“Why are you willing to toss Zara’s reputation into the fire?” Jason asked. “How does that help you with the Irios family?”
Vesper looked unhappy but Liara, sitting next to her, nudged her shoulder.
“You might as well tell him,” she said. “He'll be more trouble than you think if you try to lead him around by the nose, believe me. You think Zara is bad? He’s worse. ...
2021-07-22 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostWhile still a bustle of activity, the Adventure Society campus wasn't the shoulder-to-shoulder throng it had been in the opening days of the surge. The queues no longer reached outside the jobs hall building and Jason could go straight in. He went up past the floors for the lower-rankers, noting that they weren't especially full. The iron and bronze-rankers were treated more like soldiers durin...
2021-07-21 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWhat looked like a refugee camp with rows of tents had been set up in a forest clearing. Adventure Society and Magic Society officials were managing a group of people variously panicked, nervous or demanding. Miles led Humphrey, Gary and the others around the outside of the camp towards the largest tent.
The outworlders were easy to pick out by their auras. Species was a relatively subtle...
2021-07-20 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostWhat had once been an idyllic, mist-shrouded valley was now a bombed-out wasteland of craters, broken buildings and broken bodies. The mist had faded away, the air now filled with an ozone tingle of lingering magic and the iron taste of blood. Little more than a few buildings, lucky to have even one wall left standing, was all that remained of the village. Adventure Society and Magic Society pe...
2021-07-19 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostHere's are the PDF bundles for all the volume 3 chapters thus far.
2021-07-19 04:25:35 +0000 UTC View PostMy publisher reminded me that nominations for the fan-voted Dragons Awards are about to close (I honestly forgot it was a thing) so I looked up the link in case anyone felt like voting for me in the fantasy book category:
In a point I surprisingly need to make,...
2021-07-18 15:45:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe gold-rankers secretly trailing Jason watched with surprise as three people appeared out of nowhere.
“This is it,” Liara Rimaros said. She was with two members of her old team, from when she had been a restricted essence enforcer for the Adventure Society. Like many gold-rankers, the current disposition of their team wasn't about everyday monster-hunting because there weren’t eno...
2021-07-16 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostJason was once more riding a land skimmer along the road network that wove through the local equivalent of Central America. Each side of the broad thoroughfare was lined with dense jungle. According to his map, Jason was less than an hour from the final destination on his journey before he could portal back to Rimaros.
Something twinged at his aura senses, so light that he wasn’t sure h...
2021-07-15 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe original plan had been to sneak into the dam quickly and quietly in two small groups while the defences had been pulled away by the attack on the valley. From the outset, it was clear that the defences had been massively increased since Clive, Humphrey and Sophie first scouted it out. Their intent had been to launch the operation immediately after their original surveillance. Travelling to ...
2021-07-14 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe next fortress town Jason visited wasn’t under active attack, letting him get in and out quickly. Situated on the coast, it was connected to several storm accumulators. The offshore, windmill-like devices collected power from magical weather events for which the Sea of Storms was named. The prevalence of such storms in the local area was why an adventurer made the trip rather than an airsh...
2021-07-13 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post"So much for drawing away the defenders," Neil said as the heavy land skimmer threaded a swift and dangerous path through the trees. In the driver's seat next to him, Belinda was concentrating on controlling the skimmer. The heavy combat skimmer procured specifically for the mission had full-coverage armour and defensive weaponry. It was an advanced vehicle that only those with the right abilit...
2021-07-12 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe lobby of the Adventure Society office was not large, even though it served double duty as the public face of the society and the jobs hall. About a dozen adventurers were standing around inside, with even this small branch made busy by the monster surge. The team of silver-rankers whose auras marked them as a cut above the others were present, looking with weary expressions at two other adv...
2021-07-09 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostOutside of the rocky gorge, the coastal landscape was filled with greenery, white sand and blue water. Jason stood on a hilltop, looking out at a gorgeous beach and the sea stretching out beyond it. Next to him stood his familiars. Shade had once preferred a shape akin to Jason in his cloak but now looked more like the silhouette of a butler. Colin was in a humanoid form, the leeches that made ...
2021-07-08 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe fortress town of Arcazitlan favoured defence over comfort, with its stone chambers and claustrophobic corridors dug right into the stone wall of the gorge. This was worst in the spaces set aside for the civilians sheltering from the monster surge, with people crated-up like animals on a truck.
Living underground required specialised infrastructure, all of which ran on magic. Magic lam...
2021-07-07 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostDespite his mana-efficient abilities, Jason’s reserves depleted as the fight dragged on. He and Colin had tainted dozens upon dozens of the monsters carpeting the bottom of the gorge, pushing Jason’s mana towards empty.
Jason was uncertain of how many monsters were swarming around like ants. Well over a hundred, maybe twice that. The earliest afflicted were ready to drop. He hadn’t ...
2021-07-06 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe bottom of the gorge had a small river running through it, with a wide road running alongside it. The road was stone-paved and well maintained, its purpose being for bringing people into the fort from the surrounding towns and villages, along with their provisions and whatever herds the fort could manage to squeeze in. The bottom of the deep gorge was filled with shadow, which would make it ...
2021-07-05 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostOn an island off the coast of Vitesse, there was an Adventure Society way station where various magical vehicles were stored. In Greenstone, with its weak ambient magic, only people with the right power could operate magical vehicles. In high-magic zones, magic vehicles were available to all, but the most powerful still required the appropriate power.
Gary and Jason’s team were in an op...
2021-07-02 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe Geller residence was high in one of the famous garden towers of Vitesse. During monster surges, the residence welcomed many guests, from the team members of family members to various allies. Humphrey Geller’s team, along with Gary, were no exception and were housed in a small suite, befitting their status as silver-rankers. The bronze-rankers were in what amounted to dormitories on the lo...
2021-07-01 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe Zila’s Promise departed Rimaros airspace, heading west. It ascended to an altitude where only the most exotic or dedicated monsters would encounter them. Trenchant Moore ordered the adventurers to stay out of the way of the crew and most stuck close to where the gold ranker stood at the stern of the vessel.
Jason had a happy grin as he watched the city fall away and the Sea...
2021-06-30 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostOn the island of Livaros, the sky port was the busiest part of the skyline. Looming towers had skyships docked up and down their exteriors while more ships drifted in and out of the port air space. It was busy enough that Jason wondered how air traffic control was managed.
The ships came in a startling array of designs. Some looked like ordinary ships, complete with sails, although Jason ...
2021-06-29 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostJason left through the main doors of the temple of Fertility, his storage space freshly loaded with supplies. He was motivated, having discovered how critical the temple’s delivery was during the monster surge. Fortress towns were of paramount importance during a surge, sheltering the evacuated populace of the surrounding villages and towns. Most of those people were normal citizens who could...
2021-06-28 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostSupply depot number three was in the same warehouse district where Jason had carried out his big trade, not far from the main markets of Livaros. He portalled to the destination square in the market and made his way on a black horse with glowing white mane and hooves.
There were plenty of different means of transport in the city, from floating platforms to flying carriages to adventurers ...
2021-06-25 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostFarrah looked at Jason with concern as they sat around a table with Rufus, eating the breakfast Jason had just cooked. After leaving his own world, Jason had immediately undergone a shift in temperament. The dark clouds that had accumulated over the past few years had finally parted, only for their late-night visitor to summon them back. Jason was sitting sullenly, idly poking at a fried sausag...
2021-06-24 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostJason’s barbecue was in full swing, with people crowded along the cliff top and kids splashing in the river, letting it carry them into the magic barrier that stopped them from going over the waterfall and bounced them back. Jason had a steak sandwich in one hand and a drink in a hollowed-out coconut in the other.
“This is nice,” Rufus said as he, Jason and Farrah wandered about, me...
2021-06-23 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLiara Rimaros made her way back to the royal sky island, half-asleep in the back of a flying carriage. She'd been working without rest as the city was overrun with adventurers that had to be filtered through for potential Builder cultists and was finally going home to sleep.
The carriage was forced to stop on a floating platform close to the sky island for security inspection. No chances ...
2021-06-22 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe Vitesse branch of the Adventure Society was bustling with activity. Miles Cotezee walked down a hallway towards one of the large briefing rooms with an unusual adventurer at his side. The man was an elf with reddish skin, stark white hair and golden eyes. His sand-coloured leather outfit had many tribal marking stitches into it forming beautiful patterns matched by the tattoos on his skin. ...
2021-06-21 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe PDF for chapter 475 and the weekly bundle have been fixed. Sorry for the error.
2021-06-19 08:24:26 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Farrah could easily slip into the role of a specialist, Jason could not do so as easily. No amount of items would turn him into the plague cannon the locals wanted in their affliction specialists, able to blanket groups or burn down individuals with equal ease, usually at range from behind the safety of allies, summons or both.
One of the reasons Jason had seen so few affliction spe...
2021-06-18 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe kids playing in the river spotted Farrah disabling the magical barrier around the hole in the ground and came ashore to watch her uproot the fence.
“You can fix that afterwards, right?” Rufus asked.
“Easily,” Farrah said. “It’s designed to be easy to maintain, so I’m not damaging it at all.”
When she was done, Jason set down the cloud flask which started sp...
2021-06-17 23:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostJason’s yacht arrived at the narrow reef passage to a lagoon on the island of Arnote. Normally inaccessible to large water vehicles, the cloud vessel had no problem skimming over obstructions that would ground vessels with all but the most shallow of drafts.
Jason, Rufus and Farrah stood on the yacht’s bow as it moved into the lagoon, taking in the postcard-perfect circle of white san...
2021-06-16 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post