Reck Well - Author

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 43: What Remains

Richard was not amused.

Which made the laughter all the more satisfying. Rhi must have thought so as well, as she hadn't killed me yet. The fires of her throne danced with each chortle. I wiped the gritty tears from my eyes, glancing at the rest of my companions. Meredeath and Tandy were not amused.

Leo, however, arched his eyebrows, whispering, "Good sign, hitting it off with the in-laws." He grinned as I choked on an errant bit of saliva, giving me two thumbs up.

Coughing...

From the Desk of Reck: Stumbling Up Arc 2

I wanted to talk about the second arc in Stumbling Up. A lot has happened since we met our trio of losers and their slimy friend. But spoilers ahead... if you're not caught up to Chapter 43 STOP reading :)

They beat a [Corrupt] guardian, faced down Cole's family, and took on Rhi Voss herself. We've had some larger revelations about how the system works, Meredeath's off-worlder reveal, and the truth about Cole and Richard's bond.

A lot of ground was covered. The fight with the be...

From the Desk of Reck: Upcoming Events!

Good day to you all! I am dropping a note about upcoming events in August.

First - On August 19th at 7 pm CST/8 pm EST, I'll be taking over ChattinStats to interview Doug Lohse on his series Elsewhere. This will be live on https://www.youtube.com/@ChattinStats.

I conducted an interview series in July with various authors, which can be found on the channel. Check it out if you've got time. Previous gu...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 42: I've got 99 Problems and the [Lich] is Just One of Them

The howling grew louder, but I didn't see any hounds.

Meredeath and I struggled to pull Leo out of the reeds. Finally, we had him jump butt first onto the reeds, effectively distributing his weight.

"Where are they? I can't see any of them," Tandy sounded frantic, as the [Corrupt] water hounds sounded like they were right on top of us.

Ter Lance opened his mouth to reply when a dog jumped through the matted reeds and latched onto his leg. In one swift movement, the dog pul...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 41: Soulbound and Sinking

We started moving again, this time much slower.

I eyed Richard on his perch. This time, he avoided my look, not because he was ashamed of us, but because he didn't want to answer any questions about his relationship with Rhi. Instead, he sat, indignant head forward, tentacles stretched out as though he were leading us himself to Rhi. What a poser.

With the pace slowed, my health and stamina bars had recovered. I could breathe. I could think.

The ring gifted to me by Rhi's si...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 40: Communication Issues

I never expected to survive the [Trial Dungeon], but I was still surprised when I realized we were all about to die. To be fair, Richard had warned us about Rhi Voss. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't really blame him this time.

"Uh, guys, what are we going to do?" I asked, proud that my voice wasn't shaking.

Leo, Tandy, and Meredeath stood with weapons drawn before two dozen animated skeletons. I focused on the one in front, trying to trigger [Analyze] until I realized it was on...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 39: Until You Believe It

Silence.

I didn't realize until that moment how much noise Richard created in my head. Like his slime, his thoughts tended to get in everything.

I'd fought my whole life for silence.

When I was a kid, I fought so hard for my own time, my own space. We never had enough of either. I'd go out in the woods trying to escape. Flo accused me of dodging chores, but that was only half of it.

Until I left home, and realized silence was overrated when my mind filled it for me....

From the Desk of Reck

I wanted to give a formal thanks to all of you who are coming along on this ride with me. Did you know that a group of slugs is called a cornucopia? Well, congratulations, you're part of the Cornucopia now :).

Being an author has been a lifelong dream for me. I wrote a truly awful Dragon Riders of Pern-Knights of the Round Table mash-up when I was a kid. (You can ask Jen, they've actually seen it) And since then, I've been hooked on the idea of sharing a story.

Books saved me ov...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 38: I'm not Crying, You're Crying

Tidemaws are giant leviathans who sit in river deltas and salt marshes. They slowly burrow into the ground, expanding their bodies and control over the local water. The creatures get their names because they can influence the tides, drawing prey in or pushing potential predators out. Our tidemaw was a giant among leviathans, controlling almost the entirety of the swamp with its moist breath, drawing more than one curious explorer towards its mouth with dancing lights.

One of my prized b...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 37: [Dead Wrong]

The thing about a skill that triggers on death is that there's no great way to test it.

The real problem is that the description of the skill was pretty frustrating:

[Cheat Death] is a passive skill that automatically triggers you to cheat fatal damage once per day. The methods of cheating death vary. Use at your own risk.

The only saving grace is that it was passive. Half the time, I'd died so far as an [Adventurer] I hadn't even realized I was in danger before the death ...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 36: Missed Chopportunity

"I'm not giving you Miss Chopportunity unless you tell me what you're going to do with her." Leo held his [Enchanted Axe of Singing] close, petting it lovingly.

Damn it. There was no way he'd give me his axe if I told him what I was actually going to do with it. I had to come up with an alternative plan.

"You're calling your axe Miss Chopportunity?" Tandy asked.

"It works. She's Choppy for short." Leo held the double-bladed axe as though it’d saved his life. I guess that ...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 35: Tree's Company

"It bit me! Oh my god, I'm going to die."

I don't know what I'd been dreaming, but Meredeath's panicked voice pumped adrenaline through my veins. I grabbed my hammer, triggering the [Molten] effect. The loft flared with light, blinding us all. Shit.

"What is it? I can't see anything." Leo's voice was loud, and I could see him clutching his axe. What I couldn't find were any monsters.

"It's a rat!"

Oh. Just a rat? What was the big deal? My muscles relaxed. Di...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 34: Mapping it Out

"So this is your childhood bedroom?" Meredeath asked, as we sat stretched out in the loft of the barn. The gambrel roof sat above us with several murals sketched out in grease and paint. "It's not what I would have imagined."

I blushed. Meredeath struck me as a refined city girl. She probably couldn't imagine growing up in a hayloft.

"Don't feel too bad for him. Share always complained that she got twice as many indoor chores because Cole wasn't in line of sight every day." Tandy ...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 33: Table Manners

[Your Mom's Party] huddled in the corner, trying to formulate a plan while the 'dungeon monsters' ignored us.

"Why did you have to tell them?" I whined.

"Sorry, man, but it just slipped out. He was eying my axe, and well, you were going to have to tell them sooner or later." Leo was right, the idiot.

One of the 'bosses' clanked a skillet loudly against the stove. My mom and Flo had long ago mastered the art of cooking angry. I think it was a skill that moms automatically acq...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 32: Relative Chaos

I hadn’t been home in months.

I had my reasons.

My family homestead had been one of the first successful farms in the early settlement days of Woodsten. My surname, Thornfield, had been earned. My parents had scratched out an existence from the dust and weeds. They'd lived in a sod house with my eldest sister, Floria, for the first couple of years.

Being the third eldest, I'd come along a few years later. By then, we had an oversized shed built from seasoned logs harveste...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - [Bonus Chapter]: The Slug also Rises Part 3

Richard had a long string of very bad days. Today wasn't one of them.

"And what does my little banana slug think?" Rhi Voss asked in a cutesy voice as though Richard was nothing more than a stuffed animal.

"Mrhble," he moved his lips at an approximation of speech. They'd established over the course of many years that she did not like being ignored. He refused to admit that he was anything more than a slightly oversized fanged banana slug.

She grinned at him, as though he'd ...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - [Bonus Chapter]: The Slug also Rises Part 2

"Happy berth-day, Leo! Whar's Tandy?" Cole's voice rattled around Leo's head like a fly in a compost bin.

Where was Tandy? This was his twenty-fifth birthday, and even with her schedule and business, she should be here.

"Oh, thar she is!" Cole said as he fell off the bed. Tandy waved noncommittally from the corner of the room.

Tandy waved at them from the floor. She sat, head between her knees, as though she were sick.

"I know what would cure this!" Leo looked down at ...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - [Bonus Chapter]: The Slug also Rises Part 1

"That... them... Artie's sh-uch a fo-ole," the woman said as she took another long draft from a brown glass jug. She stumbled as she walked behind the rows of fancy houses with their fancy windows lit by beeswax candles. She snorted, to whom nobody knows. There was something amusing about people shut in their boxes, staying safe by a wick that could as quickly harm as help.

Harm and help, like medicine for the soul.

Artie needed some medicine. He was a furball stuck to the kettle ...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 31: Earth and Other Oddities

“So, can someone tell me what the big deal about Rhi Voss is? She’s a witch?” Meredeath asked, as we walked away from the crater of our last adventure.

I beat Tandy to the punch, "We will, if you explain a little more about coming from another world."

"Yeah, is that why you need a [Sponsor] and the rest of us don't?" Tandy chimed in, giving me a fist bump for my pro-offered trade.

The forest was quietly beautiful. We'd hiked down into the tree line, leaving Malyc to fi...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 30: Terms and Disqualifications

"So now what?" Leo asked the question we were all thinking.

"Now, Richard tells us where we need to go to find Meredeath a [Sponsor]," I said it with more confidence than I felt.

We all looked at Richard. He was very resolute in his study of an ashy leaf on the ground. The slug wouldn't meet our eyes.

"Richard!" I was done with it. I knew he was more than what he seemed.

I'm right here. You don't have to yell.

"Where do we find Meredeath a [Sponsor]?" My patience...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 29: One of Us

[You have chosen [Dead Wrong] for your [Adventurer] class. [Cheat Death], [Alive, For Once], [Analyze], and [Improvised Damage] have been granted. You will retain [Party], [Stillpoint], [Heartbeat], [Partial Rapport], [Companion], and [Minor Manipulate Slime] as part of your [Adventurer] base class. Legacy skills [Hammer Time], [Nailed It], and [Self Critic] are also available but will no longer progress. Adventure onward.]

No congratulations? The system didn't seem pleased with my choi...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 28: Hammer, Shield, or ... Slug

I woke up. Guess I'll take that win.

Bear Ridge needed a new name. Corruption Crater? [Your Mom's] Mistake?

Everything was whiter than it should be. It was still bright out. The sun and clouds resolutely insisted on a lovely day.

Oversized snowflakes drifted in the air. No, not snow. Ash. I held out my hand and caught a flake. Delicate and warm, I wondered what part of the ridge it'd been.

Everything was eerily quiet.

A large paw landed on my shoulder. I froze...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 27: Bear the Storm

Whatever Richard had planned, he didn't have time to trigger a skill before Tandy came flying out of the tree.

She jumped onto the corrupt guardian's head. That part with the deadly sharp teeth. She clung with her legs on either side of its snout, stabbing with… was that her fabric scissors?

Leo ran forward, swinging his axe into the beast's ribs.

Meredeath looked like death incarnate as she activated her fishnet bracers, blocking a clawed swing aimed at Leo.

My vie...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 26: In Hindsight

My ex-girlfriend would tell you that timing wasn't one of my strong suits.

As I watched Meredeath's face change from a warm greeting to horror at the atrocity barreling down on her, I had to agree.

The portal winked closed behind her as Malyc removed his key.

Fuck.

The Guild Administrator blinked slowly, as though coming out of a trance.

The corrupted guardian dropped a clawed paw right in the middle of Meredeath’s chest, pinning her to the ground. Unable to s...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 25: Corruption

The system banished Richard and, by consequence, me from the library abruptly. My heart panged in grief with the knowledge-filled stacks evaporating before my eyes as I was violently sucked into a portal.

Before I could worry, we were both ejected in a tumble from the gate on Bear Ridge.

Richard squeaked as he hit the rocky ground, rolling as he slid like a sea cucumber in the tide. I staggered out. My boots were slipping on the hard rock slab. My stomach lurched with portal sickn...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 24: Measuring Contest

The three of us floated in the incorporeal ether of the portal. Tandy and Leo were sucked forward to an exit gate, but I was drawn in a different direction. Richard’s thread tugged me somewhere else.

With no fanfare, I appeared tucked behind a large bookcase, an unwilling audience to an argument.

I won! Richard mentally shouted as he sat on a crumbling marble bookstand.

A glowing orb spun before him. The blue orb spun faster with tinges of red, seemingly annoyed at Richar...

Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 23: Freight Train Diplomacy

Tandy's dagger felt strange in my hand.

I stabbed the Golgothan hard in the belly. Too hard. To my horror, I watched my hand and forearm sink into the creature. The cloth wrapped around my face blocked out most of the smell, but I couldn't block out the feeling of my hand being coated in sludge.

I waited for retribution, crouched over, and stuck. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the appendage coming. Springing to the side as it hit, I forced my body to go limp. In a flash, hal...

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Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 22: Planning Something Stupid

"Where's Richard?" My voice was tight.

Meredeath gave me a flat stare, "Calm down, he'll join us in a bit. Unless you got a system notification that he died?"

I shook my head.

"It'll just take him some time to get back to us." She wasn't here for my panic. Bags under her eyes belied the perfectly crafted makeup. She looked like she'd entered the dungeon a decade ago.

He's not dead. I said the words to myself. The system hadn't given us a death notice, but the bond fel...

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