Calen picked himself up from where the final blast of Lira’s explosive spell had thrown him and let out a deep sigh. The massive dark boughs of the Malevolent Lirasian Oaks finally lay still, and the near-constant whistling of hundreds of rot bolts was gone, leaving the dark and twisted grove in relative silence.
Unwilling ...
2025-09-29 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostMalika felt the subtle shiver that pulsed through her body, her mind, and her soul. All her skills suddenly came just a little easier, and she knew Abiding Perseverance had ticked up again. Her fists flew, following the seventh form of the most basic sequence in the Nine Paths of Ahn Khen, and she channeled a little more stamina i...
2025-09-28 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAli held her forces back as the four tanks charged out into the clearing, chunks of fungal creep flying as their feet – and paws – tore it up thanks to their powerful movement skills. Malika sprinted along, hot on their heels, her feet not even touching the ground, ready to heal at a moment’s notice, her incredible speed a...
2025-09-27 15:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 2 of 2
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Giddy frowned at her desk as yet another leaf fell from the cursed trees, landing right on her work. It didn’t help that she had been staring at the intricate runework through her Mana Amplification Lenses, and the leaf had come down like a house falling from the sky. She clutch...
2025-09-26 14:05:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 1 of 2
Main chapter first, and then a shorter interlude.
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Ali sat quietly near the outer edge of the clearing that served as their temporary guild hall and general meeting room, but her thoughts churned in sharp contrast to her outwardly calm demeanor. Resting on the palm of her hand lay the curs...
2025-09-26 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostSeth shifted his spectral mages, keeping them gathered up into a tight clump, desperately trying to find a spot that was not so vulnerable to the crushing roots and the unrelenting storm of rot bolts. While his specters regained health from death affinity magic due to their natural absorption, the rot had a large component of nature...
2025-09-25 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAli shivered as she surveyed the clearing and the four giant oak trees planted around the slowly rotating dark artifact. It was dark and eerily lit by patches of bioluminescent fungal growths, and just like last time, the cloying stench of rot permeated everything. It was not that she was particularly scared or anything, not at ...
2025-09-24 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 2 of 2
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“Yes,” Ali said. “Dungeon rage. It will certainly get their attention.” It would, unfortunately, also be painful, but that couldn’t be avoided. At least she could keep it brief. She grew several other plants while her domain established itself: a fairy ring of ghost mushrooms that glo...
2025-09-23 14:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 1 of 2
This chapter turned out a little shorter than I prefer, so part 2 will follow in five minutes.
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Finally freed up from the endless, unproductive strategy brainstorming meetings, Calen found himself a quiet spot on top of one of the battlements. It had been quite disconcerting to sit on top of hug...
2025-09-23 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostGromm pushed open the squeaky door and entered the dimly lit tavern, his sensitive nose immediately catching the scent of slightly stale ale and generally unwashed human bodies overlaid upon the backdrop of weapon oil and leather.
There were only a few patrons at this hour, but even so, several of them glanced up, sco...
2025-09-22 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostMato’s mind was simultaneously relaxed and broadly expansive – a state he only ever achieved in his Tree Form, and he found it decidedly relaxing. Occasionally, he achieved something similar when he triggered Battle Trance for long enough, but it wasn’t quite the same. Here, his awareness rolled out over the entire reach of th...
2025-09-21 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMalika’s strikes came fast as she boosted her speed yet again. Her health was at maximum, and she was certain it would be at maximum even without the rot elixir. The rot miasma the boss was emitting was simply not powerful enough to damage her through the damage reduction provided by Soul Armor. The real problem was doing enough...
2025-09-20 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostCalen frowned, his mind struggling to piece out a workable strategy. He was sitting in the makeshift guild headquarters – nothing more than a convenient clearing with a few rocks and logs for seats – where they had been discussing the Fungaloth Ravager for over an hour without much progress.
It wasn’t for lack of inform...
2025-09-19 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostMalika bent down to pick up the bows that were still clutched in both of the Sylvan Archer’s two left hands, but the moment she saw the strange tendrils and roots that bound them to his arms and heard the disturbing whispering just beyond the threshold of understanding, she yanked back her hands and decided to Appraise them firs...
2025-09-18 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: If you're in the mood for a theme song to go with this chapter, I humbly offer this piece of inspired genius:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TZWVaHLM-r0
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By the time they reached the marketplace, Ali was ready....
2025-09-17 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Retreat! Fall back to the battlements!” Raya shouted, and her battered squad fled, bruised and bleeding, to the safety of the golden glowing walls. Kayleigh, in particular, needed prompt attention, her arm hanging limp where the monster had crushed it, tearing the muscles to shreds along with her guard uniform with its rid...
2025-09-16 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAli sat by their little campfire in the refugee encampment, watching Mato cook. A scene of peaceful companionship that she hadn’t appreciated nearly enough before her friends had been taken from her and she had found herself alone in the Abyssal Realm. She rubbed her breastbone thoughtfully. Guess it’s the simple things,...
2025-09-15 14:00:22 +0000 UTC View PostAli’s wings hummed softly as she followed her friends across the once green and flourishing fields and farmland that had stretched out to the south of Myrin’s Keep. Now, however, it was an endless expanse of destruction and churned to mud with large scars and scorch marks to mark evidence of a battle on a much grander scale ...
2025-09-14 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAli smiled. She had been surprised and delighted to discover the strange interaction between her mentor’s enchantment and her mana sight that had allowed her to see the ghostly outline of Azryet’s awareness, but she knew exactly what it meant. His followers were quite dear to him, and she had been certain he would want to he...
2025-09-13 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAli stood as everyone prepared to continue, their mood light and excited now that they were heading toward the shrine. “Ok, everyone out, I need to protect the Landing.” She needed them to vacate the area for what she was about to do.
The two raid groups of adventurers filed out, readying their weapons. The sounds of s...
2025-09-12 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Ali stepped through the doorway, her domain came with her, a roaring, hungry tide that consumed everything before her. Giant rope-like cables of pure arcane mana lashed outward, slicing through the domain of the Blooming Rot dungeon like a spear through rotting fruit. It exploded. Detonations from annihilating mana rippled ...
2025-09-11 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAli stepped through the rift and into a scene of utter destruction. The walls, ceiling, and presumably the floor too, were all covered with the putrid Fungal Creep, and she could sense her dungeon rage growing as her domain mana began to spill through the rift itself. The floor was covered with a deep layer of broken and smashed...
2025-09-10 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post“Impossible!” Maalgaroth roared, crashing to his knees and landing in the giant crater caused by thousands upon thousands of Malika’s strikes. The impact of his huge body shook the entire chamber, setting boulders falling from the roof, bouncing away as they shattered on the ground.
A soft chime soun...
2025-09-09 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostAli staggered, dropping to her knees as she struggled with waves of nausea from the advanced stages of the corruption that kept mounting despite the valiant efforts of her kobold acolytes. Worse, she was now beset with the additional agony of dungeon rage as she tore at the domain with her newest skill advancement, battling, scr...
2025-09-08 14:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostHold on, Ali! We’re coming, Malika thought as she waded through the crawling sea of writhing plant monsters, exploding Creep Spores, and lashing thorny whip vines. She lashed out with a blur of speed, her fist delivering her blue-white Soul Strike to the gnarled, thrashing cluster of branches trying to scrape her face o...
2025-09-07 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAli frowned, surveying the desolate burning wasteland that was all that remained of the chamber with the rift. It was still there, the rift. The sealed cracks were clearly visible to her mana sight, but the area was now brimming with the domain mana of the Lair of the Demon God, and lording himself over the chamber was the proud...
2025-09-06 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostSabri slashed downward with her sword, but it glanced off the thick, resilient hide of the Fungaloth Ravager, barely doing any damage at all. She frowned in frustration. They were deep underground now, more than halfway through the mines, but it looked nothing like it used to. Instead of arid hot air with the Landing being a home t...
2025-09-05 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Um, I don’t understand,” Ali finally admitted, staring at the immense Shrine of the Calamity.
Azryet let out a rumble, circling the shrine almost protectively, and said, “After a certain level, the shrine unlocks more potent abilities that require spending your experience to use, much like some advanced crafting s...
2025-09-04 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostMato made his way slowly through the forest, leaving the main living areas of the refugee camp for the quieter grove on the outskirts favored by Zor’kan. The forest was silent, a mute testament to the continuous clanging, screaming, and detonations of magic of every kind that had long driven all the wildlife in the area away to se...
2025-09-03 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Watch out! Healers in the back!”
Malika heard Calen’s urgent shout and snapped her eyes toward the dark forest. Soul Sight didn’t necessarily require her to look in that direction, but she was constantly running her Infinite Perception eye magic, and the moment she caught sight of them, she saw stamina among the tre...
2025-09-02 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post