Vin’s creation of Mage Hand had actually given him the experience needed to reach level 46, and seeing as his endurance, magic, and focus were all above 70 at this point, he decided now was as good a time as ever to start trying to keep his other attributes from lagging too far behind. Dropping all three of his free points into dexterity to raise it to 29, he closed his interface as he reached the end of the man-made dungeon.
Standing behind the closed door, he cast <...
2026-01-23 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Vin’s eyes flew open, and he gasped as he rocketed up off the rough cot he was sleeping on. The events leading up to him getting knocked unconscious came back to him in an instant, and he felt at the back of his head. To his surprise, there wasn’t even so much as a knot where he’d been struck.
Grunch is an Arbiter… he probably has some sort of nonlethal strike ability, just like Abby and her guards. That would explain why my boon didn’t trigger, seeing as it only blocks at...
2026-01-22 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Unfortunately, even after all the effort they put into taking it down, the beaver didn’t really have any skills either of them were interested in. Rather than the Grade 22 magical beast they’d been hoping for, the beaver ended up only being Grade 18. On top of which, it was also the first three-way gem split they’d encountered so far. Inside its large body, Taylor found a Grade 8 gem with something to do with bones, a Grade 6 gem that would enhance teeth, and a Grade 4 gem that held a s...
2026-01-22 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Asher stared at Wilna, struggling to comprehend what she’d just told him. A part of him had entertained the idea that he’d potentially live forever from his Eternal Regeneration constantly working in the background as a passive skill, but not aging? At all?
His mind briefly went to the future and what this meant for him. All of the new friends he’d made upon this world would continue to grow older and live their lives, leaving him behind. His dreams of growing old with Saman...
2026-01-22 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Vin wasn’t sure exactly what he was expecting after learning that the rankers’ king was the strongest of all of them, but he certainly wasn’t disappointed by the man he found waiting for him beyond the gilded door.
Standing a full head above him, the king was a large, muscle-packed man with greenish-tinted skin that spoke of orc descent and a body covered in scars. He stood at the end of a small chamber beside a throne, currently going through what looked like some sort of advance...
2026-01-21 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Following their surprise encounter with the camouflaged spider, Leo and Taylor were even more cautious as they navigated around the gigantic trees. It didn’t help that the colossal plane ended up being filled with countless species of regular wildlife as well, causing the two of them to flinch and think they were under attack on more than one occasion when it was nothing more than a harmless critter foraging nearby in the brush. As they walked, Leo jotted down the rough path they were takin...
2026-01-21 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Asher ended up spending most of the evening chatting with Rosh. Not only was it nice getting the chance to catch up with his old friend, Rosh proved to be quite the font of information. While everything he shared was in fact related to logistics in one way or another, the former professor proved that he truly did know a lot about how the inner workings of each city in the Noala Kingdom.
Asher supposed when one taught at a military academy, it was important to be able to instruct student...
2026-01-21 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Unlike cultivating from magical beast gems, where trying to take in all that concentrated power was a death sentence for gems more than one or two Grades higher than a person’s soul rank, absorbing the ambient power in the air that came from a magical beast’s corpse was a different story. They could limit the amount of power that was sucked into their souls if they concentrated, which meant Leo was able to teeter along that dangerous line of nearly having too much power within hi...
2026-01-20 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Vin spun around, his golem arm already flaring blue and ready to defend against whatever surprise attack was in store for him. Yet rather than an assassin with a knife ready to stab into his back, his eyes found a thin beastkin with a mischievous mirth in her eyes as she hopped back a few steps.
“Woah, there, no need for that!” she laughed, leaning on her staff as she grinned at him. “It’s just some friendly fun between mages, no need for the tier 9 response!”
Vin stared...
2026-01-20 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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The sight of Furora spread out across the plains with the setting sun lighting it up from behind was almost picturesque, and Asher enjoyed getting to see the city in such a way as Samantha slowly brought them down to the ground. Not only was the city utterly massive, stretching from practically one end of the horizon to the next, the fields not only surrounding the city, but going through the city, were just as large.
From what he could tell, the city of Furora was...
2026-01-20 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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As Moxy so helpfully pointed out, Asher did in fact have a solid couple of hours to go over his gains from their surprise fight against the Head’s team of Knuckles. He was still trying to figure out whether or not to start thinking about the Knuckles as simply the Head themselves, seeing as they were nothing more than a skill, but he figured that wasn’t too important. If they were really lucky, the Knuckles were a skill that required a significant amount of time and energy in order to res...
2026-01-19 17:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Sure enough, Vin received quite a number of angry looks from people as they walked through the keep. Countless eyes landed on his prosthetic arm and narrowed, before they found Tarnis’ seal tied around his bicep and they begrudgingly walked away. It seemed in a society built around ranking the top twelve thousand warriors, having the backing of someone in the low double digits was no small thing.
Granted, Vin barely paid any attention to the angry looks he was getting. He was far more...
2026-01-19 17:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Having never before ventured into a completely new plane that was still in the process of being mapped out, Leo hadn’t really known what to expect.
Though he definitely wasn’t prepared for the base camp they found surrounding the rift they needed to go through.
Leo blinked in confusion from up on a nearby hill as he and Taylor watched the few dozen people meandering around the makeshift campsite, laughing with one another or repairing gear as they went about their days. A hand...
2026-01-19 17:00:14 +0000 UTC
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A vast void, empty of even the concept of matter, let alone the real thing, stretched out all around him as he drifted there without his mortal form. Somehow, Asher knew that the void stretched on forever and always. That there was no true end to the void, and that he could spend the rest of all eternity drifting forward and never truly go anywhere. Just like the last time he’d been here, he felt the attention of something on him. Something that lived on a grander scale than his hu...
2026-01-16 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Vin walked alongside Tarnis as the three of them made their way toward the keep in the center of the fragment. Hanrik, the woman with some orc traits that he was still curious about, walked behind them, in a position he wouldn’t have been very comfortable with if it weren’t for his divine boon. They walked on an actual paved road stretching between a few fields of crops, filled with dozens upon dozens of farmers tending to them. Many of them inclined their heads as the three of them walke...
2026-01-16 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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No sooner had Taylor warned him than Leo heard a distant voice calling out to them.
“Hello there! Are you folks heading over to the colossal plane as well?”
The voice belonged to a man in dark green clothing, with an aged crossbow hanging from his belt. To Leo’s surprise, the man seemed to be entirely on his own. It was rare to find gem holders who dared to travel into largely unexplored planes without anyone to watch their backs, but not entirely unheard of.
“Yeah, ...
2026-01-16 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Ten Knuckles stood before them in a line, staring forward with faces free of any features as shadows rippled across their entire bodies. Each one a master assassin in their own right, and each one deadlier than any senior assassin Asher had ever encountered. As his eyes went down the line, he took in a handful of their weapon choices.
Longsword… Flail… Whip… The Head seemed to enjoy variety, as no two Knuckles had weapons even remotely similar to one another.
“Wha...
2026-01-15 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Vin could only stare at the distant castle, taking in the large towers and moving specks that had to be guards patrolling the walls. Throughout his time on Edregon, he’d witnessed plenty of grand buildings, such as those within the citadel’s holy district or the majestic floating library that was almost cathedral-like, but he’d never seen an actual castle before now. Something about finally seeing one in the flesh made this entire new fragment just feel unreal.
Yeah, ...
2026-01-15 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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It took Leo and Taylor another two weeks to make it just shy of the colossal plane. After leaving the spiky-tree plane behind, the two of them leapfrogged from one plane to the next, steadily getting closer to their target while honing their skills and cultivating their souls along the way. Some planes were on the smaller side and were capable of being traversed in mere hours, while others were far larger and required them to camp out a few nights in a row.
With each and ev...
2026-01-15 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Once the tree had finished burning, and Taylor’s mouth was free from splinters, the two of them collected their prize. Again, Taylor’s ability to sense precisely where a magical beast’s gems were held within its body came in handy as, rather than being forced to pry apart a giant pile of charcoal and burnt wood, she was able to pinpoint precisely where the gem was.
Both of the gems.
“Two gems?” Taylor asked, frowning as she held them side by side. Staring at the...
2026-01-14 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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The rest of the council meeting was filled with the usual boring and tedious decision making that reminded Vin why he generally didn’t bother coming to these things in the first place. Voting on specific permits for crafters and support classes. Sifting through shockingly mundane suggestions that Earthers were welcome to turn in to the council. Even going over zoning laws and discussing what areas of Terra were to be used for specific events and construction in the future.
It...
2026-01-14 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Asher wanted to fill Moxy in on what they’d discovered while she was healing within his Personal Rift, but he didn’t get the chance. It seemed now that he’d rejected the Head’s offer yet again to join him, the Knuckles weren’t planning on giving them any additional breathers.
As soon as Wolf reemerged from his shadow, it was Owl’s turn to fall into the ground this time, the Knuckle reemerging behind them a few hundred feet away as he fired a silent arrow straight toward Sama...
2026-01-14 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Seeing as it had been about a week and a half since his last council meeting, once he finished up with Abby, Vin grabbed a quick bite to eat before begrudgingly making his way over to town hall. Linda received a warm smile as usual, as he never wanted her to think his reluctance toward these meetings was ever directed at her, but the smile quickly vanished as he stepped into the meeting room. He knew he was being a tad immature, as most of the other councilors attended these meetings daily, b...
2026-01-13 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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As if some sort of invisible signal had gone off, everyone sprung into action at the same time. Owl’s bow dissolved off his back, immediately reforming in his hands with an arrow already nocked that he fired directly at Asher. Through some miracle, Samantha fired at the same time, her enchanted arrow colliding with Owl’s shadow one. The violet arrow wasn’t nearly as powerful as Owl’s but it still managed to knock the shadow arrow off course just enough that it merely grazed Asher’s ...
2026-01-13 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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In stark contrast to the rain-filled plane, the next rift led them to a warm, sunny plane without a cloud in the sky. There were large, barren trees growing all over the place, each one covered in pale brown needles that looked more like quills Leo had seen in pictures of some magical beasts. While he spotted a handful of regular-sized birds flapping around, carefully landing on the spiky trees and pecking at tiny fruits, Leo didn’t see any magical beasts roaming about.
“Finally,”...
2026-01-13 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Thanks to the map of the Noala Kingdom Asher had already Incorporated, he knew that it would take them most of the day to fly from the capital all the way to Furora. With Samantha’s Long Flight skill, they wouldn’t have to touch down and rest for a good thirty or so minutes, so he did his best to get comfortable on Samantha’s back as she took off and began the long journey across the kingdom.
Which made it all the more jarring when they were shot down barely ten minutes into...
2026-01-12 17:00:22 +0000 UTC
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“Vin. What a pleasant surprise,” Abby said, looking up from her paperwork as he stepped into her office. The guard who had let him in nodded, before closing the door to grant them some privacy and returning to the barracks. The vice-captain of the guard leaned back in her chair, putting her paperwork to the side as she raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe you’ve ever sought me out before. Is everything alright?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to report a murder or anything,...
2026-01-12 17:00:19 +0000 UTC
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“The colossal plane?” Leo asked, blinking at the reveal that Steel and his companions were heading toward the same place they were. “How come?”
“‘How come?’” Steel repeated, chuckling as he shook his head. “Do you have any idea how rare discovering a new colossal plane is? The last one was found almost forty years back, and it was an arctic wasteland. This one is apparently a temperate, green forest, which means it might seriously turn into a new hub one day! Any gem h...
2026-01-12 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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As much as Leo disliked the scorpion magical beasts hidden within the sands of this plane, he was forced to admit that the desert was excellent for continuing their growth. The birds flying overhead only dove down to attack during the night in an attempt to utilize the cover of darkness, and the scorpions didn’t tunnel very far through the sand, which meant after they set up camp in a new area and cleared them out, they didn’t have to keep watch for any more popping up. Without having to ...
2026-01-11 15:28:01 +0000 UTC
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Unfortunately, the birds that had nearly claimed their lives ended up being Grade 12 beasts, which explained their marginal intelligence. That meant Leo’s soul wasn’t actually strong enough to hold one of their gems just yet, and Taylor would have to give up both her gems in order to do so, which she wasn’t willing to do. The good news was that Grade 12 beast gems were exactly what they needed to further their cultivation, and they quickly fell into a fairly simple routine.
During...
2026-01-11 15:27:01 +0000 UTC
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