Emily steps out of the portal, pulling free from the swirling black mass of mana to appear in the cave system once again. Her gaze is instantly drawn to Juliana, standing with their friends, cautiously surrounding the doorway with spells at the ready. A small tension she didn’t even realise she still held relaxes as she sees her safe and sound after the dungeon’s completion.
Everyone dismisses their preparations the moment they see Emily, and Juliana rushes forward, checking her for...
2024-08-19 17:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Emily becomes a whirlwind of violence, her arms flashing out, finding the weak points between the hobgoblins’ armour before digging Claws into their soft flesh. They try to fight back, lashing out with blades that she deflects gracefully before closing the distance between them at a speed they can barely react to.
She disassembles the squad quickly, covering the floor with their dirty blood before locating her next target and dashing forward, leaving fifteen dying hobgoblins to slowly...
2024-08-16 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Tw:
Graphic descriptions of violence and gore!
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“I don’t know,” Enzo says, glancing at Dante’s wounds with concern. “A few seconds after you went into the dungeon, the wire you gave her snapped and the door started closing. We decided to enter together to help you, but the moment I stepped in, everything around me vanished.”
A sinking feeling fills Emily’s gut as she listens to him, and she doesn’t even hear him and Dante ...
2024-08-12 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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The doors swing open wide but, instead of a path for them to follow, it opens into a swirling black vortex.
“What’s that?” Hester asks, looking at the swirling mass of darkness with nervously.
“I think it’s a portal,” Emily says, approaching it. “It looks similar to one I’ve seen before. Though, maybe it’s a barrier of some form.”
She reaches up, bringing her hand close to the doorway.
“Are you sure it’s safe to touch?” Juliana quickly asks wi...
2024-08-09 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Hester follows close behind Emily as they both swim down towards the hole again. They run into the piranhas Emily spotted earlier as they sink lower, but Emily quickly dispatches them all with a few casts of aqua bolt.
They arrived beside the mysterious tunnel to The Abyss without any problems and both sit on either side of it. Emily copies Hester in closing her eyes, leaving her scans running in the background to protect them as she turns her main attention to the feeds of her scouts o...
2024-08-05 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Emily turns away from Hester, swimming over to collect the eels’ bodies before they can sink into the weeds below. She sends all of them into her storage except the last, which she keeps in hand, looking at it contemplatively.
How are they able to use lightning so well underwater? It didn’t feel hot at all when it hit me earlier, so maybe they just have a different mental image? Or are they just wasting extra mana to maintain their control?
Her focus is drawn to the s...
2024-08-02 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Pulling her attention away from the water, Emily turns to her friends, meeting astonished and questioning gazes. Tom, Hester, and Juliana are all looking around in wonder, taking in the beautiful sight before them, while the other three look to Emily for confirmation.
“It’s incredible,” Juliana mutters quietly, staring out into the glistening crystalline lake.
“It is. But, is it the right place?” Dante asks.
“Yeah, look over there,” Emily responds, gesturing to...
2024-07-29 17:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Emily closes her eyes and pulls up her notes covering Gaius’ findings on ascensions, supported by his countless observations of other mages. She opens a blank note as well and writes down her major attribute changes to compare them to Gaius’ observations, assessing the difference in her own experience from the norm.
//
Awakening:
Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22
Pre-first ascension:
Strength 8, Dexterity 19, Agili...
2024-07-26 17:00:03 +0000 UTC
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They head back through the nest, ignoring all of the valueless items scattered around by the ants.
“Why did you say my mana manipulation was a pleasure to watch?” Emily asks Ivor as they rise through the earth.
“You're very good at it. Your mana movement is so fast and precise it’s like watching an artist at work,” he signs back, confusing Emily more.
“But mana manipulation is easy. You just have to will it into shape and it follows without resistance,” she say...
2024-07-22 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Emily’s friends stand behind her, mouths open in shock as they gaze upon the destruction wrought by her spells.
“Don’t just stand around, let’s go!” Emily says, snapping them out of their stupor.
She bends her legs and flashes forwards at inhuman speed, disappearing into the remaining ants who quickly switch from spewing a flood of mud to wrapping themselves in rocky armour. Emily’s friends move too, Hester forming another barrier as everyone else flings out spells or ...
2024-07-19 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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After healing the light damage done to Juliana’s eardrums, Emily gently wipes the blood from her face before moving quickly between her friends and healing them too.
Damn, that used more mana than I expected. It feels like I’m wasting a lot to heal people. Do I need a better understanding of the human body to heal more efficiently? It couldn’t hurt.
Emily adds a reminder to her notes while turning away from Ivor, the last to be healed. She approaches the dead bodies...
2024-07-15 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Emily’s friends all look at her in confusion.
“What do you mean by the end?” Ivor signs the question on everyone’s minds.
“I have reason to believe there is a single set endpoint for all of the streams in The Crystal Waters,” Emily answers, receiving several silently raised brows. “What do you guys know about the formation of mana-dense regions?”
“They form on junction points of multiple mana veins,” Juliana answers quickly, having listened to Emily’s r...
2024-07-12 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Emily surveys the destruction wrought by her spell with immense satisfaction. The blackened trees are still smouldering as more magical fog rolls in, smothering the small fires she has accidentally started, making her realise she managed to partially clear it with her spell.
Curious. I can clear a large area of the fog with a single dispersed third circle spell. We needed Oscar to use airspace claim to achieve even half of this effect last time. I guess that’s the difference in ci...
2024-07-08 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Emily sits down next to Dante as he sets up a small fire using some dry wood from within Tom’s bag and roasts skewers of a razor-fanged wolf he killed during the night.
“Wow, you actually butchered something on your own?” Emily asks with mock surprise.
“It gave me something to do,” he grumbles back. “Sitting on watch on my own is so boring!”
“Wow, bored after a few days. Now you know how we felt after weeks,” Emily says with a snort.
Their friends...
2024-07-05 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Emily and Juliana sit in silence, enjoying each other’s company, for the first hour of the night watch. Not a single beast approaches their camp and, eventually, Juliana breaks the silence.
“Why do you need to leave?” she asks quietly, catching Emily off guard.
Emily opens her mouth to respond but has to pause for a moment to work out an explanation through the twistings of guilt and grief threatening to choke her again. Juliana notices her hesitation and continues quickly.<...
2024-07-01 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Just posting a little note to let you guys know I just rewrote a tonne of early chapters (between 6-20 have all been changed to varying degrees, then 26, 38, and 51 have had small changes too).
I'd advise rereading 6-14 completely if you have the time, but if not, there will be a changelog in the authors note of tomorrows public chapters if you want to look at the shorthand synopsis' for the changes!
I hope you guys like them. I've added over 8k words and spent a while doin...
2024-07-01 00:36:37 +0000 UTC
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Emily steps into the treeline, her friends close behind, feeling the dense mana wrap around her like a comfortable blanket. She takes a deep breath, appreciating the weight pressing on her shoulders and the lack of rain to start their journey, before glancing back at her friends. Dante, Enzo, and Ivor barely react, but the other three show signs of discomfort, with Tom’s reaction being the strongest.
I see. The higher your circle and the more mana you can control, the more at home...
2024-06-28 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Emily stands up, her heart calm with acceptance as she strips the two warm corpses lying before her in the tent of their magical possessions. She also takes the inhibition incense, finding a few spare sticks tucked away on a shelf beneath the table, before removing the Spitter’s silencer and holstering it again.
Emily leaves, heading to the closest exit and returning to the surface. She makes her way across the city towards The Broken Keg, following the same route Vagrant led her alon...
2024-06-24 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Emily steps out of the stairwell into the black market again, this time using her machina to hide her mana signature from the start. She heads straight for The Crystal Skull’s tent, moving through the streets unnoticed. Arriving at the tent alone, she moves around to the back and slips into the hidden compartment in the wall.
I don’t need to waste any potions to hide until someone else comes back here.
She moves sideways, creating distance between herself and the en...
2024-06-21 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Emily sighs, looking over the two corpses in the tent and the blood-splattered tarp around them.
“Well, shit! I know Oscar said they killed themselves when captured, but I didn’t think they’d be quite that decisive. Was it the gun?” she mutters to herself, biting her thumb. “I expected it to take a few resets, given I want to try and deal with as many of these mage killers as possible, but it may be harder to find them all than I’d like. Ah well, I’ll give it a few attemp...
2024-06-17 17:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Heyo! Just letting you guys know there have been a few small changes to the start of chapter 74 for its public release. It's only within the initial dream sequence. I wanted to make a few changes for continuity with the rewrites I'm currently doing (chapters 7-26 are having changes of varying extent, I'm adding over 6k words of new content).
It shouldn't make a huge difference to miss it, but I thought if let you know in case you care.
Enjoy the chappie!
TW:
Blood for ...
2024-06-14 17:00:09 +0000 UTC
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“Planning another expedition?” Agnes asks with a raised brow, ignoring Emily’s declaration.
“Yeah. I want to have a look further into The Crystal Waters. Maybe find a dungeon this time if I’m lucky. Why? Wanna come?” Emily says with a teasing grin.
“No thanks,” Agnes says with a scoff. “I’m not one for fighting mindless beasts. Though, I guess you’d fit right in.”
“Ha. Well, this mindless beast needs to design a new spell for your tattoo. So, sit do...
2024-06-10 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The next day, Emily leads her friends towards the training hall after breakfast. They find Dante and Enzo waiting outside the hall’s closed door, Emily having invited them to watch as well in her final loop of the day before.
“Hey,” Dante calls as they approach. “Why did you want us here?”
Emily grins, deciding to keep her ascension secret for a little while longer to surprise the two mages.
“You’ll see. Just watch my spar and I’ll explain properly afterwards...
2024-06-07 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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“Follow the numbers,” Emily mutters, trying to process the message. “Which numbers? Page numbers?”
She flips back through the diary from the start, noting next to each quote what page it was on.
Fourteen, twenty-six, thirty-two, forty-one, sixty-five, sixty-six, ninety-eight, one hundred and fifteen. Okay, let’s see where these lead me.
The bird on her head flickers to life, flapping its wings and quickly rising to the gap the diary has left in the shelves...
2024-06-03 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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A few hours later, Emily and Juliana walk into the cafeteria for dinner. A calm air of resignation hangs over them as they take a seat at the table with Ivor and Hester.
“What’s up with you two?” Hester asks, quickly noticing their mood.
“Nothing,” Emily lies, unwilling to tell her the truth and quickly changing the subject. “Where’s Tom?”
“He was meant to be joining us. I left him in the library like an hour ago poring over a study about the fall of the Ro...
2024-05-31 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Emily closes her eyes again but pauses before diving back into the Spellweave.
Since this is only pushing mana to my cortex for experimenting on known spells, please tell me this works. Sub-cores, learn all first circle spells using the Spellweave.
Instantly, three of her four cores buzz to life and mana and machina pour into her cortex before spreading throughout her entire system as her expanded mental processing net starts tearing through her command. While her cores f...
2024-05-27 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Emily immediately sets to work, clearing her workbench before taking out potion making supplies and setting up. She collects the potion materials from shelves and her spatial storage, gathering them in preparation.
She carefully follows the same process as with Ivor, quickly forming the dangerous mix of venom and flesh. However, as she counts down the seconds to the final step and reaches out to grab an ocelax tongue, her sleeve catches an empty beaker and knocks it over. The beaker sha...
2024-05-24 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Emily pours two hundred and fifty millilitres of water into the empty cauldron before her. She sprinkles in a touch each of powdered light and wind crystals, turning the water a sparkling pale, lime hue. The fire beneath the cauldron quickly brings the water to a boil, and Emily drops in five strips of shadow boa flesh, fifteen fine, black scales, and two stalks of pulverised luminis.
Ivor stirs the mix as she deposits materials and, the moment she finishes, they shut the lid again. Exa...
2024-05-20 17:00:12 +0000 UTC
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The next day, Emily heads to the training hall slightly early, hoping to run into Agnes before the class starts. Luckily, Agnes is there when Emily walks in, doing some warm-up before classes.
“Emily! I hear you’ve become stronger?” Agnes calls the moment she sees her enter, forcefully halting her heavy sword mid swing.
Emily pauses for a second, confused by her words.
“What have you heard?” she questions.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Agnes says with an excited ...
2024-05-17 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Late in the evening, Emily drops her head on the desk, growling in frustration.
“Wrong again,” she whines into the hard wood.
Her attempts so far to create a sealing array have proven completely fruitless. Having begun by testing with a fire crystal and two attributed streams of her own mana to figure out the balance of light, fire, and lightning needed to best restrain the baleful aura of the tooth, she used the result to try to weave together a tri-element seal. However, the...
2024-05-13 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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