You sure you don’t want me to join you, boss? Lux asked.
“Bringing a bladebow on the first day of class might send the wrong message,” Dallion replied. Even so, he tucked the Nox dagger in his boot. Some habits were impossible to kick. “You’ll be fine here, Ruby?”
The shardfly didn’t reply.
“You can chat with bowl and shield. I’m sure they’d like i...
2023-01-20 20:42:02 +0000 UTC View Post“I didn’t kill my father!” Celsius shouted in H-Sec’s interview room.
It had been half an hour since the rune carriages had flown myself, Celsius, and his girlfriend to their main office and still he kept sticking to his story. Given the delicate nature of the case, there wasn’t much even H-Sec could outright do due to the nature of Kode’s family NDA situation. Ellcron’s law...
2023-01-19 20:37:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been a while since Dallion had visited the novice administration building in the Learning Hall corridor. The staff seemed rather amused by his new appearance, Dealing Dallion with no choice but to smile and endure being treated as an infant.
“Here you are,” the assistant patted him on the head as she brought a sheet of paper. “Just fill that in. Cheska should be able to help ...
2023-01-19 01:28:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe exam room was in a different part of the novice section. It was rather large, mixing elements of an awakened training room, an auditorium, and a small arena. Knee-length walls separated four sections of the floor, marking the trial zones.
“Take the top row,” Palag pointed at a set of seats. “Dal, you go down to zone one.”
Dallion swallowed. He could feel a tightness in h...
2023-01-18 13:22:38 +0000 UTC View PostFinding a human charm addict in a slum of uncharted was a lot more difficult than it sounded. If it were an undercover agent, a tourist, or even a newcomer there wouldn’t be anything easier. Regardless of the amount of bribe money at their disposal, it always left a bitter aftertaste. Plus, there was no telling when it would abruptly come to an end. Charm addicts, on the other hand, were a gu...
2023-01-17 22:42:58 +0000 UTC View Post“You couldn’t make it?” The dwarf arched his brows.
It was a difficult decision to make, but Dallion decided he couldn’t risk putting something of the sort in the hands of others. There was no definite proof that the weapon was meant for Aspan, which was why Dallion placed an echo within the item. Up to now, he had avoided the practice, but unusual times required unusual solutions...
2023-01-17 01:17:29 +0000 UTC View PostThere were many ways of catching a suspect. H-Sec could get anyone’s information in minutes, then suck all the gargoyles in the city to fetch them. There were a few issues with that. Despite being the prime suspect, Celsius remained just a suspect. Dragging him to H-Sec was a matter of order; plunging the city into chaos—not so much.
The instant our conversation at Ellcron was over I ...
2023-01-16 19:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostI’d never seen the faces of my parents. Back when I was a child, we didn’t have faces. We didn’t have a single form, either, floating through the ocean like threads in fabric. I suspect they never appreciated the idea of mimicking humans, so they left. The only thing they left me was the memory of warmth, calm, and a few kind words.
“Some influence you were.” I tapped on the jar...
2023-01-15 16:21:00 +0000 UTC View PostDAGGER Level 3 has been cleared!
Continue on to fulfill the DAGGER’s destiny!
A gate emerged, marking the path to the next section.
Good one, Dallion thought.
Winning a duel against a corpse wasn’t something he’d brag about, but the achievement points were more than welcome, as was increasing his magic to nine. ...
2023-01-15 16:20:22 +0000 UTC View PostGetting picked up by H-Sec or any of the local authorities was common in my part of the slums. Being driven back, though, would be remembered for years. I asked Clayton to drop me off at the watermark, and thankfully he did.
“I’ll fetch you tomorrow when we get an authorization for the visit,” he told me.
“Better I go to your office.” Having H-Sec visit me twice in a row w...
2023-01-14 23:22:32 +0000 UTC View PostIn my part of the city, if someone had to be questioned, they’d be grabbed, runed, and dragged to the station of the guard where the authorities would spend hours interrogating them in less than pleasant surroundings. Here, interrogations were called witness statements and were conducted in a very different fashion.
I followed detective Nixen by the building to where a pagoda had been b...
2023-01-14 23:21:58 +0000 UTC View PostEntering the metropolis area was like entering a bank. Only difference was that instead of walls and armed guards there was an invisible line circling the area. Cross that line and a hundred gargoyles would swoop down from the nearest buildings. If one was lucky, they’d get caught quickly without much hassle. If not… I had heard talk that a mage unit had to be called in to clean the mess. O...
2023-01-14 23:21:25 +0000 UTC View PostSleep and I have always had a love-hate relationship. One could almost call us ex-lovers. She’d keep tempting me to go back into her arms, and I’d pretend to ignore her. Sometimes I’d flirt with her, just enough to prove I was still alive. Sometimes I’d even give in, and instantly regret it, waking up screaming and all covered in sweat. It was a good thing that I no longer shared a plac...
2023-01-14 23:20:45 +0000 UTC View PostHello, all!
Due to my temporary posting reduction I've decided to post a (short) story I was working on for a contest.
Five chapters will be posted today with all a few more tomorrow.
This will not affect the Leveling Up chapter I hope to post in about 12 hours from now.
Take care and hope you enjoy something different.
Lise
2023-01-14 23:19:26 +0000 UTC View PostDrawing runes on a soul sucker turned out to be a difficult and highly inefficient task. Dallion had to spend a lot of attention not to kill the creature outright with the tip of his harpsisword. Drawing a series of runes on the tunnel walls, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. It would have been a lot more spectacular if he could cast a spell similar to what the copyette had done. ...
2023-01-13 18:52:25 +0000 UTC View PostThree circles of symbols merged together within another fragment of the copyette, this time causing a grid of spikes to shoot up from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. In a fraction of a second, everything in the chamber, debris included, was pinned to the top. Thankfully, there was one exception; using combat splitting, Dallion had managed to shift to the instance that was closest to th...
2023-01-11 21:38:19 +0000 UTC View PostHeya, all!
Hope you're doing well in 2023 :)
Apologies. Have been feeling tired lately (possibly still recovering from last year).
Hoping this will soon pass, but for the moment I'll be moving to a 6-day post of Leveling up and pause Dungeon and Elcy for a week or two.
I was hoping to post a short story (which I started a few days ago) but likely will delay it as well. 2023-01-10 20:26:15 +0000 UTC View Post
It had been so long since Dallion had been hired to clear an item that it almost felt unnatural. Back then, Dallion had just become an Icepicker guild member, and it had been his job to clear sphere items as quickly as possible. Life had been nice, full of taunts, jokes, and lots of feasting. Sadly, the same period also marked the start of his involvement with the general.
“It’s an un...
2023-01-09 19:41:10 +0000 UTC View PostBumping into Katka had made Dallion lose his appetite to the point that even Ruby wasn’t able to snap him out of it. The shardfly was initially pleased with the brief journey outside of the room, though seeing Dallion’s state had gone back to being moody as before.
From a logical perspective, Dallion was supposed to be pleased. It wasn’t like he had come across Alien. Considering ho...
2023-01-08 17:10:32 +0000 UTC View PostHunger greeted Dallion when he returned to the real world. In Nerosal, or even in the wilderness, that wasn’t an issue, since he could always go find some food. Here, though, things were different. Academy rules forbade food to be kept in the personal rooms, and novices weren’t allowed to wander about the corridors during the night. After two months of hunger, though, Dallion decided to tak...
2023-01-07 08:59:50 +0000 UTC View PostFor hours, Dallion kept on trying to create magic strands. He had changed the approach dozens of times, yet each time he thought he was on the verge of a breakthrough, nothing came out. Several times he tried combining it with other skills, only to find they made the task more complicated. The awakening markers were of no help, either. Ideal for symbol creation—and one might assume actual spe...
2023-01-06 05:28:06 +0000 UTC View PostYou’ll get punished if you keep stealing cups from the dining hall, Nil sighed. Remember, it’s not about skill level, but the knowledge how to use spells adequately.
Ignoring him, Dallion drew a space symbol on the side of the cup. Based on everything he knew that was supposed to make the cup larger. Instead, it just made it heavier. The logic of that anomaly evaded ...
2023-01-04 21:33:31 +0000 UTC View Post“Crumble how?” Dallion asked.
The building guardian had indicated nothing of the sort. Just to be on the same side, Dallion had had a brief talk with him to check. The guardian seemed as surprised as anything, although he did admit not knowing how the shardfly infestation occurred in the first place.
The walls are made of us, the shardfly replied. If all of us leave...
2023-01-03 23:40:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe adrenaline from the vortex’s absorption didn’t let Dallion have a blink of sleep all night, constantly causing him to shift between agitation and restlessness. Most of the time he spent pacing throughout the room or entering his awakening realm with the desire to practice more symbol making. The truth was that his body was itching for a fight, even if his mind was well aware there was n...
2023-01-02 10:54:14 +0000 UTC View PostConfirmation came just as predicted. A new set of land probes were sent to pull out the fractal trees and investigate the cobalt deposits. I expected the people to feel relieved upon finding out, but the opposite happened. The discovery of a third-contact artifact only made them more anxious. With the mission going ahead, we were stuck in the system for weeks, at least. Given the recent fluctua...
2023-01-02 03:15:47 +0000 UTC View PostRed alert messages flashed on all walls throughout the ship. The war in our section of the front had taken a turn for the worse. While the Fleet had managed to make significant progress in one area, conquering thirteen star systems, the Cassandrians had responded in turn. Their gains were significantly fewer—two systems in total—but had moved far closer to us. According to my estimates, the...
2023-01-02 03:14:51 +0000 UTC View PostSpark infused quills filled the air like a swarm of bees. The aethervore teleported from spot to spot, faster than the quills could reach them. However, its ability to cast spells was significantly reduced. Dallion was fully aware that it wouldn’t be easy to defeat the guardian with scholar skills alone. His main goal was to aim at the magic symbols on the walls; those targets were a lot easi...
2022-12-31 15:58:13 +0000 UTC View PostWalking around the surrounding section of the Academy ended up being a lot more interesting than expected. Dallion almost forgot his immediate problems and concerns, as if he’d taken a brief vacation. The people, although always hurrying for somewhere, didn’t talk about politics, the internal empire conflicts, or even the war. It was as if a bubble of calm had been created, keeping the rest...
2022-12-31 00:33:19 +0000 UTC View Post“No! Absolutely not!” Palag said.
The fury barely raised his tone, but from the view of a ten-year-old it was the same as if he were shouting. Despite himself, Dallion suppressed the urge to get into a fight.
“Why not? You told me that I was owed a favor.” He paused for a while. “Sir.”
“Mages can’t just boost the magic of others. If it were that simple, what wo...
2022-12-30 09:10:34 +0000 UTC View PostDallion and the mage ripped the air, clashing like two comets of polar opposed magnetic ore. Each side had its own method of fighting, resulting in the utter destruction of the arena around them. Dallion would use his instances and familiars to crack the Alien’s perfect defense, while the mage would cast multiple spells with large ranging effects. The issue was that while Dallion was getting ...
2022-12-29 09:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post