Mangowo

Interlude 2.4: Heralas

Heralas glared down at the whimpering string bean of an Elf, hands twitching, fingers itching to wring the life out of this spoiled little pillock. That voice! By the gods, it scraped at his patience, a grating blend of a child’s tantrum and some posh berk’s hissy fit.

And what was he supposed to do with it, exactly? Was Cerith actually punishing him by foisting this whingeing waste of space upon him? That twisted sod was probably having a good chuckle back in his study. On second t...

Chapter 79: Phasing Through

For a good while, I prowled around the camp’s edge, cloaked in shadows, taking in every detail. A few tidbits emerged. First off, there were two separate patrol teams, alongside mages and archers stationed at predictable corners, all clearly affiliated with the cult, thanks to those peculiar masks they wore. The delvers, in contrast, were easy to spot in their less formal garb and functional armour.

One unsettling discovery followed: it seemed I was in far deeper trouble than I’d i...

Chapter 78: Sneaking In

Notifications flashed in the corner of my vision as each of them fell, but I closed them with a thought, keeping my focus sharp on Tharen. His sword remained taut in his grip, his face still red with fury. For now, I let the technique fade, saving the stamina. But before I could speak, Tharen cut in, his voice raw with something beyond anger—fear, perhaps. “You’re… not a monster, are you?” His grip tightened on the sword.

I tilted my head, feigning contemplation. “Hmm,” I ...

Chapter 77: A Dragonling's Retribution

Ah, there’s a certain quaintness to pain, isn’t there? The way it creeps into your mind, settles in like an unwelcome guest. But here’s the rub — reach a certain threshold, and it starts to dull, droning away in the background like a distant hum.

Perhaps because one has sunk to depths of pain so abysmal, it outstretches even the gloomiest imaginings. Now, I’ve always wondered why monsters — those unsparing creatures — seem so unaffected by the sting of it all. Turns out, t...

Chapter 76: A Bruised Ego

[Quick health update: Been dealing with a recurring fever since yesterday. Won't affect the updates, though, they’ll carry on as usual, just with me feeling a bit crappier than usual, lol. Just a heads up if I fumble somewhere or if some bits of the writing aren’t as clear. Feel free to point them out! Happy reading!]

Hunting monsters down here had its gold-plated rules, top of the list: expect the unexpected and know that any scrap of “truth” you hold is likely the tip o...

Chapter 75: Cornered

The moment I jolted awake, I knew precisely what needed doing. Snatched up that scrappy little bag I’d whipped together earlier, stashed with my precious monster cores. Then I shook awake my nook-mate Badger. Poor thing seemed to sense something was off—perhaps from my frenzied movements or the tension radiating off me. I spread my Air Sense in a 20-meter ring, but all I picked up were a few stray beasts, nothing more.

Lotte’s sudden warning was enough to make my skin crawl. Dange...

Chapter 74: Wake Up

The options flickered up before me once more, and I didn’t dawdle a tick sifting through them. I settled on Sweeping Surge for Tail Whip—it would give it a lovely broadening and add a bit of brawn, ideal for wide, sweeping strikes that packed more disruption. As for Crush Claw, I chose Sunder Strike—a proper gem for landing a precise wallop, breaking through tougher defenses and armor with ease.

Honestly, I couldn’t have been more chuffed...

Chapter 73: The Technique

[Welp, sorry for the delay! Bit of an IRL snag. Had to go out of station, so I couldn't get any writing done. Ended up finishing this chap halfway on my mobile tho, lmao. Enjoy the chappie!]

[MISSION COMPLETE: Save the Dungeon]
[Objective Accomplished: All Rituals Eradicated.]

[Total Reward: Permanent +24 to All Stats | +12 Skill Points | Morphogen Accumulated: +80 | Special Prize: Granted for Complete R...

Chapter 72: Deadly Little Monster Train

[Rewards received: +6 to all stats, +3 Skill Points, +20 Morphogen]

[Progress: ¼]

A grin split my face, but it was immediately replaced by a wince as I clutched my arms, skin scorched and burning, breaths coming out in ragged gasps.

Holy shit, maybe I'd gone a bit too far. I knew my Lightning Bolt spells were safely capped at 10 mana—anything above that risked ripping through my mana veins. Last time, I’d pushed to 1...

Chapter 71: The Horde

With a grin that was half-mad and wholly triumphant, I took off, an oversized Creeper and some ape-brained brute tearing after me like rabid hounds. The Creeper thought itself clever, slipping on illusions to blend into the scenery like it’d vanished into thin air—but the hues had its number.

Oh, I could spot that slimy, deceitful little blur without even breaking a sweat. Stage 4, no less, just like the last one I’d picked off when I first stumbled into this forest. But that one ...

Chapter 70: I Needed A Plan

MISSION ALERT!

MISSION: Save the Dungeon!
 OBJECTIVE: Those FILTHY THIEVES are DEFILING the dungeon, draining its power for their WRETCHED GAIN. Their twisted rituals are corrupting the very essence of this place. Find them. Kill them. WIPE THEM OUT.
 TASK: Stop the thieves from completing...

Chapter 69: What in the blazes was going on here?

[A tad shorter than usual (not by much, though—I just found a perfect cliffhanger, muahaha! SUFFER! Kidding! Don’t grab your pitchforks and unsub, pls!) because it was my birthday today, so time was a bit tight after work. Still managed to write, though! And with Writathon around the corner, I might start doing daily uploads next week. Might—nothing set in stone! No promises.

Anyways, enjoy the chappie! Tomorrow’s a break day for poor brain, but I’ll mak...

Chapter 68: Stalking Dragon

I wasn't too far from my nook, that reluctant little corner of the forest I'd begrudgingly started to call "home." Close enough to the line of havoc the Behemoth’s rampage had carved through the forest, I'd been quietly combing the air for a creature to bring down for dinner. And that’s when I felt it—that faint, offbeat cadence of breath drifting into my senses like an unwelcome memory. Elves. That frustratingly irregular, soft rhythm was unmistakable, hitting me with the subtlety of a...

Chapter 67: The Science Of Runes

It seemed like there was only one option available for Mana Manipulation’s advancement: Advanced Mana Manipulation. Practical, precise, but… not exactly mind-blowing. Then again, I didn’t need it to be flashy as long as it got the job done.

As I stood in the clearing, the difference was immediate the moment I tapped into it. I could practically visualize my core as I drew on it. Mana felt almost tangible now, something I could trace and hold with my mind. The energy ...

Chapter 66: Runes and Matrices

[Just a quick update on the schedule! Still five chapters a week, but I’m keeping the release days flexible, for the sake of my sanity, lol. So the couple of days I take off will be a bit random.

Also, I’ve been working on drawing the runes and matrices Jade will be forming in the next chapter to help make it all easier to follow. They’re fairly simple but honestly a lot of fun to sketch out in Paint. Anyway, the plot will be picking up pace in two or three chapters once this litt...

Chapter 65: The Wave

"Alright, so the first time I laid eyes on them, I just figured they were some sort of mana. You know, the usual, anything that seemed plausible. But then I noticed they were completely unaffected by any of my mana manipulation or core stabilization skills, both of which directly deal with mana. Whatever these things were, they certainly weren’t mana."

Lotte watched me, that same amused glint in her eye. Oh brilliant, was she about to dish out another one of her cryptic little riddles...

Chapter 64: Something Terrible Awaits Beyond

[Looks like I might need to pick up the pace if I want to hit the ending I envisioned for Book 1, haha. We’ve already crossed the 150k word mark! woo-hoo! I was aiming to wrap the first volume around 180k, but now it’s looking more like 200k.

Guess I’m not great at sticking to my own plans. Let’s see how it goes, though! Also we’re finally getting into the magic and spell system now. Oh man, I’ve put so much planning and research into this, especially for Jade ...

Chapter 63: Choices

I needed something to carry all this lot. Leaving these precious monster cores scattered about was hardly an option. And if I’d had something useful on hand when I first stumbled upon that Noctis Bloom, I wouldn’t have dropped it like a clumsy fool. Rare as it was, a find that valuable ought to be cherished, not abandoned because some lumbering beast decided to interrupt. Tch. Annoying.

Hah. There wasn’t much about that looked sturdy enough to hold anything, or so I thought. But n...

Chapter 62: Tired

First step: observe.

Their routine was painfully predictable. The elven mage would channel her spells, unleashing destruction while her two armoured warriors stood guard, ready to carve through anything that dared get close. The second mage, tucked beneath a hood, kept to the shadows, casting strange distortion spells that turned the warriors into little more than blurs of movement. Intriguing, really. I couldn’t help but wonder—did the spell have range limits? Could they only stay ...

Chapter 61: Playing on my own terms

Something about the whole affair rubbed me entirely the wrong way. For starters, Lotte had let slip that the System had all but disowned humanoid species—something about a long-standing grudge against them. Every time I crossed paths with an elf, the System flagged them as thieves. But today, it went a step further: stolen gifts.

The puzzle pieces were falling into place, and the image they formed was anything but pleasant. Had the humanoid races truly wronged the System? Nicked somet...

Chapter 60: Malevolent Dragon

[Well, missed a chapter earlier this week. Caught a cold and now it's escalated to a full-blown fever. I’m alright though, lol. Just wanted to give you all an update. Hopefully I’ll be back to normal tomorrow—feeling like absolute shit right now. This might’ve affected the quality of this chapter, but I still gave it my best. Feel free to point out any mistakes you spot!]

I awoke to a sharp pain gnawing in my innards. Vision blurring at the edges, twisting, the world shif...

Chapter 59: Uh-Oh!

I kept my eyes peeled on the brutal mayhem ahead, creeping ever closer. The battlefield was pure bedlam. Craters gouged out by the behemoth’s rampage. Earth ripped apart where its colossal body had barreled through. Thick mist billowing where fire clashed with that serpent’s water magic. The destruction sprawled everywhere. Trees snapped like twigs, boulders reduced to rubble, and plants uprooted, tossed about like confetti. Sobering, really, to think of all that senseless destruction. 2024-10-16 00:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 58: The 'Real' Monsters

There was, unfortunately, a limit to how far my air sense could stretch. Used to be a meagre 15 metres—barely worth boasting about, really—but after the last upgrade, it grudgingly pushed itself to a slightly less embarrassing 20. The closer I got to something, the better the air currents whispered their secrets. So, when the ground began to quiver underfoot—not a full-blown earthquake, of course, more like something immense stomping around with all the grace of a drunken giant—I knew...

Chapter 57: Little Badger

Ah, the old mantra they drilled into our heads—“Mana is unruly,” they said, “like a blasted dog that won’t heel.” You had to crush it, bend it beneath the weight of your will, force it into submission. Without that iron grip, it would never come to heel, they claimed. So, every single one of their tedious exercises circled around the same tiresome notion: a way to make this elusive mana inside us obey.

I’d seen it, of course—watched my classmates grimace and sweat, strug...

Chapter 56: Cashing In

Quick Dash

• Increases velocity over brief intervals at the expense of Stamina.

[Upgrade 1: Variable Sprint. Allows user to adjust dash distance. Short dashes conserve stamina; long sprints consume more but grant more dash distance. Enhances overall maneuverability by adapting sprint to tactical needs.]

[Upgrade 2: Rapid Recovery Dash. Reduces cooldo...

Chapter 55: Moment of Respite

I had made quick work of the beast, tearing off hefty slabs of meat, barely giving myself time to chew before swallowing it down. No time for pleasantries—and by the gods, Thalador’s beard—it was exquisite. The higher the monster's rank, the finer the flavour, I was certain of it. Another bite, and even that vile black ichor gushing from its wounds was bloody sweet and dripping with flavour.

What caught my eye was how fast my wounds closed up as I devoured it. A few chomps and the...

Chapter 54: Fiery Hunt

I had to make a decision, and fast. Much as I loathed these vile creepers, was I truly about to hurl myself headlong into a death wish against a higher stage beast? Normally, not a bloody chance! I was quite content where I was, thank you very much. Plenty of monsters my own level to deal with, and they usually fell with the grace of a collapsing deckchair. Simple stuff.

At least, that’s how I felt. But right now? Well, things weren’t exactly normal, were they? The hideous thing in ...

Chapter 53: A Wounded Abomination

The view was plain as day. I could see their shadows, huddled up there like a gaggle of suspicious rats. Fiddling about with some contraption. One of them—using those absurd climbing gizmos—scaled the top and hacked away at an upper section of the blasted hole, while two others scrabbled about below like burrowing moles. There was a quick flash of white, a flicker of something settling, and then… what? Nothing. Absolutely bugger all. Whatever was happening inside that little crevice, it...

Chapter 52: Graceful Landing

Ah, this decision was a tricky one, no doubt about it. I knew the third-tier advancement was where the real magic brewed. Spectral Crunch and Echo Claw – both dazzlingly powerful. But alas, this was merely a second-tier choice, meaning whichever skill I picked now would be the first to cross into that tantalising third tier.

Of course, I’d upgrade the rest eventually, but I had to be strategic. Which of these darlings would I be using most often? Which had the best chance of rapid u...

Chapter 51: The Biome

What on earth did I expect? Truth be told, I hadn’t the foggiest.

I let instinct have its merry way as I swooped into a graceful arc, wings slicing through the air. Was it my imagination, or were the hues becoming more garish the further I spiralled down? It was …unsettling. There’s something inherently disconcerting about plunging into a dungeon’s bowels, but diving headfirst into a technicolour abyss? That’s an entirely new flavour of discomfort.

As dazzling as these h...