Jakob H. Greif

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 55: Rising

Bit of a shorter chapter today, hope you still enjoy.

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Lintong District, China

Magic was mysterious, magic’s return had been unexpected, no one could predict what magic would do. Mostly.

Because sometimes, it was abundantly obvious what would happen.

Such as when a world-famous collection of statues remained mere statues when anything else that even remotely resembled a living being came to life...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 54: Feuertaufe

A hurled chunk of rock bounced off my shoulder, a dull pain shooting through me, showing that [Diplomatic Immunity] had only taken the worst edge off. Meaning it hadn’t been outright lethal, and that I could tank a couple more hits with the Skill before it stopped working for a time.

I whirled around to see that another group of statues had risen from the ground, and was rapidly closing the distance, and seemed to have an unfortunate focus on me, which also meant that pretty ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 53: Washington DC

Our treaty might not technically be binding just yet, as the senate was yet to vote to ratify it, however, both the export licenses and my being free and clear to teleport into the country for non-nefarious reasons had wound up being given not as a part of the treaty, but as part of a direct executive order.

Which meant that the treaty was just that much more likely to go through, since the biggest sticking point had already been dealt with, and at this point, it was basically pure prof...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 52: Negotiations

“I suppose that just means we have more enemies than we thought,” Charlemagne finally replied, once I was finished reporting what I’d learned. “I’m guessing you will head off to find more allies?”

I shrugged and made a so-so gesture with my hand.

“First, I’m going to find the blueprints for some modern defensive technologies, so we can incorporate them into the Untersberg’s defenses when you upgrade the fortress. But I’ll also be taking that travel as an opport...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 51: Face of Evil

Fionn, now

Fomorians.

Now, there was a term he hadn’t heard in a long time. It was an old story, much older than even himself. One that even he had believed to only exist in the realm of myth and legend, despite having lived in an age of wonders, and himself having been considered similarly fictional up until quite recently.

An idea so old, it had passed out of living memory even for the Fae, remaining the distant darkness looming in their own legends. At least as...

Apocalypse Redux Story 2: United Earth Navy

So, a bit of a random place and time to do this, but thank you. I write stuff as a writing for a living now, and that wouldn't be possible without you guys, I'd never have been noticed by a publisher without you guys and I likely wouldn't have the motivation to keep writing without your guys' feedback either. 

Anywho, that's just me being a little sappy. Hope you enjoy this side story, it's a bit heavier on the exposition than the other one, considering it takes place...

Museum Core Chapter 70: Book 3 Prolog

So ... I got good news and bad news. 

The good news is that I will be writing Museum Core 3 once I'm finished with Outrage of the Ancients 2. Also, I don't like making announcements without content to along with them, so there is a chapter after this (as the title promises). 

The bad news is that, well, I was in a bit of a slump in early December, so I am way behind on OotA 2, so definitely won't be able to make the mid-January date I promised in the Audiobook announceme...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 50: The Other Worlds

Arthur, yesterday

As wonderous as this modern world was, and as much of a relief as it was to have Merlin back, he still had questions. Many questions.

Some could be answered simply through the research the internet made oh-so-easy, for others, he needed to find someone knowledgeable. He was currently in the process of doing the latter.

His mentor’s return had thrown up certain issues, starting with his return. Merlin had been manually sealed and manually ret...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 49: Ruminations

Fionn

Things really were reaching the point where even he had trouble staying on top of things.

There was simply too much to do, too many things demanding his attention, and even among the topics he could directly find out about, it still took him a small amount of time and effort to reach that information. It all added up.

Finding issues that needed the help of the Fianna, dispatching them, ensuring that World War III wasn’t about to break out, between humans that was, se...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 48: The Legend

I … I wasn’t sure why that sounded like, er, not quite a good thing. Perhaps … perhaps … maybe the issue was that he thought I was trying to change the terms of the agreement? Even go back on my word?

I mean, he was nowhere near angry, I’d barely even call him “mildly annoyed,” but even his “mild annoyance” could have dire consequences.

In the end, after thinking for a few seconds, I just nodded slowly.

“Yes. I’d like to clarify the vague ...

Informational

I have a discord where you can ask me any question you want (I'll also answer here, but I'll be faster there), and talk to others about the stories.

https://discord.gg/hYvC7xggPH

*******************************************************************Timeline Apocalypse Redux/Apocalypse Continum

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May 2nd, 2022: System Launch

October ...

Apocalypse Redux Sidestory: Der Schnitter

I already made this announcement on Discord, bu

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 47: Ulaanbaatar

Tristan

On one hand, Genghis Khan was a man who’d annihilated an empire for harming his emissaries. He should be a supporter of diplomatic immunity as long as the ambassador behaved, right?

Yes, he was a man who’d keep ambassadors safe, and insisted that killing ambassadors was very bad form.

But he was also a man who’d killed four million people to make that very point.

I shivered. I’d started out trying to cheer myself up, but just wound up psyc...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 46: Monstrous Talent

Mia

Her balance had long since reached the levels of what a professional athlete could achieve, practice and Dietrich’s training regimen, boosted by [Knowledge Sponge], had made sure of that. Especially after their duels on that damn log.

Then, she’d figured out how to use [Preternatural Periocognition] to watch where she was putting her feet, bringing her footwork to an entirely supernatural level. She wasn’t just trained at staying upright come hell or high water, if there...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 45: Interlude Civilian Life

There were few jobs as conducive to being remembered long after one’s death as the office of the President of the United States of America.

Yet there were also few jobs as likely to put you in an early grave. Not only had over a sixth of the people to hold this office died while doing so, it was also extraordinarily stressful even in the most peaceful of times. No one left this office without having quintupled their number of grey hairs and those were merely the external...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 44: Arsenal

I was sitting in the middle of a concrete box, crosslegged, while three small orbs of fire floated around me, flitting back and forth, until one came way too close to my sleeve. In an instant, the flames were flung away from me, acting like fish startled by a rock thrown at them.

Though in this case, the being startled was me. [Ember] might not have been a particularly powerful spell, to the point where it was barely even useable in combat, but it could still easily set my...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 43: Teaching

“Everyone, please head upstairs,” Fionn directed the various individuals he’d managed to find with magical potential.

There couldn’t be more than twenty, which was … honestly nothing. Compared to the sheer number of people in the world, it was a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent. And even just contrasted against the number of people he’d met personally, it was still practically nothing.

I didn’t know the exact mechanism he used to find m...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 42: Swimming in Gold

Double Chapter since I wrote these in the wrong order

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Dietrich

After underground vaults, long-sealed monsters and weapons that had somehow slipped outside of the very world itself, finding the treasure of the Niebelungs felt almost mundane.

Simple and easy.

Tons, literal tons, of valuables ranging from gold to gemstones to metals he hadn’t even known were considered precious until Mia h...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 41: Academy

Tristan

The camp of the Fianna seemed to change even more rapidly than the Unterberg did, and that was considering how comparatively mundane it was.

“Mundane” in the sense that the place itself lacked inherent magic, not in the sense that it was ordinary, which it decidedly wasn’t.

It was just that the Untersberg was flooded with magical energy and supernatural effects, with the illumination that came from nowhere lighting every nook and yet vanishing mysteriously when...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 40: Pointy Treasures

Fionn liked cars, he finally decided. It had taken him a while to reach this place, but despite everything, they were clearly the superior method of transportation.

Sure, unlike the constant but steady up-and-down of being in a horse’s saddle, when riding in a car, you felt each and every bump and unevenness in the ground beneath the tires. However, cars didn’t get tired, and were much less prone to “getting sick,” insofar as that applied to machinery, and unlike h...

What came before ... (for the Apocalypse Redux Sequel)

A pretty frequent request on r/litrpg is that authors add summaries of previous books in the series at the start of new books. Now, I haven't done that for any of my previous books (honestly, that's mostly down to laziness, I can admit that), but I figured a sequel series released with quite a bit more of a delay did deserve (require, actually) a propper summary (which i wound up doing instead of writing what I was actually supposed to).

I did a little poll on discord (2024-11-27 14:51:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 39: The Man in the Tree

I’d been out of my room for almost a full minute by the time I realized that I was still wearing my pajamas and flip-flops. I came to a stop and stood there in the middle of the corridor for a couple of seconds before shrugging and taking off again while using [Modern Makeover] to make myself presentable.

Considering how thin my clothing was, I didn’t have much material to work with, but by painting it all a deep, dark black, I robbed it of all sense of depth, thereby making it hard...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 38: Treasure Hunting

Apparently, even though I hadn’t done much other than play taxi, the System considered my contribution as having been considerable.

[Myth(ical) Mediator Lv. 25 -> Myth(ical) Mediator Lv. 27]

[Skill Boost gained]

[Skill gained: Traceless Communion]

I still couldn’t tell how gaining Levels was supposed to work. What did and did not count. How did all this fit together? Two Levels, at my current power level, for two portals and a bit of running back and forth seeme...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 37: Forces United

Tristan

So, Fionn had found an immortal vampire buried in the ground and the fucker was apparently impossible to kill. I hadn’t even needed him to pass on his opponent’s name, I’d figured it out the moment I’d heard the terms “buried,” “blood magic,” and “short.”

It was Abhartach, quite possibly the oldest vampire. Definitely among the oldest beings that wasn’t a spirit or demon with a hundred different variations to their myth who could feed on everything fr...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 36: Slaghtaverty Dolmen

Fionn

The modern world had a lot of sayings, metaphors, idioms, and quotes that nearly everyone seemed to know, often without being aware of who had originated them, or thinking someone other than their original creator had come up with them.

Right now, there was one specific sentence that perfectly summed up his current circumstances.

“When it rains, it pours.”

Oh, and as for the strength of the rain, even the rather nonsensical phrase “raining cats and dogs” ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 35: Go Forth And Kick Ass

BTW, the next book of Dungeon Crawler Carl come out today.

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Joseph

There were many things in this new world that were strange to him, things that had changed, things that seemed outright wrong.

The various machines, for one. Not to mention the System and the Skills it provided, though that was clearly strange to modern people as well.

But his current slate of opponents was down...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 33: Magic and Might

Fionn

The trick of disintegrating the floor would obviously not work this time around. Not with his enemy transforming the area like that. Even if all it had done was make the ground metal, which was a lot less vulnerable to vibrations, his spell would fail.

But it was quite clear that the liquid currently masquerading as “beer” was doing far more than that, slowly warping the surroundings into something that smelled odd and had practically alien-looking metal co...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 33: Difficult Enemies

Really, really sorry for taking so long to update. I don't really have an excuse. Didn't really feel particularly inspired for a while, then got distracted by several things in quick succession, including the release of Apocalypse Redux 7 (the last one), writing the bonus chapter to go along with that, Minecraft, Thanksgiving, and so on.

All I can really promise is that I'll do my damndest to avoid this happening in the future. 

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Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 32: Interlude Temujin

Normally, Temujin was not a fan of intricate or overly complicated plans. The more moving parts a stratagem had, the more likely it was that something unexpected would be enough to disrupt it, and the easier it was for someone else to stuff it up.

Simple plans were the way to go, plans that would be effective if they worked but ones whose consequences for failure were minimal.

Defeat in detail, overwhelming an enemy’s smaller detachments rather than facing their main strength he...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 31: Statuesque Army

The Third Challenge, [The Waking of the Unliving], has now begun, giving life to objects that never should have had it.

The Second Challenge, [The Breaking of Graves], has concluded, and the dead will no longer rise. However, existing undead will continue to exist until they are slain.

The Fourth Challenge, [The Wrath of Natural World], will begin in fifty days.

Time remaining: 49:23:59:51

Yep, called it. Golems. But it was actually less bad than expected, wha...