by Dakota Krout
“Corify! Dark Lightning Strike! Cone of Cold!” Joe sent spell after spell at the Dwarf until it finally stayed down. He stood over the corpse, panting for breath and waiting for his Mana to regenerate. It didn't take long. Joe reached out and attempted to reduce the zombie’s corpse. He wasn't certain if it was going to work at first, but then mana blasted out of him and drained him dry over the next three seconds. Neutrality Aura went down, as did his Exquisite Shell. The body didn't fully disappear, but it did break apart into large chunks after his Mana had faltered. A few notifications appeared, as well as a quest alert that made him cringe.
Experience gained: 1,215.
You have gained a Special aspect: Zombified!
New aspect crafting tutorial available: ‘Special’ Aspects.
Quest alert: Dead and Dumped (Unique). Someone in the city above has been shirking their duties in proper disposal of corpses and has been tossing them into the landfill instead. It is unknown how long this has been going on for, but the restless dead have become a serious threat in the underground. Find a way to destroy all of them and stop more from being dumped. Reward: variable. Failure: a potential Dwarven Zombie outbreak right in the capital city of the Dwarves. This will give a huge advantage to the Elven nation.
“That’s just… great.” Joe looked eagerly at the new tutorial, only pausing for a moment to see the cost. “Five hundred reputation with Tatum? Is this because the system is giving me knowledge, instead of me seeking it out myself?”
Reputation increase: Tatum +50.
“That’s clear enough.” Joe shrugged and took the offer anyway, pausing only to reactivate Neutrality Aura when he had enough Mana. The debuffs he had accumulated in the last few seconds started to vanish, and another notification appeared.
Thanks for your purchase! Current reputation with Tatum: 3,542 (Friend).
Starting tutorial now!
Once more, Joe found himself in a misty world, but this time, a green flame coalesced in front of him. He waited for more instruction before trying anything or reaching out for it. The system seemed to approve of that and launched into an explanation as soon as he settled in to wait.
Special aspects are just that! Special! They are a… flavor of magic that has been added to something, which can be found in certain types of crafting material. They are often—but not always—found in Unique items. Special aspects can change the function of a craft, just like adding modifiers in normal crafting. As an example, consider the effects of adding alchemic or enchanted components to a ritual.
You can have access to up to five different Special aspects no matter how many containers you have for them. If you want a sixth, you must release or use one of the others. Just as with normal aspects, you will need to create a crafting tool specific for the Special aspect in order to use it! For the purposes of the demonstration, you will have enough aspects, a workstation, and the knowledge of how to create a simple dagger. Do so now!
Joe decided to get started right away and attempted to make a hammer out of the green aspect that has been given to him, which appeared to be a copy of the ‘Zombified’ aspect he had just gained. No matter what he did, though, he was not able to shape the aspect into a hammer. The tutorial came through when he was just about to give up.
As you can see, a Special aspect by itself does not work. You will need to combine the aspect with whatever rarity of aspect you want to use it with! Try again!
Rolling his eyes, Joe pulled together Uncommon aspects, as well as the zombified aspect, eventually managing to form an ingot hammer that shone a sickly silver-green. Using the aspects to craft the hammer went smoothly, even without guiding the process as carefully as he normally did. A new design formed on the striking plane of the hammer, a stylized Dwarven face. Joe got to work immediately, forming a dagger with uncharacteristic ease: surely an effect of the tutorial he was in.
When he finished crafting the weapon, the hammer he was using shattered and its shards vanished. Joe lifted up the newly-made dagger, letting out a low whistle as he read over its abilities.
Zombified Stiletto (Uncommon Special). A dagger designed specifically for killing Dwarves, this blade hungers for the flesh and blood of what it once was. Effect: Adds 50-80 piercing damage on strike. +20% damage when attacking a Dwarf. 5% chance to raise a slain Dwarf as a zombified thrall. 1% chance to raise a slain Dwarf as an uncontrolled zombie. Note: This weapon is highly illegal within areas controlled by the Dwarven Oligarchy.
Tutorial complete!
Joe was once more standing in the landfill, his hands empty, but his mind full of plans for the future.
Chapter Seventeen
“Almost a full week now.” Joe stood atop a section of the landfill that was especially tall, looking between the various ‘mountain peaks’ that he had visited over the last few days. Seven redesigned rituals had been placed on the peaks: Acid Spray rituals at the Beginner ranks. The main reason he had needed to redesign the rituals wasn’t for more potent acid, but so that he could include a time delay in their construction. They would still only be able to damage items at Common rarity or below, hopefully leaving him with a treasure trove at the bottom of the pits after they finished digging for him.
“If everything goes as planned, I have five minutes until they all start up at the same time…” Joe attempted to shake the oversized metal bin he had placed the final acid ritual on, making sure it was firmly in place, then took a running start and jumped from the mountain of rubbish as hard as he could. Thanks to the less than firm footing, he wasn't moving fast enough to cause the barriers to activate, but with his increased strength, he was able to get a solid distance away from the ritual itself.
He slammed into the ground with the force of a man who had leapt off a mountain of trash as hard as he could and approached terminal velocity. Joe chuckled at the inane thought as he struggled to dig his way out of the mushy crater. “Did I get a concussion on the way down or something?”
A gentle rain started, and panic flashed across Joe’s face. “The area of effect is higher than I calculated!”
Damage taken: 55 (Acid rain is dealing 55 damage per second.)
The liquid was draining off his shell, but Joe had to hustle to get out of range. Not only was he concerned about his shell’s durability, but the ground was already beginning to sink. If he got trapped in a sinking zone, he would soon need to start worrying about the acidic gases as well as everything else. A broken cry arose in the distance, increasing in volume as more and more voices joined in. The rabid animals and zombies caught in the acid were furious about the sudden yet unrelenting gradual damage to which they were being subjected. Joe gulped and moved faster.
Eventually, he surpassed the edge of the acid and looked back. A flare of flame lit up the underground, and he hastily guesstimated the actual effect of the series of acid spray rituals as they misted over the edges of the ‘peaks’ he had placed them on. “Maybe… a thousand feet in diameter? That’s a lot more than I thought I would get.”
To be fair, he had crafted the ritual to release the liquid as forcefully as possible, using intentionally weaker acid for a greater range. Even so, he was pleased to see everything work out so well. The garbage was reduced at about two feet per minute, and he had hours remaining-
A thunderous roar and splashing drew Joe’s attention to one of the ‘mountains’ he had selected. He could just barely make out the rotting forms of a huge group of zombies that had attacked the thing damaging them. They tore the ritual apart, and it appeared as though the ritual had discharged all at once, dousing the zombies in everything it was supposed to release over time. Joe waited for the experience to roll in, but… nothing. “That’s odd… I’ve gained experience for fringe kills in the past? Why not these? Did they not die?”
Hello there, youngster! Thank you kindly for your inquiry. I regret to inform you that the experience from residual damage has been… nerfed? Yes, that. We recently implemented a system that allows intent to carry we
ight in experience gain. There were some people planning to break a Zone in half so they could ‘claim the kill’ for everyone and everything on that Zone. Your ritual was not intended as anti-personnel; it just so happened that it did hurt things. None of that sweet, sweet experience for you. Please note that if you create whatever this was again for the express intent to kill things, the costs to do so will be vastly higher.
My apologies for any inconvenience and for the interruption to your day, but I am here to maintain the balance and must fulfill my role.
~A.
“Who are… wait, I see the sign off, but I didn’t know there were any active admins. Are you from the game company?” Joe waited for a long few seconds, but there was no reply to his questions or concerns. It seemed that message had been a pre-recorded response in anticipation of someone becoming grumpy about not getting experience for something they had done in the past, rather than an actual person currently watching him and giving him answers. “So you just irrevocably nerf my class and walk away? This is unacceptable! You are going to require different resources for the same effect?”
Joe lodged an official complaint right away. He was not going to let this stand.
With nothing else to do for the moment, Joe sat on the garbage and waited. At the end of his rituals, the area of garbage that was being doused in acid should have dropped by about five hundred feet? Not terrible for a Beginner-ranked ritual. With nothing else to do while he waited, Joe decided to burrow into the trash and activate Essence Cycle. He had not gained a single bonus characteristic since he had come down here, and Joe was feeling like he had been slacking.
He was not prepared for the overwhelming dark-aligned mana that was flooding the place. Normally, when Joe activated this ability, he was immediately aware of large surges of dark mana, but they were interspersed with all sorts of other colors. In fact, it usually tended to look a bit like a kaleidoscope, which was fun and always interesting to stare at. Here… darkness. All encompassing, saturated darkness. Then the darkness filled with numbers. Joe sat for an unknown amount of time, contemplating the darkness and data before finally managing to voice his thoughts.
“But why? Why is it so dense here, compared to anywhere else? Is it the garbage? The fact that things are rotting, that things are breaking down here? Is the garbage itself releasing dark mana?” Essence Cycle was broken as a notification shocked Joe into coming back to himself.
Skill increase: Essence Cycle has reached Beginner 0! You have spent time actually using this skill in varying environments, attempting to understand the why. It matters.
Tier increase bonus: You are now able to activate Essence Cycle without dropping into a meditative state. This allows you to follow mana emanations to their source, as well as moving between active and inactive states without an outside influence.
Characteristic points gained: +5 perception! Sometimes it is not necessary to make great leaps of logic, or to bend your mind to a strenuous task. Sometimes it is just important to look at the heart of a matter and see it.
Joe immediately reactivated the skill and peered around. Now, instead of just a dense cloud around him, he was able to see that the darkness was striated. The refuse was indeed releasing mana and pushing it into the air. He stood and picked his way to the densest nearby cloud. As he stepped into it, he checked his characteristic sheet to see if anything had changed. He smiled as he noticed the difference immediately, then choked on the air and stepped out quickly.
Column of Choking (methane, carbon dioxide, heavy metal toxicity). -30 health per second. Neutrality Aura is balancing the damage. Caution! No oxygen; gas exchange cannot function! Suffocation imminent.
“What in the abyss…?” Joe dropped his gaze to the ground, then cast Acid Spray on it. He started burrowing down, turning on Essence Cycle every thirty seconds or so. “What in here is so toxic that it is pumping out nastiness like this? I'm gonna find you.”
As he sank closer, the numbers in the column shifted. The aspect count increased as he dug lower, and finally, ten feet down, he uncovered a huge barrel that was rusted to the extreme; almost to the point of falling apart. He almost cast Acid Spray again, but something told him to take a look at it more closely instead of destroying it the easy way. Bracing himself, he eased forward and checked it directly.
Item: Barrel of Slag
Reduction value: 131 Unique aspects, 200 Rare aspects, 280 Uncommon aspects, 310 Common aspects, 543 Damaged aspects, 1,023 Trash aspects.
Reduction cost: 625 mana per second.
“That’s handy.” Calculating the size of the barrel, Joe figured that he would not be able to get everything on the first try… unless… maybe he could, if he was willing to take some damage. He deactivated his Exquisite Shell and Retribution of Shadows. When his mana was back to full from releasing those, Joe took one last deep breath of clean air and deactivated Neutrality Aura. He held his breath as long as he could, which was just long enough to refill his mana to the limit. He activated his Ritual of Reduction, and the barrel was covered in his dark blue mana.
One second… two… at four, the barrel showed no hint of falling apart, and Joe’s mana bottomed out. The pain hit his head like a Dwarven Warhammer, and he gasped. Big mistake. A whole host of debuffs scrolled across his vision, but he only had eyes for the barrel itself. Was it going to fall apart, now that he had weakened it?
Three more seconds passed, and all that happened was a large amount of rust falling to the ground. Perhaps… it had been in such poor condition already that his mana didn't do much to it? Joe watched anxiously as his mana refilled and his health dropped at almost inverse proportions. He was forced to cast Mend on himself twice, and his health was still down to almost a quarter when he finally reached full capacity.
Once more, he allowed his mana to flow out of him and into the barrel of slag. This time, it was fully reduced to aspects. He literally breathed easier after that, as the barrel was no longer releasing toxins. As soon as he had recovered enough mana, Joe quickly reactivated Neutrality Aura and sat down. His spell got to work on all of the bacteria, parasites, and damage that he had brought into himself by breathing in such foul air.
For a long while, Joe simply sat and rested, waiting for the opportunity to go out and damage himself for personal gain again. Then he heard a sound like rushing water. “What’s going on? There can't be a waterfall in here, can there?”
The ground beneath him shifted, and Joe realized what was happening: his rituals had dug far enough down that the surrounding piles were becoming destabilized. Joe scrambled up out of the hole he had put himself in and tried to run out of the area that was being impacted. Unfortunately, he had truly underestimated the far-reaching effects of his ritual.
He tumbled backward, barely managing to get his Exquisite Shell in place before he was buried under the landslide of his own creation.
Chapter Eighteen
Havoc paused from tinkering with his new super weapon, a mana-magnetic meteor mitigator. He tapped one large finger against his lab table, wondering what was bothering him. “Those Elves have been using meteors as their main weapon for the past six months; this needs to be my main focus. If I can use their blasted spells against them, we won't have to worry about them taking out large contingents of our troops. Oh?”
He was getting a notification? Someone had completed a quest he had sent them on? How? No one ever completed his quests, since practically everyone was entirely incompetent. Havoc lifted the corner of his mouth, allowing an open gap. A tiny rocket attached to his cigar on the table fired up, launching his main vice into his mouth at the same time as lighting the cigar itself.
“Huh. The scavenger-classed human actually pulled it off?” The Major General grumbled deep in his chest. He had been certain that particular Candidate would kick the bucket on the first day. In fact, he was so sure that he hadn’t bothered to do any of the work he had promised the lad. No matter; Havoc was a resourceful Dwarf. “He might be worth something, aft
er all. At least he's not here demanding payment yet. Let’s go see some old friends.”
Havoc started walking, leaving behind the temporary lab that he had set up in the capital city, a personal estate that he kept for the rare occasions when he was allowed to come back. With every step he took, other Dwarves dove out of the way, scrambling to avoid garnering his attention. Weak-willed, the lot of them. He was the last person still living to achieve nobility during his time in the Legion, which just went to show how far their race had descended into passivity. At this very moment, the Elves were likely planning to storm one of their forts, and his own people couldn’t look him in the eye!
“Have you all no shame?” Havoc snarled, causing the people that had stepped aside to flee to safer areas. His hand twitched and dropped toward his pocket, and he barely stopped himself from activating his ‘personal safety’ device. No… no, that was what had gotten him banished to that empty laboratory on the border. The council had warned him: any more collateral damage, ‘accidental’ or not, and he would lose his funding.
“Hypocritical wastes of space don’t deserve to… no… deep breaths, Havoc,” he reminded himself, letting go of the orb that had mysteriously appeared in his hand. As far as he could remember, he hadn’t intentionally pulled out the device. “Old McPoundy should have everything I need for this. Easy-peasy, Elf-neck squeezy.”
Hurling himself through the crowds at breakneck speed, he soon arrived at the forge closest to the castle: the smithy of Grandmaster Iron McPoundy. Havoc wasted no time with pleasantries, kicking the door off the hinges instead of taking the time to twist the intricate metal doorknob. If there was only one thing that Havoc could complain about when it came to foremost Smith in the nation, it would be that he spent far too much time on making things ‘pretty’. Functionality was king.