Douglas Miller

MiP Chapter 50: Searching

Esmorana soared through the sky above Dramos, exulting in the exhilarating feelings of speed and freedom. Up here, she was in her element, supreme over nearly all who might try to challenge her. She could go nearly anywhere she wished, at speeds even the fastest runners would envy, and she could sense and counter the approach of nearly any attack or foe long before they might actually reach her.

She impulsively strengthened the wind blowing in her face for a moment. The flapping of her ...

MiP Chapter 49: Investigation

Carlos felt groggy. It was hard to think. Maybe he should just go back to sleep. Yeah, that would be nice. He'd feel better when he was properly rested. Something seemed vaguely off, though. It was hard to pin down the specifics, but the niggling sense of wrongness in the back of his mind was being very persistent, and wouldn't let him relax back into sleep. After several frustrating minutes, Carlos sluggishly started trying to marshal his thoughts properly to figure out whatever was botherin...

MiP Chapter 48: Ruminations

Carlos blinked in surprise at the last notification from his introspector. What the hell was "synergy unification"? And if it's based on levels and happens at level fifteen, why didn't he get alerted about it passing 50% at level eight? Just as he thought that question, the listing of his number of synergy links flashed in his mental awareness, and he nodded to himself. He'd only just now finished the last of his synergies, and of course that would affect it. He looked over at Amber, consider...

MiP Chapter 47: Upgrade

Ressara's gaze roamed over the six people who were checking in at the bar. If not for their attention-diverting wards, she might have thought they were a somewhat larger than average but otherwise normal adventuring party. They all had armor and various sheathed weapons that looked well used, and four of them bore large and well packed backpacks with buckles designed for easy and quick release on their straps, so they could remove the encumbrance almost instantly if ambushed. Exactly the sort...

MiP Chapter 46: Calm

Amber absently followed Carlos, barely noticing the gentle winding of their path or the obstacles they weaved around. She trusted Lorvan and Ordens to keep them safe, and Carlos to choose a path their force bubbles would fit through, while she focused on puzzling out what was bothering her about Lorvan's explanation of mana wellsprings. Draining such a small but incredibly potent source of mana made sense for how a single noble could drop a large area's ambient mana to a level safe for civili...

MiP Chapter 45: Thoughts

Carlos lay in bed awake that night, too absorbed in his thoughts to sleep. Why had that dungeon with the swarms been so incredibly hostile, so dramatically different in attitude from Purple? It was considerably more powerful, and not at all starved for mana with how rarely anyone extorted a wish from it - and it definitely regarded wishes as extorted under threat - but that alone would just make it more confident and satisfied with its general situation. It got delved much less often...

MiP Chapter 44: Core

Carlos stepped around the corner, Amber by his side, and stopped as the core came into sight. It looked almost nothing like the only other dungeon core he'd seen. It glowed, it hovered in place, it looked solid and hard, and that was about all the commonalities with Purple that it had. Amber gasped as she saw it, pausing alongside Carlos to take it in.

Where Purple was a crisp clean crystal prism, this core was an irregular lumpy shape covered with spikes. Purple was one solid consisten...

MiP Chapter 43: Swarms

Lorvan held his right hand palm out towards Carlos, urging him to wait. "My lord, while this particular dungeon is no threat to us, I would advise that we treat it as deadly dangerous to help you learn good habits for when you eventually delve greater dungeons with lesser escorts. Will you and Amber place yourselves under my command for the duration of this delve?"

"That sounds sensible to me. Amber?" Carlos looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Of course!" Amber nodded emphatical...

MiP Chapter 42: Re-advancing

"So, we not only attacked you for something you are not doing, but we also completely missed someone else who actually was doing the exact thing we attacked you for? Souls, what a mess." Haftel grimaced, and sighed. "We knew of the young lady who confronted you, but we had no idea she was a high noble. She must have been holding back to conceal herself, but we were still lax."

Sconter broke his habitual silence. "Her armor and twin swords that she bore in that confrontation were extreme...

MiP Chapter 41: Revelations

Carlos had barely put on his underwear when a familiar telepathic voice spoke in his mind. [Carlos! You finally respawned!]

Carlos froze in surprise for a moment, then chuckled and resumed reaching for a shirt to put on. [Hello, Purple. You've been anxious about me?]

[A little. Amber told me you would respawn, and I've seen people I killed come back again, but having my bond with you lapse was strange and unfamiliar. Also, I want to talk with you about what soul structures I shoul...

MiP Chapter 40: Return

The trip back to Dramos was a blur of trees flickering past and wind rushing in her ears as Amber held her arms wrapped tightly around Lorvan's shoulders. He was holding her legs up and leaning forwards to give her better support on his back, but he had to duck and weave around trees and branches often, and despite those constant minor detours he ran faster than Amber's best straight line sprint. Much faster.

Amber briefly looked back over her shoulder to see Ordens following t...

MiP Chapter 39: Aftermath

Esmorana stood with her eyes closed, her eyebrows furrowed and tense with focused concentration. Her dress and long hair blew in a wind that did not touch her surroundings, and she slowly moved her hands in a circle around each other in front of her, barely aware of the physicality of the gestures she was using to aid her visualization. A continuous rumble came faintly from far away, but she paid it no mind. Her attention was on the winds she was directing, miles distant, blowing the frighten...

MiP Chapter 38: Confrontation

Carlos leveled a glare of his own back at the sword-wielding woman who had just stormed out of the surrounding forest. "Who the hell are you?" He didn't know what protocols there were for unfriendly high nobles talking to each other, but he figured returning her lack of politeness right back at her was fair.

Her face reddened and she extended her right arm to point a sword at him. "You dare pretend ignorance of the fourth scion of High House Tostral? I will not forgive such an ...

MiP Chapter 37: Contact

"Why, exactly, should we decline this request? Just to keep our identities secret more easily, or is there a more specific reason?" Carlos stood up and started putting on his armor while he asked.

"We have no need of assistance, and Ressara in particular would be more hindrance than help." Colonel Lorvan pronounced his judgement with finality, standing perfectly straight.

"Ressara? Hmm." Carlos buckled another clasp closed. "Is that the, how did you put it, nosy scholar you warned...

MiP Chapter 36: Preparations

[The spell gained extra mana just because you had it pushing down instead of up? That is bizarre.] Amber shook her head idly and laughed. She was sitting at the main desk of their suite this time, leaving Carlos to one of the three other chairs scattered around the suite's common room. [You keep discovering new things, yet you're not even trying to. It's fascinating. Someday you'll actually try to discover some new world shaking secret, and I don't know whether you'...

MiP Chapter 35: Plans

Carlos stood up and stretched before replying to Amber. "You're done already? Which spell did you pick?"

Amber raised an eyebrow as she smiled at him. "I think you should try to figure that out from sensing its mana. Don't you?"

Carlos nodded. "Good point, learning via mana sense is the goal for this exercise. You already cast it?" He turned his attention to the mana all around him. He was still getting used to having a whole extra sense, and most details of it went unnoticed when...

MiP Chapter 34: Synergies

"What a dump!" Carlos stared at the... thing that was supposedly an inn in front of them. Haphazardly arranged clusters of boards covered two areas that presumably had once been windows, with dim light leaking between the boards. Scratches and overlapping graffiti covered most of the wall. Most of the drawings meant nothing in particular to him, but he spotted a crude sketch of someone in a robe throwing spiky balls at a pair of stick figures wielding daggers, presumably representing...

MiP Chapter 33: Watchers

Liafra kept her smile and cheerful facade in place easily with decades of experience, hiding her internal concern. Carlos and Amber should not have drawn this kind of attention this quickly. What had gone wrong? "What kind of information are you looking for?"

The woman in the dark blue dress smiled sweetly back at her. "All of it, of course. I need to know as much as possible to properly evaluate them for my business."

Liafra kept her gaze steady. "I'm sorry, I don't have time to ...

MiP Chapter 32: Relaxation

Carlos yawned, stretched his arms wide, and slowly blinked the grit out of his eyes as he sat up. He shook his head a bit to nudge along the unhurried process of waking himself up, and looked around at the room that was definitely not his own bedroom at home. The bed was very comfortable, though. He yawned again. If this was a hotel, it seemed a bit rustic, but high quality. They apparently even served hot breakfast in bed, judging by the heavenly scent of bacon and eggs coming from the cover...