Chapter 135: Fabulous Prizes (1/2)
Announcement
There will a permanent schedule change, beginning next week. Weekly chapter count will remain the same, but releases will be Tue-Sat my local time in Australia, which is Mon-Fri in the Americas.
The day’s first light found Jason meditating on a porch. It was attached to just one of the Geller family guest houses, each larger than the four-bedroom home Jason grew up in. Like most of the Geller estate building, it was nestled amongst the lush greenery of the gardens.
Ability [Cloak of Night] (Dark) has reached Iron 6 (100%).Ability [Cloak of Night] (Dark) has reached Iron 7 (00%).
Jason opened his eyes. His recent two-week storm of monster hunting had not been as effective at raising his abilities as he hoped. His lower-level abilities improved well enough, but his highest-rank ones were starting to plateau. Once he was back in the city, he would seek out Rufus for advice.
Jason Asano
Race: Outworlder.Current rank: ironProgression to bronze rank: 25% (2/4 essences complete)
Attributes
[Power] (Blood):[Iron 5].[Speed] (Dark): [Iron 0].[Spirit] (Doom): [Iron 0].[Recovery] (Sin): [Iron 5].
Racial Abilities (Outworlder)
[Party Interface].[Quest System].[Inventory].[Map].[Astral Affinity].[Mysterious Stranger].
Essences (4/4)
Dark [Speed] (3/5)
[Midnight Eyes] (special ability): [Iron 8] 19%.[Cloak of Night] (special ability): [Iron 7] 00%.[Path of Shadows] (special ability): [Iron 7] 04%.
Blood [Power] (5/5)
[Blood Harvest] (spell): [Iron 6] 98%.[Leech Bite] (special attack): [Iron 6] 14%.[Feast of Blood] (spell): [Iron 5] 92%.[Sanguine Horror] (familiar): [Iron 6] 89%.[Haemorrhage] (spell): [Iron 5] 06%.
Sin [Recovery] (5/5)
[Punish] (special attack): [Iron7] 23%.[Feast of Absolution] (spell): [Iron 6] 23%.[Sin Eater] (special ability): [Iron 6] 69%.[Hegemony] (aura): [Iron 7] 69%.[Castigate] (spell): [Iron 5] 23%.
Doom [Spirit] (4/5)
[Inexorable Doom] (spell): [Iron 7] 16%.[Punition] (spell): [Iron 6] 54%.[Blade of Doom] (spell): [Iron 4] 39%.[Verdict] (spell): [Iron 3] 94%.
Jason could feel the changes in his attributes. His power attribute made him stronger than he had been before. He could better handle being knocked around by monsters, as well. It was nothing like the superhuman strength of Gary or even Rufus, but compared to his previous self it was definitely noticeable. Additionally, his increased recovery attribute had greatly increased his stamina, and his mana recovery was quicker than previous.
The changes were reflected in his physical appearance, as well. His meagre physique wasn’t bulking out, but flaccid muscle was gradually becoming sleek and lean. He stood up and stretched.
“Feeling sexy.”
“What was that?” Emir asked, approaching along a garden path.
“I said I’m feeling sexy,” Jason said. “I’m not ashamed to admit it. You’re up and about, early.”
“Lots to do,” Emir said. “I wanted to talk to you before I headed back for the city.”
Jason returned his meditation mat to his inventory and gestured Emir towards the outdoor furniture on the porch.
“Iced tea?” Jason offered.
“That would be nice,” Emir said. The delta heat was already rising. Jason took a pair of tall glasses and a pitcher from his inventory. He filled a glass with ruby red tea, chilled by the chunks of ice in the pitcher. Emir took an appreciative sip.
“What did you put in this?” he asked.
“Gem berries,” Jason said. “They’re in season.”
Emir took another sip before turning to his main topic.
“The reason I’ve come by is that I wanted to talk to you. I anticipated having this conversation earlier but the delay is for the best, given recent revelations. How much are you aware of what’s going on?”
“You mean the monster from beyond reality who likes playing with blocks? Clive told us about it last night.”
“Did you hear about the star seeds?”
“Yeah. Between what Ernest saw and Clive knows, I think I have it all.”
“What do you think about what our enemies are doing, seeding those people?”
Jason rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“I think their plan is going about as well as they could ask, given it was almost certainly hatched in a very short time.”
“Care to expand on that?” Emir asked.
Jason snorted a laugh
“You know, I had teachers like you,” he said. “The ones that make you keep talking until they’re sure you’re right, or sure you’re wrong.”
Emir chuckled. “I think I’m starting to understand some of Rufus’ complaints about you. Why don’t you go ahead and indulge me?”
“Fine,” Jason said. “Think about it from the bad guys’ perspective. They’ve been working for months in this astral space, only for a small army of adventurers to arrive. They know the jig is up, so they knock together a hasty plan. Use their construct army to send the invading adventurers into disarray, giving the villains of the piece time to extricate their people. While they’re at it, they snag some iron-rankers in the chaos, shove in some star seeds and leave them in suspiciously easy to find locations. They scarper, leaving us with a bunch of suspiciously suspicious people to be suspicious of. Which we are. Secretive meetings between powerful people; the local powers scrambling to figure out what’s been done to them without setting off a political volcano. In the meantime, their actual agents are running around without us wondering if they even exist.”
“You think the five were a distraction?”
“It’s the only thing they’re good for. Attempting to use them as agents for some agenda would be pointless because they’ve been watched from the moment we got them back, which was obviously going to happen. My guess would be that they have a secondary objective. Maybe another astral space, somewhere.”
“How would you go about figuring out if they’re just a distraction?”
“That’s easy; the key is the other four. They’re only iron rank, so if they mysteriously slip the higher-rank people who try and bring them in, forcing us to focus even more time and resources on them, then they’re definitely a distraction. Whoever is responsible for that might have even let Jonah get taken so they would find what’s inside him. That way, we have to make retrieving the others the priority, even if we figure out they’re a distraction. We can’t just leave a bunch of wealthy scions full of interdimensional mind-control bombs.”
Emir gave Jason an assessing look as he refilled his glass.
“So, teach, was I right or wrong?”
“We send word to bring the four in last night,” Emir said. “They all escaped the people keeping an eye on them. The Hornis branch of the Adventure Society is conducting a large-scale search.”
“There you go,” Jason said. “You need to get people looking for the real agents, maybe find out if there’s another astral space nearby. But you already have people on that, don’t you.”
“There is another astral space,” Emir said. “Smaller than the desert astral space, and different in several key ways. It’s been hidden for longer than Greenstone has been here, but it’s still here.”
“Sounds like you have things well in hand,” Jason said.
“There are some complications,” Emir said. “I’ve already mentioned to you the event I came to Greenstone to conduct.”
“Oh,” Jason said. “This place you want explored is an astral space?”
“Yes, but one much harder to enter than the desert astral space. It requires certain conditions to open that I have spent most of the last two years looking to fulfil, all while looking for the entrance.”
“Which is here,” Jason said.
“Not right here, but close enough. I had my people confirm it shortly after I arrived. The major complication, however, is that even once opened, only iron-rankers may enter. We’ve tried considerable measures to get around it, none of which were found to be viable.”
“So you need a bunch of iron rankers to explore it for you,” Jason said.
“Precisely. There is something my client wants inside it and considerable rewards await whoever brings it to me.”
“Two years of searching; I imagine the rewards that await you are even more considerable.”
“Indeed they are,” Emir said. “It’s what allows me to be so generous.”
“How generous is that?”
“I’m not going to tell you the main prize, but the secondary prize is five legendary awakening stones for whichever team brings me the item. That should give you some indication.”
“Five legendary stones is the secondary prize? That’s generous, alright.”
“Unfortunately, your chances of winning the prize have rather dropped,” Emir said.
“Oh?”
“You know I pushed back the event, in the wake of the expedition.”
“You’re talking about the iron rankers you’re shipping in from outside the city? It’s going to be harder because I won’t just be up against Greenstone’s trashy iron-rankers.”