Shirtaloon

Chapter 499: I Can Do Sleazy

“Why are you willing to toss Zara’s reputation into the fire?” Jason asked. “How does that help you with the Irios family?”

Vesper looked unhappy but Liara, sitting next to her, nudged her shoulder.

“You might as well tell him,” she said. “He'll be more trouble than you think if you try to lead him around by the nose, believe me. You think Zara is bad? He’s worse. When he decides he’s not going along with your plan, he commits.”

“You didn’t...

Chapter 498: Dignified Young Adventurer

While still a bustle of activity, the Adventure Society campus wasn't the shoulder-to-shoulder throng it had been in the opening days of the surge. The queues no longer reached outside the jobs hall building and Jason could go straight in. He went up past the floors for the lower-rankers, noting that they weren't especially full. The iron and bronze-rankers were treated more like soldiers during a monster surge, formed into large units and deployed accordingly. When monsters appropriate to th...

Chapter 497: Something He Could Never Get Back

What looked like a refugee camp with rows of tents had been set up in a forest clearing. Adventure Society and Magic Society officials were managing a group of people variously panicked, nervous or demanding. Miles led Humphrey, Gary and the others around the outside of the camp towards the largest tent.

The outworlders were easy to pick out by their auras. Species was a relatively subtle aspect of a person's aura but being surrounded by outworlders made it stand out. All of the outworl...

Chapter 496: Unyielding Faith

What had once been an idyllic, mist-shrouded valley was now a bombed-out wasteland of craters, broken buildings and broken bodies. The mist had faded away, the air now filled with an ozone tingle of lingering magic and the iron taste of blood. Little more than a few buildings, lucky to have even one wall left standing, was all that remained of the village. Adventure Society and Magic Society personnel swarmed what was left like ants on a corpse.

The Adventure Society staff were mostly h...

Volume III PDF Bundle Collection

Here's are the PDF bundles for all the volume 3 chapters thus far.

Lets get me an award! Or not, it's actually fine.

My publisher reminded me that nominations for the fan-voted Dragons Awards are about to close (I honestly forgot it was a thing) so I looked up the link in case anyone felt like voting for me in the fantasy book category:

Dragon Awards 

In a point I surprisingly need to make, voting for me in every category is flatteringly enthusiastic but perhaps a bit overzealous. On top ...

Chapter 495: That Usually is My Day

The gold-rankers secretly trailing Jason watched with surprise as three people appeared out of nowhere.

“This is it,” Liara Rimaros said. She was with two members of her old team, from when she had been a restricted essence enforcer for the Adventure Society. Like many gold-rankers, the current disposition of their team wasn't about everyday monster-hunting because there weren’t enough gold-rank monsters to hunt with the power to push them closer to diamond.

Most gold ranker...

Chapter 494: I Liked the Fighting Better

Jason was once more riding a land skimmer along the road network that wove through the local equivalent of Central America. Each side of the broad thoroughfare was lined with dense jungle. According to his map, Jason was less than an hour from the final destination on his journey before he could portal back to Rimaros.

Something twinged at his aura senses, so light that he wasn’t sure he hadn’t imagined it. It was certainly closer than he wanted anything to get undetected. It could ...

Chapter 493: The Hitting It a Bunch Plan

The original plan had been to sneak into the dam quickly and quietly in two small groups while the defences had been pulled away by the attack on the valley. From the outset, it was clear that the defences had been massively increased since Clive, Humphrey and Sophie first scouted it out. Their intent had been to launch the operation immediately after their original surveillance. Travelling to reunite the team, meet Dawn and then the start of the monster surge had caused multiple delays.

Chapter 492: Supply Chain Problems

The next fortress town Jason visited wasn’t under active attack, letting him get in and out quickly. Situated on the coast, it was connected to several storm accumulators. The offshore, windmill-like devices collected power from magical weather events for which the Sea of Storms was named. The prevalence of such storms in the local area was why an adventurer made the trip rather than an airship that could easily be caught up in the volatile weather.

This particular town used the power...

Chapter 491: Uneasy Allies

"So much for drawing away the defenders," Neil said as the heavy land skimmer threaded a swift and dangerous path through the trees. In the driver's seat next to him, Belinda was concentrating on controlling the skimmer. The heavy combat skimmer procured specifically for the mission had full-coverage armour and defensive weaponry. It was an advanced vehicle that only those with the right abilities could operate.

“In fairness,” Gary said, “I haven’t seen any Purity priests. Or an...

Chapter 490: Small

The lobby of the Adventure Society office was not large, even though it served double duty as the public face of the society and the jobs hall. About a dozen adventurers were standing around inside, with even this small branch made busy by the monster surge. The team of silver-rankers whose auras marked them as a cut above the others were present, looking with weary expressions at two other adventurers, facing off.

Jason had seen that expression before, on the face of Neil when Thadwick...

Chapter 489: Going Overland

Outside of the rocky gorge, the coastal landscape was filled with greenery, white sand and blue water. Jason stood on a hilltop, looking out at a gorgeous beach and the sea stretching out beyond it. Next to him stood his familiars. Shade had once preferred a shape akin to Jason in his cloak but now looked more like the silhouette of a butler. Colin was in a humanoid form, the leeches that made up his body having melded together into what looked like a blood clone of Jason himself. Gordon was ...

Chapter 488: Better Strange Than Scary

The fortress town of Arcazitlan favoured defence over comfort, with its stone chambers and claustrophobic corridors dug right into the stone wall of the gorge. This was worst in the spaces set aside for the civilians sheltering from the monster surge, with people crated-up like animals on a truck.

Living underground required specialised infrastructure, all of which ran on magic. Magic lamps were required to light up the dark and air needed to be brought in, filtered and circulated, with...

Chapter 487: Never Underestimate Adventurers

Despite his mana-efficient abilities, Jason’s reserves depleted as the fight dragged on. He and Colin had tainted dozens upon dozens of the monsters carpeting the bottom of the gorge, pushing Jason’s mana towards empty.

Jason was uncertain of how many monsters were swarming around like ants. Well over a hundred, maybe twice that. The earliest afflicted were ready to drop. He hadn’t loaded them up heavily and they boasted silver-rank endurance but without cleansing, Jason’s affli...

Chapter 486: An Old Friend That He Had No Time For

The bottom of the gorge had a small river running through it, with a wide road running alongside it. The road was stone-paved and well maintained, its purpose being for bringing people into the fort from the surrounding towns and villages, along with their provisions and whatever herds the fort could manage to squeeze in. The bottom of the deep gorge was filled with shadow, which would make it a playground for Jason’s shadow jumping.

Descending through the air, Jason absently wondered...

Chapter 485: They Don't Send Their Best People

On an island off the coast of Vitesse, there was an Adventure Society way station where various magical vehicles were stored. In Greenstone, with its weak ambient magic, only people with the right power could operate magical vehicles. In high-magic zones, magic vehicles were available to all, but the most powerful still required the appropriate power.

Gary and Jason’s team were in an open marshalling area, waiting for a pair of high-powered ground skimmers to be delivered. Clive and B...

Chapter 484: That Doesn't Make the Pebble Important

The Geller residence was high in one of the famous garden towers of Vitesse. During monster surges, the residence welcomed many guests, from the team members of family members to various allies. Humphrey Geller’s team, along with Gary, were no exception and were housed in a small suite, befitting their status as silver-rankers. The bronze-rankers were in what amounted to dormitories on the lower floors.

The suite was not large for a half-dozen people, at least by the normal kind of lu...

Chapter 483: Diligent and Considerate

The Zila’s Promise departed Rimaros airspace, heading west. It ascended to an altitude where only the most exotic or dedicated monsters would encounter them. Trenchant Moore ordered the adventurers to stay out of the way of the crew and most stuck close to where the gold ranker stood at the stern of the vessel.

Jason had a happy grin as he watched the city fall away and the Sea of Storms spread out below them. Once they moved into the clouds, he joined some of the other adven...

Chapter 482: True Elites

On the island of Livaros, the sky port was the busiest part of the skyline. Looming towers had skyships docked up and down their exteriors while more ships drifted in and out of the port air space. It was busy enough that Jason wondered how air traffic control was managed.

The ships came in a startling array of designs. Some looked like ordinary ships, complete with sails, although Jason doubted they were propelled by anything so mundane as ordinary wind. Others were almost spaceship-li...

Chapter 481: Enemies Even I Would Fear

Jason left through the main doors of the temple of Fertility, his storage space freshly loaded with supplies. He was motivated, having discovered how critical the temple’s delivery was during the monster surge. Fortress towns were of paramount importance during a surge, sheltering the evacuated populace of the surrounding villages and towns. Most of those people were normal citizens who could not live on spirit coins the way an essence user could, making the food supply a significant logist...

Chapter 480: Supplies

Supply depot number three was in the same warehouse district where Jason had carried out his big trade, not far from the main markets of Livaros. He portalled to the destination square in the market and made his way on a black horse with glowing white mane and hooves.

There were plenty of different means of transport in the city, from floating platforms to flying carriages to adventurers riding familiars, like Jason. One of the things Jason had learned was that permits were required for...

Chapter 479: Any Help They Can Get

Farrah looked at Jason with concern as they sat around a table with Rufus, eating the breakfast Jason had just cooked. After leaving his own world, Jason had immediately undergone a shift in temperament. The dark clouds that had accumulated over the past few years had finally parted, only for their late-night visitor to summon them back. Jason was sitting sullenly, idly poking at a fried sausage with his fork.

“I never met this Hurricane Princess,” Farrah muttered, “but I might ju...

Chapter 478: A Story of War

Jason’s barbecue was in full swing, with people crowded along the cliff top and kids splashing in the river, letting it carry them into the magic barrier that stopped them from going over the waterfall and bounced them back. Jason had a steak sandwich in one hand and a drink in a hollowed-out coconut in the other.

“This is nice,” Rufus said as he, Jason and Farrah wandered about, meeting the locals. “Tomorrow is the Adventure Society and work, so it’s good to relax and go in f...

Chapter 477: It Will Not Be Fine

Liara Rimaros made her way back to the royal sky island, half-asleep in the back of a flying carriage. She'd been working without rest as the city was overrun with adventurers that had to be filtered through for potential Builder cultists and was finally going home to sleep.

The carriage was forced to stop on a floating platform close to the sky island for security inspection. No chances were being taken of an attack on the palace. Royal guards carefully inspected the driver and the car...

Chapter 476: A Damn Fine Way to Start Off a War

The Vitesse branch of the Adventure Society was bustling with activity. Miles Cotezee walked down a hallway towards one of the large briefing rooms with an unusual adventurer at his side. The man was an elf with reddish skin, stark white hair and golden eyes. His sand-coloured leather outfit had many tribal marking stitches into it forming beautiful patterns matched by the tattoos on his skin. The buckle of his belt depicted purple flames in the shape of a flower, the symbol of the Burning Vi...

Fixed PDF (Chapter 475)

The PDF for chapter 475 and the weekly bundle have been fixed. Sorry for the error.

Chapter 475: Remaining Unremarkable

While Farrah could easily slip into the role of a specialist, Jason could not do so as easily. No amount of items would turn him into the plague cannon the locals wanted in their affliction specialists, able to blanket groups or burn down individuals with equal ease, usually at range from behind the safety of allies, summons or both.

One of the reasons Jason had seen so few affliction specialists was that Greenstone was primarily a human city and few humans pursued that path. Their apti...

Chapter 474: I Don't Need to Invent Icecream

The kids playing in the river spotted Farrah disabling the magical barrier around the hole in the ground and came ashore to watch her uproot the fence.

“You can fix that afterwards, right?” Rufus asked.

“Easily,” Farrah said. “It’s designed to be easy to maintain, so I’m not damaging it at all.”

When she was done, Jason set down the cloud flask which started spilling out cloud-stuff to slowly form his new cloud house right over the hole.

The three adult...

Chapter 473: Small-Town Lifestyle

Jason’s yacht arrived at the narrow reef passage to a lagoon on the island of Arnote. Normally inaccessible to large water vehicles, the cloud vessel had no problem skimming over obstructions that would ground vessels with all but the most shallow of drafts.

Jason, Rufus and Farrah stood on the yacht’s bow as it moved into the lagoon, taking in the postcard-perfect circle of white sand and turquoise water. To their left, pristine sands curved halfway around the lagoon. There they me...