Chapter 121 – Planning
King William V was a rather unremarkable-looking man. Not in a bad way, but take him out of the fancy formal outfits and all that, and just put him in a suit and tie? He’d look like your typical corporate executive, especially with the security detail around him. ...
2025-01-30 21:15:40 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 165 – Mageblade
“Ah, your Majesty! How wonderful to see you again!” Doctor Oesau said as I entered the Phantomline R&D labs. “I hope you’ve had time to test out the devices we sent you?”
“Yes, Doctor, and I must say I am quite impressed. You managed to keep t...
2025-01-29 23:50:20 +0000 UTC View PostEpilogue – Elsewhere
(Main Bridge, CRN Mercurial, Incux Food Resource System 2)
Captain Griboyedov Ivan Tikhonovich breathed lightly as they passed into the system in full stealth. When he spoke, he made certain his tone was flat, and calm. “Status of the fleet.”
...
2025-01-28 20:28:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 369 – Proper Planning
“There’s the pit, Mistress,” Charity said. “Just like the runaway said.”
“Now, now,” Catalina chuckled. “What that man did was less run away and more sit and watch someone get their just desserts. And he isn’t making it our problem, si...
2025-01-27 21:57:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 15: Final Prep
Later that night, we met up at a warehouse that Babydoll managed to rent out in Redmond. The neighborhood was shitty, and there were signs of recent fighting on full display. According to Babydoll, one of the local gangs was running a ‘protection’ racket, looking ...
2025-01-25 22:54:54 +0000 UTC View PostLook, you knew it was going to go down something like this.
Chapter 60 – Announcements
The stairs spiraled down into darkness, but that was no problem, as [Radiant Armor] and [Radiant Aura] had everyone shining like a torch. Of course, I also put [Profane Armor] on everyone, ...
2025-01-25 00:17:28 +0000 UTC View PostPrologue – Trade Chat
(Capes & Cowls Forum, General Chat)
Message of the Day: Remember, Capes & Cowls is ‘neutral ground’. Keep it civil, and if you try to track someone through our site, it will not end well for you.
Speedy, AngelEyes, Victory, HotStuff, Jester, F...
2025-01-23 20:52:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 164 – Loremaster
Of course, I couldn’t just go to the research lab that Onedeirth worked at to speak with him, not on this. Sure, going to comment on their advancements in magic technology was fine. But that would be speaking to him in his mortal guise of Akaryu Kiba. What I nee...
2025-01-22 21:39:23 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 210 – Discovery
I had expected that there would be some Rangers, Druids, and Beast Masters in Panama, and that some of them would be focused on aquatic matters, given the canal, and how much of Panama was near the coast. For the same reasons, I also hoped that some of them would h...
2025-01-21 23:00:40 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 368 – Rest Stop
Catalina Zorita and her team sighed as they stepped out of the portal to the sixth floor. They’d done well to get through the first five floors in a single day. The Misty Swamp, Goblin Town, and Lizardfolk Swamp were all slogs to get through, but it was difficult...
2025-01-20 23:06:39 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 14: Stimulating Conversation
Shadowmen joined teams because there was no way that one person could cover every angle. However, sometimes a job needed more hands than even a full team could provide. In those situations, it was not uncommon for a team to subcontract for work. The thre...
2025-01-18 14:01:56 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 59 – Realization
“Mistress, are you all right?”
Linette’s voice finally broke through the haze of my transformation. I looked up at the maid standing next to me, and nodded slowly, as I noted the cool blue tone of the soul hiding in her flesh. There was even a pale str...
2025-01-17 20:48:59 +0000 UTC View PostEpilogue – Elsewhere
(Thraxl Invasion Deployment Point, Thraxl Prime, Gel-Nak Empire)
He was known by many names and titles. Most were just some means of flattery, given to any who had ascended to the Imperial throne. Some, though, he had earned on his own merit. Throhi the Green, f...
2025-01-16 14:52:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 163 – Special Orders
When deciding what to make for the Phoenix Matriarchs, I was somewhat limited in my choices. Adding an enchantment so that the item changed size with the wearer was one thing. It was so simple and fundamental an enchantment, after all, that it was routinely in...
2025-01-15 23:11:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 209 – Aftermath
(Oval Office, White House, Washington, DC)
“Mister President, there’s been a development in Panama.”
President Harris groaned as he tried valiantly to not smack his head. “That damn King of Ceres just got down there, didn’t he? Like, it hasn...
2025-01-14 23:07:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 367 – Dinner
Catalina’s team made good time through the dungeon. Of course, even experienced teams couldn’t get to the start of the new floors in a single day. Not with how the dungeon monsters scaled in strength, or some of the puzzles that acted as hard stops to speedrunners...
2025-01-13 21:54:42 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 13: Plans
The Silver Lake facility was a simple building within line of sight of Silver Lake, not too surprisingly. Standard corporate building, all told. Parking lot, guards, blah-blah-blah. Biggest issue, from what I could see, is that they kept their ‘work computers’ as a sta...
2025-01-11 17:38:07 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 58 – Gilded
“Simple, Astruth. I found a magic seal, and decided to see what lay beyond. Especially since the conditions were so specific that, unless someone like me came along, you’d need at least three people to undo it. Now, let us see what lies in wait.”
The view b...
2025-01-10 19:17:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 120 – Staging Area
(Field Command Post, Hight Wycombe, United Kingdom)
Adams Park Stadium was buzzing, but not for the normal reasons. There was no game on, no concert, not even a political rally. Instead, the home of the Wycombe Wanderers was now playing host to the Army, a...
2025-01-09 22:10:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 162 – Crafting Plans
The day after my trip to the University of Tokyo Hospital to get my sister some exposure, as well as giving her an idea on where to get started in her research, I was back at Athelian Arms, working with my students. There were plenty of commissions for custom ...
2025-01-08 22:45:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 208 – Victorious
Your party has defeated a Level 2 Giant Kraken!
100% XP bonus for defeating higher Tier opponent!
50% XP Penalty for having a party member more than 10 levels higher than you.
You gain 100000 XP!
You have leveled up!
You are now Level...
2025-01-07 14:10:38 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 366 – Free-ish Man
I watched as the Dark Sage collected the fruits, and then used his escape charm to leave the dungeon. The [Slave Brand] on his back had disappeared, along with the Slave title. That meant that Tyrone was three times a failure as a Master. First, he failed to pro...
2025-01-06 21:20:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 12: Meet
“Good, you’re here,” Twilight said as we pulled up to the Silver Pavillion, the restaurant where we were having the meet. Meeting the Yakuza in a Japanese restaurant was a bit on the nose, like meeting the Mafia at an Italian place, but if it worked, it worked. At the...
2025-01-04 17:30:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 57 – The Hidden Door
“PUSH FORWARD!”
The others answered my cry with ones of their own as we charged through the gauntlet of spectral undead. The deadly wraiths were able to damage someone’s soul with a touch, but they were intelligent enough to keep back from a group ...
2025-01-04 00:12:59 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 119 – Honor
Cleaning out a single ship, room by room, to ensure that there were no survivors was a fucking pain. No two ways about it, it just plain sucked. There was no quick and easy way to do it, unless you were destroying the ships you wanted to keep. Thankfully, we had Web Mi...
2025-01-02 22:02:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 161 – Teaching
Doctor Yanagi Naho smiled at her guests as they walked into the classroom. While it was not exactly common for major figures to want to visit the University of Tokyo Hospital, it wasn’t rare, either. What was rare, and what made this visit stand out, was that thes...
2025-01-01 16:30:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 207 – Annihilation Beam
The shuttle came quickly enough, along with our fighter escorts. However, they were ill-suited to facing a Giant Kraken. Oh, not because their Tier 1 weapons would be ineffective. While there would be some reduction in efficiency, the System scaled vehicle ...
2024-12-31 22:07:29 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 365 – Review
I chuckled as I watched the Crimson Claws finish their fight against the Pharaoh, and moved on to the sixteenth floor, making them the first ones to actually see the new floor. While they got used to the fact that they were now in a series of caves underground, rather...
2024-12-30 21:53:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 11: Downtime
It had been a couple weeks since our first gig, assaulting Mel Cozi’s house, raiding his slush fund and stealing his antique gun collection. His widow was set to inherit everything else, so she was happy-ish, and I’d seen her on the trid telling an embellished tale ...
2024-12-28 22:57:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 56 – Decisions
We might have gotten all the way to the seventh floor on the first day, but our pace slowed dramatically as we went down. Only to be expected, given how the seventh-floor boss was Level 22, and we were only Level 23. Things slowed down more after that. The second da...
2024-12-27 23:00:33 +0000 UTC View Post