“Well, I shouldn’t be dragged away any time soon,” Jason said.
“It didn’t look like you were expecting it this time either,” Taika said. “What happened, bro?”
“It’s political. Some people wanted me to visit France and weren’t too worried about it being on a voluntary basis. They’ve been handled, for the moment at least. Has anyone bothered you?”
“Vermillion brought the EOA people around and we came to a preliminary agreement.”
“They gave you good terms?”
“Very. It seems like Vermillion talked Victor around and the EOA are feeling generous now they’re looking at a smooth transition.”
“How did he get Victor on board? Do you know?”
“He said that the EOA can give Victor something that he’s always wanted but Vermillion was never permitted to give himself.”
“That makes sense,” Jason said.
He knew that Victor wanted to learn more about the magical world, but the Cabal had always kept him at a remove. From what Vermillion had told Jason, the EOA had no such qualms.
“Alright,” Jason said. “I’ve made contact with certain people and, for the moment, we should remain unmolested. In the morning, we’re going to pack it up and head for home. Have you made your arrangements, Taika?”
“Yeah, bro. I talked to my family. I don’t want them anywhere near this.”
“Good call. We’ll be on the road for a few hours tomorrow. I can give you a proper introduction to the world I’ve landed you all in.”
In front of Hiro’s apartment building, Jason looked at the cloud flask in his hand with dissatisfaction. Instead of the cloud stuff emerging when he opened the stopper, he received a system message.
Cloud constructs cannot operate in zones of barren magic.
Add vortex accumulator to cloud constructs to allow operation in zones of barren magic.
Vortex Accumulator requirements (bronze rank):
1 [Magic Essence].
1 [Gathering Essence].
100 bronze-rank [Vortex Quintessence Gems].
1000 [Bronze Spirit Coins].
Bronze-rank vortex accumulator will allow for cloud constructs of up to current rank (bronze) forms to function in zones of extremely low magical density. Higher-rank materials will be required for it to operate in higher-rank forms.
“That’s suspicious,” he muttered to himself.
“What is?” Hiro asked.
“My magic item here needs a bunch of very expensive materials for an upgrade. Materials I just so happen to have on hand. I’m starting to wonder if it took a look at my supplies and decided to scam me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Hiro said.
“I get that a lot.”
Jason had fed a lot of materials into the cloud flask to enhance its utility, mostly varieties of quintessence gems, but also crystal wash and various kinds of magical metal, stone, and fabric that helped create surfaces that were not just soft and malleable. It was difficult to chop vegetables when the knife just pushed them through a countertop made of nice, soft clouds. Emir had warned him that the most powerful upgrades would require full essences, such as his current circumstance, but the specifics were a little coincidental.
A magic essence wasn’t an oddity. They were common and Jason had several on hand. The gathering essence, on the other hand, was a rare essence that he also coincidentally happened to have.
In the only instance of it ever happening in his experience, the blood weaver his team fought in the astral space had produced not one but three essences when looted. While not an unheard of event, it was a less common occurrence than even a legendary essence appearing.
As for the vortex quintessence gems, Jason had a goodly amount after fighting dangerous silver-rank monsters called vortex elementals. All his vortex gems were silver rank, though, rather than bronze.
“Can I set up a silver-rank accumulator before I rank up the flask to silver?” he asked.
Vortex Accumulator requirements (silver rank):
1 [Magic Essence].
1 [Gathering Essence].
100 silver-rank [Vortex Quintessence Gems].
1000 [Silver Spirit Coins].
Silver-rank vortex accumulator will allow for cloud constructs of up to silver rank forms to function in zones of extremely low magical density. Local magical density in insufficient to support operation of gold-rank or higher vortex accumulators.
“A thousand silver coins,” he muttered. “That’ll take a good chunk out of the supply.”
Taika and Hiro looked at each other as Jason continued to mutter what seemed like nonsense to himself while staring at what looked like a boiling flask in his hand. Then they watched as he pulled objects out of the air like a stage magician.
He started with a funnel, which he placed into the end of the flask. Then he started shoving silver coins into the funnel by the fistful, followed by what looked like opals. Then there was a blue, glowing cube, which dissolved into mist, followed by another cube that was black and white that likewise dissolved into the flask. Afterwards, he took out the funnel and replaced the flask’s stopper.
“Sorry about this,” he said to Hiro and Taika. “It needs a few minutes to percolate, but it should be fine now. You can bring down the bags.”
“You’re a weird bloke, bro,” Taika said and headed back inside.
22
AGENDAS
“Finally,” Jason said. He stood in front of Hiro’s apartment building with the cloud flask in his hand.
Vortex accumulator (silver rank) complete.
Available forms (iron rank): Cloud house (grand), cloud house (adaptive).
Available forms (bronze rank): Carriage house (grand), carriage house (adaptive).
“Alright,” Jason said happily.
“Are you certain you should do this in front of the apartment building?” Shade asked from his shadow. “We are fully exposed to the street.”
“Yeah, I’d best take it around the side,” Jason said. “Flaunting it out in the open might not be the best idea.”
“What are you doing exactly?” Hiro asked.
“I told you,” Jason said. “Sorting out a ride.”
“Will it be like a magic carpet or something?” Taika asked. He had luggage for himself and Hiro piled outside the building entrance.
“Sadly, no,” Jason said. “It will be a bit more roomy, though.”
Jason made his way around the side of the building, between the apartment complex and the townhouse in which he had been staying. He pulled the stopper from the cloud flask and two wisps of cloud stuff came snaking out to form two separate shapes, floating above the opening. One was a house and one was a long, wheelless vehicle, looking oddly like a hovercraft tour bus. He waved his hand through the vehicle image and then set the flask on the ground where cloud stuff started streaming out in earnest.