Derek crouched in the dark, hoping the dirt on his face and the general dark hues of his clothes would keep him hidden. Hunting during the daytime, he had found, was a waste of time. There just wasn’t enough shrubbery to sneak through on the demon side of the human/demon border. The best he cou...
2023-10-25 16:23:32 +0000 UTC View PostAfter picking through the remains of the bar, taking a fresh look at Matt’s stats, and comparing notes together, Matt and Lucy came to one conclusion. Yes, Matt was a badass now. Kind of.
“I think it’s a combination of things. The first and biggest...
2023-10-25 16:23:12 +0000 UTC View PostHaving shambled up to the bar, Matt now stood awkwardly in front of the barstools as the wolf-man bar-owner-slash-demon-class-teacher made his way around to stand beside him. Matt leaned lightly on his shovel, nonchalantly positioning it in such a way that he could sweep it up to bat the wolf awa...
2023-10-25 16:22:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe sunrise had much less of an impact on Matt than the sunset had. He might have felt a little more alert than he had been before watching it, but if so, it was a mild effect and thoroughly washed out by something he had found upon a closer inspection of his camping pack. Deep in one of the inte...
2023-10-25 16:22:14 +0000 UTC View PostMatt materialized the token and caught it out of the air as it fell.
“What’s that? Some kind of reward?”
“Yes. Maybe the good kind. One sec.”
The few years of life on Gaia that Matt had experienced had not been kind to his feet. All the general damage his feet had take...
2023-10-25 16:21:53 +0000 UTC View PostMatt pulled himself up off the ground. It turned out that not all forms of travel to various system worlds were created equal. The fact that he was still alive meant the Gaians had got it at least partially right, but being sucked through the aether between the two worlds with their portal was no...
2023-10-25 16:20:23 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay alright. With Derek here, we can start for real. Artemis, would you be so kind as to call up the map, and give us some basic background on what’s happening?” Brennan said, turning his chair to the side to look at the wall behind him.
Artemis walked to the same wall, fiddled with...
2023-10-25 16:18:07 +0000 UTC View PostDerek was having a pretty good day. He had woken up, eaten a sensible but delicious breakfast, gone on a ten-mile run, worked with the weight set the old blacksmith had made for him, went on his swim, freestyle-climbed the city wall, took his fighting class, and finally ate a big lunch.
And...
2023-10-25 16:17:46 +0000 UTC View PostMatt shook his head. “I’m happy here. But we all know I’m useless here as well. Or at least I will be. The hunting parties start in earnest next week, and once they are up to speed, I won’t be useful anymore. They will level faster than I ever could, and I can’t level with them because ...
2023-10-25 16:17:19 +0000 UTC View PostMatt postponed heading into town for the few moments it took to take a quick shower in his enchanted tub, then he and Lucy set off down the path to the village. The Gaians had cut the path just the week before, with plans to pave it before the month was up. Ramsen called it the first step in buil...
2023-10-25 16:16:19 +0000 UTC View PostMatt had often wished that the sun would set on Gaia, mostly because constant sunlight had done absurd things to his sleep cycle. Sometimes, he’d go days without sleeping at all, driven on by stat-weirdness and the ever-present need to grind more estate credits. Other times he’d sit down for ...
2023-10-25 15:54:55 +0000 UTC View PostI am, for better or worse, a relative newbie as fiction is concerned.
A while back, Dotblue came to me and said, “Hey, have you ever thought about taking a try at fiction?” At that time, I really hadn’t. I had a few short stories under my belt, at most, and I wasn’t sure I had much ...
2023-10-25 15:52:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe main system was not exactly an AI. As a not-exactly-an-AI type of being, it could not, in actual fact, go on leisurely walks around its opulent, majestic estate to help with the digestion of exceptionally large meals that it wasn’t, in any literal sense, actually eating. But if you tried to...
2023-10-25 15:51:53 +0000 UTC View Post“Reincarnator! Matt!”
After entering the museum, Matt wasn’t even fully reoriented before Ramsen was on him, grasping his shoulders, and nearly shaking him from excitement.
“You did it? You defeated the Scourge?”
“Looks like it. And I’ve repaired the museum.”
... 2023-10-25 15:51:09 +0000 UTC View PostDing!
“Dammit, Barry.”
“What?”
“He’s being funny with the achievements. I wanted “Grand Gaian Savior” or something.”
“Does that matter if the loot’s good?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Then get to reading.”
Achieve... 2023-10-25 15:47:27 +0000 UTC View Post