“Okay, before you do anything, I can explain!”
As soon as Zoe said that, she realized that it might not have been the smartest way to begin approaching things. It wasn’t like Millie had actually done anything to accuse her of anything yet. So basically, she had just alerted the girl t...
2024-04-12 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe had to admit that she was more curious about what an Oath entailed than what the lich’s Godfather-esque offer would be. Did the System have a feature that enforced some kind of magical, unbreakable contract? While she wouldn’t be surprised by that in and of itself, she would find it odd t...
2024-04-11 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe immediately decided that she was going to keep the true origins of her demonic ascension—and likewise, her initial relationship with Basil—concealed for as long as she could. Sure, it was the total opposite of her initial plan, but to Zoe, plans were more like guidelines. In any case, her...
2024-04-10 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View Postto Zoe’s frustration, she had to wait for reinforcements to arrive. At least, that’s how Basil put it. She suspected that he just meant the Lich.
At first, she had wondered why the cultist could possibly need any help when he had the paladin completely restrained by a colossal monster s...
2024-04-09 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe other two just stared at her. Zoe was starting to get a little bit uncomfortable, and it wasn’t the kind of fear she was used to. Not really the survival kind. Damn, am I actually feeling social anxiety right now? That’s kind of hilarious.
But also, the paladin was undoubte...
2024-04-06 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs Zoe slipped back out into the area between the cathedral and the—what. sacrifice chamber? She realized that she still hadn’t identified the source of the demonic mana. It seemed like it was just sort of rising up from the entire room with the altar and skeletons with no particular source.<...
2024-04-05 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt took Zoe embarrassingly long to finally think about Millie again. Ah shit. She hoped that the girl was okay. The best outcome would probably be that the child had been left back in the cavern that had formerly been the sloth den. After all, Zoe knew that she was generally capable of t...
2024-04-04 00:20:45 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Zoe didn’t waste any time in hurrying down the colorfully-lit hallway, she couldn’t help but marvel at the architecture. She had to force herself to not slow down and study the torches and abstract carvings in closer detail.
Still, she paid as much attention to the space itself as...
2024-04-04 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe landed hard, but she didn’t wait around before struggling back up to her feet. Stumbling around in a full circle, she quickly took stock of the current situation. Given that she could actually breathe again and physics wasn’t hell-bent on crushing her from all directions, she stopped chan...
2024-04-02 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs it turned out, being violently dragged deep down underwater was a lot less terrifying when you weren’t afraid of drowning.
Granted, there was nothing to indicate that Zoe didn’t need air, even if she no longer needed food—and with just a single point of mana, she wouldn’t be left...
2024-03-30 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe quickly made the caring, selfless decision to go ahead and ditch the child.
Honestly, if her opponent were some kind of child-eating monster, then she would stick around and defend both of them—or so she told herself. But after all, a paladin wasn’t actually a child-eating monster. ...
2024-03-29 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe wasn’t quite sure what her plan should actually be at this moment. And unfortunately, a dozen or so meters wasn’t nearly enough distance to give her time to come up with anything well thought-out with both of their speeds.
Neither made any additional moves or changed their course as...
2024-03-28 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe entrance to the den turned out to be annoyingly long. Zoe felt as if she had been walking for at least a couple of minutes and she was still no closer to the source of the gently wafting, animalistic life mana.
It didn’t help that the passages were extremely uneven and twisted. The gr...
2024-03-27 00:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostTo say that Zoe wasn’t particularly thrilled with the development would be a bit of an understatement. Even if the paladin wasn’t after her specifically—which might actually be likely—it was still quite a complication.
In the case that the paladin was not truly following he...
2024-03-26 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostHe didn’t expect her to reach him so quickly. In fact, he hadn’t even expected that she would make the first move. And then the speed with which she flew towards him was truly astounding—
But ultimately it didn’t matter. His shield flared to life just in time to repel h...
2024-03-23 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt really was steep, even from the very beginning. Zoe was amazed that any trees could actually grow on it, let alone so many of them. In any case, such was the extreme degree of the incline that she had to effectively crawl using her hands as well, even despite the increased grip of her talons.<...
2024-03-22 00:18:00 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m fine, really.”
Millie didn’t seem particularly convinced by Zoe’s claim, but she didn’t say anything else and seemed content to let the subject drop. After Zoe had recovered from her initial nausea and cleared her head a bit, she had spent about half a minute studying the p...
2024-03-21 00:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostTruth be told, Zoe was coming to enjoy Millie’s company more than she had Lily and Andric’s. Of course, she was still going to track down those two at some point. She wasn’t sure when, but she couldn’t let them get away without her giving them a piece of her mind and getting some closure....
2024-03-20 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostAt first, Millie didn’t even appear to notice that anything was happening. Zoe considered that to be a good sign—especially since her burns were rapidly smoothing out and fading away. Of course, Millie soon noticed as well, and that’s when she began freaking out again.
After it was al...
2024-03-19 00:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn't take Zoe very long to find a maned sloth. In fact, it was the first sloth she found at all. Even better, it seemed to be a particularly fine specimen—large, fluffy, and well-groomed. Amusingly, it actually had the poor sense to attack her first instead of trying to flee.
Not tha...
2024-03-16 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was starting to get dark. The sun had dipped below the horizon—or at the very least, it was obscured by the surrounding mountains. They had continued following the river upstream at a moderate pace, alternating between active conversations and long stretches of silence.
During that tim...
2024-03-15 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt didn’t actually take very long for Zoe to formulate a response to the girl’s question, because both her knowledge and opinion on infernal cultists were pretty simple. “I can’t say I’m a fan of them.”
“Wait, does that mean you’ve encountered them before?” The girl seemed...
2024-03-14 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostNow that Zoe was only pursuing a small child instead of hunting down trained killers, moving through the branches of the jungle canopy was even more relaxing. She was pretty sure she wasn’t very far behind now. Even though Zoe had only been in pursuit for a couple minutes at most, she felt that...
2024-03-13 00:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt was rather disappointing that the very first people Zoe encountered appeared to be some manner of murderous bandits.
Not inclined to repeat her initial arrival in her new world as she had not too many days prior, Zoe retreated back behind a cluster of large boulders next to a wider secti...
2024-03-12 00:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostTo Zoe’s surprise, her new status was actually shorter than it had been the last time she looked at it.
Zoe Blackwell
Demon of Corruption / ??? - 34
Growth Mage
Abilities: - {Corrupted Spirit Shield - 2,...
2024-03-09 01:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe just ran straight towards the guy. She didn’t even bother doing any kind of evasive maneuvers. She didn’t dash, either—she was saving that for when she would likely have to abruptly react.
Her opponent didn’t just stand there and let her rush him, of course. But instead of prepa...
2024-03-08 01:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostZoe was getting pretty tired of dying. She had long since lost count of the number of times she had failed to defeat her copy. She was pretty sure she had now been fighting for longer than she had previously been alive.
It didn’t help that the terrain kept changing. It ...
2024-03-07 01:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostTo her surprise, Zoe wasn’t in an arena. Looking around, she realized that the exterior stone wall of the structure was right behind her. Open earth and sky stretched out in every other direction. It felt kind of strange — why would there be a Coliseum-like structure in the middle of nowhere?...
2024-02-17 01:18:01 +0000 UTC View Post{You have gained multiple levels! You are now —}
Shut up.
Zoe didn't have time for that. She had taken out the archer, yes, but now that the first moves had been made, the battle was on in earnest. Activating {Kinetic Dash}, Zoe dodged a flurry of attacks f...
2024-02-16 01:18:00 +0000 UTC View PostStumbling her way up through the trapdoor into the storage room and back out into the dining area of the cafe, Zoe took a good long moment to let the accumulated rage really build up before launching herself at her clone.
The lava was only the beginning. She had dived through acid ...
2024-02-14 01:18:01 +0000 UTC View Post