Jakob H. Greif

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 24: Learning Lessons

Yesterday, and the day before that, had sucked. It had been an awful combination of depressing, disgusting, and exhausting that would likely stay with me until the day I died.

This morning, I’d woken up feeling terrible, tired and with a headache, hungover without ever having touched a drop of booze. Not that I was generally a big drinker, I was perfectly able to come up with plenty of dumb shit without the help of the bad idea juice, but I’d made a point of avoiding alcohol entirel...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 23: Aftermath

Today had been a new day, and that did not make a lick of difference to my mood. Actually, no, that was a lie. I felt worse. Yesterday had been a matter of alternating between using Skills, watching and waiting with bated breath as the matters outside went on, and praying to a deity I was pretty sure I didn’t even believe in.

Today, I’d been vital for about five seconds, when I’d used [Restoration of the Old] to fully remove all formerly undead bodies and anything they’d left be...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 22: Arthur/Fionn/Joseph

Arthur

This was the grand Second Challenge, the countless monsters that were supposed to be able to crush the strongest this modern world had to offer?

A few thousand simple undead that the company of soldiers he’d been assigned would have been able to mow them down with ease. All on their own.

The whole thing was less a story of “one mythical warrior against the horde” and more akin to a child kicking over an anthill.

A single [Grand Slash] had cra...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 21: Boss Fights

Ogier

“There are undead in the caves.”

Oh, that … that was bad.

Ogier didn’t even bother holding back on the swearing as he stormed out of his previous assigned position, a so-called “pillbox” on the far side of the mountain from the throne room. There were multiple caves in the Untersberg, ones that weren’t connected to the fortress. But if they were filled with undead, they might be able to dig into places they weren’t supposed to go from there.

But s...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 20: The Siege

Dietrich’s fist met the revolting tentacle as it passed through an arrowslit and he triggered [Titan Strike], the magic now inherent to him overriding the normal rules of nature and how such an action would normally have gone.

A field of force wrapped around his gauntlet, gripping the flesh around the site of the impact, allowing him to shove the entirety of the invading limb back as one while adding immense amounts of additional force. There was a disgusting squelch as Rotforged’s ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 19: Army of the Dead

Tristan

The Second Challenge, [The Breaking of Graves], has now begun, raising the dead and occasionally forming them into new shapes.

The First Challenge, [The Beasts of Legend], has concluded, and no new monsters will be created, nor will animals be mutated. However, existing monsters will remain until slain.

The Third Challenge, [The Waking of the Unliving], will begin in twenty days.

Time remaining: 19:23:59:59

Everyone else in the throne room with me was of ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 18: Temujin

The Second Challenge, [The Breaking of Graves], will begin today.

Time remaining: 0:0:0:27

A force of unprecedented power and was about to impact the world, forever reshaping the course of its history.

And Temujin was leading the simultaneously strongest and strangest horde he’d ever led. Horses ran alongside cars, trucks drove next to tanks, and overhead, machines he could scarcely have imagined were possible flew, having launched to be ready right now, at this moment. 2024-09-09 21:43:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 17: Drake

The Second Challenge, [The Breaking of Graves], will begin today.

Time remaining: 0:0:1:01

Little over one minute to go, then all hell would break loose, potentially even in the literal sense. Because it could mean almost anything.

A gate to the underworld, anything that was once dead stirring back to life, or simply every burial ground since the dawn of time exploding, who knew what would happen?

Not to mention, well, the modern myths of the undead. Everythin...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 16: Final Preparations

The main chamber, or rather, the throne room, was thankfully mostly empty. Well, not completely, and the table we’d eaten at this morning had been turned into the center of all strategic planning, but it wasn’t overrun.

Karl der Große was there, discussing something with a man in a uniform I assumed to belong to the Technisches Hilfswerk. Ogier was there too, along with a few other people I didn’t recognize.

The emperor glanced up as I entered, likely alerted by the sound o...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 15: Perfected Beings

The Irish Embassy looked pretty similar to the British one, a building design that I’d have described as “traditional”, though I didn’t need [Innate Etiquette] to remind me that that almost certainly wasn’t the correct, official, term. But still, it had charm, and the building’s outside was painted in that yellowy beige whose variants seemed ubiquitous in the historical areas of central European cities. It fit in.

Its insides, on the other hand … it could have been literal...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 14: Temujin/Fionn

Temujin

At least someone was being polite about contacting him. No premature threats, no insults, just an ambassador walking up to a Mongolian Embassy and politely asking for a meeting with the lord of the house, so to speak.

Then, they’d had a conversation like reasonable men, and decided that the System was a far more pressing issue than just about everything else.

And after that, they’d worked out the basis for a reasonable deal.

Of c...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 13: Spreading the Word

I looked up from my phone at the sound of Mia running over to me, grinning from ear to ear, a System window in front of her, bobbing up and down as she moved. Therefore, I couldn’t read any of that, it was bouncing around too much, but at least it was pretty obvious what had gotten her excited.

Then she stopped in front of me, and I also realized that I couldn’t read it since the transparent screen was facing her, meaning it mirrored for me.

I sighed and stepped through it, th...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 12: Mia

Learning from Dietrich von Bern was an intimidating prospect.

With most of Mia’s teachers, they might have been far beyond her when she started, but she had swiftly learned from them, mastered the basics, and grown from there until she’d eventually hit the point of diminishing returns, where measurable progress only occurred over a period of months or years. Give it a decade, decade and a half maybe, and she’d be able to maybe not surpass the various people who’d taught her, but...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 11: Ogier Danske

You know, this would have been a lot more fun with that modern music. It was like the most exhilarating part of the trumpets calling one to battle, extended across an entire song, and there seemed to be a near-infinite number of songs out there.

Though chances were the emperor would ban it from the fortress in a few days. For now, it was interesting, but in due time, it would get on his nerves, as it made it hard to hear anything else. Which meant he’d make the most out of everything ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 10: Where there’s Smoke, there’s Fire

Somehow, I woke up perfectly refreshed, and I even had a plan for everything. At least that was what it felt like. Boundless energy filled me, and I was raring to go … that wasn’t right. Couldn’t be right. I’d slept terribly, so why was I feeling so good?

“System, can you show me everything that’s influencing me?” I asked. There should be something like that available, right? Urgh, this was going to be another “throw out a thousand phrases until I find the right one”, ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 9: Francis Drake/Temujin

Never in all his years on the sea had he had such a terrible headache, and quite frankly, his current state went well beyond even the hangover after every post-raid celebration he’d ever had put together.

But honestly, Francis Drake did not regret a single thing. Because now, he was fully ready to act his rank in the modern world, though he’d still have to recover from shoving so much information into his brain and then prove that he’d retained said information.

His Skills s...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 8: Ancient Fortress

“So, how do we get this open?” Dietrich asked, rapping his knuckles against the massive stone gate. It sounded like he’d just smacked solid rock, without any hollows or non-stone materials underneath. Just a massive slab that looked impossible to move. Dietrich could probably break it, but that couldn’t possibly be the intended method of entry, could it?

“Let me try something,” I suggested, stepping in front of the immense door that practically looked like it had been painte...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 7: On the Road

Somehow, I only got my reward for the events at Ravenna once we were well-clear of the city, but I did get it.

[Legend’s Guide Lv. 5 -> Legend’s Guide Lv. 7]

[Skill Boost Gained]

[Skill gained: Arcane Core]

I sighed. If I hadn’t known how to access proper descriptions, I would have been at a complete loss of what to do with that.

But since I did know how to do that, it was a matter of seconds to look at what seemed to be a magic Skill.

Arcane Core<...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 6: Resting … Not

It was late at night by the time we reached Ravena. The drive had been far and it sure as shit hadn’t been helped by having to stop seven times to kill monsters. Well, for Dietrich to kill monsters, me and Mia weren’t quite at a Level where we could.

Checking into our hotel was thankfully easy, even this late, since we’d pre-booked. We’d also looked up a nearby shop where we could get scuba supplies, and even somewhere to get clothes for Dietrich.

Me and Mia ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 5: Natural Overreaction

I froze for a second, then took two steps back into the gloom to grab my phone, activating a live stream on YouTube.

“What’s wrong?” Dietrich asked as I did that, having stopped when I did.

“Local law enforcement,” I said. “I’m hoping that showing this to the world is going to keep them honest.”

Dietrich nodded. Clearly, he was deferring to my expertise on the matter.

“Hey, are you going to come out or what?” someone yelled.

“I’ll go out a...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 4: Arthur/Joseph/Temudjin

Another monster fell beneath his blade, and after briefly checking to make sure it didn’t magically return to life, Arthur marched off.

There were other places to me, more monsters to fight, more things to do.

“Sir, there are reports of a giant monster in the New Forest National Park.”

Arthur turned to see a man in a green uniform giving a gesture he recognized as one of respect by now, his hand open and flat, held above one eye at an angle.

“Sir”. It was an ...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 3: “Graverobbing”

Apparently, even legendary heroes got car sick.

Dietrich and I had been in the back, discussing what information I should give him once [Knowledge Transfer] came off cooldown. He’d wanted to know about modern weaponry while I’d argued that I didn’t actually know all that much about guns and tanks and missiles, and what I did know, I’d gained from probably unrealistic movies and TV shows, as well as the occasional YouTube video.

I could easily just as easily find a few vide...

Outrage of the Ancients Chapter 2: Fionn Mac Cumail/Charlemagne/Francis Drake

The march to Dublin had been a bloody affair, though that was likely due to how Fionn had chosen his path, dragging the Fianna through as many monster-infested areas as possible.

It had achieved its primary purpose, allowing them to stop some of the biggest problems before they actually impacted the people of Ireland.

It had also left everyone tired, dirty, and while he’d normally not apply that phrase to his esteemed brothers in arms, cranky.

However, the whole affair had...