Luke stood face to face with Bartholomew. Every nerve screamed at him to strike. End it here, end it now, one clean kill in front of everyone. His hands twitched with the urge to draw steel, to carve through flesh. But reason clamped down hard. Madness. To attack here would unleash chaos, Bastion...
2025-09-08 19:05:33 +0000 UTC View PostMason walked arm in arm with Lucy toward the fortress gates. His pulse refused to settle, and he couldn’t tell whether the nerves came from the mission itself, or from the stunning woman clinging to his side.
This woman is really Luke?
Even after being warned, he still had ...
2025-09-08 18:21:06 +0000 UTC View PostLuke stood outside the well, training again. He had to practice shifting into mist while still in female form. The last thing they needed was for him to materialize as a man in the middle of a dress, or worse, a maid outfit. If that happened during the banquet, Allison wouldn’t be able to bail ...
2025-09-07 19:37:16 +0000 UTC View PostBastion’s celebration loomed ever closer. Mason had secured entry to the event, along with an invitation that listed Luke as his companion. Jack, meanwhile, had been slipping through alleys to their hideout, leaving bundles of supplies in an abandoned house nearby. Evangeline insisted on the pr...
2025-09-07 19:35:24 +0000 UTC View PostIn that room, all eyes were on Luke: Mason, Evangeline, Jack, and Allison. They all knew the truth. The key to escaping the tutorial was completing this mission. There wouldn’t be another chance to enter Bastion, not without a full scale war and the loss of countless lives.
Luke’s gaze ...
2025-09-07 06:38:40 +0000 UTC View PostLuke sat cross-legged on the forest floor, eyes closed, body still. Calm washed through him, that rare inner state he had trained himself to reach whenever the faint spark of insight stirred. In that space, he could shift perspective, turn problems on their side, see them from angles he wouldn’...
2025-09-07 06:07:25 +0000 UTC View PostEleanor was still confined to her quarters in Bastion. Since the incident with Kruger, she had lost even the pretense of freedom. The last time she’d seen him, his backhand had sent her into darkness, her cheekbone splitting under the blow, her body crumpling as the world faded. When she woke, ...
2025-09-06 01:57:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe chamber inside the fortress was dim, lit only by torches along the stone walls. A map sprawled across the heavy oak table, its edges held down by daggers and half-empty cups. The air smelled of smoke and steel, and every face around the table carried the weight of too many sleepless nights. 2025-09-05 23:54:58 +0000 UTC View Post
The first night in the fortress had passed, and the group now faced a grim reality. They would have to infiltrate Bartholomew’s stronghold, a fortress rooted deep in the heart of the first Safe Zone, guarded by a force far larger, better trained, and far more organized than anything they had. 2025-09-04 18:31:03 +0000 UTC View Post
After testing Charlie’s Spectral Soldier skill for a while, Luke returned to the fortress. He had uncovered a few things about the power, and some of them were worth noting. The summoning cost was 500 mana. Charlie had nearly two thousand, but that didn’t mean she could call forth four versio...
2025-09-04 18:15:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe fortress was buzzing with activity, plans being drawn, duties assigned. In only a few minutes Jack had somehow turned into a minor celebrity, everyone fawning over the fact that he was a healer. Luke didn’t stick around for long. Instead, he wandered through the stone halls until he found a...
2025-09-04 17:59:10 +0000 UTC View PostSeveral undead roamed the Wild Zone, their guttural cries echoing through the ruined trees. A small horde, maybe ten in total, shambled straight toward the armored woman, Charlie. She didn’t bother fighting seriously. They were weak, far weaker than a Midnight Warden. Charlie sprinted forward, ...
2025-09-04 06:02:19 +0000 UTC View PostLuke sat inside the crumbling shell of a house. Hours had passed since Charlie’s massive leap in levels, and so much had happened that he hadn’t had a chance to stop and check her updated stats, let alone the new skills she had unlocked.
Her system interface was cluttered with notificat...
2025-09-02 21:51:42 +0000 UTC View PostDuring the time Luke had been away, he worried that his bond with Allison might have grown cold. They’d barely had a moment to talk since reuniting, on the very night they were thrown into the assault on the second fortress. But seeing her now, hearing her voice, he felt a quiet relief. She was...
2025-09-02 21:27:32 +0000 UTC View PostA trusted group from Haven had stayed behind in the Safe Zone while the others went to claim the fortress and activate the mechanism. Their job was simple but crucial: to find out if the people in the first Safe Zone had also received a notification about the second mechanism being activated. If ...
2025-09-02 21:03:50 +0000 UTC View PostIn Luke’s hand rested a black blade, the steel so dark it seemed to drink the light around it. Even so, its surface was flawless, polished to the point he could see his own reflection staring back at him. The weapon carried a supernatural weight, heavier than it had any right to be. It wasn’t...
2025-09-02 20:44:45 +0000 UTC View PostA meeting was underway in one of the private chambers of the second fortress. Only Haven’s leaders were present—and Luke. The table was cluttered with hand-drawn maps, and the voices around it carried more heat than patience.
“I think we should focus on this. Forget rebuilding houses ...
2025-09-02 20:21:52 +0000 UTC View PostThe system message signaling the end of the event had just faded from Luke’s vision when Evangeline emerged through the gap in the fortress wall. Her eyes first locked on the massive pit of bubbling liquid, then on the corpse of the Warden Captain. What remained was nothing but a tall husk, str...
2025-09-02 20:05:04 +0000 UTC View PostLuke had lured the Warden Captain through the fortress halls, pulling him along like prey in a hunt. When he reached the right spot, he loosed an arrow loaded with stamina. The blast tore open a breach in the wall, and in the next heartbeat he shoved the monster through the freshly carved hole. T...
2025-09-01 01:51:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe Captain’s roar shook the stone walls, and then he charged. His sword arced high, a blow meant to crush the Haven’s shield wall into splinters. The soldiers locked formation in front of Allison, shields braced for impact. But the strike never landed. The silence stretched just long enough ...
2025-09-01 01:46:02 +0000 UTC View PostAllison tore through the fortress corridors. She was the first to cross the gate, not because she knew the way, but because someone had to be the symbol of courage pulling everyone forward.
Evangeline quickly moved to the front, flanked by archers. Unlike Allison, she knew every inch of thi...
2025-09-01 01:33:03 +0000 UTC View PostAllison stayed in one of the houses near Evangeline’s hideout. There was no way that many people could climb down the well and cram into her little room, so they had set up camp here instead. It was close to the wall, snow falling heavily outside, the air sharp with cold. Inside, though, the re...
2025-08-30 03:36:33 +0000 UTC View PostLuke understood where she was going with this. “Someone with three epic skills… could go very far in the tutorial. Well, two epic skills, plus that extra rank skill”
“That’s exactly why I want as many people as possible at that level of power. For the challenges ahead, it’s prac...
2025-08-30 03:08:34 +0000 UTC View PostEvangeline explained the concept of limits to Luke. It wasn’t exactly a level cap, but something tied to the rank of his race. Since they were both still at Rank F, the ceiling was clear: Race Level capped at 50, Class Level at 60, and Profession Level at 60. No matter how many monsters he slau...
2025-08-28 18:50:59 +0000 UTC View PostLuke followed Evangeline as they left that stretch of forest behind. They climbed back up through the ruins and made their way toward the city. Her hideout was farther than he expected. Instead of heading deeper into the Wild Zone toward the capital, they had to circle back toward the Safe Zone a...
2025-08-28 18:07:55 +0000 UTC View PostIn the dim glow of the street, the ninja woman stood before him. The dark fabric of her clothes seemed to drink in the light of the distant torches. In one hand, she flicked a fan open and shut with lazy precision, as if bored by the tension weighing down the air.
“Evangeline?” Luke’s...
2025-08-27 19:54:15 +0000 UTC View PostNight had fallen, but Luke hadn’t stepped into the fortress. No one from Bastion had come after him either, which was strange. Still, it gave him time to do what he always did before facing something new: train.
Delaying the mission meant sharpening himself and, more importantly, preparin...
2025-08-27 19:31:02 +0000 UTC View PostLuke stood inside the second fortress of the mechanism, though not in the central stronghold itself. He had chosen one of the side courtyards, the only part of the compound where the ground wasn’t paved over in solid concrete. After escaping the Safe Zone, he had come straight here. Time was al...
2025-08-26 17:06:29 +0000 UTC View PostKruger raised his blades, ready to finish the kill. And then the whistle split the air. Everything happened at once. The phantom assassin li
Kruger raised his blades, ready to finish the kill. And then the whistle split the air. Everything happened at once. The phantom assassin lifted his w...
2025-08-25 15:36:50 +0000 UTC View PostLuke stood atop a stone structure, the cold afternoon wind cutting across his face. From up there, he could see them clearly: assassins spre
Luke stood atop a stone structure, the cold afternoon wind cutting across his face. From up there, he could see them clearly: assassins spreading acro...
2025-08-25 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View Post