Raze (The Completionist Chronicles Book 4)

by Dakota Krout

  His shout echoed around the area, and he kept shouting until someone showed up. “Go get Aten. Tell him it's an emergency! Tell him third stall from the left, look for the big guy.”

  “You got it!”

  Joe took off running for the Grand Ritual Hall, opening a passage to it and leaving it open. He pulled a Juggernaut from door duty and had him make sure only Aten was allowed access. There was no time to waste; Joe had a ritual to design. It was time to learn how to Raze.

  Ink was splattering as Joe worked, but he cared not one whit. He simply had his shadows come along behind him and grab the waste. “Calibration… this can be used on any structure, but knowing the blueprint ahead of time will allow for faster destruction and more resources reclaimed. I know the blueprint, but should I work on that or just get to Razing?”

  “Joe, what’s happening? What’s the emergency?” Aten came running into the room, a fluffy robe and boxers being the only thing he was wearing.

  “I need to take down the wall,” Joe told him, unable to look away from the ink. “Drat! I messed up.”

  He restarted, his quill flying across the page and leaving behind complex differential equations that were so small that they looked like straight lines. Aten was trying to figure out what Joe was saying. “Joe! Explain!”

  “Treason! The wall was a setup!” Joe garbled the explanation as he slowed his furious scribbling. He was getting near the part he messed up last time. “Ring one complete! Ring two, go! Aten, if the wall is here in the morning, the Royal Guard will disband the guild, throw all leaders in prison, and hand over the buildings to the Architect’s Guild! Figure out ways to stall them, make sure no one tries to stop me, get me the two most powerful Cores the guild has, now!”

  Aten didn't ask any follow-ups, showcasing his trust in Joe far more than his words ever could. He took off at a run, returning half an hour later as Joe completed the second ring. “Here, Cores! I have people going out to drop trees across the road, set knockout traps, and anything else they can think of. What else do you need?”

  “I need fifty-seven people to get with me and balance this ritual,” Joe told him. Just start spacing them out in sets of prime numbers. Two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen. I’ll be at the center with the most mana-stuffed mage you can find, and the rest are going to make this thing zip. Everyone else needs to be making sure that we aren't attacked.”

  “You got it.” Aten waited a moment longer, but nothing else was said. He ran off, still in his robe. Joe nodded belatedly, his mind back on the ritual in front of him.

  “Good.” He pocketed the Cores, then continued working. The next ring took an hour to create. The fourth and final took two. It was now three in the morning, and Joe was exhausted. There was no way he was going to stop, so he got his Coffee Elemental to whip up a fresh batch of caffeine for him.

  Ritual ready to be used, Joe ran out to the main area, leaving the Pathfinder’s Hall and locking it behind him. The Juggernauts were given orders to slay anyone that tried to force the door, and he made sure that they would be as vindictive as possible to anyone attacking the temple. There might be someone who was legally granted his toys, but they would need to walk through an ocean of blood to get them.

  Joe hurried out to the same area he had been in for the creation of the wall, assuming that the others were thinking they needed to be in the same spot to take it down. Incorrect but beneficial to finding where people were waiting. Where was everyone? This was… wasn't Aten supposed to be on top of things? Then Joe found the first unconscious body. “What in the…?”

  He felt the people’s necks; still alive. What was going on? “Cleanse!

  Skill level too low!

  Joe stared at the notification mutely. He had never run into something that he couldn't even start to cure. Sure, the water had gone into the person, but Joe hadn't been able to use it to find anything! To him, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with the bodies on the ground. “How did they get everyone?”

  There had to be someone around that was awake, and Joe was determined to find them and exact revenge… no. Never mind. He was going to continue with the plan. Seeking out whoever had done this was a fool’s errand, more likely to get him killed than to get revenge. If he was killed, there was no way that the wall was coming down in time. Joe hefted Aten on to his shoulders when he found him and trudged back to the Pathfinder’s Hall. This way, he would have an indication of when people were waking up. He felt good carrying Aten, strength-wise at least.

  Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend’ Class: Mage (Actual: Rituarchitect)

  Profession: Tenured Scholar (Actual: Arcanologist)

  Character Level: 15 Exp: 134,813 Exp to next level: 1,187

  Rituarchitect Level: 3 Exp: 4,390 Exp to next level: 1,610

  Hit Points: 330/330

  Mana: 1,137.5/1,137.5

  Mana regen: 30.3/sec (Base 27.55/sec increased by gear)

  Stamina: 183/295

  Stamina regen: 5.67/sec

  Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)

  Strength: 31 (1.31)

  Dexterity: 40 (1.40)

  Constitution: 38 (1.38)

  Intelligence: 91 (2.41)

  Wisdom: 76 (2.26)

  Charisma: 31 (1.31)

  Perception: 60 (2.10)

  Luck: 30 (1.30)

  Karmic Luck: +1

  His stamina was draining rapidly from lugging Aten around, but it was needed. Back to his current predicament; it was more than likely that the guild had been knocked out so that the Architects would be sure that they were all arrested and collected. Joe just had no idea how they did it.

  Was it the beer? If so, why hadn't he been affected? Actually, no. He knew that Aten didn’t drink in public, and there was no way everyone from the crafters to the guards on duty were drinking. Must be a spell or an item of some kind that could hit the entire group. Was he missed because he was underground? Were the slow-down efforts in place to give him more time? A magical effect would at least explain why Cleanse did nothing.

  Since everyone was unconscious, Joe decided to alter the Raze ritual using the blueprints for the wall. Why not? When that was done and there was still no sign of change in Aten, Joe started to get worried. There was another way… but he was reluctant to use it. Still… he took a deep breath and went to the walled-in guild area. He got near the base of the guild hall and looked up.

  He needed to get up there, and he had no idea if there were ladders around. Joe was about to jump when something in his mind tickled him. Didn't he have a quest? Might as well get working on that. He took a look at the nearly forgotten quest and set Jumplomancer as his ‘public’ class.

  Quest updated: Playing your fake role III. As a Jumplomancer, your job is to create confusion, avoid attacks, and demonstrate amazing ability beyond the dreams of another! Avoid pursuit three times by jumping to an improbable location and escaping unseen. 0/3. Dodge ten attacks by jumping out of the way. 0/10. Jump through the _ERROR_ Finish destroying a structure while in mid-air. 0/1. Reward: Variable.

  Did… did that quest get altered as it was being assigned? How? Who? He didn't have time for this! Joe crouched down and put all of his thirty-one points of strength behind jumping. Now, being thirty percent stronger than an average human on earth didn't translate to being able to jump fifteen feet up.

  Luckily, he had a Master-rank zero Jump skill to make up for it.

  Chapter Forty-five

  Joe caught the edge of the roof and pulled himself up. “Ugh, yeah! Third time’s the charm, baby!”

  He had needed a running start, as the first jump had proven to him. The second ended with him just missing the edge, but the third time had been as perfectly done as possible. Joe wasted no time, walking up the roof and getting to the center. He pulled metal ritual rings out of his codpiece and positioned them as well as possible on the slightly sloped roof.

  “I really hope Aten understands if this all goes to feces.” Joe pulled out o
ne of the Cores that Aten had given him and looked it over. It was a high-grade Lesser Core and could be converted to thirty-five hundred experience. Trying not to resist too much, he placed it into the center of the ritual and stood back. As the ritual started to spin up, he looked around the area and at the slowly brightening sky.

  It was already five in the morning, and this ritual would run for just over fifty-eight minutes. He waited in place for a few of those minutes, letting the hot air blowing from the spinning rings wash over him. Either he would gain a Core that let him run the Raze ritual by himself, or the rings would melt down and explode in a terrible storm of uncontained mana. If the latter happened, he hoped that his current position would allow the walls to be reduced to rubble.

  All the other buildings could be rebuilt, even if it was unfortunate. The Pathfinder’s Hall, however, couldn't be replaced. Not for decades if the requirements were any indication. Joe would rather burn everything else to the ground than hand that over. While he waited, he pulled out his diagrams and started creating a second Raze ritual. He wouldn't get it done soon—certainly not by the end of this conversion process—but he managed the first ring and half of the second. When the ritual completed, Joe was a little surprised that he was alive.

  Frankly, he had thought that he would blink and be in his respawn room at some point. As the rings *clanged* to a stop, they screeched and warped. The white-hot metal collapsed, forming four rings of molten metal on the roof of the building. Joe winced; if the process had lasted much longer, that would have meant outcome number two happening. As it was…

  Joe formed a cup around the new Mana Battery, pulled it away from the superheated goop, and set it to start charging. It was now six in the morning, and a full charge of seven thousand mana was going to take… he did the math and gulped. Nearly four hours. That meant that he could start the process at ten o’clock—wait!

  That was wrong. His math was wrong! He redid the conversion of one to ten for storage. Also, he had done the original conversion to seconds, not minutes. He could put in one hundred fourteen mana right away, and… it would take thirty-eight and a half minutes to fill it with mana regeneration only!

  He really needed to stop doing panic-math; it always made him freak out. Mana began flowing, and the Mana Battery started glowing. Six twenty. Six thirty. Six forty! The battery stopped taking a charge, and Joe dropped it into position. He had spent the time between the start of the charge and now getting everything else in position. Taking a few deep breaths, he waited for his mana to return to full… and started to Raze the wall.

  “Evacuate usque ad terram!” he intoned, and the ground started to light up around him in four concentric circles. Oddly, the outer three lifted off and merged into a single ring that spun at the wall like an out-of-control tire on the highway. The circular energy hit the rock and sunk into it, expanding out and looking exactly like the ritual Architect’s Fury engulfing the wall. There was one key difference, however.

  Stone began crumbling into rubble, then floating into the air and vanishing. Joe had used the other high-grade Lesser Core Aten had given him for this ritual, so the destruction should be moving apace. However, there was a pile of stone, wood, and all sorts of minor items being neatly stacked around the ritual site. Destruction was slower than building the structure in the first place! By a lot.

  Another difference was that this ritual allowed people to walk away from it. Joe hadn't understood why that was an important part of things, but he did now. This ritual was going to take at least an hour to fully perform. He walked away cautiously, and to his surprise, the brightly glowing ritual circle followed him. Another circle stayed under the Mana Battery he had added to the ritual, so he grabbed that and threw it on the roof. No point in letting someone find that and smash it or something. Plus, would it work if he placed it in his storage? Not something to test.

  Now… now, he needed to find some way to slow down the Royal Guard. Joe looked around at all the people who were unconscious, wanting to put them in more comfortable positions but knowing that they had a better shot at being ‘comfortable’ if they had a home to wake up to. How was he going to make this happen? His mana was effectively at zero, but luckily, the draw on him was fairly minimal per second. A benefit of a slow-moving ritual, no doubt. Joe had no spells that were free to use, and he had no rituals set up. That was going to change in the future; he was going to start carrying a binder of active rituals.

  Where could he find poison? Did the guild have any large barrels of dangerous reagents laying around that he could dump on the road? Joe was wracking his brain for anything that he could use to stall the Royal Guard, but he was so tired! So… tired. That… how long had the guards been awake and moving? Joe looked over at the small food cart that had set up shop in the mess area and formulated a desperate plan.

  He loaded up some supplies and started pulling the small food cart. It was made to either be pulled by a person or small creature like a donkey and rolled really easily. Still, this sucker was heavy. His plan wouldn’t have worked if he needed to carry anything in the cart, and Joe really hoped that the pile of goods he had tossed out wouldn't get him into too much trouble.

  Joe strained and pulled, eventually getting out of town and on to a slight downhill slope on the road toward Ardania. It took a solid ten minutes of hauling, but he got to the charred tree line. He kept going, getting about a five-unencumbered-minute walk into the trees. Far enough that a casual stroll wouldn’t let people see the wall that was still being torn down. Joe didn’t need the morning light to see by, but he was glad for it anyway. The brightening morning hid the glowing ritual circle around his feet.

  “Mate, I need you to get out here and start smelling up the area. You have a name… no. ‘Mate’ works well then. Coffee Mate. Hee… I’m so tired…” Joe pulled his Coffee Elemental out of his ring and had it sit on the counter. He pulled out one of the small Mana Batteries he had remaining and channeled Cleanse using it and his staff. He needed to look into getting a socketed weapon so he could do this more easily in the future; Terra’s offhand comment about socketed weapons and armor was really sticking with him right now.

  Once the pot was full of utterly clean water, Joe dumped coffee grounds that he had stolen into the pot and started swirling it. The smell of coffee started to pervade the area as the massive pot of coffee joined in with the Elemental’s natural scent. Good. Joe used his basically free ability to shape shadows, creating a fine mesh over the top of the pot with a large plunger. Boom. Instant French Press.

  The sound of horses walking started filtering into the area, and Joe added a final touch, solidifying shadows on to the cart to spell out ‘Free Coffee’. Not a moment too soon, as the first people started to emerge from around the bend. To Joe’s surprise, there were only five Royal Guardsmen and three other people, including the woman who had sold the guild the blueprint in the first place. Now it made sense how they had been tattled on so swiftly.

  “Good morning!” Joe called cheerfully as they got into earshot for unenhanced humans, which none of them were. “Care to pause a moment and have a fresh cup of coffee? Free for loyal servants of the Kingdom, of course!”

  There was no verbal response for a long moment, but all the horses slowed. The apparent leader of the Royal Guard looked at the others and nodded. They swung off their horses and approached. “You know that it would be High Treason for you to poison a member of the Royal Guard, do you not?”

  “I would never!” Joe managed to look properly aghast. “M’Lord, please take a good look at me. Particularly here.”

  The Royal Guardsman looked at Joe’s forehead, and his tired eyes widened fractionally. “Extended Family to the Royal Family! Please, forgive my caution. We would be glad of a small respite; we are on an unhappy mission that arrived suddenly.”

  “Must we pause so close to our destination?” This came from a disgruntled man still sitting on his horse. “We are not a quarter hour from the Wanderer’s Guild. In
fact…! Him! This is the man who committed the treason that we have brought to light!”

  “Ah, you are this ‘Joe’ that has been causing such a ruckus?” The guard looked Joe up and down. “Of course you are. Bribery will not allow you to escape justice.”

  “Whatever are you talking about?” Joe looked around the people and saw glee dawn on the Architects. The guards looked pained, but the leader spoke up again.

  “I see. I had forgotten that you all were not informed of the charges.” He took a deep breath. “The Wanderer’s Guild has been accused of Treason against the crown for building a small-scale version of a national secret: the Wall of Ardania. Again, bribery will not help in this matter.”

  Joe slowly poured the coffee from the pot into a serving carafe, nodding slightly as the aroma filled the area even more. “Huh. That doesn't seem like something we’d do. What happens if they lied to the Kingdom about this matter? You have travel mugs, or shall I grab a few from the cart here?”

  The Architect Leader looked panicked for a moment and made a shooing motion at the other two. They charged off down the road, earning a glare from the Guard Captain. He spoke loudly at the Architect Leader, “Don’t think that I will not report your joy in causing others pain.”

  “I am simply wanting to get a read on the situation,” the Architect Leader deflected disingenuously.

  “Surely a treasonous wall that was built… when? Some unspecified time in the past? It would be there no matter if you waited five minutes to finish the best coffee in a hundred miles?” Joe shook his head at the ‘poor manners’ being displayed. “You would think that a man who had the respect of the King would be of at least slight interest in maintaining good relations with.”

  The others took a moment to parse that sentence, and the Architect smiled and came over for a cup. “I would love some coffee, if you don't mind. Interesting pet you have there… it seems we do have a few things in common.”