SlaughterBot

245: Staking

‘This would be a stake-type duel,’ Nicolai added. ‘I would put up the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote as my stake, and you would put up something I want, in turn.’

This was something he’d learned about from reading Duel Arena book between fights. The system actually made it possible to do exactly as Jian had suggested. They could arrange a private duel, and set up rules in this duel ...

244: Crafty Old Men

‘What the fuck! What the fuuuuckk!!!!!’ howled the spindly Cultivator beside the hulking Cyborg. ‘This is bullshit! He cheated! That scum, that barbarian scum! What was that?! He burned his face off, through all the shields and the Silver Net! No!’ His hands grasped at the air, as though strangling someone. ‘No!’

‘Cheating? In combat? That’s just called winning, m...

243: Gregory's Intuition

[Author Note: You'll see that there is a Hao clan in this chapter. I just wanted to say, they are no relations of Hao, the Tier 2 who Nicolai faced in the Inheritance section. Hao was his first name, for this clan their last name is Hao, but they have nothing to do with one another. I'm gonna try and avoid confusion like that going forward, but I opted to leave this one as a bit of a nod to chi...

242: First Rounds

After the blue orbs had taken him and the others up to float above the arena, in view of the spectators, he found himself transported somewhere near.

It was a plain room for preparing, with a doorway out.

Experimentally, he opened the door and found himself able to emerge into the main area of the Duel Arena, where one could arrange fights or join events. His Mark informed him he wa...

241: The Silver Net

Hao Jian strode through the streets of the arena. In his left hand he held the full Tier 1 Silver Net, formed of a total of six Symbiotes within his hand and fingers, assisted by Kinetic-type enforcer Symbiotes in his arm. In his right hand and arm, the Spectral Claw, a powerful and versatile form of attack, was formed from another group of eight Symbiotes. Orbiting his body were his two quasi-...

240: Free For All

Nicolai appeared in a place that looked almost like a city from Earth. Not from the modern day, though. From long ago. Buildings of brick and mortar. He stood in some kind of alleyway, trash and filth covering the ground. He immediately activated his Lurker Symbiote, hiding his Soul Sense signature. The lips of the large mouth covering his chest split apart and an assault rifle slid out, taken ...

239: Wheeling and Dealing

The Market was a big open square, fairly busy but not excessively so. He didn’t see many People or undead, but there were a lot of humans, Cultivators and Earthborn in equal measure. As at the start of this, they had formed into two distinctly separate crowds. To one side there were Earthborn, to the other Cultivators. They stayed separate and traded with one another, eyeing the other side wi...

238: Competitive

The Slayers Guild was a gigantic building, made from what looked like very, very large rib bones. Attached to these rib-bone-walls were the heads of many large, dangerous looking creatures. Many were Toothbearers.

A little grotesque, but he supposed it matched.

The entrance was raised up a series of bony steps. At the top there stood a very large individual. Whatever he was, he was ...

237: Race Traitor

[Note: One of you said that the Cyberpunk people could have more cyberpunky slang/lingo, and after playing some Cyberpunk 2077 I feel the same way, decided that going forward I want to try and lean a bit more into the cyberpunk style of speaking. It's a bit problematic in a way because really, all the people in the castle should have been speaking that way too... but I'd rather not be stuck in ...

235+236 The Black Gift

[Quick Note: Sorry if I got your hopes up, this is just 1 chapter as usual lol. I split one of the chapters that on here was 1 chapter, into 2 for the Royal Road release. It was the one where I ended up writing a bunch of extra stuff for the Inheritance Game, it ended up about twice as long as usual - I didn't bother to chop it into 2 when I posted it here since, well you guys are paying so I f...

234: Answers

[Author Note: Things have been kinda quiet regarding the dark, decided that since he's not got the Blade with him for the first time, it'd probably start pushing a little wherever it can. I just added a bit to very end of last chapter, putting it in here so you can see the new portion ;o]

‘Okay.’ Nicolai shrugged, doing his best to move past the existential itch her words had g...

233: Information Guild

Buildings rose around them, streets disappeared away. Hulking undead beings with huge arms and legs, but no heads, lumbered slowly through the area.

Nicolai took it in all in through cameras and out through his helmet’s visor, while slipping through the crowd around him

The majority of them were standing still, staring at the City. They started to gradually move around, slightly c...

232: The Phantom City

The Earthborn laughed incredulously. He glanced around, realising he and the Cultivator standing across from him were increasingly the centre of attention. Nicolai saw a flash of pridefulness on the man’s face. Then he gripped and aimed his auto-shotgun, levelling it at the Cultivator. ‘Hand over your valuables, beg for my forgiveness, and I’ll leave your family...

231: Assembler

Nicolai looked the Assembler over carefully. It came packed with raw materials, all of its vats and bins full, and was thus able to create a huge variety of items.

He looked at the crack in the wall and his thoughts spun on, into matters of security, which as always were a priority. The cave was a risk. Threat Analysis and Simulations presented a simple solution; some explosives, placed a...

230: Cultivator's Grotto

In the side of a gigantic tree, a person-sized divot had been carved out—a little cubby, just big enough for Nicolai to sit within. The trees branches, heavy with leaves, formed a screen around it.

He doubted the tree was happy about this, but it was large enough to not be particularly bothered by the comparatively tiny hole he’d made in it. And anyway, that was the risk of being a tr...

229: Looting

[Author Note: just a quick note, I realised I should've been using Clan, not Sect, earlier when talking about Hao's people ;o I've changed those references now, but just for you to keep in mind - he's from a Clan, not a Sect

aaand another Author note I just realised I should put here - I also fixed the plothole of him never getting Kleos' quest reward, by sliding that into the first chapt...

228: Hunted

Nicolai dodged frantically to the side, a lance of green energy crackling past him and blowing a hole in a tree with an eruption of splinters and chunks of wood.

A Silver Arrow streaked at him and he raised the Artifact Blade, holding it like a shield. Point up, fist behind the flat. His movement was already committed and he wasn’t able to dodge. He twisted his body, shoved with his arm...

227: Game Over

[Author Note: Hope you enjoyed the RTS stuff, I'm afraid it ends here cuz I need to focus on writing the rest of the story lol. I didn't expect ppl would enjoy it so much, so originally didn't write very much of it - before I saw your comments, it was literally, "this is how the game works..." followed by "and then they played the game and this is how it went." I expanded it as much I could in ...

226: Busy Busy

Session end. Game state will be paused, and players are given a chance to rest.

Nicolai’s podium gained a new option. It read: Enter rest area. He tapped it, and the ground he stood upon shifted then began to sink. As the area his podium occupied sank into the ground, Nicolai watched the other Cultivators disappearing into their own underground areas.

Soon he fou...

Author Note/Retcon Alert!

Don't forget to read new chapter, which released a minute ago below this ^_^

Note/Link:

Today is the day that the final Chapter of Book 1 has gone live on Royal Road.

If you recall, I said I’d ask some questions/do a poll/and give more details on the big note I’m putting on RR at end of Book 1. It’s the same as the one I did here but with questions and a poll and ...

225: Forever War

[Author note:

Normally, I write chapter literally months ahead of the time they are released. But in this case, I wrote this entire chapter yesterday because you guys seem so excited by the Cultivation RTS board-game thing lol. Originally, I just timeskipped/summaried most of this because I didn't think people would be so excited about it. So, I hope you enjoy. I tried to incorporate the ...

224: First Round

Nicolai sent out his healthy Defender, sending it towards the rightmost neighbour. Jinxiao had started building a new Defender the moment she’d realised hers was going to die, whereas this man had yet to start doing the same—his Worker was tied up making a second Worker, which it’d almost finished. He was the softer target.

The man’s eyes widened when he saw Nicolai’s Defender t...

223: Play Time

Nicolai considered his opponents, and how he wanted to approach this game. He was mostly interested in learning and surviving. He knew that the Cultivators would join together against him and attempt to entirely destroy him from early on. With that, he would no longer be able to take part in the game and would win no benefits.

All of them likely had more experience than him.

What wa...

222: Studying the Game

‘Of course we’re friends.’ Hao gave Nicolai a strained and irritable smile.

‘What do we do now?’ asked Nicolai, rising to his feet, smiling at his new “friend” hopefully.

He was rather enjoying this act, and the opportunity to interact with these people. He was learning quite a bit about the aliens. He wondered how far he might be able to push Hao. The sight of the man...

221: Mork the Moron

Nicolai appeared alongside the other Cultivators. They all shied away from him and him from them, gaining a safer amount of space.

But his worry quickly faded. His Mark was quick to inform him there was no combat permitted in this area, and he felt how his Symbiotes had all become bound; still there, still capable of moving and being interacted with, but their Arts could not be used. He a...

220: Why Run, When I Can Win?

Do you wish to enter?

Yes, thought Nicolai.

Preparing to enter… time left: 4:59

He frowned. Five minutes? This was trouble. Or was it? The text said combat was not possible within the circle. Since he’d triggered the Inheritance some kind of faint barrier had become visible around the edge, delineating the circle.

He heard a whistle from ab...

219: Inheritance

Nicolai streaked over the ground, widening the gap between him and the Cultivators. While he fled, he worked to corral and cut back the infection, but his efforts were stymied. He was only able to hold it back, quarantine it to his chest area from which it constantly tried to spread. Even with the dark burning through him, this was all he was capable of. Without the dark and the thrill and the ...

218: Pursuit

Nicolai swung his anti-material rifle into position and squeezed the trigger. The process was effortless, the result of a merging between him and the Aiming Module. Though he aimed and fired with casual ease and fluid speed, the shot was dead-centre on target.

The gunshot blew the shield that sprung up around the Tier 2 into a great cloud of smoking Oma; as though God had leaned close to ...

217: Meeting the Neighbours

The jungle was an endless expanse of vicious life, teeming with Spirit Beasts and monsters. Everywhere a site of conflict, as plants and trees wrestled with one another in a slow, gruelling war for sunlight and nutrients, as insects roved over the ground in tiny streams, and as creatures lumbering and large moved with stealth or brash confidence through the brush.

In a clearing, a monster...

Book 2 notice

Note:

If you haven't read the final chapter, 216: Treasure Binge, then go down and read it first then come back here.

Hey ^_^

So, that concludes book 1. You really cannot imagine how happy I am to have completed it, and finally have him out that castle. I honestly was so tired of the goddamn castle. It was cool at first but yh, there’s a limit. I swear I only i...