You sure you don’t want me to join you, boss? Lux asked.
“Bringing a bladebow on the first day of class might send the wrong message,” Dallion replied. Even so, he tucked the Nox dagger in his boot. Some habits were impossible to kick. “You’ll be fine here, Ruby?”
2023-01-20 20:42:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
“I didn’t kill my father!” Celsius shouted in H-Sec’s interview room.
It had been half an hour since the rune carriages had flown myself, Celsius, and his girlfriend to their main office and still he kept sticking to his story. Given the delicate nature of the case, there wasn’t m...
2023-01-19 20:37:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
It had been a while since Dallion had visited the novice administration building in the Learning Hall corridor. The staff seemed rather amused by his new appearance, Dealing Dallion with no choice but to smile and endure being treated as an infant.
“Here you are,” the assistant patted h...
2023-01-19 01:28:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
The exam room was in a different part of the novice section. It was rather large, mixing elements of an awakened training room, an auditorium, and a small arena. Knee-length walls separated four sections of the floor, marking the trial zones.
“Take the top row,” Palag pointed at a set o...
2023-01-18 13:22:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
Finding a human charm addict in a slum of uncharted was a lot more difficult than it sounded. If it were an undercover agent, a tourist, or even a newcomer there wouldn’t be anything easier. Regardless of the amount of bribe money at their disposal, it always left a bitter aftertaste. Plus, the...
2023-01-17 22:42:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You couldn’t make it?” The dwarf arched his brows.
It was a difficult decision to make, but Dallion decided he couldn’t risk putting something of the sort in the hands of others. There was no definite proof that the weapon was meant for Aspan, which was why Dallion placed an echo w...
2023-01-17 01:17:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
There were many ways of catching a suspect. H-Sec could get anyone’s information in minutes, then suck all the gargoyles in the city to fetch them. There were a few issues with that. Despite being the prime suspect, Celsius remained just a suspect. Dragging him to H-Sec was a matter of order; p...
2023-01-16 19:00:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
I’d never seen the faces of my parents. Back when I was a child, we didn’t have faces. We didn’t have a single form, either, floating through the ocean like threads in fabric. I suspect they never appreciated the idea of mimicking humans, so they left. The only thing they left me was the me...
2023-01-15 16:21:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
DAGGER Level 3 has been cleared!
Continue on to fulfill the DAGGER’s destiny!
A gate emerged, marking the path to the next section.
Good one, Dallion thought.
Winning a duel against a corpse wasn’t something he’d ...
2023-01-15 16:20:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
Getting picked up by H-Sec or any of the local authorities was common in my part of the slums. Being driven back, though, would be remembered for years. I asked Clayton to drop me off at the watermark, and thankfully he did.
“I’ll fetch you tomorrow when we get an authorization for the ...
2023-01-14 23:22:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
In my part of the city, if someone had to be questioned, they’d be grabbed, runed, and dragged to the station of the guard where the authorities would spend hours interrogating them in less than pleasant surroundings. Here, interrogations were called witness statements and were conducted in a v...
2023-01-14 23:21:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
Entering the metropolis area was like entering a bank. Only difference was that instead of walls and armed guards there was an invisible line circling the area. Cross that line and a hundred gargoyles would swoop down from the nearest buildings. If one was lucky, they’d get caught quickly witho...
2023-01-14 23:21:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sleep and I have always had a love-hate relationship. One could almost call us ex-lovers. She’d keep tempting me to go back into her arms, and I’d pretend to ignore her. Sometimes I’d flirt with her, just enough to prove I was still alive. Sometimes I’d even give in, and instantly regret ...
2023-01-14 23:20:45 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello, all!
Due to my temporary posting reduction I've decided to post a (short) story I was working on for a contest.
Five chapters will be posted today with all a few more tomorrow.
This will not affect the Leveling Up chapter I hope to post in about 12 hours from now.
T...
2023-01-14 23:19:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Drawing runes on a soul sucker turned out to be a difficult and highly inefficient task. Dallion had to spend a lot of attention not to kill the creature outright with the tip of his harpsisword. Drawing a series of runes on the tunnel walls, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. It wou...
2023-01-13 18:52:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Three circles of symbols merged together within another fragment of the copyette, this time causing a grid of spikes to shoot up from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. In a fraction of a second, everything in the chamber, debris included, was pinned to the top. Thankfully, there was one ex...
2023-01-11 21:38:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Heya, all!
Hope you're doing well in 2023 :)
Apologies. Have been feeling tired lately (possibly still recovering from last year).
Hoping this will soon pass, but for the moment I'll be moving to a 6-day post of Leveling up and pause Dungeon and Elcy for a week or two.
I w...
2023-01-10 20:26:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
It had been so long since Dallion had been hired to clear an item that it almost felt unnatural. Back then, Dallion had just become an Icepicker guild member, and it had been his job to clear sphere items as quickly as possible. Life had been nice, full of taunts, jokes, and lots of feasting. Sad...
2023-01-09 19:41:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Bumping into Katka had made Dallion lose his appetite to the point that even Ruby wasn’t able to snap him out of it. The shardfly was initially pleased with the brief journey outside of the room, though seeing Dallion’s state had gone back to being moody as before.
From a logical perspe...
2023-01-08 17:10:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hunger greeted Dallion when he returned to the real world. In Nerosal, or even in the wilderness, that wasn’t an issue, since he could always go find some food. Here, though, things were different. Academy rules forbade food to be kept in the personal rooms, and novices weren’t allowed to wan...
2023-01-07 08:59:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
For hours, Dallion kept on trying to create magic strands. He had changed the approach dozens of times, yet each time he thought he was on the verge of a breakthrough, nothing came out. Several times he tried combining it with other skills, only to find they made the task more complicated. The aw...
2023-01-06 05:28:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
You’ll get punished if you keep stealing cups from the dining hall, Nil sighed. Remember, it’s not about skill level, but the knowledge how to use spells adequately.
Ignoring him, Dallion drew a space symbol on the side of the cup. Based on everything he knew that was ...
2023-01-04 21:33:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Crumble how?” Dallion asked.
The building guardian had indicated nothing of the sort. Just to be on the same side, Dallion had had a brief talk with him to check. The guardian seemed as surprised as anything, although he did admit not knowing how the shardfly infestation occurred in th...
2023-01-03 23:40:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
The adrenaline from the vortex’s absorption didn’t let Dallion have a blink of sleep all night, constantly causing him to shift between agitation and restlessness. Most of the time he spent pacing throughout the room or entering his awakening realm with the desire to practice more symbol maki...
2023-01-02 10:54:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Confirmation came just as predicted. A new set of land probes were sent to pull out the fractal trees and investigate the cobalt deposits. I expected the people to feel relieved upon finding out, but the opposite happened. The discovery of a third-contact artifact only made them more anxious. Wit...
2023-01-02 03:15:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
Red alert messages flashed on all walls throughout the ship. The war in our section of the front had taken a turn for the worse. While the Fleet had managed to make significant progress in one area, conquering thirteen star systems, the Cassandrians had responded in turn. Their gains were signifi...
2023-01-02 03:14:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
Spark infused quills filled the air like a swarm of bees. The aethervore teleported from spot to spot, faster than the quills could reach them. However, its ability to cast spells was significantly reduced. Dallion was fully aware that it wouldn’t be easy to defeat the guardian with scholar ski...
2022-12-31 15:58:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
Walking around the surrounding section of the Academy ended up being a lot more interesting than expected. Dallion almost forgot his immediate problems and concerns, as if he’d taken a brief vacation. The people, although always hurrying for somewhere, didn’t talk about politics, the internal...
2022-12-31 00:33:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
“No! Absolutely not!” Palag said.
The fury barely raised his tone, but from the view of a ten-year-old it was the same as if he were shouting. Despite himself, Dallion suppressed the urge to get into a fight.
“Why not? You told me that I was owed a favor.” He paused for a whil...
2022-12-30 09:10:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Dallion and the mage ripped the air, clashing like two comets of polar opposed magnetic ore. Each side had its own method of fighting, resulting in the utter destruction of the arena around them. Dallion would use his instances and familiars to crack the Alien’s perfect defense, while the mage ...
2022-12-29 09:00:19 +0000 UTC
View Post