Akhier

Goodness gracious, we're already into the third month of the year. I don't know how but the fact February ends early always seems to sneak up on me. Almost missed posting last month's Patreon exclusive short story, Mr. Pawdles, a quick little tale of a cat having to keep his human alive after everything starts developing super powers. Anyway, still chugging away at writing chapters. Though my rent is apparently going to go up by ~$100 this year. Which still means the rent is going to be cheaper by ~$200 for the area because I've been in this place for years now. Someday I'll probably end up having to move somewhere cheaper because no one should have their rent raise by that much in a year.

Sure, the fact that his lines aren’t one solid structure and instead string makes the metaphor a little strained. All that matters though is if it makes sense to Jason. Plus, it isn’t like you can’t braid the roots of a cultivated plant. But what makes up the outer wall? It can’t be Qi because that would turn the Energy into Qi at the far ends.

Jason focuses on the raging river of Energy his core connects to and attempts to view where it goes from liquid to thread. A difficult task made harder by the fact that the point of change is constantly shifting. And the fact that Jason just can’t quite see things small enough yet.

In fact, it feels like this is one of those things he could get lost in, so Jason takes the time to check the time. A good thing too as it is almost dinner, going by the smell wafting from the direction of the kitchen. With a stretch Jason stands up and heads out to the den where he finds everyone else is already gathered.

Peter sees him enter the room and laughs, “I thought we were going to need to send someone in to wake you up!”

Gregor hears them and shouts from the kitchen that, “We wouldn’t actually enter the room. We would have knocked really loud and left you alone if that didn’t work.”

Peter shrugs, “Well maybe we would if you didn’t leave for a couple days.”

Gregor enters the room with a big tray of roast meat and veg. “I would be a bit worried if you ended up in there more than a week. Though I do understand getting stuck in research mode. Sometimes things just line up for you and knowledge flows. Still, even if you are an immortal traveller, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to eat. Starving yourself to death is more of a learning experience than it is for others.”

Jason nods, “I got a bit stuck because I couldn’t see something in enough detail. I probably wouldn’t have come out if I hadn’t realized what I was doing probably was going to eat up time like crazy without my notice. But enough about me.”

And Jason turns to Rosha and Courtney, “I’ve mostly gotten on track myself. How has things been going for the two of you?”

Rosha dramatically slumps to the side, “Oh woe is me. Truly Peter is a cruel master, driving me hard every day.” Then she sits back up, “But in all seriousness, a lot of really high quality training. Though me and Courtney do have a certain worry.”

Courtney sighs, “Anyway, good news is that I’ve been allowed to learn the variant illusion magic. So yeah, been focused on that.”

Jason raises an eyebrow, “And what’s the worry?”

Courtney shrugs, “Remember how you had to separate from Rosha previously? You needed to go off and level on your own because of how much slower you level. Well me and Rosha have both hit twenty and last I knew you were still level 13.”

Jason grimaces, “I’m 14 now.”

Courtney nods, “Nevermind the fact that even if you could level up at a normal speed, Lily is taking your xp until she has capped for the current level. Now I don’t really want to split the party.”

Jason laughs, “You mean Rosha doesn’t want to leave Lily.”

Courtney narrows her eyes, “Yes, I don’t want to split the party. However, the way to beat the next bottleneck is to complete a real dungeon. And by real the System means that the final boss has to be level 25 or higher. Otherwise, the System calls it an intro dungeon. The important thing to note about this is that you can complete the dungeon with a party. The only catch is that no one in the party can have already passed the third bottleneck.”

Jason nods, “I am a bit behind but that doesn’t matter all that much. As long as I complete the dungeon with you guys, it will count as having done it. That way I can just move on past the bottleneck without a problem.”

Rosha shakes her head, “As much as I want to keep Lily around, you need to catch up with us. If only because Lily isn’t as OP as you are. She is doing fine right now but if we want to continue to level at a decent pace, the monsters we fight will way over level her. You need to head off on your own for a little bit again and take the time to catch up.”

Jason sighs, “You know? I didn’t originally plan to team up with anyone. Teaming up was completely a System enforced thing. Of course I don’t regret it. Being with you two has been a blast. But yeah, there are a couple of things I need to catch up on. Do you have any idea what dungeon we should aim for so we can plan when to meet back up?”

Gregor coughs, “Well I might have a few suggestions. We can go look at my map once dinner is finished. Wouldn’t want the food getting cold, now would we?” Everyone else realizes that the food has been set out already and they really should dig in.

Jason nods, “Food first then. What kind of meat are we eating today? Going by the cuts it isn’t mini-anything.”

Gregor smiles, “Tonight is a simple selection of roasted roots and beef. Nothing fancy about the meat this time. The cows aren’t even a swarm despite what it can look like when being herded. After all, not everything is swarm based here. Just most of it.”

Peter laughs, “Yeah, not everything is a swarm. But that is only because people brought in things from the outside. Something with the area really pushes things towards forming a swarm, even now with the large swarm threats dead or culled. Even the trees from before the kingdom’s formation were swarms. It was kind of silly.”

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters are free on my Patreon ( 269 and 270 ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).