For a moment, the Spirit looked like it wanted to say more. Then it got a good look at his face, and thought better of it.
Alright it said. …I hope you realize what you’re in for, kid.
And it unleashed the Thunder Demon on him.
But this time Zane already felt stronger going in. A...
2024-05-26 01:29:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe Spirit considered him for a while. It looked pale, which was impressive for a ghost. Then—
That… should not have been that easy, it said.
Zane blinked at it.
That should have been a chance to temper your Shield. it choked. To face adversity! To Level and Evolve your Skill!...
2024-05-24 22:28:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe words SHIELD OF THE BLOOD MOON appeared in devilish red letters over the spirit’s head.
The mists thickened. Another vision flashed o view.
Disciple! It was the Spirit, big again here. It is time to learn the foundational technique of the Red Moon Pagoda. Unlike most tec...
2024-05-23 21:43:58 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Revised Emperor Red Moon to Level 522!
//
The door was set deep into an archway. A mural ran over its surface in bare gold lines. It was simple yet vivid—it almost seemed to move as Zane looked at it, like an optical illusion.
It was the Red Moon Emperor, sketched out. A bright-red disc...
2024-05-23 01:40:15 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Two bloodline power-ups in one seemed a bit much pacing-wise so minor retcon—especially when I really thought about how much stuff organs entailed—so leaving organs for the next bloodline level-up!
//
Zane ran into a second building. The wall exploded in a shower of cobblestone and wood. He stomped, ha...
2024-05-21 20:23:15 +0000 UTC View PostIt was weird. Zane knew he was not invincible. But in a battle, he fought like he was. He would never go in doubting himself.
In his mind, once he committed to a battle it was do or die. Then belief was everything. He would always believe he could not be beaten. Somehow, in those close hard fights, that made the difference.
He could ...
2024-05-20 16:42:27 +0000 UTC View Post“Today I’ll tell you two secrets. The first is a great strength of the Titan Rhino. The second its greatest weakness. Listen well! If you were meant to wield the Titan Rhino's power, you likely share this weakness.”
Zane frowned at that.
“I certainly do.” The Barbarian Sage thumped his bare chest. “I have the ...
2024-05-18 01:34:40 +0000 UTC View PostD’Angelo Hall hit High Peak.
Light and dark blew out of him in equal measure. He stood, blinking. One pupil white, the other black.
When he powered his Skills, they seemed to defy space. Zane couldn't tell if it was an illusion—he threw his fist one way, and it came out somewhere else—seemingly with double the power...
2024-05-16 01:09:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe last hardest game Reina came up with was to do it all over again. This time in the Astral Plane.
Less than a quarter of the World Rankers remained to try it. Mostly the ones with the most powerful souls.
This time they would use essence in place of snow. They’d pack it the way they’d packed snow—the shaping woul...
2024-05-15 00:56:48 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: After thinking about just how big each floor in the Superdungeon is I’ve retconned it so the full route, start to end, is four floors long
//
When planning for the lecture, Zane and Reina had discovered a basic problem.
Most of what Zane knew, he didn’t know. Consciously that was. I...
2024-05-13 23:07:23 +0000 UTC View PostIt was an exclusive camp. Every top-200 World Ranker got an invite. So did the bigwigs of every major Faction. Reina had a full list—it was a who's who of the most powerful humans alive.
They chose a big ice sheet in the middle of nowhere for the same reason scientists chose an empty desert to test nuc...
2024-05-12 20:28:10 +0000 UTC View PostIn the meantime… the only thing to do now, besides eating whatever steel he could find, was to do the last real effective way of Leveling. Which was Reina.
Level up!
Essence Level 209 -> 210
Skill up!
Mephisto’s Pleasure Sutra VI -> VII ...
2024-05-12 01:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Bonus chapter day! Second chapter sometime late evening EST
Also: retconned in that they get tomes along with the Bloodlines as rewards
//
60 days.
That was how much time everyone on Earth, including Zane, had to get ready for the biggest threat their world had ever known.
There was a log...
2024-05-11 16:14:03 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a lucky thing that they'd evacuated so thoroughly. Hundreds of miles. One target.
You could see the eruption from space. It looked like a flower blooming stark blue-white. Colors you'd only see in the fiercest, most violent of thunderstorms. Spreading slowly over the face of the Earth.
Only half a flower. Blooming ...
2024-05-10 18:15:49 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Thanks for the feedback all! 3k was an interesting experiment but I think I’ll stick to 2-2.5k chapters with a few bonus chapters a week (will aim for 3) for now. Easier for me to stay consistent with
//
Zane ran Asterion straight over.
He started fast—and ramped even fas...
2024-05-09 19:13:25 +0000 UTC View PostZane took a heavy breath.
Rivers of essence gushed into him. Core Monsters had so much to give. It all merged into an ocean with him at the center, soaking in the light….
Level up!
Essence Level 200 -> 201
A week ago he would’ve thought it a wealth of essence. But now he need...
2024-05-08 03:21:37 +0000 UTC View PostEvery Faction there—from the Shaolin monks, to Vanessa’s North Star, to Eze’s Earth Mages—stood frozen.
Then, all at once, there was a great swelling of feeling.
Their moods had been nearing hopeless after those long awful hours; now it was moving faster and faster, swinging toward a bursting, an almost hysterical joy.<...
2024-05-07 02:46:28 +0000 UTC View PostHe woke to a notification.
Level up!
Essence Level 200.
He felt his Core instantly. A sphere of shining light—more in the Astral plane than in the physical, but he felt it. Tied deeply to his body. All his essence flowed through it the way his blood flowed thro...
2024-05-06 04:25:54 +0000 UTC View Post18 hours later...
Reina stumbled back from one of the worst days she’d had in months. She’d had to pull three teams out of nearby dungeons, evacuate whole sub-Factions, manage all the teleportations and the resettling. She’d just finished getting the last of the emergency tents set up.
She was swaying a little ...
2024-05-05 05:00:50 +0000 UTC View PostZane made his way to the Warrior Dojo. Irina Volkova’s last stand was still stuck in his mind.
He saw how easily the Minotaur had crushed her. She hadn’t been weak at all either. It just wasn’t a fair fight.
That level of power… he had never seen anything like it. The Minotaur was&nbs...
2024-05-04 03:42:57 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Chapter 1 of 2 today
//
CRACK!
A single white seam raced down the obsidian peak. Blinding white light spilled out, highlighting every crag of it—and it kept striking lower, lower. Burrowing into the earth, splitting down the sides of the mountain. Thickening. Widening.
Ther...
2024-05-03 16:12:00 +0000 UTC View PostHis next two Levels came in the same night over the course of about nine intense hours.
Level up!
Essence Level 196 -> 197
Level up!
Essence Level 197 -> 198
After she tapped out he lay there...
2024-05-02 22:04:29 +0000 UTC View PostWe are prepared to offer you:
- 1 Complete Tier 4 Electricity Inheritance.
- The S-grade Sky-ranked Treasure White Lightning Lotus Petal, a treasure exclusive to Mount Thunderclast. It blooms once every 100,000 years, carefully tended by generations of Thunderclast gardeners—all for y...
2024-05-01 23:33:39 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Today will likely be a 2-chapter day. This is the first!
//
“The second Concept,” said Patriarch Azure Flame, “Emerges where lightning strikes fire! It is called Chain Combustion.”
The Patriarch nodded, stroking his beard.
“Chain Combustion goes hand in hand with Plasma...
2024-05-01 16:49:44 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Dungeon name changed to Heaven's Peak!
//
Zane had a handful of days before the Superdungeon. In that time he and his friends settled into a training camp.
Reina started working on that Regeneration buff Skill—' Evergrow.'
Avery munched essence-dense foods until she passed out fr...
2024-04-30 19:19:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe notifications poured in in a rush.
Skill up!
Promethean Noose II -> III
Skill up!
Emperor’s Soul II -> III
Level up!
Essence Level 186 -> 187
Level up!
Essence Level 187 -> 188
The Final Boss has b...
2024-04-29 22:20:50 +0000 UTC View PostZane fought, and felt viscerally what he was up against. Those tentacles were like a glut of pythons coiling over him, sinking fangs into every inch of him, digging into him, pumping him full of numbing, burning feeling, a cloud of it seeping through him—
The Jellyfish was so close Zane could feel its emotions almost as clear as if they ...
2024-04-29 04:11:33 +0000 UTC View Post(2/2)
The Reaper Queen was still reloading. It had burned itself out. It needed to recharge. There was nothing it could do but watch, horrified as Zane closed in. It was too big. It couldn’t even turn away in time.
He cocked his fist all the way—straining in one vicious chain from his legs, to his back, to his arms...
2024-04-27 05:01:21 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: double chapter day! :D
getting back into a rhythym..
(1/2)
//
Every fiber of muscle in his massive frame lit up with essence. Tensing. Power coursed through him, raw untamed power, so much of it running down his arms, going into his hands he couldn't sit still. His big hands began to tremble. Stormfi...
2024-04-26 17:30:16 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn’t burning just one or two drops of Blood Essence. It burned hundreds, maybe thousands. The foundations of its power. Soaked so deep into its muscles it changed the very structure, made it part-flesh part-machine. An engine of tendon and bone and sinew. Its aura flared out of it, burning with sheer brute power…
The Tit...