Vex frowned, and took a moment to concentrate.
The system always presented information about skills and spells in a neat, orderly sort of way. His Glyph did the opposite, in the sense that it fed the information directly into his skull and didn't seem to bother to filter it, meaning he got ...
2022-08-21 16:16:58 +0000 UTC View PostWhatever they'd done to engage with the Patchers seemed to have thrown off their plans, if they were capable of having plans at all. As far as Derivan could tell, they didn't return to whatever plans they'd had with the mana slivers; instead, the shifted presence he felt fled, roughly in the dire...
2022-08-17 16:45:46 +0000 UTC View PostIf nothing else, Derivan reflected, the tides of the battle had definitely turned. That was... about all he could say for the situation they were in.
Unlike their own weapons, magic — 'proper' magic, as it were — was apparently able to punch through the bodies of the Patchers with littl...
2022-08-15 17:39:55 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan didn't particularly have the time to figure out what the new spell or the new stat could do. It was easy enough to guess that the spell wouldn't be anything good, with the way the Patchers had twisted Misa's [Paralyzing Slash]; mid-combat was not the time to try ...
2022-08-12 16:46:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe problem with his plan, of course, was that Derivan only knew a single glyph of his own design, and that glyph was a shield — not something that could be used to attack. Not as far as he knew, anyway. But it was one of the only tools he had to work with. There was always the chance that he c...
2022-08-10 15:54:43 +0000 UTC View PostIn hindsight, Derivan reflected, the result of what he'd done was perhaps something he could have anticipated.
He'd spent a little more time trying to understand his stats, in the week they had spent waiting and then traveling towards Elyra. He'd been trying to understand how it was that he...
2022-08-08 15:41:04 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan hummed in consideration.
There was an oddity of magic here.
He'd spoken with Vex on their suspicion that the magic performed by the system was artificial, after a fashion — there was something in the way he'd cast that one Barrier spell without the assistance of the system. ...
2022-08-05 20:02:42 +0000 UTC View Post"It still doesn't make complete sense." Misa frowned. "Everyone here's had a completely different history. They don't even know what dungeons are. They don't know what the system is."
"It's not a perfect theory," Vex agreed. "It's definitely incomplete. But I think it's somewhere c...
2022-08-03 18:08:19 +0000 UTC View Post"There was a lot there to digest," Vex said with a slight frown. He'd been thinking about what the other version of Noram had told them throughout the journey here, and he was churning with ideas. He just hadn't put them all together yet.
"The names are one thing, but I think what stood out...
2022-08-01 16:09:38 +0000 UTC View Post"This is everything we know," the otter-mage said.
His name was Noram, because of course it was. Vex had exchanged worried glances with the rest of his friends when the mage finally introduced himself, but none of them had said anything. They needed a better picture of what was happening, f...
2022-07-29 15:08:41 +0000 UTC View Post"You said their name is... the same as the innkeeper's?" Sev frowned.
"It might not mean anything," Vex offered hopefully, though he didn't really feel like that was true. "Maybe it's just a coincidence."
"I think we have the experience now to say that it's probably dungeon f...
2022-07-27 16:54:03 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a small part of Vex that knew there was something bigger here to worry about. They had some of the answers, but they didn't have all of them. The idea that a dungeon had tried to copy his bonus room, of all things, and that that had somehow leaked into the local area — that e...
2022-07-25 15:26:17 +0000 UTC View PostVex followed along behind Derivan, glancing cautiously at the walls of the tunnel around them. The system messages from the dungeon had been their cue to leave and meet up with Misa; they exchanged a few messages to make sure they were all on the same page, and Sev had been thrilled to finally ha...
2022-07-22 15:56:24 +0000 UTC View PostVex stared at the dungeon that Noram had led them to. "Are you sure this is it?" he couldn't help but ask.
It was just... a hole in the ground. It sloped downwards, opening up into a cave of some sort, but it didn't change the fact that it was one of the least impressive dungeon entrances V...
2022-07-20 16:14:03 +0000 UTC View PostMisa was, compared to Sev, having a far more interesting day.
The first thing she'd done was use her Anchor skill to call a copy of her mother and two of the guards over, ones that specialized more in tracking and hunting than necessarily in guarding the town. She gave them a chance to accl...
2022-07-18 19:11:12 +0000 UTC View Post"Huh," Sev said, glancing through his messages. He glanced at Misa — they were having breakfast together in the room, having decided that the suddenly crowded tavern downstairs was not for them.
Well. More accurately, Sev had decided that the crowded tavern wasn't for him, and Misa had op...
2022-07-15 18:50:11 +0000 UTC View PostNoram was looking around anxiously, in a way that felt rather painfully familiar to Vex. It reminded him of himself, but also... "Do you think all this is my fault? Some people are acting weird. I don't know if the mana changes caused it, but..."
"You opened a door," Vex said, shaking his h...
2022-07-13 15:48:34 +0000 UTC View PostVex didn't have all that much time to contemplate the behavior of the mana before he was accosted by what he assumed to be the owner of the tavern; a large, portly woman smiled brightly at him as she noticed him coming down the stairs, and immediately walked over to greet them, a smile on her fac...
2022-07-11 16:04:28 +0000 UTC View PostThe first thing Vex did was, of course, explain his concerns about what he'd seen. "Do we know what that means?" was Misa's immediate question, and Vex just shook his head mutely.
"I've never seen mana behaving like this," he said, his tail swishing about nervously. He looked up at Derivan ...
2022-07-08 19:50:22 +0000 UTC View PostVex couldn't help but feel anxious. Something about this town — about Fendal — felt off to him. Where the presence of mana was usually a comfort, this time something about it felt... dangerous. Like it was a warning. He wriggled in his seat, slightly annoyed by the fact that the chair was tal...
2022-07-06 15:32:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe bandits were, in all honesty, the most exciting thing to happen on their trip to Elyra so far. It would still take a number of days for them to get there, and they had other stops they wanted to make along the way — the Guildmaster had marked out two quests in particular that were relativel...
2022-07-04 15:25:55 +0000 UTC View PostThe earth was quiet today.
Often, Velykos would be able to hear echoes of emotion from the earth, through his connection with Nillea. Sometimes it was fear, like there was something big coming, and little could be done to change its course; sometimes it was anger, like there was something t...
2022-07-01 16:19:43 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a ritual of sorts that Sev, Derivan, Vex, and Misa had started, now. They'd started it ever since they'd learned that the emptiness of the night sky wasn't the way it was supposed to look — ever since they'd learned that it used to be full of stars. They'd tried to tell others, of cou...
2022-06-29 14:48:16 +0000 UTC View PostThere were several things that the Guildmaster had warned Sev and the others about before allowing them to leave for Elyra. The first was, of course, the possibility of bandits — the routes they normally took didn't often have bandits on them given they were rarely traveled to begin with, but t...
2022-06-27 15:55:07 +0000 UTC View Post[Alright. You know what to do. Don't screw this up.]
Xothok flicked his gaze one last time over the traveling caravan, slitted eyes narrowing slightly. There were indications that this was a diplomatic envoy — the Guild emblem im...
2022-06-24 15:40:55 +0000 UTC View PostIt's worth noting that we understand planes, but not necessarily the phenomenon of the planeshifter. Or planeshifted. Whichever name you prefer, I suppose. 'Planeshifted' implies their lack of autonomy; they came here not through magic or technology, but through luck, as best as we can understand...
2022-06-15 22:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostWell, chapter 63 was the final chapter of Book 1. It's been an incredible journey. I'm not going to dive too deep into cliches here, but I appreciate the support that everyone has given me so far!
I'll be taking some time off in order to plan for Book 2 - about a week, so three chapters' wo...
2022-06-15 17:30:32 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a small celebration, really. Sev heard Orkas say that he would have preferred it to be bigger, but there hadn't been time to gather everything they needed — part of why they had taken so long to reach the Guild to begin with was because they'd sent out several of their hunters and gather...
2022-06-15 17:16:07 +0000 UTC View PostOver the course of cooking an entire three-course-meal with her mother, Misa managed to learn a few crucial things about [Endless Echoes]. She refused to call it [Misa's Endless Echoes], for all that that was the 'proper name' given by the system. Something about that struck her ...
2022-06-13 15:53:47 +0000 UTC View Post"You're sure everything's fine?" Misa asked again, and Max scowled at her.
"Yes," Max emphasized. "You're putting this off. I'll tell you about what happened later."
She was, technically. Misa stood in the field across from Max, far enough away that it would take a g...
2022-06-10 18:59:30 +0000 UTC View Post