farawaymuse

57 - Notice

Bastion Commander Lyra Sinclair rubbed her forehead as she looked at the various reports scattered across her desk. In the best of cases, the city of Wastehaven was a tumultuous place, but the past week had been chaotic even by those standards.

A person would think that by the title of Bastion Commander that Lyra’s duties would include mostly defensive matters, but that was far from the truth. Administrative and political tasks took up easily as much, or more, time as organizing troop...

56 - Halfdragon

“You did?” Aylin asked. “Huh. Can I ask how it works?”

Sable hummed as she considered whether she wanted to share the details. Honestly, she was still chewing over them herself.

***

[Halfdragon Form] - Transform into a humanoid form. Reduce HP by 90%. Reduce all stats by 50%. Reduce MP by 50%. Improve spell dexterity by 50%.

***

The skill came with a shocking amount of detriments. On reflection, it made some sort of sense that replacing her gigantic, impe...

55 - Recover

By the time Sable made it back to her hoard, she was nine-tenths dead—and her HP agreed with her on that fact. It was more of a controlled crash-landing to set down onto the small island in the middle of Lake Plateglass, and after dragging herself onto her meager pile of treasure, the warm glow of [Recuperate] acting as an instant salve to her soul, feverish sleep claimed her almost immediately.

***

She clawed her way out of a fugue-like state some indeterminate time later, her ...

54 - Mental Clash

It was nothing like her previous times using [Dominate], and maybe Sable should have expected that. Her entire consciousness ignited, and the black-essence avatar fell to the ground, shrieking—putting on a display of exactly how Sable felt, even if she’d been locked in place and struck silent from her own pain, rather than writhing and thrashing.

Inside the bubble of shadows, the cultist likewise screamed.

The pressure inside her skull mounted as two wills clashed. Using [Domi...

53 - Lesser Aspect

Sable’s thoughts raced as she ran through her options. Thankfully, she was full on both health and mana from her recuperation over the past days.

But could she fight this thing? Not only did it radiate a profound wrongness, but the abomination the cultist had summoned was powerful enough she couldn’t even detect its level. Was that because it was that much stronger, or some other reason?

[Predator’s Insight] also didn’t provide much, besides screaming tha...

52 - Retaliation

The tension in the air was palpable as the two parties eyed each other. Sable saw no reason to delay, so through Aylin, she opened the dialogue for Verindale’s surrender. She had no great hopes on how it would go, but she would still try.

[I see the Rustspike Tribe has gathered what remains of their forces,] Sable began, taking an amused tone. While the goal wasn’t to goad them into what she was already sure would be happening, she also needed to make it abundantly clear how little ...

51 - Resistance

There were two key Rustspike cities Sable needed to secure in preparation for the encroaching Nightshade and Stonegrin forces: Verindale and Aurumreach.

Both were cities close enough to be key invasion targets by their opponents, and also large and significant enough that they’d give a real foothold in the surrounding area—at least by the standards of goblin warfare. Obviously, hunkered down in a city or not, Sable would be able to demolish the defenses of wherever she visited. But ...

50 - Hunger

Look, it wasn’t Nexr’s fault the city of Gadenrock had been condemned to consumption by primordial deity.

Sure, he’d pushed far beyond the agreed upon plan, and most certainly had already decided to betray Chieftain Gore and the rest of the Rustspike Tribe, but that said, he wasn’t the reason everything had gone so catastrophically wrong. Why Lady Xenaya had been unleashed in full, and the city consumed down to the smallest living organism.

No. It wasn’t his fau...

49 - Return

Sable had known she might need to involve herself directly during this mission. Still, as she flew back to Skatikk with her passengers in tow, she chewed over the events of the last minute.

She’d been ready to fight enemy classed, even to the point of lethality. The subject had been something she’d spent significant time considering. Not only that, the classed of Bragghaven had been the aggressors in this situation; they’d attacked Quil’s team and captured her for unknown reason...

48 - Burst

Vex, at least, seemed to have been ready for something of the sorts. As a ranger, an agility-based class, he was well equipped to dodge an unexpected attack. Ducking down and letting the impromptu weapon sear past where his skull had a second ago been, Vex tensed, then followed up. He crashed into Quil’s stomach in a tackle, throwing the two of them into the floor.

Quil hit hard, the goblin woman slamming into stone hard enough to crack it. Aylin’s eyes widened at the brutality of t...

47 - Prison Break

To Aylin’s delight, Lady Sable didn’t forbid her from aiding in the prison break. She’d half expected it, seeing how reticent her mistress was from sending her into potentially lethal situations. That she’d been let into the tier two dungeon had also been a surprise. It was a shame Lady Sable didn’t have a real diplomat; Aylin would much rather be her warrior than her eyes, mouth, and ears.

The city of Bragghaven came into sight. It was smaller than Skatikk, being only a large...

46 - Bragghaven

Aylin watched the subsequent fights with as much fascination as the first. Maybe she couldn’t make full sense of them, but they were a wonder regardless. Shadows of her future, assuming she didn’t screw up and get kicked out of Lady Sable’s service.

Gritzn guided the group through the mist-filled halls of the dungeon, seeking out Quil and her missing team. With a divination mage to aid them, they made quick progress, turning here and there, descending when appropriate, and likely ...

45 - Dungeon

The Labyrinth of Lost Echoes looked more like a traditional dungeon than The Dark Cellar. Aylin could tell that just from the entrance. Each step down the weathered stone brick stairwell had the air growing heavy and stale. Intricate carvings adorned the walls, swirling alongside them and glowing faint blue.

She, Granite, and Gritzn trailed behind the three seasoned warriors Skatikk had sent along. This being a second tier dungeon, even Granite didn’t belong here. Aylin had seen what ...

44 - Rescue Mission

Sable hadn’t expected the war council to end with her receiving a rescue mission, but she supposed she didn’t mind.

Offering to save a group of missing people wasn’t the best from the perspective of earning a tyrannical reputation, but at the same time, Sable thought she had framed herself and her motivations well. So long as she could represent her actions as being personally beneficial, she could get away with most things.

The team was put together in short order. Since Sa...

43 - War Council

“We all know why we’re here,” Chieftain Kirak said. “But before we start, we of course pay respect to the Great Tyrant.”

The old goblin stood and bowed. In a surprisingly coordinated display, even disconcerting to an extent, a collection of chairs scraped back, and the rest of the gathered leadership did the same.

Sable appreciated it. She swept a look across so many individuals paying tribute to her natural dominance, and a warm glow suffused her. They held the...

42 - Predator's Insight

Earlier, Sable had denied Aylin from entering a dungeon. As a woman fresh to her class, and clearly somewhat reckless, she hadn’t wanted the risk. But with Granite there to back her up, and Aylin having had some practice, Sable knew she needed to let go of that sentimentality. Their future simply wouldn’t allow for it, as she’d been coming to terms with in the past day.

Setting them down in front of The Dark Cellar, that same dungeon she and Aylin had first ventured, Sable said, [...

41 - Titles

Continuing her prodigious pace—much, much faster than Aylin had suggested regular people could—Sable gained one more level before her hunts for the day ended. Surely her progression would slow at some point, but for now, she blazed forward.

***

[Path: [Frostfire Sorceress] advanced from Level 7 to Level 8.]

[Skill gained: [Dominator’s Blessing]]

***

***

[Dominator’s Blessing] - Assign a title, and grant appropriate bonuses, to a member of your Thral...

40 - Quandary of the Tyrant

During the flight back to the Fang Hollows, something unexpected happened.

***

Notoriety: Progressed from OBSCURE to RISING.

***

Sable’s first reaction was, of course, excitement—another boost to her experience gain helped nearly every aspect of her future plans.

The emotion shortly snapped the other way: worry. She didn’t want her notoriety raising too fast. It was a far more dangerous stat than her hoard. The more people who knew about her—and ...

39 - Adventuring Companion

Sable observed the gray-and-orange scaled wyrm. She’d managed to not hurt it too badly before crushing its mind, but her [Dominate] skill required some roughing up, so neither had the creature gotten off scot-free.

[Mistress,] Ignisfang said, bowing his head and wiggling in supplication on the floor. [I thank you for sparing me. This one is not worthy of such mercy.]

Sable tilted her head, intrigued and caught off guard. Based on that sentence alone, this one sounded mo...

38 - The Fang Hollows

Cutting out mineral hearts from orecruncher corpses wasn’t the most pleasant of tasks. Their bodies at least yielded to her sharp claws without difficulty. Lugging the objects back was a short, unbothersome trip. The hearts were much smaller than the hivemother’s, though not negligible in size, else Sable would have left them. On average, they were around a third the length of her claw.

Which, on reflection, wasn’t a great measurement standard to use, seeing how she was growing co...

37 - Hoard III

Lugging what might be a literal ton of treasure across dozens or hundreds of miles was a bit unpleasant. The weight wasn’t so cumbersome she couldn’t handle it, but the imbalance of the load made carrying it awkward, and picking up speed difficult. More than that, ensuring the thick canvas didn’t slip from her claws, or the package otherwise spill open and coins, armor, and jewelry to go raining to the ground, meant she had to take things slow.

That said, it was hardly an impossib...

36 - Tribute

Sable finished the day up with some hunting, then returned to her hoard for a long night’s rest. Like usual, [Recuperate] did wonders for her health and mana. Not as much as she’d prefer, since her hoard was still so meager, but enough to put her above the half-way point in mana, and to mostly top off her health again.

With that safety net returned, Sable wanted to actually benefit from having taken over Skatikk. So far, the city had been hers in name only. Yesterday and th...

35 - Enchant

***

Note: In an effort to increase the Patreon chapter backlog, I'll be trying to post bonus chapters each Sunday. Iron rank (5$ tier) will get a bonus unlock every other Sunday, so it stays around half the chapter count of Silver tier.

***

Since Sable was low on mana, she couldn’t train as extensively as she wanted. Fortunately, even low-mana applications of her abilities provided practice in the form of raw mechanical ability. There was a difference in handling a large a...

34 - Delivery

Sable woke feeling much better.

After languidly stretching her limbs out, and a big yawn, she checked in on her health. As expected, where she had fallen to less than one-third, she was now comfortably hovering near the two-third point. [Recuperate] was much better at healing her physically than … magically? Mana-ly? Whatever the word was, there.

Even accounting for the fact that the ability scaled on the size of her hoard, a several-hour nap had brought her back into f...

33 - Debate

Sable rested on her haunches, panting and exhausted, as she considered her newest skill—and basked in her triumph over her enemy. It was satisfying enough having taken the enormous creature down from a visceral standpoint, but punctuated by a level up, and an intriguing new ability? It was intoxicating. A thick, heady emotion.

***

[Arcana Specialty - Enchant] - Gain 100% potency on spells with a key-rune of enchant.

***

The skill description was the same as her frost...

32 - Boss Fight

The first thing Sable did, stirring to consciousness underneath a rising sun, was check her mana.

[ HP: 27,419 / 27,419 ]

[ MP: 1,459 / 1901 ]

Not fully recovered.

At the same time, what she’d regained was a massive improvement from her passive mana generation. And truthfully, Sable hadn’t expected a best-case result. Did anyone? She respected, in a way, the bright-eyed optimists—it beat the cynics—but that didn’t mean she counted herself as one. Somewhere in...

31 - Clearing Out

There was no better way to learn than by doing. And with such an abundance of targets, Sable got plenty of opportunity for 'doing’.

Too much, really. Mana preservation became a priority. Doubly so because she couldn’t afford to run out. Regeneration came painfully slow, even with her wisdom stat less constrained by her hoard debuff. She wanted to stay at least a third-full in case she had to tap into her reserves for an emergency—and that didn’t include the [Orecruncher Hivemoth...

30 - Novice Mage

She set down on the outskirts of the quarry. Her brief overview had indicated that the smallest of the orecrunchers—the ‘lessers’, as seemed to be the recurring naming trend for monsters—hovered closest to the natural entrance to the enormous quarry, the long slope down. Likewise, the strongest, the ‘greater orecrunchers’, resided near the back, chewing on the stone and ore deepest embedded into the earth.

The strongest had claimed the best food, with the weak ones left to s...

29 - Orecrunchers

The hours dragged on, and Sable developed a bare understanding of how to cast spells.

As it turned out, in a similar manner to swinging a sword around, earning basic capabilities wasn’t hard. In a sword’s case, all you had to do was stick the pointy end into the enemy. For spell casting, copy a template to the best of your ability, then apply liberal amounts of mana. Inelegant, but it did work.

Though, that description was simplifying, slightly. Spellcasting ...

28 - Practice

It turned out shaping the raw, primordial essence of magic wasn’t the simplest task. No walk in the park.

Even getting started took more effort than Sable expected. Unlike her first fumbling attempts in the snowy peaks, freshly reborn, she had a tutor now, so she made progress—but it came slowly.

Roman had said spells began with a key-rune, but really, they began with drawing mana. Exactly as she’d said, unlike a [Warrior] class or something similar, a [Mage]—of w...