DakotaKrout

Bibliomancer ~ 16!

~ Sixteen ~

For the next several hours they murdered their way through rabbit and fox territory while the sun slowly traced an arc through the sky. They finally paused when the blazing orb stood directly overhead like the watchful eye of some great golden god. Since it was noon, they decided on a quick bite to eat; grilled rabbit meat and bread provided by Sphinx. After all her talk of death, killing, and as...

Bibliomancer ~ 15!

~ Fifteen ~

The newly-formed party was heading through the eastern gates—enormous things, easily large enough to accommodate a swarm of T-rexes—when they found their way barred by a group of swaggering, armor-clad adventurers. The second Sam laid eyes on their leader, he knew this guy was trouble. He decided it would be best to avoid him if at all possible. 

There was something about the way he stood; shoulder...

Bibliomancer ~14!

~ Fourteen ~

After leaving Nick’s Knacks in the dust, Sam and Finn found themselves shouldering their way into a dimly lit inn on the outskirts of the city, not far from the perimeter gate which let out onto the rolling field lands. The inn itself was a three-story ramshackle of a building, the floorboards were creaky, the tables rough-hewn wood, the patrons just as gruff and dirty as the rest of the int...

Bibliomancer ~13!

~ Thirteen ~

Sam slept like the dead, woke up early, and worked through his morning shift in the kitchen like a zombie; his mind entirely fixated on what awesome things he would do when he got out of the College. He planned on leaving the city; that was for sure. Smiting jellies with his wind-based powers was fun, but tromping around in sewage was not. Besides, he was looking forward to seeing som...

Bibliomancer ~12!

~ Twelve ~

Sam sprinted down the twisting hallways of the College, sweating like mad. The small nicks, cuts, and bruises covering his face and arms burned like hellfire. His stamina dropped while he pumped his arms and legs, his lungs burned almost as badly as the army of small wounds, but he was so close to the library now. He skidded blindly around a corner and wheeled left, narrowly avoiding a ...

Bibliomancer ~ 11!

~ Eleven ~

Clawing through raw sewage barehanded was not the worst thing Sam had to do. Not by a long shot. The next four days passed in a blur of too little sleep, too little food—all of it bad—too little fun, and too much of everything else. 

In fact, Sam’s occasional trips into the sewers were actually the highlight of his time at the College, because those were the few rare times where he got to adventure, earn...

Bibliomancer ~ 10!

 Another giant chapter!

~ Ten ~

Sam found himself wading knee-deep through a slow-moving river of sewage beneath the city of Ardania. As the kid of an upper crust family with massive real-estate holdings, their own private estate, and pretty much the best of anything that money could buy; Sam had never been in a place remotely like this before. He’d watched enough movies and played enough online g...

Bibliomancer ~ 9!

Big. ol'. Chapter. Enjoy!

~ Nine ~

By the time Sam was finished with classes, registration, and all the other administrative red tape of his first day at the College, he felt as wrung out as an old dish towel. Which was crazy, because he hadn’t really done all that much in the grand scheme of things—he hadn’t killed any mobs, stormed any castles, or saved any damsels in distress. Tec...

Bibliomancer ~ 8!

~ Eight ~

Sam dropped into a wooden chair, already feeling exhausted from the day even though he’d hadn’t really done anything. Dealing with all the administrative stuff had been both mentally taxing and emotional draining, even if physically he was feeling fine.

Apparently, Octavius Igenitor—Stone Mage, Peak Student, and the human equivalent of a rancid milk—wasn’t kidding when he...

Bibliomancer ~ 7!

~ Seven ~

Sam made his way down the grid-like streets of the city before finally winding up in the marketplace proper, which was everything he’d dreamed it would be.

The scent of grilling meat, musky perfume, and the odor of unwashed bodies assaulted his nose. Colorful pennants and standards fluttered in the air, suspended from rope lines crisscrossing the streets. Those line held a secondary purpo...

Bibliomancer ~ 6!

~ Six ~

An opalescent light engulfed Sam, suffusing his body with energy and power, and inside an eyeblink he’d spawned in the square of a massive, medieval city. The breath caught in his throat, eyes bulging as he surveyed the cityscape. The ground underfoot was a bone white mosaic of some complicated geometric pattern and directly at its center was an enormous marble fountain, spraying water into cryst...

Bibliomancer ~ 5!

~ Five ~

Sam didn’t die as he expected. It was a strange feeling, being alive when you weren't supposed to be. Something that was very hard to describe, but he felt that most people would somehow understand.

The whole world had stopped, frozen; the boulder mere inches away from crushing him beneath its immense weight and apparently-not-unstoppable momentum. His parents were still there, as...

Bibliomancer ~ 4!

~ Four ~

Sam came to an eyeblink later, a scream tearing free from his throat before trailing off in confusion. The moment of pain was gone, and so was the giant boulder that had crushed him seconds before. His heart thundered in his chest as he stared around with wild-eyed terror; this whole place was different. The caverns had vanished, the entire landscape replaced by a hauntingly familiar hallway: chec...

Bibliomancer ~ 3!

~ Three ~

His parents may have filled out most of the paperwork, but getting to the whole adventure thing was quite a bit more involved than Wendy had initially let on. The nurse—or maybe administrator, Sam wasn’t sure what she actually was—had run him through a bevy of tests, most of them extremely uncomfortable and rather invasive. There were blood draws, MRIs, a short physiological ...

Bibliomancer ~ 2

~ Two ~

A sharp *knock-knock-knock* on the door pulled Sam from his hazy thoughts of far off places.

“Yeah, come on in,” he pushed himself upright so that he was sitting on the edge of the mattress with his legs trailing over the edge, his shoes brushing the brown carpet.

His dad poked his head in, a knowing grin on his weathered face. “You got a minute, champ?” He was grasping...

Bibliomancer ~ 1

There was something waiting for him behind this door. He knew it, and he knew that he had to enter.

Still, Sam King lingered on the steps.

His hands were sweaty, the suitcase was oddly heavy as he stared at the double doors of dark wood and frosted glass. Behind him, an engine purred and tires crunched as his Uber driver pulled away; stranding him there with no other options. No escape. He licked his lips, and glanced up. Anything to put off the inevita...

Raze ~ 27!

~ Twenty-seven ~

“Alrighty, Jess-a-mundo!” Joe's enthusiasm bounced harmlessly off the iron defenses of Jess’s single-track focus. “I have a few really important tasks for you. I need a couple Cores for testing purposes and one that is the most powerful that you can find. Use the guild for this if you can. They promised to fund our operation.”

“Can do.” Jess whisked a note into a small notebook. Joe nodded approvingly; people were starting...

Raze ~ 26!

~ Twenty-six ~

An odd sight graced the forest that morning. Two Wolfman Scouts slowly and carefully picked their way through the forest, and a few feet behind them trailed a party of their racial enemy, humans. Now, no one was around to see this odd sight, and the Scouts went out of their way to make sure that remained the case. The enemies here were far too powerful for two standard Scouts, but they used their enhanced senses to great effect in avoiding conflict and ...

Raze ~ 25!

~ Twenty-five ~

“Awaken, Humans.” Joe’s eyes snapped open, and he was perfectly awake. Awake like when a foghorn went off near your ear, without the pain or flinching.

“What did you do to us?” Poppy snarled as he launched out of bed. “How did you get around sending us to our spawn room when you knocked us out?”

The Wolfman that would be their guide for the remainder of the day snorted through his elongated snout and declined to answer. The...

Raze ~ 24!

~ Twenty-four ~

The Wolfman Warrior stopped them after an hour of stumbling through the dark. Frankly, Joe had no idea how they had managed not to be attacked by all the things that were going bump in the night. Or screeching into the night; that was more common.

“I bring you this far on honor of Pain Power man. Sleep is safe for the night, at the least.” The Warrior was towering over them even though he was badly hunched. “But here… here I need strongest vow ...

Raze ~23!

~ Twenty-three ~

‘’Alright, shall we go over what we did wrong during the last trip?” Joe looked around, getting confusion in reply. It appeared that his attempt to emulate Tiona hadn't been as successful as he had hoped it would be. “Basically, I am looking for us to discuss our weak points and how we can improve after what happened last time.”

“Ah think yer gonna haveta take the lead on this one.” Bard shook his head at Joe’s insistence on talking wh...

Raze ~ 22!

~ Twenty-two ~

Joe stumbled out of the basement of the Grand Ritual Hall the next day, a taglock vanishing into his codpiece just as he opened a door to the town. He felt the need for coffee, but his sleep-deprivation had paid off. He had managed to create a clean spellform for the root reducing spell, and after putting it on a scroll he had learned the spell. That wasn't even the best part: after creating another scroll, he had successfully integrated it into a ri...

Raze ~ 21!

Happy Treason Day, all of my glorious colonists! :P  

~ Twenty-one ~

Joe stepped out of the respawn room eight in-game hours later, appearing at the shrine he had most recently converted. “Ick, it’s a half day walk even to get back to the forest from here.”

His rumination didn't last long. His team would likely appear shortly, and he wanted to see how things were going with his current quest to free Tatum. Joe pulled open the quest log and looked it ove...

Raze ~ 20!

Happy Monday!!!

~ Twenty ~

Contrary to their concerns, Forest Imps seemed to be a fairly rare enemy. They weren't sure if that was due to the sheer size of the forest they were in, or if there were only a few of them in the forest in total. Either way, after fighting the powerful Imp and winning, they had continued on and found creatures more in tune with the forest theme.

“Back, back, back!” Poppy shouted as he rolled under the bough of an en...

Raze ~ 19!

~ Nineteen ~

Joe hummed happily as he walked down the path. One hundred and thirty new converts to his faction. That was how he was thinking of his deity affiliation: a faction. His small team had gone back to Ardania and slept at an inn, getting a good rest and a good if very small portioned and expensive meal. It appeared that rationing had taken effect, and if that wasn't enough to kick this quest into high gear, Joe didn't know what else to do.

“A coupl...

Raze ~ 18!

~ Eighteen ~

“Hey. Look at that.” Alexis pointed into the distance, and the group tried to see what she was pointing at. With her main characteristic being her high perception, she was able to see things that they couldn’t as of yet.

It took a few more seconds of walking until Poppy spoke up, and the sight came into view for Joe at that moment. “Is that another group of people? Like that huge gathering of people going off to farm?”

“Looks like it, bu...

Raze ~ 17!

~ Seventeen ~

Skill increase: Coalescence (Student III). Congratulations! You have achieved a breakthrough with your ability! By understanding yourself, you have created a unique understanding with your skill! Skill rarity has increased by a rank! As a bonus, the mana regeneration provided by this skill has increased by 50%! Casting time decreased by 10% Caution: as this skill has increased in rarity, it will be comparatively difficult to grow naturally!

Raze ~ 16!

~ Sixteen ~

The Monk was the first to charge, but the huge beast spun and sent him flying with a mere brushing of its gargantuan body. Joe readied a shadow spike, thinking about the terrible luck that had led to them fighting this monstrosity. Had it been here the entire time, or had it somehow dug to their location during the night?

“No one breathe this in!” Alexis called out, the only warning they got before a huge crossbow flipped up onto her shoulder and she l...

Raze ~ 15!

Joe opened his reward box after melting the lions with Acid Spay. He had sat a little apart, hoping that it would be something cool enough that he didn't want to show it off right away. As the box popped open, Joe saw what appeared to be… he had no idea. At least, until he got the notification.

Item gained: Rituarchitect Survey Grid! (Artificially Rare) No more measuring out distances for buildings by hand; this item allows you to get exact measurements for the ...