grimcatcreations

Chapter 176 : Rent

Surprisingly for James, everything had gone well.

It was now the morning after the grand opening of the Penumbral Palace, and everything was perfectly fine. He was enjoying spending time with the ratlings, helping them get ready for school since they finally would get to go starting the next week, and no new emergency had dropped on his lap. The team at the Shadow Den had successfully dealt with the horde of invading monsters and had already contacted Mesker to handle investigating the ...

Chapter 175 : A breath of fresh air

G433 was unhappy.

No, scratch that. G433 WAS ABSOLUTELY LIVID.

The artificial gestalt struggled in his bounds, the screen of the cubic computer that served as his body flashed horrible things as the sound of clicking chains echoed.

In the back of the armored truck where he seethed in silence after being muted, the guards surrounding him watched the show curiously. It wasn't every day you got to see a living computer shaking in the metal chains wrapping it. It couldn't be con...

Silhouette Audiobook - Chapter 33

Narrated by Thomas Miller.

Chapter 174 : The Shepherd's flock

Standing on a dilapidated building not too far from Mother Greenheld's orphanage, a robed figure watched the ongoing carnage. Cloaked in tan and dirtied silk, a wooden mask covered the figure's face, hiding their identity. Though with a close look, their loyalty was easy to decipher, a blue bee the size of a mouse nestled between the figure's raised hood and their neck, any hint of skin hidden away by green bandages tightly woven over their form.

When they spoke, a deep masculine voice ...

Chapter 173 : Attack on the orphanage

Knowing some kind of emergency was happening back at the Shadow Den tempted James to just rush off and head down to the depths. However, he knew better. This could be a trap, a diversion to lure him away from the Penumbral Palace. Thankfully, he knew exactly how he could check on what was happening back in the Sunken City.

"That will be all for today from me. I'll let Mister Black and Doctor Decanov decide if they wish to continue any further."

The black podium he...

Silhouette Audiobook - Chapter 32

Narrated by Thomas Miller.

Chapter 172 : Questions and answers

"Again, I will not elaborate on my place of birth."

"But-"

"If you insist any further I will have you removed from the conference."

The reporter who had been trying to get James to tell everything about his origins closed her mouth. It had been a little over fifteen minutes now since he officially began the second part of the conference for his opening day. No longer were they standing around in the street, instead the entire group was now i...

Chapter 171 : Among the crowd

Among those gathered for the Penumbral Palace's opening day was a shifty figure, covered from head to toe in baggy clothes, with a hood, a bandana, and a cap further hiding away their identity. They had been idly playing with something in their hoodie's front pouch during Silhouette's entire speech, and now that it was over and the people were ready to enter the shop and make their purchases or follow the shadow man to ask him more questions, the subject of that idle play was revealed.

...

Chapter 170 : Opening day

Quite the crowd had amassed for the event of the day. A shop's opening day wouldn't usually be this popular. Even if a good ad campaign could bring in the same numbers, people wouldn't be this invested in it as they were now. No, the reason why quite a substantial part of those gathered were journalists wielding mics and cameras was the identity of the man in charge: Silhouette. These past few weeks had seen the complete unknown become the talk of the town. Though his rise to fame had begun w...

Silhouette Audiobook - Chapter 31

Narrated by Thomas Miller.

Silhouette Audiobook - Chapter 30

Narrated by Thomas Miller.

Chapter 169 : Ready for the big day

With no further incidents, the opening day date grew ever closer. The doctor continued working on his machinery, improving the efficiency of the complete designs and refining the still flawed ones. It took three tries before the artificial infusion process was fully successful. The bonds it formed in James' soul space weren't quite at the level of those he created himself, but they were better than those produced by fully powered electroguns. They were as strong as those formed by Solvent whe...

Chapter 168 : Discussing possibilities

Doctor Ivan Decanov stepped towards the inert pile of black sludge that had once been two monsters attempting to kidnap him emotionlessly. He bent his back to study the mass a little closer, trying to discern traits leftover from the entities they used to be.

"You did quite the number on them."

Still acting as Silhouette, James approached the doctor after ending the dramatic horror scene he had set. No more mist or strange apparitions haunted the warehouse, only the two strange me...

Chapter 167 : Hunter and prey

When the two monstrous flesh creatures emerged from the sewer grate onto the street, they were in luck. Not only was the surface clear of pedestrians despite the sun still shining its light onto the city, but they also weren't far from their original target. While they had genuinely been ordered to investigate the sewers in search of clues, they knew of one spot it resided in.

"Look, brother. That street shouldn't be far from the Penumbral Palace."

"I hear you, sister, but give me...

Chapter 166 : Invaders in the sewers

The black rat's snoot twitched as it sought foreign scents. Its mischief had tasked it to scout this part of the sewer tunnels near the center of their territory in the clean city, and it took this duty seriously. Doubly so since their patriarch har reprimanded them following their poor performance on the clean side of the surface. Their benefactor had been unhappy with their failings, and they were all ashamed.

The rodent paused in its scurry. It wasn't a smell that clued it in, but ra...

Silhouette Audiobook - Chapter 28

Narrated by Thomas Miller.

Chapter 165 : A Hero's advice

Sarah ducked beneath the metal fist flying towards her face.

The Hero trainee responded to Elaimant's attack with a light-coated knee to the torso, the elementally charged attack pushing back the towering avatar of magnetically gathered scraps in the form of a humanoid body the crystalline alien used. From the crunching and screeching that echoed in the training room during the impact, the hit likely damaged some of those metal bits.

The large four-armed snake in gladiatorial armo...

Chapter 164 : Demonologist's advice

James ducked below the fireball that flew right at his face.

"You know, this isn't exactly how I pictured these magic lessons."

Mesker Duskenfer the Third, great pyromancer and demonologist, merely shrugged as another volley of burning projectiles launched, forcing James to melt and spread and shift his form to avoid them.

"First lesson when it comes to magic, don't get hit by it. You'd be surprised how many people fail that step."

This time a column o...

Chapter 163 : Zalcian rats

Arms crossed, James tapped his fingers nervously. It had been a handful of hours now since he'd brought his little family to the city hall for the kids' test to obtain citizenship. He and the ratlings had been separated almost immediately to be interviewed individually. While his meeting had been rather short, he had yet to see a hair of the children in the waiting room he had been brought to since he was left here. He tried his best not to worry too much. Marry did tell him this situation wa...

Chapter 162 : Manufactured darkness

Decanov and James stood in silence for a moment after their distinguished guests left. Ultimately, it was the scientist who spoke first and ended the quietude.

"Do you think-"

"They'll try and listen in? I am unsure. They have the means and a reason to, but they have also proven trustworthy. So far."

"You trust them?"

"Not fully, but enough to allow them on this tour. At this point, I'm inclined to believe that they won't betray us. They'll lik...