As the spiders on the ground moved toward Adon, he observed the way they were walking.
Two of the enemies advancing were completely uninjured. The other had a spine piercing through one side of its abdomen and out the other, but close to the outer edge of its body. And its movement didn’t seem to be affected by the injury. The spine probably hadn’t hit anything important.
But Adon still felt that he had the advantage. Despite being essentially unharmed, the spiders moved awkwa...
2024-03-10 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
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What do you think? Adon asked. He and Goldie had spent the last half hour enjoying the view and going over plans to deal with the Kleptomaniac Dewdrop Spiders. Despite their substantial shared resources in Skills and Adaptations, the two had not hit on any foolproof solutions. But he thought they had the best plan they were going to come up with.
I think this takes advantage of your abilities well, Goldie thought. Wish mine were more useful.
During the c...
2024-03-09 21:32:20 +0000 UTC
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Princess Rosslyn swung her practice sword in a wide arc, then made a little loop to avoid a parry—and just fell short of landing her blow.
The slave—the woman who Rosslyn now knew was called Tilly—had pulled her body back slightly, so the tip of the weapon just barely failed to touch her armor. Then she was counter attacking, forcing Rosslyn onto the back foot.
The duel continued as it had for the last hour, the only spectators present Sir Jaren and a couple of bodyguards. R...
2024-03-09 04:13:39 +0000 UTC
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“After you were gone, we used a rope to lower someone down into the pit to investigate. Our unfortunate volunteer barely survived, although I believe he’ll be as good as new soon since we got him some prompt healing. When he regained consciousness, he described the creatures that had attacked him. Those descriptions fit with what I had been, ah, concerned about. I remembered a monster from my Orientation, and our volunteer’s report fit them to a tee.”
James listened closely to t...
2024-03-08 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Are you crazy?! Goldie thought. Mantises eat spiders! You went out looking to fight with one?
In retrospect, Adon probably should have realized what sort of reaction Goldie might have to the news that he’d fought something bigger than any bug he had ever seen before.
No, he sent in a defensive tone, I wanted to kill a little lizard, but the mantis beat me to it. But that let me sneak up on her while she had her guard down.
Goldie stared ...
2024-03-08 03:51:08 +0000 UTC
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After James completed his shopping trip and said farewell to the Dungeon Core—who still seemed to be relieved and slightly surprised that he’d spared her at all—he met up with Alan and Mitzi. Alan reported that they had collected all the potatoes in sight in their bags, and then the trio resumed their voyage.
The flight was largely uneventful, though there was a surprising moment when they had to take a detour to stay away from what appeared to be an epically large and dangerous t...
2024-03-07 19:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Adon swung down toward the mantis, webbing firmly clutched between his front legs, and the mantis’s head turned.
But as Adon lunged toward the mantis, she clearly looked and saw the web moving right toward her face, and she ducked. It wasn’t enough to completely avoid the net, but only a corner touched her. It stuck over one eye, and as the mantis stepped backward, the whole net came with her, pulling free from Adon’s front legs and trailing behind her like a bridal veil.
2024-03-06 19:27:54 +0000 UTC
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After Alan and Mitzi had recounted the journey from their home to the Fisher Kingdom, James asked them if they minded the idea of a pit stop.
“Not at all,” Mitzi said.
Alan shook his head in agreement. He was fairly certain that Mitzi wanted a restroom break but was hoping someone else would bring it up first. It was her body language that gave it away to him. And now they happened to be flying over a shopping center that had a few intact buildings.
Most of what they’d...
2024-03-05 20:00:07 +0000 UTC
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After the meeting finished, Mitzi and Alan watched James and his family from a distance as they spoke to their new subjects.
James found ways to make everyone who approached him feel important for at least a moment or two. Mitzi could tell by the way their faces lit up. He also seemed to be giving out responsibilities, based on how serious some people looked as they nodded in response to his words.
It was clear that James had become more comfortable with being in command over time...
2024-03-05 02:01:29 +0000 UTC
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The morning after the frenzied construction effort, Adon was tired and out of sorts.
Even though I don’t actually sleep, per se, it seems that late nights still take their toll.
But it was worth it. Beside him, supporting its own weight and gently moving with the breeze, stood a very rudimentary spider web—er, caterpillar’s web! Assessed objectively, it looked like a spider’s web might have looked after a cat swiped its paw through it and tore pieces of it away. T...
2024-03-05 01:09:00 +0000 UTC
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Adon worked through the end of the afternoon and into the evening.
He had trouble just trying to execute the initial steps Goldie had described. He repeatedly found himself with multiple strands stuck to his body, forced to eat his way free in order to escape his own tangled mess.
How do spiders do it? he thought. I’m not even at the hard part yet!
Adon had started by creating a first long silk thread and connecting it between two surfaces some distance a...
2024-03-04 01:58:28 +0000 UTC
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You. You would fight them? Goldie seemed to have trouble with the very thought. She stumbled over the words in her mind. Almost as soon as she had the thought, she was shaking her head. Too dangerous.
I’m tougher than you think, Adon sent back. I’ve fought some pretty dangerous—
No, first friend. Do not risk your life for this. I will happily teach my silk knowledge. For you, a gift. Please do not risk a fight.
Adon felt he ...
2024-03-02 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Goldie jerked back as if startled.
Sorry to startle you, Adon hurriedly sent. He hoped she wouldn’t just run away from the strange creature talking into her head. I guess I definitely activated Telepathy, then.
The spider stepped back toward the closest place on the web to where Adon was, and she stared down at him. He looked for recognition in her glossy, reflective black eyes, but he could discern nothing. He only saw his own reflection.
These damn ...
2024-03-01 17:00:20 +0000 UTC
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Adon walked slowly and calmly through terrain he had fled through at a run before.
It was strange looking at the world through his repeatedly enhanced eyes. There was a kaleidoscopic whirl of colors everywhere, as his eyes took in more information and a wider variety of colors than even his human eyes had experienced in the past. There were shades that he found he didn’t even have a name for.
But the world itself was still recognizable, as long as he moved through it slowly—th...
2024-02-29 23:30:50 +0000 UTC
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Rotter began to speak from behind the podium.
“My name is Jeremiah Rotter, and I am one of those who experienced Orientation beside this man,” he began, gesturing toward James. Some loud whooping came from the crowd. “Yes, that’s right! It was amazing. If anything, he understated all the crazy shit he did!” There was laughter. James kept his expression neutral, though he found Rotter’s words slightly embarrassing. “Seriously. He didn’t mention the time he saved us from a...
2024-02-29 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Adon focused again on that orb of light he had felt within himself.
The round orange light that floated suspended in a field of darkness reappeared before him.
He pulled at the orange light once more, and he felt the warmth again. This time, he pulled a little more out, and he felt it flood through a larger section of his body.
Maybe this is something I could use to stay warm in the middle of Winter, he thought. A sort of internal heating system. He was pretty sure ...
2024-02-29 03:41:55 +0000 UTC
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Adon ultimately decided to double down on his existing assets.
It should cost me 150 Evolution Points to get Telepathy II and III. Better to rip the bandaid off now and upgrade it twice, so I only have to endure the headache once. 100 for Color Change II. Hopefully that won’t take as much focus once I’ve upgraded. 24 for Spine Shot II, so I can get better control over my accuracy and more penetration. 12 Evolution Points for Ultraviolet Vision, so I’ll be able to see all the c...
2024-02-28 17:20:50 +0000 UTC
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After Alan had explained what he wanted, James issued another announcement with his public address system.
[Attention, everyone who can hear this message. Tomorrow morning, we will have our first public assembly to discuss future plans for this community, including residency requirements.]
“This way, I’ll be able to address the whole community as a group before I leave to help you and Dean out,” James explained. “I was planning this talk for the day after ...
2024-02-27 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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“Hello there, um, little caterpillar, if you happen to be anywhere around here…”
Rosslyn spoke in a slightly raised voice, feeling extremely foolish. What would anyone think if they saw the Crown Princess of Claustria lurking about the Royal Gardens, talking to an insect that she could not even see? Perhaps that she had gone mad.
She felt a little crazy, standing around speaking to the air, clutching a napkin with an apple and an ear of corn wrapped up inside it.
She l...
2024-02-27 17:26:03 +0000 UTC
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Goddess damn it!
Adon turned his head one way and then the other. Another wave of ants was slowly crawling their way toward him on the log. They were coming from two sides at once again. Maybe that was a tactic of their colony, or of ants in general.
He was almost through cutting the bat’s other wing, but he wasn’t sure if he would make it. The colony had moved faster with their reinforcements than he’d imagined. These darned ants were persistent!
Not as b...
2024-02-26 23:20:20 +0000 UTC
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[You have entered the territory of the Fisher King uninvited. Surrender to him or his representatives, or prepare for battle.]
The words presented themselves like a System message, but they were accompanied by a terrible sense of pressure that made Alan want to stop walking and fall to his knees.
James, who the hell are you?! Deep down? You declared yourself a king? Alan was certain that this was the right place; he’d been checking addresses on the ruin...
2024-02-26 20:00:05 +0000 UTC
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In the moments when the Little Brown Bat’s piercing scream shot through him, Adon’s body writhed painfully. The exposure to that horrid sound at such close range was much more than a little caterpillar could be expected to endure stoically. He held on to the thornbush as best he could, but that was all he could do.
The bat used the opening when Adon was almost paralyzed to fling itself away from the source of its pain.
It sprung away from the bush where it had suffered its inj...
2024-02-26 06:26:06 +0000 UTC
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Dave and Paul gave it the effort of their lives, covering for Sam.
They fired stone after stone, Mana bullet after Mana bullet, as the hogs closed the distance. Paul managed to blind the previously half-blind hog and shoot out the eye of another one of the creatures. Dave managed to shoot the nearest one to him dead with two bullets to the head.
He knew it wouldn’t be enough. Sam slashed the closest surviving hog in the throat, and it began to bleed like the stuck pig that it wa...
2024-02-22 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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I thought it was ill-advised from the start, Dave tried to communicate to Sam with a look. The idea of testing this man in this way. He’s much more dangerous than he looks. So just let him lead the way. Don’t try to show off.
Sam gave an annoyed shrug, as if to say, Why didn’t you say something sooner?
But Dave couldn’t answer that question. Not now, verbally, in front of Robard. Maybe one day, when the four of them were all close friends, they w...
2024-02-21 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“Are you ready for this hunt, old man?” Sam asked as they waited for Robard to come back outside.
“I don’t know if any of us are,” Dave replied drily. “Is that thing even loaded?” He gestured at Sam’s rifle.
“You’d better believe it,” Sam said. “I’m taking this completely seriously.”
“Hm.” Dave’s tone was unconvinced.
“Not that I intend on using the gun if I don’t have to,” Sam added. “Limited rounds in this world now, until we...
2024-02-20 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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“Hunting, huh?” James said. “Well, it was on my to-do list already. Let’s do it, absolutely.”
In fact, identifying people he could employ to help keep the small community supplied with fresh food had been his top priority. Way to make my life easy, guys!
There was a part of him that wondered if these three gentlemen had anything more planned beyond hunting, but their whispered huddle conversation hadn’t revealed it if so. It was just James’s own dark instinc...
2024-02-19 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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In addition to minor familial drama, the morning brought with it its share of neighbor troubles.
When James reached the foot of the stairs, he recognized one of those he’d sheltered with the building he threw up the previous day. An older man with gray hair and a close-cropped beard.
This was the one who was trying to bring up rent for some reason, James remembered. And now that he saw him again, there was some other memory stirring. Unfortunately, it was dim, from some...
2024-02-15 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Mina waited for James to answer her question.
She could think of many things that he might be able to do with the incredible powers he now possessed. She thought she knew where her husband’s mind would go, but she wanted to hear what he would say.
James seemed hesitant. He turned away from her and walked over to the section of wall that he’d turned into a swiveling window. Opened it up and looked out. Breathed in the fresh air. Then he turned, looked back at her, and smiled.
2024-02-14 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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When the morning light hit her face, Mina felt better able to continue their conversation.
She also noticed the possible increased gravity hitting her immediately, she thought. That, and something else in the air. Not a smell or a taste. Nothing she could put her finger on easily. She decided to think about whatever it was later.
James was already awake. After they exchanged “Good morning”s and kisses, she launched right into what they’d been talking about yesterday.
...
2024-02-13 22:27:31 +0000 UTC
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