Sometimes Isaac Bird had questions for himself. Such as 'how the heck did he end up preparing to assault the land of demons alongside a massive army of ant monsters', or 'should he grow a full beard or just stick with a moustache?'.
The latter was probably not as difficult to answer as the former, but each was worthy of careful consideration. 'Take each problem, one at a time,' as Ma used to say.
"How long do you think they're going to make us wait here, captain?" Margun asked fro...
2021-07-07 07:46:34 +0000 UTC
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Big thanks to everyone who's stuck around for another month! Hope all is well with you!
Not only do I believe the ancients to be real, but I believe they have gotten stronger, not weaker, over time. I understand the thinking behind the so-called 'cascading mana deprivation' theory, but I consider it optimistic at best, and hopelessly naive at worst. I can almost believe that the great thinkers of the last age were simply never taught the concept of entrop...
2021-07-06 07:12:56 +0000 UTC
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After collecting a few choice cores and chowing down on Biomass, all we could really do was shrug and get back to business. Even so, I can't help but feel like this incident is going to come back and bite me in the backside somehow. At least this time I can proudly wave my antennae and declare that it wasn't my fault! How am I supposed to know some random pride demon is going to get it in his head to attack me? There was clearly no getting out of that situation.
Now, where were we.
<...
2021-07-05 08:05:59 +0000 UTC
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After being hit with literally dozens of gravity bolts, the pride demon's powerful leap takes him practically nowhere, dragged back down to the ground by his own mass. How do you like that, fool! Smoked by the power of gravity! Man, I cannot wait to get my hands on that gravity skill!
Having had my fill of throwing spells at them, I charge, dashing toward our foes, my legs a blur. Unhappy with the treatment her tentacles were given, Crinis is already unwinding more, snaking the...
2021-07-02 11:13:10 +0000 UTC
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Hello loves! I must say that on all of my adventures and travels, I haven't quite come across anything like what I saw in Renewal. Monsters and people? Living together in harmony? You'd think me mad if I told you that, absolutely barking! Nonetheless, as hard as it is to believe, you can trust the word of old Tolly. You begged me to come here and report back to you, and that is what I have done! If you were to doubt me at this point, then you might just hurt my poor old heart, dear reader...
2021-07-01 08:14:04 +0000 UTC
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I make out five demons in total, judging by my mana sense, all of them tier six, thank heavens. If they'd all turned out to be a higher tier than me, we might have just been dead and buried right there. According to the information that I've managed to barter out of Al, the vast majority of demons, the properly sapient ones anyway, are tier six.
Due the generally short and barbaric lives they tend to live, most don't make it tier seven, but those that do can be considered powerful, stan...
2021-06-30 02:07:01 +0000 UTC
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Travelling through the vast plains is strangely peaceful, despite the literal ocean of death and destruction happening around us at all given moments. After the first ten minutes, I kind of fell into the habit of not directing my attention downward, and all of a sudden, the endless war of the little demons beneath my feet wasn't such a big deal anymore. Every now and again I might get swiped by a wayward claw, but even if they are monster’s native to the third stratum, with all sor...
2021-06-30 02:06:08 +0000 UTC
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[How long will the curious one remain imprisoned within the mouth?]
[Until she's learned not to be a massive pain in my commercial zone.]
A wave of heat washes over me from behind.
[What is this… commercial zone?]
[You know what? Never mind.]
The already sweltering temperatures of the third stratum inch up a couple of degrees as Al literally burns with a level of curiosity that, being honest, I just can't be bothered dealing with right now. All I'd wan...
2021-06-28 10:40:54 +0000 UTC
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Beyn stared at the notification in front of him in complete shock.
[You have reached level 20.]
[Your current Class: Antmancer, has reached its maximum level. Class evolution is now available. Would you like to evolve your Class?]
Finally! He'd finally done it! After all this time working alongside the ants of the Colony and assisting his brethren in completing their work, it had finally paid off and he was now the first who be given the chance to evolve this sacred Class an...
2021-06-25 11:32:54 +0000 UTC
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The nest was ablaze with activity, even more than usual. Since the start of the previous wave, the Colony had moved as if a fire had been lit beneath it, one put there by the Eldest member of their family. The race to expand and grow before their enemies returned to challenge them had begun and the ants refused to lose. Already, four new nests had been established and the Queens installed. Those new satellite nests were not even fully complete, but plans for the next round of expansion had al...
2021-06-25 11:32:25 +0000 UTC
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With her incredibly enhanced vision, it wasn't too hard for Wills to make out the details of the demon city far, far below. Any ant who wasn't a highly evolved scout would find it impossible to see what she could, but for her, it was simple. The advantages of evolving to tier five. Being able to see clearly at long distances generally wasn't something that scouts needed in the regular course of their duties, but with knowledge of the third stratum, she'd known that it would be a necessary tra...
2021-06-23 09:14:35 +0000 UTC
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"ROOOOAAARRRRR!"
A leg shaking bellow rocks the ground, followed a moment later by a giant, winged ape leaping high into the sky before crashing back down on the road beside the building I'm on, crumbling a few walls in the process. I'm beyond caring about the property damage at this point, all that matters is securing Brilliant, the rest we can deal with later.
Hopefully.
"GET BACK HERE, HATCHLING!" I rocket my pheromones forward, blanketing the area with m...
2021-06-21 10:38:54 +0000 UTC
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In the back of mind I worry that the king chubster himself, Grokus, might have seized the hatchling the moment she slipped away from us, to use as leverage, or just to eat, who knows? But from what I can tell, the trail leading to the little runaway doesn't lead back to the column in the centre of the plate, in fact, it seems as though it looping around the outside.
Stupid hatchling! You just wanted to go sightseeing that badly?! When I catch you, I'll dangle you over the edge for a wee...
2021-06-19 12:27:07 +0000 UTC
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I don't mind sharing with you, my dear readers, that as much as I enjoy travelling around the wonderful world in which we live, exploring its many incredible, unbelievable sights and relaying them to you in my own quirky fashion, I do miss my bed. Oh! Such comfort! Such bliss! The means with which you have so graciously afforded to me my readers, they have not gone to waste! Enchanted stone-wood frame, carved ever so intricately with doves and vines, the mattress, with its three layered s...
2021-06-19 12:26:44 +0000 UTC
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[A demonic existence can be reduced to a single need: obsession. There are many forms that this desire can take, almost innumerable, but every demon feels it. Provided we are given the freedom to pursue this obsession, we are largely content. Though this does not mean we are peaceful. A slaughter demon has but one desire, and it will seek to fulfill that desire always.]
[So… if a demon is going around killing other demons in Roklu, you just… let it go about its business? That hardly...
2021-06-16 10:23:35 +0000 UTC
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[I don’t see you demon… are you going to show yourself or - HOLYGIZZADIGUP!]
Even as I ask for the creature to show itself, it seems to blink into existence on the edge of my vision, shocking me with both its sudden appearance, and bizarre form. A giant eyeball wreathed in fiery tentacles that appear almost more like tongues of flame than appendages of flesh stares down at me like a watchful sun.
[I did not mean to shock you,] the voice in my mind says, [I have been h...
2021-06-15 11:51:20 +0000 UTC
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"Get back here!" I grumble at Brilliant, "if you don't behave yourself, you're going back in the mouth!"
She freezes in the process of dashing off into the city and turns back towards us.
"Do I even fit in there anymore…?" she asks doubtfully.
[Invidia, show her the mouth.]
He does.
"I see that I would indeed still fit…" she says, the scent faint.
"Yes, yes you would. When it comes to mouths, Invidia is ranked second in our group behind Crinis in terms ...
2021-06-14 11:11:35 +0000 UTC
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I mean… he's fat. Like. Really fat. I probably shouldn't focus on that too much, considering that this demon is almost certainly seventh tier, the first that I've ever seen. But still, he's like… a mega-chonker.
Atop that bulbous mass of flesh, split through the middle with a grotesque mouth that even now is stuffing itself full of Biomass from trays heaped with the stuff on either side of the figure of the city lord, the shockingly humanoid upper body looks down on us with thinly v...
2021-06-11 11:52:25 +0000 UTC
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My first impression of the Renewal was somewhat mixed, I must say. Having flown from the glittering towers of Derinon, jewel of the Asla sea and metropolis of the age, the relatively humble city that lay before me was rather quaint, rustic and backward. I'm sure you, dear reader, would react likewise if you'd just travelled from the heart of civilisation into the wild frontier! But what one must remember, must keep at the forefront of your mind at all times, is just how little time this c...
2021-06-11 11:51:48 +0000 UTC
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It's a heck of a lot easier for Brilliant to walk down the face of the pillar than it is for me, her light body proving no challenge for her claws. Tiny has a rough time of it, having to climb on the rock much like a human would, using his hands and feet to find holds, but thanks to his unbelievable strength it doesn't prove too much of an issue. Invidia and Crinis have no problem at all, the demon fluttering along beside us as we slowly make our way down, with Crinis attached to the back of ...
2021-06-09 11:15:40 +0000 UTC
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It takes a few days, but we finally make it down here. The remnants of the wave are still visible in mana levels and spawn rates that are higher than they otherwise would be, but the never ending streams of monsters bursting from the walls of the tunnels are no longer to be found, which is nice. To be honest though, the spawn rates and mana levels have never really returned to what they were when I was born. If I had to hazard a guess, after the first wave, the mana level never dropped back d...
2021-06-08 11:40:35 +0000 UTC
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I take more time to play with my new mental setup, slowly growing accustomed to the strange feeling of having more mental power than my physical brains should be able to provide. The more I mess around with it, weaving multiple threads of mana by having one brain concentrate on two things at the same time, the more I feel that my connection to being human really is vanishing a long way behind me. I couldn't even imagine being a giant ant with multiple brains and giant mandibles whilst running...
2021-06-07 11:05:31 +0000 UTC
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After so many years and so much study, you'd think that there would be widespread agreement over the advanced aspects of the System, cooperation across kingdoms providing a deep reservoir of shared knowledge to draw from. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. From the famed Tower to the Academy in Los, these august institutions of learning hoard their secrets like squirrels storing nuts for winter. The deeper initiates are forced to swear binding life oaths to ensure secrec...
2021-06-03 12:57:36 +0000 UTC
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The hatchling continues to ruminates over her choices, being far more diligent in perusing the menu lists, looking for combos and asking clarifying questions than I ever was. Not that I had anyone to ask at her stage of evolution! I was a solo Dungeon monster, dammit! Kids these days have it way too easy. But I suppose that's a good thing, I don't want them to suffer as I suffered. Otherwise what would be the point of all that we've achieved? We continue to feed her experience and Biomass as ...
2021-06-02 12:32:35 +0000 UTC
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"Are you really sure that this is going to be important?" the hatchling asks again as we munch down on some Biomass.
"Of course it is! Mutations are extremely important! Supremely important! Raw stats are only one aspect of the strength of a monster, and those are decided by evolutionary tier. Mutations give us access to all sorts of things that can completely change what we are capable of. Depending on the mutations you pick going forward, you'll become a completely different ant! You ...
2021-06-01 12:23:33 +0000 UTC
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Charge! Pierce!
As ridiculous as it feels, I continue to use the stupid combo of new Skills that I purchased in order to keep leveling them up. Charge is fine, in practice it's very similar to dash with the exception that now it's levelled up to rank three, it's become a proper active Skill that shrouds me in the power of my stamina that shields me when I ram into things. Mandible Spear though? First of all, my mandibles aren't exactly 'sharp'. They aren't pointed. They aren't even remo...
2021-05-31 11:48:39 +0000 UTC
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After visiting the core shapers, there isn't too much left to do. I don't want to take the hatchling in to visit mother, since she's likely to declare something rude like "I could be a way better Queen" and get her head thwacked in. By me. So I abandon that idea and instead decide that it's time to begin doing the real work of the hatchlings education. Combat!
Not to mention, I need to stuff her full of Biomass and cores in order to assure the best possible evolutions! Gweheheheh.
2021-05-28 12:02:16 +0000 UTC
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It does seem as though the mage ants have evolved slightly in terms of their practice regimen. In some larger areas we find something I hadn't seen them do before: squad based competition. Ten mages per side, twenty in total battling against each other in a dazzling display of coordinated spellcraft. Defence and offense on both sides operates at a furious pace as both sets of ants do their best to break down the other. The contest of Will is so fierce I can practically feel their minds arm wr...
2021-05-27 08:26:50 +0000 UTC
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"Get down from there you little varmint!" I yell.
"What even is this thing?" she yells back, still scurrying about on top of the gate as she pokes and prods with her antennae inspecting every nook and cranny.
"It's some sort of spatial gateway that allows instantaneous travel across vast distances and we are trying to learn how it works so we can link our nests together. Now get your butt off of there before you break something!"
Reluctantly, she starts to climb down, still ...
2021-05-26 09:21:43 +0000 UTC
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Sorry I'm late.
Having a smaller ant crawl all over my carapace is kind of ticklish and I was frankly a little glad when Smithant was finally finished with her work. I could tell she was pumped up, she was practically radiating the same level of energy as the hatchling by the time she was done. Without so much as a 'thanks for dropping in' she rushed about, starting gathering ingots and scratching designs into the ground with her claw before we'd even left th...
2021-05-25 22:54:06 +0000 UTC
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