Chapter 175: Shallow Earth

The team had been eager to test out their new abilities as soon as they reached shore, but things were a little busy. While the iron-rankers were in the astral space, even more people had been awaiting their return. Many of the foreign adventurers had brought family, let alone the locals. The cloud palace had been placed offshore from a small town that had been going through what was essentially a festival for the better part of three weeks. The townsfolk were exhausted but increasingly wealthy, with towns and villages all around the lake being roped-in. A small army of very demanding visitors brought a tidal wave of money to the local economy.

Things were all the more vibrant now that a steady stream of adventurers was emerging from the lake and into the jubilant arms of family. Neil’s family were present, more than happy to be keeping company with the Gellers. Humphrey’s father and sister had returned to Greenstone while he was in the astral space and were waiting with his mother. Even Clive’s parents had been roped in by Danielle Geller, looking very awkward next to Greenstone’s most prestigious adventurer.

All Sophie ever had was her now long-dead father, but Belinda was her sister now, coming out with a greeting hug. Jason looked at them all, a sense of isolation he hadn’t felt in a long time creeping over him. In his old life, only his older sister’s family had been close as he eschewed other people. He hadn’t been happy, but he hadn’t felt lonely, either.

He was overcome with the memory that this was not his world. His precious connections were also new connections. He had planted roots but they were still in shallow earth. Bringing his expression under control, he threw on a convincing grin and pulled out a recording stone.

“Hello family,” he said brightly. “I’m back out of the lake now, job done. I won the little contest because it turns out I’m terrific, but the people up here don’t know, yet, so I should probably not say that too loudly…”

Morning became afternoon became evening, Jason’s team and their families making their way onto the cloud palace before word spread outside of their victory in Emir’s contest. Stories of their adventures were told, delighting Humphrey’s parents as much as it horrified Clive’s. Clive’s success in life had certainly enriched them, which to the hardworking Standish family meant a bigger eel farm. They had quite liked that their son had a nice, safe job in an office.

“You can’t keep someone with Clive’s talent cooped up,” Danielle told them. “Did you know Emir has been trying to hire him away?”

“So has Prince Valdis, from the Mirror Kingdom,” Humphrey said.

“Wait,” Clive’s mother said. “That Valdis you’ve been talking about is a prince?”

Sophie made a quiet exit, finding Jason hidden away, leaning over a balcony as he watched more adventurers emerge from the water to ebullient welcome. She leaned on the rail beside him, his gaze not moving.

“It’s not like you to miss a chance for self-aggrandisement,” she said but her voice was soft, without the usual sting.

“It’s family time,” Jason said. “Mine is so far away that gods can’t broach the distance. They’re so far away that there aren’t even gods, there.”

“Are you sure about that? You didn’t believe in magic, once, but here we are. Would it be so strange for it to be hidden from you, back on your world?”

“Knowledge told me that my world lacks the magic to support a god.”

“And you trust her, all of a sudden?”

“No, but I don’t think she’s ever lied to me,” Jason said. “She’s like me; why lie, when the facts will do it for you? She’s just better at it than I am.”

“If it makes a difference,” she said, “I think Danielle Geller is ready to adopt you.”

Jason chuckled and she pulled herself off the railing.

“Come back in,” she said. “What’s a gathering without you telling people how great you are?”

“Excuse me?” he asked, also standing up straight. “I’ll have you know that I’m incredibly humble. I challenge you to find someone more humble than me…”

The team finally snuck away to test out their new abilities, gathering in the guest hall training room. They didn’t escape entirely, with Humphrey’s mother, father and sister watching on from the behind the transparent wall of the observation room.

Compared to Danielle, her husband, Keith, was more akin to their son; a solid and reliable counterpoint to her domineering charms. Their daughter, Henrietta, seemed to take her role of Humphrey’s older sister seriously. She made it clear that his teammates were yet to meet her approval. Even her stoic gaze had broken in incredulity, however, as Humphrey explained that the whole team got gone through simultaneous gift evolutions.

It was far from unknown for people to go through such events together, as the circumstances that pushed one person past their limits could easily affect another in the same way. Humphrey and Jason had experienced exactly that in their fight against the hydra. For an entire team to do so was something else altogether. Despite some probing questions from Danielle and her daughter, the team had agreed to hide Jason's role as the catalyst.

There was no hiding that it had happened, though, and the team tested out their new abilities, where appropriate. Clive had been initially unhappy with his racial gift.

Ability: [Thirst For Knowledge]

Transfigured from [Human] ability [Human Ambition].Essence abilities advance more quickly.Learn information through the use of skill books.

“Skill books? Skill books are for people too stupid to learn the proper way. No offence, Jason.”

“You and your skill-book prejudice,” Jason said. “There’s nothing wrong with being a utility guy. My racial gifts aren’t exactly cutting my enemies down like wheat. Think of all the mundane things you have to learn that take away from how you really want to spend your time. Now you can just skill book the unimportant stuff and spend your time where it really matters.”

“Huh,” Clive said thoughtfully. “I never thought of it like that.”

“Take martial arts, for example,” Jason said. “You never took the time to learn hand-to-hand skills, but now you can skill-book them. They won’t match up to Sophie, or even me, with the time I’ve put in, but they may be the difference between life and death in a pinch.”

No one argued that Neil’s ability was anything but a boon to the team.

Ability: [Life Guard]

Transfigured from [Elf] ability [Life Affinity].Effects used or received with a positive effect on life have greater effect.Using a shield-based essence ability on allies also bestows a heal-over-time effect.

They tested out the healing, which wasn’t especially potent but still noticeable. Where Neil’s ability restored health, Sophie’s replenished mana.

Ability: [Mana Wellspring]

Transfigured from [Celestine] ability [Mana Integrity].Ongoing mana costs for maintained abilities are reduced. Resistance to mana drain effects is increased.When mana is not being consumed by an ongoing ability, mana regeneration for self and allies within your aura is significantly increased.

Clive’s aura ability likewise increased mana regeneration and some quick testing with overlapping the auras revealed the combined effect was impressive.

“We’re never going to run of mana,” Neil said as he watched his mana bar refill. Jason had shown them how to pull up indicators for mana, stamina and health.

“Speak for yourself,” Humphrey said. “You may be underestimating how quickly I can burn through it. My dragon essence racial gift lets me burn mana to increase my physical and magical strength. If I use that and run through my powers one after the other, I can empty the tank very quickly.

“What about the new one?” Jason asked. “Yours is the one we’ve all been waiting for.”

“Agreed,” Neil said. “Why mirage dragon?”

“Stash is a mirage dragon,” Humphrey said. A mouse poked its head out of Humphrey’s chest pocket and Humphrey scratched its head.

“I kept him hidden through the trials because I didn’t want to draw too much attention. Mirage dragons are rare, even for dragons, and I don’t want anyone trying to kill me and take him.”

“Well, let’s see the new ability,” Jason said.

Ability: [Attack of the Mirage Dragon]

Transfigured from [Human] ability [Special Attack Affinity].You are more likely to awaken special attacks than other ability types. Your special attacks have increased effect.When you make special attacks, you can expend mana to create a short-lived, illusory double, replicating the attack. The illusion does not inflict damage or duplicate other effects from the attack but you can spend mana to switch-teleport with it, in the moment it is created. This is an illusion and teleport effect.

“What the hell kind of cheat ability is that?” Jason asked as they watched Humphrey and Sophie engage in some light sparring. Humphrey’s attacks were suited more for fighting monsters than people, which normally gave her a relatively easy time blocking or dodging them. Even just learning to use his deceptive new double attacks already made the difficulty skyrocket.

“That’s awful,” Sophie said once they were done. “The flexibility that adds to your attacks is just mad.”

“I think we can safely say who won the racial gift lottery,” Jason said, although he was quite happy with his own ability. The mini-map floating in his vision had green dots for his allies and yellow dots for other people. He hadn't encountered an enemy yet but expected them to show up as red.

Jason sighed.

“No, Clive. No, and I mean it.”

“This an incredible opportunity. All these people looking for rituals of awakening and you wouldn’t even have to do anything. I’ll do the rituals and you just have to cycle them through your party.”

Jason rubbed his temples.

“Clive, you’re not listening. Humphrey, please explain it to Clive.”

They had quietly occupied one of the guest-wing terraces, begging off their families to get some rest. The sun had gone down but the cloud palace lit up with internal illumination and they enjoyed the warm night air, reclined on a series of loungers. From below, the sounds of celebration rose up from where the adventurers had set up camp between the cloud palace and the town.

After weeks of constant danger, the sudden safety was like releasing a pressure valve. Most of them fell asleep until Clive started advocating for his plan to record every ability awakened with the reaper stones so many adventurers had received.

“Jason already drew more attention to his abilities than he probably should when we all advanced our racial abilities,” Humphrey said. “Getting people even more interested is a dangerous proposition.”

“It’s why Rufus, Gary and Farrah warned me to keep the outworlder thing under my hat,” Jason said. “What happens when someone shares your interest in my abilities, Clive, but they’re gold-rank and don’t care about my opinion? I get hauled-off in the night and you never see me again.”

“It just seems like a waste of potential,” Clive said.

“Before I came here,” Jason said, “wasting my potential was kind of my thing.”

“Sometimes you just have to accept what you get and let the rest go,” Sophie told Clive. Jason was deliberately keeping his eyes from where she languidly stretched out on the lounger, concerned they would fall out of his head.

“If you run around chasing the best possible result,” Neil told Clive, “you might miss out on the great thing you gave up to maintain the chase.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning that Jason isn’t going to bend on this and if you keep pushing, he’ll kick you out of the party until we’ve all done our awakening rituals.”

“So, you’re saying I should be happy with recording the abilities of our own team?” Clive asked, reluctance still thick in his voice.

“After that display the gift evolutions,” Neil said, “keeping Jason’s abilities to ourselves may be closing the gate after the heidel’s run off, at this point. Maybe compromise, Asano. Let Clive do the awakening rituals for our party, Cavendish’s party and maybe Prince Valdis’. It’s not like he isn’t already paying attention.”

Jason gave a groaning sigh.

“I can live with that,” he conceded.

“Great!” Clive said, erupting out of his chair. “I’ll go get things organised.”

“Hold your heidels, chief,” Jason said. “We should get ourselves sorted before we start rounding up anyone else.”

“He’s right,” Humphrey said. “If nothing else, we have some awakening stones to collect from Emir.”

“Then let’s go find him!” Clive said.

“Tomorrow,” Humphrey said firmly. “Tonight, we rest.”