Author Frank Morin

Ch 53 - A Different Approach to Survival

“No time to whine about my problems,” I muttered as I rose and switched jackets.

The new armored jacket felt wonderful, a solid weight that didn’t hinder my movements. It was made from ...

Ch 52 - Falling With Style

Consciousness returned slowly, and I wished it hadn’t. The first thing I felt was pure agony. Every muscle and sinew and nerve screamed in pain as if I’d been punched into the center of a volca...

Ch 51 - Warning Signs Are For Suckers

"Oh no you don't," I growled and took off after it. In my inventory, Switchblade still showed as recharging with the timer of two minutes, so I ran.

With my current stats boosted, I felt like...

Ch 50 - Bringin' Home the Bacon

Tomas was quivering with eagerness to reunite with Jane, but as we rounded one corner, I had to stop.

“Hold the phone. I need to get one.”

A food cart parked on the side of the road...

Ch 49 - Family Ties

It was Tomas. My brother looked more like a corpse than a living soul, although his chest was moving ever so slightly. He looked like he could die any second, and even as I looked, a shimmering, gh...

Ch 48 - Lifebane Phantoms

Paul offered me the last donut, then activated my Explorer team chat. He promised to add the other leaders soon. He wanted me to wait to meet with them, but I declined. That new vision of Marisara ...

Ch 47 - Confection talks

Inside the nicest wooden building in the center of town, made out of fine, finished lumber and with huge glass picture windows, we met in a conference room that could have been plucked from any cor...

Ch 46 - Stats Check

This is another stats chapter.

Name:                         &n...

Ch 45 - A Custom Makeover

I gaped. The quest had said something about winning an item from Earth, but I’d never imagined this.

“Is that a motorcycle?” Ruby asked as she too rose to examine it.

I laughed wi...

Ch 44 - I Find the Heart of the Town

I could have endured a hug from Ruby a lot longer than she let me. Just like with Susan, I felt a primal urge to take what I wanted from her. It was my right as the strongest hunter, the one who ha...

Ch 43 - Challenges of Leadership

I floated back, scowling at Tony, who lifted a hand in triumph while Burns shouted a wordless cry of victory. Had Tony not seen me there, or had he just not cared that he almost split me in half at...

Ch 42 - I Try My Hand at Bull Fighting

I swerved as hard as I could, swinging the tree around so hard if everyone was in physical form, many probably would have been flung clear. The move helped dodge many of the first volley of spells,...

Ch 41 - Ghosts in the Trees

“You can’t carry everyone. The weight of 22 people will crush you,” Burns objected, even though he’d just seen me rip the tree out of the ground with my bare hands and watched me throw that...

Ch 40 - More Cow Bell

I paused next to a small stand of pine trees barely taller than Earth trees and scanned the nearby grasslands. Morning was half over and the sky was a blue so intense, it made my soul ache when I n...

Ch 39 - What Happens on Arasha . . .

Blood and puss and a nasty stench as bad as melting monsters erupted from the wound and Joey fell back to the ground, convulsing as he physically died just as he’d spiritually died a moment ago.<...

Ch 38 - Tug of War Death Match

The camp erupted into bedlam as people boiled out of tents and scrambled for weapons. Magical lights flared and everyone seemed to be shouting at once, screaming about monsters or demanding informa...

Ch 37 - We Might Actually Need More Monsters

It turned out dawn took longer to arrive than I’d thought. While the sky very slowly changed from pitch black to gray, we rested and talked.

Nearly half of Burns’s group had picked the Ba...

Ch 36 - An Old Friend of Mine Can Really Throw Rocks

My emerald box flashed and disappeared, leaving behind a single item.

“Bracelet of the Tesla Coil. Epic. Absorbs energy from enemies you fight and stores it. Energy will automatically be ap...

Ch 35 - Spartacus

Together we sprinted for the slope down to stage 1. At first I outdistanced the others, but slowed so they could keep up. Part of me wanted to run flat out, but I hadn’t risked so much to rescue ...

Ch 34 - A Very Heated Argument

I froze. My entire body went rigid at the sight of the two prisoners lying on those planks. They were both men. One looked awake, cowering away from the carnage, while the other lay unconscious and...

Ch 33 - I Take a Sightseeing Death Tour

Within minutes, I realized I was an idiot.

Wolf howls started behind me. First one, then several more. Behind them and echoing above all the others came a deeper howl that set all the hairs d...

Ch 32 - Harvest of the New Moon

“You have successfully Harvested Lycanthropic Transformation from Waterlogged Werewolf.”

I didn’t even read what spell I got. As soon as I saw that Harvest was successful, I triggered t...

Ch 31 - I Choose to Slap a Werewolf

I woke up with a groan, and memories snapped back, making me twitch with remembered pain. Zombies! And they had shot me with a blast that felt like a Taser on steroids.

Blinking my eyes open,...

Ch 30 - The Watery Grave

Panting with adrenaline and fear and shuddering from a fresh wave of pain, I fell back to the grass, groaning.

“I’m alive,” I wheezed, raising one hand in a weak salute.

Had I jus...

Ch 29 - Lying Down on the Job

I decided to scout ahead of the main group to help clear my thoughts and some surprisingly conflicting emotions. I actually loved being in a larger company. I hadn’t realized how much I missed be...

Ch 28 - Stats Check

Stats chapter.

Will you share your thoughts on whether I'm sharing too many stats and information, too little, or just the right amount?

Name: Lucas Altan

Race: ...

Ch 27 - I Remember I Love Stickers

Silence slowly descended over the valley as we stood among the corpses. I felt an overwhelming sense of victory and lifted my sword to shout.

Tony beat me to it by about a quarter of a second...

Ch 26 - Where's the Beef?

I angled away from Tony and Ruby, heading into the field on a circular course to approach the cows from the north flank. Tony and Ruby continued along the fringes of the trees. Ruby barely seemed t...

Ch 25 - Cow Level

The humanoid cows were at least 300 yards away, tiny in the distance. Without my enhanced perception, they would have looked like formless lumps. Now I could see them clearly, but they were apparen...

Ch 24 - We Decide to Get a Plumber

We found our quarry within minutes. Thankfully he was not being hunted by any monsters, but just walking between some huge trees.

He was a tall, rugged-looking guy in his 30s probably, with b...