by Dakota Krout
Quest updated: Earn a god’s favor. You have progressed far on the second step of this quest! Keep working hard! Progress: 83%.
A smile almost split Joe’s face as he saluted the team and accepted the transport. He blinked and appeared in Ardania. Within moments, he was surrounded by the rest of his team.
~ Chapter Twenty-nine ~
Back in his room, Joe snorted as he remembered the walk back to the guild. He had brushed off the team’s questions, explaining that it was ‘a cleric thing’. Since they had been at an altar, the others had no choice but to accept his word as factual, though they hadn’t done it gracefully. He had promised to open the point to Aten and give him permissions that would allow select guild members to use the travel point. This would let Joe keep donations to Tatum flowing and keep his standing in the guild fairly high even if he were off doing something different for a while.
As much as Joe wanted to tell them what they wanted to know, there was no possible way that he was going to give up the information on how to activate the travel points. Being able to move huge distances was a staple of any game for the last few decades, and he knew that if word got out, he would have far too much competition for his burgeoning idea for a travel company. When he had gained enough fast-travel points to make a wide network, he would open them to the public and rake in the rewards. Maybe he would retire on a mountaintop in a few decades. Joe now had a long-ish term goal, and he hoped no one else would beat him to completion.
They had stopped to turn in the daily quests, so each of them were now a hundred gold richer. The others were happy with the outcome, but Joe really wanted to know what the rewards would have been if they had been able to complete the optional portions of the quest. The real reward Joe was interested in was the class item box he was staring at. It contained a guaranteed rare item, and Joe’s hands were sweaty as he reached his trembling hand toward the clasp keeping it closed. It swung open, revealing a small black book. Joe began beaming as he picked it up and inspected it.
Reward item, perception check is automatic success! Item identified: Beginner’s Encyclopedia Circulus (Forbidden Rare). This is a book containing dark rituals used to destroy, demolish, or otherwise impede your enemies. The knowledge contained has been forbidden by the Mage’s College, and all copies existing during the purge were destroyed. While once this book would have been considered uncommon, its rarity has been adjusted due to external forces. Caution! Creating the rituals contained in this book while in the presence of a licensed Mage will result in a sharp reputation loss with the College. Activating them discreetly will not, as most effects are similar to various spells. You really shouldn’t worry about that though. Maybe you should declare war on the mages! It’d be fun!
Looking at the book, Joe inspected it with his occultist job. The book glowed mostly golden, showing that while there was room for optimization, most of the rituals contained within were accurate. Opening the small book, he was excited and a bit disturbed by the effects of the rituals inside. There were only five complete rituals drawn out, but there were also multiple symbols, shapes, documentation of effects, spellforms, and components most commonly used in rituals. In essence, it was an encyclopedia which allowed you to make your own rituals with far greater ease.
Right now, there was only one attack ritual he had a chance of completing. The others required the next tier of monster Cores, and he simply had no idea if he could get his hands on one or what it would cost to do so. Ritual magic excelled as utility magic, long-term with intricate effects. These were offensive rituals, yes, but they were obviously designed as last resort doomsday devices, not commonplace weapons. Looking over the only completed attack ritual he could use–and they were definitely attack rituals–Joe had to wince as he read the description of its effects.
‘Gravedigger’s requiem’. This ritual targets a single creature, and upon activation, emits a sonic field around the victim. This field is attuned to the frequency of earth and stone and will soften the ground in a three foot radius around them. All earth in the affected area will act like quicksand, dragging them deep into the ground. Typically, the target will vanish without a trace, making this a preferred ritual for the assassination of important figures. Component cost: Copper tuning fork capable of reaching between 5 and 9 hertz (any tuning fork of uncommon quality or above), blood or hair of target, grave dirt, Sandshark’s tooth, emerald (flawed or better), 80% of a full low grade monster Core, and 1000 mana.
After reading the requirements, Joe felt that he could get most of the listed items without too much issue. He wasn’t positive, but it was likely a Sandshark was a monster, which meant that it would be harvested for components. He figured the alchemist would have this item, but he wasn’t sure where to get a tuning fork. Was there an instrument store around here? What else would he need… eighty percent of a Core was four hundred points, which meant it should cost him roughly eighty? He did another quick calculation in his head; the mana requirement should be feasible, and it would cost him… four hundred and forty-five mana. Exactly one more point of mana than he currently had.
He rolled his eyes, his regeneration would ensure that he gained the needed point of mana before it became an issue, but it still irked him for some reason. Wait! He was forgetting his mana manipulation and coalescence skills! With a bonus eight percent efficiency, he had more than enough mana! He could stop cursing Terra now! An evil chuckle rocked him as he allowed himself a short vision of grandeur. Joe would stand on top of the world one day, and make the earth swallow dragons for him! Bwaha- *Cough*. Joe choked for some reason, making himself cough a few times. He took a sip of water, hugged his new book, and went to sleep.
At least, that was his plan. As his eyes closed, Joe remembered that he had two characteristic points to spend. His eyes flew open, bloodshot and excited. He sat up, pulling open his status sheet and staring at the two stats about to cross the threshold into ‘normal’ territory. With hands almost trembling from excitement, he allocated one point into both dexterity and constitution. Accepting the changes, he waited to notice a difference.
Minimum threshold for normalcy achieved! Body modification starting in three… two… one.
Ow. Ow. Ow! Ambient mana was sucked from the environment, fueling the rapid growth of his body. Joe winced as his nerves tingled, making his body twitch. The process sped up, and soon he was thrashing on his bed as if having a seizure. As this slowed down, Joe began to feel heavy. His body slowly sank into the bed, and he began to cough. Not cute little ‘oh, dear me, there seems to be a hint of pollen in the air’ coughs; these were a version more along the lines of ‘I’ve been smoking for thirty years and my lungs seem to be full of tar’. It was a good analogy because thick black fluid came out of his mouth with each noisy hack. Landing mostly on the floor, the substance seemed to boil into nothingness and left Joe feeling as though he were imagining things.
When all of the shaking, coughing, and sputtering were complete. Joe stood up and tried to get a feel for the changes that had occurred. It was… strange. He felt heavy and slow while simultaneously being able to control his movements to a higher degree. Walking over to the small mirror provided with his room, Joe looked at himself and nearly started dancing. He didn’t look like a walking corpse anymore! He had healthy flesh and color for the first time since appearing in this world! His body had filled out, and while he didn’t exactly have a set of thick corded muscles, he did have muscle tone on his lean figure! As if he had never left his room but also ate exactly the amount of food he was supposed to. He pulled open his status screen.
Name: Joe ‘Baldy’ Class: Cleric (Actual: Ritualist) Profession: Scholar (Actual: Occultist)
Level: 6 Exp: 17978 Exp to next level: 3022
Hit Points: 50/50 (50+10 per point of constitution over 10)
Mana: 462.5/462.5 (Base 625, 12.5 per point of intelligence, +100% from deity)
Mana regen: 6.82/sec (.25 per point of wisdom)
Stamina: 50/50 (50+(0
)+(0))
Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)
Strength: 9 (0.09)
Dexterity: 10 (1.1)
Constitution: 10 (1.1)
Intelligence: 25 (1.25)
Wisdom: 27 (1.27)
Charisma: 14 (1.14)
Perception: 23 (1.23)
Luck: 14 (1.14)
Karmic Luck: +5
He looked at his hands and smiled. Now he could walk normally and do the basic functions that a human should be able to do! He would still attack with all the force of a fluffy pillow and could tell that he wouldn’t be able to carry anything extra, but he was still overjoyed at his apparent fitness. Feeling greatly pleased with his expenditure of characteristic points, Joe climbed into bed and allowed himself to drift off to sleep.
The following morning, Joe awoke feeling chipper and excited. It seemed that a healthy constitution also made it possible for him to sleep on his poor quality bed and still gain the well-rested bonus! He felt ready for the day, and Joe could hardly wait for the shops to open. Ignoring his wrinkled robes, Joe walked to the common area to scrounge up some coffee. Soon, he would be able to test out a new ritual, soon he would…! At that moment, Aten walked into the room and called for everyone’s attention. “Listen up people! We have, as of this morning… become a Noble Guild!”
The calm early morning atmosphere shattered as everyone either whooped, called a question, or just excitedly began to chatter. Aten waved his arms and shouted to regain the attention of the group. “Today, unless you have a time-sensitive quest, I want everyone to stay in town and wait for myself and the guild officers to return. We have been invited to the castle to receive our first Noble Guild quest directly from the King and Queen!”
If the noise before had been excited, this was even more so. A few people begged for a promotion on the spot, a few were steaming mad that they didn’t get to participate right away, but most were just happy for the guild. “All current guild officers, I am going to need you to join me near the castle gates in about two hours. Everyone else, I hope you are as happy about this as I am, and I also hope that if you are disappointed, you work to prove yourself capable of being a guild officer. As our roster fills out, we will need more and more officers to lead parties of new recruits! Good luck everyone, and great work so far!” With the end of the morning announcement, most people returned to whatever they were doing beforehand.
Joe wavered between excitement and exasperation toward the news. He really wanted to go set up rituals and practice with them, honing and refining his craft. He wanted to go and study magic until he was an undisputed master. Joe’s eye twitched, and he sighed as he thought through his options: study and empowerment versus meeting royalty. Maybe he could…
He gave up; the guild needed not only him, but all members, to continue getting quests and completing them for the guild. Only two dramatic and defeated sighs later, Joe decided to compromise by going to collect all the materials he needed for his new rituals and set them up later. That way he could get the best of both worlds, if not in the order he wanted them. He had to be fast! Joe hurried out of the guild, excited to advance his craft. The sudden onset of ambition was new, but he simply thought of it as overexcitement. Going about his day would surely calm him down.
After wasting time walking through the merchant district, Joe had to stop and ask directions. As it happened, there wasn’t a standard musical instrument store but instead a bardic college. Unlike the mage’s college, this place was open for anyone. He entered the strangely built building, learning instantly that the shape of the walls was designed to create a barrier of soundproofing. Joe winced at some of the sounds he heard coming from small rooms as he passed them. He wondered idly if the ear-rending sounds were meant as some kind of sonic defense for the college. It was obvious that this area must be where novices learned how to play their chosen instrument. After asking directions a few times, he left behind the practice rooms and came upon an administrative area with a secretary sitting behind a desk.
“Can I help you, Mr.…?” She politely smiled at him, though boredom was evident in her eyes.
“Joe.” Joe smiled in return. “I was hoping to purchase some tuning forks?”
“Sure thing, honey. How many, and in what note?” The lady had pulled out a clipboard and was preparing to write on it.
“Oh, let’s see here.” Joe pretended to think about what he needed, foisting off the question on her. “What do you have here that is abundant and of at least uncommon quality? I was hoping to give them out as gifts to some musician friends, but I’m not sure what they need.”
“Musicians?” An unexpected sneer crossed her face. “No wonder they don’t already have the equipment they need to succeed. No self-respecting bard would allow someone else to choose their equipment for them.” Joe was taken aback at her abrupt shift in attitude and hastily made his purchases before scurrying out the door. Thinking over the situation, he shrugged. Was there a way for him to have handled that better? In his mind, bards were the most ridiculed class, but that might only be true in other games he had played. Maybe they had a different role here? Why were simple musicians so disparaged?
Joe decided to ignore this interaction; he had far more important things to worry about for now. Looking over his purchases, he counted out thirty tuning forks. That should be enough for quite a while, and hopefully someone else would be at the counter the next time he had to stock up. Next on the list was various components, so he bravely walked to the alchemist and had an awkward conversation with the strangely flamboyant potion maker. After he made his purchases and escap–no, left–that store, he stopped by the general goods store and bought as many remaining ritual components as possible. He wanted to be ready to create rituals constantly; he had no interest in running to the store every five minutes!
Joe made it to the meeting point twenty minutes early, and used the time to start sketching out some simple rituals on his spare paper. The difference in his hands’ fluidity of motion between yesterday and this morning was intriguing. He didn’t feel like he was doing anything different, but his hands were steady and the symbols were drawn out with a grace that he had despaired of ever attaining. Yay dexterity! He continued working for as long as possible, but time was running out. Just as most of the people showed up for the meeting, Joe got a very welcome yet strangely rude notification.
Skill gained: Drawing (Novice I). It looks like you have graduated from extra-large crayons! It is very surprising to see someone start this skill at Novice one. Typically, artists show some skill when starting to draw, and their talent is adjusted accordingly. Once again, you prove how… extra special you are! Keep up this pace, and you may even become a beginner by the time you retire! Effect: +1% easier to create accurate artwork per level.
What was going on with his notifications recently? They seemed to have become far more snarky, sarcastic even. Joe tried to think about when this started, and as far as he could tell, it began when he killed the Wolfman during the ritual yesterday. Did he accidentally set his notifications to ‘rude’?
He started to pull open his status sheet, but Aten chose that moment to begin talking, “Thank you all for joining us this morning! First, let’s go over some ground rules.” This statement was met with loud groans and booing. “Yeah, yeah. Listen, I’m pretty sure you are all adults, so I’ll keep it simple. Don’t screw up! If you do something stupid in there, you are either going to be sent to respawn or to jail. I haven’t met a single person associated with the castle that has a sense of humor, so keep the jokes on silent mode. We are apparently getting a major quest line, so pay attention to the details. Remember that the wording of quests can change the entire meaning based off interpretation, so we will talk about this in a meeting later. Everyone ready?”
The gates were swinging open behind him, and it almost looked like he had planned his speech to coincide with it for dramatic effect; this effect was ruined somewhat as a yelp escaped his lips. A royal guard had ap
peared beside him and was inspecting him from about an inch away. The guard nodded after an awkward moment and looked around at the other people gathered. His eyes lingered on each person, and twice he pointed at a player. “Those two.”
“What about them, sir?” Aten politely inquired while opening his guild tab to view their information.
“They are traitors to either your guild or humanity as a whole. This person is a traitor to your guild, while the other has the title ‘Race Traitor’. Their statuses are falsified by a mid-tier effect, so they have outside help. He has a different guild–Black Brotherhood–listed as his actual guild. As for her, it appears she is trying to join the Wolfman faction by attacking and killing humans.” The guard rattled all of this off with a deadpan vocalization.
His words shocked the others, and everyone present stared at the two who were called out. They pretended innocence and confusion for a few long moments, but one of them broke and started running. Seeing this, the other paled and ran away as well. Making a strange motion with his hands, the guard flicked something at the race traitor. She yelped and was suddenly surrounded in the red glow of a murderer. In the middle of the city, it was unlikely she would survive long, so no one bothered to give chase. The royal guard’s eyes kept roaming among the people until Joe felt the shining eyes trying to pry secrets from his status.
Greater inspect resisted! Tatum is pleased with you for the boost in power he has recently gained and has used a drop of this power to grant you a six hour divine effect: Veiled Soul. This will rebuff all attempts to read your true status screen. When the benefit from this expires, you may regain the buff by making a donation or praying at an altar.
Message from Tatum: Woo! Close one there! Thanks for the new altar!
The royal guard seemed puzzled, blinking at Joe a few times before moving on. He turned to Aten. “The rest are who they say they are. At least, their loyalty to your guild and the Kingdom are not in question. Welcome to the Grand Palace Ardania; the royal couple is awaiting you.”
