Calvin was walking beside Ella when Kurawe unexpectedly caught his attention.
Ravager, There’s a situation back in your capital that your may wish to be informed of.
What is it? Calvin thought, scanning the towering trees.
A Knick-Knack Diplomat has offered to sell us a map of the Malkenrovian continent, along with detailed overlay of knick-knack traffic across the surface, for one ton of plastic, minimum.
...
2020-10-24 02:25:59 +0000 UTC View PostNadia didn’t have any time to admire the towering fronds that seemed to block out the entire sky, nor the globes of brownish nutrients that accumulated along the edges of the tree’s trunks. She was more focused on acclimatizing to the new body, mastering its urges and simplistic behavior.
All George had to do now was deliver her body back to Calvin and the System would wrench her soul out of this meat-creature when he added her back to Chained Spirit.
Probably.
Her host ...
2020-10-21 22:08:05 +0000 UTC View PostThey ran.
The team screamed down the sizzling hallways at full speed, dodging around the overflowing magma pits, not bothering to give the magma squid a chance to grab their legs. When they made it to the next room, they skidded to a halt, gaping at the altered scenery.
What had been an extra wide room prior to the boss fight had become a lava-bridge, maybe two feet of stone with liquid death on either side, radiating heats that would char-broil a normal human in a matter of secon...
2020-10-18 22:35:03 +0000 UTC View PostNadia felt like she was pulling away from reality, retreating down a narrow tube behind her eyes, rising above the world and the sensations of her body, floating in the clouds, completely happy, completely at peace, while her body did as it wished.
It was blissful surrender, it was a gentle and loving sensation of being engulfed by the entire world, and yet being a part of it. She was one with the universe, and all living things rested on the same vibration that she was a part of, their...
2020-10-17 21:50:51 +0000 UTC View PostCalvin patted Tzen on the back.
“There there,” he said gently, “so your home town is a burnt out husk and everyone you know is probably dead. I’ve been there. Next thing you know you’re gonna get shotgun married to a warrior woman, have a thousand year old dead guy chatting your ear off, and a real shot at making your own kingdom.”
Calvin gave Tzen a weak smile as they stood on the guard tower overlooking the cindering corpse of the capital city.
“Why would the...
2020-10-15 23:23:28 +0000 UTC View PostGot a dentist appointment tomorrow, so no WotR chapter until Thursday.
For those of you curious, it's three fillings and a crown.
And yes, I'm working on chapter 20 of GSA. I hope to have it done Sunday.
2020-10-14 03:45:51 +0000 UTC View Post“Where the hell did they go?” Calvin murmured to himself as they exited the warehouse. Calvin was on edge, waiting for some kind of ambush. Calvin could still theoretically be ambushed despite sensing everything in close range and knowing exactly who was looking at him and where.
It was just a lot more of a logistical nightmare.
A rod from god would work fairly well, too.
True, Calvin thought, glancing up at the sky.
Wait a se...
2020-10-13 23:40:10 +0000 UTC View PostMing’nai was basically an enormous granary with walls. It served as the beating heart of agriculture logistics across Boles. Food from the famously fertile wetlands to the south was collected and shipped outward to the empire’s hundreds of city-states.
Can’t fight on an empty stomach, Calvin thought as they approached the city. When the massive walls came into view, Calvin’s question of how the Hapain clan could possibly be winning leapt to the foreground.
The cit...
2020-10-12 22:42:31 +0000 UTC View PostCalvin and Tzen were discussing Bolesian politics as they rode side-by-side along the mountain path, Boles stretching out beneath them as the mountain fell away.
“So how exactly does the Hapain clan have any kind of a chance against yours? I’m assuming the emperor is the Royal in charge of Boles.”
“My father’s been dying for years now,” Tzen said with a scowl. “He is powerful, but just as likely to forget the names of his sons as perform his duties.”
Boles was a big country. A man could walk for months without reaching the other side. even the flora knew it was a big country, with the way the trees soared up into the sky as if to make room for all the big goddamned monsters.
The trees were massive, set further apart than jungle trees, and spreading outward above thirty feet to create a canopy seemingly held up by arcing gates.
Things were relatively peaceful on the outskirts of the city where they’d beaten back nature, but a...
2020-10-07 21:12:08 +0000 UTC View PostSo today marks the 30th day since GSA first landed on Royalroad. that means it's eligible for trending.
I don't often make these requests, and this one's more out of sheer curiosity than anything else.
I want to get GSA to the top of the trending list, and for that, I need people to rate and read it. The idea is to go from a trickle to a flood all at once to see if we can can wig out their algorithm and take the top spot for a month.
Your task is simple: Go here...
...
***Calvin, semi-professional kidnapper***
+1 Body
Body is now 36!
12/36 Warp remaining
“Okay, you’re free to go,” Calvin said, dropping the Bolesian princess unceremoniously onto the castle walls, where she rose to her feet, knees shaking uncontrollably.
“Will I ever see you again?” She asked, glancing up at him hopefully.
Calvin glanced down at his Ba...
2020-10-06 01:43:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Tom, Dick and Harry sat around their meager campfire staring at the flames.
“I would give my left nut for a big mac right now,” Harry said.
“I would give your left nut too.” Dick said, nodding before Harry punched him in the shoulder.
“We need to ask them if we can join,” Tom said, staring into the fire.
“What? Team up with those assholes? You want a maid outfit so you can take care of the baby while the rest of them go get more levels?” Di...
2020-10-05 01:09:44 +0000 UTC View Post
The light fell on no less than a dozen men and women in deplorable conditions, chained to the wall and half-starved. The room smelled of every fluid a body could produce, and some of the prisoners were sitting in their own filth.
Bruises, sores and despair.
Nadia ran a critical eye over the slaves, who looked up at her hopefully. They were each wearing a gag, making their pitiful moans more annoying than informative.
Let’s see, mostly Gadveran from t...
2020-10-05 00:59:41 +0000 UTC View Post
The first time Nadia died, it was at the hands of someone looming over her bed. Needless to say, Nadia had a bit of a…thing about people standing over her bed now.
Nadia’s eyes flew open, her right hand flying out in a claw. Her fingernails jammed through half an inch of stiff hide armor and injected their payload of paralytic into the man’s chest.
He stumbled backward, and Nadia flipped over and put a foot through his chest, bowling the assailant through ...
2020-10-03 07:14:36 +0000 UTC View Post
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Calvin said. “The Harbinger thought I was the reincarnation of an ancient traitor whose revolt caused a superweapon to be used on an entire planet. Aforementioned planet housed the Harbinger’s main squeeze, and he’s still looking for her soul?”
“Basically.”
“And in retaliation, Grethna, who he thinks I am, launched a semi-successful coup, murdering the ‘mad king’, only to be captured immediately afterward a...
2020-10-01 03:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Calvin was standing in front of the console in the Filter underneath the Temple, tediously following along with Elliots directions as they carefully sifted through the computer’s history.
Well, according to this thing, Your buddy logged in, changed the password, set a new error message, dialed an outside line, then set the console to self-destruct.
“So why is the temple still here?”
Well, then he logged in with t...
2020-09-29 02:47:00 +0000 UTC View Post
“Whoah!” The closest man said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. Casey could smell his B.O. from across the camp, causing her nose to wrinkle involuntarily.
“Stay over there,” Casey said, motioning with the water gun.
“Is that a gun?” One of the men said, peering at the heavy hunk of metal in her hands. Damn thing almost weighed as much as she did, but there was a reason for that.
Casey breathed in, and entered her Myst Core. In the center of...
2020-09-27 22:07:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Calvin lowered his visor, the furry rodent underneath him twitching nervously in anticipation of the charge.
It was time for the joust.
He raised his broccoli to waist level and took solid aim at his opponent across the way. The man bore a wickedly sharp lance that seemed to warp space around it until it wound up being an inverted cone.
I hope I can win this, Calvin thought, eyes narrowing. The fate of the world was a steak, sitting off to the sid...
2020-09-24 23:54:24 +0000 UTC View Post
***Tzen Chu, imperial prince***
Tzen’s eyes were squeezed shut, his ears plugged, face covered with a cloth, retreating as far into his own mind as he could, his hand extended in front of him as he took another slow, careful step forward.
It’s not that important, a nagging, muted part of his brain said. This is ridiculous. I’d rather go back to work.
It was not to be trusted.
Diplomacy
Toward the end of dinner, a servant approached the lord of the city and whispered in his ear. The fat man instinctively glanced at Calvin.
Calvin winked.
“…I see. Thank you,” Zhin’er said, unquestioningly dismissing the servant from his presence. “Now that dinner is over, let’s turn our attention to your business here. Would the others please excuse us?”
Without a word, the remaining courtiers stood and filed out the door, leaving Calvin and ...
2020-09-22 23:21:43 +0000 UTC View Post
“Ooh, magic gun!” Ron said, hovering around Jeb’s construction. He didn’t seem to begrudge him the half a Myst lens he’d used to make it, instead simply being overexcited for the creation.
“I want to reiterate,” Jeb said, holding it away from the necromancer’s grasping hands, “That this is not a ‘magic gun’. There is no projectile. Exactly like your wand, it makes an explosion at a set range.”
Ron deflated a little. “Yeah, but yours looks...
2020-09-21 03:51:19 +0000 UTC View Post
“This feels weird, like I’m not supposed to be able to do anything in it,” Calvin said, shrugging inside the stiff silk outfit. It was, according to Ella and the tailor, ‘the height’ of Bolesian fashion.
It was definitely ostentatious and expensive, given the spun gold and brilliant sheen, but how was Ella supposed to know what was in fashion? And the tailor couldn’t exactly be trusted, either. He was trying to make a sale.
Nobody could be trusted in...
2020-09-19 01:20:23 +0000 UTC View Post
“I wonder what kind of meat this is?” Ella said, biting hunks of meat out of the roadside kabob they’d purchased while waiting to get into the city.
Calvin took a piece and chewed. The meat was a bit gamey, but not intolerable, and the spices were honestly more potent than anything he’d experienced in his fifteen years as a farmhand, which was exciting.
It actually felt like they were on a vacation.
“Tastes like ungulate,” he said, nodding wise...
2020-09-18 02:12:30 +0000 UTC View Post
***Nadia, Sadomasochist***
Nadia was drumming her heels against the bottom of her chair, idly trying to kick her own ass, seeing as nobody here was capable of, or interested in doing it.
Not to say she wasn’t paying attention; she was.
Duke Kinsey was sleeping with everyone, Annabelle Williams was frigid, Geoffery Entredes was taking bribes to allow people to undermine his fishing waters. The man was literally starving his people for a few shiny coins. 2020-09-16 22:08:01 +0000 UTC View Post
“And just add a handle…” Calvin muttered, tack welding the handle onto the blade. The grimoire sat in it’s shrunken state, right in the middle of the handle itself.
Maybe I can give Ella that necklace, Calvin thought, glancing at the unfinished pendant he’d set aside when he’d realized he could use Blade Body on Grimoire pages.
Calvin’s storage capacity for knives had leapt to seven when he was practicing his skills in the Temple of Awaken...
2020-09-15 23:27:58 +0000 UTC View Post
It took Jeb a little over ten minutes to track down his team, since they’d been weaving around conflicts the entire time, they were a little off-course from where he thought they’d be.
They seemed surprised to see him. Jeb took a wild guess that it was because of the copious amounts of blood and the naked teen and her baby.
“Is she hurt!?” Amanda demanded, jumping up on the zombie-hauled palanquin as he alighted beside her...
2020-09-13 19:50:50 +0000 UTC View Post
“Alright, so before we go, I might as well sit down and take another bite out of the new abilities,” Calvin said. “ According to the Royal agreement I signed, I’ve got to practice subtlety with my abilities. Any overt city-smashing attacks will get me killed. With that in mind, let’s choose the Abilities for… Bent Manipulation, Beli Ma, and Stealth.
Bent Manipulation has Reached level 45!
Please choose six abilit...
2020-09-12 01:34:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Learner’s notes: On pride.
Pride is an interesting emotion. I first experienced pride when I took a slug* as a pet.
*Refer log: Mr. Squishy
Somehow I felt as though my slug were better than all other slugs, even though objectively, the chance of that was very slim.
Owing to that mistaken feeling of accomplishment, I assumed pride to be inherently incorrect, perhaps some variation of the s...
2020-09-10 23:20:34 +0000 UTC View Post
“Alright, adding the gram of…” Murak glanced at Calvin.
“Lanthanides.”
“Lanthanides, highly diluted, to the test group’s diet raised productivity to sixty eight percent conversion and rising. The test group made fourteen point three five kilograms of plastic, The control group made two point oh one.”
Murak scowled and did some math.
“They’re paying you far too much in this dust. A few years from now you’ll be drowning in it.
... 2020-09-09 21:04:14 +0000 UTC View Post