Cambrian
patreon
The Grimoire's Chosen Ch. 20 (Worm)
🕑 Added 2024-10-15 14:58:14 +0000 UTCA/N: Stuff happens.
-x-X-x-
At the end of the day, the benefits outweigh the risks, probably. So after a long moment of thought, Jason slowly nods to Vicky.
“… Alright. I’m tentatively on board. We’ll have to get Taylor’s approval first of course, and it’ll also be contingent on Amelia saying yes as well obviously, but… yeah, I wouldn’t mind being sponsored by the Lavere Clinic.”
Indeed, Amelia Lavere had managed to turn tragedy into opportunity when she’d abandoned her previous identity of Amy Dallon to open her clinic. It helped that she’d always had such a sterling reputation and was one of the strongest healers in America if not the world. Being sponsored by her and her Clinic would surely give new heroes like him and Taylor a leg up that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
Vicky perks up at that, looking particularly pleased at Jason’s agreement. Heh, her pussy walls even clench down on his cock in excitement as she continues to gyrate her hips across his laps.
“Excellent~ Mm, and even if it the sponsorship doesn’t work out… I’ll totally join up with you and Taylor and we’ll make a kickass hero team nonetheless, alright?”
Jason smiles, chuckling as he grabs Vicky by the hips.
“Alright.”
Feat Achieved: Join or Form a Cape Team with three or more members! 100 Points Earned!
You now have 300 Points saved up!
That causes Jason to laugh harder and shake his head.
“I believe you, heh.”
When Vicky gives him a look of confusion at that, he tells her about the Feat he just received. Even his power registers him, Vicky, and Taylor as all already part of the same team. At hearing that, Vicky gets a certain gleam in her eye that, despite their current situation, has nothing to do with sexual pleasure.
“I wonder just how much we could game that system… there’s gotta be a lot of easy Feats to grab if that’s one of them.”
Shaking his head in amusement, Jason begins bouncing Vicky up and down on his cock.
“You’ll have to talk to Taylor about that. She told me she’s making a list.”
Taking the hint, Vicky drapes her arms over his shoulders and leans over him, letting her hair fall in a curtain as she begins to ride him harder.
“Mm… sounds like she and I will continue to get along just great then~”
-x-X-x-
He ends up spending the night at Vicky’s place, even though Taylor isn’t there to enjoy the fun with them. The next morning over breakfast, Vicky assures him that she’ll reach out to her sister asap and see about getting Amelia on board with further sponsorships, but that he’s in charge of getting Taylor’s approval as well.
That turns out to be as easy as another text with the tall, dark-haired young woman, who certainly has no complaints about being sponsored by the most reputable business in all of Brockton Bay. And sure, that might not mean much when it’s Brockton Bay they’re talking about, but still… the Lavere Clinic is a very bright spot in an otherwise muddy swamp of a city.
The next pull of his power, meanwhile, comes after he’s already finished up work at the University for the day.
Ding!
Excellence of a Prince – Lore – 400 Points
Your veins are filled with royal blood, and excellence is your birthright. How could you not live up to it? You learn incredibly quickly, now, able to bring a mundane skill to complete mastery in 7 months, and accomplish minor supernatural feats with such things too, such as a musician being able to pacify a whole forest with their song. With just this it’s unlikely you’d be able to take the skill further, for what possible way could you improve if you are already a little beyond the top? But still, with less than a year of unbroken and passionate study there will be very little you cannot accomplish. Of course, this doesn’t help when it comes to enlightenment (AKA character development), but who cares about the Heavenly palaces when you have a perfectly good kingdom down on earth, am I right?
You now have 400 Points saved up!
At first glance, Excellence of a Prince sounds nice. Until one realizes that he already got a better deal with Alchemical Prodigy. Maybe if Alchemical Prodigy was focused solely on Alchemy, Excellence of a Prince would have been a nice pickup, but Jason already knew it worked for anything. Alchemical Prodigy increased his overall learning speed by a factor of ten.
He was fairly certain that Excellence of a Prince’s boast of being able to master a mundane skill in seven months just wasn’t worth his while. In fact, seven months just felt like too long of a timeframe. ‘Less than a year of unbroken and passionate study’ would be nice if he lived somewhere where he had years and years to take advantage of it, but ultimately Jason didn’t have that kind of time.
In the end, it wasn’t even a power worth banking really. The only true gain he’d get from it would be for vanity’s sake, the ability to claim he was suddenly a Prince with Royal Blood. But that too didn’t seem too helpful in his current situation.
Pass.
Letting it go, Jason shakes his head and then checks his messages, curious to see if Parian has gotten back to him yet or not. He wasn’t expecting a message back in less than a day though, so he’s not too surprised when there isn’t anything waiting for him. Frankly, getting in touch with Parian might have to wait until they can lock down the sponsorship with Panacea, because Parian might not care to respond until it’s something through official channels with a Cape Name she recognizes.
Speaking of which…
Bring Taylor 2nite, Ames coming over
It seemed that Vicky at least worked a lot faster. The blonde sends him that text just after midday, prompting a bit of a panic on Jason’s part. Already? Sure, he’d met Amelia Lavere once before, but that was under very different circumstances. This… this was a lot bigger. Still, as soon as he gets that message, he calls Taylor.
“Jason, what’s up?”
“Taylor… Vicky has already talked to her sister. We’re meeting tonight apparently, either before or after the tutoring session.”
Probably before, Jason figures. Seeing as after was usually taken up by sexy times. But then again, he shouldn’t assume anything these days, should he? There’s a pause on the other end of the line for a moment, before Taylor finally responds.
“Oh. Alright, I’ll call out from work and we’ll go over together.”
Jason chuckles, unable to help a little ribbing.
“Just like that, huh? Your corporate overlords might start to think you don’t have any loyalty to them, Taylor.”
Taylor half-snorts, half-laughs on the other end of the line.
“Honestly, if we can get this sponsorship locked down AND make a deal with Parian, then I’ll definitely be in a position to quit that job. So… fingers crossed.”
That sobers him up a bit. Taylor is trying to act nonchalant, but he can hear it in her voice all the same… she wants this. She really wants this to work. It was never in any question that she would agree to trying for the sponsorship, because at the end of the day, if she can make enough money to just be a hero full time, she’ll do it.
Smiling softly now, Jason sighs.
“Alright then, I’ll see you later, Taylor.”
“See you later.”
After hanging up with Taylor, Jason decides there’s only one thing to do… he needs to start collecting more power. Not just so that the Staff of Magnus will be charged up nice and proper whenever he and Taylor finally go out on their first patrol together, but also just in case Panacea wants to see some practical examples of what he can do.
That said, Jason spends the next few hours summoning demons and draining them to within an inch of their unholy lives before sending them back from whence they came. He’s lucky that the Summoning Ritual has a muffling component to it, because if it didn’t he’d probably have gotten noise complaints from his neighbors by now about all the yowling and howling.
It did, when one didn’t have context, kind of sound like he was butchering people in his apartment. But obviously, that wasn’t happening. He was just using demons as mana batteries. Perfectly normal stuff.
Regardless, Jason finishes and cleans up well in advance of Taylor’s arrival, even getting in a quick shower before the bug controller shows up and they leave to head over to Vicky’s place. They talk about mostly mundane stuff on the way over, an unspoken agreement that the Cape Stuff needs to stay behind closed doors.
Finally though, they arrive at Vicky’s apartment, where they put on masks to hide their identities in case this all doesn’t work out. It was a suggestion from Amelia herself according to Vicky. Jason wasn’t sure that that was a good sign or a bad sign, but in the end, he could appreciate the desire to keep identities hidden until things were more concrete.
When he and Taylor enter Vicky’s apartment, it’s to find Amelia sitting in the living room, one leg crossed over the other with a cup of tea in front of her. Vicky, meanwhile, shifts nervously from foot to foot, looking like a middle manager desperate to get their bright idea approved by their boss.
For a long moment, they all just stare at each other… and then Amelia nods to Taylor and then him.
“Weaver and… Portent, I presume?”
Blinking, Jason opens his mouth to correct her… before closing it. Would correcting her at this juncture cause issues? He didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot. But also… Portent was kind of a way better name than Potent, wasn’t it? It even fit more thematically as well, given his current powers and how he’d been building himself up so far.
Before Taylor or Vicky can correct her, Jason nods in response.
“That’s correct. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Lavere.”
He can feel Taylor giving him a look, but hey it wasn’t like he was officially out as a Cape yet. This was the perfect time to be changing his name on the fly if a better one came along.
Meanwhile, Amelia sighs and takes a sip from her tea. Then, she glances at Vicky with a look of fond exasperation.
“Vicky has talked my ear off about you two all day long. Seems to think I would be a fool not to consider sponsoring you… even though her own sponsorship is still contingent on a few things and doesn’t start until the end of the month.”
That last part, Amelia gives Vicky an arched look over. The blonde bombshell blushes but doesn’t back down.
“That’s why I was saying you should take these two on for a trial period, Ames! Test them out, use them until the month is over, and then have me join them when the time comes! It’ll work perfectly!”
Oh? That wasn’t quite what Jason had thought would happen, but he supposed it sort of made sense. Amelia though, sighs and shakes her head.
“Unless it doesn’t, Vicky. Trial periods are all well and good in certain situations, but when it comes to Cape Business… there’s no such thing. The moment I openly sponsor these two, they’re associated with me and my clinic. Meaning if anything happens to them, or they do anything untoward, it will be associated with me and my clinic. Trial period or not.”
… That was a completely fair thing to say. Jason had only really thought about it in terms of whether Amelia had the money to pay for them or not, but of course she had the money. And when you had as much potential capital as someone like Amelia Lavere, it stopped being about the money and started being entirely about reputation.
“Then don’t openly sponsor us.”
Taylor suddenly speaks up, prompting Amelia to slide her gaze over to the taller woman. To her credit, Taylor doesn’t flinch despite suddenly being the center of attention.
“Like Vicky said, take us on for a trial period. Give us enough money to get our start under the table, let us patrol for a little while as Independents, and if we can show you that we’re worth associating with, you sign us on for real at the end of the month, the same as you’re going to do with Vicky.”
Amelia pauses for a moment, processing that suggestion before slowly inclining her head in Taylor’s direction.
“That is… an idea, yes. There’s still some risk to me. You could have both fooled my sister into trusting you, all as part of some scheme to get money out of me.”
“Ames!”
“Hush Vicky. I can’t ignore the possibility. I’m one of Brockton Bay’s wealthiest women now, and everyone knows it too.”
Silence falls as Vicky pouts mightily. Meanwhile, Amelia slides her gaze over to him, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
“And what do you think, hm?”
Before Jason can even open his mouth to respond, however, his power decides that that’s the perfect time to activate.
Ding!
Hero of A Hundred Faces: Everyone’s Leader – Control – 400 Points
Some figures are too grand for the common man to properly comprehend them. In the case of the Arch-Demons, this provokes a deep fear and despair, comparable to facing a natural disaster of cosmic scale. But in your case, it is different.
The more unreachable you are, the more people find themselves attracted to you, like moths drawn to a colossal flame. Your defects are instead camouflaged under their own impressions of you, as any strangeness or red flags gets covered by their own projections. The more you grow in power, the more people are mesmerized by this effect, the deeper your mark on them is, and the harder they find to find anything to dislike you.
More than a hero, you become a living idol, a god on Earth that will leave a lasting legend for generations to come, regardless of how untimely your demise may be. Yet, even as grand as you become in their eyes, you find that it is still easy for you to maintain a closeness with any of these followers, being capable of acting as a close friend with any of them.
You now have 500 Points saved up!
Admittedly, it’s poor timing… but the name alone draws Jason’s attention and once he starts reading, he can’t quite look away. At first thought, especially with the mention of Arch-Demons, he’s not sure this is something he wants. But the more he reads, the more it seems like something he can’t pass up.
… How much easier would it be to get people to work with him on eventually taking down the Endbringers if he had a power like this? He didn’t necessarily want to become a god or anything like that, and he’d never put much thought into leaving a lasting legend behind either. But… he was just thinking about diplomacy and politics wasn’t he? And now there was this.
“Portent?”
Realizing he’s really gotten distracted, Jason winces and bows his head apologetically in Amelia’s direction.
“Sorry. My power can be very distracting sometimes.”
He doesn’t give it another thought. He buys the newest pull.
Keep.
Hero of A Hundred Faces: Everyone’s Leader Purchased. 100 Points Remain!
Then, he tries to focus on the matter at hand. What would work best for their long term plans? Should he try to argue for Amelia skipping the trial period altogether and sponsoring him and Taylor now, or should he go with Taylor’s idea of testing them out and then officially sponsoring them along with Vicky at the end of the month?
On the one hand, it would allow him and Taylor to dip their toes into Cape Life without being thrown in the deep end right off the bat (hopefully). But on the other, it might make them seem more vulnerable if they were Independents without any sort of visible backing…
-x-X-x-
A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, might have to change it at some point.
Jason's current banked points:
100 Celestial Points
Jason's current banked power:
N/A
Jason's current powers:
Flash Air (Gained in Chapter 1)
Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)
Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)
Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)
Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)
Staff of Magnus (Gained in Chapter 13)
Bind and Seal (Gained in Chapter 17)
Hero of A Hundred Faces: Everyone’s Leader (Gained in Chapter 20)
Comments
Touch
Edit mesmerized by this effect, the deeper your mark on them is, and the harder they “find” to find anything to dislike you. Fail to find?
Fulgurata
Loving the story, another good one. tyftc
Fulgurata
If it's still using the Jumpchain rules that (I think) inspired celestial forge, then the boost would stack at half power. So mc gets 100% of the most powerful ability, 50% of the runner up, 25% of the 3rd, etc. Our mc in this story doesn't know that, but he'll have to expirement at some point...
Akuma-Heika
Wouldn't the x10 boost stack, thus making it 28 days for mastery? Mastery isn't even really required either. 7-14 days would likely get him enough skill to qualify professionally. Would the learning boost of Prince stack in other ways?
Darrell Jay Cook
Demon draining could easily end up a dead end. If they know the summoner will weaken them they might not respond. Also, just cause it was easy the last couple of times doesn't mean he couldn't draw a resistant demon or he might screw up his circle by attacking his summons...
JRC
Hilarious! By the way, thanks for the reply!
Cambrian
I knew I wanted to end the chapter on a pull no matter what, but yeah, it was completely random what I would actually get.
JRC
I think the secret trial period is, by far, the more realistic choice. The nice thing is it's just for a month or so, hopefully Jason won't get into TOO much trouble by then. Plus, he's not REALLY an independent, in the sense he does have a team to back him up. I've got to ask Cambrian… was that last pull actually random? I mean, the timing is just uncanny. After all, Jason does have to impress Amelia, so…
DarkthShadow
Could do a 'powers up to x chapter' kinda deal, or leave that for when it eventually goes to QQ or something
Sith2go
I assume demon draining just provides a significantly more stable power income. Since the potency of blood magic's power boost was dependent on the amount of blood and how severe the wound. So in best cases BM can provide a bigger boost, but DD is much more reliable. Atleast for now, it might change once Jason starts busting skulls on the street.
Touch
Fair enough, it’s just to me missed opportunities for ‘mundane’ skills to the super natural lvl in 36 days!! Not to say his new other power isn’t more essential at the moment
Cambrian
Yeah, the biggest problem is that the older a post on Patreon gets, the higher the chance that Patreon will just straight up refuse to let me edit it lol. So might have to put the separate post somewhere else and then link to it. I guess a google doc might work but we'll see.
Nanaya7Nights
Basically this is a memetic shaker/master effect.
Nanaya7Nights
Like an index post that Cam link to at the top of each chapter. That way Cam can keep the description, cost and chapter number of each power that Jason has at the moment in that one post that he can regularly update.
Nanaya7Nights
Given that he basically got the power to be the Messiah/Legendary Hero/Christ-luke figure/Neo of the story (in terms of perception) and that he has at least two members in the team who are strongly action oriented (Taylor & Vicky), I don't think Cam intends for Jason to stay passive for long. That said, with his new power it is about time that Jason start acting like a leader and making his own suggestions to better the prospects of his team. The business aspect would show that they aren't planning to ONLY cost Amy money, but to work with her (Biokinesis + Insect Control + Alchemy *Maybe a little demon harvesting too in the future*) to make more money to fund their activities.
Roan9909
Enjoying it so far, yet I figured he would be doing more with his blood magic by boosting his overall strength.
Lakshman
Great chapter! As the power list gets longer, maybe instead of putting it at the end of each chapter, you can put out a separate post of the list of Jason's powers and their descriptions every few chapters instead?
Belly
Completely agree. The only issue I have is he's so passive and this feels like a slow burn story. I know ifs harder to write when there's choices and they meed to incorporate all of that on the fly but yeah from a long term perspective I don't see this story getting to the main/juicy part for another 30+ chapter
Belly
Imagine him just straight up being an evil mage/necromancer but due to this perk everyone doesn't see anything wrong or evil about it lol.
Phraxius
"Your defects are instead camouflaged under their own impressions of you, as any strangeness or red flags gets covered by their own projections." This seems really useful to someone who has in his repertoire life draining, demon summoning, necromancy, blood magic, and teleportation that gives zero fucks about the Manton Limit. And that's just counting the stuff he already has! Terrifying? Noooo, it's just charming.
Nanaya7Nights
The second option seems more sensible and would allow them to prove their worth to Amy before she sponsors them. It would also prevent Amy from feeling like they used Vicky to get into the team. That said, Jason should propose that Amy also tryout the business side of things. By acting as the intermediary in the trade for Taylor's spider silk. Jason cannpropose that she can check the biological makeup of Taylor's spiders and their silk and vouch for it to Parian. This way Jason can speed up Taylor getting enough money to go cape full time. Especially if Amy decides to boost the spider silk production by mutating the spiders.
Nanaya7Nights
Honestly after getting the other power up I really cannot bring myself to care that Jason lost out on royal blood.
Cambrian
Could've been, but that's still spending three weeks of dedicated study on something rather than going out and doing cape things like Jason already committed to
Touch
Aw man, wouldn’t it be multiplicative or stack the learning speed? 10 times learning * 7 months master is basically 21 days, no?
