Aster Loka

Chapter 49

Destruction Dungeon: Level 2

The moment Levi stepped inside, he knew the treasure was indeed gone. There was a sense of emptiness about it, his Secret Seeker title alerting him that there was nothing to be found.

“Well, while we’re here, we may as well clear it.” It was level 2, but with the addition of Cen and Centoo, Gordon, and Flomper, Levi felt fully confident in their chances. Two or three people against a level 2, that would be unwise. But five, all e...

Chapter 48

They returned to the car. Levi looked at the back seat, then the two eight-foot-long centipedes, Skarm, and Flomper.

"Anyone willing to ride in the trunk?" While they could technically fit in the body of the car, he wasn't sure having giant centipedes visible through the rear windshield to anyone driving past them would be wise.

Cen obligingly crawled into the trunk, coiling up with his chest plating out, which seemed to be his default comfortable state.

"You going to be oka...

Chapter 47

[Note: I have performed a brief but significant retcon on Chapter 30 (the section beginning 'Congratulations' was added), and will be making a few minor continuity adjustments to accommodate. The lens will now be obtained in chapter 34 and first used in chapter 37. Other loot may be rearranged as a result, but none of significance.]
Thank you for understanding. :) On with the story! 2022-01-04 18:42:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 46

The next 'room' was flat and twisty, like a maze whose walls were all tilted at 40-degree angles, providing ample opportunities for more cynomis to ambush them. Despite the territory advantage, they faced only four of the nuisance creatures in their trek, none of which did more than minimal damage as they each attacked individually. If they'd come in a swarm, they may have had some chance of causing injury, but as it was they were all but impotent. Gordon kept Flomper close, not repeating the...

Chapter 45

The other centipede was indeed still available. 

Heavily injured, but not yet deceased. They were far tankier than gremlins, able to stand up to even the dedicated flailing of the remainder of Levi's party.

He stepped in to tame it, and Cen helped hold it down for him. Gordon looked on enviously, as his cynomis squeaked in apparent rage at not being allowed to deal a death blow. Skarm stood back, ready in case something went wrong, but clearly sizing up the centipede for some...

Chapter 44

It took three tries before Gordon caught himself a burrower.

The first two attempts it slipped from his hands to escape back into the stone, netting him several more bites on his arms in the process. And it took a further twenty minutes for him to figure out how to subdue a creature that could move through stone like it was water. But he prevailed, and set his brand new level 1 into Tamer.

“It feels like such a waste,” Gordon bemoaned, looking over his greatly reduced stat she...

Chapter 43

They reached the end of the first room without incident, stepping into a short hallway between. Levi didn’t relax, checking each inch for tripwires or pressure plates. It was clear and safe, apart from a few small sinkholes that could trip an unwary person but they were hardly worth bothering about. Unless they had to retreat through this hall at speed, the holes were more a nuisance than a threat.

But they did tickle Levi’s memory.

“Cynomis,” he murmured, then raised his ...

Chapter 42

“There’s no time to waste.” Levi pushed Gordon’s hand - and the stamina restorative he held, back. “I’m not leveling fast enough, the world isn’t leveling fast enough. We have to keep moving.”

Gordon sighed. “Look, this… obsession, it’s not healthy. You’re acting erratically, and I can partly understand it, but you have to relax or you’ll get yourself killed.”

“I don’t know if I can relax even if I could afford to. This is the most important thing f...

Chapter 41

Their total loot from the dungeon came to 2 mana restoratives, two of stamina, a pair of weather stones, and a hood. Levi stored the potions, a little disappointed not to be able to replenish his stock of health elixirs, but the others would still be good to have on hand. The hood wasn't traced for active effects yet, but it could be upgraded later on. And even a base material would be much sturdier than an earth equivalent. The weather stones were used in crafting, but apart from 'store them...

Chapter 40

[Happy Christmas everyone! Hope you have a great holiday weekend!]

The boss reappeared, reaching up to stab its claws into Levi’s back while he turned. Gordon called out an alarm just a moment too late, swinging his sword around in an arc. Levi twisted and jumped on the gremlin boss before it could flee again, his shortsword flying from his hand as he tackled it to the ground. He slammed his elbow into its throat, ignoring its vicious claws as they dug into his arm...

Chapter 39

The boss room was arrayed in tiers, like wide descending steps that circled the room completely like a stadium, both down toward where the boss waited and upward toward the distant pitted ceiling, crudely carved of the same black stone as the rest of the dungeon. Levi saw dozens of gremlins standing around the upper circle, all grinning down at the newcomers with pointy-tooth grins.

Below, the champion awaited. A ‘huge’ gremlin, almost as tall as Levi’s waist, easily towering far ...

Chapter 38

Levi slid into the water with a small splash, then hit the bottom hard enough his stamina dropped by more than half.

Uninjured, he squinted into the dark stinging liquid in search of the way forward he knew must be hidden there. As he’d guessed, the corrosive content was low enough that it didn’t outpace his regen. His health flicked down, then back up, then down and back up in a steady rhythm.

Feeling at the floors and wall of the pit, he took less than a minute to find the o...

Chapter 37

"I think there's a way to get across." Gordon pointed. "If we go along the edge on the right, see? The ledge is thicker there."

"I wouldn't trust it." Levi frowned at the ledge. It looked wide enough for a gremlin moving carefully, but nothing bigger. It would be precarious even then.

Gremlin Two didn’t wait, but ran toward the ledge as if to prove to the world that he was the bravest.

“Hold up,” Levi called, and Two slowed his scamper, looking over his shoulder. “So...

Chapter 36

They drove another hour before Levi found a dungeon near enough the road for his ping to reach.

“This way,” Levi pointed, and Gordon pulled off the highway. It took a few false starts where roads headed the wrong direction before they pulled off at a parking lot behind a warehouse and got out.

Fifteen minutes later, they finally located it.

Destruction Dungeon: Level 1

"Will you still be able to get anything out of it?" Gordon asked. “You being l...

Chapter 35

Levi sighed happily as he stepped out of the portal and back into the real world, Skarm and Two coming after him, eying one another with obvious unresolved tension, Gordon bringing up the rear.

"That was good. We got you into the game, got Skarm back—" he patted his gremlin on the head, and Skarm patted him back. "And I’m finally level 5!”

"You know this changes everything," Gordon said, once they were all ensconced in his car. He had put the key in, but not started the engi...

Chapter 34

Heya! Aster here. Just a quick heads up: there will be a VIP poll posted in the next few minutes to determine the choices made after this chapter, and tomorrow's chapter will be delayed until Monday so I can collect the results and integrate them into the story. That means that chapters 35 and 36 will both be posted on Monday. Thanks for your patience! On with the story. 

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Finally! Levi hardly noticed the treasure room’s contents as he step...

Chapter 33

Levi stared down the goblin mage, his pulse speeding up in anticipation. It stood a bit taller than Levi’s waist, hunched and pale green. It wore a draped black robe that covered one shoulder like a toga, tied with a crude rope across its chest, and carried a twisted black staff that it leaned on with both hands. It grinned nastily when it saw them enter, and its eyes began glowing sickly orange.

“Two, circle behind and stab when you can. I’m going in front. If we get it down belo...

Chapter 32

Destruction Dungeon: Level 1

Gordon walked around the patch of shimmering air, frowning. He waved a hand through it, making its label appear hovering in midair.

"This is weird," he said, for the hundredth time.

Levi grinned. "Yep."

"This is weird," Gordon repeated.

"Yep."

Gordon looked at Gremlin Two, then at the hovering dungeon entrance. "You say he came out of a place like this?"

Gremlin Two nodded, and Levi grinned. "Yep....

Chapter 31

Gordon answered on the first ring. “Levi! What’s going on, are you alright? Irene is going crazy with worry.”

“I’m in New York state, any chance you can hire an uber to pick me up? My account has been locked. I can pay you back.”

“Stay where you are, I’ll come get you. Where in New York?”

Levi resisted the temptation to hang up, to run away again. He had no idea who this person was, but… he needed someone, and Gordon was the closest thing to a friend Levi...

Chapter 30

The loot the spider skunk guarded proved far better than Levi had dared to hope. A mana and stamina restorative elixir, nothing to complain about but unexceptional, but then there was another dungeon token, and a second power stone.

Levi couldn't help but feel excitement thrilling through him at the sight. It was normal to get one token or none from a beginner dungeon like this, but power stones were uncommon even in higher level dungeons. To find two in the same one was a windfall he'd...

Chapter 29

Levi and Gremlin Two jumped free of the boss before it hit the ground, then grinned at each other in triumph. Two didn't seem inclined to believe their victory, poking the corpse with his spear and jumping back a few times before he was willing to accept it.

“We did it.” Levi stood leaning on his half splintered spear, chest heaving for air. He couldn’t believe a fight against overgrown poultry could be as tense as a skirmish against a demon army, but… he’d genuinely thought h...

Chapter 28

Levi ran past Gremlin Two’s hiding place, the dire turkey boss hot on his heels. He dove into the half-demolished pile of fallen trees and crawled through the tunnel he’d prepared.

The dire turkey flew around the 'fortress', pecking at it with increased ire. It completed two full circles of the pile before deciding that it was safe. Branches shook and twigs snapped beneath its weight as it landed, but the fallen trees were stable enough structurally not to collapse.

Levi waite...

Chapter 27

Thanks to the turkey boss's anger, Levi had a large pile of fresh wood to work with. The lack of proper tools was irritating, to say the least, but even without a power stone the manablades retained their edge long after a mundane steel blade would have dulled beyond the point of uselessness.

Levi cleared out enough space in the center of the pile for Gremlin Two to join him, then a path to the outside. He poked his head out tentatively, ready to retreat in an instant if the boss still ...