Dorrik slammed his shoulder into the frozen Iron Automaton, sending the whirring golem into the dungeon wall with enough force that two of its eight limbs were torn from its body. The remainder were bent beyond repair, unable to support the creature’s weight as it tried to lift itself from the gleaming steel floor only to collapse into a pile of scrap.
Kat glanced at Kaleek with worry as their friend kicked the pile of metal, sending it clattering into the wall once again. ...
2021-03-07 18:25:13 +0000 UTC
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The sickly green ray of energy struck the first guard, engulfing the man. He collapsed bonelessly to the ground as his companion jumped in shock. Before she could draw the horn from her belt, another beam of light enveloped her and she joined him on the floor of the guard post.
“Gods that thing is cool.” Jo ogled the gauntlet Micah was wearing. “Is that enchantment how you got past the guards last time too?”
“Not really,” Micah replied, grimacin...
2021-03-06 05:50:43 +0000 UTC
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The catamaran cut across the waves, sending a spray of saltwater into the air as it hit each rolling crest of water. Dorrik sat dead center in the ship, their black scales showing a hint of green as they clutched their legs to their chest with all four of their arms.
Kaleek, grinning like a pup, worked the vessel’s sails to keep them on course. He banked suddenly, steering the ship directly into a wave to stop it from knocking the Marka off course. Kat stagg...
2021-03-05 02:16:00 +0000 UTC
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[AN] I was reading over what has been written, and I strongly think that the jump from Micah settling down after the Luoca breaks free transitions way too suddenly to the encounter with it. As such I've written an interim chapter (this will be chapter 92 on Royal Road with all later chapters being renumbered by one). [/AN]
Telivern galloped toward Micah, nostrils flaring. Its hooves sank into the soft grass of the lakeside clearing, tearing up clumps of sod ...
2021-03-03 03:22:28 +0000 UTC
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The other woman staggered back, massaging her wrist as she glared at Kat. Iris glanced at her friend on the ground before scowling at Kat once again.
“You said something about Jasper disappearing?” Kat asked, trying to ignore the other party’s animosity.
“Yes.” Iris reached down to help the other girl up. “Alicia and I are in a book club with him. We were going to meet to discuss Thorstein Veblen, but he never showed up. When we tried calling hi...
2021-02-28 06:26:08 +0000 UTC
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“I expected more out of Westmarch.” Jo glanced around the dreary rolling hills, unimpressed. “Seriously, back in Basil’s Cove they constantly talked about how it was a massive fortress, the last bulwark between us and the Northern Wilds. Here’s it’s just… a stone wall and a tower.”
Micah looked back at Westmarch. The wall was almost twice his height with square guard towers every hundred paces, and the citadel at the center was tall enough that it...
2021-02-27 01:58:26 +0000 UTC
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Kat soared through the sky, Levitation active as she steered her parachute toward the brightly lit neon street below. She pulled one of the cords, slightly redirecting her descent. Strapped to Kat’s back was the unconscious form of Dean Franklin, hopefully covered by the same casting of Shadow that she used to hide herself.
Despite the late hour dozens of cars honked and jockeyed for position, marking the road as a technicolor ribbon of light as it stretched into the city ...
2021-02-25 17:55:28 +0000 UTC
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Micah leaned back, hands on the hot rocks of the dungeon floor and let Regeneration heal the burns on his forearms. The Decrepit Behemoth’s cooling body lay in the corner of the cave, the telltale inside-out twisting of Temporal Vortex written all over its misshapen and tortured body.
In the distance, Jo and Sarah gushed over the Dungeon’s loot, a sceptre that would aid the casting of Earth Magic, while Drekt looked on in bemusement. None of them could ...
2021-02-24 17:08:03 +0000 UTC
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Maybe an extra point in Agility and Reaction was overkill, Kat mused as she hopped over a trapped step in her college’s stairwell. Still, until she learned magic that would let her stop bullets, simply ‘not being where the bad guys were shooting’ seemed like a valid plan B.
Dorrik had grumbled about how charisma, mind, and spirit were a spellcaster’s greatest tools, but as often as the big lizard gave good advice, it wasn’t like they were sneaking through a stairwell at ...
2021-02-21 16:58:32 +0000 UTC
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“I wasn’t followed here,” Kat responded, slowly. “I had my driver drop me off one street up and two streets down, and I made sure that he left before I started moving. The only way the Haupt’s would know where I am is if they tracked me via satellite, and even then I made sure to cut through a couple of stores to try and lose any sort of overhead observation.”
“Fine,” Xander muttered, “you’re probably clean.”
He paced back and forth, a nervous, al...
2021-02-20 16:20:38 +0000 UTC
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“Do you care to explain why we’re doing something this stupid?” Sarah hissed at Micah, her back to a stalagmite as the Decrepit Behemoth milled about in the center of the room.
“Because the game is changing,” he responded, checking his mana levels. “We should have two years left before the Durgh attack, but at this point, I honestly have no idea. It could be tomorrow, it could be a month, or it could be a year.”
The behemoth leaned backward, scratching it...
2021-02-16 17:21:10 +0000 UTC
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A woman in a demure dress led her through a wood paneled hallway toward the parlor where the Worker’s Liberation Vanguard was meeting. Lining the passage were paintings, oil on canvas, most of which predating GroCorp’s founding by at least fifty years. Kat did her best not to think about how much more each and every piece of art she was walking past was worth than the entirety of her family’s possessions.
Finally, the servant opened a mahogany door inlaid with hundreds...
2021-02-14 20:31:31 +0000 UTC
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----
Congratulations Adventurer!
You have completed the Wood Tier Level Three Dungeon, Ice Sands.
Three of Three party members surviving. Good Job!
Assigning awards:
+1 Mind
-----
Kat dismissed the award. The dungeon hadn’t been easy, but with Dorrik providing tips they’d moved through it cautiously but safely. Their insect-like enemies were smarter than the usual foes provided by the tower, laying ambushes and protecting spellca...
2021-02-13 20:02:23 +0000 UTC
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Micah shifted in the uncomfortable bed. He’d gotten better at building walls, and ensuring that the roof on his log house didn’t leak, but he’d never really gotten the hang of beds. It was still a tad too hard, and angled slightly downward.
Usually he made a point of working out or trying to solve a complex problem before trying to sleep. It helped calm his mind enough that he wouldn’t end up obsessing over his cramped sleeping conditions for hours at a time.
2021-02-11 16:14:52 +0000 UTC
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“So your faction is in the middle of a power struggle?” Sikka asked, adjusting the new bandoleer strapped across Kat’s chest. “Be a dear and tighten the buckles on your armor, the enchantments won’t work unless all of the interior stitching is in contact with your skin.”
“That part’s hardly new,” Kat responded, reaching across her body to feed more of her leather straps through the meta buckles. “It’s hard to go a week on Earth without some group ...
2021-02-08 19:23:07 +0000 UTC
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The sky above them erupted into an aurora of gold and red, a beam of scintillating yellow magic erupting from the sturgeon’s mouth and slamming into the side of the Luoca as it dove toward the encampment. The daemon screamed, more in rage than agony, before flipping on its side and lashing out with its remaining legs.
Above Micah, his spirit twisted sinuously, swimming through the air to avoid the daemon’s piston-like strikes. He waved a hand, firing a Pressure Spear...
2021-02-06 02:48:05 +0000 UTC
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Kat exited the maglev into what looked like a military checkpoint. Security wearing GroCorp armor guarded every exit, and an armored waypoint made of reinforced concrete sat next to the customs station.
A frown worked its way onto Kat’s face as she took in the machine gun nest on top of the checkpoint, manned by a Millennium samurai. He scanned the timid crowd with chrome out cybereyes, alert and more than ready to open fire at a moment’s notice.
In fact, the more ...
2021-02-04 08:16:37 +0000 UTC
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“So,” Sarah’s arms were crossed, her right foot tapping the dirt as she stared at him, “do you care to explain what in the name of the Sixteen you thought you were doing? Don’t try to pretend that stunt at the end of the ritual was something you planned.”
Micah simply stared at his arm in fascination, watching the golden sturgeon swim across his skin, leaving tingling wakes of yellowish energy as it moved in a broad figure eight.
“First of all,” Trevor shot S...
2021-01-31 19:59:21 +0000 UTC
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Micah drew temporal energy from the ancient badger, ignoring the way it writhed and shook in the wicker cage Jo had made for it as he focused on the ritual. The flickering green flames burned as far as the eye could see while he stalked forward, stopping every ten paces to recite another obscure incantation.
Quietly, Sarah opened the cage, letting the now youthful badger scamper away into the forest as Drekt shoved a larger prison, this one holding a boar, bristled and white with ...
2021-01-29 17:03:56 +0000 UTC
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“How is your mana Miss Kat,” Dorrik stood next to her, back against the wall as they watched the rest of the party through the mist.
“Almost up to full,” she replied after checking her status. “That last round of healing took a lot out of me.”
“Indeed,” Dorrik nodded, “Between the cliff frogs and the troglodytes, all three of us took a fair number of severe blows. The cliff frogs in particular were worrying. None of us were properly ready for th...
2021-01-29 03:41:19 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 1
Eli swung his sword for the hundredth time, sweat pouring down his face and back. On either side of him, the other candidates matched the motion. They held their blades at full extension, the dull surfaces of the lead filled practice swords wobbling in the afternoon sun as their muscles struggled against the dull ache of exhaustion while the drill master walked up and down their line.
She grunted, steely grey eyes taking in their trembling ar...
2021-01-28 04:15:09 +0000 UTC
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The light from the ritual faded, leaving a ring in the center of the engraved circle, glowing dimly. Micah tapped his chin with an index finger, contemplating the complex and beautiful piece of platinum jewelry.
He picked it up, holding the cool piece of metal in the palm of his hand. Even with the amount of destruction done to the ritualist’s body by the failed teleportation, he’d managed to collect four rings, a necklace and her control rod. In any other circumst...
2021-01-27 04:42:27 +0000 UTC
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Kat opened her eyes to the dungeon’s clinging mist. Nothing about their surroundings had changed since last night. The initial spawning room, safe until they passed its threshold, was still featureless and packed with dense fog that limited her visibility, even when she tried to switch to nightvision to account for the lack of light. Whatever the substance was made of, The Tower of Somnus wasn’t going to let her sidestep the hazard it posed that easily.
Do...
2021-01-26 06:27:11 +0000 UTC
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Kat worked her knife under the access panel, popping up the plate of plastic that was designed to look like wood paneling. A quick glance behind her revealed that the night guard patrolling the hallway was nowhere nearby.
She crawled inside the cramped space before pulling the faux wood shut behind her. It sealed with a pop, leaving her in the claustrophobic shaft. Her night vision perk revealed a tunnel, lined with water pipes and electrical wiring.
Kat reached ...
2021-01-24 08:19:49 +0000 UTC
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Micah closed his eyes. The Luoca struggled against the burning strand of energy embedded in its chest, it’s mouth flapping wordlessly as it grunted and wailed.
The pale woman grunted, pulling back on the metal rod in her hand, dragging the daemon a step toward her. It flapped its wings, its five insectoid legs skittering against the wooden floor as it fought against the wizard’s inhuman strength.
Beyond him, Micah heard Trevor shouting something. He didn’t ...
2021-01-21 07:01:42 +0000 UTC
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“Still doing homework I see,” Emma’s lunch tray clattered onto the marble tabletop next to Kat. “I don’t see why. You’re so far ahead of the rest of the class in biology that it’s pretty much cheating.”
Kat blinked, dismissing the notes projected onto her smartpanel, replacing the fiz of pixels with Emma’s bright smile. The other woman cheerfully tore into the salad and grilled chicken that she’d ordered from one of the upscale restaurants that serv...
2021-01-18 18:41:10 +0000 UTC
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Green flames crackled, consuming the reagents carefully placed in a wide circle around Micah as he sat with his legs crossed in its center. One by one, he recited the eldritch phrases from the Ageless Folio, taking note of the inflection marks over each syllable as the power of Elsewhere swirled and built around him.
Drekt and Trevor looked agitated as they nervously patrolled the grove starlit grove. Micah didn’t blame them. If their enemies had found the house and ...
2021-01-16 04:21:31 +0000 UTC
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“Kat!” Sikka shouted, elbowing past Dorrik as they walked in alongside Kaleek. “Have you been keeping Dorrik out of trouble? I heard they got into a tussle with the moles out on the dunes.”
“Sikka,” Dorrik turned to the older lokkel, crest flaring in frustration, “I’m right here.
“Never mind them,” Sikka waved Dorrik aside with her upper limbs while the lower pair grasped the crook of Kat’s arm. “Dorrik is just being grumpy because the enc...
2021-01-14 07:42:43 +0000 UTC
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“This might be the most boring thing we’ve ever done,” Trevor leaned on his spear, glancing past the steady roar of the waterfall at the rainy afternoon outside. “I still can’t believe it's dryer in here than out there.”
“I could always explain how the ritual works,” Micah grunted as he used the sonic enhancement on his spearhead to carve a teleportation formation into the stone of the shallow cave behind the waterfall. “I’m sure that would hold your atte...
2021-01-13 07:16:46 +0000 UTC
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Micah stepped to the side, bursts of wind mana accelerating his feet until they were almost too fast to see as Jo’s knife whistled past him.
He backpedaled, shoes trampling the ankle high grass near the lake as Jo tried to stab him once again. At the last second, Micah’s hand flashed out, grabbing her wrist.
“Fuck!” Jo bit the words out as she tried unsuccessfully to wrench her hand from his grip. Then, without warning she dropped the knife.
He pushed, sl...
2021-01-09 19:39:24 +0000 UTC
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