Walking across the frontier, Kaius enjoyed the warm summer air as he gathered his thoughts about how he wanted to continue their story. Glossing over his first delve and the missions of the Guild had been easy, but there was so much to cover about their most recent adventure that he didn't quite ...
2025-10-02 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius grinned as he looked at the slack-jawed expressions on Bronwyn’s team’s faces. Even Arc, his features obscured by plated bone and his ever-stoic disposition, was visibly surprised and confused.
He supposed that was fair, considering he had withheld mention of Honours until they wo...
2025-10-01 20:31:19 +0000 UTC View PostAfter Ro had rushed ahead to warn Bronwyn and his team that the danger had passed, it took them nearly three quarters of an hour to reunite.
While classers could move extremely fast with a growing volume of stats, most people’s comfortable walking pace didn’t actually increase all...
2025-09-30 21:17:39 +0000 UTC View PostKaius trudged along open fields, the rolling hills and scattered trees of the frontier spreading out before him. It had been over an hour since they’d left the burning pyre that contained the remains of Old Yon and his hirelings behind. Now he walked with his team, joined in their formation by ...
2025-09-29 20:34:46 +0000 UTC View PostAlchemical power surged through her veins as the wind howled in Ro’s ears. Her feet blurred, slamming into the dirt as she sprinted across the frontier.
Every step launched her dozens of strides. She felt almost weightless — rarely did she get the opportunity to push herself to su...
2025-09-28 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe wind carried a heavy note of finality as it cut across the ruined scars of their battleground. Surrounded by craters, shattered trees, and blackened, smoking grass, Kaius looked down at the feeble remnant of a man beneath him.
The old criminal still breathed, if weakly. He looked pathet...
2025-09-27 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostPuppeteer’s Strings erupted from his hands, a constant tangle that stretched for handholds he could use to move ever faster. Each violet wire whipped through the air; in twos and threes, they wrapped around the thick trunks of the forest, biting deep into soft bark. He barely touched t...
2025-09-26 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAcross an engraved depiction of Deadacre and its surrounding landscapes, the scry net projected a layer of warbling blue light.
Every time the artifice detected a fluctuation in the background mana, the illusion would spike, growing brighter and taller above that spot. The problem was...
2025-09-25 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostShe thought this would just be another kill quest. Oh, how wrong she had been. Lun Li held her saber in a white-knuckled grip, a grin twisting her face as she got an impression of danger from above. She forced stamina into her legs, flooding them with concentrated energy to launch herself forward...
2025-09-24 21:25:32 +0000 UTC View PostKenva was surprised at her lack of fear. More than ten Silvers — it should have been enough to put her ill at ease, or at least make her feel a creeping dread crawling up her back.
Yet all she felt was anticipation, and a sense of certainty in her own capabilities and strength, and in tha...
2025-09-23 21:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostWarm sunlight cut through the canopy above, gracing Torrin’s skin with its touch once more. He should have been more at ease. He was a hunter, a man who had lived his life on the move out in the wilds.
He was unscrupulous about his quarry, yes, but still a man of nature all the same...
2025-09-22 21:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKerel sighed and flipped the page of his book — a treatise by a researcher that chronicled a wayward expedition. The fool’s party had gotten pinned, forcing the mage into the Depths. This chapter was one of the better ones: detailing his desperate flight from a Champion on his second day ther...
2025-09-21 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius bent over, tugging on the straps of his sabatons and making sure his armour was in place. With his Guardian rewards he was garbed in a motley collection — halfway between light plate and scale mail — but it meshed together well enough. Each piece was of a subtly different style, and as ...
2025-09-20 23:59:32 +0000 UTC View PostBare-chested, Kaius grunted as he scrubbed at Porkchop’s fur with a rough-bristle brush, doing his best to wash out the clots of blood and oozing weepings before they could coagulate into a sticky mess. It was tough with the new density of his brother’s fur, not to mention his sheer body size...
2025-09-19 22:25:16 +0000 UTC View PostKaius set aside his jerky, stowing it in a storage ring as he watched Porkchop stretch and shake himself. His brother’s muzzle crinkled as he noticed the way thick, steely-grey fur was plastered to his skin.
Porkchop’s evolution had been rapid, traumatic, and frankly immense. He had nea...
2025-09-18 21:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe night was alive with the mingled scents of campfire smoke, damp soil, and the lush growth of well-watered grass. Stretched overhead was a recreation of the starry sky, broad and glittering above the rolling fields of the frontier.
Porkchop huddled near the fire. It was exactly like any ...
2025-09-17 21:30:04 +0000 UTC View PostSeated at the familiar desk where he had picked all of his spells, Kaius reached for the tomes that littered the lacquered wood and summoned the descriptions of the offerings available.
Tears of Hunlo:
Runic Hymn - Tier II (Evocation)
Af...
2025-09-16 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostWalking through the familiar hall where he had trained with Porkchop and Ianmus — and where Rieker had forced him to confront the recklessness of his initial approach to delving — Kaius only had eyes for the two blackboards that sat at the far end. Both contained veiled glyphs, swirling and s...
2025-09-15 21:30:06 +0000 UTC View PostKaius gasped as he came back to himself. The heady rush of his body being suffused with quintessence hadn’t left him yet. The remoulding of his Class and Skills had felt like downing a beer and being punched in the jaw at the same time, leaving him almost woozy. Yet despite that, he struggled t...
2025-09-14 21:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius pored over the three classes that had been offered to him.
He found each fascinating in its potency, its vibrancy, but also in how they differed from what he already had. It was clear that each one had a focus, but he was unsure what it would really mean for him.
"These three," ...
2025-09-13 21:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostKaius pored over the class descriptions with interest.
As he’d expected, the first one held little interest for him. If anything, he found it a little revolting — a class focused on everything he found distasteful about mind magic, twisting even the power of great runes to manipul...
2025-09-12 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius hurried after his class guide, weaving through the tables that littered the Dusty Stables common room. His guide smiled at him, standing beside the door at the rear of the room — a door that Kaius knew for certain didn’t exist in real life.
"Nice to see you’re so eager," he said...
2025-09-11 21:30:17 +0000 UTC View PostHensch’s Inn. It was exactly as he remembered it.
The Dusty Stables had always been an inviting place — carved wood furnishings with a roaring fire. The common room was the exact right mix: open enough to create a lively atmosphere, but private, and with enough nooks that it was e...
2025-09-10 21:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostArk shifted uncomfortably in his seat, tugging at the heavy cowl that cloaked his features.
His arrival in Deadacre had been swift — and for all that his movements had been impossible to hide in Grandbrook, his sense of honour did not mean he was a fool.
Given the delica...
2025-09-09 21:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Just noticed I cocked up the title of the last one — both this chapter and the last were ‘398’ in my doc so I got confused lmao. This is the actual last chapter of the scene. Last interlude of the book tomorrow.
Kaius smiled in satisfaction at the Hon...
2025-09-08 21:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius cut left, sprinting through the mud.
He needed to hit the Guardian’s flank — before it could hurt another of his team.
Porkchop tore into the monster that was almost as thick as he was. With his frontal assault, it had no time to shift its attention onto Kaius.
T...
2025-09-07 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe slug rippled, sliding over an ancient and forgotten courtyard.
A gelatinous creature, it was half again as big as Porkchop, and left a smoking trail in its wake. Every drop of excretion sizzled as it touched the leaf litter scattered over old stones.
Kenva held her bre...
2025-09-06 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIanmus stared off the cliff with a pensive expression.
This biome was one of the weirder ones they had seen. They were on a flat plateau that stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction, at the very lip of a cliff that had to rise half a league or more into the air. ...
2025-09-05 21:30:07 +0000 UTC View PostReaching into the wellspring of energy within him, Porkchop drew in a deep breath and unleashed a roar.
His prey chittered, scurrying back into reach: beetles as large as dogs, their shells shining like rubies.
A dull thud resonated through his chest, chitinous pincers slipping ...
2025-09-04 21:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post*Ding! You have challenged a Guardian: Glacial Sovereign!*
*Ding! Good Luck.*
The very mountain seemed to cry out as the spirit before them rose to its full height — more than double Kaius’ own. Squat and powerful, with fur of sn...
2025-09-03 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post