Stacking My Abilities

Chapter 17 - The Mission Machine (3)

[ Unique Quest: Spacetime Disturbance Data Collection (Completed) ]

[ You Have Gained: ]

[ Inventory Slot * 1 ]

[ Thank you for contributing this data to the system. Please seek out higher-tier Spacetime Disturbance Data. The system wishes you a great day ]

"Are you going to dodge?" Everly asked with a serious face.

"Nope." Jeff shook his head.

'Shield.'

An invisible door-shield formed inches before Jeff.

PAAaamm!

'Hmm... That's pretty loud.'

Seeing this result, Everly leaned back and slowly nodded, as if she's still in disbelief. "Alright then."

A series of gunshots echoed through the neighborhood. Shells sprinkled onto the ground. In a brief moment, Everly had unloaded a magazine.

Jeff stood there perfectly unharmed.

"Well... If that's the best you can do, I can literally stand here all day." Jeff turned to Liam. "Are you going to jump in as well?"

Liam shook his head. "I mainly do support work. Like detection and healing."

The rifle in Everly's hand suddenly disappeared.

"How about this!" Everly pulled the linchpin off a grenade.

"Everly. No!" Liam held up a hand.

"Try this!" Everly chucked the grenade at Jeff.

Jeff caught the grenade like a baseball. "You forgot to pull the lever. Let me do that for you."

Shielding himself in a layer of mana, Jeff held the grenade by his head.

"Fucking maniac!" Without hesitation, Everly summoned a kite shield. Liam hid behind his little sister.

At the same time...

[Defensive Stance] toggled on...

[Living Fortress] toggled on...

[Runic Barrier] activated...

[Stone Skin] toggled on...

[Steel Hide] toggled on...

...

...

In an instant, Jeff's stack of abilities were all toggled on.

Like a lightbulb being switched on, Jeff started to radiate with a warm golden glow.

Bb-TOOoom!

The ground rumbled with the explosion. The asphalt road under Jeff cracked and crumbled. The shockwave brushed up a cloud of dust and debris into the air.

The violent torrent smacked onto Everly's shield, knocking her over.

Crawling up, taking a look, Everly panted in disbelief.

"Are you FUCKING! INSANE!" Everly screamed.

Standing in the center of the cratered road, Jeff shook his head a little. The ringing noise quickly died down.

'Wow. That's loud.' Jeff shrugged. Even with a supernatural-mid tier physique, Jeff still felt some pain in his eardrums. 'However... Looks like I'm a little over-cautious. Just the shield was sufficient. Didn't need to toggle on any ability...'

"Sorry. What did you say?" Jeff asked.

"I saaaiiiid. Are YOOOUUU."

Everly breathed in. By the looks of it, she was preparing to scream.

"My sister asked if you are insane."

"No. Not really. I know how hard grenades hit. Seen them in action. And I've got 3 months to figure out my limit." Jeff shrugged.

Also got [Beast Sense] to detect danger. [Threat Detection] to measure potential threat level of items, including sitting explosives.

A list of stacking abilities that deflected over 95% of physical damage intake.

Supernatural-tier [Regenerative Genes], and a few miraculous health potions dropped from monsters, in case of unexpected injury...

Everything was under control.

But Jeff was not going to tell anyone this.

"By the way, just a heads-up, physical-type S-rank monsters punch harder than this. I would rank this level of explosive power a solid A-rank. Maybe A+, if that's a thing. But the power is just not concentrated and focussed. So Yeah. Still got some way to go for a S-rank."

"So. Got anything else?" Jeff asked Everly.

"You asked for it." Everly squinted and popped a throwing knife into existence.

The edge of Jeff's mouth twitched a little. From [Aura Vision], Jeff knew that this was a glint-tier weapon.

'So this girl sees me as a weapon testing dummy now?'

"Alright, that's enough." Jeff patted Everly's shoulder.

Everly slowly turned her head.

In her view, Jeff had just disappeared then re-appeared beside her.

The girl looked at Jeff as if she'd seen a ghost or something. "That's not scientific at all."

"Yep. I know." Jeff nodded in agreement. "So. Satisfied with the demo?"

"Yes. Very." Liam took over.

Everly was still looking at Jeff with a confused gaze. This girl still needed a moment to digest what she'd just experienced.

"Now, we'll need to grab one last guy for the job." Liam rubbed his hands. Looked like he's more confident than ever now.

...

"Hey. Liam meh man! Long time no see!"

"Everly. Am I happy to see you!"

"You must be the Mission Machine! I've heard about you! It's so good to meet you in person. I'm Barry of Westbrook."

"Just Jeff is fine." Jeff shook the dude's hand.

Yep. This was the last guy needed for the job.

After a detour, Jeff's group had arrived a walled off Condominium district. This guy was waiting by the front gates.

At the first glance, based off sheer prejudice and pure gut feeling, Jeff felt that this guy was either a banker or a real estate broker.

This guy was in his mid-thirties, but he was still kept in shape. Half a head taller than Jeff. Got half of his hair left. Wearing a pleasant smile for business.

Golden watch. Black sweater over blue dress shirt. Dress pants and handcrafted leather shoes. Holding a marble tablet like an electronic tablet.

Just by looking at this guy, Jeff could smell the scent of dollar bills for some reason. Weird.

Without further delay, the group headed towards their destination.

"So Liam. How's business been." Barry kept the conversation going.

"Good... Good..." Liam looked like he wasn't interested in talking.

Everly walked with her hands behind her back. The girl was plugged in with headphones, still chewing on bubblegum. She looked like she wanted some time by herself.

Jeff sneaked a peak at Barry's marble tablet. It's blank. However, this was a glow-tier artifact for sure.

"Good. Really?" Barry raised a brow at Liam's response.

"I heard that the Sanctuary is hiring a lot people. Let me guess, your department must be bloating up. You know how it is at the Sanctuary. Bureaucrats." Barry shook his head in disdain.

Liam forced out a smile. "Look Barry, I know where you going with this. But I'm happy with what I've got right now."

"Well. You know how things run in the Sanctuary. You got no connections over there. But if you come to Westbrook, you've got me. And I think I've got a say here." Barry shrugged. He looked like he wasn't offended by Liam's rejection at all. "Westbrook is always open to you."

"Thanks..." Liam nodded.

"So Jeff." Barry turned his gaze over. "You are interested in my tablet?"

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Inventory Slot:

* A 2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters cubic space.

* Able to stack 99 of the same items into a single slot, if it fits.

(If you put a mix of fresh apples and rotting apples inside, and you summon from this slot, it'll be a randomly selected apple)

* Physical contact is required to store an item.

* Store command => pops an item out of existence.

* Summon => pops an item into existence