CHAPTER FOURTY SEVEN
Where he might’ve expected her to plummet like a stone upon losing consciousness, Purrsefone of Sands was surprised—though realistically he probably shouldn’t have been—when the little empress was gracefully let down on a cushion of ambient mana.
The creature’s eye twitched. The wave of authority, which rolled over him as she grew near, enough to raise the hairs on his back.
Even unconscious the little brat’s imp...
2025-01-20 16:15:10 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER FOURTY SIX
The black scaled Ra’ak Neerian pulled the trigger-!
And a wall of shoddy weaponry—dozens of chipped swords, worn axes, and dull daggers all told—sprung up to oppose him. At the same time, Richard tugged on the mana strings he’d looped around the lizard man’s ankles, lurching forward, just as the bolt of plasma punched through the screen of poor-quality implements. The plasma slowed inconsiderably by the jumble of killing i...
2025-01-20 16:13:53 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER FOURTY FIVE
The burning noonday sun beat down mercilessly on the marching contingent of thugs and cutthroats. Transforming the pack of normally sharp eyed killers, into a troop of half-lidded, half conscious sleepwalkers—resembling a classroom of sleepy toddlers, just before nap time. Their movements sluggish, their reactions slowed, as their biology made itself known in no uncertain terms. A novel sensation for all but the most traveled among the...
2025-01-17 19:55:18 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (X)
Minutes Earlier.
Alice was already having second thoughts. Of course, she’d known from the very beginning that this was a bad idea, had tried to insist on as much, to little success all around. The others were adamant, and she’d been loathe to let herself get left behind. Nevertheless, as they marched deeper into the woods, growing further and further from her little bro and his umbrella of protection, she couldn’t help but feel li...
2025-01-17 19:54:28 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER FOURTY FOUR
“Oh, quit being such a baby,” his body double chided.
Hand still planted on his chest, his superego did… something, and suddenly, the screaming stopped. The pain stopped. Actually, a lot of sensations just below his neck stopped sensation-ing entirely. Well, more like all of them really, if he was being completely honest.
“D-did you just do what I think y...
2025-01-16 16:28:17 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (IX)
Lucky Lue’s Bed And Breakfast Casino
Lucky Lue’sha’arr’s bed and breakfast casino was a seedy establishment situated near the intersection of two major transit lines. Poor of upkeep and even poorer of renown, it was nevertheless a staple of the underside, in so far as the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth districts were concerned. Run by the titular “Lucky Lue,” a potbellied Ra’ak Neerian sporting a gold ...
2025-01-16 16:25:38 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER FOURTY THREE
DAYS LEFT BEFORE RARE CLASS CUTOFF DATE: (4/15)
Like he were setting a match to a fuse, Richard injected a full five points of his mana reserves into the line of powdered mana crystals.
And, like he’d set a match to a fuse, the fuse in question immediately sparked to life. Shining bright blue radiance racing along the meandering path. To where the line of dull blue powder he’d s...
2025-01-15 12:43:46 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (VIII)
Corporate Machine Operating Precisely As Intended
Rook Ba’shra looked out over the bustling metropolis from the comfort of his lavish penthouse apartment. Swirling a glass of two thousand year old vintage, he peered over the rim at the hustle and bustle happening far below—floor to ceiling windows acting like portals of sorts.
Allowing a glimpse onto a world most low tier guttersnipes would never even believ...
2025-01-15 12:42:05 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER FOURTY TWO
DAYS LEFT BEFORE RARE CLASS CUT OFF DATE: (6/15)
The next of the kids to unlock their ability cubes were Donald, and, surprisingly enough, Skye. Surprising because, unlike Jimmy and Donald, the ability she coalesced through the nature of her actions wasn’t Power Blow, but instead, an ability called Power Strike.
•—|-Power Strike-|—•
•[Common]•
<... 2025-01-13 18:02:22 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER FOURTY ONE
Jimmy Yoon stared unseeing into the depths of the snow covered forest. All of his attention focused intently on his core, his arms, the way his legs were spaced shoulders width apart—stance rock solid, as if anchored to the snow covered earth. He closed his eyes. Inhaled deeply. Then let it out in a slow exhale, releasing a cloud of misty vapor—obscuring his focused features as he did so.
In his minds eye, he pictured the scene ...
2025-01-13 00:03:46 +0000 UTC View PostCHECKLIST CHAPTER
For what was going to be the last time, so long as he had anything to say about it, the nosy butler with the head of a fish questioned his completely sane and entirely rational decisions.
“And you’re absolutely sure it’s wise to be making such crucial decisions at this critical juncture while you’re in such a… compromised state?”
“What ...
2025-01-12 23:56:35 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (VII)
The Power of Peerage
Their second day hunting toy soldiers went significantly better than the first. Not a terribly difficult feat, considering just how poorly their previous escapade had gone. Denise having taken it especially hard, seeing as, for the majority of the time, she’d done far more damage to their party’s morale than the enemy had. Well, done more damage to their party than the enemy had period, 2025-01-12 23:55:00 +0000 UTC View Post
CHAPTER FOURTY
As it turned out, consuming the Alpha Cymbal Clang Primate was both, far less of an ordeal than he’d thought, and so much worse than he’d been anticipating. Less of an ordeal because, for whatever reason—be it a quality of their glittery rainbow blood, or some other factor he wasn’t currently aware of—the beasts, at least all those he’d come across thus far, transformed into a candy-like substance upon death. Granted, the argument...
2025-01-12 23:52:58 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY NINE
I’m up! Wha-? Huh!?
Richard sprang to a sitting position, so fast and so suddenly, that he somehow managed to catapult himself into the roof of the tent. Ultimately catching some pretty gnarly air time, but, of course, it couldn’t just end there. The canvas was stretched taught, several guy lined snapped, and soon the whole thing came crashing down on top of a wriggling pile of incorrigibly excitable children. Richard ...
2025-01-10 20:14:10 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Richard took the time to polish off the rest of the butchered elite before they finally set out for the clearing. Eventually all that was left was a graveyard of bones, perfectly picked clean, and a pot bellied infant far too full for his liking.
Through dogged repetition, your ability [Super Enhanced Metabolism] has ranked up in proficiency.
[Super Enhanced Metabolism] has reached lvl 5
... 2025-01-10 03:02:08 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (VI)
G.I. Go Fork Yourself
Maya’s head snapped back with a hollow, thump!
“Argh! Son of a birch that hurts!” Maya screamed, falling back on her butt and instantly raising a hand to nurse her throbbing forehead.
Eva, Robin, and Marlene froze, cries of sorrow dying on their lips.
“Y-you’re alive?” asked Marlene.
“Yeah I’m forking alive! What kind of question i...
2025-01-08 19:35:14 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Question.
How do you bargain with a baby? Scratch that, how do you bargain with a baby that is also, not so secretly, a System born Empress? Rewind a moment, how on earth do you bargain with a baby—that is also a not so secret System born Empress—who is, in addition to all that, positively spoiled rotten by the, apparently, very protective concept of mana itself?
Also...
2025-01-08 19:34:06 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (V)
Girl’s Trip!
Hours Earlier (Minutes After They First Entered the Forest)
Sunlight shone through the sparse canopy overhead, scattering the quivering umbra of innumerable leaves across the uncannily flat forest floor. The cool shade excitable, like a carpet of jumping shadows chased by sun dappled rays. Sparse undergrowth was punctuated by knotted roots and the occasional thicket. Obstacles easily navigated with h...
2025-01-08 19:32:37 +0000 UTC View PostUPLOAD SCHEDULE: MONDAY, WEDNSDAY, FRIDAY
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2025-01-07 01:01:16 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY SIX
“Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers!” Richard grunted, sweat dripping from his brow.
“She sells sea shells by the sea shore!” he groaned, limbs quivering, core burning, bare feet slapping against the rough terrain—the finish line just around the corner.
“How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” he gasped for breath, nearly stumbling as his foot caught on a loose pebble. ...
2025-01-06 18:33:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Abilities. What were they? How did they work? And why could you only use so many at a time before your soul began to warp and stretch under the strain?
These were all fantastic questions!
They were also ones he didn’t really have the answers to. Of course, it could be that he’d known once upon a time, and now the information was squirreled away in an obscure scientific journal under a stack of similarly esoteric academic ...
2025-01-06 18:32:00 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Well. I think it’s safe to say that could’ve gone better. Admittedly, not my finest moment.
Before anything, Richard reached out and rested a hand upon the cold snout of the towering elite. In this way, seconds later, when the rest of the swine exploded into motes of white light, before condensing back down into thumbnail sized mana crystals, the elite remained entirely unaltered. Just a big old hunk of boar meat.
<... 2025-01-06 18:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Time seemed to screech to a halt as their eyes met.
Well, one pair of eyes and a single navy blue gumdrop, but then, really, who was keeping track? Not him, surely.
It’s hatred palpable. Seething. Bearing down on him like a physical weight. The waves of light pink mana billowing off the mountain of candied fur and muscle voluminous, like spun cotton turned to liquid vapor. Spongy clouds of cotton candy pouring off of it in...
2025-01-06 18:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY TWO
The forested glen was wide and spacious.
Covered in moss and vibrant greenery, with a languid stream carving a line down its center, it was verdant, wild, though still clearly inhabited. Well trodden animal trails radiating out from the center of the secluded little oasis like the spokes of a wheel. The quiet burbling of rushing water competing with the twitter of bird song, in a bid to create the most peaceful atmosphere imaginable...
2025-01-06 18:29:00 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY ONE
As they made their way deeper into the well lit forest, jumping over roots and balancing atop fallen moss covered logs, a stark divide appeared amid the gaggle of young children. Two diametrically opposed factions whose thoughts and ideals could not be bridged by mere words alone, no matter how lengthy or involved the dialogue.
“We should help!” Donald exclaimed, making the rather impressive stick he’d found e...
2025-01-06 18:28:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER THIRTY
The children watched in dumbstruck awe as their youngest member weaved through forest and beast alike. Dashing back and forth, over and around. Leading the trio of Candy-Hide Boar’s by the nose, like it was a well choreographed dance number they’d practiced beforehand. A performance put on for their express benefit. He hadn’t even cared to use his blade for the last five minutes or so. The oversized weapon—at least when compa...
2025-01-06 18:27:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER TWENTY NINE
“You’re leaving?!” the children chorused with obvious dismay.
A pained grimace flit across the woman, Robin’s, face, before she plastered on a fake smile.
“Only for a little while- and we’ll be back before you know it! A quick trip. Nothing more. In and then out.”
After their little fiasco following his not so secluded breakthrough, and the subsequent undressing, washing, and burning that...
2025-01-06 18:26:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
The warm light of rising dawn broke through the sparse cordon of deciduous trees, burning away the early morning mist blanketing the clearing. Streams of light, like spun gold, pierced the swiftly retreating gloom. Illuminating the myriad beads of dew that speckled the long stretch of emerald green. Making them gleam and sparkle like miniature diamonds, where they clung to vibrant blades of grass.
Robin exited her tent to the airy...
2025-01-06 18:24:01 +0000 UTC View PostCHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
The night was surprisingly warm inside the children’s tent. Maybe a little too warm with everyone crammed together like sardines. Still, it wasn’t as if he could really complain. The walls of the tent provided much needed cover, and the quiet snoring of the others, mixed with the muffled crackling of the campfire, acted as a kind of white noise. Hopefully this meant his nightly escapades would go unnoticed by the creature, ...
2025-01-06 18:23:01 +0000 UTC View PostINTERLUDE (IV)
A Fair & Equal Trade
Asha’s heart raced. In fact it hadn’t stopped racing since the big reveal five minutes ago.
A Duchess, a Princess, and an Empress dock at a way station.
It’s like the beginning of a crass Garezzi Tlaylaxian joke. And not a particularly funny one at that.
Honestly, she couldn’t entirely be sure she wasn’t having a panic attack. It w...
2025-01-06 18:22:01 +0000 UTC View Post