Gradually, the other members of Mina’s group agreed to share with the opposing team.
She thought the teenager and the older gentleman who had initially objected remained a little reluctant. But they conceded, perhaps because everyone knew that she had been the main actor in solving the challenge.
The huddle broke up, and the victorious team members each grabbed their sack and began dividing the provisions. The other team looked on in what appeared to be confusion.
Mina was...
2023-10-24 20:16:12 +0000 UTC
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James reached out to Anansi and gripped the extended limb by pure instinct.
Something inside him was deeply attracted by those words. “Dreamwalk with me.”
And then the whole environment disappeared from around them. James was plunged into what seemed an almost pure darkness and emptiness. Even the ground beneath his feet seemed to have fallen away. The only thing he felt was Anansi’s touch. He dimly saw that Anansi was there with him, although it was only the shape of the go...
2023-10-24 00:21:43 +0000 UTC
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“Congratulations, James!” The voice was familiar, jovial—and grating, despite having a generally smooth and pleasant sound. James was immediately annoyed to hear from Anansi, since he was now certain the Spider God had put him through his recent ordeal.
Which meant that none of it was serious.
Some sort of game? An amusement for a bored god?
“Hello Anansi,” James said, trying to keep his voice neutral. He still couldn’t see the Spider Go...
2023-10-20 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Nikolai Rostov’s eyes focused once more.
He blinked twice and tried to clear the frustrated look from his face as quickly as possible. This had been one of his least productive conferences with Moloch since he became the god’s Chosen One. Moloch cared little for the happiness of his instruments, as only became more apparent with each contact.
I would have thought he would at least be interested in helping me recover the escaped prisoners. But no. If you want somet...
2023-10-19 19:09:17 +0000 UTC
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Mina recalled how the System Homunculus had explained magic as she charged her Mana.
It was the first time she’d practiced outside the Tutorial.
Activate the Skill. Basic Elemental Magic: Water! Speak the words that come into your mind. Let your body go with the feelings that rise in it to accompany the words. Hold the image in your head of the shape and the action that you want from the Mana. This is not real water until it materializes from your Will. You control the quant...
2023-10-18 21:41:20 +0000 UTC
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I definitely want to tell the story of what happens in their Orientation, but I'm not sure if I should constrain it to fit within the current format (chapters of Volume 2) or if I should just say, "To heck with space constraints, I'll write a separate book for it!"
I'm looking for feedback on whether it fits better as material for Volume 2 (which will be posted on Royal Road) or a separate book (which would be Patreon exclusive for now at least).
2023-10-17 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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How the hell do I get myself into these situations?! James asked himself, exasperated.
He didn’t think he’d misinterpreted Anansi’s invitation.
But it was a bit hard to believe that the Spider God had invited him here, mentioned his arrival to his monstrous sons, and yet failed to make any efforts to assure the safety of his guest.
Maybe Anansi had lied to him. Perhaps he was taking the Spider Queen’s death more seriously than James had imagined, so he’d d...
2023-10-17 15:56:13 +0000 UTC
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The camp was alive with the sound of murmurs.
People talking quietly among themselves about the newcomers, and almost as much about who wasn’t there.
So, you really didn’t come back, Sierra thought. The idea was slightly offensive, for some reason, even more than it was frightening to think about the group of people who had been capable of killing him.
James was supposed to protect you and the group all the way to the end, and then you forgive him for killin...
2023-10-17 00:26:05 +0000 UTC
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James looked all around himself. He was in a small, circular chamber with three exits. The diameter of the room would have been roughly double his current height, and the ceiling stood roughly a foot above his head.
The walls were nondescript smooth gray stone. The room was lit by hundreds of glowing green mushrooms that lined the ceiling and the walls.
James spent a moment trying to trace in his head where he’d heard the spider-person footsteps, but he quickly gave up. The ligh...
2023-10-13 19:45:35 +0000 UTC
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As James passed through the opening, the alerts kept coming.
[Dungeon entered! You have arrived in Dungeon: Anansi’s House!]
[First human of Earth-73 to enter Dungeon: Anansi’s House!]
So at least my System Pioneer bonuses will be active, James thought. For whatever a ten percent boost to everything is worth. I could be forced to fight something leagues beyond my abilities, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it ex...
2023-10-12 21:20:56 +0000 UTC
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Mina awakened, blinked her eyes at the sunlight streaming in through the window, and smiled.
She was still smiling softly, looking through the window at the early morning light, when her sister stirred beside her a few minutes later.
“You seem happy, sis.”
“I had a nice dream,” Mina said. “James was there.”
Yulia half-smiled in return. “Was he alright?”
Mina snorted. “He seemed alright. He was actually worried about us.” She frowned for a mome...
2023-10-12 00:57:24 +0000 UTC
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As they fell into darkness, James threw his head back and laughed. It was a horrible, ragged noise thanks to the hole in one lung, but that didn’t stop him.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Jan Roest screamed, struggling helplessly to get out of James’s grip. “And why the fuck are you laughing?!”
James paused his laughter long enough to hiss: “That’s for me to know, and you to never find out!”
“We’re going to die, you crazy bastard!”
“One o...
2023-10-10 22:18:14 +0000 UTC
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“Who the hell was that guy?” Officer Ross wondered aloud, staring into the impenetrable darkness that had swallowed up the intruder and Jan Roest. Once they’d fallen beyond some invisible place, he couldn’t see a thing.
The disturbing thing was that Perception was one of his higher Stats. He should be able to see them. But there was something off about that black void.
“Who cares?” Rostov replied glibly. “No one else has survived being thrown into that darkn...
2023-10-09 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Mina looked around cautiously.
The System had dropped her in a strange place. A frozen environment. Snow covered the ground everywhere she looked, a pattern broken only by the images of other people, a few small buildings, and evergreen trees in the distance.
Immediately, she pressed her arms against her chest. So cold!
Some warning would have been nice. Jumping from Florida to this place wasn’t her idea of a good time. But at least she had warm clothes i...
2023-10-06 20:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Kurt Royersford crawled on all fours, desperately trying to get away from the blazing inferno, tears boiling up at the corners of his eyes.
Oh my God! That friggin’ psycho blew them all up! I have to get away before he tries to kill me. Screw these guys! I have to escape!
He screamed, both aloud and inside his own brain.
Once, Kurt’s Skill had linked his mind to the Corpse Eater’s. But the bond had been severed in one fiery instant.
Now, the psychic scre...
2023-10-06 01:22:23 +0000 UTC
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James raced through the dark, into the tree line, away from the yellow walls of light and toward the one side of the camp that wasn’t blocked off by those structures. The only way out.
Need to get far away, out of hearing, out of sight. Then hide. Stay hidden during the day. Probably need to be underground, so Rostov’s stupid god won’t spot me for him. The next night, I can double back, maybe fly the distance back to the Rodriguez camp. That should make it difficult for anyone...
2023-10-05 00:50:19 +0000 UTC
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James and the cultists stood transfixed, the fighting on pause for the moment, as the prisoners slowly approached the battlefield.
James didn’t mind the pause, since he was still charging Mana as they all stood there. But the moment of reflection was dispiriting. The escaped prisoners’ postures said everything. They were slumped, defeated. Any resistance had broken.
They gave in so quickly, James thought. Then: I guess I shouldn’t have expected more out of peopl...
2023-10-03 20:28:44 +0000 UTC
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The blade pulled out of James’s back, and he thought: Now! I need to get out of here now! I can still move well enough. I just need to heal and–
Predator’s Instincts screamed at him to move to the side, and he dodged just in time. A spear thrust pierced the space where James had just been standing–and he felt an ominous heat coming off the red-hot spearhead, along with a sound as if it singed the air around it.
In a single smooth motion, James pulled his ...
2023-10-02 21:19:05 +0000 UTC
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As the text filled his view and the voice recited absurd information into his ears, Officer Ross looked around. His training and experience had taught him that in an emergency situation, he needed to account for what everyone around him was doing. He wanted to confirm that everyone else had frozen in reaction to the same thing he was seeing and hearing.
He saw that everyone else had frozen in shock—all except one.
Through the glass, he saw that Nikolai Rostov was sitting with ey...
2023-10-01 19:14:38 +0000 UTC
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Once the appropriate amount of earth mana had settled around James’s body, he directed it downward, shaping the earth according to the image he had in his mind.
The lattice-like ceiling of the underground prison slowly, subtly lifted off the ground until there was enough space for a crouching man of James’s height to step under it. And the wall of the pit closest to James formed itself into stair steps, descending into the darkness. Earth Affinity, he had noticed, came with extremel...
2023-09-30 16:20:15 +0000 UTC
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“So, I hear you’re going to go off and deprive us all of the pleasure of your company.”
James turned and saw Sierra standing there in the twilight. Her expressions were usually harder for him to read than most people’s, but he almost literally couldn’t see her face here.
“I’ll be back.”
“So you’ve been telling folks. I hear you’re going to free a bunch of prisoners from an evil cult.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Why?”
...
2023-09-30 16:16:49 +0000 UTC
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“So, are you going to explain what happened back there?” Alan asked once they were around a mile away from the camp.
“Certainly. The leader of the cult of Moloch agreed to let us go, based on the understanding that the two of you are pawns in my evil schemes, and those evil schemes will not harm Moloch’s interests directly in the short to medium term.”
“Wait, Moloch?! The evil god that people were sacrificing babies to in the Bible?!” Alan exclaimed.
“That do...
2023-09-30 16:15:54 +0000 UTC
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“Well, of course that’s not my intention,” James said. Perhaps not very convincingly, but that was alright. A plan was beginning to form in his mind.
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds after James’s pronouncement, and then they passed through the area of camp with the line of tents. Rostov seemed to recall at this point that he had said he was giving James a sort of tour of the camp.
“You’ve already seen the statue, of course. And these tents house most of ...
2023-09-30 16:14:49 +0000 UTC
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James could sense the speaker bending toward him, leaning in closer and closer to the ground. He had a split-second to make a decision. It wasn’t fight or flight, it was fight or give in.
“Alright, you got me,” he said, dispelling Natural Camouflage.
“Holy shit!” Officer Ross exclaimed. “There was a guy just blending into the ground!”
“The System works in fascinating ways,” the accented man said. He laid a hand on James’s shoulder. “Get up, then, nice a...
2023-09-30 16:13:26 +0000 UTC
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“Who’s going with you?” Cliff asked when he announced this plan. James wondered if the lawyer still felt excluded despite being given his own, equally important task.
It was reasonable that Cliff might feel excluded this time. James was deliberately excluding him, since Cliff’s boisterous interpersonal style could complicate any negotiations with the other camp. And with James the current power in their own camp, proximity to him could be instinctively recognized as valuable and...
2023-09-30 16:11:51 +0000 UTC
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The rest of the evening was spent in celebration.
The family gathered as a group to eat together, tell stories, sing, and dance. A couple of them even had instruments, a guitar and a harmonica. There was a festive atmosphere at dinner.
While Cliff and James sat and ate, Alan and Mitzi danced with a surprising spryness and energy. James found himself thinking that perhaps the System would bring a second springtime for many old-timers. It brought a smile to his face. He’d often th...
2023-09-30 15:58:59 +0000 UTC
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Sierra approached James as he stepped out of the forest. The sun was rising behind him. The new day found her tired and bleary-eyed. After her nap, she had barely slept during the night. She’d tossed and turned, guilty about the danger she’d placed Chava in.
He was a terrible leader. A coward who sent his family into harm’s way while staying behind himself. Almost certainly a misogynist—machista, as Karla put it. But did he deserve to die? I wonder what James did to him. ‘...
2023-09-30 03:56:52 +0000 UTC
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James spent the next hour celebrating with the Rodriguezes and reconnecting with one of his original party.
“Good move solving the food shortage,” Alan said. “You’ve won everyone here over, probably permanently. I hope you don’t intend to go on many more solo missions, though. You have a fair number of people here who would happily fight and die beside you.”
James read the words, ‘including me,’ between the lines of that last sentence.
“I get it, Alan. Than...
2023-09-30 03:52:00 +0000 UTC
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The figure approached, and Sierra recognized him now.
It’s James after all, just about a foot taller and more muscular. Never thought I’d be relieved to see him.
She started to walk slowly toward him, hoping to intercept him before other people noticed and raised an alarm to Chava. Then a realization hit her that almost made her stop in her tracks.
If I was correct in my theory, James is under Chava’s influence too. How do I deal with him?
A col...
2023-09-30 03:45:09 +0000 UTC
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