Had a kidney stone put me in the hospital early Friday. I'm out now, had it removed, I'm starting to feel more alive, and I may have a chapter up tonight, but I should be back to normal tomorrow either way.
2025-05-04 20:09:55 +0000 UTC View Post
“So I imagine you want to talk about that thing inside your chest there?” Karlinovo said the moment everyone had left the room. He hadn’t moved from his chair.
“Amongst a lot of other things, yes. Has it really been you that whole time since my soul separation?” I asked. I fully believed it had been, but I wanted him to confirm it. The fact that the man essentially...
2025-05-02 06:08:37 +0000 UTC View Post
John disappeared to the kitchen briefly while we waited for Corey’s return, reappearing moments later, somehow balancing a dozen trays of different snacks. I wondered how much of that he could do before his class and levels had come into play. Either way, it was impressive, and his continued smile anytime he came out of that kitchen was a lasting reminder that I had made th...
Even as I boarded the bus, the small thread of energy persisted to the dungeon. It felt nearly the same as the one connecting me to the cores. Would it actually stay attached when we returned home? If it did, that meant we would need to keep greater tabs on this dungeon somehow.
I didn’t like the idea of splitting our resources, and would have preferred letting the governm...
2025-04-30 00:23:17 +0000 UTC View Post“Just head straight, they should be at the end of this tunnel, pretty sure there are a lot of other penguins in there too, no idea why,” I said as we headed further down the ice cave toward the central chamber. I moved to take the lead since my control over the dungeon was likely to make it easier for me to stop any potential attacks. But oddly, nothing came.
Not one thing i...
2025-04-27 22:28:28 +0000 UTC View Post
“So what’s the new emergency that has you all fired up? I was hoping for a few more days of downtime,” Timon said, as he took his usual driver’s seat at the front of the bus. I waited until everyone was on board and the doors were safely sealed before I was willing to say anything further.
“Get the bus in the air, we need to head to Antarctica, aim for near th...
2025-04-26 18:16:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Following our victory on the tenth floor, we had spent several days letting some of the stress bleed away. While there were always more threats out there, my biggest goals from the moment the orc invasion had started were complete. Both my family and Earth were as safe as I could make them in the here and now. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t work to ensure the future of Earth...
“Well then. I believe that makes it official. U-1.9392912^10e37 Earth-107I2T112 officially is under the control of the Empire of Dave. You are now accorded all standard faction rights as a ruler of a universe. And if I can say so, good job on that last spectacle you did. That should make some of the smaller factions looking to gobble you up a little leery of the idea,” Zcalria...
The strength of the shields I put around each of the Pachydresti in view was far more than anything I had ever been capable of before. I was almost taken aback at just how much mana I had infused each of these shields with. My pool had gone from nearly full to less than a tenth left nearly instantly. I really hoped this worked, because if it didn’t, I was going to be useless ...
“No,” I said, having no intention of exiting the fight. I had enough mana to heal myself, as long as I could get the spear out quickly enough. A timer appeared in my vision, surprising me at thirty seconds. I guessed that meant it hadn’t hit anything overly vital, so extreme blood loss was my main issue.
I reached my hand behind me, forcing my arm into a position it wa...
2025-04-21 06:11:19 +0000 UTC View Post
As the timer appeared, I tried to channel some shields to get us ready, but my flows didn’t seem to be responding. Was that just normal until the timer countdown finished? I wasn’t sure. I went to open my mouth and ask, and realized I couldn’t move either. So instead, I pulled up my soul chat to test that.
>Dave: Can anyone see this?
>Maud: Yep, take it...
2025-04-19 11:08:07 +0000 UTC View Post
“Alright, listen up, ya heard Pryte’s spiel, now ya get my advice fer the floor,” Mel said, floating his way over the top of the table.
“Do we have to?” Connie asked jokingly.
“Yes. We’re gonna go over the way this floor works. I kinda skipped some of the more specific details, figured I’d get ta that when y’all got there. But here we are, so it’s t...
2025-04-15 08:04:52 +0000 UTC View Post
I was surprised to wake up on my own the next day, figuring Mel would get everyone up early for some last-minute orders. There was no sign of the man we were calling Santa in my dreams last night, but I had a feeling we’d know if anything happened to him. I had no tangible proof of that, of course, but it just felt like I’d know if something happened to any of the members ...
“So just how did you meet Mel anyway? I thought the man had retired. I was shocked when he reached out to me,” the dragon said as we sat down in the dining room. He had shrunk his form to the size of Trolke now. He still had to take one of the bigger seats the giant had made for himself and any other visiting giants despite that.
“Honestly, Cecile, Elicec, and I r...
2025-04-11 05:11:06 +0000 UTC View Post
“Duck!” Elicec yelled as the flames rolled over us. It was a little late, but around me, we all still managed to hit the ground, avoiding the brunt of the blast. The moment the fire passed I released my tools from storage as people started scrambling into action, following some of Elicec’s rapid commands.
“Corey, get on its back. Connie can you give us something ...
2025-04-09 08:54:40 +0000 UTC View Post
“So, anyone have any idea what to do about the fact the moose ate a shield mana orb?” I asked, knowing this was mostly my fault. Apparently, after not being able to figure out why the moose had a shield, Maud and John figured the best idea would be to grab a different shield mana orb and use that to remove the first shield. Instead, the moose leaned over and swallowed it be...
Mana Orb
~Shield (3)~
-First Tier-
Magical Shield (37)
Requirements: N/A
Magical Shield allows the host to encircle their body with a mana-based shield that blocks incoming magical damage. Further ranks increase the damage the shield can absorb.
Physical Shield (37)
Requirements: N/A
Physical Shield allows the host to encircle their body with a mana-based shield that blocks incoming...
2025-04-07 08:31:39 +0000 UTC View PostSurprisingly, I couldn’t seem to cause any sort of backlash. I suspected I might just need more opponents and more shields being damaged at the same time, and I added that to the list of things to try in full squad training the next day. I thanked the cores for their help and let them resume whatever fun they were having while asking Corey to come with me to the garage.
“...
2025-04-07 08:26:43 +0000 UTC View PostThe big mana orb I needed to play with was the one that had managed to make this all possible. Without the shield orb, so many simulator runs would never have worked correctly. I wasn’t even sure I’d have bonded with Corey had I never found it. The fact that they were as common as Mel claimed was still baffling to me, and the only explanation I could buy for their lack of use r...
2025-04-07 03:08:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Looking at my unspent ranks, it seemed attributes and skill ranks had increased their rate of gain again at level three-hundred. That meant I had a little over fourteen thousand unspent attribute ranks and a little over twenty-five hundred skill ranks. I again questioned how I’d ever spend these attribute ranks, but considering I did have core skills that cost fifty skill ranks ...
Hey guys, I've been a bit sick the last 2 days, but I should catch everything back up this weekend. It is all written, just need to do some final read through/editing passes.
2025-04-04 05:34:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The moose proved the hardest part of finishing off the healing before breaking for the night. Eventually, though, it seemed to understand what we were trying to do and finally allowed Elody and me to clean it up as much as we could before Cecile offered it a few more enhanced carrots. The moose then trotted off slowly back into the woods, seeming to heed some of Pryte’s wor...
Better Lucky than Dead
“Dammit, John I told you the system wasn’t primed yet to take the ghost,” Phil said, sounding annoyed at his friend and coworker. They had been bickering like this all day, and Dan was starting to get real tired of it.
“It’s fine. What’s the worst that could happen, Phil? Besides, I’m late for breakfast,” John replied. As the rumbling around them started, Dan desperately wished John hadn’t asked that question.
“You ...
2025-04-01 01:24:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe moose stood there, staring at each of us in turn, seemingly refusing to leave after its scream. Was this some kind of strange rutting behavior? Maybe dominance challenge? What was going on? I just didn’t have a frame of reference for a moose gaining sapience. Then it focused on John and Glorp, moving its head back and forth only between those two.
“When is the last time anyone has s...
2025-03-31 02:20:35 +0000 UTC View PostWhile they trained, I worked on my own problems and the disaster that was now my mana channels. I was facing a few problems at the same time that seemed to build on each other, leading to a greater problem. I was reasonably sure that if I could find someone capable of channeling soul mana and access to the right life orb, they could solve my problem nearly instantaneously for me, but with our lim...
2025-03-29 20:00:55 +0000 UTC View Post
By the end of the meeting, we hadn’t agreed on much beyond the few things the president, Pryte, and I had already discussed. Grant would be staying with us, which wasn’t really a downside; he was another set of hands who could help Trolke with the various construction projects and add his own expertise into strategy discussions. Earth’s actual military strength and proces...
Will double post on Saturday most likely as well.
2025-03-28 04:07:17 +0000 UTC View Post
“Um, is that an orc?” Laura asked as we entered the kitchen. To her credit, she didn’t freak out; she just sounded a little bit unnerved, and considering the last month, I didn’t blame her in the slightest.
“Ma’am, I am Rabyn, and I have pledged my servitude to Dave. By your looks, I assume you are Laura Imogen, his former wife. I have also taken your son under my tutelage ...
2025-03-26 22:51:54 +0000 UTC View PostI was surprised at how quickly Pryte managed to get all the moving parts into place for the meeting. Rabyn, John, Glorp, and the brothers were in the kitchen getting to work on the meals while Maud had taken the kids on a hike to keep them out of trouble and hopefully distract a certain curious moose. That left the rest of us to wait for their arrival. We did that with awkward small talk and atte...
2025-03-25 22:31:18 +0000 UTC View PostSo we are nearing the end of Book 2. Following the conclusion of it updates will drop to 3 times a week for 2 weeks. (They will pause entirely on RR for 2 weeks after it finishes) and after those 2 weeks they will return to the normal levels.
I'd claim it's because I'm taking a vacation, but the reality is I have some other writing projects I want to push through on.