Lillene

Chapter 462 - Rubble

Enjoy!

--------------

The only intact cell near the site of the explosion was the one Serenity had noticed with the semi-functional runic shield. It didn’t even have much rubble inside it, even though the adjoining cells had their entrances partially buried. It looked like what little was in the cell had rolled in after the explosion, when the barrier in front of the cell failed again.

The cell would be a good place to dig from, since it seemed less damaged than the corrid...

Chapter 461 - Tirmanak’s Fight

Enjoy!

----------

Light flew back and forth between the two combatants while Serenity hid in the shadows. He could vaguely tell that they weren’t simply throwing spells at each other; there were tricks in the magic as well. He could have figured out what they were if he spent the time, but it didn’t seem worth it when it would delay his own spell creation. The one thing he was certain of was that Tirmanak seemed to be using more complex but less powerful spells than the man in...

Chapter 460 - Cage Fight

Enjoy!

---------

“If you prefer, your student can fight me.” A man stepped out of the cell behind the four dressed in burgundy. He looked similar, except that his robes were white with reddish trim the same shade as the others’ robes. “But I doubt you want that.”

He grinned and his robes started to glow with magic, which quickly spread to his sword. Serenity could tell that the man himself wasn’t controlling it; calling for it, probably, but not controlling it. I...

Chapter 459 - Record Search

Enjoy!

------------

“Who’s Gaia?” Tirmanak’s question made Serenity realize he’d said everything out loud. It wasn’t really much of a surprise; he often thought better when he spoke.

“Earth.” Serenity didn’t see any reason not to tell Tirmanak; in fact, the information might be useful. This was apparently at least part of the reason for the kidnappings. “The intelligence in Earth’s Core, at least.”

Had it reacted when he recognized the outside w...

Chapter 458 - Church? What Church?

Enjoy!

----------

Serenity opened his mouth and started to ask, but remembered that Tirmanak was the one asking the questions before anything came out of his mouth. He wanted to ask about the records; it was clear Djen had them. Tirmanak knew that; surely he’d ask?

“What church is it?” Tirmanak picked a completely different topic to ask about.

Djen coughed, then stared at Tirmanak. “What church? The church! The only one that matters on this lost planet, the one...

Chapter 457 - A Question of Timing

Enjoy!

-----------

Tirmanak hadn’t just brought a flyer. He’d brought an enclosed flyer that hid its occupants. It also had the capacity to fly quite a bit higher than most flyers, as Tirmanak had demonstrated almost immediately.

Tirmanak didn’t explain why he had the far more expensive item, but Serenity was confident it was for occasions like this and anything else that it might be useful for. It had probably seen quite a bit of use, especially since Tirmanak’s fir...

Chapter 456 - Iridescent Glow

I added a paragraph near the end of last chapter; I'd originally slated it for here but it fit there better. It's more of a reminder than anything:

While he was thinking about it, the Voice notified him that it had stopped the teleportation of a student out of the Tutorial and sent her to the second stage instead. She wasn’t anywhere near the first to have been stopped, since there were usually several each day, but it was a reminder of how important what he was doing was.

Enjoy...

Chapter 455 - To Deal with a Daa’il

Enjoy!

-------------

The Guildmaster smiled. It almost seemed predatory, but perhaps Serenity was simply reading too much into it from Margrethe’s experience. “Your help. If I help you with your quest, you’ll work on a Guild quest that I think you’re suited for.”

Serenity could see a couple of different hooks in there. “You want me to join Order’s Guild, don’t you?”

The smile became a little more genuine. “Yes, of course. In order to treat you as a ...

Chapter 454 - Surprising the Guildmaster

Enjoy!

-----------

The wards reported an unknown person. The link with the enchantment on the House doors, which was one of the very few intact enchantments Serenity had found in Zenith, said that there was an authorized entry at that time. Serenity had Andarit follow him as they entered the doors.

Ben looked up from his book when they entered. “There’s a devil talking to Mister Lowpeak,” he started. “He just walked in, didn’t knock or anything.”

Serenity h...

Chapter 453 - Tirmanak

Enjoy!

-----------

Tirmanak Oathbinder, Hand and Guildmaster of Order’s Guild on Ranar, Tier Six Sword of the Path, watched out the window as his last remaining Hand left the Guildhouse for Asihanya. Something was very wrong there; so far, it didn’t look like it was something against the rules of Order’s Voice, but he still needed to have someone there to watch things and there were no living Hands on Asihanya.

At least, not if Grandma Tillon was really dead. Tirmanak ...

Chapter 452 - A Way Home

Enjoy!

--------

Freeing the eight people was, in fact, as easy as breaking the tokens. They weren’t fragile until the person who owned them deliberately intended to break them, at which point they shattered into powder with only a little force.

It was clearly by design, and that irritated Serenity because it showed how much thought had been put into making the slave tokens as user-friendly for their owner as possible, while making it hard for slaves to escape. It wasn’t ...

Chapter 451 - Out of the Alley

Enjoy!

----------

“Are any of you healers?” Serenity stared at the terrified group of slaves. None of them seemed to react. “Anyone? How about medical training? I don’t think I hurt them too badly, but they’re not up yet.”

Serenity waved a hand towards the two men who attacked him. He knew that if he were one of them, he’d only still be on the ground if he couldn’t get up. Staying down in a fight was a good way to get yourself killed; the only time to do it w...

Chapter 450 - Why?

Enjoy!

----------

The second time, the salesman was back sooner. This time, he brought a set of folders instead of people. “We have eight,” he stated. “Five male, three female, including that one. How many do you want?”

Andarit frowned. “Go over their skills with me, but if they meet the general criteria, I can make eight work. Depending on price, of course.”

Serenity left her to the negotiations. He didn’t really care about the price; tiny monster cores ...

Chapter 449 - All Shapes and Sizes

Sorry for the release delay today - my computer decided to lock up when I went to upload the chapter, which led to a reboot, and my computer's reboot is ... let's just say that it's slow. The computer's been showing its age for about three or four years now, but it keeps working so I've kept not paying for a replacement. One of these days it'll give up the ghost and I'll have to, but until then...

At least these issues don't happen often; as annoying as they are, they aren't common.

Chapter 448 - To the Slave Market

Enjoy!

---------------

There was no talking as they climbed into the flyer and flew back to the Lowpeak house. Andarit started to say something, but her father asked her to wait.

Serenity tried to relax, but that just made the lingering pain more obvious. It was strange; his body didn’t seem badly hurt, but his head, hands, and feet burned. His armor-self stung a bit as well, but it seemed to be healing quickly. It was fairly obvious that his armor-self had protected the h...

Chapter 447 - The “Dance”

Enjoy!

-----------

“Yeah.” Serenity glanced back at the wall; the runes still glowed brightly with the mana they were leaking. “Why wouldn’t I be seeing them? They’re right there.”

“No one outside the family has ever noticed them before. At least, not that I’ve heard. Plus, I didn’t know the enchantment used runes.” The young man in the ridiculous outfit smiled. “But then, we can always count on Lowpeak to find the strangest people. He always has. I’m...

Chapter 446 - Broken History

Enjoy!

-----------

There were two weeks left of Tutorials, more or less. The Voice hadn’t given an exact time; Rissa expected that it didn’t want to. Then another week or two of waiting for people to show up at Serenity Settlement before Rissa could follow Serenity. It was better than the time after the Tutorial, when all she knew was that he was still alive because surely she’d know if he wasn’t, but she was still looking forward to a month or so where she not only didn�...

Chapter 445 - Shopping

Enjoy!

---------------------

The Court fancy fighting robes were the simplest item there. The next simplest was for Court-aligned nobles. They were still robes, but they ended at the knee rather than the ankle. Below the knee, they often had ruffles or lace; one even had ruffles starting at the waist and ending at the knee. The entire top had embroidery; Serenity thought much of the chest was more embroidery than fabric. Andarit pointed out an open area with no embroidery on each ...

Chapter 444 - Noble

Enjoy!

------------

“Obviously foreign?” Serenity’s first thought was to make it look like the modern body armor he’d styled it after on Earth. It wasn’t as good as his scales, really, since it took on some of the properties of what it looked like, but it would definitely be foreign.

Wait, why couldn’t he make it look like his scales? Dragonhide was certain to be obviously foreign; dragons weren’t generally found on low-tier worlds, and Zon was definitely a low...

Chapter 443 - A Partial Reveal

Enjoy!

-------------

Kalo smiled broadly. “No point in hiding it now. You shouldn’t have shared the Quest notice that said you were helping the Voice if you didn’t want to admit affiliation with Order’s Guild. I’ve helped a few Guild troubleshooters over the years; there’s no need to fear me letting your secret out. That’s why I sent Andarit away, she doesn’t know. I’m a little surprised you weren’t told I was a contact, that’s happened before.”

Kalo ...

Chapter 442 - Meeting the Daughter

Enjoy!

------------

The Duke simply grinned. “Thank you for the warm welcome. Go find a chair and join us; I think you’ll find this interesting and informative.”

Serenity noticed that the chair the daughter brought back matched the one he was sitting in; they’d clearly come from the same room.

“Andarit, this is Serenity. Serenity, this is Andarit. She’s my Daughter-Heir, but the last time I checked she took after me and preferred the use of her first name.�...

Chapter 441 - The Unsafe Streets

Enjoy!

---------------

It was a long walk back to the Duke’s residence, long enough that Serenity was surprised the Duke hadn’t chosen to use some form of transportation. Serenity assumed the nobleman liked to walk, and he wasn’t at all unhappy about it either. It gave him a chance to get an idea of the city he was in.

He’d need that if he were to find the lost Earthlings. Right now, he was a stranger in a strange land, though at least it was more familiar to him tha...

Chapter 440 - Interview

Enjoy!

------------------

That explained the question, at least. Serenity shrugged again; he didn’t see any reason not to. If this customer was someone Djen was close to, it might even help with looking into him. Even if the customer was only a random customer, it would give Serneity a reason to stick around. “Sure, why not?”

As they headed towards the stairs, Djen paused. “Oh, I’ll need a fee from you for making the connection. Since the client is already here, I ...

Chapter 439 - Hiring Hall

Enjoy!

----------

Djen watched the low-Noble walk into his “Hiring Hall”. The man didn’t seem to know where he was going. That was exactly why Djen had acquired the large property near the edge of the market area; people who didn’t know where they were going were the easiest to fleece.

Djen grinned internally but put on a helpful smile outwardly as he walked up to the sheep. “Sir? Are you looking for something specific or are you simply looking?”

The noble ...

Chapter 438 - Open Door Policy

Enjoy!

----------

The stranger knelt down next to Serenity and opened up his backpack. Serenity had to force himself not to react. He’d expected it, yet he felt enraged that this stranger was going through his still without his permission. He might even take something!

Serenity watched as best he could, trying not to move and reveal that he was conscious. The man pulled one item after another out of the pack while quietly humming a soft melody.

The melody would proba...

Chapter 437 - Investigative Success

Enjoy!

-------------

Several days later, while he was getting ready for bed, the Voice spoke to Serenity.

[The anomalous mark that will send you to Zon has been placed on your staff]

The Voice was checking at the end of every day, to see if they’d succeeded or not and it seemed like they had. They’d both expected it to be on the person’s body somewhere, where it couldn’t be left behind accidentally, but putting it on their weapon was probably a...

Chapter 436 - Undercover

Enjoy!

--------

“... types of Lord. The one you’re probably the most familiar with is the involved Lord. The involved Lord knows what’s going on and works with people to deal with things. This structure works well for Cities and Kingdoms where the Lord may or may not be the most powerful individual; instead, it is the work of many.”

Serenity tried to pay attention to the lecture. This was stuff he actually needed to know. He might find it boring, but that didn’t me...

Chapter 435 - Secret Body Cleansing Serum

Note: This is one of the chapters where the Language warning comes into play. Genitalia are mentioned. Fortunately, the Gore warning doesn't apply...

Enjoy!

------------

Serenity tapped on the door to Honoria’s hut. While she had a room in the Instructors’ dorm, she preferred to live in the same building she used for crafting. She left for food, to teach, and to gather materials; other than that, it was hard to get her out of the hut.

Not that it was a hut on the i...

Chapter 434 - Heritage

Enjoy!

-----------

Taxation was even more annoying. He didn’t know what to set it to, so he simply set it to the lowest possible tax level that was available. When he did, he noticed that his personal Etherium number appeared in the Planetary management system instead of his own, but he could still draw on it. He supposed it was telling him that his personal net worth was now connected to the planet, instead of simply himself. As long as he could access it offplanet, he didn’t...

Chapter 433 - Powerleveling

This takes us to 50 chapters ahead! Yay!

I'm going to celebrate by ... uh ... starting to increase my backlog ahead of "I finished this chapter late last night". I mean, I'm almost done with tomorrow's chapter! I may well get Monday's done tonight too!

Enjoy!

------------

Revivify didn’t fix Rube’s arms; it didn’t have any visible effect at all. Rube told Serenity that his arms felt less like foreign blobs of flesh he had to manage and more like arms; he was very...