“…what?” I asked in complete disbelief. I suppressed a small laugh from escaping me at Shurenga’s ridiculous words. “I’m not killing gods here, Shurenga. Most of the people I’ve stolen Skills from have been regular mortals.”
Wel, I’m not killing gods yet. I hadn’t forgotten Alveron’s request just after the events of Caer Drarrow to slay his...
2025-02-19 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“I got Acting from that,” Kazuma said numbly, his hands still shaking even hours after the confrontation with the Kawamaran delegation. I don’t think he even noticed how the trembling was causing his drink to slosh and spill in his cup. “I can’t believe I got a General Talent from that. How did I get a Talent from…that?”
I hid a smirk behind the rim...
2025-02-17 18:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostAN:
Happy Valentine's Day.
Have some political intrigue. Very romantic, don't ya' know.
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“In fact, I’m goin’ to have to say hells no,” Shacklock continued, almost conversationally so. With every word that came out of the old madman’s mouth, the expressions on the younger Imperials and the two flag be...
2025-02-14 18:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThree days later, I stood on familiar ground, surrounded both by familiar and unfamiliar people.
After our little meeting back in the Order encampment where I had wrangled a handful of concessions out of Shacklock, we’d all packed up rapidly. As per my agreement with Shurenga, Sena had stayed behind with I and my party while she rapidly transported herself back to her home volcano in or...
2025-02-12 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostName: Aveline Claire Montblanc
Age: 10 years
Species: Human
That was what Observe read to me when I used the Skill on the little girl as we walked through the busy Solstice’s Flame camp, hand in hand. I had used it for multiple reasons, after my little realization back in the Healer’s tent. One, I wanted t...
2025-02-10 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostWell.
That was…a bit suboptimal. If I couldn’t go out to fight, then how was I going to keep growing…?
Is what I would say, if I wasn’t me. I had my Aetherial Mending, after all. With it, I received the full stack of Profession experience just from using it. It was one of its benefits, after all. I think the only reason I hadn’t shut myself into a workroom and cra...
2025-02-07 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostSplit second thought from my core was the only reason I even considered what I did next. My inner self frantically pointed out a half-remembered history lesson from my youth, on the effects of particularly intense explosions.
I tensed, and yelled as loudly as I could over the rumblings of the earth, directing my words to my companions who had rubbernecked along with me. “DON’...
2025-02-05 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAN:
Apologies if this one is a little rough. I came down with a cold on Saturday, when I normaly sit down to start writing the week's chapters, and couldn't manage to get any words down. I felt good enough to bang this out on Sunday, though I'm unsure if it went entirely the way I want it to.
Honestly, I was really close to taking a one week break for a hiatus. I haven't done one of...
2025-02-03 18:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe questing tentacles of Lucretia’s curse lashed out blindly where I had been standing only moments ago, but I was already gone. I floated in the middle of the mountain cavern outside the bunker, everything for miles illuminated by the floating ball of fire conjured by Sena. Far off into the distance, hanging above the edge of the bunker, I could see the cable that had snapped and caused the...
2025-01-31 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostI barely had more than a second to gape at the cloud of ash that settled onto the white steel floor of the bunker where the Lich had stood moments ago, before a loud, clear female voice began to echo through the halls. I couldn’t even where it was coming from, as all the light sources around us began to pulse an ominous red.
“ALL HANDS, EVACTUATE,” The robotic female voice droned. ...
2025-01-29 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostI crouched, motionless, along the outer rim of the railing that separated the inner walkway of the Core control room as a game of cat and mouse played out before my eyes. Just ahead of me, I watched as the tiny Sprite of azure flame and crimson thorn, shaped in the image of a tiny fairy, darted here and there before the enormous sphere of clashing Mana and Ki. Every so often, the construct unde...
2025-01-27 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostAN:
You know, something just occurred to me about something you guys might be interested in. Last month my publisher conducted an interview about me and Sins, and included it in an article on their website. Up until this moment, I didn't even think that maybe you guys might be interested in that.
Maybe.
Derp.
Link posted below, if you're at all curious. The...
2025-01-24 18:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostTravers and I had to walk slowly through the AutoMat infested hallway in order to not alarm or alert the sentry roombas in any way. If we picked up our pace at all, the beeping of their scans as we paced our way down the path would increase, almost as if they were bombs ready to go off at any moment.
Bombs with lasers that would incinerate both myself and the Lich disguised as his long-de...
2025-01-22 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe door of Traver’s mysteriously teleporting clinic slid open once again, and this time, the environment on the other side was much, much different. I don’t know what I had been expecting for the area that the power core of this facility resided in. Maybe I had thought it would be even more corroded and miserable than the rest of the bunker combined. My Core, for instance, had tho...
2025-01-20 18:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post“But first,” I said loudly. “We need to find the lost Shurengan down here. None of this is going to matter if we can’t free the last person stuck in their trial.”
Azarus paused, where before he seemed almost amused at the idea of me acting as an assassin once more. “Ah. Tha’s…right.”
Harlow interrupted our sideshow before it could progress. “I do...
2025-01-17 18:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostRenauld jumped to his padded feet at the sight of us, while a large smile stole across his vulpine face. He made as if to sprint our way in greeting, before he stilled as Akhoroth shifted from across the incongruously small table the two of them were sitting at. His smile faltered, but to my eyes, he still didn’t look like he was in distress as he motioned us closer across the distance separa...
2025-01-15 18:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time Venix, Kazuma, and I reached where Azarus had been shouting from, he had ducked into a nearby doorway. As the two samurai raced ahead of me, I skidded to a halt just before I followed after them. Something on the side of the door had caught my eye. Something that gave me a moments pause, and caused my heart to leap in my chest.
There were words written on a plaque to the right...
2025-01-13 18:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostTravers barely cast the four of us more than a single disinterested glance as we cleaned ourselves up after the battle at the base of Gorenzan. As Venix reequipped himself with all of the gear he’d been stripped of, I tried to talk to him.
“So, where-”
He cut me off, waving me away. “Somewhere in the actual compound, this time,” Travers said irritably. “It’s good that ...
2025-01-10 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe light was so incredibly bright that it immediately cut through the absolute darkness that lived at the interior base of Gorenzan. I had to shade my eyes in order not to be light blinded, and I noticed that I wasn’t the only one. Kazuma had lowered his blade to flinch from the sudden burning flash. Venix, though, stared forward with a furrowed brow, seemingly unbothered by the sudden star ...
2025-01-08 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostOminous.
I frowned at the exposed Antium man while Kazuma sputtered to my side. The three of us were lit only by the still extant glow from the strange pillar of amber that Venix was carving through. The light didn’t reach far, and just beyond the boundaries of it, only yawning void greeted my eyes.
I took a deep breath, and considered my options. Venix was stronger than both Kazu...
2025-01-06 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostI had visited some pretty hostile environments in my time on Vereden, but nothing compared to the interior base of Mt. Gorenzan. Even though both Kazuma and I had eventually acclimated to the oppressive pressure in here, that still didn’t make it pleasant. The air was so thick, hot, and muggy, that it fed like I was wading through warm mud. The absolute darkness down here wa...
2025-01-03 18:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostOne foot forward. The next followed.
One foot forward. The next followed.
One foot forward. The next followed.
And on and on and on and on.
Endlessly.
Azarus of House Savoy stared forward into the blackness that stretched on before him. On either side of his stout frame, he was surrounded by the walls of a stone tunnel that seemed…familiar to hi...
2025-01-01 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“I…apologize for that unseemly display, Hart,” Kazuma lowered his head, visibly chagrined.
Said display being the way he had latched onto me for comfort after being awoken here in an ancient Lich’s tomb/infirmary. To my surprise, said Lich had stepped away to ponder the sleeping form of Aveline to give us a semblance of privacy, while I filled the Kawamaran samurai in on what was ...
2024-12-30 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostI breathed out through my nose at the Lich’s words. “You and everyone else down here, it seems.”
“Do not compare me to that collection of drudges and beasts,” Travers said sharply, a pulse in the air warning of his Mantle. “Most are little better than spiritual impressions left upon their own corpses. The rest are actively monstrous. There are none oth...
2024-12-27 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostMerry Christmas, guys.
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Shockingly, though, Aveline immediately recognized the person who had saved us. The reddened eyes of the surprisingly resilient little girl brightened at the sight of the man I was now eyeing warily. She squirmed her way out of my grip to land on the…non-corroded steel around us?
This place…in a way, it almost remind...
2024-12-25 18:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostI sprinted as hard as I could through the halls of the waking dead, dodging and weaving through their skeletal forms as they ignored me. Dozens and dozens of them seemed to be rising from their graves every second to lunge past me as I fled as quickly as I could, in my unempowered state. I didn’t dare use Might of the Wyrdwood, considering the ghostly thorns of that Skill mig...
2024-12-23 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostTODAY IS THE DAY!
By now, Sins of the Forefathers has been stubbed, and the first volume has been removed . This is to comply with the exclusivity requirement of Amazon. Believe me, if it was up to me, I would rather have left the entire story up for everyone's viewing pleasure.
However, in return, I can now publish my work on Amazon!
Volume 1, titled Chained Awakening, should...
2024-12-20 19:03:08 +0000 UTC View PostTODAY IS THE DAY!
By now, Sins of the Forefathers has been stubbed, and the first volume has been removed . This is to comply with the exclusivity requirement of Amazon. Believe me, if it was up to me, I would rather have left the entire story up for everyone's viewing pleasure.
However, in return, I can now publish my work on Amazon!
Volume 1, titled Chained Awakening, should...
2024-12-20 18:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostDeftly, I finished slicing off the last lock of thick blonde hair from the head of the mysterious little girl name ‘Aveline’. Thankfully, the small travel razor that I used for my face was sharp enough for the purpose, and it hadn’t been difficult for me to do this at her request.
I…couldn’t say the same about the styling. I knew jack and shit about actually cutting hair in an a...
2024-12-18 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostFor some reason, the mere sight of the child sent a shiver down my spine. Not just because it was extremely unnerving to see her, no. The instant she was revealed to my eyes, I swear I felt the presence of someone standing just behind me. A cold breeze blew out of nowhere to tickle the back of my neck, almost as if a frozen breath had appeared from nowhere to fall upon me. The hair on ...
2024-12-16 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post