You have acquired a new skill!
[Soul Prison]
Some deeds can not be forgiven. Yet, purging a soul is the way of the damned. Make them suffer. Make them toil for their redemption. Capture the souls of [Evil] entities. Produces a daily amount of ether based on the number and power of souls imprisoned.
You have imprisoned 1 [Evil] soul.
Souls captured: 1 (+1)
Ether gene...
2024-04-11 13:38:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe lock on the cell door clanked with the sound of keys twisting the lock open.
Bruno’s eyes met the gaze of the angry guard.
“Get out,” the man said, scowling at him.
He got up and started walking towards the door. As soon as he stepped a single foot past the guard, the man slapped him full force on the back of his head. Bruno didn’t react.
“We get many complaints about you,” the guard said, angrily smacking his head again. “If I...
2024-04-11 13:22:47 +0000 UTC View PostI walked into the Guard’s house, and the first thing that greeted me was the smell of food. It smelled unusual. I didn’t recognize it as any dish I had ever eaten, but in any case, I didn’t care for it. I could feel my [Shapeshifting] trying to tell me that the smell would be pleasant to a human, but to me, it was… It was just there.
As I walked through the minuscule, tight hallway, I found myself in an open room with nothing but a small table and what appeared to be a sto...
2024-04-09 19:17:29 +0000 UTC View PostFreddy had come into this whole ordeal expecting to cruise through the pain quite easily. By anyone’s standard, his reaction to having his nerves scrambled, muscle tissue molded, and bones rearranged was tame, but he was surprised by how difficult it was to endure.
He’d compare the pain to a slightly more painful version of Thousand Wet Hells. But that wasn’t the main reason why it was hard to tolerate. Thousand Wet Hells was equally spread throughout his entire body, which ...
2024-04-09 15:09:48 +0000 UTC View PostThroughout the five hours trapped in the cell, I did my best to listen in on the interrogation that was happening a few rooms over, where the guards were interrogating Bruno. Usually, I’d stand no chance of hearing anything, but perception at D-rank was thankfully good enough to at least catch a few snippets from the conversation.
I only caught the tail end of the talk, where I heard the guard detail the punishment the man was going to receive.
Bruno would be kept im...
2024-04-08 14:51:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe arrival of the guards sparked total chaos. People screamed over one another, testimonies overlapping. My enhanced perception did wonders at allowing me to tell individual voices apart. A few were trying to take the bald man’s side, citing my annoying provocations as a justification for his actions, but the majority seemed to have only noticed the commotion after the man had started beating me.
As the three guards gradually shifted their attention and hostility at the kidn...
2024-04-07 19:14:17 +0000 UTC View PostAs I followed after the man, pushing through the crowds as he made turn after turn, I more and more understood just how screwed I was.
The blessing effectively communicated what I was allowed to do and what I wasn’t, causing a powerful disgust if my intent was sinful. But it did more than just that, too. It was a mortal compass in its truest form—and as such, I could consult it and get a vague explanation as to why my actions were bad.
It was pretty obviou...
2024-04-05 18:45:34 +0000 UTC View PostLeonard Santorio—Jacob Santorio’s father and the leader of Santorio Enterprises—looked down across Nova York as he puffed a large cigar.
Despite his perfect skin with zero signs of aging or blemishes, his thick white beard, bulky build, and bushy pale hair gave off the impression of old age. It was hard to tell how old an archhuman was purely off their physical looks, but for Leonard, it was almost as if his evolutions had been subtly guided by how he felt on the inside—old, jad...
2024-04-05 14:39:14 +0000 UTC View Post“Hey there, boy,” the man greeted me, looking somewhat concerned.
I stared at the man and replied, “Hello there, good sir!” I replied cheerfully. There was way less hesitation in my voice than I expected. And so far, I felt nothing strange or out of the ordinary.
The man was clad in medieval garb, with leather armor covering his body but leaving his head fully exposed. His hair was a mundane brunette, cut messily and relatively short. Honestly, his shit was all sorts...
2024-04-04 20:04:49 +0000 UTC View PostIt was disconcerting how long it took me to realize I was still standing almost entirely naked, nothing but cloth boxers covering my privates. It seemed that shame was something I had well and truly left in the past, and that thought was quite troubling.
I focused on my inventory and tried summoning my clothes back to my body. While it was rather easy to take them off by storing them in the inventory, using the same strategy to put them back on just wasn’t possible. Anything I summone...
2024-04-04 12:28:54 +0000 UTC View PostI scanned over my available classes.
I had thought that being able to complete as many as I pleased would make the decision easier. It didn’t. If anything, it made it infinitely harder to choose. If I had only one option, I’d pretty much be forced to go with [Mage Apprentice]. Now that I could play around, I wanted to see what the others were capable of.
I glanced over at the disgusting creature standing maybe 10 meters ahead of me. I wanted to fuck that thing up. I want...
2024-04-03 14:58:02 +0000 UTC View PostI slowly opened my eyes. Above, the thick canopy of a forest greeted my sight, with a few rays of sunshine peering through, flickering as the lukewarm wind caressed the leaves. The sound of rustling, the light whistle of air, and the smell of loamy soil moved in to occupy the sensory void.
The agony that had been permeating every cell of my body and threatening to tear me to pieces was gone as if it had never even been there.
I got up with a start, anxiously looking around m...
2024-04-02 18:51:25 +0000 UTC View PostWhat stood before me, trapped within the massive mirror, was an absolute monstrosity. It was a three-meter-tall skeletal figure with coiling black horns and a thick layer of dried, pink flesh covering every bone on its body. Empty eye sockets gazed into my own, and… I did not need proof of what I was seeing. I knew that it was true. And the most terrible, horrifying part of it was—
“How do you feel?” she asked me, still holding one finger on my form.
I hesitated for a long...
2024-04-02 13:40:04 +0000 UTC View PostSweat pooled down Phillip’s brow as he clasped his hands against the cold doors, keeping the passage sealed. Every few seconds, a powerful impact sent tremors down his arms, and he was struggling to maintain the essence reinforcement on the metallic barrier. Thankfully, his talent allowed him to at least partially deflect the force of the impacts, but he didn’t believe he’d be able to keep it up for too long.
Behind him, Theodore was crouched next to a wounded guard. The guard, a ...
2024-04-02 13:31:39 +0000 UTC View PostIn a dingy corner of a small governmental office in a tiny settlement in the countryside by Pittersville, there was a door. Behind this door was a little room. In the center of it, there was a stone tablet with four photographs placed face-down and a paper detailing an encrypted report.
Legally, every settlement with more than 1000 inhabitants had to have a room like this somewhere. The purpose of the tablet was simple—so that any government officials could contact the central. ...
2024-03-29 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe gorel realm was a hub for three other passages. Among these, one was at an intermediate difficulty, and two were reserved for elites. And within the realm of intermediate difficulty, there was another passage that took to perhaps the most interesting of the realms that could be accessed through this hub.
It was an anomalous realm, more accurately, it was a dungeon. Such realms were inredibly rare and immensely valuable. The Tomb of Harrkanna was no exception.
Jacob...
2024-03-26 16:24:16 +0000 UTC View PostFor the rest of that day, I simply traveled in a direction, running as fast as I could without exhausting myself. I picked up most of the larger rocks I came across, and although I had hundreds of them sitting in my inventory, they only filled a minuscule corner.
I ended up stopping because I found nothing I needed to throw them at.
I wouldn’t call the lands I was traveling through a wasteland per se, but it was undoubtedly profoundly ill. I’ve stumbled upon many z...
2024-03-26 12:26:45 +0000 UTC View PostYou have selected a new class!
You have reached level 1 in [Arcane Neophyte]
You have acquired a skill!
[Meditate: F-rank]
You can absorb ambient mana directly into your core.
Yup. I did it. But frankly, now that I read the notifications, I couldn’t say that I regretted my choice. If anything, I felt stupid for ever entertaining not going down a path of magic....
2024-03-26 12:25:34 +0000 UTC View PostI turned around, looking over to the giant mass of mist. From my vantage, it looked like an absolutely massive dome of white smoke, and to my [Magic Sense], it screamed of evil and wickedness.
It was exactly the sort of place one would expect to find a boss fight at the center. But I based this presumption on video game logic. But truthfully, I had no idea how this world work, and I had no idea how long it would be until I found myself in severe danger again.
While the...
2024-03-26 12:24:48 +0000 UTC View Post[Frozen Wooden Stick: Uncommon]
A stick of wood with frost deeply permeating its nature. Inflicts additional frost damage.
It was surreal how different this [Item] was from the mere [Object] it had been a moment ago. With my [Magic Sight], I could see this was no ordinary stick. What could only be described as the concept of ice was wrapped tightly around it, and it didn’t seem to be heating up.
With just one FFF-rank ski...
2024-03-26 12:23:55 +0000 UTC View PostYou have acquired 5 new skills!
[Inventory]
You can use a personal inventory. Size depends on the number of skills you own and their relative power.
[Create Item: FFF-rank]
You can consume mana to turn an [Object] into an [Item]. The rarity of the [Item] is dictated by the quality of the user’s craftsmanship, the user’s intent, the quality, nature, and history of ingredien...
2024-03-26 12:22:49 +0000 UTC View PostMost of my skills were pretty self-explanatory. I had no frame of reference for what the ranks meant in this world, but judging by the fact that my fist could leave dents in solid metal, I thought it was safe to presume that C-rank strength was pretty good.
Although that armored knight did kick my ass pretty thoroughly.
My attention was instead directed toward the more exciting stuff.
[Quasi-Immortality]
You are near-immortal. 2024-03-26 12:22:04 +0000 UTC View Post
I was utterly frozen. No coherent thought could form in my mind as the pressure left me completely stunned.
“Glory be to all good!” the regal man uttered, and—
“Glory be to all good!” the angelic figures surrounding him echoed.
The man swung his right arm. “With the first swing, be judged for your sins!” Then, he turned the arm the other way. “With the second swing, be judged for your intent!” Then, he raised his left arm. “And with the third swing, be ju...
2024-03-26 12:21:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe sounds of armor clattering and the smashing of its footsteps were joined by sickening squelches of rotting corpses getting crushed beneath the force of the skeleton knight’s charge.
I kept running and dodging around, and it seemed that the scattered horde of shambling undead couldn’t gather quickly enough to obstruct me.
The wasteland before me stretched for quite a while longer, but after maybe a kilometer, there was a forest of dead, ghastly grey trees enveloped in...
2024-03-26 12:19:33 +0000 UTC View PostAs I found myself naked and running from a sword flying directly at me, I knew one thing. If that thing hit me, I would return to being pummeled. And if that happened, it was likely that I wouldn’t survive.
My thoughts accelerated to the point where I felt like time had slowed. I had no way to dodge or move out of the way, and the weapon was too close, so I simply swung my fist in what I felt was a futile effort to redirect the projectile away from my body. However—
As m...
2024-03-26 12:18:20 +0000 UTC View PostAs soon as the creature turned its head to face me, I ducked back into the cave, taking cover. This time, I felt the fear quite clearly, and the fact that my life was in grave danger was hammered in even deeper when the giant sword flew into the cave, slamming into the stone wall and sending cracks spreading all around.
Not long after, I heard the sound of thundering footsteps closing in on me. I kept my mouth shut and immediately turned back, sprinting as fast as possible. The cr...
2024-03-26 12:17:17 +0000 UTC View PostI woke up sometime later. I found my body buried beneath a pile of rubble, some of which was pressing sharply against my torso, but I felt no pain. I was likely too numb to sense it.
Despite the lack of a light source, I could see the contours of the stones I was buried under very clearly—far too clearly, in fact.
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed after I finally remembered where I was.
My words were caught in my throat as I suddenly realized… I could speak....
2024-03-26 12:16:07 +0000 UTC View Post[Author's Note]
Hello everyone! With this chapter, I'm announcing my next project. First, to dispel your worries: this will not impact 1% Lifesteal's release schedule in the slightest. It's going to run in parallel. Also, just as a heads-up, this story is quite different from my previous writing. First, it's a LitRPG. Haven't really tried my hand at one before, and this is the first time I'm giving it a proper shot. It's also different in the sense that it's my first attempt at first-pers...
Freddy followed Sophia through the woods. They moved cautiously as they slowly approached the outer edge of the passage realm.
According to her, the best course of action for them would be to go to the very edge of the realm and bury themselves underground. Their bodies were undead, so that wouldn’t kill them, even if they remained buried for months.
One of the most essential skills for an archhuman was creativity. With supernatural powers so easily accessible, it wa...
2024-03-22 14:53:46 +0000 UTC View Post[If you got a notification about chapter "75" I accidentally put the wrong chapter number, woops!]
Freddy sat in the private booth, his face buried in his hands, as Sophia hollered beside him, laughing so hard she could barely breathe.
“You… You…” she muttered. “You dog!” she accused, but her amusement at the situation remained clear as day. She took a sip of the drink and let out a small moan of pleasure as she giggled again, nearly spitting her drink as she forced he...
2024-03-19 16:24:16 +0000 UTC View Post