Author Frank Morin

Ch 228 - I Step Into Twilight

From Adam, the only interesting thing I’d looted was an amulet.

“Shadow Amulet of the Intrepid. Grants the wearer the level-5 ability Shadow Blades.”

“Shadow Blades. Ability. Rare. Level 5. Condense blades of shadows within 1 yard per level of ability and control them with your mind. Blades affect both physical and incorporeal beings, but deal double damage to undead or ghostly entities. Improved piercing damage against non-magical armor.”

Interesting. Mimic had ca...

Ch 227 - A Bit of Velvet Resolve

“Let’s bury them,” I said, then walked to the edge of the open plaza and extracted my Earthshaker Maul. With a heavy swing, I slammed it into the ground nearby, triggering its Tremor Strike ability.

A channel 3 feet deep and 3 yards long ripped open in the stony ground. A pyre would work better anywhere else, but there in rain-drenched Ruin, it would be extremely challenging. I expanded the haft and as soon as the 1-minute cooldown expired, I struck again, deepening the channel to...

Interludes 2 & 3

Another bonus chapter!

These will be placed near the end of book 1.

Tony shook his head violently, sending drops of sweat flinging out of his eyes. He couldn’t waste time wiping his face, and lacked normal hands to do it with at the moment anyway.

The sight of his quicksilver Metal Hands morphed into tongs and a hammer he used to beat a piece of promising red-hot metal into shape was a joy he’d never imagined before entering the game. The death battle was brutal, ...

Ch 226 - Ends and Means

On the other side of the clearing, Liz, looking terrified, was pointing at Jane, obviously preparing to unleash a spell.

I used my new Mimicked spell. A blade of condensed shadow materialized and drilled into Liz’s gut. She screamed and doubled over, hands grasping the wound, her own casting disrupted. Then a piece of rubble flew into the air and clobbered her in the back of the head, knocking her silly.

“Not Liz, you idiot!” Burns shouted.

“Wasn’t me,” Adam said...

Ch 225 - The Best of Intentions

I sent messages to Tony and my team, explaining what I’d discovered and what seemed to be happening, along with the waypoint I’d just marked.

“I do not like going high above the ground,” Nigel said.

I ruffled behind his ears and passed him a Water Flight potion while I took another. “You don’t have to go high. Think of it as leaping really, really far and being able to change directions mid-jump if you want to.”

“That does make hunting easier,” he admitted....

Ch 224 - I Explode My Brain

The rain had grown more intense, coming down in constant sheets that obscured the water-soaked ruins, while the thick fog of the night before still lingered. I still had some of the Lurker’s Eyes, but not quite enough for everyone. Nigel and I each took one, since we’d be scouting out wider.

Steve got one since he could share vision enhancements with his clones. The other 3 went to Ruby, Tomas, and Andy. Jane said she could scan for mental signatures, so didn’t need to see as far,...

Interlude 1

BONUS CHAPTER!

This is an interlude chapter I am adding to book 1 as I prep for release. You guys get to see it as a special perk for being part of my Patrreon. I'll be sharing a couple more bonus chapters, 1 per week. This interlude will be placed near the beginning, right after Lucas gets his tier-1 evolution.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A flashing icon on one corner of a data feed notified Malric that he had a visitor. With a flick of webbed fingers and ...

Ch 223 - A Librarian Finds an Obituary

My Recycling Supervisor Gloves I’d gotten in my brief exploration of the inner world appeared on my hands and I reached out to touch the mana barrier. At the same time, I activated Spellseer’s Gaze.

The colors all around deepened as mana came to life in my vision. The vault did not contain a lot of ambient mana, but some of the artifacts pulsed with powerful enchantments. I’d remember that in the future when exploring the vault to not overlook important items.

Of course, the...

Ch 222 - I Get to Play With a Crystal Ball

The metal door flashed and disappeared, and I led the way inside, with the others crowding close behind. Like Velexis’s vault, the large space extended pretty far, but the outer walls were indeed blocked by shimmering energy barriers.

“Aw,” Steve groaned when he saw the barriers. “No access to the good stuff again.”

“Let’s see what we can see first,” Jane said, pushing past him into the room.

Unlike Velexis’s cluttered, disorganized vault, Tydrion’s vault...

Ch 221 - Trial and Error

After I left the store, I sent a message to Ed.

Lucas: “Ed, where are you at? Want to go hunting?”

He responded almost immediately.

Ed: “Lucas, terrible timing. I’m on a hunt right now with Burns and a bunch of other folks. He told us not to get distracted, so no messaging until we finish. I have to go, but I’d love to hunt later.”

Nice. I hadn’t expected Burns to return so soon, let alone already leave again with folks on a hunt. Or maybe he’d picked u...

Ch 220 - I Get a Shiny Pin

Sythrak, my tuxedoed personal salesman, grinned widely when I appeared in his luxurious lounge, his scales turning a happy blue color. “Master Lucas, welcome back!”

“Hello, Sythrak. I had a minute and wanted to check on my custom orders. I also need another dose of that Soul Slice enchantment for my claws.” I extended the silver Wolverine claws to emphasize the point.

“Of course,” Sythrak said, and a pair of shining yellow crystals appeared in his hands. As I applied t...

Ch 219 - Potions, and Spikes, and Lanterns, oh my!

While the rest of the team split off to take care of various errands or, in the case of Andy and Lana, for wall guard duty, I headed for Sam’s tavern. I wanted to track down Ed and organize the hunting party back to the merfolk lair, but first I had to check in on my business partner.

A streak of brown fur shot out of a nearby alley between 2 shops and I spun just in time to catch Nigel. Thankfully he remained in cute murder kitty size. If he’d been annoyed with me, he might have sw...

Ch 218 - I Get Schooled by a Swashbuckler

Quick update.

Good morning! September is shaping up to be a great month.

Just returned from a research / 30th-anniversary trip with my wife to Switzerland, Germany, and Prague. Wow! Such amazing cultures, scenery and cuisine! So much research accomplished, and also refilled my creative well to charge ahead.

Also, I've officially signed on Keith Brown to narrate Nexus Runner! Keith is an amazing talent, who will bring Nexus Runner to life with skill and enthusiasm. I plan to ...

Ch 217 - I Join a Secret Court

Queen Marisara: “Did I not make it clear time is of the essence in this mission? Have you captured the human?”

For a moment, I thought it had to be a joke and looked around, as if I might see Tomas or Steve chuckling as they peeked around a corner, but that was stupid. They couldn’t have sent this. As impossible as it seemed, I’d just gotten a message from Queen Marisara.

It wasn’t to me, though.

It took a second, but when I figured it out, I couldn’t help laughi...

Ch 216 - I Dream of Endless Cookies

Stage-3 Countdown Timer: 5 days, 22 hours, 15 minutes.

Survivors Remaining: 301

Views: 220,465,873

Followers: 45,782,790

Favorites 10,911,465

VIP Points 100,363,987

I should have expected the huge growth in my counts. A lot of folks had been paying for VIP access to live my past boss battles, but my duel with Tydrion and fight with Corvath were my first boss battles real-time. That drew even more people.

Hopefully all the attention would pay off and I...

Ch 215 - I Get a New Chair

My team were finishing up with the treasury and checking their own loot boxes, so I clicked on my other waiting achievements. I actually only got 1 other good one.

“Congratulations, Lucas! For pushing the limits of a sanctioned duel and again defeating an enemy from the inside in a new and creative way, you receive an emerald Aliens loot box.”

With a grin, I dropped onto Corvath’s throne. It really was super comfortable and a rush of strength and vitality coursed through me ...

Ch 214 - Don't Wager Something You Can't Afford to Lose

“Hey, where’s the loot?” Andy cried as we flew slowly along the huge room.

“This entire room is loot,” Ruby breathed.

“It’s nice, but I have to agree with Andy,” Tomas said. “There has to be more.”

I got an idea and tried my new ability Perception Pulse for the first time. My senses erupted outward in every direction like my head exploded. There was no pain, but it was weird as my senses rippled out to fill the huge space and flooded my mind with so much ...

Ch 213 - Beat a Count, Be a Count

“Bingo.” With Tether Slide, I shot to the top of the hill. My team followed, simply flying through the water-laden air.

The item I’d spotted glowing with so much mana was a sword with a fancy, gilded pommel and a cruciform crossguard of twisted gold stuck point-first into the sand. Only about 4 inches of the blade was visible above the sand, though. Identify triggered as I landed next to the blade.

“The Echoing Blade. Unique. Echoes of Calamity quest relic 3 of 10.”

Ch 212 - I Take an Inner Journey

Count Tydrion-crab was heaving against the sand, but for the moment, his unbelievable strength proved insufficient. I rushed up to his eye stalks, which were waving wildly. I tried slapping an emoji trap sticker onto one of them, but couldn’t pull it out of my inventory.

Weapon, I guess. I could use spells, including spell scrolls. I crouched right between the eye stalks as they tried swinging over to hit me. They bumped against my armor with little squishing sounds, accomplishing abs...

Ch 211 - A Bit of Fisticuffs

“Manila, Shanghai, Brisbane!” I swore as I looked down at the enormous crab.

It had to stand 40 feet tall, rivaling Velexis’s gigantor height, but at least 50 times thicker. Unlike the clockwork insects’ ponderous Leviathan, this one looked like a real, live crab, only a million times bigger. The thing’s armored shell looked thick enough to shrug off artillery rounds, and his 2 enormous claws, as big as pickup trucks, snapped shut with cracks I heard all the way up in the sky....

Ch 210 - Into The Deep

Lord Tydrion had not teleported with me, which was fine with me. Dealing with a level 99 nymph lord alone would be hard enough. Dealing with him in the middle of a boss base teaming with other high-leveled monsters would be a total death sentence.

Nigel hadn’t gotten teleported with me, so with a focused bit of intent, I willed him back to my castle. As I started to fall, I triggered Mirror Cloak along with a Slow Fall potion.

Then as I descended very slowly, I scanned the vast ...

Ch 209 - I Get a Lesson in Manners

I awoke in my giant, soft bed and sighed. I felt good and totally refreshed. Pushing my Night Mask off, I took a deep breath. I hadn’t slept much since before climbing to stage 3 the first time, and I’d needed the rest.

I didn’t need nearly as much as back on Earth, though. I checked the countdown timer to confirm barely 5 hours had elapsed. It was about midnight, but I was ready to get moving.

Jeeves appeared beside me, holding a mug of steaming coffee and another hot towel...

Ch 208 - Full-Contact Movie Marathon

“How?” Lana asked. She and Andy hadn’t experienced my 10,000 Movies Experience with the Party Time token that allowed us to watch a movie while only 1 second passed in real-time.

“Wait, there are too many of us,” Jane said. Only 6 of us could watch a movie at a given time, and there were 8 of us, plus Nigel.

“Are you willing to upgrade that Party Time token to handle larger groups?” I asked.

“Maybe in a future loot box,” Cyrus said. That triggered soft grum...

Ch 207 - Lana Gets a Cookie

I actually glossed over the amazing loot I couldn’t use until after the game and instead talked about my legendary weapon and armor upgrades, then hesitated.

“Um, I’m not sure how to share this part without some of you feeling left out.”

Andy picked up on it first. “Meaning us third wheels missed out on the goods?”

“In a sense. I have items coming for Ruby, Steve, Tomas, and Jane, but that’s all I could get.” I interrupted Steve before he could ask. “It�...

Ch 206 - Muffins to be Proud Of

Day 14

Survivors Remaining: 301

Views: 162,824,379

Followers: 28,614,751

Favorites: 6,081,359

VIP Points: 88,236,808

The meeting with Kaelor had taken a while, but again almost no time passed in the real world while I was in the store. Full night was falling, and it would get really dark really fast with the constant rain pounding on the town’s shield. Torrents of water flowed down the domed barrier in constant rivers.

The air was noticeably chi...

Ch 205 - I Get a Bigger Bag

“Title Scroll. New title: Elf Born.”

“Elf Born. A unique title bestowed by the tier-4 Elaris elf clan. Grants honorary inner-clan rank. Plus 25% chance to achieve future perfect tier evolutions.

“Plus 1 level to all current spells.”

“Plus 3 levels to all current tier-0 abilities below level 20.”

“Instant evolution of your highest-leveled tier-0 spell to tier-1.”

I laughed. “No way!”

My first spell evolution! Leveling up spells was prov...

Ch 204 - Best Swap Meet Ever

I wanted to ask the elf patriarch a hundred questions about the multiverse and the game and his people. On Arasha, we were isolated from everyone and everything. I needed information as badly as I needed better gear. Maybe more, considering the enemies I’d made when I defeated Velexis.

I preferred to focus on the potential allies I might gain. The demons were pricks. Enemies of those assassins had to be people I wanted to forge alliances with, right?

Kaelor said, “On to busine...

Ch 203 - I Chat With Royalty

The pylon of the system store was situated on one side of the central square near the town castle. I’d been too distracted by the huge crowd last time I passed through there, so hadn’t noticed it.

Beside it stood a second, identical white pylon stretching into the sky. A text box appeared above it as soon as I looked at it.

“Training Guild. Would you like to enter?”

I was sorely tempted, but that had to wait. Crystal had set up the town store close to the system stor...

Ch 202 - I Make a Deal With a Devil

While Tomas and Jane excitedly talked about ways to test out his new class spells and abilities, the rest of us wandered to the living room.

“Steve, where’s Susan?”

His smile faded. “At the Expanse.”

“Doesn’t she work at Sam’s tavern?”

He sighed. “Not any more.”

“What’s going on?”

I dropped into one of the couches and Ruby sat next to me. Steve took a nearby chair, his fingers digging into the soft arms harder than he probably re...

Ch 201 - Classes

Within minutes of starting, we proved that elevated Intelligence and Dexterity combined to transform pool into an entirely different game. Sinking 1 ball no longer challenged anyone, so we adapted to seeing who could sink the longest combo.

I played better than I’d ever dreamed possible, but I lost game after game. Steve and Tomas were both really good, but it was the ladies who really shined. Jane might just be subtly using her telekinesis to help sink some impossible shots, but not ...