JaceVAmor

Chapter 139: Networking

Sometimes Alex Nova missed sleeping, but on a comfortable night like this, he was perfectly content to enjoy the midnight ambience. The cool breeze flowed across the shallow sea of wheat, sending rippling waves across the surface. His windswept blonde hair followed suit. If he closed his eyes and used his imagination, the gentle rustling of the leaves and shoots almost sounded like the ocean caressing a beach. He grasped at the mental image of a pleasant vacation while he relaxed. The temperature tended to fluctuate between comfortable, if a...

Chapter 138: Vacation's End

After Amanda and Mikey arrived, the various advisors of Ghost Reef made their way through the crowds to Coop’s hangout spot. Each of them decided they should get the scouts’ intel as soon as possible, just in case urgent action needed to be taken. They really took their responsibilities seriously.

The beach party raged on while Coop was pulled into the spontaneous council meeting. Normally, he wasn’t present for such things, but it just happened to form around him while he was essentially minding his own business. Buck had the go...

Chapter 137: Beach Bash

When Coop finally left the empty fort, having delayed his exit long enough for most of the residents to parade through the main gate, the beach party was kicking off.

The picnic tables that had been staged in the morning were now set up, lining both sides of the main trail. The seating extended from the crossroads, just south of the moat bridge, all the way to the lighthouse on the other end of the island. The tables then continued east from the shadow of the lighthouse, following the path as it approached the mangrove forest, fully wr...

Chapter 136: Reinforcements II

Coop woke up early, not feeling particularly rested, but ready to go regardless. They had finally reached Day 64. Mentally, he was out of sorts as his nerves oscillated somewhere between excited and anxious for the settlement upgrade. They would finally replenish Ghost Reef’s mana reserves after the siege, and that meant they could call for reinforcements and return the phantoms. There were several points of concern when it came to how the phantoms would come back, but as long as the same people returned, Coop wasn’t particularly worried...

Chapter 135: Party Prep

Coop’s routine was interrupted even before it started. Jett was gone before he woke up and none of his companions were interested in joining him, not even Sunny! Inside the fort, The Clumsy Shark was closed to customers, and everyone was busy diligently preparing, from the contracted residents closing their shops to complete commissions, to the phantoms and the residents applying new professions or old skills to work on last-minute projects. Everyone was filling a role. Everyone except Coop.

The Champion was repeatedly shooed away fr...

Chapter 134: Hog Hobnob

Coop left the sleeping cat sprawled in his bed and slowly shook his head. If he wasn’t already desensitized by Jett’s sleeping habits, he would have been worried that she was dead, laid out on her back with her legs splayed out as if rigor mortis was setting in. By now, he understood that she was a deep sleeper despite what he assumed were leisurely days lazing about the settlement. For his part, he was more or less the same, so her habits were at least relatable.

Outside, it was an unusually overcast day on Ghost Reef. The clouds ...

Chapter 133: Caturday

Jett stirred awake sometime in the afternoon, warm and comfortably embraced by thick blankets. Her personal schedule wouldn’t be dictated by minor details like the sunrise; rest was much too important. She was surrounded by her attendant’s pillows, embedded in the center of the mattress. A big stretch almost lured her back to sleep, but she was disciplined enough to only fall into that temptation once or twice a day. If she slept any longer on this particular afternoon, she might miss her first meal. Food was certainly not an insignifica...

Chapter 132: The Ghost Reef Reunion

Coop launched a heavy spear into the air and counted silently while it flew toward the sky, shrinking with the distance until it seemed like nothing more than a matchstick. He had already returned to the Primal Kite grind, happy to keep it going now that he had a decent way to hunt the monsters. After Balor bailed on his tour, he had the rest of the day free, so he settled onto the sandbar when it was still early in the afternoon. This time, he only had an audience of one human observing his throws.

“Hm. That one was far too long.”...

Chapter 131: The Lighthouse

After Balor departed the civilization shard’s atrium in the center of the citadel, hastily making off to prepare for Earth’s failing assimilation, Coop checked on his companions. Looking around, he felt like he was the only one even remotely alarmed by each bit of additional information they gathered. He expected at least a few of them to be falling down a rabbit hole, imagining the possibilities and implications with two different unchecked entities governing the universe. Normally, he thought he was the steady one, taking things one st...

Chapter 130: Balor's Guided Tour

Balor’s guided tour was briefly derailed as Jones and Marcus, both consummate professionals in their respective fields, found themselves organizing plans for the immediate future. It was impossible for the pair to avoid, drawn as they were to keeping things orderly. The distraction began as the topic of Marcus and Kayla’s shard-side meeting was brought up for Coop’s final decision.

“Kayla and I both agree that adjusting our plans to spend mana as it becomes available would be the wisest choice.” Marcus concluded, letting Coop...

Chapter 129: Bloodstone

After returning to the center of the ritual chamber on her own bare feet, the Avatar of the System placed her hands behind her back and hovered into the spotlight, smiling at Coop modestly, masking the grand hopes she had clearly decided to place in him. She left Coop with another flash of blinding light, causing him to stagger as mana rushed back into the chamber, filling the void she created with her arrival. The bright light that condensed into the chamber made Coop consider getting his own runed blindfold just to spare his retinas. Once ...

Chapter 128: Trap and Key

The red-rimmed black portal consumed the mana from the ritual’s torrent with a voracious appetite. The siphon cleared the room of the vaporous energy in a matter of seconds. Coop’s Fog of War went along with the torrent of mana and his domain was shredded by the dark vacuum. Coop braced himself for something big as the wind whipped up within the chamber, even pulling himself forward as it desperately sought more mana, before he steadied himself against the fine grains on the floor. Then, the vacuum abruptly stopped and he stumbled a step...

Chapter 127: Curse of Carmine

Coop rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he made his way to the Merciful Medical Center. It was a damp morning with air so thick with humidity that a heavy rain would have been a relief. They still had a ways to go before the wet season began, when it would storm twice a day like clockwork, but the weather seemed to be in a hurry to leave the dry season behind.

The stillness of the ocean breeze enveloped the island in silence. Only Coop’s slow footsteps broke the tranquility, with neither the steady waves nor the palm fronds contributi...

Chapter 126: Low Tide

Coop’s heavy spear blasted into the ground with a muted thump that vibrated across the sea. The water level had gone down with the tide, leaving the surface just below knee height as the day wound down. Even during low tide, his spear impacts were streamlined enough to slice straight through the surface with barely any splash, leaving the collision insulated by the surrounding shallow water.

He continued to experiment as he attacked the monsters, making some discoveries, but nothing that would hasten his grind. If he adjusted the arc...

Chapter 125: Kinetic Bombardment

Coop positioned himself in the middle of a large sandbar near the entrance of the mana well and carefully scanned the shallows. The sun was directly overhead and only a few thin clouds obstructed the intense midday heat with partial shadows. He hoped it wouldn’t become a problem.

Starting earlier in the morning would have been ideal, but after a good night’s rest he had been eager to get back into his routine. A few days inside the mana well with endless cycles between fighting for a few hours interrupted by forced mana recovery ha...

Chapter 124: Passing the Torch

“I found the first sapphire jewel right over there.” Coop attested as he pointed to the empty divot in the middle of the mana bath. The flow of mana was barely detectable, but if they looked closely, they could see that a pocket had formed in the center of the next coral platform. Shane and Arthur diligently took note.

Coop was playing the role of tour guide for Shane’s party as he retraced the steps he took in navigating the Coral Forest. They were only at the start, descending from the entrance and arriving at the coral platfor...

Chapter 123: Ghosts in the Mists

The stranger stopped shouting at the night sky with his arms spread when he was fully engulfed in the fog. The transparent shield seemed to only prevent external attacks, having allowed Coop to approach without warning the stranger and letting Fog of War spill beyond its threshold. The light drizzle continued to sprinkle through the shield as well, but it did little to diminish the mists. The oathsworn spun around, seeking the source of the sudden bank of fog to no avail.

“Finally!” The man seemed relieved. “The first tribute fro...

Chapter 122: Oathsworn

Coop leaned on the end of his ethereal morning star’s handle, slowly shaking his head at the development of his build. The ramping challenges were clearly meant to be undertaken by parties, where individual weaknesses could be covered by allies and strengths could be exploited by a larger group. A powerful, physically resistant enemy should naturally be the target of pure casters supported by the disadvantaged fighters.

Normally, an individual wouldn’t be capable of easily addressing their weaknesses and they would be forced to rel...

Chapter 121: The Ravenous

Coop followed what was becoming a familiar route through the coral maze. The winding trail continued until he reached a massive junction of spiraling pathways. The reddish pink and violet corals opened into a space that held dozens of shrimp monsters that were around level 60, evenly spaced and idling in their positions while sending challenging clicks at each other, warding each other off from their claimed territory. Coop had previously cleared the area, but the vacant spots had already been refilled. It seemed as though the area was in hi...

Chapter 120: The Envoy

Arthur used his gloved hand to prop the solid wood door to the private reception hall open. His smooth motion seemed practiced and allowed the stranger to enter first without exposing his back to the stranger at any moment. The faux butler continued to hold the door as Captain Kayla followed their guest through the threshold. The pirate captain walked with her cutlass already drawn, its slightly curved blade flashing in the light, but the stranger didn’t offer any resistance as he quickly made his way inside.

Marcus stood up from the...

Chapter 119: Admiralty

Marcus stood proudly with both of his hands on his hips as he observed Ghost Reef’s brand new Admiralty and Marine Affairs Office. The expensive construction would empower their navy, unlocking further specialization, and it would allow the sailors to receive passive training, education, and unique skills. It was something between a naval academy and maritime department for the settlement. The features could be utilized by regular residents as well, which was the intended purpose of such a service, but in Ghost Reef’s case, it was almost...

Chapter 118: Shrimp Cull

The One That Hunts was swiftly dissolving into dust that further brokedown until nothing but thin wisps of mana smoke remained. The smoke was swept away with the underground currents, being carried off into the unseen depths by the invisible flows of mana. Coop’s phantasm had struck the battered creature with an ethereal bo staff, defeating it with blunt magical force while Coop chained attacks with his own weapon, simultaneously preventing the shrimp from getting close enough to grapple and keeping it off-balance with varied whirling swin...

Chapter 117: Coral Colony

Coop left the coral platform empty of its previous shrimpy occupant and moved on to find the next. The monster density of the top layer within the Coral Forest had been a bit disappointing so far, but he kept his head up. His improved familiarity with Legacy of the Mists was already worth the trip, and if nothing else, having a better idea of the lay of the land within his own territory was valuable.

He checked his status while he dodged droplets of seawater, falling from the coral encrusted limestone ceiling, having gained another lev...

Chapter 116: Scratching the Surface

Coop continued his meticulous descent into the Coral Forest. Every flash of light that reflected off a wet surface drew his attention as he investigated each hint for another small treasure. He hoped to collect enough to start getting arrays on his residents’ equipment, but so far the jewels seemed to be far too rare. Of course, he was still only at the very beginning of the well; the good stuff would surely be deeper.

The steady clamor of the streaming waterfalls cascading down from the entrance slowly diminished as he explored furt...

Chapter 115: Delve

Fog of War created a pocket of mist that bulged over the surface of a single coral platform, isolating it from the rest of the abyssal forest. The deep purple color of the coral was completely washed out by the gray mist, but small figments of bioluminescence managed to illuminate the edges of the fog bank. The reflections expanded into light pillar optical illusions that cast long shadows through the fog. From the outside, it would seem like a bizarre gray smoke bubble was caught in the slightly upturned rim of the massive coral, but inside...

Chapter 114: One That Hunts

While Coop slowly waded through the shallow water on the way to the mana well, he basked in the feeling of adding another 10% boost to his Mind stat. When even the smaller physical increases of each level were noticeable, a huge jump in stats felt like breaking through a previously unknown threshold. Coop couldn’t stop himself from admiring the changes.

Coop was particularly in tune to the changes that occurred each time his stats increased, at least compared to other people, primarily because of the physicality of his routine and th...

Chapter 113: Commission Complete

Coop claimed a set of armor along with a weapon to keep for himself. He couldn't really imagine a situation where his active abilities were disabled and his spatial storage ability continued to be available, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some security. It wasn’t like he didn’t already have massive quantities of other items occupying the seemingly unlimited space, including weapons he looted from various Chosen, but the matching gear was too nice to pass up.

“Alright, Champion. Now that you’ve helped yourself to my hard work, w...

Chapter 112: Ghost Reef Standard Issue

Coop tapped his fingers on the counter while he waited for the hammering in the back of the blacksmith’s workshop to cease. The smith had already been alerted to a customer when Coop entered the shop’s front door, but he was obviously in the middle of something that Coop didn’t want to interrupt. When the clanging finally stopped, it was only a few more seconds before the blacksmith himself burst into the public area of the shop from his private work area behind the counter. His oversized eyes lit up when he realized it was Coop who ha...

Chapter 111: Good Morning Ghost Reef

When Coop woke up, he had the vague impression that something was missing. It was like his subconscious was trying to tell him that the situation wasn’t quite right, but exactly what was lost to his dreams. After a moment of confusion while staring at the wooden beams in the ceiling, he realized that the steady purring snores from Jett were absent. He was groggy from a late night experimenting with the Legacy of the Mists, but the missing cat startled him awake.

At first, he was worried she had run into some trouble during her nightl...

Chapter 110: of the Mists

Coop took a cold shower in the lighthouse to rid himself of any lingering muck or salt residue from his hunt within the mangrove forest. The coastal habitat was still largely unexplored, but Coop thought he already had a good handle on what it had to offer. It wasn’t like he expected to find any more Bosses after they defeated the two that would have been within the depths of the swampy forest. Now that he had completed the Ruin Excavator quest, he thought the mangroves offered the best possible next locale to pursue more Slayer titles. Th...