mgdriver

Chapter 168 - Ravens

A pellet pinged off the brick wall, marking a notch on the red clay in as the ricochet nearly took out a man in hiding, causing him to instinctively flinch while he took cover under a flipped circular table, the wooden surface already riddled with holes. His partner ducked as well behind a buffet table line, cursing under his breath as he fumbled the pellets in his handgun, his hands trembling.

“When the fuck is the backup coming?” The man whispered urgently to the partner.

�...

Chapter 167 - Detonation

There was still one more combination left to do - a defensive one. Kyle laid out all the combinations related to defense – Pain Nullification, Harden, Heal and Point Defense.

Point Defense was not really related to the other two, but Kyle wanted to see if there was a way to utilize the concept into his new combination engraving. However, as Kyle continued to dive deeper into deconstructing the point defense engraving, he soon came to realise that the point defence engraving itself was...

Chapter 166 - Combination

The hovercraft hovered slightly over the ground, the air draft buffeting the workers in the clearing a safe distance away from the factory. They were now testing the flight of the hovercraft, but Kyle added on something new to the checklist.

As the pilot hovered in midair, Kyle cracked open his Arcia Detector, tweaking the springs with spares that he had brought, trying to tailor the sensor to treat the hovercraft’s own arcia energy flow as background noise.

However, the hovercr...

Chapter 165 - Detector

“How long will it take to drill our way back?” Kyle asked Raksha the next day, as hundreds of goblins began digging furiously, trying to find any survivors in the collapse.

“It is loose rock, so maybe a month or so.” Raksha sighed at the sorry state of the tunnel network. He had been working in the iron and coal mines in the goblin kingdom since his original hire, paid for by Kyle.

A month is too long. Kyle feared that the war in Raktor would come to a conclusion ...

Chapter 164 - Feint

Kyle focused on the remaining spires, ones who were still recharging and could potentially threaten the hovercraft as well as his forces coming into the town. With him now in the center, the Violet Demons could hardly regroup fast enough to deal with him.

Aero Shoes!

His speed increased, though it was still weighed down by his repaired Version 0 exosuit that had been damaged in the Battle of Utul – each individual engraving had been improved as much as he could, creatin...

Chapter 163 - Occupation

The inn at the Culdao Peaks Town had long lost its previous jovial mood and cozy décor. Now, it had already been overtaken forcefully by the Ardent Cretins and the Violet Demons, both of whom had strongarmed the entire town into submission, appropriating their buildings for logistics and housing for their own soldiers. Both the gangs were working together in an alliance, sharing the town as a base of operations.

It’s been a month since the takeover, and the local residents have been ...

Chapter 162 - Mobilization

Another mortar round sailed across the air far above the Culdao Peak forest before slamming into the walled defenses of the first goblin den. As soon as the cloud of dirt and smoke dissipated from the strong wings, the reinforced walls of the goblin outpost still stood strong, bearing the brunt of the attacks.

“Where are they attacking from?”

[They are coming from - ] A sudden splitting screech interrupted the communication, their arctech radio jammed by a wide range disruptor...

Chapter 161 - Observations

As the hovercraft sailed through the air, Kyle tied up the leader tightly, before heading over to the unconscious Mari and checking her breathing. Still alive, but better to heal her once more.

The moment Kyle’s hands touched Mari’s shoulder to activate the Necklace of Healing, the Necklace activated itself without warning, the green arcia energy already surging away from his control towards her body.

Interesting… Kyle recalled something of a similar effect...

Chapter 160 - Mari

“When I get out, I’m going to run away from here as far as possible.” Mari daydreamed out loud as she toyed with a bag of rakels in her hands as the wagon rumbled across the open roads back to the mine.

The weight was far more satisfying than the paltry amounts of ‘debt’ that she paid with each iron ore. If anything, this was the first instance of her holding hard-earned rakels directly, rather than seeing her debt decrease on a small piece of paper.

“Where to though?�...

Chapter 159 - Kregol

A young girl grunted as she swung a pickaxe into the dried earth again for the umpteenth time, the sound of metal hitting rock incessant. She wiped the sweat off her face with her already stained sleeve, smudging soil and soot against her forehead while the hot Raktor daylight dominated the sky.

She was not the only one in the sloped mine on the hill – dozens of other kids like her worked tirelessly, swinging their pickaxes nonstop into the sides of the mine as the hill’s surface wa...

Chapter 158 - Aerial Observations

Baron Cain slapped the barely conscious assassin with force, his palm already stinging from the previous slaps. “Why does Baron Namor want to kill me?”

The assassin merely smiled, not saying a word. He hasn’t yet over the last hour of torture in the basement cells of the Baron. The smile infuriated the Baron even further, but before he could slap the assassin again, Kyle intervened, standing between the both of them.

“Let my men handle this. We’ll make sure he talks.”<...

Quick Update on Story Heading

Warning: Spoilers ahead. Do not read if you are not caught up to Chapter 157.

The last time I've done a story update was during the end of the writeathon.

The Versia War obviously was quite a clusterfuck. The outcome and goals were all planned from the start, but the actions and intentions of each party were made to be as logical as possible. As such, there was a lot of back and forth between actors that made it even tougher for Kyle to win easily.

Chapter 157 - Defectors

Three days later…

The atmosphere in the Central District was tense. Thousands of refugee camps had been erected, civilians fleeing the conflict zones of the other sectors into the safety of the enforcers and the four Barons’ private forces.

It was truly a time of instability, with every party in the city out to get a slice of the pie themselves. Despite the obvious danger, many impoverished citizens and others afflicted by the war and increasing taxes flocked to Rakto...

Chapter 156 - Planning

The hovercraft soared above the vast forests of the Culdao Peaks, the icy caps of the mountains glistening in the horizon. Kyle himself piloted the hovercraft, steering it towards the valey where the goblin kingdom was first held. He made the trip back to Raktor alone, leaving Feldon in charge of ADCON. To ensure the compliance of Nox and Makoa, Kyle also made a copy of the master slave engraving, handing it to Feldon.

As he sped through the air, he noticed the scars of battle had alrea...

Chapter Delay

Just arrived at the launch site, internet is a bit spotty, so uploading of chapters will be delayed. Will be in quarantine the next few days so plenty of time to write.

Chapter 155 - A New Normal

In a dimly lit alleyway, a small hand pried open a flat tin-like case, the surface rugged from pellet dents. The hand’s grimy fingernails filled with soot found its purchase in the grooves, popping it open to reveal a rare find – crushed and fragmented Euria Seeds.

The owner of the hand smiled as he rested the tin on his lap, using his now free hand to gingerly pluck the fragments up and dropping them into his pipe’s opening, packing them carefully to the brim.

Just as he wa...

Chapter 154 - The Siege of Utul (3)

Instead of despairing as any sane, normal man would, Kyle began to grin the instant he recognised whom the old man represented. “Disciple Greyborn greets Elder Huang!” Kyle quickly shouted, catching the old man off-guard.

However, the old man did not let go yet, though his brows were clearly furrowed in confusion. “Disciple Greyborn…? I don’t recall having a disciple with this name…”

“I was guided and taught by Disciple Salos in Raktor.”

Instead of relaxing...

Chapter 153 - The Siege of Ulut (2)

Kyle cracked his hands as he surveyed the landing site. A plush toy with a human hand still attached peeked out from below the slab of concrete, but he paid it no mind, instead focusing on the battle.

Already the drop-troopers were spreading across the city, taking advantage of the surprise attack to storm the city. Kyle too, kicked into action, targeting the nearest cannons with his drop squad that accompanied him. His helmet continuously blurted out radio communications from various A...

Chapter 152 - The Siege of Utul (1)

The morning bell chimed loud and clear across the apartments dominating the landscape, surrounded on flanks by towering ice-capped peaks. The city of Utul slowly stirred into life, the arctech trams belching out waste gases as they chugged along. Factory workers swarmed the depot, clambering onto moving trams hoping not to get a pay cut for being late.

Under the incessant noise of industry and economy that reverberated around his flat, Jakub poured himself a cup of Poair tea, sighing as...

Chapter 150 - Sleep

Kyle hated sleep.

Sleep was where a human was the weakest – where his guard was the lowest than at any other point in his day. Kyle had always made it a point to sleep in a well-protected area and to always have a weapon on hand.

Sleep was a small factor in Kyle’s life. In fact, his newfound Arcian physique allowed him to go for long days without requiring sleep, so rest came far and few in between.

Such an inclination stemmed from his former life as a designer baby – ...

Chapter 150 - Mage

The glare of the arctech spotlights dominated the night scenery, Count Leon’s camp a ring of light around Ocra as weary soldiers continued their daily routine, stuck in a never-ending back-and-forth loop. Commanders furrowed their brows as they poured over routines, attack plans and logistics routes. Every level of the army fought against each other, accused one another of restricting supply, or intentionally not rendering aid during battle.

The same tension was apparent throughout th...

Back to Normal

The satellite has been saved ( i think. anything can go wrong in space.) I'll be flying to the launch site soon, and that means loads of time to write while waiting!

2 Chapters a day resumes from today onwards, and I'll try to push for three to make up for all the bad hiatus. Thanks for sticking around.

The next major hiatus period would be 25th September to 14 October, which would be my honeymoon. I will be pausing billing during that period, so this is a heads up in...

Update 22/06/2022

Bugs have been solved, we're in the final testing phase now. Fingers crossed nothing else goes wrong. I should be cleared to write starting from 27th June onwards barring any new bugs (oh god)

I'm at the launch site from 30th June to 14th July, so should have time to do 2 chapters a day. After 14th July, we're back to guaranteed 2 chapters a day. 

If you have any questions about how the story is going, or what you would like to see more of, let me know either here or in disc...

Chapter 149 - The Wardens

[Please place your palm on the- Authorized. Welcome, Ma*ria&# K*(“:]

The pneumatic double doors hissed as they slid apart, revealing a glistening white corridor starkly contrasting the surrounding blackened rocks in the underground cavern. A colder gust blew forth from within, the positive pressure blasting the dirty air particles outside, buffeting against the dark green stripes of a female exosuit.

Her boots clicked in rhythm as she strutted through the corridor, the blind...

Chapter 148 - Retribution

Author Note: For all the Patrons who have stayed to support me, thank you very much. Fixing the bug is making progress, but we're uncovering plenty of erroneous coding in our testing that it is really a scramble to fix everything (thank god for testing)

I plan to try and do one chapter every two days, maybe even more on weekends if there's time.

In other news, I recently discovered I forgot to include the idea of 'mages' in the entire war. I may spend a ...