The wagon kept getting stuck in the mud. It was infuriating, having to hop out of the almost comfortable driver's seat, trudge around to the back of the wagon through the churned up mud, only to then have to then lift the damn thing out of the cloying earth. By itself, it wasn’t a particularly bothersome chore, but the fact that he had to repeat the whole process every dozen or so feet as the wagon kept getting stuck was starting to grate on Typhoeus’s nerves. The creature in the back did...
2021-07-30 10:12:33 +0000 UTC
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Over the next few days, life settled into a comfortable rhythm for the two of them. Typh would leave their camp soon after sunrise to collect their tithe of suitably levelled monsters from the ratlings, which she would then bring back to their little arena for Arilla to kill. The fights were brutal, far more so than the dire scorpions that had once given her so much trouble, but the lessons she had learned made the increased challenge surmountable. Whether she faced a monstrous version of a b...
2021-07-27 18:03:00 +0000 UTC
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“If you hadn’t come back with fresh underwear, I swear to all of the Gods both above and below that I would be even more pissed with you,” Arilla said coldly as she tugged on a fresh pair up her athletic legs.
“I’m glad you approve,” Typhoeus said with a wry smile, casually enjoying the sight of her getting changed in front of him.
“Don’t be cute. You still need to explain where you’ve been, how you got all of this stuff, and why you gained 5 levels in a single d...
2021-07-23 19:34:00 +0000 UTC
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“And this is the foundry,” Halith said, the ratling woman gesturing to the wide room filled floor to ceiling with furnaces, crucibles and countless barrels and pallets of unrefined ores, powdered charcoal and gleaming ingots of freshly skill forged metals.
The sheer quantity of mana -saturated steel that was being produced in this one room alone was staggering. Even though it was just a paltry base metal, the abundance of it was enough to set Typhoeus’s heart racing with delight a...
2021-07-20 20:04:00 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus watched from the lip of the pit, sitting down with his bare legs dangling over the sides kicking up at the air as he tried his best to look nonplussed. Watching with his two human eyes was entirely unnecessary; his skill [Sovereign's Perception] had more than enough range to see the entirety of their small camp regardless of where he positioned himself within it. Still, he had noticed that Arilla tended to fight better when he was physically present, and it did do something to calm t...
2021-07-16 21:04:00 +0000 UTC
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They set out an hour after at dawn, a small mercy that Arilla seemed immensely grateful for as she blearily wiped the sleep from her eyes and followed Typhoeus out past the ring of glowing wardposts that marked the boundary between their camp and the ‘monster’ infested wilderness of the foothills. It was another beautiful morning, one that caused a pang of longing to worm its way into Typhoeus’s heart. As lovely as the view of the rolling hills and scenic vistas were, it all paled in co...
2021-07-13 20:04:00 +0000 UTC
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It was a cool, cloudless afternoon amongst the foothills of the Dragonspine Mountains, and the clear blue skies were promising yet another chilly night after the sun had finally set. Where the cold air would once again ‘force’ them to snuggle together for warmth inside their small hut, not that Typh wouldn’t want to do that anyway, but it was always nice to have an excuse to let her get close while she was still supposed to be angry with her. Arilla wasn’t sure how she felt about Typh...
2021-07-09 11:01:14 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus finished etching the last rune into the icebox, his iron chisel easily carving the short, sharp line that subtly varied in depth as it rose with the wood grain to form an angular point beneath the sweeping arc above. Satisfied with his work, he pushed a drop of his mana through the working, just to be sure, and was rewarded with a pulse of golden light. The small room started to drop in temperature noticeably as his runes admirably performed their simple task. He got up off his knees...
2021-07-06 12:00:21 +0000 UTC
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Arilla’s boots skidded around another dusty corner of the dead halls moments before Typh’s magelight revealed what was yet another long-abandoned hallway for them to traverse. As soon as she could see the way ahead was clear, she began sprinting again, cursing the heavy weight of her mail shirt, zweihander and arming sword with every one of her belaboured strides. All in all, she was carrying close to 60 pounds of solid steel on her back, and right now, she hated every unwanted ounce of t...
2021-07-04 16:01:11 +0000 UTC
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The opening was wider than he had expected. It looked more like a horizontal slit in the earth where the ground outside essentially formed a dirt shelf a good twenty or so feet above the large flagstones that made up the subterranean floor of the dungeon. Peering in from the outside, he could tell that the walls and floor were made from solid stone, worked and uniformly even, a clear sign that this was far from a natural rock formation. Dank scents of musty air periodically wafted up from wit...
2021-07-02 11:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus awoke inside an unfamiliar tent to find himself completely restored. If it wasn’t for the oversensitivity along the front half of his body indicating the presence of newly healed flesh, then he would have assumed that he had imagined the searing flames that had so nearly consumed him. Of course, if there were any doubts about that, they were immediately dispelled by the waves of agony that rolled through his body as he tried to move into a sitting position for the first time.
2021-06-29 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Getting ready to meet the other adventurers at dawn required waking up at a truly ungodly hour. The only silver lining was that [Alternate Form] had levelled up to 38 during the night, giving Typhoeus a welcome System message to wake up to. The pair threw on their gear by his golden magelight. Typhoeus took only a few seconds to put on his underwear and dress whereas Arilla needed much longer, his warrior requiring help buckling and belting her mail coat over her increasingly worn adventuring...
2021-06-25 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus and Arilla left the training grounds without incident, but as they passed through the Guild's main hall, they were approached by a familiar looking clerk who had clearly been waiting for them. Typhoeus recognised him as the same Guild official from two nights before who had helped defuse his standoff with Medraut’s Rovers.
"Excuse me, may I have a moment of your time,” the clerk said, his firm tone and austere expression indicating that it was anything but a request. Still,...
2021-06-21 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus shed a single tear as he consigned his dress to the flames, the metallic golden fabric shimmering brightly as the spreading fires within the shallow pit rapidly consumed the delicate garment. "I will miss you," Typhoeus said, his voice wavering with emotion.
"Typh, that dress stank," Arilla commented dryly, her hands resting on her hips as she waited patiently for him to finish.
"I could have gotten the smell out eventually,” he protested, his words falling on deaf ears...
2021-06-18 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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After Galen's departure, their evening picked up for a while and Typhoeus made an exaggerated show of waiting on Arilla hand and foot before it took an abrupt turn for the worse. Contrary to what the young noble had said, neither of them had ever had a problem with sexually aggressive adventurers before. No catcalls, wolf whistles or unwanted advances had ever bothered them within the confines of the Guild's great hall or training grounds until now. It was like a switch had been flicked, or a...
2021-06-15 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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When I was writing the first draft of this book, Normal People by Sally Rooney had just been adapted for the BBC in the UK and across the board, it was being praised for its explicit sex scenes both in print and on the TV adaption. It struck me then, that I had never once heard of a fantasy novel with sex scenes that were lauded with anywhere near the same degree of vigour. I know that fantasy as a genre and the Litrpg/progression fantasy subgenres within that are looked down on as childish, ...
2021-06-13 11:25:46 +0000 UTC
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The Old Roads were a relic from humanity's distant past, pretty much the only thing besides the great wards, the odd weapon of mass destruction, and humanity’s grand mutilation to have survived intact through the ages. They were an immense construction, spanning almost the entirety of Astresia as it branched off and curved throughout every nation on the continent. In theory it allowed for one to walk from Rhelea in Terythia, through the great cities of The Epherian Empire, across the Thesia...
2021-06-11 11:00:02 +0000 UTC
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*Congratulations, you have reached level 5. You must now rank up your Sorcerer class before you can absorb any more experience.
Sorcerer - You possess a potent magical bloodline, and as a result, you are given the option of strengthening your natural talent with mana.
+1 Vit, +1 Int, +1 Will, +1 Cha, +3 Free Stats at each interval, mage tagged.
Will become...
2021-06-10 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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They watched the monster tear its way through the goblin's camp in silence. The spidersnake, enhanced by the same magic that had allowed Arilla to stand toe to toe with an ogre, turned the unholy abomination that was the fusion of spider and snake into an unstoppable force of destruction that would haunt her nightmares for some time. When it collapsed and began seizing, she had to look away. The unpleasant memories it dredged up all too recent for her to bear. The final detonation itself was ...
2021-06-09 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The goblin could finally remember the war. He found it funny how the memories had slowly come back to him, first as a trickle and then as a flood, neatly slotting into place in his mind filling a vacant spot that he never knew was there. The old thoughts, although new to him, gave purpose to his once shallow instincts. One moment his entire life was dedicated to eating, breeding and killing the great enemy, and in the next, he remembered why. He ate so that he could become a strong s...
2021-06-08 11:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus was not enjoying himself. As physically relieving as performing one's necessary biological functions was, there was no amount of condensed water in all of Creation that could substitute for toilet paper. A true luxury that he had taken for granted during his brief stay at The Huntsman’s Rest. Arilla was mockingly unsympathetic to his plight when she revealed that she had been wiping her increasingly shapely ass with leaves of all things for the entire duration of their excursion. S...
2021-06-07 11:01:01 +0000 UTC
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"So why are you even doing this?" Arilla asked, her brow raised in question as they walked along the wild fields surrounding Rhelea.
The late morning sun was beating down on them both. The cool breeze from the mountains to the west was notably absent, and without the benefit of shade from trees or nearby buildings, their walk was growing increasingly unpleasant. The wild plants that had sprouted out from the once tilled soil seemed to be suffering almost as much as Arilla was beneath he...
2021-06-04 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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*Congratulations on defeating a level 12 Adolescent Ogre, experience is awarded.*
*Congratulations, you have reached Sorcerer level 2.*
*Congratulations, you have reached Sorcerer level 3.*
Upon seeing the System notification Typhoeus immediately cut the flow of mana to his spells, and Arilla collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her moment of triumph cut s...
2021-06-03 11:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Arilla had always liked stories. From as far back as she cared to remember, she had been sneaking out from behind the relative safety of the orphanage's thick stone walls in pursuit of her one vicarious pleasure. Rhelea was a big town, dangerous to those who didn't know their way around it, but to her, it had always been a playground. A place where slinking into the various taverns and bars where bards could be found plying their trade was her own secret triumph. Each song a priceless treasur...
2021-06-02 11:01:02 +0000 UTC
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"I don't see why I couldn't have picked a sword. This hammer is too heavy." Arilla complained as she collapsed in the sand exhausted. The warrior having long since pushed past her empty stamina pool, meagre as it was, by repeatedly swinging her new weapon at the straw-filled training dummy for the better part of the morning.
"What are your skills again?" Typhoeus asked, his voice tinged with condescension as he called out from the edge of the training grounds, where he was comfortably r...
2021-06-01 11:22:00 +0000 UTC
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Typh led Arilla by the hand slowly up the flight of stone steps. It wasn’t that late in the evening, but between the tears and her labours of the day, she was beyond exhausted. Her legs felt more like lead weights dragging her down than functioning limbs as she made the short climb up the stairs. She followed Typh in a daze down a long hall until she eventually found herself in a small wood-panelled room with a large copper tub sitting slightly raised in the centre.
The strange mage ...
2021-06-01 11:20:00 +0000 UTC
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"So that's three obols for the goblin ears and a further five drachma for handing in the notice. Is there anything else I can help you with today?" The attendant asked from behind the thin pane of clear glass as he placed the heavy coins on the polished countertop between them.
"No, not really, thank you," Typh said, the small woman quickly snatching up the five silver coins, closing her eyes as she held them tightly against her chest as if she was somehow savouring the sensation of th...
2021-06-01 11:17:59 +0000 UTC
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Typhoeus stood alone in the main hall of the Adventurers Guild. All around him, people were conducting their business as they flitted back and forth between the large notice boards and the staffed counters on opposite sides of the room. His return from visiting the class stone had initially attracted a lot of attention, but as he just stood there wide-eyed in his confusion, the novelty of a dumbstruck level 1 mage in a golden dress had gradually worn off. He had tried to study the coloured sl...
2021-06-01 11:16:00 +0000 UTC
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*You have 1 class with an additional 3 open class slots available.
Would you like to take a second class?*
The Great Systems words were innocuous as they were terrifying. It still wasn’t too late for him to back out; while a second class would give him the room to grow into the power that he needed now, it would forever slow his growth. Going from a single classed to a double classed dragon would more than double the 100 years it was suppo...
2021-06-01 11:13:59 +0000 UTC
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The morning came without fanfare as Typhoeus slowly climbed down the steps of The Huntsman's Rest, his bare feet padding softly against the cold stone that transitioned sharply into smooth lacquered wood as he entered the main taproom where the innkeeper Julian could already be found wiping down tables in preparation for the morning’s first customers.
"Oh, it's you," Julian said, looking up at Typhoeus uncertainly as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of the smiling woman standing...
2021-06-01 11:11:59 +0000 UTC
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