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2025-10-21 21:18:25 +0000 UTC View Post
RinoZ posts
Chapter 1701 - Hunting
There’s something pleasantly sinister about my newly developed stealth method. I can still remember back in the old days when I would huddle against the roof of the tunnel, stealth activated, desperately trying to avoid detection as I moved around in the first stratum. My new technique is a little different.
Using gravity magic, I lift myself off the ground, legs tucked up under my carapace, and silently float along, making no sound whatsoever. Meanwhile, my minds are dedicated to hid...
2025-10-21 01:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 72 - Higher Undead, Reborn
In many ways, Tyron was content. Here, in Foxbridge, there was no one to bother him with requests, demands or expectations. He was finally free of all the burdens that had clung to him for so long. Without distractions, without obligations, he was free to pour all of his energy and power into the magick that he loved.
And there was an absurd amount of power. Perhaps it was a good thing the rifts to the north and south were untended, as Foxbridge became the centre of a vo...
2025-10-21 01:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1700 - Scolded
[You did what?]
So loud! Sheesh.
[You have absolutely nothing to complain about,] I grizzle. [I haven’t killed anyone, not even the delvers trying to capture my siblings so they can sell them to a Church and melt them down for experience juice. Asking any more from me than that is ridiculous. Pin a medal on my carapace, dammit.]
[You leaked details of your own physical body in order to lure delvers to try and attack you?] Chyron stated. [Do you have any i...
2025-10-20 01:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 71 - Industrial Strength Necromancy
Foxbridge, the once-buzzing hub of river trade in the Western Province, was transformed in the space of a day. No longer merely a windswept tomb, the town became infested with the dead and blanketed in a cloud of black miasma. No longer did the sunlight touch empty streets and ruined buildings; instead, hundreds of skeletons swarmed amongst the buildings, making them ready for the battle to come. Placed equidistant around the city, cauldrons of bone spewed a constant stream of black sm...
2025-10-17 04:07:10 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1699 - That Which is Holy
“So it showed up after all,” Alir mused, looking up from the page in front of him.
Once again, the view from his villa on Green Mountain was spectacular. Known for the dense foliage that filled the populated areas, he saw a carpet of gently waving green laid out before him, sloping down towards the sparkling lake. Filled with light and life, the air was fresh and invigorating, filling his lungs and leaving him feeling refreshed and energised.
Truly, he had suffered for y...
2025-10-17 01:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1698 - Greed
Rare indeed is the individual whose appetite is equal to their capacity. Humans especially, they always want more.
- Excerpt from ‘Observations of Merchant’ by Historiant
A churning mess of panic, relief and anxiety thundered through Elsi as she saw the staging camp come into sight. Even when the monster had dismissed them, she hadn’t believed it was truly going to let her go. Every step, she expected it to descend on them with those savage-looking mandible...
2025-10-16 01:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 70 - What Remains
For as long as he could remember, the Grinters had owned and farmed the land to the south of town. In truth, they had been there not only longer than he’d been alive, but longer than his mother and father had. Of all the families who had been a major part of the Foxbridge community, perhaps only the mayors had deeper roots in the area.
Their farmstead, home to over twenty members of the extended family and dozens of their workers. Charles Grinter had been slightly younger...
2025-10-15 10:15:15 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 69 - Coming Home
There were a lot of spirits clinging to the land. A lot. Death and devastation had been visited on the Western Province by the Empire on an obscene scale, and even in these remote areas, with only villages and farmsteads dotted across the landscape, the remnants were clear.
Seen through the eyes of the Ashenflame skeletons, the spirits wailed and screamed in silence. Thrashing and clawing at anything living that drew close enough, but unable to have any effect on the tan...
2025-10-14 05:28:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1697 - Captured
A stalactite rushed to meet her and Elsi reacted on pure instinct, spinning like a dancer in the air as she parried the stone and flipped, landing on her feet. She looked up… or down… to the floor of the tunnel beneath them, wondering how she could get back there.
Shamus had also landed somewhat gracefully, grunting as his feet slammed into the stone.
“What type of magic is this?” he wondered, crouching low, eyes still focused on the fighting in the distance.
...
2025-10-14 01:00:25 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1696 - How the Tables do the Turn Thing
“What… what do we do?” Elsi whispered urgently. “It’s an ant. Didn’t we come for an ant?”
Shamus shook his head.
“Fool girl,” he replied, “we didn’t come for a tier eight giant. We are getting out of here.”
“Ah! AHHHH!!! HELP!”
Screams echoed in the tunnel as a delver lost their cool. Elsi couldn’t see what was happening at first. Heart pounding in her chest, she looked out over the rocks, casting her eyes about trying to see what...
2025-10-14 00:58:33 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1695 - Delving
The practice of Delving the Dungeon is as old as the Cataclysm. During the time of Rending, the world below became open to the surface for the first time. Other than horrific danger, there were many things to be found in the depths. Without the efforts of those first delvers, even the remnant of civilisation that survived the Cataclysm would not have endured. Metal and wood infused with mana, rare gems and crystals capable of channeling power, many were the wonders of the Dungeon at that ...
2025-10-14 00:57:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1694 - Agreements
[Where is it?] Chyron demanded.
Solant looked up at her, clacking her mandibles softly.
[It? You could be referring to any of a million different objects, Commander. How can I possibly know which one you mean?]
The Legionary Officer was certain the ant knew perfectly well what she meant.
[The monster,] she snapped. [I know it’s left the evolution chamber and you haven’t alerted us. This isn’t what we agreed.]
The little ant drew her antenna through her elbo...
2025-10-10 01:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostPAX AUS!
Just a reminder that I'm down in Melbourne all weekend for PAX AUS! If anyone is around, hit me up on discord or reply to this post. :D
Panel with shirtaloon, haylock and the gang is on at 430pm sunday!
2025-10-09 23:07:22 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 68 - Conductor of Death
Tyron had largely recovered after a few days had passed. The weakness that had clung to his limbs and fatigue that had weighed down his thoughts was mostly gone. Untainted food and water had gone a long way to helping him recover, and for once the Necromancer had been disciplined and ensured he got sufficient rest to recover.
A good thing he had, since there wouldn’t be any time to indulge in such luxuries again any time soon. A week after emerging from the Realm of the Dead, T...
2025-10-09 02:28:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1693 - Time to Pay
I remember the entrance from the fourth to the fifth. I’ve seen it lots of times, after all. In fact, I was the first ant to head through it.
I do not remember it looking like this!
For starters, it’s like, ten times the size it was, and rather than a nightmare tunnel into the depths of heck, it’s an industrial port which wouldn’t look out of place next to Heathrow! What the heck is going on here?
Lowered down from above is such a volume of…...
2025-10-09 01:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1692 - What Solant Wants, What Solant Gets
“Isn’t it obvious?” I say waving an antenna. “I’m heading to the fourth and dealing with those chumps who’re sniffing around our territory. Our siblings are in danger of being captured! Haven’t you heard?”
“Yes, of course I’ve heard about it,” Solant says calmly, “but why are you going to deal with it? So far, the delvers have failed to capture a single one of us. They are hardly a threat. Meanwhile, we are battling the Krath on multiple fronts right her...
2025-10-08 01:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1691 - Emerge Once More
I end up spending a few days playing around with my closest comrades and getting used to my new body. Getting Crinis to actually hit me was pretty hard, but we got there in the end. Tiny was too happy to hit me, if anything, his fists doing an admirable job smashing up my carapace. It was precisely that sort of concussive attack that the Inner Carapace Plating was designed to help absorb, and it does an admirable job soaking up the punishing hits the ape dishes out.
Even if I w...
2025-10-07 01:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1690 - Get Ready to Rumble
Delvers sniffing around the Colony’s territory, trying to capture members of my family?
Ohhhhhh no. No way, no how. This is not going to fly. I will be putting the foot down on this one, six times.
“Eldest,” Coolant says, trying to be reasonable. “We need to be careful. These delvers are very capable and are working completely legally. If you do too much, it could spark a diplomatic incident.”
“She isn’t wrong,” Sloan tells me heavily. “We’...
2025-10-06 01:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 67 - Devastation
Perhaps there was no individual in the Empire more acutely informed of the devastation of the Western Province than Merigold. She had poured over the records for thousands of hours, working long into the night, huddled over her desk, tabulating, summarising, categorising everything that had come to the bureaucracy. Alongside other members of her team, she had been responsible for collating the data, ruling up the tables, running the numbers and presenting them to the court, laying the ...
2025-10-04 11:19:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1689 - Words of the Council
As the Colony expanded, it wasn’t possible for the Council to be involved across every issue, and reliance on them for decision-making would have made the Colony slow, and unresponsive.
Other networks arose organically to make up for the shortfall, and these worked mandible in mandible with organisations like the Antministration to ensure that the decision-making process was transparent and documented, while also based on solid and factual information.
B5 Chapter 66 - Advanced State of Being
A person's attributes naturally accumulated as they gained levels, and it was difficult to quantify exactly how much each number meant. Someone with thirty-six strength was indeed stronger than someone with thirty-five, but it wasn’t a critical edge. Someone with five hundred strength against someone with five hundred and one wouldn’t notice any appreciable difference.
But someone with five hundred strength against someone with four hundred and ninety nine… that was a h...
2025-10-02 06:55:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1688 - Council Gathers
After the triad leaves, I keep eating and practicing walking around. A few test chomps with the mandibles, building up a bit of confidence, just basic stuff. It’s nice talking to Crinis, Tiny and Invidia, and they fill me in on what they’ve been up to while I was asleep.
Tiny, it seems, has fully devoted himself to the art of punching. It’s not easy to get any details out of him, being of a more taciturn nature, but from what I can piece together, he found a supposedly unbreakable...
2025-10-02 02:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1687 - Final Assessment
It was difficult for Granin to curtail his growing excitement. His belief that Anthony could be the one, the twentieth Ancient, had grown stronger than ever. As if it were destined to be, the poison of Theorazzn, which looked like it would cripple his potential, had been miraculously turned to his advantage.
With the power of an Ancient already coursing through him, but none of the toxic downsides, Anthony would be a powerhouse in the eighth tier, a monster that few could conte...
2025-10-01 02:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1686 - Transformation
The more Granin investigated, the less he could believe how it had all shaken out. When the once-krath had sung to Anthony and cleansed him, he had no idea what effect it would have on his organs, but he had feared the worst.
Perhaps they would be twisted and ruined by the mangling of the mana going into them, different alignments clashing and turning expensive evolutionary purchases into useless lumps of meat without purpose. Or perhaps they would be able to serve their intended functi...
2025-09-30 02:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1685 - Well Designed
[I’m sure you’ll be able to work something out,] Granin grumbles, clearly irritated. [Can you worry about this later? There are more important–]
[More important? More important?! What are you even saying? There is NOTHING more important than tickle time!]
The golgari shaper rolls his eyes then sighs heavily.
[Anthony, you’ve been asleep for six months. Can you shut up about grubs for five minutes so we can talk about what happened when you evolved?]...
2025-09-29 03:24:52 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 65 - A New Level of Existence
When he woke, Tyron knew that he was the same person as he had been before. He lay on the grass, staring up at the clear blue sky, unsure of how long he had been out.
As soon as the ritual had ended, his head exploded as the Unseen filled him with knowledge, pouring it into him like a jug being filled with water. Despite his best effort to hold it all, he still felt as if he had begun to overflow in mere moments, precious information slipping out of his grasp and disappearing into the d...
2025-09-26 07:48:28 +0000 UTC View PostB5 Chapter 64 - Crests
There were many possibilities, many different paths forward, and they all span endlessly through Tyron’s head as he examined the sigils around him. Every glowing symbol represented a choice he had made, time he had spent and energy he had exerted in trying to become stronger, trying to learn and grow as a Necromancer. They also represented the single- minded drive, the obsession and focus he had endlessly poured into his vengeance.
Which were the strongest? Which combination wo...
2025-09-26 07:47:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1684 - Getting Adjusted
Getting used to moving about in a new body always takes a bit of time, but the change is so dramatic after this evolution. Everything feels different. Not necessarily worse, just… different. Even moving my legs around feels a little off, as if the muscles are pulling from different angles than they did before.
Tiny, Crinis and Invidia keep me company as I confirm my initial wave of mutations, roll around kicking, then collect myself before going back to moving about slowly. As always,...
2025-09-26 02:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 1683 - Purified and Sanctified
First of all, what the heck is a Pure Core? Why do I have one, and what does it even do?!
Gandalf?
[Pure Core. Absorbs and cleanses mana.]
Wait… that’s it? Come on, Gandalf, you have to give me more than that!
…
…
No? Damn your silver locks and fulsome beard, damn them to Hades! Cleanses mana? How? What sort of mana?! I mean, if I go back out in the fifth, then… will this automatically cleanse the corruption out ...
2025-09-25 02:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post