LiseEclaire

Leveling up the World (Chapter 64)

An awakening area?

Dallion stepped back. The chief was still standing in front of him, eyes glaring with hatred. The village itself, though, had changed. The crumbling structures had not only miraculously repaired themselves, but had grown to the size of towers, drifting apart from one anot...

The Cassandrian Theory (Chapter 8)

Velenia II, Cassandrian front, 611.07 A.E. (Age of Exploration)

Planet purging was always different. Sometimes the focus was a single contaminated colony, sometimes it would be a whole battlefield, sometimes the entire organic patch of a planet. I didn’t care much abou...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 63)

There was something different in the air when Dallion woke up. A few short weeks ago he would dread this day, desperately trying to move beyond level three. Now, Dallion was looking forward to it—the day that everything would finally be settled.

The house was eerily empty, which was odd e...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 62)

The shrine altar remained dim after the test. Dallion made several attempts to get back inside, to no avail. At one point he even tried to mend the shrine, hoping to trick it into letting him in, but was still unsuccessful. As far as the awakening shrine was concerned, he had become a persona non...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 61)

The prospect of being an echo of himself terrified Dallion. As much as he was certain that he was the real him, there was just enough doubt for him to reconsider. If he was the original, nothing stopped him from leaving the awakening shrine. The echo would remain here, or alternatively vanish, an...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 60)

There was nothing glorious in the way Dallion had become level five—he hadn’t bested the mountain, nor had he achieved a bone crushing victory. Even so, he was remarkably pleased with the result. Reaching this level had proved to be far more difficult than he had expected; it definitely wasn�...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 59)

Fighting the colossus with a dartbow and buckler turned out more difficult than Dallion thought. The more he tried to increase the distance, the more the guardian shortened it, moving as fast as Dallion himself. For every shot that hit the guardian, three were deflected, for every four that hit o...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 58)

You are Level 4

The rectangle illuminated the room. Never had Dallion been so glad to be in this small dark room. Finally, he could catch his breath without worrying that a ten-foot hand would slap him on the head… along with the rest of the mountain...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 57)

Fighting a mountain on top of a mountain, Dallion thought, shooting bolts at the head of the giant colossus as quickly as the dartbow would let him. There had been a time, back on Earth, when he had wondered what it would be like playing the main character in Shadow of the Colossus. Now,...

The Cassandrian Theory (Chapter 7)

Director Sim wasn’t wrong. I was made aware the very next morning, precisely one hour before the start of my shift, via two high priority datapad messages. The first was a standard form order from Ondalov, letting me know where to be. Even through text and bureaucracy didn’t stop the man’s ...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 56)

Collected

Being calm and dispassionate often helps in difficult situations, although there’s such a thing as overthinking.

The rectangle brought a smile to Dallion’s face. For one thing it was he knew every “achievement” rectangle t...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 55)

The day passed in the medieval equivalent of partying, very much like the time Dallion had first awakened. There was lots of food, by local standards, a healthy number of people, as well as lots of talk and laughter. However, it also seemed different. Lacking the echo, Dallion could feel the fake...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 54)

“Return to your village with the Archduke’s thanks,” Dame Vesivua said with the dignity of a bored city official.

Just like at the previous village, there was no fanfare, no trumpets, or speeches, not even any medals of recognition. The only reward was a purse of coins for the village...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 53)

The mood on the way back was very different from what it had been getting here. The further the party went, the happier and more relieved the volunteers became. People smiled more, joked about during food breaks, even started sharing things from their lives. The soldiers, in contrast, became more...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 52)

“You’re lucky you aren’t part of my troops,” Dame Vesuvia went on. “Rushing towards a chainling with that level of training. If it wasn’t for the Cleric, you’d have been a pile of charred flesh.”

Dallion kept quiet. He’d only been part of the hunting party for several days...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 51)

The chainling jumped away from Dallion, just in time to avoid a series of glowing red knives that hit the ground.

“I told you to run.” The Cleric said a short distance away, holding several throwing knives. That was both impressive and unexpected. If anything, Dallion thought of him mor...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 50)

Labyrinth section damaged!

Overall completion 37%

“One more to go,” Dallion said in an attempt to cheer up the rest of the group.

The plan, innovative as it was, had been received with a lot more enthusiasm a few hours ago. At this point eve...

The Cassandrian Theory (Chapter 6)

They said two things were certain in the facility—anomalies and quarantine. I hadn’t seen direct evidence of either since my arrival, but there were traces in the files. Small hints bled through the thought quarantine, events and explanations too small to be caught by the sensor programs and ...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 49)

Walking through the bolt was different from what Dallion expected. While sharing a lot of similarities—the starting point, the guardian room, the mending maze—each had its own set of peculiarities. The guardians tended to be a reflection of the item’s owner, or owners. Gloria’s ring guard...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 48)

Dame Vesuvia charged forward. A large group of soldiers followed, running on foot. What little remained of the volunteers was long forgotten. Neither as disciplined nor as prepared as the main force, they had suffered the greatest number of wounds and casualties.

This was going to be the fi...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 47)

The Cleric emerged out of nothing. One moment he wasn’t there, the next the lines of his silhouette appeared, gradually getting filled like a paint by numbers picture. Without question it was very impressive, not to mention very magic related.

From what Dallion had been told, the magic st...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 46)

It didn’t take long for Dallion to dash past the protective line of soldiers. All the awakened training he had done had improved his body and behavior to the point he could almost see the guide-markers without them being there. His body strafed and swirled almost on its own, passing by people a...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 45)

Gloria didn’t say a word after returning to the real world. Her panic had subsided, but there was no telling whether the talk with Dallion had calmed her down, or she was simply good at hiding things. Not too long after, the group slowed pace. Gloria was called by the Dame and sent off with ano...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 44)

The bodies were buried without much fanfare. Once they were gathered in one spot, the Cleric did something making the ground open up and swallowed them up. Seconds later a clay tombstone emerged, marking the place and giving a very brief description etched on the surface.

2021-02-12 01:47:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Leveling up the World (Chapter 43)

Dallion took a deep breath. Entering the library in his awakened realm became more difficult each time. When his grandfather had told him about it, he’d been curious; the second time-he’d been cautious. Now, after the scribe echo had tried to kill him with feathers, he was outright terrified....

Leveling up the World (Chapter 42)

The source of the fire turned out to be the remains of several wooden wagons. As the hunting party approached, Dallion was able to see more details of the scene, and just as Havoc had predicted, he wished that he hadn’t. People and beasts of burden were scattered on the ground charred or ripped...

The Cassandrian Theory (Chapter 5)

Gamma-Engidea, Cassandrian Front, 608.1 A.E. (Age of Expansion)

“Aurora Borealis has jumped in,” I announced on the bridge. “Three more Ascendants expected within the minute.”

“Show me arrival projections,” my captain said.

There were many things captain Aug...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 41)

There was no way of telling whether Veil succeeded or not. In the course of the day he approached the Cleric, then walked back to the volunteer group without a word. Dallion suspected that a longer conversation had taken place, possibly accompanied with a trial as well, all in the awakened state....

Leveling up the world (Chapter 40)

Walking, training, food, and rest—those were the activities associated with the hunting party—as the soldiers called the group. Looking at it logically, that much was a given. What made them different from troops on Earth was the ability to condense everything except the walking in three neat...

Leveling up the World (Chapter 39)

The creature snarled, leaping away from Gloria. Without the status information there was no telling how much health it had remaining, but the damage was obvious. The beast’s movements, although nearly as fast as before, were less precise, as if it had to think and guess where to go before it di...