UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune

Chapter 143: A Subtle Entrance

The gates to the inner chamber opened and the four of us were greeted with the sight of a conclave of old aliens dressed in plain robes. There were seven of them, all seated on high chairs slightly raised from where we stood by the entrance. The chamber itself was oddly plain, which was quite the contrast to all the art and mason work that adorned the chambers just outside, and that minimalist aesthetic extended to the people gathered. 

Each council member wore a simple cloth robe ...

Chapter 142: The Theocracy of Fate

“Good morning!” I said cheerily to the gatekeepers blocking our path, “We are here to seek entrance to your beautiful city. We are mercenaries and soldiers for hire.”

The two men (women? Like I said, I still had no idea how to tell their genders apart) looked at our rag-tag group of four with dubious expressions. I couldn’t blame them, I introduced us as fighters, but we were dressed in the same wear as the farmers and other menials I saw on the farms and mines. Given how stri...

Chapter 141: Subtle Arrival

Once the last of us stepped through Q’s portal, the old Admin quickly closed the hole in reality and shoved us into a smaller wormhole so we’d be as far away from our entrance point as possible. The theory was that even if our entrance couldn’t be hidden from the natives of this dimension, then at least we could hide who caused that disturbance. 

“You think our entrance made a big impact?” Xalla asked, “I tried to make sure I used as little power as possible when I came...

Interlude: Prophecies of Destruction

Inspira awoke with a jolt, her eyes swirling with sights and events of things to come, sweat pouring down her frame as the prophetic visions and maddening shouts assaulted every sense she had. She had never experienced something so intense before, and she rattled with the effort of containing such sights.

She saw… she saw figures, four of them, entering from the void of the great beyond. She saw them rip through the fabric of their very existence, tearing through the sea of souls and ...

Chapter 140: Journey to Uncharted Planes

It had taken the better time of an entire day to get everything sorted out and for Xalla to contact all the right people, but we were all set up to go on the following morning. Molly informed us that Big Bob had to leave earlier to meet up with some of the other Sponsors and that he sends his best regards and is looking forward to hearing good news from us soon. 

Xalla joined us by the reception area next, and Q - who now looked a lot better after freshening himself up a bit - join...

Chapter 139: Q

Q’s workspace could be called chaotic if you wanted to be generous. In reality, it was just a mess of various half-finished pieces of tech and spilled diagrams and blueprints. Various half-eaten containers of food and drinks were scattered everywhere, and the whole place reeked of a foul odor of unwashed and half-rotten organic matter. 

The man himself was holed away in the back, tinkering with something that 

I looked at Big Bob in incredulity. He didn’t say it was ...

Chapter 138: Meeting Molly

It wasn’t until the four of us left Central’s trial grounds that Molly had the opportunity to properly introduce herself. She had explained to me that getting out of her doll form should only be done on a more stable dimension and away from the annoying, ever-present gaze of the Trash Matrix. That was why I had taken us a short distance away from the train station that would take us to the business sector of the Prime Dimension.

Molly had us walk around, away from the bustling stree...

Chapter 137: The Final Member

“Good morning, Dr. Walter,” Molly greeted me, she looked out toward the rising sun and furrowed her brows, “I still can’t get used to how bright things are in this dimension. Why would the people here risk exposing themselves to so much radiation? They’re delicate enough without the added risk.”

I shrugged, “They’ve got bad eyesight, probably the main reason they need all the lights in the first place. Anyway, I need to send a message to the Director, things are going to...

Chapter 136: Final Preperations

“Well,” I answered the woman with a grin, “It’s always good to have more allies in the future, and perhaps we can discuss how we can mutually assist each other in the future, but there is something that you can help us out with right now.”

Margret nodded, “If it’s within my power, I will be glad to assist.”

“Can I assume that you are thoroughly prepared for the consequences of your earlier actions?” I began. It was mostly a rhetorical question given what I’d ...

Chapter 135: Central's Facade

It took every persuasion technique in the books to get the old woman listening, and while I would love to say that convincing her to join our cause was all due to my suave communication skills, that would be a bald-faced lie. Rather, I had Big Bob to thank, he had access to some of his recording devices and had simply shown the woman what we’d been doing in the past few hours, and some of the more succulent interactions I’ve had with the Overseer. It didn’t take a genius to realize our ...

Chapter 134: Common Enemies

Xalla, Bob, and I stayed just outside of the threshold as we prepared ourselves to save the Restus in case something went wrong. Well, perhaps save wasn’t the right word for things, since our goal was to have them all killed, so we were all geared up to… kill them? Well, either way, the three of us were prepared for any traps that this Margret person prepared. 

We watched patiently as the files and files of Restus rushed headlong into the narrow corridor; it would have been dif...

Chapter 133: Secret Enemies?

“Hey, Walter,” Xalla whispered by my side, “Don’t you think things are going a little too well?”

I had to agree with her there. I looked around and saw that my impromptu Restus army was making its way into the inner sanctums of the Site. The only resistance that they met along the way was the common vat-grown fodder found in the early trials. They wouldn’t have posed much of a threat even for the humans, much less the berserk Restus.

“Yeah,” Big Bob muttered, “It...

Chapter 132: Troubles in Site 1100 (Site 1100 POV)

The buzzing and ringing of alarms woke Ed up from his intoxication. He could feel the uncomfortable dampness from all the spilled booze, sweat, and various other bodily fluids from the prior night’s activities stick to his body, and he was not happy. Ed tried to get up but his head felt like a particularly rotund individual auditioned for a tapdancing routine on his skull, and he was not happy to be brought out of his slumber in such a migraine-inducing way.

“Someone get that!” he...

Chapter 131: Rabble Rousing

“That was a splendid fight, Bakren,” I projected from my seat up in the rafters, “You have learned from your prior mistake and have become a warrior worthy of respect. It was not a mistake to give you a second chance.”

Bakren bowed even lower, his snouted nose practically digging into the dirt, “Thank you, Hierarch!” 

Hierarch? Well, that’s a new term, but I guess it beats being called Lord this and that all the time.

I addressed the rest of the gathered c...

Chapter 130: Seeds of Rebellion

I swapped back into my Xollon form - the full version that I experienced with the Preview Tickets before, I didn’t have to worry about my old limitations right now - and greeted my peons. I chose to visit the first group of Restus that I encountered in their city, for no other reason than nostalgia’s sake.

The Restus barely noticed me even as I made my entrance. Their entire demeanor was dour and down. Hm, I should have expected this; I had used Noe’s ability to induce a state of ...

Chapter 129: New Plan for the Restus

The three of us stepped right outside Site 1100’s boundaries and strategized. Well, maybe calling it strategizing might be stretching it a bit since none of us tried very hard to think up even the semblance of a plan. Generally speaking, individual city-states were run by menials who were near the bottom of the totem pole in terms of authority. Given the fact that the Restus were considered low-priority goods, pretty much only good as meatshields and cannon fodder, even after Ascension, and...

Chapter 128: The Origin of Truth

Tismon here again, just a reminder that I will be taking the Weekends off from now on, just to get some proper rest and time in to plan and structure this new volume. Thank you everyone!

“Do you remember what happened 10 cycles ago, right before I disappeared?” I asked, it was about time I explained some of what happened to my friends. Perhaps not everything about Noe or anything that could compromise my long-term plans, but enough for them to understand what...

Chapter 127: Next Steps

Big Bob and Xalla rejoined me soon after, followed by the trio of clean Aspirants. It was time to wrap up everything I needed here and move on to all the other pressing matters. My schedule would be busy for the next while, but at least I had some pleasant company.

“I don’t think the smell’s ever coming off my frills…” Xalla muttered as she rejoined us, “I’ll have to get a proper cleansing when I’m back home.”

“Sorry,” I grimaced, “I’ll treat you to somet...

Chapter 126: Fun with Friends

Half an hour later and I was left with three humans - yes, there were still three individuals, Big Bob was able to take the brain-goop from the poor man and somehow put him back together - that were much more amiable to sharing information. 

“Ok,” I said to the three, “Let’s hear what you know about Ryan and his guild, and who’s actually backing your little organization.”

“Ahgu ahhhh…” the reformed man muttered with a half-smile. Ok, I said he was put back t...

Chapter 125: Meeting the Aspirants

There was a pair of guards blocking my way to the inner sanctum of Ryan’s guild as I walked towards the building. Normally I would just ignore these two men and force my way through, but Noe did have a point. Making too much noise, no matter how preoccupied Central was at the moment, wouldn’t be a good idea in the long run. 

Instead, I walked up as slowly as possible, making sure that every gesture I made showed that I was innocent and meek. 

“What are you doing?�...

Chapter 124: Lord Arbiter Walter (Start of Volume 3)

Tismon is back from his break!! Let the new Volume begin!

I took a deep breath in and just enjoyed the feel of the sun on my body. I was free to roam around after swapping spots back with the Director, and I couldn’t help but take some time to just enjoy myself first. I laughed at how much I missed the feeling of, well, anything. The sun, the wind, the feeling of blood on my skin from the ravaged remains of the individuals that tried to assault me. I even liked the slight soren...

Epilogue: The Return of the Arbiter

Jordan felt a chill down her spine when she saw the Arbiter emerge from the transference. W seemed… different somehow, more confident, more dangerous. She wasn’t sure what it was, but that unease quickly left her body as if it never existed in the first place, but Jordan’s experience told her that something had changed. Had her actions truly annoyed the man? 

Well, that had been a part of her instructions from the Overseer in the first place, to tease and unnerve the Arbiter ...

End of Volume Updates

Hello everyone, and thank you all for choosing to support me in this project of mine! The second volume is more or less complete at this point, with just an Epilogue chapter to tie some loose ends tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with this volume, and I hope everyone enjoyed the little revelation at the end. Let's just say that Walter will be quite busy fixing all of the annoyances in the next book!

Some updates on releases now. So I've been releasing once a day (missed a couple though) for ...

Chapter 123: Partial Awakening and Revelations

Noe was the first being to greet me, just as she was the last one to see me off to sleep. Her form was hazy, with just the outline visible of the construct that I had created so, so long ago. She was still incomplete, but the fact that she could materialize even in part was a good sign. I couldn’t wait to see what had transpired on her side since my slumber.

“Good morning,” she said, “I am glad to see you awake once more, Lord-”

I smiled at my angel, of my sweet creation...

Chapter 122: Dusk Approaches

I watched on with utter disbelief as Myra, Alina, and Bishop charged into the enemies. I’ll give them some credit, they did take out one of the huge creatures almost immediately with a carefully aimed headshot with Myra’s laser bullet. They also managed to waste all of their limited resources there as well, and they were facing down 5 very, very pissed-off monsters. 

I was becoming more and more frustrated seeing them lose all semblance of tactics after they had done so well be...

Chapter 121: Fracturing Will

We had gathered on top of a nearby rooftop overlooking the last obstacle in this stage of the training. All that was left to do was to enter an unassuming door guarded by a half dozen of those giant creatures. They seemed to be on high alert for any signs of intruders, and I doubted that Bishop would have enough mana to daze all six of them at once. Still, I could think of at least a dozen different ways to clear this trail, even more, if they were willing to take certain risks. I was slightl...

Chapter 120: Coordination and Chaos

The volley of frenzied fire did its job at whittling down the first wave of enemies, but the mutants that inhabited the inner circle of the city were much more tenacious than the ones in the outskirts. They kept coming at us despite the heavy losses on their side. It was easy enough for me to deal with them, even in my weak human form, but they were wising up to the fact that fighting me was a waste of time and resources. 

Within moments, the wave of monsters circled around my forw...

Chapter 119: Guiding the Guests

Tismon Notes: Hey everyone, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm in a really busy period in my day job right now, so releases might be a little slow for the next few days. I'll still try to get them out on time, but no promises! Thanks for understanding, and for all the continued support!

“Mr. Guide, sir!” Alina said, “Bishop and I have recovered all of our mana and are ready to go!”

Right, I never did tell them my name, even at this point. Guess I’l...

Chapter 118: Tentative Stabilization

“I’m Myra,” the leader of the group introduced, “I’m in charge of… what’s left of our party. My job’s mainly ranged and I have minimal close cover options, which is why I normally act as a backline commander in fights.”

I nodded, “Any notable abilities?”

“I can switch ammunition for different effects, but that takes up limited resources,” she answered, taking out a few cartridges to show me, “I can use those, but I’m running short already. I didn’t ...

Chapter 117: Troubles in Training

I slapped on the rather cumbersome helmet and allowed Jordan to make the final adjustments. Having her work with a device that directly interfaced with my head might seem like a bad idea, but I was fairly confident that Central still wanted to get me on their side, at least for now. That meant that they wouldn’t choose to willingly harm me unless I did something really antagonistic towards the Overseer.

“Things are set up on my end, Lord W,” Jordan’s voice said over the muffling...