The cries of an infant leaked through the heavy set door and out into the dark, candle lit hallway. There were voices within the maternity ward, Lucia could make out proud and confident tones of her father, the weary congratulations of the nurses, and the exhausted, but overjoyed laughter of her step mother.
She shi...
2024-05-31 07:24:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
The uproar of the arena crowd made continuing the quadriad for the day an unlikely prospect. A hundred voices all yelled questions or stood to run off and find somebody who may have an answer. An ageing couple two rows above where Leif and the others were sitting were spewing panic into the air, their flaring fear and confusion a constant tappin...
2024-05-29 08:19:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Zane Low closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. He pictured in his mind's eye the courtyard before him, the fifty wooden training dummies, their limbs bobbing slightly in the wind. He exhaled, and every dummy was beheaded at once. The resulting sound was like a dozen coconut trees all giving up at the same time, their life's work c...
2024-05-26 07:29:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
The history of the Mekrys empire was an interesting, if highly embellished read. The empire, a collection of provinces bordered large swaths of three, interconnected, seas. The Rien, the largest and most western of the three seas, was what Leif had flown over, then sailed through to reach the academy. The Loriet, the central and smallest of the ...
2024-05-24 06:26:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
The seaborn mist was still rolling over the archipelago as Leif stepped through the portal arch, seamlessly teleporting from one hub building to another in less than a breath. Three guards turned at his approach, though they otherwise ignored him as he marched past. There were few students around this early in the morning, but Leif was hardl...
2024-05-22 07:15:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter Prescript:
Sorry for the day late chapter, its a revolving door of illness at the moment.
Anyway, here's the chapter, hope you enjoy!
===
The living room was spacious, though the stacks of paper and piles of books littering every available surface made the room feel cramped. Marcus laughed, rubbing the bac...
2024-05-20 07:02:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Leif stared up at the shadowy ceiling of the underground training chamber, feeling as something inside him snapped back into place. He couldn’t feel pain, it wasn’t something his body was physiologically capable of, though he could intellectually understand, and instinctively detect damage to his form. His pride, limited as it was, could be ...
2024-05-17 06:14:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Leif stared up into the grinning face of the eighth Blade, feeling the temperature in the large stone room slowly drop, though not from anything Mouric was doing. Despite the man’s ice powers, the cause of the drop in temperature was Sieg, who was nervously releasing puffs of icy mist from his hands as he flexed and clenched his fingers...
2024-05-15 08:19:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter Prescript:
Sorry about the delay, I've been a bit busy lately.
Enjoy the chapter!
===
Leif was about to leave his seat and return to the library, when the sands below were finally cleared of ice. Large sections of the arena were filled with muddy, blackened detritus from the earlier fight b...
2024-05-13 07:05:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Mouric Voknar! And his opponent, the seventh Blade: Daniella Low! The inevitability of ice clashes with the fury of steel and flame!” The announcer roared, riling up the crowd much as he had done during the previous day. Leif was buffeted by the cascade of noise that washed over him and the arena.
Much like the last time Le...
2024-05-10 08:17:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
Leif, Hera and Melissa sat in silence within the living room of the apartment turned Blade residence. Night had fallen, bringing with it an sea born mist that rolled over the archipelago like an ethereal blanket. Lucia and Royce had been given a guest room, and from the pattern of their vitality Leif could tell both were asleep.
...
2024-05-08 07:30:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
The carriage pulled up a gentle slope, the well greased wheels and stable suspension making the journey comfortable, if slow. Leif found it strange knowing where his occasional buds of insight on the construction of wagons and carts were originating from, and it was stranger still that those small snippets of his memories and former knowledge ha...
2024-05-05 06:49:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Lucia felt cold. Even under the afternoon sun and surrounded by the raucous energy of the arena stadium her limbs felt numb and her skin was clammy. She had witnessed the fight between the tenth and ninth blades of the Academy, but in truth she had seen very little of it. Her gaze had been locked on the woman with golden hair, the point a...
2024-05-03 07:56:45 +0000 UTC
View Post
“It’s starting! It’s starting!” Roy said, bouncing from foot to foot. “We need to get inside!”
“Patience Roy, we’re at the front of the line.” Lucia said, placing a comforting hand on her younger brother’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe you have an Academy token!” Ella wa...
2024-05-01 06:46:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chapter Prescript:
It is both hilarious, and very frustrating, that the day after I announce that I will be increasing my writing speed I get sick.
Anyway, this was written a few days ago. But I feel like death so I'll probably be going to sleep after I post this.
Hope you enjoy!
===
The ex...
2024-04-28 06:48:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
“And this is the Pellus public bathhouse. You might be able to tell from the architecture that the building predates the rest of the town by several centuries. Usually the older structures that predate the Academy are used by the Academy, but this is one of the few exceptions.” Their first year student guide explained, leading Leif and the t...
2024-04-26 08:30:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
Lucia awoke for the first time in what felt like an eternity without the sharp tang of hunger nor the everpresent, bone deep ache that had been a constant tag along for the past year. The rocking of the ship and the warmth of the blankets threatened to lull her back to sleep, and a part of her mind, a part she had thought long dead and buried, w...
2024-04-24 06:21:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
The pervasive dampness in the tight confines of the lower decks made Royce feel as though the world was pressing down on him. His chest tightened and gunk oozed its way into his windpipe. Even at eight years of age he knew how dire his situation was. Lucia told him he was alright, that everything would be okay. He loved his sister, he truly ...
2024-04-21 07:26:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
Lucia put her head down and worked until her knuckles were raw and her fingers ached with exertion. The dishes, plain creations of carved wood kept piling up before her, accumulating faster than she could clean. Lucia grit her teeth, and kept going. She didn’t stop when the restaurant owner started screaming at her and the other youths to go f...
2024-04-19 06:45:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
The sky skimmer didn’t have individual rooms below deck. Instead it was a wide open space between the reinforced hull and the deck above, the distance between both forced both Leif and the taller passengers and crew to duck, but only slightly. The ‘room’ was segmented not by walls, but by hanging cloth, with over half the space being fille...
2024-04-17 06:32:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
Nikolas sat within his spacious and well decorated office. His boots were kicked up onto the desk before him, his chair tilted back as he read through the last of the day's reports. Acquisition forms, personal records, monster activity and dungeon access permits were organised into neat piles. It amused him how his younger self would have hated ...
2024-04-14 07:19:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
Ram didn’t like cities. He didn’t like towns either, or villages for that matter. Sure, he’d spent much of his early, unintelligent life on the outskirts of northern settlements, but he had never grown to appreciate them. But watching one be built? Now that was interesting.
“Uhhh, revered ancestor, sir. Are you sur...
2024-04-12 06:02:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
This chapter has no content other than a full character sheet overview. I recommend bookmarking it so you can reference Leif’s skills easily.
===
Name: Leif Vin
Race: Scion of Aeons
Age: 12
Awaiting manifestation: Emblem
Attributes:
2024-04-10 07:24:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
You have selected [Charisma] as the beneficiary attribute for the +30% bonus! Confirm? Y/N
Leif confirmed the prompt, the space around him seeming to ripple as his aura flexed from the sudden rush of power. His [Charisma], after the ten percent increase from the advancement trial and now the additional th...
2024-04-10 07:16:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
Leif stared at the figure made of crimson light, a sketch of a smile stretched across their otherwise undetailed face. “Who- or what are you?” He said, both on guard and alert at the figures' sudden appearance.
“Hmmm, little me? Give it a few seconds, you’ll remember. I think so at least.” The red ghost said, its smile...
2024-04-07 06:07:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
It didn’t feel real, and perhaps, maybe, that was because it wasn’t. Could the system really know? How accurate were these projected futures? Were they divergent realities somehow split from the main path at specific points in time? Or were they merely illusions meant to test his character and nature? Leif wanted to be sick, he felt hallowed...
2024-04-05 06:33:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Leif stared down at the shattered remains of the Noble, the tiny shards of crystal reflecting light that didn’t exist within the empty world of the trial. Was that supposed to happen? He wondered. Or was he just that fragile? Was the simulated ego really so weak, so easy to break?
Glass crunched,...
2024-04-03 07:17:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
Leif’s golden eyes flickered between the four versions of himself the system had created, trying to wrap his head around just what he was seeing. He had said it outloud already, but he truly didn’t understand how any of the people before him were possible. Is the system twisting things? Exaggerating to create a more challenging en...
2024-03-31 07:43:49 +0000 UTC
View Post
Commencing advancement trial!
Experience the paths in life you did not walk!
Passing this trial will break the level 50 bottleneck and allow for further advancement!
Good luck!
The world shifted back into focus, the unreality of the system space gi...
2024-03-29 07:25:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
There was a quiet rumble to the streets of Ahle-ho, the way people moved from building to building, their steps quick and their heads down as if to ward off misfortune by speed and subtlety. The number of people had risen like the tide, then ebbed down into a trickle. Thousands of refugees had been relocated to what was being dubbed as Ah...
2024-03-27 06:14:11 +0000 UTC
View Post