Belgianfri

Chapter 202: A meeting with Myers.

I tried to convince her, I really did. Unfortunately, there was no changing her mind. Emeri had gotten it into her head that we owed the inquisitor, the man that had imprisoned us, the truth. Apparently, she was convinced that the man would change his mind once he learned of our quest, of what we had uncovered.

As you can imagine, I was far less enthused by the idea.

“Ems, you’re jeopardising everything we’ve uncovered for the sake of a stranger! What if he turns hostile?! H...

Chapter 201: Cautionary tale.

Emeri and I woke groggily, our senses returning to us as the acrid smell of blood filled our nostrils. Thankfully, the fighting had abated during our time away, meaning that reinforcements had yet to arrive.

We found ourselves surrounded by the remainder of Dalius’ forces, though most of them had fallen in battle. Noticing our return, a lieutenant gave the signal to retreat which was followed by the sound of several dozen classers filing through a narrow corridor and back into the cav...

1 day delay.

Because work got in the way. Yay.

Chapter 200: The final vision and the true form of the system.

We reappeared on the other side of the portal and found ourselves in the middle of an ongoing skirmish. It turned out that our delay wouldn’t matter in the long run, as Dalius’ hadn’t managed to secure the second target in time anyway.

Emeri and I ducked behind a nearby stalagmite as some rogue skill fire flew overhead. From what I could gather, the final statue lay buried at the bottom of an expansive network of caves beneath the capital of Alterian.

We had hoped Dalius wou...

Chapter 199: Ambush.

My thought process was interrupted by a sudden lurch that ripped me right out of the opened portal. For a moment, my mind went blank as I tried to react to this sudden change. With a dulled sense of urgency, I noticed that Emeri had been pulled back with me, leaving us both sprawled across the church’s small courtyard.

I tried to bring myself to stand, tried to will my body to react, but stopped when I realised that I… didn’t care? Why? Wasn’t I supposed to escape? How ...

Chapter 198: Faith.

Emeri and I reappeared in the middle of a town square. No, judging from the size of the nearby buildings, we were currently within a larger settlement, perhaps even a city.

The sight would have been a familiar one, if it weren’t for several things that stood out. A subtle difference between the cities I was used to and the one I was looking at was the architecture. It differed from anything I had ever encountered before, resembling the ruins I had delved a while back more closely than...

Chapter 197: First raid.

Emeri and I hid behind a rock as we observed our target. The church in question was built on a small island that sat in the bay, surrounded by a formation of shark rocks that jutted out of the water and broke the waves before they hit the shore. At first glance, nobody would have believe that the small, dilapidated building could ever house one of Helios’ statues.

To be fair, the church had only ever used them to ratify their own teachings, not even bothering to use the carvings as ho...

Chapter 196: Reconvening before the final assault.

I spent the last two days testing the limits of [Dark pursuer], pushing the skill to its extreme. BY letting it copy each of my skills at least once, I wanted to see which skills it synergised with and which ones were less effective. Without going into an excessive amount of detail, I came to the conclusion that my offensive skills got the largest increase in power when they were copied.

Sword arcs were larger and flew for longer, more explosive orbs were summoned than I thought possibl...

Chapter 195: Testing the new skills.

If I wasn’t so certain that my advancement had been successful, the dry man’s ominous statement would have upset me slightly. Turns out that worry would have been for nought anyway, because he went on to assuage any lingering doubts I might have had.

“Sorry for catching you off guard, child. I was simply surprised, is all. Such speedy trials aren’t unheard of, mind you. Just… a little odd. Do you remember how time passed in your trial?”

“No, I’m afraid not. I don�...

Chapter 194: [Hollow Death Knight]

I opened my eyes, a serene calm washing over me. I had achieved… something? Oh, right, my class evolution! The trial! I had succeeded! But… how had I done so again?

My memories had been tampered with. When I tried to remember my trial, or even my earlier trials, I only remembered an endless white void accompanied by… feelings. Emotions?

The first trial was accompanied by a sense of guilt and impatience. As if I had forgotten about something and quickly needed to set about re...

Chapter 193: Trial of greed(2).

Warning: Death of a child. (Not a real one, but still.)

I was faced with a dilemma. Following the trial’s rules, I would have to give the small girl in front of me two of whatever arbitrary resource that represented health in this place. To do so, however, I would have to take back what I had given the old man earlier… Despite the vitality he had regained from that, he didn’t look all that healthy. Not healthy enough to make me think he had any life force to spare, anyw...

Chapter 192: Trial of greed.

The dry man set up a safe house near the old castle site in the form of a repurposed cave. There wasn’t much space here, just enough to stretch my legs a bit. It did emanate a lot of dark mana, which had led to the dry man’s recommendation to advance in this very cave.

A lack of mana to absorb could lead to issues upon tiering up, after all. While I went through the trial, the old relic of a man had promised to start working on the array schematics by mapping out the old castle. If ...

1 Day delay.

Chapter 190: [Dark form](100%)

Time seemed to pass a crawl, the dry man’s training of choice getting more creative by the second. After overcoming the initial shock of losing my limbs, things had turned dull quite quickly, from my end. My tormentor didn’t seem to share this problem, however. In fact, the old man took great pride in his work, almost admiring his handiwork as if it were art.

In a way, it was art, since everything he did to me was temporary. Whenever he dealt me a blow, [Dark form] would me...

Chapter 189: Sadistic training.

After Ash’s initial shock died down, he still refused to talk to me. Instead, he had decided to start a staring match, leaning his head on his hands while he concentrated on trying to give me a withering glare. It would have worked, if it weren’t for the dry man’s calming presence. He seemed amused by Ash’s exaggerated jealousy, but eventually managed to calm him down.

“If you’ve both recovered from your dramatics, I’d like to get back on topic. Unlike you two, I don’t h...

Chapter 188: Meeting not so old friends.

The other spectators quickly forgave my transgression once they saw Ash welcome me. Even the necromancer that had been winning the bid knew the way the winds were blowing, because he averted his eyes. Ash, for one, had all but forgotten about the auction he was here to attend. Instead, he came over and clapped me on the back, before leading me off stage and shepherding me out of the crowd.

“So what brings you here, Arthur? Not for another war, I hope.”

“Not as far as I know,...

Still sick.

I hoped that I would feel better today, but I honestly don't. I don't think its covid, though. Either way, with me being woozy as I am, I'm gonna have to postpone chapters until I recover. I'm not gonna give a definitive date, but I should be back by next week Thursday at the latest. 

Chapter delay.

I caught a bad cold recently and it's hit me like a ton of bricks these past few days. My head is pounding too much for me to focus on writing at the moment, so I'm tentatively postponing today's chapter to tomorrow. It's possible that I'll delay more depending on how I feel tomorrow, but we'll see. I'm optimistic.

Chapter 187: Necropolis.

The alleyway I had landed in was deserted. Except for a few rotting crates and, morbidly enough, festering fly-ridden corpse, it was empty. The distinct smell of spoiled meat wafted into my nose, coming from all directions. If my sense of smell was to be believed, the pungent odour was all-encompassing, rather than just a direct result of the nearby corpse which had been left unattended for quite some time.

I stalked over to the end of the alley, before poking my head out to scan my sur...

Chapter 186: Multiple floors.

Recovering from the sudden shock of hearing a monster talk, I immediately summoned a dozen chains to constrict the armadillo, leaving the pointed ends right near its neck. The creature squeaked in surprise, before starting to shiver in fear.

“P- please, don’t hurt me…” it spoke.

Or rather, it communicated, because I couldn’t actually see its snout move to produce the sounds. In fact, I could hear the voice appear directly in my head, meaning that the monster had access t...

Chapter 185: Boss.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to climb to descend into the hole. With the power of flight came a number of convenient advantages, and this was one of them. Instead of slowly making my way down, I was therefore able to just bob up and down, slowly lowering myself into the pit.

Strangely, I couldn’t see the bottom, despite my ability to see in the dark. At first, I simply thought that the bottom must be so far away that I couldn’t make it out from this distance, but when I came across a...

Chapter 184: [Mana sense]

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Hollow essence Knight] level 98!

Name: Arthur

Titles: [Dark prodigy]

Class: [Hollow essence knight] LVL 98

Strength 1291

Constitution 1360

Dexterity 1292

Intelligence 476

Wisdom 860

Affinity 859

Free stat points:

0

Skills:

Passive:

[Overloading combustion core](38%), [Dark flow sight](29%), [Cascading   mana-intrusive Swordsmanship]...

Chapter 183: Not far from 100.

In the end, I decided to go for [Aura dash] the implications of being able to chain the skill into itself was too tantalizing to pass up. Furthermore, the system’s wording left enough room for interpretation, which I hoped would turn out for the better.

After mentally reaffirming my choice, my status screen updated, showing my new skill in the list.

Now, for the moment of truth… Was it possible to dash upward or not?

I breathed in, breathed out and jumped. My fe...

Chapter 182: Two new skill evolutions.

The system notification came as my saving grace, an assurance that I had not only survived, I had won. 9 entire levels from a single creature seemed almost ridiculous, but considering the difficulty I had experienced trying to put the thing down, it didn't feel undeserved in the slightest.

Now that the creature had died, I could feel its previously taut muscles slacken. The ring of muscle that had nearly crushed me followed suit, allowing me to crawl out. Its flesh had become s...

Chapter 181: Broken sword.

“The portal is ready for you, young man.” An older lady shared. She gave me an inviting smile and gestured to the centre of the chamber, where a mirror-like portal shone brightly. I said my hurried goodbyes to Emeri, who wouldn’t be joining me on this delve and followed the elder to the portal.

I wondered for a moment why an older person like this lady would join Dalius. Judging from her hunched back and grey, tattered hair, it didn’t seem like she a good fit for this wild group...

Chapter 180: Ends justifying the means.

Moments after the end of the vision, we once again found ourselves in the real world, being stared at by Dalius’ guards. Word soon spread that our goal had been accomplished and that the time to retreat had come. Things moved pretty quickly from there, so it didn’t take long before we were back at base.

My thoughts were still whirling after that latest vision. Helios had vowed to take up the mantle of a god in this one and had promised to listen to the final words of his enemies. A ...

Chapter 179: Carrying burdens.

The giant cocoon hanging from the ceiling started to glow in response to Helios’ destruction of its minions, filling the room with its emerald glow.

The light coalesced, gathering at the bottom tip of the cocoon. It flowed like water, forming a single shining orb, which hung from the cocoon as if it were a drop of water. As the light left the cocoon it shrivelled up and granted all of its vitality to that single drop, drying out in the process. Only when the entire cocoon had turned a...

Possible story ideas and chapter postponed.

I'm heading out of town for my dads birthday this weekend and didn't manage to squeeze some writing time in during my break at work, as I thought I would be able to. The next chapter will come out on monday for patreon and the 1st of march for RR. Sorry for the late notice, guys.

On another note, I'd like to share some story ideas that have bouncing around my head recently, to see what you guys think.

1. I am an avid harry potter fan, in spite of its admittedly bigoted creator, an...

Chapter 178: Ziggurat.

A blinding light enveloped us and before we knew it, Emeri and I found ourselves at the edge of a forest, on a plateau that overlooked a valley.

To our right, a middle-aged man with a scar above his eyes and some stubble on his chin stared down at the valley below. The man had a distinct look, one we both remembered seeing before.

“Sunny!” Emeri exclaimed. The young boy that had lost both his first and second homes to cults had grown up while we weren’t looking. Judging from...

Chapter 177: Going off script.

A few days after appraising the orb, Emeri called for a strategy meeting, which she forced me to attend. It took place in Dalius’ command tent, where a big scroll was unfolded, revealing a map of Agratos.

Several major cities were marked, Agratos included, and the locations of the five statues were scribbled on. Two had already been crossed off, leaving us with the final three, which were spread across Alterian’s southern coast in a triangle pattern, strangely.

“Why a triang...