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Book 3: Chapter 44: A Drunken Foxkin and Revisiting Mason and Sons

"Fuck me! Two levels from one sip?" Lone reeled. "Why does it taste stronger than pure ethanol?"

"Dinnae \'ave ah clue what the feck \'ethanol\' is, laddie, but like ah said, this shite\'ll put \'airs on any cunt\'s chest!" Grimsley laughed as he took three hearty swigs from his own mug, almost choking out the drink as he did, so vitriolic and involuntary was the body\'s response to the substance.

"I\'m recreating your body after this. You\'re gonna have fucked it up beyond belief once that mug\'s dry," Lone remarked before singeing his throat with another sip.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.

"Ah need shite like this tae feel anythin\'. Intoxication Resistance is ah real bastard. Ah\'ve even earned Poison Resistance fae the stuff ah need tae doon just fer ah buzz. This stuff\'ll keep me goin\' fer ah few centuries though, nae doubt. Just need tae ensure the supply is constant," Grimsley said. "Expensive, but worth every penny."

"Whatever keeps you happy, though surely by now some Divine alcoholic would have invented booze that bypasses the resistances, right? Or maybe Divines gain immunity to alcohol on their ascension. Wouldn\'t surprise me since they gain eternal life," Lone remarked. "Could always employ a Taker to rip the resistances right out of you too."

Grimsley shrugged, the face hidden beneath his beard loosening. "If ya ever find oot ah method \'at disnae involve ah Taker, then ah\'m all ears. Ah didnae think ta ask Grand Guildmaster Sarah when ah got the chance to meet \'er. Nice lass. Or lady? \'Ard tae think o\' \'er as the millions o\' years old monster \'at she is."

"What was she like?" Lone asked, taking another sip.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

His head felt lighter already. His Enhanced Vision was fighting to keep his sight from blurring, but he felt good even if he wasn\'t remotely a fan of how this brew tasted. It was also taking more effort to block Basic Regeneration\'s efforts to purge the toxins in his system.

Grimsley shrugged. "Pissed. Nae pished like us, but feckin\' pissed. Mind ye, she were giddy as could be tae see the goat, up until she saw his eye an\' awakenin\'. Bastardin\' duke damn-near shat \'imself on the spot. Ah still wonder why \'e decided tae settle in Mystopolis. \'At\'s where she took us. The goat \'andled most ah the official nonsense after \'at. We ended up \'ere tae wait fer ye."

"Huh. Well, we\'ve got a few hours until I need to go, so let me tell you about my adventures in your homeland, huh?" Lone offered.

"Aye, ah\'d like that. Tell me aboot ol\' Wilbur anaw, will ya?" Grimsley requested. "What were \'e like when \'e was teachin\' ya? An\'... before \'e returned tae the Stone."

Soph watched Breena and Shana silently as the two caught up. Her attention was more focused on growing her fingers and keeping an eye on the ever-increasingly drunk Lone via her Mana Sensing.

"Wow! You have a fire magic skill already? Mister Immortus must be a good teacher. Even though he says I have a lot of talent for it, I can barely manipulate freeform gravity magic despite Master\'s teachings. Ah, uh, not that kind of master. I\'m past that. He teaches me magic! The guildmaster, that is," Shana excitedly explained to her fellow former-slave.

Breena wore an uncomfortable expression beneath her face-mask. "Master Lone is an incredible teacher, and, um, also not that kind of master..."

Soph smiled, happy to see Breena communicating somewhat normally. She didn\'t care about the girl nearly as much as Lone did, but she cared an infinite amount more than her other half ever could.

She patiently watched over the two young teens from her seat in the corner of the forge as they caught up, one energetic and rather normal, the other happy to talk but still hesitant and shy as always.

Before long, two and a half hours had passed. Shana was forging a set of farming tools while enthusiastically going over the entire process for Breena who was keenly watching and listening.

Soph got up and stretched. "Let\'s go, girls. Your uncle has passed out, Shana, and my stupid lover is mumbling to himself as if Grimsley is still replying."

"Oh, uh, yeah. I need to take care of uncle when he\'s like that. Don\'t want him choking on his own spit," Shana replied, quickly stopping when she was doing before she speed walked out of the forge with Breena and Soph just behind her.

The smell of intense alcohol pervaded Soph\'s nostrils and she gagged a little, as did Breena though Shana seemed fine.

"Haha, it takes some getting used to," Shana chuckled awkwardly as she dashed over to her uncle to help him out.

Lone turned his head lazily towards them and said, "You shouldn\'t really get "used" to it... It\'s bad for you..."

Soph shook her head. At least he was coherent while drunk. Sophie\'s memories of her when she was in a similar state made it clear that she was incapable of normal speech while under the influence.

She approached Lone and in a soft voice, she said, "We need to go to Golden Pass City now. Remember, you wanted to level skills, fight the guildmaster, and try to rank up Breena?"

Lone\'s body swayed gently from side to side in his chair. "Your voice is lovely... Never knew I liked hints of Russian until I fell in love with you... Right, today\'s plans... Basic Regeneration, do your thing..."

Soph blushed but just as her cheeks were starting to flush, the redness in Lone\'s disappeared. He groaned lightly and shook his head. "Powerful fuckin\' booze. I still have a headache. Wonder when that will subside... Alcohol\'s flushed from the system though. Thanks, Soph. I\'d completely forgotten about our plans for the day. Let me recreate Grimsley\'s body and we\'ll be on our way. C-ranker or not, this stuff\'ll have long-lasting effects on the liver."

Appearing in an alleyway just beside Mason and Sons, the place he had used to earn the Item Examination skill, Lone spoke to Soph telepathically. \'Is Prince Keining here?\'

While he waited for her response, he went over his notification logs.

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Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 10.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1.

Passive Skill: Intoxication Resistance

A skill awarded to those with an iron gut and a low enough intelligence to make getting drunk a regular sport.

Alcohol is weakened by 15% [+10%]

Cost:N/A Mastery:Intermediate Level 1

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 2.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 3.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 4.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 5.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 7.

Congratulations! The host\'s passive skill [Intoxication Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 8.

\'There\'s one more skill out of beginner rank. Only 18 more to go in the next 19 days. I\'m so winning this bet,\' Lone thought.

Soph furrowed her brow and then shook her head. \'Nope, I can\'t find him. Five people turned to look this way when we appeared, one of them being Yulia, so I\'m pretty sure they can all sense mana. It\'s so easy to see now that I\'m looking for it...\'

\'That would make sense. Gonna use your points to try to get a skill to conceal mana or something? At the guild, I mean,\' Lone replied.

Soph nodded. \'I don\'t want to inflate my number of skills, but I really should get something to disguise myself... Guildmaster Brux is in the same guild building from the last time we were here, by the way.\'

\'Good. I\'m sure I can get a fight out of him. Well, we\'re at Mason and Sons for a reason. Maybe alongside what I want, we can find something to conceal your mana while you work on earning a skill for that. I\'ll also look into earning one that I can then, in turn, teach you,\' Lone said.

Soph nodded before she, Lone, and Breena, left the alleyway and directly entered the massive building belonging to Mason and Sons.

Almost immediately, an employee approached them with a big smile on his face despite the lobby already having a few customers waiting to be served, all of varying strengths and backgrounds - one was even an SSS-ranker according to Lone\'s aura.

"Lord Immortus! How joyous. I wasn\'t aware of your return to the city. I am Jason, son of Mason. How can I help you today?" the man, Jason, cheerfully inquired.

The slight growing discontent from the other customers upon seeing the preferential treatment from a direct owner of the store immediately disappeared when they saw who it was that was getting said treatment.

Even the SSS-ranker had no issues with this. Golden Pass City was a city ruled by the law of jungle. This SSS-ranker knew just as well as everyone here that the man who lasted so long against their ruler in a fight and who had even managed to land a injury on him would easily outmatch any of the present people\'s individual strengths.

Lone reckoned they might have even got offended if he wasn\'t treated like a V.I.P. since such treatment was why everyone in this city strived for greater heights. Status meant nothing here and was hard to obtain anywhere else. Strength, however, meant everything and was within everyone\'s grasp with enough time and effort.

"Hey, Jason. Nice name. It\'s very normal. Last time I was here your dad did some item examinations for me but I noticed you guys also offer to buy items brought here and then resell them. I\'m looking to buy some specific things if you\'ve got them," Lone explained.

Jason smiled knowingly. "Of course."

A moment of silent passed between him and Lone\'s group before he stood aside and gestured to the flight of stairs to the left of the lobby that led upwards. "My brother, Tayson, will see you on floor three, room seven. I must say, it\'s an absolute pleasure to serve you again. Will you and your companions be needing an escort, or would you prefer to go yourself?"

"Ah, we can go by ourselves. Thanks, Jason," Lone said before leaving the lobby with Soph and Breena in tow.

"That moment of silence..." Soph muttered. "Magic flowed from an item on his wrist upstairs to the room we\'re heading towards. I guess that\'s how he arranged where we\'d get seen to?"

Lone nodded. "Sounds likely. For this place to be good enough for Yulia to respect the owner, Mason, despite her reluctance to leave the palace speaks of this business\'s acumen. Doesn\'t surprise me at all that they can communicate magically via an artefact of some sort."

"Mason, Jason, Tayson..." Breena muttered to herself very softly. "Mason and Sons... Sons as in children, or sons as in, their names? Maybe both?"

Lone laughed quite loudly at that. "Fuckin\' good point. Wonder what Mason would name a daughter?"

Before too long, the trio found themselves in room seven of floor three after Lone had knocked lightly to announce his entrance.

It was a simple enough room, only being a cube in shape though the walls were well decorated and at the back of the room behind the occupied desk could be seen three identical doors.

\'Those doors are covered in magic,\' Soph informed Lone while he looked at the man who was likely Tayson.

He looked damn-near identical to Jason save for a few very minute details. He still had short brown hair, black eyes, fair skin, and a muscular build, but instead of sporting a dashing moustache, Tayson was equipped with a full-on lumberjack beard. From his aura, it was clear he was an A-ranker.

However, despite being a rank higher than Lone, Tayson still stood up and bowed his head. "It\'s my pleasure to assist you today, Lord Immortus. I understand you\'re in the market to buy some items. Please, let me know what it is you desire and I\'ll see if we have anything that matches."

Lone, Soph, and Breena, all took a seat at the opposite side of the desk from Tayson, Lone occupying the middle seat with Soph to his left and Breena to his right.

"I need two things. Firstly, something to change my appearance. I don\'t exactly hate the attention my power has earned me, but it would be nice to be able to stroll through the city without being recognised as the guy who left a scratch on Prince Keining," Lone explained.

Tayson nodded enthusiastically. "That is more than reasonable. Sadly, items that disguise one\'s self are very rare since most are outlawed to avoid impersonation, but we do have a few enchanted broaches that will change your external appearance while making it clear that you are doing so. Thus, you get the privacy you seek but everyone knows you\'re hiding what you look like."

"That sounds fine. I\'ll take three of those, please. As for my second request, I want something that can mask how much MP someone has, again, three such items if available," Lone said.

Tayson ran his fingers through his beard and smiled. "Such items are available. In fact, we have a lot of those. I will need to know how much MP exactly you are trying to hide. Regardless of the type of items they all share one thing in common - they have upper limits. If you exceed that upper limit, the item will stop working and in some cases, explode rather violently."

"Ah... Well, in that case, I\'ll take one of each different type," Lone said, shocking Tayson.

"L-Lord Immortus... Even if we have a good number of items capable of masking MP, buying one of each type would easily run up a bill of multiple ruby-gold coins," Tayson explained, his voice a bit shaky.

"I expected that. Go get all the items and let\'s negotiate. There\'s gotta be a discount for bulk purchases, right?" Lone grinned.

He didn\'t care how much they cost. It was likely the items wouldn\'t be able to hide Soph\'s absurd mana pool so Lone was going to do the next best thing. Bulk buy and reverse engineer the items before making one powerful enough for his girlfriend via Creation Magic.

It was either that or learn a skill that he could teach her which would accomplish the same. Whichever came first.