She dove straight into it.
“There’s too much to get into, some of which hasn’t been finalized, including final battle plans,” she said. She hesitated. “I’ll only let you know what’s relevant to you, for now—I’ll catch you up on the rest when they’re decided.”
Which sounded sensible to him.
Reina nodded. She seemed fully in ‘business mode’ now.
“First, the list of those who’ll receive an unlimited portal charm is now set. I made...
2025-11-18 02:30:03 +0000 UTC
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The Scryer’s Guild had come through for him, leaving three letters behind—one from the Delver King’s Tower, one from the Thousand Seas Tribe, and the last from the World Tree. That last letter had Reina’s neat script on it, and it was sealed with rune-stamped wax. He could feel it was bound to his soul signature. It was a precaution she liked to use with sensitive information, which instantly made him a bit curious.
As much as he was enjoying his months of heads-down grinding, h...
2025-11-17 02:30:02 +0000 UTC
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He felt the difference instantly. Every single cell in his body was awash with brilliant essence—and then, suddenly, it ceased.
If you inspected his physique in the Astral Plane, you’d still see them lit up bright; you could see the quality jam-packed into his muscles. But they no longer gave off an aura.
His body now felt quite a lot like Z-Platinum in that respect.
Zane himself still gave off an aura—though that was all just from his soul now, he realized. The materi...
2025-11-16 02:30:01 +0000 UTC
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More days went by, then weeks, each satisfyingly strenuous.
Zane spent his days stacking Z-Platinum all over his body. It wasn’t an even distribution, precisely. Part of that was due to what he was training. Dead hauls and deadlifts tended to hit the pulling muscles, so his back and biceps got plenty of tempering. He also made sure to get in plenty of chest work via machines. Those were definitely the muscle groups that gained strength the quickest. He could actually see it in the Ast...
2025-11-13 02:30:05 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Quick note on the System Store!
Added in a note to previous chapters clarifying that System Store items can only be used by the purchaser—there’s an icon denoting that it’s a System Store item. The System wants to enforce a meritocratic use of the store; same reason why Store Credits are generally not transferrable.
//
Zane was off to the races after that.
That night he started loading in what he’d gained in Pure Size ...
2025-11-12 02:30:05 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Minor point, but in 591, Zane only eats steel until he's full, not enough steel for the next 'several days'!
//
That last statement only worsened the Ghoul Doctor’s apprehensions. When the Master grew fixated like this it was either a very good thing, or a very, very bad one.
“Revisions?” said Daressa, looking curious.
We shall get to that. Those eyes raked the room. First, it is important to understand...
2025-11-11 02:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Zane had to grin. He always liked when the Sage got like this.
He felt it wasn’t just the Sage going on, either. He remembered the Sage saying something about being unreasonable earlier. It just seemed to be how the Sage had gotten this far in the first place.
Whether the Sage could do something or he couldn’t, he’d always think he’d have a shot, which Zane could resonate with. And for some reason, something about the Sage just made him believe. He wasn’t sure what it wa...
2025-11-10 02:30:02 +0000 UTC
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That one he’d seen coming, honestly. He’d done a ton of legwork there fighting all that gravity… he must’ve gotten down nearly a thousand Red Giant steps in total. His quads were still burning. He had a feeling they would be for a little while.
Still, he tested out a Red Giant step and saw that level granted him a little more than a 10% distance boost per step. Nice.
Then he moved on to the Law gains.
That final Kaijuu attack ended up not being a Pure Size attack, at...
2025-11-09 02:30:02 +0000 UTC
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The Kaijuu looked confused at first, but then it gave a roar of fury. It seemed to think Zane was toying with it, which he wasn’t doing at all. He really did just want it to give him everything it could muster.
Then it squinted at him. After the first few punches it seemed to realize he was up to something. He wasn’t really fighting with the intent to embarrass it, or even hurt it—just to give it the damage it needed. There came a bit of confused growling.
He got the sense i...
2025-11-06 02:30:05 +0000 UTC
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He was champing at the bit to get a feel for that Law again.
Just then the Kaijuu shrieked—this time, triumphantly. Zane felt it in its soul, too, even from this far out.
It wanted to tell him it was bigger. It was putting a stamp on that tail-whack, like it wanted him to know it’d won that exchange.
It did put a grin on his face.
He wanted to get that one back now.
First he did another quick inspection of his body, this time a little more in-depth, just to c...
2025-11-05 02:30:04 +0000 UTC
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One more heartbeat of silence. Then—
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK—
The surface of the core shivered a little more with each giant step.
And he knew the Kaijuu was coming.
He felt more curious than anything, though he was pretty hopeful too.
“You stand your ground now, lad!” roared the Sage, somewhere far above. “Don’t you let it bully you!”
He saw a single mountain-sized claw break through to the surface.
And another, ripping through tha...
2025-11-04 02:30:04 +0000 UTC
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If just loading Pure Size in would take ten to twenty years… Zane thought about it.
He and Reina had budgeted somewhere around twenty-five years, start to finish, for this Concept.
That’d be ideal—it’d give him enough time to break through to True God, take in some shards, and then test-drive his new powers before the War properly went down.
Say he spent ten to fifteen years loading it in. He wasn’t sure he’d have any advantage in that respect over most folk; may...
2025-11-03 02:30:03 +0000 UTC
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The Sage gave him a wave. “Take a look in the Astral Plane!”
When Zane did, he saw this translucent shining image shrouding the plate—an image of the plate, blown up a thousandfold. He saw the impact it made, the force it exerted, in how much it shone.
It all felt quite clear to him.
And he had to thank the Sage—that little tip turned out to be more useful than he’d expected. At first, Zane had thought Pure Size just magnified the impacts of whatever it touched. He...
2025-11-02 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Zane was pleasantly surprised, actually. He was less wrecked than he thought he’d be. With what the Sage had said earlier, he’d been ready for the kitchen sink to be thrown at him. The Sage had a habit of being a bit optimistic as to what Zane could take on. Granted, Zane himself had that same attitude and it worked out most of the time. Though that also meant he got crushed or tore all his muscles a fair bit too.
The Sage’s training plans did always get him pushing his limi...
2025-10-30 01:37:56 +0000 UTC
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The deadlift platform had an industrial feel to it. It looked like the kind of thing he might see around shipping containers. It was twenty feet thick and built of some of the highest-grade steels and runes in all of Boot Camp. It was clearly meant to take some pretty heavy loads.
There were three main parts to it—the deadlifting platform itself, which was a bar situated on a forklift-like lift. There were a series of hooks welded to the edges, through which the Sage cheerfully laced ...
2025-10-29 01:43:20 +0000 UTC
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The Sage gave Zane a quick tour of all the most important stations in Boot Camp, starting with the planet-sized lunk of steel smack-dab in the middle. It was also the closest station to the teleporter.
“This here’s your go-to punch trainer,” said the Sage. “It’s the very same one I showed you in that letter a few years back. Hasn’t changed a bit since then. Hasn’t changed much since I first built it, actually, except for getting a few new runes and chains tacked on.”
...
2025-10-28 01:30:19 +0000 UTC
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Zane didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he liked this Concept quite a bit already.
It sounded clear and straightforward, and it neatly explained the effects he’d seen on the Kaijuu. The Sage hitting much bigger than his fist should’ve allowed, and all that.
Seeing the Sage detonate all over that thing had been a great advertisement for it.
“Not the most complex-sounding Concept, you might think,” the Sage admitted. “But it’s got some subtleties to it. Any...
2025-10-27 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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A/N: This chapter was accidentally posted yesterday. It was up for about 20 mins before I noticed the mistake, sorry for the confusion folks!
//
The next morning, Zane set off for the Conclave.
Before he headed off he said his final goodbyes to his friends.
Evan reported that he was slightly ahead of schedule with his Concepts. He’d been working hard on them in his downtime, and he’d been able to use his Tower Points and System Credits to buy all ...
2025-10-26 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: To those who got an extra notification, I accidentally published Oct 25's chapter a day early! Sorry for the confusion folks--it'll come out same time as usual
//
Dya stood waiting at the gates, flanked by two of Reina’s Silver Winds in shiny silver gear. She looked quite nervous—a bit jumpy. But she beamed when she saw Reina and Zane heading over.
A few seconds later more guards opened the gates, and she all but ran up to Reina. The two women hugg...
2025-10-23 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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“I’ll see you out there,” said Reina, looking quite pleased.
“When will you join me?” he asked.
“Not at the start, since I’ll be needed in Dragonspire Command,” she said. “And if this goes as long as we’re projecting, I won’t be able to be with you every hour of the day. But in the critical moments, I’ll be there. And I know—”
She saw his look of concern.
“—it’s different from the last war. I know there might be some fights, especially...
2025-10-22 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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“That’s the heart of the Galaxy, where the worst of the fighting will take place,” Reina continued. “It’s where you’re most needed this time, Zane. This won’t be like the last War.”
She pointed out a tiny dot on the frontier, zooming in a bit so he could see it more clearly. A little cloudy blue speck, instantly recognizable as Earth—the planet he’d worked so hard to defend in the last War.
“This time Earth’s secure,” Reina told him. “Forty-four of Eart...
2025-10-21 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Reina and Zane met them at the teleporter hub.
“Evan was just telling me how bad a matchup that Trial Champion was for Chomper,” said Reina. She glanced worriedly at the teleporters. “I hope he’s made it out alright…”
Not long after, Evan barreled through a teleporter with Chomper right behind him. He tackled them both in a hug the moment he saw them. “Chomper won the Trials!”
Chomper gave a happy bark.
“Oh!” said Reina, relieved. “That’s ...
2025-10-20 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Over the weekend, Zane and Reina gave their best effort at maxing out her Minor God levels, which she was quite close to. It was difficult work, but they managed it with some persistence and dedication.
***
Afterward Zane found himself in a familiar position—with a quite satisfied yet drowsy Reina on his chest.
Zane was happy to catch her up on what had gone down in those last few months in Pure Yang. He had to admit his last few updates hadn’t been all that interesting...
2025-10-19 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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These days, he often didn’t get a System message explaining the backgrounds and uses of certain treasures. The steels he’d gotten back in the Ruins were a good example. Steels were pretty self-explanatory, he supposed, but he got the feeling it had to do with the rarity of the item as well. Origin-grade items were quite rare, and he sometimes got the sense these messages were hand-annotated—someone had to put them into the System for them to exist. Meaning the rarer items were, the less...
2025-10-16 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Added a brief section to last chapter where Malzareth talks about the Savage Sage title!
Zane Walker…
They were such weak, insignificant creatures. Yet he and that woman had proven infuriatingly difficult to crush.
At each stage in his development, Zane Walker had exceeded Malzareth’s expectations. His talent was… fine enough, for a backwater human. Malzareth prided himself on his self-awareness. ...
2025-10-15 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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The lowest floor of the Superdungeon was a floor of nothingness, save for one thing: a cage at its very center. A cage made to hold the Superdungeon’s most dangerous prisoner.
The first thing one would notice, just looking at it, was the giant river of sheer destruction. Nearly a slab’s worth condensed in liquid form, flowing a mile across, making a circle that marked the limits of the cage. It served to isolate the cell so that the prisoner’s immense Corruption would not leak thr...
2025-10-14 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Hreinn twitched.
He wasn’t smiling so much now.
“That,” he hissed. “Is quite the story. And it might even hold up remarkably well, in this little telling! Except for one thing… this all presumes you had the ability. It presumes you really could change runes that I, a Prime Endbringer of Malzareth, had constructed. Some no-name man like you could defeat the likes of me!”
Kain shrugged. “Yes,” he said. “It does all...
2025-10-13 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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The young masters watched in silence as Jack finished off the Astrolith King. Fists clenched, wrenching back his chains. The very same he’d used to bring down the giant.
“He just keeps going!” said the Drawn Sword Sect young master, eyes shining.
That was the strongest impression Jack made on them—his relentlessness. Even after he’d just exhausted himself with that huge slash he threw himself right back into the fray, fighting with every last scrap of strength and essenc...
2025-10-12 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Edited in that the King is 500 feet tall!
//
Kain had gotten him off to a good start. It’d be much easier to bring the King down now with it wobbled like this. Right now it couldn’t even brace properly.
It was a simple maneuver, putting the King down—at first it almost felt silly throwing such a massive effort at it. They were just trying to throw it on its side, after all; they weren’t hitting it with some Empyrean-...
2025-10-09 01:30:05 +0000 UTC
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The young masters watched from a safe distance as the three strongest powers in the Pure Yang Lands started walloping each other.
Because of the sheer blast radius of the landing, it was impossible to ambush the King Astrolith as it spawned. You just couldn’t get close enough without getting caught in the blast.
Then there was its signature attack.
The moment the King Astrolith made landfall, it unleashed its Timeshatter Roar. A roar that sounded like several continents' w...
2025-10-08 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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