Ludger rubbed his temples, thinking. “So if I try this again,” he murmured, “I’ll end up turning half the coastline into a wasteland.”
He crouched again, brushing a handful of lifeless dirt through his fingers. The realization sank in heavy. This wasn’t just growth magic—it was transfer. He’d forced the environment to give up everything to fuel the tree’s unnatu...
2025-10-30 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLudger pressed his palm against the coral pillar below him, channeling mana downward as another coral pillar began to take shape beneath the waves. The process had become almost rhythmic by now—push, sense, compress—but it demanded focus. Every misstep could crack the structure or stir the ocean’s wrath again.
He was halfway through stabilizing the mana flow when a familiar pulse of...
2025-10-30 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostGaius let out a quiet grunt. “Wouldn’t matter much if they did. You expose one leak, and two more crawl out of the floorboards.”
Ludger leaned back in his chair, eyes half-lidded. “Sounds like someone’s testing how deep they can dig before we notice. They are using disposable lackeys and waiting for us to do something big.”
Luna nodded slowly. “That’s what it feels l...
2025-10-30 07:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe afternoon sun was already dipping west when Gaius walked down bridge toward the beach.
The rest of the group stayed back near the dunes, watching as the old mage stopped at the water’s edge, boots sinking slightly into the wet sand.
He stood there a moment, unmoving, his cloak rippling in the breeze. The wind carried salt and the low hiss of the tide creeping in around his ankle...
2025-10-29 21:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLucius’s tone shifted—less the polished diplomacy of a nobleman, more the clipped precision of someone who’d been collecting pieces far longer than anyone else realized.
“There’s one more thing you should know,” he said, folding his hands over the map. “This situation with the sahuagins—this labyrinth, these cores—it isn’t isolated. It’s not just about monsters or co...
2025-10-29 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“She’s been keeping a low profile,” Viola continued. “So low that even I haven’t felt her presence since three days ago.”
Ludger frowned. “You mean she’s that close to them.”
“Probably,” Viola said. “She knows how to vanish when she wants to. But the fact that she hasn’t sent a word yet bothers me.”
Arslan gave a slow nod. “If she’s sta...
2025-10-29 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostBy late morning, the beach had turned into a flurry of controlled chaos. Lionsguard banners fluttered near the dunes. Ludger worked a little farther inland, past the reach of the salt wind, where the sand gave way to firmer ground.
He knelt, pressing one hand to the earth. The hum of mana spread outward in waves, slow and deep. The soil shifted—first trembling, then rising, shaping itse...
2025-10-29 06:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostShe nodded, setting her fork down. “He said we could use the manor freely for as long as we needed. His staff’s orders were clear—feed us, house us, don’t ask questions.”
“That’s generous,” Selene said dryly from further down the table. “Almost too generous.”
Harold grunted in agreement, still eating like nothing could ever bother him. “Either he’s t...
2025-10-28 21:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLudger followed at a distance, staying low between dunes, using the sea breeze to cover the sound of his steps.
When they stopped for the night near a cluster of boulders off the main road, he finally approached.
The guards—his own guildmates—had set up a small perimeter. They stood motionless in their heavy armor, torches flickering against steel, their faces hidden be...
2025-10-28 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe sun sank low, bleeding gold into the sea. The heat of the day softened into a heavy stillness as Ludger moved through the dunes, keeping to the long shadows that stretched toward the water.
From here, the bridge site looked almost tranquil—until he got close enough to see the truth.
The so-called “bridge” was barely more than a skeleton. Three unfinished pillars rose from ...
2025-10-28 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA week later later, the road turned to sand and salt.
The mountains had vanished behind the haze, replaced by the low hum of cicadas and the distant crash of waves. The air was warmer here, thick with brine, and Ludger could feel it soaking into his clothes and skin.
He paused on a rise overlooking the coastline—a stretch of pale cliffs leading down to the bare started bridge site...
2025-10-28 08:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostLudger took one more step, and the world tilted. The red haze broke all at once, leaving only pain and the weight of blood loss behind. His knees hit the ground first. Then his face met the dirt.
For a moment, everything was soundless—just the dull roar of blood in his ears and the faint scent of iron and ash.
“...You done redecorating the area, kid?”
Gaius’s voice cam...
2025-10-27 21:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe explosion tore through the ground like a cannon blast.
Sand and rock erupted skyward, the shockwave ripping a shallow crater into the area. Debris rained down in a storm of grit.
When the dust thinned, Aaron stood at the center of it — covered head to toe in dirt, eyes burning with raw fury. His coat hung in tatters, blood crusted along one temple. The steel staff in his hands...
2025-10-27 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAaron advanced. The staff in his hands blurred — steel howling through air dense with mana. Each swing cracked the torches sideways, scattering sparks against the walls. The sound alone made Ludger’s skin crawl.
He ducked under a horizontal sweep; the gust it left behind hit like a hammer. The impact tore dust from the ceiling. One clean hit from that thing and his ribs would fold —...
2025-10-27 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostFor a long while, nothing happened. The cave returned to its usual silence—just the faint drip of water and the soft rasp of Gaius’s breathing. His hopes dulled again, sinking beneath exhaustion. Maybe it really had just been cave tremors. Maybe his body was finally imagining things.
Then the ground shuddered.
Not a wandering tremor this time—a focused one, steady and d...
Gaius came to slowly, as though surfacing from a lake of mud.
His eyelids were heavy; his breath rasped dry against the back of his throat. Every inch of his body screamed with dull, aching protest — muscles cramped, mana veins sluggish and knotted.
The first thing he noticed was cold stone beneath his back. The surface wasn’t smooth like worked marble — it was rough, i...
2025-10-26 21:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThose men were fast—faster than most soldiers Ludger had ever seen—but not fast enough to lose him. He followed from a distance, keeping about five hundred meters between them. Any closer, and they’d feel the tremors from his steps through the ground. Any farther, and he’d lose the trail completely.
Still, stealth wasn’t exactly his specialty. Tracking people through sand and st...
2025-10-26 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLudger stood there for a long moment, staring at the soil beneath his boots. The faint traces of mana still clung to it, like the echo of someone’s last heartbeat.
Could he be one of them?
The thought came uninvited, and Ludger didn’t like it. He shook his head once, hard, but it didn’t help. The possibility dug into his chest like splinters.
Gaius wasn’t the ...
2025-10-26 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe first day passed quietly. Ludger stayed inside the empty guild hall, the creak of old wood and distant wind the only things breaking the silence. He was grateful, in a way, for his own habit of overpreparing—leaving Lionfang a full month ahead of schedule had been a smart move. If he’d timed his departure closer to the escort job, this waiting game would’ve been a disaster.
At f...
2025-10-26 07:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time dawn broke, Ludger’s legs felt like they were made of lead. Every step sent a dull ache through his calves and thighs, but he kept running—steady, rhythmic.
He’d pushed himself through the night without rest, the cold air biting at his lungs, the road nothing but shadows and dust beneath his boots. His endurance had grown plenty from years of training, yet his body still...
2025-10-25 21:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostBack home, the atmosphere was quieter—but no less heavy.
Elaine sat at the kitchen table, her hands wrapped around a still-warm cup of tea. She’d already heard the gist of the meeting from Arslan, and though he wore that familiar half-smile—the one that meant he had a plan—it did little to ease her worry. She could tell by the way he avoided her gaze that his “plan” i...
2025-10-25 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostTorvares leaned back in his chair, the firelight from the wall lantern catching the faint lines on his face. “Their timing is suspicious, yes,” he admitted, “but I don’t think the boy was acting—at least, not entirely. There was something genuine in his manner. Nervousness, maybe. Or shame that wasn’t rehearsed.”
Arslan raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “You...
2025-10-25 11:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe discussion ended there.
There was no point in entertaining a deal with people tied to the Hakuen House—not when the Torvares family was both the Lionsguard’s main ally and political supporter. Accepting the offer would’ve been like spitting on that alliance.
Still, Ludger couldn’t help running the numbers in his head. Half the resources from a controlled l...
2025-10-25 07:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Ludger got back home, the faint scent of soap and herbs was already in the air—Elaine had clearly been preparing for this exact situation. She met him at the doorway with that calm-but-knowing look only mothers possessed.
“Let me guess,” she said, arms crossed but smiling faintly, “the twins decided to remind you what real responsibility smells like?”
Ludger ...
2025-10-24 21:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAnother week slipped by before Ludger finally set his quill down.
On the desk before him sat a thick stack of papers—his manual. Every line, every smudge of ink, was the result of long nights and half-cooled tea. He’d poured everything he knew about Healing Touch into it: the mana flow patterns, the tactile timing, the differences in pulse, even a few rough d...
2025-10-24 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe glaive shattered midair, splintering like glass under the force of Ludger’s compressed blast. For a heartbeat, it seemed over—until one jagged fragment, no longer than a dagger, spun out of the explosion faster than his eyes could follow.
It struck him square in the shoulder.
The impact ripped through muscle and scraped against bone. Ludger’s eyes went wide as the pain blo...
2025-10-24 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostEventually, Ludger crossed the final bend of the first zone and stepped into the wide, glacial expanse of the second. The air here was colder, heavier—each breath cutting like glass. He already had this area mapped out, every choke point and ice ridge memorized. Still, soloing the monsters here was his kind of warm-up. Predictable pattern, solid resistance, good for shaking o...
2025-10-24 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA few days passed, and Ludger spent most of them thinking—really thinking—about his next steps.
He’d taken over one of the empty guild offices, turned it into a makeshift study. The desk was covered in parchment sheets, scribbled formulas, and half-finished diagrams of mana circuits. Most were centered around one question: how to teach Healing Touch faster.
H...
2025-10-23 21:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe tension in the room slowly eased after that, but the air wasn’t so heavy anymore. Torvares leaned back in his chair, Luna relaxed a bit, and Viola, finally exhaling, leaned an elbow against the armrest.
“So,” she said, her tone lighter now, “how are the twins? Still screaming like they’re possessed?”
Ludger gave a small smirk. “Causing plenty of work for my parents...
2025-10-23 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Ludger stepped through the door, the first thing he heard wasn’t words—it was chaos. Twin cries, echoing through the house like two competing alarms.
Elaine was pacing in small, anxious circles, one baby in her arms, the other in a cradle that rocked unevenly. Arslan stood beside her looking like a man ready to charge a dragon but not sure which end to stab first.
“Welcom...
2025-10-23 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post