Unlike the obelisk on Aldim that conferred a permanent elemental buff, this one was configured differently. Instead of empowering the user, it stripped something away from the environment.
Thomas was trying to discern the triggering sigil by the time Mel had already figured it out. She reached out and pressed a squiggly sigil that reminded her of a snake.
Would you like to unlock the Ophidian Vessel?
Or
Would you like to...
2025-01-07 02:02:15 +0000 UTC
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“What’re we looking at?” Gwen asked, staring at the monster at the center of the altar room. The creature was surrounded by a maelstrom of necromantic energy. The moment the monster noticed them, she stopped her sibilant chanting.
Quest Update: The Impaler’s Tomb
Objective: Discover the source of unrest in the Impaler’s Tomb (1/1).
Reward: [Cinder Ampoule]
Additional Objective: Defeat the Naga ...
2025-01-07 02:01:37 +0000 UTC
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Slaughtering monsters with her fellow Magi was just the sort of catharsis that Mel needed. It went beyond anything her vengeance had given her.
Her retribution on the Stolst gang had been less about herself, and more about fulfilling a promise. It was the natural conclusion of a threat levied and summarily challenged.
This…was different. It was fun. She couldn’t remember the last time she had fun while fighting. Wasn’t that the point? To enjoy yourself while ...
2025-01-07 02:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Heath backed up slowly, his hands up and spread apart. “Listen, fellas, can’t we talk about this?”
“I saw you take the loot, thief!” the blustery man said, pointing his sword at Heath. His cronies slowly fanned out around him, cutting off any attempt at escape.
With a glance over his shoulder, Heath looked down into the ravine a thousand feet below him. A thin ribbon of glittering water greeted him at the end of a very long drop. “It was a misunderstanding!”
2025-01-07 01:59:59 +0000 UTC
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Mel laughed as Gwen and Thomas examined their new equipment with obvious joy. Halfway through the process, Thomas joined in to help her, but he didn’t have her [Blood Tax] title. Not that it mattered. They quickly ran out of animal blood to use, and nobody was stupid enough to use theirs.
“The joys of being a ritual-dumb Brawler,” Gwen said, watching a new batch of scrap get converted on the runic diagram.
“The imprint increased,” Thomas said with a broad smile. ...
2025-01-07 00:36:07 +0000 UTC
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Towering over them at 20 feet tall, the statue pulled out its stone sword and shield to face them. Its head was twisted into a grotesquery, like one of those hunched creatures lining the roof of an old church in England. Mel focused on it, examining it.
[Tomb Statue Sentry (High Copper Elite Golem)]
Mel dodged to the side, coming up on one knee as she summoned a black orb of Omen mana. [Bane of Tartarus] streaked toward the creature’s feet and screamed as...
2025-01-07 00:35:32 +0000 UTC
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Neither of them appeared proud of the confession that the Magi uplifted Earth. That they were indirectly responsible for countless deaths.
Gwen watched Mel with an anxious look, as if she worried Mel might blame her for what was done. In some ways, she was an open book.
Mel wasn’t sure why Gwen cared so much. It wasn’t like they were close.
No, Mel mentally corrected herself. You just don’t remember her. We could have been close, but I don’t even ...
2025-01-07 00:34:55 +0000 UTC
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Before they had stepped more than a few feet inside the graveyard, Thomas was there. “What did you do?”
“Why do you automatically assume we did something?” Mel asked imperiously.
“Because you’re you. Even if you don’t remember us, that doesn’t mean we don’t remember you. If I put a lock on the most boring book in the world, you’d go through hell and high water just to open it. So, what did you do?”
Mel lifted up her [Ghostflame Lantern]. “I got...
2025-01-07 00:34:08 +0000 UTC
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Mel was awake before anyone else. She stayed snug in her bedroll, meditating. Having bought another petrified branch with her Battle Points, the meditation went a little further.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long.
When Mel heard a noise, her hypervigilance took over. At first she expected it was the magic ritual perimeter going off, but realized it was something far more mundane.
Unsure what to do, Mel watched another Magi have a nightmare that darkened her feature...
2025-01-07 00:33:32 +0000 UTC
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Despite the comfort available, Mel slept uneasily that night. Gwen and Thomas had offered Mel a hide sleeping bag stuffed with feathers and imbued with a warming script that required a paltry [Copper Rune Coin] to keep active all night long.
For the first time since arriving in the Convocation, Mel was warm, clean, and well-fed, with a plump bed to sleep in. Unfortunately, she woke up every few hours regardless of that comfort.
There were some things that took time to adjus...
2025-01-07 00:33:04 +0000 UTC
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Mel stared into the fire, lost in thought.
As a result, it came as a surprise when Gwen knelt in front of her. Mel got a closeup view of those assets, albeit a brief one. Oddly enough, she wasn’t really in the mood to appreciate much of anything.
Mel had, technically speaking, gotten everything she wanted. The revenge she craved had been carried out with nothing short of Magi efficiency.
Though she knew she could not take full credit herself, the Stolst gang’s fal...
2025-01-07 00:32:25 +0000 UTC
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“I would hurry if I were you,” the man said in a lazy, rolling tone as if he had all the time in the world. “I saw some of those biomasses on my way up the other side. They’re coming up ‘round this way.” He smiled and gestured at Mel. His white teeth in the dark mouth of the tunnel reminded Mel of the cheshire cat. “‘Lo, Mel. Glad to see you’re well.”
“Are you going to help us across?” Mel asked, curious.
The man put a hand to his chest, feigning sho...
2025-01-07 00:31:50 +0000 UTC
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Mel snapped her hand out, placing [Omen Mark] on Warren. She had been surprised earlier. Now she was ready.
If Mel couldn’t pierce that armor shell, she could eat away at it from the inside with afflictions. Though how she would do that when she couldn’t inflict bleed on metal skin was a problem.
The only option she had was [Decay], but that meant getting up close and personal. She didn’t like her odds of surviving that encounter. Otherwise, [Frostbite Toxin] might wo...
2025-01-07 00:31:04 +0000 UTC
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Mel never would have dared to climb up the side of the cliff without such a distraction. The viking, however, was the perfect diversion. What with all the howling, environmental damage, and general rampage. With Warren’s forces focused on the destruction that the woman was causing, Mel’s ascent was unwatched.
They likely figured the red haired woman was Mel fully turned into a demoness.
Mel came up behind an Archer taking aim at the viking’s back and skewered him thro...
2025-01-07 00:30:24 +0000 UTC
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The unearthly shrieking of the damned filled the air. [Bane of Tartarus] expanded, consuming the surprisingly coordinated group of Coppers that slipped into Mel’s [Hidden Mist].
As powerful as Omen was, it was still one of her weaker aspects purely because raising it was so much more difficult. Not only did [Bane of Tartarus] and [Omen Mark] require more mana than her other aspect skills, they required targets.
She could train them on monsters, but the amount of time she ...
2025-01-07 00:29:50 +0000 UTC
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Warren leaned back and looked up at the stars above, wondering if there was something he could have done differently. Flurries of ash swirled overhead and landed on his weathered face, staining his skin.
The reports had trickled in at first, then flooded as rumor spread, in that curious way it always seemed to.
The Bloodletters were dead. The strongest force the Stolst gang had was no more, and they were done in by a single wisp of a woman. No one else. Not any other of the...
2025-01-07 00:28:56 +0000 UTC
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Halfway through her backflip, Mel looked to the side. Jimmy’s curious, almost pensive expression told her he had no idea what was coming.
Snapping her muscles in concert as she landed, Mel jerked sharply while keeping a grip on Jimmy’s head. She felt the telltale snap and threw him into the bog directly behind her.
Her heels were hovering over the murky waters, a position she quickly remedied as she surged forward and switched to [Firestorm] to push back h...
2025-01-07 00:28:26 +0000 UTC
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Todd grinned toothily beneath his helmet. He could feel the girl was near. The leather in his gauntlet creaked as he tightened his grip on his sword. He knew he was a little slower than the others, but he also was certain of the last position his tracking axe had reported.
She was just a few feet away, hiding in the mist, hoping they would go around her. She was trapped. They would have heard her running off into the rest of the swamp, and Todd had a sixth sense about this sort o...
2025-01-07 00:27:49 +0000 UTC
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Mel dropped to the ground and used [Hidden Mist].
Might as well trigger this delicious trap to see what they’ve got up their sleeves.
Mel rarely passed up an opportunity to kill a Copper Stolst gang member. It didn’t hurt that they were almost always chasing her, rendering the choice moot. So many of them thought they were on her level, lying in wait for her as if they weren’t clearly visible to her infravision.
Her mist mingled with the natural fog of ...
2025-01-07 00:27:09 +0000 UTC
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Mel blinked and turned her attention to the blessing. At first she thought it might have been a title, but it turned out to be something very different. And far more profound.
You earn the Blessing: [Blessing of the Hunt]
[Blessing of the Hunt]
(Blessing, Common)
Spirits of ancient beasts predate the Realmtree’s birth. These creatures are unknowable, but ultimately interwoven into the very fabric o...
2025-01-07 00:26:22 +0000 UTC
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Jimmy did his best not to show the pants-wetting fear he felt as Derrick punched a hole in a tree with his bare fist, bellowing in rage.
The Bloodletters’ leader was getting agitated with their lack of progress.
At first, Jimmy had felt like he had been handed the code to the nuclear football. He was over the moon. That bitch would pay. With five of the most notorious and bloodthirsty Coppers hunting her, she was as good as dead.
The nightmare would be over. Warren ...
2025-01-07 00:25:47 +0000 UTC
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The icy winds howled with Gwen. The blizzard raged all around the arctic plateau, biting into her exposed skin and wounds.
Truthfully, it was nothing compared to the heavy burden of the [Chain of Atlas’] Guilt. Some armaments hailing from Lormar still carried the tremendous weight that was the calling card of the damned.
Gwen wanted to try breaking it again. Few would be comfortable being shackled this way. Unfortunately, the effort would be pointless. The cursed imprint ...
2025-01-07 00:25:07 +0000 UTC
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With petrified branches fueling her advancement, Mel was able to make steady progress where she had once felt as if she was plateauing.
[Bane of Tartarus] had gone from a new toy to a core part of her arsenal. It was silent as the grave until it expanded. By that point, it was too late to do anything about it.
In the darkness, most people couldn’t even see the skill until they were in the middle of it. Omen damage was particularly useful against Acolytes for some reason. ...
2025-01-07 00:24:33 +0000 UTC
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“Y’know, I think you’re right Doc,” Mel said, crouching down low and staring at the moss on the rock beside the babbling brook. “I’ve had an unhealthy fixation on work, I guess you could call it. Really got ‘lost in the sauce’ if you know what I mean. What with all the murdering and killing of people.”
Mel took a deep breath of the cold mist. It reinvigorated her. “My hands were so stained with blood I didn’t think they’ve ever come clean, but you know wha...
2025-01-07 00:23:22 +0000 UTC
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Mel awoke from a restful sleep, even though it had been plagued by nightmares. Seeing her friends cut down by arrows on a repeating reel wasn’t pleasant.
She tried to push them from her mind as she looked through the screen of branches that hid her shelter. [Gaze of the Serpent] showed no signs of trouble.
Rising, Mel stretched the stiffness out of her limbs. Like every day since the death of her friends, she went through a warm-up and training routine to limber her muscl...
2025-01-07 00:22:33 +0000 UTC
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“Ray, where the hell are you?!” Harold called from the cold fog that surrounded the camp. He swiped his torch left and right through the frigid stuff, but it made no difference. It always came back.
“Ray!” Harold called again, cupping a hand to his mouth. “Sonnuva. Probably taking a monster dump somewhere, taking his sweet time. See if I care to cover his ass with the watch lead. Maybe the lashings he’ll get will remind him to keep to his patrol route.”
Harold...
2025-01-07 00:21:52 +0000 UTC
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Mel managed to hold it together all the way through the caves. She saw evidence of a fight and followed it to its obvious conclusion.
Their bodies were cold to her [Gaze of the Serpent]. They had been left there, face-down, with arrows in their backs.
Mel could see it in her mind’s eye. They had tried to run away but had been shot, anyway. They hadn’t even fought back!
“Cowards,” Mel hissed with every ounce of venom she could inject into the word.
She ge...
2025-01-07 00:18:53 +0000 UTC
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“Running will only make this worse!” Mel called out to him, cackling as she chased him down.
Mel took her time, letting the man think he could outrun her. He doubled back while she was noisily searching a false trail he had left behind.
The look on his face when she appeared in front of him was priceless.
Mel reached out and grabbed his cheeks, squeezing painfully. “You’re the only one who hasn’t tried to hurt me, so I’ll refrain from doing the same for no...
2025-01-07 00:18:03 +0000 UTC
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Did the plateau get taller? Mel thought as she continued to climb. Finding handholds was easy, and her Copper body didn’t tire nearly the same as her Mundane body had.
It was such a shocking difference that Mel couldn’t help but wonder what Iron, the next rank according to her status, would be like.
Must be at least five hundred feet up at this point, Mel thought, looking down to the small ant-like figures on the grasslands. It’s definitely ...
2025-01-07 00:17:19 +0000 UTC
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At first, Mel struggled through the snow until she broke down and used [Firestorm] to melt a path before her. It had the extra benefit of scaring off some of the predators that had been shadowing them in the snowdrifts.
They had to make a few corrections to Mel’s original plan, but the course she laid was generally correct. The only problem was they wanted to go in two different directions once they came down the icy plateau and onto one filled with rolling hills, lakes, rivers...
2025-01-07 00:16:41 +0000 UTC
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