Chapter 20
What Causes the Rifts?
We sat in the darkened vehicle, waiting for Auntie and Ceecee to come back. After the monolith, there needed to be a discussion, apparently. And this planet had never heard of child deaths from overheating in a vehicle.
Then again, this planet might have been so backwards that they thought if a child was incapable of surviving in such a condition, then they weren’t worth the effort of raising to completion. I didn’t know for certain, but...
2025-04-15 02:53:28 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 78
Awakening (Part I)
Badump, pump, tis.
Frank first felt his body, its natural rhythms, its movements first. The process was odd, almost clinical. He watched his heartbeat, his chest rise and fall with each breath, and his dual circulation routes going in near perfect rhythm with each other, each polarizing circuit pumping endlessly, while forcing an equal but opposite reaction in his other cultivation pathways.
For a moment, he thought he could also ...
2025-04-14 01:16:16 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 19
Whining Like A Boy
Pain.
Indescribable pain coursed through my hand and by extension my entire body. It felt like I was getting a tattoo performed on my body by an easy bake oven light that had been set to hundreds of degrees too high.
I tried to pull my hand away, but I couldn’t. It was as if electricity was coursing through my body, locking my body into place, all while I was being tortured.
The effect of this light was almost instantaneou...
2025-04-11 09:08:06 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 18
The Magic Monolith
(Two Months, and Eight Lower Rift Runs Later)
We followed the routine.
One rift, a week off to recuperate and let the energy expand in our growing bodies as needed, then rinse and repeat.
As with any plan to scale back that is met and basically funded by various factions with political agendas there were drawbacks and conditions.
In this particular case, the drawback was that not only did Lady Jaupry’s family doctor s...
2025-04-09 17:33:57 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 331
Can You Give Me A Hand?
(Valeria)
Watching her Master work was truly a sight to behold. Ruthless dedication to ensuring both a standard production rate, and for constantly trying to improve.
From her time in the Legrand Empire, Valeria had been made aware of the speed and rate of which Dr. Spiritlight received praise after praise. Recognitions that felt like they were being heaped upon her for effectively doing nothing. That was the process of thought when ...
2025-04-08 11:02:54 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 330
Empty Success
I was there, right at that sweet spot, the moment between creativity and actuality. For a moment I could feel the world pushing against my mind, telling me that I was nearing another breakthrough.
It’s odd how familiar this feeling had become, this mental resistance to what was clearly being proven as scientific facts related to magical properties. Rune-Ulacrum and I had both proven the noted variables over and over, we had proven how these key el...
2025-04-06 16:52:57 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 17
The Sister Trap
Squeak!
While not necessarily a word or phrase, one of the two female warriors already assembled for today’s training did exhale excitedly, which amplified by the mesh cloth used for the mouth and eye covers produced an eerie squeaking sound.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Pandaline, my sister, tense up at the sudden sound and burst of movement. Fortunately, she stood still, while I too remained.
The extended periph...
2025-04-05 19:19:35 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 16
Summer Plans
(Beginning of Summer Break, Age 7)
When I first heard about the practices of these people of Earth07, that of taking their kids out while they were young to be exposed to rifts powers, I was originally horrified.
To think that a family would willingly subject their children to harsh surges of energy that would cause mutations at a cellular level on purpose seemed counterintuitive. Yet, after having witnessed the effects firsthand, I cannot refut...
2025-04-04 10:27:34 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 29
The Code
“Many in our line of work might speak of the code, but it is meaningless and trivial. An ideal way of saying you were better than the rest because you had morals. Don’t listen to them, when anyone offers you a code, take it, bind it, then leave. Never let them know what you can do, until they can’t say what you can do to others.” Marcon on how to be deceitful to fellow liars
“I think you are right, it has changed…” The female Cerusian began,...
2025-04-03 09:37:50 +0000 UTC
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Interlude XXVI
(Cassidy)
“Something’s wrong momma,” Cassidy said, her words causing her mother to look away from the task she was now performing.
“What do you mean? That’s just Memaw being Memaw.” Cassidy’s mother replied as she took a moment to look at the screen and see that it was her grandmother, Cassidy’s great-grandmother there on the big screen brewing some type of concoction.
“No, her color’s off, I thought I was just imagining it before, bu...
2025-04-01 23:27:44 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 329
Not Superstitious, Just OCD
“She’s still at it,” Valeria whispered to Penelope.
“Yes, this is truly a moment to learn from,” Penelope quipped back.
By now everyone had come to our makeshift laboratory, which so happened to have been set up right there, in the Supply Depot.
This was great, as it meant that I didn’t have to take any items from here and move them to an area where I would have to improvise a standard Alchemical laboratory.
...
2025-04-01 11:12:39 +0000 UTC
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Good evening everyone,
First I wanted to say thank you all for continuing to stay and help make these stories works we can all appreciate and enjoy.
Again, a note that the billing cycle is turned off for March 2025 (thus you will not be charged tomorrow April 01, 2025).
As is becoming a tradition, I plan on entering the April 2025 Writathon tomorrow. And as a thanks to you all for your support during this time, I will on...
2025-03-31 23:37:29 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 328
A Simple Supply Run
“Come on mom, we are going to be late,” Gwen said, her voice trying to maintain a calm regal quality that is only slightly offset by the way she gives off very minor body shifts denoting her true feelings on the matter.
If she were a full kitsune, I could almost imagine her tails twitching agitatedly, while she peers on as if nothing was happening. Maybe she’ll just get ephemeral tails? I don’t know.
Why would you want ephemeral ...
2025-03-31 02:15:19 +0000 UTC
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<<<<Author's Note: just a final reminder that after this weekend the new name for this series will be revealed. If you have not voted or provided your own suggestion please do so, and thank you. >>>>
Interlude II
(Eight Months Later)
“Can you tell me why I have received official inquiries from the Jaupry estate inquiring about whether the services of our Pathfinder in training will be available again this summer?...
2025-03-30 04:19:30 +0000 UTC
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<<<<Author's Note: Just a reminder that later this week I will be choosing a new name for this series based on the recommendations posted. So please go, check out the other options and vote on the one you wish to see.>>>>
Chapter 15
Battle Synchronization
It’s hard to describe what exactly happened next.
Call it instincts, call it the awakening of my bloodline, or call it the awakening of my true self bu...
2025-03-27 11:09:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 327
Oh Karma!
“Oh Karma, how can you ever be considered heartless, when you clearly have earned my own tiny heart many, many times over.” I state, while clutching at my chest and feeling that same tiny heart beating at a near frantic pace.
At my comment Mallory of course just raises her head into the air and lets out an exasperated sigh.
For a moment, I wonder if she thinks I am mocking her.
“Look, I’m tell you, it was an accident. Honestly, I for...
2025-03-26 09:22:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 88
Sinus Allergies And Stones
(Darcy Renolds)
Sinus pressure.
Over the past few days, Darcy felt more and more headaches brought on by sinus pressure.
Everything seemed to set her off too. Everything from there being a buildup of barometric pressure due to increased clouds, to pressure cells that seemed to cause breezed, to smokers.
Yes, smokers, though it wasn’t so much the smoke that got to her, though the smoke was annoying. Instead, s...
2025-03-25 09:34:50 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 326
Mythical Beasts and How to Slay Them
(Mallory)
All families are different.
Meaning all family dynamics are also different.
Given how Mallory’s own family was, most willing to cut her out or tear away at the empire she built up while she was sick and dying for two years had impacted her in a hard way.
For the most part Mallory had secluded herself, letting her body slowly crumble away to the Blight that was impossible to cure.
...
2025-03-24 01:13:35 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 14
Increasing Difficulties
(Two Months Later)
We moved with precision and silence.
By now even the escorts guiding us moved silently through the brush.
This was our seventh lower ranked rift in four weeks.
The process for the previous six rifts was simple, we’d go out, let the advanced warrior maidens surge forward, fully open the rift. Then they would kill off most of the monsters, only leaving a few heartier monsters with open wounds to be struc...
2025-03-23 02:24:19 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 13
The First Strike
We moved in the way a herd of foraging hippos might have.
The noise that we all generated, well the other children generated could be heard echoing throughout the forest. It was an eerie sound that sent shivers down my spine.
With each step, the smell of the elements became much easier to feel and experience with my enhanced senses.
I could tell we were getting close, especially when the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise upwar...
2025-03-22 04:50:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 28
Staging A Long Con
“A long con can be something you develop, or something that develops organically, either way know that before you begin, they are costly in two different ways. First it costs you time, this is crucial for if you are to do it, then you might grow weary with the time commitment and jump before it is too soon to strike. It is imperative that you wait as long as possible, before making your final move. Secondly, there will always be a financial cost to ...
2025-03-21 10:14:32 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 12
A Proper Indoctrination
(Five Months Later)
Following the events of the profiling ceremony massacre, what the people of town and the surrounding countryside called that botched awakening event, my life changed dramatically.
First, my self-defense training intensified, moving from one hour to three hours a day. While we always started off with an hour of the basics, hand strikes, breaks, and holds, the latter two hours were spent with weapons.
Many kind...
2025-03-21 00:14:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 325
Another Hour, Another Failed Teaching Experience
Well, that could have gone better, I think to myself as I quickly exit class.
Just moving on instinct, I left. I never felt so vulnerable. There I was telling everyone my deepest inner thoughts, when they all just stared at me like they were waiting for a punchline.
Splash.
Then somehow, I ended up here.
This is one of those odd times when I am thankful for the fact that all my clothes ar...
2025-03-19 09:51:21 +0000 UTC
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Good evening everyone,
Honestly I meant to write this message earlier, but I got sidetracked. As some of you might remember (from last year) March is my birthday month, and as my birthday gift to you all, I am going to pause the billing cycle for April 2025.
This is my way of saying thank you all for staying around during my birthday and I hope to see you all again next month!
2025-03-19 00:39:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 324
Magic Resonance Class
(Valeria)
“So, I am going to apologize in advance. Today I do not expect to do too much actual training for classes,” Dr. Spiritlight spoke confidentially to Valeria.
Hearing her speak, Valeria felt a part of the hope that had been welling up within her diminish slightly. Then the words and phrases that everyone around her spoke with conviction came back to her.
“Pixies are ephemeral and mythical creatures.”
<...
2025-03-17 10:27:40 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 77
Mark of the Beast
(Ravena)
The ritual had been a success, at least that is what Prentip said.
“The rest is up to the participants to travel the journey they wish to take,” Prentip said about the now four outsiders who were all undergoing different transformations.
Overhead dark clouds gathered, as the nighttime finally began giving way to morning. Ravena saw all of this from inside Prentip’s manor.
While it wasn’t exactly stated, it has b...
2025-03-16 11:11:40 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 11
The Profiling Ceremony Massacre
The day started off so well, even the mistakes should not have led to such a moment.
In the grand scheme of things.
From what I had been led to believe and understand from that point, this event was minor. The ceremony profiler had done their job. They created a relatively minor rift in space, one that was no more than three feet tall by three feet wide.
Better still was the fact that the hole generated was a few feet of...
2025-03-15 14:12:23 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 10
The Ceremony
(Friday)
The ride to school was rather eventful.
Only for the fact that for the first time ever Auntie rode with us. Her seat was supposed to be in the front, next to Ceecee the driver. Yet, she instead chose to ride in the back with Sarina and me.
Sarina for her part sat in the bucket seat next to me. Meaning that Auntie sat in the backwards facing row of bucket seats.
I had tried that seat one day, but found the whole vision to be ...
2025-03-15 02:38:48 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 9
Profiling Ceremonies, A Preview
(Seven Months Later)
Fortunately for me, there was some kind of truce brokered between my family and the Oteranskis.
While this truce didn’t stop our class from occasionally seeing Landrina in passing, it did mean that her stopping by and interacting with our classroom would stop.
This was great, as it allowed me to blend in, or at least try to blend in more effectively.
Today however, today the school seemed to b...
2025-03-14 03:45:23 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 323
Silently Arguing With Yourself And Still Losing
“How is it always you?” Mallory begins. She’s talking to herself, but I know she is talking to herself about me. “Then there are times, when they are about other people, but they are still really about you.”
“I assume she means the world announcement?” Gabriellaz asks, a bit nervously next to me.
It’s good that I get to share this moment with someone else.
“Yeah, probably,” I agree.
2025-03-12 14:41:15 +0000 UTC
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