154 - Sharing (your stats) is Caring
The way forward was to crawl further onward through the hive surrounding us. It took an hour to convince Etja to dive back inside the tunnels, but she relaxed once we realized that most insects had hidden or fled. Whether that was due to our c...
2024-07-22 16:28:57 +0000 UTC View PostMT 153 - Lonely Langhrey
I gave everyone the rundown on what Nuralie and I had faced, then began sharing the item descriptions. I opened with the Wand of Boundless Night since it felt dangerous to even hold on to. I pitched the idea of leaving it in the care of Sam’lia, and no one ...
2024-07-20 12:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostMT 152 - Mystery of the Insectoid Society
No sooner had Varrin commented on our reunion, than a series of System messages appeared.
You have successfully defended against the Doomed Aspirants!
Your Dimensional Magic skill...
2024-07-18 17:27:53 +0000 UTC View PostMT 151 - Chips, Loot, & System Warnings
Bankrolls.
Cash money.
Scrooge McDuck levels of legal tender.
I actually didn’t have that much. I mean, I had more notes than most people, but in comparison to my total liquid wealth, it was a very small fraction. What I...
2024-07-16 03:12:09 +0000 UTC View PostMT 150 - Diptera Fatalis
Animate Object
Spiritual
Cost: 20 mana reserved
Cooldown: 1 minute
Requirements: CHA 20, Spiritual Magic 20
You extend your will into an...
2024-07-13 17:29:09 +0000 UTC View PostMT 149 - Death Sequence
Kill the healer.
It was age-old wisdom, passed down from elder homicidal vagrants to their soon-to-be murderhobo progeny. Varrin had probably been laid to bed as a child with cheerful tales of the underdog swordsman turning the tide of battle by expediti...
2024-07-11 16:27:30 +0000 UTC View PostMT 148 - The Four Bugwomen of the Apocalypse
Once Explosion! had been countered, a lot of things happened very fast.
Fly was flanked on three sides by allies in a triangle formation, a gruesome menagerie of insectoid bodies. Their frontliner fell while facing me and wasted no t...
2024-07-08 13:47:49 +0000 UTC View PostMT 147 - A & N Exterminators
It was frustrating that the System, the Delve Core, or whatever was running this place hadn’t given us an express time limit before we’d gone into our individual challenges. It also seemed arbitrary that we were suddenly facing a countdown a few h...
2024-07-07 00:22:51 +0000 UTC View PostMT 146 - Anty Bodies
Nuralie and I had eaten our fill and then separated into our own corners of the room to pursue our individual interests. Nuralie had taken several clippings of the thickly growing ferns and picked several of the glowing mushrooms for study. She had flora samples ...
2024-07-04 20:06:38 +0000 UTC View PostMT 144 - Two Places at Once
Once Nuralie reluctantly agreed to the strategy, I spent 3 days experimenting with my Dimensional skills. Nuralie took the time to study the threads, growing intimately familiar with their composition. She even learned to look deeper upon the thread that s...
2024-07-01 15:33:19 +0000 UTC View PostMT 143 - Dimensionalism and You
I studied the loson carefully, mindful of her emotional state. I knew that she’d fully realized her first revelation while within the Training Expo, but she hadn’t yet discussed it with us. Given her history with the three churches, none of us had ...
2024-07-01 00:40:20 +0000 UTC View PostMT 142 - The Cathedral
The air around us was cloying and thick. I grew short of breath as my lungs worked in rapid, short bursts. I was reluctant to draw in too much of the repugnant scent and what atmosphere I managed to inhale seemed thin of oxygen. The space in front of the cathed...
2024-06-29 20:21:46 +0000 UTC View PostMT 141 - The Basilica
Nuralie and I waited for an hour in case our allies were on some sort of time delay, but moved forward with the assumption that the party had been split. Even though the Delve had no express time limit, it didn’t mean that individual sections weren’t conditi...
2024-06-27 16:50:55 +0000 UTC View PostMT 140 - The Winding Path
The first part of the Delve was a maze, naturally. To be honest, the maze part was easy. Etja’s Total Recall allowed us to make sure we never backtracked unless necessary. Coordinated Thinker allowed me to keep us oriented spatially so that we always under...
2024-06-24 15:49:06 +0000 UTC View PostMT 139 - Becoming a C’thon in 1 Easy Step
“Go for it,” said Xim, looking up from where she’d sat to meditate while I reviewed my evolutions.
“More limbs are better!” said Etja, raising all four arms like she’d just won a prize fight.
Nuralie watched and list...
2024-06-22 14:58:59 +0000 UTC View Post138 - You Get an Evo, and You Get an Evo, and You Get an Evo!
After taking a moment to appreciate Shog’s existence as a barely contained entity of malevolent destruction, Etja decided to go next.
“I got Wisdom to 40!” she said with a bright smile. “I put the 2 other poi...
2024-06-20 15:43:12 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Hello! This is chapter 137, which begins book 3. Book 1 is available on Amazon Kindle, 2024-06-19 21:06:34 +0000 UTC View Post
MTB2 - Epilogue
***
SYSTEM ADDENDUM ADDED BY USER NAME: [ERROR: REDACTED]
ADDENDUM NOTE: Nine months after the disappearance of Fortune’s Folly into Deijin’s Descent
***
Brae’ach guided his long, sharp finger...
2024-06-15 16:59:19 +0000 UTC View PostMT 136 - Entry Requirements Met
I minimized the notification for my amulet to check on my allies and ensure we were truly out of danger. The Pit had gone completely still, most of its tendrils destroyed and the rest unmoving. The remnant’s remaining eye gazed out toward the sea, un...
2024-06-13 23:56:57 +0000 UTC View PostMT 135 - We are Arlo
I began to think that pushing Reckless Shortcut to its maximum distance had been a mistake.
My eyes bulged as the delayed onset agony of my body being thrust through a dimensional blender and spat out through a hole in reality that was several sizes too sma...
2024-06-11 16:46:31 +0000 UTC View PostMT 134 - Danger Close
I pulled earplugs from my inventory–acquired after my last dance with deafness from the spell I was about to supercharge–handed a pair to Etja, then quickly shoved my own in. Hopefully, everyone else was far enough away to keep their hearing. I shoved my hel...
2024-06-08 16:03:21 +0000 UTC View PostMT 133 - Dumping (Not Just for Stats)
Like any good member of the well-to-do, one of my most reliable methods for solving difficult problems was to throw money at it.
Back in the Creation Delve, our party had stumbled across an immense field of poison essences that we happily s...
2024-06-06 13:17:53 +0000 UTC View PostMT 132 - Stacking DOTs
Etja caught Xim, Nuralie, and herself with Siphon shortly after the floor collapsed. Varrin’s fabulous cloak billowed out with sparkling fury as he flew to meet them, while I stood upon Gracorvus and quickly closed the short distance. Shog and Grotto floated ...
2024-06-03 11:29:29 +0000 UTC View PostMT 131 - It’s too Big for Us to Handle
There was the sound of scraping stone and the obelisk rose from the pile of broken glass that was once Kaleidoscope. Its runes lit up and beams of energy connected to our bodies, distributing our stats. I dutifully confirmed that I now had 8 p...
2024-06-01 11:51:15 +0000 UTC View PostMT 130 - Kaleidoscope
It began as a tranquil blush of iridian luster rising from the dark like a warm morning star. A crystalline structure at the center of the room caught the light and its endless facets glittered, casting trails of color across the floor. The 12-foot-high gem had ...
2024-05-30 16:48:41 +0000 UTC View PostMT 129 - Clockwork II
I used Oblivion Orb to destroy the wire and disentangle my legs, doing my best to ignore the insistent voices. I hopped back onto Gracorvus and checked on my allies.
The wire embraced Varrin’s entire lower half, but the big guy ignored it, swinging at th...
2024-05-27 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMT 128 - Clockwork
Chunks fell away from the ceiling above, crumbling down on us like the ancient structure had suddenly felt the weight of its age and given up. Hunks of stone, some larger than the Lardigrey, crashed to the ground as we all strafed and dove to avoid being crushed. W...
2024-05-27 19:15:05 +0000 UTC View Post
