“Team Stone has formidable offensive capabilities, but is lacking things on the support side,” Hinako said.
“Tear—”
“There are some things that not even she can do,” Hinako interjected. “Her network is amazing, but so is mine. And I like to personally handle investigations sometimes. Tear sends people to do that for her, but isn’t able to verify everything.”
Clyde shot her a blank stare.
“Tear’s network is untouchable, unrivaled, but I suppose there is nothing wrong with having a second support team. Hmm, you know, you will need an expert with you. And someone who can provide protection. Give me a second.”
Clyde dialed Detective Tetra. He took the time to explain everything to her, from Team Stone’s mission to Hinako’s position.
“It’s for the good of the world,” Tetra said, “so say no more. I’ll need an hour or two to pack my things.”
He smiled after hanging up.
“Pack a good suitcase and meet at my house within two hours,” Clyde said.
Hinako smiled and hugged the young man.
“Thank you!”
When Clyde Jumped to his house, he explained the updated arrangements to the others. Fuyoko and Naoko were the first to give nods of approval.
“There’s nothing wrong with beefing up our resources,” Fuyoko said.
Noona seemingly appeared out of nowhere to anime-dive into Clyde. An amazing berry scent filled the young man’s nostrils. He forced himself not to think about the prior night, even though he wanted to do her again.
“Thank you again for letting me join the team,” she said. Some of the others let out sighs. Ming gave Clyde a worried look. He did not miss her glare at the blonde’s breasts. Noona whispered. “I’d like to…try that again if we have enough time.”
Clyde wiped away the nosebleed.
“We’re a little short on it,” he said, begging his boner not to rise to amuse the innocent girl.
Eventually, the entirety of Team Stone and its support appeared. They gathered outside with their things, took one last look at Lot City, and then Jumped.
A new adventure was starting…
Episode 52 (Part 2)
[Ring City. Nation: Terravon. Continent: Zextral]
Time comparison:
Early morning in this part of the world…
Late afternoon in Lot City…
[Quest: Investigate the Dragon Threat.]
[*Adventure quest: During the Winter break, you must travel to the nation of Alon to give your blessing to the princess. Neko must be present. Her sister is an optional addition but will increase the awards. Beware of the wizard gang around this area. The troubling bunch may be the least of your problems if the Gargoyles are still around.]
[ Adventure quest pending: Pay the Order of the Crusaders a visit. Stop their cruelty once and for all. You will have to rely on Chizuru to bring you back the researcher to begin this quest]
[*Ping* Message from Celestial. Natalia has been approved as your teacher, but she must do so with Naoko’s guidance.]
[Quest: Defeat Ming in a Stone-Tokken duel. She is a Regional Champion of Yaponiya. Can you win? Reward: unknown .]
Ring City Safe House…
So much for Hideo’s secret lab , Clyde thought. In reality, there wasn’t going to be time to do every quest. He could wait for Chizuru to return with the researcher, then order him to explain the purpose of the lab and unveil any additional security . Persuading the fucker was going to be the easy part.
As Clyde appreciated the magnificence of the new place, bought with Ashfall money, he realized that calling it a Safe House was just fine. But…without a Place of Power core, they’d have to solely rely on Yuki’s outputted barrier. As powerful as she was, if an OP enemy locked its sights on Team Stone’s home away from home, it’d find them. Too bad the core was a relic and finding a new one wouldn’t be easy, if at all possible. He couldn’t remove the core from the other house.
Worries for another time… He’d have to rely on Yuki’s power. Gone were the days of him attempting to do everything himself.
The new house had a slightly smaller kitchen, but larger dining room. Liru and Harumi had the furniture guys setup everything already. The walls were painted tan and the floors, mostly carpeted except in the kitchen and bathrooms. The living room was first again with a giant TV. They had a boardroom in the back, but no movie theater room, Yet. This was a three-story modern-style house with a light and dark grey design and a single balcony. The technology inside showed it—touchscreen options on the fridge, a home assistant system, so on. The young man doubted he’d make use of it. Maki’s room of course had an updated camera system. The same went for Sophia. Neither gave Yuki any trouble.
Clyde’s room was decided for him—all the way in the back and on the first floor. He saw a massive, custom super bed with a super-sized room. His last room was large, but this one took things to a new level. Multiple closets, dressers, desks—both writing (for Chika’s sake), and computer. The bathroom almost looked like a mini palace with multiple sinks, a mega-shower and a mega tub. Rich people shit. The young man still didn’t consider himself one of them, but he couldn’t deny it. All of his money was earned. Well, the Ashfall money looted, but details, details.
He smiled, knowing damn well everything was paid for with Ashfall money. Tear’s network worked with Anzu to purchase this incredible home. He didn’t want to know the cost. Why would he? Ashfall paid for it.
Clyde chuckled. He wasn’t a hero of justice, but his efforts were well-rewarded. An amazing life like this was nearly impossible to get on Earth, except by the million and billionaires. Yeah…fuck Earth. He hoped that he’d have the power to fend off any Watcher that attempted to toss him back into his shitty timeline after the stone-viper games ended. All of this work to go unrewarded like that would probably depress him to nothingness. Anyone really.
“Are you okay, Clyde?”
The young man spun to see Alice gazing at him with glistening pink eyes. The half-demoness wore jeans and a shirt that seemed to match her eyes, as well as a light black jacket. Despite being in a different section of the world, the autumn air didn’t leave. He supposed they were in a northern part of the continent, which shared a similar climate to Yaponiya. Or at least close to it. It was warm the other day…
“I’m just marveling at our new place,” Clyde replied.
“It’s quite impressive,” Alice said. She looked at the new bed. “If anyone tries to take my spot, I’m tossing them out the window.”
Clyde laughed.
“I’m about to do some exploring. Want to come?”
“Sure,” Alice said.
Clyde chose a closet and offloaded his belongings inside. Using the force, Alice moved her things in the neighboring closet.
Most of the others were still at Liru’s, so the two left without any fanfare into the cloudy day.
Ring City was a place that thrived on the many cherry blossoms in the area. Winter cherry blossoms. It explained why people preferred to walk—there was less vehicle traffic than Lot City. Then again, this metropolitan area was smaller. The people seemed friendlier too. There were more restaurants and family-friendly places than cafés. Thankfully no demon lord ruled the area, not that Liru or Harumi would’ve omitted a detail like that.
He wondered how he would go about claiming this place as a territory.
[Alert: Terravon is a territory of the Falcon; however, he’s currently nations away. He has ignored the numerous warnings of powerful beings entering his territory and set the warning to go off on the nation’s seat only: Lightnaris. There are six nations in the Zextral continent. Terravon (most northern), Nimini, Onin, Luminous, Vastrin, Oblin. The nation of Alon is directly north of the Zextral continent.]
The closeness of the Zextra continent and Alon is why Clyde chose to move to Ring City. With Ring City being the most northern city of the nation, his adventure quest to Alon would simply be a few days driving
—counting the stops, breaks, and sightseeing. He’d handle the dragon threat and adventuring all at once. He will also gather information on the whereabouts of the Supreme Demon Lord. Then again, maybe dealing with all of the regular demon lords first would provide him the needed strength. Her level was not only in question marks during his war form, but the description within the parenthesis noted the woman as someone who made even deities weary.
After walking around for an hour, Clyde and Alice stopped for a quick bite at a Tea-cake house. Apparently this Terravon was famous for mixing tea in with their sweets. The half-demoness delighted in the combination. The young man didn’t hate it, but needed more to make a final decision. He’d think on that some other day.
As they left the Tea-cake house, Alice munched on a crunchy-tea-cookie. Clyde wondered where he could begin to search for signs of a fucking dragon. There sure weren’t any flying in the skies. Well, it’s an investigation for a reason. The quest said…investigate the dragon threat. It didn’t say he had to be the one to specifically do it. A smirk curled across his face as he pulled out his phone to dial a number.
“Hinako, here’s your first job. Make sure Tetra goes with you.”
After explaining the ordeal to Hinako, Clyde hung up and looked at Alice.
“Let’s go meet up with our teachers,” he said.
“Our teachers?” Alice said, voice tinged with confusion and skepticism.
“Also, we’re going to visit the nation’s seat tomorrow.”
“Why? Slow down and fill me in on your new plans,” Alice said.
“You’ll see,” Clyde said. He texted Natalia and Fuyoko. The kuudere loli didn’t have a phone.
Clyde and Alice were completely unaware of the orange-haired girl that trailed them.
**
Somewhere…
Sol Niye Lor or what the Bright Ones called him, the Falcon, let out a breath as he killed his hundredth monster of the day. He performed the sign of harmony and death before allowing himself to rest in a lawn chair. A convenient thing to keep in an inventory, really.
His dark brown hair dripped with a training session worth of sweat. One from his world cannot be a guest of the Bright Ones and not have something to show off.
Sol shook his head, annoyed with an earlier prompt.
[Be warned, if you cheat in your relationship, be prepared for consequences when caught.]
The woman he sub-courted turned into something this world identified as a yandere and attacked him. She lacked the intelligence to tell the difference between a misunderstanding and cheating. Not that Sol considered the “relationship” with her something serious. Maybe a friendship with…benefits that felt quite good. But nothing that warranted the desire to shed blood.
He first knocked her out, before taking her home. After that, he left a letter of disengagement. In his world, it severed all friendship ties and romances. Just what in the hellfire was wrong with the people of Satovia?
The young man quickly downed a bottle of water. As he prepared to Jump back to his hotel, his senses flared. Three beings were headed his way. A boy his own age, a…harpy, and a woman, who had a wavelength of power similar to a servant of the Bright Ones.
At least the harpy was honest with herself. She didn’t attempt to disguise her true nature. Sol didn’t have time for these sex-crazed monsters. He could always kill them, but really, wasting his own time wasn’t an option, so he made the Jump.
Dark, Myriad, and Selkie were fuming in frustration as they missed the Falcon four times in a row.
“I’m done,” Myriad snapped. “You two can chase this fuckwad all day, but I’m done. I’m going to go blow my ears off with some metal.”
Myriad flapped her wings and took flight. Dark couldn’t blame her.
“I can’t reach out to him via magic, we can’t catch up to him, anything,” Selkie said. “But we need him. The Stone needs to convert as many of the Players to his side as possible. So far, he’s got all but the Falcon.”
“So I take it the Storm doesn’t actually exist?” Dark said, voice with a hint of sarcasm.
“Of course, it doesn’t,” Selkie snapped. “Only five are allowed in, then this dimension becomes locked.”
The green-haired entity grabbed Dark by his shirt collar. “Let’s just Jump back to the inn until we can come up with another plan.”
**
Somewhere…
“Focus! You must master your senses. Without situational awareness, you’ll end up captured again like a flimsy little princess,” Aunder snapped. “You asked for this training, now take it or don’t bug me again.”
Eyes determined, Dire focused her energy. Even trapped in a child’s body, the brat exerted an extraordinary amount of magic and essence. Blue aura gushed around her. Outstretching her fingers, she once again attempted to draw on chakra.
Aunder watched from the magical perspective—an ability that allowed him to see the flows of magic, Ki, chakra, and negative Ki. Dire only drew in a tiny amount, but not enough to move onto the next part of his training.
“You will get better,” Aunder said, “just keep practicing. Pulling in Chakra isn’t eas—”
Abruptly, he witnessed an immense amount of red chakra rush into the girl. But…Chakra only ever had a sole color…light blue. What the hell was going on?
Dire began to shake. The man snapped the connection between her and nature with just a finger wave. She fell to her knees, panting. This girl… She didn’t pass out from a planet’s worth of chakra…Yes. She had promise after all.
“You’re getting the hang of it,” Aunder said, “but you must not overdo it. Try to pull in the blue chakra….” He paused. She couldn’t possibly know anything like that without learning how to see in the magic perspective first. Something he’d teach her eventually. “You’re dismissed for the day. Same time tomorrow.”
Dire let out a sigh of relief.
“Exercises then this. You’re a slave-driver, Sensei.”
Aunder shrugged.
“One must work to own his or her goals.” He stretched his arms and yawned. “Let us Jump back to the Hotel. It’s almost time for dinner.”
“You just want to drink,” Dire said then pouted.
Aunder chuckled.
“Maybe.”
Episode 52 (Part 3)
Lot City, Yaponiya…
Hijo’s room, within his mansion…
Hijo finally received the email back from his clan. His mouth dropped at the lengthy message and warning about Undine. He…couldn’t believe it. She seemed so kind and amazing and sexy and someone he’d spend the rest of his life with.
The email even had a painting of her, but it just…something wasn’t right about it. While the woman on it was beautiful, she seemed…dark. Sure his clan wasn’t pure—but the Undine in the picture resembled a dark goddess. Raw evil.
“This email is full of shit,” Hijo said softly. The goddess gave off vibes of…purity and happiness. He desperately wanted to steal her from Yusuke.
His sources brought in plenty of dirt on him. A delinquent, trash anime-loving loser. What made him pause was his possible association with a group known as Team Stone.
Hijo knew little of them except from the rumors. Apparently they saved the city from a lava death caused by a flying vampire. As if the green-haired boy would believe such nonsense. Team Stone…Come to think of it, the nobody that Toru strongly defended mentioned that.
His eyes widened. This definitely wasn’t the Toru he once knew. Why did he defend that guy? Hijo had to be wrong about him being a nobody. Shit, he was probably the son of some really powerful executive-type. But who?
Wait… Team Stone. He dialed a number. A gruff voice answered.
“What the fuck do you want, Hijo? Can’t a man jackoff in peace?”
“Still with the jackoff jokes,” Hijo said with a laugh. “With a wife that beautiful, you probably forgot how to curl your hand, you lucky asshole.”
The voice on the othe
r line chuckled.
“It’s been a while, sport. What’s up? I know you don’t do time-wasting calls.”
“You’re Maki’s big cousin right? So I’m assuming you share some of that power your family’s famous for having,” Hijo said. “Etsuji, I’ve got a favor.”
“You do realize I’m the black sheep of the family,” Etsuji said.
“It cannot be helped,” Hijo said. “You separated yourself to dedicate time to our clan. A good thing too. The Tanakas unleashed one hell of a scandal on the public.”
Etsuji chuckled.
“That damn cousin of mine…So, what’s the favor?”
“I need you to uncover more about this Team Stone. You remember Toru, right? His father runs the large chain of sporting goods. Even recently, he partnered with another super chain, Untouchable Gaming. Owned by Mr. Nicholas Donovan himself. Lucky bastard beat us to it. Anyway, find out Toru’s role on the team.”
“Why me?” Etsuji said.
“Don’t get modest on me now, old man,” Hijo said, turning his gaze to the disturbing email on his computer screen.
“I’m only thirty-three,” Etsuji said with a chuckle, “but I suppose I do owe you that favor.”
“And I know you’ll do whatever it takes to find me this information,” Hijo said. “Even if it means getting in touch with your supernatural contacts.”
Etsuji laughed on the other line.
“Very well. I don’t even want to know why you’re wasting your favor on this Team Stone. They must be big.”
“They could be a threat to our clan,” Hijo said, “but I have no proof. I’m more interested in Toru’s role in it, anyway. He’s changed.”
10.The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #10 a LitRPG (ATS) Page 9