Much like a parent with a preternatural sense of when his kids were causing trouble, Riardin showed up less than five minutes later. Rob didn’t bother trying to defend the scene: himself with his wounds still not fully Regenerated, Keira with the angry-smug expression of someone who had gotten revenge but was still pissed about the reason for said revenge, Alia nursing a broken arm and a far more painful wounded pride, and the other trainees doing their best to sink into the ground and fail...
2021-04-21 07:45:20 +0000 UTC
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Rob missed a lot of things from Earth, but at the moment, what he missed most was his cell phone camera. They say that a picture tells a thousand words, and the look of collective shock on the seven elves’ faces as he threw down the gauntlet was worth at least a couple hundred. Riardin managed to summarize it in one.
“What.”
“I had an uninvited guest last night,” Rob said. “Who brought me a housewarming gift.” He produced the assassin’s weapon of choice and tosse...
2021-04-21 07:43:00 +0000 UTC
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Keira and Rob were making their way to the ranger training grounds when Rob piped up with a question. “Out of curiosity, why did you choose the Warrior Class? What made you want to go all-in on greatswords?”
“...um...”
–
~Several Decades Ago~
Keira was knocked down as the others laughed at her. Her fists shook in impotent rage as frustration surged within. It’s not fair, she thought. Just because t...
2021-04-21 07:41:26 +0000 UTC
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Rob idly tapped his foot against the ground as he waited. Waiting, as it turns out, was something he was going to have to get used to. That hadn’t been an issue when he was stumbling around a deadly forest, not knowing where he was going or what was behind that tree or if he’d lost track of the river again. Never a dull moment in Ixatan! Bring your family, bring your friends! Now he was back in civilization, where a bed was a bed (or in his case, a couch) and not a pile of the most comfor...
2021-04-21 07:40:39 +0000 UTC
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A deluge of outdated system messages flooded Rob’s vision as he awoke. His eyes widened as he sat up from the couch he was laying on and scrolled through the list showcasing the internal bludgeoning his brain had been put through while he was unconscious.
51 localized Brain Damage received!
Active Skill Learned!
Name: Auto-Translate (Elvish)
Prerequisite: 30 Mind, read at least 30 worthwhile books, spend some time learning the Elvish lan...
2021-04-21 07:36:28 +0000 UTC
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Status Effect: Hopeful (Mild) has changed to Hopeful (Moderate)!
And weren’t those just the most beautiful words he’d ever read.
Rob had expected there to be a whirlwind of activity after the voting had ended in his favor. Loud protests from Alessia, fierce debates on how to handle his integration into the village, maybe a thrown chair or two. Instead, they just started talking. Calmly, and rationally. All Alessia had done was shrug her shoulders and join in...
2021-04-21 07:25:54 +0000 UTC
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“So what do you want to do tonight?” Jason asked. “Heard there’s going to be a party on 4th
Street. Could be a good time, assuming it doesn’t end up like the last one.”
Rob grimaced. “It’s a shame the world will never know who set off those fireworks.”
Jason gave him a flat look.
“It wasn’t me!” Rob protested. “I don’t go around causing trouble. It just...has a habit of finding me.”
“Uh huh.”
“Thanks for the vote of con...
2021-04-21 07:21:42 +0000 UTC
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A gentle breeze caressed his cheek.
His campfire crackled in the silence.
The moon shone down with warmth.
It was all wrong. Too calm. Too peaceful. Too normal for what he’d just heard. The entire world had just been pulled out from under his feet and life had the gall to continue on as if nothing had happened. Where was the earthquake? The thunderclap in the distance? He was...he was supposed to just sit there and accept the death of all humans like it was old...
2021-04-21 07:19:48 +0000 UTC
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Figuring out what to do with Men’ta’s body ended up being a grim, mentally-exhausting stumbling block. They couldn’t leave his body behind for later retrieval as it would be summarily eaten by spiders – or any of the other carnivorous beasties roaming the woods. It made Rob imagine a family of squirrels descending on Men’ta like a pack of piranhas sensing blood in the water. That was all it took to get him to readily agree to help bring Men’ta home for a proper elven burial.
2021-04-21 07:00:46 +0000 UTC
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“In the interest of distracting myself, do you mind if I ask a few questions?” Keira asked. She was looking a little better than before, but in the way that sticking a band-aid on a cut made it better. Rip the band-aid off too quickly and you would expose the wound to the elements again.
“Of course,” Rob answered. “What do you want to know?” He would have told her everything from his birthday to his Social Security Number even if she hadn’t been in need of cheering up. Th...
2021-04-21 06:49:28 +0000 UTC
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Rob ran, and he didn’t know where.
He had no delusions that he could outrun the elves if they came for him again. They would be on him like a pack of lions cornering an infant gazelle. Nor did he have any destination in mind, or even a hunch he was following.
He ran because he didn’t know what else to do.
The elves had been the light at the end of the long, dark, bloodstained tunnel he’d been wading through. Joining up with them wouldn’t have solved all his long-t...
2021-04-21 06:45:50 +0000 UTC
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“We must kill the Human.”
The Elder’s proclamation sparked another round of debate. Emotions flew about the room like debris in a tempest, tossed about aimlessly and without any regard for collateral damage. At least, that was how Riardin viewed it. An outsider to the village would have seen a group of esteemed men and women sitting in a circle and cordially debating with each other on a matter of importance. Riardin had known them long enough to recognize the vicious barbs they ...
2021-04-21 06:44:51 +0000 UTC
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On the third day, he almost died. It wasn’t even his fault this time.
Rob woke up from his nightmares to find that his HP and Stamina were sinking like a rock. The culprit was no mystery; he was coughing up a lung and shivering like a babe in winter. He drank water and ate berries – the non-poisonous ones – to keep his strength up, but nothing helped.
Passive Skill Gained!
Name: Disease Resistance
Prerequisite: Come down with a poten...
2021-04-21 06:43:55 +0000 UTC
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HP: 99 / 210
Stamina: 35 / 90
…
HP: 100 / 210
Stamina: 37 / 90
Rob shut his metaphysical eyes and closed the character sheet. An unbidden sigh of relief hissed through clenched teeth. Despite everything that had happened, seeing his HP finally tick back up to the triple digits after hours of waiting for another rabid wolf to chance upon him and finish the job was almost, almost enough to ...
2021-04-21 06:42:51 +0000 UTC
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“Seriously? You said that to a professor?” Jason snickered. “Not trying to earn any brownie points, are you?”
“Hey, he was being a dick,” Rob shrugged in response. “What was I supposed to do? Sit there and take it?”
“...yeeeeees? He can make your life a living hell for the rest of the semester.”
“Bring it on.”
Rob suppressed a smile as Jason laughed. The situation was pretty funny, but he knew that Jason would be more amused if he k...
2021-04-21 03:44:45 +0000 UTC
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