Wisp kneeled and wrapped a length of thread around a stone. She lifted her hand, squinting down the length of her arm, then threw the stone in the same place she’d just thrown the previous stone. It bounced through and kept going, flying up, up, up, toward the edge of the wall high above.
The stone fell short. It plummeted back down. About halfway down the wall, it caught onto the sheer stone.
“Eh, good enough.” Wisp gave the thread a good tug, then nodded to herself.
...
2024-07-30 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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They grew close to the wall. After so long in the depths of the Abyss, Ike had almost forgotten about the walls that closed them in. Sure, they were there, but they were in the distance. The horizon. Not an immediate concern. Often, he couldn’t even see them. In the dense forest, the trees blocked his view. In the grasslands, the high grasses hid the walls. So it was only as they drew close to the edge of the Abyss once more that the walls loomed large.
Ike stared up at them, taken ab...
2024-07-29 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Ike swung his sword at the wolf’s mouth, aiming for the smear of blood. The wolf’s jaws closed in around him, the invisible hide cutting off his view of the smear. Ike kept swinging, his eyes narrowed. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t retreat. I kill it, or it kills me. There’s no other option.
His sword met flesh. He cut through the wolf’s muzzle as its mouth clamped shut. Fangs cut into his body, but only for a moment before the wolf released him. It tried to retreat. Ike...
2024-07-28 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Ike lunged at the shadow. His sword sliced through the grasses without making contact with anything. He frowned. The shadow had vanished, with nothing left but the rustle of the grasses.
Paws whispered against the ground behind him, barely caught on his Sensory Enhancement. He whirled, lifting his sword to block. The grasses shook, but nothing leaped out. Instead, sharp pain burst at his ankles. He sliced downward, spinning as he did. His sword cut through the air.
What the he...
2024-07-27 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“I’m coming with you!”
“Oh, yeah?” Ike said, a little surprised. Then again, she did tell me she was originally from outside the Abyss. It’s not too surprising that she’d want to leave.
“Yep. I’m done here. Too many people know my face. As a predator… as a monster, that’s a problem,” Wisp said.
“You do have a reputation,” Ike agreed. The way Ket and Tana had reacted to her name was enough to drive that home to him. It was as if they’d h...
2024-07-26 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Three ravens darted down at them. Wisp flicked her wrist. A dozen wisps of spider thread burst from her hand. Two of the ravens retreated, but the threads wrapped around the third. She yanked, and the raven jolted out of the sky. It crashed into the branches. Wisp leapt on it. Before it could jump up, she quickly bound it to the tree.
She hadn’t wanted to fight. She was still recovering. But she would have been gravely injured if she’d had to escape through that fire on her own. Ike...
2024-07-25 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The fire closed in. The raven dropped at Ike. This time, it kept its claws curled close to its body, preparing to extend them at the last second. It opened its beak at the same time. Fire flickered in its throat.
Ike knelt. He leaped high into the air, slicing upward with his sword at the same time. The leap carried him up to the level of the bird. His sword swept deep into its feathered underbelly. Only the very tip scratched the bird’s skin, but drew blood nonetheless.
The rav...
2024-07-24 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Ike bounded through the trees. Ahead of him, Wisp arced through the trees. She neatly shot thread and swooped from branch to branch, moving with twice the speed and half the effort. Ike struggled to keep up at times. Without Lightning Dash, he would have absolutely fell behind Wisp. Even then, he had to charge forward at full speed. Wisp, on the other hand, leaned back and glided, relaxing on her way through the trees.
“Wisp,” he called.
“Huh?” Wisp asked, not really payin...
2024-07-23 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Wisp rushed at him. Ike jumped back, not wanting to attack. “Wisp, why?”
“Spar with me!” she said, swiping at his chest.
“No!” Ike snapped. He kicked off the ground. A burst of Lightning Dash took him over the entire Abyss, and he landed on the other side. “You’ll kill me.”
“I promise I won’t,” Wisp said, climbing up into the trees on the other side.
“Wisp, come on. What do you really want?” Ike asked.
“To fight!” She leaped ...
2024-07-22 14:00:04 +0000 UTC
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From one spark, to two, to three. Ike didn’t react. Or rather, there was no Ike to react. Ike was gone. Instinct guided more sparks into his core. As the cold wind blew, more and more aether flowed into Ike’s core. Warmth grew in his core, and Ike’s awareness slowly returned.
As his consciousness returned, bit by bit, Ike paid close attention to how the aether flowed into him. Even without understanding it, instinctively, he could feel the flow of aether. It wasn’t that differen...
2024-07-21 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Ike dangled in the darkness. Cold wind rushed around him. No mana met his call. His core sat empty, emptier than it had been since he’d first become aware of it. Only a few meager scraps of mana remained, tiny pieces he couldn’t press out. Not enough to do anything, just enough to keep him alive.
Sense aether. Sense… the aether.
How did I sense mana in the first place? I can’t remember.
Didn’t I just awaken the System? Do I have to awaken anot...
2024-07-20 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Mana poured out of his hand. He sent a pulse of it into Rosamund’s head, testing it. It can turn lunam into that black gunk. So why shouldn’t it be able to turn mana into the storage gunk, too?
He lifted his hand away. A small deposit of grey gunk sat in the corner of the space.
Ike raised his brows. That looks like success to me.
He poured his mana into the head. His core drained. The grey goo piled up. The more mana he pushed out, the emptier he felt....
2024-07-19 14:00:15 +0000 UTC
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They climbed through the trees. The night passed into day, and the day passed into night again. Ike lost count of time, lost track of direction, everything. Time simply flowed. They moved, and the forest stretched on, forever.
At last, Wisp slowed to a halt. Ike almost ran into her, too used to moving to quickly stop. He jerked to a stop.
“We’ve arrived.”
He lifted his head. A break in the trees gave way to a cleft in the earth. It dropped into truly black darkness, da...
2024-07-18 14:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Ike followed Wisp into the forest. He checked over his shoulder, gazing in the general direction of Abyssal. Hopefully Ket and Tana have the rest of that handled. I’ve done my part. Took out half of the strongest fighters, destroyed the puppet army, and dismantled the spirit rings. The city lord is soundly ruined, if he tries to activate that puppet army in Abyssal. At this point, it’s just a matter of dealing with Lord Gerund, Abyssal’s king’s, men, and I think Ket has that in ha...
2024-07-17 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Ike called up his stat sheet, just to make sure he’d properly learned the skill.
[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 1 [Abyss Dweller]]
Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | Silver 2 | Gold 1 | Rare 2 | … | Unique: 4
Common: All-Around Runner Lvl 8 | Razor Handling Lvl 9 | Spear Handling Lvl 4 | Axe Handling Lvl 4 | Sword Handling Lvl 9 | Bow Handling Lvl 1 | Primitive Crafting Lvl 8
Bronze: Sensory Enhancem...
2024-07-10 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Ike jolted awake. The sun hung low in the sky. Wisp sat nearby, her back to him, chewing on something. She glanced over her shoulder, wiping blood off her face. “You awake?”
“Yeah,” Ike muttered. He sat upright, feeling a bit lost. He blinked a few times and rubbed his face. It felt sticky for some reason, though he couldn’t say why. His stomach hurt, but not as bad as it had before his body had shut down for recovery. He lifted his shirt, looking beneath it.
A dark red ...
2024-07-09 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Ike had enough time to tense before a giant icicle slammed into his gut. All the air left him. A horrible freeze pierced him through, all the way to his spine.
Fuck.
Garrus chuckled. He passed his remaining hand over his stub, freezing the wound shut. “It’s good you can take a hit, but you’ve gotta learn how to do more than just take a hit. If losing my arm means I win the fight, I’ll happily sacrifice my arm. Do you have that resolve?”
Ike gripped at the ...
2024-07-08 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Ike’s hand struck home. Ice crunched under his fingers. He frowned. Huh?
Garrus’ coat fell open. Thick ice coated his whole body, preventing Ike from striking home. The ice quickly refroze around Ike’s hand. Garrus swung his arm downward, slicing the arm-blades toward Ike’s arm.
Ike surged his mana into Lightning Grasp. The lightning melted the refreezing ice, and he yanked his hand free, barely dodging Garrus’ blades. He backstepped. In his other hand, he swept...
2024-07-07 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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“Now!” Lightning crackled around Ike’s legs, and he jumped directly into the air.
The two Rank 2s landed. They immediately leaped up again, but too slow. Curtains of spider thread burst from the spiderweb walls. The threads flew beneath Ike’s feet and ensnared the other two fighters. Trapped, the mages grabbed for their weapons. Every motion wound the threads tighter around them. Every twist pulled more of the web around their bodies.
Ike landed lightly on the ...
2024-07-06 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Ike gestured the next man down the slope. The line had grown shorter over time, and today, only a few people waited to enter the mana field. He took that as a bad sign. The more pressure the king put on people to avoid his business, the fewer people would show up, so for it to have decreased dramatically over the last few days indicated that the king had made it quite clear he did not approve of Ike’s actions.
Not that I’d expect him to. After the king’s reaction to what ...
2024-07-05 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Over the next few days, Ike remained at the mana field. Tana brought more and more townsfolk by. Ike camped out nearby, guarding and waiting at the field. Wisp helped by setting up spiderwebs around the field. He wasn’t sure if she did it for fun or out of boredom, but he appreciated it.
When business was slow, or when the people went home for the night, he went hunting with Wisp. They continued to hunt more of the rings. It was harder to find the monsters now, which was all the bette...
2024-07-04 14:00:04 +0000 UTC
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After the first few people started absorbing mana and regaining their Rank, the other men and women with Tana quickly climbed down the wall, bearing wood and gold. Ike received their fees. He placed the wood behind the next row of puppets, then tapped more of the puppets to meet their desires. He didn’t bother adding any whitefeather grass to the mana these people absorbed. He only had a few strands of it, and he had no interest in giving them the same bonus he had. Better to keep an edge o...
2024-07-03 14:00:19 +0000 UTC
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Gold light shot up around Ike. Lightning flashed around him, interspersing the gold with purple. Ike grinned defiantly up at them as he Ranked up, from Rank 1 to Rank 2.
Up on the top of the cliff, Tana gasped. “Gold and purple…?”
Ike stared the men and women in the eye. At Rank 2, he could definitively tell that they were lower Rank than him. A few had strange, nebulous-feeling Ranks that didn’t feel right; maybe Rank 2s or 3s who had fallen back to Rank 1 from lack of ma...
2024-07-02 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Ike’s core grew to eighty percent full. He eyed the progress, taking another big waft of the mana to speed it along. Just a little more. A little more, and then he could do whatever he needed to. He just needed to stall for another few minutes.
“So? What are you doing with those things? I knew the city lord wouldn’t plot against us,” the old man said, looking down at Ike with disgust.
“These are the city lord’s,” Ike said, as if it was obvious.
“If they are, ...
2024-07-01 14:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Mana rushed into Ike with every breath. He circulated it into his core, reinforcing his body. The seven pillars in his core surged up, climbing toward their zenith. It was as if an invisible ceiling had vanished. His power climbed rapidly.
He looked at his arms. At the purple lightning flickering over them. Is it because I combined the Clad skills? I killed all those monsters, but I still didn’t Rank up, even though I felt that mysterious power in my core. But I still didn’t Ran...
2024-06-30 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Travelling through the forest around the edge of the dolls, Ike quickly gathered fallen wood. Big chunks, little sticks, it didn’t matter the size. Any dry wood he saw, he picked up. Loup helped too, carrying big sticks around whenever she found a good one. When Ike returned to set the sticks down behind the puppets, she’d lie down and chomp on her stick, then hop up, stick in jaw, to follow him again.
When the entire line of puppets had a layer of wood behind them, Ike knelt. Using...
2024-06-29 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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He returned to a bustling town. Ike looked around, a bit startled. Usually Abyssal was a bit of a ghost town. The remaining mages seemed more interested in wasting their lives away over enjoying life. But today, they bustled around, running left and right.
His brows furrowed. What’s going on?
Ike whistled to Loup, who pulled close to his side. He set off at a jog. Pushing through the crowds, he nonetheless arrived at Ket’s house in record time. A mob stood at the fron...
2024-06-28 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Green light burst out from between Ike’s fingers. Power swirled into his body. He took a deep breath, circulating his mana again. The skill rushed into him. A faint discomfort ran through his body, and then it settled.
Ike raised his brows. That was all? How nice!
He quickly opened the System menu to take a look at his skills.
[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 1 [Abyss Dweller]]
Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | Silver 2 |...
2024-06-27 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Ike and the otter charged at one another. The otter dropped to all fours, galloping toward his ankles. Seeing the trip coming, Ike jumped. The otter instantly stopped its charge. Running backward, it curled up under his landing spot and pointed its jaws at the sky.
A blur of gray fur and lightning smashed into the curled otter. Startled, the otter fled to the perimeter of the meadow, and Loup gave chase. At the perimeter, the otter circled around the clearing rather than retreat further...
2024-06-26 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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They walked through the forest. Wisp led the way, moving as confidently as ever. Whenever they came across a bloated monster, Ike and Loup killed it, while Wisp ate it and spat out the ring. The pillars in Ike’s core continued to grow, and his core expanded.
Ike stretched and looked up at the sky as Wisp crunched and slurped a monster behind him. Abruptly, he jolted. “Wisp! The whitefeather grass.”
“Yeah? What of it?” she asked, her cheeks bulging.
“You said you...
2024-06-25 14:00:04 +0000 UTC
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