T. A. Star

31 - I Am Not a Tyrant

An hour later, they had finished talking with Dazien’s merchant contact as she offloaded not just the Shards but a large amount of monster materials that she hadn’t found a use for yet, including the large stack of demon bunny meat.

The trip had been slightly prolonged as they were required to fend off other Adventurers and merchants that had stopped to chat and congratulate Dazien on beco...

30 - Cultivating Our Experiences

“Come in,” Phoenix called out as a soft knock came from her bedroom door. She was drying and combing her hair as she sat on the edge of her bed, looking out the tinted glass wall that revealed the city below. The lights simulating a sea of stars in the dark night.

She had just finished her hot shower and gotten fresh clothes, having enjoyed the feel of warm water on her tired muscles that ...

29 - A Lot of Interesting Quirks

Dazien stood with his arms crossed as Phoenix slid down the hillside to engage with the pack of Crystal Caste snolves and found himself intrigued. He had never seen such an assortment of odd powers before and he couldn’t figure out what that mysterious magic book was all about.

“You’re interested in her,” Uriel’s smooth voice said from over his shoulder and he grinned up at his compa...

28 - One Against Many

Paul sat in his father’s study which now belonged to him. He was going through a stack of tedious paperwork trying to sort out all the responsibilities and messes that his new inheritance had dropped on top of him. He was not particularly happy with his father naming him as heir, and that Patricia had actually agreed with the choice, despite his politically savvy sister being far more suitable for...

27 - A Little Domineering

The wind whipped around wildly as the group stood at the top of what seemed like a massive crack in the earth not far from the outcropping of rock that the group had gathered on. Phoenix had managed to portal all of them right outside the gates to Linnake, one of Tulim’s fortress towns that was located on the northern coast, west of Tulimeir, and high upon a cliff overlooking what Phoenix thought ...

26 - For Adventure

Phoenix had spent the last four days locked away with Paul and Bliss, training like her life depended on it. While she felt much more comfortable with her skills now, she was incredibly nervous about putting them to the test. If she failed these trials, it would not only reflect poorly on her Mentor but she wouldn’t be able to take them again until the blood moon finished, which was still rumored ...

25 - Special Pretentiousness Requirements

Phoenix was grateful for Traveler’s upgrade as she continued to reference the map of Tulimeir in her book. She had quickly realized from the aerial overview it offered that the entire city had been meticulously planned out from its inception, with the only possible room for growth being vertically.

The upside of this for her was that it was fairly straightforward to navigate through once she...

24 - Practice

Phoenix followed closely behind Paul who were both dressed in the standard training garb of the AOA. It looked like a tight cycling uniform made from silvery spandex-like material that clung to her form and was hard to grasp, causing things to slide across the material rather than catching and tearing it.

While Paul’s very fit and muscular form filled out the outfit, she felt… gangly besid...

23 - Weapon Wielding Warrior

Paul wasn’t surprised to find that Phoenix had slept for the rest of the evening, through the night, and well into the next day before he woke her up with a gentle nudge. Once he saw she was awake, he left the room to await her in the small dining area and started pulling plates of food out of the dimensional storage basket he had brought along. He chuckled when she almost squealed in delight once...

22 - A Little Light Reading

Paul’s eyes narrowed at the pair of priests half-carrying his new Protégé towards him. Phoenix looked ragged and shaken and he was already unhappy with the events happening since they entered Tulimeir.

‘She looks like they mana drained her,’ the familiar voice sounded in his mind again and he mentally hushed the comment.

He almost growled at the clergy, “What happened ...

21 - The House of Wayland

Paul watched Lester lead Phoenix away for a few moments, not liking the feeling settling in his gut, but he wasn’t about to start picking fights with even more gods. So he turned back towards the path, taking the left road that followed the western wall of the International District until he reached the first gate leading into the southwestern section of the city, designated the Martial District.<...

20 - Finding the Path

The priest of Scholar arrived once more to help Phoenix to her feet and guide her to yet another temple. This one more curved and reminiscent of the Taj Mahal with intricate carvings of fantastical places carved into the marble exterior. She paused at the front door that would most likely lead her to yet another divine being and glanced at Lester with pleading eyes.

He chuckled and pa...

19 - Why Do You Fight

Dazien rolled his amethyst eyes at his reflection in the mirror as his partner voiced concerns about their timeline and he tried to reassure the man again, “I’ve told you already, Uriel. I won’t be late to meet you at the AOA cause I’m going to nail this exam and be in and out with the next tome in hand and plenty of time to get there.”

“It’s across town, Daze,” the taller cind...

18 - Tomes of the Scholar

Tulimeir felt like a huge industrial metropolis with tall metal-framed glass buildings crammed together to try and accommodate the limited horizontal space of the walled-in fortress city. Despite the dreary cold, gray metal skyscrapers, and smooth stone streets, the city was alive with colors. Bright banners and signs marked storefronts and through the plethora of windows, colorful lights shone merr...

17 - Tulimeir

They arrived in the fortress city of Vallinsarvi the following night and Phoenix was grateful she would finally be able to sleep in an actual bed. Paul was first heading to talk to the city's baroness and AOA commander however, since apparently the presence of an Emerald Caster in this area could set them on edge.

There were a ton of people crowding about the streets, she assumed in preparatio...

16 - Tundra Training

New Quest: Tundra Training

Time to test your mettle.

Objective: Defeat ten Crystal Caste monsters.

Reward: Rare Crystal Caste cloak.

“Oh, c-come on!” Phoenix said through chattering teeth as she read the message her book offered up. “It’s ...

15 - How Long

It was another hour before Phoenix finally had a breakthrough when she realized her four Auras that had always felt layered were exactly that. She had to will them all in concert and she had been focused on the outermost one instead. Once she focused on the innermost one and got it to retract inward easily, she managed to get each layer to follow.

It behaved like a wild animal though, refusing...

14 - Walk and Train

Phoenix rubbed at the spot on her chest where the god and goddess had actually come into physical contact with her. There was no longer any pain but the memory was still creating phantoms in her mind. She was beginning to hate waking up without the memory of actually attempting to sleep.

When she exited the tent this time, she was startled to not recognize her surroundings. The grassy hillocks...

13 - Hero's Quest

Phoenix stretched as they stopped for the evening. Paul hadn’t deigned to fill in the silence with conversation which she hadn’t minded after such an eventful week and the flood of information she was still mentally working through.

The landscape hadn’t changed much as they made their way across the grasslands that had become hilly once more, finally stopping once they had reached the ri...

12 - Crystal Caster

“So you’re sure this won’t turn me into some sort of space werewolf or something?” Phoenix asked as she held up the [Moon Aspect] while taking another bite of the sweet fruit Paul had given her for breakfast. The juicy orb was a bright red and looked like a cross between a cherry and plum with a single heavy pit at its center that was a glossy black. Paul had informed her it was called a rue...

11 - Ritualist

When Phoenix regained consciousness, it was to the sight of dark canvas above her, the sound of a crackling fire, and the smell of meat roasting. She slowly sat up, carefully testing out her left arm to find it fully healed. However, the memory of the pain had her wincing slightly. When she confirmed that she was in fact still alive and intact, she carefully made her way out of the small tent to joi...

10 - Reality Rift

In the morning, the odd pair continued as they had the day before, crossing the vast hilland which slowly began to level out. The sun had just hit the midway point in the sky above them when she noticed an even brighter light in the direction they were heading. She wanted to ask about it but she didn’t dare distract the man carrying her as they sped across the terrain.

It turned out that the...

9 - Ends Without Redemption

Despite their absurd pace across the grassy hillocks, they eventually paused to eat after a solid three hours of… jogging? Was he seriously only jogging that whole time? He didn’t even appear to be sweating, only pausing because he knew that she needed to eat and drink more. For his part, Paul simply slipped what looked like a glassy, green, mostly-flattened, marble in his mouth with a ...

8 - Paladin of the Purifier

Phoenix stared at the man for a few awkward moments as she tried to come up with a suitable answer that wouldn’t result in her getting captured or killed… again. The golden man didn’t interrupt her thoughts as he simply crossed his arms and continued to stare down at her unperturbed.

She slowly stood up and tried to make herself look slightly more presentable before admitting, “I, uh�...

7 - Escape the Monsters

What Miles described sounded too much like becoming a drugged up lab rat for Phoenix to accept as she conjured her magical black dagger into her hand and plunged it into the man’s back, hoping to make him release her. Which he did with a cry of pain followed by a stream of obscenities that she had never heard before and didn’t stop to listen to as she forewent the path back to the other mages an...

6 - Not a Safe Place

“So you’re an orphan?” Miles asked curiously as, almost an hour after their departure, Phoenix tried to explain the hospital she had come from and her world’s supposed lack of magic, “Nobody left behind?” he clarified.

“Um… yes, I’m orphaned now, I guess. The older you are, the less you're thought of as an orphan where I come from, so I never really thought of myself that way...

5 - Waypoint

Phoenix continued traveling during the day, grateful for the decrease in monsters, though she wasn’t sure where they had all gone at first. It wasn’t until she came across the evil tree monster again that she realized the monsters hadn’t despawned like in a video game, but had gone dormant, seeming to sleep during the day.

Not wanting to potentially wake it up, she skirted around and con...

4 - In Darkest Night

Phoenix had managed to find a few wild berries during her excursion through the mountainous woods, silently praying to whatever gods this world might have that they weren’t poisonous. Thankfully, she felt fine after eating them but it looked like they wouldn’t count towards her quest’s bonus objective since she didn’t actually cook them.

After another hour of fighting off litt...

3 - Guiding Stars

Phoenix stumbled on a protruding root and barely caught herself from falling before glaring at the offending tree and continuing down what she believed to be a game trail she had stumbled across. She wished she had a compass to make sure she wasn’t getting turned around and going in circles as the sun was almost impossible to see and the moss seemed to grow everywhere on the densely packed trees.<...

2 - Book of Choices

Phoenix felt groggy, like she had slept for far too long. This in turn made her panic slightly that she had slept through her first round of treatment for the morning and she pushed herself up to try and check the time.

The first thing she noticed was that she was not in her bed, the hard packed dirt beneath her making that very clear. No, she appeared to be in the center of some sort of scorc...