Thomas was just as eager as Elias to start digging through the loot, but sadly, he knew better than to follow through on that.
Instead, he turned his focus to repopulating the dungeon, replacing everything he’d used up so far and additionally relocating the various aquatic critters from the panacea challenge to the entrance room, where he also muddied up the normally crystal-clear water to make them harder to spot.
Even if the next wave came immediately and ...
2025-04-12 13:27:42 +0000 UTC
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The invaders might have managed to maintain their discipline thus far, even with all that he’d thrown at them, but he could tell they were slowly cracking. Going at it a little harder, a little faster, and often edging into levels of overkill that slightly went beyond what was prudent, thereby using up mana they likely couldn’t afford to waste.
As people grew stronger, their physical stamina tended to skyrocket well past the point where one could reasonably spend it all over t...
2025-04-10 08:29:02 +0000 UTC
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There were eight invaders all in all, wrapped in camo-pattern clothing, wearing what Thomas assumed were military-issue helmets, and balaclavas were wrapped around their faces.
But no insignia, no patches, nothing adorned these people’s “uniforms” in the way he’d seen on the people who usually waited outside, including the man his creatures were currently dragging to safety.
That was what had made him think “mercenary” rather than “soldier” at first gla...
2025-04-08 21:03:14 +0000 UTC
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The depths of Thomas’ dungeon were, contrary to what the name might have indicated, not actually underneath the Natural History Museum.
Instead, he’d taken over the catacombs that had belonged to an otherworldly invader.
Alaxia Mystscale had, once upon a time, been a truly infamous tyrant, only to be deposed just prior to the merge. She had managed to escape to her hideaway in the jungle and been dumped here along with it, but rather than learning from her mistakes...
2025-04-05 17:03:30 +0000 UTC
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And we're back!
... sorry for the long wait.
Either way, I'll be posting at least one full book, potentially more, and I'll be finishing this series no matter what, nor will I be starting any new series before both this one and Outrage of the Ancients are finished.
*******************************************************************************
Well, that had been a shitshow.
A zero-casualty run against a dungeon boss when only two people...
2025-04-03 20:06:33 +0000 UTC
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I might write one more short story before switc
2025-03-24 23:46:30 +0000 UTC
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2100, Milky Way, Core of an Unnamed Star
Anyone who saw him right now would think he was crazy. Either the regular, garden variety, mentally unstable, or actually homicidally insane, depending on how thoroughly they understood what he was doing.
Because right now he, Patrick Lerch, Doctor several times over in every thaumaturgical subject he could find, was trying to figure out how to make a star explode. Just to see if he could.
Of course, he wouldn’t actually...
2025-03-19 19:55:19 +0000 UTC
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2095, Milky Way, unexplored area
Space really was beautiful, regardless of it you simply let yourself drift in it, or were viewing it through the twisted spatial folds of an [Alcubierre Bubble].
Right now, Isaac was doing the latter, hurtling himself across the universe at velocities that exceeded the speed of light by several orders of magnitude, technically. The math flew over his head anytime he wasn’t fully immersing himself in his cognition and science-boosti...
2025-03-17 21:13:16 +0000 UTC
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I’d dreaded the coming of this day for weeks. Not just because the next challenge was dangerous, but because [Catastrophe Sense] had been constantly reminding me of the danger, every single warning, and it was utterly useless.
Because “indistinct danger striking everywhere at once” would have been almost entirely pointless before I considered that anyone with a System could look up when the next challenge would start.
That fucking Skill was driving me up the wall to...
2025-03-08 20:09:52 +0000 UTC
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Dietrich
Giants were a threat because they made a mess merely by existing, their every step causing the ground to quake and destroying buildings even when they weren’t directly stepped on.
This new rank of boss was no giant. It was a true monster larger than many a mountain, a titan that made giants look like ants in comparison, a wandering natural disaster which had leveled buildings, crushed streets, and pulverized many of the brave men and women attempting to stop it...
2025-03-08 20:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Today was a day I’d truly dreaded. The World Boss would arrive, the first of what would likely be many.
We’d grown, we’d networked, we’d leveled. That much was true. Mia had hit Level 50, I was just one behind, and most of the Ancients were either at, or closing in on, Level 75, which gave another Capstone.
The only one I actually knew about was Dietrich’s, it was called [Adventurer’s Royal Keepsake] and allowed him to create a magical effect based on one of his past a...
2025-03-07 17:58:14 +0000 UTC
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Drake
It had been by pure happenstance that the Royal Navy had been able to intercept the Water Nation Boss before it attacked any shipping, let alone the coast, but could the privilege of fighting a monster this potent quite literally in its own element really be considered “fortunate?”
Titanic(’s) Doom (manifested winter), Level 65 Nation Boss of Water
A giant mass of ice shards, connected by limbs of water, rose above the waves, ready to crush them all with its bulk...
2025-03-07 17:51:07 +0000 UTC
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Sundiata
Consequence of Greed (manifested contamination), Level 65 Nation Boss of Metal
A Nation Boss. It wasn’t what he’d expected the next tier of monster to be called, but he’d known about that fact before today due to one of his new subjects having managed to link to something called the “internet.”
The young man had then claimed to simply be a “hobbyist,” an ordinary man with rather ordinary knowledge of “Information Technology,” but that...
2025-03-07 17:45:43 +0000 UTC
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While I was hoping to have finished this book last month, I decided to make a few too many Nation Bosses, then the fights got a little long, and then I got sick. Just a nasty cold, but it still made it hard to concentrate on writing, and now, well, I'm going to visit an old friend who moved away for the next five days and only now learned that I won't have internet there ...
So yeah, I'm taking a small "break," but once that's done, I'll get straight back to finishing this novel, ...
2025-03-02 10:38:07 +0000 UTC
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Joseph
The “rainforest” was a surprisingly dry place, more akin to the inside of a kiln than anything else. Of course, that was only due to the titanic monster looming overhead, but there was still something vaguely irritating about the title’s lack of accuracy.
Though the name of the monster that loomed overhead was equally strange.
Accelerated Deforestation (manifested wildfire), Level 65 Nation Boss of Flame
A hundred meters tall being of pure flame towered ov...
2025-02-25 08:51:20 +0000 UTC
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Miller
Eternal Quake (manifested disaster), Level 65 Nation Boss
The titanic nameplate was hovering above the center of the city, granting no indication as to where the monster itself was located, or what its true form looked like.
His eyes were perpetually sparking with electricity, [Thunderous Glare] perpetually communicating his roiling fury to anyone who saw him while also letting them know his anger was not directed at them. Incidentally, when he was
2025-02-24 18:49:25 +0000 UTC
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We had a plan, I had to remember that.
The most terrifying monster I’d ever seen might be bearing down on us, complete with an unmatched level of size and destructive power that would only grow if we failed today.
Transplanted Horror (manifested invasion), Level 65 Nation Boss
An immense mass of plant matter, made up of all the various invasive plants that had been plaguing Europe for years, and it had minions.
Heavenly Kudzu (manifested invasion), Level 65 ...
2025-02-23 20:34:44 +0000 UTC
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Tristan
I woke up feeling … to be honest, it felt like I was walking to my execution. For some reason.
Normally, I could at least figure out what was wrong. Waking up feeling like crap might lead to a few seconds of confusion, but it never lasted, whether it was a hangover, an imminent test back when I’d been in school, or, more recently, a meeting with someone powerful enough to splatter me like a bug whom I wasn’t already on good terms with … there was always somethi...
2025-02-21 18:44:14 +0000 UTC
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You know, I think I might have figured out why Outrage of the Ancients is so hard to write. Too many characters, too many points of view, all is just a pain to keep straight. Now, obviously, that doesn't mean I'm going to start killing off characters or exclusively write from Tristan's POV going forward, I'm going to maintain my current style and pacing but still, wow ... yeah, it's hard.
And here I am with yet another fairly important character, which'll add even more complexity....
2025-02-18 07:26:32 +0000 UTC
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“Are you sure he’s not crazy?”
“He’s got the Levels I’d have expected … and the temper.”
Lane sighed. He’d been dealing with that issue for the last hour. And yes, it was an issue. A much bigger opportunity, a boon, than a problem, but one that could still cause some trouble.
For all the chaos that had filled the last three months, no one, and that meant no one, had expected a random First Lieutenant of the United States Marine Corps to wa...
2025-02-13 21:48:33 +0000 UTC
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“So, where were you?” Mia asked while the medic was putting a cast on her arm. Normally, a complex break like this would have required a trip to the emergency room, X-ray, and potential surgery, but a few rather painful prods had forced all the shards back into place, magic had conjured the cast directly onto her arm, and some kind of diagnostic Skill had allowed the medic to keep track of the goings-on in her shattered limb.
It’d heal in a couple of months normally, though certai...
2025-02-11 21:44:25 +0000 UTC
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There was something extremely wrong with this wave. It was too easy, in a way that was entirely separate from the opening day’s fireworks.
People … we knew how to deal with natural disasters. Rarely well, most nations had enough disastrous disaster relief efforts in their past to fill entire history books, but there were plans in place to deal with them.
Water to dump on fire via specialized planes or helicopters, storm shelters, flood barriers, pesticides, … n...
2025-02-09 22:25:04 +0000 UTC
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Calling the current situation normal was accurate to a certain degree, though it also showed just how warped my perception of that word was.
“Normal.”
What did that even mean?
Well, I’ll tell you what: It sure as shit didn’t mean waking up in the bowels of a magically transformed mountain, that magically supplied oxygen and light as was needed without ever being wrong, magically transforming my fairly regular clothing into a sharp suit, running into King friggin Arth...
2025-02-06 22:50:25 +0000 UTC
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If there was something I’d neglected since this whole thing had started, it was my sword.
Nagelring.
A legendary blade, forged by the dwarven master craftsman Alberich, wielded by Dietrich von Bern, passed along … and so on, and so forth, until eventually, it had wound up in my possession, at the start of the current mess, before mine and Mia’s diverging roles had become apparent.
Because her Balmung had probably doubled its number of monster kills in the last two, alm...
2025-02-05 21:20:05 +0000 UTC
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Temujin
Oh … they would pay for this!
Not accepting his offer of help with their little Nation Boss issue was alright, that was their prerogative. They were allowed to make those kinds of choices.
He even understood why they would have tried and eventually succeeded in guiding the monster towards the Mongolian border.
However, that did not change the fact that they were dumping a nigh-apocalyptic foe in his lap after having grandiosely proclaimed themselves ...
2025-02-05 09:47:15 +0000 UTC
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Okay, this was just embarrassing. And I wasn’t even directly involved.
Gae Bolg was still stuck in the ground, and everyone’s attempts at getting it out weren’t exactly what I’d call “dignified.” Which made this the absolute last circumstance under which I’d want the press showing up. My [Sensitive Discussions] was preventing cell phone videos and the like, but once the actual news crews showed up, keeping that up would become politically dicey. Not impossible, ju...
2025-02-02 21:16:16 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone, Museum Core 2 is coming out in a couple of weeks, so I also got the download link for the finished copy, completely edited and with a new cover.
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/bnk6kqlq1b
Also, thank you for reading, everyone, and I promise I'll get straight back to writing this series once I'm done with the second part of Outrage of the Ancients
2025-01-31 16:43:34 +0000 UTC
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Fionn
Luck. It could fell the greatest warrior, or allow the most untalented dunce to rise to glory. And it was a fickle force one could never rely on. Yet in this battle, and this battle only, it seemed to be entirely on their side.
Soldiers tripping out of the way of attacks, the phantoms unleashed by the Nation Boss stumbling straight into bullets, the not quite 100% controllable lightning bolts from Tristan’s storm suddenly and obviously a lot more accurate, far more abruptl...
2025-01-29 22:14:33 +0000 UTC
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2047, Mars, Olympus Mons Crater
No one was quite sure how having a famous older brother and being trained in swordsmanship added up to “Valkyrie,” but that was how it had played out.
[Valkyrie Squire] as an epic starter [Class], with [Skills] for flying, aerial combat, combat in general, gear maintenance, and finally, racial healing abilities that ranged from sealing wounds to putting injured allies into what was effectively stasis.
[Warrior Valkyrie] had been her first ...
2025-01-25 19:52:00 +0000 UTC
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The call came at a rather inconvenient time, as I’d only just managed to get in a position where I could talk to Merlin, ask for advice on what my new Class might mean for me, perhaps even share some experiences.
He’d taught me much of his etiquette knowledge in the past, but beyond that … he’d been the power behind Arthur’s throne, powerful and influential without becoming a threat, or even being perceived as the faintest shadow of one.
And maybe, just maybe, I could la...
2025-01-23 22:33:03 +0000 UTC
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