The gravity web magic stopped working on the shattered temple. The smashed remains fell back to the cavern floor as hurtling pieces, some as large as trucks, others as large as multistory buildings.
It was a destructive mess, and Zarian was in the middle of it while missing an arm, both legs, and half of his face.
But he had more than enough of him left.
He could physically se...
2024-11-26 16:16:49 +0000 UTC View PostWith Zarian incoming, the godly warrior devil known as Darth swung his giant black sword. He moved with unrivaled deftness even while forced into a tumble from the huge gravity shift.
The many years of practice and experience guided the sword hand of the armored Darth. He acted with far better expertise than what most Master Rankers could achieve even if they had stable footing and full p...
2024-11-26 06:25:50 +0000 UTC View PostAt the bottommost layer of the Grimrock Hell Gate, massive red and orange streaks covered every surface of an immense cavern. Thick sulfuric clouds blanketed the craggy floor. And at the far end, near a dark temple, a portal a mile tall and two miles wide glowed with a fiery light while emitting sounds like a roaring lava fall.
The portal kept pouring out infernal forces bent on having a ...
2024-11-26 05:31:28 +0000 UTC View PostPara’s Journal Entry Notes – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
Thoughts: Hello, it’s me, Para the Parasite Cloak +3! I really like journaling by hand. It’s very fun, and it helps detail some of my thoughts, which are becoming more important now that my personhood is growing with various feelings, doubts, and uncertainties, and philosophical wonderi...
2024-11-26 04:24:24 +0000 UTC View PostOther than being chained and enslaved at the bottommost layer of the Grimrock Hell Gate, Foodie had faced many incredible and horrible things in her ten years of life.
She’d killed and eaten the corrupted members of the fallen Green Hop Explorers, some of whom were family. She’d also killed and eaten weak adventurers who foolishly ignored her warnings about the Grimrock Warlock.
“YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME, ZARIAN! YOU CAN’T RUN! I’M GOING TO BURN YOU ALIVE AND LOCK YOU UP MYSELF!”
Jack must’ve grown an impressive set of traits, skills, and stats. The hater was about ten miles away, and Zarian could hear Jack’s hollering clearly.
More importantly, the hater was in the middle of a messy, hazy, sprawling mega war camp that was packed up with a...
2024-11-22 05:02:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Fed?” Hannah asked, not batting an eye at the horror Zarian and Para had become when hunting and feasting.
“Yes,” Zarian and Para answered together. They paused and unraveled their consciousnesses from each other.
Zarian took over more of himself and turned toward the rest of the arena. “Naomi?”
“I checked with her. She won.” Gilbert remained sitting on Slip, ...
2024-11-20 23:49:06 +0000 UTC View Post“Quarter Percent Power Unsealed. Tiny Darkness,” Zarian chanted, his hands signing the last part.
Bianca’s invisibility cloaking dropped away from him. Hannah’s runic sound devices played heavy battle music on full blast from behind him.
The Madness Wizard and his Parasite Cloak +3 seemed to stand on their own at the entrance of the battle atrium. The hell orcs knew where to...
2024-11-20 23:14:59 +0000 UTC View PostZarian and Para slowly and carefully unraveled from each other’s consciousness. Para reset her physical threads that were woven everywhere in Zarian’s body, bringing him back into his more human self. He returned to only having two arms and two legs with no armor or inhuman designs.
Para then woven her threads outside of Zarian’s body into a sleeveless shirt with a long V-neck openi...
2024-11-19 19:29:44 +0000 UTC View Post“No retreat. No surrender. Let’s fucking go.”
Zarian moved straight into the bloody fray. His cloak reared up behind him as myriad limbs and monstrous mouths. He even summoned the Morph grimoire to join the other three grasped in Para’s many hands.
The heavy drumming grew louder, faster. The orange and red streaks pulsated with more intensity on every surface. Sulfuric smoke...
2024-11-19 19:28:27 +0000 UTC View Post“What the fuck?!” Naomi raged. “Why did my attacks do diddly shit! Everything should die with one or two punches from me!”
“Extremely high physical resistance abilities, extremely high Strength, and vastly high vitality,” Hannah listed. “They might even shrug off blunt force attacks better than other styles of attacks. So you and Gilbert are the most disadvantaged with...
2024-11-19 02:55:40 +0000 UTC View Post“Hell orc!” Zarian roared.
“Its axes are legendary and covered in high-quality enchantments!” Hannah let loose volleys of frost beams from her little round golems. Each strike left patches of ice on the hell orc’s big and hard body as it swung its axes down on Naomi. “It’s safe to assume it has a legendary class while empowered by the energies of hell!”
“This basta...
2024-11-18 23:23:11 +0000 UTC View PostAs Hannah’s runic sound device played more medieval rock ballads, Zarian kicked at the smoky brimstone under his shadowy boots. He glanced back through the smashed doorway of the keep entrance where the dark, aged, and ruined frame of Castle Grimrock waited.
He could still hear the rumbling remnants of the defeated storm outside.
Zarian looked forward, past his friends, where the ...
2024-11-18 22:35:38 +0000 UTC View Post“You okay, Bianca? You seem a little sluggish? Did Gilbert screw up healing you?” Zarian asked as he, Bianca, Naomi, Hannah, and Gilbert gathered on top of the left wall.
Bianca didn’t respond with words, being mindful of her voluminous voice while still shifted. She used the spider network to exchange accurate impressions of how she felt.
There was something wrong about Bianc...
2024-11-15 19:26:47 +0000 UTC View PostBack when Zarian was in the Marines, he’d taken every opportunity to consume as much anime and fantasy as possible.
Prior to that, the foster care homes he bounced between had been a crap shoot in how lucky he could get. He’d faced different styles of abusive foster parents, from insanely religious fanatics to the downright criminal drug dealers.
He hadn’t gotten comfortable a...
2024-11-14 22:41:25 +0000 UTC View PostHe stood on the precipice. Everywhere was darkness. All the noise of battle seemed distant and dull. He felt more alone than ever before.
He could feel the temptation of the fall.
The temptation was everything wonderful and horrible blended together. The temptation of Shadowfell made everything about Sinfeast look incompetent and cheap.
Luciana, his wife, awaited him in the ab...
2024-11-13 19:41:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe corrupted creatures ran into the giant ditches and the walls Hannah had made in an extremely short amount of time. The ones at the center ran into Gilbert and Naomi who waited at the end of a narrow killing corridor.
Gilbert yelled, “Come get some!” while Naomi screamed, “OORAH!” as the roaring, gnashing, and clawing corrupted aberrations slammed into them. The impact was like...
2024-11-12 17:58:43 +0000 UTC View Post“What is stopping Shadowfell or Ariana from doing whatever they like in our old world or in other worlds like ours?” Hannah asked after Zarian finished explaining what led to the assassination job for Luciana and how she wouldn’t explain herself much past promising to deliver messages.
Hannah’s reaction was both surprising and unsurprising as she continued her rant. “Ariana has ...
2024-11-12 02:27:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe stormy weather worsened far faster than it should’ve.
Bowling ball-sized blocks of hail hurtled down. Twisting winds roared with hurricane force. Lightning and thunder clamored above their heads.
The calamitous storm reared its ugly side to a supernatural level, as if the heavens wanted to come down with a fraction of the power Zarian’s darkness could achieve.
Zarian i...
2024-11-09 23:25:54 +0000 UTC View PostZarian looked at his last journal notes from the night before. ‘She told me what she wants for her birthday. It’s quite simple. And it can happen after Grimrock…’
He stopped reading that section and flipped over to the notes Para had written for him. Smiling a little, he reread Para’s notes before he put the leather-covered journal into the pocket dimension.
Naomi...
2024-11-09 00:28:00 +0000 UTC View PostPara’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Zarian) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Zarian Darkrun: Age 22, Born Late Winter, Dreaded Outsider, Dungeon Master, Freedom Leader, Dark Lord, Aura Master, Alpha Gnoll Elder, Wizard Hunter, Free Evil +4, Legendary Madness Wizard, Level 92.
Traits (14 Total): D...
2024-11-08 23:46:39 +0000 UTC View PostZarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Naomi) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Naomi Washington: Age 27, Born Early Summer, Super Outsider, Freedom Leader, Sigma Gnoll Elder, Lady Instructor, Sky Bringer, Free For Real +3, Epic Rumble Psion, Level 90.
Traits (15 Total): Psionic Affinity (Rare), Hi...
2024-11-07 20:16:38 +0000 UTC View PostZarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Bianca) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Bianca Garcia: Age 20, Born Mid Spring, Royal Outsider, Freedom Leader, Gnoll Elder, Sunshine Heraldess, Free Good +6, Legendary Light Princess, Level 80.
Traits (11 Total): Light Affinity (Rare), Aura Charge (Rare), W...
2024-11-07 19:56:04 +0000 UTC View PostZarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Hannah) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Hannah Townhouse: Age 31, Born Mid Spring, Outsider, Freedom Leader, Gnoll Elder, Knight Destroyer, Free For Real +2, Legendary Runic Engineer, Level 86.
Traits (12 Total): Weakness Sensor (Uncommon), Rune Affinity (Rare), Lore ...
2024-11-07 19:33:45 +0000 UTC View PostZarian’s Journal Entry Party Notes (Gilbert) – Early Summer, 1533 D.E:
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Gilbert McDonald: Age 30, Born Early Spring, Outsider, Freedom Leader, Gnoll Elder, Troll Dominator, Free For Real +2, Legendary Knighted Healer, Level 80.
Traits (12 Total): Shield Mastery (Uncommon), Health Affinity (Rar...
2024-11-07 19:12:28 +0000 UTC View PostLet’s go! Zarian cheered inwardly.
Four from Morph:
<No Hard Walls (Uncommon): Why is there a wall in your way? Cast this spell and melt it down to something close to water. The weaker and less magical the wall, the easier it is to melt into water. Scales with Mysticism.>
<Water to Slime (Rare): Water is a part of life. Without it, ...
2024-11-07 00:36:50 +0000 UTC View PostZarian’s heart and brain were racing.
Seeing all the numbers go up and coming to terms with the growth and changes gave him a pleasant buzz. Lowkey, he knew that the skills had gone up and advanced in the background.
However, the changes felt dull without acknowledging them fully, as if they were stuck in purgatory until he finally looked and accepted them.
Now Para felt way...
2024-11-06 03:59:21 +0000 UTC View PostPractically speaking, the deluge of notifications had a lot of fluff.
There were messages about the many creatures Zarian had killed over the course of two months. A lot of those had fallen to his skeletons or died when they ran into stormy and destructive aura clashes between him and Para.
Zarian focused on the notifications that mattered the most. The Star System acted to his whim...
2024-11-05 00:36:29 +0000 UTC View Post
No lie, this wasn't exactly what I wanted ...
But the moment I saw it, I realized I really, really liked it. So it's hugely inaccurate in multiple ways, but for a Book cover for when OP Wiz 1 goes on Zon, I can't help but love it.
Zarian looks like he goes to the Wizard School of Back Muscles, lol.
Also, as a heads up, I will be stubbing (removing) Book 1 chapters before the Z...
2024-11-04 17:43:15 +0000 UTC View Post“Everyone, I think that’s it for training. It’s time we hunker down and review our notifications,” Zarian said.
It was Early Summer, and he was standing on a giant skull-shaped crenulation on a massive rampart ridgeline. They still had some ways to go before reaching the top of the mountainous terrain where the actual Castle Grimrock stood.
When he turned back the way his pa...
2024-11-02 22:30:58 +0000 UTC View Post