In that brief moment's respite, Luke threw his available attribute points from the level up into Vitality, bringing it up to 14. Things were bleak. Health and resilience would be more helpful than a little more mana. The skill point would have to wait.
Six true to life knights in full plate...
2025-05-22 11:33:50 +0000 UTC View PostThe things bounding out of the forest weren't wolves, at least not only wolves. Whoever created these monstrosities combined parts from humans with parts from wolves. One ran straight at them, a male torso with an animal's hind legs, but arms reaching. Its head was that of a wolf, except for two ...
2025-05-16 12:30:28 +0000 UTC View PostThe monster built from bits and pieces of humans reached for Luke, who'd thrown up Threads of Mana to block. One thread cut into the Flesh Golem’s mana channels as it struck, parting the arm in two. The other two Threads of Mana, much to his surprise, held solid enough to act as a shield as the...
2025-05-15 08:06:28 +0000 UTC View PostRay pushed Penny back with a firm hand. "I don't know if it's real or not, but it doesn't matter. It's not part of our world. Let's just find this Shepherd, kill him, and get out of here."
He then turned to Luke and grinned. "Aaaaaaaah, fresh meat!"
"You have to stop doing that," Luke...
2025-05-15 04:47:03 +0000 UTC View PostColt, who had been trying to lift the skeletons off Luke, stood right next to him, hacking at the enemies with his sword. It didn't do much of anything against them, steel scraping against bone. Several of them swarmed him, throwing themselves at his arms to keep him from attacking. He let out a ...
2025-05-14 09:37:22 +0000 UTC View PostHe made his way past the benches toward the front of the church, stepping across the floor with more of those golden letters hacked into the stone itself. Images of men and women were painted upon the stone, lifelike, but twisted. They wore nice clothes in the paintings and a lot of jewelry and r...
2025-05-14 09:36:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe zombies moaned and shuffled toward the open iron gate, and Mateo met them without hesitation, his spear piercing through the air again and again, striking the monsters in the chest or the head. Both were killing blows, unlike what they had learned in movies growing up. Colt placed himself by ...
2025-05-14 09:36:03 +0000 UTC View PostLuke looked out across the crowd after shouting for more members to join the party of six required. Perhaps six wasn't a must, but going in without as much power as they could muster was a fool's errand, and Luke was no fool. The mention of a profession in the interface intrigued him. Behind that...
2025-05-13 09:02:15 +0000 UTC View PostEveryone stopped and held their breaths as the portal groaned, and some of that warm pinkish hue returned, but nothing happened for a long moment, and Luke glanced at the countdown timer in his interface.
"There are still 15 minutes remaining on the item," he said.
"That is some omino...
2025-05-13 09:01:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe mage type undead emerging from the gateway stood almost half again as tall as the normal skeletons and zombies. They wore tattered robes in dark grey colors, and ominous, deep purple particles swirled in the air over their heads before coalescing into an even darker, shimmering orb. Before Lu...
2025-05-12 10:20:01 +0000 UTC View PostGunshots from the rifle cracked through the air, and the crowd ducked on instinct, cowering. Blue barriers shimmered into existence in front of two of the tanks, standing on either side of Kirk. The bullets dinged off the protective barriers and fell useless to the ground, but the cop with the ri...
2025-05-08 04:27:55 +0000 UTC View PostThe orb wasn't far from the bar, and as they walked, more and more Integrated joined in, streaming toward them from all directions. People shouted their defiance against the executive order, against the state, and against the federal government.
People were pissed. Luke fell back a little, ...
2025-05-07 09:04:53 +0000 UTC View PostAcrid, dark smoke welled up from the hood of one of the involved cars, a white little Toyota with its front crushed and the whole of its side dented. A red Ford lay on its side near the railing, its wheels spinning, and a gray pickup with the motor still running stood between them, much of it tor...
2025-05-07 09:04:22 +0000 UTC View PostLuke had never been much of a runner. His somewhat thin frame and above-average height might give some the impression otherwise, but before he was even out of the city, he was huffing and puffing, feeling a side stitch coming on and cursing his decision to leave home in jeans and a hoodie. But he...
2025-05-06 05:28:20 +0000 UTC View PostTo be fair, the meeting that followed turned out to be more of a conversation than an interrogation. Luke explained the Tutorial Dungeon, what they faced in there: classes, levels, items, and everything else he could think of. Nothing about what they’d been up to was secret, and it’d be commo...
2025-05-05 08:01:31 +0000 UTC View PostLuke was being offered active skills when reaching level 5. About time! While the vast majority of people were making their way over to the gateway after the Groll Champion succumbed, Luke sat on the grass to check out the skills, weighing his options.
System Message: New skills ava...
2025-05-02 14:42:00 +0000 UTC View PostLuke found his way to one of the injured people.
Inspected Integrated: Layton. Rogue. Level 2.
The arm was gone, twisted off and lying in the grass next to him. Blood gushed out, and his health bar trickled down at a worrying pace. When Tiffany, with her Healing Aura,...
2025-05-02 14:41:08 +0000 UTC View PostTiffany's wound was grievous, but he knew how to deal with it. When healing the stab wound through his chest, Luke learned how to affect the physical body with Needle of Life and Threads of Mana. Using that same concept, he lashed a thread of mana around the broken rib that'd punctured Tiffany's ...
2025-04-30 06:20:43 +0000 UTC View PostLuke turned in the direction of the growl just in time for something four-legged to lunge out of a bush straight at him. It was about the size of a large dog and crashed into him with enough force to throw both of them to the ground. Weird jaws snapped in Luke's face, and saliva dribbled out of i...
2025-04-29 09:11:11 +0000 UTC View PostWith the spear pulled out of his body, Luke stumbled, stepped forward, and then fell. Coughing as the wind was knocked out of him, each breath provided Luke with less and less air. Even with all that pain, he could not scream, only choke.
"Luke!" Nate shouted, rushing forward.
Sounds ...
2025-04-28 05:48:06 +0000 UTC View PostI'm trying something a little different. Audio! Links below:
...
2025-04-25 11:25:58 +0000 UTC View PostLuke looked down at the spot where Alan disappeared for a few seconds, then turned to the rest of the group and cleared his throat. "Yes, Irene, I think I might have."
Everyone stare...
2025-04-25 11:22:28 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a tall, pear-shaped thing without clothes or hair, like the Michelin Man if he had lost a ton of weight while still being fat. Rolls of loose skin covered its disgusting, fleshy body, and its head resembled that of a pig, with small protruding ears, sunken eyes without intelligence, a push...
2025-04-23 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostStepping through that gate was like having the world shift on itself. In one moment, the hallway beyond looked empty, and in the next, monsters appeared. Real monsters.
"Goblins? Really?" Luke asked.
They reached to about Luke's hips, with green skin, yellow eyes, wearing nothing but ...
2025-04-23 13:22:41 +0000 UTC View PostLuke perused the interface integrated with his vision.
Name: Luke Quinn
Class: Lifeweaver
Level: 1
Guild: None
Profession: None
Health: 140
Stami...
2025-04-23 13:22:12 +0000 UTC View PostAs Luke set his will on the list, it changed before his eyes. Many classes remained, but at least now he knew they were all of the healer archetype.
"Mhm. Healers," Guide said.
"Shut up," Luke said with a grin. "How do I know what these do? There are still a hundred classes here."
... 2025-04-23 13:21:43 +0000 UTC View PostWith the slight incline going all the way from the suburb to the city, it was not a fun bike ride. It took a little more than an hour and about a bucket of sweat to make the trip. Still, it had been the right call, taking the bike. With the whole road gridlocked in both directions, he would've be...
2025-04-23 13:20:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe stacks of medical textbooks taunted him from the moment he opened his eyes in the morning to the moment he closed them to sleep at night. They needed to go, but Luke just couldn't make himself throw them away. That would be the final step, and taking that meant admitting he'd failed. It was o...
2025-04-23 13:19:58 +0000 UTC View PostMore shadows were converging, stumbling out from alleyways, slithering along the ground, and even drifting on the wind. Four of them, all attempting to reach the dragon's corpse.
"I thought I told you to get lost!" Vidar shouted, raising his palm and drowning the shadows in a torrent of dra...
2025-04-23 12:11:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapters resume on Monday.
2025-04-09 09:03:32 +0000 UTC View Post