Hugo winced, wrists twisting sideways as his face contorted with marks of concentration. Veins bulged on his body - and one near his forehead looked ready to pop.
He let out a small grunt, and Reid felt his attempt falter and fade in an instant. Reid breathed a bit deeper with the slight pressure around his body gone. Hugo had improved again, and lasted an additional hour pushing against Reid's soul before he ran out of steam.
Nyx sounded satisfied. "Excellent work, little pri...
2025-07-02 14:00:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid was frozen. His palms were clammy. His pulse thrummed in his ears as he hyperventilated, and he started to summon his knife.
Hugo was a good person.
Hugo could crush souls.
He could attack them directly, and that meant he had Reid in the palm of his hand. Reid's mind went through every worst-case scenario, and came to a simple conclusion. He couldn't run. He didn't need to run, everything was fine. Except if Hugo wasn't the person Reid thought he was,...
2025-06-30 14:00:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
+ Reid +
One month.
It had taken a solid four weeks, twenty-nine days, if his math was right, before Reid was properly recovered. He knew from the start that he'd lived through the battle - there was no way he would have been in that much pain if he were dead. Recovery felt far slower than it was. His days consisted of staring at a simple roof or the well crafted walls of a small room inside a larger structure. Every so often, one of his trio - usually Norton - wo...
2025-06-27 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
)+\( Hugo )/+(
Vidita looked between different sets of footprints in the dirt, and frowned.
"I'm still not good at this, you know. We could be chasing people that left months ago."
Hugo shook his head. "I have seen the glimmer of a group of souls on the horizon. Be not dismayed. We are not in a fruitless chase."
She whipped around and pointed at him with two fingers. "That's the third time today. Now, you have to make dinner."
Hugo frowned. "That...
2025-06-25 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
<//| Fozz |\\>
Old oak with ornate carvings covered the room. It was present in the multiple benches and tables for the involved parties, it made up the rather uncomfortable chair he found himself sitting in, and it was the looming wall that the central judiciary perched upon.
The central judge leaned back and sighed, in a notable display of emotion. The central judiciary was known for their professionalism, but the honorable Judge Ninwhar Figris was very ob...
2025-06-23 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
A moment stretched where neither side moved.
The trio, armorless but armed, were a few feet inside the stone structure. The doorway was only wide enough for a single person, but Reid could make out other sets of burgundy armor behind the one that had ripped off the door. The one in front had dark red, stippled skin and a wide, flat nose that sat even with a pair of large eyes. They wore all of the Belar trademarks, including a rifle that was slung over one shoulder. When the still momen...
2025-06-20 13:30:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Every step was a war. Every movement was pain. Magma found gaps in his armor and Reid's nostrils filled with the smell of his melting flesh. He roared and pushed forward through it all, one eye trained on his destination. Agonizing seconds passed by as Reid neared the crescent pool of magma.
It bubbled, disturbed by the activity the Duke had caused in the rest of the volcano with its magic. The creature noticed his intent, and tried to scramble off the shield, but Reid shifted an arm up...
2025-06-20 13:25:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
The crab-like Duke stood nearly motionless on the surface of the volcano. It didn't shift or move, even when Reid had taken a misstep down the interior slope and caused a small series of rocks to clack into one another. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen any ears on the thing - maybe it didn't have them.
Air was too hot and too dense here. The environment itself felt like it was trying to crush him, and Reid felt more than a bit of unease when he finally put a foot down on the...
2025-06-20 13:20:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
With every step, the heat and the smell intensified. Reid stopped near the summit, but he found himself still sweating after an hour of rest and recovery. No environment so far had caused him this much trouble - aside from not being able to breathe inside the turtle's pond. The air only became more choked as he reached the lip of the volcano.
The outer rim was a dry and dusty ground, littered with fist-sized stones that tumbled and knocked into each other with nearly every step. Reid co...
2025-06-20 13:00:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Seeing Norton excel as soon as he held the right tools had shifted something within Reid's realm of understanding. He heavily relied on his power, dexterity, and skill resistances. That was true in fights themselves, but also in everyday actions. The way he'd connected his threadspace and library was directly tied to how those spaces interacted with one another to make a better set of tools to use. The nature of those tools was directly related to how he generally used them. So why wouldn't m...
2025-06-18 14:00:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid's scream carried a knot of frustrated emotions with it, and his mace whipped hard into the hooked claw of a deep red insect. The dog-sized creature just made more ominous clicks with its mandibles and tried to strike him with a different arm.
This hadn't been a good fight.
Each of the Queen's 'honor guard' were large, red insects that effectively used their magic to deal actual damage to Reid. They'd attacked with mandibles, stingers, and the hooked claws that define...
2025-06-16 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid awoke to a stick poking his shin.
"...has to be. So he's not right. He still hasn't reacted."
"He said he might scream, though, and then he did. So maybe this is normal?"
"Oh yeah, flat normal for wounded men to scream for hours and then not wake up for three days. Come on, Brinkha, use your head. No one screams like that unless they're dying."
"But Gerald, his wounds..."
"If you're so insistent, go ahead and give him an inspection! Why not? I'm sure an este...
2025-06-13 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
-/-)) Travis ((-\-
There had been a crack there, and a evidence of a bloody gash underneath. He was sure of it.
But the blood was gone - or hidden behind armor that didn't look as fractured and broken as it had when he'd first seen the man. His eyes scanned over the downed form, and widened.
Damage he was sure he saw, to armor and to the man himself, was just... gone. An osteal smithing skill could explain some of the fix to the armor, but the man w...
2025-06-11 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
+ Reid +
Reid batted a green hornet away with his bare Palm. The impact sent bits of bug guts spraying over him and his surroundings.
He was getting so many kill notifications now, he had to ignore them entirely. He let his swinging hand whip forward, and was rewarded with a few more kills and a handful of injured insects. A carapace shattered. A thorax practically exploded. Broken wings sent a wounded insect falling to the ground. Requiem felled a handful of the ...
2025-06-09 14:00:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
The 'beast lord' this time around wasn't a single creature, but a colony. A tree towered twice as high as any other near it, and an absolutely massive hornet's nest hung from an unnaturally thick and straight branch.
Smoke clung heavy to the air, but did little to deter the keyboard-sized insects that flew down to intercept the hive's attackers. Reid watched a burgundy-armored man shoot a cone of fire straight at the nest. It burned parts of the tree the nest was attached to, but the th...
2025-06-06 14:00:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
-/-)) Travis ((-\-
He slammed a palm onto the table in excitement. The force of his strike left an indent in the weaker metal, compete with the outline of his good fingers.
Travis needed this. His people needed this.
Weeks of fighting beasts had taken a number of combatants from his forces, and weakened morale. That was further exacerbated when one comms specialist let slip that three outlying bases had been sacked by a single enemy, and they weren't even ce...
2025-06-04 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid spat out another few grains of sand, then went back to work with the carving knife. The naturally mottled pale blue skin separated and peeled back as Reid sliced through to the relatively thin layer of meat. Most of the thing's insides were organs, but he had committed himself to preserving as much of the creature's edible contents as he could manage.
Plus, he wanted to finish quickly, and then focus on talking through his next steps with Nyx. Reid had more than a few things on...
2025-06-02 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
)+\( Hugo )/+(
Waiting before he went back to camp would've been the smart thing. Coming up with something to tell them all instead of trying to explain himself on the spot would have been wise. Eliminating the other patrolling spies would've been his best choice.
Instead, he'd woken, groggy - and powerful - and followed his instinct to sprint back to his people. He'd been unprepared to fend off Yudel's accusations of choosing violence when 'Belar and Yudel we...
2025-05-30 14:00:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
+ Reid +
Connection.
Reid didn't know how he was going to do it, but he could sense possibility.
He pulled the spring down in a diagonal from the paver. There was something there that felt... correct was the wrong word. It was truth, and confidence. Reid knew what he wanted to keep out, and who he wanted to let in. He knew that his interpretation was waiting for him, somewhere between conscious thought and memory. He just ...
2025-05-28 14:00:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid dove into himself, eager and ready for a new challenge - a puzzle to solve. He put himself into his threadspace, and took a few moments to survey the winding tangles that stretched farther than he could perceive. Reid doubted that he would be able to catalogue everything in there even if he had thousands of years to do so. Sufficiently reminded of just how much about the system and its workings he didn't understand, Reid decided to ask the question.
"Alright, Nyx - where do I start...
2025-05-26 14:00:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
-/-)) Travis ((-\-
They'd been close.
Close enough that one of the carcasses hadn't quite yet decayed. Close enough that rain hadn't fully washed away the remains of a campfire. The barbarian had spent time in that place, likely taking time to whittle down the massive number of beasts that were found in the valley. It was the only instance where they'd caught wind of him since the incident at the first camp, and it only happened because a scout had spotte...
2025-05-23 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid's pulse thrummed in his ears. He scanned the text twice, then did it again.
You have defeated Beast Lord, Branching Terror [Elder Drus] - lvl 43. Experience Awarded (+400,000 xp) (+120,000 xp)
Questline Stage Completed: The Beast Lords - (Stage 5 of 10)
Secret Challenge Completed: Took No Losses in Stage 5
Secret Challenge Completed: Finished Stage 5 in less than 50 days
Secret Challenge Completed: Completed Stage 5 without falling to the Ter...
2025-05-21 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
[ Mom is still away on her trip, and Marlene got some letter from James and disappeared. I ended up venting to Mark yesterday, just to have someone to vent to. The man has some incredible beer, but he's not exactly the best to talk with. Maybe I should just try dating again? The big question is whether that would make things less lonely - or more. So, yeah. Missing you today, dad. ]
+ Reid +
He closed his eyes, and savored the taste as fire-roaste...
2025-05-19 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid felt the wind whipping past his legs as the seconds ticked down.
The glow in his hand intensified, then abated as Brock appeared.
This was it.
The one dumb idea that might keep Reid from having the traincar-sized asshole pancake him into the ground.
He re-read the trait description as he poured energy into the first vortex.
Shrapnel
When the first vortex is imbued with energy, the internal structure of the weapon is weakened. Upon impact, Shrapnel...
2025-05-16 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Wind whipped past Reid and made the skin on his cheeks flap. His free-fall had already taken him past Pippin - and despite Reid's attempt to get a blow in on his way down, the beast lord was uninjured.
The valley below had turned from a green line into a properly identifiable feature. Pippin was above him, slowly descending. There was nothing to grab onto.
Maybe - he could aim for a body of water?
Reid swore. The stream was too shallow, and actually getting himself to the ne...
2025-05-14 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Brocks fell like bone artillery shells and slowly drained the troop's number. Reid used extra energy from his ring to keep himself close to topped up. Everything went incredibly smooth for a glorious half hour span of time.
Then it wasn't smooth anymore.
He'd just finished throwing another slug when the projectile started to rise into the air. It lifted slowly - but enough to send it sailing over the troop and off into the distance. Reid was only midway to his next hiding spot, an...
2025-05-12 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid looked at his new creation, and felt a twinge of pain as his eyes shifted.
"Now, it's good work, but far from perfect. I'm going to point out four errors that you need to correct before you activate it, and I want you to focus in tight on just those areas, alright?" Reid nodded. "First, roll the outer edges of the funnel and create 30 ribs that wrap from the outer edge down into the thing. Make them slightly angled, and have the ends ...
2025-05-09 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Brock flew unopposed into the midst of the Guinea Pig troop. Reid hoped to give two or three some decent wounds - maybe a kill. He wasn't exactly hurling grenades, after all.
His projectile smashed into the ground and shattered with a sound Reid would've mistaken with snapping tension cables if he hadn't been looking at the action. Pigs screamed as bits of sharded bone tore through their hides and savaged their bodies. Half a leg was thrown skyward, and red droplets flew off a piece of ...
2025-05-07 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Reid cracked his neck, and pulled Mole King steaks out of his ring. He still had a few of the lesser ones, but G-grade beast meat didn't quite fill him up the way it used to. F grade meat made recovery go quicker - which he'd confirmed after eating the turtle.
It had only been five days since he made his ring and his knife, but multiple lessons and targeted growth had left Reid hungry - hungry enough thar he had started to dream about how wonderful Guinea Pig meat would taste.
Roa...
2025-05-05 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
"Is this lesson going to help me kill those damn guinea pigs?"
"Probably. We're going to use this as an opportunity for you to improve your osteal smithing."
Reid couldn't tell if that was a joke. He'd made F-grade equipment while in mid-G grade, which Win had told him was enough of an atypical thing to do that he needed to keep it secret. Requiem, Marrow, Queen's Edge - everything he'd created felt like fantastic works in their own right. He'd outfitted the fighters in t...
2025-05-02 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
