Percy allowed his thoughts to sink into the ethereal cord in his sternum, watching the live feed provided by Micky with bated breath, as the crow shared his senses with him.
His blood flow had greatly slowed, an oppressive feeling of numbness enveloping his body from beak to talon. Micky didn’t seem deterred in the slightest, however, already used to the weakness brought about by Hibernation. Instead, he focused his attention on fine-tuning the spell to the best of his ability. The be...
2025-01-23 07:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Unlike the previous times, much less of the black liquid seeped out of the walls. A portion rolled down to the floor, the rest sticking to the cube’s surfaces. Next, the material solidified, coating the room with a thin film of black.
‘That’s a new one…’ Percy frowned. ‘At least, the sack is still there.’
The sludge had merely flowed underneath his supplies, leaving them propped up against the wall. It was quite a relief. Percy would have been ...
2025-01-23 07:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Two weeks went by in a flash, as everyone pushed themselves to their very limits.
Percy didn’t actually get to spend much time with Nesha. Even when the two got a few minutes together, they were typically too tired to talk. From what little they did speak, however, he understood she was already well on her way to mastering Circulation.
He knew she had already cleared her remaining channels a long time ago, as merely opening them didn’t require her body to be trained. That said...
2025-01-22 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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While Percy prided himself as a relatively fast reader, he was operating under a strict self-imposed time limit during this visit. Naturally, he couldn’t afford to carefully read all seven of the volumes he’d just bought.
Luckily, he didn’t need to either. Obviously, he had no intention of learning hundreds of variants of the new runes – he just had to pick the ones most suitable for his current needs. Consequently, he’d devoted the first few days of his reading time to skimmi...
2025-01-22 07:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Over the next hour or so, Percy brought Baldy up to speed on the mushrooms. Of course, he’d already briefed him on his plans previously, but it wasn’t until now that he’d come to understand his ingredients better.
At first, he didn’t expect his grandpa to be too interested. They already had a lot of healers at home, so the green mushrooms would only be useful for people heading out on missions – and only if they didn’t have a life user accompanying them. Natura...
2025-01-21 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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‘Draw any three runes 300 times in total, in under 6000 rits, with at least a 95% success rate. Each individual rune has to be drawn at least 50 times.’
‘Shit.’
Percy only knew the concealment and pocket runes, but the latter didn’t even work without space mana, nor had he practiced them much.
The book on the concealment runes that Gabe had lent him had contained other variants besides the “general” one he was us...
2025-01-21 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Percy spent the next few hours brewing Aurora Dew and healing potions, though his mind had drifted elsewhere. He was thinking over his idea, fleshing out the details. Alchemic principles were typically quite broad and could be applied in several ways. While pacification, redirection and deattunement were generally considered the pillars of elixir making, there was no reason why he couldn’t use them while brewing potions too.
‘In fact, that’s probably how the Guild’s alchemis...
2025-01-20 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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“Wave begins. May your challenge be successful!”
Percy stared at the cylindrical piece of metal erected in the middle of the room. It was too short to be considered a pillar. A podium maybe?
Shrugging, he approached. In any case, the magiscript challenge wasn’t dangerous like the others. Just difficult. Hopefully, the first wave of the Red level would be manageable though.
Reaching the strange structure, he saw it descend slightly low...
2025-01-20 07:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Percy’s training session only lasted a couple of hours, though to him they felt closer to years. And that was despite Galahad cutting him some slack every few minutes or so, to keep him from passing out. By the time they were done, Percy wasn’t even sure he had improved in the slightest. If this training was useful, it wouldn’t show for a while…
Dragging his tired feet through the corridor, he wanted nothing more than to take a quick shower and go to bed. Of course, he couldn’...
2025-01-19 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Strictly speaking, the parrot didn’t need that much healing.
Unlike Gabe, who had been stabbed full of holes before Percy first found him, the bird had merely choked to death. They only needed to make up for the minor deterioration the body had undergone between death and reanimation.
Suffice to say, Percy was forced to keep scratching himself during the process, to ensure the cube didn’t stop pouring life mana into them before the second core was ready. Naturally, the poor bi...
2025-01-19 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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In the end, Percy managed to brew a couple healing potions by nightfall. In fact, things went even more smoothly than he’d originally expected. He only wasted a handful of mushrooms before learning to extract their essence properly. If he’d known it would be this easy, he would have brewed some before fighting Rambert. If nothing else, they would have made his trip home less unpleasant.
That said, his yield was still much lower than he’d like, but he figured it would climb rather ...
2025-01-18 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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After overcoming the dizziness of the trip – at least it helped he was expecting it this time – Percy stood up, examining his surroundings. Lots of people were looking at him curiously again. Though he seemed to have been transported to a different location.
‘As I thought, it’s random each time…’
That flew in the face of their idea to sneak Gabe out through a portal. Not that they’d placed much hope in that plan to begin with.
More importantly, Percy n...
2025-01-18 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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‘Finally, I can get started on this!’ Percy rubbed his hands in anticipation.
Perhaps he was a little too excited to be working on his somewhat disturbing project… But who could blame him? He genuinely enjoyed alchemy, and he’d been looking forward to brewing potions for a while now.
Storing the fresh batch of Aurora Dew away, he stood up from his desk, before walking to the centre of the room. Next, his gaze landed on the two bodies lying face-up on the floor, at...
2025-01-17 07:01:02 +0000 UTC
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While Percy had kept an eye out for any sign that could lead him back to the mysterious girl, he had failed to find any clues as he roamed the space between worlds. He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but he figured there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment.
In the end, he jumped into the first Red beast he saw, hoping it would be a suitable host for the magiscript challenge. The possession went relatively smoothly too. The creature allowed him to join without any hiccup...
2025-01-17 07:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Several days earlier
A frog hopped atop a protrusion jutting out of the mud, its rhythmic croaks echoing within the depths of the bog. Big mistake on its part…
Suddenly, a mound of dirt surged outwards, startling the poor creature. Frightened, it leapt away, trying to escape. But it wasn’t nearly quick enough. Catching up in an instant, the object snapped shut around the frog, trapping it in an iron grip. Over the next second or two, the critter visibly shrive...
2025-01-16 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Percy allowed his boosting art to fizzle out, as he placed both palms on his knees, breathing heavily.
While the creation of his clones had grown into quite a routine operation by now – a far cry from the dangerous and laborious venture it was during his early days – the act still left him a little tired afterwards.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that he found the strength to stand up. He’d have to heal his injuries again at some point, but not right now. Unable to ab...
2025-01-16 07:00:01 +0000 UTC
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‘I wish Percy was here…’ Micky lamented as he stuffed his face with the fifth goblin core.
While the Whistling Woods were a nostalgic place for both of them, it was especially so for him. After all, some of his earliest memories were of him and Percy hunting here together. From back when he was little more than a young, dumb chick. A single Red core, no spells, nor any shred of intelligence worth mentioning. Every single kill had been hard-earned. A constant struggle...
2025-01-15 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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The soul mana gushed through Percy’s channels like a torrential river, lighting up a silver maelstrom around his sternum. Tears formed and closed throughout his soul, but he didn’t pay them any attention, having long grown used to this version of his boosting art.
Instead, his attention was glued to the hole around his stomach, as it had been over the last couple of weeks. The rush of mana tried to fill the crater like a lake, a lot of it leaking out of the wound, though Percy held ...
2025-01-15 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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In the end, it didn’t matter much whether Elaine and Nesha rushed or not, as they still had to wait for Percy to wash up too. Owain was a highly impressionable toddler by now, and Elaine had no intention of bringing a veritable caveman along to meet him.
“Looking much better!” she exclaimed once she saw her cousin dressed in some proper clothes for a change. “Though, are you planning to keep that thing on forever?” she asked, pointing at her eyes.
Percy shrugged.
...
2025-01-14 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Nesha picked up the knives from the table, before leaving the hut. Percy was still busy using his new trick to repair his injured soul, so she’d deliver the finished tools to Mr. Dylan for him.
On the way to the shop, she didn’t stop playing around with her mana, however, trying to keep it in the shape of an orb. It was annoying, training like this, day in and day out. Not something she was very accustomed to. Still…
‘I don’t want to lose to him.’ she bit...
2025-01-14 07:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Nesha stood still, basking in the water’s warmth as dozens of tiny rivulets splashed on her shoulders, before trickling down her back, gently caressing her. Only after a few minutes of silent appreciation did she begrudgingly step out of the stream. She didn’t want to keep Elaine waiting for too long.
Picking an expensive-looking glass bottle from a marble shelf on the wall, she opened it, dripping a viscous liquid that smelled of lavender in her hand. Next, she applied it to her ha...
2025-01-13 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Percy hammered the flat slab of steel absentmindedly, thinning it further with each strike. It wasn’t until it looked about to break that he remembered he was supposed to fold it again. Only after doing so did he dip it into a trough filled with water to quench it, before applying another layer of clay mud and moving it into the furnace. That said, the fate of the knife wasn’t exactly at the forefront of his mind right now.
‘The clone died, didn’t he? I...
2025-01-13 07:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“How?!” Galahad asked, unable to fathom how Nesha and Percy could have possibly taken a single Green out. Let alone four of them.
Even Archibald was taken aback, though he did know a little more than his son. Percy hadn’t mentioned Micky earlier, but the crow should have progressed a lot after all these years. Between that, and all the other shocking secrets Percy had claimed from the stars above their heads, it wasn’t impossible for him to have caught a Green by s...
2025-01-12 07:01:09 +0000 UTC
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Only once he finished the earth mage too did Percy finally allow his weapon to regain its colour, a scythe of glowing teal appearing in his hand.
Ever since he first mastered Crystallization, he’d naturally tried applying it to other affinities. Sadly, whether it was his own soul mana, or Gabe’s fire and air mana, the spell had never worked with anything else.
With one exception.
Like most of Percy’s spells, it worked seamlessly with his fused mana, as it was indisting...
2025-01-12 07:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Percy was about to start explaining everything to his uncle and grandpa, when somebody knocked on the door. And they did so rather eagerly too. Grabbing his bandage again from Baldy’s desk, he was about to put it back on, though he relaxed upon hearing the person speak.
“Grandpa, is Percy here?!”
It was a chirpy female voice – though a little more mature than Percy remembered. Still, he would have recognized it anywhere, regardless of how long it had been.
...
2025-01-11 07:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Earlier
The four remaining nobles of House Tantalus stared at their companion’s lifeless body as it sank into the bog’s stale waters. They struggled to comprehend how their comrade had dropped dead out of the blue.
But the culprit, Percy, didn’t much care about their thoughts, watching Micky dive towards them at a dizzying speed, his plumage lit up in amber and green.
“Watch out! It’s the bird!” the only woman in the group yelled.
But she w...
2025-01-11 07:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Galahad pushed through the crowd, making his way to the centre of the room, curious to see what the commotion was all about.
The Main Hall had always been one of the busiest places in the mansion, serving both as a lounge for everyone to mingle in, as well as the spot where they could pick their missions from. That said, things had changed a little since the advent of the war. Nowadays, the family avoided assigning non-essential missions, as Archibald was afraid of risking people’s li...
2025-01-10 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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“…multiple shallow incisions in your soul, before intentionally leaking soul mana through them to lure the fiends…”
Percy struggled to keep himself awake as he listened to Sol’s explanation for the dozenth time.
“…push it through your channels until it reaches your core and then clamp down on it as hard as you can with your mana. You need to do that before it has the chance to go on a rampage…”
It was hard, because he also had to focus on helping her and he...
2025-01-10 07:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“I’m hungry.” Micky complained for the billionth time.
“Alright. I suppose we could all use a break.” Percy sighed.
At least, they’d already crossed the river a while ago, so the place didn’t stink of rot anymore, ruining their appetite. Walking over to the nearest tree with Nesha by his side, they sat on an exposed root. Next, he opened his spatial amulet, tossing a chunk of meat to his familiar. A poor replacement for a mana core – even a Red one – but they wer...
2025-01-09 07:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Delivering his ultimatum, Percy doubted Sol would accept his terms. He’d made a whole lot of demands, promising very little in return. It wasn’t like he could help it though. After all, he couldn’t give her much in his current state. Any favours from his end would have to wait until he recovered.
Surprisingly, the girl agreed – against all odds.
‘I guess she’s serious about making the most of her trait.’
Either way, this appeared to be quite a novel ex...
2025-01-09 07:00:05 +0000 UTC
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