Chapter 613: All Out

Grey was about to head toward the first teleportation platform when Brad shifted the Dominion hammer higher onto his shoulder and followed after him. "I’m coming."

Grey looked over, thought about it for all of half a second, then shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

"I’ll come as well."

Grey stopped again, though this time the voice was surprising enough that he actually turned around.

Amara stood a short distance away with the same calm expression she seemed to wear through almost everything, and Grey pursed his lips as he looked her over.

Ma Famille still had fifteen empty slots after the upgrade, and considering how much he had just invested into the damned thing, he might as well start figuring out whether she was worth one.

His grin slowly widened. "Eye candy for the road? You’re fitting into the team already."

Amara stared at him.

Grey didn’t seem to care in the slightest that she had already accused him of gathering women to fuck.

Brad shook his head and asked, "What are we even going out for?"

Grey looked at him strangely. "You asked to come before knowing?"

Brad’s expression flattened.

"We’re heading to a volcano to do some deforesting," Grey said as he started walking again. "Fuck the environment."

Brad’s lip twitched. "No, for real."

"We really are. I need sap from a tree that grows around volcanoes, and the closest place I found happens to be inside old Infernal Arc territory."

Brad stopped walking. "You want us to go into Elemental territory?"

"Well, you can stay here if you’d like."

Brad sighed and followed. "Madman."

Amara moved alongside them for several steps before her eyes travelled over Grey from head to toe. "Are you planning to wear something else?"

Grey blinked, then looked down at himself.

Boxers and Shadow Forces stared back at him.

That was it.

Had had kind of forgotten in all the nonsense that he was still walking around with his dick protected by little more than a layer of cotton. Quite comfortable cotton, he might add. Elowen did a good job picking them out.

Grey scratched his chin thoughtfully before his eyes brightened.

"Hey," Grey called out to absolutely nobody in particular, knowing full well that people were watching anyway. "Anyone who gets me a nice clean set of what I wore last time I was decent gets free promotion while I go slaughter some Elementals."

His notifications exploded.

Grey hadn’t even finished speaking before sponsorship offers started stacking across his vision so quickly that he had to filter most of them out. Armor companies, weapons manufacturers, clothing companies, and several names he had never heard of practically threw contracts at his face, but one familiar purple eclipse appeared near the top almost immediately.

Grey laughed.

"Best Of. My boys."

Their contract was almost insultingly simple, asking him to wear the equipment prominently for the duration of the trip and mention the company if anyone happened to ask. Grey accepted before someone inside Best Of had time to reconsider, and two boxes dropped from empty space in front of him.

A few moments later, Grey finally looked like himself again.

Pitch-black cargo pants tapered down his legs, a familiar bomber jacket settled over his shoulders, and Grey ran both hands through his white hair before slicking it backward. A simple black shirt was underneath this time, nothing like his high rarity draconic Nexis Suit he had had before, but it worked.

He grinned at his reflection in one of the Palace windows, then opened the equipment screens to see what Best Of had decided he was worth this time.

—

Name: Chad’s Bomber Jacket

Rarity: Epic

Class: Vanguard

Accepted Type: Linear; Branching; Resonant

Rejected Type: Recursive

Description: Not everyone has the time or patience to get jacked. You certainly have neither, but you do have an obnoxious amount of money to spend. Walk into the room like you own it, and eventually everyone else might start believing you do.

Abilities: +520 STR; +260 END. Enemies within ten meters suffer -100 PER and -100 STR while directly focused on the wearer.

—

Grey nodded appreciatively. It wasn’t remotely close to the best equipment he could get his hands on these days, especially after seeing what true high-Class treasures could accomplish, but this was also a temporary advertising deal he had requested by shouting into the air while wearing boxers.

Expecting Best Of to drop an Ascended treasure into his lap would have been a little greedy even by his standards.

Then he checked the pants.

—

Name: Bottomless Cargo Pants

Rarity: Epic

Class: Vanguard

Accepted Type: Linear; Branching; Resonant

Restricted Type: Recursive

Description: Bottomless bottoms, bottoms up. What could possibly be more drippy than functionality? Store energy within each pocket and burn it whenever good judgment fails you, which, judging by the wearer, should be often.

Abilities: Each pocket may store 1000 Energy Units for a total of 10,000. Burn 100 Energy Units to gain +50 SPD or +50 INT for one second. Multiple units may be burned simultaneously.

—

Grey’s eyebrows climbed.

The original cargo pants had already saved his ass more times than he wanted to count, especially when he needed to spike his Intelligence and squeeze more power out of his Mind Abilities.

These were the same idea dragged into a much higher Class, and while the Energy Units could become an obnoxiously expensive habit very quickly, Grey had just inherited several Imperial treasuries.

"Yeah, these’ll do."

Brad looked him over. "You really stopped an invasion to get dressed through a sponsorship."

"I’m stimulating the economy." Grey said with a grin.

"Do you think I could manage some of that?" Brad blinked expectantly.

Grey looked him up and down, pursed his lips, then gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"Hey, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Amara’s gaze lingered on Grey for a moment before she simply started walking toward the teleportation platform again. Grey followed with a satisfied grin, already feeling considerably more prepared to invade an Elemental territory now that he had pants.

**

Somewhere far beyond the Genesis Games, laughter thundered through an executive office.

A man leaned back in his chair while Grey’s newest sponsorship numbers climbed across several screens, the projections rising almost as quickly as they had during the First Arc. He slapped one hand against the armrest, laughter continuing for several seconds before he finally managed to speak.

"I love this brat!"

Someone nearby wisely waited for him to finish.

The man’s laughter faded into a broad smile as another screen displayed Muse Incorporated’s stock.

"Someone get me information on what Muse is doing. We’re going all out to fuck them!"