Kernoel77

Chapter 211: Until it’s done

Chapter 211: Until it’s done

Mercury knew he was different now than just a few minutes ago. His whole existence had been almost stripped back down to nothing. That led one to make a few realizations about themselves. His Skills were tested to their very limits. But he shoved aside all those thoughts.

He had won a <Bet>, sure, but that didn’t matter either. There were only a few notifications that he wanted to see immediately.

[<Astral Body> has lev...

Chapter 106: True Beginnings

And so we fought.

We talked to Ann, who was, understandably, rather shocked. Marie was gone, Emilia had lost a leg, and Chris didn’t have any shell to speak to us with anymore. The archmages were gone, but at the very least, the rift was closed. 

Each one of us had contribution to spend, but with the increasing prices as we grew stronger, and the bitter taste in our mouth from the battle, no one felt like taking the long journey to a town to do so. The altars here had been ...

Chapter 210: Rip and Tear

Chapter 210: Rip and Tear

The walk forward, by itself, was frankly not that special. It was just placing one foot in front of the other. His motivation for doing so, though, was bright as it ever could be. 

All around him, the world crumbled and reconstituted, in a never ending dance of death and life. He breathed within <Rainfall>, knowing that the air of this place would also try to unravel him, same as the ground did. 

Mercury held his existence...

Chapter 105: Tough Bitches

I dreamt of golden waters. Of calm seas, and endless horizons. Of reaching up and grabbing the sunlight in my hands. 

Of beautiful, peaceful days. Breathing deep. Sprawling underwater coral reefs.

I woke up to a notification.

[Golden Wellspring advanced to 4th Step.]

Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. Talents stacking atop each other was potent, and the enormous influx of power in the aftermath of Ann’s ritual was also ...

Chapter 209: Macabre Art

Chapter 209: Macabre Art

Three more days passed with Mercury in Stormbraver. He made more things, like a few cooking knives. He also sharpened them, and even made the handles himself out of wood. It wasn’t enough to get him a woodworking Skill yet, but hopefully learning the basics would get it to him soon.

By the end of the three days, at the evening when he was going to go home from the smithy, Yasashiku stopped him. 

“Starlight-kun.”

“Yes?”...

Chapter 104: A Person named Marie

Marie disappeared from Eden that day. She hadn’t thought it would happen to her, but that was how life often went, wasn’t it? Every danger felt so distant, so irrelevant, until it happens to you.

She’d felt about leaving Eden like this the same way she thought about car crashes. Of course she knew they happened. They were downright common. But despite that, when stepping into a car she never expected to have one.

The peaceful thoughts were interrupted when Marie was shunted ...

Chapter 208: Blacksmithing Project

Chapter 208: Blacksmithing Project

Mercury tilted his head at the spirit child. He was a bit wary, but given his most recent experiences, Breeze seemed harmless in comparison. Almost benevolent. “What kind of game?”

The boy put a finger to his chin, dangling his legs as if deep in thought. “Hmmm… What about… tag?”

“Wouldn’t that give you an advantage?” Mercury asked with a smirk.

Breeze at least had the decency to blush. “What? N-no!” h...

Chapter 103: Hopeless

There were a lot of thoughts running through my mind at that moment. Maybe a few more should have been dedicated to fear… but that kind of blanked away when I saw Emilia hurt. 

Marie moved faster than any of us. She was decisive, and before I’d even made up my mind, she was already coming forward, nocking an arrow, and firing it. 

The usurper swatted it out of the air with ease, one of those arms moving in a blur. “Now, now. Cease the hostilities, or I snap this on...

Chapter 207: No More Nails Surely

Chapter 207: No More Nails Surely

Finally, Mercury reached the end of his notifications, with a small string of things left.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

Somehow, despite not killing anything or anyone, he had gained levels. That… was reasonable, to some degree. He knew the system responded to desires after all, and he had really, really wanted to just go home after it all. But still, three full levels?

[The desire to survive is a major ...

Chapter 102: Defenders of Eden.

How much blood do you think the average person sees in their life? 

How many liters? Dozens, maybe? How much does a doctor see? A surgeon, stitching people back together all day everyday? 

Was it enough to taint entire roads red? 

Well, calling the blood I was seeing “red” may have been doing it a kindness. The usurpers didn’t sport a uniform colour of bodily fluids, see. There was blue blood, green blood, black blood, yellow ichor… All of it splattere...

Chapter 206: Realities and other such Shenanigans

Chapter 206: Realities and other such Shenanigans

Mercury spent the whole day with Zyl. It was amazing. They went for some ice cream first, then ate it outside the city on the verge of the forest.

The farmers and mages in Stormbraver had restored a chunk of it by now. The trees burnt down by Scarlet were growing back, the soil nourished by the ash. Of course, more trees were felled for the wood demands that rebuilding the city took. 

But that was fine, too. T...

Chapter 101: What is a Rift?

We hunted down more creatures within the city walls. One after another, sometimes many at a time, we killed more usurpers of stranger and stranger shapes and sizes. Hiveminds and swarms. Soldiers carved from stone. Creatures as tall as houses with more limbs than you could count.

But we could never fully clear the city. Not with the rift open. Every day, more usurpers poured in. Sometimes, I would feel it. Wake up in the middle of the night, a shiver running down my back as I felt a new...

Chapter 205: A Slice of Life

Chapter 205: A Slice of Life

After coming home, Mercury ate with Zyl. He talked a bit about what happened in the fae realm, and the way he’d been treated. He talked about everyone he’d met; who he’d befriended and who seemed to dislike him. 

Well, none of the fae seemed to really dislike him for any particular reason. It was more that some of them seemed to want to use him, and he wasn’t exactly excited about that idea. So, they were enemies, in a lot of wa...

Chapter 100: Altars

In a room that was not quite a room sat two people who could not be quite called people. 

The creatures wore poor mimicry of human shapes, their skins of stained glass containing layers of horror. One was filled with eyes, the other with layers of material, like a nesting doll.

“Failure,” one of them stated. Matryoshka looked almost the same as before. The brown wrapping paper underneath the glass skin was thicker, as if stronger, but it still ripped, and it still frayed....

Chapter 204: Home Sweet Home

Chapter 204: Home Sweet Home

Zyl’s heart beat loud enough to shake the world they found themselves in. The ground quaked a little every time it pumped blood. Comparing it to an engine wouldn’t even do it justice - it felt more like it caused tiny earthquakes with each beat.

Titania didn’t exactly look scared, Mercury noted, but she did look annoyed. Conflicted, and angry, at the thrones, but also at this new intervention. “Guardian Friaminth, I did not know you ...

Chapter 99: Strengthening the Gateway

Of course, one single evening couldn’t exactly solve all the talking we needed to do. I wasn’t unaffected by this news. It was surprising, and for a while, when Ann was already asleep, I’d wondered whether it changed how I should think of her.

Eventually, I had decided that… it shouldn’t.

She’d trusted me with this. Because she thought I deserved to know. Despite being afraid.

Was it a bit of dishonesty? Well. I suppose she could have told me earlier. Then again,...

Chapter 203: Twisted World

Chapter 203: Twisted World

The shattered space did not last for very long. Moments passed, until everything around Mercury blurred in that familiar way, though the patchwork of locations he was moving through this time made it a much more colourful experience. Bright flashes of light made him shut his eyes for a moment.

He opened them again, and the transport was done. 

Around him, the landscape was strange, and twisted. The space didn’t seem whole, not put...

Chapter 98: Ann the Goddess

Learning to sew was honestly rather fun. There was quite a bit of practice involved, though, and seeing Reya try to teach me was amusing.

Since she couldn’t exactly tell me what to do, there was a lot of gesturing involved, and keeping my eyes on both her and what I was actually working on proved rather challenging. She would sometimes gesture for me to slow down, or tap her feet at a certain speed to show me the rhythm for the pedal.

When I made an especially croo...

Chapter 202: The Simplicity of Struggle

Chapter 202: The Simplicity of Struggle

Gritting his teeth hard, Mercury saw blood pour from his stump. It hurt. It hurt like hell.

But he didn’t make a damn peep.

Mercury stood on the fluffy ground, red lifeblood pouring out from the wound, as his Skills kicked in. <Survivor> was at the forefront of the efforts, his blood clotting faster, the bleeding slowly decreasing. He felt his vitality course through him, producing new cells, drawing on his ...

Chapter 97: A Place to Stay

Before we headed into the city, we took some time to look over everything we had. Without a doubt, we would need to do some looting here. Food was beginning to become a priority, and I would really like to restock my set of spare shirts. 

Armor was less of a priority, since between [Golden Body] and Ann’s barriers, my skin was rather tough these days. Marie wanted decent materials to make arrows from, maybe enchanted ones if there were weapons stored in the keep. She could summon...

Chapter 201: Rewards and Danger

Chapter 201: Rewards and Danger

The treasure hunt was far from over, and Mercury had already received two great boons. And he would wager that he was far from finishing the hunt. 

Knowing that, Mercury took the short moment to gather himself, the forest around him being rather peaceful for once. Of course, the peace did not last long. Lesser faeries, colourful sprites, began gathering around, and casting magic.

Before the spells could land, Mercury took a ste...

Chapter 96: The Frontier

Somehow, someway, we lived in the frontier.

Calling it difficult wouldn’t be right. It wasn’t just difficult, it was harrowing. We had to adjust, every moment, be ready to fight. Being high-strung wasn’t enough.

There were nights I woke up to yelling. There was no time to get ready. We slept in our clothes, because our armor had long since broken a bit. Because when there was screaming, there was no time for hesitation.

A single whiff of plum at night made my eyes tear...

Chapter 200: Treasure

Chapter 200: Treasure

When Mercury finally stepped outside, the area of the treasure hunt was easy to see. The floor beneath him shimmered a soft green, indicating a safe zone. Outside, there was a yellow-golden zone indicating the area for the hunt. And then there was a red zone, indicating the end of the protection from the dangers of the fae realm.

He was by far not the first to step out, and there were already fae strewn around the border of the green area, with the...

Chapter 95: Wraith

Now, among my many stupid decisions, this one does stand out. Because, quite frankly, being out in the frontier is generally a poor choice. It has monsters, after all, and usurpers.

On the other hand, could I justify remaining in cities? When the wards were down, and I was being hunted by usurpers? No. That would be cruel. There were people in those cities that couldn’t defend themselves, people that I couldn’t defend, either. Those don’t deserve to die.

So, in...

Chapter 199: Proving Oneself

Chapter 199: Proving Oneself

With a ring of a bell, the school year began. Mercury found himself in a classroom, surrounded by desks. They fit poorly, and the chairs were uncomfortable. His friend, the one he was meant to ground, sat next to another kid. A loudmouth, class-clown gossip. 

Mercury’s head felt sluggish, barely able to follow the lecture - actually, there was no lecture, he distantly noted. Then, that detail was discarded again. It mattered very litt...

Chapter 94: Fighting

The battles never seemed to end.

Day after day, shift after shift, time after time. Monsters would swarm the walls, and every time they came, we’d be sent out there. 

I swung my spear, dozens, hundreds, tens of thousands of times each day. I swung my spear until my hands bled. Until I could barely lift my arms anymore, until it felt like I was chained down by cinder blocks.

It was a horrible, unsustainable rhythm. Slaughter until I couldn’t do it anymore, then run j...

Chapter 198: Trials

Chapter 198: Trials

Before the challenge there was the baptism to go through. This would happen in the same order that the courts were allowed in, which meant the ruler of Skye went first. 

The fae made from fluffy clouds and frozen bolts of lightning descended the stairs once again. It spoke. 

“Any fae who wishes to join the court of Skye may step forward.” The voice was soft and gentle, surprisingly, and felt as fluffy as Mercury imagined a cloud w...

Chapter 93: Welcome to the Party

I took a long, deep breath to compose myself when Ivan was gone. 

The fact he’d made it to Eden… was certainly something. It did not make me like Sarah very much. But it could also be a good thing. I was glad he didn’t get roped into anything bad, though. Not that I should have worried. Ivan was brilliant, after all.

His relationship with Sarah was his business. I wouldn’t meddle. 

Shaking my head for a few seconds to get back to the situation at hand, I tu...

Chapter 197: The Faerie Courts

Chapter 197: The Faerie Courts

Walking into the large ballroom, Mercury was rather unsurprised to see it having changed. Rather than a stairway to the second story, it was shaped more like an amphitheatre. There was a single stairwell, seemingly able to rotate, placed in the centre, so that whatever ruler of the courts was needed could stride down from their elevated throne and make their way down to the plebians.

Where the second story used to be, there was a set of un...

Chapter 92: Blackmail…?

A week passed like that. We fought on the walls, and in front of them, holding back the tides of monsters with the other Reflectors, before hiding back within the city. Reya was spending every drop of Divinity she could spare on patching people back together. 

The hole in my chest healed, thanks to the potion, and I improved my Qi cycling some more, focusing on regeneration. Maybe, in a couple more weeks or months, I’d be able to heal a wound like that without any assistance. Tha...