Martin, Ska, and I were eating lunch when the teleport scrambler started beeping."Whelp! I guess our friends are here," I said, putting my fork down and wiping my mouth. "You think they will wait for us to come to them?"There was a loud bang and the house shook as they tried to bash in the front door."That would be a no," Martin replied."Alas, they have no redeemable qualities. If they had, maybe, just maybe I would feel sorry about killing them. Nah, probably not," I added, standing and stretching as another bang rocked the house."They are persistent," Ska added, looking out the window."How many do you see?""I can only see four, but I smell more."I grunted in affirmation."Martin and Ska, how bout you greet our guests, I'll land behind them. Feel free to kick it off."Martin nodded and Ska gave a satisfying throat rumble.I did not doubt that Ska would attack the first person he spotted. I headed for the back balcony as the others headed downstairs. I heard the clank of Marti
I woke up on the bottom floor of the house. Martin and Ska were on the floor next to me. The house was a mess, items of no value had been tossed around. Furniture had been ripped or broken and windows busted out. The front door was still intact as well as the front windows. Those I had made stronger with runic enchantments. That was a good sign, it meant that the control room was likely still intact.The control lines should still be in place as well because they were hidden from view by the Odin rune. I stumbled to my feet, whatever they had dosed us with still affecting me somewhat. After quickly checking on the other two and seeing that they were alive, only unconscious, I moved toward the control room.The door and frame around the room had dozens of marks from axes and other weapons. But it was still intact, it seems they had given up trying to get into the room. I placed my hand on the door, activating the tattoo on my hand.The door swung open and the control room remained unto
Our stay in the fine oceanside town didn't last long after we killed off the Cartel goons. That was over a week ago. Honestly, leaving the town turned out to be our biggest challenge. We couldn't pass over the mountains without some serious upgrades to the house. That left heading north again, back east, or south.That came with another unknown challenge. Namely the ocean. I had no idea how the levitator plates would react to open water so it had to be tested. Thankfully, I still had my test plate and used that to see what would happen. It did work, pushing the water aside like a boat. I figured that was as close to a confirmation as I could get.My faith was rewarded as we glided over the open water. I did have to push the levitators to the maximum output to keep us above the waves though.It was odd watching the cavity created in the water below. I flicked a stone from the porch and watched it splash and sink below the dark water. The shoreline was barel
I woke up on the bottom floor of the house. Martin and Ska were on the floor next to me. The house was a mess, items of no value had been tossed around. Furniture had been ripped or broken and windows busted out. The front door was still intact as well as the front windows. Those I had made stronger with runic enchantments. That was a good sign, it meant that the control room was likely still intact.The control lines should still be in place as well because they were hidden from view by the Odin rune. I stumbled to my feet, whatever they had dosed us with still affecting me somewhat. After quickly checking on the other two and seeing that they were alive, only unconscious, I moved toward the control room.The door and frame around the room had dozens of marks from axes and other weapons. But it was still intact, it seems they had given up trying to get into the room. I placed my hand on the door, activating the tattoo on my hand.The door swung open and t
"Oh quit sulking," I said to Ska, "you did much better this time."I of course was referring to our test slash duel the previous day. I still managed to beat Ska, pretty easily. He had the speed, but not the reach or magic to contend with me. I decided to fix one of those issues overnight. I added runes to his leather straps that would reduce the magical damage he took. Unlike my previous armor, these runes manifested in a field around him. Wouldn't be much point in only having the protection cover the straps.It wasn't as strong as my armor, only reducing the effect of magic by thirty percent but it was better than nothing.We were preparing for the raid. I had already spoken to the Marshall that morning. He confirmed that they were ready to go when we were. I just needed to do some last-minute repairs to my armor vest. I patched the holes with some leather scrap I had around. It would work for now. I Inspected the armor.[Rune Crafted Metal
As I dragged the unconscious and bound man into the entry hall, I spotted Ska. He was covered in blood and sported more than a few small cuts."You ok?""I am fine, the fight... was exhilarating," he replied, testing the word. Martin had been teaching him new words again, I noticed."Who is that?" he asked, pointing toward my package."Someone that needs to answer some questions. Can you go see if the others need help? If they don't, tell Martin to come here but keep everyone else away."Ska nodded and lopped away. "I probably should have washed the blood off of him before I sent him off. Oh well."I roughly tossed the man against the wall, eliciting a groan."Wake up sunshine," I said, kicking him in the hip.The man opened his swollen eyes and glared at me. "Try anything and I'll juice you again."To make my point I pointed the crackling staff at his sensitive bits."Why are you here?"
I climbed through the tight space, the finished surface of the fortress on one side and the remains of the rocky hill on the other. I did this to hide my work. The fewer people that knew about this the better.I was inspecting a set of runes I had just finished carving. With this much surface area, mistakes were bound to happen. I already had to melt down a section of runes and recast the mithril. With my work, I hadn't seen Ska or Martin for days. They were around, just busy getting the fortress stocked and trying to level.I wiped the sweat from my brow and moved to the next section.***Hours of grueling labor later I crawled up from the crawlspace. The room was dark, a single small light running off the mana generator, the only thing providing light. The open cavern was no more. There were now two floors, with a staircase running along one of the curved walls.There were even walls. They didn't connect fully to the ceiling, I left gaps at the very top of each wall and room. It was
The fortress took another two days to complete. Then I had to create a delivery device for the nerve gas. I thought about how the dwarves operated their stronghold and came up with a design. The football-sized device looked like a top. I tested it repeatedly, by dropping it from as high up as possible.It worked perfectly, landing, tip down, and burrowing into a false tunnel I created below the ground. There it would stop and release its gas. Despite their size, this device was the most intricate thing I had ever produced. It had dozens of magical circuits running along thin mithril pathways.They had a built-in levitator feature, that absorbed the impact of the fall, allowing the device to slowly penetrate the ground where it landed. With the stored mana, it could push up to five meters of dirt or rock out of the way before it ran out of juice. A sensor rune would cut the power when it detected a large void. This had been tricky to implement as it could not be activated until the dev
Was the person in the mirror really Henry and not an international supermodel?Henry could not help but wonder.However, Mia's reaction told Henry that it was not an illusion.Mia's mouth was wide open as she walked to Henry's side in shock. She looked at him in the mirror and was amazed."Oh my God, Henry, I never realized that you're so handsome! Gosh, you look so good."As Mia spoke, she couldn't help but touch Henry's firm chest."Oh my God, these firm pecs are worth dying for…"Henry looked at Mia, who was acting like a pervert. He shook his head helplessly and slapped her hand away."Alright, now that I've changed my clothes, let's hurry to the banquet before we go late. I'm not known for attending any events late." Hearing this, Mia finally came back to her senses. "Ah, yes. We have to hurry over. With such a handsome companion by my side, I'd like to see if those little b*tches will still show off in front of me," Mia proudly said as she pulled Henry's arm.After that, they q
Martin strode down the hall of the capitol building with a worried smile on his face. He was a bit greyer now but he still oozed charm and confidence. Time had been kind to him.The city had become a booming metropolis in the ten years since Paul returned, after his year and a half of being missing. Martin knew something had happened because one day a bunch of massive flying ships had come from nowhere and obliterated the ships that had been harassing the city non-stop for over six months. They had quickly taken care of Lord Vik’t and his remaining forces, the man managing to flee back to his homeworld before the Guild caught him.When Paul had returned, he had returned a quiet man. You could see the loss in his eyes. But the man pushed on and his businesses flourished, producing the Earth’s mightiest warships and most advanced runic items. Then five years after Paul returned, he took a fleet of ten of his capital ships and vanished for another year.When he returned again, the ships
As soon as the pirates realized the Guild ships were approaching the island, they broke off the fighting and retreated toward the edge of town to dig in. They weren’t stupid enough to attack the Guild but it seemed they wanted to ensure there wasn’t an accidental incident.One of the Guild ships docked and the Captain stepped off to greet the three of us. I had been carried over by Barcos and Em’ah on the same chair she plopped me in the night before. My legs were looking less like mashed potatoes now and instead looked like mushed putty. It was hard to ignore the sensation of the bones moving around within my shattered legs but I was managing.“Captain Paul, I hope this wasn’t a last-ditch attempt to hold off your enemy. I can assure you, we will leave for safer shores immediately if it was.”I ignored the man’s condescending snark before replying. “You have the agreement from the Director?”“I do,” he smiled. “Do you wish to review it?”I nodded and he produced a stack of documents
Groaning, I opened my eyes. All I saw was darkness. I tried turning my head or moving but it seemed like I was pinned in place.I fought down the urge to panic as I evaluated my condition. My arms were still broken, the sharp stabbing pain when I tried to move them told me as much. I could breathe though so my organs had healed after the beating I had taken. That was something at least.Seeing as I was in no immediate danger of dying, I checked my skills. My blood ran cold as I saw what remained of my abilities.[Rejuvenate][Multicast][Eye of the Storm][Aura of Rage][Calcifying Strike]Frostwave][Orb of Darkness][Energy Lance][Overcharge][Tempest Ball]That was the sum total of all the skills I now had. They had stripped me of every ability I had stolen from them along with every ability my second class gave me by default, making it impossible to recover skills by stealing them from others.I let out a morbid little chuckle as I lay there. Tears of frustration leaked from the
Those two words seemed to freeze everyone in place, but it wasn’t magic that caused it, it was fear. My body was frozen along with everyone else but my eyes rose into the air, tracking two creatures as they forced the magical fog away from the entire area with some ability.It was hard to tell by their alien physiology but I got the distinct impression they were looking directly at me. The initial fear was subsiding and people were starting to move again until the larger of the two squid-like creatures cast a spell. I managed to get off an Identify before the spell hit.[Ulq | Void Hunter/Maw of the Void | 47/41][Xiph | Psy Commando/Maw of the Void | 45/42]My body shook as I realized they were here for me but not a single person or even the entire pirate armada currently assembled here would be able to kill these two creatures.I felt the spell wash over the area and everyone was frozen again but a halo of golden light burst into existence above my head, washing away the spell’s eff
The meager fleet of ships I was now in charge of, rose from the dock and slowly spiraled into the air to get above the mist. The chaotic coloration of the mana storm was visible in the distance even through the mist. That meant the enemy was almost upon the island.The Retribution was the first ship to breach the thick covering and it was no surprise to see the enemy ships had spread out in a crescent shape to surround the island. Enemy fast attack craft zipped toward our location and I double-checked that everything was working as it should. I had also turned the mana accumulator back on.I sometimes wished I had been able to fit multiple layers of shielding on the ship. But my experiments in that regard had not gotten anywhere. Shields that close together acted like soap bubbles. Either they popped completely or merged together, but it didn’t increase the strength of the shield when they did. The only way to prevent this was to have separate bubble shields that only covered a certai
After weeks of sitting around, the Retribution finally got to fly again.Knowing we were leaving, the harbor was a beehive of activity. Cobbled together crews were drilling aboard the other captured pirate ships. The people knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when another enemy would appear.As soon as Khikall got us away from the docks and any possible collision, I engaged the cloak. It was far more effective now that I could enable and disable the automatic recharging system. The massive disruption of mana we used to leave in our wake was now a tiny trail.I hadn’t had time to figure out a way to smooth our passing completely but this would have to do. I also had Em’ah watching for trails from a crudely assembled periscope. Now she didn’t need to be on the deck to use her Mana Sense skill.Speaking of skills… I had picked up a few from the last fight. I also managed to finally hit level twenty in my Maw of the Void class. I stuck two of my stats in Strength, one in Endura
I watched as the workers placed the last armor panel in position and began to weld it into place. It had taken a few weeks to repair the damages from our fight but the Retribution was looking almost new.The replaced sections were clearly visible by the heat transfer in the titanium. I could easily fix that when I turned the thermal defenses on. It should make everything a uniform color. Paint would work too, I suppose, but why cover up the beauty of the metal.It was a good thing the ship was complete, over the last few days, we had been getting reports from the Guild merchant ships that were stopping to trade, and they weren’t good.Large fleets of pirate ships spotted raiding islands. The Capital of the Avulian Protectorate was sacked and all of the leadership missing. The remaining fleets of the Protectorate were attacking any ship that wasn’t theirs or the Guild's. Cities burning due to the slaves I helped free, it was madness and it was spreading.Already I could hear concerned
Captain Grulaine hissed in annoyance as his second in command handed him his “orders”. His second flinched back and hurried out of the room. If he hadn’t, Grulaine may have cut him down in a fit of pique. It galled Grulaine to be under the thumb of another. He had gotten rid of his father for that very same reason. And now thanks to a series of unfortunate events, he found himself beholden to the damn pirate king Black Gar’s lap dog.How was he to know the repair yard where he went was controlled by that snake. If he had he certainly wouldn’t have agreed to the loan to effect repairs to his cannons and ship. Repairs that had taken far longer than necessary, and left Grulaine on the sidelines as the entire protectorate seemed to be crumbling around him. An opportunity-rich environment he wasn’t able to take advantage of.But that wasn’t the most galling part. He found that his repairs were delayed on purpose so Gar could tighten his stranglehold on the local pirates. By the time Grulai