Tsaimath

Chapter 992

Leaving the others up on the ridge, I ghosted down into the valley. My cloak was the perfect piece of equipment to sneak around in the dark, especially across rough terrain, and I was making great use of it. While the people down in the valley had posted a guard, that guard was focusing on the obvious paths of approach, up and down the valley, so coming down the ridge on a silent whisper of wind wasn’t what they expected at all. Furthermore, I was about as invisible as a shadow in the dark,...

Chapter 991

Filling the new bag, or any of our bags, turned out to be a lot harder than expected. While the Dungeon hadn’t displaced us all that far, just a few hundred kilometres, the location we had been displaced to was a little problematic. Unless I completely missed my estimations and the Change had altered the world far more than I thought, we were now in the Rocky Mountains, somewhere in the southern part from what I could tell. Normally, we would have looked for a store or two and tried to find...

Chapter 990

Somehow, I had a feeling that my list of things I wanted to figure out would never get any smaller. Instead, it would always continue to grow, until the list was so expansive and vast, it started to generate its own gravity and ignited into a star. But even that wouldn’t actually allow me to work through it, no, even that stellar list would only continue to expand as I learned more and more, following the old adage that I could barely comprehend my own ignorance. until finally, the list to ...

Chapter 989

After resting up just a little, we started walking out of the boss’ room. During our rest, I had taken a closer look at the items we had found while in the dungeon and came across a few actually interesting items. Not so much for their practical use, though a bracelet that increased Dexterity, a diadem that increased Intuition and a necklace that increased Courage were useful items, their real use was in allowing me to figure out the enchantments that made them into what they were. If I man...

Chapter 988

“There’s something ahead,” Luna whispered, while Silva let out an angry, menacing growl, her temper still going strong, despite the many hours of combat and the, quite literally, countless critters we had destroyed during them. By now, I even gained another level, bringing me to eighty-seven, and multiple of my magical skills had levelled. Ice Magic, Blood Magic, Blood Rune Mastery, Water Magic, Wind Magic, Fire Magic and even Lightning Magic, they all had gone up by a point or two, eve...

Chapter 987

If there was one good thing about this dungeon’s weirdness, it was the ideas it gave me. Almost every swarm we faced was composed of a different foe, mostly different critters but if a type repeated itself, the powers they had were different. There were the ordinary giant rats, sure, but there also were smaller rats that were infused with Lightning in a way that made me want to try replicating it, or the spiders using Darkness Magic to hide. Those were exterminated with the greatest of prej...

Chapter 986

The dungeon turned out to be an oddity. The biggest thing was that the enemies we faced always came in these un-Observe-able linked groups, even if a group might only be composed of five monsters, it was just as impossible to Observe as the tide of giant rats we had faced in the first place. Similarly, the walls looked like stone, felt like stone when I touched them, it even smelled like stone and while I didn’t try tasting them, I had no doubt that they would taste like s...

Chapter 985

My eyes widened just a little when, as we entered the dungeon, an unexpected notification popped up. A part of me had wondered whether I’d get the Dungeon Explorer message for being part of the first group entering this particular dungeon and considered it an interesting test whether the rabbits we had chased into it were counted as intelligent creatures trying to complete it or something else. After all, Silva was considered a challenger, or at least so I had hoped, not some sort of monste...

Chapter 984

Silva started to sniff around the area before starting down one direction of the tunnel, with the rest of us following after her. At the same time, I made sure to taste the air around us, trying to keep us from wandering into any dangerous areas, be they magically created or mundane. Knowing that there were mushrooms around made me a little leary, still remembering the Withering Fungus and its countless servitors. Hopefully, I’d be able to find anything strong enough to influence us before ...

Chapter 983

It turned out, if there was one thing rabbits were really good at, it was escaping. Maybe it should have been obvious from the start but considering that we hadn’t been close enough to the stupid bunny to Observe it and learn its level, maybe it couldn’t have been. Or maybe we simply assumed that our levels would be sufficient to overcome any natural advantage the rabbit had thanks to having its fight-or-flight instincts firmly rooted on the flight side of things but now, after following ...

Chapter 982

“That’s not one of ours, is it?” I had to ask Luna, looking at the small, furry critter in the clearing ahead. Normally, the question wouldn’t have been necessary but given that said critter looked like a rabbit but where a rabbit should have fur, this one had an arguably better camouflage, being covered in a dense-looking shell of brown rocks. Given that our experiments had involved more than a few rabbits, the silly things were fairly easy to catch and had managed to spread at an in...

Interlude: Survivors 603

• AN: I forgot to add the latest Character-Sheet, current for Chapter 977 to the pinned post. It's added now, so you can check that out. Otherwise, enjoy the Interlude.

If there was one positive thing to be said about the life she had lived, it was that contact with children, especially teenagers, had been fairly limited. Sure, there had been some who joined the gym she had run with her husband, but her husband had dealt with them and eve...

Chapter 981

Soul Magic was… something. Even with the skill, it was as confusing and illogical as ever. Before, I had thought that I was unable to notice the Soul in some plants or even some smaller animals because I was inexperienced with the skill and would need some time to get used to it, just as I had needed time to learn the skill in the first place but now, with the ability to, at least in theory, manipulate souls using the newly acquired Soul Magic skill I started to wonder. So far, I had only b...

Chapter 980

As I was studying the rabbit Luna and I were experimenting on, I was whistling softly to myself. These last few days since leaving the Dryad commune had been fairly interesting, filled with travel, exploration and, most importantly, experimentation as Luna and I were continuing to work on our latest project, namely to infuse other living beings with magical power, altering them to make them into something special.

The grass we had worked with before, near the Charland, had been an inter...

Chapter 979

Further experimentation with my Throne and the Astral River sadly failed to produce additional insights, only repeats of that first experiment. I could find entities drawing Astral Power from the Astral River if they drew in enough power. Though even that was odd. I was fairly certain that the Horned Deer I had killed during my first experiment hadn’t a greater magical inclination than one of my companions, one of the dryads or, Hel, even one of the Stalking Stalks outside their home. Those...

Chapter 978

Once I was comfortably sitting down on my new Throne, I let my mind drift into the Astral River, letting its ebb and flow pull and push me hither and yon. I wasn’t trying to go somewhere, I simply let the current take me away from the World Tree, making navigation, the biggest problem on the ever-shifting currents irrelevant. With my Throne acting as a beacon within the Astral River, I would find my way back to my body, no matter what, so I didn’t have to worry about getting lost.

T...

Chapter 977

Even after leaving the grassy area around the World Tree Sapling behind, I couldn’t get the images my mind used to conceptualise what my magical senses were telling me out of my mind. Death, Rot, Poison, all these words came to mind when I had sensed the remnants of power that were starting to accumulate beneath the World Tree. So far, it was next to nothing, I had only sensed it because I was right on top of it and had been looking for something interesting but then, the World Tree had onl...

Chapter 976

If there was one thing that drove home just how inexperienced Mima was, it was the way her face morphed and moved as I spoke about my various experiences with dryads on Mundus. Where before, when she had essentially been in control of the conversation, her face had kept up the placidly calm and pleasant mask, now that the control wasn’t with her, the mask was gone, too. Instead, I could easily interpret her expressions to let me read her mind unless she was an incredibly gifted actress, whi...

Chapter 975

“Mother, when can we move on?” Lia asked me, once I stepped back into our gingerstone house after my talk with Mima. Her voice carried a fairly interesting mix of disgust and longing, strong enough to be easily heard, giving me the impression that she wanted to be anywhere but here.

“What brings this on?” I had to ask in return, wondering if she was affected by the amount of magic in the air, as Nature and Life Magic were completely dominant in this area due to the dryads and th...

Chapter 974

Even after sleeping for most of the morning, I hadn’t made a decision about what I wanted to do about the World Tree and the claim that I was connected to it by Fate. The biggest question was, did I believe in Fate, as Mima so obviously did and if I decided that I believed in it, did I accept her words as genuine and prophetic instead of something muttered by somebody who had too much to drink? Or maybe too little to drink, depending on what the drink in question was, the dryad might simply...

Interlude: Survivors 701

No matter how often it happened, waking up within a tree would never cease to be weird. Or maybe it would, one day, but in the hundred-odd days since the world stopped making sense, it hadn’t stopped yet. It might happen once the nightmares of burning skies and the brutal, gut-wrenching and soul-searing pain that came with them faded, swallowed by the deep darkness of oblivion but as things were, waking up within a tree remained weird.

Especially when it happened after one of the freq...

Chapter 973

Sneaking out at night shouldn’t be necessary and yet, moving through the darkness of the forest felt so much better than it had been while accompanying Luna during the day. The night was, quite frankly, more comfortable and relaxing, not only due to the darkness but also thanks to the lower temperature. Sure, the days had been getting colder as September had rolled around, bringing with it enough rain to drown a fish, and I had traits that made me more comfortable regardless of temperature ...

Chapter 972

After letting myself sink to the ground, I started to massage my temples, trying to get rid of the persistent headache I had been suffering from since talking to Mima, as the weird dryad was called. There was something about the leaps in her logic and her infuriatingly calm and collected demeanour that rubbed me utterly wrong, that made me want to tear her mind apart if only to make it stop. Or maybe to see if I could elicit some sort of reaction beyond mild interest from her, something, anyt...

Chapter 971

“Am I a Dragon, Mom?” Luna asked before I had time to properly process what the strange dryad had told me. That question, alongside Luna's amusingly excited tone when asking and her devastatingly adorable expression, was enough to confuse me even further, my eyes flickering between my daughter and the dryad.

“I’ve got to admit I’m uncertain what you are referring to?” I responded, wondering just what was going on here. Mother of Dragons, it sounded like some sort of strange ...

Chapter 970

Once the people outside became impossible to ignore, we decided to go and meet them. Well, my plan was to let Luna do most of the socialising while I remained behind and kept an eye on things but I wasn’t quite sure if that would work. Sure, thanks to Luna’s rapid maturation and my hated, perpetual baby-face it wasn’t as easy to see that I was supposed to be the adult between us but the locals might notice regardless. The few subtle spells I used to keep my less-pleasant traits conceale...

Chapter 969

These people were better grateful that we had given our word not to harm them while staying here. Without that promise, I might have started a murderous rampage when things got… loud first thing in the morning. People chatting between the trees, some noticing the gingerstone house and questioning its existence in addition to incessantly tweeting birds and, for some unknown and likely unknowable reason people singing, it all combined into a deeply uncomfortable and highly disturbing din. Far...

Chapter 968

Luckily, the initial conversation between the dryad, the not-quite-elf and Luna didn’t take all that long. Essentially, they exchanged greetings and batted about a few simple questions neither side fully answered before Luna asked whether we would be allowed to make our own shelter in their area. That, in turn, caused further glances towards Lia, Alex and me and I could almost smell the mixture of fear, caution and distrust in the air. I had to stop myself from letting my tongue flicker out...

Chapter 967

Subtle wards were something truly great. Even without a great deal of power, they could create an incredibly potent effect, simply because they worked with the world around them, allowing them to leverage what was already there. It might be nothing more than a few roots sticking out of the ground, making somebody walk around a tree on the other side, it might be a shrub being extra spiky on one side, making one avoid it, or similar effects. Nothing overtly powerful, nothing intensive that wou...

April's Fools Chapter 2024

As I opened my eyes, I felt incredibly strange. There was something off but I just couldn’t tell what that ‘something’ was. Opening my eyes, I noticed the humid, loamy earth all around me, joined by an almost oppressive weight coming from above, pushing me down as if the weight was trying to bury me. Blinking away the cobwebs, I looked around, wondering why I was resting in a burrow with roots all around me while using a warm, furry shape as a pillow.

“Finally awake?” a very c...

Chapter 966

For all the negatives of exploring the strange forest of deadly plants, there was one major positive point. The plants that had changed to become the forest used to be crops, mostly corn and some sort of grain, with a few potatoes and such thrown in for good measure. That meant, even after their change, they had parts that could be edible, at least some of them. Granted, other plants had changed to the point that they were far from what they used to be, their edible parts replaced wi...