A/N: As a quick note, I've moved the Jerome chapter to Book 2, so the chapter numbers are different - content is all still the same. This is the new chapter 11. Thanks for reading!
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"We did what."
Talking to himself was still... uncomfortable. Xothok...
2023-01-02 16:14:45 +0000 UTC View PostClyde returned in short order with a small fistful of reality shards clutched awkwardly in his fingers. He was holding them gingerly, almost, like he was afraid they were going to explode. Belle stared at him.
"Why are you holding them like that?" she asked.
"You said they're pocket u...
2022-12-30 15:21:47 +0000 UTC View Post"You have to understand, it's been getting harder and harder to make new glyphs," Clyde explained.
It had taken a while to get everyone calmed down. Clyde himself had to start herding people back to town, though many of them insisted on staying and seeing what the effect of the new glyph wa...
2022-12-28 14:36:58 +0000 UTC View PostAs bold a statement as Vex had started with, there wasn't yet much for him to go on — the idea that magic drew from a physical place, even, was something that was new to him. Vex had told Derivan he wanted a bit of time to mull on it, which seemed like a better plan than Derivan's own ...
2022-12-26 17:42:56 +0000 UTC View PostJust wanted to drop a quick heads up that an announcement and Q&A has been posted on RR. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/52639/edge-cas...
2022-12-24 23:59:03 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan stared at the field ahead of them. Vex had absolutely scattered the place with glyphs — some of them from the basic set, others theoretical, and still others combinations that he had already tried, that embodied new and distinct concepts. He'd even shown off some of the ones he'd used a...
2022-12-23 17:30:45 +0000 UTC View PostBoth Norams stared at the system window. Neither of them knew how to react — neither of them knew what a soul link was. Just from the name it seemed too intimate a thing to share with a stranger they'd only just met.
But the system is capable of great things, one Noram's...
2022-12-21 16:23:47 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn't all that long ago that Noram had begun to notice.
There wasn't really a better word for it. The nice lady had explained everything to him more than once, and he just hadn't... noticed. For some reason, every time she looked at him, she seemed sad. She looked vaguely famil...
2022-12-19 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post"Can't help you with the Aspect thing, I'm afraid," Clyde said. He'd joined them at their breakfast table after serving up their breakfast — a surprisingly hearty and comforting meal, though Derivan couldn't taste it himself. From the sounds Vex was making, though, he assumed the food was good....
2022-12-16 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post"Sorry about last night," Misa said. She didn't look like she'd managed to sleep much — Derivan suspected that they'd all had a rough night, really. Vex hadn't slept until late into the night, after he'd finished explaining everything that had happened with Irvis and the echo of Karix. Derivan ...
2022-12-14 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post"Me?" Sev asked, a little incredulously. "I've never met you guys in my life."
"No, but you're under the same effect we are. Or you were. It's mostly faded now." Clyde glanced at him, his eyes glowing that faint off-yellow again before changing back to white.
Sev stared at hi...
2022-12-12 14:30:39 +0000 UTC View Post"Wait, no, hang on," Sev said. "Back up. The universe did what now?"
"It ended." Clyde cocked his head towards Sev, a flicker of shadow dancing across his eyes; his equivalent of a blink. "Do you not know about that?"
"No?" Sev said, the lilt at the end of his words turning it into a ...
2022-12-09 17:12:02 +0000 UTC View PostJerome sat next to Kestel. He'd taken to visiting the head researcher of the dungeon team every few days, just to see if he was doing better, ever since he'd learned about what happened to him at the dungeon; his own men turning against him the moment he hesitated to report back, wanting to first...
2022-12-07 16:11:27 +0000 UTC View PostJumping was much easier said than done. Derivan peered out of the hole to see exactly how viable jumping would be — it was not. Sev, on the other hand, just stared at Misa with one brow slightly raised.
"What?" she asked. She managed a small grin. "We're a Gold-ranked team. We shouldn't b...
2022-12-05 16:04:14 +0000 UTC View Post"I feel like ass," Misa grunted, pulling at her shoulder as she slowly sat up — she protested when Sev went to help prop her up, which in and of itself was already alarming, Derivan felt. "We still alive?"
"Barely." Sev took the initiative to answer, there. "But we're safe for now."
Derivan regained consciousness in the exact same room he'd passed out in.
He wasn't exactly sure when he'd lost consciousness. That was not, as far as he had known, something that was even possible; the closest he'd gotten to passing out was the strange semi-meditative state he had ended up...
2022-11-30 15:36:57 +0000 UTC View PostVex was working with an increasing sense of impending doom, not that he knew exactly what was going on. He'd regained access to his system interface a while ago, but that didn't do anything for him — none of his teammates were responding, and there wasn't any way for him to get into contact wit...
2022-11-28 13:56:47 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan was more hurt than he had ever been.
He was still alive, crucially. His chestplate, where the runes that kept him alive were etched — that was still entirely intact. But it was only intact because he'd made sacrifices elsewhere. Because when Irvis forced him to choose bet...
2022-11-25 22:03:01 +0000 UTC View PostVex was in the Ashion section of the tower, doing his damndest to ignore Irvis' frozen body.
Something about it was unnerving. There were times he looked away and could swear that Irvis' eyes were following him, somehow — those eyes remained full of hate, in a way that made him s...
2022-11-23 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIrvis began by exploding into action.
Derivan saw Misa open her mouth, presumably to respond to Irvis — but she abruptly tensed instead, her expression flashing into focus in an instant. No time for banter. The two Irvis-creatures lunged towards them, their bodies flattening and spreading...
2022-11-21 17:33:29 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a certain satisfaction that came with being proven right, sometimes. Derivan found that this was not one of those times. Animated potions attacking them were one thing; they'd chosen not to deal with them because the effects were chaotic and unpredictable, and that made them more danger...
2022-11-18 16:41:33 +0000 UTC View Post"Two of you," Irvis snarled; his face twisted in a raw, sudden sort of fury that almost made Misa take a step back. "Two of you! The mage I understand, but you? You don't have any magic!"
Shit, he's hit Vex. Misa's first thought was worry, before it resolved into ...
2022-11-16 17:19:58 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan paused, awkwardly, after the blade struck him in the back; he didn't know how to react. The monster that attacked Sev was... well, it was like him.
In a manner of speaking, anyway.
It didn't seem like it was intelligent the same way he was. Its sword struck him, and it did not...
2022-11-14 16:06:03 +0000 UTC View PostKarix staggered forward. His face twisted into a rictus of anger and betrayal — Vex saw that the wound wasn't healing. Did this version of his father not have health? The system shouldn't have been this broken down already; a dungeon-created monster of all things should still be connec...
2022-11-11 15:38:02 +0000 UTC View PostVex woke up leaning against a door.
It was a nice door, at least. There were no splinters digging into the scales on his back or the leather on his armor, which was a nice step up compared to some of the doors he'd had the misfortune of sleeping against in the past. Those doors had all been...
2022-11-09 16:58:52 +0000 UTC View Post############
[Dungeon Spawner]
Mental static ripped through Vex first. He'd forgotten that this was a product of the system, and it didn't tap into the same library of knowledge that glyphs were contained in; this was something he should have...
2022-11-07 10:29:03 +0000 UTC View PostThis time, when his memories were once more torn away from him, Xothok was awake to see it.
In a way, it helped that he was choosing for this to happen. The Guildmaster was standing too-close-for-comfort, for someone of her level, one hand hovering just an inch in front of his chest; Xothok...
2022-11-04 09:23:34 +0000 UTC View PostA dungeon to some small degree reflected the space around it when it first came into being. The Prime Dungeons, though — the dungeons that were the core of every Kingdom, and powered most of their supply of mana crystals — those were the exceptions to the rule. Over time, they'd grown to refl...
2022-11-02 19:20:10 +0000 UTC View PostIf there was anywhere Vex hadn't expected to be about an hour from where that battle started, it was being carted around the city in a wagon. Particularly not in a small crawlspace underneath the floorboards of a wagon, lit only by illusion-enhancing ghostflame.
All four of them were being ...
2022-10-31 17:54:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt started with a fireball, which told Vex two things: one, that this was almost certainly a noble house attacking them, and two, that they didn't care about casualties. The fireball was packed with enough mana to level several blocks of houses, and was cast despite the fact that they were surrou...
2022-10-28 18:25:31 +0000 UTC View Post