The gravity web magic stopped working on the shattered temple. The smashed remains fell back to the cavern floor as hurtling pieces, some as large as trucks, others as large as multistory buildings.
It was a destructive mess, and Zarian was in the middle of it while missing an arm, both legs, and half of his face.
But he had more than enough of him left.
He could physically see with one eye. He could smile. And he had a fist wrapped around the handle of the big black thing t...
2024-11-26 16:16:49 +0000 UTC
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With Zarian incoming, the godly warrior devil known as Darth swung his giant black sword. He moved with unrivaled deftness even while forced into a tumble from the huge gravity shift.
The many years of practice and experience guided the sword hand of the armored Darth. He acted with far better expertise than what most Master Rankers could achieve even if they had stable footing and full preparation.
The divine power Darth wielded, even while regressed, was also very evident. Where...
2024-11-26 06:25:50 +0000 UTC
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At the bottommost layer of the Grimrock Hell Gate, massive red and orange streaks covered every surface of an immense cavern. Thick sulfuric clouds blanketed the craggy floor. And at the far end, near a dark temple, a portal a mile tall and two miles wide glowed with a fiery light while emitting sounds like a roaring lava fall.
The portal kept pouring out infernal forces bent on having a Hell Break, a cataclysmic world event. Only then could devils and demons go out to slaughter and pil...
2024-11-26 05:31:28 +0000 UTC
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Para’s Journal Entry Notes – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
Thoughts: Hello, it’s me, Para the Parasite Cloak +3! I really like journaling by hand. It’s very fun, and it helps detail some of my thoughts, which are becoming more important now that my personhood is growing with various feelings, doubts, and uncertainties, and philosophical wonderings.
Oops!
I’m rambling.
The point of this journal en...
2024-11-26 04:24:24 +0000 UTC
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Other than being chained and enslaved at the bottommost layer of the Grimrock Hell Gate, Foodie had faced many incredible and horrible things in her ten years of life.
She’d killed and eaten the corrupted members of the fallen Green Hop Explorers, some of whom were family. She’d also killed and eaten weak adventurers who foolishly ignored her warnings about the Grimrock Warlock.
She’d fed and given aid to a promising group of Outsiders, chief among them being the honorable a...
2024-11-23 00:45:10 +0000 UTC
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“YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME, ZARIAN! YOU CAN’T RUN! I’M GOING TO BURN YOU ALIVE AND LOCK YOU UP MYSELF!”
Jack must’ve grown an impressive set of traits, skills, and stats. The hater was about ten miles away, and Zarian could hear Jack’s hollering clearly.
More importantly, the hater was in the middle of a messy, hazy, sprawling mega war camp that was packed up with at least several million imps and infernal creatures, all gathered for an impending Hell Break.
2024-11-22 05:02:02 +0000 UTC
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“Fed?” Hannah asked, not batting an eye at the horror Zarian and Para had become when hunting and feasting.
“Yes,” Zarian and Para answered together. They paused and unraveled their consciousnesses from each other.
Zarian took over more of himself and turned toward the rest of the arena. “Naomi?”
“I checked with her. She won.” Gilbert remained sitting on Slip, his shield folded into his arm, his axe resting on his armored shoulder.
His beard had grown l...
2024-11-20 23:49:06 +0000 UTC
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“Quarter Percent Power Unsealed. Tiny Darkness,” Zarian chanted, his hands signing the last part.
Bianca’s invisibility cloaking dropped away from him. Hannah’s runic sound devices played heavy battle music on full blast from behind him.
The Madness Wizard and his Parasite Cloak +3 seemed to stand on their own at the entrance of the battle atrium. The hell orcs knew where to go to find him, and Zarian preferred it that way.
After two weeks of crawling deeper into the...
2024-11-20 23:14:59 +0000 UTC
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Zarian and Para slowly and carefully unraveled from each other’s consciousness. Para reset her physical threads that were woven everywhere in Zarian’s body, bringing him back into his more human self. He returned to only having two arms and two legs with no armor or inhuman designs.
Para then woven her threads outside of Zarian’s body into a sleeveless shirt with a long V-neck opening at the front. She shifted from cloak form to kilt form, flowing around his sides to drape over th...
2024-11-19 19:29:44 +0000 UTC
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“No retreat. No surrender. Let’s fucking go.”
Zarian moved straight into the bloody fray. His cloak reared up behind him as myriad limbs and monstrous mouths. He even summoned the Morph grimoire to join the other three grasped in Para’s many hands.
The heavy drumming grew louder, faster. The orange and red streaks pulsated with more intensity on every surface. Sulfuric smoke and burning ash streamed around the dining hall until an immense shockwave or rapid series of blows...
2024-11-19 19:28:27 +0000 UTC
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“What the fuck?!” Naomi raged. “Why did my attacks do diddly shit! Everything should die with one or two punches from me!”
“Extremely high physical resistance abilities, extremely high Strength, and vastly high vitality,” Hannah listed. “They might even shrug off blunt force attacks better than other styles of attacks. So you and Gilbert are the most disadvantaged with damage.”
“Gilbert, sure, but I got claws, bitches.” Naomi activated her Primal Huntress...
2024-11-19 02:55:40 +0000 UTC
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“Hell orc!” Zarian roared.
“Its axes are legendary and covered in high-quality enchantments!” Hannah let loose volleys of frost beams from her little round golems. Each strike left patches of ice on the hell orc’s big and hard body as it swung its axes down on Naomi. “It’s safe to assume it has a legendary class while empowered by the energies of hell!”
“This bastard can hit worth a damn!” Gilbert lunged into the way between Naomi and the hell orc. An array of ...
2024-11-18 23:23:11 +0000 UTC
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As Hannah’s runic sound device played more medieval rock ballads, Zarian kicked at the smoky brimstone under his shadowy boots. He glanced back through the smashed doorway of the keep entrance where the dark, aged, and ruined frame of Castle Grimrock waited.
He could still hear the rumbling remnants of the defeated storm outside.
Zarian looked forward, past his friends, where the gaping throat of Hidden Hell stretched out further, ready to swallow them down into its bowels. Puls...
2024-11-18 22:35:38 +0000 UTC
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“You okay, Bianca? You seem a little sluggish? Did Gilbert screw up healing you?” Zarian asked as he, Bianca, Naomi, Hannah, and Gilbert gathered on top of the left wall.
Bianca didn’t respond with words, being mindful of her voluminous voice while still shifted. She used the spider network to exchange accurate impressions of how she felt.
There was something wrong about Bianca’s free good that Gilbert’s vitality overcharge couldn’t quite fix.
It wasn’t anythin...
2024-11-15 19:26:47 +0000 UTC
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Back when Zarian was in the Marines, he’d taken every opportunity to consume as much anime and fantasy as possible.
Prior to that, the foster care homes he bounced between had been a crap shoot in how lucky he could get. He’d faced different styles of abusive foster parents, from insanely religious fanatics to the downright criminal drug dealers.
He hadn’t gotten comfortable as a kid growing up because he was under a lot of pressure to survive with his only support coming fr...
2024-11-14 22:41:25 +0000 UTC
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He stood on the precipice. Everywhere was darkness. All the noise of battle seemed distant and dull. He felt more alone than ever before.
He could feel the temptation of the fall.
The temptation was everything wonderful and horrible blended together. The temptation of Shadowfell made everything about Sinfeast look incompetent and cheap.
Luciana, his wife, awaited him in the abyss. In this place, her charm was magnetic and irresistible, more corrupting than the tears she coul...
2024-11-13 19:41:05 +0000 UTC
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The corrupted creatures ran into the giant ditches and the walls Hannah had made in an extremely short amount of time. The ones at the center ran into Gilbert and Naomi who waited at the end of a narrow killing corridor.
Gilbert yelled, “Come get some!” while Naomi screamed, “OORAH!” as the roaring, gnashing, and clawing corrupted aberrations slammed into them. The impact was like a torrent of meat hitting an impenetrable wall before getting pulverized by a rapid-moving piston o...
2024-11-12 17:58:43 +0000 UTC
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“What is stopping Shadowfell or Ariana from doing whatever they like in our old world or in other worlds like ours?” Hannah asked after Zarian finished explaining what led to the assassination job for Luciana and how she wouldn’t explain herself much past promising to deliver messages.
Hannah’s reaction was both surprising and unsurprising as she continued her rant. “Ariana has affected Zarian for years while he was in our old world. Shadowfell has shown how she could grab a b...
2024-11-12 02:27:16 +0000 UTC
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The stormy weather worsened far faster than it should’ve.
Bowling ball-sized blocks of hail hurtled down. Twisting winds roared with hurricane force. Lightning and thunder clamored above their heads.
The calamitous storm reared its ugly side to a supernatural level, as if the heavens wanted to come down with a fraction of the power Zarian’s darkness could achieve.
Zarian imagined Team Arty would have to get creative to deal with the storminess. Or he would have to clear ...
2024-11-09 23:25:54 +0000 UTC
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Zarian looked at his last journal notes from the night before. ‘She told me what she wants for her birthday. It’s quite simple. And it can happen after Grimrock…’
He stopped reading that section and flipped over to the notes Para had written for him. Smiling a little, he reread Para’s notes before he put the leather-covered journal into the pocket dimension.
Naomi’s words from last night still lingered a little. But after a moment of peaceful contemplation, he...
2024-11-09 00:28:00 +0000 UTC
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Para’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Zarian) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Zarian Darkrun: Age 22, Born Late Winter, Dreaded Outsider, Dungeon Master, Freedom Leader, Dark Lord, Aura Master, Alpha Gnoll Elder, Wizard Hunter, Free Evil +4, Legendary Madness Wizard, Level 92.
Traits (14 Total): Dark Affinity (Rare), Overpower (Epic), Identify (Rare), Frenzy Zone (Uncommon), Uncanny Valley Effec...
2024-11-08 23:46:39 +0000 UTC
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Zarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Naomi) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Naomi Washington: Age 27, Born Early Summer, Super Outsider, Freedom Leader, Sigma Gnoll Elder, Lady Instructor, Sky Bringer, Free For Real +3, Epic Rumble Psion, Level 90.
Traits (15 Total): Psionic Affinity (Rare), High Intimidation (Uncommon), Juggernaut Hitter (Rare), Little Giant (Rare), Battle Maniac (Rare), Pow...
2024-11-07 20:16:38 +0000 UTC
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Zarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Bianca) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Bianca Garcia: Age 20, Born Mid Spring, Royal Outsider, Freedom Leader, Gnoll Elder, Sunshine Heraldess, Free Good +6, Legendary Light Princess, Level 80.
Traits (11 Total): Light Affinity (Rare), Aura Charge (Rare), Wondrous Princess Regality (Epic), Feathery Grace (Uncommon), Overcomer (Epic), Hellish Endurance (Ra...
2024-11-07 19:56:04 +0000 UTC
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Zarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Hannah) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Hannah Townhouse: Age 31, Born Mid Spring, Outsider, Freedom Leader, Gnoll Elder, Knight Destroyer, Free For Real +2, Legendary Runic Engineer, Level 86.
Traits (12 Total): Weakness Sensor (Uncommon), Rune Affinity (Rare), Lore Eater (Epic), Runic Mystic Intensity (Epic), Runic Inventive Genius (Epic), True Architect (Epic), S...
2024-11-07 19:33:45 +0000 UTC
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Zarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Gilbert) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Gilbert McDonald: Age 30, Born Early Spring, Outsider, Freedom Leader, Gnoll Elder, Troll Dominator, Free For Real +2, Legendary Knighted Healer, Level 80.
Traits (12 Total): Shield Mastery (Uncommon), Health Affinity (Rare), Berserk Vitality (Rare), Knighted Rider (Rare), Stalwart Defender (Rare), Battle Supporter (Rare...
2024-11-07 19:12:28 +0000 UTC
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Let’s go! Zarian cheered inwardly.
Four from Morph:
<No Hard Walls (Uncommon): Why is there a wall in your way? Cast this spell and melt it down to something close to water. The weaker and less magical the wall, the easier it is to melt into water. Scales with Mysticism.>
<Water to Slime (Rare): Water is a part of life. Without it, most weaklings would die. So let’s turn water to slime. Why? Why not? Besides, the slime can come ...
2024-11-07 00:36:50 +0000 UTC
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Zarian’s heart and brain were racing.
Seeing all the numbers go up and coming to terms with the growth and changes gave him a pleasant buzz. Lowkey, he knew that the skills had gone up and advanced in the background.
However, the changes felt dull without acknowledging them fully, as if they were stuck in purgatory until he finally looked and accepted them.
Now Para felt way stronger. His spiders felt way stronger. A lot of him felt way stronger, especially Overwhelming Da...
2024-11-06 03:59:21 +0000 UTC
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Practically speaking, the deluge of notifications had a lot of fluff.
There were messages about the many creatures Zarian had killed over the course of two months. A lot of those had fallen to his skeletons or died when they ran into stormy and destructive aura clashes between him and Para.
Zarian focused on the notifications that mattered the most. The Star System acted to his whims and trimmed the fat, making the review more streamline.
The first notification that surfaced...
2024-11-05 00:36:29 +0000 UTC
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No lie, this wasn't exactly what I wanted ...
But the moment I saw it, I realized I really, really liked it. So it's hugely inaccurate in multiple ways, but for a Book cover for when OP Wiz 1 goes on Zon, I can't help but love it.
Zarian looks like he goes to the Wizard School of Back Muscles, lol.
Also, as a heads up, I will be stubbing (removing) Book 1 chapters before the Zon released. OP Wiz Book 1 comes out December 19th for Kindle Unlimited and Audible.
The audib...
2024-11-04 17:43:15 +0000 UTC
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“Everyone, I think that’s it for training. It’s time we hunker down and review our notifications,” Zarian said.
It was Early Summer, and he was standing on a giant skull-shaped crenulation on a massive rampart ridgeline. They still had some ways to go before reaching the top of the mountainous terrain where the actual Castle Grimrock stood.
When he turned back the way his party had come, he saw portions of the Walled Continent stretched out before him like a wild, mystical...
2024-11-02 22:30:58 +0000 UTC
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