Untapped ~ Chapter Twenty-Three!

The black smudge in the sky quickly grew to a towering cloud filling Joe's view of the horizon as he and his coven rushed across the untamed landscape. 

As they got closer, Joe's aura started to clear out the noxious fumes in a sphere around him, but the sheer density of the smoke made it impossible for him to dissolve everything before it got to the others. By the time they were close enough to see what was happening, he was the only one not intermittently coughing or wiping at reddened eyes.

Between one step and the next, they went from chaotic, wild growth to clear lines of sight across massive, cultivated fields. After bursting from the tree line, Joe held out his arms to stop the others, quickly scanning the huge open area and picking out a few distressing facts. One, they had once again stumbled upon humanity, at least an enclave of it. While at first he was concerned that they would need to move again, so as not to interfere with the local hunting parties, the second thing he saw made that point moot: hundreds of monsters were swarming across the fields, destroying crops as they slowly made their way toward the central area. 

As his attention was drawn to the people defending their homes, Joe found himself decidedly unimpressed with their formation. Instead of swords or spears, the majority of the people were hefting pickaxes, pitchforks, or other farming tools. Only perhaps one in five had a proper weapon, and just a small percentage of those seemed proficient in them. While he hadn't been entirely certain if he should get involved, he felt his resolve firm up as his eyes landed on a banner fluttering above the central tent, picturing three stalks of golden wheat on a background of green grass.

“Is this where the Golden Greens Guild ended up? That’s gotta be them. Pretty sure,” the Ritualist murmured to himself, trying to recall if he had ever gotten a proper view at their guild heraldry. “Eh, only way to know for sure is to get over there and ask them, and I don't think they'd mind the help. Listen up, everyone! Try not to damage their crops; it looks like they're already taking a beating. If you can't help it, don't worry too much. I'm sure it's easier for them to plant new vegetables than it is to find their way back here if they're sent to respawn.”

As they rushed forward once more, Joe realized what had been making him so uncomfortable about the situation. It wasn't the smell of ash, churned earth, or the odd fungal musk coming off the humanoid monsters. No, it was the fact that he hadn't seen anyone in this guild for literally years at this point, yet the farming guild seemed to still be living out of tents. Sure, they were oversized and probably luxurious for what they were, but the simple fact that they hadn't been able to move up from there didn't paint a pretty picture of how things had gone for them. 

There were a few permanent buildings, but they were scattered few and far between, with smaller tents clustered around them. As far as he could tell from that distance, Joe could only assume the few brick and mortar buildings were barns, grain storage, and perhaps livestock pens.

Getting in range of the first of the monsters, Joe stared it down and—to his surprise—got a system notification. 

Skill check failed! Perception check success! 

Creature name: Tillbane Wretch. A twisted guardian formed of untamed soil and held together with a wild root system, the Tillbane Wretch is grown rather than born. These creatures rise from the earth only when the land is disturbed—forest being cleared, previously untamed fields being plowed, or when the energies of the land are redirected into the growth of herbs or produce. Where Tillbanes walk, cultivated lands are destroyed and reverted to their wild state.

“Coming back to how that was a possibility all along at another time,” Joe huffed in agitation. “I guess this explains why I've never seen or heard of these creatures before. I'm not exactly the patient type that can turn sunshine into sustenance.” 

As they closed in on the Wretches, Joe's nose wrinkled, and he tried to focus his Neutrality Aura more intensely around his nose. The Tillbane stood a full head taller than him, its loamy body covered with tiny mushrooms that shed spores with every movement. The musky odor had become far more intense, with a sharp tang of natural fertilizer, feces, and rotting vegetation shining through. 

Hannah gagged as they came within touching distance, reminding Joe that he should actually do something about this monster. His Ritual Orb of Strength launched off his chest, crashing into the monster then through it. The huge entity fell to the ground as a pile of fresh manure and crumbled dirt. “Okay, that was overkill. Hey, that just means they should be good targets to practice our rituals on! Spread out and start cutting your way through. Try not to get surrounded, but get up to the farmers and support them if you can.”

“What are you going to do?” Robert shouted over the noise of wet compost splattering to the ground. 

Joe shot him an excited smile. “I'm going to do the same thing, but faster.” 

With that, Joe shoved off the ground, causing it to tremble as Omnivault launched him over the sparse grouping of Tillbane and deeper into the sludgy mass of monsters. Even before his feet touched down, he had his inscription tool in hand and began sketching out a quick, compact Ritual of Elemental Burst. Allowing it to hang in the air, he turned sharply to the left, creating a second one at a ninety-degree angle to the first. 

Twice more, he drew out the Novice-rank ritual in the cardinal directions, before touching each in turn with his left hand and duplicating them in front of his right in the ordinal directions. Finally, he activated them one after another, sending cones of sharpened stones blasting out of most of them, though two of the rituals cut through the Tillbane Wretches with sharpened air.

Just as Joe was preparing to move, a ninth, shadowy ritual appeared, stacked directly above one of the sharpened wind versions and activating on its own. Even without checking his combat log, the Ritualist realized it was the new, Tatum-enhanced effect of Haunting Shadows at play. In all directions around him, the monsters staggered under the sudden, unexpected elemental assault. They weathered the first blow of the ritual easily, every last one of them surviving until the final blast. Then, as the rituals collapsed, so did the nearest ranks of Wretches.

Something about that didn't sit right with Joe, and as he Omnivaulted to a new spot, he quickly glanced at his notifications to see why they had been able to hold strong against the entire hundred points of elemental damage the rituals could output. 

Ritual of Elemental burst deals 10 damage. Tillbane Wretch resists 25% of the elemental earth damage! 

This creature is significantly lower level than you. It takes 15% reduced damage from all attacks. Source: Title (Tatum’s Chosen Legend).

“That's it, you're going into a pearl!” Joe flicked the necklace he had been given from Grandmaster Pete, assigning his title to the pearl and immediately feeling as though a tightness around his chest had loosened. “Nothing to do about the elemental resistance—or is there?” 

As the ground rushed up at him, he stomped down as hard as he could on a Wretch’s head, shoving off at an oblique angle and creating an opening with a Ritual Orb so he could land next to a swath of burning crops. Once again, his inscription tool traced out the ritual in midair. His hands blurred as he finished three more then duplicated them, only to pause in surprise as an inactive ritual appeared stacked with the most recently created one. “It can duplicate the effects of Ritual Duplication? Celestial feces, that's…”

All but salivating, Joe began quickly activating the nine ritual circles, and to his delight, two more sprang into existence, one a shadowy version of the already-duplicated-by-Haunting-Shadow ritual. “I wasn't complaining before, but now I have nothing but positive things to say about how that all went down, Tatum!”

Flickering light appeared in front of the majority of his rituals. Between one breath and the next, heat collected into shimmering orbs and was launched out to detonate against the Tillbanes, blowing large chunks off of the monsters. Joe was far more concerned with keeping a close eye on the duplicated rituals than the effects they achieved. Since all three of the intentionally and unintentionally duplicated rituals were stacked atop each other, it was clear to see how they… stacked up.

The flames produced at the bottom were the most intense, on par with any of the original creations. This made sense: it took in additional resources to generate the exact same effect. Explosions generated by the middle circle were half as effective, while those on the top barely dealt any damage at all. Still, the proof of concept had Joe rubbing his hands together in sheer excitement—barely any damage was still damage. If he could get the effect to activate when he was creating Master-ranked rituals…? Well, in that case, being less effective wouldn't matter nearly as much. Though he wasn't exactly certain how the math would work out, it still should hit with immense power.

A shower of dirt washed over him, blocking his view for a moment as he blinked in confusion at being pulled back to the situation. Turning around, he immediately identified where the substance had come from, as the Tillbane who had attacked him was staring at its destroyed arm in what the Ritualist could only assume was confusion. 

“Friend, you've made your last mistake. Already disarmed? Then prepare to be de-feet-ed!” Sweeping his Ritual Orb low to the ground, Joe popped the creature's legs, sending raw earth spilling as though he had torn into a sandbag. 

Drawing out a Novice ritual diagram, Joe found himself holding still longer than he wanted as he surrounded the first with a second circle, activating the Beginner-ranked version of the Ritual of Elemental Burst with a flash of intent and a hint of mana. 

Stone arrows, nearly fifty percent larger than the Novice versions he’d been seeing, launched from the center of his ritual. The only other noticeable difference was how they shot in a spray that seemed directed, unlike the haphazard eruption of fragments of the lower rank. Each of the thickened stone projectiles struck a distinct target, making Joe murmur in appreciation before going silent as it repeated the attack, only to send the rocks into mostly new targets. 

“Hmm, that’s actually less effective. Looks like the Ritual Circle without any enchantment or alchemy added just picks targets at random. Or is it by proximity? Maybe that Wretch was slightly closer than the other after it had been pushed back? Need more data points!” Between having a near-endless supply of Common-ranked aspects, the ability to draw his ritual diagrams in the air, and a massive supply of targets, Joe was quickly able to deduce the answers he had been seeking. 

Even with as quickly as he could destroy them, the monsters seemed nearly endless. As he was able to take them down with relative ease, he soon found himself in the center of an inverted crater, with a thick wall of dirt and vegetation having practically grown around him as the creatures were felled. “Time to move to the next spot!”

A quick glance around informed him that the monsters he had been destroying were nothing more than a drop in the ocean. Checking on his coven members, he was pleased to see that they were almost to the inner defensive line, having worked together to clear a shallow channel through the slow, shambling Wretches. 

Just as he was about to return to his studies, the line of farmers slumped, a wave of the Tillbane moving through the breach at a slow yet steady pace. “Ah, seems playtime’s over. Let's save these farmers, and… yeah, just have to watch the angle of my rituals. No way to not target other people yet, if I want to keep going with Beginner rituals.”

The only saving grace was that the ritual circles were still directional. Moments after he had first witnessed the defensive line collapse in, Joe was landing, sweeping his two remaining Ritual Orbs around him to quickly destroy the monsters that had pushed through. “Abyss, I really need to take some time and make more of these. Note to self, after destroying your weapons in an Alpha Strike, go make more weapons.”

With a swirl of his hand, a Beginner-rank circle was drawn in the air. “Got that down to eight seconds, nice. Ritual Duplication! Let's call it four seconds each on average—no, that makes it sound faster than it is. Two for the price of one is not the same as fifty percent each, in this case.”

Activating both of the magical weapons, he moved on to the next, leaving them hanging in the air unattended. Just after he completed the next duo, the first two sputtered out and vanished, having used the entirety of their payload. Joe grunted as he pushed himself to work faster but was fully unable to shorten the time between creating them any further. “This is why… we are supposed to… make all of these before going into combat!”

His efforts were paying dividends—Joe was able to hold the empty section of the line all on his own so long as he maintained his current pace. Between the two rituals he was able to generate with each iteration, he was able to fight on par with what approximately twelve of the farmers could manage. Beyond that, the passive healing effect of his Neutrality Aura was bolstering the humans he had come to rescue, quickly knitting their bruised and broken flesh back to full health and letting them get back into combat. 

Soon, even the people who had been driven away quickly stepped forward and reformed the line, reducing even more of the pressure the Ritualist was under.

“You!” Joe called to a random farmer. “What's the plan here? Are we going to have you all fall back so it's easier to defend this place, or what?”

“Already did that three times, mister,” came the brusque reply. “We fall back anymore, we're going ta’ lose the whole farm.”

Nodding to show his understanding, Joe continued with his ritual creation, focusing carefully on each of the details as his hands flew. Another appeared in the air, followed by another and another almost instantly. Then again, and again. He heaved a sigh of relief as each detail of the ritual appeared clearly in his mind—bringing into play Somatic Ritual Casting’s effect of allowing him to generate the diagram instantly. Immediately he began moving faster, creating a circle in the air and recreating it with ritual duplication, only because he wanted to level up the skill as quickly as possible.

Thanks to his capped Dexterity, he went from creating two circles every eight seconds to generating four of them per second. Moving down the line of defenders, he made a veritable wall of magic, sending hundreds of Elemental Bursts each second. In under ten minutes, he had circled the camp fully, and his efforts provided relief both from the encroaching monsters as well as rapid healing and rehydration wherever he went. By the time he reached his starting position, the farmers were putting up a much less one-sided fight.

Even so, more of the Tillbane Wretches were growing on the outskirts of the farm constantly. Joe ran forward a dozen steps, his orbs swirling around him and pulverizing any of the monsters that came close. Then he repeated his instant creation of rituals, creating a one man defensive line. Still, it wasn't enough, so he dropped his hands and focused on his Ritual Orb of Intelligence, taking a deep breath and sending it spiraling out to its maximum range, piercing through dozens, scores, then hundreds of the creatures.

With one portion of the perimeter suddenly cleared of monsters, he turned his efforts to the next. Reaching the third side of the camp, Joe found that the farmers had joined forces with their friends and were hacking their way through all on their own. Instead of taking over, Joe let them secure their victory, quietly ensuring each of them stayed at their peak health. 

His heart was thundering from the sheer adrenaline of the fight, yet at the same time, he felt a deep sense of dissatisfaction with himself. “No experience, probably no loot. Oh, a couple unread notifications, so I probably gained some skill levels… otherwise this entire thing would have been completely pointless for me to do. I mean, besides saving all the people. Still…”

He rubbed at the back of his shiny head as he noticed a few people in official-looking garments hurrying toward him. Staying where he was, he glanced around the area and found only low-leveled people everywhere he looked. “No wonder no one else from the guild that has gone to a higher world has come back yet. Skill grinding is great and all, but-”

“That's twice now you've saved our butts, Joe.” The Ritualist blinked, forced out of his inner turmoil as a woman with almost every inch of skin covered by her robes held out a hand as she approached him. “First time poison, second time monsters. I'd say I hope there isn't a third time, but I feel like that would be practically cursing myself. If you see us in trouble, I hope you always feel free to pull us out of it!” 

The outstretched hand was grimy, absolutely coated in mud and pulped vegetation. Instead of being icked out by that fact, Joe grabbed the palm carefully, making sure not to accidentally crush the Guildmaster’s hand. “It's been a while. Teddy, right? The rogue?”

“Close-range mage,” she countered with the speed of someone who was long-used to having this exact conversation. “And yes. Welcome to the Golden Green’s main farm. We’re, uh… having some troubles at the moment, or I'd invite you in for a drink.”

“I wouldn't mind hosting him for a little while, while you clean up.” 

Joe froze as the familiar voice washed over him, and he turned to glance at the newcomer with a huge smile on his face, practically shaking in delight as he accepted the offer. “Never expected to find you here, Papadopoulos Whisperfoot.”

“You should know this better than anyone, Joe—” The two of them bumped fists, and the dashing figure flicked his wide-brimmed hat up and out of his eyes before gesturing for the Ritualist to follow him. “—I expect my friends to call me Poppy.”