As each circle activated after that, Joe could do nothing but take a deep, shuddering breath. He was really, really wondering if allowing five people to ignore illusions was going to be worth the death he was causing to his own side.
Student Circle: complete.
Journeyman Circle: complete.
Expert Circle: complete. Stability is partially compromised! Attempting to stabilize… partial success!
Shouts of alarm, then disgust, reached a crescendo as roughly half of all the Dwarves standing on the Expert circle disintegrated into filthy armor. The remaining Dwarves were in the blast zone, abruptly covered in the gore of their closest comrades. Joe felt countless eyes on him, each glaring with fury and planning their revenge.
Then, one more gaze turned on him.
In the darkest area, directly above the center of the ritual circle, an eye snapped open in the sky. It seemed as large as the volcano they were standing on, and the slitted pupil focused in on Joe for a long moment, then shifted ever so slightly to the Taglock.
Ritual complete! Use of Taglock will apply an ‘Eye of Argus’ to up to five individuals! The effect will last up to seven days.
Reductionist class experience gained: 800.
Congratulations! You have reached Reductionist level two!
Bonus: all aspect and mana costs are when reducing items or recombining aspects into items are reduced by 10%!
“I… I have no idea what just happened.” The eye in the sky went bye-bye, vanishing with a blink and windy sigh. Joe swept his eyes across the area with a horrified expression on his face. He closed his mouth and hoped that no one outright attacked him for what had just happened. “Stability? The only thing I’ve ever seen that can help with that is forging…”
“Deciding to get your war crimes out of the way early or something?” Major Infraction’s words were pure ice as she leveled the accusation at him. At that point, Joe noticed that only a few Dwarves remained standing after being drained; none of which had participated in the ritual. All of the others were out cold, waiting for their mana to regenerate.
“Major Infraction… I have no idea what happened.” Joe waved at the ritual diagrams. “This is the first time I’ve ever done something so large with my new crafting materials. I think that the magical matrix I used was designed with the original components in mind, and switching to a more pure form-”
“Just stop. You abyssal prove this was worth it, or I’ll come after you with my personal forces.” One of the people Major Infraction had nominated walked off in a huff, muttering to himself. “Stupid magic. Stupid human. I knew better than to get involved. Now I need to find clean underwear.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
“There is literally no chance that I am going to let you touch me with that thing.” Major Infraction stated clearly. She was blocking Joe with a double row of undead, and the human was starting to get grumpy. “You take another step toward me, and I refuse to take responsibility for what I’ll do to your corpse.”
“Are you really afraid of a little needle prick?” Joe taunted her, finally resorting to childish insults to get a reaction. “Big bad Major, afraid of a little needle!”
“Your needle has eyes on it, Joe!” Major Infraction shouted at him. “You need to go to prison, not have access to the most important Officers in the Legion!”
“Only a few people died, and that was an accident.” Joe argued with her, wondering if he should just try vaulting over the undead.
“A few?” She bellowed at him. Apparently, his thoughts must have been written on his face, because she warned him off right away, “You come near me, and I’ll have a new undead guard by high tea. I’m not sure you want to gain the new experience of being undead, but by the abyss, I’ll make it happen!”
“Fine! I’ll go first!” Joe held out his arm, and gently poked the skin with the taglock.
Apply Eye of Argus to ‘Joe’? Yes / No.
“Yes.” Joe answered loudly, to make sure the nay-sayers could hear him using the magic. He needn’t have worried, because in the next moment he was screaming in pain and horror as an eye appeared on the back of his hand. As soon as it did, the eye connected with his nerve endings and burned a new line of sight into Joe’s brain. There were also… emotions that came through. Namely, displeasure.
The eye began to roll up Joe’s arm, each movement disconnecting and reconnecting it again. The vision was like a strobe light in Joe’s mind, and the pain and terrible migraine didn’t stop until the eye had swirled around his neck and reached the back of Joe’s head. Then a feeling of ‘good’ came through, and the eye simply looked around with constant curiosity.
Joe stayed on the ground, not even remembering falling. He panted for a few minutes, then stood up and activated Neutrality Aura. The blood that had dried on him all the way back at the start of the ritual began vanishing, and the new lines from tears and vomit promptly dissipated. “Ugh… see? Major? N-nothing to it.”
“That’s a hard no from me.” She was backing away, keeping the undead in a line to make sure Joe couldn’t get closer.
“I’d start it on the back of your head!” Joe challenged her reputation one final time, hoping that he could inform her how important this would be to everyone involved. “What, now you can’t deal with pain? You sure that’s what you want your troops to know about you?”
That stopped her cold, and the undead stepped aside as she marched toward him. “Why are you doing this, Candidate? Are you sure you need me as an enemy?”
“No.” Joe swallowed when he realized that her troops were moving to surround him, this time not as a test. “I am certain that I need you as an
