Mathew threw a crumpled up paper at the wall. “No!”

He went to a fresh sheet of paper and started to sketch another circle. Agnox was munching on some rations. It’s only been two days and Mathew was at a mental roadblock.

“Why the hell are rituals so fucking complicated? This entire time I’ve looked at them as straightforward pieces of magic. You draw a line, it causes the magic to do a certain thing. But nooooo apparently if you have other lines, that line can cause it to become a fucking square. How do you turn a line into a square? That doesn’t make any sense!”

Agnox was about to reply like he had the last few days, but Mathew threw a paper ball at him. “And don’t you dare say ‘that’s magic’. It’s not. Everything works in a certain way for a reason. That’s how everything works. Cause and Effect.”

Agnox stifled his laughter. He knew Mathew was honestly upset, but he couldn’t help himself. It was nice to see Mathew acting mostly normal. All the stress the last week and a half was washing off of him.

“It can’t be that bad. You’ve made a few new rituals. I personally like the silent summoning one!”

Mathew glared at Agnox. “The summoning is already silent! All it does is make the sword make no sound. It’s a waste of mana. Just don’t bang your blade and make noise. It’s a redundant ritual. How can an enchantment be redundant! It’s like the rules for how rituals work were made by an eight year old.”

“Shouldn’t that make it easier to understand?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t. This entire time I’ve been able to figure out most parts of rituals, then add them. However when I try to combine more than two rituals I end up with a failed creation. It’s as if the different parts interact differently.”

Agnox shrugged and went back to his new game to see how many times he could bounce a paper ball off his hand.

Mathew cleared his work table and started completely fresh. “Fine, I’ll work on another idea. Going back to simpler rituals should give me a new way to look at things.”

After a newly drawn ritual of Acceleration, Mathew then tried to apply his Axiom of Enforce. The problem was figuring out when to use it.

Every time he tried, the Axiom just didn’t work as he wanted to. If he used it before the activation of a ritual, he would just make one of the ingredients better, causing either no benefit or such a small degree of improvement, it was impossible to tell.

If he used the Axiom after the ritual, nothing happened. Just the stone he drew on became infused. As if the ritual wasn’t there.

So, he would just need to learn how to apply the two. It made sense, right? Enforce the properties of a ritual.

However, after hours wasted, dozens of materials, and a small bit of his sanity, Mathew could not get the Axiom to work. Mathew was almost ready to give up. He was going to submit a random ritual and leave. This was beyond frustrating.

Yet, he didn’t. Instead he spoke aloud. “Beginner ranks mint tea leaves. Beginner rank water.”

The items appeared and Mathew went over to his ritual of Campfire he set up. Ontop was a pot that he poured the water into. He needed some tea. Oh he was tempted to forgo rituals and make tea his new crafting hobby.

Talking to Zack, he knew that food could give benefits, so could tea by that logic. Just drinking tea and becoming faster or stronger was almost enough to push Mathew over that edge and abandon his rituals.

However, he knew that wasn’t a smart choice. So instead he went to work on his contracts while he took a break. Mathew was currently working on one to give to Mark. A deal that benefited them both.

However, Mathew only had one shot. It was safe to assume Mark knew about The Council. If he didn’t, Mathew would be surprised. However, Mark had no reason to assume Mathew was backed by The Council. Every Contract he created was officiated by them, making them binding across the entire cosmos.

The shitty part was Contracts were tied to one's soul. Mathew’s was to the point where he couldn’t use contracts sparingly. The three he used on the first floor was proof enough of that. Not to mention his binding with Agnox.

So, he needed to find a wording that didn’t weigh heavily on his soul, but his brothers, or neither. The difficult part was balancing the restrictions to the punishments. If it was too heavy on the punishment, that had to come from somewhere. Which would be his soul.

An example was his favorite punishment. If someone were to try to attack him, then they would lose something of value. He mainly used it to acquire Hearth Crystals from Payne and Tyrone. With the other three, it was just money.

Mathew didn’t want Marks’ Hearth Crystals, he had no way to defend them once he was back at Blue Oaks. Or rather, he didn’t want to acquire them this way.

So, what punishment should he have in case his brother turned on him again?

His life? Money? Resources? Knowledge? The list was expansive and how he worded everything mattered drastically.

“Agnox, how were deals normally enforced back in your clan?” Mathew asked.

“Depends. Typically trust, but for larger ones, it’s backed by the clan’s government. So two people sign a piece of paper, have it officiated, and that’s it. Same as your world from what I can tell.”

Mathew hummed. “What about between other nations or rather clans?”

Agnox shrugged, “No clue. I never saw those. Morthrus wasn’t involved with those the short time I was with her. However, my bet is all those deals had a layer of a threat covering it all. That if anyone went back on their end of the deal, war would happen.”

Mathew looked down at his contract. “I don’t want to go to war with Mark. As much as he seems to welcome me with open arms, I don’t trust him. It just seems too easy of a solution. My entire family hated me after I defended myself.”

“Then don’t go to war. I don’t know Mark that well, but from what you’ve told me, he is a reasonable guy. Just make a normal deal.” Agnox suggested. “Then, if he goes back on it, crush him like the bug he is.” Agnox crushed the paper ball in his hand for added effect.

“If it’s not in the contract, The Council won’t back it up. I want to give myself every edge possible.”

“Then don’t.” Agnox said with a shrug. “Or do. Why does it matter if it’s in the contract or not?”

Mathew sighed. “From what I can tell, contracts take what is written both literally, and what is implied. If it’s not on the contract at all, it doesn’t care. I don’t want Mark to backstab me, this is to ensure he doesn’t.”

“Yea yea, you say the same thing about rituals. The lines have to go a certain way, it will only do what is written. Why does it matter though? Who cares if-”

Mathew held up a finger to Agnox’s lips. “Don't speak. Just nod or shake your head.” Agnox raised an eyebrow. “Did you just say ‘I say the same thing abou rituals?’”

Anogx nodded. “Yea, you always complain the same way about contracts like you do rituals. Listen, if you are upset about it, don’t be. I’m sure you’ll-”

Mathew ran to the table.

“...Figure it out”

Mathew’s eyes were wide with anticipation. He hadn’t felt this excited ever since he found a loophole in a law that gave five of his clients an easy win, and him a total of half a million dollars in payment.

Agnox was right. Rituals and Contracts were similar. Too similar. Mathew had to be sure. He quickly drew out a Beginner ranked Campfire ritual. He watched the magic with a different outlook. Sure enough it worked just as he always had seen. Exactly what he had always seen. No deviation. No change. Nothing different.

Mathew had no clue if it was the work of the [Rituals] skill, his [Writing] skill, an Axiom, enlightenment, or some combination of it all plus something else. However, he started to no longer look at his rituals as simple plug and play puzzles. They were phrases. Sentences. They were the rules for mana to follow to create an effect.

Crumbled papers were sifted through, and one of the attempts of a triple ritual was found. Mathew laughed. He saw the problem now. It was clear as day.

Mathew started to request new supplies, including three beginner ranked mana cores. A new ritual was drawn out and after an hour of careful work, it was finished. Mathew licked his lips in anticipation.

He took the Campfire ritual, Sword Ritual, and the Trapping ritual, tearing apart their sections. Once it was done, he had what can only be a ritual worthy of being created by him.

All three cores were poured into the ritual. Once it was done, nothing happened. Yet, Mathew laughed. “It worked!”

Mathew walked to the middle of the ritual and picked up a small stone that was left behind. “Now to test it…” His eyes darted to Agnox.

Mathew put the stone in his pocket, and walked over to Agnox. “Punch me.”

Agnox looked up at Mathew, “Huh? Okay sure.” Agnox floated up and went to give Mathew a weak punch.

Mathew caught it with his hand, and flames spewed out covering Agnox’s arm in flames. He wasn’t hurt, but caught by surprise. “Fuck! What the hell Boss?”

“Oh this is perfect. But I'm not done. There is more to create.” Mathew couldn’t let this opportunity stop. Not when he was like this.

Agnox looked down at his arm, unaffected by the flames that licked at him. “How the hell did he summon fire?”

Mathew spent almost another day constantly creating new rituals. He paused only once to write out two new contracts. One of which was for his brother. His realization went both ways. If this worked out well, he wouldn’t need to worry about the strain upon his soul for this deal.

The other was in preparation for confrontation with probable trouble makers. Namely Payne or whoever was hunting him.

There was only one ritual left he wanted to create. After this, he will use his sole Apprentice ranked core and create an Apprentice ranked ritual to submit. It will be before his personal five day mark, but the progress he made the last four days was more than he could have hoped for.

“I request the heart of a Novice ranked creature.”

A bloody organ appeared on the table. Mathew began drawing yet another circle. This time with a square going around it. He placed five cores across the ritual, along with Agnox’s sword, and a cup of Agnox’s blood.

Mathew wasn’t worried. He knew this would work.

“Agnox please stand on the southern corner.”

“Boss, I still don’t like this.”

“If I am correct, this ritual will bring your sword to life to fight next to you. Plus it should be shrouded in flames as well. Quite intimidating if you asked me.”

Agnox groaned. “Why me?”

“I’m testing if Infernal blood will enhance the ritual further. You are a Beginner ranked creature pushing Apprentice ranked. Plus you are a free willed creature…technically. I want to try to create other elemental versions in the future, including the trap stones.”

“Okay, I trust you. However, if I die, I am haunting your ass.”

Mathew grinned. “If you die, so do I, remember?” With those final words, Mathew activated the ritual. Mana flowed across the entire slab of brimstone. Mathew wanted to use as many fire aligned things as he could, going as far as mixing ashes with oil to draw the ritual out.

Agnox’s blade floated into the air and Mathew waited at the ready with his own Axiom in case something went wrong.

This was a combination of five different rituals technically. If you included a singular part stolen from the Identification ritual as part of it. Mathew only counted four, but he used an extra mana core because of how intense the ritual was.

Mathew watched with excitement. Agnox’s blood flowed out of the goblet and entombed the heart. Next the heart was lit aflame.

At that point Agnox and Mathew both felt a pressure fighting against them. This was expected. Mathew pushed back with his Axiom of Resistance. He formed a defensive wall around the rogue soul.

Next, Agnox used his own Axiom to make the flames marked by him. Mathew was just holding the soul down. Agnox was the one claiming it as his own. It was a harsh battle. Whatever soul the heart belonged to, was not weak. Not like the woman Mathew had a maid of.

Mathew’s own soul started to bend. Yet, right as that happened the heart flew toward Agnox’s sword. “Take it!” Mathew shouted.

Agnox snagged the sword with both hands. Then the ritual was completed. Mathew blinked. “Okay, now for the real test. Try to activate it.”

The sword jumped out of Agnoxs hands and floated in the air. The entire weapon was aflame. Including the handle. It flew around and tried to attack Agnox. “Hey! That’s not what you said would happen, Mat!” Agnox shouted as he dodged the sword.

Mathew was breathing heavily. “Wrap your Axiom around it. Try that.”

Agnox’s face contorted with effort. The flames went from a normal orange to a darker red. The sword stopped flying around erratically after that.

“I huff I think I got it.” Agnox said.

Mathew nodded. “I was afraid that would happen. I’ll need to tweak it more, or get a weaker soul. Don’t try to use that enchantment anytime soon, unless it’s absolutely needed. Cant’ have either of us getting attacked by our own weapons.”

“Makes sense. Did you really think that would happen? I thought you had that ritual down perfectly.”

“I had the ritual perfected. Not the soul. All the other ones were perfect. This one wasn’t. I think I need to change a symbol or two from the Perfect Butler and Blood Scent rituals. It’s too hostile, and not bending to your will. I didn’t want to restrict it too much.”

“Makes sense, just how much did your skill rank up?”

Mathew grinned. “I haven't checked. I’m not looking till I leave this place. There is just one ritual left to make at Apprentice rank. Probably the riskiest one yet. If this fails, I’ll submit the Alpha Presence ritual.”

“For now, let’s rest. I need a nap.”

Four hours later, Mathew was making two new circles. It was one ritual, but it required spots. This was his summoning ritual, or rather transposition one. If it worked, it would allow an item to move from one spot to another.

It only used parts from three rituals, but Mathew needed to beef up the mana cost to cover any possible problems. He also guessed on some of the materials. Thankfully, he talked to Zach and Lindsey enough to have an idea of what to use.

He had the idea when making the contract for Mark. He essentially made a double contract for his brother, where if the first contract broke, the second one became instantly enacted. The ritual worked the same. When one was activated, so was the other.

Mathew placed his only Apprentice ranked Mana Core in the center of the primary ritual. This one would hold all the mana and where things are placed originally.

Sadly, Mathew could only make it work one way. For it to work both ways, he would need a second mana core, or at least, that’s how he had it written out currently.

Mathew finished the ritual and took a deep breath. “Please don't waste tens of thousands of UC. Please work.”

With a simple push of his own mana, the ritual activated. Nothing blew up. Nothing went amiss. “I submit this Ritual of Transposition.”

The marble slabs and rituals vanished from Mathew’s vision. A blue screen appeared. It was the conformation Mathew needed to know, it worked.

Challenge of Crafting: Completed

For submitting an Apprentice ranked ritual, rewards are maximized.

For reaching temporary enlightenment, and achieving a secondary quest, bonus rewards are maximized.

Rewards:

A Glint of Truth

An invitation to the next System Crafting Event

100,000 UC

A choice of the following: A choice of the following: Culviation Manual from a Ritualist, Elemental Enlightenment, or Tools that combine your two crafts in a new way.