Shirtaloon

Chapter 125: We End Here

As a week of ongoing memorial services came to a close, the adventuring community fell into a sober silence. The Adventure Society campus was quiet and, for the first time Jason had seen, largely occupied by adventurers who didnÂ’t come from the upper echelons of Greenstone society.

Jason had learned to recognise the upper crust adventurers over time. Many he knew by sight, although the quality of their gear was an even better indicator. The people he saw roaming the campus tende...

Chapter 124: It's About How You Use It

While a cabal of the city’s most powerful plotted to get their hands on Thadwick Mercer and the other five, Thadwick’s sister was on her family’s boat with Jason. Jason and Cassandra were – if the half-dozen Mercer family staff were discounted – all alone on the open water. The vessel was the size of some billionaire’s yacht, to the point that Jason suspected the sails it boasted to be vestigial. It was made of wood but was a far cry from the wooden ships Jason knew. White paint ...

Chapter 123: Star Seed

In the Adventure Society marshalling yard, a portal opened and people started stepping through. There were fourteen in total, each bearing a pin marking them as Adventure Society officials. The woman at the front looked to be of early middle age, with her hair unflatteringly pinned tightly back. Her Adventure Society pin was black.

***

Jason, Clive, Belinda and Sophie waited until the last memorial for the day had finished before moving outside to test SophieÂ’s new abiliti...

Chapter 122: Children

Sophie brushed a hand over the first of the three awakening stones Clive and Jason had laid out on the bench.

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Item: [Awakening Stone of Focus] (unranked, uncommon)

An awakening stone containing an undistracted power. (consumable, awakening stone).

• Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.
• Effect: Awakens an essence ability.
<...
2019-11-11 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 121: Getting Stoned

Sophie and Belinda emerged from the side room, Sophie wearing a fresh outfit.

“That was deeply unpleasant,” Sophie said, still looking peaky.

“I imagine Jason had it worse,” Clive said. “He’s an outworlder who came here before ever getting an essence.”

“Why does that matter?” Belinda asked.

“He made his body from the most diluted and impure magic. He was basically a human-shaped lesser monster.”

“That’s a little blunt,” Jason said.

“Be...

Chapter Bundle 116-120

Here is the PDF bundle of last week's chapters, plus the updated bundle of all chapters currently released.

Chapter 120: Iron Rank

In the ritual room, Clive was rubbing his hands together.

“Now for the good part,” he said.

“The good part?” Belinda asked.

“Jason has an ability that he shamelessly squanders,” Clive said. “He could be a one-man revolution in how we categorise powers but he refuses to come and work for the Magic Society.”

“That would be the Magic Society run by the guy who wanted Miss Wexler for what I can only assume to be a creepy love dungeon?” Jason asked.

Â...

Chapter 119: This is the Moment

The Adventure Society campus became a continual series of memorial services. There were so many dead that group memorials were being held one after another. First came the largest groups, made up of the least influential adventurers who had passed. The memorials took place on the north shore, where they could be easily overseen from the high terraces of the cloud palace. Gary and Rufus, as expedition members themselves, made their way out of the cloud palace to attend each and every on...

Chapter 118: The Perks of Being an Essence User

Jason introduced Sophie and Belinda to his panel of seasoned adventurers. It turned out to be comprised of Emir and Clive, who they knew, plus a bald, dark-skinned man that they didnÂ’t. He was handsome, lithely muscled and carried himself with an air of straightforward competence. Even with him just sitting at a table, Sophie read the subtle cues that told her he would be dangerous if he needed to be.

The assured sense of capability he gave off was the exact opposite of what she...

Chapter 117: Six-Month Lease

The arrival of the expedition was a mix of welcome, relief, commiseration and loss. Rufus and Gary waded into the chaos while Vincent headed for the administration building and the immense amount of work about to be dumped on him. Lacking anything else to do, Sophie trailed along behind Jason to the marshalling yard.

They found the Gellers, Rufus and Gary moving to talk to Danielle. With the arrival at the marshalling yard, her job as expedition leader was finally over. The strai...

Chapter 116: See You in Court

Elspeth Arella was in the family home she had spent very little time in, even as a child. Raised by her mother in secret, now the secret was finally out and she was free to come and go as she pleased. Those precious, clandestine visits to her father, Dorgan, were in the past; she could casually come by to take tea in one of his courtyards.

“Your mistake was your need to feel in control,” Dorgan told her. “You had a choice between letting Asano bear the brunt of Lamprey’s ire,...

PDF master bundle

After watching me flop about incompetently, my wonderful patron Al Rascala actually bundled the whole story (thus far) together. He has deftly demonstrated that my only functional skill is stringing words together. Please enjoy the fruits of his gracious efforts: The chapter 001-115 bundle (Al Rascala competence edition).

Chapter 115: Nothing Can Hurt You Like Hope

The door to ArellaÂ’s office opened itself as Jason approached and he walked right in. Sitting behind her desk, she made a gesture and the door closed behind him. He stood in front of the desk, looking around.

“You’ve changed the artwork.”

“I’m surprised you showed your face,” she said. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any bounds on your arrogance.”

“That’s probably fair. I should thank you, though, for the object lesson in the pitfalls of being arrogan...

Chapter 114: Climbing Mountains

Jason walked through the halls of the cloud palace. Far from just white cloud-stuff, the walls, floors and ceilings were marked-out in sunset shades of rich blues, purples, oranges and golds. In some areas it was startlingly vibrant; in others, soft and subdued. Everything glowed with its own light, which Emir had told Jason was absorbed sunlight the palace could store-up and distribute as needed. The floors underfoot had a springiness that was still very stable, as if a very sensible ...

Chapter 113: You Should Work on Making Enemies

The cloud palace was not only the largest magic construction in Greenstone but also the most sophisticated. This was demonstrable in ways large and small, from its ability to take multiple forms to the amenities incorporated throughout the structure.

In Belinda and SophieÂ’s guest suite, there were several cooler cabinets, each with a front of translucent mist. Belinda went to the one specifically for non-alcoholic beverages and reached directly through the veil, her hand feeling...

Chapter 112: The Accumulation of a Life

While the search for answers continued in the astral space, the support camp was suddenly swarmed with bronze-rankers Danielle and Thalia deemed insufficiently reliable to participate. There was also a pair of silver-rankers, one of whom was named Gloria Phael. She had no interest in running the camp but didnÂ’t want a commoner in a position of authority, so she rallied the bronze rankers, ousted Vincent and installed her son in his place.

The administrative skills of the new cam...

Chapter 111: Strange Star

Most of the ill-fated expedition was extracted back through the aperture that had been their entry point. On the other side was a recovery camp, ready and waiting. Only silver rankers and bronze-rankers stayed in the astral space, and not all of them.

Every member of the new, streamlined expedition had either arrived with Emir or been hand-picked by Danielle and Thalia. They drew back to the island that had their underwater aperture just offshore, using it as a staging point. As ...

Chapter 110: Help Arrives

Emir and his people had already left the city by the time Jason and the others arrived. They were travelling over the desert on sand skimmers, although the desert was more rocks than sand. Once they reached the aperture to the astral space, they could use the tracking stones they brought with them to find the group quickly. They had every tracking stone from every member of the expedition packed into a dimensional bag.

It would take time to cross the desert and reach the aperture...

Chapter 109: The Tyranny of Rank

The retreat was going worse than Danielle had hoped, but better than she feared. The iron rankers had been pulled back behind the bronze and silver-rankers holding the line. Luckily, the other side had only a few essence users, their number made up mostly of constructs. The artificial creatures were not the match of an equal-rank essence user, but there were so many as to make up the difference. The enemy essence users were also reluctant to risk themselves by engaging directly, which ...

Chapter 108: You Don't Have the Strength

Emir BahadirÂ’s cloud palace was a sprawling, monstrous edifice. Floating just offshore on the north side of the Island, it was fully exposed to the waves and currents, yet remained as immovable as solid ground. The entire structure was made from cloud, dyed in colours of blue, purple, orange and gold. Laid out in multiple wings and towers, it was a fairy tale brought to life.

Just walking on the cloud floors gave a sense of serenity, gentle and floating, yet supportive at the sa...

Chapter 107: All The Good People We Can get

The expedition was going Island by Island, searching for traces of what was disrupting the astral space. They made their first discovery on the third island; a five-sided column, about as tall as a person and covered in magical engravings. One of the adventurers, who was also a member of the Magic Society, was examining it while Danielle Geller hovered nearby.

“Well?” Danielle asked.

“Definitely some kind of astral magic,” the man said. “We could have used Landemere Va...

Chapter 106: Something Shady

JoryÂ’s kitchen table was covered in magical diagrams, with Belinda taking Clive through how they worked.

“Obviously, the lock is impervious to ordinary intrusion,” she explained. “I re-sequenced the magical bursts into an irregular pattern. It doesn’t throw-off any individual element, but…”

“…it accumulates small errors that cause the whole thing to break down,” Clive finished. “That brilliant. How did you come up with that?”

“I was working on something a...

Chapter 105: You Aren't in Control of What Happens Next

Sophie woke up. Unfamiliar ceiling, something around her neck. She moved and there was a clink of chains as she realised her wrists and feet were manacled. Her body was under a soft, thin sheet. Memories came rushing back as her head cleared. The chase. Getting clear, only to feel the poison eating into her. Fighting a body desperate to close its eyes, knowing they wouldnÂ’t open again. Pushing past her limits to reach the clinic and stumble in through the back. Falling onto the rack of glass...

Chapter 104: An Outcome That Satisfies

“This is bad,” Jory said, pacing back and forth. “That’s what they’ve been doing? Ripping off the rich and powerful?”

Jory, Jason and Donal were in one of JoryÂ’s treatment rooms, with an unconscious Sophie on the treatment table. She was mostly covered in a sheet, except for her head. Her silver hair hung off the side of the table in a tangled mess.

“Who is this woman?” Donal asked.

“Donal,” Jason said. “Janice is probably becoming concerned that no one is...

Chapter 103: Silver Hair

Sophie vaulted a wall from one private residence into another, sprinting across the grounds. She did this twice more, avoiding public streets and the people on them. Finally, she ducked into a large brick shed full of landscaping supplies.

***

Jason chased after Sophie, relying not on his eyes but his aura sense. One of the afflictions he marked her with made her aura radiate like a beacon.

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• [Mark of Sin] (affliction, holy):...
  2019-10-15 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post