MagnusGrey

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 132: Crab

Early the next day, the crew left the riverway behind them and crossed into a sub-biome known as the Painted Lands. After passing through the borderlands, they parked the wagon at the base of a hill where they could get a better view of the surrounding terrain.

As they started scaling the modest incline, Sasha stepped behind Edge and put her hands over his eyes, guiding his steps with her body. He was in a great mood, and decided to go with the flow while he waited to find out what she ...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 131: Travel

Traveling after such a heavy rain wound up being something of a mixed bag. On the bright side, the retreating storm brought a breeze in its wake, cooling the air quite a bit. Riller and Violet were able to hike comfortably throughout the day without having to shelter inside the wagon.

On the other hand, it turned the packed-dirt trail they were following into a band of foot-thick mud. It wasn’t deep enough to keep Blue from pulling the wagon, but it slowed her down and the muck got ev...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 130: Company

Edge was woken sometime later by Sasha’s hand on his shoulder.

“The rain is softer now, so we need to stand watch,” she whispered, so as not to wake the others. He nodded and stepped out of his tent. They walked over to the front of the cave, switched places with Jumo and Riller, and then sat down next to each other where they had a good view of the approach.

Edge hadn’t had a chance to speak with Sasha since their wild night together, other than a brief greeting the day b...

[LotMG3] Chapter 57: Living Artifact

After Nick let everyone know that he was going to be ok, Team Earth stood there in stunned silence—taking in the massive windfall they had received for defeating the roach queen, a few dozen of her minions, and the colossal monster known as the Janitor.

He wasn’t sure how long the gear-swarm would wait before making its move, but every second they had to rest and consolidate their gains was a precious resource.

Nick thought that he had reached the end of his most substantial r...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 129: Tales

Since there was still another hour or so before sunset, no one was ready to call it day. While Violet stepped into the wagon to grab the cookpot and tonight’s ingredients, Trapper went to place some kill traps in front of the cavern’s entrance to supplement her earlier efforts.

He hadn’t had a chance to witness the process before, so Edge followed the crew’s leader and watched her work her magic. First, Trapper studied the lay of the land, examining the composition of the soil a...

[LotMG3] Chapter 56: Flame-Wrought Finale

Everyone backed up while Veronica went to work. She was flinging Molotovs at the frozen mutant in a flurry of motion, but she hadn’t ignited them yet. Instead, she was spreading the flammable fluid across the monster’s body—concentrated on the spot where its core was visible.

When the other oil-bombs had delivered their payload, V lit the last one with a spark from Nick’s flint, took aim, and let loose.

Woosh. A roaring pillar of flame sprang to life—surging twe...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 128: Fireside

Edge soon learned that another advantage of traveling with an experienced hunting team was that their knowledge of the Ivory Plains far exceeded his own.

They knew this terrain inside and out, minus the changes that the anomaly had wrought, including the best spots to take shelter along the roadways. Violet and Trapper stopped to confer, then took the next turn when the road forked.

Half an hour later, he found himself standing at the base of some giant rocks formed from a pale pi...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 127: Bonds

A few miles later, the trade road began to narrow, and its surface grew rougher by the minute. They had already passed major forks branching to the east and west. Before long, the trail was just a rough swath of cleared ground that was barely wide enough for the wagon to pass through—a backroad leading to the northern farmsteads.

Now that the tension had been lowered by several notches and only one person needed to serve as a lookout, everyone began passing the time in one manner or a...

[LotMG3] Chapter 55: Core

Nick was certain that if Team Earth continued fighting the Janitor using conventional tactics, they were all going to die. While their attacks were dealing damage, especially V’s acid and Devin’s axe-plosions, the mutant was still able to regenerate to some extent.

Although they had drained a ton of its mana and the essence comprising its core was falling apart, the creature had endless pools of stamina and health, at least by the standards of his party. They would drop from their w...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 126: Travel

Edge woke up before dawn, eager to resume his adventure.

Most of the crew was still asleep, so he rose from his bedroll, left the cave, and tiptoed over to where Trapper was standing watch on the hillcrest. She waved hello and he took a seat on a nearby boulder, stretching out his body while they waited for the sun to rise.

They passed the time in a companionable silence, letting the music of the plains wash over them. He cast his senses into the distance, listening to the hoots a...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 125: Sendoff

The crew walked beside the wagon as they left the hunters’ district, heading for the north gate of town. Edge let his mind wander, listening to the rattle of the wheels rolling along the cobblestones, the creak of Blue’s harness, and the footsteps of the people walking beside him.

He found himself growing more excited by the footfall, savoring the anticipation of the trial to come. With any luck, he would secure a place on the team, eat some awesome new skills, and pick up a ton of ...

[LotMG3] Chapter 54: Magic Bag Crafting

Before Nick rejoined the epic showdown, there was one more thing that he needed to do along the way. Something that would come in handy when the conflict reached its climax over the next few minutes. While he ran, he slipped off his backpack and opened the flap, carrying bag with his left arm as he reached inside with his right.

It had been quite a while since he had taken advantage of one of his dimensional storage device’s hidden properties. A quirk that he had discovered back on th...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 124: Speech

Half an hour later, Edge had worked up quite a sweat.

After securing a final crate, the wagon was fully loaded. He helped Violet stretch a waterproof tarp over the top and held it in place while she tied it down. He sat down at the bench to catch his breath while the crew’s quartermaster started strapping Blue into her harness.

When everyone was ready to go, Trapper had them gather in front of the wagon. She stopped to rub the skin behind Blue’s horns and then turned to face t...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 123: Favor

Edge’s day had been long and stressful. His body was bone-weary, but his mind was so overstimulated that it was racing with manic energy. He decided that his best chance of getting a full night’s sleep was to work it all out of his system by putting his body through its paces.

With that goal in mind, he walked over to the public green, letting the magtech lanterns guide his path as he replayed the fight in his head. He was still processing everything that he’d learned. The mistake...

[LotMG3] Chapter 53: The Big Guns

The party broke apart and started running for the far wall, spreading out to limit how many of them could be targeted by the powerful spell.

As they raced to open some distance, the Janitor’s turret sucked in more mana from its core, until the barrel was glowing brightly enough to see the magical energy with the naked eye. Who is it going to target? Nick followed the flows of force, trying to get a sense of their direction and angle.

When he saw the mutant correct its a...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 122: Safe

After entering town, Edge started walking along South Street.

He did his best to look frustrated and bored instead of euphoric. As if nothing more exciting than a poor day of hunting had occurred while he was out on the grasslands.

He kept expecting word of Warren’s death to catch up to him, or news of the devastation that their battle had wrought upon the prairie. But nothing of the sort had happened by the time that he made it to Izzio’s to drop off his haul.

Since the...

[LotMG3] Chapter 52: Force Ray Assault

The Janitor stopped chasing Nick while he raced to rejoin his team. Instead, the wounded mutant darted over the far corner of the chamber, where it was beyond the gear-swarm’s reach and safe from the party for at least a few more seconds.

Nick came to a skidding stop—gasping for breath as sweat poured down his body. Even with his high Toughness, pushing his body to its absolute limit while burning stamina was tiring, especially while running for his life against a terrifying monstro...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 121: Aftermath

When Edge snapped back into his body, he realized that he was high in the branches of an enormous tree. Not so much hanging from them, as transfixed by them.

Apparently, plunging through the canopy had broken his fall and saved his life. It had also impaled him in a half dozen places. He had a shorn branch jutting through the meat of his shoulder, and another sticking out of his thigh.

A third was piercing his neck, millimeters short of having nicked hi...

[Skill-Eater] Chapter 120: Jackpot

Edge woke up sometime later, surprised to discover that he was still alive.

When he groaned and opened his eyes, he saw that he was covered in burns from head to toe, along with generous amounts of his own blood. His whole body ached, and his head was pounding. He felt like he had been run over by a truck. Then it had backed up and run him over again for good measure.

He must have been straddling the verge of for death for some time before regaining consciousness. Regenera...