PenguinKills

Chapter 179 - Hope for Aid

The announcement went over about as well as predicted. Worry and panic bubbled up but nothing crazy happened, which was good. I wouldn't go far as to say people took it in stride, but it wasn't as big a blow as some might've thought.

It was sad to say that people were used to this, but most in our city spent nearly a year surviving on their own in the wilderness. They had a toughness to them that kept them alive, which meant they didn't immediately freak out when hearing of a threat. 2024-11-14 21:20:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 178 - Council Discussion

Carson

Watching the City Owner ruminate over what Carson had just told him, it was reassuring that he took the threat seriously. From what he'd heard, the other pylon they reached out to didn't fully understand what they were up against.

Not everyone had the urge to expand their knowledge while in the tutorial and buy information about the wider multiverse which left some in the dark about what Demons were, but this man knew.

He asked the rig...

Chapter 177 - Demons

Chris

"Demons? Really?" I asked before I fully comprehended what was said. It was just so outlandish. Sure, we knew of them now that the world had changed but it was still odd to think of them as real.

When one shouted Demons, it was hard not to think of all the depictions from fantasy shows and whatnot. Even though they were very real now and were possibly a threat, it still sounded unbelievable.

"Yes, Demons." Carson confirmed like he expec...

Chapter 176 - Irrefutable Evidence

Chris

I shifted in my seat as the time stretched on, waiting for the meeting to start. While it was usually Council meetings that would take place in this room, it was arranged for a different reason today.

The furniture was hastily moved and replaced where necessary, the walls were decorated with the things we had available and rugs were placed down.

Where it used to be a bare-bones stone room, it looked more welcoming now that Abigail threw...

Chapter 175 - Traveling Light

My office was a flurry of activity as everyone seemed to need something right at the same time and my fun few days of forging were exchanged for managing.

I needed a break from my forging spree anyway. The only thing saving me from a mountain of paperwork was the fact we didn't actually have paper.

Some professions could conjure it as part of a skill but those couldn't be used for everyday use. Architects and Engineers could create Blueprints or Designs and have their skills gener...

Chapter 174 - Paradoxical, but it Works

Nothing unexpected arose from the process and it seemed to be going smoothly based on what I was told. I checked in every once and a while but other than that, I kept myself busy.

Sitting around knowing what was happening was almost worse than listening to it. My mind kept bringing up the memories of what I went through and my prayers for it to end.

Instead, to keep my hands busy and mind occupied, I deferred my governing tasks for later and focused on something else...

Chapter 173 - The Molten Smith

"Are you sure about this?" I asked skeptically as I looked over the building in front of me. The heat rolled off the building and distorted the air if I looked close enough.

It reminded me of when it was me standing where Vincent was getting asked the same question. When I was the center of everyone's worried glances and expressions of pity.

"Were you?" He asked in response, which was as good a response as any.

I knew the pain that he was in for.

Looking at what was bu...

Chapter 172 - Departure

The wave the other day went smoothly, like the previous four had, and now I was back to managing our growing populous. Honestly, it was a bit of a shame they only came once a month to break up the monotony of governing.

It gave everyone a chance to get real experience fighting and gave me the chance to hone my battlefield commanding. Not all who wished to be guards were as combat-experienced as the rest.

The waves were a stark difference from how I remembered them. Instead of the ...

Chapter 171 - Status Changes

~~

Name: Christopher Zalenski

Race: (E) Human*

Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) – Level 68

Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) – Level 58

Affinity: Arctic

Faction: Frostheim (Outpost Leader)

Strength - 892

Agility - 443

Perception - 254

Fortitude - 727

Endurance - 404

Vitality - 295 2024-11-04 21:23:16 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 170 - Year's End

As the Spring rains came to wash the snow away, it completed the first year since the World was altered. While Chris and his fledgling City were slowly making progress on rebuilding, the rest of the world did the same.

Some had a head start, planting their pylon and building exactly where they were returned, while others had to seek out new places to carve out for themselves. The foothills of Virginia, being one such area, had turned into a perilous place for even the strongest on the p...

Chapter 169 - Time

Time was a funny thing. It could, at certain points, feel like it moved at a snail's pace, like how the three months of the tutorial had felt like 3 years. Or, at other times, fly by faster than you thought possible.

With the bare necessities taken care of and our pylon placed, there wasn't much we needed to do with great urgency. We were where we were supposed to be, our travel was over.

What came now was the hard part.

The construction effort wasn't a speedy process by any...

Chapter 168 - City of Frost

Luckily, we knew that names could be changed. Tracy had a funny story about finding out that tid bit of information. Nick had apparently named their Outpost something stupid and Tracy had to convince him to change it.

She never ended up telling us what he originally picked, but the name they came up with afterwards was Stormfront, as a play for the man's affinity. I didn't meet the guy, but from what Tracy told us, he loved his affinity and refused to let the Outpost be na...

Chapter 167 - Name Your Outpost

Finding the pylon was easy. It would be harder to overlook it than it was to find it. Its beacon effect hadn't diminished or disappeared over our months of travel or construction.

Even if Abigail tried to play hide and seek with it, which I swore she did with certain materials, by moving it around to different carts intermittently, I would have been able to find it.

It felt odd to hold one in my hand. When we were first introduced to them and saw one at the start of our tutorial, ...

Chapter 166 - It's Time

My shovel bit into the ground and I heaved the separated earth up and out of the way. Even as cold as it was, sweat ran down my face briefly before freezing to my skin.

Pulling the shovel back down, I slammed it into the hardened ground once again to repeat the action.

The line of dirt leading away from me was longer than it had been yesterday, and that was all that mattered. No matter how little progress I made in a day, it was being made.

Starting construction at the begin...

Chapter 165 - Real Work

A flurry of activity overtook the group after they realized we would be setting up camp for most likely the last time and people had a pep in their step doing so.

Tents were set up along with the preliminary defense line that was common practice by now, but it would soon see a more permanent upgrade.

We wouldn't rush to build the final structures right away, but a more comfortable living condition first before we started on the heavy construction.

It wouldn't make sense to b...

Chapter 164 - Extended Stay

Abigail

She tried her best to keep the caravan going but the ever-worsening conditions made things hard. They were running out of thick furs for clothes and blankets, firewood was running low and they would have to stop and chop more soon, people were getting sick from staying out too long and Connor was behind on making medicine.

Everyone was on the brink of exhaustion because of the pace Chris set but no one was willing to speak up about it. Afte...

Chapter 163 - March On

[Shattering Hammer] was the skill I had picked up after reaching level 60 and from my initial tests of it, it was a great skill.

The three I was offered all had their perks, but this was the one I felt fit me best for right now. One was a more defensive option which I felt I had covered and the other branched out in a different direction I didn't wish to take right away.

[Shattering Hammer] fixed the issue of if something was too strong for my ice to affect or my hammer to smash. ...

Chapter 162 - New Skill

Chris

I pushed my Law to go further. Both in the strength of my Ice and the cold it produced. Some of the constant growth I had felt from the tutorial was missing and I wanted to make up for that.

It was obvious that I wouldn't grow as fast now that we were out of the tutorial, but it still felt weird to be the same level for weeks on end. Even though each level took longer and I didn't have ample opportunity to get essence, it still felt lik...

Chapter 161 - Homefield Advantage

Chris

It didn't take me long to run into the first of the wolves around our camp as I walked out. They kept a tight perimeter around us and once I broke it, they made themselves known.

I liked to believe I had worked through everything since the change but it was times like this that made me wonder if I hadn't. I wouldn't call it a thirst for bloodlust, but my desire for battle wasn't seen in the best light.

Typically, people who threw ...

Chapter 160 - Wearing Patience

"Chris, the wolves are circling again," Abigail said as she approached the stump I was sitting on.

As we pushed on toward the first marker in the chain we had set, we were beset by a number of things hindering our travel. The snow and weather the least among them.

Animals and beasts roaming the area had gotten increasingly cumbersome to get through and it only got worse as the days went on.

Coyotes and felines were the more opportunistic predators. They only attacked smaller...

Chapter 159 - First Marker

The rest of the dungeon was a bit of a wash. Gabriel got to fight on the lower levels and he did pretty well in my opinion. He could fight up quite a few levels and only got stumped on the fifth floor.

He had a good fight against the fourth-floor guardian which was a level 50 E-ranked ape-like creature but stalled out not long after.

The roving monsters of the fifth floor that grouped together we too hard for him to take down alone. Singular monsters that high level were fine for ...

Chapter 158 - Dungeons

My horse riding skills still weren't perfect, but they were enough not to fall off while traveling at a decent speed. Full gallop was still hard to control but I was getting there.

Gabriel was newer at it than me, with only recently getting the chance but he was a quick learner. The week he spent getting the basics down was enough for our journey to be a quick one.

Riding horses for transportation was just another oddity I had to work through that the new world brought.

Find...

Chapter 157 - Rising Challenge

Chris

"Come on, Chris, it will be fine. Just there and back, nothing else." Gabriel once again tried to plead.

Ever since he got his legs back a few days ago he had been insistent about doing more. Joining with the other groups of scouts. Being a participant when an appropriate level monster was found.

He had a Law and was working on his Anchor, but he still wasn't an E-rank yet which made the monsters around here too strong for him.

He...

Chapter 156 - Fight for the River

"Now be careful. The muscles are still new and it will take a while to get used to again." Abigail lectured Gabriel.

The last healing session had just completed and she was giving him the final warnings about his regrown legs.

"We will have to do physical therapy for the next few weeks to get your range of motion and the muscles stimulated but it should be fine to walk on them now." She added.

The healers had worked for months to get his legs regrown and now it was finally d...

Chapter 155 - What Lies West?

Two months.

It took us two months for them to come upon civilization again. Well, civilization that was more than stragglers and small groups living in the newly created wilds.

After leaving what used to be the capital of Indiana and taming the herd of horses, we were off at a speed magnitudes faster than our previous walking and covered an amount of ground to match.

We could have shortened that duration and stopped at a place found along the way, but no one was willing to d...

Chapter 154 - New Form of Travel

Chris

It took Sarah an inordinate amount of time to tame one of the horses and after seeing how long it took, I looked for a way to speed things up.

Someone came up with the idea of separating the horses so she only had to focus on one and that sped up things dramatically.

It was a mystery why I hadn't thought of it before but it was nice to have that idea early rather than after we were most of the way through the herd.

Separating them...

Chapter 153 - Frustration

Chris

I trusted Jonathan fully to take care of the other end while I shifted my focus to what I needed to do next. The herd was through the gate and now it was time to close it.

A giant [Icy Bastion] sprung into existence to block off the gap while the builders ran in from the sides to fashion the gate closed. My wall of ice was plenty strong to keep the horses in while the builders worked to secure the gate.

The only thing left was to have S...

Chapter 152 - The Herd

We didn't spend much time in the city and were on the road again in a day. Tracy helped us get everything we needed and even some things we didn't know were available. It put a dent in our newly acquired coins but it was well worth it in my opinion.

It was mostly food but there were other things filtered in. Raw materials we weren't able to get a lot of from the dungeon or what the dungeon didn't give out. Cloth mostly, as the dungeon seemed to have an aversion to the stuff.

One t...

Chapter 151 - Tales of Travel

I followed her back to the keep that was under construction and there was already a table and chairs set out for us. Austin wanted nothing to do with the lunch and left me high and dry saying he had important things to do.

The bastard.

My mind couldn't comprehend why Tracy was acting like she was and it was looking for some indication of a trick or trap. I feared poison at first but even that was too underhanded for something she would do.

Still, I kept my vigilance up just ...

Chapter 150 - Lunch?

Hendricks

The mana in the air was so thick he could almost taste it. It clogged his throat and there was a suffocating weight he had to fight through just to move. The area had turned into one of the highest concentrations of mana and they had returned right in the middle of it.

Ever since they had been returned, fighting for their lives had taken up every second of every day. Even months after, they were still clawing and struggling to eke out a p...