JaceVAmor

Chapter 109: Forward

Coop was wielding an ethereal bo staff as he finished off the last of the Ruin Excavators for the quest line. The pearlescent chamber was getting a break from the constant smashing that normally accompanied his morning star hunting sessions. Instead, the bo staff cracked down on the carapaces of the monsters, smashing them just as efficiently as his heavier mace, but with a larger emphasis on speed instead of pure strength.

He should have been working on proper technique while incorpora...

Chapter 108: Mana Dense

Coop woke with a start and sighed dramatically as his blurry vision revealed the old wooden ceiling in his bedroom within the lighthouse. The excitement of whatever he dreamed about lingered, but the details had already slipped his mind.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and lazily stretched his arms above his head. The covers were already shoved off of his torso, but he needed to shift Jett off of his chest before he rolled out of bed. She didn’t protest, or even wake up, like a pu...

Chapter 107: Spar

Coop had been so caught up in testing his strength on the bench, he’d neglected all of the other lifts he normally would have done with a proper routine. Naturally, he always paired chest day with tris and shoulders in the pre-mana times, but he’d have to chalk his first workout down as an exploration of the facilities. The residents’ training session was starting soon and he wanted to participate in that as well. Coop wouldn’t miss an opportunity where he could glean some new tricks ...

Chapter 106: Just Guys Being Dudes

“Go fish?” Coop asked the table, but he didn’t even get an answer.

The Illusionist scooted over for Coop to have a seat next to her. He sat down and she gave him a strained but friendly smile that almost reached her eyes, one that the secretary probably repeated frequently while dealing with the public in the pre-mana days. Coop actually thought it was an upgrade from the nervous looks they shot him from their corner booth when he first let them stay in the settlement.

Howev...

Chapter 105: Idle Speed

Coop dismissed his morning star and allowed his Fog of War to finally fade away as he left the pearlescent chambers. He imagined the Ruin Excavators collectively sighing in relief as their tormentor finished for the day. He’d hunted for a bit longer than he planned, but it was just because he was feeling motivated to get the next Slayer title. He couldn’t let the settlement make all the gains, developing as quickly as it was.

As he took the smooth tunnel back to the fort, he checked...

Chapter 104: Market Avenue

While gripping the rake with both hands, Coop raised his arms into the air and stretched his back. A few solid pops along his spine gave him a wave of relief as he exhaled dramatically. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the knuckles of a sand covered hand and took a deep breath. The small reset was enough to get him ready to keep going.

He adjusted his grip and lifted the reliable rake into the air before dropping the metal tines into the sand, letting gravity do most of the work in...

Chapter 103: Last Stand

Coop managed to get into a solid groove, smashing his way through the regular Ruin Excavators at a constant pace with his heavy morning star. He didn’t need to rush, but he still expanded his hunting grounds to account for the monsters’ spawn rates and prevent himself from catching any downtime. His was a strategy of consistent, uninterrupted combat. It was quite the contrast with Camila’s burst of power against the Ancient Defenders, where she needed to pause to wait for her own cooldo...

Chapter 102: The Dreamer

Coop spent the afternoon exchanging ideas and researching factions with Charlie, Shalatha, and Asha-Kali. They went through the tablets he had selected, mostly alleviating concerns he had with establishing the faction. He had never participated in any study groups while he was in school, but he imagined the experience would have been similar.

Coop’s more capricious questions frequently drove them off topic. More than once, he needed Charlie’s responsible presence to remind him about...

Chapter 101: Factions 101

Abithik sputtered, staring at the book that Coop placed on his otherwise empty reception desk. At least, Coop thought he was staring. His bony face was aimed at the book, but the lich had no eyes, just dimly glowing orbs inside his otherwise empty sockets, so Coop was making an assumption as to where his attention was focused.

“Is that a tome of pre-mana knowledge?!” The lich finally found some words and barked them out, sounding like he needed a drink.

Coop angled his head to...

Chapter 100: Siegebreaker

“Hah!” Coop laughed, feeling like his hope for some celebratory spectacle at each settlement milestone was finally fulfilled. It didn’t matter that the burst of firework-esque magic was for the event instead. He admired the white sparkles as they drifted across the open sky and wondered why they didn’t get a show like this before.

“Stingy system.” He muttered, but he couldn’t hide his smile.

While he was watching, bursts of light shone directly on each of the residen...

Chapter 99: New Year - New Coop

Coop woke up late in the morning. His first sleep-addled thoughts went to the start of the new year. He’d have to let someone more qualified decide how to categorize the first year after mana, but he figured it would represent the start of a new calendar era at the very least. What better way was there to start such a momentous period other than sleeping in?

“Mmm...” He hummed in comfort.

He was cocooned within his blankets, warm and cozy, but he had already slept so much th...

Chapter 98: Results

Malsteron was internally celebrating the addition of another member to his personal colony. He was among the last of his species, though he wasn’t an individual. His were a species of tubular worms that formed colonies that unified into an autonomous cooperative. Once, there were nearly a million of his ‘people,’ forming grand collectives that built a city on their home planet, but after their assimilation failed, only a handful of colonies remain in eternal exile.

It was a dire s...

Chapter 97: The Proposal

“You will all die.” The goddess ominously declared as she scanned the onlookers from behind her runed blindfold.

After a tense moment of silence that permeated the island, Coop laughed out loud. The shock of the whole situation threw him off kilter. His outburst earned another glare from the beautiful goddess as she clenched her jaw while her nostrils flared, but he wasn’t the only one to react in a way she didn’t expect. All of the pirates had immediately laughed as well, led b...

Chapter 96: The Warning

The Siege Boss launched itself toward the Eye of the Storm, using the effigy it had originally carried on its back as an engine to sprint across the beach. The dozens of arms now behaved like arachnid legs and the main body dangled uselessly in the center, almost like the host of an extremely creepy parasite.

The Eye of the Storm tried one last cannon barrage, but the monster’s momentum wouldn’t be stopped.

With a crash that came prematurely, The Fearless slammed into the flan...

Chapter 95: The Effigy

For a passing moment, the entire island was completely still. There were no palm fronds left on the remaining trees to rustle in the gentle breeze and even the calm waves seemed hesitant to disturb the peace. The resolute defenders were collectively holding their breath as they watched Coop slowly back toward the fort. Seeing the Champion engage the boss had rid them of any of their own lingering hesitation in fighting the unknown enemy. They were just waiting for a window of opportunity to g...

Chapter 94: Icon of Mana

Coop targeted the Prime Construct’s remaining weak points, desperate to prevent the Siege Boss from fully charging its ultimate attack. The purple star that continued to expand above Ghost Reef seemed like it would go supernova if the boss wasn’t interrupted. The boss made no effort to continue engaging with Coop, kneeling while concentrating all of its energy on growing the black bead into some kind of mana bomb. Without its counter attacks forcing Coop into wide repositionings, thanks t...

Chapter 93: Prime Construct

Coop left the fort behind. Instead of waiting for the slow-moving boss to trek across the island and challenge the defenders while flattening the fort, he would meet it in the field directly. It wasn’t like the fort’s walls would do anything to protect them. The giant Construct was large enough to step across the moat and on top of the outer walls as if they were nothing more than a small ledge. Coop reasoned that it would be best to fight this monster in the open, where he could maximize...

Chapter 92: Eve

The Construct attack was over in a matter of hours rather than days. The brevity was in stark contrast to all of the previous waves, and the break they had earned before the final was an incredible relief. But it had been brutal.

Coop defeated the final Ruin Construct in the darkness of the night to the solemn appreciation of the remaining defenders. All of the remaining residents of Ghost Reef were gathered around where he fought, between the library and the fort’s eastern wall, with...

Chapter 91: The Conduit

The Primal Construct army had abandoned their orderly march once they met the phantom defenders, preferring to fight in structured parties of five rather than a full battalion. It was the doctrine that all the factions followed: parties that consisted of classic archetypes seeking to engage other similar parties. While it was far more organized than the simple wave tactics of the invasion monsters, it still lacked the proper coordination that a proper command structure would provide. The grea...

Chapter 90: The Primal Constructs

The tenth wave deviated from the pattern.

Coop and the Eater of Worlds remained at the forefront of the battlefield for the duration of the ninth wave, each defeating tens of thousands of the Brutal Piercers before they reached the fort. They fought day and night. Coop allowed his Fog of War domain to shrink slightly after the Carriers stopped spawning, reducing the pressure on his mana and letting him keep the smaller domain active indefinitely after running out of mana potions. Not ev...

Chapter 89: Hostile Takeover

Supreme Champion Jerry the First stewed in agitation while he sat with the remaining advisors of Empress City. They gathered around the bar in the captain’s lounge that Jerry claimed as his throne room discussing their current predicament. His new pick for Viceroy led the debate, allowing Jerry the opportunity to observe and contemplate their positions above the rabble.

There were quite a few different faces from just two weeks ago. The frequency that he needed to punish them for mist...

Chapter 88: Mistwalker

Coop’s mana was completely drained trying to maintain the massive blanket of fog that had been conjured by Fog of War. The cost of maintaining the skill escalated exponentially with the area covered, and he hadn’t held back when he dumped his mana into the channel. As the ocean breeze and the consistent waves chewed away at the borders, along with curious residents who scooped and tested the edge, the skill constantly demanded more mana to replenish its losses. It was completely unsustain...

Chapter 87: Paths

The Rabid Carriers weren’t as simple as they had first appeared. He expected the Carriers to be easy pickings without the support of other more agile monsters. They moved sluggishly, but with purpose, and when they took damage they weren’t deterred until they were defeated. Coop initially assumed they had nothing else going on outside of hauling the swarm of smaller monsters inside of them, but they had their own abilities that aided them in their function as well.

When the Foul Rip...

Chapter 86: Breach

Coop wasn’t sure if his maneuver had been ill-advised, but it was too late to take back. He mistjumped to the ramparts after warning the defenders of what was coming.

Gromokan had been bringing devastation to the fort’s walls and needed to be stopped as quickly as possible or the settlement would have been quickly left defenseless. The defenders had already been pushed back by 25 hours of Devourers pressing forward and the delayed arrival of the boss had put them in an impossible po...

Chapter 85: Stacked

The defenders of Ghost Reef had barely defeated the Unveiled Blade before the next wave began. Coop had been uneasy as the fight dragged on because he was worried that it wouldn’t be over in time. The adversity of the challenges became significantly more demanding as they overlapped each other and having Field Bosses involved simultaneously with two waves was a complication he didn’t think they could afford.

The interior corridor of the fort was a ruined mess of collapsed stone and ...

Chapter 84: Unveiled

The Field Boss had evolved, entering a clear and distinct second phase. The boss had withstood the defenders' onslaught for most of the previous day and the entire night, but it had finally had enough. Gaol was abandoning its static, defensive posture in order to retaliate with an obviously more mobile form. Coop reinspected the boss, worried about what was coming next.

[Field Boss: Primal Serpent (Level 45)]

[Gaol the Unveiled Blade (Agility)]

[Manifestation of the Primal C...

Chapter 83: The Veiled Blade

As soon as the sun rose, Coop’s False-Light Eye buff dropped off. The sudden expiration was as if the natural light had actively dispelled it from his status. Coop wasn’t seeing the world in green wireframe anymore, though he still had green stripes temporarily burned into his vision. It wasn’t enough to blink them away, but they were slowly disappearing while he continued to fight the pursuing Crazed Serpents.

The stimulant had also gradually faded during the night. Coop had fear...

Chapter 82: The Fifth Wave

[000:00:00]

[000:00:00]

[000:00:00]

[000:00:00]

[000:00:10]

The next wave was coming.

Coop had spent an uninterrupted 25 hours hunting the Tormenting Kites. The shallow waters around the patch reefs outside of the west side of the settlement had become his personal roaming grounds. How much the fifth wave would shake up the new status quo was yet to be determined.

The west side of the hexagonal fort was really the two walls on the northwest and the so...

Chapter 81: The Prodigal Daughter

Another day of the siege went by and the Frenzied Excavators finally ceased spawning. Ruin Excavators appeared in the darkness but they behaved the way the Ancient Defenders did, listlessly waiting for someone to get in range and otherwise being harmless. Coop took note of the potential Ruin Excavator grind zone and was excited about being able to return to the pearlescent chambers to complete quest chains, but that would obviously have to wait.

Gibson and his squad headed for their own...

Chapter 80: Torment

Coop glanced at the ridiculous number of timers on the edge of his vision and tried to parse how far along they had come as left the basement and made his way back to the courtyard. He’d lost track of the time and was surprised to find it was night again when he reached the open air.

[000:00:00]

[000:00:00]

[000:00:00]

[012:36:24]

He counted on his fingers as spells flew around the battlefield. Just five and a half days so far? The system should have given them...