Chapter 4

Jolting awake, Rosa sat up in an instant, before recalling the events of the previous day and slumping back down.

Looking over to her side, she saw a neatly-folded blanket and a pillow, rolling her eyes as she got out of her own blanket and got up. If he wanted to leave she didn't care too much, her quest was already done. Having some help would have been nice, but being honest with herself, she had nothing to offer him that would actually make him stay. Stretching out and yawning, Rosa opened up her interface and the quest tab, then redeemed the quest.

A thousand points was a really good reward and replenished her empty balance, but she was more curious about the 'Ritual Dimensional Pocket'.

Ritual Dimensional Pocket - A pocket of space only accessible by the user and by official acolytes that can be used for rituals.

Limitations - 3meterx3meterx3meter room size (can be upgraded), cannot be used to store items not directly related to rituals, items stored inside cannot be removed but can be destroyed

That was honestly a super-useful thing to unlock.

What it meant was that she could do rituals without leaving evidence behind, and would be able to perform rituals anywhere, though it did specify she couldn't cheat and use it as a storage pocket for anything not related to a ritual. Whether that meant she could store items to sacrifice like carcasses she didn't know, but if she could that would be super-useful. Even if she couldn't it'd still be really good, she could set up all the different ritual items she wanted exactly the way she wanted and then just sacrifice things on the spot, saving a lot of time and effort without lowering the value of the ritual.

Of course, whenever she put something into it, it was never coming out again, so if she was going to put something in there, she had to be sure she never needed it outside of the pocket again. Accessing the pocket was simple, there was now a big 'Enter Ritual Dimensional Pocket' button on her interface, and upon selecting it, she appeared in a blank space. The walls, floor and ceiling were all featureless and grey, perfectly smooth though, which would make creating a ritual circle incredibly convenient.

Taking her chalk and the papyrus scroll out of her inventory, Rosa sat down, debating whether to upgrade her dexterity. The ritual circle outside the pocket was honestly jagged as hell, she just didn't have steady hands, but if she upgraded her dexterity, her hands would be steadier. She knew from upgrading her strength once that the next cost was 180, and extrapolating from that, she theorized that the price of each upgrade was three times the value of the corresponding ritual. That meant she could upgrade her dexterity to a flat F-rank with 540 ritual points, still leaving her with 460 points to buy things if she needed to.

After giving it some serious thought, she decided that the expenditure was worth it, upgrading her dexterity three times, then closing her menu. With chalk in hand, she looked at the papyrus drawing and then mirrored the pattern, demarking clear lines and curves across the smooth floor, leaving very few blemishes, and those were cleaned up easily enough as she licked a finger and rubbed out where she had erred.

Rosa spent maybe ten minutes, and when she got up to view her handiwork in its entirety, an intricate and detailed ritual circle was visible across the floor. Quite frankly, she was satisfied with how it had come out, since whilst it had room to be improved, sure, for a first serious ritual circle, it was more than acceptable. Dusting her knees off, Rosa put away her chalk and her scroll into her inventory, then exited the pocket.

As she re-emerged, she realized that the man, whose name she still didn't know, was currently sat beside where she'd made the fire previously, coaxing it back into life. He turned as she emerged, the strange knife in his hand and his eyes wary. "Trade secret." She said with a grin, waving at him. He watched her for a moment before turning back to what he was doing. "So, you're back then...what did you go and do?"

"Made sure nobody followed you here. Didn't stab myself with this after all." He twirled the knife on a finger, catching it and putting it back down beside him. "So, what help do you need with your...'rituals', exactly?" He asked clearly, obviously in no mood for any nonsense or word-games. Sitting down, Rosa gave serious thought to what she wanted from him, and realized she...didn't really know actually.

She didn't have a quest objective to chase after, her only quest was just to do one more ritual, with no real limitations. Maybe she could do another ritual to Artemis, or perhaps Hermes, since having extra speed could be useful. Or perhaps moving away from the Greek Pantheon would be better, perhaps she could pick another Phoenician god to venerate? Seeing as how her 'acolyte' was waiting, she decided to just say screw it.

"I need an animal to sacrifice, the bigger the better. The ritual will be more powerful the stronger the being sacrificed is, as well as how well-kept the carcass is. Think you can handle doing a bit of hunting?" He snorted, taking up the knife beside him and rising. "Alright, just...try to mind your injury, yeah? I don't want to go out searching for you and find you dead because your gut wound re-opened."

That was met with another snort as he strode out of the cave, leaving her with a half-rekindled fire. Shaking her head, she crushed down the embers of the fire that he had gotten going, brushing the ash off to one side and then crafting a brand new fire, rubbing her hands together and smiling a little in amusement at how much easier survival was when she was able to simply craft the things she needed.

The fact she was able to craft using the stuff up on the surface was pretty helpful as well, it meant that even down in a cave, as long as the required items were within her collection range, which she supposed was just a sphere around her and not a measurement of the distance she'd have to travel to gather them, she could craft stuff, evidenced by the plant fiber floor coverings she'd made. Briefly, she wondered if she could abuse it in any way, and a feeling akin to a hand clutching her heart swept across her for a moment, putting a very harsh ending to that line of thought before it could even get a tenuous grasp on her.

Shivering, she made sure not to think about that again, extending her hands to the fire and enjoying the warmth. Rosa directed her attention instead to upgrading her stats. From upgrading Dexterity to F-rank, she confirmed that each upgrade cost three times the value of the corresponding ritual. If she wanted to upgrade all her stats to F-2, excluding Dexterity and Strength for obvious reasons, it would cost her a full 1,200 points. Plus, that was just for the traits she had unlocked. Her Carrying Capacity unlocked after she got her inventory, and her crafting unlocked after unlocking the crafting menu, so there were probably more traits she didn't yet have that were locked away behind actions.

So far, she had 12 traits. The basic ones she started with were Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence, Charisma and Endurance. Then she had Foraging, Mysticism, Carry Capacity, Crafting and Healing, all of which unlocked as she either performed the necessary actions in the case of Foraging, Mysticism and Healing or unlocked their prerequisite function in the interface for Carry Capacity and Crafting. Since it would help her perform better rituals, or at least she hoped it would, Rosa purchased an upgrade for Mysticism, raising it to F-2 for 120 ritual points.

She didn't feel any different, but maybe it would only work when she sacrificed something. Her crafting menu had a notification though, and upon opening it, she saw that she had a new tab devoted specifically to Mysticism. Inside were scrolls, tomes and staffs, and their descriptions were...enlightening to say the least. It seemed Mysticism wasn't just related to rituals, it was related to magic itself. The scrolls were single-use abilities usable by anyone, conjuring fireballs and ice storms. The tomes were re-usable abilities but relied on the innate power of the user. Staffs worked the same way as the scrolls did, but they had their own innate energy and had to be recharged once their energy was used up.

The issue was that a lot of it required a higher Mysticism and Crafting level to make. Right now, she had enough Mysticism and Crafting to make three scrolls, the same number of tomes, and just one staff. The first scroll was for a Weak Magical Light, the second for a Weak Fireball, and the third was Weak Life-detection. To craft them, she could make the scroll itself out of plant fiber, and the ink could be made using the ash from the fire alongside the remaining dregs of liquid left in the bronze pot. The tomes, meanwhile, required a lot more plant fiber and way more ink, as well as also needing animal hide, and that box was blank since there were no available crafting components. The staff required fairly basic materials all things considered, some wood, animal hide, nothing too crazy. All aside from the last item on the list, a gemstone, and whether it meant something like Jade or Emerald she had no idea.

Still, that was really handy honestly, being able to cast magic would be amazing. Considering how her companion hadn't utterly flipped out when she appeared from nothing in the cave, she was probably not on Earth, or if she was, it was an alternate Earth where people could do weird things. Whatever the case was, having magic would be useful, both for protecting herself, as well as attracting acolytes to her side.

The stuff she could craft specifically said that the scrolls could be used by anyone, so she could give them to acolytes and they could use them. Innate power was a bit more difficult, it would rely on the person casting to have the power to cast the spell. But the staffs were definitely going to be incredibly helpful, she could have her acolytes wield staffs and cast spells, and so long as she could have some acolytes capable of recharging the staffs, all her followers would be able to cast spells at will, even if they themselves had little to no power. Though, she'd also have to be careful, because it was the equivalent of giving a peasant a gun.

She had no desire to be shot in the back by her own acolytes.

Whilst she waited for her temporary acolyte to return, Rosa tested out her scrolls.

The Weak Fireball Scroll was...alright, but nothing to write home about. Activating the scroll was literally just done by a gentle toss and the scroll burning itself, and as it burned, it fired a literal ball of flame at a decently fast speed towards whatever she was focusing on, in that case splashing against the cave wall and disappearing, but it didn't really seem to have much impact. That made sense of course, it was a ball of fire, without remaining on the target for long it wouldn't set them on fire, and fire had very little mass, since she presumed the ball was effectively just a bunch of gas held in place by magic and propelled through the air. As soon as it hit a target, the ball would burst and the flames spread, burning their limited fuel in a second and disappearing.

Weak Life-detection was even better, she activated the scroll with a flick and for a few seconds, she could see a few red outlines moving around above her. What they were exactly she didn't know, and the effect ran out really quickly, but it would make hunting a cinch, plus detecting if people were hiding nearby. That was just a future-proofing thing though, she would likely only need to worry about that once she expanded and started to actually gather acolytes to work for her.

Then there was the Weak Magical Light. Usage of the scroll planted a light at her point of focus which glowed with soft, orange-yellow light, illuminating the darkness that the fire couldn't clear and allowing her to see clearly in the dark cave. It lasted for about fifteen minutes, which was fairly lackluster all things considered, but she figured that since it was only a weak variant, it naturally had a very low duration.

She wanted to get into some of the more powerful magic, but to do that required more ritual points, so she would need to perform more rituals. She still needed to do one more to finish her only active quest, which would give her 500 more points as well as another trait increase. Giving it some thought, she decided on a god to sacrifice to. Devana, Goddess of the Hunt, as well as forests and wild animals, was a perfect fit. She didn't want to sacrifice to Artemis again, just simply because most of her sacrifices were already to different members of one pantheon. Spreading it out a little couldn't hurt.

And, speaking of the devil, she heard before she saw her temporary acolyte coming into the cave, on his shoulders a fully-grown stag, antlers and all. "Are you fucking kidding me? I tell you to be careful, and you go and hunt a stag? Wait...how did you even kill it?" Rosa asked, getting up and rounding him, looking at the stag closely to figure out how he killed it, blinking when she didn't even see an injury.

"Snapped its neck." He said bluntly, laying the stag down and then going to sit down on his bedding, affixing her with a close gaze. In response, Rosa rolled her eyes, putting her focus on his wound and making sure he wasn't bleeding through his bandages. "Gut feels weird, but I'm healing fine." He said gruffly, apparently not wanting her to come over and inspect the wound more closely.

Sighing, Rosa poked at the stag. "Well, if you die because of it, that ain't on me. Now then..." She grabbed the stag by the antlers, then selected the option to go into her dimensional pocket, dragging the carcass in with her. Of course, then she realized that she couldn't actually easily move the stag, and so spent a few minutes shoving and rolling it into place in the middle of the circle, before then having to go and redraw some of the lines after they got smudged. The lines beneath the carcass were likely ruined as well but until she got a crane, there wasn't much she could do about that.

Opening up the shop, she picked through the various things that were related to rituals, purchasing a few candles and incense sticks as well as holders, spending a round hundred ritual points total. The candles and incense sticks only cost 10 points, but the holders cost a lot more since they were reusable items. She then realized she had no way to light them, and so after laying everything out neatly, she exited her ritual pocket, ignored her companion as she crafted a Weak Fireball Scroll, then went back in and used it to light a candle, going around and lighting the incense and the other candles before setting that one candle back in place.

Taking up position at the side of the circle, she placed her hands together and closed her eyes, still trying to dredge up something pious to say. "Devana, Goddess of the Hunt, please accept this bestial offering." She eventually said, having drawn an utter blank on what to actually say. Still, it worked, as with a feeling that was becoming less and less terrifying, and a flash of white, the ritual was completed.

Checking the ritual report, however, was a different matter.

Ritual Completed - D-2

Environment - D-1

Items - D+2

Sacrifice - D+1

Incantation - E-2

Other Effects - D-2

Extra Result - Huntress Perk - Permanent +1 to Agility, Dexterity, Endurance, Foraging Traits

That was honestly one of the best outcomes she could think of.

Gaining a +1 to her stats was going to save her a hell of a lot of effort, though by checking her interface she saw that it was effectively just one free upgrade, the price had still gone up accordingly. Whether that Extra Result was because she'd jumped up in ritual value so much she didn't know, but it was completely welcomed, as well as the 1,120 ritual point reward. When added to the quest reward, that meant she now had 1,960 ritual points and 3 free trait increases.

Opening up her status screen, she upgraded her Mysticism to a flat F-rank using 420 ritual points, then upgraded her Agility, Perception, Intelligence, Charisma, Endurance, Foraging, Crafting, Healing and Carrying Capacity once each for 1,080 points, draining her balance down to a healthy 460 points, still plenty for buying stuff from the shop. Once done, the only word she could use to describe the difference was...powerful. She just felt more powerful, in an indescribable and innate way. All of her inner abilities had just been upgraded, and in an all-around capacity, she had improved herself.

Clamping down on the temptation to spend more points, Rosa exited her ritual pocket, smiling at her companion as she did so. "Well, the ritual was a success. Do you want something other than stew to celebrate? I could do some meat skewers if you want, or maybe something else?" She asked with an upwards tone, tilting her head when she got no response from her companion, who was simply staring at her. "What?"

"You seem different. Is this the effect of a ritual?" He asked carefully, making her realize that maybe upgrading literally every trait she had except for Dexterity, which was already really high, was a bad idea. He was obviously perceptive, and he must have noticed something. Maybe the way she stood was different, or perhaps her new F-2 Charisma was already going to work...Charisma, the stat that meant she could do the whole talking thing better, and not only could she perhaps convince her companion to stay longer, but she could also venerate the gods with better words.

She...was a fucking idiot, and it was a good thing she upgraded her Intelligence, who knew how long it'd have taken her to notice otherwise.