Arwin finished Anna’s new armor in just about four days of work. With Vix and Wallace backing him up, it turned out to be a fairly straightforward project. The hardest part had probably been ensuring Vix got a good feeling for what they were doing so that she wouldn’t have any surprises when they started work on her heart.
The relative ease of the armor had absolutely nothing to do with its very impressive capabilities. Arwin hadn’t used the original Bleak Wind chestplate that he...
2025-11-18 16:00:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Arwin set the sleek chestplate of black metal down. He referenced the blueprint hanging on the far end of the Infernal Armory’s walls once more, then nodded slightly to himself. Everything was on track.
“How is it?” Vix asked nervously from his side. “Did we make it correctly? I didn’t mess anything up?”
“You did perfectly fine,” Wallace said gruffly from Arwin’s other side. “Probably a fair bit better than that damned Lich. You should do this more often.”
2025-11-17 17:04:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Octavian blew out a weary breath. This was not how he’d seen this mission going. And that was saying quite a bit. He’d expected things to transform into a bit of a nightmare as the Tournament grew closer.
Inviting a number of Obsidia’s most powerful and dangerous warriors to the same place was never going to be a simple task. Some damage was expected. He had been a much younger man when the previous Tournament had been held in the Empire of Man. Octavian hadn’t gone himself, but...
2025-11-17 17:03:49 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex sat with his legs crossed beneath him and the pressure of the Cultivation Array bearing down on him incessantly. Droplets of sweat rolled down the sides of his neck and his teeth clenched tight enough to bite into a bar of steel.
Some part of him had been convinced that he’d eventually get used to the Cultivation Array. That was how it tended to work in just about every other aspect of life. There wouldn’t be much point training if that wasn’t the case. If someone practiced r...
2025-11-17 17:01:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Who?” Alex asked, blinking in surprise. “Hazel?”
“Of… House Crimson?” Claire coughed into her fist. “You can’t be serious. She’s from the Outworlder Family we robbed? Multiple times, I might add?”
“Do you think she figured out that we’re not too friendly with Crimson right about now?” Alex asked with a snicker. “That’s hilarious. I can’t believe she’s with Brandon. I think that dude might hate our guts more than anyone else on the enti...
2025-11-16 15:59:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
It took Alex just about two hours to condense all the magical power into water in his basin and drain it entirely. He spent every single drop of the energy empowering his Mind Palace.
Curiously enough, he didn’t trigger a falling star this time around. Perhaps more energy was needed every single time one of them fell. That would align with just about everything else he’d seen under System thus far.
But even without that, Alex’s results weren’t insignificant. Th...
2025-11-14 16:00:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
The next two days slipped by so fast that Arwin barely even had a chance to realize that they’d gone by. He barely had any free time to himself. Just about every single second he — and the rest of the Menagerie — had was spent on preparing for the auction.
Anticipation hung in the air like static charge all around the Menagerie’s street. The arrival of the Dwarven Council’s puppet guild had only added fuel to the fire. Rumors filled the common room of the Devil’s Den as more...
2025-11-14 07:49:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
Noah’s eyes snapped open to find his mouth watering. The smell of cooked crab had filled the air with such an intensity that he could literally taste it. It was joined by the faint crackle and warmth of a fire at his back.
He turned.
Lee sat behind him, holding a massive crab leg easily twice her height over the fire with one hand. The husks of several hollowed-out legs were strewn about behind her. She’d made short work of the monster.
Holy shit. How long was I out?...
2025-11-13 15:58:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
Lillia let out a slow, measured breath. She leaned back on her bed, pulling her knees up to her chest as she let the blanket of ever-present darkness in her room envelop her. It had been a few days since the Mausoleum had been completed.
Everyone was hard at work with their own projects. Arwin spent much of his time in the Infernal Armory, continuing his preparations for Anna’s armor. Vix and Wallace occasionally joined him. Madiv had emerged once or twice to confirm he was alive, but...
2025-11-13 15:58:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
No sound emerged from within the Mausoleum after Madiv entered it. There weren’t any more earthquakes or surprise tremors either. As far as Arwin was concerned, that was a good sign. It gave the Menagerie time to herd the thin crowd of watching adventurers away from the street and back to their homes.
Nobody put up much argument. When it became clear that the building’s antics seemed to be done for the night and there were new rumors to spread, everyone departed rather quickly. It w...
2025-11-12 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Note, some small tweaks to the previous chapter to address the volcano rune stuff
------
“Okay,” Lee said, looking down at the remains of what had once been a crab the size of a small mansion. Its legs had been strewn about the lazy river gurgling off to their side and the smell of fresh seafood permeated the air to such an intense degree that Noah could practically taste it. “What else do you need?”
“Honestly?” Noah tilted his head to the side. “I don’t thin...
2025-11-12 16:00:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex spent just around thirty minutes in the Cultivation Array. He didn’t want to go knocking himself out again, but the effects of the building were incredible. It was like the world’s most effective acupuncture.
There was absolutely nothing comfortable about the experience. Guiding the magic into his body to fix up the imperfections and impurities that were practically riddling every aspect of his physical being was incredibly painful.
Kicking a bee hive and sitting down to ...
2025-11-12 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Lava,” Noah muttered to himself. “I am lava.”
The massive expanse of his mindspace stretched out all around him, an audience of runes watching on in rapt attention. They didn’t really have much choice. It wasn’t like they could go anywhere.
Noah tried not to think too much about them. Becoming lava was not a very simple task. He had no idea how those television yoga teachers back on Earth had managed to envision themselves becoming so many different things.
...
2025-11-11 16:00:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Loud cracks echoed through the Auction House around Arwin. He staggered as huge cracks split through the ground, racing across the stone faster than his eyes could follow them. It took everything he had to keep his balance in the face of the immense tremors shaking the earth under his feet.
What the hell is happening?
Arwin grabbed Lillia and Olive, pulling both of them closer to him as the magical magma pumping through his veins started to heat.
Debris rained down ...
2025-11-11 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
“We have bigger problems than Dorne,” Rodrick said. He interlaced his fingers on the table and leaned back in his chair. “Well. Not problems. But Dorne won’t be one from here on out. So we can focus on the things that actually interest us… such as figuring out who the next person to Sunset should be. That is… assuming Eleven is going to be taking someone else?”
That got everyone’s attention pretty quickly. Everyone turned to look at Koyu. The tall lich paused, clearly so...
2025-11-11 16:00:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
“The Empty Court?” Finley’s eyes went wide. “What do they have to do with anything? How do you even know who they are?”
“Long story,” Alex said. He banished his bone mask and tuxedo back into the ring on his finger with a thought, revealing his face for the first time since entering the Ancestry so he could run a hand through his hair. Pieces of the puzzle were finally clicking into place. “Do the Empty Court have access to this guild, Finley?”
“I… yes. They ...
2025-11-10 16:00:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Menagerie waited until evening had fallen to act. As much as they wanted to keep things moving, awakening a building while their street was stuffed chock full of adventurers was just asking for something to go wrong. There were too many ways that a fight could accidentally go sideways and drag their customers into it.
That was the last thing any of them wanted, and the wait wasn’t all that long anyway. It only took a few more hours before day passed and night took its place. Arwin...
2025-11-10 16:00:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Noah had never been more thankful to have Sunder.
That was, perhaps, a slight exaggeration. There had definitely been a few times where Sunder had bailed his ass out of a fire that nothing else could have saved him. But getting new runes without the presence of his original Master Rune would have been beyond infuriating. That went doubly so when since he didn’t currently have Grim to help store things.
Being able to carve a monster’s runes apart and slice them apart to pull fr...
2025-11-10 16:00:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Is the message finished?” Claire asked, watching Alex’s face expectantly.
“Yes,” Alex said. His voice sounded slightly distant to his own ears. Something about that whole interaction had been even odder than he’d expected. It wasn’t even just that Teddy had somehow been able to know things that he shouldn’t have any method of knowing. Some part of Alex just… hadn’t actually expected to ever see Teddy again.
“Then I feel like I might be remiss in informing yo...
2025-11-09 16:00:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Teddy,” Alex said through clenched teeth. He knew Teddy couldn’t hear him, but he couldn’t help himself. It felt like it had been years since the last time he’d seen his former best friend. But, unsurprisingly, Teddy looked exactly the same as he always had. That was somehow rather infuriating. The entire world had changed, but he had somehow managed to remain exactly the same.
“I bet you’ve got some questions,” Teddy said. He sat down on an invisible chair before leani...
2025-11-07 16:00:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
We're now caught up. Cheers!
-----
Arwin strode down the street behind Koyu, his weariness falling away like the rotting petals of a flower as anger sharpened his mind. They’d left the rest of the Menagerie that had been with them in the Infernal Armory behind to keep an eye on Vix.
For a single, frozen dwarf, the two of them were more than enough.
It was taking just about everything Arwin had to keep up with Koyu. That wasn’t just because he’d spent a lot of his...
2025-11-07 16:00:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
Octavian stood in stunned disbelief for nearly a minute. The man’s domain swept over the room in a dozen different ways as he tried to trace Moxie. He kicked the pile of dirt and bone where she’d once been in search of the faintest clues and scoured his surroundings for anything at all.
It was completely pointless. His efforts turned up nothing. There was no trace of Moxie remaining. No lingering magic nor some hidden trapdoor or cleverly created physical escape plan. There was simp...
2025-11-06 16:00:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Arwin let Caldera lower as he looked upon the results of his work. It would be impossible to tell just how successful he’d been until he installed everything, but as far as he could tell, he’d been successful. The pieces to awaken the Auction House were complete.
He banished his hammer and wiped the sweat from his brow. As far as Arwin could tell, it hadn’t even taken more than an hour or two to complete his task. That wasn’t to say the quality had been impacted in the slightest...
2025-11-06 16:00:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Death mage?” Moxie asked, tilting her head to the side. She didn’t let her gaze break away from the tattooed man standing at the base of the stairs a few dozen paces away from her. “The way you phrased that makes it feel like an accusation.”
“Not an accusation,” the man said. He didn’t make any moves to approach her. “Simply an observation. The scent of your magic is strikingly easy to follow when there are no conflicting energies. There hasn’t been large-scale deat...
2025-11-05 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex froze.
Orchid’s words echoed in his ears, but it took his brain several seconds longer to actually try to process their meaning. It failed. Some part of him was convinced that he’d completely misheard whatever she’d just said.
Claire caught onto his unease instantly. Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted slightly to the side as her gaze flicked from Alex to Orchid.
“Alex?” Claire asked.
“Who?” Alex asked. “Who did you say sent the letter?”
...
2025-11-05 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thane was having a little trouble figuring out how he was meant to transport an unconscious body. Dragging the man straight through the street wasn’t going to work. Too many people would notice. And, worse some of them would poke their noses into the alleyway to find the slaughtered remains of the man’s companions. The last thing he wanted to do was damage the Menagerie’s reputation with some manner of scandal.
And he knew a fair bit about those. They tended to be the most popular...
2025-11-05 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Song filled Arwin’s mind. Layers upon layers of magic wove through every level of his being. The Infernal Armory’s presence connected him to the others and pumped all of them full of magical energy to ensure they wouldn’t run short during the operation.
Vix laid on the obsidian platform between him and Wallace, her chest cut open and a gaping wound leading straight down to her still-beating heart. Beside her rested a metal contraption that had taken all of them the better part of ...
2025-11-05 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
There were just about two weeks left until the tournament. Noah and Lee traveled quite the distance. They were certainly getting closer to Aqua Terra. It might not have been entirely accurate to say they were on a straight path to it, but they weren’t completely lost either.
The two of them had passed by several other cities and fought a number of monsters along the way. None had been particularly interesting. The fights had been a good opportunity for Noah to practice working with hi...
2025-11-04 16:00:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thane kept his hand on Vireth’s hilt, his eyes narrow. The alleyway was just deep enough that they were out of sight of the crowd. But no matter if anyone could see them or not, the sound of a fight wasn’t exactly that easy to conceal. There wasn’t even a reason to let things get as far as a fight.
Sorry, Vireth.
“Help!” Thane yelled. “We’ve got some people trying to stir trouble!”
The men laughed. None of them looked even slightly concerned.
...
2025-11-04 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
A droplet of water splashed against the back of Seleth’s neck. She nearly leapt a foot into the air, biting down on a surprised yelp a moment before it could leave her mouth. What emerged ended up being more of a strangled whimpering hiss.
She glanced up at the ceiling of the massive cave. Stalactites riddled it like pox, the water dripping from their tips pattering down all around like a slow rain. Seleth swallowed and forced her attention back to the small demon leading the way befo...
2025-11-03 16:00:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
