Author Frank Morin

Ch 170 - It's Not All About Me

“Congratulations, Lucas! For motivating your team to fight bravely against impossible odds, despite the almost total certainty of violent death, you receive a platinum Leonidas loot box!”

Leonidas, the Spartan king in the movie 300 who led the famously doomed fight against the Persians. It contained 3 items. Two scrolls and something that just made me laugh.

“Fake beard. This stylish beard will make you the talk of any party.”

No buffs, no perks, no special abilities...

Ch 169 - A Bit of Mana Control

“Yes!” I jumped and cheered, adding my voice to the joyful chorus echoing from every side, so loud they pierced the insulating effects of the fog.

Then I just looked up into the slowly billowing fog and sighed, throwing my arms wide and laughing as I just enjoyed the feeling of living. It seemed impossible that the battles were over, that we’d cleared the second stage of both the bosses and their factions.

I’d faced one insane boss battle after another all night and the to...

Ch 168 - I Help Feed the Moon

Noctarus barreled down the deck. No way he’d fit up the narrow stairs, but he’d probably just jump up. In my active Spellseer’s Gaze, his entire body was thrumming with boiling black power. He was preparing a finishing move to destroy me.

So I triggered Divergent Strike to slow him down. I’d been saving my explosive area of effect spell for when his rune defenses had totally crumbled. With the rebound buff broken, hopefully I’d done enough that casting it wasn’t a waste. Mor...

Ch 167 - An Offer That Cannot be Refused

I flew through the chill fog, leaving a swirling wake behind as I shot toward the bow of the closest ship, barely 50 feet from the leviathan. Noctarus saw the glowing chain of my spell and spun about to give chase, as I’d hoped.

I landed on the bow rail, weapons at the ready, but no zombies came rushing out of the haze. The ship was deserted. Every zombie had left to join the attack on Lake Town or Tony’s group.

“Give me back my crystal and I will disable the sleep spell on ...

Ch 166 - Ballerina Twirls of Death

Both of Noctarus’s skeletal heads roared like lions and he lunged, trying to smash me flat with his giant, poisoned feet. He was huge and heavy and a single stomp could probably flatten me, but I had Agility stacked onto Agility and to me, he moved like a snail.

I danced through his legs, smashing my ax and maul into one multi-jointed limb after another. Normally, the force of those blows would have shattered all his limbs, but his runes still offered protection, if not rebounded dama...

Ch 165 - I Pretend to be a Ping Pong Ball

After the movie ended, we spent an hour resting and preparing in another fancy lounge. When we got dumped back into the real world, no time had passed. I quickly selected the rest of the party, including Nigel, and used another Party Time Token to whisk them all into a movie. This time I selected randomly and ended up with The Man From Uncle.

Great movie. Badly underrated. The opening scene where Henry Cavill walks into East Germany wasn’t the most uplifting scene for our discussion, ...

Ch 164 - Looking for the Opportune Moment

The world froze and disappeared, replaced by the scene of a grand old tall sailing ship sliding out of a bank of fog, heading right for us. The 6 of us appeared in the air in front of the ship, hovering over the ocean high enough to see down onto the prow.

“Where are we?” Burns shouted, spear held at the ready.

“Relax. I pulled us into a movie.”

At the railing, young Elizabeth Swan started softly singing “A pirates life for me.”

“Are you insane?” Sally ...

Nexus Runner 1 - ARC

This week, I completed some much-anticipated edits to Nexus Runner book 1.

Several people had pointed out issues with Cyrus appearing to lie or twist rules sometimes, and Lucas struggling with the ever-changing nature of the 'experiment'. Sometimes, Lucas came across as a bit whiny, and sometimes as someone trapped in a situation where he lacked free will to make his own choices.

To rectify these issues and make the novel much better, with a cleaner flow and more positive tone, I ...

Nexus Runner ARC

ARC copy of Nexus Runner as of May, 2025, including extensive edits to the story.

Ch 163 - Necromancers Always Say Die

We raced to the table with the gear Noctarus had taken from Burns and his team. They snatched it up just before the double doors to the outer hallway burst open. Grumpy led a squad of a dozen zombies inside, energy rifles already firing.

I rushed Grumpy, my Titanbreaker hammer appearing in my hand. Drawing deep from my enhanced Agility, I jumped, twisted, and rolled around deadly bolts of energy, crossing the 30 yards in a flash. After a final epic diving barrel roll with a half twist, ...

Ch 162 - The Hard Way

Noctarus glanced down at his brother’s head again and stiffened with renewed anger. “You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You have to push and interfere and make impossible breakthroughs look easy!”

“So that’s what’s bothering you? My fast advancement?”

Noctarus growled, “You must understand how infuriating it is to see your meteoric rise in power and not understand how it can be done.”

“Understanding comes with trust.”

“As if you ...

Ch 161 - A Bit of Truth

My approach through the fog near the closed portcullis startled the big group of zombies on watch. Two even fired their energy rifles before pausing to see who it was.

I stepped aside, dodging the blasts. Thank you Alpha for my boosted Agility stat. Moving felt effortless, and even acrobatic flips and spins required little focus. It was a heady thing.

Holding up my zombie pass token, I shouted, “Hey! Is that how you treat guests invited by your master to visit?”

The same...

Ch 160 - I Swap For a Newer Model

As I plunged through the billowing fog, unable to see, unable to smell, unable to hear anything, I triggered a potion of Slow Fall. My descent slowed, although it was hard to tell because nothing changed around me.

It was so weird descending through the featureless fog. The lack of focal point was disoriented, worse than scuba diving through zero visibility water. I’d jumped off the side farther from the tower to descend into the middle of the second floor. From what I’d seen, the r...

Ch 159 - We Get a Starlit Concert

As soon as we exited the dungeon, Ed, Lana, and Andy headed out into the dense fog. I’d hoped it might disperse after I killed Alpha, but apparently Cyrus wanted to complicate everything until we finished the stage.

My lounge platform appeared hovering in the air in front of us, a flat deck devoid of furniture. We all jumped on and I willed it to expand to 20 feet across to give us a bit more room as we lifted into the air.

“I thought you said this thing can’t move horizonta...

Ch 158 - Edmund Builds a Broken Bridge

My team had entered the first level of the dungeon and were exploring the devastation left behind in the goblin cavern.

“You don’t do anything by halves, do you, Bro?” Tomas asked when I raced up to them just as he exited the goblin central hall. It was one of the few buildings still standing.

“Not much left to pick through,” Steve added with a scowl as he climbed the steps from the wrecked courtyard, tossing aside a Bonebreaker helm with a crack running down the front.<...

Ch 157 - Steps and Ladders

“So can you explain about tier evolutions of spells and abilities?” I asked. “I’m trying to grasp exactly what just happened. When I got my race upgrade to tier-1 human, you said I couldn’t evolve spells and abilities.”

“You couldn’t right away,” Cyrus said. “You put the castle before the cavalry on that one by upgrading your race so soon. Usually someone must climb to between levels 80 and 100 to qualify for a race tier evolution. The success of those evolutions can...

Ch 156 - Yay, I'm a Swordsman

I probably should have tried to be more circumspect with my questioning, but I was exhausted, and secret plots that complicated my life made me grumpy. I’d nearly died. Should have died, even with the insane boosts from my Alpha title.

And that was just the danger on the surface. Velexis had not been a normal boss. Why did I need to kill her twice, and what had the Briggs been doing there? I felt like I’d stumbled into the middle of a murder mystery and was asked to solve it before ...

Ch 155 - I Finish More Than I Started

Thankfully, the arena barrier disappeared and the block over my spells and inventory lifted. Thank god for that.

Back in her Velexis form, the grisly wounds were rapidly closing as pulsing shadows poured in and started somehow healing the damage. That didn’t make any sense. I’d already gotten the notification I’d defeated her. Something weird was going on.

The confusion made me hesitate a critical second. Velexis’s black eyes shone with fury and she screamed at me, her voi...

Ch 154 - I Get to Channel the Man in Black

“Done!” Sixel exulted, and a pulse of immensely powerful magic swept through the room. It wrapped around my mana core and I staggered.

Cyrus’s happy laughter bubbled around me and Eva spoke. “You have entered a death match duel with Sixel Elaris. She has initiated the Arena of Ultimate Champions. All spells are blocked, as is access to inventory. Contestants face each other using only their skills, abilities, and boosts from titles.”

“Hey, I didn’t agree to this!” ...

Ch 153 - Face to Face With the Grindstone

I landed at the top of the stair, right where it climbed into the shadowed ceiling, ready to leap into battle if something jumped out at me. With Alpha’s title boosting my stats so high, a smart boss would already be running.

The stairs remained empty, so I jogged up. Then up, and up some more. The stair climbed for at least half a mile, occasionally taking a turn and switchbacking higher and higher up through the heart of the mountain. Faint light filtered down through the claustroph...

Ch 152 - There Can Be Only One

How he could double his size in a mana desert area was a mystery I lacked time to solve. Alpha lunged with shocking speed and smashed me down into the stone floor so hard a couple ribs cracked. My Crash Test Dummy jacket had gotten so shredded, it barely offered any protection and my other layers weren’t as good against blunt force damage.

Alpha loomed over me, mouth gaping to finally rip off my head. I couldn’t trigger any spells and couldn’t dodge in time. So I shoved my arm dow...

Ch 151 - Death Match: Wolf Edition

The trolls ranged between levels 45 and 49. They were big and fierce and powerful, but I’d fought trolls and ogres and giants for 2 days and nights, so I rushed straight at the group, embracing my own rising battle frenzy.

The trolls were coming at me, spread out in a loose line to block escape. Too bad for them, I wasn’t interested in escape.

I triggered Energy Ward, then Tether Slide, with tethers set at the chests of the leftmost and rightmost trolls. At the same time, I me...

Ch 150 - I Play Tag With a Troll

Hey, celebration day!

Today we hit chapter 150! That's a huge milestone!

Take a minute after you read the chapter and post a comment with one thing you've most enjoyed about the story so far.

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My knife flew true and soared right past Alpha’s left side just as he spun and lunged in that direction. That made him collide with the ribbon tied to the hilt of the knife. In a blink, the force whipped the blade 3 times around Alpha’s torso, ef...

Ch 149 - I Get to Practice Caligraphy

Behind me, Alpha finished slaughtering all the goblins. The final Shaman, the leader of the tribe, self-destructed in a wave of darkness. Some kind of ultimate attack move that actually dimmed Alpha’s rune defense for a moment. Maybe it was running out of steam.

I ran across the cavern to the exit tunnel. It looked almost identical to the entrance cave, a rough round opening about 10 feet in diameter. Instead of stairs leading down, the tunnel rose in a gradual curve. Huh. An inverted...

Ch 148 - Demolition

I took a moment to study the goblins and their community more closely. My gaze fell on one of the warrior goblins trotting past, and Identify kicked in.

“Brown Goblin Trooper. Common. Level 32. Making up the bulk of the brown goblin army, the Goblin Trooper is a vicious fighter who lives to kill and prefers to eat the heart and the brains of their victims to absorb a fraction of their life force and mana.”

The Troopers were about 5 feet tall and more muscular than non-fighting...

Ch 147 - Rebound Works Both Ways

Three hours later, I stood before the wide cave entrance to the Grindstone Dungeon, staring out at a dense wall of fog as I participated in a chat with Tony and his worried elite team leaders.

Tony: “There’s no indication the fog will thin any time soon. This will complicate things.”

Jane: “Complicate is an understatement. If we can’t see the pack, how do we coordinate fighting them?”

For the other members, I’d updated their description in my menu to help me qu...

Ch 146 - The Best Secret Weapon Waffle of All Time

When I returned to my castle, Ruby, Steve, and Susan were all waiting in the living room for the promised movie experience. I had to admit, I needed the chance to relax with friends and watch a movie before heading out for the boss battle. This would be our only chance to relax before things probably got rough.

“All we need is popcorn,” Steve said as both Ruby and Susan started peppering me with questions about what movies I had available.

“Got you covered, Bro.” I pulled ...

Ch 145 - I Get a Taste of Death By Chocolate

Twenty minutes later, I took the proffered chair in the council chamber room high in the central castle. The entire council was gathered, and I wasn’t the only one who won a lot of levels either. Every single council member now sported levels between Crystal’s level 42 to Tony and Burns, tied at level 48. They might not have to kill a dozen giants over level 50 to crawl up a single level, but they’d worked hard.

Some had upgraded their gear too. Burns’s armor now looked like ful...

Ch 144 - Perks of Ready Money

Jeeves appeared in the living room and said, “Sir, your looted items sold for 2 tier-6 mana crystals.” Not great, but none of it had been spectacular.

My butler added, “Sythrak was quite beside himself with excitement when he inspected the ironwood planks. Apparently they are in extreme demand right now, and he offered to purchase as many as you have, with a bonus if you can provide more than 10. He also returned your repaired Scaled Wam shirt and insisted there would be no charge...

Ch 143 - Reading the Fine Print

An hour later, when I rode Switchblade through the gates of town, I was greeted by a surprise message.

“Congratulations, Lucas! Your alternate experience streams have combined to gain you a level. You are now level 28!”

“Ha!” I jumped off Switchblade, doing 6 somersaults in the air before landing. That move got me some scattered applause from a few nearby people.

For the first time since getting my tier-1 body I was ahead of the minimum curve for advancing to the nex...