Chapter 12: Sebastian
The large bird grasped my right shoulder and left bicep in his talons. One talon pierced my upper chest on the right side. The momentum of the raptor took my left arm into a painful rotation, pulling it out of its socket and tearing ligaments and muscles. I was now pinned to the ground and looking up at a giant black eagle. It had a foot-long beak whose sharpness looked like it would make easy work of my tender flesh. When we locked ey...
2024-04-22 00:38:10 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 11: Magic Isn’t Easy
I woke often during the night, trying to reposition my body to avoid pain. I also came to one conclusion: I needed more pillows! I slept in short bursts and dreamed of getting beaten by a sword, casting amazing magic, running a merchant empire, and buying a horse, only to find the horse talked and didn’t like to be ridden.
It was a crazy night, and the fatigue, large amounts of food in my stomach, and growing anxieties needed to be...
2024-04-21 23:53:08 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 9: Obtaining the First Spell
I awoke so sore I couldn’t move. Yes, that was a lie. It was just excruciating to move. The pain triggered a memory of the first day of wrestling practice in high school when the coach decided to check out the team’s conditioning for the entire practice. I grabbed the lemon-scented salve and used the rest of it on the most painfully sensitive muscles and more significant bruises.
I sat in my bed and...
2024-04-21 04:08:19 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 10: Gareth, The Protégé
We walked toward Callem, and before I could speak, Gareth spoke firmly and clearly, “Captain Callem, we are early and don’t want our instruction time to begin just yet. Storme and I will complete the daily stretches before we start. Is that ok?”
Whoa. I stared at Gareth, whose face was relaxed, and his eyes locked with Callem. What the hell, Gareth! An hour of stretching…three hours of combat training…three hours ...
2024-04-21 03:35:45 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 182: Past Missteps Catching Up
The water rushed along the low gunwales of the barge as we glided toward Parvas. All-out war was on the horizon. I was half listening to Adrian explain my duties to the company when we reached Parvas. He snapped his fingers to get my attention. “Eryk, focus. That is one thing Delmar did well. You drift off into your mind too often. If you want, I can have Linus take your place.” It wasn’t a threat and more of a question.
“No. I am fin...
2024-04-20 14:47:55 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 35: The Brewery
That evening, I started working on some brownstone-style houses for the townsfolk. Jaesmin stayed up with me for quite a while, giving me an ear full. She didn’t want the responsibility! She was too young and too inexperienced! After a while, I told her to go and talk with Kytalia tomorrow. Kytalia was the wife of the Kahn of the orcs, and she should have had a good management style. Kytalia had been my second choice to be Master of Guilds, but the fact was I j...
2024-04-19 23:26:48 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 34 Dealing with Loss
We rode into Malcum, searching for the disturbance. It was easy to find as the townsfolk gathered near the general store. We dismounted, and Curraen was the one who spoke, “Lord Tallis…A player has slain Gwen.” He held his head low.
Tanguin and Galana appeared, and Galana said, “Lord Tallis, I am sorry I failed you. The player Hellspawn entered the town and was shopping in the general store. Savannah, the elf child, identified him as a player w...
2024-04-19 19:26:44 +0000 UTC
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Below is an edit of Chapter 180 to resolve the Raelia issue and has him taking the Apex Essence from Traeliorn to enhance his aether core. Working on the first Chapter of Book 4...maybe 2 days it will be up
Night descended upon us about halfway from the city. We made our camp in the center of some evergreens and used the thermal stone to cook. The stone was a huge boon as it not only provided heat to cook but also had no smoke or scent of burning wood to attract creatures. Still,...
2024-04-19 18:45:43 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 33: The Daily Grind
Even with the trio zig-zagging, they quickly outpaced the mountain in the distance. I was having a hell of a time. This was much more difficult than attacking from the back of Titan. On Titan’s back, I could outpace the monsters and cast my spells.
Unfortunately, mounts were not allowed in dungeons. At least not this dungeon, anyway. I didn’t like getting hit. The ice elemental foxes had four attacks. Bite with their mouth, claw with their feet, a l...
2024-04-19 02:31:25 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 32 Grinding with Grinder
I was dead? Did that mean my consciousness was all digital? If I was dead, why was I having a panic attack right now? I couldn’t speak or move, and if I had a heart, it would beat faster than a snare drum solo.
“Mate, you alright?” Mad Dog asked.
Grinder followed up, “You still have a body. Just declared legally dead and in a coma with no brain activity. Our friends on the outside did a search. And damn, man, running into a burning bu...
2024-04-19 02:06:44 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 31 Information Dump
With input from Manarag, I drafted a large smithy. It had four anvil workstations with racks for tools at each. Each station had its own forge as well. One station was larger, with more space and storage capacity for the master smith.
Only one smelter was in the building, but that was all Manarag had requested. So I was hoping that Manarag could take on three apprentices, as he already had the orc prisoner. I did my best to make the exterior of th...
2024-04-19 01:34:15 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 181 Castile POV (Epilogue)
Castile observed the departure of legionnaire Eryk and the goliath from the safe room. Her curiosity about how the young legionnaire would kill the earth drake pulled on her to investigate. She considered sending out her all-seeing-eye to follow them, but the extra aether required in the dungeon was best conserved. She was fortunate to have such a hidden power in the company, but keeping the others ignorant was becoming a full-time job.
2024-04-18 21:52:33 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 181 Skyholme is a Newbie Zone
Since I transported the peace delegation, I hadn’t been to Goldreach, the Capital of the Sadian Empire. My two Wolfsguard were behind me in their silvery uniforms that denoted they were part of my household. Palace guards lined the room when I arrived, twelve in total. They all wore unimpressive runic armor to my trained eye.
It was momentarily disorienting to arrive in the unfamiliar location. I had a lot of experience with quickly adapting...
2024-04-17 23:18:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 181 - Body Snatchers
Why was I trying so hard to save the angelic? Guilt. It was my guilt for my role in her plight. Sofiel was no angel when it came to how she treated the orcs she supervised on Mercanious. She was responsible for Vida being sent to Earth and certain death. Yet I considered her redeemable.
Her aether core was an absolute mess. As the gunship started to take off, I tuned out the voices of the crew as they prepared for the long trip. I was also going to the...
2024-04-15 01:42:53 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 8: Captain Callem POV
Captain Callem was up early to walk, weed, and water his fields. He had a lot of pride in working the land after spending his life serving the citizens. He was once Commander Callem, overseeing all the naval training for Skyholme. Under his guidance, the navy had built and crewed more sky ships than ever in its long history. The new administration had since slowed its growth due to bureaucratic hurdles.
The surviva...
2024-04-14 22:02:36 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 7: First Weapons Training
Pascal was up early, and his obnoxiously loud voice was obviously meant to get the entire house up. When our mother called for breakfast, I dressed slowly to annoy him. With all my life experiences, you would think I would be above such petty brotherly antagonism, but no.
“Gareth has been waiting outside for an hour,” Freya whispered to me when I finally got to the table to eat. Well, apparently, Pascal was not th...
2024-04-14 20:09:28 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 6: Unplanned Paths and Limits
Butt naked and lying face down, I was awoken by a pounding on the small door to my room. I moaned a little. My head, shoulder, thigh, back, feet, and chest hurt. The aether core heartburn was working full-time today. I was going to get back at those city bastards. The knocking continued, and I rolled over to see Gareth in my doorway, pounding on the open door.
“You look like a sow after the breeding season,” he said with r...
2024-04-14 19:02:42 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 180:
We descended the towers together, Maveith’s heavy steps echoing up the tower and drawing a specter. The translucent elf appeared to be wearing a leather apron and wielding a hammer. The black spear hummed as I easily slashed the phantasm.
We moved back into the main library. The vast chamber was much more empty than when we arrived. Piles of fragile books lined one wall, but the company had broken apart the majority of the shelves to keep warm weeks ago. We h...
2024-04-13 19:57:07 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 181 is probably going to be the epilogue of book 3. It will be a POV from one of the company as they left the dungeon and escaped the city. I am writing it next Wednesday so vote before then. It is all the same the story thread, just from one of the choices below.
2024-04-13 17:51:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 179: Last Day in Caelora
In the light of the glowstone, it took us a few minutes to identify that one set of tracks looked to be slightly larger. “Backtracking on a trail is much harder than following already laid footfalls,” Maveith intoned softly. He pointed toward the likely path that we moved to follow.
A hundred feet further down the tunnel, the first turn showed signs that someone had been waiting in ambush around a corner. The dust had been...
2024-04-12 23:07:15 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 178 To the Victor Goes the Spoils
The goblin had a bloated belly, drooling in its sleep and blowing grotesque saliva bubbles. I assumed it could finally die happy with a full belly. The goblin had tossed everything out of my pack and scattered it across the room. I thought about killing the small, unsightly creature, but it had saved my life in a manner. It seemed too cruel to kill my benefactor in its sleep. I moved as quietly as possible to reclaim the spear and m...
2024-04-12 02:24:33 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 30: Fast Travel
I woke in the morning with a naked Jaesmin sleeping atop me. A new smell struck me…the smell of lingering sex. The game developers must work overtime with updates but could apply their efforts elsewhere. I was trying to move and not disturb Jaesmin when I saw a familiar feline sitting at the base of the bed.
“Simba, where have you been?” I asked with indifference in my voice. I wouldn’t pine after him if he wanted to show up when he was please...
2024-04-11 19:11:21 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 29 Employee Benefits
The town was waking early this morning. There were people I didn’t recognize, and I found Gwen walking to the general store and asked about the unfamiliar faces. Apparently, we had an influx of 29 people migrating to the town. I checked my interface and was shocked to see that the overall population had jumped to 162. Twenty-eight of the new additions were human, and there was one…centaur?
I looked puzzled at Gwen asking about the centa...
2024-04-11 18:32:27 +0000 UTC
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we got a chart on this one so word doc and pdf
2024-04-11 17:40:26 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 27 Quest Conundrum
The players were excited to explore the Shiverwood forest on behalf of the town. If it was a viable quest location, the information could be sold for profit. They would wait till the game launch, though, as they promised. I saw them off and went to the enchanter’s tower. The enchanter was due tomorrow, and I was just confirming with Sanso and Jaesmin that we were ready to impress.
Sanso and I talked for quite some time about creating a portal stone and...
2024-04-11 17:02:02 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 26 Alchemist
I was so excited to talk to someone from the outside world I had trouble focusing. I didn’t want to seem eager, so I let them go to the inn on their own. I opened my interface and started to work on giving Galana the freedom to offer quests. I was able to focus the quests to revolve around the forest across the river. Harvest animal parts, flora, and goblin bracelets. Apparently, each goblin carried a unique bracelet to fulfill the quest requirements.
With t...
2024-04-11 16:35:31 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 177: Boss Fight
The wails of anger from the mage echoed as I shuffled down the corridor. I fumbled with the cap of the aether potion and sucked down a little more than I had planned in my haste. I immediately returned to directing the aether to heal my injuries.
My head started to clear. The body of the ice drake should slow down the mage. I was shoved hard from behind by multiple impacts. Arcane bolts sizzled into my armor, burning holes and reaching...
2024-04-11 00:26:38 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 176: Run!
The earth drake yielded a major earth essence while Maveith watched the corridor. Maveith helped me drag the long neck of the drake around to face away from the corridor. If someone came by, the drake would look like it was sleeping. The reward chest was much smaller this time, so I was not expecting it to have another spear inside. It rattled with coins as I picked it up and walked it behind the drake.
I shattered the stone chest shielded b...
2024-04-10 04:34:46 +0000 UTC
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