a bit. They were getting near to wolf territory, and the large canines were known for ambushing unalert prey.
~ Chapter Twenty-two ~
“Woof!” Dylan barked into Guess’s ear, causing her–him?...the group still hadn’t found out Guess’s real gender–to jump in apparent shock after a moment. Joe chuckled, since Guess was playing with an outdated VR helmet and mental keyboard, she must have manually pressed the jump button. Good sense of humor there.
“There is a group of wolves trying to sneak up on us,” Chad warned the group as they strolled along. “Joe, you want to take out the alpha, or should we fight them?”
They had discovered that if the largest wolf in the pack was killed before the other wolves attacked, the animals would scatter and run away. Tiona thought it over before shaking her head. “We’re in a hurry. Joe, take him.”
Joe grinned and turned his head. Easily finding the crouching wolves, he concentrated and made the required hand motion. A spike of pure darkness thrust upward, catching the alpha in its flank. It howled in pain, and Joe took the time to channel the spell, needing to hold the spike in place for a full three seconds until the wolf collapsed. The other wolves ran off, just as planned. “Whoo! That guy had a lot of health in him. Nearly drained my entire mana pool to finish him off.”
Skill increase: Channeling has reached Novice II. Mana manipulation has reached Novice IV.
Joe really preferred these succinct messages. “How long until you are back to full?” Tiona liked data; the more she knew about her party, the better she could plan out combat.
“Let me check,” Joe muttered, opening his character screen. “Mana manipulation went up, so now I have four hundred and nineteen mana, but I just used three hundred twenty-five to channel that spell, so… about a minute? Fifty seconds?”
“Hmm. Too long for anything but an ambush.” Tiona looked around, scouring the underbrush for hidden foes. “Sure, there aren’t other things attacking us right now, but in the future, if you run out of mana like that we might get wrecked. Feel free to do that if we need you to, but remember that if we are going to have a longer battle you have to make sure to conserve your mana. That means no channeling spells at the start of the fight. Let that be a finishing move if you really feel the urge.”
“Yes ma’am!” Joe saluted her with mocking precision.
“Pff. Dang straight, good to see you finally know who’s in charge.” Tiona winked at him, her analytical side softening as she remembered that this was supposed to be fun.
The others chortled as they began moving again, and Joe’s focus turned inward as he tried to squeeze his mana into a smaller container as it refilled. He hadn’t made any real progress with his coalescence skill, but he wasn’t overly surprised. After all, it was written right in the skill description that he needed a higher willpower to gain levels in the skill. Joe wasn’t sure he believed that though; practice and determination had served him well through the years. He wasn’t going to stop progressing because some skill description gave him arbitrary boundaries!
His mana finished refilling without him gaining a rank in the skill. Joe crossed his arms and pouted a bit. Th
e group had to carve a path through a small pack of wolves once or twice, but they finally reached Wolfman territory. Trying to be stealthy, they watched the first group they came across for a few moments. Their stealth failed them as one of the wolves on the fringe of the patrol suddenly snapped its head to face them and released a growl.
“Not overly surprising,” Tiona lamented as she tightened the grip on her sword. “Animals must have boosted perception. Unsurprisingly, this includes wolves. Chad, Joe, try to take out the Scout. Joe, if we get injured, break off your attack and heal. Everyone else, get ready for battle.”
“Three… two… one!” Chad called softly, letting loose his bowstring just as Joe finished his spell. A spike of shadow lanced into the Scout’s lower back, causing it to freeze as pain overwhelmed its senses. Before its reflexive paralysis faded, an arrow lodged itself in the Wolfman’s eye. Crumpling to the ground, the humanoid body quickly stilled. The basic wolves stumbled to a halt, looked back at their fallen leader, and scattered with high-pitched whines.
“The Wolfman is considered the alpha, then?” Guess accurately inferred.
“Looks like it, thank goodness.” Dylan let out a long sigh of relief. “I need some better armor. All I can think right now is, ‘I’m so glad I didn’t get bitten again.’ Not the best mentality for the guy planning on taking all the hits, ya know?”
Howls in the distance heralded an unfortunate side effect of having allowed the other wolves to run off. A notification then blocked their views for a long moment.