“Prancer cannot get a single heal in as Veyra cancels Wisp Of Healing for a second time!” Artonis’s voice roared over the arena. “The Celestial Order are trying to deal with Veyra using minimal mana, and that’s backfiring! Miko is forced to cast Warlock’s Territory on Veyra, giving no assistance to Annath!”
Next to Anna, The ...
2026-01-20 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“The grinder’s production has slowed due to excessive monster attacks from runaway storms.”
Letters appeared on the thick wooden board in front of Shilman Fried, a machine that its inventor had named…
What was the name again… Shilman thought. His memory hadn’t been very good lately.
Ah, right, it w...
2026-01-19 08:00:15 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m so sorry,” Veyra said. “Really, I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
The Emerald Aurora was white and green, with colors that I’d never seen on Veyra. Its silky fabric could only belong to a support mage. Veyra wasn’t in her element at all wearing it...
2026-01-17 08:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Ideally, the next group of goons that visit should get knocked out silently.” Cael faced Lortel calmly. “Death also works if it’s without rips or blood on their clothes. I don’t have any qualms killing Shilman’s goons. Can you do that?”
Lortel remained hesitant. Cael tried his best to appear as neutral as possible, to not ru...
2026-01-16 08:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Honestly, I didn’t think you were the type of person to wait like this.”
The storm clouds raged with thunder below, while the silhouettes of two dragons fought in the far distance. I’d sat next to Annath for at least five minutes now, most of that passing in silence. Miko and Prancer had stood awkwardly by the side, until they dec...
2026-01-15 08:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostShilman showed up for another checkup two days later, demanding to see the finished enhancement string in action.
“Of course!” Vivi said with a smile, eager to show him all the “progress” she’d made. She picked up the enhancement string of fourteen pieces of ether roots on her table. “As mentioned, the ether root has been cut i...
2026-01-14 08:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostSix Years Ago
“What, another fire mage?” Vasili asked with clear disapproval, his arms crossed. “Why? Who’s this little girl?”
Annath and her new guild, The Celestial Order, assembled at the entrance of the Soul Dimension, a level 151 S-ranked dungeon that Annath hoped was the final location of Arc...
2026-01-13 08:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostVivi knew she could still make a case for herself. Liaf hadn’t caught her faking anything. He just didn’t know what an enhancement string was. And thus, he also wouldn’t know that Vivi was not making one.
“It would make sense you haven’t heard of it,” Vivi said, “considering I’m the one who invented it less than a month ago...
2026-01-12 08:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostI climbed out of the warm-up pod and found that the lights had been turned off, replaced with LEDs. Everyone was quiet with only four people besides us remaining. Two security guards, one for each entrance. Helena, who stood next to Veyra and Aree, and one more organizer sitting by a computer setup with a headset on.
Three minutes. All tha...
2026-01-10 08:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostFor her first night in the smithy, Vivi actually crafted what she was supposed to.
Well, that wasn’t exactly correct. Vivi had no idea how she would craft something to launch a god to the sun, if that was even possible at all. But Shilman didn’t know either, and Vivi knew a lot of jargon. She could definitely create a showcase to “pr...
2026-01-09 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe entry instructions told us to arrive at the venue an hour early. The rest of the instructions were much simpler. We weren’t given detailed routes or door numbers to enter a backstage area. The message I’d received merely told me to show up at the venue’s player reception, where I’d first received my competitor’s pass. Veyra and I w...
2026-01-08 08:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostVivi zapped awake an unknown time later inside a musty and cave-like smithy. Or more precisely, a traditional outside-carving runesmith’s workstation.
There was an L-shaped table with a sword vise, with a neat display of carving knives and conductive paste. The room reminded her of Rensfig’s workstation back in Zand—the one in Ven’...
2026-01-07 08:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe night passed so insanely slowly. Not that I wasn’t accustomed to rolling around in bed, unable to sleep. I’d missed dozens of hours of sleep I should have gotten during the last few months.
Tonight in my dark hotel room was different though. Only a small part of my restlessness came from me crushing on Veyra. I was still worried ab...
2026-01-06 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostQuestions immediately popped up in Vivi’s head. Most stemmed from her lack of knowledge. Shilman Fried studied her reaction, waiting for her to say something, while Vivi sat and thought.
She hadn’t heard of Freimar before now. Lucius hadn’t told her much about fifth elevation hunters, and she hadn’t studied, which was a mistake in ...
2026-01-05 08:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostFireBrand was Norwegian, but he spoke English as fluently as any native speaker. Fluency with the language was common for a lot of Wonderwind players, especially for guild leaders of international guilds, of which Zenith Protocol was the most famous of all.
The other Zenith Protocol members seemed amused by the situation, while I thought o...
2026-01-03 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHow does he know our names? was Vivi’s first panicked thought. She was ready to open her void core if it came to a fight, but the archmage hadn’t taken a step closer, and his aura was still calm.
“I don’t know, I don’t knowIdontknow!” Lucius said in a panic. “Should we run?”
Vivi didn’t re...
2026-01-02 08:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostEven though they discussed strategies for the full five minutes, SoulShadow’s team of three assassins could, in fact, not defeat us.
They tried to dive Veyra as a team of three. She responded as we had practiced, by leaving a [Chronorift] underneath herself before simply portaling next to me. I protected her until her portal came off of ...
2026-01-01 08:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostSo Shilman Fried is the only potential enemy who’s strong enough to fight us, and he’s also the only one who can teleport us home.
“Most likely,” Lucius said. “But if Adalene traps us with her troops, it will also be problematic.”
The Queen’s hellish palace revealed more grand courtyards and h...
2025-12-31 08:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostOver the next day, we climbed all the way to the very top of the losers’ bracket, defeating Eon Covenant in the losers’ semi-finals two to one.
Eon Covenant was the first opponent to take a match from us besides Annath. I failed a perfect block in the first round, leading to me being crushed to death by their barbarian player. Veyra tr...
2025-12-30 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostA large gathering of knights and extravagantly dressed servants received them outside. More knights in runic armor, a few crossbow-wielding dark-skinned demons, even two robed figures with runic staves—the type Ellinoir Sylva used to shoot projectiles of concentrated ether. Vivi could have probably still defeated the whole convoy if s...
2025-12-29 08:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostHenrift and his buddies showed up backstage with energy drinks in hand. He hadn’t signed up to fight with his guild, instead signing up with two friends, Serasinner and TeemoMain, both top fifty players from Syntrix. They laughed loudly at a joke, everyone in good spirits, until Henrift spotted me. He walked up.
“We’re both unlucky, ...
2025-12-27 08:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostA tall trunk of black aspen grew tall from the mountain. Many of its leafless branches had snapped, probably from Vivi hitting the levelstone just now, and the remaining twigs didn’t offer much shade. The tall sky of red stone didn’t have bright facets, nor daylight gems. Instead, streams of bright ethereal lava lit the level all the way to ...
2025-12-26 08:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor note: Merry Christmas!
The image of Annath’s face kept me annoyed for an hour, until it was time to walk back to the warm-up pods before our next match. Soon enough on the same day, I found myself backstage once again, fifteen minutes early, waiting for Veyra and our next match.
I scrolled the forums...
2025-12-25 08:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostRemembering the way up to the levelstone wall was nearly impossible. Vivi tried to memorize the turns they took, following Drean, but placing anything into memory in these monotone caverns was too difficult. The spirits knew it naturally, having solidified the route in their core memories, never to be forgotten.
Their combat strategies see...
2025-12-24 08:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostI’d applied four stacks of evisceration. Not nearly enough to kill Annath, especially not if I landed my crit against her helmet. I’d need to land a vital hit on open skin if I wanted to one-shot her, which would be impossible, considering she was fully covered in metal.
I didn’t activate [Eviscerate] to kill her. I did it because
Vivi missed runesmithing. She’d been away from her crochet hook for weeks now. Not quite as long of a break as she had when she got stuck in the blight, but she still craved to get back to her old routine of smashing her head against four-runed attempts until she slowly got closer to a successful attempt.
Shame, that she wasn’t even cr...
2025-12-22 08:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe fight started slowly, with Annath and I both slowly approaching each other. She walked with smug calmness on her face, as if she was merely putting on a show. She equipped her helmet, held her sword with two hands, and went into stance.
With a smooth hop, she activated [Sword Dance]. Her sword flowed behind her, winding up a slow atta...
2025-12-20 08:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI need to create the strongest projectile possible, Vivi thought the next morning, when the facets started were just brightening.
It didn’t need to be pretty. It didn’t need to be accurate or practical. It just needed to be dangerous enough to cause harm to an impenetrable wall. Vivi thought she had a good idea on how she’d ...
2025-12-19 08:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostVeyra: “Please don’t get me flustered today, you cute idiot >.> I won’t be opening my phone, cya on stage.”
That was the only text Veyra sent me the next day, and she was true to her word, staying offline all the way until 1pm.
Despite that, I stared at my phone like an idiot, re-reading the te...
2025-12-18 08:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“You two built this?” Alda gushed at their little bloomery currently smelting asmite.
The facets were losing their light. In the dark, the bloomery looked like a cute little clay chimney, sizzling and shining with white misty ether. Clay was a conductive material, but it wasn’t very good at containing ether, making ...
2025-12-17 08:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post