Ellake

Chapter 153 - Smells like Work

“What a fucking mess,” muttered Nate.

The corpse of Guard Inspector Koriolos lay on the floor, slowly bleeding as the remains of his body continued to die. With his soul energy drained away, he was already dead. The organic husk that had once housed the man just hadn’t yet caught up to that fact. Nate couldn’t decide if that was gruesome or merciful. He also found that for once, he didn’t particularly care. Since coming to Galle he had killed plenty of monsters and beasts in D...

Chapter 152 - I Create, I Destroy

Nate sat in his workshop staring at the finished product before him. To date, most of his creations had been functional in nature rather than beautiful. The two bracers he wore and the single armband were just simple bands of metal, concealing the runes within. Even looking back at his Legendary Acid Wand, it had looked like a gnarled, if expensive, piece of wood. Of course, up until recently he had a major limitation as a crafter. Without being a blacksmith or carpenter, his ability to alter...

Chapter 151 - Memories of Existence

Nate stared out of the window of the second floor of his workshop as rain pattered against it. The alchemical concoction he had imbibed roiled in his belly. The feeling of the life mana flooding his body stood in sharp contrast to the city beyond the glass panes. Back on Earth he had played witness to more than one storm, but never on this scale. Certainly they had existed, but where he lived had never been struck by a hurricane. Not while he had been alive anyway. So seeing the gale force wi...

Chapter 150 - Those Who Wander

Aisling listened to her husband and long-time friend continue their disagreement. 

“That shouldn’t be possible,” argued Luc. 

“You think I don’t know that? The gems in that enchantment are supposed to have a minimum fidelity of a single percent. Anything less should have garnered no response at all, let alone a response from every single gem present. There were affinities in there, that based on everything you and Aisling have told me, he has never used. Lava, ...

Chapter 149 - Affinity for Trouble

The room Nate found himself in was not at all what he had expected. Evindal had led him down into the bowels of the Guildhouse and towards the vault that contained the Guild’s Common and Uncommon resources. Based on that, Nate had expected that it would turn out that they had some enchanted device or item, kept under lock and key, that could be used to determine an individual’s affinities. The logic had made sense to him, since he had assumed that the Guild would likely offer to regularly...

Chapter 148 - Art of the Living

Nate stood in the centre of his workshop, Farsight of the Runic Artist crashing against the plethora of wards that had been built into the walls. The building itself had ended up being larger than he had expected, covering a space of over ten square metres. It was also two stories tall, with a basement for storage. He knew real estate like this, especially so close to the Adventurer’s Guild compound, couldn’t be cheap. It had taken a few days of harassing Kiri to get...

Chapter 147 - A Path Decided

Nate turned to see who had spoken and found a woman quickly approaching them. He would have guessed her age to be in her late twenties but it was always hard to tell with the increase to lifespan that mana and superhuman Stats seemed to provide. She wore what looked like an armoured skirt, with metal plates splayed out on the white fabric. The same was true of her shirt and coat, with a shiny breastplate covering her white blouse and a loose blue coat with more metal sewn onto it completing t...

Chapter 146 - Inspecting the Goods

Nate frowned at the puzzle-box resting on the table in front of him. The troublesome little cube had continued to refuse to give up its secrets. He had tried a plethora of different approaches to try and determine the nature of the sigil that adorned it as well as penetrating the cube itself to determine its contents. The first attempts had been around recreating the sigil. It was the most complicated symbol he had seen so far with tiny details covering it and a far more flowing style than mo...

Chapter 145 - Hiring Staff

Nate sat across the table from Professor Marnier, his face a calm mask as Kiri explained the contract.

“I don’t understand why it needs to be so restrictive. This is beyond extreme. Fifty levels is an insane penalty for breaching a System Contract. Absolutely insane! I’d be almost a child again, but without the benefit of the Achievements that got me to where I am! It will even strip me of many of my acquired Skills, some of which came through synergies! How can this be worth it ...

Chapter 144 - Expanding Enterprises

Nate appeared at the entrance to the Adventurer’s Guild compound. A second later he felt a burst of soul energy next to him as Kiri joined him. They had shadowed each other the entire way from the University, with him using his farsight sphere of awareness to scout ahead of themselves. He was confident that even if there had somehow been an ambush laying in wait for them, that he was fully prepared to deal with it. Using Farsight of the Runic Artist he looked at his two run...

Chapter 143 - The Price of Friendship

Nate was only half paying attention to Professor Karne as he wrote up a flow diagram on the board detailing how soul energy moved from the Physical Realm to the Spiritual realm. He was far too preoccupied with what this information meant for his own experiences. Even before he had received his Class Core, the System had known he was from another universe. It knew the kinds of rewards he wanted from Dungeons. It knew how he was trying to expand or push his Skills. What was Intent, if not a for...

Chapter 142 - Soul Revelation

Nate paused in his brushwork to critique his own painting. The noise of other paintbrushes and the crumpling of paper filled the classroom around him as the few other members of Advanced art class continued with their own artworks. The class was almost over and he could sense Professor Hawthorn starting to stir from his nap in the corner. The older gentleman did the same thing every class. The old man would show up a little late, set the task for the day, then go fall asleep in the corner of ...

Chapter 141 - Synergistic Relations

With his decision made about how he would focus his improvement for Empowered Runic Artistry that still left Nate with three other Skills to consider. Conceptual Automation, Metal Shaping and Conceptual Material were all close to evolving and needed a plan. Conceptual Automation was a Legendary Skill already and he intended to use one of his Skill Enhancement Orbs to guara...

Chapter 140 - Vile Beauty

Nate floated beneath the oceans depths safely sealed within his water barrier. He watched with casual detachment as the team fought the Dungeon’s Bonus Challenge, his identification returning the name of the beast.

Vilemaw the Octonid
Cruel Rending Horror (E) (41) /  Malignant Water Mage (R) (21) / Savage Devourer (U) (1)

He had been surprised upon first seeing the classes, since it meant the eight-tentacled monstrosity had an Embodiment, even if it was only a F...

Chapter 139 - Sharing Water

Nate watched the battle unfold before him. In one hand he held a mana gathering array, recharging his mana gems. In the other he balanced a metal bar as he channelled mana and his Conceptual Material skill, slowly adding the affinities of mana and release to the metal while raising it from Rare to Epic quality. On top of that, he maintained two runic arrays. The first obfuscating the mana he was using and the second concealing the metal bar. Given how much work was invol...

Chapter 138 - Underwater Adventures

Nate enjoyed the ocean breeze that washed over him, bringing with it the smell of the sea. The gentle rolling gait of alliram sent slight vibrations up through his legs as he approached the Guild’s Dungeon fort alongside the other Guildies. They had caught sight of it less than a minute ago and he was still marvelling at the design. He had wondered what differences might be involved in an underwater variant dungeon and the fort's design made it clear that one of them was that the dungeon it...

Chapter 137 - Paint Away the Pain

The only sound that could be heard was that of Nate’s Brush of a Thousand Paints swishing back and forth against the canvas before him. It had been a few days since he had been kidnapped, and though the feelings and memories of the experience were still raw, he was already recovering. It both helped and hindered that Kiri had been watching over him like a mother hen. Even now she sat in his room, doing her economics homework. Frick was nearby too, diligently working on completing the barrie...

Chapter 136 - Fallout and Fame

Deverell looked over the list again. The notebook that Kiri and Nate had recovered was clearly a delivery list. The map laid out on the table before him detailed all of the delivery locations. He was convinced that they weren’t encoded as there was one delivery point very close to the region around Helmfirth. The date even lined up near when the slavery operation had begun there. At first he had wondered if maybe the mercenary company Darren’s Riders, the name he had uncovered for those w...

Chapter 135 - Ashes and Orbs

Nate watched as Deverell looked over the notebook they had found in the leader of the mercenaries makeshift office. Frick and Kiri waited quietly and if Nate was getting a sense of his Familiar it was that Frick was staying quiet on purpose, probably unsure how to talk to Nate right now.

“I agree with you, Nate. These are probably code-words. I’ll need to take this back to the Guild and map out the delivery locations and see if we can find any patterns. Don’t expect a quick answe...

Chapter 134 - Signs of Preparation

Nate sat on the floor trying to process his emotions and everything that had happened in the last couple of hours. He was angry, furious even. What surprised him was the target of that fury. His anger was internally, at himself. How could he have let himself be taken or worse, caught so unprepared? He knew that if he still had his creations. His barrier bracer, his shadow scales or his acid wand that he could have fought back and won, but even to his own mind that felt like an excuse. He had ...

Chapter 133 - Blood for Blood

A/N: Second chapter for the day so there is some resolution over the weekend. Also, I have read a lot of the comments and will be making some changes to chapters 131 & 132 in the edit. While it won't change the actual events it will focus on making the event a closer thing with Nate making use of some of his lesser creations. Anyway, enjoy!

Nate heaved, trying to catch his breath and ignore the torment that was his partially melted chest.

“What other Master tie...

Chapter 132 - Desperate Measures

Nate awoke slowly, his head ringing as his mind tried to process his surroundings. He attempted to look around and regretted it immediately, pain lancing through his jaw. It had been enough to see he wasn’t alone. Carefully and slowly he tried to focus on his body, assessing the damage. It was far less extensive than he had expected. A broken jaw was the worst of it, which he’d jostled raising his head. Beyond that though, he was down to his underwear and tied to a chair. 

Reac...

Chapter 131 - What a Weapon

Kiri strolled arm in arm with Coralie, admiring the nightlife of the merchants district. They had enjoyed a beautiful dinner at a restaurant Coralie had suggested and were now heading towards their next destination. She just hoped that everything would be okay with Nate and that he wasn’t planning a nightly foray. Her Soul Tether was telling her he was at the Den of Desire. That was two weeks in a row on the same day. She was wondering what he was up to, but as long as...

Chapter 130 - Affinity for Questions

Nate glanced at his Skill improvements from the last week as he started packing up his notes from the class on Concepts and Embodiment. 

Empowered Amplified Magic 27 > 28
Empowered Runic Artistry 36 > 37
Runic Creation 38 > 39
True Teleportation 30 > 31
Conceptual Material 32 > 33
Runic Knowledge - Concepts 39 > 40
Metal Shaping 12 > 15
Farsight of the Runic Artist 42 > 43
Conceptual Automation 13 > 14

Since it had b...

Chapter 129 - War for Embodiment

Nate sat with most of the Guildies as Professor Kandel delved into the basics of Embodiment.

“It’s the topic you’ve all been waiting for. What is an Embodiment, what does it do, and how do you get one?” she asked. “Some of you may know a little from your families or mentors. But if that’s the case, you should have done better on your induction tests. So, we’re going to rehash the topic. The first question, what is an Embodiment? It is ultimately, how you connect to the Uni...

Chapter 128 - Born to Deliver

“Why would you overlap these shapes?” asked Professor Marnier, pointing at an overlapped square and octagon in the centre of the rune.

“Mana prefers geometric shapes. But it’s a distribution field. Prefers does not mean adheres too,” Nate explained. “By overlapping the shapes we’re increasing the amount of mana that gathers where the two shapes meet. This is ideal for empowering certain Sigils above others. For example, let's say we didn’t have a Sigil for Ice, we could ...