The words shot adrenaline through me like a spike in the heart. I couldn’t feel the pain from the impact and had no idea how bad my injuries were.
All that mattered was keeping whoever it was from getting my satchel.
Just as that thought flew through my mind, the strap tightened against my chest as someone pulled at it from behind. A boot slammed into my stomach in a kick that was more soccer than any sort of martial art.
I grunted, fighting shock as my insides recoiled,...
2022-04-19 23:25:22 +0000 UTC
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Couple points of order. Taking Monday off, as there's a holiday and I've been feeling a little under the weather recently. Normal posting will resume on Tuesday. I've already batch uploaded the chapters for this weekend in case you missed those.
Second, I've heard you guys in terms of chapter length. I think I'm going to still try to do daily, but we'll be bumping minimum chapter length to 1500 words from 1200 starting next week. It was trending upward anyway, but I did get a few ...
2022-04-15 21:53:58 +0000 UTC
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Sara and I spent the next few minutes sharing information before the rest of her people arrived. Many of them were from the same region, so they were able to get a head start on gathering the Illuminating Lux, with several fragments landing fairly close to the receptacle.
“Were you able to gauge approximately how much we’ll need to fill a receptacle?” I asked.
“No.” Sara scowled. “When you place them in the receptacle, they transform into liquid. The first we found n...
2022-04-15 21:40:57 +0000 UTC
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That was unfortunate.
Tyler—and his “Adventurer’s Guild” were the closest thing I’d found to a decent organization. Every other group at the open forum was either disorganized, naive, overly opportunistic, or all three. I didn’t hold any illusions. At this point it was unlikely that any group’s leadership would be barely more than tribal—increasing the likelihood that a regime change after the loss of a leader would change the guild completely, if in-fighting and succe...
2022-04-15 21:39:28 +0000 UTC
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The address was just a few miles off the historic district. Five minutes away from me, if that. I toyed with the idea of simply leaving it. There wasn’t a lot of Lux in that direction, and even if there was, this wasn’t an interaction I could have as Matt, the NPC. Until I had a viable explanation for my sudden transformation into a User, anything that happened would have to occur under an anonymous guise.
Eventually, the closeness of the address and the urgency of Sara...
2022-04-15 21:37:20 +0000 UTC
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Once flat road now dipped downward at an almost 90-degree angle. I barely caught myself in time, wedging a foot into a newly opened fissure and grabbing onto the edge of a curb with my freehand. The <Illuminating Lux> was transparent and radiated bright gold, barely larger than a cue-ball. It nearly slipped between my fingers before I caught it again and tried to force it into my inventory.
<System Notification: Item, Illuminating Lux canno...
2022-04-14 20:59:10 +0000 UTC
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The Overseer stared at the camera. With his mask in place, it was impossible to know for sure, but displeasure seemed to radiate off him at the mere mention of my class. Eventually, he waved a hand. “More on that later. This event will be the first of… many. No two are exactly alike. If you’ll direct your gaze to the heavens.” He pointed a bony finger upwards.
Everyone looked up. Only a few of the indigo comets were still visible, still heading in distinctly differe...
2022-04-13 21:54:24 +0000 UTC
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It took barely more than a glance to realize what they were all staring at. The sun was gone, what should have been a clear blue late-afternoon now appeared to be evening—only the stratosphere was dyed mud red, instead of dark blue. Talia had stopped at the stairway behind me and peered out.
“Store me, the way you stored the plant.” Talia commanded. Her voice was tinged with worry.
“You recognize it.” I realized.
“The sky is reminiscent of my home.”
“...
2022-04-12 21:48:43 +0000 UTC
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That’s the problem with loneliness, isn’t it?
It’s always miserable in the beginning. Then days stretch into weeks, into months, into years. You learn little tricks to cope. Stay busy. Distance yourself from anyone that might crack the surface. Dehumanize anyone who gets close, view them as nothing more than resources and avenues for potential gain. When you stop relying on others, you’ll eventually find that you’re forced to rely on yourself.
There is nothi...
2022-04-12 00:04:34 +0000 UTC
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“Wait!” Gray-hair called out to someone behind me.
I looked back, just in time to watch Sae disappear back through the entrance to the trial. I clenched my fist in frustration for just a moment, then released it. How long had it been? Gray-hair held a hand up and snapped his fingers, pointing to the doorway. A slim man in a tightly fitting suit stepped around Nick, who still held Jinny in his arms.
He squinted at the doorway, reaching up to adjust his horn-rimmed ...
2022-04-08 23:58:50 +0000 UTC
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Floodlights blinded me. My eyes barely adjusted before I heard Jinny scream. There were twelve figures waiting outside the trial for us, all arranged in a half circle. On the left and right edges were a bow and crossbow User respectively. Buzzcut and Daphne took up the center.
Talia was unconscious on the ground in a heap, a single bearded man in heavy plate with a knife poised over her, looking up at us like a deer in the headlights.
“Nobody fucking move—“ I hissed throug...
2022-04-08 23:56:46 +0000 UTC
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We’d paused at the elevator, leaving the disgusting and decidedly eerie boss chamber behind. No one wanted to wait to level up. Probably for the best, just in case anything happened on our way out.
Unable to help myself, I’d pulled up the boon’s description again.
<Ordinator’s Implements: A boon tailored to the Alternative Branch Ordinator. This passive ability allows the Ordinator to store Monster Summons externally, disguised as tools or weapons, and bring t...
2022-04-08 23:52:01 +0000 UTC
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Nick’s sword carved clear through the Matriarch’s neck. The blow decapitated her and split her carapace open, revealing the brightly colored guts that spilled out into the water in a sickening series of plops. A rank smell released into the chamber, and Nick stepped back, covering his face with his forearm.
Sae cringed, crinkling her nose. “That is foul.”
“Uh, Nick? I thought you were going to give her the option to surrender.” Jinny said. She didn’t look particula...
2022-04-07 22:51:44 +0000 UTC
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I returned to the spider, noting the locations of various gas traps and pitfalls at the entrance. They were subtle and flush with the chitin wall, but not perfect. For the gas traps, there was a small metal cylinder that caught light, giving it the appearance of a gun barrel inlaid into the wall. The triggering mechanism for the pitfalls was a small square protrusion that emerged no longer than a millimeter from the floor.
Compared to the first floor lobby of the adaptive dungeon, the...
2022-04-05 23:11:46 +0000 UTC
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<Harrowing Anticipation: Just as a common spider senses movement through vibrations in their web, you may tap into the weaves of mana that bind together the many realities and sub-realities of Flauros. This ability will only function in areas where the seeds of Flauros have already taken root. Cost: Gifted by Envoy. Cooldown: Two hours.>
The web around my torso loosened. I dropped a small distance and managed to land on my upright, wobbling on m...
2022-04-04 23:15:53 +0000 UTC
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My blood ran cold. There had never been any mention of penalties for friendly fire, but since we entered the Trial as a team, the system might have certain limiters in place to prevent team killing. The fact that it was now directly referencing that had to be intentional. I had the secondary objective to keep the team alive, there was no way it would pit us against each other.
Unless it wasn’t setting out to pit “us,” against each other. Just me, against them.
The elevator...
2022-04-02 23:19:59 +0000 UTC
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Jinny crumbled. She breathed out shakily, then back in, her eyes glassy and moist. For a moment, the decorative robes and bulbous wand faded away and all I saw was the scared person beneath it all. Only, unlike me, she wasn’t scared of the system killing her or putting her in a situation she couldn’t handle. Jinny was scared of something else. She looked to the side and ran the sleeve of her robe across her face.
Talia pressed her head into Jinny’s side, and glared at me as if I...
2022-04-02 23:18:22 +0000 UTC
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I’ve said before that predicting someone’s behavior is easy. That you start by assuming the worst, and raise your expectations slightly until you have something more realistic. That of all the base instincts and baser desires, selfishness is the most common motivator.
And I stand by that. All of it.
But sometimes, people surprise you.
It was a moment that lasted a lifetime. Stretching out long enough that I had time to mentally sort through my entire inventory, my abil...
2022-03-30 21:55:13 +0000 UTC
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<Born Nihilist> calculated something in the back of my head for me. Judging from the number of footsteps, there were either three arachnids at best, or twelve bipeds at worst. For the first time in my life, I was hoping for spiders.
What kind of messed up situation has you hoping for spiders?
This was life or death. There was no time to be coy.
“Get ready to cast slow and use the doorway as a chokepoint.” I shouted, glancing behind me to...
2022-03-30 21:53:35 +0000 UTC
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This was bad fucking news. You didn’t need extensive game knowledge to piece together that splitting the party seldom went well. Granted, this particular section of the Trial was designed for it, so the chances of us running into an encounter designed for four people was unlikely. Still, in my experience, the system didn’t really give a shit about fairness. Maybe it wouldn’t throw us into a situation with impossible odds, but I had a feeling it would happily destroy us if we split up im...
2022-03-29 21:50:24 +0000 UTC
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Other than the two-to-three hundred selve sprinkled around the circular portion like set dressing, there was far more in a handful of wooden boxes. The total came to around six-thousand, a surprisingly decent haul for so early in the trial.
The gear was far more interesting. There was a <Wand of a Thousand Cuts> that went to Jinny. Along with a fifteen percent cast speed bonus, it dealt half of the damage of the spell as melee to any target within five feet with...
2022-03-28 12:40:10 +0000 UTC
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Three violet shards of crystal flew by my head. All three of them thwipped into the Swordsman’s torso, while a gout of flame emitting from Jinny’s hand held the other at bay. I had to smile at the sheer devastation of it. Another three shards ripped into the swordsman’s torso, all equally spaced, in what was probably an attempt to get as much coverage as possible in hopes of destroying hivemind hiding within.
Fully confident Jinny could handle herself, I left her ther...
2022-03-28 12:38:24 +0000 UTC
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Imagine, for a moment, waking deep underwater. The salt stings your eyes. Your lungs burn, little bubbles of oxygen tickling your nose as they slowly trickle out. You struggle, try to fight your way to the surface, as the burning grows more pronounced, more unbearable. Your lungs convulse, pulling desperately for air against tightly drawn lips that slowly loosen. Until you finally breathe, water rushing in to silence you.
But it’s not over. Because you reach the surface. And now, wi...
2022-03-28 12:37:00 +0000 UTC
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The screeching feedback was almost enough to send the rage bubbling beneath <Born Nihilist> soaring to the surface. I ducked my head, grimacing, trying desperately to stay focused and keep my place behind Nick.
I reached out and placed my off-hand on his back, using him for balance as we pushed across the bridge. There was a flash of motion, followed by a cold sting. Something warm trickled down my face.
They’re shooting at us
A projectile...
2022-03-28 12:35:55 +0000 UTC
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It took some convincing. I tried to be patient, reminding myself that the others had never experienced a dungeon. In the end, everyone agreed to leave the more obvious door alone.
But that still left us with two options. One set of holes corresponding with the arms, one with the feet.
Four arms to fight, feed, and rend.
Four legs to skitter.
I frowned. “So, if I’m reading this correctly, the passage corresponding with the arms will likely involv...
2022-03-28 12:34:36 +0000 UTC
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The interior was entirely different from what the door implied. It wasn’t grand and palace like, or strangely modern, as the adaptive dungeon had been. The walls were a washed out gray, incrementally textured in a pattern that seemed familiar. The floor was covered with liquid slightly too viscous to be water, black, aside from the reflection of green torches.
As Nick moved forward cautiously through the tight hallway, I reached out to touch the wall.
It was all I c...
2022-03-28 12:32:44 +0000 UTC
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Nick held his sword out to Sae. Her hands glowed, and a creeping layer of slick green covered his blade.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Talia warned, holding completely still. Her voice was guttural, but somehow, distinctly feminine. I wondered what the others thought of her. The wolf’s appearance was typically intimidating on account of her size, deep furrowed brows, and silver eyes that appeared to see everything.
But to my surprise, she seemed to be suppressing some...
2022-03-28 12:31:29 +0000 UTC
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The darkness was cloying. I wasn’t certain if it was an aspect of my new armor, or if it was really just that dark. Even the flashlights, big and heavy enough to double as a vicious club, barely gave us enough illumination to see more than twenty or thirty feet ahead. The ground was a treacherous mix of concrete debris, gravel, and rocks.
And beneath our crunching footsteps was a litany of other sounds. Squeaks, skitters, and the occasional flapping of wings. The hair on my...
2022-03-28 12:30:30 +0000 UTC
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AN: Pushing pretty hard to get the backlog up to 20. Built up around four extra that I haven't posted yet. Going deep in the writers room for the weekend, so no chapter tomorrow, but if all goes well, you folks at the Violet tier should be getting an 8 chapter drop by late Sunday evening.
Jinny
Level 5 Magus
And that was where everything went off the rails.
There was so much wrong with her sheet, I could barely mentally catalog...
2022-03-26 01:33:52 +0000 UTC
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<Due to a unique feat interaction, you may assimilate class-specific feats from an established identity on Level Up. Assimilated feats may not make up more than 25% of an Ordinator’s build. Any assimilated feat will work with reduced effectiveness compared to the original, though this reduction is not as significant as the reduced effectiveness of emulated skills.>
The description floored me. My main concern with building up a User identity was a long...
2022-03-24 18:07:24 +0000 UTC
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