After witnessing Xalla dispense her… unique way of disciplining staff, let’s just say that I am very glad that the girl likes me. Hell, even Q’s magic couldn’t get rid of some of the more stubborn stains that splattered the room. Ultimately, Q had to get some specialists in to fix everything here.
“Alright everyone,” the Admin addressed the small army of servants who were busy cleaning things, “Please take June to Containment for the rest of Excuriiatio...
2024-10-17 17:53:19 +0000 UTC
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I wasn’t expecting Noel’s attack to actually do anything since these Central workers should be unfathomable abominations from beyond space and time, but from the clearly decapitated corpse left behind. Hell, even Noel was surprised by the ease with which she killed the guy. The others got up just as quickly - I saw that Yoona hadn’t done more than wince upon seeing the gruesome sight, a strange change - and readied ourselves for combat. All of our attention was on the surviving woman, b...
2024-10-16 17:03:31 +0000 UTC
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Vadeem, Noel, and the twins didn’t stay to chat for long after the others left. As much as the others wanted to hide it, it was impossible to miss the fatigue that they experienced, and the five of us agreed that it was best if we all took the time to clean up in our respective rooms. I took a long, long shower, washing away the accumulated grime and dirt that still clung to me.
I must have been more tired than I first thought because I fell asleep in the bathtub because the Reg...
2024-10-15 13:47:49 +0000 UTC
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“Congratulations, my Host, for completing the Fourth Trial flawlessly,” Noe said. I sighed as I waved goodbye to Greta one final time and focused my attention back on my System. “Would you like to see the rewards for your competition?”
I thought I never got rewards anymore.
“I have remedied some of that,” she explained, “Although I cannot give you physical equipment as those come directly from the Trash Matrix’s stock, I can convert the items y...
2024-10-11 15:58:02 +0000 UTC
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I poured myself another cup of coffee from the pot and took another sip of the delicious coffee. Ah, this stuff’s amazing. After summoning the kids one last time to play - I did promise them after all - I was finally allowed some moments of rest, and I relished this fleeting time. Greta had taken the captured Aspirant somewhere out back, which left me alone in the comfy seat near the fireplace. I sighed and allowed myself to truly relax before remembering something important.
2024-10-10 18:44:33 +0000 UTC
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The plan so far had gone smoother than I had ever anticipated. Eric, for the last three or so minutes, had done nothing but giggle at himself every now and then, completely lost in his own world. Molly had disappeared a while ago once she saw that her assistance was no longer necessary, but she made it very clear that I would owe her quite a lot later on. I had positioned myself directly underneath Eric - just a few feet behind him and well within striking range. All that was left was for me ...
2024-10-09 17:53:27 +0000 UTC
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Noe… I don’t think I can last much longer… I think I have to bail soon.
I spat out another mouthful of blood and took a look at my fast-depleting health. Even chugging all of the extra potions that I brought, it wasn’t enough to offset the amount of damage I was taking from Eric, and as my Luck Charges continued to drain into nothing, the passives I was getting from Noe’s class decreased as well. I was feeling myself approaching the limit of what I could do, and I sti...
2024-10-08 16:02:17 +0000 UTC
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“I believe that retreat is pertinent, my Host.”
I cursed as I dodged another shockwave of concentrated force. I was only lasting as long as I was because Eric was toying with me. The only consolation was that whatever Eric used to control the other Aspirants didn’t work on me at all. I thought it was Noe at first, but it turned out that he was trying to manipulate the mana inside me, which, having no mana at all, did absolutely nothing. The unfortunate part was that Eric did...
2024-10-04 12:52:36 +0000 UTC
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Much to my disappointment, none of the ceremonygoers knew a thing about what happened to Dr. Walter’s body after that bizarre ritual. The most information I got from it was that I was blessed or some other such nonsense - nothing I didn’t already know based on the title’s descriptions. I was going to find that woman who lit me on fire and see if she knew anything else, but that plan got interrupted by the arrival of the Aspirants.
A half dozen disheveled and tired-looking me...
2024-09-30 15:47:04 +0000 UTC
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Eric cursed and unleashed another wave of concentrated mana at the hut in the distance. Just like the times before, his attack that would normally uproot trees and demolish buildings did nothing other than ruffle the damned structure’s shingles. He was supposed to be all-powerful! He was the chosen one, yet why was there something that he couldn’t destroy?
[You have only just begun to assimilate my Powers, little Aspirant. Do not think that you are all-powerful.]<...
2024-09-26 15:22:59 +0000 UTC
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Taking Noe’s advice, I arrived at the site of the ceremony and saw that the villagers were already hard at work. They were so engrossed in their prep that they didn’t even notice me watching in the distance, and I wasn’t sure if that was because they knew that I was on their side or if they were simply too entrenched in their own work. As for their work itself… well, let’s just say that I’ve seen literal evil cultists who looked less menacing than them.
They moved prof...
2024-09-20 23:32:18 +0000 UTC
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A huge wave of force went off just feet away from my position borrowed underground, clearing dirt, trees, and anything else around it in a massive shockwave of energy. I almost panicked thinking that Eric had found out my position after getting that huge spike in power. Thankfully that didn’t seem to be the case, and if I thought about it logically, there was no way that the Aspirant could pierce through Noe’s defenses when not even literal gods could do so. Still… that was a pretty big...
2024-09-17 14:02:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric limped along the vine-covered dirt road, a bloodstained pearl clutched in his one remaining functional hand. He survived, that was all that mattered, even if no one else had. Where the rest of the seven went, Eric neither knew nor cared. He had lived, he had succeeded in his task, he had gotten the pearl. He could still salvage things. He could still do this.
He had used the last of the healing potions in that last struggle, and it was only through sheer determination and force of ...
2024-09-16 13:17:37 +0000 UTC
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I smiled as I saw the man I lured separate from the rest of the pack and scrambled toward my position. It had only taken a handful of Charges to pick the right words to manipulate the emotional sap to leave, much to my relief, but what I didn’t expect was that I caught six extra Aspirants with my bait. I was happy at first at the unexpected boon, but quickly realized a problem. With 70% of the crowd going after us here, I wasn’t sure if the few villagers I had control of could actually ma...
2024-09-14 16:28:27 +0000 UTC
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[It is still not too late, little Aspirant, to give more of yourself to me. Your followers are losing faith in your abilities, you are losing control of the situation. I can give you all the answers you need; I can give you the authority you desire. Capitulate, and taste real power.]
Eric cursed at the annoyance in his head. The whispers of his Patron god had grown stronger ever since the mission had failed, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted during ...
2024-09-12 15:09:35 +0000 UTC
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With such limited resources to work with, I didn’t expect Noe’s Emotional Redux ability to do any heavy lifting, especially since these were seasoned Aspirants, but the effects were more underwhelming than I thought. Aside from the potion makers and whatnot, the combatants hardly flinched from my little psychic assault, but at least it made the next part of my plan work a little better. I released my borrowed tentacles at the same time as my body changed into its Secondary form, and thank...
2024-09-11 13:54:33 +0000 UTC
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The Shift wasn’t quite over when I returned, which naturally lent to a very tense atmosphere with the production staff and other noncombat Aspirants which I was now a part of. I was nervous as well, but for an entirely different reason. Now that so many eyes were on me, Noe’s abilities to change my appearance was burning through more Luck Charges than I could regenerate, and with only 105 Charges to work with, I had a little over two, maybe three hours before I had to dip out of there, pe...
2024-09-08 01:36:49 +0000 UTC
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The archer girl, Vivian I believe her name was, rushed toward me with a staff of medics and other healers in tow. “Vincent? What happened? Where’s Wayne?”
I took a deep breath and prepared my little act. Things had gone about as well as I hoped, with the sole exception of that strange ability the other girl used. I had to all but empty out my Luck Charge reserves to allow Noe to manipulate my body there, and I’d be acting my own for the near future. That one charge per min...
2024-09-04 18:25:39 +0000 UTC
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The creature attacked without warning, and it was fast, too fast. It had been at least a few dozen feet in front of the five Aspirants, and they were still in the midst of reorganizing, so its first charge had taken everyone off guard. For something that was almost eight feet tall, it was supernaturally quick, and it was only Wayne’s athleticism that saved the thing’s first blow. Unfortunately, the Aspirant couldn’t quite get his shield out and in front of him in time and had taken a wi...
2024-09-02 14:57:00 +0000 UTC
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Victor cursed at the way that the squads were assigned, but there was nothing he could say about it. The only consolation that he had was that at least his group had a slim chance of finding those hidden rewards, if, of course, he could just somehow shake the damned spy that was assigned to “assist” them, since their resident alchemist would be staying behind with the rest of the noncombatants.
The way that the Squads were broken up was simple. Eric had all of the production A...
2024-09-01 00:33:24 +0000 UTC
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Congratulations for surviving the first Blood Moon! Make sure you use the fleeting time between cycles wisely, for this world is a dangerous one when the Moon is out.
To ensure that Aspirants are motivated to improve themselves, new objectives will be given out after each full cycle of the Moon. Note that each mission must be completed before the time limit, and failure to do so will result in severe consequences.
Mission 1: ...
2024-08-28 21:45:20 +0000 UTC
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I used the last few minutes double checking the terrain and the composition of the enemy before Greta came back and hurriedly warned me that time was almost up. True to her words, she came back with a large thermos filled with coffee, and two smaller bottles of juice for the kids. I could tell that Alice and Toby wanted to stay for a lot longer, what with their play time interrupted so abruptly, but I think they understood the severity of the situation from my expression.
“We’...
2024-08-26 04:44:04 +0000 UTC
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I followed the old woman out to her garden, down the winding path and close to the boarder of the forest where Filbert first took me. I gave her a questioning glance, unsure what she wanted to show me, but I got my answer soon enough. Greta gently placed her hands near the threshold of her property and the forest, and an invisible force burst forth the second her hands passed that barrier. The shockwave was so intense that it almost knocked me off my feet, even when I was a good dozen feet aw...
2024-08-24 03:32:19 +0000 UTC
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I opened the door and was greeted by Greta’s son. He was, uh… unique looking. I think I understood why the Trash Matrix warned Aspirants to escape before he came back.
First of all, the “boy” was massive. He was easily about 7 or 8 feet tall and almost as wide. All in all, this creature was a huge mass of fat, tumors, and muscle. His left arm was atrophied to a ridiculous degree, with it being nothing more than a vestigial appendage at this point, yet his other arm was close to ...
2024-08-22 03:07:31 +0000 UTC
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The three of us walked down the stone steps to the hut’s entrance, going past the creepy statues and epitaphs - which, by the way, I swore were looking at us - and knocked on the little wooden door. Strangely enough, even under the crimson light of the moon, this place was relatively normal looking. There weren't any of those wiggling vines surrounding everything, no specters and eyeball things flying around, and even the shrubbery surrounding the hut looked normal.
If there’s anyth...
2024-08-19 17:53:58 +0000 UTC
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I had severely underestimated how much work a doctor’s job was, and might have promised a little too much to the mutated villagers here. I thought I’d just do a little bit of touch up work, maybe fix an aching back or some bad teeth, but these old people had a myriad of illnesses that strained my Luck Charges to the limits. All in all, by the time the last of the villagers were content with my procedures (well, more like Noe’s procedures, since I was basically just a host for her work),...
2024-08-18 05:05:21 +0000 UTC
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I watched in fascination as the town transformed under the crimson light. The dusty, empty roads blossomed with strange red flowers while the trees sprouted fleshy, grotesque fruits. Vines crept up the decrepit houses, encasing them in a horrible wiggling cacophony of living, wreathing plantlife, and strange bioluminescent eyeball creatures floating in the air, providing the village with splotches of green against the red backdrop.
“It is too late!” the old man cackled as he c...
2024-08-16 03:45:35 +0000 UTC
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Aside from the ever-present fog, the hike down the only road here wasn’t too bad, and as I walked on and acclimated to the atmosphere, that initial dread I felt started to disappear. In fact, the sense of unease disappeared so quickly that I was starting to think that it was an induced state made by the Trash Matrix to unease the Aspirants; it was somehow using more of Noe’s abilities, so emotional manipulation didn’t seem like something that it couldn’t do.
“You are cor...
2024-08-14 08:54:14 +0000 UTC
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I arrived a few minutes late to the guild lounge, the large projected screen aimed at the wall had already started to play and another Host - not Jordan this time - was in the process of explaining the next Trial to Pandora. The one thing I did find out from reading over the doppelganger’s notes was that announcements would be made via these strange projections from now on, which was nice since we didn’t have to all gather at the town square anymore.
I suppose it only made log...
2024-08-13 07:39:45 +0000 UTC
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Congratulations on winning the Clan War, Humans of Pandora. You will be rewarded based on your individual contributions shortly. Please wait to be sent back to your city.
Another flash of light and the Abyss guild found themselves back in our HQ. All of us looked slightly stunned. Hell, even I was a little taken aback; I knew that we’d be facing an easier foe, but that? My best guess was that the Overseer was cutting his losses and hedging his bets on the fourth trial ...
2024-08-11 00:58:10 +0000 UTC
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