The first thing John did was buy up all the space stones he could find. This turned out to be quite a lot. While space stones were a rare drop in the dungeon, over the last month people had found dozens, and since no one was buying it was easy to convince them to let the stones go for a copper each. By the time he was done he had 100 space stones in his possession and was a silver poorer. Then, after consulting the ritual primer, he purchased two each of fire, water, light, and time stones, costing him another 16 coppers. Finally he headed into Phillip’s shop and picked up a square, a three sided device for measuring angles, for which he paid a few coppers.

By the time he arrived it was late afternoon and he judged there were still a few hours before Ex and Sally arrived, probably just enough time to design and build his second ritual. John knew that what he was about to do was far more dangerous than modifying the Ritual of Cleansing, that was a low ranked ritual, the stuff you gave novices. What he was considering, the Ritual of Purification, was markedly more difficult to set up, and he was going to modify it into another Megalithic Ritual. Still, he was confident in his ability to do the math.

He began by creating another circular slab, this one only a 5-foot radius. He then generated the four standing stones, this time pointing north east, south east, southwest, and northwest. Then he got down on his hands and knees and started scribing. Four hours later found him putting the finishing touches on the ritual when he heard a noise from the western edge of his farm.

“HELLO THE FARM!” Came Sally’s booming voice.

John ignored her for a moment, putting the final lines into place, then he stood and looked towards where the shouting had come from. He could see Sally and Ex standing just outside the wall and he walked over to greet them. “Hey Sally, Ex, you’ve got the goods?”

“Got the goods? What are we, drug dealers?” Ex asked, bemused.

“Plant drug dealers!” Sally exclaimed.

“Yeah, we’ve got the stuff, you going to let us in? Where’s the gate?” Ex said, looking around.

“There isn’t one yet, I have to open it manually,” John said as he used an effort of will and magic to pull open the stone and let them inside.

“Well that’s handy, though not much of a detriment to other mages,” Ex noted.

“Yeah, I haven’t quite figured out what stops people from just walking through walls yet,” John admitted.

Sally looked around. “It doesn’t look very farmy.”

“I only just finished clearing the land and making the plots,” John said with a gesture to the garden plots.

“Aren’t those a little small for growing crops?” Ex asked.

“Apparently they don’t farm here like they do in our world, since food can grow so fast they do smaller batches,” John explained.

“That make sense,” Sally said. “Where am I putting these bodies?”

“Over this way,” John said as he led them over to the larger of the two ritual sites. “This is the Megalithic Ritual of Cleansing, just drop the bodies in the center.” He willed seven coppers into his hand and handed them to Ex as sally deposited the bodies.

“Thank you,” Ex said happily as he disappeared the coins. “Where do you want the buckets of goop?”

John pointed to the other ritual. “That’s the Megalithic Ritual of Purification. Hopefully it’ll be able to purify the liquid into a stronger form.”

“Well alright then,” Ex said as he set four of the urns in the center of the ritual space. “Is it going to work faster because there’s so little of it?”

“Probably not,” John admitted. “But I wanted the bonus from my Racial Feature, Megalith Mastery, it increases the potency by 25%. Also, building it bigger meant I had an easier time getting the lines right. I’m not so good at carving that I want to try this on something only five feet across.”

“Can we watch you start them up?!” Sally asked excitedly.

“Well, I have to fill all these mana cores with life mana first and that’ll take me…” He hesitated as he did the math, using his own brain for once instead of the calculator. “Almost an hour and a half… I think? And it’s almost night, so I’ll need to log. I probably won’t activate it until tomorrow morning.”

“Boo!” Sally said, though without any real malice.

“It is what it is,” John said with a shrug.

“Alright, well, I’m going to head back to town and then log,” Ex said. “You coming Sally?”

“Yeah, I guess. See you later John!” The Draconid waved as they walked out the same way they’d come in.

“Bye!” John called as he waved back. He then closed up the hole in his wall, walked down to the cellar, sat down, and filled mana cores until it was time to log out.

***

John finished filling the cores the next morning. It had been a fairly easy process; he just held the core and guided mana into it using Mana Manipulation. Finally finished he had 12 of the cores all glowing a soft green color. Taking them out to the ritual site his nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of offal and rotting meat. He grimaced, realizing that leaving the carcasses out overnight may have been a poor idea. Especially since it seemed several birds had decided the corpses would make a fine meal. They took off at his approach, circling the area from above.

John gagged as he got closer, the smell was overpowering and he felt bile welling up in the back of his throat. Gagging he took out the materials for the ritual and went about placing them in the hollows of the monoliths, creating a small stone bowl and filling it with pure water for the fourth. Stepping back, he directed a flow of mana into the circle, which immediately pulsed with a faint light. The precise lines and runes on the monoliths lit up, each in the color of the mana they were channeling from their respective sources.

As he watched, the glows slowly flowed down the monoliths and into the circle, filling the precisely drawn lines and runes. Soon the entire circle was lit in hues of red, blue, violet, and green, shining even in the daylight. After a moment the smell noticeably diminished, and soon it was gone all together. John, uncovering his mouth and, after mastering his gag reflex, Inspected the circle.

[Name: Megalithic Ritual of Cleansing (Active)]

[Quality: Great]

[Description: Though made by a Novice, careful care and dedication was given to the creation of this megalith, making it a cut above the average. Further, this megalith was designed and constructed by someone with Megalith Mastery, making it 25% more effective at its given task, which is to clean that which enters its confines.]

[Active Duration: 24 Hours]

[Efficacy: Will cleanse up to Exceptional ranked diseases, poisons, and contaminants.]

John frowned, the quality ranking had increased. Was that because of the materials he used? He wasn’t sure. Still, it was a good thing, he thought. Determined not to worry about the cleansing ritual, he turned his eyes to his next project, the purification ritual. With a thought he inspected the ritual circle.

[Name: Megalithic Ritual of Purification (Inactive)]

[Quality: Poor]

[Description: Though care was taken in the production of this ritual, it was constructed by a Novice of the art leading to a degradation in quality. However, because care was taken it is unlikely to malfunction in any truly detrimental fashion. Because it was designed and constructed by someone with Megalith Mastery it is 25% more effective at it’s given task, which is the purification of materials placed within its confines.]

[Activation Cost: 3,144 Fire Mana, 3,144 Water Mana, 3,144 Light Mana, 3,144 Time Mana, Four items of Purity. Must be activated at or near Noon.]

John grimaced at the quality ranking, but was hoping he could make up for it using quality reagents. Wandering back down into the cellar he sat on his favorite straw bale and opened the auction interface.

After scrolling through the auction for some time, John finally settled on four items. The first item was a bottle of Pure Philter, however this time John purchased a Great quality version of the product, costing him an entire silver. The next item was another alchemical solution, called Cleanse, which would clear most low ranked debuffs, again at Great quality for a silver. The final item he purchased was actually a flower called a Moon Blossom, the description stated that it was considered a powerful symbol of purity for its ability to cleanse poison, disease, and debuffs alike. The Moon Blossom also cost a silver, though its quality was only Good.

Finished with his shopping, John looked at his inventory and started divesting it of things he didn’t need to have on hand. The short sword, armor, hoe, shovel, hammer, nails and axe didn’t need to be with him at all times, so he lined them up in the Cellar, freeing up several slots of inventory space. Similarly, he only needed the speed square when he was doing rituals, and the burlap bags were for storage of grains which he currently didn’t have, so they also ended up in the cellar. Now that he had enough room in his inventory, he divested his pockets of the mana stones he’d been carrying around, and added them to it.

Finally John turned his eyes to the currency bar, which showed exactly 48 coppers. He grimaced and combed his beard with his fingers. He needed more money if his next plan was going to work. It was crazy, but if he could pull it off he’d complete two quests at once. Still, it was probably a pipe dream, but he was going to try it anyway.

“Purchase 10 silver for 10 USD,” he said after a moment of deliberation.

[Verifying Purchase]

[Purchase Approved]

He then began searching the auction for other items. Within a few minutes he’d found a half-dozen items that might work for what he wanted, the problem was that the cheapest of them cost fifty silvers, making it impossible for him to obtain. Grimacing he changed his search terms, looking now for raw materials instead of finished products. The new search proved just as fruitful and just as futile, even the raw goods were expensive. He could purchase maybe one of the cheapest, a Displacer Stone, which was down for 10 silvers, but it was unlikely to help bestow the properties he wanted all on its own.

With a sigh he closed the auction tab. It looked increasingly unlikely that he’d get lucky twice. Feeling slightly despondent he pulled out the seed and looked at it.

“Well, I guess we plant and hope for the best…” he said as he looked at it.

Still, he was certain there was something more he could do. But what? He glanced at the time, it was ten thirty, and he once more was thankful that the day-night cycle of runic rock matched up with his time zone. So he logged out, taking his obligatory hour long break early; so that he wouldn’t be booted before he could start the purity ritual.

Standing up and taking the headband off, John got to work on his exercises. 45 minutes later he wandered out into the kitchenette and made a sandwich. As he sat eating, he ran the problem around in his head. He wanted to turn the tree into a portal, the tree had to be nurtured in such a way as to produce that result, ergo he needed items associated with teleportation and gateways to incorporate into the tree’s growth. Didn’t he?

He thought back over the skills he had, and one of them stuck out to him, Mana Imprinting. That skill was more about intent than it was about skill. Sure the rank made it faster and easier, and Loren implied he could create multiple strands of different mana types at once because of his rank. But in the end, it came down to how well you could impress your intent upon the mana. Was it possible to do the same thing here? Could he somehow impress his intent on the seed? He pondered that thought for a few minutes, until a beeping from his room told him it was time to log back in. Finishing up his sandwich with a glass of water, he wandered back into his room, and logged back into the game.

Once more in the world of Limitless Online, John stood from the straw bale and made his way outside. It was almost noon, and he wanted to be prepared to start the ritual immediately. As he approached the megalithic structure he started taking out the space stones. Once he arrived he began to lay them down inside the circle until all 100 of them were situated around the four pots. Hopefully the ritual would ‘purify’ the crystals as well, making them more potent, or perhaps changing them in some other, meaningful way.

That finished he stepped outside the circle and started filling the hollows in the monoliths with the items he’d purchased. Once more he filled the final hole with a bowl of pure water. He then placed the Fire, Water, Light, and Time shards and stepped back to examine the whole. It looked ready, and he hoped it’d work right.

Finally, it was time. As the clock ticked over to noon he infused the circle with a bit of mana. Once more the monoliths began to glow, consuming their respective reagents and mana crystals. Like the Ritual of Cleansing these monoliths gave off colored light that represented the elements they’d absorbed. Red for fire, blue for water, a brilliant gold for light, and a strange, shimmering opaline light for time. The colors quickly bled down their respective monoliths and pooled into the precise grooves of the ritual, filling, turning the once lifeless carvings into scintillating bands of color.

For a moment, the light in the ritual sputtered, becoming dim almost to the point of non-existence, and John was certain he’d failed. Then the light bounced back, and a subtle hum permeated the air as the ritual fully took form. With a sigh of relief he inspected the circle once more.

[Name: Megalithic Ritual of Purification (Active)]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: Though care was taken in the production of this ritual, it was constructed by a Novice of the art leading to a degradation in quality. However, because care was taken it is unlikely to malfunction in any truly detrimental fashion. Because it was designed and constructed by someone with Megalith Mastery it is 25% more effective at it’s given task, which is the purification of materials placed within its confines.]

[Active Duration: 24 hours]

[Efficacy: Will purify contained items, bringing them up to a maximum of Great quality two hours per new quality ranking.]

“Help, what are the quality rankings?” John asked.

[Answer: The quality rankings are as follows, from least to greatest]

[Trash]

[Poor]

[Common]

[Good]

[Great]

[Exceptional]

[Incredible]

[Exquisite]

[Perfect]

[Artifact]

[Deific]

“Does Trash count as a ranking for the purposes of this ritual?”

[Answer: Yes, to purify from Trash to Poor would take two hours, from Poor to Common would take four hours, from Common to Good would take six hours, and from Good to Great would take eight hours.]

“Right, so 18 hours total to purify from Poor to Great.”

[Answer: Correct.]

“That wasn’t- nevermind,” John said as he waved off the notification, only to be interrupted by a new one.

[Congratulations on increasing your level! 4 à 5]

[You have received 500 Leveling Points, please distribute them now]

[Feats may be purchased at this level, as it is divisible by five. Feats purchased at this level have a maximum ranking of I]

John looked at the prompt and smiled, he then immediately pulled up the Feats listing. There actually weren’t a lot of feats to choose from. There were a few generic feats, Strong Back which gave a percentage bonus to strength equal to its rank, Keen Mind, Hearty, and Wise did the same for intelligence, constitution, and wisdom respectively. Dynamo was on the list, as were Deep Pool and Increased Size. Tireless was one he’d gained for pushing through exhaustion repeatedly, that increased the nebulous ‘stamina’ the same way Deep Pool increased mana. Bigger on the Inside was present, as were improvements to his Racial Features, Disaster Precognition I, Megalith Master I, and Green Thumb I.

However, out of all of those, what immediately caught his eye were two he’d never heard of before. Domain, and Magriculture.

[Name: Domain]

[Rank: I]

[Prerequisites: Lay claim to a place or region, and saturate it with your magic.]

[Description: Gain the benefits of the Dynamo, Deep Pool, and Increased Size feats while within your Domain.]

[Name: Magriculture]

[Rank: Unranked]

[Prerequisites: Till, Plant, Water, and Harvest a crop with nothing but muscle and magic.]

[Description: Gain the ability to create, grow, and harvest Magical Plants and rear Magical Animals.]

“Help, what does unranked mean?” John asked as he read over the feats.

[Answer: Unranked means that the feat only has a singular rank.]

John nodded at the answer, and then continued to peruse the feats. He was going to take Domain and Magriculture, those two were a shoe in. Green Thumb was also highly tempting, so he looked it over once more.

[Name: Green Thumb]

[Rank: I]

[Prerequisites: Plant Tender racial trait, plant and harvest a crop.]

[Description: All plants you personally tend to have a 25% chance to increase their quality ranking by one step when fully grown. This feat stacks with and does not replace Plant Tender.]

“Come to think of it, I never did actually look at what my Racial Traits do…” John muttered, quickly pulling them up for review.

[Name: Disaster Prognosticator]

[Description: You have an acute sense for impending disasters, and may pick up warning signs of their approach. When interpreted correctly these signs will give up to three days warning of an impending disaster.]

[Name: Megalith Mastery]

[Description: Your race has long designed and built structures of towering stones arranged in esoteric and mystic patterns. Any monolith or megalith you construct will be 25% more efficient.]

[Name: Plant Tender]

[Description: Your very presence can invigorate and stimulate the healthy growth of plants. Any plant you personally oversee the growth of, and tend to regularly, will have a 25% chance of increasing its quality ranking by one step.]

He dismissed the windows and reoriented on the feat list once more. He was going to take Magriculture, Domain I, and Green Thumb I. That left him with enough points for one more feat, but what to pick? Megalith Master I would further increase Megalith output by 25%, which wasn’t great right now, but if it had 20 ranks that would become 500% at level 100, for a total of 525% increase to any Megalithic structure he made. How often was he going to make Megaliths though, and could he afford to pass up on something like Bigger on the Inside? He had so few inventory spaces that too was a tempting offer. He scanned the list again and his eyes fell on another entry.

[Name: Mana Stone Maker]

[Rank: Unranked]

[Prerequisites: Manually make a mana stone using Mana Manipulation and your own mana pool.]

[Description: You have been granted the spell Create Mana Stone. This is a limited spell that may only be unlocked via this feat.]

The idea of being able to make his own mana stones was pretty tempting, he needed a way to power enchantments, and barring a Mana Well of his own, mana stones were the only way he could do so. He dithered for a few more minutes, then finally committed.

“Purchase Domain for 1,000 points, Magriculture for 1,000 points, Green Thumb for 1,000 points, and Mana Stone Maker for 1,000 points.”

[Processing]

[Domain Feat purchased: 1,000 Points]

[Magriculture Feat purchased: 1,000 Points]

[Green Thumb Feat purchased: 1,000 Points]

[Mana Stone Maker Feat purchased: 1,000 Points]

“Bank 400 points,” John finished, after a further moment of thought.

[400 Points banked]

Interested to see what he’d purchased, John pulled up the text of his new spell.

[Name: Create Mana Stone]

[Description: This spell can be used to create Mana Stones, the type of which is dependent upon the type of mana used. The quality of the stone created will be based upon the user’s rank in this spell and their Mana Manipulation skill.]

[Current Rank: Novice]

[Amount: Variable]

[Mana Cost: Variable]

Finding the description to be less than helpful, John decided to test it out. He held out his hand, and summoned up the spell. The first thing he noticed was that his mana didn’t want to flow smoothly into the spell, it instead bucked and writhed like a living thing, meaning he had to mentally clamp down on it. In many ways it felt like the first few times he tried making mana move to his will, and he struggled to pull the mana into submission. He reduced the flow of mana to the stone to a trickle and it became far more manageable, allowing him to smooth out the process somewhat.

Opening his eyes, he looked at his hand where a small crystal was growing. It glowed the faint pale blue of unaspected mana. Cutting off the flow of mana he inspected the gem.

[Name: Tiny Raw Mana Stone]

[Quality: Common]

[Description: A tiny stone made of raw mana.]

[Mana: 212]

John frowned. For 212 mana it seemed small, barely one sixth the size of the tiny mana stones he already had in his amulet. With that much mana he thought it should be almost twice that big.

“Help, why is this mana stone so small?” he asked.

[Answer: Mana stones become denser the higher the quality, leading to a reduction in size. The mana stones you’ve used so far are all Poor quality, making them quite large for their capacity. The mana stone you just made is Common quality, which is twice the density of a Poor-quality stone.]

John finished reading and then pondered the stone for a few more moments. If he could make Common stones, they would probably sell for more than the Poor stones, possibly more than double the price. Opening the Auction interface he did a search for Mana Stones. There were a variety on sale of all shapes and sizes. The majority of stones on sale were Poor quality, and the elements least represented (and thus selling for the most) were fire, life, and death. The fire stones ranged from 15 to 30 coppers each, and the life and death stones went for easily double that. John smiled widely and closed the auction window.

Heading down to the cellar he sat on the straw bale and considered what to do. The stone he’d just made had been a one-to-one ratio of mana to stone, making it a much better investment than the original mana speck he’d made at a ten-to-one ratio. So if he poured his whole pool into a stone he could make a mana stone with 440 mana every five minutes. He paused, realizing something was wrong with that math. He had the Domain feat now; his mana pool was doubled while on his land. That meant every five minutes he could make a mana stone with 880 mana instead. It was really too bad he couldn’t use Mana Imprinting and Mana Drawing at the same time yet; but he had the feeling that’d be coming soon.