Rel stared at the Raid Boss in horror.
“Crystal Merciful,” Kur whispered. “Is that one of those flying things?”
Wings stretched behind the monster's back, maybe about 30-feet long on either side. The spikes, now revealed to be the legs of the thing, twitched and moved.
A screech filled the air, as the flying thing, with its two cylinders, dropped from the monster’s back.
It crashed with a loud thud on top of the vanguard, crushing countless Climbers under its...
2024-12-11 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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“How many of these things are there?” Mul shouted, as he drove his aura coated fist into a downed, large spider's face. The damned thing was the size of a Sentry.
“As many as there are!” Gad shouted. “Keep punching them!”
“What do you think I’m doing!”
Kur looked from the tank and brawler and scanned their line.
“We just have to hold on!” Row shouted, from his side. “Come on people! Get that anger and frustrations out!”
After the flying ...
2024-12-10 11:31:01 +0000 UTC
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“Oh, my Crystal!” Jul shouted. “They’re coming from above!”
Nar looked up and found a massive swarm of flying enemies emerging from hundreds of holes across the ceiling.
“What now?” he whispered.
“Archers! Ranged! Above us! Above us! Kill them, kill them all!” Juf shouted.
Projectiles began to fall down on them, exploding in big, bright flames.
The new enemies had long, straight bodies, with thick heads that narrowed into sharp, gleaming tails. ...
2024-12-10 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone,
There was a bit of a mix up in the Royal Road side of things... I forgot to release a chapter XD
So, that means there will be an extra chapter released there and here as well!
I hope everyone is having a great day/night!
Everhart
2024-12-09 18:12:18 +0000 UTC
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The Climbers were assembled.
“I actually can’t believe there’s so many idiots with us,” Mul whispered.
“Maybe they all think like me,” Kur whispered back.
It was indeed surprising.
Nar had expected half of them or more to take the left path. Instead, it looked as though numbers were pretty evenly distributed across all three paths.
“Maybe they just want the reward,” Mul said.
“You seriously think that? What could be worth more than your li...
2024-12-09 18:02:44 +0000 UTC
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Both parties waited anxiously for the return of their leaders.
Kur and Row had already left an hour ago, joining the mass of party leaders heading out to announce each party’s decision to the Raid Leaders. Like Kur, Row had also gone to meet Juf.
“It's the only way. I’m not going to let anyone else decide this for us,” she had said, as she left.
Their party had had a much tougher time in deciding, and the fact that Kur’s party was going through the middle had been ...
2024-12-09 11:31:00 +0000 UTC
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He stopped, breathing hard, and looked around him.
Where were they?
He pulled on his [Hearing], hoping to catch something, but all he heard was the diffuse sound of a thousand whispered conversations.
Groaning, he decided to make his way to the chasm. It might be easier to spot his party from there.
In the meantime, the little black dots had come down towards the crowd. Exclamations of surprise and fear arose, as the dots swooped in and down towards people with angry b...
2024-12-09 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Nar carried Rel back to the sleeping party, and dropped her back onto her makeshift bed without waking her up. The alfin mumbled something in her sleep, but didn’t wake.
He sat down at his own spot and brought up his UI.
As expected, the notification sign flashed at him.
-[ Gains from the completion of the quest, The Final Stretch, have been calculated!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You ha...
2024-12-08 11:31:01 +0000 UTC
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“Hey! Look who I found?”
His party, or at least the members that were there, looked up at Jaz’s shout. Row sat, by herself, staring off towards the chasm. Around her, Cor sat also by herself, with her eyes closed, clearly using her [Meditation] skill. That left Lim, the other archer, and Raf, the two-handed axman.
Nar didn’t spot Teb. He wondered if the four-sword wielding warrior would behave this time around. He hoped so. He just wanted to rest.
“Kur? Holy shit!...
2024-12-08 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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For the next four days, they ran as fast and for as long as they could, only stopping when Cen or Tuk, who had the lowest stamina, could run no longer.
Nothing came out to bar their path. There were no obstacles, and no mysteriously broken parts in their path either. The yellow arrows stretched before them, uninterrupted, steadily guiding them towards the end.
Rel hung in there, from Kur’s back, sleeping for the most part. Not even her nightmares kept her awake for long now.
...
2024-12-07 11:31:01 +0000 UTC
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I shouted and begged everywhere I went, crying to get food. But nobody replied to me.
The streets were empty. Our neighborhood was empty, and I was too scared to go inside other people's homes, for fear of what I might find there. The same smell was coming from all around me. And from those houses that weren’t silent, I heard only the sounds of suffering.
I don’t know for how long I ran and searched. But eventually, someone replied to my calls.
“Hey! Kid!”
<...
2024-12-07 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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I don’t remember exactly what I was doing. I think I was playing hide and seek with the other kids.
We had just finished a round and were about to start another one.
“Fey!”
Out of nowhere, Fey’s dad came running towards us.
“Dad?” she asked, looking confused. “What are you doing here? Is work over already?”
He scooped her into her arms. “Shhhh. It’s okay. I’ll tell you at home. Everything’s going to be okay.”
He took her way and ot...
2024-12-06 11:31:01 +0000 UTC
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The sound of their desperate breathing filled the corridor they found themselves in.
At about 10 by 10-feet in dimension, the corridor was as non-descript as many other hundreds they had walked through before.
“We’re taking a break, Rel,” Kur panted, as Nar grabbed her off his back. “Only for a couple hours.”
“You shouldn’t be doing this,” Rel whispered. “You don’t know what you’re going to run into.”
“We’ll be fine,” Kur said, fighting to...
2024-12-06 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone!
I've been trying to figure out scheduling on the platform, but it loves to throw things out of order on my end.
I'm keeping an eye on it for now, but please, let me know if any chapters appear out of order.
Hope everyone has a great day!
Everhart
2024-12-05 11:51:45 +0000 UTC
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They walked as fast as they could.
Nar walked up front. He had managed to recover a good quarter of his aura, but his feet still dragged across the floor and his mind was still a jumble of half put together thoughts.
Cen was certain that his state was a result of him draining his external aura like he had done, and he felt inclined to agree.
Weird. Unexplainable. Unknown. Powerful.
These were the best words he could use to describe his aura.
While he had wondered...
2024-12-05 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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-[ You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have gained:
Strength 17 -> 18
Constitution 22 -> 23
Agility 19 -> 20
Speed 23 -> 24
Aura** 100 -> 142
??? 19 -> 20
Might 6 -> 7
Endurance 11 -> 12
Instinct 24 -> 25
Hearing 16 -> 17
Sight 15 -> 16
Smell 8 -> 9
Gains threshold exceeded!
Attribute points will be...
2024-12-05 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Rel clutched her leg. Blood drained from her crooked, destroyed knee.
The pain radiating from it was excruciating, but she barely felt it.
A haze had fallen over everything. It was like a dream. Or a nightmare.
You shouldn’t have helped him.
Shut up…
In front of her, the massive thing reached for her, ready to snap her in half. Or eat her.
Eaten… Just as you deserve.
You made me do those things.
I di...
2024-12-04 11:30:02 +0000 UTC
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“Inside! Inside!” Gad shouted.
“What’s happening?” Kur asked, as the others tripped and stumbled on their way into the room.
“Those things are outside!” Jul said. “They tried to grab Cen!”
Gad came in last, holding her shield up before her and walking backwards into the room. Nar ran up to join her.
She hid behind the wall, next to the door and flicked her shield. Nar, hiding opposite her, noticed it was full of wires, tangled up around it.
“S...
2024-12-04 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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“Why is it doing that?” Mul asked.
“I don’t know, just wait,” Kur said.
They were piled on top of each other, in the tight space of a stairwell. All of them were trying to get a look at the slowly spinning gray arrow at their feet.
“Are you okay?” Nar asked Rel.
“Not… Really,” she mumbled.
“Breath, just breath. It will stop soon.”
The arrow, ignoring him, continued spinning lazily.
“It’s taken us up and down, and around and...
2024-12-03 11:30:02 +0000 UTC
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“This one is the emptiest so far,” Jul said.
“Alright, let’s stop here then.”
A collective sigh escaped the party. Even Tuk was more than happy to sleep with some dead people at that stage.
Kur guided them to one of the corners of the room, right by the broken-down tubes, and where there were, thankfully, no corpses. However, it was dark there, with only some of the gray light of a solitary arrow managing to reach them.
As Jul had told them, there weren’t a...
2024-12-03 11:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone! I hope everyone's had a great weekend!
Things have been super manic on my side, with RR, Patreon and then a family emergency that threw everything into even more wack. So, I just wanted to give everyone a small update!
First, I had to make a change. Chapter 48 and 49 were merged into chapter 48. So, in order to keep the chapter number for all tiers, today there were 3 chapters released.
Second, I've decided to continue with the double releases until mid...
2024-12-02 12:34:13 +0000 UTC
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He couldn’t focus. He found it impossible to.
Even with the threat of imminent death or capture dangling over his head, his mind kept spinning around that glowing tube.
Aether. The real deal.
He had no doubt that that was what they had seen, and even though he had been wishing for it, for months now, almost a full year from the time before the Climb, his mind was having trouble with actually accepting what he seen
Aether was real.
And that meant that so was mag...
2024-12-02 12:13:30 +0000 UTC
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His thoughts crumbled, and he was only distantly aware of himself seizing on the floor, knocking and breaking the corpses around and under him.
A moment later, he was back into himself, and with a pounding headache to boot.
“Are you okay?” Jul asked him
Her hands rushed over him, trying to remove whatever it was that had trapped him.
“Wha-What happened?” he stammered.
His heart was going like crazy and everything was still spasming.
“Something att...
2024-12-02 12:12:05 +0000 UTC
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“Something you would like to say?” Kur asked.
“Is there a point?” Mul replied.
The party stood by the first gray arrow, facing the long corridor of dead people.
“You can voice your opinion,” Kur said. “I don’t want any resentment to fester.”
“What’s there to fester? Here we are and there are the arrows. I wouldn’t resent you anyways. Unless you’re secretly an arrowmancer…”
“What do you think happened to them?” Cen asked, ignoring...
2024-12-02 12:10:49 +0000 UTC
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They walked away from that hole, and the orange became yellow once more.
They were dragging their feet and barely standing upright, but nobody wanted to sleep next to that damned thing. They were sick of Pressure and of that orange light.
Yes. Even Nar was.
After a while, Kur ordered a halt.
“We can talk tomorrow,” he said. “For now, well done everyone. We made it through. For now, eat, sleep and heal. When we wake up, we’ll worry about what comes next. But for...
2024-12-01 10:33:08 +0000 UTC
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“I can see the end!” Rel shouted down at him.
“Oh, thank the Crystal!” Nar muttered.
He had been forced to dip into his [Strength] and [Stamina] to make it as far as he had. Parrying those few spears had wrecked him, sapping the strength out of his muscles.
The air cooled as they got nearer to the end, and that seemed to propel everyone to draw from their stamina and willpower with renewed vigor, and climb that bit more quickly.
After what felt like an eternity...
2024-12-01 10:31:17 +0000 UTC
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Nar panted in the sweltering darkness.
He breathed. He inhaled with everything that he had. But it wasn’t enough.
A weight crushed his throat.
He wanted to puke. He wanted to pass out.
He couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t breathe!
“Use aura!” someone shouted from above. “Use more aura!”
Nar pulled on his. The pressure and boiling heat receded, and he collapsed against the ladder, breathing hard, drenched in sweat, his fingers slippery, despe...
2024-11-30 10:09:31 +0000 UTC
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THUM!
THUM!
Why were the steps sounding so fast now? And so close?
THUM! THU-THUM! THUM!
“Keep running!” Kur shouted.
Nar tried to push the giant pursuer from his mind and to focus on the guardians closing in on either side of the party.
Two on the left. No, three! And four on the right!
There were too many for him, and coated in Pressure, Nar had no hope of bringing them down fast. As expected, the Crystal had been quick to humble them, ...
2024-11-30 10:07:51 +0000 UTC
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“Where’s the exit?” Kur asked, not bothering with being quiet. “Jul? The exit!”
“T-That way!”
“Take us there! Now! Run! Everyone, run!”
They ran.
They ran for their lives.
They ran like the scared little children that they were.
THUM!
Nar’s heart wailed in fear. His mind nearly blanked, under the assault of that weight that still set every fiber of his body to shivering.
His footsteps came crashing down, clumsy and heavy, and...
2024-11-29 08:24:40 +0000 UTC
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That word alone meant a whole Nexus to the party by now.
“What do we do?” Kur asked, looking between the two.
Jul closed her eyes and tilted her head, her antennae angling towards something to their right.
Following her example, Nar brought up his [Hearing] as well. He didn’t hear anything.
“Aura!” Jul shouted. “Increase your auras! Now!”
Nar heard it then, a great rushing sound, like the air was being pushed out ahead of a great incoming force.
...
2024-11-29 08:22:55 +0000 UTC
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