Tsaimath

Chapter 346

Silence hung between Harms and me, as we were moving to the back of the orcish column, Sakgu falling in with my group, to make sure we would be alright. And to report what was said, I had no doubt of that. The silence stretched out, not a companionable silence, where no words were needed to fill the void between people but an awkward one, getting thicker with each second it lasted. Part of me wondered if it would congeal into a physical substance at some point, dense enough to stop us from mo...

Interlude: Profiles of Power VI

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Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power

Last time, we looked at the apparent fan of Dad-humour that is William of the Shaking Spear, whereas today we are looking at someone much less prone to induce groans on mental anguish, instead you get a sharp, stinging pain as a well-placed, single arrow pierces a vital target. She is, to our current knowledge, the de...

Chapter 345

Even from a distance, I quickly noticed the heat turning even more oppressive than the summertime should have accounted for. The smell quickly told me what was going on, the air was saturated with Fire Astral Power, essentially overpowering the magic I was using to keep cool. As such, it wasn’t that it was getting warmer, maybe a degree or two, but that my magic was pushed back. It didn’t feel like a malicious attack, more like someone simply putting their surroundings under their power, ...

Chapter 344

Over the next hour, I was able to learn quite a bit about the local situation and the general situation in this part of Aretia. It turned out that the orcs, like most of the other groups but the dwarves, had a semi-nomadic life-style, with a fixed village that they wintered in while travelling the region to gather and trade for supplies during the warm months. They only practised agriculture on a very limited scope, preferring to stick to their old traditions and ways, despite the possible ad...

Chapter 343

After sitting on the ground for a bit, I had recreated my throne, making myself comfortable while reducing flowers to dust, trying to firm up my perception of the energies released during Death and the ways to manipulate them using magic. Lenore, in an attempt to train her Ice-Magic was sitting on my shoulder, surrounding us with a thin layer of cold mist, making me quite comfortable despite the heat. Sadly, our training was interrupted when Sigmir and Ylva suddenly reacted, their silent vigi...

Chapter 342

Waking up was a slow, gradual process. While my body felt fine, my mind felt like it was a little slow, not up to the task of fully operating. Half-remembered dreams, of the lonely journey the moon made through the darkness, of a slowly changing world, changed by the eternal observation of an eternally frozen observer. The experience brought back the question, just what had I made contact with?

There were various myths about creatures living on the moon, or stories about them being seal...

Interlude: Profiles of Power V

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• -Kelgarn, confirmed Beta-Account

Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power

Today, I am forced to present a profile to you, one that I don’t want to feature. But, alas, needs must, despite my personal dislike for the subject, they have managed to cement themselves as a premier player of the game, turning himself into what appears to be the most influential supporter we currentl...

Chapter 341

Upon returning to my body, my breath caught for a moment. The feeling of solitude I had been subjected to, just the memory of the experience, sat on my chest, making it difficult to draw breath. I wasn’t sure what had caused the emotional radiation I had encountered, if there was some extremely powerful entity that put it out or if it had some other cause but the effect had been profoundly disturbing.

Finally, I managed to get in a breath and scrambled out of my seat, my ...

Chapter 340

As I rose within the Astral, I noticed a slow change around me, a dimming of the surroundings, for lack of a better word. It wasn’t that the amount of power around me was declining but it felt like the power faded into the background tapestry of reality, making it harder to perceive it, at least with my senses.

I was moving carefully, remembering the painful experience I had last time when stumbling into the radiance of the sun, feeling out my surroundings as I went furth...

Chapter 339

 We continued on our journey, moving ever further south-west, with me especially enjoying the weather, either blistering heat that made me incredibly glad for my dwarven-made clothes and their climate-control which I enhanced using Ice-Magic, even if it was a bit of a strain or short thunderstorms, doing little to the overall temperature but increasing the humidity in the air to the point that I wondered if swimming in it would work. In short, it was miserable, no matter how you wanted t...

Chapter 338

There was a stubborn core of anger lingering somewhere in my stomach, gnawing at me with the tenacity of a dog with an old bone. Not driving me to action, simply sitting there, a reminder that I was different and in some people’s opinion lesser. Counting to ten, in a trick I had once read about, I let out a deep, slow breath, trying to expel my frustrations with idiots on the Internet with it, forcibly reminding myself that nothing good ever came from arguing with them. I had a...

Interlude: Profiles of Power IV

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Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power

After we looked at the light side, whatever that means in this game, last time, today, we look at the dark side. I’ve heard they have cookies so it should be good. 

Our subject of interest today is one that has garnered a lot of attention on herself, both in the past and present. From fairy-q...

Chapter 337

I felt strangely heavy when I sat down at the table, back in my apartment, after finishing my conversation with Mrs. Wu. Once my mind had gotten back up to speed, after passing out, I had realised just what had happened and what it implied. My first question was just how hard I had hit her, for her to tell me it would have been a lethal blow and how she could just shrug off something like that. The answer was surprisingly simple, she shrugged off her training-clothes, showing me ...

Chapter 336

Getting up and leaving Sigmir’s cuddly embrace was difficult, a true test of conviction and willpower. For maybe five minutes, I struggled, snuggling into her while remembering that I would have to hurry if I wanted to take a shower before heading to training with Mrs. Wu. Finally, knowing that I would have to skip breakfast, I gave her a gentle kiss and got up, shifting into my Hallow as soon as I cleared the bed. Once inside, I triggered the logout and left Mundus behind.&nbs...

Chapter 335

Upon being addressed by the orc-woman, we all stopped, focusing on her. From closer up, I could see her quite easily and noticed that she was quite muscular for someone who didn’t seem to be an adventurer, making me think she was doing some sort of labour. In addition, I noticed that her hands had a myriad of small scars, before focusing back to her face. Out of curiosity, I used Observe to get additional information, not caring about the discomfort it would cause her. Her eyes...

Chapter 334

It was interesting, how the perception and treatment of strangers had changed by travelling south, by leaving the rough and tough northern lands and reached a less brutal place. Here, powerful adventurers were both a rare curiosity and common, in a bit of a dichotomy. There were regular merchant-trains making stops in the small town, named Tagulet, that the inhabitants were used to them and didn’t regard us with overmuch suspicion but at the same time, they also knew that anger...

Chapter 333

“Who are your friends?” Lenore asked using my voice, as soon as she landed on Sigmir’s shoulder. We were both watching the two orcs carefully, curious how they would react and we were not disappointed. At first, they had looked confused when a seemingly wild bird had landed on Simgir’s shoulder, without any obvious commands or signs but when Lenore spoke in a human voice, their eyes boggled, one of them making a strange sign I didn’t recognise but it reminded me of some...

Interlude: Profiles of Power III

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Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power

Today, I thought we would look at one of those who brought an old paradigm into the World of Mundus, the Light-sider. Mundus as a world is quite steeped in shades of grey, many more than fifty, with two Pantheons striving for dominance. Neither of them is what I would call sunshines and r...

Chapter 332

I tried to make sense of the result of my experiment, while Lenore and I were flying back to the others, going over what Lenore’s sight had shown me. Normally, I would have thought that trying to absorb power from anything but Blood using my Blood Magic would be impossible but, as evidenced by the event earlier, that didn’t seem to be the case. Another possibility was that by using my Athame as a template, or rather the enchantment placed upon it, I had inadvertently created ...

Chapter 331

Once Lenore took to the air, with me watching from the inside, I was once more intrigued by the sheer amount of information she was gathering while flying. While she wasn’t consciously thinking about it, I was able to focus on the instinctual mental processes, those small, subconscious things that allowed coordinated movement and balance. I wasn’t sure if the amount of information came from her ever-increasing ability with Air-Magic or if she always had been that aware but sh...

Chapter 330

Smiling, I let my latest experiment float in front of me, inspecting the runes closely. Walking along the old, imperial road had allowed me to fully focus on my work, without even having to watch my steps. The last week, I had simply been walking next to Sigmir, letting her make sure I wasn’t running into something and had focused on my experiments.

That had led to a few slightly surreal moments, when I hadn’t paid any attention to my surroundings for the day and, when ...

Chapter 329

“Finally…” I muttered, stepping onto the old, imperial road.

It had been two days since Sigmir and I had talked things out, about my fears of being left behind by her and the subsequent events. Since then, the connection between us had remained steady, allowing me to constantly know her position and, as long as we were within about a hundred meters of each other, I also knew her general emotional and physical state. At first, the connection had been a little distracti...

Interlude: Profiles of Power II

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Hey Guys and welcome back to the Profiles of Power

This time, the person we are profiling was less forthcoming than last time so we actually have to work for the information we are looking for. In this thread, I want to take a look at Clavran, the Gladiator who managed to rise in the Arena-Ranks of the human Empire. 

Let’s start with the reas...

Chapter 328

It took us a minute or five until either Sigmir’s or my own body were capable of doing more than shaking and clinging to the other, as waves of sensation were sweeping through us. I had never felt anything even remotely close to it, a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain, as if every nerve in my body was lighting up at the same time.

Finally, I was able to lean back a little, my body slick with sweat and looked at Sigmir, trying to get my mind back into a semblance of ...

Chapter 327

“Would you walk with me for a moment?” Sigmir asked me in the evening, after we had eaten dinner. It had been a little over a day since I had returned from my short time-out on Earth and my time had been filled with studying magic together with Lenore.

“Certainly.” I agreed after a moment of hesitation. The hesitation came from the seriousness that was in her tone, a solemness that made me dread what she might want to talk about. I had laughed about people saying th...

Chapter 326

The reality of Sigmir crossing the second divide filled me with a lot of pride but also a bit of jealousy and a deep-seated fear. There was a small, tiny part in my subconsciousness that whispered ideas into my mind, ideas of betrayal and being discarded, just like I had been discarded by my old team, replaced with a newer, shinier model. Just the fact that I had those feelings annoyed me, that there was a part of me that didn’t trust Sigmir. I wanted to trust her, to be able t...

Chapter 325

It had been a strange experience, spending a whole day in the real world, not logged into Mundus. Partially due to the slight incongruity between my normal body and my avatar but also because the surroundings were so different. On Mundus, I spent most of the time walking while more or less lost in my own head, either thinking or conversing with Lenore. At times, I talked to Sigmir, took in the scenery or kept an eye out for danger but the last was mostly the domain of Adra and Ra...

DLM- Bk 5, Ch 8

“This exercise worked out quite well, I would say. From now on, you’ll get a copy of the proposals I get, to read through and formulate a response and also the responses I ultimately send back, with my reasoning for that particular response. The idea is that you can see how the Guild in general and I in particular judge where and how we intervene outside of emergencies.” Andrea explained, after we had talked about a few of the examples she had sent me the day before.

...

Interlude: Frozen Spire

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Welcome, Traveller, to the Frozen Spire.

You have come here in search of something, for what? Maybe even you, yourself, do not know. But now, that you have climbed the spire, braved freezing wind and treacherous ice, you find yourself in my domain. Step carefully or you mind find that you will stay, stay for an eternity, frozen in body, mind and soul.

FrozenSpire.avi

For a moment, t...

Chapter 324

Sitting on my newly established throne, I pulled up the interface connecting me to my computer. I still preferred to have a visual representation, even if I could theoretically work without one, so I created a keyboard and mouse from crystal clear ice with blood red letters, letting them float in front of me. They were quickly joined by a set of screens, the borders defined by dark, floating shadows with thin wisps floating off, creating the appearance of holes in reality through...