Chapter 49: Cleanup
Berzerker’s First Aid test (Iceblade): 10d6 = 5 Hits, 1 Miss
Iceblade: 1/10 Physical Monitor
Berzerker’s First Aid Test (Sexkitten): 10d6 = 2 Hits, 3 Miss
Sexkitten: 3/10 Physical Monitor
Berzerker’s First Aid test (Boomer): 10d6 = 6 Hits, 0 Miss
Boomer: 1/11 Stun Monitor
Boomer took a couple moments to go around with a medkit and patch everyone up, while Shadowgirl began moving down the left-hand hallway. There was a frigh...
2025-11-08 21:59:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 93 – Taking Flight
We set camp and kept watches, because there was no way we’d be able to haul our client’s wagon into the [Spiritual Retreat]. Definitely made me appreciate the magic item more, having to ‘rough it’ for a night. There were no inns between Eshiari and Crystalshield, after all.
Fortunately, I had [Magic Touch (Remove Fatigue)] and [Magic Touch (Replenish Stamina)] to help those who were going on watch. Being Tier 2, now, none of us needed to slee...
2025-11-07 22:38:07 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue – Elsewhere
(Thraxl Secunda, Thraxl System, Gel-Nak Empire)
Planet Leader Druxl had never been so glad to be assigned to a hell world. Thraxl Secunda was a hot, miserable rock too close to the system’s primary to be properly habitable. Flows of molten iron and other metals ran openly across the surface, making it impossible for anyone to try and set up normal habitation on the world. Not that they’d be alive long enough to try, anyways, since the heavy atmosphere ...
2025-11-06 22:16:46 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 199 – Corpse Preparation
Lucia did her best to breathe through her mouth as her Mistress led them into one of the ritual chambers beneath the castle. She could smell decay in the air. Not as bad as a body left out in the heat, perhaps, but there was something dead here, that much was certain.
A dim orb of light blinked into existence in the middle of the chamber, casting a spotlight effect on the ritual circle. And the body inside it. Clearly human, and male. Asian anc...
2025-11-05 22:20:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 243 – Debrief
Once again, we were in the conference hall used for military affairs. The same one we’d done the initial after-action report following the pirate fleet’s attack. Then, it had been all pilots and ship crews, practically the entire Navy, in attendance. The ground crews for the fighters were probably the only ones left out.
This time, however, was different. The navy was too large, and we had other branches as well, with the Army and Marines to consider....
2025-11-04 23:37:54 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 401 – Arrival
(Swamptown)
Three months. The journey across the continent of Regandi from Palerre in the Anfelon Confederacy to Nighthold, capital of Knightmarch, the dungeon city-state that had taken over the former Vinastran capital of Aquilis City and all the lands within a day’s ride of Nighthold’s walls, had taken three months. They had not traveled without rest, of course, and they had certainly not spent precious coin on luxurious airship travel, but they had...
2025-11-03 23:19:47 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 48: Elites
By the time Boomer got down to the antechamber, we had already searched the corpsec, and found the physical key that opened the double doors to the lab complex. This was the big push. There were nine of the guards to worry about. No clue about the researchers, but they looked like mundanes, so I wasn’t too worried. We stacked up on the door, Berserker and I in front, Sexkitten and Shadowgirl behind us, and Boomer in the rear, since the Naga was larger than any of ...
2025-11-01 20:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 92 – Merchant and Goblins
Ayen Uriharice was an unusual person, being a Level 32 Merchant / Merchant. Yes, Merchant apparently was both a Class and a Profession, and, yes, apparently you could take both. Most people didn’t do that, though, for obvious reasons, like the lack of any crafting or combat skills. That said, there was some method to the madness, it appeared.
I was sitting next to the elf in his wagon as we traveled the road to Crystalshield. Our wagon was a...
2025-10-31 20:55:48 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 156 – Wrapping Up
We didn’t just up and leave Srusk now that the Russians had taken over. I mean, we could have. There wasn’t anyone in the Russian military or amongst the Russian supers who could have stopped us, after all. However, there were reasons to stick around, at least for a bit.
First, Nemesis had his digital hands full, directing the drone workers on the Rhuk to make the adjustments we’d talked about after our first real fight. The Gravity Lan...
2025-10-30 23:01:22 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 198 – Custom Spells
Another day, another chance to instruct my pupils. I set the other students to their training, and took the two arcanists to a warded practice chamber. We were going to work on customizing their spells, which meant actually casting spells. And even I did not wish to suffer the Librarian’s wrath if we began using anything more than a simple light or levitation spell in her domain.
Looking at the two, I smiled. “So, it is time for the two of you t...
2025-10-29 20:25:05 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 242 – Reunion
It was a scene that had played out countless times before, in books, in film, and in the real world. Tired warriors returning from combat abroad, stepping of a ship, and seeing the gathered families, friends, and other service members there to honor and greet them upon their return. The only thing different about it was that the returning crews now included men and women of species that were definitely not human, and the waiting families gathered under magical ...
2025-10-28 22:52:31 +0000 UTC
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Prologue – Trade Chat
(Adventurer’s Guild Official Forums, Miami Branch)
SunnyBunz, MightyMouse, ImAPally, DontYouWantMe, AsaAkiraIsBae, BestGirl, LatinHeat, Salty, Backpage, Craig34, l33tpally, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, RedFox, Kimiko, DonnyJuan, Crusader, BadCompany, HurricaneGal, Ambassador, Scholar, Righteous, Id10t, Satyr, DarkEnchanter, RangerMiguel, ScoopGirl, VenusFlyTramp, MagicMike, TsundereHealer, Max, LightningLegacy, SwiftTaylor, Domino, Bacchus, Aegis, Temptation...
2025-10-27 14:07:32 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 47: Into the Lab
“Com check,” I subvocalized into our comm net. One by one, the others responded, with our temporary hire Boomer being the last. “All right. Twilight, what Matrix magic do you have going to get us into the garage?”
“Since I gave myself admin access, I’ve been able to quietly look through communications logs. As you know, the labs we’re going to are off the books, and unknown to most of the workforce. The parking garage goes from B1 to B4...
2025-10-25 14:39:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 91 – Quests
After stopping by the Adventurers Guild to get my Betrayal’s Due quest marked complete, as well as register Frostmaw as my tamed companion, our next stop was the Master Alchemist’s shop. I needed to turn in the enchanted vials, after all, and get the reward for the Dragonkin Milking quest. I was interested to see what effect the [Draconic Essence Elixirs] would have.
Elora Sarnala, the Master Alchemist, was quite happy to see us when we said we were the...
2025-10-24 16:24:43 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 155 – Admin
I left the Russians to their business. They were going to have plenty to do in the coming days, since the planet wouldn’t conquer itself. That was part of the reason I agreed to haul the gates along, after all. Destroying a world was easy, if time consuming. Conquering and colonizing one was hard work, and I had better uses for my time.
Instead, I led Hoarfrost and my ladies into the Rhuk. As I stepped inside, I called out to the A...
2025-10-23 20:29:49 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 197 – Combat Training
Today was the day my apprentices began their combat training. Since we were just beginning, I wasn’t going to teach them weapons, just yet. Eventually, as I’d promised, they would at least obtain proficiency in several weapon types, but they needed a basis to start from. There was no point in jumping to man-made weapons when they hadn’t learned to use the weapons they were born with, yet.
All of them were dressed in the same uniforms as norm...
2025-10-22 21:09:28 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 241 – Return
(Main Bridge, CRN Mercurial, Sol System)
Captain Griboyedov Ivan Tikhonovich breathed as the stitch-sickness finally fell away. Blinking his eyes clear, he called out to the room. “Time?”
A half-groggy, half-nauseous voice answered him from the sensor station. “Stitch completed four minutes and thirty-three seconds ago. All ships reporting in, all systems green.”
Griboyedov nodded once, slowly enough that it did not affect his ...
2025-10-21 20:41:02 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue – Elsewhere
Catalina Zorita was enjoying a day off. Well, another day off. She’d been to Athens earlier in the week to attend ‘The Wedding’, as it was being called in the tabloids. Just that. Everyone knew which wedding people were referring to when they said that. After all, how often could you say that you witnessed the wedding of two gods?
She had brought little Lucia along, naturally, which meant bringing the dog, as well. Lucia was still thrilled to have a ...
2025-10-20 21:28:57 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 46: Carina
(Nightelligence Solutions Corporate Headquarters)
Shadowgirl took a breath as she parked the stolen scooter in the subterranean employee parking garage. They needed a vehicle that wouldn’t be tied back to them, after all. Once Twilight ripped out any digital traces and spoofed the registration, and Babydoll went over the thing with a tag eraser, to ensure that it wouldn’t be calling home, she had a way to get to ‘work’.
Today was Carina Lowes’s...
2025-10-18 16:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Prologue – Officially Unofficial
Mainfridus Shadescar was a merchant, as his father had been before him. His grandfather, though, had been born a merchant, heir to the Shadescar Barony in Dascora. If his great-grandfather had been less of a self-righteous prick, then things may have been different.
The last Baron Shadescar had been a pious man. Overly pious. To the point where he was an open supporter of the Theocracy of Eclana. When his grandfather discovered that Baron Shade...
2025-10-17 21:42:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 154 – Russians
Assembling the gate was simple enough, especially with the robot workers doing most of the heavy lifting. Take two pylons, each five meters high, put them eight meters apart, make sure the supports are set up properly, run cables to the control console and the small power core inside. Thankfully, the super-scientists who designed this thing made it so that the portable gates only enough power to force the connection, and then they were backup power, as the fac...
2025-10-16 20:14:28 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 196 – Lesson Plans
After dinner, I gathered my apprentices together, so that we could go over the results of their first day’s training. The different methods worked better for the groups I’d tasked them to, but they were useful for the others, as well. A Sorcerer did not depend on knowledge or working with the flows of mana, like the Arcanist and Witch, but those methods would help the Sorcerer in casting higher-level magics, and the same was true for the others. Any Ma...
2025-10-15 20:56:53 +0000 UTC
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Prologue – Trade Chat
(North American System Information Exchange Forum, formerly Community Building and Civil Defense Chat)
abby_gail, bento, RainyDayze, GringottsGoblin, DoritoMan, D.VaLuvr69, Carion, RadicalEdward, FusionGal, NotACop, Scholar, RamblingWreck, Anonymous4, Anonymous6, RedShift, SevenNationArmy, DarkLord, BagOTrix, White_Queen, Faraday, BackpageGal, FullServiceMassage, daytrader, LinaLuv, Skippy, shadow_clone23, THE_MERCHANT, jenny8675309, Rabbit, Angelus and T...
2025-10-14 18:16:37 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 400 – Beach
Picking someplace to do a honeymoon was difficult, for deities. Fortunately, since we could each use the other’s shrines now that we were married, there were plenty of options on where to go. Still, since we’d done the ceremony in Greece, Athena suggested that we take our honeymoon to a city more closely associated with me. And of the places more associated with me, Miami had the best beaches.
Sure, it was in the middle of fall, now, but it never really...
2025-10-14 00:32:47 +0000 UTC
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Have something to do tomorrow, so chapter now.
Chapter 45: Meeting
Soon enough, Basilisk slithered back into the room, followed a moment later by a drone pushing a cart with what had to be twenty kilos of plastic explosives, along with detonators, several spools of wire, and a trigger device. A quick look said that these were the baseline plastic explosives, with each kilo being roughly equal to a kilo of TNT, but easier to handle, thanks to them only going off when you h...
2025-10-10 22:00:26 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue – Elsewhere
The Holy Theocracy of Eclana, where the Righteous Pantheon of the Good Peoples of the World reigned supreme, was always in some sort of unrest. Mortals were weak creatures, and needed a firm hand to guide them upon the proper path, but that weakness also meant that they resented those who would show them the way. Despite the righteous faith that the churches called for in their people, there were always those who chafed against the strictures of the Church, and ...
2025-10-10 20:56:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 153 – Beatdown
Segment 6:
Iceblade puts 2 CSLs to DCV (DCV 12)
Iceblade uses Martial Strike (+0 OCV, +2 DCV, +2 DC Strike) (DCV 14)
Iceblade’s attack roll, (Warrior 7), OCV 10: 3d6 = 7 (Hits DCV 14) (Hit)
Winter’s Bite: 5d6 = 18 BODY (rPD 7 after AP)
Stun Multiplier: 1d6-1 = 2 (36 STUN) (rPD 7 after AP) (x2 Vulnerability)
Warrior 7: 19/30 BODY
Warrior 7: -10/55 STUN (Unconscious)
Iceblade: 37/50 END
B...
2025-10-09 20:22:05 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 195 – Arcanists
Of course, when setting my Arcanists to cultivate, I had an appropriate place for them. Namely, my library. Well, one of my libraries. I had conquered half a continent in the other world, and some of the treasures I stole were the contents of every library I captured unburnt. Admittedly, that was fewer than I had hoped for, but there was only so much one could do in a siege to limit collateral damage.
Still, I had managed some acquisitions. After establ...
2025-10-08 19:40:29 +0000 UTC
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Epilogue – Elsewhere
(Planet Xids Prime, Xids System, Ouran Huntworlds)
Hasluh the Shadowstalker entered the private training hall that only direct kin of the Clan Leader could enter without permission, the guard stepping in after him. This was the Clan Leader’s private sanctuary in the Clan Hall, a place where they could relax their guard, and stop worrying about fending off a rival’s blades. To be invited into this space, as one who was not direct kin, was a sign of trus...
2025-10-07 19:22:49 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 399 – Reception
The reception hall was not quite full to capacity, but it was definitely close. There was room for eight hundred in this space, as people wandered around and mingled. Athena and I stayed together, as the ‘stars’ of the event, but the other gods and dungeons in the party were spread out through the hall, using this party as a chance to network and make deals. Still, a group had gathered around us, all the same.
“That ceremony was rather tame, based...
2025-10-06 23:29:04 +0000 UTC
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