Nilsimus

Chapter 104: Checkpoint

Jerin slumped against the portcullis of the checkpoint gate, taking a deep breath from his pipe, then exhaling over the course of several seconds. Smoke billowed out before him, slowly fading in the evening air.

“You know that shit’ll kill you, right?” Another soldier said, leaning away from the smoke and wrinkling his nose.

He snorted, and took another drag. “Not if I invest half my free points into [Spirit] it won’t.”

“That isn’t military standar...

Chapter 103: The Ring

Leif sat at the edge of the village, partially to keep watch, and partially to focus on the magical ring Samil had looted from the bandit leader. The process of attuning to a magical item wasn’t overly complicated, it just took time and focus. As the minutes ticked by the connection between himself and the ring increased, slowly blooming within his mind’s eye similar to the sensation of gaining a new skill.

Finally the connection finished forming, the ring suddenly gain...

Chapter 102: Mundane

The atmosphere within the village was oppressive and dour. Men, women and children sat or stood in groups, some trying to move their stolen belongings back into their ransacked homes with others staring blankly into space. As the tension slowly broke many of the villagers broke down with it, outpourings of emotions were a common sight.

Of the nearly thirty bandits who had attacked the village, well over half had been killed. The survivors were tightly bound in makeshift rop...

Chapter 101: Banditry

The impact from the bandit’s heavy blow rang down Leif’s arm, the palm of his hand cracking slightly from the sheer force behind it. But he didn’t flinch, in fact by the horrified looks and the quickly spreading shock and panic he could sense rippling through the armed men the display had likely looked more than impressive. If possible he had wanted to avoid a fight, even if that outcome was more than unlikely.

Leif pulled back [Aura of Recovery], then slammed [Aura o...

Chapter 100: Just a Healer

Most people in his situation would likely relish the position of power he held over the people he was currently pointing a sword at. Or at least, that's what Sarb thought as he ushered a bunch of dirty farmers out of their homestead point first. He wrinkled his large nose at the smell of piss, dubiously eyeing the wet stain running down the leg of the youngest man. There were a thousand ways he could justify his actions, a thousand reasons and excuses. But being honest with himself...

Chapter 99: Reunion 

The functionality of [Healing Palm] has been regained as you have restored its structural integrity!

Class [Adept] can once again be levelled up!

In his mind’s eye, Leif watched as the separated chunks of the [Healing Palm] skill finally slotted together, settling into their correct places. After countless attempts, he had slowly pieced together the correct process. He needed to will the skill together, all while maintaining a firm ...

Chapter 98: Changes

It was with more than a little trepidation that Leif deactivated [Tree of Respite], allowing him to slip from the trunk like a stone breaking the surface of a pond. Light and sound and smell all struck him at once, the clarity of his post evolution senses striking him all at once. He knew that [Intelligence] increased one's ability to process stimuli, and [Spirit] strengthened perception though in ways he wasn’t too sure about. But this was a bigger increase than his admittedly...

Chapter 97: Progress

Evolving felt amazing, and Leif hadn’t yet left the comforting embrace of the domain tree. He felt something different about his connection to the tree, as if his relationship with the part of himself he had severed had changed. It didn’t take him more than a moment to realise it was almost certainly because of a skill change.

So [Settle] is probably no more. He mused, basking in the feeling of growth and potential that now suffused his form. There was...

Chapter 96: Scion

To gain a class you required a certain aptitude or affinity for the power it would offer. The description of his current class mentioned his deviation from what a typical blight monster would do, and Leif had assumed that simply acting against the norm had been why he had been given the offer to become one of the amber. But as he sat in the blank void reading over his newest evolution options, he wondered not just why, but how [Amber Blight Spriggan] had been of...

Chapter 95: Split in the Road

The world faded around Leif, all details, sensations and stimulus falling away into the background. The spriggan found himself standing in an empty place, whenever he tried to focus on anything but himself he felt his attention be pulled back in.

He stood, no longer in tree form, though he didn’t notice the change. Leif looked down at his hands, they were covered in hardened bark, small ivory protrusions jutted out at random down his forearm. His body was lined in golden ...

Chapter 94: Path Unwalked

Chapter prescript: 

I may have lied when I said this chapter was entirely focused on the class evolution. Turns out I forgot I was writing a litrpg and need to do some house cleaning before then. 

(its next chapter 100% on god on god fr fr no cap)

Ramble over!

===

The core fell, no longer held aloft by an invisible force. The air within the final chamber shifted, the unseen moving as death began to retreat, its dominion over this place ...

Chapter 93: The Core

Undead poured through the cylindrical chamber, running, scrambling and crawling as they moved along the walls, the strange nature of the room allowing them to defy gravity. Hundreds emerged from the darkness, Leif could even see them on what from his perspective was the ceiling.

The sheer amount of undead was a daunting obstacle, but Leif had more than enough reasons not to back down. For starters, he was in perfect condition, maybe more so. The strategy employed by the dun...

Chapter 92: Non-Euclidean

A dozen spectres phased through the stone walls, floor and ceiling. Their translucent limbs were extended out towards him, their mouths stretched into feral snarls of agony and fury. Leif jerked back in surprise, raising his arms, both real and conjured to defend himself. Something cold touched his ankle, an icy chill shooting up his leg. Leif fell to a knee as the limb gave out, he glanced down and saw a ghostly hand wrapped around his lower shin.

He struck out at the offend...

Chapter 91: The Dungeon

It took Leif seven hours to reach the temple he had once used to escape the very place he was trying to reenter. This was because, to put it nicely, he took the scenic route. Due to this, a good quarter of Pherin’s streets were now free of undead. Bones and dust littered promenades that had once hosted hordes of skeletal monsters as they roamed aimlessly through the city.

All things considered, it was quite the leisurely stroll through the ruins of civilization, he was on...

Chapter 90: Ruins

The landscape north of Far-reach was not what Leif had remembered. Which was only natural, deathly energy seeped into the very land, rotting it from within. It was a sombering, almost melancholy emotion that overcame Leif as he passed valleys blighted by undeath, forests barren of all leaves.

Rotting corpses of the beings who had once called this region home shambled around, their bodies unable to find respite even in death. The further north Leif travelled the more desolat...

Chapter 89: Lani’s Life

Lani considered her short life to have been one strange series of coincidences and bizarre happenings. Perhaps the most strange of these being the fact she could consider at all. She remembered the moments leading up to her evolution clearly, the nomads and the animals that followed them finally reached where the land became rocky and the wind had carried the overpowering scent of salt.

In a wave that had  been absolutely bizarre to witness from an outsider's perspecti...

Chapter 88: Conflict

Leif watched as Ram took a swig from his seemingly endless bottle, then the goatman handed the bottle to him. He took the bottle and eyed it suspiciously, it was normal alcohol, this wasn’t the first time Ram had offered Leif his bottle in the past hour. The spriggan tilted back his head and drained more than enough liquid that the bottle should be almost empty.

Nope, still full. Leif mused, handing it back to Ram. Ram was going on a long winded, and partially ra...

Chapter 87: Mending

Amber blood pooled from the wound where a metre long jagged spike of ice had punctured Leif’s torso and punched clean out the other side. There was a finger deep gash in the side of his head, both his legs were missing to various degrees of severity and one of his arms was mangled to the point of complete disuse. He was caked in a layer of jagged ice, though most of it lay strewn around him.

Leif coughed, gagged, then reached up and yanked the arm length shard of what had...

Chapter 86: Elemental

The elemental loomed above him even though it was still fifty or so metres away. All around the valley the piles of ice that littered the ground were coming to life, whether it was because the reconstituting monsters had detected the being who had almost killed them and were coming alive to defend themselves or because of something else, Leif didn’t know.

The icy mist that was ever present within the valley now swirled and rolled across the ground, the mist’s presence m...

Chapter 85: Gaining Experience

“Now how the hells did you awaken before level fifty?”

Ram’s question hung in the air, as if by merely being spoken it charged the environment with static electricity. Leif wasn’t overly surprised Ram had figured him out, but he was surprised the goat cared enough to ask. After a moment of consideration he decided it likely didn’t matter if Ram knew or not, so he chose to answer truthfully.

“It’s not exactly a secret, several people already know...

Chapter 84: Frigid

Leif trudged along a hillside, he maintained his focus on a ball of wood that was constantly being reshaped and moulded into different configurations. When the wood began to destabilise and his manipulations became too much for the object to handle, Leif would send a trickle of healing amber energy into the object.

[Wood Manipulation] wasn’t a skill he could upgrade like [Aura of Nobility] or [Tenacious Fighter], Leif knew the skill’s biggest constraints were his own ex...

Chapter 83: Stubborn

Leif stared dumbly at where the newcomer lounged next to the fire. The horned man was dressed in what looked like a dozen different animal pelts that had been stitched together, and he was absolutely covered in dirt and grime. Splotches of blood and less identifiable things stained his rags.

Despite his ragged appearance the man was strong, his physique muscular and solid, Leif was glad he didn’t appear to be hostile. He didn’t need to activate [Combative Gumption] to k...

Chapter 82: Tenacity

The supply crate lay on its side, a faded and weatherworm symbol was painted onto its side though Leif couldn’t make out the details. He sunk clawed fingers into the wooden exterior and lifted the container, carrying it to where he was gathering all the leftover supplies he could find on the smaller bluff.

Most containers he found were damaged, destroyed, or had been left open prior to being left behind. Others had sprung leaks or, like the food crates he had thrown overb...

Chapter 81: Manipulations

Leif had spent three days trudging through the wilderness after having departed from Far-reach. During his exploration he had finally seen the world in daylight. The landscape was withered and desolate. The malevolent presence brought about by deathly energy had corrupted and blighted the land for what seemed like dozens of miles. What animals he saw were diseased and malnourished, many having succumbed to the unfortunate fate of undeath.

Leif spotted a pack of mangy, starv...

Chapter 80: Scavengers

Leif stared down at the campfire, if he had a face capable of emoting it would possess a look of contemplation, perhaps consternation. This hadn’t been here during the battle, for one it was in the middle of what had once been a commonly walked path. For another, the area surrounding it had been cleared of the recent plant growth.

The spriggan began to explore the bluff, his surroundings illuminated by starlight. Back when this place had been an imperial outpost the secon...

Chapter 79: Ins and Outs

Commencing skill fusion!

Fusion of skills [Grounded Stance II] and [Enduring Grit] 1/100%

Leif could have taken the first skill fusion in any number of different directions. He had some fairly wild ideas and some potentially crazy aspirations. But it was important to start simple and work his way up.

The reason Leif settled on combining one of his newest skills and his combat comprehension skill together was two fold. The first ...

Chapter 78: More Skills

New class skills available! [Enduring Grit] or [Power Strike]!

New class skills available! [Vitality Tether] or [Wave of Restoration]!

The first choice was simple. [Enduring Grit] was an enhancement skill, almost certainly with the [body] subaspect. And while Leif only received a general impression of both skills, he could relate the feeling [Enduring Grit] gave off to other skills he possessed.

[Power Strike] may be a potent in...

Chapter 77: Sprouting

Level up! Class [Amber Blight Spriggan] is now level 16!

For defeating a host of undead in defence of the living you have gained a level!

+1 to [Might] +5 free points!

Level up! Class [Amber Blight Spriggan] is now level 17!

For defeating a foe over twice your strength you have gained a level!

+1 to [Intelligence] +1 to [Willpower] +5 free points! 2023-11-12 05:36:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 76: Slumber

A tree, twelve and a half metres tall with smooth ivory bark topped with a canopy of vivid crimson leaves stands at the north most point of a rocky bluff, said bluff is south of its much larger and less isolated sibling, and both contain the remains of stone and wood structures devastated by the recent battle.

Crimson leaves partially hang over the northern edge of the bluff, the tree’s smooth trunk tilted at a slight angle. At the bottom of a ravine that divides both sto...

Prologue

Leif’s eyelids fluttered open revealing an open expanse of pure blue sky. He felt the breeze as it rustled through vibrant, finger length grass, the warmth of a brilliant golden sun radiating down on him. He lay there, unmoving for what felt like an eternity.

The sun fell, the sky darkening and the breeze turning cold. Stars twinkled overhead in their thousands, and a moon with a cracked face and a crimson glow took prominence in the night sky.

But that too swiftly ...