An overwhelming rush of memories flooded Percy’s mind, bringing him to his knees. Noticing his soul wisp on the way back, he’d just about managed to put his brewing equipment away in time, to avoid breaking or spilling anything by accident.
A good shout, considering how troublesome this clone was to assimilate. He wasn’t necessarily the longest-lived one he’d ever sent out, but he’d spent months training non-stop, bringing a mountain of runecrafting knowledge back. Advance...
2025-02-07 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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‘Spectral Art, huh?’
Evidently, involving one’s trait in their magic resulted in yet another flavour of spell. In any case, Percy was glad Weaving had more to offer than just the long-term project he was working on.
‘What did you do? I can feel my body again!’ Enki suddenly exclaimed, bringing him out of his thoughts.
It was only now that Percy remembered he had yet to link himself to his host properly. Finding a few still-open cracks, he sli...
2025-02-07 07:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Overall, Percy and Noland’s setup was quite simple. That didn’t make it any less effective, however. Using the pure mana to defend themselves, and the gravity mana solely to quickly deliver the explosive crystals to their opponents, they relied exclusively on the bombstones to take out the golems.
Naturally, the constructs grew stronger with each wave. Getting slightly larger and sporting an extra pair of detachable legs each time, there was no doubt in Percy’s mind that they woul...
2025-02-06 07:01:04 +0000 UTC
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Percy had chosen a Red host this time. The lower grade might be a little annoying, but this was the first soul he found today that was both sentient and in a relatively decent condition – right past the threshold where it could be possessed.
Naturally, he wasn’t planning to return to the Vault just yet – his main body was still busy finishing up the armour spell. In fact, Percy had decided to not bother with the artificial world again until all the madness surrounding the lotus di...
2025-02-06 07:00:14 +0000 UTC
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“…100.” Percy muttered as he finished drawing the last instance of the self-repair enchantment.
The growth rune was made of an inner circle, with multiple tendril-like features extending outwards in specific patterns, making it resemble a caricature of the sun. At any rate, this inner circle was rather easy to pair with the outermost circle of the memory rune, which was filled with a grid-like pattern in turn.
Suffice to say, Percy began all his challenge attempts with the s...
2025-02-05 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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“Wow, that looks like quite the spell.” Nesha pitched in.
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Percy grinned.
Reaching into the mana around his arm, he willed one of its properties to shift. Without warning, the entire gauntlet vanished into thin air, causing Nesha’s eyes to widen. She opened her mouth, seemingly about to ask, though she held herself back. She knew enough about Percy’s magic by now to figure out what he’d done.
“It’s still visible through Man...
2025-02-05 07:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Percy’s top priority during this trip was the self-repair enchantment. While his reinforced mana had proven an excellent material for his constructs, its greatest drawback was that it didn’t last nearly as long as he would like. Even when he used his preservation runes to extend the lifetime of his spells, the sheer amount of time he had to spend maintaining them made many of his projects untenable.
Of course, this applied just as much to his scythes, as well as anything else he mig...
2025-02-04 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Percy’s efforts to use his mana defensively dated as far back as his first month in the Alchemists’ Guild, when he developed his Glove spell.
That said, the flimsy layer of cyan mana had never been particularly impressive. Back then, he hadn’t even known about Reinforcement. Not to mention, his second core had still been at Red. Consequently, the Crude spell was arguably the least impressive entry in Percy’s Status to this very day.
‘I suppose it’s time to do somet...
2025-02-04 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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The last thing Percy wanted was to mislead Noland into ruining his life. Suffice to say, he’d made it abundantly clear that the Vault of Magic was a veritable dystopia, full of callous gods who treated their own children as trash. He emphasized that he didn’t even have a clue what Metatron did to the test subjects. For all he knew, they all ended up dissected on an operating table somewhere.
‘Well, not really. I’m confident he keeps them around, at least. But you might just ...
2025-02-03 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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The clone’s memories settled in place, the events of the past few weeks rapidly flashing through Percy’s mind.
This time, he’d ended up in the body of a semi-sentient for a change! It was a weird, gnoll-like creature – some kind of ugly humanoid racoon. Not his finest moment, but that didn’t detract from the novelty of the experience in the slightest.
Suffice to say, the creature’s tribe was quite primitive – they couldn’t even communicate without grunts and growls...
2025-02-03 07:00:05 +0000 UTC
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‘Gods, I missed sending out clones so damn much!’
By now, Percy’s bloodline was more than just a fancy ability or a means of growing stronger. It was a way of life. A source of endless adventures. A window into the wider cosmos. Part of who he was. Sadly, his circumstances had robbed him of this joy over the past few months.
Atlantis had been a wakeup call. His intention at the time had been to keep the trips short and infrequent, to leave the connecti...
2025-02-02 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Percy was dying to explore the strange feeling, but he had to finish all his chores first. He spent a couple days brewing ahead for himself and his companions. He also sent a new clone out – hopefully to the Vault, but he wouldn’t know that until he was back.
Only then did he finally allow himself to delve into this new project. Perhaps it would lead to a dead-end, but until he obtained the runes he wanted from the artificial world, he couldn’t start working on his next spell upgr...
2025-02-02 07:00:07 +0000 UTC
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‘Ice, huh?’ Interesting, but not that surprising. All the composite affinities were widely known, so Percy had a pretty good idea what they
‘Ice, huh?’
Interesting, but not that surprising. All the composite affinities were widely known, so Percy had a pretty good idea what they were getting ahead of time. He still had no clue what Micky could use the new affinity for, though he certainly hoped the bird would get another mutation or two the next time his beast co...
2025-02-01 07:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Percy wanted nothing more than to dive back into his work, having lots of urgent tasks to tend to. The looming threat of House Tantalus aside, there were only 9 more months until the lotus bloomed, and he wanted to return to his family by then.
Sadly for him, his injured channels forced him to place everything on hold for a few more days. Unable to use mana, he couldn’t condense crystals, nor cleanse his cores. Even sending out his next clone had to wait a while longer.
But that...
2025-02-01 07:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The lotus… a priceless treasure Percy had wanted since before he’d even learned of its existence. The only object he’d ever heard of capable
The lotus… a priceless treasure Percy had wanted since before he’d even learned of its existence. The only object he’d ever heard of capable of changing one’s affinity. And he’d gone through so much trouble to earn a petal from his family too, only for the opportunity to be ripped out of his hands at the very last moment.
...
2025-01-31 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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At first, the townsfolk stared at the ill-begotten tatters of silk in stunned silence. Over the next two minutes, Percy watched the colour drain from their faces, their eyes widening with panic. But still, nobody dared to utter a sound. It wasn’t until another minute later that somebody finally broke the oppressive stillness.
“What have you done?!” a man cried, his voice quivering.
“Those cursed life-suckers will have our heads!” another shouted.
Like a spark ignit...
2025-01-31 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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“For a second there, I wasn’t sure you’d help us.” Percy said. “What choice did I even have?” Rambert shrugged as he walked closer. The only
“For a second there, I wasn’t sure you’d help us.” Percy said.
“What choice did I even have?” Rambert shrugged as he walked closer.
The only reason he was alive was because Percy had turned him into a clone. Of course, Percy had been pretty banged up after their battle, but Micky had made things easier for him by...
2025-01-30 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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A stray ray of sunlight licked Percy’s eyelid, causing him to wrinkle his nose in irritation. He didn’t wake up until a couple minutes later, however. The first thing he noticed was the stench of rotting wood and spoilt eggs. Not the most pleasant scent to come to, though it didn’t take him long to recognize where he was, having spent months training in this very place.
‘Why was I asleep in the middle of the swamp?’
A rush of memories soon followed, reminding hi...
2025-01-30 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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“I’m Rambert of House Tantalus.” the newcomer replied in a hoarse, raspy voice. Pushing each word out of his lungs appeared like quite the challenge.
“Tantalus?” Jason tilted his head. “Ah! Your families have been fighting over this province, right? But what the hell happened to you? Did you skip your vegetables as a child or something?”
Rambert’s expression soured upon hearing the ill-concealed ridicule, though he didn’t refute Jason, fully cognisant of his poor...
2025-01-29 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Seeing the notification, Percy couldn’t help but crack a smile. This wasn’t what he’d set out to accomplish, but it now meant that even if the operation ended up failing, it wouldn’t have all been for nothing. That said, he wasn’t going to give up so easily either.
‘Let’s make it two for two.’
Leaning onto his newly upgraded spell, he intensified his efforts in releasing the mana out of his body. Opening his eyes, he couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath...
2025-01-29 07:00:06 +0000 UTC
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With a wave of his hand, Jason released a colossal amount of mana in front of him, covering all of Percy’s projectiles like a blanket. At first, both the scythe and the throwing stars continued to stab at him, though they slowed down rapidly. Mere inches before tearing into his pupil, the Soul Harvester came to a complete halt, the rest of the constructs following.
‘The hell?!’
The weirdest thing was that Percy’s mana had been in its incorporeal state the whole ti...
2025-01-28 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Percy fought against the pain and exhaustion to keep his eyes open, waiting for the others to return. Doing so proved almost as difficult as the battle itself.
Eventually, he heard the rhythmic flap of Micky’s wings. Tilting his head up, he saw the crow approach rapidly, dropping Nesha in a murky pond a few metres away, before landing next to him.
“Are you ok?! What happened here?!” the girl asked, scanning the ravaged battlefield.
It was full of craters and broken pie...
2025-01-28 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Three orbs of mana rapidly flew towards Percy, each a separate colour.
‘Do they all do different things, or is that just how this weird mana type looks?’
Suffice to say, he hadn’t the slightest idea what would happen if he got hit, but it didn’t really matter. Whatever it was, he couldn’t afford to let a Green’s spell touch him. Certainly not without his armour. Somehow, he’d have to dodge every single attack.
Leaping out of the way, he evaded...
2025-01-27 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Fighting against a Green by himself was arguably reckless, but the man was already two limbs down. If Percy couldn’t even beat him in this state, then it would just mean their plan had been doomed from the start.
“Just who are you people?! Are you members of House Avalon?!”
Percy wasn’t that surprised by the accurate guess, but he wasn’t that interested in chatting either.
Dashing forward, he launched another round of throwing stars, not even bothering to turn them...
2025-01-27 07:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“To start with, I need your word that nobody will harm me or Nesha.”
“That’s not really up to me, is it?” the man asked back. “I can promise you the Divine Root won’t mistreat you as long as you cooperate, but I can’t speak for the Divine Order. The gods do as they please. And you’ve kept them waiting for way too long.”
Truth be told, Percy had expected a response along those lines. Still, that didn’t mean he would accept it.
“Not good enough. If you ...
2025-01-26 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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In the end, three more months passed in relative quiet.
Naturally, Percy hadn’t stopped sending out clones in that time, hoping one of them would stumble upon something interesting. Sadly, that hadn’t happened. He hadn’t bothered to return to the Vault either, as none of his recent hosts seemed suited for the combat challenges. Of course, he could have tried learning some more runes – he definitely had enough credits. That said, he didn’t have time to practice th...
2025-01-26 07:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Percy dragged Nesha through the Whistling Woods, the two sprinting in the darkness. The moonless sky wasn’t doing them any favours as they struggled to avoid crashing into a tree. Plus, they were out of breath already. Still, he ignored the exhaustion, striving to buy as much time as possible as he contemplated their situation. Several scenarios flashed through his tired mind, each worse than the previous one.
Naturally, he was under no delusions that they would escape without a confr...
2025-01-25 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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“Another one.” Micky said, carrying an oversized rat carcass in his talons.
The distraction caused Percy to mess up the rune he was trying to carve on the snake’s body, prompting him to click his tongue in annoyance. Sighing, he shifted his attention to the new corpse, scanning it via Mana Sense. There was an Orange star rapidly dimming in its sternum.
“Micky… I said Yellow beasts only… I wish I could preserve all of them, but I don’t have the time. At least...
2025-01-25 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Earlier
Jason had grown sick of tasting his own blood, but he couldn’t help it. Biting his cheek was a habit he’d inadvertently picked up over the last couple of months. By now, it had grown a little out of hand.
He’d already chosen to ignore multiple calls from Deimos, afraid his boss might order him to return to the Guild. Of course, not answering was a serious offense in and of itself, but he could still play dumb later. Defying a direct order, on the oth...
2025-01-24 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Percy had decided to look for a mana conversion spell as an alternative solution to his problem.
He needed a lot of soul mana to lure the mysterious entities from much further away, and he only had two possible sources to tap into – his own recovery, and Micky’s ability to devour souls. He was already planning to bolster the latter using the preservation rune he’d recently bought, but he was hoping to improve upon the former too.
While he could regenerate soul mana very rapi...
2025-01-24 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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