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Chapter 72: Rewards

The first snow festival officially started four days after the boys arrived. Legacies of Weather, Snow, and Storms had gathered together, foretelling that it would snow any day now. But, after three days of celebration, Frostford was getting angsty. What was the point of a festival if the thing they were celebrating never happened?

Truthfully, the younger residents of the town didn’t  care about that. It was the older few, the curmudgeon type, that cursed the skies. Most everyone...

Chapter 71: Frostford

“Are you here for the herb collecting competition?”

Leland and the others eyed the young woman and her hearty smile. The cold day seemed to warm up with her question, like a little furnace in the center of a cabin in the mountains. She looked between the boys,while holding a clipboard and spinning a short pencil between her fingers.

“Uh, yes?” Leland answered. “Something wrong?”

“Nope!” she sang. “I’m with the town’s festival organizers. We are just try...

Chapter 70: Perspective

The Huntress sat alone, high in an overgrown tree. The tree sat among many others, hiding her vantage from the common eye. There she was a hunter  overseeing her prey. Or, in this case, three young men. Why she watched these boys, she didn’t know, only that her instincts told her to.

Maybe her age was finally catching up. Maybe she wanted a team that could rival her own prowess. Maybe she saw something in them, something subconscious, something that told her these boys w...

Chapter 69: Cores

Leland let out a deep, long, slow, sigh. He inwardly cursed, thankful that the battle was over before it really started. A rank two monster was one thing, but  two rank two monsters that fought together? He had heard of such things before, but monsters were supposed to be mindless killing machines.

Goblins, gnolls, and other partially sentient beings were one thing, but an undead? A being that couldn’t easily be killed? Leland was starting to think they needed to complai...

Chapter 68: Undead

They moved as a single unit, pushing past the tall overgrown path, toward the safety of the edge of the ruins. There they stopped, with their backs to the wall, and prepared. Jude unleashed his battle axe from his hand tattoo, Glenny turned invisible and extended his Sightless King powers into long thin spikes, Leland readied his grimoire and got into position behind the others.

“We run toward the forest if more undead show up and or the undead knight is too powerful,” Leland said, ...

Chapter 67: Ruins

“It was interesting,” Leland recounted.

After his long stint in a different reality, he shifted his body uncomfortably while laying on the rough floor of the forest. With a groan, he sat up, pushing away his sleeping bag and looking at the dying embers of their fire. A glance to the moon told him he had been speaking with Lily for most of the night.

“You go to bed, I’ll stay on watch.” It was then Leland noticed a small squirrel resting in the crook of Jude’s arm.

Chapter 66: Lord of Healing

The response was quick and clean. Leland rushed across a dark plane, one of infinite expansive cold. He saw nothing but darkness, until he didn’t. The domain of the Lord of Healing came in like a threatened rabid dog. The darkness halted instantly, throwing him onto a sunlit gravel road. He skidded across the rocks as his momentum ended, only his mage robes protecting his delicate skin.

Groaning, Leland fell to his butt, the overhead sun blinding. He groaned again, finding his resolve...

Chapter 65: Letter

“I really wish the quest giver handed out more information about these bats!” Leland exclaimed to Glenny and Jude.

Glenny responded with a destitute nod. “What were his words? ‘The bats can be a bit loud?’ I’ll say…”

They looked to Jude expecting a response. The brutish young man looked between them, his face curling in confusion.

“What?!” he yelled.

Leland flinched back. “Why are you yelling?”

“What?!”

Glenny sighed, reaching ou...

Chapter 64: Bats

On route to Frostford, the group finally entered the territory of the Hearth Bat – the objective of one of the quests they picked up. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. They arrived  at dusk, just as the sun was passing beyond the horizon. They skipped dinner, opting to get started on hunting early.

“Stupid bats only leave their nests for a few hours a day,” Jude complained as his stomach grumbled. He viciously tore off a piece of jerky and chomped on it with all o...

Chapter 63: Cantrips

Jude and Glenny hummed together, their eyes scanning down a wooden board of crudely written script. They pointed to one occasionally, discussed the quest’s logistics, then moved on to another. They, like  with the previous few quests, could not agree on which to choose. Everything was just meh and not what they wanted.

During this, Leland sat off to the side, nursing a splitting headache. He had, once again, tried to search his mind for any information about his...

Chapter 62: Exhibition

The Huntress watched the boy for several long minutes as he searched his own mind. She knew asking Leland, a relative baby, to look internally was asking a lot. Many, many years of practice with one’s Legacy was needed for such control as she was implying, yet, for some reason, she felt it important to place him on this path.

Without her interfering, Leland would solve the mystery of Legacies on his own, but frankly she didn’t want to wait around for years. So, she cheated, and hope...

Chapter 61: Knock

Not even five minutes after falling asleep, a knock sounded from Leland’s door. His eyes shot open and for a moment he felt terror. The Sightless King was here, the cultists—

Reality came back to him, along with a dark room lit only by a single dim mana crystal. Leland let out a long deep breath, one overflowing with drowsy stress. Everything is fine, everything is fine, he told himself, focusing on the knock. Begrudgingly, he looked to the door only for another knock to so...

Chapter 60: Congratulations

The smell of charred wheat filled the tavern moments after the Legacy of Baking opened the oven door. One by one he pulled fully darkened loaves of perfuming rye bread from the scorching heat, expertly slipping them onto cooling racks without burning his hands.

Patrons looked on with salivating eyes, their empty plates mimicking the hole in their stomachs. Soon the tavernkeeper spilled from the kitchen, over encumbered by dozens of bowls. She quickly dropped by each table, setting her s...

Chapter 59: New Lives

“Thank you for sitting down with us, Royal Inquisitor. My name is Inquisitor Levi and this is Inquisitor Cassia, Legacy of the Wolf and Legacy of the Wand respectively.”

“Call me Isobel,” the Huntress said. “Legacy of the Hunt.”

“Thank you,” Cassia said, flipping a pad of paper before her. She dipped a quill and asked, “Been in Shoutwell long?”

“A few weeks.”

“Every been in Shoutwell before?”

“Once, ten or twenty years ago.”

...

Chapter 58: Northward

Leaning against a wooden wall overlooking Shoutwell’s harbor, Leland took in the day. The sky had fallen back to muted overcast with streaks of golden sun filtering through the cracks. The waves were gentle and calming, crashing against the many docks and resting ships. There was chatter nearby, those getting back to their lives after the hell their city had endured.

Dockworkers rushed about, carrying large stacks of boxes or hauling thick fraying robes. Some smoked tobacco or chewed ...

Chapter 57: Goat

Lady Onryo sat with her legs crossed in a dimly lit room. She kept one hand slowly tapping on against the wood grain table, the other jostling a glass of deep red wine. She felt like she was wearing bright neon clothing, the kind meant to entertain children for birthdays because of the stolen glances she was receiving.

Was this really all her fault? She asked herself, knowing their survival to be severely limited. With every sip, however, the question faded just a little bit. She had do...

Chapter 56: Sightless King

The Huntress stayed in the air, stepping on platforms of golden light. Blasts of red energy whooshed high into the sky, narrowly missing their target as she quickly moved across Shoutwell’s airspace. Every attack, every skillful dodge, she drew back and fired off single arrows.

At this point the avatar’s body had turned to a pincushion, each one of his eyes punctured directly through the iris. He protected his main two, batting away every arrow while counter firing when it had the c...

Chapter 55: Limitations

Power, lifeforce, and mana flowed through Leland’s lips before he whispered, “Maul.”

A breath later, lifeforce and mana swam around his heart, connecting his own to the woman in white’s. “Slow,” he whispered, anticipating a barrage of emotions.

He felt angry but he couldn’t quite figure out why. Obviously there were enemies and he needed to protect the Sightless King, they threatened him and inversely the cult. But the rage he felt was also distant,...

Chapter 54: Warcry

Stalking through Shoutwell’s defogged streets was something the boys thought they’d never do. Practically the entire time they had been in the city, it had been covered with thick white mist. Seeing to the opposite side of the street added a surrealness to the situation that was simply lacking beforehand. Now, the city actually felt like a city. One that seriously needed protection.

Without the fog, the boys also noticed a plethora of curious eyes. They looked out of window...

Chapter 53: Abandoned

Leland snapped his fingers nine more times before he finally stumbled back, his head spinning. He groaned with horrid nausea, his lifeforce dwindling with threatening speed.

“Kneel before—”

His words abruptly ended as a wrinkled manicured hand met his shoulder. Leland quickly spun, finding Boor.

Shaking his head, the butler leaned in and whispered, “We will lose if we fight her. She’s stronger than all of us put together.”

Glaring at the Huntress d...

Chapter 52: Glorious Return

Inquisitor Isobel, otherwise known as the Huntress, watched her young apprentice double over vomiting. The sight, while disgusting, was incredibly informative. The parasitic cloak wrapped around Glenny was quite intriguing. Energy and stamina enhancing artifacts were nothing out of the ordinary when it came to magical items. They all worked relatively the same way and allowed for storage of energy for later use.

The cloak, however, was special in the Huntress’ eyes – and not just be...

Chapter 51: Escape

Simon screeched as the woman toppled over him, shoving him to the ground and bashing his head into the marble floor. He hastily threw up his hands to guard, missing the first punch by mere seconds. Suddenly his face flooded with blood and the floor was speckled with red. He managed to block the next punch, but by then the woman had a thin silver sword jutting from her neck.

Her lifeless body fell over when Boor ripped his rapier back to his side. Soon the pristine throne room was buzzin...

Chapter 50: Kingpins

Returning to the underbelly was a rather easy feat. No one other than the odd cultist and fresh recruit walked the streets. Most, if not everyone sane, stayed in their homes under the cover of a candle-less room. Doors were locked, children were hushed, and an atmosphere of unease left the area in an abandoned state.

As Boor led Jude and Leland to Shoutwell’s Smugglers Guild, they found no obstacle. They entered the lower tunnels quickly followed by the real passage to the underbelly....

Chapter 49: Gamble

Leland, Jude, and Boor stared at a crude mapping of the sewer system of Shoutwell. Tunnels crossed over each other and ran the length of streets, some stopped abruptly while others drifted out to sea. Various numbers had been written on each of the tunnels, marking their passage in terms of sigils blocking the way.

The group discussed over a late dinner, having spent the entire day slowly wading through filth and sludge. Hour upon hour had devolved into simple minutes of actual work, Le...

Chapter 48: Adaptation

“Conjuration, who’d have thought?”

Glenny spun at the words, bubbly red power reacting to his will and forming a pair of spikes. He shoved the impromptu weapon forward, finding it abruptly stopped inches from the Huntress’ throat.

“Angry little one, aren’t we?” she asked. “But I can see you are coming into that power all on your own. A few more days and I might let you leave the mountain.”

It was mid-morning in the cold snow forest of the north mountains, t...

Chapter 47: Maps

There were no guards defending Shoutwell’s walls. No men to lower or raise the gate. No personnel waiting in line to enter. There was only the outer limits of isolated fog, only the feeling that something was not right, that something was waiting within the city.

Leland stepped past Jude and Boor, activating his Harbinger Halo cursed contract with the Lord of the Moonless. Nothing caught his eye as “art” right away, so the team progressed into the city.

Boor made qu...

Chapter 46: Chameleon

With all of his strength, Glenny stabbed down with both daggers. The blades dug slightly into the basilisk’s hide, locking in place. He leveraged himself over his target, pushing his entire weight into the top of his weapons. Something snapped under the force, causing him to stumble away from the monster.

He fell into the snow, only just gaining his balance in time to dodge a tail whip. He rolled, creating as much distance as he could. The basilisk flailed, a small amount of blood lea...

Chapter 45: Whispers in the Dark

“Well?” Jude’s voice rang as soon as Leland’s consciousness fell back into his mortal body.

He didn’t answer right away and instead removed his grimoire and flipped to the newest contract page. Again the weight of the book surprised Leland, as did how it seemingly read his mind and switched gravity off for itself. He and Jude shared a look but there were more pressing issues to solve.

Cursed contract of the Lord of the Moonless:

Use: For th...