“How are you doing that?”
Cal grunted at hearing the unwanted noise. He had a job to do. And he didn’t want to open his eyes to deal with another intruder.
“Cal!”
He opened his eyes to see Tavia leaning over him with an amazed look. He noticed nibbles standing a significant distance away while giving him wary glances. It reminded him of what he had previously done wh...
2024-11-06 22:16:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe massive chamber rumbled before he could make a move. The falcons screeched, just as alarmed as he was at the changes.
Large pillars with ridged sections grew out of the walls, spaced only ten feet apart at most. Kade quickly realized what this was for.
If the karnathis didn’t use ranged weapons, they would have no chance of fighting any monster that could fly. These ridged pil...
2024-11-05 06:40:36 +0000 UTC View Post“Oh, he looks like he’s about to rip us apart,” the man kicked Kaelor’s body. “Will you use a hammer like you did on this idiot?”
Cal didn’t try to hide his confusion. He had been under the impression that Kaelor was related to this man. He now found that hard to believe, considering how disrespectful the man was with the body.
It gave him hope that this might still be...
2024-11-04 16:23:08 +0000 UTC View Post“⏁⏃☍⟒ ⊬⍜⎍⍀ ⍀⟒⍙⏃⍀⎅ ⏃⋏⎅ ⟒⌖⟟⏁.”
Kade ignored the voice and stared suspiciously at the belt beyond the hidden door. He reluctantly put aside the belt for the moment and reviewed his interface. He could feel his health recovering fully, so he must have leveled up.
You have destroyed a Gravetusk Boar (Arcana Level 33)!
<...
2024-11-04 13:06:55 +0000 UTC View PostHe heard the statue slide down behind him and close off the exit.
“⎅⟒⎎⟒⏃⏁ ⏁⊑⟒ ⏚⍜⏃⍀ ⏁⍜ ⏚⟒ ⏃⌰⌰⍜⍙⟒⎅ ⏁⍜ ⟒⌖⟟⏁.”
Kade’s eyes darted about the room to see if there was any hint of what the voice wanted him to do. Unfortunately, there couldn’t be a barer room in existence.
“System, what did the voice say?” Kade fi...
2024-11-03 06:41:22 +0000 UTC View PostKade once again considered thinking things through before literally jumping into it.
He flailed as he tried to stay afloat before using his [Soulrend] to anchor himself to the ledge. He thanked his exponentially increased [Strength] for enabling the use of the tip of the [Soulrend] as a support point to prevent him from drowning.
Kade kicked his legs and brought himself closer to th...
2024-11-03 06:40:23 +0000 UTC View PostCal sometimes felt this genius was hidden far too well. He knew the stone paths would come in handy, but this was practically like he saw a future issue and made a solution before he ever knew he would need it.
The stone paths separated his field into eight parts. Each was fifty feet wide and four hundred feet long, which conveniently happened to be half an acre.
Cal smiled as he pu...
2024-11-02 07:00:50 +0000 UTC View PostPurple blood dripped off the blade of his [Soulrend]. All the karnathis were dead, and the small piles of white powder were the only evidence of their existence.
Kade initially found some thrill in getting back into the fray. Still, it quickly disappeared when he realized that most of these karnathis were cannon fodder. He must’ve killed over thirty, which wasn’t enough to level up an...
2024-11-02 00:57:37 +0000 UTC View PostKade changed his mind. He had assumed this Rift Zone would be more than the Class F Rift Zone, but the grasslands here were incredibly dull.
At the very least, the Class F Rift Zone had blades of grass that were as tall as trees. All he saw was normal, short, boring grass.
“What do you see on your end? I’ve been walking through grassland for over an hour with ...
2024-11-01 07:41:11 +0000 UTC View Post“Hey, Orrin?”
Orrin grunted, not taking his eyes off the strange plow he was making. It always felt to Seris that Cal wanted some weird stuff made.
She had no idea what he intended to do with a seven-bladed plow.
“Do you think Cal and Tavia are together?”
Orrin missed the anvil completely and yelped in shock as he barely dodged the hammer from hitting his kn...
2024-11-01 02:16:51 +0000 UTC View PostAN: For those not on Discord to see my announcement, I scratched my eye pretty badly a week ago and had to wait for it to recover. The plus side is that I did nothing but think of the plot, so I'm itching to write more chapters. There will be a small burst before it slows back down.
AN 2: Also, I have another novel I'm writing, 2024-11-01 02:16:03 +0000 UTC View Post
It was pitch black. There must be an absolute absence of light to see nothing with his improved vision.
Kade summoned his [Soulrend], not just for protection, but also to act as a feeling stick. He poked around and found that there was quite a bit of space around him.
The most concerning thing was the lack of Eliza’s presence.
The interface interrupted his explorations.
<... 2024-10-31 05:46:23 +0000 UTC View Post“Where did you find a second bike?” Kade asked as they rode over the rough, uneven ground. Some faint signs of the paved road still existed, but the wild nature did its best to erase all evidence.
They were on what should have been an overpass. The ground underneath had risen as if it wanted to reclaim the highway personally instead of allowing it to collapse as it would have in a few...
2024-10-30 06:16:21 +0000 UTC View PostHe had almost forgotten what it felt like to be without pain. It felt… interesting.
Am I becoming a masochist? It can’t be.
“Good job, everyone,” Kade offered when nobody vacated the room. They stared at him as if he owed them something.
Celine cleared her throat. “They’re waiting for their payment.”
Kade narrowed his eyes. He would get heartburn i...
2024-10-29 06:46:49 +0000 UTC View PostAfter exiting the hotel, Kade immediately saw why he had noticed nothing from the window. His focus had been on the safe zone’s border. He should have been looking the other way.
Finn’s group was staring down around twenty people who were newcomers. The argument he could hear was from something he hadn’t expected.
“—can’t just say it’s all yours! Do you think words are...
2024-10-29 06:45:40 +0000 UTC View PostKade snapped his eyes open and looked at the door. It had been several hours since he closed his eyes.
He had found himself in a strange half-asleep, half-alert state, but it worked well enough. It was pitch black in a way he had never experienced before.
Kade had never thought about how there was no more electricity. Now, it was quite literally in his face.
However, his far s...
2024-10-28 09:50:00 +0000 UTC View PostKade hid behind the cover of some trees just outside the safe zone. He was having second thoughts about entering Chicago.
He had been on the edge of change in his decision multiple times on the way here. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of getting into a Class F Rift Zone and demolishing all the cannon fodder inside to get a precious level up and an instant heal. 2024-10-28 09:49:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Kade came to and promptly sucked in a mouthful of water. He sputtered and coughed before immediately wheezing in pain at making a sound.
His vision was so blurry that he could barely see anything more than a few feet away and his ears didn’t seem to work since the world was silent.
He glimpsed his body.
Kade had no idea how he was still alive. There was no place he looked wh...
2024-10-26 21:26:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe creature’s decision to back away towards the magma pool shocked Kade. He thought about making a run for it and try to reach one of the obsidian islands, but he quickly crossed that out.
Even if there was something worthwhile on them, a magma wave could reach the islands far quicker than him.
He stared at the creature like an obsessed fan.
There had to be a reason it...
2024-10-26 05:28:32 +0000 UTC View PostMagma felt like water to Kade—hot water, but still, just water. That’s where the good news stopped.
The magma wave still had all the properties of a wave. It trucked into Kade with all the force the dense magma possessed. It threw him off the island, knocking the air out of his lungs.
The weight of the magma shattered the islands as Kade fell into the magma pool below. The ash b...
2024-10-26 05:27:43 +0000 UTC View PostKade bit into another glowfruit. This was his third in the last minute, and it worked as intended.
Although his body still had his own blood caked on it, he no longer had razor-thin cuts all over. He considered that a massive win.
He looked around and took in the devastation with a calmer mind. The forest was dead.
Everything looked unchanged, but he could see the subtle hints...
2024-10-25 13:53:25 +0000 UTC View PostYou have destroyed a Shadow Arachnid (Arcana Level 24)!
Kill 100 Monsters (80/100)—>(81/100)
Spear Thrust (Level 9)—>(Level 10)
Level-up!
“Finally,” Kade murmured when he felt a burning sensation in his arm. It was regenerating.
He had killed around twenty of these spiders over the la...
2024-10-24 14:54:30 +0000 UTC View PostHe had to stamp down his instinct to activate [Inferno Burst]. Burning the spider to a crisp sounded like a great idea, but it would likely take out the glowfruit tree and its fruits along with it.
If finding ripe fruits was easy, Kade would’ve been willing to do so. He couldn’t see any luminescent fruits on the trees nearby, and he didn’t want to risk gambling on being able to...
2024-10-24 01:14:44 +0000 UTC View PostHe regained his senses to the sound of pebbles falling. Some landed on his face. He frowned and tried to wipe them away. He immediately felt the intense pain from the hand he tried to use.
Kade snapped his eyes open and saw a dead Icehowler next to him with part of his arm still in its bloody mouth.
Warning: Your health has fallen below 50%!
Warning: Y...
2024-10-24 01:12:50 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn’t take long for him to reach the place where the Icehowlers retreated. And that was a great thing, since a fresh layer of snow quickly covered their tracks.
The discovery of an opening to a cave surprised Kade.
He heard a faint growl from its depths, but didn’t move from his spot. It sounded like there was only one Icehowler blocking him from entering. He wouldn’t have...
2024-10-24 01:11:57 +0000 UTC View PostKade had climbed over a hundred feet up the cliff wall. It wasn’t even halfway up. Not even close.
The entire time he had been climbing, he heard an exponential increase in the number of buildings collapsing behind him. It had barely been ten minutes when the rumbling stopped.
That left Kade in his current situation. Stuck a hundred feet high on a cliff wall with no good options.<...
2024-10-20 05:29:49 +0000 UTC View PostTo Kade’s disappointment, there was no ambush. He stood near the cliff wall on full alert for no reason.
There weren’t even any chunks of ice that he had to watch out for. His impatience flared up. He figured waiting eight minutes was more than enough.
He could use [Inferno Burst] once. If he had to use it twice… well, he wouldn’t need to. Probably.
Kade walked among t...
2024-10-20 05:29:06 +0000 UTC View Post“This sucks,” Kade hissed as he shivered. He had been trudging along in the snow for what felt like hours.
Even with his increased capabilities, the cold was seeping into his bones. It felt like he would freeze to death if something didn’t change soon. He had already used [Inferno Burst] multiple times to warm himself.
However, that was only a brief relief, quickly snuffed out...
2024-10-20 05:28:19 +0000 UTC View PostHe shifted his feet. Whatever the beast was before him, it was biding its time. Waiting for him to make a mistake.
It’s too bad Kade didn’t intend to make a mistake. It would be embarrassing if he died from stumbling because of the packed snow around him.
He had his [Soulrend]’s tip pointed between the red eyes. It was his best guess at where the beast’s body was. It wasn’...
2024-10-20 05:27:42 +0000 UTC View PostHe was stuck on the third line. Around two hundred thousand failed.
“The ones who failed to destroy a Rift Zone… what happened to them?”
They are dead.
Kade knew the answer, but it still hit him hard. It was more the realization that the eighty percent success rate was the absolute best-case result.
The system sent what it felt were the humans with...
2024-10-20 05:27:02 +0000 UTC View Post