“Well, we did that pretty quickly. I would assume that means we have some time for a break,” I said hopefully as we stepped back into the waiting room.
“Doubtful, our next floor is just a monster match. They can have those ready to go immediately,” Rabyn said, and to prove his claim, Floor Master appeared next to us.
“Ah, good, here and ready for the next battle...
2025-01-15 20:09:33 +0000 UTC View PostI only saw the mantises for a split second before they had all launched themselves into the air and dived toward us fast enough that even with my currently enhanced senses, I had no chance at dodging. One of them latched onto my back and raked their razor-sharp claw across deep into my flesh. I screamed in pain as I switched to my life orb and triggered regeneration while slamming...
2025-01-14 23:00:20 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you able to share any details of what we are facing Floor Master?” Rabyn said, leaping back to us from the food table. While I was incredibly impressed by his abilities, the idea that he was this powerful and did nothing to stop the slaughter across the planet wasn’t helping my acceptance of him. I wasn’t sure I could order his execution if it came to that, but I doubte...
2025-01-13 19:43:16 +0000 UTC View PostA loud explosion rocked the building that we were taking shelter in as the row of buildings across the street all collapsed, blowing out the windows around us and sending shards of glass flying into the room. “Everyone alright?” I called out, despite not immediately spotting anyone looking overly hurt.
“We’re fine, but what the hell was that?” Elicec fired back, and I realized my e...
2025-01-10 22:06:55 +0000 UTC View Post“Take down the easy monsters, it will help rack up the points. Always bank as many points as you can, as there is likely to come a time when we need them to cushion a blow,” Rabyn yelled back to us as a cleaver appeared in one of his hands. The other was working to rapidly throw a series of knives into a small flying creature in the yard.
2025-01-09 18:01:03 +0000 UTC
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“What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly extremely worried.
“We’re out of time. They are sending us now. I’m almost sure they were waiting for me to file for entry and then planned to move it up without letting us know, but, well, don’t actually worry about how I found out. I’ll explain that later. The porter is here, and we just need to leave now,” Pryte said.
“Damn. Al...
2025-01-08 20:46:30 +0000 UTC View Post“Dammit, what the hell is going on?” Mel yelled. I barely heard the words as I had immediately pulled up remote telemetry on them, hoping to see what was wrong. Strangely other than a slightly elevated heart rate, they were apparently fine.
“As far as I can tell, they are physically fine, but if anyone has better healing magic than me, now would be the time.” I looke...
2025-01-07 23:12:05 +0000 UTC View Post“So basically, factions with planetary-level holdings need to keep climbing in the Arena, or they risk losing rank, being dissolved, and their holdings being liquidated. As a faction squad climbs it gets a ranking based on floors cleared, time to clear those floors, performance within the floors, etc. Basically, if they can find a way to measure it, yer gonna get it added into yer ran...
2025-01-06 19:52:52 +0000 UTC View Post
"Good news, Corey can now level up. They can’t act fully independent of me yet, but they are capable of gaining their own levels and attribute points when I invest in the linked class abilities,” I said to the three men in the garage as Corey floated out the open door.
“Let’...
2025-01-03 19:57:09 +0000 UTC View PostI started by unlocking authority, which gave me another three options from it. I zoomed out quickly just to check if it was always three new abilities from each one. It was not. There were several shadowy paths that seemed to just be a single ability chain of one after the other, and some seemed to require multiple different abilities just to get to a single one. Going back ...
2025-01-02 20:33:47 +0000 UTC View Post“Dammit, Timon, I said we were going to discuss it with him, not just throw him into the deep end. I’ve done that enough ta him already,” Mel said at the same time I got the new message.
“You do that, and Dave’s just going to get stuck in his own head for too long. The man already overthinks everything,” Timon said back.
“You know I can still hear b...
2025-01-01 23:02:18 +0000 UTC View Post“Get yer ass over here and drop everything yer carrying, or yer about to be one very dead orc!” Mel screamed at the newcomer. Which was a good thing he did, as I had already pulled Corey from my storage, and Cecile had his hoe in his hand. Surprisingly, the orc listened, and the moment he was in front of Mel, he undid his belt, dropping a ton of things to the ground, several of w...
2024-12-31 20:28:52 +0000 UTC View Post“I demand proof of the faction’s solvency. They may be registered with the Arena, but have they even challenged a single floor? Can they even field a squad, for that matter? I’ve seen Dave’s accomplishments, if you can call them that, a few dungeons, while he was mostly carried by his betters, so tell me, how exactly is this faction solvent?” Korl asked, the rage now plain in his voice. ...
2024-12-30 20:39:11 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone, I'll be getting every chapter here with an index over the next two weeks, and doing some big revision on a few, today you will have noticed chapter 3 is where that started. No fundamental plot changes will happen unless I screwed something that I notice on a reread, mostly just fixing some of Dave's voice to fit the monologue style I got better at as it went on, and some of the bigger complaints about the knowledge he had in this chapter. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
2024-12-29 17:42:32 +0000 UTC View PostShe led us through a series of corridors with doors that all read “Employees Only” for several minutes before picking one of the seemingly endless copies of said door, opening it, and ushering us in. The security guards did not follow. The room had a large table and several chairs, with a second door on the other side. Beyond that, it was entirely empty.
“Please take a seat. My boss should be with you shortly. I strongly suggest you do not lie any further,” she said before exiti...
2024-12-29 17:40:11 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone, I just created the new tier that will be 15 chapters ahead. I created it at $5 to give anyone who is already a member a chance to get a discounted first month. 11:59PM Eastern Monday it will increase to $10.
New Tier Announcement Discount ends in 5 hours
2024-12-29 02:15:26 +0000 UTC View Post“Dad, you up yet?” I heard as my groggy mind came awake. John was standing in front of me carrying two plates of eggs.
“I am now, what’s up?” I asked, thinking I already knew the answer.
“I figured it was long past time for a breakfast together, so ...
2024-12-29 01:17:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe kitchen, while mostly covered now thanks to Alex, wouldn’t have been nearly big enough for all of us even if it wasn’t still incredibly drafty. So, instead, we all found places in the living room using whatever spare surface I owned. John had dug out some of the shri...
2024-12-29 01:17:03 +0000 UTC View PostSanquar and I found the brothers as they were dropping a bunch of things onto my picnic table next to the garage. Cecile was rapidly placing things from his storage while Elicec was sorting what he placed. Not for the first time, I wondered how easy it was to control their...
2024-12-29 01:16:35 +0000 UTC View PostI dropped the mallet joke as neither of them looked enthused and went back to the small talk. As awkward as it was, it was needed. It had been a while since we had all seen each other in person, and things had changed for all of us. Even if my changes happened to be the most dr...
2024-12-29 01:16:03 +0000 UTC View PostTimon must have slammed on the brakes, as I had never felt the bus lurch so hard before.the sudden stop was hard enough to knock me off my feet, but the slight pain that accompanied that paled against the importance of getting off the bus immediately. Two of the biggest r...
2024-12-29 01:15:32 +0000 UTC View PostBefore I could answer Sanquar, an experience popup flashed in my vision. Had it really taken the orc leader that long to truly die, even without his head?
“Is this what it...
2024-12-29 01:14:53 +0000 UTC View PostI stood up with a smile as all around me as shouts and screams in a language I could now entirely understand hit my ears. The yells about the strangers who had just appeared and my apparent strength spread across the collected orcs. It did not, though, stop them from immed...
2024-12-29 00:37:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe road we were traveling was much more boring than I had hoped. I had initially thought we’d see glimpses of towers or at least other highways, but the way it was enclosed prevented that. I had no idea if it was to hide the secrets of the reltleons or to keep us safe from whatever else was out there. From what I had read, I knew chaotic space was extremely dangerous, but beyond that, I hadn’t bothered with much further research. I didn’t expect it to be something I encountered,...
2024-12-29 00:34:22 +0000 UTC View PostWhen we returned, we found Mel floating in the center of the room with three arms extended, each holding a different book. The books disappeared into what was likely his storage, and he looked up at us with a smile. “So ya did it then? What was it?” He asked.
“I...
2024-12-27 23:35:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt had taken several hours, but we had managed to carve up a few parts of the monster and even found many of the shards from the dungeon core. It was too bad we’d destroyed it, but I wasn’t even sure it would be safe to try and transport that level of a core. After my...
2024-12-26 23:38:42 +0000 UTC View Post“Here’s what we’re going to do; Cecile, do you have any of the bomb plant left?” Elicec yelled, cutting through the terror that gripped my brain.
“Yeah, I’ve got about ten of the ruptured petunia’s fruits, but I don’t think they can do much against ...
2024-12-25 18:29:05 +0000 UTC View Post“So, uh, two days, then I’m out of here. So try not to die, I don’t need Mel up in my ass about that for the next century,” Timon said as we exited the bus. He had stopped near the Cactomen settlement and planned to spend the next two days drinking. I wasn’t exa...
2024-12-24 18:19:59 +0000 UTC View PostMy vision swam as my brain seemed to be rebuilding something within itself. I could feel neurons forming new connections. My consciousness felt bigger somehow. Focusing my thoughts on that strange expansion, what looked like a chat terminal appeared. What the hell was that...
2024-12-24 00:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostNot sure how to start this process, I placed my mallet on the table in front of me, causing an overlay to pop into my vision, similar to how the knowledge skills seemed to work on monsters. I hadn’t been expecting that and was only setting it down to get it out of my hands, but I couldn’t complain about the results.
The overlay had three points highlighted on the mallet. One at the base of the handle, one where the head connected, and one on the head itself. I selected the poi...
2024-12-23 00:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post