[Announcement! from the 4th, I'll be switching at long last to a 3-day release cycle. It will be Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Also, I'll do a double chapter drop on the 4th, as one final little boost before we go to 3-days-a-week-forever (hopefully)]
Nicolai rose, slowly, painfully, and began to drag the archer down the corridor with him. The arrow in his arm constantly got in his way, leaking blood which dribbled over the archer and left a red trail on the ground as he dragged i...
2024-02-01 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai crouched and peered over the crenellated wall on the outside of the castle, the sun shining down on him, wind whistling past. He would have been watching the archers hovering over the bridge and working out a plan, but his eyes had been drawn to something else.
On a bridge lower down, one that did not have any undead protectors, a large group of over a dozen people were crossing. They wore the same mismatched armour and rags as him and everyone else, with a selection of random w...
2024-01-31 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai went on a wide route, outside of the areas he typically travelled, because the undead seemed quite upset in response to him killing some of their patrol. As he'd left they had been spreading out and searching for him. He wanted to find a place to settle down for a bit and practise using the hook, before continuing on to the archers.
So, he opted to go further afield and avoid them entirely. This led to him venturing into a portion of the living area which was new to him. Here th...
2024-01-30 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai was quick to check his UI, hoping it would tell him what was wrong with his Seed.
User Interface 376 | Player #53,217
- Cultivation
> Seed Progress
Soul: 15%
Oma: 12%
Warning: Seed is imbalanced.
Reason: Soul and Oma differ by significant margin.
He dropped the polearm and grabbed some Oma crystals. ‘There, there,’ he said calmingly to his Seed as...
2024-01-29 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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[I got the chapter names mixed up yesterday - this one is the Soul Sense one lol]
‘If my memory serves, the tunnel should lead to the prisons. The prisons and the mines,’ said Kleos. ‘I don’t know how it’s all looking now, but that’s where undead who’d lost their purpose or annoyed one of the People were sent, as well as living prisoners with little value.’ It paused to think. ‘It’s probably not as secure as it used to be. With the general colla...
2024-01-28 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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[You may have forgotten that this is, in fact, a story featuring cultivation and not just one messed-up dude trying to survive and be slightly less messed-up. Well, in todays and tomorrows chapter there will be a look at what the cultivation will be like and the sorts of things it can do for our MC. I hope you like it!]
Nicolai made his way through the gauntlet with his mind empty, almost in a daze. Everything seemed washed out and grey. The event had used up some ...
2024-01-27 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Peering around the corner, the boy saw dark shapes strewn over the floor, blood on the walls, bits and pieces everywhere.
‘He’s gone,’ whispered Perro, turning back to the others, looking to the big man who was crouched behind him. John met his gaze, gave him a nod. Everyone looked nervous, faces tense and drawn. They’d waited until they felt sure the killer must have gone, but they’d all feared he might still be here. Well, all but one of them, if Karl’s muttered words were...
2024-01-26 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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[This chapter is a love-letter to Joe Abercrombie]
Nicolai moved quickly over the supports. A little risky but if he slipped, he would catch himself. He always did.
He’d intended to simply cross over, but his gaze was drawn to a dark form splayed out on one of the supports, arms and legs hanging down either side of it.
Drawing closer, he saw it was a woman and she bristled with arrows, blood slowly dripping from her corpse to begin the long fall to th...
2024-01-25 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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The itching faded. Nicolai moved, and expected pain, but there was only a fading echo, his mind generating the predicted agony then realising there was no reason for it. Putting his back to the statue, Nicolai ran his hands over his stomach and felt for the hole amongst the build-up of dried blood. It was gone. He felt for his back and it was the same there.
He couldn’t feel inside of himself with his fingers but presumably his insides were equally healed, because otherwise he would b...
2024-01-24 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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That’s not good. Nicolai’s lips pulled back, baring his teeth in a grimace as the archer’s whistle washed over him. Why did it come down? Why now? There was no way to know and now was not the time to think on such matters. Giving his shoulder a shake and finding it still tender, still tingling with healing energies, but useable, Nicolai rose to his feet and started running. Moving fast on the slender supports was a risk, but going slow was no longer an option....
2024-01-23 17:05:01 +0000 UTC
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[Note: Today is a double-chapter day! Next one goes live a minute or two after this. Enjoy ^_^]
Nicolai padded through the tunnel to the end then stopped, his eyes widening as he looked out. Kleos had said this route would take him to the exterior of the castle and Nicolai had understood, in a vague manner, that this would mean coming outside and for the first time leaving the windowless confines of the castle. At the time he hadn’t thought much further than that. But now, ...
2024-01-23 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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The first dog to come around the corner received the business-end of Nicolai’s polearm to the top of its head, crunching it into the ground. The blue light in its eyes puffed out through its smashed skull. The next one was right on the heels of the first and unfortunately it saw the fate of its companion, dodging backwards in time to avoid his second strike which swished through the air, inches from its nose.
Nicolai spun away and continued running. After only a few steps he heard the...
2024-01-22 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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As Nicolai charged into the room he veered right, heading for the edge of the room, looking to get between the stone columns and the wall.
The moment he’d emerged the looming skeleton creature let out creaks and crunches as it began moving, slowly turning.
Nicolai’s eyes flicked left and right, up and down, checking his chosen path, checking the creature, checking on the undead on the balconies. He reached the columns and dashed between them and wall, heading towards the midpo...
2024-01-21 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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Return of a Disgraced Knight?
You have entered into an agreement with Kleos the Traitor, to procure him a body. You may complete this quest either by fulfilling your agreement and finding him a suitable body, or by finding a way out of the agreement and slaying Kleos, ending his hopes of a new life.
Nicolai kept his expression carefully blank as he finished reading the Quest listing, knowing Kleos was watching. He wondered whether it knew he’d just received a Q...
2024-01-20 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai’s eyebrows rose as he read Kleos’ description after Examining the head.
Severed Head of Kleos the Traitor
Once known as the Seven Winds of Torment, Kleos was renowned for a ruthlessness and cruelty in battle only matched by that he displayed to those he was given to govern.
After a failed coup, the Lords convened and gave the typical punishment. A decade of ritual torture followed by beheading, reanimation, and storage in the archives so tha...
2024-01-19 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai was half-asleep, half-awake, when a flicker of light and a crackling sound ripped him from his doze. He sat up, clutching at the polearm, watching as the torch on the wall spluttered into life. The flame grew stronger and firmer, a bright, warming yellow that reminded him of a sunrise.
‘Daytime,’ said Kleos behind him.
The light and the words dispelled the sweaty unease of the night. Nicolai rose to his feet, wincing at the aches and pains of his body after hours on th...
2024-01-18 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai finished unscrewing the metal lid capping the jar containing the undead head, placing it aside. A strong chemical smell rose from the opening. The head stared up at him as he carefully dipped the very tip of a finger into the liquid and then quickly pulled out, a drop glistened on his skin.
It didn’t burn or sting or show other signs of being dangerous, it was just a cool, thick liquid with a strong smell. Nicolai considered the logistics of what he wanted to do, then, shruggi...
2024-01-17 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai grinned when another skeleton stepped out through the door. This one had a decrepit wooden shield in one hand and a club in the other, and it looked a little more sprightly as it stepped out towards him.
He advanced on it and it raised the shield jerkily. Nicolai slammed a kick into the shield and the skeleton was thrown back into the wall and then he was on it, another two-handed swing cracking its skull. He heard the creak of more doors.
Now there were three but they wer...
2024-01-16 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai looked himself over. He wore the ragged rotting cloth he’d taken from the rat and the thug, using it as a wrap around his waist that hung to his knees, ragged and open in places.
He’d created a little belt of the cloth which was also around his waist, the knife pushed through it, and he’d attached the three pouches to it, one holding his Oma crystals, the other holding the points tags, the last barely fitting in the radio, which poked out the top.
The blue water bott...
2024-01-15 15:53:36 +0000 UTC
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Approaching the statue with its outraised arms bearing gifts, Nicolai recognised a blue water bottle in one hand and a radio in another. Of the remaining two, in one palm there was a clump of what looked like seeds (mundane seeds to plant in the ground, not special seeds like his own), while the other held a necklace of metal chain with a little metal ball, a tiny funnel poking out.
The skeletal statue remained still and unmoving. Nicolai was almost entirely certain it was just a vehicl...
2024-01-15 15:52:20 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai watched his Seed eat its way into the centre of knife-rat’s Seed and then club-thug’s (putting his head close, he could hear it chewing), until it had eaten whatever important parts it was after then it began to shimmer brighter than the two it had consumed, lying limply on his palm in a state of postprandial exhaustion.
Looking at it and considering it, his mind slipped and he found himself curled up, full and warm and happy, sated.
Nicolai reeled and snapped and he w...
2024-01-15 15:51:18 +0000 UTC
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As Nicolai slipped towards them, knife-rat dropped the body and went for the knife while club-thug said: ‘Hey there now—‘ Still apparently operating under the belief that words could have any effect on Nicolai. By the time his words cut off Nicolai was already threateningly close, and he saw the wheels turning in club-thugs eyes then the man raised the club, face twisting into an aggressive snarl as he took a step forwards and swung down at Nicolai’s head. A clumsy blow. After what th...
2024-01-15 15:50:39 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai struggled pointlessly, his body reacting as any animal would, even as his more rational side kept his eyes and mouth closed and held his breath. The sand was everywhere. Something heavier tumbled against him and pressed tight. Nicolai couldn’t open an eye to try and see what it was, but from the fleshiness and faint warmth he already knew.
All movement stopped and he was squeezed by the sand for a moment until it retracted, though Carl’s corpse stuck with him so he shoved th...
2024-01-15 15:48:40 +0000 UTC
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The path ended and the mist dispersed and now Nicolai was in a desert, the sun pouring down on him, dazzling his eyes, and there was another statue.
He glared at it and it glared at him.
‘The Trial of Combat,’ it uttered. ‘Your opponent has been chosen. Kill them.’
Nicolai frowned, unsure. Another trick?
He heard breathing and feet sliding over sand and turned around to see a young man with sandy blond hair who was in a similar state as Nicolai, red an...
2024-01-15 15:48:08 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai found himself a pitiful mass of quivering, cramping, burned, dehydrated flesh. Pitiful, yes, but as he woke from his fugue he was grinning hugely and the reason why lay in the stone beneath him.
He was on the far side of the monkeybars, and for a moment victorious joy and exhilaration roared through him. Then his mind finished waking up and the joy vanished as though sucked away by a tube because he knew what he’d see when he looked up. The course, continuing before him, and a...
2024-01-15 15:46:53 +0000 UTC
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As the woman with no eyes strode towards him, Nicolai dove onto the ground. He lay down with his body tight against it, and spread his arms and legs either side, dangling off the edge of the walkway and clinging tight to it.
His actions were calculated. If she thought he might be any kind of threat, she would kill him. If he was in any way an obstacle, she would kill him. But like this, he was neither. The time it would take to kill him would therefore be time wasted, and someone whose ...
2024-01-15 15:46:01 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai imagined how someone might normally react, then managed to twist his features into one of upset embarrassment, and put a degree of defensiveness into his voice as he spoke. ‘I told you, my communications implant is malfunctioning at the moment.’ He let out an angry little snort and added, ‘it happened when I accepted the invite, to come to this place, I thought it happened to everyone.’
It was an excuse he expected he would be giving many more times. He turned his eyes b...
2024-01-15 15:44:50 +0000 UTC
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Nicolai was about to walk away from the woman when he realised that would be odd and rude. ‘I’m gonna have a look around,’ he said lamely, not entirely certain why he was even trying. He moved, rapidly stepping towards the nearest rise and climbing hand over foot upwards until he crested the top, his view expanding with the rise in height, escaping the awkward moment.
Looking around he saw that he stood amidst hundreds of other humans on a circular island roughly the size of...
2024-01-15 15:43:29 +0000 UTC
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‘-ghh!’ said Nicolai, peeling his eyes open. The screaming wind was gone, replaced by an echo of his yell, a sudden burst of confusion all around him.
He was staring down at a floor of white, unlined stone. Jerking his head around, he realised he was floating, and as though that realisation ended the spell, he fell a few inches and slapped into the stone, letting out a grunt. In his brief look he’d seen himself surrounded by many other naked humans, and there was a wave of sound a...
2024-01-15 15:41:18 +0000 UTC
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After a moment, Nicolai opted to ask the robed being the obvious question.
‘What is the Great Game?’ He spoke the words slowly, taking care, sounding them out. His mouth felt heavy, like he was chewing the words, and he disliked how slowly he was forced to speak. Though he mangled the words a little, he recognised the sound of his ancient voice, one he’d thought long dead. An even tone with little accent, and what accent there was shifted from word to word, hard to place.
Wi...
2024-01-15 15:40:29 +0000 UTC
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