Untapped ~ Chapter Twenty-Five!

“I'll claim the land, setting this as the center of my territory. To help you guys get back on your feet, I’ll put together some rituals that’ll make life easier for a while, as well as raise a few buildings, while I'm at it. You'll have all rights necessary to cultivate the area, exploit the natural resources, and have complete autonomy within your own guild. Oh, let's not forget an automatically renewing hundred-year lease on the land.” 

The quill in Joe's hand flashed across the parchment, leaving behind the words he was saying out loud in a neater, more legal-looking format. “In return, Teddy, and therefore the Golden Greens Guild, will act as my steward in my absence. Instead of collecting coins as my tax, twenty percent of all your profits will come to me as cheese. Stored, hoarded, traded or produced… I don't how care how you do it.”

“Still not sure why you want cheese as your payment.” Teddy glanced at the parchment questioningly, perhaps wondering if he was saying one thing and writing another. 

“Shouldn’t matter to you, as cheese is something I know you can get.” Joe brushed off the question, not wanting to let out the secret of how it was the only currency of note a few worlds up from this one. As far as he knew, he was the first to return from Vanaheim, and by the abyss, he was going to get some benefits from all his hard work. “I want a fortune in fermented milk by the time I get back. Wheels ready to roll out, wedges stacked to the sky. Actually… here, I'll give you one of my storage rings after I empty it out, so you can directly store my cut.”

“Cut the cheese,” Poppy murmured under his breath, too quietly for anyone but Joe to hear. “Cut of the cheese?”

“Something you want to share, Poppy?” Joe let out a quiet chuckle, his eyes on the ink drawing on the parchment, though he was almost certain his friend’s face was flushing. “No? Then, if this is agreeable to you… sign on the dotted line.”

Teddy read over it then glanced up at Joe, a hint of concern still in her eyes. “This isn't a magical document. How do you know I'll follow through?”

“Same way you know I will.” He shrugged nonchalantly, trying not to show exactly how badly he wanted this deal to go through. “Good, old-fashioned trust. I'm going away, who knows for how long. When I come back, I'll be even stronger. If I need to flatten this place and put someone else in charge of getting me the cheese I want, I could. Or, instead of going through all that rigmarole, why not just work with people I want to work with from the start?”

“Fair.” Teddy signed the document, slightly rigid from the disbelief mingled with relief flowing through her. “Okay. You follow through on your end, and I will… gather cheese. Hey, I need to make sure to introduce you to our main animal handler, Kenny McGruff. Before that, how do you feel about goat cheese?”

“Baahh-ad,” Joe bleated at her, only to immediately backtrack. “In a more serious way, I don't know. Feel free to include it, and if it doesn't work for what I need, I’ll just ask you to stop. That fair?”

“Fair is a four-letter word in negotiations, Joe.” Teddy scrawled her signature on the line. “But since it's in my favor, I'm not going to say no. Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Great.” Joe stood up, lacing his fingers together and cracking his knuckles. “In that case, let's get this show on the road!”

Stepping out of the tent, Joe glanced up at the sun, which hadn't quite hit its zenith yet. “Just before noon. I should have plenty of time to get all this done today. Two days at most. Hey, you guys want to help me work on some rituals?”

His question was directed at the members of his coven, who had gathered around to wait and see if they were going to be going back into the woods or could accept the local’s hospitality and sleep in a proper bed for the first time in a week. Hearing that they’d be staying, likely overnight, specifically to work on rituals more powerful than they could generate themselves? Not one of them had a complaint. 

“Fantastic. Just one thing I have to do first.” He pulled the embellished land claim token out of storage and rolled it across his knuckles before flicking it in the air, catching it with a flourish, and activating it with a simple flash of intent.

You are attempting to activate a land claim token (Duchy). Please note, using this item will automatically grant you the title of ‘Duke of Ardania’, which comes with its own benefits and responsibilities. The location you choose to claim will impact the amount of land under your direct control. The farther you are from the capital city, the more land you will be able to claim. Would you like to use this land claim token now? Yes / No.

As he selected ‘yes’, the world paused.

Joe's eyes began to itch as his Karmic Perception forced his vision to tunnel onto the coin in his hands, widening as a pulse of ghostly golden light spread outward. The slow nova continued only a short distance before poofing into untold millions of golden filaments. They spread out and touched every blade of grass, tree, and person in the area before continuing onward like molecule-sized dolphins—sinking into something then erupting up before diving into the next. 

The light moved faster than lightning, extending to the outer bounds of his newly claimed territory, which he somehow understood to be just barely more than forty thousand total acres—nearly triple the estimated area the king had given him.

Golden filaments collapsed back in on Joe, overwhelming him with sensations. He could feel the land, its wild, untamed places, how sections of it had begun to rot from too many monsters living in a concentrated area, how it was angry at the interlopers… then a more potent force slammed into his mind, and he felt his territory gasp in shock, the ambient mana shuddering in surprise as the full weight of Ardania’s royal decree crushed the resistance of the now-claimed territory. 

In the same moment, every Tillbane Wretch moving through the fields went still then crumbled in slow motion. A bond clicked into place, and a notification appeared.

You have claimed new territory. The size of the territory is large enough to confer a noble title. Checking against the registry of the kingdom you inhabit to see if you are granted this right, or are contesting their rule… congratulations! You have gained a title.

Title gained: Duke of Ardania. As a duly appointed noble, you have gained the right to: 

• Raise a personal army on your land. As a Duke, that army may consist of one thousand total individuals. If the kingdom is attacked, 80% of your personal army will fall under the command of the crown. If your Duchy is attacked by an army-sized contingent of enemies, the kingdom's military is obligated to send out a force to defend your land.

• There is an automatic 30% tax applied to all sales within your realm, but you have been granted a ten-year stay to develop and stabilize your territory. 

To expand your domain, you may:

• Increase citizen morale and population.

• Improve quality of life and ensure access to natural resources.

• Create high-quality local services.

• Build high-quality dwellings.

• Ensure adequate food, water, and shelter across each of the settlements in your Duchy.

• Develop and secure infrastructure, which allows for trade routes and external markets. 

As Joe finished reading over the information, the land claim token shifted and flowed across his fingers, wrapping around his index finger and reforming as a golden ring. Immediately he checked it, raising an eyebrow in appreciation as he saw that the title he’d just gained had been automatically assigned to the newly created item instead of taking up a space on his character sheet.

Item created: Signet Ring of Duke Joe. This ring is soulbound to Duke Joe and can be recalled at any time with a simple desire to do so. When worn by Joe or his designated heir, this item automatically applies the title ‘Duke’, conferring all benefits and responsibilities the title generates. When worn by another party, this item automatically applies the title ‘Duke by Proxy’, granting rights and privileges for Duke Joe's territory. 

“Neat.” Joe turned and locked eyes with Poppy, who had just stepped out of the tent to see what all the commotion was about. Only then did the Ritualist remember that dozens of Wretches falling apart at the same time was cause for celebration, and enthusiastic cheering erupting across the farms was something normal people tended to be curious about. “Hey, I saw how you were looking at Teddy. Should I give this to her, or do you want to?”

Bobbing his eyebrows at the Duelist, Joe offered the golden ring, only for his friend to harumph and roll his eyes at the antics. “Don't worry, I can tell at a glance that you giving that to her offers no real permanence.”

“Oooh, so you're thinking about long-term commitment,” Joe teased as he swept past his now-sputtering friend, peeking inside the tent and flicking the golden ring over to a very surprised Teddy. “Catch! Congrats, it's official, you're in charge of this place, unless I have to take it back. I'm immediately abdicating this responsibility.”

Returning to his coven, Joe clapped his hands together and looked around with a bright smile. “Now, shall we get to the fun part of the day? Who's ready to read through the Ritual Combat Manual and help me decide which diagram would be the best to design for defending this farm? I'm thinking it should take us no more than an hour or two to put together our initial ideas then compare notes and decide on an action plan!”

As every member of his coven threw their hands up, Poppy crossed his arms and sadly shook his head. “This, Joe. This is how I know they've been around you too long. Why not just look into… you know what? No. I'm not even going to give you ideas as a joke.”

“And that's how I know for sure we used to be party members.” Joe slapped his friend on the back and grouped up with his coven, already feeling a little behind, since they had each pulled out their own book and were quickly paging through it.

Trying to get ahead of them, the Ritualist opened his own heavily annotated manual and flipped to the back, finger lightly trailing along the embellished text as he read. “Master-rank rituals and introduction to war-scale magic. Oh? They only have a few actual ritual circles and no multi-discipline ones? I suppose that makes sense. It's not like Artifact-rank cores are so common they can create a bunch of variants and test them exhaustively.”

A tiny moment of panic overcame him, and he quickly checked his storage devices, relaxing as he found a small hill of every core from Common to Unique rank practically filling the space in his codpiece. “I've only had one Artifact-rank core in the last few months, and I turned that into an aspect jar. Gonna have to get out there and hunt some big monsters soon…”

“Gah!” Big_Mo leaned away from his manual, eyes clenched tight as he rubbed at them furiously. “How does someone even get that many sigils packed so tightly? What are we supposed to be, machines?”

“Just read the descriptions. I was trying to force myself to study that same one and,” Kirby pointed at her face, where tears of blood were dribbling from the corners of her eyes. “Let's just say Joe's passive healing came in handy.”

“If it helps, that’s a good start to your evil overlord look,” Joe murmured, unintentionally causing the young woman to brighten considerably and return her attention to the book.

“Ritual of the Root Dominion?” Hannah offered an actual option, the first to do so. “Anyone not included in protection from the ritual has any roots in the area burst out of the ground and wrap around their feet, reducing movement by up to seventy percent. Looks like it'll also cause difficulty using movement spells, even teleportation, since they’d basically be trying to move a couple hundred extra pounds of dirt and plants.”

“Mmm…” Joe thought about it but eventually shook his head in the negative. “While that does fit the aesthetic of the place, and there's plenty of plants, most of the monsters they would be fighting as farmers are already moving pretty slow. On that note, avoid fire. Taka.”

“I already turned the page!” Taka replied in an aggrieved tone. “I was just reading the description.”

“I've got one!” Big_Mo turned his book around. “The Ritual of Predatory Earth. Anything moving through the area that shouldn't be gets stabbed by instantly growing earthen spikes. It would have a secondary effect of aerating the soil, which is great for irrigation and growth, right?”

Taking a deep breath, Joe considered how to best phrase his next statement. “I can see why you'd go there, but remember, this is a farm. There's going to be domesticated animals and hopefully people coming in to trade with the locals. Merchants, random civilians, stuff like that.”

“In that case, why not use this?” Robert showed his find. “Ritual of Reactive Shielding. Puts a barrier around anyone keyed to the ritual who's about to take an attack, kind of like a basic form of Mage Armor. Only problem is adding people to the protected list, but there's a note here about making a taglock tree.”

Each of them flipped to the same page. The more Joe read over it, the more he liked it. “It has five total effects, with the main one being a shield that absorbs five hundred points of damage when someone is about to be attacked. Taglock tree, huh?” 

Flipping to the page referenced by the manual, Joe's lip curled in disgruntlement as he saw a drawing of the item: it looked like a miniature pine tree formed out of a thousand needles attached to a central cylinder rod of steel. “Student ranked? I suppose I can make that, but it's probably right on the edge, unless there’s a forge in town. My anvil only lets me create things up to the Apprentice rank.”

“Why in the world would that be a limitation?” Taka sent Joe a look that suggested he was making something up. “It's just a chunk of metal, isn't it?”

“Most likely something to do with not being able to handle the flow of energy, combined with the hammering.” Joe couldn't offer a better explanation than that, so he returned to the main page. “Main effect is the shield, but it releases a short-lived cloud of… poison? I suppose that’s to deter the attacker from coming after them, but how does the person—oh, I see, it also teleports them about twenty feet closer to the epicenter of the ritual at the same time. Got it. Block, cloud, vanish.” 

Kirby took over, reading the next section Joe hadn't gotten to yet. “What are the other functions, if it's supposed to have five? Oh. Constantly tracking each of the people, and calculating the power requirements to bring them in closer? Ick, that’s probably a couple tens of thousands of calculations every time they move.”

“It lasts a month, unless it uses all its power up,” Hannah hopefully pointed out. “Pretty good efficiency, for what it does, and it's something any of us could come back and maintain.”

“Look at what it can do if you add in alchemy!” Robert excitedly pointed to the variation written out on the next page. “It's a shield-to-payload transmutation and creates a different effect when the shield breaks based on the state of the person who was attacked. The puff of poison turns into a thick fog of acid if they are already bleeding or explodes if there was fire damage… or adds in a static effect that will shock and paralyze the attacker if it's raining. Otherwise, it just explodes in a sonic burst that deals damage and blows the poison toward the source of damage. That's pretty cool.”

“I'd rather add in the amplifier; look at this.” Hannah tapped two different implements, which had been added to otherwise-identical versions. “This is an antenna that increases the range of the ritual by nearly half, but the other one is a cascade trigger. If a shield breaks, and there's three or more people nearby who are also shielded, the breaking shield explodes into shards of force that deal three hundred percent of the amount shielded to the attacker.”

“All of that is great,” Joe agreed with them before they could start bickering. “But the fact is, I can only make the circle at the moment. I'm still an Apprentice in Alchemical Rituals, and like I said, I can only make up to Student-ranked forged items, unless I go into a proper smithy. Everyone feel good about this ritual? Want to help me design it? Actually, where should we…?”

Poppy swooped in at that moment, before they could start randomly creating intensely magical and possibly dangerous rituals out in the open. “If you'll follow me, I already had Teddy talk to some of the farmers. They're putting together a good spot for you to do all of this.”

Moving past the tents and closer to the solo grain silo that had the guild’s flag flapping off of it, the coven soon came upon dozens of farmers who were hauling rocks. They carried huge slabs around handedly, and carted piles of gravel in wheelbarrows. All of it was being dumped into a central area, large enough to be called a Town Square.

Poppy explained before Joe's curiosity could get out of control, “They’re using all of the stone pulled from the fields to make a huge square surface. A few of them have stone merging abilities. Once everything is piled up, they’ll turn it into a single block that you can draw stuff out on.”

“Oh…”Joe winced as his friend shot him a sharp look. “Yeah, that was super proactive of you. I totally understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately, at the Expert rank, I have too many circles rotating for them to just be flat. We either need an actual ritualistic gyroscope—the template is on page one hundred and ten, in case any of you are wondering—or I need to draw it out in the air.”

“Ow! My eyes!” Robert clutched his face as blood streamed out of the sensitive organs.

“Journeyman ranked template, whoops!” Joe grimaced until the sloshing stream of blood faded away, his skills passively healing and cleaning the man up. “In other words, none of you need to worry about that for now. I’ll need to draw the actual ritual, since I don't have a way to make anything that high level.”

Then Joe double checked his skills, fretting slightly before shooting an apologetic look at Poppy. “Then again, I might also need a couple of tries to get it right. My Somatic Ritual Casting is only Journeyman-ranked, so…”

“Do what you have to do; I'll evacuate the area in preparation for you exploding,” Poppy responded with a heavy sigh. “Big stone slab first, or no?”

“Nnn—yes. Slab first.” Deciding against wasting any more time, Joe pulled out his anvil and let it *thump* to the ground. “I guess we have time to start with a lesson on Ritualistic Forging.”