Nilsimus

Chapter 37: Shared Sympathy

Marcus was dead. Or rather, he felt like he was dead. He drifted in and out of consciousness over the course of several hours. When the memory of what had happened to him bubbled to the surface a soothing presence would chase it away.

Two voices slowly filtered down through the haze. It took him several minutes to focus enough to make out who exactly was talking. The first presence was a familiar sharp frost, the second, a golden pillar of authority.

In his state of half awareness...

Chapter 36: Connections

It was three days later and Marcus still hadn’t awoken. According to Sieg, falling into a coma-like state after being extensively healed was common. Leif held his mostly regrown arm up to the sun, the warming rays had been far more comfortable ever since being trapped underground.

He lay in what had once been a wheat field under a blanket of animals. The spriggan had discovered a powerful new component to his [Gold Iron Physique] skill; multi-petting. Four ethereal hands of amber each...

Chapter 35: Learning

Leif was halfway through constructing a hog pyramid when Sieg emerged from the partially wrecked house. The spriggan had periodically checked on both sleeping humans every other hour.

Both men should be in peak physical condition from what he could tell from their lack of wounds and restored lifeforce. But there was more to someone's well being than physical wounds.

Leif could still feel the ache in his very soul from the overuse of his skills. Speaking of sk...

Chapter 34: Sanctuary

As the sun began to set two humans, a spriggan and two deer walked into a destroyed bar. There was no punch line, or an actual bar for that matter. The building had been split down the middle from a blast of condensed energy.

Fires lit up the night sky, weaving trails of smoke were blown away by the crisp evening wind. If Leif never went underground again in his life he could die happy. He stared down at the stump he had in place of an arm.

Both deer nuzzled up next to him, both f...

Chapter 33: Hostile Negotiations

A clone of shadow scaled the exterior of the devastated temple as Szesis watched through the copy. Both human and spriggan were in rough shape, clearly injured from a life and death battle.

Didn’t I throw two humans down into the Mythhold? There should be another… Oh, there it is.

The second human appeared with a flash of light a few moments later, Szesis immediately dismissed him as dead. He doubted anyone could lose that much blood and guts and walk awa...

Chapter 32: Surface of Chaos

Eventually the beams stopped, which disappointed the deer. The light-show had been pretty. As mundane, mostly normal animals the two creatures naturally had no idea what was going on. A sphere seemingly made of the night sky hung suspended a mile over the highest point of Pherin.

Dark blue beams flashed out from inside the gargantuan thaumatic working, the darkness having a diameter of over a hundred metres. Goblins poured from the city's walls in their hundreds, t...

Chapter 31: Endearing Idiocy

All important discoveries are made when someone says; ‘This is a stupid idea, but let's do it anyway’.

Most spectacular failures are also predated by these exact words but don’t let that stop you from trying!

The first ‘this is a stupid idea’ came from Leif. The spriggan had come to the admittedly correct decision to hope his newly upgraded [The Well Within II] could overpower the rampaging death energy within his body. So instead of fighting the power he de...

Chapter 30: Arisen Myth

Posted in the wrong order, sorry about that.

It charged.

Marcus called his gauntlet and retreated clockwise around the chamber. Sieg flooded the floor with as much ice as possible then went counter clockwise. The enslaver didn’t care, it charged right through the field of ice, ignored both humans and launched itself at Leif.

The spriggan didn’t have time to run, he tossed aside his sack of mana shards and raised two sets of arms in a cross before him a...

Chapter 29: From Below

The trio dashed forward, away from the falling stones and towards the terrifying presence. They would have outrun the collapsing tunnel if every step didn’t feel like wading through malevolent molasses.

A chunk of ceiling fell from above, Leif instinctually tugged at his newest skill. [Gold Iron Physique] activated as two arms of ethereal gold erupted from his shoulders. Unlike before the limbs were far more defined, and though they were still far from opaque the skills projections we...

Chapter 28: Unnatural Combinations

“Two…” Leif said. After neither man replied for several seconds he hissed and elaborated. “Once… like… you. Person…”

In nervousness he checked the progress of his skill fusion. He had consumed several more lesser mana shards over the thirty minutes they had worked.

Fusion of skills [Gilded Body] and [Iron Fists] 51/100%

“A person?” Marcus said. “Like a human? Like me and Sieg?”

Leif nodded solemnly. “Memory… distant. Am… L...

Chapter 27: Fortune

The trembling had finally, blessedly stopped. The lower levels of the Mythhold seemed to be far more intact than what Leif had traveled through to get this far down. After a few minutes of rest Marcus stood up with a groan.

“I’ll be fine. Can’t use any active skills for a little bit so lets avoid combat if we can.”

Leif and Sieg nodded, the trio moved in deeper. To Leif the sheer scale of this underground structure was staggering, but the other two didn’t seem overly sur...

Chapter 26: Bloodbath

Goblins came screeching at the trio from all sides, they rushed forwards over a dozen at a time. Purple bolts of power danced through the oncoming tide, goblins fell one by one, fried by Marcus’s skill.

Frost condensed around Sieg and icy winds whipped through the arena. Leif didn’t have time to pay any more attention to his companions, he crashed into the green wave and sent small bodies scattering. A punch shattered a skull, a kick burst vital organs. He conjured two short blades ...

Chapter 25: Fissure

Letlet watched in awe as what he could only assume were gods did battle in and above the ruined streets of the former human city; Pherin. To witness such glorious displays of power was something he had dreamed of ever since he came crawling out of a half destroyed basement.

That was three months ago but to Letlet it felt like a lifetime. Which it was, for him at least. The system had only recently bestowed him with a name of power, Letlet had run around telling everyone he could!

...

Chapter 24: Into The Depths

“I can’t close the maintenance door. It’s like the whole structure is shutting down.” Marcus said as he held up the door key.

“And you can’t use your skill?” Sieg asked.

“[Create Key] only helps me unlock things I understand, not lock them again.” Marcus sighed. “The tunnels will be flooded full of goblins in no time, what a shit show. They may even find the hidden exit.”

“What…do?” Leif asked as he drained vitality from frozen troll chunks.

Chapter 23: The King and the Princess

Szesis was bored. Not in the ‘I have nothing to do’ way that you probably imagined. But bored in the ‘I have nothing of value to do’ kind of way. He had never been good at waiting, it hadn’t helped that the last few interesting events had given him conflict blue balls.

The two humans he had caught snooping around had been after the same thing he was. But instead of fighting to the death they had agreed to his proposal of doing his work for him. That had sucked, no ent...

Chapter 22: Silent Anticipation

Leif flowed from one stance to another. The basic forms flew by and the exercise increased in complexity, speed and overall difficulty. He reached the peak of the intermediate training, from experience if he pushed himself the phantom would ramp up the difficulty again but Leif knew he wasn’t ready.

Instead he worked the movements into his muscle memory, and time flew by. His thoughts wandered to what the two humans had told him. It was a lot to take in, but it confirmed a few things....

Discord

Chapter 21: Understanding

Leif brooded while he waited for his [Gilded Body] skill to recover after overuse.

Imagine for a moment, that if, whenever you wanted to talk, you had to solve a puzzle cube while balancing on a tightrope. Ok, now imagine something more sensible but equally as challenging. What I’m trying to get across is that it wasn’t easy.

Leif and Marcus sat off to the side watching Sieg get further and further into the statues training, with every attempt he grinded away, progressing more...

Chapter 20: Tongue Tied

Apparently Marcus and Sieg had a campsite set up in one of the previous chambers the two men had explored in the few days they had been exploring the underground complex. They had given Leif directions and told him they would leave the tunnel doorways open.

Sieg grumbled about ‘trusting a monster’ but he didn’t seem to care enough to do anything about it. The man was complaining out of obligation rather than worry, and Leif didn’t really blame him.

Judging by how proficien...