The naïve part of me that stubbornly persisted even after experiencing the apocalypse twice was disappointed when the four men attacked. As soon as they realized their charges were no longer in their care, the men acted.
They didn’t bother to ask questions or gain clarification. Seeing the former Springhearts no long...
2024-06-04 00:39:32 +0000 UTC View PostWe barely had time to recognize our surroundings as the central village of the fifth floor before the dungeon moved us to a new location. I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to take advantage of the village’s amenities before being shunted into the local zones, but with the war going on, I hadn’t expected anything...
2024-05-30 22:08:46 +0000 UTC View Post“How familiar are you with agreements like the one Chao signed?” I asked Zavira during dinner a little more than a year after the start of the war.
The Force Smith looked up from her plate of MealMaker pasta with a curious expression. “Not very,” she admitted. “I learned about them when I attended my sect’s ...
2024-05-27 19:30:29 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Emie goes through a bit of a perception shift in this chapter. There's quite a bit of a time skip involved. Two, actually. I hope it's not too rough.
Also, someone recently pointed out that the numbers for Emie's stats don't quite add up. They were absolutely right.
I...
2024-05-23 21:04:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you ready for the war?” I asked Zavira as I entered her apartment for once.
We’d both gotten messages from our mentors the week prior letting us know about the limited alliance that had been struck between several sects to deal with the revelations pertaining to the Springheart family and their actio...
2024-05-21 00:49:56 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Edited 6/13/24 to support book 2 changes.
“So it’s decided?” Matriarch Potestetiam asked expectantly as she looked at the other patriarchs, matriarchs, and sect representatives attending the holo conference.
Patriarch Henlen Kairos signaled his assent silently. He’d only been invited ...
2024-05-16 19:26:06 +0000 UTC View PostI repeated my interrogation several times, approaching the young Springheart in a variety of different ways to gauge his response. He was always bound and mostly stripped, so there was little risk involved on my part aside from my mental health.
Surprisingly, the eighteen-year-old was more than happy to brag and threate...
2024-05-14 02:38:59 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you like reading it.
It took me several minutes to calm down after I arrived in my apartment. Once I got over the initial adrenaline rush associated with a near-death experience, I spent a few moments considering how to deal with my would-be assassin as...
2024-05-09 17:15:49 +0000 UTC View PostA/N 6/13/24: The book 2 changes voted on have not been fully applied to book 3 chapters. I will be working on that shortly. If something stands out, please let me know! Thanks to all who voted!
“You should watch out for the Springheart family,” Zavira said without prompting as we made our way throug...
2024-05-06 19:54:09 +0000 UTC View PostOf all the creatures I had to fight in the Realm Dungeon thus far, the crabs in the playroom were by far what I would consider the most ‘normal.’ Aside from having four claws instead of two, they looked almost exactly like oversized King Crabs with their thick, spiky appendages.
I couldn’t wait to see how they tas...
2024-05-03 02:37:19 +0000 UTC View PostI'm tentatively going with 'The Approach of Dawn: Primer for the Apocalypse Book Two' as the title for the second book. Of course, I'll have to change the character's name in the early chapters of Book 3, but she's not a significant character anyway... cough.
If you have better ideas (and don't mind me using th...
2024-04-30 01:18:03 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a lot more preparation needed before entering the underwater zone than there was for the others. The most important was ensuring the ability to breathe underwater since, even at Tier Four, humans and most other humanoid races could not hold their breath indefinitely.
I was tempted to craft something to solve t...
2024-04-29 19:45:11 +0000 UTC View PostUpon arrival, I immediately extended Spatial Sense, focusing primarily on our immediate surroundings. I made sure to look for anything strange, like gaps in my perception, but the only things close by were normal mobs.
“There are mobs nearby,” I whispered, motioning toward the closest creatures I’d sensed...
2024-04-25 19:57:34 +0000 UTC View PostI sat back in relief as I finished the last of the talismans I planned to get done for the night. I stuck with the design I’d already proven worked against Spatial Locks, though I planned to try again against Null Fields before too long.
After Niall left, I had talked to Zavira a...
2024-04-22 23:29:57 +0000 UTC View Post“Do you think it will work this time?” Zavira asked as I stepped out of my apartment a couple of weeks after my near-death experience.
I’d told her what happened with the locusmander, and after hearing how the creature had completely negated my ability to Teleport away, Zavira had whole-heartedly supported my desi...
2024-04-18 20:44:19 +0000 UTC View PostI entered Zavira’s apartment three days later and was unsurprised to find she was still busy working on new projects with the ore we’d collected.
The workshop she’d set up in the spare room of her apartment was almost like my crafting pod, except hers was shaped like a box instead of an oval, filling the otherwise...
2024-04-16 05:10:05 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: I often use dinosaur naming conventions (AKA a mix of Greek and Latin) when naming creatures. Ferruvenator roughly translates to Iron Hunter (Ferrum= Iron and venator= Hunter.) Just a little tidbit of random information.
“Is there a reason we aren’t just Teleporting back to the...
2024-04-11 15:25:48 +0000 UTC View PostUnlike the rest of the Alliance, sects did not dress primarily based on their affinity. Instead, they dressed based on their sect colors, using their affinity colors as accents. Usually, it amounted to the same thing since sects were largely element-based. However, that was not always the case.
Some sects focused on spe...
2024-04-09 02:25:22 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to the 4th Floor of the Realm Dungeon!
The rules remain unchanged:
Do not attack anyone within the village.
Do not restrict another challenger’s access to the kiosk.
Upon reaching Tie...
2024-04-04 19:58:45 +0000 UTC View Post
“Alright, I guess this is goodbye, for now,” I told Aiden after I finished selling the Tier Three items that I no longer had a use for.
I’d already defeated each of the zone bosses once before I tiered up. Now, I just needed to defeat one of them again, and I’d be able to leave the floor for good. Aiden was stil...
2024-04-01 23:45:31 +0000 UTC View PostThe Patriarch of the Epikairos Sect watched as his first personal disciple in nearly five centuries methodically killed the group of bandits who’d dared attack her. She’d given them two opportunities to leave in peace, which was gracious, in his opinion.
He was elated to have made it in time to witness such a moment...
2024-03-29 04:54:25 +0000 UTC View PostI felt conflicted about my reward.
I’d gone through each of the Trial’s variations before picking one and practicing it a few times. I went with the first path I’d tried only because it was skewed more heavily toward mazes – mazes that didn’t change between runs and weren’t all that difficult to memorize. 2024-03-25 21:09:56 +0000 UTC View Post
We decided to wait a couple of months to challenge the Trial, mostly to allow Faith to gain a couple of levels and assign her points somewhere other than Intelligence. After being knocked out with a single blow, she’d realized the error of being a glass cannon in real life and was eager to shore up some of her more blatant ...
2024-03-21 22:50:34 +0000 UTC View Post“You know, I totally forgot you were mostly an Enchanter in the game,” Faith commented after our second encounter in the frozen zone. Like my previous fights, I relied heavily on enchanted accessories and tools. Even the spells I cast were run through an enhancement foci.
“I’m mostly an Enchanter in real life, t...
2024-03-18 20:36:17 +0000 UTC View PostAdding something to the kiosk to sell was simple – especially when it registered as a book. It seemed I was not the first challenger to want to publish a book of some sort, and the dungeon already had an established process for both intra-dungeon publications and those that might be sold outside of the dungeon.
Books ...
2024-03-14 21:21:39 +0000 UTC View PostMy timeless moment was interrupted as the reverberations of an [Interdiction] rippled by. I could feel the echoes in the nearby mana from Time magic being forcibly countered, and I immediately winced. I’d experienced the backlash from an interdiction during my training with Master Kairos, so I had little doubt Faith was ree...
2024-03-11 21:32:26 +0000 UTC View PostWithout a variety of enchantments, the swamp zone would have been miserable. I had little doubt that the residents of the floor would have completely ignored the zone if doing so wouldn’t have led to quasi-beast waves.
I’d been surprised the first time I saw one, having believed the dungeon balanced the zones. After...
2024-03-07 21:00:24 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Anita was right.
It took three weeks to find the hot springs. I’d started to think it might be in a different zone by that point, so I was surprised and pleased when Spatial Sense alerted me to the hidden oasis.
Had it been a normal, mundane(ish) hot spring, there would be no...
2024-03-04 22:08:45 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: This interlude would go after chapter 45 and answers some of the questions posed by commenters. Specifically, it addresses what happened to the stalker - Xavier.
“What the hell is that dude’s problem?” Jarrid asked in annoyance as he lounged on the beach. Some of the others had been ups...
2024-03-04 22:01:09 +0000 UTC View PostHaving finished the first prototype of Jackle’s prosthetic during my time in the ‘wilds,’ I decided to go to the central village instead of Trinity when the external message exchange drew near. To keep my new friends from worrying, I sent a few messages letting them know my plans. I was quite surprised when my Kastet ne...
2024-03-01 18:50:18 +0000 UTC View Post
