Zogarth
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Chapter 915 - Holiday Is Over
🕑 Added 2024-05-16 10:45:38 +0000 UTCTime marched on, and even if Jake and the others had returned to Earth, not much had changed besides stability returning to a lot of factions. Arnoldâs workshop was once again running non-stop â though to be fair, it nearly already had during his absence, too â while factions such as the Court of Shadows finally had their Judge and a few elite members back.
Funnily enough, the Court was one of the factions that suffered the most from this stability on the planet. They were, in the end, an assassination organization, so if there was no one hiring assassins, business wasnât going well. Alas, they were getting by focusing on training and doing hunting jobs of beasts and whatnot, with the occasional job here and there, though it was often nothing consequential, and more often than not, they were hired by the World Council or people related to the Council.
Quite a number of religious leaders and such had been nipped in the bud, but most of them hadnât been targets worth talking about.
The Fallen King had also found himself a busy Unique Lifeform after returning. It turns out that a supreme tyrant ruling through power doesnât establish the most stable organization, so after he had been gone for a while, internal competition within the faction he was building had gotten so bad that the Sky Whale had to get involved.
Now that the Fallen King was back, there was a lot to do. Something that actually suited him quite well. During Nevermore, he had few chances to use the aspects of his Path related to being a King, but now that he had a kingdom in ruins, there were ample Records to be reaped from putting everything back together, and he reckoned there were many levels to be gained while awaiting the coming of the Prima Guardian.
Valhal, who had been keeping a mostly low profile after the EllâHakan incident, were starting to rear their head a bit after Carmen and other high-ranking members had returned from Nevermore. It wasnât much, but they had recruited a bit and expanded their influence to some more nearby towns â all with permission, of course.
Arthur, the one doing most of the work for the World Council, was the one who had given permission, which was a big development after he had been so firmly anti-divine factions. But, he began to give a few permission to grow and prosper⌠while hiring the Court of Shadows to handle those deemed on the harmful side.
Other smaller factions were also simply doing their own thing. As an example, Maria â the follower of Gwyndyr â was busy working on establishing some form of mercenary band of her own, while the Noboru Clan was solidifying their own power on Earth now that the Sword Saint was back.
All in all, Earth had only gotten a tinge more busy after the first batch of Nevermore Attendees returned. Things had slowed down after Miranda and many others left for Nevermore, but now things were at least picking up again, if ever-so-slowly. Moreover, as time passed, the day marking the return of Miranda also grew near, as the planet would soon have all its leaders back to finish the final preparations for the Prima Guardian.
--
Jake dipped the piece of meat in the clear liquid as he observed what would happen. After a few seconds, nothing happened, and he nodded, satisfied. Then, with his other hand, he raised it, and it began to glow green for a moment.
The second it did, the meat was instantly corroded away. Jakeâs hand glowed green again as he lowered the big piece of meat further, it again remaining unharmed. With a bit of telekinesis, he then lifted a metal rod from behind him and dipped that into the liquid, too.
This rod also remained unharmed until Jake had his hand glow for a third time. As Jake wanted to see, the metal was corroded away while the meat remained whole without the slightest trace of damage.
With a big smile, Jake flashed his hand green one final time as he dropped both the meat and metal rod into the liquid and saw both were consumed.
âPretty damn good,â Jake praised himself as he picked up the big class cube he stored the acid in. It was made to slot perfectly into those sections of the basin he used to store all the different acids Jake had made over the last⌠definitely over half a year. Jakeâs sense of time tended to be quite off, but it seemed about right. It had been less than a year, though. Definitely.
This acid he had been working on was an improved version of the Adaptable Arcane Acid he had submitted in the House of the Architect. The Arcane Acid he had made then was pretty good, but it did come with some pretty severe limitations, such as the limit of only being able to switch âtargetâ once. That was the first thing he worked to address. If Jake had more time during the Challenge Dungeon, this would have been the direction of progress he would have walked down, and so far, he was pretty happy with the result as he used Identify on his acid before he put it back in its slot at the basin.
[Controlled Arcane Acid (Rare)] â An acid created from a mix of energy-corrosive ingredients and arcane energy. Upon coming into contact with any energy it has been attuned to corrode, this acid will turn highly destructive but doesnât react to any other forms of energy. Has an increased ability to intrude into physical objects and corrode the energies within. This acid is significantly more effective against passive environmental energy. This Arcane Acid is highly controllable by its creator and can adapt accordingly when commanded. By default, this acid is in a passive state, where it will not corrode anything, and it will naturally return to this passive state after a while if not actively controlled.
Definitely Jakeâs best iteration to date. It was highly malleable, and while it did have some problems, such as not being as effective as the acid heâd made during the Challenge Dungeon yet, due to its higher level of adaptability, Jake was more than satisfied. He believed it would soon be more corrosive than the acid he made then while also being far more adaptable and useable in more situations.
When it came to getting materials, Jake had used some of what heâd already stored up, but otherwise heâd just popped by the Order of the Malefic Viper real quick to swipe some stuff. It also gave him an excuse to check in with Meira and Irin, who both volounteered to help get some ingredients Jake was looking for.
All in all, this had been a productive time, and the shift in environment and momentum in his profession after the Challenge Dungeons he hadnât really been able to spend was showing, as heâd gained 4 whole levels during this relatively short period of time.
âDING!â Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 268 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points
âŚ
âDING!â Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 271 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points
âDING!â Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 279 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
âDING!â Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 280 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
While 4 levels may not seem like a lot to many, for a mid-tier C-grade like Jake, it kind of was. Especially when one considered Jake was doing the kind of alchemy that usually didnât give a lot of experience. He would have gained a lot more levels if heâd just only crafted his best Heartrot Poison over and over again while making small improvements. Or, of course, if heâd done some major ritual with potentially multiversal consequences.
But those could wait. For now, he was happy doing some normal alchemy. As Jake was considering how he wanted to refine the acid mixture further, the phone-like thing Jake discovered Arnold had installed in his lab at some point went off. Jake quickly went over and pressed a button as a brief message played.
âTheyâre back from Nevermore.â
Alas, the time had come. Quickly cleaning himself off Jake didnât wait as he headed to the lodge above.
--
Miranda stood in the highrise as she overlooked the city Haven had grown into. Further, grown into. It had expanded even further during her time away, which was definitely a good sign. She would be lying if she said she hadnât expected things to at least go a little wrong with her absence. However, it looked like things had gone smoothly, no doubt partly due to the great work of Holstred, Arthur, and many others.
âIâm feeling all nostalgic when I remember when this was just a small town at most,â she smiled at Lillian, who stood beside her. The woman wore a white mask covering the upper part of her face that sheâd begun to use after evolving to C-grade. The primary cause for this was the fact that during the evolution, she had done away with her scarred face. That she had promptly then shifted to a mask instead was a bit weird, but Miranda wasnât going to question her assistant.
âWeâre both old women by now,â Lillian smiled. âItâs normal to look back fondly on the good old days.â
âBah, weâre still young at heart,â Miranda shook her head. âAny word from the Sky Whale or Arthur yet?â
âNo, but I believe they have been informed of our return,â Lillian answered promptly. âHolstred at least said heâd contact them both promptly.â
âI see,â Miranda nodded. Truthfully, she wasnât in that much of a rush, and in many ways, it was comforting that there hadnât been an entire welcome party occupying her office the second she returned to swarm her with all the issues that had propped up. That meant things couldnât be all that bad. It was especially good to know that her decision to focus on Nevermore while in Nevermore and get everything out of the experience possible had been the right one.
Nevermore had been both a great and a harrowing experience. Miranda had never been an exceptionally skilled fighter. She was more of a prepper. She could set up traps and such, but if she was jumped outside of her domain, she would be in trouble. Nevermore had helped her develop many new tools to deal with disadvantageous circumstances and to fight in any situation.
She and Lillian had not gone to Nevermore together. In fact, Miranda hadnât gone with anyone from Earth at all. Her party had consisted solely of members of the Order. As she wasnât trying to compete on any Leaderboards or anything like that, the levels of her party members also hadnât been limited at all, resulting in one of them being another witch from the Verdant Lagoon who was level 250 and specialized in combat. It was clear her role there was primarily to teach Miranda.
The rest of her party members were the usual setup, but it was never a secret the party was put together by the Witches of the Verdant Lagoon to nurture Miranda. In the beginning, the entire thing was very suffocating, especially as Miranda felt unworthy of being treated so well by others, only made worse by how much she sucked at combat.
But, with time, she got used to it, and they cleared many floors, and Miranda gained quite a few levels. She even spent a bit over five years in the House of the Architect Challenge Dungeon. For reference, as she wasnât competing on the Leaderboards, there were no Nevermore Points or anything like that to speak of, and the only thing you got for a good evaluation was a better reward. Rewards that were still considered far lesser than those offered to the Leaderboards contestants.
Now, after Nevermore, Miranda was pretty confident facing even relatively strong people at an equal level to herself, even without any preparations. With preparations, she doubted any but a handful of people on Earth could beat her. Pretty much all the people whoâd placed well on the Nevermore Leaderboards would be able to defeat her, bar maybe a few who would struggle if their fighting styles didnât do well against a witchâs domain.
The type of magic Miranda had practiced during the World Wonder primarily focused on using different talismans and such in combat, along with basic verdant magic. However, the biggest aspect was definitely learning how to create and use a mobile domain at any point without any warning. Naturally, this domain would be far less powerful than her usual one, but it was something. This was something she had already worked on long before Nevermore, but now she was actually confident in using it.
Anyway, during Mirandaâs time in Nevermore, Lillian had gone with a party put together by Sultan, using his connections with the Golden Road Emporium to hire what has effectively highly-skilled mercenaries affiliated with the giant merchant Pantheon. From how Miranda understood it, Sultan had used the fact that Lillian was the right hand of Jakeâs right hand to ensure they got some of the best they could. Also, apparently, he was in quite good standing with many of the high-ranking merchants after he gave them good information about what kind of presents Jake would like during his Chosen Ceremony. In other words, he had told them that getting Jake slaves would be a bad idea.
To say Lillian had overperformed would be an understatement. It probably shouldnât have surprised Miranda either, as Lillian had always been a very strong-willed woman, but she had excelled a lot more than Miranda expected. After Jake had handed her that Lucenti Mage Tome all the way back in E-grade, she had slowly been growing in power, and by now, she was a respectable mage in her own right.
Jake definitely hadnât known, but the Lucenti Mage class was far from a normal one when he casually handed her the tome. Few classes that relied on celestial concepts and complicated mysticism tended to be, and Lillian was quite good at it. Plus, unlike Miranda, she never needed any setup, even if it could help her.
Many others had also returned to Earth around the same time as Miranda and Lillian, including Reika, who had gone to visit her great-grandfather and the Noboru Clan. Neil had also returned, having been the only one who went to Nevermore of his original party of five. The reason for this was pretty simple⌠he was the only one among them whoâd reached C-grade then, with only Silas the only other person from the party to evolve since.
After everything had truly calmed down, the other three had more or less retired. Eleanor, the archer, had married a local leatherworker in Haven. Christen and Levi had also settled down in Haven and still lived with Silas, with Miranda not really sure what they were doing. Silas was still working, but he wasnât really doing anything combat-related anymore. He had many helpful support skills from his pretty rare profession and worked for what may as well be called Earthâs government. His lie-detection skill alone made him a valuable employee, and his other skills were also handy.
âDo people even know Jake is back?â Miranda asked as the thought suddenly struck her. âOutside of a few people, that is.â
âNot as far as I know,â Lillian shook her head. âThere was no public announcement or anything. However, many do assume he is back, seeing as the Fallen King and the Patriarch of the Noboru Clan both returned, as well as Sylphie helping out the Beast Alliance established by the Sky Whale.â
âMakes sense,â Miranda nodded. âWe could call a meeting. Get everyone up to speed about whatâs going on and take status.â
âWho should be invited?â
âThe usual, especially those handling the Prima Guardian preparation. Oh, and having Jake there would also make things easier, if for nothing else but to also have him be aware of whatâs actually going on with the planet he is supposedly the World Leader of.â
âI understand,â Lillian nodded, but Miranda kept ranting.
âWe need him in the loop anyway, as calling a World Congress before the Prima Guardian would definitely be a good idea. Something that would have been a great privilege to have granted before he headed off to Nevermore so I could call one. Oh yeah, he also didnât give me permissions regarding Land Division outside of Haven, as well as a slew of other things. Oh yeah, and most of the statistical tools, too! Do you think he even knows he has these tools? Do you think heâs touched his Pylon of Civilization a single time since he buried it under his house?â
Lillian didnât need to answer, as they both knew. Miranda just sighed a bit as the truth was evident. âI guess my holiday is over, eh?â
âVery much so,â Lillian expressed her sympathy.
Comments
Blaq Jesus
Love it
Exaiter
Had a few of them the last updates. Confused me at first đ
Junon
Why do we sometimes get notifications for old chapters?
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter
Shai182
sooo did Jake forgot the Miaga Labyrinth that he has in his storage?
Olof Karlsson
Thanks for the chapter!
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Chase Burton
Thanks for the chapter
MacMahon Wenzl
You're probably one of the few people who read most of Nevermore/ all of Nevermore in one shot.
MacMahon Wenzl
I remember that now. Yeah that was a few chapters ago... sadly Zogarth can't play up Jake's tendencies now.
Vega
I do wonder if anyone is going to anything with earthâs planetary pylon? It might be better to claim it before anyone else does
Henrik Nørgaard
I most admit i didn't see the abuse angle, mostly because I have no frame of reference for abuse. Also the hiding was more about her cheating on Jake and not wanting to show herself before him. But you make some excellent points afterwards! Back to the drawing board with my Ideas! Maybe she's linked to Eversmile in some way... Need to think about that angle!
Jeff McCulley
Iâm kinda wondering if Miranda gets levels in her profession when she rips Jake a new one. Assuming he wasnât standing there invisible, of course.
Jeff McCulley
You realize youâre inadvertantly implying that sheâs hiding because he abused her? I think it far more likely that Lillian keeping her scarred face earlier was a defense mechanism against WHY she got scarredâbecause she was an exceptionally beautiful woman. And now sheâs wearing the mask so that A) someone more powerful somewhere doesnât do that to her again, and B) because she doesnât want to be seen as âjustâ a beautiful woman. Some scars are far worse than skin deep.
Anthony Smith
Leading doesn't seem to be apart of his path. He recognizes his superiority but doesn't like to flaunt it or even accept power imbalences as a norm. Just not his path.
Signspace
Jake is oblivious, and definitely has a history of trauma blocking certain memories, but I think that would be a stretch, even for him.
Henrik Nørgaard
I don't know why but there's this part of me that thinks that Lillian is Jake's x-gf from before the system and that's the reason or one of the reasons she keeps her face hidden.
Jeff McCulley
SoâŚam I the only person wondering if Lillian wound up on the ladderâand where? And what the focus of her particular magic is? That Prima is going to be in for a world of hurt when it gets to Earth. Any bets on how much of the âfive yearsâ it actually takes?
Jeff McCulley
She just needs to rein him in once in a while. Nevermore caused a lapse with that fur her frustrations to build.
Henrik Nørgaard
Running the company with a company owner that's... Let's be honest a bit of an idiot.
Jeff McCulley
âŚand likely about to become an Empire, in the wake of Earthâs Prima event. Jake can claim other planetâs Pylons too, after all. The ones that need help with their Primas.
Jeff McCulley
He thought about it when he was last in his basement. Edit: Correction, either right when Jake got back from Nevermore⌠Editing the Edit: Easier than I thought. Chapter 898, some interesting stuff. Did not grab it all, but⌠âPlus, there were some actual benefits to doing alchemy there due to the Pylon of Civilization â an often forgotten aspect of how cities on Earth now worked. It was also a bit more private, with no one able to contact him as easily.â âLooking at the Pylon Jake owned, he saw it was still there, though it had changed slightly as expectedâŚâ
Titaniumtac
who both volounteered ----> volunteered
DirePants
Playing the long game lol
DirePants
lol also yes
Hunter Thornton
Yeah. She should give it to him with both barrels loaded wit buck shot. R. I. P. Jake, Miranda has some complaining to do
MacMahon Wenzl
5 bucks says that if Miranda brought up the pylon and all of its functions Jake would actually be impressed and even enjoy a few things... but he also probably forgot there was even such thing as a Pylon of civilization.
kingofshibainu
I am really looking forward to his SoulFlame. I wonder if we will get to that before the Prima invasion?
Ty Cooper
Babysitter is more like it
Ty Cooper
I could see her and Miranda becoming a thing.
Ty Cooper
They summon moons. remember the deer?
Ty Cooper
The would be wonderful. EH constantly coming up short in comparison
DirePants
lol glad Miranda is back. Jakes surrogate mom đ
Arkenian
I mean, he did check in with holstred. So if people needed him they knew where to find him...
Evan Zablocki
Well, damn near 300 chapters later and I'm up to date. Thanks for the hard work and the great story. I'll be back and resubbed in another year or two to see the good work continued.
DBOMB YO
He can.....but does he want to? No, not at all xD
TKOva
Oh EH straight failing that event would be wondrous.
Alexander Brosseau
Just last chapter he mentions that while he has perfect memory he still has to think about it. He just isn't interested in politics so he forgets to think about it
James Faulkner
Poor Miranda đ
AsuraFalling
I endorse Jakeâs approach to being boss. Hire great people, set them up for success and offload as much as you can and give them the credit where itâs due. Everyone wins!
joel southard
Nice thank you for the chapter
Gardor
If Jake can be instinctively good at alchemy, he can be instinctively good at not being an absentee world leader.
Phasmatic7
Thankies for the chapie zogie
Johnny_B
He probably was there all along but ducked out silently when he heard that last part ;)
Sean
Miranda went for a subordinate position and ended up running the whole damn company, what a legend.
Vega
Thanks for the chapter
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Justus Saucedo
I hope this really happens next chapter
joey
I think this meant that the items they got from the challenge dungeons are worse than people competing on the leader boards got. As she went in with higher level people, there were no points to be gained I believe.
ItWasIDIO!!
Hmm you got something there
ItWasIDIO!!
Wow just wow I'm starting to not like the aloof supposedly funny forgetful hands off approach of delegation
TwistedVanity
I love Miranda's rant at the end there about Jake. It would have been hilarious if Jake had been using his stealth skills to do a surprise and had heard it all! More so had he revealed himself then all awkward and not quite apologetic. Or Had slunk out to do a false, hi I've just turned up so as not to be too embarrassed at hearing her rant.
Jason Davis
True.. I looked it up, and Nevermore says, "there are no item rewards, as everything was put into the title and the items rewarded from the Challenge Dungeons." I'll judge the line about Miranda "at least a little confusing." Like.. did she get a 10%? She is a top talent within her own sphere. Not getting a 50% multiplier or anything, but 10-20% overall should probably be within her grasp.. What WAS her reward? This chapter was a lot of mostly vague exposition, and I would've appreciated a few specifics here (and another paragraph or two on Lillian's experience.. we know very very little about her)
Chris
Lillian is strong-willed eh? Exactly the type of woman Jake is weak to!
ChRiAn
Except the titles...
Roden
I wonder if destroying the moon would help or hurt Lillianâs path?
Devin
A little fairy that can live in his space necklace and pop up randomly with raunchy quips.
Jonathan
Alas, they were getting by focusing on training However, they were... with only Silas the only other person from the party to evolve since. with Silas the only...
Clint
I wonder if his Soulflame could do that.
Ty Cooper
It was a nice time skip there Zog. Appreciate the speed at which we are getting to this Prima Guardian event. It has been looming for a bit now and glad the planet doesn't seem to OP for it. It is looking like we will be getting some good fights. Think we will get a PoV from William or EH and the mess William made for EH's planet? I am hoping so. I hope EH cannot get his planet in line by the event and fails it because he couldn't get it straightened out time.
Jason Davis
âRewards that were still considered far lesser than those offered to the Leaderboards contestants.â. Didnât Nevermore say that there really werenât any leaderboard rewards, specifically because all the records went into giving good Challenge Dungeon rewards?
ChRiAn
Problem with that would be that they have to travel with him, given his irregular returns. Better to just establish a protocol with Miranda, where he has to check in with her whenever he returns and has to give her a complete rundown of everything he did since last time.
ChRiAn
Given his sphere I doubt even he can fuck up that much.
Florian
not really, we see it with the verdant witches too. Servant to another god.
MartĂn Ballesteros Arias
Poor Miranda, I'm with you girl, a forgetful boss is quite the stress
Tilen Praprotnik
I hope he just pops out of stealth and startles her next chapter
Lizy Flore
Great chapter as usual đ Thank you, zogarth !
Cory Sauls
Yay! Miranda!
Jeff McCulley
Meira wants to be his PA. Sheâd happily handle inventory for him. Not realizing that Duskleafâs Chosrn being a PA would be overkillâŚ
Pierre-clĂŠment LAMBRIX
Funny how jake almost reviewed his storage space last chapter but just couldn't bother.
Oler
Looks like it will stay in his storage.
Jeff McCulley
And of course, Jake just went to Mirandaâs OLD office to wait for her, am I right?
Tommy
Jake could do with getting some sort of spirit companion / AI who can help him manage stuff or just remember what he has in his storage spaces!
khielira
Lol Jake knowing stuff like that is crazy talk. He be more likely be oh that's a thing and grants permission
Tommy
Tftc!
Pierre-clĂŠment LAMBRIX
He also totally forgot about minaga dungeon tool.
Tyler S.
It will be funny to see Jake be somewhat prepared for all events (excluding pylon systems) and shocking the council only to come back with "What I did actually learn in Nevermore as well not just fight everything" TFTC Zog.
Chewbacchus
When Jake stores his acid in the paragraph that starts with "Pretty...", it should be 'glass' instead of 'class' cube
Tyler S.
Time to work on those profession levels again
JJB4345_80_815
Yes, thank you for the chappy Zogarth!
Sayjinlord
Poor Miranda, back to the grind lol.
Zachary Koffink
Tftc!
Matthias
tftc
Strato Junon
Haha great chapter thanks!
Detrox
Yay
Phallusar
Thanks for the chapter
