Luckily, the Smith spotted the problem immediately and prevented further damage.
During his attempt to activate all of the enchantments at once, and only managing to activate eight of the heating strips, they all activated at full force. And one property of metal that every smith knows is t...
2025-06-04 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThey sat down with Sarah at the head of the table, and her parents on either side facing each other. Sarah instinctively recognized the pincer formation, and that her parents had her boxed in away from the exits…
Helen giggled, the first happy sound Sarah had heard from her in… how long...
2025-06-03 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAfter his latest near-death experience, it took some time for James to get back into the swing of things.
The crabs crowding the edge of his ward made for a good warm up.
As usual, the crabs were extremely aggressive, but their claws were no match for James' boots and greaves. And onc...
2025-06-02 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostJames walked unsteadily along the cliff wall, away from the snowy passage and back towards camp.
The bird monster nesting cliff, blessedly, was still empty. James had no idea how long his ill-fortuned exploration had lasted. An hour? A day? He had entirely lost track of time within the bliz...
2025-05-30 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostSarah found herself sitting up in bed and her breath caught in her throat. She was unsure if she had yelled out that last sentence out loud, or if it had only been in the dream world. Her mother gave her no clue either, as she leaned in, years of stress and regret weighing down her expression as ...
2025-05-29 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe Smith paused a moment to catch his breath and observe the opening. It was hard to see very far into the passage, as it was dark, and snow blew around fiercely within the passage. He turned a full circle, observing the area, checking for monsters.
The chill wind blew from the snowy passa...
2025-05-28 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostSarah instinctively noted her surroundings as her eyes reopened. A smooth floor, wide open space with no walls, dull grey sky with no sun, but also no clouds, flat lighting.
And a multitude of girls her age, no…
A multitude of copies of herself.
The vast majority were wearing ...
2025-05-27 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning James awoke and cleaned up around the campsite, storing away the smoked meat from the day before.
Today James was going to clear the nesting area. He put on his armor, took his shield and hammer in hand, and after a quick scan for monsters, showing the area to be clear, he ...
2025-05-26 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe walk back to the wards at the alcove entrance was uneventful, and quickly James found himself just around the corner from the bird monster nesting cliff. He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself, and stepped around the corner.
The nesting cliff came into his field of view and a...
2025-05-23 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostTwo and a half years later
Sarah sat on the hard packed dirt, blindfolded, extending her senses outward. She could feel the firmness of the soil beneath her, and the sun’s warmth on her skin from above, behind her, and slightly to the right. She breathed steadily and quietly, the...
2025-05-22 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostJames froze momentarily, staring at the unexpected flock of bird monsters flying about the wall of nests. He took a step back…
Crunch
His boot made just a faint noise on the pebbles, but James saw it. One of the bird monsters sitting in its nest turned and made eye contact ...
2025-05-21 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostSarah sat down at the dinner table with her parents and was struck by how different everything felt. Her father was sitting next to her mother, close enough to bump elbows with her. Normally they sat across from each other.
And James was missing.
How could a house feel so much emptier...
2025-05-20 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAfter a quick breakfast of porridge and some of the new smoked crab meat, James armored himself and took his Green Iron War Hammer in hand.
Walking out of the alcove, James stopped just shy of the edge of his ward and looked around. Down the wall, to the left, was the tunnel leading to the ...
2025-05-19 18:00:26 +0000 UTC View PostJames turned, peering through the visor of his helmet out beyond the edge of his wards. Two crab monsters were posturing at each other with a bird monster carcass between them.
Right, the bird monsters.
James picked up his shield and his Green Iron War Hammer and slowly, as quietly as...
2025-05-16 18:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSarah awoke to her father shaking her shoulder gently. “Sarah, wake up, it’s morning.”
She sat up from the edge of the bed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
The first thing she saw was her mother, glaring daggers at her father, but lying still on the bed and not saying anything....
2025-05-15 19:03:01 +0000 UTC View PostJared explained what had happened since roughly mid-afternoon: how he had sent James on an errand to fetch water from the river, how several hours later, around dusk, Helen had shown up at his home, and how she had dashed off after determining how long James had been missing.
Sarah was in s...
2025-05-15 19:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostSarah had barely understood her mother’s shouted message when she heard a thump and groan coming from the direction of the kitchen. She set down the plates and walked to the door to see her father sprawled out on the ground just outside the back door.
“Dad!” she shouted, and ran over ...
2025-05-15 19:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostJames had no chance of reacting to the unbelievably fast water spear flying at him. It struck his shield with a loud ping and was reflected back to the lake before he knew it. The next thing he knew, a large chunk of his mana had been consumed.
But the [Reflect] enchantment...
2025-05-14 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe night that Sarah’s life changed forever followed a day much like any other. Her older brother, James, had left in the morning for his apprenticeship with Jared, the village smith. Sarah herself didn’t see the appeal, but James seemed to love smithing. Other than whatever James had done to...
2025-05-13 19:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostFirst, James took some of his Blue Iron, not the Blue Iron that had absorbed undine essence, and forged a new pair of boots. This time, rather than spikes, he had designed a pattern of short, rounded studs. Enough to texture the bottom of the sole without sliding around as much on the smooth pebb...
2025-05-12 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe world was a tumbling swirl of water, bubbles, and the steep slope of the pond bottom as James fell head over heels towards the center of the pond, where it was deepest.
But although water splashed about everywhere, James wasn’t submerged in the water. The water of the pond was so dens...
2025-05-09 18:02:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe clatter of pebbles announced the arrival of a crab monster when James was about halfway to the pond. He turned to meet it and it ran sideways up to him with no hesitation, claws waving in the air until it was close enough to try to grab his ankle.
But as it made its charge, the Smith wa...
2025-05-07 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe crab monster repeatedly waved its clacking claws forward, as though it were banging them against the ward. It skittered side to side as it did, as if looking for any weakness in the invisible wall preventing it from getting closer to its prey.
James approached slowly, mindful of his inj...
2025-05-05 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAfter an hour of frozen terror and scanning for approaching monsters with nothing else happening, James calmed down enough to take stock.
A spider monster had sneaked up on him, and it was only dumb luck that he had spotted it before it attacked.
All his hammers and both his shields w...
2025-05-02 18:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostWith the last of the Blue Iron James smelted, he forged a pair of tongs, the better to work with hotter metals without themselves melting and becoming damaged. Quenching them was something of a chore, given that they flash boiled any water they came in contact with for quite some time. It took se...
2025-04-30 20:57:05 +0000 UTC View PostFirst, the Smith smelted and reforged his Green Iron Bucket Helmet into a Green Iron Visor Helmet, putting as much care into it as he could while he waited for his mana to recover. After two days, he was ready to enchant. He had decided to use slightly larger “tiles” for the enchantment, redu...
2025-04-28 18:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostJames awoke, full of vim and vigor. After a quick breakfast, he set up his enchanting tools and the two helmets.
He ground up one of the Water Magic Crystals, reducing it to fine dust, and carefully filled in the grooves of the first helmet with the stretched single pattern of the Basic Wat...
2025-04-25 18:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostBut first, his shield. He inspected it as closely as he could using [Enchantment Analysis] and [Enchantment Testing], trying to activate the enchantment as he usually did. He could tell the enchantment was there, it just didn’t seem like his mana was a...
2025-04-23 18:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostA lot of things happened at, effectively, the same time. First, there was a loud pinging noise from the Smith’s shield. At the same time as the ping, James realized that he had seen what looked like a large spear of water shoot out from the lake’s surface. Immediately following the p...
2025-04-21 18:00:47 +0000 UTC View PostJames stood frozen for a minute, thinking. He hesitated to take even one more step, because although he didn’t know much about Dungeons, he knew that Dungeons had traps. The traps were why Dungeons were so feared and generally went unexplored, despite the treasures within. Monsters, ge...
2025-04-18 18:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post