Shirtaloon

Chapter 716: Actual Adventurers

Jason and Allayeth watched the cloud palace break down into thick fog that obscured the area and replaced the smell of ash and wet mud with a fresh, clean scent. It was slowly drawn into the cloud flask like a massive genie returning to its bottle.

“I’m surprised the city was willing to use the construction magic provided by the messengers so quickly,” Jason said.

“I believe that using it to replace your building is a large part of that,” Allayeth told him. “The Advent...

Schedule heading into next year

TL;DR: I'm taking December and January off.

Kind of. December is for rest, long with visiting Los Angeles and my mum (not at the same time). Then I'm going to spend January writing without releasing so that I can try and get through next year without being constantly wrecked like I have been this year.

The long version that is essentially me making a whiny blog post:

I knew going into 2022 that is was going to be a hectic year. It's...

Chapter 715: Acceptable Terms

Jason looked around the room, then focused on the gently strobing blue orb.

“Is no one else going to…?” he asked. “I’m just going to go ahead, then. If the evil angel sorceress thinks we’re screening her calls she might get cranky with the negotiations.”

Jason stood up and awkwardly slinked over to the communication orb on the table. When he reached out and touched it, a projection of Jes Fin Kaal appeared over it.

“G’day,” Jason said. “How’ve you bee...

Chapter 714: The Instinct to Kneel

Inside Jason’s soul realm, Jason and his team were sorting through the massive amount of loot they had picked up during the Battle of Yaresh. With both Neil and Jason having loot powers, there was more than a little of it. They were in the shadow of the central pagoda, in a courtyard where items were sitting in a massive pile.

This was not the first session of sorting through the pile, or even the first pile. Items were sorted into things the team wanted now, things they would keep un...

More Spots for Game Night

For those who were unaware, I am doing a live event board game night while I'm in Los Angeles in December. As we continue to make arrangements, the organiser has informed me that we can fit more people than originally expected. There are about 20-25 places left, last I heard.

A reminder of the details:

• I'm doing a board game night during my trip to Los Angeles.
• You do not need to be an experienced board gamer to attend.
• The date is Thursda...
  2022-11-02 22:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 713: Better Ambitions

In the empty void of a dying universe, one lush green and blue planet remained. Shielded from entropy by magic older than the ancient universe itself, some of the Builder's most powerful agents prepared to move it to a fresh, young reality. In a dimension ship, floating far enough from the planet to not fall into its orbit, a collection of prime avatars were watching. Each avatar belonged to a different member of the Council of Kings, the closest thing the messengers had to central leadership...

Chapter 712: Spanked

“Gormanston Bynes,” Allayeth explained, “is one of the most prominent members of a powerful political faction here in Yaresh. It was his son, Calcifer, that you sent running off in a panic, but the father is the true threat.”

She was still walking from Emir’s cloud palace towards Jason’s with Jason himself and Arabelle Remore. They were keeping a leisurely pace while others hustled around them under magic umbrellas, regular umbrellas or a pointed longing for umbrellas. Jason...

Chapter 711: Experiment

Jason went to the door of the meeting room and looked out but Lord Bynes was already gone. Being a monster core user didn't hurt his gold-rank speed and he had shot out like a rocket.

“Does he even know the way out? There was an elevating platform. It would feel weird to pause in the middle of a panicked flight to stop, calmly ride an elevator down and then bolt off in a mad dash again.”

“He skipped the elevating platform,” Emir said. Like Jason, he could sense the people ...

Chapter 710: A Man of Principle

In a room full of shocked faces, Arabelle stood up and moved over to Jason, the bouncy floor making it slightly awkward.

“You’re playing things dangerously, Jason,” she told him. “But you did well.”

The Adventure Society director’s expression showed that he was not in agreement, but he was not one to explode into bluster.

“Mrs Remore, not to disagree with an expert in the study of the mind, but I would appreciate your thoughts on what makes Mr Asano’s… bold...

Chapter 709: Decorum

A large group of mostly very serious people were having a meeting in a room with a bouncy house floor. The attendees were looking at a blue orb sitting on a table.

“This device was delivered to us by a messenger from the, er, messengers,” said Musin Heath. “Accordingly, we don’t trust it at all.”

The Adventure Society director was behind the table with the Knowledge Priest, Ebson Jillet, who tapped the two boxes behind the orb. The smaller box had previously contained th...

Missing 708 PDF

Sorry about the missing PDF from today's chapter. I kept my assistant up into the wee hours while I was editing and he was a bit drowsy when he posted the chapter. He's got a pretty good job, by and large, but he does have weird and inconsistent hours.

Anyway, the chapter now has the PDF attached, but here is that PDF for anyone who missed it.

Chapter 708: Dark Bargain

Auras erupted in consternation after Musin Heath, the Adventure Society director, announced a potential alliance with the messenger leader. The gold-rankers held their equanimity, but many of the silver-rankers were spiritually up in arms. It was here that the director demonstrated his expertise, spreading his aura out to gently chide the silver-rankers, forcibly imposing calm through deft aura suppression. The director might not be an expert at handling monsters, but the veteran administrato...

Chapter 707: Unstable

Jason and his team, including new member Taika, headed to Emir’s palace for a meeting. With them were Farrah, Gary and Travis, while Gabrielle had long gone off to find members of her own clergy. She would arrive at the meeting with them.

Using Emir’s palace as the venue made sense purely from a space perspective, as Jason’s smaller palace lacked the room. Emir had also dedicated most of his home’s space to facilities aiding the displaced population of Yaresh, but his larger pal...

Chapter 706: Original Design Parameters

While Jason’s cloud palace was still largely occupied with servicing the displaced population of Yaresh, Jason maintained an area for himself and his companions. Part of it was a living area, with Sophie and Belinda in one room and the boys in a bunk dorm to save space. Sophie's mother, Melody, was in a secure room adjacent to her daughter, while other members of the convoy were stashed elsewhere. Amos Pensinata was staying with his nephew's team in their vehicle, and Rufus' mother, Arabell...

Chapter 705: Trust

Jason didn't notice the diamond-ranker until she set foot in his cloud palace and blended in with a stream of civilians making their way to the cafeteria. Even then, he almost missed her as that was not a part of the cloud palace currently within his spirit domain. Rather than react, he observed how she was using her aura to completely blend in.

Jason’s own aura control was beyond masterful for his rank, but the diamond ranker demonstrated just how far he had to go. The chance to watc...

Chapter 704: Everyone Has a Price

“Whatever you may be thinking, Mr Asano, the diamond-rankers aren’t spending their days plotting ways to snatch away your secrets.”

Vidal Ladiv was not enjoying his job. He had always imagined people with real power to be sober and serious, dedicated to carrying out the duties that came with the power and influence they possessed. Sadly, they turned out to have the same pride, biases and vested interests as everyone else.

“I definitely wasn’t thinking that,” Jason said...

Chapter 703: Primary Purpose

Jason and Gary were standing outside the forge Jason had conjured up in his soul space for Gary to practise his craft. In this space, Jason could conjure up countless materials, including exceedingly rare ones, for Gary to consume. Gary had even secured samples of the materials he wanted to work with so that Jason could accurately reproduce their nature and properties.

It was a level of resource even massive crafting guilds could not offer. Attempts had been made to create specialised m...

Chapter 702: War Guilt Clause

Marek Nior Vargas stood before the portal leading out of Asano’s astral kingdom. In the weeks since he first entered, his life and future had been entirely transformed, but he found himself nervous as he looked at the way out. The world outside held immense potential, now. It held a hope that he had never felt before, but with hope came the chance for that hope to be crushed. Given Marek’s ambitions, being crushed was the more likely outcome.

“This isn’t me letting you run loose...

Chapter 701: Developing Any Skill Takes Practice

“No,” Amos said, looking at the portal to Jason’s soul realm atop the roof of the cloud palace.

“No?” Jason asked lightly.

“No,” his aura teacher confirmed. “I am not going in there.”

Amos Pensinata was a gold-ranker from Rimaros travelling with Jason, instructing Jason in aura use. Amos had an unusual qualification in this regard, having an experience of extreme spiritual trauma early in his adventuring career that mirrored Jason’s. As a result, they sha...

Chapter 700: Harder Than They Have to Be

“He said no,” Taika told the Fertility priestess firmly.

“Mr Asano represents an unusual confluence of factors that could potentially be used to produce powerful forces that can be deployed against messengers and similar threats.”

“I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be trying to breed super-soldier armies. That sounds like some creepy eugenics stuff.”

The priestess gave Taika’s mountainous body an assessing look up and down.

“You’re an outworlder as we...

Book 9 PDF large bundle (complete)

Here is the completed bundle for book nine, in dark and light background versions. Note that the system boxes are harder to read with a light background. This version also has some mild chapter re-arrangement in the climax, namely moving the Taika chapters to earlier in the sequence. This should improve the overall pacing.

Chapter 699: Aftermath

Messengers didn’t dream. They understood the concept, but it wasn’t something they experienced for themselves. It was a condition of lesser beings. Of the weak. This was what the messenger Tera Jun Casta had been told her entire life, which left her confused as she roused from dreams of her own. She didn’t remember them, skittering away like spectres in the night, but it felt like she had been living them for an extremely long time.

She opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling...

Chapter 698: The Foolish Choice

Inside Jason’s astral realm, Marek Nior Vargas was walking with his friend and companion, Payan Nior Roel. Having bloomed in the same district of the same garden world, they had known each other for all but the first few days of their lives. They had served under the same commander, who had helped break their indoctrination. They had confided their doubts in one another and secretly sought out the Unorthodoxy together.

“We need to leave this place,” Payan said, far from the first ...

Chapter 697: One Ludicrous Encounter to the Next

Jason dropped back to the floor, landing in a superhero crouch, then toppling over.

“Yep,” he grunted, laying sprawled on the ground. “I’m pretty much spent. Hey, commander angel pants, what are you doing here? You know the diamond-rankers won’t let you roam free in a bunker for long, right? You’ve kind of boxed yourself in.”

One of the other gold-rank messengers moved closer to Marek and whispered, although silver-rank hearing meant that Jason heard it perfectly. 2022-10-04 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Book 9 ending & short break

Book nine will finally be drawing to a close this week. It will be the tiniest bit longer than book one to take top spot in series book length.

For silver-rank and above patrons, this means they will be reaching the end of the book this week, after two more chapters. The final chapter will be 698.

I will be taking a week off, which I hadn't intended so soon after the hiatus, but this last month has wrecked me hard. It is the most intense writing period I've ever had and I need re...

Chapter 696: A Fight to the Pain

Outside of the barrier dome surrounding Yaresh, the command council, the strategic command for the messenger raiding force, was floating in the air. Information from the field commanders within the city was relayed to them through speaking stones, a magical device this world did not possess. Communication was one of several odd points of ignorance in this otherwise magically developed world, alongside their dearth of dimensional magic.

One of the commanders left the group to move in the...

People have filled all of my slots

This is just to let everyone know that the LA board game evening meet & greet is now fully booked.

There may be cancellations before December, and I'll keep you all updated.

Shirt Does Los Angeles

TL;DR:

• I'm doing a board game night during my trip to Los Angeles.
• Patrons get the chance to sign up in order of tier.
• You do not need to be an experienced board gamer to attend.
• The date is Thursday, December 8th; the time is 6-10pm.
• There will be food.
• Slots are limited; there is a first come, first serve 2022-09-30 23:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 695: No

The bunker beneath the entertainment district was set up as a series of dormitories, punctuated by various service rooms. As the occupants were primarily not essence users, there was a need for food preparation and toilet facilities for thousands. Those facilities, in turn, required logistics and utility infrastructure to service them.

Jason, Tera Jun Casta and a confused summoned monster crashed through the ceiling and into a warehouse filled with massive crates and barrels. They hit a...

Chapter 694: Doubt, Fear and Hesitation

A messenger slammed into Jason and they both went tumbling to the ground. Similar attacks had struck Humphrey, Clive and other adventurers around the battlefield. Jason rolled away from one another and felt some manner of power settle over him. His magical buffs vanished. His conjured items, cloak and robe, crumbled into dust. His aura was fully restricted, but not exactly suppressed. It felt more like there was an invisible cloud surrounding his entire body, preventing him from projecting an...