Grifden
- Ex-friend of Richtor - Recruit of DyingNight -
“SilverSitter, reinforce the flank,” MercilessLee’s snapped command echoed down the canyon walls, clearly heard over the pounding feet of players and the scuttling claws of a never-ending horde of spiders. His shifty eyes danced over the battle line; players with shields held the front, supported by several lines of spears and casters. At the back, a full fifty percent of their ...
2025-01-03 15:54:24 +0000 UTC
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Martial Messiah is now live on Royal Road! The bots are already hard at work with the low ratings even though there's only 2 chapters out... stinkers!
This month will have another 20-25 chapters of MM (depending on how much progress I make on Density God. I took last month off of Jiran, which was sorely needed for my mentality. On the plus, I wrote nearly 40 new chapters of MM because well... too fun to stop! There we were, on vacation, and all I could think about was writing. Best holi...
2025-01-02 14:46:19 +0000 UTC
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Darkness swallowed the mystic land. It swept over Raine, plunging him into the vastness of a cosmos without stars. Only the skulls on the ground around him and the cave near the top of the mountain provided any semblance of realism in a universe without sound or color.
He bounded to his feet and snatched them up, leaving one in each hand to guide his way. Remembering the tiny hole in the platform, the logical part of his brain told him to run toward the gateway. Surely the scythe was hi...
2024-12-27 22:41:14 +0000 UTC
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Raine returned their rude greeting with a Lunge of his own. He blasted straight into the air, rotated sideways, then Lunged again to bring himself clear of their encirclement. All three were barreling down on him when he landed, their masterful footwork and high attributes allowing them to easily keep pace.
Outnumbered, down most of his health, and over a quarter of his Discipline, Raine made the only viable decision and fled. He ran backwards, his...
2024-12-27 22:39:01 +0000 UTC
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Raine danced back from the two armsmen as they advanced on him from both sides. His hand flashed, revealing a welcome sight. With the hilt of Last Chance’s Gambit now snug in his fist, he hopped back one more step. The undead gave chase, and when both were in the range, he let loose a Rupture. His skill wreaked havoc on their defense and health, but didn’t slow down their advance.
Rained dove in close, then skittered back, utilizing one of the footwork techniques he...
2024-12-27 22:36:22 +0000 UTC
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With time flowing normally out of combat, and slowing to a ridiculous degree while fighting, It was beyond difficult to keep track of how long he’d spent in the mystic realm. Not that Raine was trying. His focus was dedicated to fixing the holes in his foundation.
The first—raising his right arm when retreating a step—no longer blocked his view once he retrained himself to bring the arm closer to his neck. The second involved the positioning of his feet when in a low stance, leavi...
2024-12-27 22:34:20 +0000 UTC
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Raine’s battle with the Elite Ancient Armsman dragged on for hours. He first drew it away from its building so they wouldn't be disturbed. After the first few exchanges, Raine was able to reduce the use of Discipline to keep up with the much larger foe. While faster and stronger, it had much more mass to move, allowing him to barely keep up.
They fought until his Discipline ran low and he was forced to focus solely on avoiding its varied attacks. Once recharged, the frenetic combat be...
2024-12-27 22:32:23 +0000 UTC
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I knew it would be bad but this is ridiculous. If a 30% penalty equates to encountering five-man elites… No point thinking about it before I see what I’m up against. Whatever happens, I have to make sure I pull one at a time.
One day and fourteen hours isn’t a lot of time to cover the whole area. Might need to get Endurance afterall. Especially since there aren't any roads.
Feeling more pressured than before entering, Raine carefully descended the steps, hi...
2024-12-20 22:33:41 +0000 UTC
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Five hours passed in the blink of an eye. Raine’s drifter soared above mountains that hid canyons, ravines, and secret forests. He passed several remote towns, knowing each would eventually become a hub of humanity in its own right. Abundant resources lay in wait for the guilds ambitious enough to claim these wild lands, and they were but the tip of an unimaginably vast iceberg.
His feet blurred as he touched down at a decent clip. Thankfully, there was no sharp pain in his feet and l...
2024-12-20 22:29:54 +0000 UTC
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The canyon came to life as dozens of spiders crawled from holes, de-stealthed on the walls, and dropped from high above. Webbing filled the air, fired from every direction toward the fool who yelled. In a blink, he was completely encased in a cocoon of sticky, hardened mesh. Chaos erupted in their ranks. Arrows and elemental Blasts flew wildly while warriors hacked at the stray bindings that were almost everywhere.
TwistedReligion bolted back the way they came. Ric...
2024-12-20 22:28:33 +0000 UTC
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Harsh winds smoothly glided along the few areas of Raine’s exposed skin. The air was just the right thinness, making breathing a pleasurable struggle that reminded him he was alive. He closed his eyes, basking in the freedom of gliding through the open skies without a care. Strapped to his back was a device he paid far too much for, considering he would eventually make them himself for a fraction the cost.
[Gromglenn Premium Skydrifter - Marvelous Gold: Activate out...
2024-12-20 22:27:37 +0000 UTC
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When a creature was killed in ZionLine, a random roll determined if an item dropped. The item—coming in a variety of forms—would then be selected from a massive loot table, often restricted by the area and type of creature. But not always.
For the case of dungeons and raids, the loot tables were much more restrictive than open world, and especially so for the earliest level ten dungeons. There were thousands of these dungeons, each as varied as the last. The one constant among them ...
2024-12-14 17:56:11 +0000 UTC
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Raine timed his dodge perfectly. Right as the shotgun slime’s eyes locked in position, he dove to the side. The three lances aimed directly at him were easily dodged. They bounced off the wall behind him and shot over the boss’s head. Two to the right narrowly missed when he jerked his head and left shoulder back, twisting his torso wildly. Unluckily, this put him right in the path of the one coming from the left. It speared straight through his hip, painfully holding him in place.
2024-12-14 17:54:07 +0000 UTC
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Raine burned a point of Discipline to grab the dropped coins. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to let these moochers take more than they were already getting. Five gold for the secrets of clearing a nightmare difficulty was an absolute steal. The only reason he allowed them to roll for loot was because none of them could understand the value of what they were getting. He was annoyed with himself for bringing them in the first place. There was a slight chance his DPS (damage per se...
2024-12-14 17:52:49 +0000 UTC
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- North of Vile Peak Town -
“Please, Taly. I need a break. You promised,” FierceFire planted her hands on her hips, pointedly ignoring the glares of the group they abandoned.
They currently stood on a flat section of ground surrounded by cliffs. A short distance away was the entrance of a cave. Above the aperture, their HUD's displayed the name: Devil's Defiance Dungeon. Ten other players—all level twelve—stood outside the entrance in gro...
2024-12-14 17:49:30 +0000 UTC
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With eyes brightly reflecting the gold coins in his possession, Raine accessed and reviewed his auction sales history. He sold a total of two hundred and six items. Only forty were Common Gray level ten drops from the croglocks. The rest were Dull Trash and tutorial gear. The lower tier items sold for an average of one and a half gold, while the crog drops sold in excess of thirty-five gold, some as high as forty.
Amazing that players scraped together this much gold already. Massive...
2024-12-14 17:47:54 +0000 UTC
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Raine dove forward, eyes glued to the nearest man. His Donstreaker shoes from Shillids gripped the smooth floor like a spider clings to a wall. Raine was large and slow, eliciting grins from the five as the idiot threw himself into the lion’s jaws. A meter away from his obvious target, as the man lifted his club, Raine suddenly accelerated to the side in a blur of speed well beyond expectations.
The thug on the outside of their encirclement had almost no time to react, but still manag...
2024-12-14 17:44:55 +0000 UTC
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The final details were hashed out and a preliminary promise to sell and non-compete were signed in quick order. Raine’s insistence on allowing a game to handle the final contract were eventually resolved by Donald, surprisingly enough. Clearly, the man had an entire legal team communicating with him via his LinQ, and they were quick to note the hashgraph encryption would guarantee the integrity of the files and the transferred funds.
It would take some time to set up the corresponding...
2024-12-07 01:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Despite her agreement, Raine could tell she wasn’t completely on board. He knew he needed to settle her nerves, and he knew exactly how to do it, “All I need you to do is look official. You know the actress Sendara Scott?” Raine knew she did. There were some days at the office when she wouldn't stop talking about the woman. She always played hard boiled, no nonsense roles, and she was one of the best at them.
Mel nodded emphatically, her trepidation fading fast, “I can do Scott!...
2024-12-07 01:00:40 +0000 UTC
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Raine slept like the dead, a full eight hours passing between one blink and the next. He stretched deeply, a satisfied yawn on his lips as his back released a satisfying crack. Jumping out of bed, he was met with a display of the time on a nearby wall monitor, right next to several missed message notifications.
The most important was from Frontier, requesting details for Raine's secretary so an in person meeting could be arranged. The others were from Richtor and their mother.
He ...
2024-12-07 00:59:00 +0000 UTC
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Melanie Feladay
Mel could only stare in stunned silence at the scene unfolding around her. Hundreds, if not thousands of people crammed the busy streets. It all felt so real, far too real for a game. The breeze on her skin, the way her clothes rustled as people, no, players jostled her out of their way. Even the red sheen of light that sprung up around her body to protect her from their innocent shoving felt more real than holding a warm cup of tea in h...
2024-12-07 00:56:29 +0000 UTC
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Five thousand kilometers northeast of Sanctum Santorum, deep into the churning mountains that are the Crags of Caldarra, five figures tore through the skies.
Mountains rose and fell beneath them, an ever-flowing rapids of moving sediment and minerals that released a cacophonous rumble. Their auras easily blocked the sound, yet didn't stop the burnt soil that invaded their nostrils. Friction had long ago annihilated any traces of moisture from this span of Madra's atmosphere and th...
2024-12-02 00:12:22 +0000 UTC
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Niya had to check for herself that everyone truly was out of critical condition before she allowed herself to take a break. Jiran revealed both their taps, then left to track down Mayalyn and Olive. The latter had rounded up the surviving clergy and was none-too-kindly soliciting their assistance in gathering anyone who was sick—a foreign concept for people with mana in their bodies. Since the experience was so novel, getting them to come forward at all was a task that took half a day.
<...
2024-11-30 00:49:01 +0000 UTC
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Olive caught up to Jiran right away. He brought a hand to his chest, bowing respectfully to the rankers who had patiently waited for him to leave the tent on his own. Lenton was at the front, glassy eyes pointed into the distance while an easy smile was directed at Jiran. He wore a new set of robes from the last time they spoke, and other than missing an arm, looked no worse for wear to Mana Omnis.
“Greetings, Master Filibree. I see you were successful in forcing the ...
2024-11-30 00:46:37 +0000 UTC
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Jiran Teleported before either girl broke free from their slack jawed incredulity. He appeared next to Ardon, already wearing clothes that seemed to grow out of his skin. Mana Omnis examined the corruption spreading through most of Ardon’s body. Only a few tiny pockets of him remained unaffected, and with each breath of density he took, the sickness grew. He reached out a finger, tapping one of the safe spots on his chest and leaving behind a tiny dose...
2024-11-30 00:44:29 +0000 UTC
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Mayalyn Aloyhee
Mayalyn struggled to move. Even breathing was difficult in the chokehold of Olive's panicked aura. Mayalyn's desire to fly under her own power had never been stronger.
Seeing Jiran's scorched body falling to the ground caused the edges of her vision to darken. The world around her ceased to hold importance as every cell in her body demanded she rush forward to save him. But Olive was just as panicked, and already held aloft, ...
2024-11-30 00:42:35 +0000 UTC
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The mind residing in Jiran’s soul-space directed a flow of mana from his tap. The energy washed over his sigil which glowed in response. Empowered by the additional mana, Enthralling Touch created instantaneous connections with the beasts around him. He pulled on their corrupted energies, his demand overriding their stubborn resistance.
Like twisting serpents, green rivulets of mana flowed into Jiran’s new filter. It thrummed to life, the venom within eagerly d...
2024-11-30 00:40:57 +0000 UTC
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Somehow, Lenton ejected Jiran from the synapse early. He popped into reality a fraction of a second before Lenton, who was now considerably closer to the final showdown with Andross. The old man turned his face enough for Jiran to see half a smug grin, then he was racing through the skies.
Wear that smile all you want, we'll see who's laughing when you need me to disable his bones.
Mana Omnis gave him a good read on their reserves. The two rank...
2024-11-30 00:39:17 +0000 UTC
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Jiran’s eyes snapped open and he redirected one of his minds back into his soul-space. The heart, and its imprisoned glob of green anxiety, were unchanged; both still and serene, nothing showing any signs of making another attempt on his soul.
Multiple layers of armor and protective mana couldn’t stop the cracks of thunder from making his teeth ache. He ducked, spinning to observe their aerial battlefield. Lenton and the last Templari were engaged in a furious back and forth. ...
2024-11-30 00:37:34 +0000 UTC
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The journey back passed quickly with Gazmo excitedly gushing about all their plans for the ore once they found a way to clear out the cave’s denizens. Raine was pretty sure he knew where that was going and his steps quickened, eager to know if he was right. Of course, if he was, there wasn’t a chance in hell he could do anything about it with his current strength.
Well, even if I’m right, it's a problem for another day. Good luck, future Raine!
“Come-come use feet...
2024-11-23 20:16:42 +0000 UTC
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