Gromsh the Gnarled, overlord of the Blacktusk clan and Hand of the Black Tower, flinched as the gods punished his failure.
[Objective: Assist Graak with his Life Favor request. Status: Failed. Reward removed.]
So his nephew was dead at the hands of the humans. Disappointing, but perhaps not that surprising. He had always been so eager to impress his clan and kin, too susceptible to ...
2023-10-25 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAfter leaving Rebecca an exhausted, sweaty, sex-stained mess, Mason stretched and enjoyed the soft pillow and sheets in the chieftain’s hall room. He could smell something cooking in the kitchen, Haley’s soft voice echoing down the hall. But after a few moments of quiet his mind drifted back to the rain and the hills and the battle with the orcs. Then to his strange new power and the way it...
2023-10-24 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMason slept like the dead. He knew he was dreaming as he wandered through nameless, bustling city streets, but thought it probably his hometown of Houston. A busy downtown swirled all around him, with chattering people living their lives at some frantic speed Mason had never enjoyed or matched.
Just as he started thinking he didn’t belong there and preferred the peace of the forest, he ...
2023-10-23 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post(Apparently we're only 9 chapters ahead. So here's an 'extra' chapter!)
Mason focused on himself, and activated Duality of Life.
The wind seemed to slow, then stop entirely. The rain that touched him vanished, the life all around him swallowing and warping to fuel whatever unnamed power infused him. Lightning flashed and struck the ground at his feet. No....
2023-10-21 17:52:13 +0000 UTC View PostConsidering Carl expected to be dead, the battle was going extremely well. His new heroic band of allies had hacked and stabbed their way into the main cluster of orcs, killing them with ruthless efficiency.
Translucent blue Star Trek shields were popping up all over, seemingly from some kind of cowboy hatted hotty in the front with a plastic frisbee.
Then there was a tiny thing wit...
2023-10-20 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostGraak smiled as he tasted more of his enemy's blood.
The wizard had attacked his force by the river, using his arrows and magic to hide and strike like the coward he was. But Graak's warriors were ready for such things. They held their ground and flushed him out with their rogues and weapons. They struck him with knives, arrows and spears, and now they chased him through the trees, findin...
2023-10-19 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostCarl finally caught another rider. He used a Decoy—turning his back and baiting the bastard to charge ‘him’ from behind. Then he stepped out and hacked Big Bird’s legs out, and gave them both a good prison shanking.
Now he was tired and soaked and hurting everywhere, but rather pleased with himself, all things considered. There’d been no more horns, and the orc infantry were now...
2023-10-18 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostNo more holding back.
Mason gripped his bow as he blitzed through the trees. Tonight there was no settlement to defend, no weaker thing to worry about. His job now was to kill and make chaos. To make the orcs chase him.
He ran through the trees, touching the trunks as he passed, his Nature's Sleeves making him like a tree spirit flying through the woods, brown and ...
2023-10-17 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post"How much further?"
The words had became the chorus to some song Mason didn't know he hated. They swept the pack of civilians like a marching band, apparently not interested in the answer, or else hoping it would change.
“Awhile,” Mason said, or some variation. And, when that stopped working: "Until we're there.”
They'd been following the river now for at least a few hou...
2023-10-16 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostTuvek, Scout Captain of Clan Blacktusk, waited with his warriors.
"We should attack them now," said Duvok for the third time. "Why wait? It's almost all women. No warriors but an old man."
"Soon," said Tuvek for the third time without tone or impatience. He had served Clan Blacktusk faithfully for five years, and was not the type to question a command, or fail in his task. He wasn't...
2023-10-13 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post[Title earned: What is dead may never die. Your vital organs took a small rest. +2 to vitality.]
[Title gained: Poison Schmoison. You survived at least one direct, full injection from a Tier 2, {Deadly} poison. Your resistance to poison is increased considerably.]
Mason blinked awake and immediately tried to stand, no memory of where he was.
"Woah.” Rosa jerked beside him an...
2023-10-12 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post"I should harvest those snakes," Rosa whispered to Lexi, but mostly to herself.
"You should har-what?” The British girl’s eyes went wide. “We need to run! Right now! Didn't you hear them?"
"Yes, but…” Rosa felt a rather childish foot stomp coming and held it back. “I’m an alchemist, Lexi. And those things are practically glowing. I can make p...
2023-10-11 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMason cursed as maybe one in five arrows actually struck his targets. These snakes were fast, very fast. And not at all stupid.
He’d watched long enough to see the orcs hadn’t followed him from the gate, then kept at a slow jog back towards the river with a watchful eye. His hope—and for a minute—his belief, was that the orcs would stay in the settlement and ignore him. 2023-10-10 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
[You have conquered a settlement in the name of the Black Tower. Do you wish to claim it as patron?]
Graak accepted the Creator's favor and closed his eyes, feeling himself fill with holy reward.
[Objective complete. Capture a human settlement. Patron points earned. All statistics enhanced.]
[Objective gained: Slaughter the fleeing former inhabitants of settlement ‘Sanctuary...
2023-10-09 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMason ran in a slight zig zag back towards Sanctuary, and managed to avoid getting hit by any arrows. As expected the snakes' burst of speed ran out, and they'd fallen back to their masters. Violet remained nowhere to be found. He guessed she didn't feel it was safe to attack with so many enemies close together, so he’d just have to make do on his own.
He decided to give up another ambu...
2023-10-06 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMason summoned his Claw and pulled Rosa behind him in the kitchen before he realized it was Violet. His heart slowed and he activated Speak with Nature.
[What is it? Explain quickly.]
“Apologies, patron,” warbled the worm. “There are enemies coming. I thought you should be warned.”
Good God was it getting more articulate?
“What e...
2023-10-05 14:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThey took another shot in silence, then Rosa re-poured.
“OK, gringo,” Rosa grinned as she lifted her glass. “At least you don’t stink like worm vomit anymore.”
“Oh I’m sorry.” Mason returned it. “Did I get a little dirty saving everyone you know?”
They both sipped their drinks this time, and Mason again wondered exactly what the hell he was doing. But then ...
2023-10-04 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostRosa looked practically like a different person since the last time Mason saw her. Her long hair was done and shining, her clothes tasteful but sexy as hell, showing off her many…assets. Her waist and ass remained just as obviously insane as he’d thought on first glance.
"Mason?"
Mason blinked and met her eyes. "Hmm? Sorry. I'm...very tired."
The girl smiled without any ki...
2023-10-03 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post"Should we go check on the others?"
Lexi twined her fingers like she sometimes did when she was nervous. They were packing up everything they thought was important in their shared house, using Rosa’s magical storage space.
Silvie said they had to be ready to leave for this new settlement before the end of the day, no exceptions.
“Carl and Mason could be back at any moment,...
2023-10-02 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post"Well that can't be good."
Carl tried the door and found no handle, no lock, nothing.
"Mason!" he shouted, hearing only the echoed sounds of his own voice. With a sigh he turned back towards the blue floating sphere, and what looked like a jagged piece of glass.
"Alright." Carl stepped closer and swept the room for danger, but saw nothing else except the altars and the two ite...
2023-09-29 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMason and Carl approached the door together, giddy like schoolboys.
“You do the honors.” Carl gestured.
“You sure?” Mason raised a brow. “We could rock, paper scissors or something.”
“It might explode. All you, buddy. You’ll heal right up.”
Mason glared, then put the key in the lock. It slid right in without any trouble, then made an almost alarm-like b...
2023-09-28 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMason’s speed and jump carried him past the worm’s larger blades entirely. He sliced away as many of the smaller teeth as he could going in, but many more still raked his skin. Then he struck a kind of long, sphincter, an oval tube of skeletal muscle fibers filled with acid that sucked him down.
[Apex predator activated: elemental.]
The excruciating fluid became a mild burn, and...
2023-09-27 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe giant pile of bones rattled and half collapsed as dozens of worms emerged from it. Some went for the corpses. Some turned and came down the tunnel.
Mason instantly started shooting arrows, throwing traps on cooldown in a line in their way.
“Kill anything that gets close,” he ordered Carl. “And feel free to distract them. Or do whatever it is you do.”
“Roger...
2023-09-26 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMason and the others explored the tunnels one by one. They branched and branched—some with buried dead ends, others with more green pools or clusters of eggs, usually guarded by insectoids. But nothing like the huge cluster they’d buried, and Mason usually just hacked them down without much difficulty.
Mercifully, nothing else collapsed, and slowly but surely they cleared out room aft...
2023-09-25 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostBlake paced in the new, growing garden behind the chief's hall, and tried not to worry. His mind bounced back and forth between telling him he shouldn't have sent Mason alone, and that he couldn't really have done otherwise. Everything had gotten harder since the start of ‘phase 2’.
First of all, everyone’s libido had obviously increased. Blake was in fact an extremely...
2023-09-22 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostDarkness. Total, oppressive, crushing.
Mason’s mind felt split into two parts: 1) conscious and practical, telling him he would need air and had to try and shift and dig and do something to get out of the sand; 2) Panic. Total, animal, panic.
He was buried alive. He was trapped beneath God knew how much sand and rock under the ground so far he'd fallen down a hole for several seco...
2023-09-21 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMason had never gone sky diving or bungee jumping. Once he'd leapt off a small cliff into water, the feeling like his whole body was trying to escape upward.
This was worse.
For a moment he saw no outcome except death. Then the endless fall shrunk and narrowed, a sloping tunnel like a crude slide easing and shaping gravity until Mason was scraping along a gritty slope. He practicall...
2023-09-20 14:10:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to all of you for the support so far. This series is a blast to write and I hope to continue it for many more books into the future. We'll eventually get ebooks/audiobooks and of course you'll be the first to know.
We also had about 30% interest in a discord, which I think is enough to start it, so I'll sort that out in the next couple weeks.&nbs...
2023-09-20 14:06:00 +0000 UTC View Post“To those who have much, more will be given. To those who do not, even that will be taken away.”
It translated the thought from a popular human story book—a biological insight into a universal reality.
Knowledge, energy—these were not fair or linear, but scaled: one of the unbreakable realities of the universe.
Humans had many such insights, and this was one o...
2023-09-20 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post