Enjoy!
------------
Raz hadn’t expected to feel empty when they finally finished clearing Stallet Academy of enemies. He’d expected joy and satisfaction and he felt those. Really, he did!
Only they were overshadowed by the emptiness of never seeing his mother again.
Sure, he talked about his clan, but when you got right down to it, he meant his mother. There hadn’t been many of them left, not with the clan’s fortunes in decline and his mother’s economies. He ...
2023-06-02 23:02:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
Part of the blurb for a Kickstarter for Magical Laser Guns, prior to its removal due to violating Kickstarter’s policies on projects concerning weapons.
You’ve all seen the new releases from the big gun manufacturers, right? Magical bullets of a dozen different types that cost as much per bullet as an entire box, magical shotguns that can actually shoot monster cores that explode, specialized rounds for smaller guns that you can charge with m...
2023-06-02 00:19:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
---------
The crystals held Serenity’s attention. There was something about them, something familiar. Something important.
It wasn’t until Raz set a hand on Serenity’s arm to get his attention that Serenity was able to stop looking at them. Naturally, that was also when he realized what they were. The crystals were the reason he kept thinking this was almost a dungeon. They, and the enchantment they were set in, did the same things as a dungeon. They to...
2023-05-31 23:04:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
That left only one building, the Arcanum. It was the largest building of the four and had the least sensible structure. Serenity didn’t remember it being as insanely laid out as the map indicated, but that could easily have been either his poor memory or the likely fact that he’d never tried to fully map it. It was also likely that some of the rooms that seemed to overlap were ones Vengeance had never visited; there were a lot of types of magic he’d never...
2023-05-30 23:06:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
----------
Three doors led out of the office, just like the previous room. The door to the right was inaccessible, blocked by papers and books stacked on the floor. That was the direction of the empty room; Serenity thought they might well connect. That would explain why the current Headmaster (or perhaps he should call him the previous Headmaster since someone else was taking care of the duties now?) hadn’t cared about access to the room beyond.
The door to the lef...
2023-05-29 22:52:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
----------
The building was, if anything, even spookier the second time Serenity went in. This time, he didn’t have the company of a large group; sure, he didn’t know them all yet, but having more people was still reassuring. Raz’s presence helped, even though Serenity knew it was silly.
They also didn’t have the trouble the larger group did. There were no shadows or mysterious attacks in the dining hall. Nothing bothered them at all as they followed the direc...
2023-05-28 23:20:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
Serenity had no trouble leading the way through the training building. He knew it well and it was essentially identical to his time as a student. It wasn’t exactly a complicated layout, once you knew it.
It wasn’t just the entrance that was oddly dark and deserted; all of the hallways were like that. It reminded Serenity of walking around the Academy after dark when he worked to get something done before the next day. It wasn’t the same, though, it ...
2023-05-27 23:57:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
--------------
Somehow, Serenity found himself in the lead after that. He wasn’t sure how it happened; he didn’t even really know where he was going. Even so, he found his feet leading him down a semi-familiar path to a side entrance. The farther he went down the path, the more familiar it seemed.
While he hadn’t gone into Stallet Center much, he had routinely left the Academy’s walls and practiced in the greenspace outside. Any student of Stallet Academy coul...
2023-05-26 23:14:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
---------
Nothing was ever as simple as the initial plan made it sound. Even so, a group of ten people that included Grandma Tillon, Raz, and Serenity moved cautiously through the streets of Stallet Center four days later.
In some ways, Serenity regretted his impulsive admission that he’d once attended Stallet. At the same time, he was happy to be there for Raz, even if he expected to head back to Takinat soon. He didn’t think Stallet’s wards would accept him. I...
2023-05-25 23:45:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
Things moved quickly after that. Two days later, they were all in Willowrock. Esme Tillon had not just one but two of the Tokens; she’d sent people to investigate the sites they’d kicked invaders out of. Not only was there one hidden in the commander’s quarters at the site of the big battle but one of the groups that fled had abandoned their token as well as a great deal of other stuff. They’d taken the time to set traps, unfortunately, but the healers ...
2023-05-24 22:46:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-----------
I have not found the vault or the Great Treasure within it. I have, however, discovered that there are multiple groups searching for something; I assume it is the vault they seek. One has been removed, but we found records of seven additional groups of searchers. They were Imperials, if disgraced ones; at least, I cannot come up with any other reason for Imperials to be traveling under false names. The leader of this group, the Viper, received a letter addre...
2023-05-23 23:01:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
“Serve someone other than Order’s Guild?” Serenity had no idea what Esma Tillon was talking about.
She waved a hand towards him. “The fancy sigil on your shirt; I can read symbols, I’m not an idiot and I’ve been around a while. Two worlds, if I’m not mistaken. There aren’t that many empires that stretch across more than one world around here, so you must be a long way from home.”
Serenity looked down and realized that he was, as us...
2023-05-22 21:46:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
----------------
It was finally time: Bethany and Lex had finished moving. The house in Arlington hadn’t sold yet, but there was no doubt that it would.
Thomas’s apartment was empty, but his parents hadn’t given it up; they’d taken over the monthly payments instead. They were considering setting it up as a “guest room”. Until Aki expanded the living space in the dungeon itself far enough, they’d need space outside.
Bethany had mentioned hotels to A...
2023-05-21 23:05:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
My sister came into town and I spent the day with her ... and it seems that I forgot to put the chapter out on time. Oops!
Enjoy!
-------------
Raz,
My first name is Esme. I didn’t realize you were with Serenity.
It’s good to hear you’re doing fine. I’ve been worried about you.
We should talk. Near the Willowrock portal, there is a cafe that is still intact and open. I often stop by for a meal. Let the people there kno...
2023-05-21 03:13:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
Serenity nodded. He wasn’t surprised; he certainly hadn’t thought of dungeons as more than places to fight and get treasure for a very long time. He’d known how to manage dungeons to maximize different types of rewards for the delvers, but he didn’t think he’d realized that dungeons could truly be sapient until after he came back in time.
Until after he became a dungeon, then met one.
Binding dungeons simply because they were there was wro...
2023-05-19 22:33:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
--------
“Why?” The young draykin seemed offended with the world, or at least with Zanzital.
Zanzital expected the other three to be outside the dungeon when he finished binding it. Instead, he found them waiting for him just inside the exit. Raz stood there indignantly and glared at Zanzital. Serenity looked almost as tired as Zanzital felt as he leaned against a tunnel wall. Blaze had a hand on Serenity’s shoulder and didn’t seem to react as Raz challenged t...
2023-05-18 23:25:48 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
----------
Zanzital fidgeted with the octagonal “key” that had to be a trick of the Destroyer. There was power to it, some old enchantment that hadn’t quite worn off, even though he couldn’t find any sign of the monster core that powered it or any way to insert his own mana. That, too, said that it was of the Destroyer; legend spoke of things that acted strangely, dangerously. Things that took their mana from their surroundings instead of from a user or a monster co...
2023-05-17 23:04:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-------------
There were only two pieces of furniture that seemed likely to hide anything. One was a desk littered with papers and a number of drawers; it had a chair pulled up next to it. The other was a tall cabinet of some sort with a shelf in front; it reminded Serenity of a liquor cabinet more than anything else.
Other than that, there were four chairs and an end table that didn’t have any drawers. The chair next to the end table was cushioned and clearly set u...
2023-05-16 23:02:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-----------
When they finally caught up with the Viper, it was just in time to see him vanish off the island onto another. They hurried after him. The next island had two minions plus the Viper; they were just in time for Serenity to see a third minion split off from the Viper like a shadow with a new light source. Once again, Zanzital set up his Death attack and Serenity ran into it; once again, the minions fell.
This time, Serenity was barely behind the Viper when h...
2023-05-15 23:10:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
----------
The Viper didn’t make any attempt to evade Serenity. That made him suspicious, but this was fairly obviously going to be one of those traps he found by stepping on it; figuring things out in a dungeon was all too often a matter of surviving doing things you shouldn’t but not knowing how to avoid them, especially the first time anyone explored the dungeon.
Serenity was nearly to him when the Viper disappeared. A glance backwards showed Serenity that his ...
2023-05-14 22:10:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
On time! Whoo!
Enjoy!
-----------
As it turned out, Zanzital was correct that the Viper would make an excellent end boss, especially when combined with the teleportation ritual. Raz was correct that he was the next encounter anyway.
The room behind the next door didn’t look like the relatively small room that once held the teleporting array. Instead, it was huge and multileveled, with stone shelves that stuck out from the walls all over the place. One even hung on a ...
2023-05-13 23:03:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
------------
The room behind the metra door was a near replica of the ritual Serenity had disabled, the one that turned out to be some sort of odd summoning spell. It hadn’t really done much in reality, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be a problem in a dungeon.
A group of four man-shaped shadows appeared over the center of the ritual circle. Serenity didn’t wait for them to do anything; he simply hit them with a Fireball. There was no one nearby and th...
2023-05-13 04:50:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
I was supposed to make up time today ...
...and then life happened. The good news is that I'm fine, but it was a bit of an exciting evening.
I think I can guarantee at this point that the next chapter will be late, but I think I can also say that it won't be THIS late. At least, barring further "excitement".
Enjoy!
--------------
[Asihanya range limit exceeded. No settlements found within forty miles of dungeon location]
[Asih...
2023-05-12 07:06:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
Wednesdays are usually bad because I have to get up early and stay at work late.
This week is extra annoying because by those standards, I have three Wednesdays this week - and today and tomorrow are extra Wednesday, even later than usual (and more draining because I'm actually an introvert and this is spending the whole day dealing with people). I will probably get to take the extra time I'm working as time off later, but that doesn't help this week.
With that said, tomorro...
2023-05-11 04:23:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-------------
Legion refused to leave the room until the ritual was disabled. All of the communication was through Ita, since the body in the room with Serenity didn’t seem to be able to pay attention to the outside world, but Serenity didn’t doubt Legion’s conviction at all.
Serenity could have forced the issue, but he couldn’t argue with Legion’s conclusion that it was safer for other people if the Hollowed-out body stayed in the base until the ritual was ...
2023-05-09 23:08:30 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-------------
There really wasn’t a good way to carry Gabriel and still fight. The first time he picked the other man up, it was over his left shoulder, facing backwards. It took an arm around Gabriel’s legs to steady him, so it really wouldn’t work with the man facing forwards unless he kept his head down, which would defeat the point. Gabriel had been able to grow the Ice Wall spell he’d started even as Serenity moved him, but Serenity knew that Gabriel had to see...
2023-05-08 23:19:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-----------
The next two crossing corridors didn’t have any sign of Hollow Ones, but Gabriel set up thin Ice Walls after each of them anyway. With luck, any Hollow Ones that came down the hall would turn and head the other direction instead of trying to break through the wall. Hollow Ones weren’t known for their brains, after all.
That led them to a choice of possible routes. Serenity stopped and wished he were better at multitasking; he couldn’t remember which ...
2023-05-07 23:03:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
-------------
Serenity looked down, confused. This was supposed to be just the first step in temporarily stopping the Hollow One. If he couldn’t cut them up fast enough, he had to do something else. Something else was supposed to be disabling the Hollow One for long enough for Daryl, Gabriel, and Zanzital to lock it down the way they were handling the other two, then repeat for each one he came to. Gabriel could block off the corridor repeatedly.
It wasn’t nearly ...
2023-05-06 22:47:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
--------------
“You’re late,” Althyr scolded Coyote. They’d been waiting for this for days while the people on the ground messed around with tricks and information gathering, yet Coyote was more than an hour late after the big showdown started? The viewing party was his idea! “What kept you?”
Coyote rolled his eyes and settled down on the rug in front of Althyr. His fur was matted and Althyr saw some blood; that was unusual, even alarming. It looked like t...
2023-05-06 00:44:35 +0000 UTC
View Post
Enjoy!
---------------
The Hollow One that had once been the Viper took one step forward, then another. It didn’t show the extreme speed of the Viper; instead, it moved slowly, almost ploddingly. If this was as fast as it could go and there were no other Hollow Ones between them and Legion, they could gather him up and escape without conflict. They might not be able to destroy the ritual, but they could get out.
That was a very big pair of ifs and Serenity didn’t believe...
2023-05-05 00:13:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
