Welp. I guess it’s safe to say Nyx’s workshop is absolutely, completely, not remotely intact after all. Erebus really didn’t leave anything at all, did she?
(Well…) my Assistant trails off.
Well what?
(I have an idea. Pick up these fabric scraps and channel them some mana. If you re...
2023-12-30 01:35:27 +0000 UTC View PostAfter I’ve given Pyrias long enough to really take in my ashy dusty cloudy majesty, I reuse the Skill and restore my physical form, ahem, fully clothed.
(Yeah, I told you so,) Nyx says.
She’d previously made me spend travel time practicing moving clothes from my dimensional storage directly o...
2023-12-30 01:35:00 +0000 UTC View PostI’m… just going to ignore the nonsense for now and assume this is something, uh, maybe Erebus did?
(Let’s just go with that,) Nyx sighs and points at one of the teleporter pads. (You want that one. Gramr.)
I step onto the platform she indicated, and feel myself dissipate again.
Shortly after, I reform ...
2023-12-30 01:34:30 +0000 UTC View Post[Status]
[Name: Nemesis]
[Race: Dust Elemental (Infant, Spirit, Ephemeral)]
[SYSTEM: TYPE E – Level 11 – XP 1420/12000]
[Inherent Skills:]
[Consume 12]
&...
2023-12-30 01:33:55 +0000 UTC View PostHuh? Whaddayamean I can’t farm ghost traps anymore!? I can’t even get in one!
(It’s in the name,) replies Nyx.
Wait... it’s race-specific?
(That’s exactly what I’m saying.)
Wonderful. Well, I guess I don’t have a reason to hang around this settlement anymore.
(None at all?)
No...
2023-12-30 01:32:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe trip back to the underground – wait, is this the ground? Under surface? Below surface? Whatever, anyway, it’s uneventful. I didn’t even run into my pets along the way, I’m sure they’ve wandered off and will be easy enough to find if I need them again.
(Either that or they’ve run f...
2023-12-30 01:31:54 +0000 UTC View PostAfter securing my unconscious cargo in a proper location (ok, so I dumped them in a nearby alley, I’m sure they’re fine), I let myself in the front door. It’s convenient having a safe house, isn’t it?
(Less talk, more feeding Philip,) my impatient Assistant answers.
Well, fine. Good news,...
2023-12-30 01:31:06 +0000 UTC View PostI’ve been sifting through my surprisingly normal Class options for some time when Nyx interrupts my fun.
(Philip has been waiting long enough, we need to go back.)
So you can dote on him?
(Be fair. You get hungry too. He’s probably running out of food by now. Nobody else is coming home for him.)
Wh...
2023-12-30 01:29:41 +0000 UTC View PostMost of the decisions I’ve faced in this life, or, unlife? Undeath? Whatever. They’ve been fairly straightforward. Eat the human, or be hungry? Break the barrier, or be trapped? Feed the cat, or… well, or Nyx will keep bothering me until I do. Yeah, that’s probably how it’d go.
(You’r...
2023-12-30 01:29:09 +0000 UTC View PostThis guy really can talk, can’t he? Does he have like, a special evolution where he doesn’t have to breathe?
(He’s probably another Spirit type,) my Assistant offers.
“-And the twenty-seventh most recent recorded case of a sentient item, that being the radiant blade Netherbane, said to have bee...
2023-12-30 01:28:28 +0000 UTC View PostI’ll admit it, I’m bored. We’ve been walking for four days and we haven’t found a single thing for me to eat. My companions of the green persuasion haven’t exactly been good conversation partners either, so I’ve had to make my own entertainment. Granted, considering the entire journey so fa...
2023-12-30 01:27:53 +0000 UTC View PostI must be doing something right, because after a week and a half of routinely ‘cleaning’ the settlement’s ghost traps, Nerin appears to have finally accepted my presence. If nothing else, they’re not constantly radiating fear when I’m present – or, not at as much anyway. In the process I’...
2023-12-30 01:27:13 +0000 UTC View PostIt occurs to me as I pull myself out from the most recent of seventeen separate ghost traps that if I actually did have a mortal body, I’d be exceedingly tired by now. For all its drawbacks, being a spirit can be pretty convenient. I’m not really sure what to do next though, since my circuit around...
2023-12-30 01:26:18 +0000 UTC View PostAfter weathering Nyx’s flaming tirade about openly declaring to an unknown and probably untrustworthy party that I’m going to be vulnerable for some period of time, I take her advice and wave goodbye to Nerin for the time being to return topside. I am absolutely convinced that it isn’t related to...
2023-12-30 01:24:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe round vegetables the shopkeeper had been holding hit the ground, making a soft thud. Deciding to freeze, are you? Some predators might be fooled, but I’m not ‘some predators’.
Yes, you.
“W-who… what do you want?” they reply, while slowly beginning to turn toward me.
After what must have been another solid hour of Nyx attempting to dote on the Philip (despite she herself stating that she’s intangible), my patience finally runs out. Sure doesn’t help that I’m starting to feel a strange ache, and I can’t quite figure out what or where exactly is aching.
I reform. Teleportation never really feels better, but I’m at least getting used to what I can only describe as being torn apart and pieced back together. Meanwhile, all around me is darkness. Did the teleporter malf-
(You’re in a dark room.)
Oh.
(Yeah, ‘oh’. Maybe look for...
2023-12-30 01:21:09 +0000 UTC View Post[Status]
[Name: Nemesis]
[Race: Manaphage (Spirit, Ephemeral)]
[SYSTEM: TYPE E – Level 0 – XP 620/1000]
[Inherent Skills:]
[Charm 0]
&n...
2023-12-30 01:20:15 +0000 UTC View PostWalls of gray bricks surround me when my senses return, a stark contrast from the sterile white and runic steel of the facility that served as my prison for hells know how long. Beneath me stands a similar platform to the one that brought me here. I’m no more sure of where I am now than I was before,...
2023-12-30 01:18:53 +0000 UTC View PostJust when I think these hallways are never going to end, I find a far more secured door than the others. At least I assume it’s more secure, given all the runes washing across it like a barrier.
(Yup, barrier,) Nyx confirms.
Well, what now? I’ve been traveling dematerialized since it’...
2023-12-30 01:18:02 +0000 UTC View Post(Short answer? No, not even close!) Nyx replies nonchalantly. She seems to pick up on my mental brow furrowing though. (I mean come on, the only reason you even have arms or legs right now is because what’s left of your mind is so used to having a human body that you’re subconsciously manifesting o...
2023-12-30 01:17:22 +0000 UTC View PostGradually, I come to. My head is splitting, but hopefully whatever is happening is done.
(For now, sure. First bit is the worst, but ascension is pretty well pain in general, I’d start getting used to it.)
She’s sitting on the edge of the table, kicking her feet in the air and looking generally bored.
Th...
2023-12-30 01:16:26 +0000 UTC View PostDarkness. My awareness offers nothing but flashes of motion, color. And the all-encompassing numbness, filling my thoughts, my mind. For a split second, I see a splash of something… red? And then it hits… the hunger.
“You wanted this.”
Honeyed words, in a voice even richer.
I just linked this to my RoyalRoad since I'm writing a fic there now (For the Record). Once I have enough of a buffer built up for it to make any kind of sense I might add another tier on here for folks to get advance chapters, we'll see.
2023-10-12 03:33:38 +0000 UTC View Post
