Chapter 276: A Leather Coat and Tight, Black Pants (1/2)
Days went past as Jason fell into a routine. In the mornings he would do strength training with the equipment in the townhouse, which was barely adequate for his bronze-rank might at maximum weight. Then he would ride to Rushcutters Bay Park to do some running along the waterfront.
He rode Shade in motorcycle form, as he only had one of Shade’s bodies on hand. Shade still kept bodies on Hiro and Taika, while four were assigned to investigating the nest of local essence-users he had found. That left the last with Jason, which was enough to take the form of a sleek, black motorcycle. Jason had gone out and purchased some bike leathers and a helmet for the purpose.
He would wrap up his daily training with some meditation. This was the third pillar of advancing abilities, along with physical training and pushing himself to the limit. As normal for adventuring, being caught up in something like the astral space was heavy on the limit-pushing, with less time for other forms of training. Now that he was away from that, he had the time to balance himself out.
After all the monster fights and the confrontation with the Builder, he could feel the unsettled power within him, waiting to be consolidated. While he was not anticipating monster fights any time soon, he did anticipate his abilities advancing at least one small stage in the short term, maybe even two for the lower ones that were close to advancing already.
His time in the astral space had not been without cost, but it had also massively accelerated his growth. Not only had he crossed the threshold into bronze, but he had jumped into fighting silver-rank monsters much earlier than expected as the magic of the astral space had escalated. The results were striking, bringing him all the way into the lower-mid range of bronze rank.
Jason Asano
Race: Outworlder.Current rank: bronzeProgression to silver rank: 25%
Attributes
[Power] (Blood): [Bronze 3].[Speed] (Dark): [Bronze 2].[Spirit] (Doom): [Bronze 2].[Recovery] (Sin): [Bronze 3].
Racial Abilities (Outworlder)
[Party Interface].[Defiant].[Spirit Vault].[Tactical Map].[Astral Affinity].[Dark Rider].
Essences (4/4)
Dark [Speed] (5/5)
[Midnight Eyes] (special ability): [Bronze 5] 09%.[Cloak of Night] (special ability): [Bronze 4] 12%.[Path of Shadows] (special ability): [Bronze 4] 41%.[Hand of the Reaper] (special ability): [Bronze 2] 94%.[Shadow of the Reaper] (familiar): [Bronze 4] 98%.
Blood [Power] (5/5)
[Blood Harvest] (spell): [Bronze 4] 64%.[Leech Bite] (special attack): [Bronze 4] 14%.[Feast of Blood] (spell): [Bronze 3] 02%.[Sanguine Horror] (familiar): [Bronze 4] 89%.[Haemorrhage] (spell): [Bronze 3] 92%.
Sin [Recovery] (5/5)
[Punish] (special attack): [Bronze 4] 15%.[Feast of Absolution] (spell): [Bronze 4] 03%.[Sin Eater] (special ability): [Bronze 3] 79%.[Hegemony] (aura): [Bronze 5] 04%.[Castigate] (spell): [Bronze 4] 31%.
Doom [Spirit] (5/5)
[Inexorable Doom] (spell): [Bronze 4] 97%.[Punition] (spell): [Bronze 3] 74%.[Blade of Doom] (spell): [Bronze 4] 26%.[Verdict] (spell): [Bronze 2] 82%.[Avatar of Doom] (familiar): [Bronze 4] 16%.
After his training routine, Jason would move onto the business of the day. This usually meant burying himself in the internet, catching up on all the things he’d missed. Of particular interest were the ‘terrorist readiness exercises’ taking place around the world, including in Australia.
They had started not long before Jason’s departure, but after his year and a half absence, their escalating rate and continued lack of explanation from world governments was drawing more and more media attention, despite obvious attempts to downplay their importance. Given that one of these incidents was taking place very close to his home at the exact moment Jason had been sucked into another universe, he was deeply interested.
From what he could gather, the exercises involved setting up a restricted area, completely blacking out any attempts to surveil, to the point of using signal jammers and even shooting down camera drones. What they were doing was a mystery he would look into, when the opportunity presented itself. From the rates of occurrence he was seeing, it was only a matter of time.
He also did some online stalking of his family. He watched a few episodes of his sister’s new cooking show, checked out the websites for his mother’s real estate agency and his father’s landscaping business. His father had started a photo blog where he went through the process of developing a double block he bought from a plain stretch of even land into a lush garden home. At least, that was the plan, as he was still in the early stages.
There were other things Jason needed to do, such as continuing the legal process of returning from the dead. Taika had been put at Jason’s disposal, serving as driver and rather excellent body man, making many suggestions for how to resolve any minor issues Jason had.
Although Taika looked like a professional wrestler, with his towering height and broad physique, he was actually a friendly, chatty and intelligent man whose company Jason quickly came to appreciate. He would usually arrive at the townhouse in the mid-morning, after Jason’s training routine was done, to see if Jason needed anything. One such morning, they sat on the couch playing video games.
“I don’t like the courses in this one as much,” Taika said. “I think the Wii version had the best track selection in the whole series.”
“I won’t argue,” Jason said. “Trying to get an online game of that now is a bit rough, though.”
“Tell me about it.”
Jason’s phone rang, which was unusual. He had, thus far, only received calls from Taika and Hiro. He got up from the couch and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Mr Asano, this is Craig Vermillion.”
The vampire’s tone was more personable than the controlled clip he had used when they met in person.
“Mr Vermillion.”
“Craig is fine, when I’m not on the job. I have to play it sinister and mysterious around the normals. Maintain the mystique, you know?”
“Sure,” Jason said.
“If you’re still looking to meet, are you free for lunch?”
“You’re not going to explode when sunlight hits you, are you?” Jason asked, drawing an odd look from Taika.
“I’ll be fine,” Vermillion said, amusement in his voice.
They made plans to meet at a café and Jason went outside, Taika with him.
“You need a ride, bro?” Taika asked.
“No, I’ve got my bike,” Jason said, nodding at Shade’s bike form. Like all of Shade’s vehicle forms, it looked like he’d stolen the plans from Batman.
“Sweet bike,” Taika said. “That wasn’t out here when I came in.”
“My friend left it out here,” Jason said.
“I thought you were going to say it was a self-driving bike.”
“I didn’t know they were a thing,” Jason said. “I’ll have to look into it.”
While Taika moved forward to admire the motorcycle, Jason switched his outfit, mist obscuring him for a few seconds while Taika was looking the other way. When Taika looked back, Jason was in his driving leathers and helmet.
“How did you…?”
“What?” Jason asked.
“You changed your clothes.”
“Nah, mate. I was always wearing this.”
Taika frowned.
“You’re a mysterious guy, bro. There’s a lot about you that doesn’t add up.”
Jason chuckled.
“Mate, you’ve got no idea.”
“When you picked a café, this isn’t what I expected,” Jason said. Vermillion had led him from the crowded downstairs area to a private upstairs with empty tables and a window wall looking out over the street. The décor was subdued, with hardwood floors and earthy colours.
“I own the place,” Vermillion said. “It offers comfort and convenience for private business.”
“Just give me a second to change,” Jason said, mist shrouding him to replace his bike gear with a casual winter suit. Vermillion was dressed much more casually than their last meeting, with plain slacks and a woollen sweater.
“Are you alright leaving your motorcycle on the street like that?” Vermillion asked.
“That wasn’t a motorcycle,” Jason said, but offered no further explanation. Vermillion looked out on the street, seeing that the bike was no longer where Jason had left it.
“I always envied the convenience of conjured vehicles,” Vermillion said.
“That’s a thing, here?”
“Only one that I know of, here in Sydney. It’s unusual where you spent your time away?”
“Vehicles specifically, yeah, but there’s lots of magic items, magical beast riding. My mate Humphrey rides around on a shape-changing dragon.”
“Really?”
“It’s a baby dragon.”
They sat at a table with comfortable chairs.
“Someone will come up shortly to take our food order,” Vermillion said.
“What kind of dietary restrictions do you have?” Jason asked. “Is it a liquid diet? I don’t know a lot about vampires. The only ones I’ve met were created by a giant blood spider. We didn’t really talk, since they were trying to kill me and my friends.”
“Lesser vampires,” Vermilion said. “They were created by a giant spider? This also happened during your time away?”