Shayna died.
At some point, she tried to use the mana she was sneakily collecting in her body. She used it to create a projectile, the same one she used to kill that fire mage lurker. Extremely durable, yet nearly invisible. A much better version of what Brainiac is using.
I still consider it crazy that she was able to create it without me sensing it and while being under my interrogation. I have gained some valuable information about Beyond, the guilds, and the 1st floor, but I w...
2024-08-13 08:25:59 +0000 UTC
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Have our precious group of traitors been trying to reach this palace? Hurrying, desperate to find it. Either scared someone will find it before them or that the corpses will turn into lurkers, which would probably make it impossible for them to deal with? They might be dead, but seeing the equipment, they used to be powerful, something a group like Eugan's would have no chance to deal with.
The last point is that they might not know how long the corpses have been lying there since they ...
2024-08-12 08:29:27 +0000 UTC
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"Calm your heart and do not move," I whisper to Shayna, both of us are in a hole deep underground where I teleported us.
"It's not that easy."
No matter how hard she tries, I can sense it, and if I sense it, there is a chance that presence will sense it as well.
"Shayna, you either calm that heart down, or I will give you back your shards and send you back to the surface."
I haven't seen that presence so far, but I felt it. Even from a big distance, it sensed my kineti...
2024-08-11 08:17:25 +0000 UTC
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The first floor so far shows no other danger than lurkers.
Sure, the gravity here is much stronger than on the other floors in Hell difficulty, requiring constant use of kinetic energy from me. Higher physical stats could probably deal with it easily, but that would mean less mana.
We can't have that.
The same as on the surface, there is also a pull on me that tries to steal my mana and send it into the ground below me. So far, my Mantle deals with that quite easily, and it ...
2024-08-08 08:07:18 +0000 UTC
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Using my anchor again, I teleport to Shayna, who stands there breathlessly, not flying anymore. She holds her arm that is burned, and her barriers flicker around her.
Constantly sending disrupting waves toward the fire mana, she does it with great timing. The flames explode into the area and light up the place, now full of flames burning all around.
I stop myself from helping and watch as a reanimated corpse of an attendee pulls all these flames towards him, compressing them into ...
2024-08-07 08:19:50 +0000 UTC
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Eugan leads me, Shayna, Roculus, and Rat to the side. Currently, most of the expedition is already here, in a small clearing with a few trees near the edge of the outpost. Further away, there is a path heading towards the entrance to the first floor.
“Did you check your contracts?” she asks.
“Yes, I have a question. What the fuck does ‘Loot will be split according to performance’ mean?” Roculus asks.
“As it says. When it’s all done, we will sit down and split...
2024-08-06 08:13:31 +0000 UTC
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I use my remaining time here very smartly by annoying every crafter I meet and trying to get as much free information as I can.
My D-rank Obsidian Black identification emblem is nothing impressive here, but having a damaged arcane axe helps. Some crafters seem to be intrigued by it.
I have on me mana stones with Lissandra’s three mana exercises, improvements on mana cycling, and a Restrictive Training Emblem. I'm sure they are worth a lot.
Like, a lot a lot.
So they ...
2024-08-05 08:15:07 +0000 UTC
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How to clear the 1st floor is something I still don't know - the information is considered one of the more valuable ones. That kind of info you can also learn the deeper you get into that floor.
For now, I don't bother myself with it that much. My intention is just to experience the floor, to see how it compares to Hell difficulty. I also really hope to see other attendees in action.
These people should all be at the level of Tess, Savant, Lily, Tacita, and Gareth. There is a lot ...
2024-08-04 08:24:00 +0000 UTC
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I have gained as much as I could from Duncan, and he even pointed me to an area where people often look for expedition members.
Such things usually happen to smaller guilds, as bigger ones mostly form groups of their own members. They also have ways to communicate with each other in case they need a member from some highly specialized guild, for example, a healer.
The information I got from Duncan is a lot, and I’m still sorting it out in my mind. Things about rankings, a bit mo...
2024-08-01 08:16:50 +0000 UTC
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Duncan puts away the items I bought for him according to his requirements and turns back to me. We sit opposite each other with a table in between us. It's a small but cozy-looking restaurant-like place owned by one of the locals.
The prices are scarily high, so I just order the cheapest drink and take some food from my bag and nom on it while we wait for Duncan's order.
“Damn, I haven't eaten for a day,” he says in between bites he takes of some meat that I fail to identify. ...
2024-07-31 08:08:59 +0000 UTC
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The Entrance floor of the Beyond is massive and full of people. So far I have seen humans, lynthari, demons, and smaller humans with scaly legs; I don't know the name of their race.
And there are many more, all kinds of races. Some man with wings on his back, another one with hair that keeps glowing and floating around their head, a man twice as tall as me, and more. Sitting on the ground with my back against the wall of a nearby building and out of the way, I observe them moving all ar...
2024-07-30 07:50:10 +0000 UTC
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Okay, I'm getting more and more curious about what waits in Beyond.
Before I can turn around and level up a bit more, now that the King of the Forest is dead, I get sent away from the trial. Obviously, the system wouldn't let it pass.
Stepping out to the bleak wastes of the Astral Prison, I sense some weaker monsters nearby and release my mana a bit, which scares them off. Their level is low anyway and I want to think. But before that, I send a message.
Noname (Hell,...
2024-07-29 08:18:34 +0000 UTC
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Beyond's 3rd trial is dangerous, very much so. There are powerful monsters constantly attacking me, the king of the forest somewhere around - probably an even more dangerous opponent. Some attacks are a surprise to me even now, and plenty of monsters attack on the ground.
Even so, for me, it's something akin to formality.
I know the system most likely adapted the trial for me as the previous ones, but after all of the training with Lissandra and the increase in my strength, I don'...
2024-07-28 08:32:44 +0000 UTC
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As always, only more questions come to mind. The Beyond trial rewards were always very generous, so being able to enter Beyond for 3 days as a reward is weird. What kind of place is Beyond?
I let kinetic energy flood my body and boost my movement as I jump on the tree and then higher and higher until I land on the top.
The jungle stretches on seemingly forever, and there is nothing else but the forest as far as I can see. No mountains, no lakes, no sea. Just the never-ending fores...
2024-07-25 07:29:55 +0000 UTC
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POV Black Tower
Something moves on the edge of our detection web and I quickly send a signal to the headquarters and reposition to another balcony with stronger defenses. Mieru already waits there.
“What did you see?” he asks me quickly.
“I don't know yet, but headquarters already knows.”
After a while, a signal comes back with a declaration of danger level 5, the lowest one. It seems they think it might be a monster.
“Did you get scare...
2024-07-24 08:41:30 +0000 UTC
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“Good, so Elydor, will you come with me or do I have to make you?” he asks threateningly.
He even releases a lot of heat close to him. Something like Isabella's blue flames but with a hint of white in the center.
It's not bad at all. Laughable after what I just went through, but not bad. He even seems to have a trait or two that support his flames.
Curious about where it will take me, I answer, “I will come with you.”
“Good, give me the bone you got out first...
2024-07-23 08:20:38 +0000 UTC
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On me I don't have that many items, most of them left in the hidey hole deep underground, just the most valuable ones are on me. For example, the stones left by Lissandra. As I fly, I'm studying the improvements to Mana Cycling she left on one of them. At the same time, I also do the mana exercises she showed me, focusing on the evil orb that I'm currently practicing.
I thought of triggering the mana stone that would give me a Restrictive Training Emblem but knowing the cockroach queen ...
2024-07-22 08:25:43 +0000 UTC
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I appear on the 6th floor with my arms still missing and a few more unhealed wounds. All of them are slowly taken care of with the help of my passive.
The place I am at is the exact place where I left from, meaning group 4 members are somewhere far away together with that silly healer. It will probably take a few days to get them.
Too tired to deal with this sort of stuff, I send my domain as deep under the surface as possible, and there I find a hidey hole we made for our items. ...
2024-07-21 08:22:33 +0000 UTC
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The ax in my hand radiates even more thermal energy as I swing it, adding to the heatwave that fills the room. All that heat doesn't bother me anymore, but it surrounds Lissandra, who now radiates mana around her body. Most likely just the amount she got from Myrra before coming here.
That mana around her isn't even that much, yet it interacts with the heat in the room in such a way that it drastically reduces the effect on Lissandra.
It looks just like a tiny flame refusing to be...
2024-07-18 08:42:05 +0000 UTC
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Well, the body upgrade is as expected. Nothing extra, but nice additions. As with the previous upgrade, the changes seem to be applied over time, so it will most likely take a few days at least.
To test it, I let my mana flood my body, but as before, it starts accumulating damage right away. There might be a tiny difference in the degree of damage caused, but that's it. I'm curious if the fully applied upgrade will change that, at least a bit.
In the end, it seems like I still hav...
2024-07-17 08:13:13 +0000 UTC
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The doors open and the heat that hits me is stronger than before. The hallway outside the room starts to have its walls heated up and a thin layer of its surface starts melting. Unlike the inside of the huge room, the outside seems to be made from a different material.
Detecting that the doors start closing I slip inside and look at the view in front of me.
It's a massive room. I don't even know if I can call it a room. Some time ago on Earth, I saw a documentary about Tokyo flood...
2024-07-16 08:24:01 +0000 UTC
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As I stop to endure another heatwave and wait for Heatseekers to pop out, I think.
The heatwaves keep coming with a certain frequency. Three times in the span of 5 minutes, five-minute pause, another heatwave, thirty-minute pause, another heatwave, 15 minutes, heatwave, 10 minutes, heatwave, one minute, heatwave, thirty minutes again, and 3 heatwaves in the span of 5 minutes.
This is what I grasped so far and I'm currently in the process of confirming it and getting more exact tim...
2024-07-15 08:14:07 +0000 UTC
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The door into the armory is extremely thick, and the entrance is an unassuming hallway that opens into a wide room.
Of course, I was smart enough not to power up this section, so there are no defenses other than the material the door and room are made from.
While I think of it, I add another evil mana orb so I don’t become lazy, and when I feel blood dripping from my nose, I send thermal energy through my body to deal with it.
Unsure how to deal with the door, I take therm...
2024-07-14 08:20:18 +0000 UTC
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While I work on the door, the heatwave hits me three times, forcing me during these few minutes to focus on defending against it. After it's gone, the “code” of the door changes, and I have to start over again.
With each attempt I make, I am getting quicker at it, so it's only a matter of time before I unlock it before the heatwave hits.
What's nice is that during the heatwave, more Heatseekers start appearing. The centipede-like creatures with human faces die to my concentrat...
2024-07-11 08:22:45 +0000 UTC
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One hour into my exploration of this station and the deeper I am the hotter the air becomes. At this point, I notice the inscriptions that are somewhere within the huge plates of metal this place is made of. They run through the entire pyramid, absorbing the heat from outside and sending it somewhere inside.
Of course, I use my thermal energy to track where it heads.
Sometimes I have to track back as I reach the end of a tunnel, but so far it's fine and my steps continue to echo a...
2024-07-10 08:19:00 +0000 UTC
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At one-third of the way to the top of the pyramid, I make Myrra stop. Then, while keeping my mana in check, I send my senses further from the Veil Ignition Station.
As I thought, the temperature there is dropping rapidly. It’s not because of the weather; no, the pyramid is absorbing it all at a scary rate and from a huge area. All that heat is absorbed by the metal and sent somewhere inside, part of it radiating from the surface.
The drop in temperature is so huge I’m sure I w...
2024-07-09 08:00:43 +0000 UTC
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Veil Ignition Station called Cinder, is a pyramid made of metal. Up close it doesn't have a perfectly smooth surface as it looked from a distance, probably due to its sheer size.
The pyramid is made of a combination of silver and gray metals, and an orange-ish vein of different material passes through its surface.
There are huge entrances all over it, and the external surface has some terraces. Each of them is massive, and higher up, I can see some wooden or stone houses built on ...
2024-07-08 08:15:08 +0000 UTC
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A day passes, and during that time no one said a word. The training didn’t stop even then.
I was forced to move under weaker Burden Enhancement Inscriptions. I fought the monsters attacking us on the way, the ever-strengthening Veil in the sky spewing more and more monsters around.
Veil Guardians are the norm at this point, something I even welcome as I can sell the voidsteel blades.
There is no rest for me, and instead of three hours of variety training, I fight more. My ...
2024-07-07 08:14:43 +0000 UTC
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Sset - You didn't join yesterday at the scheduled time.
Noname - I was in the middle of training. Will tell you all when we meet again.
Sset - Sure, as for us, we already located the Black Tower. It will take us a few days to get there.
Noname - Planning to go in already?
Sset - I will see. We need a bit more information. The twins are ...
2024-07-04 08:04:47 +0000 UTC
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In the end, I healed enough to not have to be carried in a princess carry, something Niall hinted at with a smirk. After opening the door and passing me onto the Solar Ascendant guy, Niall leaves somewhere.
Passing through the tunnel full of greenery, we walk slowly. The man probably sees my still far-from-perfect state and walks slower.
I notice that he is smiling for some reason and is nice to me. Should I tell him I'm not into men?
“It’s been a long time since I saw L...
2024-07-03 08:23:41 +0000 UTC
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