For those who missed the reference, the beastkin progenitor mentioned in the weekend’s side story is Keri from A Friendly Voidling
After the initial failures, I'd lost hope in the experiment working, thinking a full person to be off limits even if my smaller body parts made valid targets, so Cluma's disappearance caught me by surprise. Surprise which turned into alarm when her collection of darkness orbs blinked out long before the spells should have expired. I immed...
2021-11-16 06:34:03 +0000 UTC
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For eliciting the sympathy of an angelica tutela, single element abilities are enhanced to span all elements.
Sympathy. Hah. I took a few steps down the staircase to the fifth floor before stopping and sitting down, waving my legs in front of me in the darkness. The guardian had spun fantastic tales of previous heroes, but all of them were... weird. In what way does the blessing to drink as much as you like without suffering a hangover the next morning help you beat mo...
2021-11-15 07:07:00 +0000 UTC
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To think I laughed at Peter when he was going through his human puberty. Apparently he found the standard Dawnhold armour design sexually attractive for some reason, so he was always staring at the floor around any female delvers. Thankfully, he's recovered now, but how hard must it have been to spend a couple of years feeling uncomfortable just by looking at the wrong people?
Alas, now it was my turn. Thank goodness I didn't need to deal with hormones like humans. At least, not until m...
2021-11-13 08:59:11 +0000 UTC
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Chapter edited to tone down Peter’s recklessness.
Since I suddenly found myself with no plans for the day, I went to visit Adele, who confirmed that yes, she was responsible, but did at least promise not to tell anyone. Not that the promise helped much; Cluma would likely spread it on her own.
Really, I didn't mind Cluma's attempt at punishment; it was funny, and I regretted nothing. That didn't mean I wanted everyone to know about it though. And, beyond that, ...
2021-11-12 06:21:59 +0000 UTC
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I mentally poked at my status, but it refused to let me pick a third class, or even display the list. There was no clue as to what the problem was, either. Was there some other condition? I don't remember doing anything special last time. Was it a question of level? The only other time I'd seen the 'locked' description was on skill slots I wasn't high enough level to use, so maybe I needed to be higher level in my other classes to pick a third?
Regardless, there was nothing I could do a...
2021-11-11 06:25:16 +0000 UTC
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The ground crunched beneath my feet, no longer plain stone, but covered in coral. Earth coral grew underwater, but I couldn't think of these things as anything else. Intricate branching shells were glued to the rock, and taking out my torch revealed an array of bright colours, despite the darkness.
A few steps in, I took to the air instead. They were too densely packed to avoid stepping on, and unlike the hairy blob thing, I deemed them worthy of continued existence. I couldn't face the...
2021-11-10 06:47:21 +0000 UTC
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I woke up back in the village, but didn't move from my bed. I had some important questions to answer first. Starting with: Did yesterday actually happen, or did I drink a particularly potent batch of Remous' brew?
I pulled a hand out from under my bedclothes, held it up, and invoked [Item Box], only for a bundle of black and white cloth to appear. This was not looking good for my 'maybe I imagined it' theory.
Cotton maid's dress (Quality: 50)
And now it was looking ...
2021-11-09 06:24:22 +0000 UTC
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Maybe if I left it alone, the fire would go out? Fire had to burn something, right? It couldn't be going like that with no fuel. Not even if it was a magical black fire left behind by a bloody dragon.
I turned my back on it and fled a short distance up the corridor. The fire was every bit as wrong as the dragon had been. Looking at it felt like my eyeballs were being gently sucked from my head. Closing my eyes helped, but I could still feel it there. Was this what the tolerance...
2021-11-08 06:16:15 +0000 UTC
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"When are you going to let me run it on my own?" complained Cluma, for the fourth day in a row. Not coincidentally, it was also the fourth day since our first run of the tenth floor with Vyre's team.
"Not yet," I replied.
"You can't make me lose the bet by not letting me into the dungeon alone!"
"I'm not going to. You'll have a day to yourself at the end of winter when I'm going to spend the day in the village for Darren's birthday. Until then, I'm going to train you as hard...
2021-11-05 06:05:23 +0000 UTC
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Bend mana advanced to level 6
Despite how awesome the description had sounded for that skill, I'd never really got much use from it. My ability to control mana was far too weak to be of use against actual mages and their creations, while the ability to use my internal mana to strengthen portions of my body never saw much use because strengthening a single part at the expense of the rest had rarely been advantageous.
I was getting use from it now though, concentrating ever...
2021-11-04 05:43:57 +0000 UTC
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Suffocation tolerance advanced to level 4
Suffocation turned out to be the winner, the queen having glued my internal wounds shut, and the petrification having only reached halfway up my limbs before my air ran out.
The mage was correct, though. The choker came with me, and I already had pins and needles in my extremities on waking.
"New fashion accessory?" asked my zombie twin. Thank goodness she was still here.
"Queeny netted me out of the air. Turns out she...
2021-11-03 05:42:31 +0000 UTC
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Zalkri grit his teeth, gasping for breath. Tears formed at the edges of his eyes as I forced mana into him. "Stop!" he yelled, after only fifty seconds, collapsing to the ground the moment I cut off the flows of mana. He managed to roll onto his back, where he lay panting.
At least that was twenty seconds longer than Bluvre had lasted. He was out cold on the floor, with only an occasional twitch to show that he was still alive.
"Wimps," laughed Cluma, whose overuse of her death ma...
2021-11-02 06:31:50 +0000 UTC
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We've just ended BST here in the UK, so release times will shift by an hour. I'm still aiming for 6AM releases, give or take an hour.
Sense danger advanced to level 6
I ducked an attack from behind, a volley of spines fired from the twin tails of a six-legged daemonium spina, then brought out a pair of shields to defend against another pair of volleys from the sides. That left me unable to do anything about a fourth attack from the front, and a half doze...
2021-11-01 05:47:58 +0000 UTC
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November's release schedule will be unchanged from this month, with 2x unbound soul and 3x fetch quest.
I tightened my grip on my sword-staff as the goblin assassin silently approached Cluma from behind. She hadn't given any visible indication that she knew he was there. I probably didn't need to do anything; once he actually attacked, [Threat Perception] would alert her to his presence even if [Monster Perception] failed, and even if it didn't, her overpowere...
2021-10-29 05:36:16 +0000 UTC
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I poked at a dinner-plate sized fragment of chitin with my spear in an attempt to dislodge it from where it had become embedded in the ceiling. Unlike the walls, it turned out not to be completely indestructible, and while the shrine's autocleaning functionality had tidied up most of the resulting mess of the Katie bomb, the fractured chitin chunks and some of the larger remaining pieces of charred flesh remained.
My zombie twin would no doubt lament the loss of the brain, but it had al...
2021-10-28 05:13:45 +0000 UTC
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A bright white flash surrounded me, and it took a moment to remember I was wearing my necklace of shielding. I really needed to keep better track of my magical items. Had it been a full day since I'd looted it? I suppose that I'd left it on for enough of my recent deaths that a day must have passed for it, even if not for me.
I flamethrowered the three before they had a chance to react to their failed surprise attack, then turned back to the pod.
"So, you were just playing silent ...
2021-10-27 05:24:02 +0000 UTC
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"Umm..." I started, but my words utterly failed me. The heck? The cute and hyperactive hugger was using death magic? To be fair, it wasn't as if death magic had a bad reputation. It didn't have any reputation; I'd never seen anyone using it before! Perhaps I was just acting off my Earth biases, but my experience in the Emerald Caverns had done nothing to rid me of them.
"What? Are you jealous because you have no offensive spells?"
"I just... never imagined you using death...
2021-10-26 04:56:23 +0000 UTC
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"Fuck!" I yelled, back in the safety of the catacombs. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
A couple of patrolling zombies peered at me strangely, but I really couldn't be arsed right now. Even if my zombie twin was watching through their eyes, I needed to vent.
I don't surrender while I still have moves left to make! I don't give in! If it hadn't been for that final taunt by the bloody tree... I'd have just lay there, letting myself be absorbed. And worse, I'd have enjoyed
2021-10-25 05:13:40 +0000 UTC
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After spending an entire night in which I wasn't surprise-hugged by Cluma once, I teleported back to Dawnhold. Given the delay to the day's delving activities, I would have preferred to take the time to walk, but there was a white-out blizzard going on. It still amazed me that we lived in what were utterly uninsulated wooden shacks with no real foundations, but could completely disregard winter weather that back on Earth would have the government issuing weather warnings. I'd never once seen ...
2021-10-22 04:56:21 +0000 UTC
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Disease immunity advanced to level 40
Another two doses of liquid blight, and my disease immunity capped. It seemed that despite the skill names, there was no quantity of levels that would actually render me completely immune to anything, but as long as I didn't drink great gulps of the black viscous fluid, the blight wouldn't harm me any more. Hopefully, the same would be true of the ostentatiously named guidance.
In her eternal quest to eat as many Katie brains as possi...
2021-10-21 05:16:05 +0000 UTC
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When I woke back up at the shrine, I found myself surrounded by zombies. In perfect synchronisation, they pointed at me, then emitted a single, "Ha ha."
I bet dupliKatie had been practising her control over them for precisely that moment. With a huff, I got back up and made my way to the throne room, ignoring the spectating blighted husks. "Was that necessary?" I complained at her.
"Nope," she answered happily. "So, how many levels of heat resistance do you think you need to be ab...
2021-10-20 04:57:42 +0000 UTC
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The third floor boss was a bit of a crowd, with the lieutenant and his fifteen lackeys. Taking a deep breath, Cluma closed her eyes and then ran for the lieutenant. I'd already explained that the commander-type monsters buffed their subordinates simply by existing, and so Cluma had come to the conclusion that she should take out the leader first.
The stone throwers could get going faster than archers, needing only to pull a stone from their pouch and throw it, so Cluma was pelted by fiv...
2021-10-19 04:57:19 +0000 UTC
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Disease immunity advanced to level 31
I woke up at the catacombs' shrine, shuddering at the memories. Okay, I take back my previous comment about my zombie twin being better, but interfacing directly with my nerves and brain was downright cheating. But despite the mind blank, there was no way that had been half an hour. I wasn't at all lucid by the end, but I was pretty sure I'd had a heart attack. The tree had literally pleasured me to death, just to show me what my reward wou...
2021-10-18 05:13:32 +0000 UTC
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"Why?" she asked, eventually.
"When I came in just now, you immediately noticed, even though you weren't looking at me. Could you explain how?"
"I heard you. I didn't know it was you though, just that someone had walked in, so I had to look to see who it was. But what has that got to do with anything?"
"Then why didn't you hear the goblin behind you yesterday? He wasn't any quieter than I was, and was a lot closer."
Cluma's ears flinched sideways in embarrassment. "I w...
2021-10-15 05:13:29 +0000 UTC
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Content warning: Rapey tree is rapey. If that's not what you want to read, skip the final two paragraphs.
Sense danger advanced to level 5
I followed the advice of my skill and took a step to the side, just as a crystal arrow shattered against the ground where I'd previously been standing. Our group of guards had spears only, and couldn't fight back, reduced to defending themselves against the storm of arrows. To be fair, they were doing every bit as wel...
2021-10-14 05:09:25 +0000 UTC
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I wasn't panicking, but only because friend of fear wouldn't let me. I should have been. My own armour had turned against me, threaded through with vines under something else's control. Something that could perceive me, and react to my attempts to remove it. Respawning wouldn't help, nor would my other skills. It was letting me move around normally as long as I made no attempt to free myself, but I suspected the only reason for that was to give the vines a chance to grow. If the existing vine...
2021-10-13 05:03:11 +0000 UTC
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I watched from around a corner while Cluma demolished another group of goblin champions. Two went down at once, each clutching at their throats, then she stepped towards the other two, who were looking around in confusion. At that point, things did go slightly wrong, when she stepped on a pressure plate which must have escaped her [Trap Perception]. I saw the bolt flying at her from behind, but she twisted and dodged with grace, despite not even looking, and the dart embedded itself ...
2021-10-12 05:31:35 +0000 UTC
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"Are you... well?" asked my guide, with obvious concern. Or maybe fear? I think he was more worried that I was infectious than he was I was going to keel over and die.
Wait... I'd just used 'he' instead of 'it'. It was suddenly so obvious that he was male. And I could see two females and two males behind him. And all this time, I thought they were naked! They were wearing... So bright... I turned away again, feeling another bout of nausea.
"I'm okay. It's just a sensory o...
2021-10-11 05:16:33 +0000 UTC
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Darren had switched his class to [Artist] at some point during Cluma's party without even telling anyone, although I did manage to confirm from him that [Apprentice Mage] hadn't appeared as an option. He had a skill that let him subtly shift the colours of paints and inks as he used them, and another for erasing parts of a canvas or paper or whatever else he happened to be drawing on. Useful for him, but not of great interest to me, so I lost my enthusiasm and returned to other matters.
2021-10-08 05:08:37 +0000 UTC
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Earth magic tolerance advanced to level 2
Blunt damage tolerance advanced to level 2
At least I was getting skill levels for being knocked out all the time. Where was I now? All my limbs were still attached, so I was being treated better than last time. Not that I could move them; they were firmly tied down to whatever I was lying on, by cold, rigid bonds. They had no give at all, and I was definitely going to need to subtract points from this bondage experience for the lack...
2021-10-07 05:09:14 +0000 UTC
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