You have marked [Devouring Gestalt] for death.
Will’s initial assessment of the gestalt came through Sen. With his familiar, Will now had a much better idea of what he was going against than he had at any time back on the surface.
The gestalt’s most advanced skill was already high gold. Devour enabled it to grow quickly by simply eating other Users, incorporating elements of their skills into its own.
Had this monster been another human, Will would have ...
2024-05-20 10:17:01 +0000 UTC
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Despite the imminent round two of challenge three coming towards him—and wasn’t that a mouthful—Will didn’t end his ritual. Knowing that he would be up against the gestalt was frustrating, but there was no better way to prepare than going into the Beyond.
Will had half a mind to try using his new Envoy of Mercy title to force-teleport the gestalt into the Beyond, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t strand it there. Once his link to the Beyond expired, it just sent his soul hurt...
2024-05-19 08:31:04 +0000 UTC
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Ataraxis igniting the hidden power in the artifact seemed to prompt the rest of the cultists to leave. Sen had been reduced to just over half of its power, but there were still enough eyes to blanket a chunk of the asteroid, revealing that they had vanished alongside the pillars. Corruption lingered where they’d placed the pyramids, obscuring Sen’s sight and proving that whatever plan they had, Will hadn’t fully interrupted it.
That wasn’t their priority, though. Nynn opened a p...
2024-05-18 09:29:29 +0000 UTC
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Nynn clearly wasn’t nearly as capable of using the full potential of the Prince-rank scythe he wielded now. Will guessed this was either because the former Dread Executor was saving the remaining charges in a weapon he couldn’t recharge or because Nynn’s body was getting used to being sealed from his original King rank down to gold.
Despite that, Nynn joining their side was the turning point in the battle. Having gold-rank power was one thing. Knowing how to use it was another. Th...
2024-05-16 09:55:47 +0000 UTC
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“That’s right,” Nathan said, smiling with obvious relief. “Thank god there’s someone who actually gets my references around here. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?”
“Not long enough to not threaten me with death, apparently.”
The smile dropped off the gold-rank’s face quickly. “You should have picked better company.”
“How so?” Will asked, stalling for time. He’d spread Sen’s eyes out far in order to keep his eyes o...
2024-05-14 10:26:56 +0000 UTC
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Progress towards [Eternal Throne]: [1/1000].
You have defeated [Fan Yang].
You have won your first duel.
Fortunately, the arena didn’t immediately force him out, giving Will the time to loot the body.
Using Destructive Synthesis on the limiter item had been too easy. He took Yang’s, clipping it around himself and hoping he wouldn’t have to break it again.
Not having Skybreaker would be a loss, but that one ...
2024-05-13 09:47:25 +0000 UTC
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The first session that Ayla and Will had together was less fruitful than he’d hoped it would be, but he knew by now that establishing strong fundamentals was incredibly important when it came to magic. Having a good baseline for his abilities in the Beyond would pay dividends in the future, especially compared to making a grasp for short-term strength only to hamstring himself later down the line—just like most of the other human Users were with their progression and monster cores.
...
2024-05-12 09:15:50 +0000 UTC
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Spatial magic was quickly growing to become a friend of Will’s. He’d been teleported so many times, his Space attribute allowing him to adapt to the rigors of teleportation with even more ease.
That familiarity was exactly what told him that whatever this transportation was, it had nothing to do with the spatial mana Will knew. As far as every sense in his body told him, the ritual wasn’t even moving him, and yet the world faded out nonetheless, first shifting to the colorless sig...
2024-05-10 08:59:16 +0000 UTC
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“Wow,” Will said. “Y’know, the Hunger was a lot more intimidating than you, and that guy was kind of a soulless, petty piece of shit.”
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been in the Crown’s space now, but this god wasn’t even using the almighty soul-crushing power that the Hunger had.
“Besides,” Will continued, “You know that you didn’t have to accept me, right? I’m sure there are options other than yes that you can put on the system. You and th...
2024-05-09 08:43:02 +0000 UTC
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Kadael was not having a good day.
Item: [Elixir of the Seventy-Seventh Heaven]
Legendary, Emperor
Once every sixteen years, the repurposed ruins of Planet Ryas-5, current alias “Seventy-Seventh Heaven,” align with its twin suns and the 16 other planets in its pocket dimension, creating a mana distillation chamber several dozen trillion miles long. Through a month-long ritual, it is possible to refine a single drop of thi...
2024-05-08 07:50:49 +0000 UTC
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Will was growing familiar with the trial’s teleportation, enough to make out the microscopic differences in the magic of it. Though this transportation wasn’t as obviously wrong as the one that had taken them into the sentience check, it was clear that the heavy corruption in the area that Will was being teleported out of negatively affected the magical process sending him to Main Challenge 2.
It didn’t make him wait, at least, though he could sense something interfering with his ...
2024-05-06 06:25:16 +0000 UTC
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Since the tutorial, Will had been fighting above his rank, but it was growing increasingly clear with every major advancement that the difference in power between each rank was greater than the last. Unformed to bronze had been seemingly insurmountable until Will had made use of the plentiful equipment in his tutorial. Bronze to silver had been more manageable, but that had still required the usage of corruption above his current rank and extremely arduous battles.
Silver to gold was mo...
2024-05-02 06:56:01 +0000 UTC
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Will had been separated from the rest of his party at some point during the transit between Main Challenge 1 and this library-like space he now found himself in. The same had happened to everyone else, so he wasn’t too concerned about it, but it was yet another oddity that he had to add onto the list of anomalies that had plagued the trial so far.
Now that he wasn’t in immediate danger, he had time to think things over.
Ataraxis hadn’t come from Earth or Arcadia, and where t...
2024-04-30 05:28:32 +0000 UTC
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“Something is very wrong,” Will said.
“You managed to talk to a stranger without anyone dying,” Caiyeri replied. “That’s signal enough for me.”
“Very funny. That man is not from this world.”
“Neither is she,” Hua said, pointing at Caiyeri. “Her planet hit ours like a month ago.”
“Earth and Arcadia are one now,” Caiyeri said. “I am as native to this land as you are.”
“He’s from beyond this planetary system. The planet’s name...
2024-04-29 08:36:32 +0000 UTC
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Will wished he had a lie detection skill of some kind. He’d been through enough life and death battles with Caiyeri to trust her implicitly, but Hua? Not so much.
The Chinese-Australian girl had understood, having been on the bad end of too many failed alliances herself. Hua was one of the most rational people that Will had dealt with so far, which was a bit of surprise given that she was also one of the youngest.
That did mean that instead of leaving her alone with the ch...
2024-04-26 05:59:18 +0000 UTC
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[Soul] has advanced to Silver 4!
[Perception] has advanced to Silver 1!
Main Challenge #1: Catching Water
Difficulty: Silver
- Capture a changeling. [4/1]
Remaining time: 61 hours, 3 minutes, 33 seconds
Reward: Your party will earn 400 silver credits at the end of the challenge (subject to change). Party members may separate. A death of a par...
2024-04-24 04:38:25 +0000 UTC
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“I am not going in there,” Will said.
“Nor am I,” Caiyeri agreed.
Both of them had had enough experiences with underwater dungeons for a lifetime, and this wasn’t even a dungeon. Without the sigil of the Lady of the Lake, Will did not want to enter the native territory of monsters that were higher rank than him, especially if he was trying to take one alive.
“Well, the changelings are in there,” Varix said, having regained some of his confidence now that ...
2024-04-23 06:12:10 +0000 UTC
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“Good to see you, Caiyeri.”
“Never thought I’d live to see the day those words came out of your mouth.”
The elf woman’s hair had been singed, her helmet not enough to protect it against whatever monsters she’d had to deal with. She was also dripping wet, a result of her group emerging straight from the ocean
“Your teammates?” Will asked, indicating the two men with her. One of them was bronze, the other silver. The second one didn’t quite look human, and ...
2024-04-22 04:42:01 +0000 UTC
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“Lily, you goddamn moron!” Will yelled. He had tried to send her a chat message alongside his shout, but apparently, being part of the same team did not automatically put them into a party. “You can’t fight that thing!”
Her character profile wasn’t open to him, but he’d seen enough of her with Pages of the Past to tell that she was absolutely not equipped to take the gold-rank gestalt down. If it had managed to get a skill as rare as corruption resistance—albeit at bronz...
2024-04-21 07:10:51 +0000 UTC
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Fortress’ explanation was long-winded and dramatic. Will spent most of the explanation meditating, focusing on his senses to stay aware of the beach around him. A lot of the story was fluff, and though it was enjoyable enough to listen to, Will didn’t really need a full breakdown of how Fortress’ forefathers had horrible failed to prevent a changeling threat from obliterating key members of his race.
Lily was a lot more into it than he was. She kept asking questions about details,...
2024-04-20 05:56:14 +0000 UTC
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The transition between spaces was nearly seamless this time. There was no extended wait time or sudden break in reality like there had been during the failed teleportation into challenge zero.
Will waved the system window away, taking stock of his surroundings once more.
More proof that whatever arcane transportation device they were using was working properly this time was the way Will’s feet crunched on pebbly sand immediately rather than after a five foot drop.
True to ...
2024-04-18 23:02:30 +0000 UTC
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The problem with monster cores, as Will understood it, was that they would corrupt his progression over time and force him to stall out at gold. Presumably, the same issues would apply to his items, but the nice thing about those was that Will could always get more. His growth items were all rare or lower, and he doubted that those were going to be the peak of what he could get.
After some quick mental calculus, Will decided that the opportunity costs of keeping his entire external kit ...
2024-04-17 04:04:12 +0000 UTC
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With it becoming increasingly clear that they were going to be waiting for a while for the second challenge to appear, Will took some time to explore the waiting area, keeping an eye on Caiyeri and Liam. The elf didn’t seem to care much for Will’s new… friend? Friend worked, but “temporary ally” was probably better given the circumstances.
He was worried that Liam could turn out to be another Azure-like situation, but the other man seemed to be less likely to draw on Caiyeri f...
2024-04-16 05:12:53 +0000 UTC
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Will dashed from branch to branch, incapacitating spiders and other similar crystal beasts with his hunger aura and phantasm before dropping multi-target Mark for Deaths. Will played with his movement abilities, reveling in the massive increase to his mobility. With the airdash and the hunger phantasm, he added an entire new axis of movement to his arsenal, enabling him to operate in three dimensions instead of two.
With all three movement skills active at once time, Will was reaching s...
2024-04-14 03:40:13 +0000 UTC
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There were four spiders creeping down the base of the crystal tree. Will had no idea how Liam fought, but he was itching to blood his new skills.
He leapt forward with silver-rank speed, marveling in how much smoother his movements were. His mind and body were in perfect sync, as if he was controlling an avatar rather than having to deal with clunky reality. Even with the improvements he’d made at bronze rank, Will had still felt the soreness and cricks that came with improperly resti...
2024-04-12 03:52:17 +0000 UTC
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Advancing to silver rank…
[Power] advanced from Bronze 8 to Silver 0.
[Speed] advanced from Bronze 9 to Silver 1.
[Affinity] advanced from Bronze 7 to Silver 0.
[Soul] advanced from Silver 2 to Silver 3.
[Resistance] advanced from Bronze 8 to Silver 1.
[Perception] advanced from Bronze 6 to Bronze 10.
All bronze-rank skills ...
2024-04-11 05:21:27 +0000 UTC
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The plan was simple, but simple didn’t mean easy. Technically, getting to space was simple: you just had to break past the escape velocity of Earth. That feat had taken humanity some ten thousand years to manage.
Then again, Will had already been to space, so maybe he was being a bit too hasty on that front.
Caiyeri: You truly are a moron. This plan is awful.
Will: Thanks. Do you have any better ideas?
Caiyeri: No. We’re do...
2024-04-09 07:06:43 +0000 UTC
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Lysbeth Brooksoul was not the last scout sent towards the settlement termed by Levy Anderson as Survivor Hill, but she was the first and only one of the Brooksouls to enter it. Nymlera did not want to risk another one of her daughters, especially not the sigil holder, but she was willing to spend the lives of her footsoldiers and constructs with reckless abandon.
Will and Caiyeri dealt with them. A fair chunk of the groups that came to map out the settlement weren’t even composed of s...
2024-04-09 05:45:57 +0000 UTC
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The reverbations of the accelerated timetable rippled throughout the surface of the planet. Every Arcadian civilization and the majority of the communities representing sigil-holders had planned around the best of their forces disappearing out of their lives for an unknown period of time starting nearly two months away. No amount of planning could have predicted the intervention from the outer world, and as such, chaos took hold.
Lu Jie, global number one, de facto leader of the dominan...
2024-04-07 06:18:55 +0000 UTC
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“What did I tell you?”
Sadareth hid a smile, but she could not hide that from Kadael. She had never been a deceiver of her own kind. As far as gods went, she was as straightforward as they came.
“If one more being informs me that they made me aware of my current plight already,” he seethed, “I will break the planet myself.”
“You would perish,” Sadareth said. “The planet’s mana is not yet dense enough for you to survive longer than fifteen minutes there....
2024-04-06 05:19:39 +0000 UTC
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