Time 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. Arnold’s workshop was once again running non-stop – though, to be fair, it nearly already had during his absence, too – 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 wasn’t 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 hadn’t 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 doesn’t 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 Ell’Hakan incident, were starting to rear their head a bit after Carmen and other high-ranking members had returned from Nevermore. It wasn’t much, but they had recruited a bit and expanded their influence to some more nearby towns – 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 – the follower of Gwyndyr – 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. Jake’s 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.
“Pretty damn good,” 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. Jake’s 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 “target” 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)] – 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 doesn’t 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 Jake’s best iteration to date. It was highly malleable, and while it did have some problems, such as not being as effective as the acid he’d 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 he’d already stored up, but otherwise he’d 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 hadn’t really been able to spend was showing, as he’d gained 4 whole levels during this relatively short period of time.
’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 268 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points
…
’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 271 - Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 279 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points
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’DING!’ 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 didn’t give a lot of experience. He would have gained a lot more levels if he’d just only crafted his best Heartrot Poison over and over again while making small improvements. Or, of course, if he’d 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.
“They’re back from Nevermore.”
Alas, the time had come. Quickly cleaning himself off Jake didn’t 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 hadn’t 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.
“I’m feeling all nostalgic when I remember when this was just a small town at most,” she smiled at Lillian, who stood beside her. The woman wore a white mask covering the upper part of her face that she’d 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 wasn’t going to question her assistant.
“We’re both old women by now,” Lillian smiled. “It’s normal to look back fondly on the good old days.”
“Bah, we’re still young at heart,” Miranda shook her head. “Any word from the Sky Whale or Arthur yet?”
“No, but I believe they have been informed of our return,” Lillian answered promptly. “Holstred at least said he’d contact them both promptly.”
“I see,” Miranda nodded. Truthfully, she wasn’t in that much of a rush, and in many ways, it was comforting that there hadn’t 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 couldn’t 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 hadn’t gone with anyone from Earth at all. Her party had consisted solely of members of the Order. As she wasn’t trying to compete on any Leaderboards or anything like that, the levels of her party members also hadn’t 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 wasn’t 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 who’d placed well on the Nevermore Leaderboards would be able to defeat her, bar maybe a few who would struggle if their fighting styles didn’t do well against a witch’s 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 Miranda’s 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 Jake’s 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 shouldn’t 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 hadn’t 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 who’d 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 wasn’t 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 Earth’s government. His lie-detection skill alone made him a valuable employee, and his other skills were also handy.
“Do people even know Jake is back?” Miranda asked as the thought suddenly struck her. “Outside of a few people, that is.”
“Not as far as I know,” Lillian shook her head. “There 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.”
“Makes sense,” Miranda nodded. “We could call a meeting. Get everyone up to speed about what’s going on and take status.”
“Who should be invited?”
“The 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 what’s actually going on with the planet he is supposedly the World Leader of.”
“I understand,” Lillian nodded, but Miranda kept ranting.
“We 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 didn’t 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 he’s touched his Pylon of Civilization a single time since he buried it under his house?”
Lillian didn’t need to answer, as they both knew. Miranda just sighed a bit as the truth was evident. “I guess my holiday is over, eh?”
“Very much so,” Lillian expressed her sympathy.