N. Francis

Chapter 145: The Hidden Depths

“There it is,” Zoey whistled as she took in the sight of their final destination. “Been a long time coming.”

“Yeah, it has,” Rory sighed. “Not quite what I was expecting.”

“Same,” Zoey agreed as they floated above the fake planet, staring down like two heavenly invaders. Beneath them was an ocean planet, nearly six hundred miles across. It almost reminded of Rory of photos of Earth from space, except instead of water, it had an ocean of ghostly orange plasma, t...

First Q&A Question submission!

Hello all, as I mentioned in a Sunday update I wanted to try doing a Q&A as another bonus for all my patrons. Because this is the first attempt at it, I have genuinely no idea how many questions I will receive, (Could be zero, could be thirty, no clue) so I will have it uncapped, all I ask is if you do see a decent amount of questions to hold back on adding more if you've already dropped a question.

With that said, I may or may not answer every question, it depends on 1. Ho...

Chapter 144: Failing

Apostolos stared out, mentally preparing himself.

We’re probably going to lose people.

It was a stark reality, but one that he forced himself to acknowledge.

If only I had been better, smarter… something.

The reality was that no such thing had come true. They had what they had, and that was it.

Taking a deep breath, Apostolos began to walk forward before turning to face the defenders lining the walls.

“Today marks a pivotal day. For ...

Chapter 143: Dung and Dunger

“Eight months.”

“Get over it, I told you it would take some time.”

“You said a few months.”

“And eight is a few.”

“Took forever.”

“Oh, stop whining, we’re moving now, aren’t we? In fact, we’re way ahead of schedule; the last few planets took a few years each.”

“Hmm, fine.”

Rory smirked, knowing he had won the verbal exchange. After several months of standing around, absorbing vague images and flickering conce...

Chapter 142: Rituals

One moment, Rory was moments from death, the next he was flopped on the sandy ground of a desert he had last seen something like two years ago.

“Wow. You look like shit.”

Rory glanced up, taking in the sight of Zoey standing over him. She was… pristine, like she had come from a trip to the spa.

Oh, and she had a turtle, which Rory chose to ignore for the moment.

“What the fuck were you up to?” Rory raised his eyebrows at his companion.

Chapter 141: Labyrinth

“Why! Why so many bugs?” Rory hollered, pumping his arms as he ran as fast as he could.

Now, why was one of the prestigious Founders, people who bordered on divine in the eyes of the average person, running for all he was worth?

That was probably because of the pack of over three hundred level seventy-four scarabs the size of a Prius chasing after him.

“Why!?”

There he had been, meandering his way through the labyrinth, occasionally battling a monster ...

Informal Sunday #11: It's still Sunday somewhere

Hey everyone, meant to get this out earlier, but my internet was down.

Now, the meat and potatoes, what are we going over today?

Two main things: Power Progression/scaling, and potential for a semi-regular Q&A

But lets not get ahead of ourselves

Power Progression

So, this may shock you all, but Universe’s End is in fact, a Progression Fantasy.

I know, shocked gasps all around.

Jokes aside, I wanted to use this as a bit of just ta...

Chapter 140: B5

“Whose idea was it to put a god forsaken asteroid field inside a volcano?” Zoey groaned for the billionth time.

“Aelia, or Eon, or maybe the universe just hates us,” Rory responded as he kicked off from the floating space rock.

The fabled fifth floor of the Deep Chambers, they had finally entered after spending only a month out of B4, several years prior, and for all the things they had expected, it wasn’t to appear in space.

Or sort of s...

Chapter 139: Those Forgotten

“And that’s my proposition,” Viviann said, arms spread wide as she concluded her spiel.

Silent for several seconds, it was Irene who spoke up first.

“I don’t know. While I understand the intent and merit of this…. Project of yours, I can’t help but feel it might be taking risks for the sake of risks.”

“I disagree,” Another voice said, the third member of their council room, the sole rotating member. “While I understand what you are looking to a...

Chapter 138: Death Marks and Chibis

Marked for Death- Black Mark

A mark that appears only upon those who have been rightfully marked for death. Such marks, while rare, remove ALL protections involved with events and similar circumstances.

TREAD WITH CAUTION FOR THE ABYSS STARES BACK

“How? Why?” Rory asked, filled with questions. In all his years, he’d never seen anything like what Zoey was showing...

Informal Sunday #10: Every day will eventually be Sunday

Hey y'all! Been a bit since the last update, I'm aware, but I didn't have a whole lot to report on. Even now, truthfully, I don't have a ton to say, at least not off the top of my head. The reason I decided to whip one of these up is that as I was looking at my text document for Volume 3, I realized something.

It's crossed 150k words, and more importantly, we're closing in on the final few big moments of the volume, meaning that volume 3 is actually not far off from being finis...

Chapter 137: Band of Bane

As the duo of founders entered the castle grounds, they found themselves instantly under pressure they hadn’t expected, like diving deep under the water.

“Whoa. That is some serious pneuma,” Zoey said, pointing out the obvious.

“No kidding,” Rory agreed. “No shit, I’m pretty sure this could kill lower tiers.”

“Yeah. Like… damn. I thought the mountains were oppressive, but that is at least partially because of the volcanic concepts mixed in. This ...

Chapter 136: More like Clortho

As Rory stared down at the descending spiral staircase, he felt a sigh pass through him.

If only it were so easy.

“Wasn’t this supposed to finally summon the floor guardian?” Zoey grumbled.

“It was supposed to open the way to the floor guardian, not summon it.” Rory corrected.

“Bleh,”

Rory could understand the sentiment. They’d spent the last-

Huh. Didn’t really keep track of time.

Glancing at his level, Rory nodded...

Chapter 135: Bleak Clouds Gather

“Archers, fire!” The cry rang out, magical arrows flying through the air and slamming down into the horde of monsters, thousands strong.

“Activate defenses!”

The same walls from which the archers had fired began to spool up with energy, swelling with power like a hammer rising only to suddenly give way, launching a shockwave of solar energy that cut down the monsters like a scythe reaping wheat.

“Mages!”

Collected behind the archers, another group stepped f...

Chapter 134: Skill Slate

“What is what?” Rory frowned, turning from his work dissecting the Wyrm Newt.

“I have no idea, that’s why I’m asking you.”

Curious, Rory made his way to where Zoey was bent over, hands on her knees as she examined something peaking out from beneath the large keystone.

“It…. Looks like a piece of slate?” Rory pondered out loud. “Let’s move this keystone.”

Grunting, the two of them began to shift the large, pyramid-shaped stone slowly. Whatever th...

Chapter 133: Green Witch

I swear, he has no consideration.

Zoey harrumphed as she approached the Tropic Wyrm Newt, a greener color than the last Wyrm Newt. Cracking her knuckles, she stood in front of the monster. While it was the same level as the previous Wyrm Newt, it was also larger, as long as Eia but considerably thicker across.

“Hey, asshole,” Zoey called out, drawing its attention. As she had walked closer, she had noticed the keystone that Rory had been locked onto, a polished miniat...

Chapter 132: The Vanguard’s Real Bane

“Rory, are you seeing this?”

“Yeah, yeah, I am.”

The duo stared in awe, having just emerged from a tunnel, upon the next floor of the Deep Chambers.

“Floor” was doing some heavy lifting as they stared out.

“This isn’t a cave. Rory, this is not a cave. This is more like a portal delve. Are we even still in the volcano?”

“Yeah, pretty sure we are, just a compressed space,” Rory said with a whistle. It reminded him of the Khan’s terr...

Chapter 131: Golem

“Hey Rory, where are… oh.”

“Oh, hey,” Rory waved at Zoey as she appeared, covered in monster guts and other viscera. “You look like you went through a blender.”

“This thing is sweet,” Zoey held up her newest shield, the outer rim looking like the teeth of a chainsaw. With a quick pulse of pneuma, the chains briefly began to rotate, dying off a moment later as she cut off the energy. “Shields are just more my thing than spears or swords.”

“Glad you lik...

Chapter 130: The Second Faction

“All the beans?”

“All the beans.” The furry badger man said, grinning madly.

“You’re fine when I kick your ass?” The Spear had the same wild grin as she hefted her spear.

“Yer’ been a damn good student, can’t be mad either way.” The Woodsman said. “Damn disappointing you weren’t a soldier back in the old universe, you’d have been a good one.”

“Tell that to my parents,” The Spear snorted. “So, shall we begin?”

“I think so.�...

Chapter 129: Musings

“Alright, test number one, in three… two….one…. and, go.”

Speaking to no one but himself and little Jinn, Rory pulled a lever as a pulse of pneuma and vital essence coursed through the channels in the ground, a large circle of runes and symbols flooding with power.

C’mon…. C’mon!

Rory himself was currently wearing a protective mask alongside other protective gear, unsure of what the test results might be.

C’mon!

Within...

Chapter 125: To the Deep Chambers

Author's Note: So, I did a whoopsie and skipped this chapter. This chapter was meant to be between "A Wizard's staff is just a spicy bonk stick" and "The Furnace." Because I'm uploading this today, for the True Immortals their will not be a chapter tomorrow so that we are back on the correct release schedule of 16 chapters ahead instead of 17 which we would be at if I did a chapter tomorrow as well. Apologies for the mistake, I have no idea how I missed that.

Also, as a res...