Shirtaloon

Chapter 472: Contribution

Late into the night, the space outside of the Adventure Society's central admin complex was still crowded with people. To Jason's delight, some enterprising local vendors had wheeled carts into the Adventure Society campus that magically expanded into food stalls, creating an impromptu food market. Since he and Rufus were still waiting for Farrah to emerge, they roamed around, sampling local delicacies.

The streets were lit up not just with plain street lights but different coloured glo...

Chapter 471: Don't Say You Weren't Warned

Jason stepped out of the assessment officer’s office to find a stern-looking man and woman waiting for him. They each had a rigidly controlled silver-rank aura.

“So,” he said. “Are you two generic security or are you part of this anti-Builder unit.”

“We are part of the Builder cult response team. Come with us, please.”

“Absolutely,” Jason said. “Take me to your leader.”

The pair escorted Jason through the vast administration complex, down through ...

Chapter 470: Multi-Talented

Rimaros was a city of well-trained and powerful essence users, meaning many strong auras and powerful senses. With the number of essence users present in the city, and more pouring in for the monster surge, it was a disorienting cacophony for those able to sense it. This was one of the main reasons that aura retraction was a key point of etiquette.

While any essence user could sense auras, detecting the senses of others being projected out was something that required training. In Rimaro...

Chapter 469: More Paperwork

Unlike most of the temples in Rimaros, the city’s main temple of Knowledge was not to be found in the temple district on the island of Livaros. Instead, it could be found on the second-largest of the city’s sky islands, one of the few which could be accessed by the public. The island was primarily known for being the location of the Rimaros Magic Society campus, which held ownership and control of the island.

In a major city like Rimaros, the temple of Knowledge was an important res...

Chapter 468: Disappointed or Relieved

Dawn’s cottage bubble flying vessel floated over the deck of the skyship. Dawn emerged from the cottage, walked down the short garden path to the bubble surrounding it and stepped through, like passing through a waterfall. She dropped lightly to the deck and the bubble shrank before dropping into her hand. She then placed the vessel into a pouch on her belt.

Sophie, Neil and Jory watched this happen, with a grimy and half-naked Humphrey coming up on deck just as Dawn was putting her a...

Chapter 467: Surge Protocols

From the deck of the cloud yacht, Jason and Farrah were standing with drinks in hand looking at the islands floating in the sky as they drew closer to the city of Rimaros. One of the three main natural islands had come into view, but since Farrah had no idea which one was the island housing the Adventure Society, Jason had arbitrarily picked the local equivalent of Aruba. Approaching from a distance, their silver-rank vision picked out a lot of colourful buildings poking out from a wealth of ...

Chapter 466: Responsible Dad

Two skyships moved side by side through the air. One was a traditional vessel crafted from wood with floatation crystals set into the hull. The other was a monstrosity of rough iron and heavy bolts. Despite their differences, both were running damaged.

The wooden ship had been through rushed patchwork modifications to handle the unusual magic conditions it had passed through. It was too late to undo them now that the magic around them had normalised and the crew were doing their best to...

Sorry, not a chapter; I'm shilling for prestige

This is related to an award, so I really tried to give this post a title of cringe-inducing self-aggrandisement but apparently - unlike Jason - there is a level of shamelessness beyond which I won't sink. Who knew. Anyway, my Kindle publisher, Aethon Books, is doing bit of an awards push. They're hoping to get some of their titles into contention for the Dragon Awards, my own little tale included.

These are public-driven awards, so they asked me to share this little announcement from th...

Volume 2 (complete) Small PDF Bundles

Here is the complete volume 2, including the interval chapters, in smaller bundles for those whose devices don't like the larger PDF bundles. These will remain available in full until a few weeks before the release of book four on Kindle/Audible/paperback, which is currently scheduled for late December.

Volume 2 (complete) Large PDF Bundles

Here are the large bundles for volume 2, plus the full volume 2 PDF, including the interval chapters. These will remain available in full until a few weeks before the release of book four on Kindle/Audible/paperback, which is currently scheduled for late December.

Chapter 465: I've Seen Your Best

Farrah paused from her explanation of what Jason could expect from their destination once the cloud ship cleared the storm. In only a few moments they went from blasting horizontal rain and mountainous wave crests to calm seas and blue skies. They went out onto the deck of the boat to take a look, leaning against the railing as a cool ocean breeze pleasantly offset the warm air.

Behind the yacht, the edge of the storm just stopped, as if trapped behind glass. Even the seas swiftly calme...

Chapter 464: Strategic Doctrine

“Clive,” Humphrey said. “Is that a kind of skyship you’re familiar with?”

“No,” Clive said.

The group watched the two approaching skyships using the vision-magnifying spell one of the other adventurers around them had shared.

The two approaching skyships were unlike any the group had seen. If Jason had been present he would have noticed a resemblance to old ironclad ships from the US civil war. They had a decidedly industrial look, with plenty of thick, crude m...

Chapter 463: What a Monster Surge Feels Like

Gary and Jory and Jason’s team were on the open deck of a skyship, heading into the range where they could portal to Vitesse.

“Is everyone feeling that?” Humphrey asked.

"I am," Neil said, the rest of the group agreeing. A tremulation in the ambient magic started small but grew rapidly in strength and was shortly creating turbulence for the skyship.

“What is this?” Sophie asked. “Is this what a monster surge feels like?”

"No," Clive said. "No, it isn't."<...

Chapter 462: Connotations

A bird fluttered out of Humphrey’s jacket, then transformed into a puppy as it landed on the table and started pawing at the projector. Humphrey scooped him up and petted him gently.

“It’s alright, little buddy,” he cooed soothingly.

“That’s it?” Neil complained as the recording ended. “That didn’t tell us anything. I’m so glad he’s alive and I can go back to hating him.”

“Neil,” Humphrey scolded.

“What?” Neil asked.

Clive shook hi...

Welcome to Volume 3

The title says it all, really, which leaves me somewhat at a loss about what to put here. I hope the extra interval chapters over the weekend got everyone primed for the return of the regular schedule. I'm still not completely convinced it was the best plan, since extra work is not the best way to set myself up for the next few months, but I don't always make the best life choices.

If I'd made better choices years ago, I could have a wife and kids and a sensible job instead of an inappr...

Chapter 461: Of Course He Doesn't Have Pants

In an abandoned outback town, there was something unusual on the dry grass of the football oval. Large stones were set into arches, forming a series of concentric circles. Next to the bar, the only properly-maintained building, was a long wooden grandstand, bleached by the sun. Jason and Farrah had been sitting on it for some time, talking.

“It’s time,” Jason said and stood up.

“You know they’re watching us, right?” Farrah asked as she did the same.

“Leave them...

Chapter 460: Kind of His Thing

Clive drove the flying, open-top carriage through the skies of Vitesse, docking halfway up one of the garden towers covered in flowers and greenery. He disembarked onto a balcony, along with Humphrey and Sophie, where they were met by an Adventure Society attendant.

“Young Master Geller, Mr Standish, Miss Wexler,” he greeted. “Welcome back to the city, and congratulations on reaching silver rank.”

“Thank you, Ernest,” Clive said, handing over the control crystal for th...

Chapter 459: What Could Possibly Go Wrong

“Well?” Lady Prani Ajus demanded as she stormed into the large research room in the astral magic research department. Lorelei Grantham was there, along with a half dozen researchers poring over the notes left behind by Clive.

“We found something that Cli… that Standish left behind,” Lorelei said. “He obviously wanted it to be found. It’s a means to track portal network activity. It only gives vague locations but we can use it to at least partially monitor Builder cult trav...

Chapter 458: Dragon Lady

Belinda followed the signal of her magical device into a dusty desert gulch, a few dozen kilometres south of Rakesh. She roamed around, looking for the source of the signal. She and Clive had only been able to get an approximate location from the Magic Society campus and it was taking days to narrow it down.

"Where is the stupid thing?" she muttered, part of an ongoing stream of disgruntled commentary. "Roaming the whole damn desert. Sand in places that sand is not supposed to be."

Chapter 457: The Past Can Wait

To all appearances, Marta Fries was an unremarkable resident of the city of Kurdansk. Like many of Kurdansk’s celestines, she had dark skin and silver hair. Her small row house was no different to the others wedged together on the narrow street where she lived.

The plain but powerful aura suppression bracelet on her arm hid her silver-rank aura but also impeded her aura senses, so she didn’t sense the approaching bronze-rankers until they were close to her door. There was something ...

Book 2 is now out!

I have a confession: I'm unsure about the exclamation point in the title of this post. I'm personally excited, yes, but the overuse of this punctuation, especially in promotional material gives me pause.

Is it trite? Overdone? Yeah, probably. But it's sincere, and I grow evermore weary of sarcastic cynicism. It's definitely not that I'm selling out. Please buy my book.

Book 2 can be found in ebook and...

Chapter 456: I'm the Bait in Question

At the Adventure Society dock in the city of Greenstone, Emir Bahadir’s cloud palace had been replaced with a cloud ship that would dwarf an ocean liner. Humphrey, Sophie and Neil boarded via a cloud dock the led directly into the side of the ship where one of Emir's staff led them inside. They were taken to the owner's stateroom, which was less a room and more like three storeys of typical Emir excess.

In an office larger than most homes, Emir was sitting behind a desk under a transp...

Chapter 455: Everyone Calls Me Gary

In the city of Greenstone, Gary Xandier and Rufus Remore walked quietly along an empty street, the night lit up by magical lamposts. Gary was a huge lion man, yet looked sunken and small, with none of his signature boisterousness.

“It was a good service, I thought,” Rufus said.

“Good service?” Gary reacted angrily. “Good service? He died saving this city and what does he get? A bunch of sneering nobles, glad to see him go. They hated him. They always hated him. Tiny peop...

Volume 2 End

Chapter 454 concludes volume 2. For silver-rank and above patrons, volume 3 will begin on June 1st in my local time in Australia, with the usual Two/three/four week delays for bronze/iron/free readers. Until then, there will be weekly interval chapters on the day the last chapter of the week would normally come out, whenever that may be for your timezone.

For those who will will be leaving us during the semi-hiatus, I thank you for the support and I look forward to seeing you again for ...

Chapter 454: Something Other Than Human

“Dr Asano, I would like to thank you again for letting us set up the interim government here. Best estimates are over a year before Paris will be restored to the point of initiating repopulation.”

“Thank you for helping push through the Transformed Relocation project with the UN, Mr President,” Yumi said. “The first of the transformed will be arriving this week.”

“It’s not entirely selfless, Dr Asano. We will be in Saint-Étienne for a time, but for the transformed...

Chapter 453: Salus Mundi Suprema Lex Esto

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to get the materials for a category four suppression device?” Gerling asked, jerking the spear again. “I’m impressed that it takes something this strong to shut your powers down.”

Jason collapsed to the ground, the spear still running through him. He groaned through gritted teeth. The surviving vampires and Mr North gathered around.

“Fortunately,” Gerling continued, “there’s been an upswing in category four proto-spaces. So w...

Chapter 452: Small Mercies

Jason had made a tradition of triggering the territory transfigurations alone on his balcony, but he changed his pattern because he was unsure of what would come next. Shade's VTOL plane form was hovering just outside the pagoda entrance, blasting wind. Jason went outside to join the three vampires, Mr North and Gerling.

Standing with them, Jason closed his eyes and initiated the change. The others sensed nothing from Jason’s newest and most distant territory, but Jason felt it immedi...

Book 2 Release and Volume 2 End (they're different things)

A couple of announcements, but just a quick explanation before we start: The online chapters are divided into volumes, while the Amazon releases are divided into books. The volumes are much longer, with volume 1 comprising books 1, 2 & 3. So when I'm discussing book 2, that means the Amazon release of older chapters (114-189), after a professional edit. When I'm talking about volume 2, that means chapters 267-present.

On the 18th of May, book 2 will arrive on Amazon. As with book 1,...

Chapter 451: The Very Opposite of Fantastical

The sky was bleak, grey and sunless, reflecting the architecture of the city. The territory was another city, but the very opposite of fantastical. Uniform concrete buildings were set out in plain, hard lines, like a distillation of Soviet Bloc design.

Just as the territory was a bland version of a human city, the anomalies were a bland version of human. Identical human men in identical black suits with sixties tailoring, they were a clone army of men in black. They fought with what loo...

Chapter 450: Four-Score Men

“Well,” Jason said. “This is awkward.”

Every person gathered in the mezzanine lounge of the pagoda had either tried to or succeeded in killing or kidnapping at least one other person present.

“Perhaps I should take the lead,” Mr North suggested. “While I have tried to arrange several deaths amongst the group, I never tried to kill anyone here personally.”

“Whatever works,” Jason said. “Just make sure no one tries it again while I’m transfiguring the n...