With the impending arrival of a literal shipload of gold rankers, things had been busy for the senior officials of the Greenstone Adventure Society branch. Everything about Virenslow was drooping except for his immacute moustache, poking stiffly out from each side of his face. He was going through a list of requests from loobility who, sadly, held enough influehat he couldn’t just dump the whole stack of papers in the bin. He looked up at a kno his office drateful for any reprieve.

  “Sir?” his assistant Gret said after poking her head in. “We’ve had bit of an odd report from the jobs hall.”

  “Odd how?”

  She opehe door properly and moved into the office.

  “It’s about adventure boards in the delta. Someone has been marking off tracts as plete, but none of them have been turned in at the hall.”

  “How many tracts?”

  “As far as we tell… all of them. In about a day and a half. A few adventurers came back from the delta aed that every vilge had the adventure board marked as plete. We’ve sent people firm, and the monsters are gone in every instance we’ve checked.”

  “I assume some of the delta residents had some light to shed. Surely someone saw whoever was responsible.”

  “Yes, sir. Some reported a stranger who did some healing and, in one case, briefly operated some kind of food kiosk at a lumber camp.”

  Vi leaned ba his chair a out a long, slow breath.

  “You know what this is, sir?”

  “I do,” he said wearily. “Tell the jobs hall to mark the tracts as closed, no reward cimed.”

  “Is this about the gold rankers?”

  “No, and that’s an order. The official position of the Adventure Society is that there are no gold rankers operating iy or its surrounds until they arrive here by ship the day after tomorrow. Do not let me hear you have been so much as implying anything else, Gret.”

  “Is it that big a deal, sir?”

  Vi sighed.

  “Dear gods, I hope not.”

  ***

  Hiram had been climbing the mountain trail most days, for most of his life. Age had been catg up to him, but his limbs carried him now with fresh vigour, courtesy of his bronze rank physique. He had told his granddaughter not to waste the hard-fought earnings of an adventurer on an old man and she, of course, had ignored him.

  He’d saved and scrimped from before she was even born to give her the opportunity. More than giving him his own ce to bee an essence user, she repaid him with the joy in her eyes when she came home and told him the story of her adventures.

  He looked up at the water r out from a hole in the side of the mountain. The torrent became deafening as he asded towards the tuhat would lead him i was even louder in the cave, echoes thundering like the bellow of some primordial beast. The air in the cave was wet, leaving the boards of the wooden walkway slick, thus the grit adhered to the pnks frip. It was getting on time to repe of the boards and apply fresh grit to the others.

  The cave was still beautiful to his eyes, even after all these years. Glow stone mps lit up the green sto the end of the cave was a caverhe torrent passed through on its way out of the mountain. It was travelling so fast it moved horizontally through the air, a fast-moving wall of water. Blue light shone from it and spray became a sparkling mist that filled the cavern.

  Hiram shook his head with a chuckle, remembering when he’d been caught ier, carried dowunnel and shot out into the air. He’d beeain he was going to die, and instead ended up with one of the precious essences he was able to gift his granddaughter.

  The half of the cavern that didn’t have water rushing through it had been carved to a ft surface, with a metal safety rail to keep anyone from getting too close to the water. It was a lot strohan it once had been, after the i. Attached to the cavern was a room carved into the wall, with a rge window and a door for access.

  Made to keep monit staff warm and dry, the room was rger and more fortable than it had been when Hiram was a young mahought the job would tide him over until he found somethier, and he never did. It was an easy job, monit the water aperture, so long as you didn’t mind climbing the mountain every day.

  Hiram headed for the booth to relieve Dave, who was bit of an odd sort. Didn’t much care for people, or for daylight, but was friendly enough if you left him to himself. He did get ky for a bit after Martha’s boy Henry became mayor and had the Adventure Society check he wasn’t a vampire.

  When Hiram got to the window, he saw it was steamed up from the ihat happened when someone cooked, but Dave normally brought a packed meal from the Madson girl who was sweet on him. Hiram opehe door to a humid food smell and someoalking.

  “…use all kinds of fillings, but I like pork the best. You don’t have that here, but the gonku lizard I used in these is pretty close. Which is weird because it’s, you know, a lizard.”

  Dave’s response was an i mumble, due to the dumpling stig out of his mouth. The room was basically a lounge area, with a rge low table in the middle that was ented to fun as a self-ing cooking surface, and there an of dumplings sitting on it. Dave was fag the door while the room’s other oct sat across from him, with his back to Hiram.

  The man turned around, fshing a big smile at Hiram. It had been a long time, and his features had been smoothed out by rank-ups, but Hiram would never fet Jason Asano. Not only had they been flung off a mountain together, but Jaso on to save the vilge from a terrible monster, almost dying in the process. They’d found him, almost cut in half, in the rubble that had once been their vilge.

  He’d also gifted Hiram with what became the first of his granddaughter’s essences. Hiram knew Jason hadn’t been a wealthy man back then, just a freshly minted adventurer. Even so, he’d ha to Hiram with a smile on his face, as if he was loaning a neighbour some tea.

  “You look good, Hiram. All those mountain hikes are keeping you in shape.”

  ***

  Hiram refilled Jason’s teacup.

  “We didn’t know what to make of it,” Hiram said. “First, we hear you’re dead. Then we hear you’re alive again, and the stories only got less believable from there. But whatever people say about you, good or bad, you’re a hero to the people in this town, Jason. The young ones like Dave don’t remember, but those of us who were around back then…”

  He let his words linger as he sipped at his tea.

  “That day was a nightmare. You hear the stories of some high-rank moearing through a town, but you don’t expect it to happen. Monsters are always a threat, out in these rural areas, but something like that?”

  “Yeah, there was a thing messing with the monster surges,” Jason said. “It made the monster spawns a bit off. It’s fixed, now.”

  Hiram shook his head.

  “The why doesn’t matter to folks like us. What matters is children screaming as their parents drag them out of colpsing buildings. Pushing people onto wagons even as they’re taking off. Afraid that, at any sed, some big watery tentacle will crash down and kill you all and there’s nothing you do to stop it. You were just a kid, but you stood up. Put yourself between us and it. Bought us the time to get everyo and safe. Now look at you, the big-time adventurer. You know, we never got to thank you properly for that.”

  “You didn’t have to thank me, Hiram. That’s what adventurers do.”

  “I was there, boy. I saw the looks on your friends’ faces. I may not have seen you iy years, but I get the feeling you spent a lot of it doing things that maybe adventurers don’t do.”

  Jason chuckled.

  “Maybe so,” he ceded, and sipped at his tea. “What about that granddaughter of yours? Did she ever bee an adventurer?”

  “Indeed, she did. A more modest ohan you, I re, which suits me just fine. I like her ing home with stories of travel and adventure. I don’t want anyone fishing her out of the ruins of someone’s house, looking more dead than alive. No offence.”

  “No, that’s a wise approaot in the cards for some of us, though. Did I ever tell you where I came from?”

  “Not that I recall. I think you said it was somewhere remote. I remember thinking that it was a bit strange for an adventurer, some of the things you didn’t know.”

  “Well, I’m not yranddaughter, but let me regale you with some of my stories of travel and adventure. Do you know what a universe is?”

  ***

  Time always moved on. For long-lived adventurers, things stretched out, and ge was slow. Expl Greenstone, Jason was fronted with how different it was for those without access to age-extending magic. He stood on a rooftop, his elding him invisibly into the shadow of a ey. He watched a yard below, where a spry woman of te-middle years was hanging out washing on a line.

  “Did you find out who she is?”

  “I did,” Shade said. “This is Juliette Landry, the daughter of your former nddy. She ied this property from her mother, who found a great deal of success ier years. She ended up owning five establishments in total. Each is now operated by her daughter or one of her nieces: Josephine, Joanne, Jennifer, aha.”

  “Bertha?”

  “Madam Bertha Landry hosts the property with more structural reinfort entments thaher. Her tele be quite rambunctious.”

  “When did my Madam Landry pass?”

  “Seven years ago. Apparently to the ment of several elderly but vigorous men who were rather unhappy to find out about each other after the fact. It was, by all ats, a quite exg memorial service.”

  “Good for her,” Jason said with a sad smile. “All the years I was off doing weird dimensional stuff. How much did I miss bae, Shade?”

  “You haven’t called Earth home in a long time, Mr Asano.”

  “I suppose I haven’t.”

  ***

  “You know that Arel thinks yoing to kill her,” Vi said.

  “I’ve killed people for doing a lot less than she did,” Jason said. “But I’m not here to kill anyone.”

  “Do you mind if I go ge out of this bath robe?” Vi asked. “I didn’t dress for a home invasion.”

  “Sorry,” Jason said. “I wao be discreet. That’s why I waited until your husba.”

  “Oh, he’d have been delighted. He loves the adveuff.”

  Vi left the sitting room of his town house and tihe versation from the other room.

  “You’d think that the messenger war and the rest of it would dampen his enthusiasm,” Vi said. “He’s like a child sometimes, always looking for an adveory.”

  He walked back out in simple linen pants and a tunic he’d impusibly mao put on without disrupting his moustache.

  “Why are you here, Jason?”

  “There are some anisational things we should probably sort out to make things go more smoothly.”

  “Yes, but I have office hours.”

  “But you were very clear with Gret that I’m not officially here.”

  “You’re spying on me?”

  “Uh… no?”

  Vi sighed.

  “Gold rankers. This is why I transferred back to Greenstone, you know. I’ll go get my notebook.”

  He walked over to a chair where a satchel had been tossed. He pulled out a notebook and a pencil, theured Jason into a seat. He sat opposite and was about to ask Jason a question wheopped ahe pencil and book down on the couch beside him.

  “How is Rufus?” he asked softly.

  “He left this world. Fifteen years ago, now.”

  Vi sat bolt upright.

  “He’s dead?”

  “What? Oh, sorry, no. I meaerally left this world. He’s been living on the one I came from. He’s fine. He’s really into jellybeans, like really into them. The fanes with weird fvours like ‘Bara asphalt’ or whatever. He’d definitely have diabetes if he wasn’t magical. I sent him to meet this person I’m trying to recruit over there, and he came back with about a wheelbarrow full of them.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Which is very nostalgie, so I suppose we’d better get to it.”

  He picked his notebook back up.

  “Now, we might as well start with nobles who want a meet and greet on arrival versus those asking for a more ih meeting.”

  “There’s no reason for me to…”

  Jason stopped himself, grimag as he thought back over Danielle’s lessons. He took a deep breath a out slowly.

  “Okay,” he said. “Nobles who waings, you say.”

  Annou

  TL;DR:

  No chapters st week of August and first week of September

  Dragon appearance schedule below

  I'll be taking some time off to attend Dragon at the end of August into the start of September. That's a lot of travel time, to and from Australia, especially my part of it, which is an isnd south of the mainnd. I'll be taking two weeks, which will include a little time to recharge the batteries.

  For those who will be attending Dragon and want to see what I'm up to, here is my event schedule (subject to ge by anisers):

  Wednesday (Pre- event): In versation with Matt Dinniman, author of Dungeon Crawler Carl. There will be signings at the ends, but this is more Matt's event than mine, and will require purchasing one of his new re-releases to attend. https://eagleeyebooks./event/2024-08-28/matt-dinniman-talks-dungeon-crawler-carl-w-shirtaloon

  Friday 2pm: Book signing session at the Aethon booth (booth 3502).

  Saturday 10am and 2:30pm: Panels, both at the Embassy CD Hyatt Sunday 7pm: litRPG event at the Iional North-South Hyatt

  Sunday 7pm: litRPG event, Iional North-South Hyatt

  Monday 1pm: Panel, Embassy CD Hyatt