Shirtaloon

Chapter 201: Regretting it Later

Jason looked around the skimmer as it sailed smoothly over the rocky ground. It was an unremarkable patch of desert, but the walk between the mountain and its hidden sacrifice chamber and the Vane Estate had been an important time for Jason. It was his first chance to slow down and get some answers from someone who didn’t want to eat him or throw him in an evil blood pit.

That was when he really met Rufus, with his solid dependability and Gary with his boisterous enthusiasm. The...

Chapter 200: Full Circle

The six-legged lizards were not especially dangerous individually. They were no bigger than medium-sized dogs and posed little threat. What made them troublesome was that they were extraordinary in both their hardiness and their number. A group of lizards was normally called a lounge, but the mass of creatures the team was viewing from a distance would be better described as a swarm or even a carpet.

“Desert horde lizards,” Henrietta said. “They’re not a real danger to an adv...

Chapter 199: Strangeness

As they went from town to town, clearing off huge stacks of adventure notices, not everything went as planned. Henrietta continued breaking the team into inefficient combinations, which was only the start of things going wrong.

Humphrey had been regularly summoning his dragon tooth warriors, both to practise working with them and level the power. Each time he did, he used the summoner’s die to alter their form. The die had proven an effective boost, turning his warriors into hul...

Chapter 198: Trash Bonanza

Jason set up the cloud house after they cleared out the adventure notices of the third village of the day. Henrietta gathered the team together to talk about their performance in the day’s combat.

“Obviously, most of those notices weren’t any kind of a challenge,” she said. “As a team, and even alone for most of you, very few iron-rank enemies will pose any kind of threat. That’s acceptable for now, but a full team of capable iron-rankers should comfortably handle not just ...

Chapter 197: Adequate

Jason took one look at the spartan dormitory of the Magic Society outpost and pulled out his cloud flask. The low, blocky building of desert stone contained little more than hard cots.

He chose the adaptive version of the cloud house and mist started spilling out of the flask. It formed into five small buildings in a ring, similar on the outside to the dormitories and connected by covered walkways. Inside was a very different story, with the soft, luxurious cloud-stuff interiors ...

Chapter 196: The Glory of Success or the Price of Failure

Bertrand was the ranking adventurer, which made reporting the elemental manifestation to the Adventure Society his responsibility. As he was a latecomer to the incident, Henrietta diligently filled in the blanks in his knowledge. The team was happy to leave sorting out the mess of the filth-coated streets to him. Civilian casualties need to be tallied and reported and repairs and cleanup organised. Through some meteorological quirk of magic, it never rained in Greenstone. All the waste...

Chapter 195: No Pot of Gold

The people of Old City were reacting in one of two ways to the rainbow light shining in the air. Many were fleeing as fast as they could, rushing past Jason and his team as they rode toward the source of the commotion. Other members of the populace were trying to find a spot to watch from a safe distance. At worst, they would get to see some adventurers in action. Even better would be if it turned out to be an essence. Maybe they would even have a chance at grabbing it for themselves.<...

Chapter 194: Departures

Danielle Geller played the recording of the mirage chamber fight for her important visitor.

“They used my son’s status against him,” the Mirror King said. “It seems your son has picked up your knack for spotting people’s leverage points.”

“No he hasn’t,” Danielle said. “My Humphrey’s a good boy.”

“I see,” the Mirror King said. “You teamed him up with someone who thinks more like you.”

“The man is good at making friends,” Danielle said. “Just a...

Chapter 193: Valkyrie

Valdis wildly fended off Humphrey’s attacks as behind him, Sigrid desperately healed their team members. Even using his smaller sword Humphrey couldn’t match Valdis’ speed but his strength was overwhelming. Valdis was more highly-mobile striker than defender and could not meet the barrage of special attacks leaving him to a slow retreat as Sigrid fell back behind him.

In their previous encounters, Valdis had always ended up fighting Sophie while Humphrey used his heavy sword s...

Chapter 192: Adventurers Are People Too

Jason rode the elevating platform up through the Adventure Society administration building, arriving on the fifth floor. There was a new reception desk, installed as part of the changed being implemented by the inquiry team. Behind the desk was a familiar face.

“Bert,” Jason greeted him. “They’ve moved you upstairs. Is it the new essences?”

“It is,” Albert said. “Getting the full set is the way off the bottom rung in the Adventure Society. Or anywhere else, for that...

Chapter 191: Looking Forward

In the waiting room of Jory’s clinic, Jason chatted with Jory’s assistant, Janice, until Jory emerged from the treatment rooms in the back with a patient.

“Jason,” Jory cheerfully greeted, after sending the patient on her way. “It’s good to see you in person instead of just hearing you through your voice chat power. You know that weird message popping up to say you want to contact me can be disturbing, right?”

“Disturbing?”

“Remember the other day, you tried...

Chapter 190: A Question You Don't Yet Know to Ask

Jason and Humphrey were the first to rise each morning, Jason making the team breakfast while Humphrey plotted out the day’s training. One of the things Emir had warned Jason about was that the houseboat would require additional materials to perform various functions, be they universal or more specific to Jason individual needs.

Jason had been finding the cloud grill a delightful new culinary tool, for which the houseboat required the addition of fire quintessence gems. Fortunat...

Chapter 189: Eclipse

The strike force had been small, to restrict information. Three gold-rankers, six silver-rankers and a dozen bronze-rankers. Rufus’ parents, Gabriel and Arabelle, along with their teammate, Callum, were the golds. The silvers were Danielle Geller, Thalia Mercer, Elspeth Arella, Emir’s chief of staff, Constance, and two more silver-rankers under Emir’s employ. The bronze were Rufus, Gary and ten more of Emir’s people, under Constance’s command.

They arrived on the island in t...

Chapter 188: Impossible Wasn't Enough

In a training hall within the Adventure Society campus, Prince Valdis was squaring off against Rufus. Both held training swords that would leave a painful sting but not inflict any permanent damage.

Valdis moved swiftly, rushing around Rufus while delivering a flurry of rapid but precise strikes. Rufus was more languid, moving with slow, consistent steps as he deflected every attack with almost dismissive ease. He remained on the defensive yet never seemed pressured, casually thr...

Chapter 187: The Last Reward

In the early morning, Jason stood at the edge of a platform in the underground grotto, looking out to the cave entrance and the ocean beyond. Daylight was yet to penetrate the west-facing cave and the illumination was still provided by the colourful glow-stones shining from beneath the water.

“It’s only been a couple of days, but I’m going to miss this,” Jason said.

“It definitely beats hiding out in the back of a disused boat warehouse,” Sophie said, emerging from he...

Chapter 186: I Try to Find the Truth, But That’s Your Hiding Place

The city of Jayapura featured a vast mirage chamber complex that was larger and more sophisticated than the Geller family’s private chamber. The higher magical density of Jayapura meant that more advanced magical effects could be used and supported. This included potent dimensional magic that allowed the replication of vast spaces, as well as multiple, concurrently-operating chambers in the same complex.

In addition to hiring out spaces for training, It was the premier entertain...

Chapter 185: Magnificent Entity

“Moment of truth,” Jason said. He had drawn out the summoning circle himself, rather than let Clive draw it out with his ritual diagram power. All the materials were laid out; spirit coins, quintessence gems and other magical objects. After sprinkling some powdered lesser magic cores to double check everything was correct, he stood up, preparing to chant the incantation.

“When Gary heard Jason would be getting new familiars,” Humphrey whispered, “he tried to bet me the incan...

Chapter 184: More Shady as We Go Along

Tilly provided the group with catalogues that took the form of recording crystals, allowing them to look through projections of the available magic tattoos.

“I’m going to take the burst healing rune,” Sophie said and was soon in the big chair in her undershirt as Tilly pricked needles into her arm.

“You want privacy for this?” Jason asked her.

“You’ve never seen a woman’s shoulder before? I feel sorry for that Cassandra girl, now.”

By the time the red r...

Chapter 183: Domineering, Territorial and Robust

For those who could afford them, personal transport in Jayapura consisted of small discs that floated in the air, underfoot, the rider directing them by shifting their weight. Hester brought a number of them out onto an open area of lawn for the visitors to get a handle on.

“Hoverboards!” Jason called out cheerfully.

“Their actually called personal float discs,” Clive corrected him.

“Hoverboards!”

“That’s not…”

“Hoverboards!” Jason asserted aga...

Chapter 182: Particular Appetites

In the old stone fortress in Old City, now a neutral ground of criminal delights, one of Cole Silva’s thugs knocked on the door of Silva’s office.

“Enter,” came a gruff bark from inside. The thug went in, his body screaming reluctance.

“Boss?”

“What?”

“You asked for any news about Wexler.”

“And?”

“She was part of the team that brought back the thing that big-time out-of-towner was after. I don’t think we’ll ever have a shot at her, bos...

Chapter 181: Blob Body

Clive performed the next essence ritual for Belinda.

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• You have absorbed [Adept Essence]. You have absorbed 3 of 4 essences.
• Progress to iron rank: 75% (3/4 essences).

• [Adept Essence] has bonded to your [Speed] attribute, changing your [Speed] from normal to [Iron 0]. Master all adept essence abilities to increase your [Speed] attribute.

Chapter 180: You Have Friends to Help You

In the ritual room, the group continued to watch as Sophie went through her awakening rituals. She had three unawakened abilities left, one from the wind essence and two from the balance, along with three legendary awakening stones to use on them. She decided to save the Reaper stone for last, leaving the awakening stone of the celestials that Constance had suggested and the stone of karma that Clive picked out. She started with the stone of the celestials.

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