No_Creative_Name

PW Chapter 94: Boss Floor’s First Wave

You hate to hear it, but this is a beefy chapter today. Sorry, an extra 600 words. Please forgive me.

“Everybody’s got enough supplies for three days?“ Astrid verified as she met her party members' gazes. There were nods of agreement from each with no apparent worries, at least, about their supply situation. In just the past couple of days, the ordered equipment had all been prepared, and the party had made a couple more short term delves in the meantime....

SoK Chapter 194

In that moment, TJ came to the realization that he didn’t need to replace any of his equipment if he didn’t have every slot filled. The System had told him months ago at this point that there were ten slots. Those were boots, leggings, chestpiece, bracers, right hand’s ring, left hand’s ring, dominant hand, off hand, necklace, and helm. With the equipment he had right now, he had one ring, a weapon, helm, and bracers. Sure, the Raven Mocker’s Remnant was a particularly underwhelming...

PW Chapter 93: Final Preparations

Astrid stepped forward to speak, but was cut off by Tristan. “There’s a whole lot that I need to talk to you about, and none of it can be said in front of the rest of the members of the Guild. We’re going to your office now.”

The normally good humored man’s voice dripped with derision and anger as he pointed with an accusing finger into Klara’s face. Klara was forced to look up into Tristan’s face, and he didn’t do anything but glare down at her. Astrid wanted to say som...

SoK Chapter 193

The morning came quickly, and though TJ wanted to jump into his experimentations with the variety of materials he had, instead, he sought out Luz. The little girl was happy to play with him for a little while as he helped to prepare breakfast. It turned out that, without the support of the New Republic, feeding her had become much more complicated than before. The established systems and supports that came from the New Republic being established on ASU’s grounds combined with the people tha...

AR Chapter 435

The constant murmurs of respectful acknowledgment from every Kha, Khatif, and Keel greeted me as I walked through the streets. Each of my people was unsurprised to see me in good health, flaring their frills and bowing their heads as my presence was made known to them. Even so, my people’s continued respect wasn’t my focus. Instead, to my excitement, the first thing to be brought to my attention was a stop at a location I was familiar with. Pushing through the doorway, I grinned widely as...

PW Chapter 92: Quick Recovery and Future Plans

Just before she approved the selection of Quick Recovery, Astrid asked the Great One for an explanation of the change in the Skill, making the Skill description flash in front of her.

Quick Recovery, Bronze: Increases the passive rate of mana, health, and stamina recovery by 40%. Once per hour, the Skill’s holder can activate the Skill to recover 20% of all mana, health and stamina.

Astrid smiled as she gave her permission for the Skill to be upgraded. As it sub...

AR Chapter 434

As we drew close enough, the people on the walls saw us coming and called out our arrival to those found within the bounds of the city. There wasn’t any delay as my people gathered to welcome our return. Dozens immediately swarmed the walls, shouting welcoming words. 

“Zaaktif!”

“Our people!”

“To victory!”

“For Nievtala!”

To my pleasure, Sybil was one of the first to appear on the walls, her scales growing even more lustrous by the day. Ins...

PW Chapter 91: Recovery Periods

Ursula

“Where the hell is Tristan? Or Christophe for that matter?“ Ursula couldn’t keep herself from asking as she continued to employ as many of her attribute-transferring and strength-sapping curses as possible. Despite everything and knowing that the creator of this paper monstrosity was higher level than her, she knew there was more she could do. For some reason, though, the way that this damn paper golem functioned kept her curses from taking over the entire ...

SoK Chapter 192

The path forward was clear, to TJ surprise. after everything that he been through, he more expected to run into troubles every step of the way, no matter what journey he took. In this case, he was thrilled to be proven wrong. Walking through the night, the sky cleared of his storm he created, their path was lit by the bright moon overhead. Even without it, with both of their perception, they would’ve been able to walk without worry through the regular night sky. There would have to be some ...

AR Chapter 433

The journey back to my city was a strange one. Maksulah took it upon herself to become the leader of the group of prisoners, and though they all disliked her willingness and quickness to submit to me, she also kept things from becoming too difficult in traveling back home. Most interestingly, she took it upon herself to keep her fellows speaking in the human or continental language. Whenever they spoke in their native tongue, she would urge them to speak in one that my people could understand...

PW Chapter 90: Facing Fearsome Foes

Slightly shorter chapter than usual. I think that it's just the right length though.

Without thinking, Astrid screamed and, while still pulling Christophe with her right hand, smashed the edge of her shield into the drake‘s face. It let go of the Ranger’s leg and hissed at her as, with its two front legs now solidly in the branch, it pulled itself out of the Dungeon proper. The ululating cry it screamed made Astrid’s chest shake, but in that brief moment,...

SoK Chapter 191

TJ and Farid didn’t wait for the monsters’ reaction to begin the fight. There was no need to give a warning or allow the monsters to get ready. Instead, they threw themselves forward, or, more accurately, TJ threw himself forward and rushed to catch and kill the thunderbirds before they could get their magic started. With only one hand on the reins of TJ‘s bridle, Farid threw three javelins in quick succession. TJ watched as they flew towards the thunderbirds where they flew some 200 fe...

AR Chapter 432

Unsurprisingly, the weak–willed male quickly gave in to my “persuasions”. It turned out that he was, despite his unwillingness to suffer for the cause, considered something of a well regarded member of the Misti Hawar military, or whatever it technically called, that was coming to eradicate my people. As I’d suspected, one of their number had stayed back in the forest to watch, their leader actually. When that leader was mentioned, the young scout named Iskatti couldn’t help but men...

PW Chapter 89: Mysteries Unmasked

“You know, you all were the origin of all this falling apart. Things were working out pretty OK until you started pushing other delvers to work harder. Got them out of their slowed, comfortable lives.” Anders's voice was a familiar one, but there was something about the way that he spoke that sent a chill down Astrid’s back. Instead of his usual congenial, if dispassionate voice, there was a hatred-filled twisting in his voice that had Astrid standing and pulling out her hammer. The res...

SoK Chapter 190

“So you’re gonna make a storm, and this time we’re actually going to go up there?“ Farid couldn’t keep the hint of humor from his voice as he asked. “You’re not going to… I don’t know, have another vision or decide that you need to go on some journey of self enlightenment really quick? Because if that’s what you’re gonna do, I was about to get some sleep and I wouldn’t mind getting the rest.”

“I would say I resent that, if it wasn’t all entirely accurate,�...

AR Chapter 431

I grinned as I watched Brutus throw a third prisoner in front of Hala. All in all, we’d captured five of the MistI Hawar in their ill-fated attack on the camp, Brutus responsible for three of them. For the first time, I really saw him in combat against a human-sized person, and it was inspiring and a little terrifying. With my sonic waves disturbing our feline enemies, they couldn’t wrest control of the shadows enough to allow themselves to escape out of their corporeal forms. Then, it wa...

PW Chapter 88: Confrontations

“Today’s the day, right?”

Astrid turned to Felix and nodded. “I’m going to be level 11 before dinner.”

Through the rest of the day before delving, the party had continued to work together better, taking out every pack of gnolls they came across without any struggle. In fact, with Skandr and Muti’s growth and attributes, there wasn’t anything that the monsters could do but provide experience to their killers. More and more, Astrid was glad to have come down and forc...

SoK Chapter 189

Though he’d expected some measure of improvement from this meditation and enlightenment, TJ hadn’t predicted the two Skill evolutions, much less what had happened to Stormcaller and Storm Soul. All he’d allowed himself to hope for was the advancement in his Divine Authority’s progress towards Silver. Instead of losing himself in wondering about what these changes were, he stood up and stretched as he looked at his new Skills. As the core of it all, he decided to start with Wind Manipu...

AR Chapter 430

Unanki POV

“The keelish are all in position to sleep. They didn’t even leave someone on watch!”

The excited report made the clan head of the Kalaki squint in disbelief. Though he was commanding a combined force, his scouts were the only ones he was trusting right now. Kusi’Wi’d given him command, and he knew that she was plotting something. Even so, he was in charge of lives right now, and though he’d listened to Kusi’Wi’s command, he wasn’t goin...

PW Chapter 87: New Levels New Devils

Sorry for the delay. SoK's chapter for tomorrow was kicking my butt and ate into a lot of my earlier editing time. AR chapter's coming soon and SoK chapter will be up tomorrow at the usual time.

The night spent in the passage was uncomfortable, but generally uneventful. On his watch, Felix’d had a couple gnolls attempting to come in from the fourth floor below them, but between his fist and Skills, he was able to take the two of them out. If there’d been an...

AR Chapter 429

My footsteps crunched through the snow, the sound echoing off of the surrounding trees. As I rushed, I felt the air cooling my lungs and fighting to pierce through to the rest of my body, but that didn’t matter. Instead, I continued following the sound of nearly shouted conversations as they escalated to greater anger. I called behind me to the rest of my people, those who were further away from the scouting pack, and continued on my path. In less than a minute, I was close enough to hear t...

PW Chapter 86: Watershed Perspectives

Skandr

Despite all of his posturing, Skandr was scared that he wasn’t going to be able to live up to what he said. What specifically? All of it. He talked a bigger game than he really deserved to. After all, he felt most days like he wasn’t doing much to contribute to the party. Sure, he slowed down groups of enemies and did a little damage, and days like today when they ran into a really large pack he could do more, but he still felt inadequate. A part of him repea...

SoK Chapter 188

Instead of merely channeling Stormcaller, TJ stopped even thinking of that Skill and instead lost himself in Meditation.  As soon as he did so, clarity of mind immediately settled over him. Without strain or conscious thought, his mind connected various different possibilities at the same time, flashing through different connection points in how his Divine authority swelled beyond “get stronger when there’s a storm.” Eventually, he would fall into focusing on one concept, and after...

AR Chapter 428

There was only so much we could do when we had no idea what kind of ambush our enemies were preparing for us. After all, if they were looking to attack us while we were in the paths following the trail they’d left, they wouldn’t be open to an attack by setting a further encirclement around them or something like that. If, instead of attempting to surround us, they were looking to allow us to “stumble” across them to then lull us into a false sense of security before ambushing us while...

PW Chapter 85: Adjusting Plans

As she implemented the simple pieces of advice that she’s gotten from Leonardo, Astrid found that whenever she was surrounded, which only happened two more times in the next several hours, she was able to keep the gnolls from getting access to her back. Though they continued to generally be a nuisance, and, of course, be dangerous monsters, she was able to bat them back and keep from sustaining any noteworthy injuries. Astrid suspected that, even if she were in a situation like she had been...

SoK Chapter 187

Annoyingly, they hadn’t had much of an idea about what to do to get Farid into the air with TJ, besides to maybe have the Indian man try to ride the flying TJ like a long, skinny horse, or pegasus, he supposed. Regardless, TJ wasn’t particularly willing to go up and confront the Elite monsters without any backup, given what had happened to him the time before. Even if the thunderbirds weren’t able to get the drop on him again, they were more than a little dangerous in a straight fight, ...

AR Chapter 427

Now that I’d thought about it specifically, I ensured that I had at least 50 subordinates with me as I led out a pack to find the next traces of the Misti Hawar. The furry menaces were nowhere to be seen at the moment, but despite everything that they tried, there were slight traces left from wherever they went. I couldn’t really find them, while Foire and Silf both were confident in pointing out which paths the shadowy hunters followed. Each of my followers was pretty confident in their ...

PW Chapter 84: Silver Winds Blow

“That’s a damn optimistic way of putting it.” A familiar voice answered Astrid’s joking question. She couldn’t immediately place it, but when he continued to speak, she pretty quickly understood and forced herself to put on an unbothered face.

“See, this is the problem with you Bronze tiers. You just don’t get that you don’t know anything yet. ‘Sure, let’s just throw ourselves forward into a pack of four times our number, supported by irregulars.’ Thinking that—n...

SoK Chapter 186

TJ led the way towards the center of the “street”. He could see faint trails left in the grass where his people had passed through, though the grass was recovering and soon would leave no trace without more frequent passage. Without another thought, he followed the path until he could see where the settlement’s settlement was taking place. From afar, there wasn’t much that he could tell as to what specifically people were doing, but he could see several tents set up as well as a small...

AR Chapter 426

Two days in a row, whaaaa? Doing good. This chapter's longer to make up for yesterday's, haha.

[Kusi’Wi POV]

“The entire Ainingatch clan was slaughtered! Not a single kit was left spared, and nothing besides their blood stains were left behind! You assured us that this would be some simple task for us to show the continent and the world that Illan’Klli’s chosen people are a force to be feared and have created a country to be adore...