Seras Streams

DMA - B2 - Chapter 60 - The Big Dry

Deckard had retreated to his chambers, surrounded by Nebula Alliance Ascendants who were all Tier 6 and 7. A servant ran in, bowed, and gave a report. “Mr. Stonewall, all of your mercenaries were slain with some type of damage reflecting Skill. The mercenary who had taken on the contract, Fletcher, chased this Flicker to the roof. Cosmic System reports show that Fletcher has died. Flicker is in the wind.”

Why was he here? Deckard thought as he waved the servant away. L...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 59 – Swordfight at a soiree

Jace felt his energy slowly draining away. Judging on prior uses of Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), and his currently level of physical activity, he maybe had another twenty minutes. Plenty of time, he thought as he got to a wall using his drop-re-grapnel method and then gently lowered himself to the floor.

To his surprise, there was a slight, starry-blue aura that lingered around the pickpockets. Ollie grinned, “I have highlighted temporarily allied targets in your vision to ass...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 58 – The B-Team levels up

There are going to be several ‘system message’ sections. Priam gets the full treatment like Jace did, the other two have a bit of that process hand waived. We’ll be getting back to the action in the next chapter!

I am going to drop a second chapter today in case you aren't a fan of the B-team. Totally get it. Don't worry, later in Book 2, the focus goes back to primarily Jace, and in Book 3 it's going to be pretty Jace-centric going forward.

>>...

RR - Completion and apology

Good day, evening, or when this finds you,

I know I had told people that I would be writing Book 3 for Ruinous Return and even conducted a 'Story Direction' poll to hear the fans' voices...but I just cannot.

Don't get me wrong—I tried. I tried writing the start of the story three different times (getting to 2k, 5.2k, and 8k words, respectively), but each time, I just petered out.

This was Lyn's story. Sure, there were other characters who w...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 57 – An unexpected guest

Greg walked forward through the crypt. He heard a loud click and flattened himself against the wall as an enormous, scything blade swung downward and chopped through where he was standing a second ago. “Why so many traps?” he asked, lamenting the stressful journey through the Complex.

“Strong undead like these ones enjoy keeping their valuables secret and safe. Lots of traps.” Priam walked up and tapped the now-stopped blade with his knuckles. “Sharp.”

De...

LLOTF - Chapter 38 - Tristan Anorox - Dragonslayer

In front of his palm, the icy spike grew. He fueled mana into it. All of the mana he had churning through him. The very power of the Realm, funneled through his mana core and into the spell. The icicle grew and grew; from the size of a dog, to a horse, to a house, to a fortified tower.

“Matriarch! To me!” Tristan shouted as loud as he could. His voice boomed far louder than he expected it to. Is it because I’m…one with the Realm? He asked himself in h...

LLOTF - Chapter 37: Intrusion into the Fey Realm

Tristan looked at The Matriarch with concern writ across his visage, “I know that other Realms can open rifts into the Mortal Realm…but Realms can cross-intrude?”

The Matriarch shifted to her full sized form, and lifted Tristan onto her back, nestling him between her wings. “Yes. Realms can breach into other Realms.” She arced her head back and let out a tremendous roar, speaking Elvish. “Lapseni! Ne, jotka ovat tarpeeksi isoja taistelemaan, liittykää minuun! Loput - valmi...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 56 – Getting into the vault

Dee had encountered undead once before, when she and her sister were traveling through Khrox and visiting a shopping mall. A finely-dressed gentleman, wearing a robe and a top-hat, and holding a jeweled cane. He was quite the man, treating the two Plorps to a wonderful meal and just asking for an interesting story and their company in exchange for the food.

These skeletons rushing towards her were not the type she had previously encountered. And despite the f...

LLOTF - Chapter 36 - Inner World combat training

Tristan’s routine played out the following day. In the morning, he went with The Matriarch to the training field and rotated between fighting with his knife, the maul, and his sword. After some practice he swapped to the greatbow and made sure he was not too rusty with the weapon. Thankfully, his muscle memory kicked in, and his improved physique from his Elven heritage pushing out his Human side made the bow he used to struggle with bend back with ease.

After training w...

LLOTF - Chapter 35 - Establishing a routine

Evening passed and Tristan woke up to the bright sound of a small horn being played softly, but slowly ramping in volume. He sat up, and saw a small group of fairy dragons who were walking on their hind legs, with their arms turned into humanoid hands instead of their paws, and holding instruments. The one who was blowing into the horn instrument lowered it.

“Wake up call!”

“All right, we rehearsed. One, two-”

“I was going to be the conductor!”

“Oh, shut ...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 55 – Third gig, violating vaults

Priam walked just a few steps behind Greg. His dark vision allowed him to make out the plain yet blocky designs on the walls and ceiling. An ancient story written in his home world’s tongue. He was quietly reading it out loud to his allies as they pushed into this forgotten tomb that – for some reason – had not correctly incorporated into The Cosmic System.

Yhan-vor-oth, the defiler of bones was once an ancient sorceress who venerated the god of the dead. However, she uncovered th...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 54 – Second gig, smashing shins

Jace had been sitting in the bar for an hour before he spotted the woman walk in. He had taken up a booth seat and was sampling the odd smoke-emitting device. After a single puff, he determined he hated activity. Ollie had explained that they had something akin to a minor hallucinogen in the mix, but Jace’s NICIF filtered the toxic substance immediately.

Plus, it tasted foul.

“Well,” the cat-woman said as she got onto the seat across from him. “You do your jo...

LLOTF - Chapter 34: Meditating, mana cores, and imbuing elixirs

Tristan got back to the Queen’s Wood on foot, being handed cups of clearcool and clay plates of starberries by fairy dragons as he ate and drank his fill. He also spun his mana core in reverse, sucking in the Realm’s ambient power to refill his mana core.

The Matriarch glanced sideways at him as they reached the base of the enormous tree, “Tell me, if you would…what does your mana core look like?”

“Hmm?” Tristan replied as he finished chewing on a starberry, savoring...

LLOTF - Chapter 33: Hefting mauls and ice walls

The Matriarch’s assault was fast and relentless. Tristan was immediately pushed on the defensive as he had to intercept the intense flurry of strikes with the shaft and pommel of the maul. It was well-balanced but still top-heavy, which he had expected. But this type of weapon was not suited to a fast, single opponent who was relatively unarmored. It was much better against slower, heavily armored foes.

Tristan was able to get enough distance to make use of the weapon, t...

LLOTF - Chapter 32: Blending spells with combat

The clearing that The Matriarch set down on was easily two-hundred feet across in all directions – a massive circle of soft, green grass that twitched slightly as tiny insects hopped around. She set Tristan down and he found the footing beneath to be surprisingly firm considering the grassy terrain.

Fairy dragons began flying to the edges of the clearing and working in tandem to move a variety of cross-shaped beams into the training field, planting them in the ground. The Matriarch sh...

LLOTF - Chapter 31: Flinging frost in flurries

Tristan sat down and grabbed the primer on ice elementalism. It was written in the Standard Tongue, and was an easy read. He flipped past the author’s introduction and went right to the basic information that preceded the different Order-ranked spells.

---

Welcome to your primer on ice elementalism. As with all ‘basic’ spell primers for elementalism, there are a few items to take note of before we can begin to delve into the wonderful frost that is ice elementalism....

DMA - B2 - Chapter 53 – First gig, intruding in

A few hours of drinking politely with the rest of the patrons, Jace excused himself to their restroom. Thankfully, they had indoor plumbing that Ollie explained ran on a gravity system that then funneled to a creature that ate waste far below in a cistern of the sewage system.

Reading the note, he got an address off of it, and Ollie pointed it out on his map. “Looks like it is a warehouse in the center of the very chaotic mess of buildings called the Cotton District.”

Jace rip...

DMA - B2 - Chapter 52 – Sand sleds, negotiators, and impressing criminals

Greg was unenthusiastic to say the least. It was incredibly hot out, to the point that he had already drained his full canteen when they reached the sand shark ranch. The sight was odd, to say the least. A large, white-stone building much like the other ones they had seen, and next to it was an enormous, waist-high wall of the same white stone. But behind, he saw dark-brown fins.

Some creatures were traveling under the enormous giant piles of sand, but he saw a few that were at feeding ...

LLOTF - Chapter 30: Identifying artifice and basic enchantment

I changed the formatting of Identify Artifice readouts to remove the tags that come before the different portions. It still makes sense, but won't say "Item Name: X" or the spell breakdown.

I think it makes the story more 'fantasy' and less 'LitRPG'. This is progression fantasy, after all.

---

The Matriarch nodded as Tristan concluded. She was silent for a few seconds before speaking, “Well, Lord Tristan…I would have to say that based upon...

LLOTF - Chapter 29: An extended Fey Realm stay

Tristan left the capital without sparing a single glance backward towards the capital that had tolerated him. I’m still an Anorox, Tristan thought. Grandfather won’t ever disown me; especially once he learns about what happened at the manor-

The amulet around his neck began vibrating. As soon as he picked it up, he heard the Archon’s voice in his head. “Not a wise decision, exploding in anger and showing your true identity like that. We have two minute...