Malcolm Tent

A Novel Approach chapter 99

Wish upon the Stars chapter 899

Callie and I struck out on our own this time. I was going to need to do some serious sleuthing, and that meant lots of downtime. If Bethy came along we could have used her Domain to store the others, but despite being much more savvy than she usually let on, Bethy was not a patient or quiet person. She wasn’t really suited for a long term stakeout like this, and honestly aside from Callie none of the others would be a huge benefit.

My wife, on the other hand, was going to be KEY to th...

Secret Ending chapter 58

Wish upon the Stars chapter 898

Devlan’s voice was pleasant and urbane, but his eyes were hard and cold. He wasn’t some sophisticated gentleman, even if he dressed up like one. This was a ruthless thug, and he would have absolutely killed us if he thought he could get away with it and had a reason. Unfortunately for him, neither of those things were the case.

“No reason,” I told him pleasantly. “If you want to try, go ahead.”

He stared at me for a moment, either weighing his options or deciding if I ...

Secret Ending chapter 57

Wish upon the Stars chapter 897

The path up to Yettin was long, and it was made longer by the constant attempts to sell us things. Animal had mentioned space here was at a premium, but I hadn’t considered the logical (or illogical, considering the fervor) conclusion of that concept. Namely, EVERYTHING in Yettin was for sale.

After the first ring, we made it up to the second gate. Except it wasn’t one gate. It was two. Two identical doors right next to each other, with one of them marked for “expedient entry”. ...

A Novel Approach chapter 98

Wish upon the Stars chapter 896

Yettin was…big. We’d come up from out of the ground on top of a hill. The trek over had been on a slight incline, but we’d traveled so far I hadn’t realized how high we were until we emerged from the caves. Turning to look though, I was able to see the city from above, and looking at it was astonishing.

First of all, the “city” of Yettin wasn’t just one town. Or rather, it wasn’t just one layer. The city was, as Animal had mentioned, built in a sort of arc, bridging from...

Secret Ending chapter 56

nsfw section at the end of the chapter mind the tags.

Wish upon the Stars chapter 895

We waited for the others to report back before getting up. Bethy and Abel had divided the group in two, and with them running things I wasn’t too worried. Bethy could scout pretty well when she needed to, given her mist form, and I’d her running point on recon. She might mess around sometimes but she’d never put our people in unnecessary danger when I was trusting her to run things.

They came back with seven orbs total, counting the ones we’d already gotten. After a brief consid...

A Novel Approach chapter 97

For those of you hoping for a big dramatic blowup with the Kim thing...this was never that kind of story lmao. Too big of a derail.

Wish upon the Stars chapter 894

Reversing the process of converting the formation into a void shallow was time consuming and complicated. Back in the dungeon, the thing had been old and established, which was what made it stable enough to use the mist as a carrier to spread across the entirety of the screeching shoals. This one was much more recent and much less solid, so it COULD be reversed, but doing so required Callie to play with the Void in a way I really didn’t like.

Void was…complicated. The way Callie exp...

Secret Ending chapter 55

NSFW mind the tags

Wish upon the Stars chapter 893

We walked for quite a while, but we weren’t attacked again. Everyone was tense, ready for battle, but despite our sharpened senses and focus, we didn’t end up stumbling on anything for the next few miles. As we walked, the black trees became sparser, the air became colder, and the ground beneath our feet became hard and cracked. It felt like this place was dying, slowly losing vitality the further we got.

Finally, after about twenty minutes, we came to across something different. A ...

Secret Ending chapter 54

Mild nsfw ending leading to next chapter which will be fully nsfw

Wish upon the Stars chapter 892

The stabby bugs didn’t attack right away, to my surprise. Instead, their creepy eyes pulsed in time with each other, and an otherworldly cascade of overlapping voices rang out. “Halt, intruders. You enter the territory of the Anatta Mantis Clan. Retreat if you value your lives.” They had no mouths, so the speech just kind of appeared from midair, and as it did, they smashed their bladed scythe hands against each other menacingly as if to punctuate the threat.

“Oh hey,” Benny s...

A Novel Approach chapter 96

Wish upon the Stars chapter 891

The first hint that something was wrong wasn’t an attack. We were waiting for that, but it never came. We walked for about ten minutes, taking turns along the path, and we passed a small pond with a bright orange fish in it. We avoided it, continuing our trek, and ten minutes later…we passed a small pond with a bright orange fish in it.

We passed it again ten minutes later, and the THIRD time, we finally stopped and stared at the thing in aggravation. “So…this is the same pond.�...

Secret Ending chapter 53

Wish upon the Stars chapter 890

After a few repetitions of the technique, my sister and the dryads had opened up an idyllic path for us to follow. To my surprise, rather than reveal the golden sphere we’d been waiting for, the path led further into the oasis. The small copse of trees, like everything else on this planet, was bigger on the inside. Staring off into the jungle, all we could see was a winding path, open and dappled with light shimmering off the cave ceiling from spiky white crystals.

“Looks like there...

A Novel Approach chapter 95

Wish upon the Stars chapter 889

We avoided the kobolds in the next few chambers. Between Dantalion and Callie’s Path, we were able to safely navigate the other groups. We DID hear several violent confrontations through the caves. Or rather, we felt them. Those kobolds were WAY more dangerous than they looked, and I wanted no part of it.

Sadly, we didn’t even get any loot from that dragon thing. It had dissolved as soon as we got rid of the wizard. The only upside was that we had gotten the axe for Benny, and my be...

Secret Ending chapter 52

Wish upon the Stars chapter 888

The kobold wizard was staring intently at me from across the cavern. Not smug, or mocking, but focused. The lungs hanging around his neck pumped like bellows, glowing as the dragon skull manifestation became clearer. Behind him, the skull began to expand. A spine appeared, and then a pair of skeletal wings, and from the spine grew six skeletal arms.

As the thing expanded, I saw some of the other kobolds freeze, their eyes glowing with the same unearthly purple light that shone in the ey...

Secret Ending chapter 51

Wish upon the Stars chapter 887

“So, this is going to be a bit tougher than expected,” I told my friends as we came to a stop in the middle of the plains. I had us under Murmur, so we weren’t exposed, and it was safe enough to stop to plan our approach. There were a LOT of people ahead of us. “Belsara, any information on who we’re dealing with?”

My new ally frowned, squinting into the distance. Her aide, Jessa, a tall blonde woman with strong features and piercing blue eyes, reached into a pouch, passing h...

A Novel Approach chapter 94

Wish upon the Stars chapter 886

We DID end up having dinner early. Callie was awake when we got back, and she raised an eyebrow at our new friend, but didn’t say anything else. Belsara was practically glowing with smugness over how quickly I’d gotten the Animal (he tried to get us to call him Mal, but Abel informed him it would be too confusing given Mel’s name, and told him it was Animal or ‘Annie”) on our side.

She mentioned having a few other connections nearby, but the Animal was a better source, and he ...

Secret Ending chapter 50

Wish upon the Stars chapter 885

After my shower, I was about to try to take a nap, but I was cut off by a call from Belsara. I answered with an annoyed grunt. “What?” I asked with exasperation. “I thought we were meeting in a few hours for dinner?”

She grinned sheepishly. “We were,” she admitted. “But I got a call from one of my local contacts. A friend of a friend heard that I knew you, and decided to use me to send an invitation from a local bigshot. Turns out one of the big bosses for this region live...