“Did anyone hear that?” Timon asked. We had just gotten off the bus in the small town, and as I had hoped, it had appeared deserted from a distance. His sudden words made me think otherwise, though.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Maud said. Maud, Elody, Mel, and Karlinovo had decided to come on this trip. The last three had in order to look for anything they thought woul...
2025-06-22 04:03:14 +0000 UTC View Post“Great, another trip in chaotic space,” Yorela said, sighing loudly before she spoke.
“Not that I’m implying we won’t help, but we don’t really have the resources for a trip like that, and aren’t likely to do so anytime soon,” I replied. I didn’t want to sound like I’d just abandon their city to the monsters out there, but I also didn’t know if we realistically could d...
2025-06-21 19:06:04 +0000 UTC View Post“I am glad to have the pressure of the dungeon off of my mind,” Corey said the moment they were back in my core. I had returned the dungeon to my control and could again feel the strings connecting me to it.
“I, too, am happy to be back in the compass. I am surprised how well you handle the stress of being Dave’s second core Corey,” Gamma said as their form materialized next to Co...
2025-06-21 18:43:59 +0000 UTC View Post“Gnome free me!” the core screamed as I placed it down on the table beside the other, much more inert cores. The room rattled slightly with the strength of its order. Had this been a mistake?
Before I could move the core back to my storage, though, Pryte spoke. “No. I have no interest in being controlled by a dungeon core, and I would appreciate it greatly if you coul...
2025-06-21 18:20:16 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay, everyone, listen up!” I yelled. We had finally gotten all the people unloaded from the buses, and I was standing in the middle of the crowd. My first attempt at getting their attention hadn’t gone well. But thanks to Connie and some vocal enhancing magic, this yell had been loud enough to drown out everything else. It may have also scared away many local animals. I’d...
2025-06-21 18:17:59 +0000 UTC View PostJust wanted to let everyone know what I said on the discord, I'm currently bulk editing through chapter 200, and I want to have them all up by Monday. (I may stretch it into Monday night, but I'm hoping not to.) Starting either tomorrow night or Saturday morning I'll begin their posting. This will get me back ahead of where I was before the kidney stones. Thanks for sticking around through that guys.
2025-06-20 06:18:52 +0000 UTC View PostI was having trouble answering any of the brothers’ questions, between the fight, the mana loss, and the thing that had dug into my mind, the concept of focusing on the world around me didn’t work. I was grateful that they had saved me, and hopefully, soon, I’d be able to communicate as much, but at that moment, language didn’t process very well. I felt something being shoved ...
2025-06-18 22:26:13 +0000 UTC View Post“So, how exactly is this supposed to work with Grant anyway?” I asked as I took my seat near the front. I had been too busy with other matters to really hear Mel and Timon’s plans for what Grant would be doing during any potential fight.
“Grant’s gonna hit anything in front of us before it becomes a problem. He should have enough ordinance ta get us back,” Mel replie...
2025-06-16 06:26:20 +0000 UTC View PostSomehow, we had done it. Every single Reltleon was loaded onto the transports—all two thousand three-hundred and twelve of them. I didn’t even care how far off Glunderlin’s census data had actually been, because we had done it. we had even gone above and beyond that. The City had been entirely stripped. More still, we had even managed to take every crop, garden, and tree with...
2025-06-15 04:23:52 +0000 UTC View PostIt shouldn’t have come as any surprise to me. This had all been going far too well. We had cleared out the entire outer ring of buildings. The brothers had even returned from their mission, ready to prepare to transport the livestock. Of course, that couldn’t last.
“Look, I already told the mayor, I’m not leaving. This is my home. We built this place to finally give s...
2025-06-12 03:12:44 +0000 UTC View Post“I still don’t understand how that ability of yours works. I’ve honestly never heard of a class like that,” Elicec said to his brother as they made their way across the landscape.
“No one does, that’s the point. I got offered a lost class and you can’t argue that it’s working pretty well so far. Sure we had to have Pryte buy me that Crop Farming class, but the re...
2025-06-10 16:37:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment I woke up that morning, I pulled up a chat window. I had to know what the hell had just happened, what we agreed to, and why Karlinovo had been so quick to capitulate suddenly.
__________
>Dave: Why did we agree to that? Who the hell is Otis?
>Corey: I concur with Dave’s sentiment. I did not enjoy being once again ...
2025-06-09 19:13:24 +0000 UTC View Post“Is that a rocket launcher?” Alex asked, dropping her spoon in mid-soup scoop, her voice sounding intrigued. I couldn’t say I blamed her either, she was my daughter after all, and had inherited a lot of my technology interests. I hadn’t seen any tech like it used yet, so where the hell had Mel gotten it?
“I believe so. Though Mel has special ammunition for it,” Grant...
2025-06-07 18:46:26 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m telling you it just opened on its own,” one of the guards said frantically.
“Does the Traveler working the gate agree?” I asked. I had no idea who they specifically had as I had only met Traveler Thirty-Two, but that implied there were at least thirty-one others.
“I do,” said a purple cone that had suddenly appeared floating in front of me.
“...
2025-06-05 04:05:40 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s inside!” one of the guards yelled as I reached the door. I looked behind me and found the squad, plus the other librarians. Considering what Elody had said about Yorela, it was likely for the best that she was here.
From inside the building, I could already make out the sounds of screams and metal clashes. How had the thing come through the gate? Had they opened i...
2025-06-02 06:06:55 +0000 UTC View PostThe core beasts were still within sight, and screaming barely comprehensible gibberish at us as we slipped through the door. This time, instead of sealing it behind us, we left it wide open for the world. I shook my head, still unhappy at the idea of just what we were doing here, but I accepted it had to be done.
“Man, remember what happened when you tried to run through t...
2025-06-02 02:21:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe cores, it turned out, were stored in a maintenance room near Elody’s old office. Alex, determined to do something this trip, had decided to accompany me to grab them, despite my claims that it was likely to be nothing special. Inside the room, all we found were a dozen cores sitting in sockets similar to what Traveler utilized near the gate.
“Hey, are any of you guys...
2025-05-31 06:50:00 +0000 UTC View PostMel carefully ran one of his extended arms over the wall behind the countertop he had spent so many years manning. He had been kicking himself since the moment they fled without being able to raid his storehouse, but he knew it couldn’t be risked. Even if they had managed to do their trip and return without being searched, he had been sure it would happen at any moment once he reach...
2025-05-29 01:13:57 +0000 UTC View Post“Your name is David Imogen, and yet you prefer to only be referred to as Dave. Explain the concept,” the voice said as the pressure inside my head increased. I had no idea why the core was interested in my name, let alone the fact that I generally used my shorter name.
“Which concept do you want explained? The idea of names or the idea that people can have more than o...
2025-05-28 01:03:51 +0000 UTC View Post“Where are we taking it? This place is huge, and anywhere we set up is going to attract a lot of attention that we don’t have the power to stop,” Yorela said. She didn’t sound remotely against the idea, just unsure of how to do it practically.
“We can take it all. I wasn’t originally planning to, but things have shifted on how much we can haul with us. All of Smit...
2025-05-26 13:32:39 +0000 UTC View Post“Damn, this is likely going to complicate everything. Is Quarilyn even still here?” I asked as the bus pulled to a stop near one of the transport docks.
“Yes, she and another librarian are somewhere inside. It also looks like she re-enabled my access at some point, as now that we are this close, I sense most of the functions of the archives again. This may turn out to...
2025-05-25 12:40:19 +0000 UTC View Post
“I don’t care how much ya hate it, we’re doing it!” Mel yelled at Timon as he floated near the front of the bus, seemingly moving randomly with every quick movement the bus made as Timon drove.
We had quickly made our exit from Smithtown. With the new, very hard deadline sitting over us, we didn’t have any choice but to plan as we went. Grant had been left behind w...
2025-05-25 06:05:41 +0000 UTC View Post“Uh, yeah, hi, Cecile and Elicec are here as well,” I said, spotting Cecile waving to them when I said his name. “What’s going on exactly? You look like you’re packing up.”
“We are, or were. Was there really a horror on the highway?” one of them asked.
“Damn right there was. So keep it closed like Timon said. Now, where the hell is Glunderlin? We nee...
2025-05-22 21:41:42 +0000 UTC View PostNo one else brought up a new orb increase, so I wasn’t about to make the tension any worse. Then again, it was possible that only I got the second one. I did have a unique situation going on right now. So, continuing my distraction from the realities outside the bus, I pulled up my Body-Enhancing orbs.
Mana Orb
~Body-Enhancing Orb (3)~ 2025-05-20 20:04:12 +0000 UTC View Post
I expected a boring trip, but to my surprise, shortly after entering the tunnels, I got a slew of notifications. The noise around the bus suggested something similar had happened all around. Why now? This hadn’t happened before during the previous trip.
Mana Orb Rank Increase
Mana Orb Rank Increase
Mana Orb Ran...
2025-05-20 06:46:24 +0000 UTC View Post
By the time I reached the dining hall, I found Glorp and his siblings already sitting in front of plates of scrambled eggs and toast, and Rabyn sitting across from them discussing the finer points of pastry making. Glorp’s oldest sister seemed to be the most interested in his words, and it looked like Rabyn might have found another apprentice already. I was impressed.
I woke up with the distinct memory of a new attribute having appeared right before my eyes shut for the night. I pulled up my status to quickly check it, and found that I hadn’t been remembering wrong. I now had something called core influence. I could guess what that meant, but it was interesting that I had gained it now.
Unlike my other attributes at this point, I was on...
2025-05-18 06:48:22 +0000 UTC View Post
“I’m coming. I left some stuff behind when we made our quick getaway last time, mostly shit I thought I’d never need again, but now I want it,” Mel said the moment he heard the question I had asked about who wanted to join us on a trip to the archives.
“I want to come. I know I’m pregnant, but this place doesn’t sound all that dangerous, and I really wanna see ...
2025-05-17 05:24:09 +0000 UTC View Post
“There’s a problem I hadn’t considered with bonding the other core, and I was hoping you might have the solution,” I said to Traveler, later that day. Karlinovo and I had finally broken our talk, as he wanted to explore the grounds a bit and adjust to this concept of having a real body again.
“Am I correct in thinking it has something to do with the materials you u...
2025-05-11 06:23:33 +0000 UTC View Post