Chapter 127: Let’s Just Fight Monsters

Announcement

I will be taking a break for Christmas, meaning no new chapters next week. The story will resume the regular schedule the following week.

Rufus opened the door to his suite to admit Clive inside.

“I thought you were busy these days,” Rufus said.

“I am, which is why I needed a break. Jason’s back, by the way. I just saw him outside.”

Rufus frowned.

“That boy needs a talking to. You can’t just wander off without telling anyone when there are monsters looking to eat you and silver rankers looking to do worse. Not to mention the woman he is meant to be teaching.”

“I wouldn’t go too hard,” Clive said. “Cassandra Mercer just ended things with him.”

“Is that why he went off? She’s been coming around looking for him, right?”

“No, I mean really just ended things. As in, minutes ago.”

“Oh.”

“That’s not what I’m here for, though,” Clive said. He pulled a document folder from his storage space. “I haven’t been able to figure out what they were doing in the astral space, yet, but I’m making progress. This is a list of the more unusual and specialised techniques and materials they were employing.”

“I don’t have any magical knowledge,” Rufus said. “I can’t help you decipher any of that.”

“It’s not about finding out what any of these things are for,” Clive said, tapping on the folder. “Each of the things I’ve listed here is rare, distinctive, and can’t be sourced locally. They include exotic materials and magical devices requiring specialised knowledge. That gives us three possibilities. Possibility one is that they have a high-ranked portal user. We can ignore that, because it’s a dead end for us. The next possibility is the items being bought in via some great overland trek, to maintain secrecy by avoiding anyone.”

“That’s unlikely,” Rufus said. “Unpopulated lands are rife with monsters that go unculled; nomads that know the territory far better than any interlopers, plus the logistical problems and potential navigation mishaps.”

“That leaves smuggling the goods in through the port in Hornis or the one here in Greenstone,” Clive said. “That seems like the kind of thing an intrepid and motivated adventurer could look into.”

“Yes it does,” Rufus said. He took the folder and shook Clive’s hand. “Thank you for this.”

Clive nodded.

“Let’s just find these people.”

Sophie had been left to her own devices for almost two weeks. Jason had vanished and Belinda was off with Clive all day. She spent some of her time with Rufus, who guided her in the training loop Jason had shown her. He seemed a more comfortable and capable instructor than Jason but was distracted with his own training. There was a frenetic drive to the way he pushed himself to the limit, which at the peak of bronze rank she had no chance to match. He also went out every couple of days to hunt monsters. She asked to join him, but he told her that the monsters he was hunting were the strongest to be found in the area and she should wait for Jason’s return.

She hunted up Emir’s library or, as it turned out, libraries. They turned out to have a disappointing deficit of romantic potboilers. Lacking anything better to do, she finally turned to the meditation techniques Jason had showed her. At first she kept doing things the way that felt right to her, but she would increasingly end a session feeling tense and tired. She started trying things more like he had suggested, less self-conscious about it in his absence.

At first it felt awkward and pointless, although she felt better at the end of each session. Slowly it began to feel more natural, patience and persistence showing slight but noticeable results. She became more comfortable with the power flowing through her. At the start it had felt like a wild beast she needed to forcibly control. With each day she came to understand that greater control came through acceptance that it was a part of her, rather than an external force to be brought forcibly into line.

After two weeks, meditation had become a pleasant and comfortable part of her day. She moved her sessions from the meditation room down the hall from her suite to the terrace that wrapped around the whole guest wing. Unlike the private suite terraces, this was the one anyone with access to the guest wing could make their way onto.

Normally she would choose privacy, but in Belinda’s absence the isolation was starting to eat at her. She was happy for any chance encounter with the palace staff, who were pleasantly absent of agendas.

She was meditating in the warm sunlight when she was interrupted by Jason’s voice.

“I haven’t been a good teacher,” he said. “That was even before I left without a word.”

She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. He looked tired.

“I didn’t sense you coming,” she said.

“The benefits of aura control,” he said. “I’ve been trying too hard to control you, while telling myself I’m helping you.”

From her sitting position she rolled back, then kicked up onto her feet. She looked him up and down, his adventuring gear topped off by a bone-weary face. She had finally been ready to try opening up, only for him to skulk off. She was ready to give him an earful but he genuinely didn’t look up to it. She felt her anger dissipate, wondering if that was a side effect of all the meditation.

“It’s not all on you,” she said. “I’ve been fighting everyone, when I should be picking my enemies.”

“How about we start over?” he suggested. “I’ll show you what I know, and you help me improve where you’re already better.”

“That works out for you,” she said. “I’m better at a lot.”

Her expression had some hesitation to it but was more open than Jason had seen, with even the ghost of a smile. It was a welcome breakthrough.

“You are better than me at a lot,” he agreed. “You’ve been surviving the hard way your whole life. Six months ago, I was assistant manager at a retail bulk office supplier.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Probably for the best,” Jason said. “So what do you say? Fresh start?”

He held out a hand and she shook it.

“I’m willing to try,” she said. “Where do we begin?”

“I’m going to get some rest,” he said. “I just got back and had a series of encounters that didn’t go well for me. Keep doing what you’re doing and tomorrow we’ll go monster hunting.”

“What kind of encounters?”

“I had a fight with my mate’s girlfriend, my girlfriend dumped me, I had a row with a goddess after she tried to scam me out of my aura power and I saw Clive. It wasn’t in that order, and the bit with Clive was fine.”

“What do you mean by a row with a goddess?”

“She’s trying to bait me into worshipping her. I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure that’s not how worship is meant to work and we had an argument about it.”

“You mean an actual goddess?”

“Yeah, Knowledge. I assume you’ve heard of her.”

“She’s a goddess, Asano; of course I’ve heard of her. You expect me to believe that an actual goddess came down to try and recruit you to her church.”

“Sounds shady, right? Ask Emir. He was watching the whole thing, or the end, at least. Right now, I’m going to find a comfy cloud bed and try to not think about my girlfriend kicking me to the curb.”

Sophie shook her head in disbelief.

“You’re a lot to take,” she told him. “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth or lying, and I don’t know which is more insane.”

“I’m from another universe,” Jason said with a shrug. “I’m pretty sure this is my life now. Welcome aboard.”

He gestured behind him with his thumb.

“I’m going to go get some sleep.”

“It’s not even lunch time.”

“It turns out the night time was inside me all along.”

“What?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Wexler. Get ready to fight some monsters.”

Soon after, Jason was in his suite, smoke swirling around him as his clothes changed. His battle robes were replaced with a pair of silken boxers and he walked out to the balcony terrace. He took a bottle of alcohol from his inventory.

Item: [Shimmer Beet Rum] (bronze rank, common)

An alcoholic beverage brewed by the Norwich Distillery of Greenstone City. (consumable, poison).

Effect: Inflicts [alcohol].

It was something he kept in his inventory for Cassandra. He pulled back his arm to throw it in the ocean but stopped and took a deep drink, straight from the bottle.

Special attack [Shimmer Beet Rum] has inflicted [Alcohol] on you.

The bronze-rank beverage managed to get past his resistance, and it went down rough. Jason liked his drinks smooth and sweet, avoiding straight spirits. He looked at the bottle in his hands and took another swig.

“You look awful,” Sophie said as Jason staggered past her to fall into a soft chair.

Jason replied with an incoherent groan.

“What happened to going straight to bed?” she asked. “It seems like you detoured to the liquor cabinet.”

“I needed some sleepy medicine,” he said.

“Quite a lot of it, it seems.”

“Is he hung over?” Belinda asked coming out of her bedroom and looking at Jason.

“His lady friend dropped him,” Sophie said.

Belinda looked at the line of drool dropping from the semi-conscious Jason’s mouth.

“He’s taking it well. The same day a goddess yelled at him, too.”

For her own edification, Sophie had taken Jason’s advice and sought out Emir for confirmation.

“He certainly keeps exciting company,” Emir had told her the night before. “I mean, look at us; we’re no deities, but still. A professional thief and a gold-rank adventurer? The most exciting person I knew at iron-rank was a guy named Brian who could conjure a huge metal duck.”

She had told Belinda the whole story after coming back from speaking to Emir.

“Wasn’t Asano meant to take you out and fight a monster?” Belinda asked, looking at Jason’s slumped form.

“We’re still doing that,” Jason slurred.

“I’m not sure you’re in any state to be fighting,” Sophie said.

“It’s fine,” Jason said. “I contacted a friend of mine to come along. He’ll keep you safe better than I could anyway.”

“Another ludicrously well-connected young scion?” Belinda asked. “It’s not that girl whose grandmother owned the whole section of town I grew up in, is it?”

“Beth? She’s more of an acquaintance. Humphrey’s from the Geller family. Have you heard of them?”

“Seriously?”

“I just hope he doesn’t yell at me. I had a fight with his girlfriend.”

“Blasphemy, Jason?”

“Not so loud, Humphrey.”

“She said you were proud of it!”

“If I lie and say I wasn’t, will you chastise more quietly?”

Humphrey had met Jason and Sophie outside the jobs hall.

“I though alcohol didn’t work on you?” Humphrey asked.

“I used the bronze-rank stuff.”

“Why would you do that?”

“His lady friend broke things off,” Sophie said. “Right before he met with your lady friend, from what I gather. She’s the acolyte, right?”

“That’s right,” Humphrey said.

“Her god chose that exact moment to put your friend in Asano’s path,” Sophie said. “I’m not going to speak ill of the gods but she should have seen how that would go.”

“According to my mother, gods sometimes have trouble understanding the behaviour of people. A matter of perspective, she says. I’m sorry about Cassandra, Jason. Was it her family over the demotion?”

“Yeah.”

“I lost my second star as well, but that’s not too bad at iron rank. You and my mother got it worse.”

“Danielle got demoted?”

“Three stars down to two. At silver rank, that’s worse than losing two stars at iron.”

They went in and Humphrey made for the jobs board while Sophie was surprised by the man behind the desk.

“Bert?”

After Humphrey picked out an appropriate contract, they left the Adventure Society campus via the loop line. Jason’s gaze was fixed on the floor after looking through the windows made his stomach turn.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ridden the loop without a disguise,” Sophie said.

“Why would you wear a disguise?” Humphrey asked.

“Usually because I was on my way to or from stealing something,” Sophie said.

“Stealing something?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Jason asked, eyes still locked on the floor. “While everyone was off on the expedition, I caught that thief everyone was talking about. This is her.”

“Why are you training her to be an adventurer?”

“Who did you think I was?” Sophie asked.

“Clive told me Jason was helping the friend of his new assistant become an adventurer,” Humphrey said.

“True, if incomplete,” Jason said. “Nice one, Clive.”

“You stole my aunt’s necklace, right off her neck,” Humphrey said to Sophie.

“Did she get it back?” Sophie asked.

“Yes,” Humphrey said. “We caught some criminal trying to sell it.”

“Not smart,” Sophie said. “High-specificity goods like that you sell in another city. Of course, we were picking stupid fences on purpose. Didn’t make any money on it, though. Takes costly preparation to rob people like you, and something that hot doesn’t sell worth a damn.”

“Speaking of another city,” Humphrey said, “Jonah and his new team were found in Hornis.”

“Wait, what?” Jason asked. “Hornis? Jonah has a new team? What about Rick? And why did you need to find him?”

“We haven’t really seen each other since the memorials have we?” Humphrey said. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard, though.”

“I’ve been away,” Jason said.

“Right,” Humphrey said. “I remember hearing one of my cousins said they met you out in the delta.”

“Let’s just fight monsters for now,” Jason said. “We can catch up when there isn’t a little man attempting to pickaxe his way out of my brain.”