Chapter 69 – Revelations
After binding my second familiar, I realized an interesting bit about the way this Voice of the World dealt with Familiars. Now that they were bound, I could communicate with them telepathically so long as they were within two kilometers. I could also summon and unsummon them at will. Unsummoning a familiar basically banished them to a kind of pocket realm. They...
2025-04-11 20:44:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 131 – Rout
(London, England)
“Bloody hell,” Green Knight sighed, as Iceblade finished his declaration. Not that it stilled his blade, as he stabbed a warrior through the chest. There was still a fight going on, after all. They’d launched a general offensive on the shield zone, to give Iceblade his distraction. And here he was, less than twenty minutes later, basicall...
2025-04-10 22:01:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 173 – Visitors
“Your Majesty, the envoys from the Saharan League are here.”
I looked up from the sketch I was making, the latest iteration of an idea that been rolling around in the back of my head since the first time some zealots tried to shoot me with magically-amplified bullets, right after I returned to this world. Sure, the attack had been utterly unsucc...
2025-04-09 22:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 219 – Overkill
I checked my watch. 04:03 Moscow time, meaning that it was just after 10 in the morning in Yakutsk. The attack should be underway. Which meant it was time for me to make my move.
I did not have any kind of [Stealth] skill, but having a DEX of 336 with my items meant that I could make my footsteps as silent as a cat’s, if I tried, and my all-black outfit bl...
2025-04-08 20:38:31 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 377 – Targets
“So, how are you feeling, Ricardo?” Gracie asked, one hand around her favorite slave’s waist as they walked out of Dreamy Delights a couple hours later. The act was more than a simple show of concern for the man. She was concerned for him, yes, but that was only part of why she had her arm around him. The other part was so that he would have harder time dashi...
2025-04-07 23:18:48 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 23: Bad Feeling
“Icy! You done with your interview?”
The sound of concern in Sexkitten’s voice as I picked up the call just after leaving the therapist building where I gave both my interviews did not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings in me. That wasn’t someone who was just eager to talk. Something was up.
“Yeah. What happened?”
“A new co...
2025-04-05 21:09:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 68 – Diplomatic Demoness
You have successfully completed the Ritual of the Beast. You gain the form: Hellhound
Form of the Hellhound
You are able to shift between your natural form and a Hellhound form at will.
Doing so reserves 20% of your SP. You gain temporary HP equal to the reserved SP. The transformation lasts for either 1 hour/level or u...
2025-04-04 21:02:56 +0000 UTC View PostThis got really fun to write.
Chapter 130 – Sending a Message
The sound of dial-up internet called, and we once more found ourselves in the digital realm. This time, however, we were in the commlink of whichever gel-nak had been unfortunate enough to meet us. Unlike the other gel-nak digital realms I’d seen, this felt more personal, more lived in than even the wider gel-n...
2025-04-03 20:42:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 172 – Dragon on the Border
“Ah, Queen Akagawa, so good to see you again.”
I smiled as I saw Emperor Zhu Zhexian, the Dragon Emperor and Hero of Shadow, walk up to me. “Ah, Emperor Zhu. The pleasure is mine, I assure you. Came to see how we were setting up?”
We were in the mountains just east of Huocheng County, near the border Kazakhstan. In fact, there was a...
2025-04-02 21:49:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 218 – Failed Contingency
His name was Frantsev Vasil Vyacheslavovich. Of course, he hadn’t actually been called by that name in twenty years, not since his mother and sister died in the Vladikavkaz bombing. He had turned his focus to his work with the KGB turned FSB. He hadn’t been anyone important, then. A field agent primarily occupied with counterterror operations. But he...
2025-04-01 22:18:10 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 376 – Mind Matters
In the end, she had decided to pick up two new slaves, along with the information about where she could find someone who could help Ricardo with his arachnophobia. It cost her a little more than she really would have liked, but getting the information was important. Plus, Sherush gave her a bit of a discount, she was buying the pair.
Dhon
Dire Hell...
2025-03-31 23:25:43 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 22: Interview 2
“Hi hi, everybody! KarmaDesu here! How are all my Karma Klubbies? You know I love all of you gals! Now, I got a special treat for everyone here! We’re coming to you from inside MetaGame’s big new game, Shadowmen, and talking with one of the up and coming players, the ever-scrumptious Iceblade!”
This was my second interview in the game. Unlike last tim...
2025-03-29 21:50:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 67 – Good Boy
We had spent part of the morning shopping, and a wagon pulled by oxen, even skeletal oxen, wasn’t as fast as a rider on horseback. So, it was little surprise to me that it was late afternoon by the time we reached the ruined temple Angelina had found in the old maps. We ought to have plenty of time for setting up and conducting the rituals before we needed to sle...
2025-03-28 20:27:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 129 – Niflheim
“KILL THE INVA-AAAGH!”
Another guard fell to my blade as we pushed on. After the brief battle in the command center, we needed to get outside. It had only been a few minutes since we started our attack, so the Warriors on guard in the building were still at their posts, guarding the building, looking for threats, and waiting for orders. Which meant that ...
2025-03-27 19:59:53 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 171 – Changing Times
A year had passed since the seals on magic were undone. The changes started slow, but began moving faster day by day. Some plants and animals evolved into monsters as they took in mana, and were changed by it, but they weren’t the only creatures to change.
During the flu season that year, a new strain of the disease emerged, capable of spreading not ...
2025-03-26 22:19:30 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 217 – Legitimate Business
(Yakutsk, Sakha, Russia)
It was cold today. Not a surprise, this far out into Siberia. It was cold every day, with an average temperature of -8.0C. Coldest major city in the world.
Tselner Vitomir Nikitovich used to hate the cold, when he was younger. A ‘youthful indiscretion’ got him ‘mistaken’ as a member of the Vory, and a police ...
2025-03-25 19:58:33 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 375 – Market
The marketplace as divided into two basic parts. You had the stalls on the street, and shops in the buildings. Discounting a couple food stalls that were selling things like meat skewers and grilled mushrooms, most of the streetside shopping looked to be low-level items and materials, or purely cosmetic items.
Cosmetic items under the System generally came in ...
2025-03-24 23:52:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 21: Interview 1
Harrison Reed, better known as HarryManGames, decided that this had to be one of the weirdest interviews he’d ever done. Sure, he was used to doing interviews not person-to-person, since he used a digital avatar to conceal his identity, but he was still doing all that in his studio, communicating through a normal online connection. That was just using a 3D model ...
2025-03-22 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 66 – Skills
Your party has defeated eight members of the Brass Rats.
You each gain 4000 XP.
Ah, it looked as though ‘dissuading’ the pursuit counted as defeating them. Lovely. I would never say no to more XP, after all. Sure, getting to the next level was a long way aways, but every little bit helped. Given the state of my, just, everything, I was really curious ...
2025-03-21 12:01:26 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 128 – Cleanup
Segment 6:
Iceblade: +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)
Foxtrot: +2 CSL to DCV (DCV 12), +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)
Stolen Victory: +2 CSL to DCV (DCV 15)
Pyra: +2 CSL to OCV with Ranged (OCV 15)
Titania: +2 CSL to DCV (DCV 12)
Warriors...
2025-03-20 20:30:34 +0000 UTC View PostPrologue – Trade Chat
(Magical World Disharmony Server, General Chat)
UsualSuspect, manoutoftime, muon, MewTwo, Avariel, Chummer, Golddigger, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, MacD, Inquisitor, OrangeQueen, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, BabyShark, Lichwatcher, Not_the_Face!, TheLichQueen, Scholar, Salty, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9,...
2025-03-19 12:52:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 216 – Guild Business
“Ah, your Majesty,” said Guildmaster Luo Fen as I entered the Ceres Adventurers Guild. “I was wondering when you’d come around. The diviners have finished tracking the guy in Russia that you put in a request for.”
It had been a few days since I’d put in the request (and also ascended to Tier 3). Most people were still surprised by my new lo...
2025-03-18 21:55:41 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 374 – To Khav-Szarol
Finding their way to this ‘Khav-Szarol’ wasn’t terribly difficult. There were signs glittering under the light. Along the way, they transitioned from Logan’s [Liight] spell to [Everburning Torches]. The basic enchanted items were far cheaper than a [Magelight], and were always ‘on’, rather than having a recharge time, but had to be carried in the...
2025-03-17 20:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostPrologue: Trade Chat
(Shadowmen In-Game OOC Forum, Seattle Section)
Reminder: This forum is for Out of Character (OOC) discussion only. Please direct in-character discussions (including business dealings and the like) to the appropriate in-world forums.
GreenGirl, Yolo, Scholar, RedFox, Rerun, ThirsT, SliceNDice, GrimDarkKawaii, NoNoNo, YesY...
2025-03-15 11:26:56 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 65 – Pests
With Magehallow being so close to the site of a former undead dungeon, it perhaps wasn’t all that surprising that there was a larger proportion of necromancers and related classes and professions in town than you would find in Windwater. Of course, magic-users in general were more common here, than in my barony, which tended more towards outdoorsy types when talking...
2025-03-14 23:10:40 +0000 UTC View PostBig fight scene continues.
Chapter 127 – Regicide
Segment 3:
Iceblade: +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)
Foxtrot: +2 CSL to DCV (DCV 12), +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)
Stolen Victory: +2 CSL to DCV (DCV 15)
Pyra: +2 CSL to OCV with Ranged (OCV 15)
Titan...
2025-03-13 15:18:34 +0000 UTC View PostEpilogue – Elsewhere
Four individuals met in a darkened room. No names were shared. Those who knew about this meeting already knew who the other attendees were. There was no need for introductions.
Each individual represented a faction of power. While they were not the nominal heads of their factions, what was decided in this chamber would be carried out. One way or another.
Chapter 215 – Adjustment
After setting the administrative stuff in order, my next task was military. Thankfully, a full invasion of someplace wasn’t necessary, but there were still logistical concerns to be addressed, and garrisons to be set up. Recruitment and training also needed to be jumpstarted, to minimize the look of being a colonizer coming in and taking over the place.
...
2025-03-11 19:00:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 373 – Across the Lake
“[Azure Bloom]!”
A column of blue flames rose from the beach, engulfing the undead alligator that was the boss for this floor. Gracie Dixon smiled as she got the kill notification. That spell had been just enough to finish off the boss, and gave them enough XP to reach level 30.
They weren’t the first group to reach this floor, or even to ...
2025-03-11 00:28:40 +0000 UTC View PostEpilogue: Elsewhere
(MetaTech Virtual Headquarters, Shadowmen Control Room)
Demi Turner smiled as she looked over the data feeds coming through the control room. Everything was looking good. The time dilation didn’t look to be causing any trouble as players went between the game world and the real world. That was good, otherwise they would have had to rework everythi...
2025-03-08 15:33:14 +0000 UTC View Post