Kaius held firm under the assault of platinum shards of crystallised power, preparing himself to link to the final nexus he needed to create his next legacy skill. It would be agony, that he was certain of. Every legacy skill he forged added to the difficulty of merging the next, and with seven orbiting his soul the battle of wills had grown dire.
He exploded into motion. Wrapping his will around his soul he weaved together a tightrope of his central essence, flinging himself...
2024-10-18 20:30:04 +0000 UTC
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Standing in the vault they had gained access to after slaying the assassin Champion, Kaius crouched down to take a closer look at the rewards. A pair of greaves and a ring that lay in the centre of the inscribed metal floor, haloed by the light of the wardlights set into the ceiling.
“Well, what do they do?” Porkchop asked from beside him, his nervous pawing at the ground giving away his impatience.
Kaius rolled his eyes. “Give me a moment...
2024-10-17 20:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Kaius felt cold, ever so cold, as he lay in a growing pool of his own blood. He could faintly hear the ongoing cries of his friend’s fury as Porkchop savaged the Champion who had slit his throat and ruined his chest.
He coughed, a spray of red glugging out of the ragged tear in his neck.
*Ding! Stone Blood has reached level 20!*
Shoving his agony and panic to the side he redoubled his grip on his Health, forcing...
2024-10-16 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius crept alongside the exterior of a regal building that backed up onto the wall that led to the final layer of the dwarven city, shadowing himself under a massive balcony of stone. It rose a dozen stories into the air to taper into a collection of spindly spires, with heavily barred windows dotting the walls.
The exterior of the building was absolutely covered in reliefs, all following the same theme. Coin. Valuable gems locked in a vault, artefacts held securely...
2024-10-15 20:30:00 +0000 UTC
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Sitting down on the raised platform where he and Porkchop had discovered the stash of potions, Kaius repacked his bag.
With a single tonic each of Solar Revitalisation and Psychopathic Assault, the lastest haul had brought them to a total of nine tonics. One more than he could hold in his potion pouch. After moving his coin and empties to a slot in his pack, Kaius had to make the tricky choice of which potion to leave outside of easy reach.
...
2024-10-14 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius stumbled away from the corpse of the goblin Champion, his chest heaving as he slid to ground. He groaned as his hip crunched against the stone with his too rough movement.
Lowering himself slowly to lie flat on his back, Kaius stared up at the vaulted stone roof of the pavilion as Rapid Adaptation worked to purge the remnants of the shamans mana from his system.
“Well. That could have gone better.” He said.
Porkchop hu...
2024-10-14 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius flew backwards, giving ground before the goblin attendants assault. He could feel it, the energy that had seeped into his bones from the spell the shaman had cast on him. Sapping their strength, weakening the very foundation of his body.
His health flooded out, saturating his arm in itching heat as it fought to seal the crack in his bone. With every blow he blocked and parried yet more cracks joined it. Kaius stepped back just a little too hard to avoid a swipe. A small...
2024-10-13 20:31:00 +0000 UTC
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“I hope real dwarven cities are built like this.” Kaius said as he stared at a row of immaculately carved statues that were laid in a circle around the plaza that he had spotted earlier. Each and every one was easily twice his height, and looked like they could have been living figures simply transmuted into a soft brown stone. They depicted a dwarven warrior, garbed in full plate with a stern expression revealed by an open faced helm.
“Why?” Porkc...
2024-10-13 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Standing in one of the bathrooms, Kaius activated an enchantment that was set into the wall of an absolutely massive tiled washroom. A moment later hot rainfall fell from the ceiling in a torrential downpour, splashing on the slanted floor to drain out of a grate. It was a clever bit of runework, though he had to admit it had surprised him the first time he had seen it, being far fancier than anything he had seen before. He was used to bathing in rivers, and even on the rare occasions he had ...
2024-10-12 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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Porkchop smashed into the clumsy formation of goblins with the force of a landslide. Diminutive green bodies crunched. The line collapsed, the ‘lucky’ goblins that weren’t completely trampled being sent tumbling to the floor.
Kaius watched his friend roar, laying into their massed enemies with a fury, his artefact enhanced paws batting aside weapons as he crushed bone with every swing.
There was no way he was going to let Porkc...
2024-10-12 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius held his arm steady as he put the finishing touches on his Arcane Bolt hymn. In comparison to the sheer effort that his glyph had taken, the runic spell was simple to hold steady in his mind. Thanks to being directly attached to a supporting structure, all he had to do was draw. No saturating his arm with mana, no holding it steady with his will, just direct and simple inscribing.
The High Lothian spell was a pretty thing. Connecting to one of the outer sp...
2024-10-11 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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“Kaius~” Something whispered in his mind in a singsong voice. Quickly followed by something wet and cold prodding his cheek. Kaius murmured, slapping away the intrusion.
“Kaius!” The voice screamed.
“I’m awake!” He yelled, jolting nearly a full stride into the air as Porkchop startled him awake.
“Sleep well? I thought I’d let you rest seeing as you had all your limbs. It would have ...
2024-10-11 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius stared at the blood that rocketed from his hand, spraying down the front of the desk. Splattering on his carefully arrayed notes. He spun in his seat, turning away from the desk to spill blood on the floor, groaning as agony lanced through his hand.
Porkchop was on him in a flash. “Kaius! What the fuck!”
He grunted. Feeling as his health flooded out to treat the injury. Before it could reach it, he snatched it up in his grip with single min...
2024-10-10 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! Skill Merged! Mana Manipulation obtained!*
Upon receiving the system notification that he had successfully merged his next legacy skill, Kaius collapsed. Falling backwards in relief. He opened his eyes, only to find Porkchop staring at him in curiosity.
“Is your nose supposed to be bleeding? That never happened to me.” Porkchop asked.
Kaius sighed, pushing his friend's head out of his persona...
2024-10-10 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius’s eyes bored into the jagged shard of stone that hovered in the air between him and Porkchop. They’d been at it for a couple of days now, and he was finally at the finish line. Fire Manipulation and Water Manipulation had quickly followed his first skill. Getting capped as he waged a war against his friend for dominance over the aspected mana.
Fast it might have been, it was also draining. Wearing down on his mind. The...
2024-10-09 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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After a hearty breakfast of fried eggs, buttered toast, and some seared meat that tasted like a cross between fish and beef, Kaius and Porkchop moved to one of the manors sitting rooms. It was a better fit for their purposes, with a tall ceiling and wide open spaces that provided them more than enough space for their mana manipulation practice.
Holding an armful of firewood, Kaius loaded up the hearth. He left it unlit, sitting in such proximity to open flame would almost cer...
2024-10-09 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaus sat in a comfortably overstuffed armchair, his legs splayed out in front of him thanks to its slightly too short height. He had returned to the office as soon as he had woken, rising with the dawn of the crystal sun that hung high above the Depths-created dwarven city. To his luck, he’d been able to slip out of the bedroom without waking Porkchop. By his measure he had at least an hour until his friend woke, giving him plenty of time to merge Runic Lexicon.
Hi...
2024-10-08 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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Seeing that the system had offered him the skill he wanted, Kaius smiled. It was the last he needed for Runic Lexicon.
Now he just needed to practise. That would come later, first he had to check his latest skill.
Rune Mastery - Simenoan:
Level 1
Rare
Bind chaos, weave stability into the unpredictable. Find calm in disorder and force the muta...
2024-10-08 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius sat at the head of a grand dining table, nine high backed seats lining each side with a long tablecloth embroidered with heraldry draping over its centre. After two full days cooped up in the manors office, he had decided he needed a change of scenery.
Sitting at the head of the table was weird. An experience far removed from his rather…rustic upbringing in the Arboreal Sea. He felt like a kid playing at a noble. The whole thing got another confusing tw...
2024-10-07 20:31:00 +0000 UTC
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Kaius held the piece of paper between ink stained fingers, his hands shaking slightly as he stared at the complex mess of a runic sigil that had taken him the better part of an hour to write. It had to work this time. It had to.
He felt like he was going insane, pouring over the grain sized characters that built up into massive words, in turn whorling into curving lines of script. It wasn’t his hand writing. That was perfect. His first atte...
2024-10-07 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Rune Mastery - Ykkardian (Rare)?*
Kaius stared at the system notification that hung in his vision, feeling exceedingly pleased with himself. Getting offered the skill on his first attempt was evidence that all of those evenings spent in mind bending study of runes had been worth it. That his father’s exacting methods and intolerance of mistakes had worked.
Mastery skills were...
2024-10-06 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius crouched behind the massive desk that dominated the manors office. It was a little awkward to get at the cabinets beneath, as it had clearly been designed for non-humans. The seat was a little too broad, and everything was a good stride closer to the ground than was comfortable.
Yanking open another draw, Kaius let out a whoop of success as he found an inkwell and a massive stack of loose paper. It was good stuff. Most paper he had used was rough pressed. Thick an...
2024-10-06 20:30:02 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! Skill Merged! True Sight obtained!*
Kaius let out a whoop of joy as his latest legacy skill spun into existence. Crystallising into a new nexus of power that joined itself with his other merged skills to orbit his soul. A grunt from across the room made him snap open his eyes. His exclamation had roused Porkchop, his friend sitting up from the day bed he had been napping on to look at him with curiosity.
“Sorry bud.” Kaius...
2024-10-05 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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Porkchop charged, activating his amulet to crush through the final thrum of goblins that had packed themselves into the tight alley separating the two manors. Depths-born screamed as their bones cracked, the force of Porkchop’s charge crushing them underfoot. Sending them rocketing into allies and richly carved stone alike. Bursting through to the otherside of the dense crowd, Porkchop turned and started to tear into the goblins' flank.
Kaius waded into the fray, the cracke...
2024-10-05 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Edit:
I have now be informed that I should stop doing double dailies on RR now that I am on RS, otherwise i'm knee capping myself thanks to algo fuckery. I'll keep them going here, so in 10 days you guys will be 50 chapters ahead instead of 40 (faster than I expected!). I'm gonna bank RS bonus for both, so that when we return to a regular schedule of 5/week, I can stretch out dailies for longer (at which point you guys will be on 1/day instead of 2/day).
...
Hey folks, I g...
2024-10-05 03:32:00 +0000 UTC
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The hot rush of victory thrummed through him as the hobgoblins head fell to the ground with a wet thunk. Another Champion slain, another step closer to his goal. He turned to Porkchop with a grin, slapping his friend on the shoulder.
“All according to plan.” He said.
Porkchop snorted. “Yes, we were definitely planning on you getting gutted.”
Kaius gave an exaggerated humph. “I’ll have you know that was definitely pa...
2024-10-04 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius watched the hobgoblin Champion. Evaluating it even as he was forced to slip around ever more furious swings of its axe. Since activating it’s body enhancement skill, the hob had grown cold. Focused.
Whatever the skill was, it was broad, and powerful. It was now strong enough to use its axe one handed, despite the weapon carrying enough steel at its tip to make enough swords for a whole regiment. It was faster too, dashing in with a fury that forced him to focus ...
2024-10-04 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius and Porkchop tore across the open square, dancing over the mummified bodies of armoured dwarves as they closed in on the hobgoblin Champion. Their target was quite literally foaming at the mouth, lost in a furor as it charged to meet them. Its axe held high.
“Split!” Kaius called. Porkchop reacted instantly, peeling away from him to approach the Champion from a different angle.
Watching as their foe started to flick its gaze between them, Kaius scre...
2024-10-03 20:31:00 +0000 UTC
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After spending a few more minutes to engrave a route through the twisting alleys of the dwarven military district, Kaius reduced the power of his Eagle Eye skill until he no longer felt like a giant was rapping him over his skull. Rubbing at his eyes, he stepped back from the ledge.
“What’d you see?” Porkchop asked, pushing into his side affectionately. Apparently he was feeling less grumpy now that the arrow holes in his back had healed.
2024-10-03 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius charged through the broken gate, rushing into the wide street that led into the military section of the dwarven city. Goblins let out guttural hisses from the alleys and roofs, reacting quickly to their presence. Porkchop responded in turn, letting out a roar right next to him that rang Kaius’s ear.
Still sprinting, Kaius led them in the direction of the alley that wrapped around the back of the tallest building by the gates. Three stories tall, he could see an open a...
2024-10-02 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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