DensityGodbyToraAKR

MM - Chapter 163 - COMING HOME

It quickly became clear that the internal structure of Belehorn Tower would take more time to organize than anticipated. Buildings of its size and complexity were not meant to function for long without a centralized primus to oversee operations. Thankfully, unlike the under-maintained primus dock, the drone bay was in perfect repair. It was stocked with over six thousand delivery, maintenance, and repair drones, a veritable army to ensure the first wave of recruits would have guides to their ...

MM - Chapter 162 - A MEASUREMENT OF INTELLIGENCE

Vaneese of CronGate

- Carter City -

The night had so far been one to be remembered. Managing to drag the psychotic assassin through four of CronGate’s hidden facilities was a stroke of genius, if risky. The woman was a meat grinder, easily butchering three hundred martials who were key to Torune’s plans in Carter and ZionLine. The disastrous results of the night set her ‘master’ back tens of millions of credits, not to mentio...

MM - Chapter 161 - A PEEK INSIDE

Unsurprisingly, Celeste was wide awake when Raine hovered into the living room. She sat in a lotus position, weak killing intent fluttering haphazardly through the room. Already, her mental energy was stronger than Mel’s. Both were a candle before Raine’s bonfire, yet that wasn’t a fair comparison. Facing the kind of monsters that ZionLine would unleash at the higher levels had given his mental strength an unrivaled foundation.

Morty was there as well, rather than one of his drone...

MM - Chapter 160 - THE MONSTER WITHIN

Celeste Luu Rahn

- A long time ago -

Celeste was back in the place she dreaded most. Here was where it all began: her misery, her hate, and the need to show them all that she was more than they knew. She was four or five, demurely waiting in the yard of an expansive martial temple. She’d come with her mother, exhaustively climbing hundreds of wide steps to reach the structure that looked impossibly ancient to her little self. Its s...

MM - Chapter 159 - BHIMA’S CHALLENGE

The sun was high in the sky, though its rays were filtered by the canopy far above. He was tucked within cracked folds of bark that looked more like a cliff face than the base of a massive tree that stretched to the clouds.

The agony of the outside world faded away, replaced by the buzzing of gargantuan insects and the shrieks of those too slow to escape them. The forest was alive with the vicissitudes of predator and prey, a bold reminder that here, in ZionLine, death lurked around eve...

MM - Chapter 158 - APOCALYPTIC PORTENTS

Sandstone City

- Coalition of Masters Headquarters -

“I found him!” The aide who burst into Grandmaster Vought’s study waved an outdated sheaf of paper in front of him as he hurried across the tidy room.

Vought quirked a brow but did not otherwise make note of the young man’s flamboyant entrance. The boy was a genius in his field and had all the quirkiness that came with his brilliance. Minor breaches in decorum were ac...

Ami here!

Hello dear patrons, Ami here.

Thanks for all your concerns, I am doing much better, hopefully. Crossing fingers, not intestines (that one got Tora hackling).

We've been working on AI videos and Suno on the side and want to share them with you. I was inspired by the AI trend on youtube with the music videos. Super cool stuff. Of course nothing is perfect and we cut it short because Mel couldn't handle the Millenial Woop (not sure what it's called). So you all get the cute bit of Me...

How did bloopers not win the poll??

Since several of you voted for bloopers, I'll at least drop my favorite. This one cracks me up every time. Prompting for Celeste doing her fire dance while shooting Charged Blasts has become my go-to test for every new AI video generator. So far, they have all failed miserably. When one gets it right, I'll start taking the video content seriously.

What to do?

Since I unilaterally chose to doll out 3 of your 4 chapters early this week, finishing book 4, I'll let you decide what we do with the last one. The start of book 5 is definitely more engaging if you have multiple chapters to read at once. Only getting the first chapter, then waiting a week for the next 4 isn't recommended.

If anyone has any better ideas, post them in the comments.

MM - Chapter 157 - ANNOTATIONS OF A PSYCHIC

Johnathon of PsyCore

- Minutes ago -

Upon arriving at Carter City Central Square, Johnathon's attention was immediately stolen by the emanations of a powerful, unsanctioned psychic. It was a trivial matter to tell that the bandage-wrapped man on center stage, who announced himself as Raine KongRu, was untrained. His mental fluctuations were highly erratic, one of the first faults trained out of every budding PsyCore agent.

It was also...

MM - Chapter 156 - TAKE FLIGHT

Raine didn't know how long he’d been fighting in the dark, illuminated only by the intermittent blinking light from Morty’s drone. Time had a way of stretching when one’s life was on the line. He moved with purpose, having no other choice than to utilize the full extent of his strength. Each burst of internal force pushed him closer to the edge of shutting down, and he used them freely, for to stop would invite death.

Every glimpse of his opponent, the scraping of a foot, or the r...

MM - Chapter 155 - A JOB TO DO

Jedidiah frowned, releasing a weary sigh. “Such a shame. That was a fine punch for one at your level. Your skills are real. With twenty years to mature, you would be my better.” Killing intent blasted from the old master as he took a step toward Raine.

Jedidiah’s mental energy was met halfway and stopped cold. The young fool’s killing intent was accompanied by an animalistic grin rife with madness. Growling, Jedidiah redoubled his efforts, going all out. His brows shot to his ha...

MM - Chapter 154 - CHOOSE YOUR FATE

The morning sun streamed between tall buildings, illuminating Carter City in gentle hues that mingled with the heat radiating from the massed humanity clogging the streets. As the building monitors flickered to life, revealing a central stage and the thirteen figures upon it, the roars and cheers became overwhelming. All eyes were on Raine and those standing behind him, though they didn't know him from the others, considering the dark bandages they were all wearing.

The voices of opposi...

MM - Chapter 153 - THE STORM SWIRLS

Master Jedidiah 

- The Next Morning -

Jedidiah was nearing his twelfth tempering. By any standard metric, he was no longer human, but something else. Wrought in misery, blood, and sacrifice, he had transcended his mortal origins, embracing the one true path. It was for these reasons that a restless night should be impossible. 

He certainly could not remember the last time it happened, which meant it was before his third temp...

MM - Chapter 152 - A SLIM MARGIN

Celeste Luu Rahn

- Carter City Hall, Mayor’s Office -

Master Jedidiah took another step toward Celeste, murder in his gaze, “I suggest you reconsider your tone, child, lest your defiance sink you in a mire of misery without escape.”

Celeste sneered, “And I suggest you fuck. Right. Off.” Her eyes dropped to the medallion as Jedidiah clenched it in a furious grip. When he didn’t immediately leap to attack, her confidence swe...

MM - Chapter 151 - THE BUILDING STORM

Finding the vomicida hive without tracking skills leaned too far into the luck category for Raine’s tastes. His plan was simple to the point of being crude: head in whichever direction the majority of the beasts were coming from. He sprinted northwest—where the three ambushed him from before. After carefully traversing the Ruptured Chaparral for an hour, he set up a new field of nets, repeating a similar version of the mite-gathering strategy from before.

The airspace in this sectio...

MM - Chapter 150 - PUSHING FORWARD

Melani Feladay 

- Carter City -

Returning to the hotel was a mistake. Sure, a change of clothes was nice, but it wasn't worth being alone, especially after having to cross Carter City in its current state. The streets were clogged unlike she’d ever seen them. Autonomous vehicles were supposed to make traveling faster. Usually, they did, but nothing slowed down traffic like hundreds of people constantly walking through the road...

MM - Chapter 149 - THESE MOTHERFUCKERS

As Raine once more purposefully buried himself beneath a throng of monsters, two new issues immediately became apparent; he couldn’t see far past the blazing light emanating from armor and shield, and chasing his prey through so many heavy, chitinous bodies was impossible with his current Potency.

With a thought, the fires from Wisdom of Amanesh slithered back to his core, taking the blinding light covering his shield with it. What little he could see was now illuminated by the pervas...

MM - Chapter 148 - BEYOND LIMITS

Multiple jets of acid impacted Raine, coating his whole body in sticky, sizzling goop. Before each application could tick a second time, the liquid bubbled and burned away in the semi-solid fire erupting from his armor and skin. Raine forced himself to keep breathing as his lungs were seared from within. The feeling was violating, akin to gulping water while attempting to breathe underwater. Despite the wrongness, his regeneration kept him alive, and on the battle flowed. The experience was y...

MM - Chapter 147 - BRING IT ON!

Raine landed a reasonable distance from the forest’s edge. ZionLine housed innumerable areas that were a less-than-stellar plan to fly directly into: the Ruptured Chaparral was one such area. Its denizens were particularly suited to taking down fliers, and the unique obfuscations of his Premium Skydrifter wouldn’t save him from the higher-level observation skills. As he approached on foot, Raine was thankful for not needing to learn about each of the no-fly zones for a second time. Those ...

MM - Chapter 146 - ONLY ONE

“I fell asleep! I'm so sorry!” 

Mel's long-awaited call came as Raine was ascending the second exploration tower. He laughed off her concern, enjoying the sound of her voice after hours of whistling wind. “Don't be. I knew you would pass out the instant you put that headset on. Genesis isn't well understood, but everyone knows it puts intense stress on the brain. Honestly, I'm surprised you're already up.”

Mel released a held breath, anxiety whisked away as if it had ...

MM - Chapter 145 - LIFEBLOOD OF A GUILD

Melani Feleday

- Raine’s Abode -

Mel waded through a dark mire of confusing impressions and vague feelings. There was no sky, sun, or landmarks to guide by. She was hopelessly lost and couldn’t remember why she came here in the first place. The worst of it was that she managed to get herself stuck while alone. She hated being alone more than anything.

There was no way to tell how long she wandered in that strange place. How...

MM - Chapter 144 - COMPLICATIONS

Disturbing Mel in the middle of her genesis would be a terrible idea. The spark of cognition at the core of the process was both faint and fleeting. While possible to find it again later, Raine had heard time and again that the first attempt carried the strongest spark. His genesis completed in seconds, so he had no way to know if those rumors held any weight. Still, he chose to err on the side of caution and assume they did.

What he knew for sure was that Genesis manifested one's inner...