by Dakota Krout
“You're a ritualist, you say?” The Officer paused, looking into the distance.
That same small voice reached Joe’s ears very faintly. “He might be after the Grand Ritual Hall. Boot him.”
“Well, sorry to say, I just don't think you offer-”
Joe cut the Officer off before he could get another word out, “One of the things that I built in the previous Zone was a Grand Ritual Hall. Artifact rank. It has the ability to upgrade to Mythical, provided I can meet the criteria to make that happen. Go ahead and let your boss know that I have no interest in stealing secrets from your Ritual Hall.”
Silence filled the air between them. Joe knew that the Officer was hoping for direction, and the other person involved was doing their very best to ascertain if Joe could hear them when he talked. Joe watched the silence turn slightly darker, and remembered that he had something in his ring that might work to sway opinion in his favor. Luckily he had none of the strange performance issues that had been occurring recently; the Dwarven automaton, ‘The King that Might have Been’, appeared in a heap on the ground.
The Officer stroked his beard and nodded consideringly as he stared at the damaged device. In the next moment, the automaton vanished, and a light gasp came across whatever communication channel was open. “Fine. Welcome, Candidate.”
“Thank you, sir.” Joe nodded and peered deeper into the Fort. “What’s next?”
“OCS.” The Dwarf grinned at Joe’s blank stare. “What, you don't know what Officer Candidacy Selection is? If you thought being a Legionnaire was difficult… well, you’ve got an interesting time coming at you.”
Joe felt a thump, and found himself flying through the air. It felt like he had been kicked in the behind by a giant, but he did not know where the attack had originated from. He hoped that somehow, somewhere, whoever had just done that to him had gotten a shadowy slap to the face. He landed flat on the ground, his chin bouncing twice on the cobblestones, and found himself staring at a pair of boots.
He lifted his eyes only to be greeted by a red, twirling mustache. “Looks like you are going to be the last recruit? Good. You’re making me nervous, listening in on my conversations and messing with my people. Let's use that to make the Elves nervous; what do you think?”
There was no time to answer, as she turned and started shouting in the direction Joe had flown in. “This should be plenty, gotta leave room for others. Well, what do you think it takes to become an Officer?”
The lady Dwarf scanned the others’ faces and nodded. “I'm glad no one answered. If you had, it would mean that our secrets are getting out into the world! Then we would have needed to determine if you were a spy, or just talking to spies! Ha!”
Each of the other Dwarves joined in on the laughter, but her face firmed up as soon as they started. “I am General Mayhem, and I can tell you what it takes right now. Quest, issued!”
Quest gained: Ranker. You have been given the chance to become an Officer of the Magisteel Legion! An Officer has full citizen rights, and privileges befitting their station. To succeed, you must demonstrate not only your willingness, but your ability, to benefit Dwarvenkind. Your starting rank will be determined by your accomplishments when you return to your superior Officer to complete this Quest. Rewards are as follows:
Lieutenant: You have benefited a Company-sized contingent. Your reward is a rank, and lots more work to come.
Captain: You have benefited a Battalion-sized contingent. In addition to your rank, you will gain 1000 reputation with the Dwarven Council.
Major: You have benefited a Regiment-sized (2-3 battalions) contingent. In addition to your rank, you will gain 2000 reputation with the Dwarven Council and a small homestead.
Colonel: You have benefited a Brigade-sized (6+ Regiments) contingent. In addition to your rank, you will gain 3000 reputation with the Dwarven Council, a small homestead, and a large plot of land to do with as you will.
General: You have benefited the Legion as a whole. In addition to your rank, you will gain 4000 reputation with the Dwarven Council, a small homestead, a command of your own, and a large plot of land to do with as you will.
Noble (Major General): You have completed a task, or created something that benefited the Dwarven Oligarchy as a whole. In addition to your rank, you will gain 5000 reputation with the Dwarven Council, a small homestead, a command of your own, immunity from past crimes, and a large plot of land to do with as you will.
Higher ranks of nobility are theoretically possible.
Failure: fail to create benefits that would gain you a Lieutenant ranking within six months. Penalty: demotion to the Legion as a private, and a gag order on all Officer requirements.
“I'm not sure if you are getting a clear picture of what this means.” General Mayhem shouted in their faces as they stared at the reward list hungrily. “You do whatever it takes to get the highest rank you possibly can. If you go crazy, if you make everyone in this entire world hate you… but you benefit all of Dwarvenkind? Instant nobility. Forgiveness for what you needed to do to get there. I will tell you now, I will tell you clearly, and then you will never hear it again…”
“We expect you to make any sacrifices you need to make, so long as we win this war against the Elves!”
Chapter Nine
Silence reigned in the area as General Mayhem scrutinized them, wondering if her blunt explanation would be taken the way that it normally was. She slumped and closed her eyes as it began.
“Free pass to steal stuff!”
“Woo!”
“They’re gonna be so sorry they ever treated me-”
General Mayhem shouted them down in an instant. “Hold it! Forgiveness only means after the fact! You get caught doing things that hurt our people, you still become a wanted person! I’m telling you that the ends will only justify the means if you do enough! I started as a General, and I single handedly planned, mapped, and executed the takeover of two major forts and all the minor forts associated with them! You think you can do better than me?”
“But you just said-” A random Dudette revealed her confusion to the group, allowing the General to have a target for her ire.
“That we expect you to make sacrifices! Not to settle personal vendettas, not to use your Candidacy as a tool against your own people. Whenever you turn in the quest, or reach the end of the quest time limit, everything you do will be assessed. You might do enough early on to end the quest early, but you can always refuse and try for higher!” Mayhem scowled at the stunned lot of Dwarves, her mustache quivering as she held in her fury. “If you do a whole lot, but what you do was straight evil, and wasn't enough to bypass the standard structure and reach the nobility? Do you really think we won't court-martial you?”
“Land? Space to build up my own base of operations… how I want it? That’s what I wanted from the start…” Joe wiped his bald head, glad that she was taking this time to clarify right away. They were far too many atrocities that he could unleash upon their enemies if he knew there wouldn’t be negative consequences for him. Actually… according to what General Mayhem had just told them, he could still create widespread devastation, so long as no Dwarf… Joe raised his hand.
“What are you, a child?” General Mayhem waved a hand at Joe. “If you have something you want to know, now is the time to ask. Just speak.”
“What if we do something absolutely terrible, I mean really, really terrible, more evil, actually… but only to the Elves?” Joe's question made the General smile.
“War crimes? Sounds like something that gets you promoted. Just make sure you never let the Elves capture you for any reason, but that same logic applied as soon as you joined us.” Mayhem turned to address the group as a whole. “Listen up. As a Candidate, you basically get to do whatever you want. You want to requisition goods? Do it. You need someone to teach you something? They will. The Legion will cover all the reputation losses during your Candidacy. Just remember, at the end of this Quest limit, if you are found to
have been taking things just to take them… you better hope that you reach nobility.”
She let that announcement sink into their thick skulls, then turned and started walking away. “Are there any questions on this? No? Everyone follow me. There is one last thing to do.”
The entire company followed after her, slightly nervous after what they had just been told. They were going to need to balance acquiring power with covering their own rears, but there were a few of them who were already planning on going all-in. Joe was among them. There was no point in striving for anything less than nobility. If he only had six months to reach the highest heights, he would do it. If he couldn't do it, he would simply need to start at the bottom and work his way up again.
It would be annoying, but at least he would have done everything in his power, and would have no regrets. Joe refused to allow himself to hold back; as much as he truly wanted to just tinker with his own fun things, there was something thrilling about having a spelled-out goal. Something so clear that he could practically see the end in sight already.
“You have passed all of our tests to enter as a Candidate, but you still need one more thing.” Mayhem led them to the center of the fort, and at the exact center of the fortress, a larger-than-life statue awaited them. It was so colossal that the head of the Dwarf it depicted brushed against the ceiling. “Every fort has a final Guardian; for Dwarves, it is always standardized and modular. For Elves…”
All the Dwarves in the room spat on the ground, and Mayhem continued, “It is a plant. Their Guardian is always a cross between a tree and a carnivorous flower, a pain in the rear to kill every single time we have to do it. Everyone thinks it might actually be a weed-hybrid, since it is just that hard to get rid of. But… for us, our Guardian has always been the bravest of all Dwarves, the one who went first.”
Each Dwarf slammed a hand against their chest and shouted in unison. “Core Digger, swing strong, dig deep, and bring us home!”
Joe got caught up in the emotion that poured from every Dwarf around him. Some of them had shouted with pride in their voice, some with sadness. It was a ritual he did not understand, and as a Ritualist, he did not like that. Luckily for him, before he could open his mouth, General Mayhem spoke.
“Cory Dugger, the Core Digger! Guardian of the Dwarven race, first and last of his name! Before you stands the newest cohort seeking Candidacy! If any of them hold treachery in their heart, pick them out so that we may remove the cornerstone of insurrection!”
Joe winced as he glanced at the massive pickaxe being held casually by the… he wanted to say ‘statue’, but it was moving. This was clearly a golem or automaton. Steam hissed from each of its joints, and the Guardian began to shift. It crouched down until its face loomed only half a dozen feet above them all, and the gems it had for eyes swept across the entire room. Those same eyes acted as flood lights, so it was very clear when the construct was looking at one of them.
It had paused for a moment when inspecting Joe, but the human faced the Guardian without flinching. It stood and jerkily nodded. “Candidates. Added. To. Whitelist.”
The booming, mechanical voice made everyone except for General Mayhem wince. She allowed a half-smile to bloom on her face, then turned to face the newly-minted Candidates. “Congratulations. You now have six months to work yourselves to the bone and prove yourselves to the Oligarchy. Thanks to the magic of ‘whitelisting’, no Dwarven Guardian will attack you unless you strike first. Now, final thoughts? Make sure to ask if you need anything. Step forward when I call your names; you are going to be assigned to a mentor who will be your national liaison.”
Quest updated: Ranker. You have been fully accepted as a Candidate! Title Gained: Candidate.
Candidate: for the next six months, the Dwarven Oligarchy will hold off judgement upon your actions. Reputation gain and reputation loss have both been halted. At the end of this six-month period, all of your actions will be judged by General Courts-Martial. This title will be upgraded upon completion of the quest ‘Ranker’.
Caution: you have too many titles! Which title will you replace in order to take this Mandatory title?
Joe looked at the list available to him, and got rid of the first title he had ever gained, ‘Try Me with Trials’. If he could take anything he wanted, there was no need to be charismatic about it. He stopped fiddling with his stats and jerked his head to attention when General Mayhem called his name. “Joe! You will be assigned to Major General Havoc.”
Muttering broke out around him. “Havoc? As in-”
“She can’t be serious, right? What did he do to deserve going to that-”
General Mayhem’s voice raised above all other noises. “As a class focusing on… magic, we needed to have an expert on board to keep an eye on you. Joe… I should say sorry about this, but I’m not actually upset. A human in the Legion is cause for concern, and your people will need to work harder than anyone else to prove themselves.”
“Seriously?” Joe got his question out just before he was whisked away from the fort in a wash of mana. If he had been paying attention previously, he would have noticed the same thing happening to each person that had been assigned previously. When his surroundings stopped swimming, he found himself sitting at a desk across from a Dwarf.
Joe glanced around the room, completely uncertain how to handle the situation he found himself in. The trappings of the military were nowhere to be seen, not a single award was in sight, and the Dwarf across from him was the most disheveled representative of the race he had ever encountered.
The person he assumed to be Major General Havoc was staring at him with cold eyes, wearing a near-modern lab coat. His beard was singed and burned, shorter than any beard that Joe had ever seen a Dwarf sporting before. This was also the first person with not only a beard, but hair on his head. It had clearly not been cared for, and what remained was disheveled and steel grey.
Major General Havoc was smoking a fat cigar, and took a deep pull from it as he studied the human in turn. He glanced at a pile of scrap metal next to the table, the broken automaton that Joe had offered to get into the Officer’s track. Showing a wild smile underneath his thick protective goggles and clearly still-broken nose, the Dwarf asked a question that instantly made Joe like him one-hundred percent more.
“Who’d ya tick off to get assigned to me?”
Chapter Ten
“I don't want to think of this as a punishment.” Joe grinned at the steampunk mad scientist Dwarf. “I see our meeting as a glorious chance to prove myself. I think they knew exactly what they were doing; you don't look like the kind of person who is going to be telling me ‘no’ very much.”
“That’s just it, ya spooky bastard. I won’t stop you, but I’m not gonna help you much either.” Havoc scrutinized Joe for a long moment, the intensity of his gaze the only reason that Joe could tell his eyes were open at all behind the mirrored lenses. “Abyss… I can see it in your eyes. You're going to be trying for nobility, aren't you?”
“Seems like the appropriate plan of action.” Joe smirked at his assigned mentor. “In fact, I already have a plan to-”
“Look, human. I got nobility on my first try. Do you know what I had to do for that?” Havoc took another deep pull of his cigar and let the smoke slowly release from his nose. “I got access to one of the largest assets from a bygone age, a building that allowed me to use forbidden magic at a steep discount. I took the entire six months I was allocated, releasing the results of my research there at the absolute end of the time limit. I made it impossible for anything to grow in a huge swath of land for just shy of a decade, then launched a large-scale offensive the likes of which hasn’t been seen since.”
“That's how I got the lowest Noble title: Major General.” Joe paled as he realized that someone had already done what he was planning. Havoc kept going when Joe remained silent. “I took four major forts and thirty-six minor forts in one fell swoop, making it impossible for the Elves to take it back. Or… so w
e thought. You think you can do something like that?”
“You cast the Ritual of the Lonely Tree, and they found a way around it?” Joe inquired curiously when it seemed that Havoc was done speaking. “Did it reach the final stage, or did it get interrupted somehow?”
His query was met with silence; a silence that stretched long enough that Joe started to become very uncomfortable. Havoc’s fingers were twitching as though he were trying to decide if he was going to reach for a weapon or call for assistance right away. Finally, he made a decision and simply spoke.
“No… I was not able to cast the ritual. How… no, obviously you have some knowledge that they think… I'm starting to see why they sent you to me, human. No. We did not cast that ritual; we couldn’t make it work. Not without beggaring the Oligarchy. We cast the area spell ‘Salt the Earth’ and released my personal creations to wipe out all life within hundreds of miles. They had been designed based on the intended function of that ritual you mentioned. I don’t mind telling you this… sure, it used to be a national secret, but not so much any longer.”
“Because they found a way around it?” Joe inferred, getting a nod in reply. “How do you counter-spell something that creates a physical object? Doesn't that force a huge amount of salt into the ground? What personal creations did you use, and is that something that I can get access to?”
Havoc was sitting forward now, his grin widening as he found that Joe was someone he could have an actual conversation with. “They made a new type of plant, one that thrives on salt. In fact, it drains all the salt from the area and makes a ‘fruit’ with it. Turns out, all we did was get a three-year respite, then gave them an easy way to stock up on spices and ways to preserve their foodstuffs. Abyss, since they are Elves and the salt becomes plant-based, they can make the ‘fruit’ collect itself. After they harvest enough of the fruits, the ground is able to support normal vegetation again.”
