Ceranai

SOM - Chapter 13 - Loot Lust

After completing another couple of rounds of soul surgery, Luke had plenty of anger and pain to take out on the local wildlife. He was determined to remove [Undeath] from his soul, and willing to push through the pain, but subsequent rounds had diminishing returns. Much like an inflamed wound, his soul needed time to settle down. 

Luke was eager to go back into the city. His [Forerunner] domain wasn’t content to stand still, and his inner [Murderhobo] wanted to loot the old city ...

SOM - Chapter 12 - Soul Surgery

Down in the forge basement nestled a modest living space. It comprised a small room for the old master smith, and a larger dormitory for her apprentices. Rurik remembered his old companion fondly, but so much time had passed that he didn’t remember her name. Instead, the aspect referred to her as ‘Vera’s maker’, after an apparently famous sword she crafted out of thrice infused aeldrin steel.

Though the smith’s room was more luxurious, Luke claimed the apprentice dormitory for...

SOM - Chapter 11 - Truffle Hunting

It was late in the evening by the time Luke finished making his new shield. There was a level of satisfaction he derived from creating something with his hands. Apparently, Rurik enjoyed it too, because the forgemaster offered to work alongside him to make a full suit of armour.

During the crafting process he had learnt about shaping and infusing aether into the shield. This process had given Luke an opening to ask about removing his [Undeath] concept. Rurik had been amenable to sharing...

SOM - Chapter 10 - Fire Away

Adrenaline pumped through Luke, before he realised that the ghostly figure wasn’t making any aggressive moves. Luke recalled how strong the ghoul captain had been at level twenty-five. The dwarf in front of him was even higher. If the spirit attacked, he was dead.

“Are you not going to introduce yourself, son? You’ve made more of a mess than the Draugsvär,” The spirit said. In his ears, Luke heard the words in an alien tongue. It was reminiscent of the grinding of rocks. Howeve...

SOM - Chapter 9 - Forging Ahead

Not only was the apple a tasty snack, but it was more filling than its size would suggest. The fruit was more solid in a way that was hard to explain. Luke would have to keep his eyes out for other consumable loot. 

For just a brief moment, Luke considered going back to the corpse of the grackslau. He was curious to see what it had dropped. However, Luke decided that he had done enough stupid shit for one day. Despite his propensity to get himself in trouble, he wasn’t beyond red...

SOM - Chapter 8 - Run away

I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot, I’m a massive fucking idiot.

Luke watched in horror as at first one, and then all of the [Death Guard] turned to face the house. In that moment of frozen time, he prayed to any god listening that the death guard would just shrug it off, and go back to marching. He wished Luck was an attribute.

Instead, the troop ran towards him. The stubby little dwarves were thankfully quite slow, but the lead ghoul and his undead mount were a lot faster...

SOM - Chapter 7 - Shinies

Once Luke finished re-reading his latest system messages, he forced himself to close the interface. It was hard not to worry about the implications. What if the reason he was in the top thousand was because the awakening had killed everyone else?

He hoped that the reason was something more innocuous.

Maybe Gaia had safely tucked everyone away in the tutorial, or perhaps only people in dungeons like himself could earn levels. 

Luke shook himself. He didn’t want another...

SOM - Chapter 6 - City of the Dead

Cautiously Luke crept back up the beach and lingered beneath the stone bridge. By the light of the strange glowing blue rods that illuminated the city, the streets appeared empty. However, Luke knew that danger roamed the city. He was going to have to be careful. 

Luke’s plan essentially boiled down to going house to house, looting everything useful and killing anything he thought he could handle. There was a narrow line between boldness and caution he needed to tread carefully. ...

SOM - Chapter 5 - Eye See You

Without thinking things through, Luke drew back his hammer and aimed the claw at the eyeball. The creature on the other side showed an unexpected level of intelligence by simply moving out of the way. 

“Watch where you swing that thing. You could take an eye out,” a deep voice with a mild Irish accent said from behind the door.

“Wha- you're alive?” Luke's grip on the hammer loosened in astonishment.

“I suppose that depends on your definition of the word, doesn...

SOM - Chapter 4 - Rise and Shine

When Luke woke up, the smell of rot assaulted his nostrils. Bile rose in his throat, and he had to fight off the rising waves of nausea. Standing up, he moved away from the slaughter.

Once his stomach was under control, Luke got his bearings. His surroundings hadn’t changed. He was still on a floating train, inside a dungeon, trapped with no idea how to escape, while aliens invaded the world outside. I’m so fucked.

It was only then that Luke remembered his injuries. 2024-03-16 22:30:37 +0000 UTC View Post

SOM - Chapter 3 - Hammer Time

As Luke reached the front of the train carriage, he caught his reflection in the window and paused. With his bloody shirt discarded on the floor, his bare chest was visible, and his eyes widened at what he saw. 

When he first started working out, Luke had the singular goal of avoiding a heart attack. Fuelled by tragedy, Luke had blown past his original goals and transformed himself. The system had dialled those gains up to eleven. He almost didn't recognise the slab of lean muscle ...

SOM - Chapter 2 - Blue Boxes

Luke wasn’t sure how to process what he was seeing. The sudden appearance of an ancient city and a river filled with ghosts was a lot to comprehend. In some ways, it was even crazier than the world becoming a video game; it was more tangible and immediate. From the looks of it, whoever lived here had carved a city out of the cavern itself.

The buildings started as simplistic-looking monolithic apartment blocks near the river. Deeper into the city there were larger buildings, but some ...

SOM - Chapter 1 - All Aboard

Luke regretted his life choices as he waited for the train to finally get moving. In the last few hours, he had self-destructed both his career and the tattered shreds of his personal life. If life came with a reset button, he would have smashed it repeatedly. 

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his matted and overgrown hair. He was long overdue for a haircut, but motivating himself to do anything had been difficult over the last week. 

What if Ryan goes to the cops...