New skill gained: Earth magic tolerance
While the earthen class of magic is better suited for defence than attack, no-one would deny that a giant rock to the face is going to hurt. This skill will offer a small amount of protection from earth-magic powered assaults.
New skill gained: Blunt damage tolerance
Clubs, war-hammers, staves or even a fist, plenty of weapons work by subjecting their target to sudden, overwhelming momentum. This skill will allow you to absorb a...
2021-10-06 05:19:15 +0000 UTC
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On Cluma's birthday, the weather was poor but not horrific; cold and snowing, without being a complete white-out. It was better than when they'd carried me to Dawnhold. Normally, they wouldn't have tried to travel, leaving me to teleport on my own, but with the experience of having done it once out of necessity, doing it a second time in better conditions wasn't so much of a leap.
Besides, Darren enjoyed playing the role of a flamethrower.
I'd scrubbed up hard enough to leave my s...
2021-10-05 05:20:51 +0000 UTC
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Making my way back to my pair of corpses, ignoring my zombie twin's hysterics on the way, I carefully avoided the slimes and picked up my dropped chunk of shell and torch. They win this round, but as soon as I found a way of actually hurting the things, I was coming back for my revenge!
My first corpse had been completely picked clean, and only bones remained. The slime had gone, presumably returned to the ceiling, so its corrosion had limits. Either it couldn't dissolve them, or it wou...
2021-10-04 05:32:54 +0000 UTC
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After another day in hospital in case of relapse, I was allowed to depart. They still had no idea what had been wrong with me, and I couldn't tell them, but waiting another day was a sensible precaution regardless. I was cheating the distance restrictions, and if that was going to cause problems, it was best to find out while I was still in Synklisi. Even so, I left a chunk of toe in the guild in case I found myself needing to jump back in a hurry, happy to find they had a dedicated teleport ...
2021-10-01 04:29:56 +0000 UTC
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It's not October yet, but have more fetch quest anyway.
The staircase down started off neat, with sharp, square edges, even steps and flat surfaces. There were even a few more torches burning black. That soon ended, though, and surfaces changed from stone slabs to natural rock, the steps uneven, damp, slippery and treacherous, and the light faded to nothing. Well, 'light' was the wrong word, but 'dark' was ambiguous and confusing. The inverted light cast by the black t...
2021-09-30 05:00:30 +0000 UTC
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When was it that I first noticed? Walking past the catacombs' entrance, as I had hundreds of times before, the chilling breeze blowing from below led me to ask the question I had never before thought to ask: What idiot thought it was a good idea to build 'doors' that didn't close?
Dru'niryeal didn't know; the building predated all of us, and no-one had preserved the knowledge. Then another question. Why hadn't we considered replacing them?
Dru'niryeal hadn't ever thought of that, ...
2021-09-29 05:08:31 +0000 UTC
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I woke up feeling refreshed and raring to go. After my last few lethargy filled awakenings, it was a pleasant experience. I was also rather comfortable and seemed to be on a proper mattress instead of a sack full of hay. Not to mention having something warm wrapped around me, like a soft and squishy duvet.
...A duvet that also happened to be a suspicious transparent blue, with a golden orb resting on my stomach.
"What the hell, Elanor?" I muttered. "Why are you... I don't even kno...
2021-09-28 05:00:23 +0000 UTC
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I’ve rebuilt my backlog, so the October schedule will be 2x unbound soul and 3x fetch quest. There will be a fetch quest side story later this week too.
Every exit was open, but there wasn't a single zombie in sight. Perfect for me, but it made me suspicious. What was the intelligence controlling the place planning this time? How intelligent was that intelligence? Was it operating on instinct, or was it sapient? Maybe it had run out of zombies, and didn't kn...
2021-09-27 04:47:39 +0000 UTC
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"All of his pools are full, but he's obviously not properly healed. You can tell how much pain he's in from his face."
Huh, had someone else arrived in the room? I opened my eyes a fraction, but it was too bright. Did I fall asleep at some point despite my efforts not to?
"Peter! Are you awake?!" exclaimed mum.
"Loud..." I muttered. The headache had faded a little more, but now my whole body was aching. Or maybe it had been aching before, and the headache had been bad enough...
2021-09-24 04:47:25 +0000 UTC
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"You can't," answered the slime simply, shifting away from her usual frivolousness as if I'd flipped a switch. "Don't mess with soul magic. Nothing you can do with it is worth the cost."
"But I don't want to use soul magic. I want to protect them from soul magic."
"The Law is already a fundamental part of this world. Being bound by it is the natural state of all sapient beings. To protect someone from it is to use soul magic."
"But they're already ...
2021-09-21 05:08:53 +0000 UTC
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He didn't need to tell me twice, so I fled, running down the stairs, which were now easily visible with the defensive wall gone. The de-limbed fox-kin was swearing his head off, but didn't seem to have any way of stopping me. The other couple of guards looked conflicted, and novice empath was picking up pure existential terror, but it wasn't entirely directed at me. A small amount of it was, though, or I'd have thought they were worried about what Mru'walyn would do to them for letting me go....
2021-09-20 04:48:57 +0000 UTC
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A few days later, I teleported back to the Sapphire Peaks, but instead of entering Tirrani's home, I jumped off the cliff, hoping I could manage a better landing without having to keep a watch on Cluma.
I cast [Dexterity] and made an attempt at doing some stunts. Hopefully, no-one was watching, because I was crap. Maybe with a few years of practice, maybe, I'd be able to do a tenth of whatever the hell Cluma did. What was with that, anyway? Why'd she pick acrobatics as the thin...
2021-09-17 04:57:55 +0000 UTC
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No doubt the institute could have built a functional still faster than a bunch of farmers. A bunch of very enthusiastic farmers, admittedly. One of whom had run to fetch Remous ten minutes into the conversation, who had started sketching out diagrams the moment he was brought up to speed. The difference may not be as great as I'd assumed...
Given that it was winter and below freezing outdoors, even freeze distillation was viable, and when I explained the concept behind that, I ...
2021-09-14 04:48:05 +0000 UTC
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Darren was outside, playing with the other kids, and dad was busy with the harvest, which left mum alone in the house. My perfect opportunity.
"Mum, while we were out last week, Cluma mentioned being surprised that you weren't... umm... matchmaking."
Mum winced. It wasn't an expression I saw often on her. "We assumed you wouldn't want us to, what with you... you know."
"No, I agree completely. I just wanted to know what was normal."
It wasn't actually very int...
2021-09-10 05:02:29 +0000 UTC
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I tried to ignore my stinging nose as we crossed the portal to Dawnhold. With my regeneration bonuses, it had stopped bleeding quickly enough, but I was still concerned it was broken. I needed to stop by the hospital for a quick [Heal].
"Oh, Peter," called the receptionist as we were leaving the building. "Grover wanted to see you."
"Thanks," I responded, wondering if he managed to convince mum to lend him Darren. Lord Reid would want a debrief too... Despite wanting to get back, ...
2021-09-07 05:38:05 +0000 UTC
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"What in the abyss is that?" exclaimed Si'janrii, peering at the almost naked humanoid walking towards the checkpoint. It looked kinda like a proper person, but the ears and tail were missing. Not to mention the clothing, if it could be called that. It seemed better suited to drawing attention to the exposed features than actually providing any coverage, and did nothing whatsoever to provide any modesty. Not that the creature seemed to care, judging from its seductive swagger. The lack of any...
2021-08-16 05:31:25 +0000 UTC
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I peered into my wardrobe with a smile, wondering what to wear. Given the bright morning sun outside, a thin dress seemed suitable. Now then, what style and shade of green would suit me today? Short-sleeved and mint coloured, perhaps?
'Something warmer,' whispered the wind, blowing in through an open window. 'Something drier.'
I looked out of the window at the cloudless, blue sky and shrugged. The wind would know the weather better than I did, being up in the air...
2021-08-13 05:17:05 +0000 UTC
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As voted on discord, today's chapter slot goes to Cluma, albeit with a slightly lower hug quotient than normal.
"Don't you dare think you're the only one prepared to put yourself in harm's way for the sake of those you care about, and don't you ever be so arrogant as to think you're the only one allowed to."
I pulled my ear away from the wall, not wanting to hear Peter's cold voice any longer. Yes, daddy was being unfair, but so was Peter! I kne...
2021-06-16 05:27:15 +0000 UTC
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Attached is the full text of 'An Unwilling Monster' in pdf and epub forms, for anyone who prefers that to reading on royalroad. There's no new content in this version.
This is a different sort of story to unbound soul - while it ends fluffy, it starts off dark, and with a non-zero amount of body horror. This story does sorta tie in to unbound soul, and bonus story 1 is an Erryn POV chapt...
2021-05-09 07:50:09 +0000 UTC
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I opened my eyes to the light of dawn, sitting up in my bed. I was Vargalas, an elf of the Emerald Sea, and an [Alchemist] by trade. This was my bedroom, built high in the branches of the towering Lehibe tree I shared with a hundred others. The air sung with the comforting melodic tunes of flowing mana, and the scents of spring filled the room. I stood up and took in the view from my window, a sea of green below stretching over the horizon. For quite some time I did nothing but stand there an...
2021-05-07 05:18:30 +0000 UTC
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This one is a bit off-tone compared to most of the story. It actually started life as an april fools chapter, to answer the question of 'how short would the story have been if Peter was born evil?' I modified it into Daniel's backstory, but there's nothing plot relevent in here that wasn't in chapter 81 or the interlude, so can be skipped if it's not your thing.
Life was unfair. It had always been unfair; from the moment I was born, I had to make do with my br...
2021-05-07 05:17:36 +0000 UTC
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Since I'm posting side stories today, might as well include this one too. It's an extended version of Angus' piece from chapter 28. Includes Angus' backstory, and hence unpleasentness.
Our party of five moved slowly down the sixth floor corridor, with me out in front pointing out traps, doing my best to tune out the noise of our leader's clanking armour while listening for any wolves ahead. Even though we were all rank two now, these wolves posed a significant dang...
2021-04-04 11:41:24 +0000 UTC
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The second of the two side stories for April.
"Ahhhhh!!!" screamed Freya. "Get it off! Get it off!!! GET IT OFF!!!"
Noah picked off the harmless grass snake from her shoulder and flicked it into the bushes, while Robin and Jared did their best to suppress their laughter. Not for the first time, I considered that maybe I had made a mistake coming here. I had viewed it as a twenty floor dungeon that had reasonable compatibility with our party composition, ...
2021-04-04 04:41:54 +0000 UTC
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This is the first of the two side stories for April. Both of these will be in the next e-book too.
From the day I was born, I've lived on the street of delvers, my window looking out onto the protective wall which gives Dawnhold the second half of its name. Despite our location, my parents are neither delvers themselves, nor do they work at the guild or store. We inherited this house from my grandfather, who is a powerful warrior, but grew too strong for our low-level ...
2021-04-04 04:40:29 +0000 UTC
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"Peter, since you have [Dismantling], grab the core from that dire wolf. Don't bother with the skin. It's too bulky to carry with us."
I didn't think I could skin the dire wolf even if he wanted me too, at least not while keeping it in good condition. I looked at the corpse and I knew where the core was and the easiest route to extract it, but I had only vague ideas about how to remove the skin. I used the knowledge the skill had dripped into my head and cut out the core.
2021-03-30 06:00:03 +0000 UTC
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This is the last of the bonus Sunday chapters, and I'll be dropping back to two chapters per week for April. April will however contain the next e-book, and a couple of side stories.
Back in my dorm, I stripped off my perfectly repaired armour and looked at my perfectly repaired body underneath. After removing the bandages and cleaning off the dried blood, I couldn't find a single mark on me. [Heal] can't possibly just accelerate natural healing or I'd have had a nasty...
2021-03-28 05:00:59 +0000 UTC
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Despite the massive step up in level, I couldn't see this boss as being tougher than the previous one. It was strong, for sure. Stronger than me even with my [Strength], but with [Dexterity] I knew I was faster than it. It had the same tree branch weapon as the last one, so I knew what attacks to expect. On the other hand, my stats and skills had increased, and I had better equipment. The true strength of the previous boss had been in teamwork. Also intelligence, if I was honest; seeing a sin...
2021-03-26 06:00:02 +0000 UTC
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To avoid building up hundreds of posts on patreon, and to reduce the number of places I have to make corrections, I delete old posts that are available freely on royalroad. Since it's not obvious where the extra side stories have gone, I'll maintain a list of them here.
A Lonely Dungeon Includes the patreon side storys, '2021-03-25 06:42:51 +0000 UTC
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"Wuh... What?" Noah stammered. "You can't be serious!"
This was getting scary, but this was the path I chose and I wasn't going to back down now. I ignored Noah and started walking towards the arena. Xander hadn't asked about strategy, so my usual one would suffice. [Far Step] to take out their ranged support, then a melee. Once again I charged and activated my buffs, but having learnt from last time I didn't immediately [Far Step]. As I stepped into the arena, I waited for the fighters...
2021-03-23 06:00:01 +0000 UTC
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The third floor boss doors stood open. If the previous pattern were to be repeated there should be a level five boss and pair of level four mobs, but on stepping in I saw far more than three enemies. Enough that I didn't even want to waste the mana appraising them all. At the front was a level five goblin lieutenant, my height and with a heavier build than any previous goblin. He wore scrap armour like the fighters, but with a better construction that did a far better impression of plate mail...
2021-03-21 06:01:01 +0000 UTC
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