Untapped ~ Chapter Twenty!

Tatum waved his hand dramatically, a soft shimmer of lavender light warping the space his fingers passed, symbols and glyphs unfolding like a lotus blossom blooming, forming into perfectly shaped letters which hung in the air. As he read over the densely packed words, the deity spoke with his normal smooth rhythm. “Busy, busy indeed. You are currently tied as the forerunner of humanity and have been recklessly charging forward, which I have greatly appreciated as your sponsor. Still, you've really let things pile up.” 

The words came out harsher than Joe expected, and it was only the smile the deity couldn't hide that let Joe maintain his cool. “First and foremost, as they are already attached to your Akashic record, you have spell upgrades which are long overdue. Several are queued for evolution, some with distinct branching paths, such as Exquisite Shell. With these, there is no other option but to upgrade them.”

The Ritualist didn't miss the extra emphasis Tatum had been adding to his words, though he made sure to keep his mouth shut as the intensely powerful entity shifted to a different topic. “By the way, I'm very pleased to see that you have made it all the way to Vanaheim so far and have found powerful and wise mentors to give you guidance. This reminds me, you're also due rewards from the quest I gave you on Alfenheim to make sure Gaia didn't remain the sole deity on the planet. Problem is, that was mainly meant to be a daily reward you earned by coming back to one of my shrines, and it's been a long, long time since you visited.”

“About those spells-” Joe definitely didn't let out a nervous chuckle at the thought of having been missing out for so long. “-An upgrade, you say?”

“Mmhm.” Tatum's lips were twitching, and Joe didn't miss how his eyes flicked up over his shoulder, as if locking onto someone standing there and carefully monitoring the conversation. “But let me finish. You’re also meant to get new spells, very powerful ones at that. Another thing, you’ve earned a reward for your Reductionist specialization. Fantastic choice to specialize in that, by the way. Don't think I ever got to tell you that in person.” 

“Not too shabby-”

Joe was cut off with a hurried, “Hold on. Lastly, the sheer number of followers you’ve brought me is closing in on, well, let's just say every Dwarf on Jotunheim, plus a good chunk of Humanity. Now, since you have long since reached maximum reputation with me, that’s going to be rolled into a major boon from me.”

Heart pounding in his chest, Joe didn't bother to hide the wide smile from his face as he took in all of the information. Still, the subtle signs Tatum had been giving him kept Joe from simply taking all of this at face value. After so long working together with the deity, he had learned that sometimes there was more to be gained from bargaining than simply accepting what was offered. 

“That's amazing, and thank you so much! Look… I'm really happy with what I have now, and frankly am looking to build up my foundation more than I am looking to add more to the pile of things to learn and spend time on. Is it possible, and again, don't think me ungrateful, but is it possible that there’s an option other than taking all of that individually? Spell upgrades aside, as you mentioned those are already part of who I am.”

Tatum looked up and scratched at the stubble on his neck casually, too casually to be real, going by the trembles of excitement he was trying to mask. “I mean, I completely understand where you are coming from. I guess I'm not sure what you are asking for specifically?”

“It might not be standard, but, could you just kind of… roll all of it together? Give me a nice, consolidated reward? Even if it’s a little less than all of the other stuff would have been worth in total, I don’t mind too much.” Joe splayed his hands to the side pleadingly, trying not to overact and give the game away but still trying to show that he was the one requesting this. 

“I mean, I have no preference whatsoever, and certainly wouldn't want to advise you to take anything less than what you’re owed.” Tatum shrugged his shoulders slowly, pulling a face and holding the gesture just a fraction of a second too long to be anything other than feigned disinterest. “But, I mean, if that's what you really want… I'm sure we can consolidate things down to a clean, elegant solution for you. But only if you really want-”

“Yes, that.” Joe nodded so fast that the sheer speed would have snapped his neck were he a baseline human. “My current mentor is a Class Sage, and both he and Grandmaster Pete recommended I figure out some way to trim down my skills to make a foundation I can really build off of. While I understand I could gain powerful skills or spells, I wouldn't want to look like I'm throwing his advice in his face. Really, you’d be helping me out, not to mention I'm curious to see what that would look like.”

“Well, I am known as the Hidden God for a reason. Curiosity is practically a moral imperative of my faction’s followers.” Tatum held up one hand in warning. “Still, there's no going back from this; you can't try to undo the deal after it has been made. Part of the power of the rewards will be consumed simply in the consolidation.”

“That’s what I want,” Joe stubbornly insisted, earning himself a faint smile from Tatum as dark electricity crackled around the deity's eyes. “Err…. you okay there?”

“Accepted.” Tatum boomed out, his voice rolling out and echoing oddly off the cloud layer surrounding the mountaintop temple. “First, though you have previously spoken aloud that you wish for me to offer you ways to shield your rituals, with your current skill levels, it is outside the bounds of what I may offer to you.”

Joe immediately realized what the deity was trying to tell him: only as a Grandmaster, or perhaps even as a Sage, would he be able to put such protections in place directly into rituals. A part of his mind immediately began wondering if there were ways to get the same effect using some of the other Ritualist class skills, but he refocused as Tatum spoke again.

“The power of each of the minor boons shall be funneled into the specialization reward you are due.” Tatum's hands moved with deceptive swiftness, leaving afterimages in the air which made him appear to have five, fifty, then hundreds of arms before slowing and leaving traces of power behind. 

Each of these consolidated as tiny constellations Joe just somehow knew were the representations of the skills grafted into his soul. Remaining silent, he looked on in awe as Tatum continued his working. “The inherent power of that specialization is to take many different things and distill them. Through this, I offer you the chance to take any of your skills or spells and condense them into a distilled essence of skills, which will be used to directly empower or slightly alter the skills you choose to keep. Choose now which of your skills you will sacrifice for this process.”

“An inch wide, a mile deep. No need for me to keep any spells… I sure hope I understood what you wanted me to do, Mirascible.” Luckily for him, Joe had already spent quite a bit of time going over his exhaustive skill list and knew exactly what he wanted to keep and what he was willing to give up. Even so, with the plethora he was about to sacrifice, he knew this wasn't going to be a pleasant experience. 

Taking a deep breath, the Ritualist quickly intoned, “Acid spray, Cone of Cold, Dark Lightning Strike, Mend, Planar Shift, Wither Plant… Infernal Conflagration.”

“Dark Lightning Strike and Planar Shift cannot be removed in this way, as they aren’t something you generated on your own. They were given to you by me. Mend is similar, but I think I can… yes, so long as you keep a version of it in the Lay on Hands spell, that’s fine.” Tatum was consulting some information Joe didn't have access to, but now wasn't the time for him to ask more questions. “Go on… what else?”

“I definitely want to keep my Artisan Body and the skills that help me control my Ritual Orbs… but some of the rewards I've gotten, even from the king and queen, just aren't as useful anymore.” Though he had to force the words out of himself, Joe understood the implication that whatever power he gave up would be returned to him, at least in some manner. “Essence Cy-”

*Hack*. Tatum loudly coughed into a closed fist, then looked at Joe as if startled that he had done so. “Sorry, don't mind me! Go on, anything you want to be rid of, it’s your right to do so.”

“Uh… right.” Joe spoke slightly slower, and to his great relief was not shown even a twitch of displeasure as he stated, “Magical Synesthesia? Oh! Oh! Mental Manipulation Resistance! Can I get rid of that? Please? It directly states in the skill that, at the Beginner ranks, I’ll start to go insane if I die, and I've already gotten it almost halfway through Journeyman!”

“You have earned the right to get rid of any skill you have at this moment,” Tatum repeated in an extremely neutral tone. 

“Great, then, Polearm Mastery.” Thinking for a moment, Joe moved to the next section of his mentally partitioned skills. “Words of Power, Written. I'm just not creating talismans or spell scrolls, and I'd love to see what I can get from this. Message? Yes… I can achieve the same effect with rituals without scraping someone's brain raw or making my ears bleed. I use Natural Magical Material Creation to create Aspect jars, so not that. Spellbinding… yes. I want to keep all of my Lore skills, so… I guess that’s it. Huh. When it's all put down like that, it somehow doesn't seem as bloated as it did before.”

“Losing ten powerful skills is nothing to sniff at.” Tatum tilted his head to the side, just before making another offer that was like a bombshell in Joe's brain. “Is that all, then? I notice you are not using several of your titles, and those are functionally the same as externally applied skills. Would you like to combine them in as well?”

Trying not to hyperventilate at the sudden knowledge that such a thing was possible, though he fully understood how much this would change how titles were viewed if it got out, Joe swallowed and managed to squeak out through a suddenly very dry mouth, “Sure. Take Superhero Lander, Pierce the Darkest Night, Anti-mage, Immovable Object, and Councilman Of Novusheim.”

“I can do all except the last, as that is not yours to give away.” Tatum frowned ever so slightly. “In fact, when you return to Jotunheim, I believe it won’t be yours at all.”

“What are they doing over there?” Joe inquired with sudden dark suspicion. “It's Stu, isn't it?”

Tatum’s lips pressed firmly shut, so the Ritualist just tossed his hands in the air and confirmed his choices. Still, the deity didn't do anything with the tiny constellations hanging in the air, instead moving on to a new topic. “Now, as for the power of the major boon you are due for bringing so many followers to me, would you like to manually decide how to distribute that in the same manner, or would you like me to apply it in the same way? Following that, would you like to go through each of the possibilities for changes in your skills, or would you like me to apply this all according to your subconscious preferences and how you use your remaining skills?”

Joe was just about to commit to however long it would take to go through and fine-tune each of his options, but the way Tatum licked his lips—and how a haunted look appeared in his eyes—convinced the Ritualist to simply trust that the deity who had always been working behind the scenes to help him out wouldn't be doing anything to harm him at this point. “I trust you, Tatum. Do what you think is best.”

“Ah… in that case…” The clouds around the temple began to roil, lightning flashing among them and crackling into the open air in a bizarre reversal of nature. “The areas I have the most sway in adjusting are the skills directly under my purview. Only because you have a truly impressive amount of options available to you will it work to adjust things in this way. Don't be too concerned with what I'm about to tell you, but I hope it's understandable that, generally speaking, changing class skills directly is seen as a terrible idea.” 

Not letting Joe’s imagination run wild, Tatum followed up his previous statement with, “Yet… in your case, your specializations create useless redundancies. Before I go any further, know that allowing me to adjust them as I see fit will reduce some of the prestige options that will be available to you the next time you choose a specialization. Yet, those that remain will be more well-tailored to your situation-”

“Just do it, Tatum,” Joe spat out, not sure how much longer he could brace for the incoming changes before he pulled a muscle in his neck or something. “I said I trust you, go ahead and believe me.”

“Then it shall be done.”

The very mountain the temple was situated on began to tremble as Tatum slowly lifted his hands. Dense power filled the air, which folded in around the duo until it was as solid as layered silk. The constellations representing Joe's skills began to move slightly, as though he were on the surface of a planet slowly rotating. One by one, the skills and spells he had chosen to sacrifice began to grow brighter, as power began to gently swirl around and into them.

As soon as he was ready, Tatum sent Joe an apologetic look that both beings were fully aware that this would be a painful process—they were essentially going to be performing surgery directly on his soul without the benefit of anesthesia. To his credit, neither hesitated. Joe merely clenched his fists and took a deep breath while Tatum flicked his fingers and tapped one of the constellations.

*Pop.*

The tiny constellation vanished, collapsing in on itself before breaking into millions of glowing particles which fell to the bottom of the bubble in the air it had been suspended in, still dragged along as the rest of the star clusters spun around Joe’s spasming body. 

For his part, the Ritualist’s knees buckled, yet he didn't fall. Veins of light spider-webbed across his body as immense power flowed through him, lighting up the ritual that had been etched into his body upon choosing the Reductionist specialization. He could feel Tatum working, how the visual representation was simply to give him a view at what was truly happening deep within himself. 

*Pop.*

*Pop.*

*Pop.*

Each burst of light made the human want to lash out, to fight against the process, but at that point, there was nothing to be done. He was held in place as firmly as if a mountain had landed on him, and even his mana pool was being suppressed and directed by the deity flooding him with what could only be called divine power.

Stardust poured from the ruptured constellations, the glitter now moving counter to the constellations, drifting downward until it had collected above Tatum's outstretched palm. Energy gathered then, making the previous potency seem like a trickle dripping into an ocean. The stardust began to be imbued with a heady cocktail of soul-stuff and primordial power, then the energized particulate swept away, flying through the air like a billion meteorites and vanishing into the heart of the other constellations, some far more thickly than others.

The clouds around the open-aired temple tore apart with a roar, spiraling upward as tornadoes which reached toward them like grasping tentacles. The moon appeared in the sky above them, looking as though it were falling out of the heavens as it expanded to cover nearly half of the entire void—only to crack like an egg and release a roaring dragon that froze in place. It then began to dissolve, as though it had been a projection on a cloud bank that was being blown away. 

Comets streaked backward across the heavens, trailing shimmering lines which left behind visions of mythical creatures galloping or flying across them. 

Even so, Tatum never bothered to so much as glance at the phenomena, fully intent on his task. 

Joe's remaining skills began to shine, flaring with newfound purpose as they were changed, evolved, or adjusted. The Ritualist trembled, was thrown about mentally, crushed a thousand times… then he was simply standing, locking eyes with a concerned looking deity who immediately let out a sigh of relief when awareness returned to his eyes. “Did I pass out?”

“No. That would have been quite the mercy though, wouldn't it?” Tatum chuckled under his breath, gently placing a hand on Joe's shoulder and taking a slow, shuddering breath.

“Should I be worried at the sheer amount of relief flowing off of you right now, Tatum? If you weren't confident in me coming out of this, I would have liked to know that ahead of time.” Joe tried to smack the hand off of him, but might as well have punched an Ebonsteel wall. 

“But then you might have said ‘no’!” Joe's jaw dropped, but Tatum only laughed and backed away. “Just kidding… mostly. Just a couple more quick choices, and I'll let you take a look at everything all at once. First, the spells I get to upgrade as a separate reward, then I'll explain what happened with… oh, nearly a quarter of the power I committed to this. Also, there were a few… oddities you should be made aware of.” 

“Oddities,” Joe repeated in a flat tone. “Such as?”

“For one, ‘Query’ was shattered and added into the mix by—er… an outside source. Sorry about that; apparently you'll have to directly visit shrines to get advice from me from now on. On the plus side, that means I was able to devote its pending upgrade’s power to the mix. Also, the process unlinked each of the skills bound in your Ritual Orbs, and a few of them gained levels because of that.” Tatum winced and glanced at the sky. “I recommend looking over the entirety of your status carefully to see what all has changed. As far as I’m concerned, there's only one… less than savory change, but, again, this first.”

Congratulations! Exquisite Shell is ready to evolve! Please choose one of the available options. These options have been generated based on usage and your desires.

• Exquisite Shell (Refined). This is a direct upgrade of the Exquisite Shell base spell. Effect: For every point of mana in this spell, negate .85 damage from primary sources of magic, .85 damage from primary sources of physical damage, and .8 damage from elemental effects. Increase conversion by .02n where ‘n’ equals skill level.

• Exquisite Shell (Open Lattice). This evolution comes from your largest pain point of the spell, allowing the Exquisite Shell to be maintained and repaired with conscious effort. Effect: For every point of mana in this spell, negate .75 damage from primary sources of damage. Increase conversion by .02n where ‘n’ equals skill level. Mana can be added to the structure after damage is taken to bring it back to its full capacity. 

In lieu of elemental damage reduction, this spell instead provides immunity to non-magical sources of extreme heat or cold. 

• Exquisite Shell (Twin Shell). This upgrade allows the spell to be cast twice, where the first layer operates as normal, while a secondary shell is held in reserve. If the primary shell is destroyed, the secondary activates instantly. Both must be destroyed or deactivated to refresh the spell. Reserves an additional 5% of total mana.

“This isn't even a choice. Number two for sure. Next.” A thrill ran down Joe's spine as he locked in his choice. “I can supply power while taking damage to make it last longer in the first place? Absolutely.”

Congratulations! Dark Lightning Strike has reached a branching path! Please choose one of the available options. 

• Dark Chain Lightning. No longer are you reaching up to strike your foes from on high. Instead, a consecrated bolt of dark lightning unleashes from your hand to your target. Effect: The lightning bolt deals 10n dark damage to all affected beings, where n = skill level.

Each reputation rank with Occultatum allows the Dark Chain Lightning to branch one additional time after striking the initial target (Current rank: Extended family = 5 branches). Each tier in this spell increases the number of times the branched lightning can jump to a distinct target (Current tier: Expert = 6 jumps). Total possible targets struck: 31. 

• Light Chain Lightning. Under the influence of your Light Intelligence, you have severed the divine link required to cast this spell. The lightning is now yours to create and command, focused entirely through your Intelligence and the purity of your arcane endeavors. 

Effect: The lightning bolt deals 10n arcane lightning damage to all affected beings OR arcane lightning damage if impacted by the ground spread, where n = skill level.

When striking only a single target, the damage of this spell is hyper focused on its target, piercing through 50% of resistances or immunity to lightning or magical damage. 

“Why is this an ‘A’ or ‘B’ when the last was numbers?” Joe’s gentle complaint was only a passing thought, as this was a far more difficult choice. Glancing at Tatum revealed only a firm poker face, with no possibility of help or explanation for the very different options. “Essentially, this would have let me break it down to be added to the mix if I had chosen it ahead of time, huh? Well…”

Joe hesitated for longer than he expected of himself, but finally made his choice, locking in Dark Chain Lightning. “I see no reason to separate out further from you, buddy. If I want arcane lightning, I'll make a ritual for it. But even my new mentor begrudgingly admitted that I should keep a few powerful spells around, just in case.”

Tatum nodded at him gratefully, still not meeting his eyes—probably because they both knew he had engineered the situation to make sure Joe kept the spell. There was one last notification waiting for Joe, but this time there was no choice for him to make.

Congratulations! Mass Resurrection Aura has been given a new effect: All damage taken by anyone who has been resurrected is reduced by 80% for 5 minutes. 

“Okay, with that all out of the way…” Joe popped open his character sheet and decided to take a look at what had sent Tatum on a roller coaster of emotional responses. “...let’s see how it went.”