Chapter 128: Rumblings
Author's Note: I'm sorry for the cliff. It gets resolved tomorrow in the next chapter.
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The two participants charging at Caen were Body-enhancers, ...
2025-10-22 12:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Earthchild posts
Chapter 127: A Geas
The waiting area had never felt larger. With so few people left in the trials, the hall was no longer closely packed. Of the fifteen thousand participants who’d begun the first trial, only eight ...
2025-10-21 12:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 126: A Thoughtful Present
“Happy wake day, runt!” Uncle Vai said, zooming over on his rocking chair and hugging Caen.
“Welcome to tier 9,” Uncle Teiro said with a smile.
Caen laughed. Uncle Teiro had a p...
2025-10-20 12:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 125: Not Meant For Greatness
“Fahptis is so unbearable now,” Zeris said in Code, as she tore open another bag of holding with a knife and damaged its enchantments. Dozens of them lay shredded on the bed around her, where s...
2025-10-19 12:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 124: Tri-healing
Anomis’s bag of holding contained nearly five times the number of heartstones that Caen had obtained himself.
Each heartstone corresponded to a monster slain, and after redeeming all ...
2025-10-18 12:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 123: Blight-eater
So many segments of the arena were hysterical, some from rage, others from shock, and even more from excitement. That had been one of the more thrilling fights Meeka had seen in this year's trials....
2025-10-17 12:00:32 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 122: Futility
Awakened weapons were sapient and could convey their experiences to others. If it ever came out that Herb Mask could communicate with Stormsong clearly, that wouldn't raise many eyebrows. Most peop...
2025-10-16 12:03:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 121: Number Four
Author's Note: I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for your support, comments, and reviews! Reading them makes me so happy. I will respond to your questions and comments very soon. ...
2025-10-15 12:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 120: Walls of Fog
The fake night sky above them held two moons. Shabby wooden shacks and mud huts littered the stretch of hard-packed dirt; a village of some kind. There was debris lying all around: clumps of stone,...
2025-10-14 12:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 119: Herbivores
“No, he’s just a brute,” Ayula said, as he and his friends watched a projection of Fahptis and Herb Mask fighting. A glass panel blocked out most of the sound from the arena below, which was ...
2025-10-13 12:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 118: Frequent Waxing And Waning
“Better. Much better,” Stormsong said as Caen laid waste to every hostile creature in their path.
Caen could feel… something. But fully comprehending it was out of reach.
Chapter 117: A Blade
The identifier necklace, which Caen had been given at his registration, was tucked beneath his armor. The small bead pendant grew warm.
Caen Mimicked resilience, and the next instant was wren...
2025-10-11 12:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 116: An Obligation To Test Each Other
On the morning of the third trial, several hours before dawn, Caen inspected himself in front of a mirror. He’d shaped Chasma to cover his breastplate and backplate, as well as his entire left ar...
2025-10-10 12:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 115: Platform Boots
The world around Caen was a severely blurred version of the restricted section of the Ser-gwu library. Rithya sat across from him, a blurred table between them. They were in the sub-Astral: the low...
2025-10-09 12:02:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 114: Seventy-three
Vai watched a projected memory of Herb Mask routing his ambushers. He laughed, slapping his knee.
Swuswujaswuswuteptep—or Teptep for short—hovered in the air beside him as she watched the...
2025-10-08 12:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 113: Ten Bags
Caen felt a few more souls wink out as he ran through the wall, which was growing increasingly hot as fire spread from behind him. He coughed violently, having inhaled some spores in his brief expo...
2025-10-07 12:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 112: He's A Counter-dampener
Caen cast a few spells to boost his processing speed. He split his mind in four, taking Chasma off his back.
The walls here were made up of plant matter. Tree ferns with their spores lined th...
2025-10-06 12:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 111: The Second Trial
“You have each been given a bag of holding with which you may store whatever treasure and resources you manage to find. The rules for this trial are simple. Listen carefully.”
Caen stood ...
2025-10-05 12:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 110: About That Herb Mask Fellow
Oludlana Ereshta'al, Caen's great-grandmother, had a very imposing personality, in the manner of all Percipients.
She was taller than even Vensha and looked to be in her fifties, des...
2025-10-04 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 109: Nudging Potential
Caen made a show of giving Rithya’s offer some thought, but he knew that in truth, this was an opportunity he couldn't turn down.
He had seen an all-round improvement to Mimicry when the co...
2025-10-03 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 108: Xihx, The Unified
The successful participants were assigned rooms beneath the arena. Their room numbers were displayed on the walls, and many stood to depart, but the first trial wasn't entirely over, per se. <...
2025-10-02 12:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 107: Our Kind
Teleporting into the victors’ lounge was no rougher than going through the trial gates had been. Caen resisted the urge to double over.
He was relieved to be free of the suppres...
2025-10-01 12:00:22 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 106: New Record
Caen had consulted several memory crystals, and not a single one had prepared him for the intensity of the seventh zone. The effects of the suppression field were certainly getting worse.
He...
Chapter 105: Skip, Skip, Skip
Author's Note: We're so back! I am well. Turns out I ought to have adapted the healing spells before falling sick. Classic rookie mistake. Live and learn, they say. Thank you so mu...
2025-09-29 12:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 104: Trial Grounds
Author's Note: Hey. Some slight bad news. I am getting better, but I'm still sick. I'll be needing a few more days for recovery. I am so sorry about this. Wish I had some sickness abe...
2025-09-24 11:52:31 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 103: Endorsed Participant
Author's Note: Hey, I have been sick for a few days now. I've been burning through my backlog, hoping to get better soon, but I think I need a few days to rest up so I can recover quickly. ...
2025-09-20 12:06:52 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 102: Her Vessel
Passionfire submerged the entire structure, but Caen withdrew his Impassioning lest he drain his volition. The structure remained on fire, however.
The monster shrieked again, with more animo...
2025-09-19 12:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 101: Excluding Their Leaders
The ropes binding the final captive in the barn came undone. They slithered on the grimy concrete to join the long train of ropes that Caen had been fashioning into two separate units, both of whic...
2025-09-18 12:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 100: A Man Possessed By Fiends
About two hours into their flight, Chasma told Caen that it was tired… and hungry.
They had covered quite some distance in that time. Caen got off his fragment and retrieved some deep-fried...
2025-09-17 12:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 99: Ser-gwu Bound
The glyphs came more frequently, at his family home. Caen isolated himself in Vensha's cottage, and the glyphs only showed up there for a time, but whenever he went outside, he'd see them on trees,...
2025-09-16 12:00:50 +0000 UTC View Post