Ritualist (The Completionist Chronicles Book 1)

by Dakota Krout

  “Now, how to combine these? Exclusion requires a silver chalice be filled with my blood to be placed in the circle… passive scanning requires a used glass eye? Why? That’s disgusting and a little weird. Moving on. The nausea requires the third stomach of a cow, and the… poo feeling… needs the fresh intestines of a bear. Exponential increase needs an example of exponential growth. Could I use a copper and gold coin? That’s exponential growth of cost at least.” Joe wrote down all of the details onto a paper before looking through the various ritual circles.

  “Since this will be a beginner tier ritual, I’ll need at least two different circles. This one is used for affecting ‘all in area’ and this double lined circle is used to stipulate ‘area this big’. Hey, that’s the same one I use for ‘Predator’s territory’!” Joe happily created the ritual diagram, frowning when his hand jerked to the side and splashed ink all over the page. “Stupid drawing skill being so low. Stupid dexterity,” he muttered as he pulled out a fresh sheet and started over.

  He was able to create the spell diagram this time, and it began to glow a soft gold as he looked at it. “Good, good. Now I just need to add in what other components should be needed. I already knew that silver wire was needed for the double-lined circle, but what about the ‘target all’ circle? Looks like air, water, and fire. How element-try, my dear Watson.” He chuckled as he worked. So far, all his new space had done for him was let him study in peace and protect others from his puns. If anyone else were to know about this, they would agree that it was a good investment.

  Putting the finishing touches on the ritual he noticed that it was glowing a brighter gold than it was originally, but he also knew he could improve it to a higher degree. He adjusted all the parameters a tiny bit, and over the course of another hour, he fine-tuned all the requirements. Finishing at long last, he smiled at the brightly glowing page and finally acknowledged the notifications waiting for him.

  New ritual created: ‘Quarantine area’. This ritual was designed specifically to drive off unwanted company. The designer didn’t seem to realize that his personality would have worked twice as effectively! As this is the first ritual you have designed, you gain a reward. Because it is a beginner tier ritual, rewards are doubled! Profession (Occultist): 500.

  Occultist has reached level two! Speed of reading and writing is now increased by 10%, currently set at 60% bonus. New languages are now 20% easier to learn (written form only).

  Skill increased: Ritual lore (Beginner 0). Congratulations! Study and practice have allowed you to increase your usage of a skill considered useless by society! You’ll prove them right someday because you are like King Midas. Except that instead of gold, everything that you touch seems to turn to turds! Intelligence, perception, and luck +1.

  Skill increased: Ritual magic (Apprentice IV). The creation of your own rituals certainly allows you to increase this skill at a much faster rate. Nice work earning a skill increase after spending most of your skill points to get this far!

  Joe kind of wanted to yell at whoever was making these notifications. Seriously! This was bordering on abusive at this point. He double checked his settings, but it appeared that his notifications were still set to ‘normal’. Joe snorted and left the building; it seemed that he needed to purchase some specialized equipment for his ritual. Namely animal innards.

  Doing a bit of shopping turned into a seriously unpleasant chore. When he went to the counter of the general goods store, people laughed at him. It looked like he had grabbed a random pile of garbage. They seemed to think that he didn’t understand that most of these items were considered trash drops, things found in old buildings or from monsters that didn’t have any real value. Only the heavily tarnished silver chalice still had any value at all, but it would need to be melted down or sanded and polished to become useful again. He would have bought a better one, but it was literally the only pure silver chalice he had been able to find!

  Joe’s ears felt like they were on fire, and his cheeks were bright red from the embarrassment he was feeling. It was all for the pursuit of magic! He would suffer any humiliation to be able to bend the world to his will; so what if these basic muscle brains couldn’t see past the end of their sword! Joe stumbled a bit; where in the world were these narcissistic tendencies coming from? It was fun to think like that as a joke, but he didn’t want to become a person who sneered at other classes of people. Maybe it was just a wizard thing? Or… aha! He was jumping to conclusions about people! The skill had specifically warned him about this sort of thing!

  Armed with new knowledge about himself, Joe hurried about his tasks and simply kept his head down. He did his best to ignore the few chuckles he elicited with his strange shopping spree and simply did what he needed to do. After going to the butchers to get a cow stomach, he found that he had another problem. He was already carrying too much! Adding on twenty or so pounds of animal intestines certainly wouldn’t help the situation. Why did he always need to get extras? How many times was he planning to cast this ritual? Joe made his way back to the warehouse before returning to the butchers. He was sweating heavily from the swift pace he had needed to set to make his purchase in time, and from the look on the butcher’s face, he was sure that his charisma had taken a hit.

  “I need a… urg.” Joe had to stop himself from retching from the combination of his run and the smell. “I need a cow's third stomach and bear intestines. Do you have those?”

  “Wot in te‘eck ah youse gonna do wit douse?” The butcher had a cockney accent so thick that Joe could barely understand him. Joe stared at the man for a long moment as he parsed the words.

  “Oh. Does it matter what I want with them?” His words caused the butcher’s face to darken. “Alright, I guess it does. It’s bait for a trap. We need a specific combination to draw out a large monster.”

  The butcher seemed to think it over. “Awrigh. I c’n do da ‘tomach fo’ a coppa, but freaysh bea’ insoids is gonna be ah sowlid silvah.”

  “Works for me.” Joe handed over the money and got meat wrapped in a slowly seeping sack in return. “Thank you!” He hurried away.

  “Nah prob’m, kiddo. C’mon back soon,” the butcher replied needlessly. Joe was already across the street by this point.

  Night was falling, but Joe wasn’t overly concerned. How many master tier ‘abyss on earth’ rituals were out and about in the world? Joe bet that the number was close to zero at this point. He was pretty sure that the activation of the ritual was why the human city had been attacked by monsters every few nights recently. Actually, if the reason night became so deadly was the ritual he had subverted, nighttime hunting would soon become rather popular. No one liked that they lost half of the time they had to level each day, though it had been conducive to the rapid advancement of non-combat skills such as tailoring. Eh, didn’t matter to him. Joe had a ritual to create!

  He unlocked the door to the warehouse and walked in. Joe paused. Something felt off. Was there someone in here? He looked around the huge room, but it remained empty. “Hello?”

  Obviously, there was no reply. He shook off the feeling and got to work. Having stored the meat in his ring, there was no real rush to complete the ritual… but he really wanted to. Pulling a bucket full of chalk into the center of the huge vacant room, he dropped to his knees and started drawing out the spell circle. The first tier circle went on the outside, so he started with the far more difficult interior magic circle. Halfway through the process, he was intensely happy with his decision to use chalk. It made erasing his many mistakes easy to do, though it pained him every time he needed to redo a section. Maybe when he was a master artist he would be confident in using a more permanent medium that let him draw more accurately, but for now, chalk would have to do.

  Very carefully stepping out of the completed portion, Joe began drawing the double-lined circle around the outside. He was using a curved chunk of wood to make the curve, having learned that freehand circles were not to be trusted. When the exteri
or was complete, Joe wiped his face. He didn’t care that he left a long streak of chalk behind, the diagram was complete! Placing all the items he needed in his ring, Joe stepped into the center of the ritual area and began arranging the components. This wasn’t a novice circle, so he couldn’t just toss everything into the center and hope for the best. Failure to do everything perfectly increased the mana cost or created feedback that could damage him.

  When all the items were out of his bag, Joe lit a candle, put a feather on a pedestal, filled a bowl with water, and dropped a large stone on the floor. There, that should take care of the elemental components… next was the chalice of blood. Bleh. He pricked his finger and watched the blood flow out, and flow, and flow. When it was finally over, he was quite dizzy and wishing that he had been able to find a smaller chalice than the one he bought. He healed himself, double checked that he hadn’t scuffed the chalk… and grinned. Time to make the magic happen! He placed the Core into the center of the arranged components and began to feed mana into the spell circle.

  In a flash, ten percent of his mana was gone. He gasped and tried to regulate how quickly the mana was pouring out. Joe forced the power back into the proper channels and began to sweat. Controlling the ritual was becoming rather difficult, and the mana required per second was starting to strain his channels. Joe watched as his mana ticked down. Twenty percent. Ten percent. Five. The pull of power stopped, and Joe shuddered in relief. His mana regeneration pulled him up to fifteen percent, when the draw suddenly began again. What the…?

  The outer circle had its own mana requirement? Oh crap. The draw of mana was much smaller, but he still reached zero mana disturbingly quickly. Ow! His health took a hit before his mana regen kicked in. The accordion effect of health and mana continued for a couple seconds, but the ritual completed in time for him to survive the process. The inner circle of the ritual glowed a sickly green while the outer was colored a clashing vibrant orange.

  Ritual ‘Quarantine area’ completed! Players who will remain unaffected: ‘Joe’. Once active this ritual will remain for six months until maintenance is needed. Activate ritual now? Yes / No

  Might as well. Joe clicked yes, and waited for something to happen. He felt nothing but did notice that his mana was entirely empty. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Joe quickly sat down and worked to squeeze all of his mana into a perfect sphere as it regenerated. The storm of power in his mind shrunk noticeably, his wisdom score quite a bit higher than it had been the last time he worked to improve this ability.

  Skill increased: Coalescence (Novice IX). You stand at the peak of novice ranked coalescence. Work hard and think deep thoughts! Deeper. Oh… that’s your limit?

  Skill increased: Mana Manipulation. (Novice VII). Guiding huge waves of energy through your body without damaging yourself is the mark of a true magical artist, but if that is the case, it appears that this is yet another area where you are still using crayons.

  He was happy about the skill increases, but he may need to send a message to customer support if those notifications kept being so personal. Seriously, it was getting-

  *Bleugh*

  “What in the heck is that?” Joe shrieked as he jumped to his feet.

  A splatter of bile found a new home on the floor, rapidly followed by a body covered in a garish red robe splashing into the newly formed puddle. Joe moved away as the invader tried to stand up, but they failed and puked again, followed by a nasty rumbling sound from their pants. Joe thought about trying to help the man, but the smell coming from the collapsed man certainly wasn’t convincing him to get close. He sent a few ranged healing spells at the man, not fixing the bones broken in the fall, but keeping the man awake and alive. It also helped the smell a tiny bit.

  As the unknown man groaned, Joe got over his squeamishness, reminding himself that he had been in far more disgusting scenarios during his time in the army. He walked forward and grabbed the man by the arm, dragging him to the wall of the warehouse and further away from the ritual’s center. Here the ritual had far less effect, though the man’s face still seemed quite green. “Who are you, and why are you in here? This is private property.”

  “Ugh… I was just trying to find a place to sleep,” the man replied piteously. If Joe hadn’t caught a crafty gleam in his eye or perhaps the ornate robes that screamed wealth or that the man had been in the rafters, he may have believed him. Totally a believable lie from this guy.

  “Oh? In that case, I am sure you wouldn’t mind me charging you rent for the evening.” Joe grabbed the dangling coin purse threaded into the man’s belt, carefully avoiding the stained portion of his pants. He pulled the bag open, spilling gold coins into his palm. “Ah yes, I can see that a hotel is out of your price range. Good thing you came here.”

  He looked up in time to see the man thrusting his hand at him. Joe jumped to the side, somehow executing a perfect barrel roll and landing on his feet. Stamina already depleted from that simple action, Joe watched as a bright line of heat flew across the room and reduced an empty crate to ashes. “I’ll take that to mean you aren’t here for my health.”

  Joe grabbed the unknown mage and dragged him closer to the center of the room. Then he slammed his scepter into the man’s broken hand until he heard the bones snap. That should keep more powerful spells from being used against him. “Now, we are going to have a little chat, you and I.”

  “Filthy rogue mage!” The man on the ground was doing his best to squirm away from the ritual, but Joe kept him in place with the simple expedient of kicking him in the face when he tried to roll. “When the college gets this information, you will be drawn and quartered!”

  Joe sank into a squatting position. “Well then, it looks like I will just need to keep you from reporting in.”

  The mage’s face paled, enunciating the green cast it had gained. “They already know about you! Why else would I be here, if I weren’t simply gaining the proof they needed to take you?”

  “Again, not offering much incentive to letting you go.” Joe healed the man, followed by rolling him a bit closer to the ritual circle. The mage released a keening sound as his bowels rumbled.

  “Just… more proof of your… twisted magic!” The mage was gasping, a riot of emotions shifting across his face.

  “I think we need to go ahead and get to know each other better.” The look in Joe’s eyes didn’t inspire much confidence in the captured mage. “Shall we begin?”

  ~ Chapter Thirty-two ~

  “So tell me again why people who learn magic outside of the mage’s college are ‘evil’.” Joe was sitting in a chair, looking at the man he had bound with thin rope. It was thin because the man had multiple broken bones, and the way he was tied made it impossible to attempt escape without severe damage to his already mangled limbs.

  The mage appeared happy to spew vitriol at him. “You commoners can’t understand the sheer responsibility and dedication required of a licensed mage! We who can create and shape the elements need the security and brotherhood only found within the halls of academia!”

  “So mages only shape the elements?” Joe was doing what he could to read between the lines, but he wasn’t a trained interrogator.

  “Of course! Anything else is a perversion of the natural order!” the mage shouted at him, gasping as he pulled against his bindings.

  “What about clerics? The holy healing powers granted by deities?”

  The mage snorted derisively. “Keep your parlor tricks and emotional casting. What we care about is others stealing from our domain or using unholy magic they cannot hope to understand! Your rituals are a good example of what the truly insane will attempt!”

  “How did you become aware of me, anyway?” This was the crux of the matter for Joe. Where had he slipped up?

  “You walked up to the city, proclaiming for all to see that you consider yourself a mage, then hid behind your facade of lies!” The mage somehow seemed to be looking down on him, an impressive feat as his robe had… filth�
� seeping into it. “You probably don’t even deserve to be called a cleric, either! What true class are you hiding?”

  “Ah. So it was when I switched over to my mage class to hunt.” Joe nodded to himself. “A question for you. Tell me, how do you rank in the college?”

  “I am a mage of wind and fire, assistant to the assistant professor!” The mage’s answer seemed overly proud of this fact.

  “Pretty low then.” Joe decided to use a different tactic. “Tell me, oh nameless mage, how does the college get its money?”

  “Tuition and grants from the Kingdom.”

  “Grants, you say?” Joe rubbed his chin. “Is that so? I know that tuition is high; I’m told two skills cost a thousand gold to learn. This means there must not be many students, certainly not enough to make a dent in the school’s apparently endless budget. Why, in your opinion, does the Kingdom pay such a high amount of ‘grant’ money?”

  The man glared at him. “Is there a point to all of this?”

  “Yes, yes. Come on now.”

  “Obviously, it is because there is no other place to get magical training, weapons, or defenses!” The mage snorted at the foolish man questioning him.

  “How interesting,” Joe drawled as the pieces fell into place. “So the Mage’s College is the only place where magic comes from, and they also happen to send out assassins against anyone who finds their own way to practice magic. The cost to become licensed is sky-high as well. To me, it sounds like the college just likes to have a monopoly on the magical market and so they murder any competition. Let me guess, if you create something or serve a term fighting against the Wolfmen, does the mage’s college take a percentage of the profit you make? A large percentage?”

  “W-what? Of course they do! How else can we repay them for the learning and magic we are able to perform?” The mage seemed pale for a different reason. Joe was digging into his beliefs now.