Few If Any Have Been Devised At The Date Of Publication, A Fact Which Ought To Inspire The Reader Toward An Obvious Purpose
Takki was already at the scene. “Ressi, these Adabans say they won't hand over these two until you show up. I didn't think you knew anyone in Dittsen.”
“It was my belief I did not. And yet at times someone I already know ventures here without my permission, an unforgivable rudeness we can agree. This opportunity is a blessing for me. Battler Millim Takki Atsa. One of my many brothers, Silapobolt Rikelta. Ridenad Bessahalpt. Notorious thief, conman, and kidnapper Glainai Gabas. His accomplice, Desonn Sheglei.”
“Lovely to meet you,” Glainai Gabas said. His partner declined comment.
Silapobolt bowed to him before again addressing the non-captives. “That answers most of my questions. Please pardon me for questioning your credentials, Miss Millim.”
“Takki,” Dirant said at a normal volume but in a hushed sort of way so everyone knew not to listen.
“Miss Takki, I mean.”
“Close enough.”
Silthree bowed again just in case. “Pardon me for that and please watch these two undesirables while I consult with my younger and therefore inferior brother.”
“Oh, I'd be grateful if you let me help you in any way.”
“Very well then.” Silthree pulled Dirant aside, not that the latter resisted. “They're truly infamous criminals?”
“Yes. Is Ridenad Bessahalpt truly my sister-in-law now?”
“Yes. Her father threatened to kill me, relented long enough for a quick wedding, and then began to consider his former attitude may have been correct after all. We decided to take a little trip. Are you in the city for Vogdi JomOdro's famous exhibition? Have you attended?”
“Yes and yes. I recommend it.”
“That's worrying, but I hope for a satisfying tomorrow regardless. Now you must inform me what that means. Rezi, was it?”
“Ressi. It refers to the playful otter, the symbol of our prosperous family.”
“Very good. That fine young lady already has a pet name for you. I tell you frankly that you've surpassed my expectations.”
“Will it affect your opinion to learn that is now my adulthood name in Pavvu Omme Os?”
“Ah.”
“And then I must tell you that she is alone in the world in believing so. Nobody else has ever called me that.”
“Ah!”
The two brothers, feeling pretty good about themselves, returned to watch the criminals while Stegzin operatives again conferred with the local authorities. Those arrived to close the matter in an excellent way for everyone involved except for the Glainai gang. Also for Vogdi JomOdro who, while not excessively vindictive, did wish to pop Glainai Gabas once, a wish denied him by Ottkirs whose reputation for tolerance of the unconventional perhaps overstated the case.
He settled instead for inviting all the people involved in preventing his kidnapping to dinner, and if some had already eaten, he had this answer for them delivered through one of his servants. “Good. You will be freer to talk.” They could hardly refuse after that demonstration of remorseless Yosrobish logic.
It was a tired Dirant that retired late enough for it to be early to Millennium House. Despite that and his promises to various people concerning activities the next day such as sightseeing with Takki and helping Onzalkarnd seek a tutor of Yosribdi for his master, sleep eluded him. He took a walk to ponder the issue. Nothing should be worrying him and he had no particular responsibilities left undone. He even had a Fascination Ritual properly prepared and delayed, since he had not as yet decided on a better one. At last he realized the problem. Should he not have leveled up after all that?
> Ritualist
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> Priest of Holzd
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> LV 7 485/1000
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>
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> HP 247
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> Muscle 35 (+1)
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> Coordination 44 (+5)
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> Verve 42 (+3)
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> Sticktoitiveness 56 (+5)
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> Discernment 69 (+5)
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> Gumption 26 (+3)
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> Tit-for-Tat 42 (+1)
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> Receptivity 87 (+6)
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> Panache 46 (+4)
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>
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> Class Abilities
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> Ritual Judgment
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> This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
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> Ritual Completion
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> Ritual Memory
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> Ritual Delay
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> Divine Guidance (Hunch)
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> Ritual Humility
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> Ritual Revelation
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> General Abilities
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> Adaban (Fluent)
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> Heweks (Fluent)
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> Yumin (Fluent)
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> Tabidgeir (Intermediate)
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> Dvanj (Intermediate)
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> Desurvyai (Basic)
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> Saueo (Basic)
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> Usse (Basic)
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> Mercantile Fundamentals
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> Horse Riding (Intermediate)
>
> Class Perception (Divine)
Not even close. “Just what is XP?” he wondered, just as countless scholars did every day.
“Its nature, thoroughly explained on many occasions, has proved difficult for humans to comprehend or perhaps accept given certain inclinations they prefer to hold crooked against the straightening influence of truth.” There was Holzd, sitting on a bench and gazing at the stars just the way the citizens of Pavvu Omme Os had concluded one ought not bother doing. “Futile as it may be for me to tell it, would you, victorious, like to hear a bedtime story?”
Dirant felt proud at not trembling too much, though unsure if perhaps more would be appropriate in that situation. “I will know when I have heard it, and until then I must say yes.”
“Do you think you serve the god who yearns for sassiness? I can't deny that I don't especially mind it though. What you must as a preliminary accept is that there are worlds other than this one, a great many, and though unnecessary to comprehend now it is nevertheless true that not all are inhabited by humans or else dominated by them. A further fact significant for this story is they have different classes or no classes at all, and in other ways also are alien. For instance, likely you think it a universal law that a class bestows an ability at first level and every even level thereafter, but stop thinking that if you like being right. Is this much understood?”
“It is, though as for the particulars, I cannot imagine them.”
“You do, it is revealed, like being right, and you aren't as terrible at it as you might be. All that is background. The foreground is this. Too many years ago for all your fingers and toes, there was a sage on one of those worlds whose class, well, if you combined Ritualists with Reciters and Evokers, added in the powers of Symbol Knights and Summoners, but mixed in limitations similar to those which constrain Sleet Masters and Hail Masters, you would have something like it. There was a wizard of that sort who stood out more among his fellows than indicated by the gestalt class you're attempting to grasp because then, there, few people possessed any class anywhere on his planet, and of those who did, but a little toe's weight of them were able to fight against monsters.
“He could, and did, and he overcame so many that the bounties would make your Battler friend the richest women in the world if she killed a thousandth of them. Over time most of his comrades died, and many suffering men and women, and as their number decreased, in similar proportion did his confidence that a future for mortals even existed. He begged the gods to tell him the truth of monsters.
“Forget what I said about everything being different, because this one thing is the same. By dint of his class he was the priest of a god I will keep nameless because I don't care. That patron appeared and informed him of the truth of monsters and their source, which is that reality's generative nature causes things to be that humans, given the choice, and they are not, prefer not to be or to be far away. In other words, these things happen.
“The archergonist heard that, and don't think paying attention will do you any good as far as qualifying for the class if the gods of your world, as they have, decided not to make it available, and resolved that reality itself must be removed and replaced. Before you start thinking him a foolish dumb idiot, which your startled face proves you already did, remember how much better this man was than you in every area. His resolve did not fail of an effect. Through experiments of a nature impossible to understand for a Ritualist he constructed a, well, in five thousand years Adabans might come up with a word for it. We will call it a man-made relic, and its name is the Oblivitarch. The Oblivitarch sits in space above worlds in quite a picturesque way without affecting, despite exceeding some of them in its size, their gravity, which I forget if you should know how impossible that is. Probably so, since you have a word for gravity.”
Dirant nodded.
“He activated it. The Oblivitarch began stripping away reality, and as it did, greater monsters appeared, greater here meaning weirder, which while an unusual use of the term applies better than you should hope ever to learn. The disastrous part was not so much the death and devastation among people, though enough of that there was, but that they fought against the monsters with some success. By doing so, they slowed the dissolution of reality so that it seemed the archergonist's desire, by being thwarted, caused instead an endless slaughter and corruption, for if monsters had been the only result of reality's derealitizing, well, so much the better.
“He viewed that calamity in all the worlds through his tools designed for such and lamented as never had anyone before. 'Oh gods, why did you let me do this?' he wondered, for with all his intellect no answer to him seemed possible. Remember that the next time you start thinking you're smart. 'I am the author of deeds worse than any in history! Correct my mistakes and destroy my worthless frame as well, I beg you, if ever before this I did anything of merit!'
“His patron again came to him and told him to look a little closer if he thought all that tumult even worth mentioning. Baffled but still pious, he looked, and saw people fighting monsters and winning against them, even the weird ones. He, until he did, understood it not, but when he realized something, it was this. People can absorb reality as it flakes off, as it were. That is XP. They then refine through means unimaginable by you but known to me the flakes into a new reality which is applied on top of the old, bit by bit, and neither are they unchanged by the process. The people of every world became stronger and stronger therefore so that they relied no longer on a few exceptional people to defend them. Realizing that, he rejoiced. Then he went on to another project.
“All that said, the rate the Oblivitarch works is a bit much, hence the Delivery Ritual to provide a slowing of the degradation. Congratulations on keeping your planet's XP gain low, little priest, because you would like the alternative far less.”
“That's an amazing story,” Dirant said, amazed.
“It is, yet unlike many in that category it is true as well.”
“Thank you for the instruction, many-manied Holzd. May I ask about another matter?”
“'Many-manied,' being a silly epithet that is repetitive and short together, is pleasing to me for those reasons. Go ahead.”
“To remember all the parts is impossible for me. Even so, here it is. You gave me a task to deliver an idol. I did so, incidentally causing Wessolp to lose a war exceedingly quickly. Because of the loss, my father sent a trade mission abroad. Because of its speed, Kelnsolt Aradetnaf assisted in fighting pirates. Because of my delivery, Penneram Densos asked me to help him complete the Delivery Ritual. Because of the trade mission, Stansolt Gaomat was able to steal warship plans and I met Lord Audnauj. Because of Kelnsolt's involvement, the pirates were defeated in time for Vogdi JomOdro to travel to Egillen this year. Because I met Lord Audnauj, he was saved from being kidnapped and willing to help me help Penneram Densos complete the Delivery Ritual. Because Vogdi JomOdro traveled here this year and because I found a second idol while trying to make my delivery, he was willing to help me help Penneram Densos complete the Delivery Ritual. So I was able to do so. Furthermore, and this is conjecture, because I accidentally told then-Miss Ridenad our intimate familial name for Silapobolt, they were married perhaps a month sooner than they might have been and came here, for which reason they were able to help us prevent Vogdi JomOdro from being kidnapped by Glainai Gabas who came here to kidnap him after having to flee Yean Defiafi because of failing a kidnapping attempt because I met Lord Audnauj and Millim Takki Atsa, which is a satisfactory recompense for his helping me help Penneram Densos complete the Delivery Ritual. Yes?”
“Yes.”
“So. My question is this. Did you plan for everything to happen precisely the way it did? Or is it as I suspect, that you prefer rather to ensure things are happening at all times and any outcome is pleasing to you so long as the steps leading to it are complicated if not convoluted?”
“Dirant Rikelta,” the god uttered. “You have become a true priest, capable of glimpsing a, though minuscule, genuine portion of your master's nature. Next time I will make your task much more difficult.”
“Thank you very much,” the Ritualist answered.