A thousand and five hundred ether.
That was how much the materials of Vivi’s current project would have cost on the surface. The price was enough to single-handedly bankrupt their whole business. A tenth of Vivi’s debts could have been cleared if she just sold the roots and metals. Down on the fourth level, the roots were more common, and they probably sold for less, but rare roots were still difficult to come by.
The number stayed in Vivi’s head as she shaped the dark mit...
2025-03-19 09:10:12 +0000 UTC
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Vivi had no time for warm-ups. She stretched her fingers and closed her eyes to clear her thoughts. Too many worries and doubts lingered like a plague in her head. Concentrating would be impossible if she was worrying about fighting and time for the whole process.
Trying to clear her head only made her more nervous. Let’s just start it, she thought. Initiate the root. Let’s move swiftly.
“Got it,” Lucius said. He added ether into the locium ...
2025-03-18 09:14:52 +0000 UTC
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“We tested Vivi's adamantite katana on a thick slab of black hardstone,” Ven said. “Solace slashed it cleanly in half. We can create a hole in the wall in less than ten seconds.”
Vivi was surprised. “The katana really cuts hardstone?”
“It slashes through as easily as steel cuts flesh,” Ven said. “Your swords are what make this plan even slightly plausible.”
“You planned on causing a mass escape, correct?” Lydi asked. “How are the Ho...
2025-03-17 09:09:58 +0000 UTC
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“The guards found the hole in the wall,” Ven said.
The room went silent but for the sizzling of Gaven’s cookpot. The Hollows stopped eating. Eem sat on top of a chair’s backrest with a curious expression. Even Gaven paused stirring. He turned to Ven with a surprised look.
“The hole?” Alisa asked. “In the hardstone wall? Behind the storehouse?”
“Yes,” Ven said. “Including the trapdoor. Four guards and a Steward were investigating the exit.”
Alisa...
2025-03-16 09:40:41 +0000 UTC
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After eventually convincing Eem to clear her ether reserves and after hiding Vivi’s skill in spatial storage, the group joined Aang’s Union in line for collection day.
The daylight gems were in full bloom, lighting the hub and all its desperate beggars. More and more nimrods with slash marks pleaded passersby for ether. Vivi even saw a con artist approach Bwern’s men. The spindly woman was laughed at before the muscular men kicked her down, wishing her good luck surviving a whippi...
2025-03-15 10:35:56 +0000 UTC
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Vivi faced Andre with her dark mithril greatsword, thorn sword active. Her runesword was strengthened from the inside as well as from the outside. An aura of red ether coated the sword, matching against Andre’s blue. The coating was inefficient, leaking ether, but its presence certainly made Vivi feel powerful.
She wasn’t supposed to reveal her strengths… But Andre had asked for it.
Vivi initiated her attack. Her feet moved like she wanted them to, exa...
2025-03-14 07:11:24 +0000 UTC
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Vivi paused. Someone wanted to talk to her in Paradise? An ether hunter, of course. Nobody else could enter. “Is it Andre or Serena?”
“I’m not certain,” Lucius said. “I just know that someone sent us a request to talk. They’re present right now.”
Vivi sat down to think.
“Should we go?” Lucius asked. “I’ll take you there if you wish.”
“I’m not tired yet,” Vivi said. “Falling asleep will be a struggle.”
“I can make you...
2025-03-13 07:21:13 +0000 UTC
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The final loop.
Vivi’s hands were starting to get irritated. She’d been shaping veins for hours now. She'd lost track of how many. This was her third attempt after the second attempt failed even earlier than the first. The progress now was promising.
The stalks of the second ether root reached the tip of where the blade would be. There, Vivi cauterized each stalk. Their shapes were good, and the twenty five branches Vivi had shaped so far were immaculate.
One last branch...
2025-03-12 07:30:51 +0000 UTC
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The next day, the Hollows cleared two more bosses. The Ember Golem, and the Fang Tanker.
Both bosses survived being fed potions. The Ember Golem’s skulls grew rampant, gaining an ability to shoot projectiles out of their mouths. The Fang Tanker gained a summoning skill of sorts. It pulled little fanglings from the ground as additional warriors.
Even with the enhanced strength, the Hollows defeated both bosses easily. The other squadron bosses were simple compared to the Elder Gn...
2025-03-11 08:29:54 +0000 UTC
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Grenall stirred a spoon in his drink, then took a sip. “I tried to figure out how to access the negotiation chambers. It’s nearly impossible. You’ll need one hell of a plan if you want to sneak any messages to Ingfried.”
“We’re not going to sneak anything at all,” Ven said. “We’re doing the opposite. You’re going to barge in and cause a panic.”
Grenall frowned. “Elaborate.”
“Aang wanted to leave as much of the plan out of your ears to avoid the wo...
2025-03-10 07:14:06 +0000 UTC
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The Hollows climbed to home base and immediately got to work. Lydi placed Feni into bed and gave her a few potions. She said Feni should be waking up by the end of the day. Aang postponed any discussions and meetings until everyone had a clear head. He looked like he had a lot to say about the boss fight, and it clearly wasn’t all positive. The fight had been messy.
Alisa and Rohan entered later. Rohan had his head down, a gloomy look on his eyes. He claimed that nothing had happened,...
2025-03-09 09:03:58 +0000 UTC
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The gnoll faced Vivi.
The others were too far to help. Aang grimaced as he reached for his sword, pushing himself up. Ven was only now opening his eyes, recovering from the first interaction. Rohan growled, desperately trying to push himself up. The demons were hit badly and running out of ether.
Vivi was alone. The gnoll’s murderous, suffocating aura was directed all at her.
And she had no choice but to defend. Vivi held her dark mithril greatsword to block.
No,...
2025-03-08 10:16:44 +0000 UTC
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Feni was blown backward with force. The crystal mithril sword fell from her hands, clanking against the ground. She flew straight into Aang’s arms. He had to brace his feet to catch her without falling over.
Rohan cried out, prompting the monster to immediately dash for him. It was a black-furred gnoll with long white hair and devilish teeth. Red wisps ether flowed within its black greatsword. The sword wasn’t purely ethereal—the disgusting black material seemed to be solid, stren...
2025-03-07 07:21:25 +0000 UTC
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The charging gnoll exploded to bits. Wisps of ether sprayed to the wall, as if caught by a powerful gust of wind. The crush rune ripped through the gnoll with force, utterly destroying the upper body into a mess of ether. The first gnoll died instantly.
“Vivi, watch out!” Lucius yelled.
I know, Vivi thought. She sensed the second gnoll right after the first. Vivi swiped at it with a claw-attack.
Control it! Vivi told herself. She wasn...
2025-03-06 07:45:51 +0000 UTC
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Rohan’s lectures moved from practice swings to real time combat against respawning monsters. Vivi was instructed to fight only with the techniques and methods taught. Her footwork had to be perfect, and her swings had to be calculated. Each mishap in a fight earned her thirty more minutes of practicing her stances.
Vivi felt hindered by having to follow techniques so thoroughly. She understood the strengths and benefits of foot placements, and she was starting to understand the physic...
2025-03-05 07:27:27 +0000 UTC
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“Finally,” Lucius said. He appeared from Vivi’s core with a grin on his face. “Let’s launch the hunt right now! The boss is ours!”
The Hollows looked like they wanted to roll their eyes. Aang let out a laugh. “Defeating the main dungeon is a long term goal. Three major obstacles block us from simply walking in and defeating it.”
“One issue must be the boss’s difficulty,” Alisa said. “Even the Elder Gnoll is already difficult enough that all of the Stewards ...
2025-03-04 07:46:15 +0000 UTC
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Vivi woke up with her forehead resting on her anvil.
She’d never been as groggy as she was now. Lifting her head, a wave of nausea nearly made her puke. She didn’t see straight. Her mind felt dried of all water, as if it’d been poked empty with a sharp stick.
“I did warn you…” Lucius said. Vivi saw something red flying beside her. “Abusing ether for too long has consequences. You’re not supposed to stay awake for so long. Smithing endlessly at that.”
“Ugh...
2025-03-03 07:04:17 +0000 UTC
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Intended to be read after chapter 67
“What do you mean it shattered to pieces?” Andre asked with a frown on his face.
“I don’t fucking know,” Einord said. “Look.”
Einord’s little smithy was a total mess, even more so than usual. A broken crucible sat in the corner along with ten used ether roots. Finding those ether roots in Zand had been a pain, requiring serious searching. Eventually, Andre had managed to buy them from a cloaked demon for a ...
2025-03-02 10:17:56 +0000 UTC
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“Vivi, you’re scary when you get mad like that…” Lucius said.
Vivi frowned. She stepped into her smithy, which was still hot from the work earlier. Tools were left in place, and used ether roots were sprawled wherever they fit. Vivi really should have cleaned before leaving…
“Are we really getting back to work?” Lucius asked. He floated beside Vivi, but spoke in her head. “You should sleep first, right? Our assistant has passed out.”
2025-03-02 10:15:46 +0000 UTC
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Surges were as deafening as Vivi remembered. The geyser-like surge coated almost the entirety of the fenced-off area with ether. A few contestants were caught inside. Small cuts appeared on their skin as wisps of ether aggressively grazed past.
With Vivi’s sixth sense more present, the surge felt even more terrifying. Thousands upon thousands of wisps of ether shot forth from the ground violently. Each wisp immediately searched for a host to reanimate.
The wisps quickly found th...
2025-03-01 10:55:09 +0000 UTC
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The group sneaked into Aang’s hub through the “Union exit.” The one that connected the gnoll mineshaft to Aang’s private hunting grounds. Eem moved on Vivi’s shoulders, having joined back with the gang after being gone for a day. Vivi was happy to hear Eem’s enthusiastic gushes of excitement again. The fiend’s presence made any situation more fun.
The Hollows entered the Union’s hub. Aang’s presence in the hub made members nervous. He rarely visited, leaving duties to ...
2025-02-28 09:22:07 +0000 UTC
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Why do they look so shocked? Vivi thought. Are the swords not good enough, after all?
“Vivi, you idiot,” Lucius said with a laugh. “Do you really think these swords are subpar?”
Well, that’s only a two-runed katana, Vivi thought. I could have carved this when I was thirteen years old.
Aang held the adamantite katana like it was some fragile piece of art. He looked afraid to even run ether through it. Behind him,...
2025-02-27 08:53:20 +0000 UTC
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An hour later, the main set of veins for the two-runed katana was completed. So far, the process was the same as when crafting a single-runed sword. With a two-runed sword, the first set of veins was the easiest part.
Vivi had chosen a white obsidian root to use as the core ether root. White obsidian was the opposite of iron in terms of its properties. It couldn’t hold much ether at once, but ether flowed within quickly, making it optimal for swiftness-based elements.
W...
2025-02-26 09:11:04 +0000 UTC
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Vivi was rusty. She immediately noticed sluggishness in her movements. Her hands didn’t flow with the root’s stalk like they used to. Holding a crochet hook felt awkward. The last time she’d worked with one was on the surface back in Grandpa’s smithy.
Back there, just hours before being sent underground, Vivi had carved her first three-runed sword. It had taken her attempt after attempt, wasting countless ether roots on failed sets of veins. Three-runed swords required impeccabl...
2025-02-25 11:53:33 +0000 UTC
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The smithy was far smaller than Grandpa’s cramped old shack. Aang had filled the whole room with tools and equipment, making clever use of the lacking space. Hammers and tools were hanging from the ceiling with rope. The anvil had a hole between its feet, and Aang had crammed an ingot of adamantite in between. The smithy was more cramped than Gaven’s kitchen.
It was beautiful. Vivi studied everything around her in awe. There was a small emberstone forge as well as a portable crucibl...
2025-02-25 11:51:00 +0000 UTC
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Vivi returned to the hidden dungeon with her two teachers, Eem sitting on her shoulders.
The Stewards had cleared the dungeon thoroughly, leaving not a single wisp of ether uncollected. Host bones were spread out across chambers and tunnels. Structures were destroyed, and marks of battle were left on walls. Slash marks, and dents from projectiles.
“One day, the Stewards will accidentally blast one of our exits open,” Rohan said, seeing a particularly deep cut in the wall. “I...
2025-02-24 11:40:28 +0000 UTC
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For the next two weeks, the Hollow Phantoms locked the hidden dungeon. Members were forbidden from entering. Everyone had their own duties in Aang’s union. Ostensibly, everyone lived their lives as nimrods, while secretly preparing for the next cycle.
The Hollows called this the end cycle—the period of time after the squadron bosses were killed and left respawning for the Stewards. Leaving the dungeon alone was important to ensure that every tunnel and cavern respawned prop...
2025-02-23 17:57:07 +0000 UTC
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Intended to be read after chapter 58
The surge was supposed to hit on the sixteenth hour. Three minutes ago. As usual, the forecast was slightly off.
Scanners had sensed ether welling within the area three days prior. From there, the news of an oncoming surge spread, and defense duty was placed into auction. The hunting company that paid the most gained the rights to deal with the surge as they wished.
Any minute now… Essi thought. She stood on the...
2025-02-22 18:42:51 +0000 UTC
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Aang’s private hunting grounds were connected to the Union’s dungeon with black curtains. There were no walls, no fences or gates or locks, just a pair of ordinary curtains. Ven pushed through.
The view on the other side made Vivi pause. Lucius gushed a sound of awe in Vivi’s thoughts.
In the middle of the open cavern, a silver fountain sprinkled clear water. The cavern was as large as the dungeon’s main entrance hall, but the union’s grounds were far more colorful. Bric...
2025-02-22 18:17:38 +0000 UTC
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“We will start by learning how to unsheath a weapon correctly,” Rohan had said.
Vivi assumed that sentence had been a joke. Or at least, she didn’t think Rohan was serious. What was there really to practice in unsheathing a sword? Vivi didn’t even carry a scabbard for her weapons. Her swords were summoned right to her hands.
It turned out, Rohan was serious. More than serious. He was totally obsessed. The first lesson revolved only around the act of takin...
2025-02-22 17:56:18 +0000 UTC
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