Kernoel77

Chapter 75: Blood in the Streets

A month. That was, give or take, the amount of time I spent in Eden before things went poorly. If I were to give an exact number, it would have been forty-one days. More than a month, really, but time had flown by.

The first week, I finally fixed up the gateway inside my soul. Then there were three days of normal missions. A longer excursion, two and a half weeks, to get yet another gateway fragment, this one pried from a newly forming nest.

We were gearing up for another, longer ...

Chapter 182: A Game of Questions

Chapter 182: A Game of Questions

More time passed without much trouble. Mercury practiced smithing with Yasashiku, getting better bit by bit. Was he still making nails? Yes. But, to be fair, he was making them rather quickly now.

Occasionally, Yasashiku would also have him work on more complicated projects, such as hinges. He did decently on those, too. Having many ghost-hands to work with ended up giving him quite a distinct advantage, really.

The days ticked by,...

Chapter 74: Calm before the Storm

I threw up in an alley before I made it to the guild. There was blood on me. On my shoes, on my shirt. It clung to my hair. It was disgusting.

The smell of iron was so much worse inside a city than the wilderness. There were no earthy tones to subdue it all, only the smell and noise of more people. All people who looked at me with disgust, disdain, and distrust.

Step by step I shambled through the city. I don’t think my route was quite right, but I was kind of out of it. [Single...

Chapter 181: Practice makes Perfect

Chapter 181: Practice makes Perfect

“Mercury.”

Only half a page had passed. Mercury had spent his days learning a small routine for once. It mostly consisted of consistent mornings, followed by learning more smithing from Yasashiku. <Elementary Crafting> had levelled up twice more, reaching level 8.

It was a quiet voice that called out to him. Of an old friend. Mercury smiled. “Juno,” he said, turning to the wolf. “You made it.”

There she s...

Chapter 73: Brief Violence

Before I knew it, I was in front of the Golden Dewdrop. I breathed. I’d sunken deep into [Single-Minded]. The talent helped me focus. This time, I focused on walking, apparently, because everything else had faded into the background.

Now I stood and looked at the building. It was two stories tall, made from wood and brick and clay. There was a hole in the wall, and blood on the half of the door that was still left. I heard snoring from upstairs.

I pushed open the door and it fel...

Chapter 180: New Sight

Chapter 180: New Sight

In the evening, they had found Ruvah a place to stay, and it wasn’t in Mercury’s home. He would live in the gloryhall for now, where there were enough spare beds. It also helped that seekers were usually a little more used to seeing strange sorts of people than most.

Now, evening had come. The sun hanging low in the sky, the last rays drifting in through the windows, letting dust dance in the air.

Mercury read.

[The individual has ...

Chapter 72: Ruined Morning

After the morning, we discussed what to do next. My Gateway was fully grown now, but it was not fully strengthened. It took some playing around with [Gateway] and some of Cass’ help, but eventually, I was able to summon up a new menu.

[Gateway:

• Strength: 8
• Fragments: 12
• Figments: 1]

That was all it said. I had no idea what a figment was, and neither did Cass, apparently. The fragments, though, were clear. When I absorbed broken gateways, they ...

Chapter 179: Iridescence

Chapter 179: Iridescence

As quite often before, Mercury found himself waking up in a bed. It was in a familiar wooden room, in his house.

And wasn’t that quite a thought! He had a house now. All it took for him to be able to actually own real estate was… being transported into a whole other world, huh.

That sunk in properly, too. He was in another world, he’d killed monsters, he’d learnt magic he’d-

Oh. That must be the effect of the chains breakin...

Chapter 71: Morning in Eden

Chapter 71: Morning in Eden

It was a new day in Eden.

I woke up in our guild, Dawn of Ambition. The beds in Eden were a little less comfortable than back on the other side… Neamhan. My bed back on Neamhan was nicer. But. This side did have Ann sleeping next to me, so quite frankly, it was all worth it.

Ann, of course, was my gorgeous girlfriend. How she managed to be gorgeous even while sleeping I did not know. She was still asleep, and I decided to let her be.

Wit...

Chapter 178: Ghost Hands

Chapter 178: Ghost Hands

Mercury blinked at the child in front of him. “What?” he asked.

“What are you doing in this city, little storm?” The boy cocked his head, looking at Mercury curiously. “Perhaps not so little…” he muttered, unsure.

“Sorry, do I know you?” Mercury asked. There was some feeling of familiarity about the kid, but he had trouble pinpointing where it came from exactly. And why was he a little storm?

For a second, the boy f...

Chapter 70: Hunting Dogs

Chapter 70: Hunting Dogs

Somewhere, far away, there was a room that didn’t exist.

Someone, though perhaps calling them a “person” would be an exaggeration, sat on a chair in that room. It was a featureless chair, made as though drawn with one continuous line, solid white with black lines denoting its edges.

Without those lines, no one could have told where the edges laid, since the “room” - if it’s worth calling it that, even - was also entirely blank. The kind...

Chapter 177: Frayed

Chapter 177: Frayed

‘Yr’enzel,’ old Uunrahzil greeted him. ‘I see thou’st found a Truth?’

Mercury regarded his teacher and, frankly, friend. He smiled, then nodded. ‘I have.’

There was an undertone of thanks in what he thought at Uunrahzil. The old creature smiled, too, seeming elated with their student’s success. Whisperstar flitted across the sky, seemingly enamoured.

Things had changed in the dream. The dark, patchwork sky was more… co...

ANNOUNCEMENT

We also have a discord server now! To talk about the story, ask questions, or just hang out in general ^^

If you discord is linked to your patreon, you automatically join and get a fancy role letting people know you're a patreon. You can also send me a colour with its hex code and I can make your name that colour c:

For anyone who doesn't wanna link discord and patreon, here's the invite link! 

ht...

Tenets of Eden Book 1: Defiance

Hey everyone! remember that second series I was working on? Book 1 is done! I'm putting it on patreon for all paid tiers, since I'm just gonna include tenets in my already existing tier. Which means, to everyone who reads Mercury, you get a new free book!

To all Tenets readers who are just joining, first of all, hi! Second of all! I hope you love the book. I put a lot of effort in it, and am Very happy with how it turned out! It's not perfect, and probably has some typos and such, but I...

Chapter 176: Slices of Cake

Chapter 176: Slices of Cake

Midas walked into the small house, looking around, and judged it… inadequate. The furniture was made from regular wood, without any decorations. The cushions on it were entirely mundane. Nothing magical or comfortable.

The ceiling and the floorboards of the upper floor were one and the same. In the kitchen, there wasn’t even any cushioning to dampen the noise of anyone above. It was also low. Well, he could easily stand, but he knew Zagan...

Chapter 175: Apology Gone Wrong

Chapter 175: Apology Gone Wrong

Mercury pranced around the house. Their house. His house, partially. Zyl and him signed the ownership deed together. Mercury’s handwriting had been a little messy, controlling the pen with <Telekinesis> certainly was an experience, but he was used to making it work like hands, so it went just fine at the end of the day.

A little ugly. Like most signatures.

Zyl’s, though, was elegant. Because of course it was. Full...

Chapter 174: To Mercury!

Chapter 174: To Mercury!

Mercury liked going out to drink. Even with such a strange, motley crew like his current companions, there was a charm to it. Being able to let loose, and not focus on all the pressing issues for just a little while.

He didn’t like getting completely smashed, though. Having gaps in his memory was something he especially minded. Then again, given his current set of Skills, maybe that wasn’t even really an option anymore, these days.

Mer...

Chapter 173: Disorganised Coincidences

Chapter 173: Disorganised Coincidences

There was a brief lull in the conversation, then. People looking around, seeing who’d speak first. Gazes swiping across the room.

Eventually, they did all find the bishop. Mercury locked onto him first, willing to be patient in catching up with his friends. Then Zyl followed the mopaaw’s gaze, locking onto the old man.

Avery spun around in his seat, draping an arm over the back of it, turning to look at the bishop. His sm...

Chapter 172: Get-Together

Chapter 172: Get-Together

The days passed peacefully.

Sometimes, Nir came to visit. Sometimes she didn’t. Zyl’s mother had recovered from her injuries, too. Fully transforming into a dragon did that, though she suffered from mana exhaustion for a few days as well, having emptied her entire pool.

Mana, after all, did partially come from the outside. It needed to be absorbed.

Then again, maybe <Rainfall> made mercury a bit of a special case when it c...

Chapter 171: Chasing Sunlight

Chapter 171: Chasing Sunlight

The journey home was just as swift as the journey to the mountain. The roles, however, were inverted.

Where Mercury was the healthy one before, Zyl now instead looked much better off. And where Zyl was uncannily gorgeous, well, no, he was still the one looking uncannily gorgeous. Mercury looked as if someone had taken him, wrung him like a rag, then smashed him through a couple rocks just to make a point.

Because that’s kind of most...

Chapter 170: Cats need Naps

Chapter 170: Cats need Naps

Berthorn stood and stared at him for just a moment, then regained his mind for just a moment. “Just die!” he yelled, stretching out his hand.

<Witnessed>.

Berthorn crumpled to his knees, his breath catching in his chest. He was sweating, hard, pearly and droplets coalescing on his skin at the same time as shivers wracked him.

He was terrified.

There was a fear in his heart.

A horror of this m...

Chapter 169: Rain Falls

Chapter 169: Rain Falls

Berthorn instantly shifted his Skill over to Trinya. The beast had not shown any signs of escaping, firmly trapped within his prison of acid and poison. Instead, when he shifted his attention onto the genuinely, fully grown and fully realized dragon in front of him, the warning bells rang in his head.

<Paranoid> was the loudest among them. There was only one thing it said.

It told him to run.

Not a moment later, Berthor...

Chapter 168: Fire and Brimstone

Chapter 168: Fire and Brimstone

Mercury felt a storm crash upon his fur.

No, even calling it a storm would have been inadequate.

Mercury was a friend of the <Wind>. The air, quite literally, would shy away from him. Try to keep him safe. Despite that, the simple act of Zyl throwing a punch created winds so strong he saw rocks as large as him be blown away and smashed to bits, far down below.

The falling stones shattering down below sounded like rain, e...

Chapter 167: Freedom is finding Water in the Desert.

Chapter 167: Freedom is finding Water in the Desert.

Zyl, Mercury, and Irrithuriel immediately started scrambling.

“What do you mean it’s moving?!” Zyl asked, hopping up from his chair.

“It’s moving, Zyl! East, east, it’s going east right now!” Mercury said, also hopping down.

Irrithuriel was up before either of them, desperately heading for her bedroom. “I am not confronting anyone else in these rags, you two better wait for me,” ...

Chapter 166: Gratitude

Chapter 166: Gratitude

“Is it working yet?” Zyl asked.

“I dunno,” Mercury answered.

“I don’t feel anything.”

“You shouldn’t,” the mopaaw said.

“It really feels like I should be feeling something by this point,” Zyl replied, his eyes vaguely drifting across the ceiling.

“Just be patient.”

“You’ve said that for the last half hour…”

“I’m trying to focus!”

“Right, sorry!” Zyl sw...

Chapter 165: Thievery, except only stealing what they aren’t looking for

Chapter 165: Thievery, except only stealing what they aren’t looking for

Trinyakorie sat at her desk - her distinctly damaged desk - and wore a very ugly expression on her face. Her teeth were grit, her nose scrunched up, and multiple veins showed on her forehead. She seemed just about ready to explode, and quite frankly, she was.

One of her workshops had been entirely ruined. Not softly damaged, not in slight disarray, but turned entirely upside down. Someho...

Chapter 164: Tactical Breaktime

Chapter 164: Tactical Breaktime

“Wait, that worked?!” Irrithuriel looked at Mercury, completely aghast as he showed the map to her. Getting out had been much easier, though his resources were nearly empty by the end. Still, he was able to quickly scale a bit of the cliffside and hide there, regenerating, before taking a path that would be completely impossible for most humans to walk.

Mercury just shrugged at her, giving an equally confused expression. Desp...

Chapter 163: This is a Heist Story now.

Chapter 163: This is a Heist Story now.

Nir read over the letter in her hands again. The servants brought it to her, saying it came without a sender, but that it was not magically tampered with. Which seemed strange, because who sent mundane letters these days? But it was the best way to stay unnoticed.

She swiftly opened the document with her claws, reading its contents. Her eyes grew wide at the first line, then just wider and wider from there.

“Nir, we need y...

Chapter 162: Plotting and Scheming and maybe a bit of Tomfoolery

Chapter 162: Plotting and Scheming and maybe a bit of Tomfoolery

Zyl and Nir talked, for a long, long while. It was evening when they started, and by the time they were done, it was past midnight. Mercury had zoned out for a good bit of it at first, when it was about their family things. Later on, when they were more busy catching up, he chimed in.

He learnt more about Nir. She liked to talk in short sentences, and using nicknames. By now, Zyl did allow her to use the s...

Chapter 161: Honesty

Chapter 161: Honesty

Not too long after his first bit of ice magic, Mercury showed it off to Zyl, who praised him and gave him a hug for it. Irrithuriel just so happened to see it as well.

“You’re a little freak, aren’t’cha?” the old lady asked in her coarse voice.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’m calling you a monster,” she elaborated, and mercury narrowed his eyes, almost hissing at her. “Now, now, not that kind of monster,” she sai...