D.J. Rintoul

V3Ch7-The Next Adventure

Mitzi stood in her kitchen, cocked her husband’s service pistol, and listened.

The noises of movement outside seemed to be getting closer and closer. She responded by positioning further back in the kitchen and making certain that she had a clear line of sight on the front door to the house.

If Orientation had taught her anything, it was that she could not trust most of her fellow humans in a crisis situation. And her penetrating questions to the System Homunculus in the white r...

V3Ch6-Small Miracles

“Mina?” James asked.

She realized she’d been staring at him, zoned out, for a few seconds as she focused.

“Oh, of course,” she said. “They were our neighbors.” The whole situation felt so strange that she could barely force the words out. “I hope they would’ve done the same for us.”

“Okay. Good, then,” he said, looking at her with slight concern.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, smiling slightly. “We should talk to Yulia a bit. See what she th...

V3Ch5-Family is Everything

One moment, Mina was saying surprisingly warm farewells to the people from her Orientation, Yulia by her side, and exchanging contact details with people who wanted to try and find their way to her back on Earth.

The next moment, she was in the white room where the System Homunculus had instructed her on how magic in the System worked. She was pleased enough with her rewards, although she couldn’t help but think they would have been greater if she had managed to stop the Wendigos from...

V3Ch4-The Fisher King: Part 1

James’s knowledge of power seemed to expand in the moments after he took the Fisher King Job. How to get it, how to keep it, how to use it…

It was surprising to learn so much when he hadn’t even chosen one of the Job options that emphasized manipulating sentient life forms. Perhaps the knowledge that King-type Jobs gave was standardized.

But no. He felt more information trickling into his brain about land and his new relationship with it. How he could enhance it, make it flo...

V3Ch3-The White Room

“You returned,” the System Homunculus said dully.

“Was there ever any doubt?” James replied. He was very pleased to be back. Not primarily because he got to see Sisco again.

Looking down at his hand, he confirmed what he’d felt on his arrival: it was fully healed.

“I suppose not,” Sisco replied. He sounded distinctly unenthusiastic. When James had first appeared in the pure white room, he couldn’t read the System Homunculus’s emotions well, because its face...

V3Ch2-The Last Moment

James walked up to speak with the people he’d just saved from death—or worse.

They greeted him with a cacophony of praise.

“Thank you for saving us!”

“That was amazing.”

“You rescued us again.”

“Thank you, James!”

The survivors were all happy to see him still standing, alive and apparently well, though several of them were unsurprisingly more preoccupied with healing their wounded than acknowledging their savior.

“Anyone else nee...

V3Ch1-Savior

Mina reached the bottom of the stairs.

The space around her was completely dark for a moment, and she turned her head automatically, looking, absurdly, for a light switch.

Then she felt a sudden whirlwind all around her, pulling at her clothes. Green flames sparked to life in the air above her head, then flew around the room lighting torches Mina hadn’t seen in the darkness. As the torches lit, Mina was able to make out the shape of the room. It was a small chamber, lined with c...

V3-Prologue

Claudius Galt wasn’t sure, but he thought, as he caught his breath, that he might have soiled himself.

That’s fine. Don’t care right now. Even his thoughts were breathless.

He tried to suck air in as quietly as he could, though. He ignored the hot, wet pain radiating from the area on his back where the monster’s claws had raked him. And he resisted the urge to peek out from the crevasse in the cave that he’d vanished into.

He’d only just barely managed t...

V2-Coda

Alan found himself standing in thin air.

He dropped and instinctively braced himself for a rough landing, but he fell an extremely short distance.

Just a few inches. He was one of the luckier people. All around him, he saw a half dozen people fall out of the air. He recognized every face he saw; they were his coworkers from Barry, Pesca & MacDougal. Three of them had been on the second story of the law office, so they dropped considerably further than Alan did.

He rushed...

V2Ch63-True Conviction

Mina avoided looking at Yulia and Leo. She had to make her final preparation for the fight.

“I’m ready, Jose,” she added quietly after her announcement. “You can stop casting now.”

“Right,” he replied. The Mana dissipated from around him.

“The main event comes early,” Charon said, sounding interested. “We knew you were the one who would best be able to accomplish this task, but I personally thought you would wait a little longer. Gather more information, ...

V2Ch62-The Performer

Blood splatter from the Warrior’s sundered body sprayed everywhere, although none landed on Mina or the other competitors.

A translucent, previously invisible shield popped into existence in front of them and blocked the liquid.

Well, at least when we die, we won’t make too much of a mess, Mina thought grimly.

“Well, who’s the next volunteer?” Charon asked. He sounded mildly amused. “So many brave humans. I wonder how our poor chimera will endure.” As ...

V2Ch61-Dead End

James struck out with both hands and decapitated the four undead that still clutched at his legs, directionless now that their leader was dying. Bits of skull went flying in either direction, and the bodies slowly began to sink into the swamp.

He used Mass Pillage on them before they could sink too far. There was no reason to miss out on free Stat points.

Then he looked down at the dying Soul Eater, mingled pity and distaste competing for primacy in his mind.

Ultimately, pit...

V2Ch60-Face Off

James stared down through the trees as the Kurt Ghoul shambled towards the Rodriguez camp members.

He wanted to swoop down and smash Kurt in a single motion. He would’ve wanted to destroy the Kurt abomination even if there was no pressing danger to his allies. James was beginning to find the undead rather abhorrent. It was some combination of their grotesque appearances, the fact that they preyed upon the living of their species, and their use of poisonous or infectious agents.

...

V2Ch59-The Fallen

“Well, that’s annoying,” James said mildly.

The sword had been stopped from chopping through Cliff’s neck by a black shield that levitated out from Cliff’s bag to defend him.

“Another sentient weapon,” Hester said. “I was starting to think only you had them here.”

“Cliff just got lucky,” James replied dismissively.

And I don’t have time for this, he thought. If the others had any easy time fighting the Ghouls,  they could return at...

V2Ch58-Gatekeeper

“Are you ready for the challenge, then?” Charon asked, voice slightly brusque. “No more foolish questions?”

He seemed to cast a sidelong glance in Leo’s direction as he spoke the second question.

“Just one question right now, if I may!” Mina called up to him. The hound seemed impatient and easily offended, but the answer to this question might mean the difference between surviving the challenge and becoming dog food.

“Go on,” the hound prompted.

“Wh...

V2Ch57-To Hell...

“Proctor!” Mina called out.

Leo looked at her, surprised and weary. “What do you think that’s going to do?” he asked.

Then a figure appeared behind him.

Mina was no longer surprised to see the colorful image of the proctor step out of thin air. She felt angry, tired, and impatient.

[You summoned me?]

The proctor’s tone conveyed a hint of pique. A reminder to Mina that there were still things to be afraid of here, even if the Wendigos ...

V2Ch56-Lockdown

“Mina! Mina!”

She heard the voice as if from a great distance.

Not now, I have a headache, Mina thought. She wanted to say it out loud, but the words felt very far away from her lips, and her mouth seemed to be full of cotton or something.

Water splashed on her face, and a bright line shone in her eyes.

“Mina, are you with us? Are you alright?” It was Leo DaSilva’s voice, she realized. A female figure stood beside him.

Mina blinked unsteadily, ...

V2Ch52-The Perfect Storm

Mina hovered for a long moment by the doorway, afraid and unwilling to make a decision.

She could feel the presence of the Wendigo that called itself Cara somewhere in the dark room in front of her. It was in the chilled air, in the slight odor of rotting meat, and in a strange, elongated silhouette she could make out on the other side of the room. A dark and imposing shape that loomed over her, although the figure appeared to be sitting down.

She swallowed. Took another step into...

V2Ch51-Demonology

Mina knocked on Detective DaSilva’s door. The floorboards creaked where his heavy footsteps landed. Then the door opened. He looked surprised to see them.

“Ladies, what brings you here?” he asked.

“We need to talk about the murders,” Mina began.

Then DaSilva moved slightly to the side, so that Mina could see into the room behind him. There, on the unused bed beside DaSilva’s, sat Cara. She looked poised. Confident.

But as Mina looked at her, Cara’s eyes n...

V2Ch55-Internal Affairs

The will o’ the wisps pulled at the weak Wills of several wolves.

James could sense it. He could not only tell how the wolves felt, but he could tell which wolves felt the tug of the lights most forcefully.

The scouts in the front of the group were particularly vulnerable. Where other wolves in the pack might have been investing Free Points in Will, they had consistently invested in Perception. This gave them an advantage as scouts, but it made them terribly weak against mental ...

V2Ch54-Retaliation

As James approached the Rodriguez camp, his triumphant strut faltered slightly.

He had been bracing himself for a hero’s welcome, but as the camp came into his hearing range—far greater than sight range in the swamp miasma—he heard discomfiting sounds. Weeping. In the area of the Rodriguez camp, a handful of people were quietly wailing and crying.

“I’m going on ahead!” James barked at those around him. Then he bolted forward at a speed no one else could equal, simply r...

V2Ch53-Hopeless

Author's Note: I am still working on resolving some elements of the Mina Orientation plot, which is why Chapters 51 and 52 aren't here yet. I also took a week off writing for the Christmas holiday. But I don't want to keep you guys waiting without content, so here's the next chapter from James's Orientation.

In response to Moishe’s whistle, fourteen figures stormed toward the position of the Ghouls threatening their camp.

These were all the fighting-fit family m...

V2Ch50-Cold Comfort

Members of the team rushed back to the white circle in staggered groups of two.

First, Jose and Paulo returned. Probably because they were the closest, and they were young and athletic. They were barely breathing heavily despite sprinting into the circle.

Neither knew exactly what had happened. They’d just decided to retreat because they saw the population counter had dropped. They were only able to tell one other team the secret of pixie persuasion.

Then Adelaide and Dere...

V2Ch49-The Last Word

A battle was waged between James’s Will and the Alpha Forest Wolf King’s. In the arena of their minds, thousands of soldiers modeled on the two combatants fought and killed and died.

The struggle lasted for less than a second, and it was a decisive victory for James.

In the next moment, the Ego Antler Spear stabbed deep into the furthest right neck of the Wolf King. The blade pierced through to the place where the head met the neck, and James felt the spinal cord break. And th...

V2Ch48-Poison

The band of humans standing behind James shifted into battle stances.

Suddenly, though, the numbers they’d brought didn’t seem enough. James couldn’t immediately understand why, but he had a bad feeling that he was leading this team into a defeat.

He shook the feeling off. Whether his intuition was right or wrong about this, if he showed any hint of doubt, it would guarantee his force would lose confidence and run. And that would mean higher casualties regardless of the even...

V2Ch47-Mixed Signals

James stared at the wolf pack through the eyes of his Skin Balloon, faintly puzzled.

He finally opened his human eyes and met the gazes of the people all around him.

Well, don’t look at me as if I have all the answers, he thought. But he also enjoyed it. The way they were all ready to move on his word, to advance or retreat according to his say so. The power was intoxicating.

He cleared his throat. First, he focused on Amalia. “I saw the wolf pack. They really a...

V2Ch46-Supply and Demand

“Ahh!” Yulia exclaimed. “Darn it!”

She dropped the pixie and raised her hand to her mouth to kiss the wounded place.

From the corner of her eye, Yulia saw the little powder blue person stand up. Then the pixie blew a raspberry at her.

“So rude!” Yulia said, immediately aware that she sounded silly.

Healing Aura.

Her little cut quickly sewed itself back together. While it did, she stared the pixie down. The tiny figure didn’t bother looking ...

V2Ch45-Blue Angel

Yulia found herself in a vast, green meadow. A big, flat plain broken up by the occasional tree. The space stretched out to a distant horizon.

Her teammates stood all around her, packed close like sardines. They had been transported into a compact space. When Yulia looked down, she saw that they all stood within a white circle marked onto the ground beneath their feet with white paint.

She opened her mouth to call out a warning as Mr. Davidson raised his foot to step outside it, b...

V2Ch44-Nanny Dearest

Two and a half days passed.

Yulia and Adelaide spent time with Mina each day, repeatedly bathing her in Healing Aura.

On the first day, after three shifts of healing, Mina felt as if she understood something about the nature of the Mana that Yulia and Adelaide were using to heal her. She’d been watching them just because she had nothing else to do, but her interest sharpened as she noticed the effect on her own body. There was a fatigue from being healed, as if it was pulling on...

V2Ch43-The Return

James frowned. He paused for a moment amid his slaughter of the combined wolf and Ghoul force and looked at Ramon.

I know what he must be seeing, he thought. His family is dying in front of him. So this is what it looks like when I make an illusion that’s supposed to represent the targets’ fears.

It wasn’t what he’d intended when he began charging his Illusion Magic. But it seemed that False Reality juiced up any deception-related ability. Including enhan...