I woke up slowly, taking a few seconds to recall where I was, why there was a sleeping catgirl clamped onto one of my arms, and the general condition of the universe.
... That had certainly been an experience.
The world's best massage, Cluma had described it as, and I had to agree completely. It had certainly been relaxing. So much so that I'd apparently missed the entire evening. It was the town timekeeping bell ringing twice that woke me. A little earlier than I'd normally get u...
2022-10-25 04:40:00 +0000 UTC
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This is the last of the chapter drop. Next Unbound Soul chapter will be 23rd September. (Unborn Hero will continue as normal on Mondays.)
Cara sat in the on-site monitoring room, watching her display. Radiation levels both inside and outside the shell were normal, but that was expected. She'd be very worried if they started spiking before they hit the on switch. Things may be have got weird recently, but at least causes and effects had remained the correct way...
2022-09-07 05:43:46 +0000 UTC
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This side story takes place some time after chapter 168, but before 191.
A very excited Darren was running in circles outside his village hut, watched by his grinning parents.
"How'd he wrangle a magic teacher, anyway?" asked David. "Is Kari coming back?"
"No, it's Kranakellicium," answered Lucy.
David took a few seconds to work his jaw around that name before asking the obvious question. "Who?"
"Hmm? Oh. Now that you mention it, I don't think a...
2022-08-04 04:36:51 +0000 UTC
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Surprise bonus side story for lonely dungeon.
In the crushing depths of the ocean, far out of sight of the sun above, a foreign mana rolled over the rocky floor, subtly changing it. From all directions it came, in a rapidly shrinking noose. The point it encircled was nothing special. Scattered nearby were the bones of the monstrous, nigh unimaginable creatures that had once dwelt in the deep, but at this point was naught but bare rock.
If there was one thing spec...
2022-06-22 07:43:06 +0000 UTC
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"Mum, dad, I have an announcement!"
I carefully put down my book and looked up at my little bundle of hyperactivity as she came rushing in through our front door, having spent the day doing who knows what. I still wasn't used to her pitch-black hair, darker even than my own, nor her piercing violet eyes, but at least I knew with certainty that her personality hadn't changed. This time. Who knew what would happen the next time? I still wished with most of my heart that I could s...
2022-03-30 04:49:56 +0000 UTC
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Tylor clambered onto a cart, and from there to the roof of his shack, tucking himself into a small overhang where beams crossed at the peak. His position was slightly obscured, but was still plainly visible from the road, which would normally make it a very poor choice for a game of hide and seek.
Games of hide and seek when Darren was seeking were not normal.
"Ninety-nine. One hundred! Here I come!" counted Darren, his eyes flitting around as he glanced at six distinct h...
2022-03-23 06:14:52 +0000 UTC
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Katie peered at her new skill choices, while the elderly fox-kin stood watching her with blank expressions. Her order not to treat her with respect had at least got them up off their knees, but they gave the distinct impression that they would continue standing there until they starved unless Katie either left or gave them orders to eat.
Paradox: You are an effect without a cause.
Courier: You provide safe delivery.
Again.
Timeless: While most drift passively...
2022-03-16 06:44:49 +0000 UTC
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Katie stood in front of the window, looking out over the chapel. The shouty-mage had barely moved, the months of time spent in this world of horrors taking up a few sparse seconds back in the real world. If that world was any more real than this one in the first place.
Given the conspicuous changes to her appearance, she'd dithered trying to decide between her leather armour, which would cover up as much of her as possible, or her nightie, which left her looking the most like 'Katie'. A...
2022-03-14 05:40:47 +0000 UTC
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"So... the slime behaves like a beastkin in heat, except all the time?" asked Cluma, her innocence rapidly dwindling.
"Yes, pretty much."
"And you can... what? feel it? Because of the thing that left you in hospital last year?"
"Usually no, unless I deliberately try, but we're close enough together right now that it's kinda breaking through whether I want it to or not."
"And I let her... Wow, no wonder you wanted to do it yourself."
"Huh?" went ...
2022-03-11 06:14:15 +0000 UTC
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Onto the alternate endings. This side story starts after Katie's return to the real world, on her respawn after the mages of the capital blasted her and the fox-kin.
Katie respawned in the ruins of the chapel, at the edge of the pile of rubble that was the only indication that a vast structure once stood there. Human corpses littered the debris, or were buried under it. No fox-kin, though. Whatever that spell had been, not so much as a bloodstain remained of those it d...
2022-03-10 06:35:59 +0000 UTC
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A slight pause in her breathing was the only clue Katie had given that she'd woken up. Someone was in her room; someone deliberately trying to be silent. There were no footfalls, rustling of clothing or sounds of breathing, but the floor had creaked. Having slept in this room since starting university, Katie was intimately familiar with the noises of every floorboard, and someone had trod near her dresser. Trying to shove down her fear, to not give any clue that she was aware, she concentrate...
2022-03-09 05:41:47 +0000 UTC
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Hassok, wearing my bracelet, inspected my and Cluma's new armour sets. "I could probably forge some chain mail to give additional protection to the joints, but if I attach it to the leather as-is, it would tear out in no time. We'd need to redesign the entire outfit to have proper anchor points. And if you're assuming it's a solution that wouldn't impede your movement at all, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. You'd lose maybe a quarter of your range. Better than plate, certainly, an...
2022-03-08 05:50:47 +0000 UTC
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I took a step in a direction that any compass would struggle with, but that led directly from the demon lord's lair to the fox-kin temple. I didn't particularly need to do this there, but having the priestesses around would help.
The hall was occupied only with a single priestess, praying to my shrine in silence. Her older brother was sick with something that healing magic couldn't touch. It didn't take long to locate the fox-kin in question and spot the lymphoma. Cancer. No wonder heal...
2022-03-07 06:21:08 +0000 UTC
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"What in the blazes?" exclaimed Adele, circling me and Cluma in disbelief. She lifted my arms, flexed my joints and generally poked and prodded all over before clicking her tongue. "Those were new this winter! How'd they get torn up this badly? I can't fix this with [Mend]."
"We hit floor twenty, and dire wolf leather couldn't stand up to the monsters on the lower floors, even with Grover's help."
She shook her head sadly. "There's nothing more I can do, then. You need something t...
2022-03-04 06:39:13 +0000 UTC
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A new level meant new skill options, and the knight brigade was still a minute or so away. Taking formless would be a good plan before they arrived, but what new options did I have?
Omnipotence: As you will it, so shall it be.
Omniscience: All things are known.
I dismissed the message with a sigh before trying again.
Divine will: All is as you wish it.
All-seer: All mysteries fall before your sight. All questions are answered.
Seriously?
<...
2022-03-03 06:25:29 +0000 UTC
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I gave a nod to the helpful guard as I entered the town, ambling down the street. He had no more clue what I was than anyone else, but as before, as long as I wasn't human, he didn't seem to care. I might even have got in if I was human. He hadn't seemed particularly hostile to the concept. At this point, relationships between the two lobes of the continent hadn't degraded to the point of irredeemability.
The streets were quiet, given the time of morning. Perhaps the excitement...
2022-03-02 06:08:56 +0000 UTC
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Name: Peter
Species: Human
Age: 14
Class: Eldritch Mage (Level 21/83)
Class History: [Commoner 10] [Apprentice Mage 10] [Body Mage 20] [Spatial Mage 15] [Apprentice Fighter 7]
Soul Points: 2
Health: 237/250
Stamina: 570.00/570.00
Mana: 720.00/720.00
Strength: 35(+17)
Dexterity: 37(+17)
Endurance: 36(+17)
Intelligence: 50(+17)
Wisdom: 3...
2022-03-01 06:50:23 +0000 UTC
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The schedule for March will continue with 2x unbound soul and 3x fetch quest per week until fetch quest completes halfway through the month, then switch to 3x unbound soul.
What was I supposed to do here? Should I join in on either side? I'd like to claim the conflict had nothing to do with me and reverse course before anyone noticed I was here, but it would be a lie. The black dragon only existed and travelled here because of my actions.
Which side w...
2022-02-28 06:34:33 +0000 UTC
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The schedule for March will continue with 2x unbound soul and 3x fetch quest per week until fetch quest completes halfway through the month, then switch to 3x unbound soul.
An advantage of needing to communicate by writing was that the twins could throw in an occasional picture when needed, and I found myself staring at a scribbled circle with lots of lines poking out. Not a masterpiece by any means, but enough to tell me the room I'd seen on my reconnaissance trip was...
2022-02-25 06:09:30 +0000 UTC
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They didn't hold still. Without any audible commands, the raiding party fluidly switched as one to using fatal tactics. Fireballs splashed uselessly against my scales, blades shattered and arrows bounced off harmlessly.
The bulkiest of the bandits launched a great overhead swing of a massive two-handed axe. I caught the blade with one hand, running the other through his leather armour and chest, then ripping out his heart.
"Woah. I'm pretty bad-arse!" I exclaimed, surprised I'd ac...
2022-02-24 06:13:38 +0000 UTC
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No-one asked what I was doing in the small village. The group simply knelt and waited for instructions. So I gave them some.
"Don't treat me as anyone special. Just act normal," I commanded, ignoring the contradiction. "I'm just here to repair your protective shrine."
"I... But..." stammered one of them in confusion. A group of five, none looking younger than sixty in human terms.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
Surprisingly, th...
2022-02-23 06:53:26 +0000 UTC
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ding
Working...
I was glad I'd included my eye in the impromptu biological reconnaissance drone, because [Mana Sight] was blind even when used from the inside. There was simply no mana to see. Not that eyesight was much better; the only light was an odd blue glow, and even that seemed to be fading.
"What did you just do?!" complained Cluma. "You pulled your eye out!"
"I am aware," I answered, trying to focus on moving my hand forward. [Danger Se...
2022-02-22 06:12:50 +0000 UTC
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"I suppose that explains the intensity of your arrival," muttered the dragon, insofar as anything that came out of a creature that size could be described as a mutter. "But how? You should not yet possess that knowledge. You destroyed the humans' summoning circle. They have no method by which to attempt to send you home, nor have you shown any talent in soul magic, or magic of any other form."
In reply, I stuck out an arm in a direction that didn't quite fit in the usual three spatial d...
2022-02-21 06:32:38 +0000 UTC
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For the next four days, me and Cluma trained against the white mambas of floor sixteen and the faster black mambas of floor seventeen in the Serpent Isle dungeon. We could learn from each fight, while the mambas could only build up experience within a single encounter, and we quickly came up with tactics to deal with their sensory abilities.
ding
Skill [Mighty Swing] advanced to level 9
Skill [Swift Strike] advanced to level 11
Skill [Shelter] adv...
2022-02-18 05:53:40 +0000 UTC
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It didn't take long to find another burnt village, the resulting side quest offering exactly the same set of rewards as last time and granting me another class level. Finally, it was time to go home. Full of longing to finally see my family and friends once more, to sleep in a decent bed and eat proper food, I ignored my newly available skill evolution and enhancement, and quickly brought up my list of available third class skills.
Navigator: Directions are known to you.
Cloaked:...
2022-02-17 06:19:20 +0000 UTC
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I hovered in the air, my weary wings screaming at me about their misuse, but the demon lord still hadn't budged a centimetre from where he was pinned in place. He hadn't even taken the communications orb from me, leaving me holding the damn thing. My wings really weren't built for hovering.
No, forget it. If I was going to be up stuck here for hours, I was bloody well going to make myself more comfortable. I moved forward and sat myself down cross-legged on the demon lord's sno...
2022-02-16 05:47:08 +0000 UTC
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Floor sixteen was populated by relatively small white mambas. They were never more than a metre long, but they were fast and came in large groups. Unfortunately, just like the dart snakes of floor nine, they could sense Cluma's footsteps. In fact, they were worse, because when she jumped, they always seemed able to guess the direction.
Even if they knew where she was standing, they still couldn't see her, and they failed to dodge swings of her daggers. The snakes were small enough for h...
2022-02-15 06:06:53 +0000 UTC
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I hovered somewhere below cloud level, although with all the smoke, it was getting hard to tell where the clouds actually started. They were a matching dark shade of grey, so they kinda blurred together. At least the clouds smelt better, and their colour suggested that the fires would be put out soon.
I'd stupidly thought Ortho's claims of a civil war had been an exaggeration. Yes, desperate people could do stupid things, but surely if a landed noble ordered his men to attack the damn c...
2022-02-14 06:06:28 +0000 UTC
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The boss turned out to consist of a level twenty prismatic serpent brood-mother, a pair of level fourteen prismatic serpents and ten level eight prismatic serpent spawnlings. No individual monsters stronger than the anaconda emperor we'd already beaten, but this one had backup. As with the goblin leaders back in Dawnhold, the brood-mother gave a passive buff to the others while alive. They all relied on light, but not on eyesight, covered in iridescent scales through which they could somehow ...
2022-02-11 05:34:29 +0000 UTC
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The humans were, as expected, unhappy. Nevertheless, Ortho's glare was keeping them under some semblance of control while the letter had been brought to a different building for a careful inspection.
"So, the demon lord was right in front of you, and instead of slaying the evil monster, you stopped for a chat?" exclaimed Craig incredulously.
"Yes. The demons aren't unequivocally in the wrong here. I'm not going to start killing unprovoked."
"You killed the red dragon!"
2022-02-10 06:31:01 +0000 UTC
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