Luke and Allison were deep inside the capital’s inner forest, a wild patch of land swallowed by the city long ago. Allison was in the middle of a fight, surrounded by beasts and undead that lunged at her from every direction.
Luke watched from the top of a half-collapsed building nearby, sitting on the edge of the roof with one leg dangling. From where he sat, he could see the aftermath...
2025-10-09 18:08:12 +0000 UTC View PostLuke returned from his short expedition to help Princess Charlie level up. Night had already fallen, and the forest around him was dark and silent. But as he pushed through the brush near his cave, torchlight flickered in the distance.
A group of soldiers waited at the entrance, led by Allison. Some faces he recognized, Miriam, Cecilia, others were new. Their armor caught the light: iron ...
2025-10-09 17:32:29 +0000 UTC View PostLuke and Charlie stepped into the familiar cave that had become their refuge. He preferred it this way, away from the bustle of the others. It gave Charlie space to move freely without anyone questioning why she never took off her armor.
“Looks like the day’s finally here, Charlie. You’re getting your Epic Skill,” he said, sitting down on the couch.
She brightened up an...
2025-10-09 16:47:45 +0000 UTC View PostCharlie had done it, she had reached the cap of her Class at Rank F and unlocked her long-awaited Epic Skill.
“Lady Charlie, you fought very well,” Anne said softly, watching as Charlie practiced a few elegant swings with her sword. She even clapped, quietly but sincerely.
“What about me, Anne? Did I do well too?” Jack asked hopefully.
Anne turned to him and shook her ...
2025-10-09 15:24:31 +0000 UTC View PostA week had passed since the conversation with Erza Grimhart. The sun was barely rising, a pale shimmer spreading over the river as the fog crawled across the surface. The wind was sharp, cutting like a thin blade. Morning had only begun, yet the air already carried that silent tension that precedes something inevitable.
Anne rowed with quiet determination, her strokes steady but strained,...
2025-10-07 03:36:56 +0000 UTC View PostDinner with Erza Grimhart was over. Luke lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying everything he’d learned: Divine Orders, factions, kingdoms, nobility, and atomic bombs.
Erza’s words still echoed in his mind. “Be ruled by a god, or stand beneath one’s wings and be protected.”
While he was stuck inside this so-called tutorial, a race was unfolding across h...
2025-10-07 02:41:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe dinner had taken a strange turn. Luke had come prepared for an uncomfortable conversation, but not for this. On one hand, he was still curious about how a family of half puppet assassins actually worked. On the other, this felt like a scene out of some bizarre movie he had half watched at three in the morning.
His eyes flicked to the maid. Right. Not exactly a puppet, more like a ...
2025-10-07 00:34:25 +0000 UTC View PostLuke stepped out of his room dressed in formal attire, looking like he was on his way to a gala rather than a dinner meeting with someone who could easily kill him.
“How did you even know my measurements?” he asked Anne as they walked down the corridor.
“A maid… always knows,” she replied softly.
They continued in silence. Luke had been waiting for this meeting with ...
2025-10-06 23:35:24 +0000 UTC View PostThree days had passed since Luke had been staying in Bastion. Most people in his position would have felt like prisoners, kept under polite surveillance by a political alliance between two noble houses. But Luke? He felt like he’d died and gone to paradise.
No cooking. No heating water for baths. No checking corners for assassins. No schedules, no missions, no stress. The progress of th...
2025-10-06 06:05:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe double doors of the throne room closed behind them with a dry, echoing snap, like the sound of a verdict being sealed. The noise traveled across the cold stone walls, slipping along carved reliefs as if searching for a place to hide. When it finally faded, the silence that followed felt almost tangible: heavy, oppressive, the kind that thickened the air and made each breath shorter than the...
2025-10-06 05:45:27 +0000 UTC View PostErza Grimhart sat upon her throne, the deal all but sealed, save for one condition.
“Oh, it’s simple,” she said, amusement threading through her voice. “He stays.” She pointed.
He who?
Luke looked over his shoulder. No one stood behind him. Only one person occupied the direction of Erza’s finger.
Him.
Before Luke could speak, Allison stepped fo...
2025-10-04 06:39:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe war council stretched on in the throne room. A table had been brought in, covered with maps, sheets detailing mineral rich caverns, lists of tree types across the regions, even diagrams of cannons and siege weapons. Servants drifted in and out with trays of food, but no one paid them much attention.
Erza still hadn’t given her approval. She listened, occasionally dropping a sharp su...
2025-10-04 06:37:39 +0000 UTC View PostLuke had told the whole story of how he killed the Beast Lord—leaving out certain details, of course. He’d made a point of saying up front that some things would stay hidden. But he explained enough. How he’d gotten trapped in a trial that forced him to slay the Statue Boss while pushing to level up his profession and class. How that ordeal gave him the strength he needed to face the gian...
2025-10-03 01:10:38 +0000 UTC View PostThey entered the throne room in silence. Torches clung to the columns, their orange flames throwing erratic light and sending shadows to dance across the marble floor. Where Bartholomew had once ruled like a dark monarch, now Erza sat. Her eyes glittered with a dangerous, bright alertness. As a precaution, Luke had Charlie return to his soul. He didn’t want her near Erza, the woman was far to...
2025-10-03 01:05:50 +0000 UTC View PostGod, that was hard.
He never thought of himself as sociable. Being surrounded by so many people all at once, showering him with apologies and words of reconciliation, made him feel more out of place than when they hurled accusations at him. The sincerity in their eyes was almost heavier to bear than their past hostility.
What he really wanted to say was something blunt, pra...
2025-10-02 07:16:56 +0000 UTC View PostThey returned to Bastion’s main keep, but Bartholomew’s death didn’t mean the end of anything. The corridors still breathed danger, as if the old ruler’s will clung stubbornly to the stones themselves. The place could still hide ambushes, last-ditch traps, or some cruel final twist left behind to make sure the tutorial could never be completed in peace. And there was a crucial step left...
2025-10-02 06:57:29 +0000 UTC View PostLuke kept the arrow taut, eyes locked on the fallen figure before him. Bartholomew, the so-called King of Bastion, lay splayed on the wet grass, breathing in short, ragged bursts. The blade had found his heart, enough to kill any ordinary man on the spot, but Bartholomew was no ordinary man. A powerful healer, he bled time from the last shreds of mana at his command, stretching each second out ...
2025-10-01 06:15:35 +0000 UTC View PostAssassination. What was it, really? The act of killing, yes, but where did the line end? Luke mulled it over as he walked through the forest toward Bastion. Assassination was the taking of a life, but along the way he had discovered something else: a strange, almost intoxicating satisfaction in the art of planning. Like chess, seeing every move before it happened, watching your opponent scrambl...
2025-10-01 06:13:24 +0000 UTC View PostBartholomew had won. He’d cornered his enemies into checkmate. Ronan writhed on the ground, his body weakening as plague spread through him like roots digging into dry soil. The knight remained trapped inside the electric dome, the crown’s metal searing her with every discharge. He still had minutes of absolute control left. Enough time to watch Ronan choke out his last breath, then crush t...
2025-09-30 05:02:46 +0000 UTC View Post[Death Painting (Rank-F):] Born from a deep-rooted fear of death and an obsessive desire for control, this ability grants a fragmented glimpse of your own end. Not a literal vision, but a cryptic, symbolic painting, an abstract portrait of your final moment. Understanding it requires intuition, interpretation, and a willingness to face truths hidden in metaphor. Deciphering the work may...
2025-09-29 16:13:36 +0000 UTC View PostLuke scanned the mechanism hall, eyes locking on Bartholomew at its center. The vast chamber of gray stone pressed in around him, the air heavy and saturated with poisonous vapor. At the heart of the room, perched on the central mechanism, loomed the monstrous brown sphere, Bartholomew’s creation born of his epic class skill. It pulsed like a heartbeat, exhaling a yellow haze that bled into t...
2025-09-29 06:24:09 +0000 UTC View PostRonan and Luke moved down the stone corridor with steady, near-silent strides. Torches set into the walls flickered in the draft seeping from unseen cracks, throwing restless shadows across their path. Behind them, Erza Grimhart had already closed the door, sealing their fate deeper inside the fortress. Every second dragged heavier than the last.
“Those maids will only keep guarding the...
2025-09-29 06:22:52 +0000 UTC View PostThe maid stood motionless by the door, posture upright and discreet, part of the décor yet radiating silent threat. She didn’t need to speak; simply being there, still and watchful, made it clear she wasn’t just a servant. Charlie, Luke, Mason, Allison, Evangeline, and Ronan held a tense line before Erza. Every glance carried the same understanding: one wrong move could cost them everythin...
2025-09-29 06:20:50 +0000 UTC View PostThey moved through the Safe Zone at a clipped pace, boots echoing across cracked asphalt. For Luke, coming back to this place stirred a strange sense of déjà vu, like walking through a fever dream. The same alleys, but now wrapped in tension instead of routine. At least, he thought, there wasn’t an endless swarm of creatures this time — only the Midnight Wardens stationed at key points, h...
2025-09-28 05:55:49 +0000 UTC View PostThe predawn air felt heavier than ever. A cold wind rolled in from the north, carrying the metallic scent of iron and smoke. Luke stood staring at the fortress, its walls reduced to dark silhouettes against a sky smothered in clouds, tension tightening in his chest.
Bartholomew had disabled the first mechanism during the night, a calculated move that lured the Midnight Wardens back to thi...
2025-09-28 05:54:14 +0000 UTC View PostRonan crouched low in the brush, muscles tight, breath measured, straining to see through the fog blanketing the forest around the fortress. Shadows from the trees stretched across the damp ground, and every snapping twig seemed louder than it had any right to be. All around him, the group stayed hidden, waiting for the moment to strike.
He still couldn’t quite believe what Luke had pro...
2025-09-28 05:51:42 +0000 UTC View PostLuke strolled down the fortress corridor as if he had all the time in the world. His kukris dripped red, and he wiped them clean with a strip of cloth torn from an enemy’s shirt. He could have tossed them into his inventory and let the system clean them automatically, but today the blades felt like they deserved a little personal care.
He stopped in front of a door and knocked.
...
2025-09-27 03:38:50 +0000 UTC View PostLuke crouched atop the fortress watchtower, his epic skill already dismissed. Wasting mana here was not an option. The soldier he had just killed was gone, tucked neatly into his storage item. Almost seventy enemies held this fortress. He had to move fast. With Shadow Camouflage active, he scanned the ground below. Eight targets in sight. He triggered Advanced Stealth and crept along the wall, ...
2025-09-26 04:57:10 +0000 UTC View PostLuke crouched at the edge of the ridge, spying on the fortress below. Midnight had swallowed the world whole; the moon hung alone in a sky of ink, casting pale light across the frozen earth. The air was sharper than he remembered, colder than the old nights, and the wind whispered through the trees like a blade dragging across stone.
His eyes flicked to his interface, to the item he had r...
2025-09-26 04:23:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe group moved in silence through the dense undergrowth of the Wild Zone. The forest stretched ahead in crooked corridors, the damp smell of earth and moss clinging to their clothes. Interwoven branches formed tunnels of shadow, and every step had to be measured to keep from betraying their position. Their destination was the second Safe Zone, but on this path, safety was a myth.
Everyon...
2025-09-24 19:39:08 +0000 UTC View Post