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B2 Chapter 169: Commute, Finale
Crossing open fields that were gradually shifting into light woods, Kaius walked with his team. His eyes roved over the various clusters of trees that dominated the flat horizon, searching their depths for any sign of beasts that might challenge them.While there were plenty of them about, it seemed ...
B2 Chapter 168: Commute pt. 3
Blinking rapidly to clear the blinding afterimage that cut across his vision like a streak of white paint, Kaius looked back to where the corpse of the bramble ball had fallen. No longer hidden by the overwhelming brilliance of Ianmus’s working, he got a good look at the destruction his friend’s...
B2 Chapter 167: Commute pt. 2
Kaius drew his blade in a moment, smokey crystal edges catching the light. His eyes snapped to the source of the voice, seeing the lead caravan guard staring off to the right of the caravan.What had caught the man's attention was immediately evident. Some twisted entity, more gnarled ball of fla...
B2 Chapter 166: Commute pt. 1
The next few days were a flurry of activity. Right after leaving the guild they returned to the Dusty Stables for a quick visit, getting Ianmus set up in a far smaller room on the same floor he was in. Ianmus, the lucky bastard, only had to pay three copper a night for the pleasure, thanks to both t...
B2 Chapter 165: Deadacre Finale
Getting Ianmus a membership to the guild had been even easier than Kaius had thought it would be.When they’d entered the guild hall, he’d spotted Ro flitting around in the workers section behind the counter, directing people to and fro. Leaning on the powers of his height, he’d managed to wave...
B2 Chapter 164: Deadacre pt. 9
Leaving the artificer’s shop Kaius made his way through Deadacre with Porkchop glued close to his side. It was interesting to watch how the general populace of the wider city’s reaction to them had changed now that they were not fully suited up in their armour.He supposed even if his travelling ...
B2 Chapter 163: Deadacre pt. 8
Kaius let out a sigh of satisfaction, patting his stomach as he walked down the street with Porkchop at his side. He’d decided that Hensch must be a mage, because it was only by actual magic that the food could be that good.Literally, in the case of how invigorating the morning meal had been. It h...
B2 Chapter 162: Deadacre pt. 7
The stairs leading to the entrance to the Dusty Stables were wide things that tracked up the side of the building, shading the various pens that were set into the building at street level.A sign hung over their rise, showing off not just the name of the establishment and its insignia—a crisp paint...
B2 Chapter 161: Deadacre pt. 6
Still sitting in the silence room where he had undergone his interview, Kaius stared at the copper emblem in his hand, before looking back to Ro with a slight frown on his face.“How does it work? I know the emblems are supposed to be representative of our identity and allow us free passage into al...
B2 Chapter 160: Deadacre pt. 5
Sitting at the table with the truthstone in a room enchanted with silence, Ro—the Guild receptionist—smiled at him and waved at the other chair.“Chop chop, we don’t have all day.” she teased.Kaius sighed and walked over to the offered chair, Porkchop following to lay at his feet. Though, w...
B2 Chapter 159: Deadacre pt. 4
Kaius let out a low groan, bent over with his head throbbing like he’d just been smacked upside the head with a blacksmith’s hammer. As soon as the pressure of a dozen different analyse skills pressing his Mask faded, so too did the pain and discomfort.Raw indignation flooded him, mirrored by th...
B2 Chapter 158: Deadacre pt. 3
As Kaius crossed through the gates to Deadacre, the sounds of the city washed over him. The heavy background buzz of chatter and thumping boots, the clack of carts rolling over uneven cobble, and the odd cutting bark of a laugh or crying babe.Overwhelming, sure, but also full of the vitality of life...
B2 Chapter 157: Deadacre pt. 2
Despite the sheer volume of people lining up outside of the city gates, the queue moved surprisingly quickly. It seemed that Deadacre had developed a well built mechanism for efficiently dealing with the dispossessed and weary travellers that had begun to flock to the safety of their walls.With more...
B2 Chapter 156: Deadacre pt. 1
The grass started to die about a league from Deadacre. First it grew pallid and limp, a few tough patches holding on desperately to life while they eked out a meagre existence in rock hard cracked dirt.It took maybe fifteen paces before even that was gone. A stark demarcation, one that encircled the...
B2 Chapter 155: Skill Testing & Arrival
After spending the rest of the day working with Ianmus and Porkchop on Masking, Kaius had gotten better at the strange focus-intensive skill. Somewhat. It was still ruinously fatiguing to falsify his class identifier, though that had gotten a littleeasier as he grew more familiar with the method.Ins...
B2 Chapter 154: Mask
Waking early the next morning with the rising sun, Kaius had set about breaking the fast of their little troupe with a hearty meal of fried potatoes and bacon. Despite everything that had happened, he could see the appeal that artisan classes held to many. In another life, being a cook might have be...
B2 Chapter 153: Absorption
Kaius breathed deep, clenching his fist and concealing the new sigil that was splayed across his palm. Sitting up from his brother's side, he grasped A Father’s Giftby the hilt and lifted it up. Firelight danced across its surface, shimmering like oil across the waves of darkened metal that we...
B2 Chapter 152: Emblem finale
Kaius laid his hands on the flat of the blade, feeling the cold chill of the inscribed steel. Breathing deep, he emptied his mind, allowing himself to come to a slow calm.In tune with his senses, he felt the world.Chill steel, the weight of his armour pressing on the familiar softness of his travell...
B2 Chapter 151: Emblem
Kaius gasped as he chose Initiate’s Glyphic Bladerite, the system's formless power slipping into the confines of his soul space. His soul shone resplendent in his mind's eye, even while his physical ones stayed open, drinking in the green fields of the plains.With deific ease, the power th...
B2 Chapter 150: Acquisitions
Kaius hooted in delight as he saw the notification that his next class skill was available for selection. It amplified the rush, the slowly retreating joy that he always felt as he proved himself the superior fighter and was rewarded for it.Unfortunately, he’d have to wait a little before he check...
B2 Chapter 149: Testing Gains Finale.
The irontusk taking its eyes off his brother to stare at him with wariness proved to be folly. Insistent on keeping as much of the beast's attention on him as possible, Porkchop plunged his claws into the irontusk’s shoulder, tearing a chunk out of its hide.A loud rumbling cry echoed across th...
B2 Chapter 148: Testing Gains Pt. 1
Kaius stood in his saddle, absorbing the shock of Porkchop’s bounding leaps by crouching slightly with every impact.His eyes were trained firmly on the irontusk, watching and waiting for the moment it would notice them with its dulled senses. Explosive anticipation thrummed within him, every singl...
B2 Chapter 147:
With a new companion in tow, they crossed the frontier. As they crossed the rolling, rock-studded, hills that made up the lowlands of the distant mountains, Kaius found that the terror birds had become…something of a local nuisance.While they were rare before, whatever change had occurred during t...
B2 Chapter 146: An Explanation
Ianmus sat on a rounded stone, his hands propped on his knees as he watched the delver-scion work. Kaius, he had said his name was. After the human and his beastly companion had finished the flock, he’d offered a chance to talk.It was hard not to feel like their short walk through the afternoon su...
B2 Chapter 145: Introductions
Standing in a field of cooling corpses, Kaius gave the strange mage a friendly wave. He was still a good ways off, up the hill and far away from the front lines.Even if the man hadn’t fled when he suggested, he’d done his best, and had moved exactly where a backline caster was supposed to be. Ev...
B2 Chapter 144: A Really Bad Day
Ianmus was having a reallybad day. He knew he should have turned back when the system had updated, or at least headed to one of the semi-maintained roads that connected Mystral with the rest of the continent.In his defence, the idea of seeing all of the variant evolutions when animals were shifted t...
B2 Chapter 143: A Stranger In Need
Heavily spiced meat cut into thick strips sizzled as Kaius dropped it into his lard-greased Traveller’s Pan, the heady aroma of cumin filling the air. It was one of the few spices he didknow from his stock, and a powerful enough one that it should do plenty to cover the overly gamey taste of the P...
B2 Chapter 142: Routed
Kaius dashed towards the second hunter that had tried to harass him, bliss and satisfaction pulsing with every beat of his heart.Even with the regenerative power of its Healthand the power of its beastly body, the longfang was in a bad way. Scorched fur revealed boiled flesh, the arcing power of his...
B2 Chapter 141: Roadside Encounter
Astride Porkchop’s back, Kaius took in the rolling hills of the frontier. It was a gorgeous environment, shining with bright green grasses that stretched as far as the eye could see. Rocky outcroppings broke up the landscape, jutting out of the earth every which way.Most were small, but some were ...
B2 Chapter 140: Departure
Kaius sat on the floor of his room in the Stout oak, a veritable cornucopia of items and artefacts arrayed on the ground before him. Porkchop lay across, staring at them all in dismay.They’d had a fast paced, but pleasant few days. It had been a rush of meeting with the various elders, stocking up...
